Boy Meets Geek

by Archer, Arielle

  He stood and walked over to me. He paused for just a moment looking between the two of us as though he was expecting something, though I have no idea what that could be. After a beat he let out an almost imperceptible sigh of relief and wrapped me up in a hug. I instantly forgot that moment of hesitation, that sigh, as I melted in his arms.

  I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my face against his chest. God he smelled good. God he felt good! And as he wrapped me in that strong, powerful, and oh so sensual hug I felt something pressing against me. Something that made my eyes widen and relieved a lingering worry at the same time.

  The first hurdle of meeting someone I’d met online had been met and cleared on my end. He was just as gorgeous as he appeared in that picture. Perhaps more so in person. The feel of his stubble against the top of my head, the feel of his muscles and the smell of him. God it was overwhelming! Of course that was just the first part. There was also the second hurdle to jump when meeting someone from the Internet.

  What did he think of me? Sure he’d seen that ridiculous picture I took making the Bendai salute and smiling at the camera. Sure he seemed to react positively to that when he was looking at it from across the country, wherever the hell he lived. I realized I hadn’t even bothered to ask I’d been so caught up in the whirlwind that was the past few weeks. But while he seemed to like a picture well enough, the real question was whether or not he’d like what he saw in person. Whether or not he liked the package presented in the real world as much as what he saw online.

  I knew that pictures could be deceiving. I knew you could see someone in real life and they could be completely different even if they weren’t trying to deceive. Maybe it was just an odd picture. Maybe it was a flattering angle, or an unflattering angle. Either way, I’d been terrified the entire time that the first time I saw him he’d take one look at me and decide he wasn’t interested.

  Only now I knew that definitely wasn’t a worry. Mostly because I felt something pressing against me down below. Almost pressing against my stomach. Something hard, huge. Something that sent another tingle running straight down between my legs. Something that was making me wet to the point that I worried I’d have to go back to the hotel room and change my pants after I was done.

  He was definitely greeting me with one hell of a happy hello, and it seemed that he was very happy to see me!

  I allowed myself a contented sigh. Of course this was just the first step. This was just the initial meet and greet. There were still a thousand things that could go wrong. We hadn’t even started talking, and yet already I had a very good feeling. I was finally telling that worried voice in the back of my head to shut up. I was finally allowing my optimism to take over just a little. It felt weird being optimistic for a change, but sitting here in his arms just made me feel that way. It made me feel as though all was right with the world.

  Then I heard Samantha clearing her throat which brought me back to reality. I pulled away from that wonderful hard body, though I wanted nothing more than to stay there in his arms forever. I wanted to be locked in that moment for all of eternity.

  I turned and smiled at Samantha, a blush rising to my face.

  “Maia, I presume?” he said as he pulled away.

  I blushed. “You can call me Jessica. That’s what I go by in the real world.”

  “And it’s every bit as beautiful as your chosen name.”

  I blushed again. Damn his voice was sexy!

  He turned to Samantha and grinned. “And you must be the best friend here to make sure that,” he paused for a minute and turned, fixed me with that delicious smile. “What was it? That I’m not an ax murderer?”

  I blushed again and wanted to sink into the floor. I felt uncharitable for ever thinking something like that in the first place. He’d been so nice, so generous, and I’d accused him of being some Internet psycho! I viciously stomped down on my worst-case scenario center that was starting to spin up, starting to weave a scenario where he got pissed off that I even insinuated he might be anyone other than who he was.

  We were meeting someone I’d only known on the Internet, after all, so it’s not like he could get mad at me for taking precautions.

  He moved forward as though he was going to hug Samantha and I felt a stab of jealousy. I figured that was promising. We’d only been together in person for a few minutes and already I was feeling possessive. That meant there was definitely some chemistry there on my end. A spark at the very least. I’d heard about people meeting up after knowing each other online and that spark just not being there. They saw each other and didn’t feel anything in person even though they connected so well over the Internet.

  No worries on that score so far at least.

  Samantha, for her part, held up a hand and pressed it against his chest. “Whoa there buddy! You’re here to meet my roommate and you paid for my ticket and everything which I’m grateful for, but you can save the hugs for her!”

  “That’s fine!” he said with a chuckle. “And your name is?”

  “Hold on,” I said. “I don’t even know your real name yet!”

  He smacked his head and almost fell back a step. I smiled and wondered if some of the klutziness he’d put into his character online maybe came from a bit of real life experience. He quickly caught himself on the edge of the table though. And almost sent the table flying, which sent me into a fit of giggles. Samantha stared as though she couldn’t believe a man who looked that good could be that clumsy.

  “I’m so sorry! Where are my manners? You can call me Eric,” he said with a grin. A cocky grin. A delicious grin that was everything I’d imagined it to be. He gestured to the table behind him. “Maybe we should have a seat and keep talking?”

  “Fine by me,” I said.

  Samantha looked around as she took a seat. Then she looked pointedly at Eric. “Jessica said she wanted someplace cheap for lunch. This place doesn’t look cheap.”

  Eric smiled and blushed. I was hypnotized by the way his eyes twinkled. I was hypnotized by the way his teeth shone as he grinned. I could lose myself in exploring the contours of his face for days if I wanted to. I let out a sigh and realized I’d been staring. That didn’t seem lost on Eric from the way he grinned. And I realized that I didn’t exactly mind him catching me watching him.

  “Guilty as charged,” he said. “I was afraid if I told you how much this place cost you wouldn’t come down.”

  I raised my eyebrows and looked around. “You know this really is too much. I would’ve been happy with the burger place we saw down the street.”

  “I know,” Eric said. “But it’s really crowded down there right now. And I’d rather avoid the convention crowds packing downtown.”

  I rolled my eyes. “How are you going to avoid crowds if you’re going to the convention?”

  He grinned with that twinkle back in his eye. “You’d be surprised.”

  Samantha suddenly made a big production of looking down at her watch and then looking up at the two of us. “Oh wow! I didn’t realize what time it was.”

  I blinked and looked at her. “What are you talking about? What time is it?”

  “It’s lunchtime!” she looked around. “And I feel a place a lot cheaper than this joint calling my name. Especially since it seems like Eric here isn’t a crazy murderer. Or at least he’s not going to do much murdering in the middle of an expensive restaurant like this.”

  Samantha fixed an eye on him and pressed her finger into his chest. “At least you’d better not do any murdering in this place. Got it? Because I’m not against using a little bit of crazy myself!”

  Eric chuckled and held his hands up. “No murdering. Promise.”

  “Good,” Samantha said. “I’m going to go get food at a place where they sell their dead cow ground up and on a bun like God intended, and not in the steak form this place specializes in!”

  “Are you sure Samantha?”

  “I really don’t mind having you here,” Eric said. “And the st
eak here is delicious.”

  “No, I’ll just get in the way,” Samantha said. “You two have your fun. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  And then she was gone, making her way back through the place. Leaving us alone. All alone. I looked up at Eric and smiled, a hesitant and uncertain smile. I’d felt the way he reacted when he was hugging me earlier, but there was a part of me that still couldn’t quite believe this wonderful specimen of man was interested in me like that. There was still a part of me that felt like this was a fairytale, that I was going to wake up at any moment and realize this whole thing had been a dream.

  “So…” I said, really feeling the awkwardness of the moment.

  Only the moment was interrupted by a waiter stopping by. I had no idea what to order so I just let Eric do the ordering for me. He seemed to know the place. Once the waiter was gone we launched back into our conversation.

  “So did you have a good flight?” he asked.

  “Can’t complain,” I said. “First-class was also a nice surprise.”

  “I hope you don’t mind some of the surprises I planned for you,” he said. “I couldn’t resist though.”

  I leaned forward and felt his body press against mine. Felt my breath pick up at that simple contact. Yeah, there was no denying the way he made me feel.

  And once again the moment was interrupted by the waiter coming out with our food. Damn that was fast service. Then again I suppose it was to be expected since we were the only people in the restaurant. The rest of our conversation was interrupted by the meal, but at least it wasn’t pasta, the most awkward of first date foods.

  “So what is it you do that you can take care of all this stuff? That you can just give me a VIP package that’s not even available to buy and act like it’s not a big deal?”

  He shrugged and put a finger to his lips. “I still have some surprises left. And I’d hate for you to ruin them.”

  “Oh really? And what sort of surprises did you have in mind?”

  He smiled, a smile that shot to the very core of my being. A smile that sent warmth running up and down my body and left me stunned. When he smiled like that I couldn’t believe that my online Casanova turned out to actually be one hell of a Casanova rather than the catfish I was expecting. Hey, I was nothing if not a realist.

  “If I told you what the surprises were then they wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now would they?”

  “I suppose you have a point there,” I said.

  We were both almost finished with our lunch and the waiter came over and set the bill down. I instinctively grabbed it before Eric could get it. I figured after all the nice things he’d done for me the least I could do was spring for lunch! Only my eyes bugged out of my head when I saw the price.

  “Holy shit!”

  Several of the wait staff turned to look when I let out that little exclamation. I blushed. Thankfully there was nobody else in the restaurant to hear me swearing like a sailor. I would’ve died from embarrassment if that happened!

  “You said this place was a quick lunch destination!” I said with a tone that probably was a bit more accusing than I’d intended. What did I expect with the way this place looked?

  “Come on Jessica,” he said with only a little bit of reproach in his voice. “What were you expecting? A place like this? Now why don’t you let me get the bill?”

  I looked at the bill one more time. I really wanted to get lunch. The independent streak in me still wanted to do that even though it would probably come close to maxing out the one credit card I had. I sighed. He’d won this round.

  I was starting to wonder if there was a single round on this vacation that I was going to win. I wondered if I wanted to win any of the rounds if it meant going further down this fairytale rabbit hole he’d constructed for me.

  “Fine, you get this bill, but next time we’re going to the food court in the convention center and it’s my treat!”

  He chuckled and took the bill from me. A thin smile moved across his face as he took it. And I blushed. It was hard to stay mad at him when he looked so goddamned delicious every time he smiled like that!

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. “Though I don’t know that we’ll have much time for food courts once we get to the convention.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “Did you bring the costume like we talked about?”

  I knew a polite and not-so-subtle changing of the subject when I heard it, and I decided that for now I was going to let him have his secrets. Eventually I was going to get to the bottom of what the heck was behind this mystery, but for now I decided I was just going to enjoy the ride. I’d met up with him, it turned out he wasn’t a nut job or anything like that, and I figured that was good enough for the moment.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I brought the costume along with.”

  Initially I’d been hesitant to wear my bikini armor costume, even if it was one of my favorite things for my character to traipse around in. I’d gotten a good reaction at the regional cons I attended but this was the big leagues. Only now that I’d gotten a good look at him, well let’s just say I was glad I’d decided to slut it up just a little bit for the convention. That I decided to slut it up just a little bit for this delicious man.

  “What about you? Did you bring along your costume?”

  He grinned. “Of course I did!”

  “So what now?”

  “How about this for a plan? You go back to your suite and changed into your costume, I’ll go back to my hotel room and change into mine, and then we can meet up and hit the convention floor together. Sound good?”

  I grinned. “That sounds like one hell of a plan!”

  “Excellent! So where do you want to meet up once we’re both in our costumes?”

  I bit my lip and thought about that for a moment. I knew what the right answer was. I knew what the safe answer was. I was supposed to tell him that he needed to meet me down in the hotel lobby. Or maybe even at the convention center itself. A place where there were lots of people walking around, where there was no chance he could abduct me or whatever.

  Only the voice in the back of my head that was telling me what I should do was quickly being drowned out by an even louder and more insistent voice that was telling me what I wanted to do. That voice was pointing out how turned on I was just looking at him. That voice was screaming about how lucky we were that this fine specimen of a man had flown us out here and he was so nice in person as well as being so incredibly fucking hot. That voice was screaming at me that there was a gorgeous man who was showing interest in me.

  That voice won out.

  “Why don’t you just meet me back at my suite? I assume you know where it is?”

  He chuckled. But there was something that flashed in his eyes. Something that made me squirm in my seat. There was just the briefest flash of heat there. The briefest flash of lust. It made me want to jump on him right in the middle of this restaurant, but I held myself back.

  I was surprised that I was being this forward, this brazen, with him. I usually never acted this way, and here I was thinking about jumping him in what looked to be one of the most expensive restaurants in the city!

  I needed to calm the fuck down.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  I reached out and took his hand. Sparks danced at that touch. I took in a deep breath as I felt the contours of his hand. As I wondered what it would feel like to have those contours running over my body and not just my hand.

  “I’m sure. I’ll meet you in say, a half hour?”

  He smiled, a warm and inviting smile. “Sounds like a plan.”

  14: Real Life Role-Play

  Double-sided tape. I needed more double-sided tape. They never mention in the movies exactly how much double-sided tape goes into getting a costume like this to work. The damned prosthetic pointy elf ears were easier to get on and keep in place than the bra on this sexy fantasy bikini monstrosity.

  I looked at myself in t
he mirror. I had to admit that I looked damn good, even if I was saying so myself. The bikini top on this costume, a combination of plastic pieces I’d ordered online and clothing material I sewed myself, looked amazing on my chest. And my body looked pretty damn good too. I wasn’t sure how I’d compare to other girls wearing similar costumes, but I’d been the belle of the ball at the regional con I went to in this thing.

  Not for the first time I considered just how ridiculous this costume was. I mean honestly. What woman in her right mind would go out to slay monsters in a bikini like this? Particularly a skimpy bikini that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Sure the books and game hand waved some of it away by saying that the bikini generated some magical field or some other such bullshit, but I think everyone knew that was just an excuse to put sexy girls on book covers or in the game for pervy guys to stare at while they adventured.

  I’d have to ask Sean Taylor about that if I got to one of his Q&A sessions.

  Not that I minded. It was one of my favorite outfits on my own character and I definitely wasn’t a pervy guy. And I knew of one guy who I couldn’t wait to show off for.

  I stopped cupping the bikini top and immediately it fell causing my tits to pop out. Again. Now there was something that would probably turn some heads. There was something that would probably get me on a couple costuming blogs, maybe even the top of the Elassa Informer itself, though not for the reasons I’d want to get on any of those sites.

  I reached down with a sigh and pulled out more double-sided tape. I might be at this for a while.

  A buzzing from my phone pulled my attention away from trying to get my costume to stay in place. What I saw on the screen sent a red hot bolt of anticipation shooting through my body and straight to my pussy.

  It was from Eric. Two words. “I’m here.”

  Those two words sent butterflies through my stomach. Hell, it felt like more than butterflies in my stomach. I almost worried that I was going to get sick, I was so nervous. I snapped up my phone and instinctively tried to put it in a pocket only to realize that my costume left absolutely no room for the phone to go anywhere. As a last resort I popped it in between my tits, praying that the phone pressing against the bikini top wouldn’t be enough to send my breasts popping out. Thankfully it held. It looked like the double-sided tape I’d put all along the inside of my top was doing its work. For now.