Her heart fluttered.

“For my cats. Overnight stay. Lots of money. She won’t care.”

Right. His cats. The excited flutter in her heart died.

But somewhere between her next orgasm and his, Edie agreed to it anyhow.

Chapter Twelve

FanBoy Con was being held in Boston that year, Magnus told her, so it wasn’t such a long drive. He arrived to pick her up in his limo, and dropped off his assistant Jenna to stay at the house a few days and handle Edie’s cats. Edie was a little worried to leave them, but Jenna had grown up on a farm, she explained, and was fine with giving animals medication. So she’d listened attentively and took notes as Edie went over each cat and their medications, and promised to call with any questions. Magnus had set Jenna up with a nearby hotel to sleep at and Edie passed off her key. Bianca wasn’t even upset at being left behind at a four-day ‘work’ trip, Edie realized. She was busy planning a shopping trip with a few of her buddies.

Good thing she didn’t know this was a date.

The only ones who would miss her were the cats, and even they wouldn’t care that much. It should have been a relief, but instead, it just felt . . . weird.

She had no idea what to expect as far as the convention went, so she was more than a little shocked to see throngs of people in costume wandering around the hotel. She was even more shocked when women dressed up in some sort of skimpy costume squealed and approached Magnus. “We’re such big fans of Warrior Shop! Can you sign my boobs?”

To her surprise, Magnus blushed and looked over at Edie, distinctly uncomfortable. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea right now, ladies. I’d be happy to sign a copy of your programs, though.”

The women looked over at Edie, sized her up, and then dismissed her. “We’ll catch you after your panel,” they said in flirty voices, then wandered away, arms linked.

Well, if that wasn’t a way for someone’s ego to be cut down to size, she didn’t know what was. Edie gave Magnus a curious look. “Do you get a lot of requests to sign body parts?”

His blush got a bit redder. “There’s an explanation, really.” His hand went to the small of her back and he steered her forward, toward the check-in desk.

“I’d love to hear it.”

The explanation had to wait until Magnus had finished checking in. Their suite was on the third floor of the hotel, so the porter brought their bags after them and they headed to the elevator. Immediately, Edie was dismayed to see that the elevator had a long line.

“Shall we just take the stairs?” the porter asked.

“Nope,” Magnus said, and draped an arm around Edie’s neck possessively.

That made her feel a little better. She elbowed him, leaning in against his big body. “So. Boob signings?”

“Yeah, when we made the game, Levi wanted a callback to let people know that it was us who had made the game, you know? So, uh, we programmed ourselves in there.”

She laughed, because he looked so utterly chagrined at having to admit it. “You programmed yourselves in?”

“It’s called Warrior Shop, right? So it’s this big fantasy world where you have to work your way through things as a gladiator, and you can fight other people or team up with them, and you can buy everything from weapons to minions, to whatever. So uh, all of the shopkeepers look like either me or Levi. It was kind of a joke at first, but now I regret it.”

She giggled at his acute discomfort. “Show me.”

He groaned and pulled out his phone, flipping through a few apps, and then clicked on something and handed her the screen. A loading graphic splashed across the phone screen, along with the big Warrior Shop logo. A moment later, a help screen appeared: Did You Know That You Can Purchase Additional Minions in the In-App Store? a barbarian that looked suspiciously like Magnus asked, his arms crossed. It was Magnus, she realized, but a slightly exaggerated version of him. He bulged with overgrown muscles, and he wore a codpiece that made her howl with laughter.

“All right, all right,” Magnus said, tugging his phone back from her. “Enough laughing at my expense. Some ladies like my codpiece.”

“I don’t see how,” she teased. “You look like you’re about to put someone’s eye out with that thing.”

“Very funny,” he said, but he kissed the top of her head in front of everyone and she felt any apprehension she had disappear.

Magnus’s suite was impressive, with a fully stocked mini-bar, a tiny kitchen, and a living room area in addition to a massive bedroom and posh bathroom that was probably bigger than Edie’s portion of her townhouse. There was also a convention goody bag and a big bouquet of flowers on a nearby table, welcoming Magnus to the convention. All in all, Edie was impressed. In the gaming world, Magnus was apparently a big deal. She felt pride for him, but also a little trepidation, because if all the girls here at the convention were like the ones below, was he going to regret having her along?

As she explored, Magnus thumped into one of the chairs and furiously texted. Edie unpacked her small bag, put on a knee-brace under her jeans (since it looked like this convention would involve a lot of walking) and changed into the Warrior Shop T-shirt that had been in the welcome bag as a show of solidarity. She braided her hair into two small pigtails and then sat on the bed, watching Magnus as his frown grew more and more thunderous.

“Something wrong?” she asked eventually.

He glanced up, some of the glare he was shooting at the phone slipping away. “Just my fucking brother. He’s not here yet. He should have been here before us but he says he’s still a few hours out. Our panel’s at five and I’m going to kick his ass if he doesn’t show up on time.”

She frowned. Levi seemed a bit . . . unreliable. “Can you do the panel without him?”

“He’s one half of the Warrior Shop creators. People are going to be looking for him.” Magnus rubbed a hand over his face, clearly frustrated. “He’s the ideas guy. I’m just the business guy.”

Edie doubted that very much, but she didn’t argue. “Anything I can do to help?”

“No.” Tension oozed from his voice.

“What if I shoved my breasts in your face and then gave you a blow job?”

He glanced over at her and grinned. “I admit, it wouldn’t help, but I’d still enjoy it.”

At least he was smiling now. Edie toyed with one of her short braids. “How about we raincheck that until later and we go check out the convention for a bit?’

“Or we could do that,” he agreed, pocketing his phone and extending his hand to her. She got up from the bed and took it, and smiled when he leaned down to kiss her again. She could get used to all this attention.

***

And people thought cat ladies were weird, Edie mused as she watched a “knight” with purple hair fight a man dressed as a pink unicorn in a duel to the death. So far today? She’d seen a lot of weird. She and Magnus had strolled through the convention, admiring booths and seeing the sights. Magnus explained that it wasn’t an official gaming convention, but there was still a big “gamer presence” here at the con, and every time they passed a crowded booth, they paused to see what the fuss was about. Whenever it was video-game related, she could practically see the wheels in Magnus’s head turning. It was interesting to watch him, knowing that he was seeing what others found interesting about games and mentally stowing away that information for later.

There was food, of course—Edie’s favorite—and at one booth, Magnus had bought her a pair of cat ears to wear on her head. It had made him smile despite his constant frowns as he checked his phone, so she’d agreed to it. Magnus had been approached several times by more fans, all of whom he gave autographs to (thankfully not on body parts) and answered questions for. Inevitably, someone would ask about Levi, and Magnus had to make excuses for his brother. He was running late. He’d had car trouble. He was sick. Each time Magnus gave an answer, he delivered it with a smile, but his hand tightened on hers, and she knew he was stewing at the fact that Levi wasn’t here.