Strong Signal (Cyberlove #1)

by Megan Erickson

  It was simple and perfect and everything I’d hoped. Everything I’d dreamed of.

  He went through his apartment and told me all about how he painted all the rooms a different color, and I had to admit, I loved the brightness of his apartment. It suited him.

  But on the third day real life came calling. My mom began texting me links to job openings at diesel plants, and Kai remembered his bread-and-butter.

  “Shit! I haven’t been on Twitch in two days.”

  “Oh, damn. I completely forgot.”

  Kai leapt out of bed and grabbed a flannel button-down and a pair of black pants. “Shit, shit, shit. They probably think I’m dead.”

  “Isn’t that a little dramatic?”

  “No.” Kai hopped up and down as he jerked skintight pants up over his round ass. “Wouldn’t you have been worried if I’d gone AWOL?”

  “Good point.” His schedule had been predictable, which was how I’d so easily shifted from playing FWO in every spare moment to staring at his face. Every day he’d have a morning and evening session, with some surprises here and there. “What are you going to play?”

  “I have alpha access to this game.”

  “Which one?”

  “A Legend’s Walk. It’s this brand new MMO that focuses on, like, the lore of a hero I guess? Basically, you get to make choices and everything you do influences your character’s legend. Eventually, your story is supposed to weave together with the overall lore of the game but we’ll see if they can actually implement that.” Kai plopped down on his high-backed office chair and spun toward his gaming station in the corner of his bedroom. He had an L-shaped desk covered with various gadgets, three monitors, and a top-notch gaming keyboard. His PC tower was also a monster. It was so vented that I could see the glowing red lights of the fan through the slats. “I was supposed to be playing that shit all week, which is bad since the devs gave me access. They want my gameplay on their YouTube channel.”

  “Aren’t you special?”

  “Oh, I am,” he said with a little bit of pride. I loved hearing the confidence in his voice. “Once I got over several thousand subscribers, people started paying attention to the little gaymer boy.” Kai put on his headset. “It’s kind of cool, honestly. It started out in this asshole way—like people were shocked a queer could competitively play video games, but now I get real respect and I’m getting paid to do something I love.”

  And he was lucky for it. Very few people could say the same.

  I swiped my boxer briefs from the floor and lifted my hips to slide them on. “Do you want me to go hang out in the other room, or can I watch?”

  “You can totally watch. I haven’t even made a character yet, so it will be cool. Maybe you’ll like it.”

  Even though he was giving me permission, I could tell the idea made Kai nervous. He was sitting on the edge of his chair with his feet kicking out in front of him, and kept glancing at me with a tight little smile. To make it less nerve-wracking, I lay back down on the bed and played with my phone while only half paying attention to him. I didn’t look up again until I knew he’d connected to Twitch.

  “Hey guys! Sorry about my mysterious absence. Real life stuff came up.” There was a pause as Kai skimmed the flood of messages scrolling up the Chat box. “Haha, yes KrayGirl. My real life stuff was my delivery service running out of coffee and ice cream.”

  Kai’s posture relaxed. He crossed his legs under him and logged into A Legend’s Walk on one monitor while reading Chat on a monitor that had been turned vertical and was set in tall mode.

  “Did CherryCakes and Garvy treat you guys well?” Kai asked, mentioning his moderators. “Ooh, Garvy to the rescue. My hero.”

  I rolled my eyes. Garvy was one of the little fuckers who’d always toed the line between Kai Supporter/Mod and Infatuated Fan. I’d stalked the dude’s profile and found he was a flaxen haired surfer from SoCal with an amazing body and bright green eyes that looked like contacts. He claimed to be straight, but I wasn’t buying it. The dude was way too fond of Kai, and not in a bromance-y way.

  Ending my lame attempt at downloading all the apps on my newly reactivated cell phone, I sat up and squinted at the tall screen.

  Garvy: Kai looks like he just jumped out of bed :3 What’s with the hair?

  Kai’s hand shot up. “Errr. Stuff?”

  Ha. Clearly he’d not been prepared for commentary on his sex hair and the hickies I’d ungraciously covered him with. It wasn’t something I typically got a kick out of, but it’d been part of an ongoing joke about branding each other. Kai had started it. He was convinced I was some hot stud soldier who attracted the masses everywhere I went. If only he knew. People generally avoided making eye contact once they realized I was always this expressionless.

  Garvy: hmmm…

  “Why’s he so worried about your fucking hair?”

  Kai snorted, but his shoulders shook with silent laughter. “Anyhoo, today I’m going to alpha test ALW. Or for the noobz, A Legend’s Walk. I got access from Cykronic the other day, but mysterious circumstances caused me to, err, promptly forget about it. Sorry, Cykronic! I’m all over it now!”

  The Cykronic logo spun on Kai’s primary screen, and I stood up to get a closer look at the game. The opening sequence had beautiful graphics and displayed a montage of gorgeous game locations that reminded me of the Game of Thrones opening theme. When the character creation screen loaded, I’d moved right next to the desk. The graphics were epic, and I loved the way Kai could zoom in to analyze every aspect of the character’s body and face.

  “So, there’s five different classes,” Kai told Chat. “The typical scruffy looking Human, an elf-like nymph,” he said flicking to a slight fae-looking creature with a sensual posture. “A dryad, which is basically a plant creature who has awesome health bonuses, a demigod, or a dragon. The awesome thing about this game is that it’s not gendered. You can just design them the way you want them to look without assigning male or female.”

  My eyes flicked to Chat and, to my surprise, there were no cries of overly PC gaming devs like I’d find on any other gaming forum. It was impressive, and spoke to the culture Kai had helped cultivate in his channel. Without thinking, I moved behind him and rested my hands on his shoulders to give a squeeze.

  The Chat went nuts.

  Garvy: Whoa! Whose abs are those?

  Shit, I was half naked.

  CherryCakes: errr, Kai? Is that the reason for your mysterious absence?

  MitchMatch: holy shit. are you finally getting some dick?

  Garvy: Not okay, Mitch. Don’t make me give you a warning. :/

  BoricuaX1: valid question tho

  KinderKid: OMG. OMG. KAI. SPILL.

  “Fuck, I’m sorry.” I backed away. “I wasn’t thinking.”

  “No! It’s okay! Um, I think?” Kai shot me a nervous smile. “Don’t feel pressured or anything though.”

  I glanced at the screen again.

  CherryCakes: Whoa shit, you’re really getting busy with someone? Dude must be special! First time you’ve mentioned a guy since I joined three years ago <3 <3 Congrats!

  Garvy: Uh, it could be a friend, Cherry. Don’t jump the gun.

  BoricuaX1: garvy so butthurt

  CherryCakes: Garvy’s hetero, Boricua :p

  BoricuaX1: lawlz nope

  MitchMatch: Kai, tell your dude to show his face. altho seeing his bulge is nice too ngl

  “Wow, these people don’t know how to act.”

  “Hush. We can discuss later,” Kai chastised. “C’mere if you want.”

  I took reluctant steps forward at first, but Kai’s encouraging smile motivated me. Squatting beside his chair, I gave Chat a good look.

  CherryCakes: Whoah! KAI. DUDE.

  KinderKid: OMGGGGG DREAM COUPLE OTP Hjjkdhdkjddkjhsdd *heart palpitations*

  BoricuaX1: cool for you, bruh. a virgin no more. can we watch ALW now?

  A startled laugh burst out that I found impossible to swallow. They wer
e truly ridiculous, but there was something about the sight of dozens of people, even the folks who normally lurked silently, cheering Kai on that was comforting. Or it was until Garvy and Mitch went at it.

  Garvy: I hope Cykrokik doesn’t mind that you’re ignoring the game they let you alpha, K

  MitchMatch: i’d pay to watch those fuck videos tbh

  “This motherfu—”

  “Okay, Chat, this is Garrett. Say hi, Garrett!”

  A stream of “Hi, Garrett!” spammed across the screen along with several other questions about everything from where we’d met to my dick size. I gritted my teeth and muttered a low greeting of my own.

  CherryCakes: Is this your boo?

  “He’s—” Kai waffled and glanced at me for help. I stared at him blankly. We hadn’t gotten far enough to assign labels. “He’s my Garrett!”

  CherryCakes: Aww. So cute. I heart you two already.

  Garvy: Are you going to play the game, Kai?

  CherryCakes: eyeroll.

  BoricuaX1: u mad garvy?

  Kai snorted and started up a steady stream of chatter about the character selection process in the game. I tried to back out of the frame of the camera, but he grabbed my wrist and sent me a puppy dog look that instantly caused me to cave. There were no battle defenses against that level of adorable.

  With my knees bent and my arm propped against his desk, I watched him design an androgynous Demigod with black and pink hair. He asked Chat which class he should try first and I suggested he go with the thief/rogue combo. I was always intrigued by the characters with stealth capabilities.

  “This is more Garrett’s thing than mine,” Kai said as he hit the Create button. “He’s big into ranged or dagger types. Melee is not for me.”

  “Neither is shooting if I go by your shitty targeting in Apocalypse.”

  Kai laughed and swatted me, but a few of his Chat folks instantly came to his defense. It was so over the top that it reared up my irritation again. Who did these people think they were? The question popped into my head multiple times as Kai played through the starter area of the game, but then I reminded myself that I’d once been one of them too.

  I also noticed that, for the next twenty or so minutes, people subscribed and donated enough money for him to have made over a hundred bucks. In twenty minutes. He was averaging per minute what people in some states made per hour. It was unreal. I also noticed that he thanked everyone who subscribed or donated money, and addressed everyone by name.

  MitchMatch: fuck this boring game. when’s the XXXTube starring you and your army boy going live?

  “Who the fuck is this clown thinking he can say this shit to you?” The words were out of my mouth before I could swallow them. “If you want to watch porn, why don’t you click to Pornhub, you piece of shit. I don’t know what it says about your functionality as a human that you can’t watch a dude on a video game without begging to see some dick.”

  “Garrett—”

  “No, fuck that. And your sorry ass fucking mod, Garvy, just sits there with his thumb up his a—”

  Kai clapped his hand over my mouth. I tried to evade but he used his free hand to ditch the headset and tackled me to the floor with his palm firmly in place. I gnawed lightly on his finger which prompted him to snort-laugh, and then it was likely a mess of flailing limbs on the webcam as we wrestled on the floor.

  “Kai, get off—”

  “You can’t say that stuff about my—”

  “Those mods need to—”

  “Oh my God, I don’t know if I’m irritated or turned on by your shit talking.”

  I grabbed his dick. “I’d say turned on.”

  Kai was flushed, breathing hard, and his hair was everywhere, but he didn’t look angry at all.

  “Just be cool,” he murmured. “They’re excited.”

  “Not all of them.”

  “And I am too,” Kai pressed on. “They’re my only friends and they just met my…”

  “Boyfriend?”

  “Yes?” Kai tilted his head. “Right? I mean we are, right?”

  “Fuck yeah we are.” I cupped his dick again and leaned in to flick my tongue at his mouth. Everything about him felt so good that it was hard to keep my hands off, and he gave no indication that he wanted me to do so. “Can you get away with cutting out of your stream for an hour or so?”

  “Um…”

  I kissed down and dragged my teeth along his throat.

  “Oh, shit, yeah.” Kai squirmed out from under my weight and crawled back to his computer. I was glad I couldn’t see the reaction of his Chat when he popped into view of the camera with his eyes dilated and hair everywhere. “Hey, I’ll be right back, guys! We have to, err, discuss Chat etiquette and stuff.”

  “Or the etiquette of me stretching out your ass.”

  Kai smacked my leg while simultaneously closing out his stream. “If they hear you say that I can guarantee the sexual harassment will intensify by about a billion percent.”

  “Oh fuck.” I propped myself up on my elbows. “They can’t, can they?”

  “I dunno. My microphone is pretty elite.”

  “Uh huh. I’m sure with all of your special perks.”

  Kai finished logging out and turned around with a double thumbs up. “You’re so jealous of my connections.”

  “You got it. You have the best job ever while I’m going to have to bust my ass to go work in a plant.” I huffed out a breath when he pounced on me again, twining our legs together and shimmying temptingly. “Mmm. You’re so hot.”

  “You’re hotter.” Kai kissed the tip of my nose. “What’s this about a plant?”

  “I told you, the only thing I’m qualified to do outside the Army is be a mechanic and I’m mostly qualified to work on diesel machines. And the only place that’s going to happen is in specific factories and plants.” I thudded my head back against the floor. “I got a certification between my enlistments and I have almost a decade of experience from being in the service, but who knows what kind of money I’ll make if I just end up on the assembly line. I know it would be great because some people don’t even have that, but at the same time it’s sort of a blow to have done all this and then be stuck making around thirty thousand dollars a year.”

  “But you don’t know if you’ll be a cog on the assembly line,” Kai said. “And you’ll be building like…tanks.”

  “Or school buses.”

  “Even better!”

  I laughed and smacked his ass. “I love your enthusiasm.”

  “I love your face.”

  An “I love you” nearly slipped out before I choked on my tongue and focused my attention on kneading his ass. “Your stream is kind of creepy.”

  “Oh geez, here we go again.”

  “Are they not creepy?” I dug my fingers into the crease of his ass through the thin material of his pants. “That guy Mitch should be banned.”

  “And he will be. Garvy and Cherry were too busy being distracted by your perfection to slam the ban hammer on his head.”

  “Garvy was too busy angsting over your lack of single status,” I countered. “Do you realize how fixated all of these people are on you? I bet about 70 percent of them watch solely because they’re convinced you know who they are and give a damn about them, and think they have a shot with you romantically. It’s a textbook definition of a parasocial relationship but with like…thousands of people.”

  “Babe—”

  “And at least a couple thousand of those people,” I continued. “Would likely let you piss on them for kicks if it got you to mention their names even once.”

  “I bet only one thousand would get down with a golden shower.” Kai pushed his hips against mine again. “Babe, you’re being super fucking judgmental. Like, it doesn’t make sense. I met you on FWO. You found my Twitch stream. You messaged me first after looking me up. How can you hate on all of them?”

  It wasn’t anything I hadn’t already told myself, but it was still easy to say
it was different. We’d connected. It’d gone somewhere real.

  “Because if you’d told me to fuck off, I would have done so. I’m not masturbating to the sight of your leggings.”

  “These are not leggings. They’re compression pants I use to work out.”

  “So. Leggings.”

  Kai smacked my shoulder. “Look, I think it would be neat if you popped into Chat sometimes. Like…Saturdays with Garrett! You’re really smart about video games, and they’ll dig the contrast of our personalities.”

  “Are you using me for promo?”

  “Totally.” Kai sat up, straddling me. “But if you’re going to grumble about it every single time, I’m not going to stream in front of you, okay? It’s my job, and I can’t have my man dissing my job. I know they’re not always the best, but they’re fans. I can’t just sit around trash talking my fans, even the ones that are creepy. My mods will handle them as soon as they stop being excited that I suddenly have been struck with a love life.” He waved his hands around as if searching for a better explanation. “Shouting at my Chat isn’t the way I do business. I let other people do it while I maintain my charming persona. Also, some of them are not so bad and have actually become friends.”

  He had a life before me, and he still had an online life despite my presence in his apartment. I needed to remember that, no matter how much his fucking chat made me want to hulk out sometimes. “You’re right. I’ll do my best not to be a dick. Honestly, I’m impressed with what you created—this whole community.”

  “Really?”

  I squeezed his thighs. “Of course. I want to support you. You want me on camera dropping truth bombs about gaming, then I’m all about it.”

  Apparently that was the right thing to say, because Kai rocked his hips, pressing his hard dick into mine as he slowly began to unbutton his shirt.