Contents

Copyright

1: Mysterious Stranger

2: A More Mysterious Stranger

3: Digital Sleuthing

4: Creative Writing

5: Comfort

6: Waiting Game

7: Digital Date Night

8: Into the Pirates' Den

9: Pixelated Passion

10: IRL?

11: Emergency Meeting

12: Surprises

13: Lunch Date

14: Real Life Role-play

15: Elassa Con

16: Action Plan

17: Whirlwind

18: Insecurities

19: Escape

20: Trust Issues

21: Leaving

Epilogue: Getting Even

More from Mia Archer

Girl on Geek

A Lesbian Romance

By Mia Archer

Copyright 2015 Mia Archer

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Individuals pictured on the cover are models and used for illustrative purposes only.

First digital edition electronically published by Mia Archer, September 2015

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1: Mysterious Stranger

The heavy wooden door to the inn slammed open and everybody turned to look. The human who stepped through the door stopped for a moment, his hands on his belt, and surveyed the room as though he owned the place. He exuded power and authority. He had the calm confidence of someone who was in his element, someone who knew nobody in this room would dare cross him.

This close to the city I’d say he had all the cocky swagger of an enforcer, though he wasn’t wearing their uniform. Perhaps he was an officer. Perhaps he was off duty. Perhaps he was simply working in secret and doing a terrible job of keeping that secret.

Whatever it was, everybody immediately paid attention to their drink. Paid attention to what they’d been eating. The conversation that had filled the large room was gone.

I sighed. Humans and their petty squabbles.

The man looked around the room one more time and then did a double take when his eyes ran across me. I fought the urge to smile. It wasn’t very often that my kind traveled in the human realms. It definitely wasn’t very often that my kind graced a simple tavern this close to the city.

Apparently my uniqueness was enough to draw his attention. I was immediately on guard. My fingers crackled with the energy of several magical surprises I’d worked up just in case it turned out he wasn’t a member of the enforcers. In this city somebody with that cocky swagger could just as easily be a member of a local criminal syndicate. Crime families seemed to spring up and disappear on an almost nightly basis in this place.

No matter what the circumstances, whether he was enforcer or criminal, I’d found it was always a good policy to be on guard when traveling through the human realms. Better to fireball first and ask questions later.

He moved over to the bar slowly which gave me plenty of time to give him a cursory inspection. He had a tunic that was made of fine materials, though not so fine that it would mark him as a member of one of the local human noble houses. Those also seemed to spring up and disappear on an almost nightly basis around here. Part of the turmoil in the human lands. He had a sword at his side and from the way he moved with a dangerous coiled grace like a cat about to spring it seemed that he knew how to use it. He was ruggedly handsome, though not too pretty. Nothing like the men from my homeland. He had a scar running along one cheek and a nose that looked like it had been broken on more than one occasion.

Yes, definitely an enforcer or a criminal. The question was, which one? I would just have to wait and see.

He leaned against the bar and it creaked under his massive weight. He really was enormous. Not fat, just big. Broad shoulders, heavy chest, a stomach that was perhaps a little larger than most in this area which once again made me think he was working for somebody with the means to provide a regular meal. That was a rare luxury in these lands since the Sundering. He definitely didn’t have the lean look of someone who spent their time out in the world adventuring.

He grinned down at me. One of his teeth was missing. His eyes openly ran up and down my body and I fought the urge to reach out and smack him. Reaching out and smacking him was the last thing I should do no matter how tempting that might be. With the magic that was just itching to be released from my fingertips I was just as likely to engulf him in a column of flame or disintegrate him where he stood as actually physically smack him.

Occupational hazard of working with powerful magic.

Stranger finished his inspection and chuckled. The inspection made it clear he was the kind of man who had to categorize everything as to whether or not it was a threat. The chuckle and the way he smiled at me made it clear I’d been dismissed as no threat at all. There was a time when that would’ve made me bristle with anger. There was a time when I was out to prove myself and my ability when I might have been tempted to teach him a lesson.

But that time passed while his great grandparents were probably still children. Experience taught me that having somebody dismiss you out of hand like that could be an advantage rather than a liability. Especially with meatheads like this who thought a sword at their side was the only thing they needed to make their way through the world.

He returned his attention to my eyes for a moment, then moved down to my chest. That was another move that would’ve made me bristle once upon a time. How dare a human look at me like that! Only now it was just one more thing I welcomed as a potential advantage, a potential weapon in my arsenal, and I have to admit that feeling his eyes on me like that did send a thrill running through me. A thrill that I’d never admit even to myself because that was definitely not the sort of thing I was looking for in these taverns. That was definitely not the sort of thing I would ever do with a barbarian human like this for that matter!

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before,” he said.

His voice was deep and gravelly. It promised danger. It promised quick death to anyone who crossed him. I had to fight the urge to giggle as he stood there trying to look imposing and threatening with no idea that I could disintegrate him with the flick of a finger if I wished it.

“I sometimes have reason to travel in human lands,” I said.

“Oh?” An elf is rare enough, but it’s even rarer that we see an elf maiden from the Elven Order traveling these lands.”

I bit back a curse. He wasn’t supposed to know that. Wasn’t supposed to know who I was, what I was, who I represented, and yet here he was saying it plain as day for everybody in the tavern to hear. Talk about bad manners! Poor form and bad manners!

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

There was still time to salvage this. Still time to hope he’d take the hint. This had been off to a promising start, and I didn’t want to be disappointed now. Of course it wouldn't be the first time I was disappointed by a guy who was probably doing all of his thinking with his dick. In-game or out.

“Of course you do, elf,” he said.

“Why would you think I was in the Order?”

He grinned. “I just have a way of knowing these things.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Of course he’d say something like that. Of course he wouldn’t have any good reason why he knew what he knew. He just expected me to take it at face value that he was some super genius fantasy Sherlock Holmes who could immediately tell everything about a person’s background from looking at them. Of course I knew he could tell everything from looking at my profile and the guild tag over my head, but he wasn’t supposed to bring that into our conversation. It was supposed to flow naturally. It was supposed to come out in the back and forth. Not for the first time I regretted ever using one of those role-playing profile plugins in the first place. They caused more trouble than that they helped in my experience.

“I think our conversation here is done,” I said.

That grin on his face grew even wider. It was definitely ruined by more missing teeth that became obvious as his mouth opened. Sometimes it felt as though humans had never heard of hygiene or its benefits.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about! So are we going out to the edge of the zone or what? Maybe a little fun?”

I pulled away from the keyboard let out a noise that was halfway between a frustrated angry cry and a strangled retching noise. I should have expected this. I leaned back in my chair and stared at the screen for a moment, tried to collect myself, tried to think about how I was going to respond to this asshole.

“Something wrong?” Megan asked.

I wheeled my computer chair around to face my roommate. She also had Tales of Elassa up, but her gaming experience looked way different from mine. She had a massive gaming rig set up on her desk that glowed with various LED lights. It seemed to positively hum as various fans turned on and off to make sure all the expensive widgets she’d put in the thing to make sure the game ran at maximum settings at all times worked.

I wasn’t really big into computers. As long as I could load the game and go to some of my favorite zones and role-play that was enough for me. She was a power gamer in every sense of the word though, and apparently that necessitated the kind of computer that looked like it could gain sentience at any moment and try to wipe the human race from the face of the earth in a desperate act of self-preservation.

Not that I could complain too much about Megan’s obsession with having the biggest and the best. Her constant pursuit of the biggest and the best meant she was always upgrading my computer with the castoffs from whatever she’d just picked up. She was in grad school just like me, but the big difference was she had rich parents and a trust fund to help her with her costs while I was going to school on scholarships and student loans.

Not that I could complain much about Megan’s trust fund either. The only reason I got to live in this awesome and huge off campus house as cheap as I did was because she'd rather have a friend and roommate to hang out with and play video games with than live all alone in this giant rental her parents bought her.

“What’s wrong?” Megan asked.

“I was having a promising session with some new guy at the inn and then he comes out and asks for it,” I groused.

I didn’t have to tell her what “it” was. The main reason Megan was on a role-playing server rather than some other server was because I happened to play on this one. That and she said the “care bears” on this server wouldn’t know decent raiding if it bit them in their prose spewing butts which made it easier for her to dominate the endgame. I knew those words meant something when she strung them together like that but I had no idea what the meaning was.

She might as well be speaking a foreign language or some impenetrable code whenever she started going on about game mechanics. She seemed happy so I didn’t ever press. Her lectures on endgame content and theory could get pretty boring though. Probably as boring as when I started gushing about the importance of proper characterization and other stuff that made the role-playing experience go from mediocre to awesome, which was a rare enough experience even on a role-playing server.

Anyways, I’m getting away from what’s important. Nobody could play on this kind of server for any appreciable length of time and not know what “it” was. “It” was the thing that made these kinds of servers infamous, even though most people weren’t interested in that sort of thing.

There was role-playing. Building a story with other people. Developing a character. Coming up with pleasing prose and new ways to twist the language into pleasing forms within the confines of the clunky chat and emoting system the developers threw in as an afterthought in an early patch to placate an annoyed, small, but very vocal role-playing community.

And then there was “role-playing” where people got together with an avatar of the opposite sex, or the same sex depending on their preference, and went to a quiet corner of the zone or some private dungeon for some fun that amounted to little more than poorly written two player erotica improv.

Megan shrugged and grinned. “I don’t know what you expected, dressing yourself up in that ridiculous bikini outfit and going to a general role-playing area.”

I rolled my eyes. Maybe I was wearing the bikini armor, but I also had a sensible robe on over it. Or my character had a sensible robe on over it. Oftentimes I found the line between role-playing and reality blurring in my mind when I really got into the game and a session. The point I'm trying to make is that anybody looking at my character in the game would see the robe. They'd have to do a detailed inspect to see the chainmail bikini which was more a function of that being the only kind of decent armor for a character at the top level than any desire on my part to wear it.

Okay, so maybe I liked how my character looked wearing the bikinis. In private. Where no one else was looking. And certainly not for this asshole who was treating me as though it was a given I was going to go out there and rub my character against his until he got off and made a mess on his keyboard. The presumptuous prick.

“Is it too much to expect the people in the general role-playing population to have some integrity?”

Megan rolled her own eyes and laughed. “Amber, sometimes I think you wouldn’t be happy unless Kaitlyn Morgan herself walked through those inn doors and started having a one-on-one writing session with you.”

I giggled. “As if! Besides, Kaitlyn Morgan is probably way too busy actually writing books to ever get around to playing Tales of Elassa!”

“Isn’t she only supposed to be a few years older than us? She could totally be a gamer. Hell, you're the one always griping about how she won't write the next book in that series. Putting off work to play a game? That has an Elassa player written all over it.”

It was possible. Though I didn't exactly gripe about Kaitlyn not writing the next book in the series. It was more that I griped to Megan about people griping about the next book taking a long time. Not that Megan probably noticed the subtle difference since she was usually listening with one ear and focusing on playing the game with most of her brain.

I really didn't know much about Kaitlyn Morgan other than a name and a picture on the dust jackets of the Elassa books. I’d never bothered to look up anything about the woman who wrote the books I loved so much that spawned the media empire that led to the game Megan loved so much. Which, now that I thought about it, was a little odd considering the impact her books had on my life. I was always happy to read the books and play the game, though lately I didn’t even get to read the books since the great Ms. Morgan seemed to be having trouble getting the next one out.

The Tales of Elassa books were the reason I got into creative writing. They were the reason I was getting my MFA in Creative Writing. And of course they were also the reason why I started playing Tales of Elassa, which, ironically enough, could very well also be the reason why I ended up flunking out of my MFA program if I didn’t start spending more time actually writing for class and less time writing new storylines for my character in the game.

We lived in a world with the Internet though. I could just look up Kaitlyn Morgan with a couple of clicks and find out all about her including whether or not she was into video games. It was weird considering the impact her books had on my life that up until now she’d mostly been a name on a page and those dust jacket pictures where she was smiling out at the world inspiring more than a little stab of jealousy in me because she was only a few years older than me and it was so unfair that she was a damn billionaire from her writing while I was still languishing in a creative writing program with no hope of getting published any time soon. Not that I'd submitted anything for publication, but that's not important. I made a mental note to look up more about her, but later. After I’d put this particular digital asshole in his place.

I made a lot of mental notes to do things later since I started playing Tales of Elassa seriously. A part of me worried about that, but that worry wasn’t strong enough to overcome the dopamine portions of my brain that shot out plenty of fun and relaxing chemicals as soon as I put my hands back onto the keyboard and was transported back into that addictive world.

My eyebrows lowered and my face darkened as a storm cloud passed across it. I was amazed that this asshole couldn’t see the danger he’d just ignited. I reached my hand back and smacked him with all the force I could muster, sending him flying across the tavern with a very surprised look on his face as magical energy crackled around him. Everyone else in the room who was busy off in their own little world continued to not pay attention to the altercation. A few heads looked up, casually interested, but most weren’t concerned with our business. Especially when one of us was using magic and the other looked like an undercover enforcer.

He picked himself up from the shattered table he landed on and stalked towards me, a storm cloud on his own face. “What’s the big idea you bitch?”

I stood and stared up at him, held out my hand and allowed a fireball to dance between my fingers. He looked down and his eyes widened when he saw that. They widened even more when they heard what I had to say.

“If you’re going to god mode then I can do the same thing,” I said. “And if you’re going to treat a role-playing session with somebody as nothing more than an excuse to solicit them for a little fun then I’m going to break character! Now I suggest you get out of here before I report you to a game moderator and see what they think about your chat logs. You are aware that what you’re trying to do is against the rules, right? Very against the rules.”

The sort of role-playing that he was looking for was against the rules, to be sure, but it was also well known amongst the people who did that sort of role-playing that the game moderators never did anything about it unless they got a complaint. Of course once they got a complaint that could quickly lead to an account being temporarily suspended or permanently banned since a record of everything typed in the game was held back. I'm sure this guy was well aware just how much of a threat to his account that was. Even if he was pretty low level I knew there was a good chance he also kept his regular higher level character on the same account and he was putting all of that at risk by cruising an inn just outside the main city gates for a little two-person erotica.

He paused and looked at me and then to the rest of the room. More than a few people had turned towards us. I’m sure most of the people who were sitting in this room were sitting in here looking for the very same thing this guy was. Most of them were probably just as nervous as he was at the prospect of a game moderator being pulled into a fight. I rolled my eyes and let out another disgusted noise. This is what I got for coming to a general role-playing area.

The asshole faded away, no doubt logging out of the game rather than sticking around to risk more humiliation. Of course he was logging out of the game under the false assumption that if he wasn’t logged in then the moderators wouldn’t be able to do something about him. They could ban him just as easily if he was in game as if he was out. Not that I actually had any intention to report him. I was actually more mad at myself for losing control like that and breaking character in public chat. That was violating one of the biggest rules of being involved in the role-playing community.

I sat down at the bar and buried my head in my hands, despairing of ever finding somebody who was worth role-playing with in a public area like this. I needed to just logout for the night or send a private message to somebody on my list who was passably decent at writing who'd be a sure thing instead of hoping to find a nugget of gold amongst all the crap role-players to be found in the general population.

Only all the people I usually role-played storylines with were either offline or they were the kind of people who churned out the same repetitive crap every time. The last thing I wanted was to spend another night wasting time with someone like Cara who was always the mysterious elf princess who kept her identity hidden and then swears you to secrecy when she reveals who she truly is, or Mike who was always a stoic but goodhearted adventurer whose morals always overcame his desire for money by the end of whatever story we were working on.

Boring. Typical. Predictable. Not what I was looking for.

No, the game was starting to get stale. It was starting to get boring. I sighed at my keyboard and my character sighed in the game. It was starting to feel like there were no new worlds to conquer, no new scenarios to explore.

The door to the inn banged open. I looked over, but with nowhere near the hope I’d felt earlier when the asshole I'd just chased off walked in.

2: A More Mysterious Stranger

The human barbarian who walked through the door looked much the same as any other human barbarian in these parts. She wore a cloak that was tattered and torn in places, though she’d obviously taken care to repair it in other places. Perhaps she was just in from a long trip. Underneath the cloak she wore the once fine but now faded and threadbare clothes of a woman who had fallen on hard times.

As I looked her over I figured that no doubt she was a member of one noble family or another. They seemed to spring up constantly and fall just as quickly as they rose. Both because noble houses were a popular role-playing target for newbies who didn’t know what they were doing yet and because in the game lore there was the whole giant cataclysm that ripped the world asunder and sent humans scattering, nobles included.

I sighed. No, there definitely wasn’t anything promising about a low level human who looked much the same as every other low level human. She was pretty enough, to be sure, with striking green eyes that seemed to draw my attention long after everyone else in the room had gone back to whatever they were doing before she walked in. Green eyes that would've been striking if I was into that sort of thing on a girl, which I totally wasn't even though I found myself losing myself in that face once more for some reason and had to shake myself out of my strange mental funk. It didn't help that she was making her way directly towards me. I suppose it couldn’t be helped. I was the only elf in the room and that tended to draw attention.

It really was my fault for drawing the wrong type. I was something of an oddity. Most elf players tended to stay in elf zones. It was amazing how quickly the pseudo-racist undertones of a book series could translate into pseudo-racist undertones in an online role-playing game. Sometimes I thought the people who spouted nonsense about being superior to humans half believed their crap, even though it was probably a human on the other side of the computer doing the role-playing.

At least I was pretty sure elves hadn’t discovered computers and video games. Not yet.

That was one of the reasons I’d come to human lands. The Elven Order was ostensibly an elf guild with a few humans here and there. If I stayed where most of our official role-playing events were held, where my guild held the most influence, then I’d almost never make it to human zones.

So in a way I was adventuring here in the hopes I might find somebody who surprised me, though so far I’d found nothing to disabuse me of the commonly held belief that the people who hung out at this particular inn in the human territories were nothing but a bunch of shallow idiots who were more interested in getting their rocks off with a little bit of two way erotica improv than in constructing a genuine storyline and getting into real role-playing.

The human stepped up to the bar and turned to face me. She had a winning smile and I had to admit she was stunning under that bedraggled first impression. If you were interested in humans, which I most certainly was not. Well, which my character most certainly was not. Or if you were into women, which I most certainly was not. I wasn’t one of those crazies who didn’t make a distinction between the character I role-played and reality. There were plenty of them out there, believe me.

She leaned an elbow against the bar and immediately lost her balance. Immediately went flying and clattering to the floor sending several empty drinks that were waiting for the bartender to come and pick them up flying. I couldn’t help but giggle at this odd and novel approach to an opening move.

She stood and almost lost her footing again. It appeared that clumsiness was a trait with this one. I glanced to the sword by her side and wondered how she was able to use the thing without accidentally cutting her head off. Then again that was a sentence that could apply to humans and just about any piece of technology more advanced than fire. Oftentimes it could apply to the fire as well.

She finally managed to regain her footing and didn’t even bother sketching a bow. She just plopped her lithe and inviting frame down on a bar stool and took a deep breath. I took a deep breath too. Lithe and inviting frame? Where the hell had that thought come from?

“Well that definitely wasn’t a good way to make a first impression,” she muttered.

In the game, in character, she was probably right. Only speaking from a strictly out of character perspective it was a wonderful way to make a first impression. I pulled away from the keyboard and blinked. “Now that’s interesting…”

“What’s that?” Megan asked.

“Oh nothing,” I said. “Get back to your raid. I’m sure they’re counting on you to click your mouse at just the right moment or whatever it is you do.”

Megan stuck her tongue out at me. “It’s a little more complicated than that, O mighty queen of the role-playing wordsmiths!”

I stuck my tongue right back out at Megan. Then I turned my attention back to the game and raised an eyebrow. Looked at this strange avatar before me. Stumbling and causing a mess like that was definitely novel. It was definitely something I’d not seen before. Usually this inn was filled with people role-playing for the first, and they were almost universally the type whose characters were secret gods or half dragon or some other nonsense.

Which was pure poppycock. There were no dragons in Tales of Elassa. If there was one thing I hated more than people who used the game’s role-playing community as an excuse to do a little bit of one-handed two-person erotica improv, it was the people who brought in elements that were outside of the world's established lore.

That made me see red.

So this mysterious person standing before me with her striking green eyes that had that strange ability to hypnotize me was refreshing. Her character had a vulnerability. Her character wasn’t another stoic hero just returned from slaying thousands of her enemies. No, she was just a little clumsy. And that that was enough of a hook that I was intrigued. It was enough to make me want to know more about her. It was enough that she was already more promising than the first asshole I ran into and we hadn’t even started properly talking.

She looked at me again and my breath caught. This human really did have the most piercing green eyes. Piercing green eyes that were unlike anything I’d ever seen on a human before, though that might just be because I wasn’t looking rather than it not being a trait humans possessed. Obviously it was a trait humans possessed if she was looking at me with those gorgeous blinkers. I was getting scatterbrained. My thoughts were running away from me. I needed to get myself under control.

“So what brings you to human lands? That’s a dangerous journey for a young elf such as yourself,” she said.

I threw my head back and laughed, and yet secretly I was delighted. She called me young. A common misconception, but it also meant that if she was reading my character sheet, and she definitely could since I could see the same mod installed with an indicator over her head that led to an impressively detailed character history, she wasn’t bringing it into the conversation. That was so refreshing. That was such a change from what I was used to.

“I guarantee you I was probably fighting off scarier monsters than you could imagine before your great-grandfather even looked at your great-grandmother with a twinkle in his eye,” I said.

A hundred years ago I would have been able to show off my age to a human by referencing their kings, but that wasn’t the case anymore. The humans hadn’t had a unified kingdom in at least half a century. Just another way that their world kept changing while mine stayed the same. Except for the Sundering, of course. That affected everybody. Still, there was far more potential for intrigue with a good human player. Perhaps that was one reason why I was so drawn to humans. It allowed for a richer role-playing experience than sitting around whining about how much it sucked to be immortal which is what your typical elf role-playing scenario boiled down to.

Assuming you could find somebody good. I desperately hoped this gorgeous woman in front of me was good. Wait. Gorgeous? Where were these thoughts coming from? I needed to get control. I needed to stop losing myself on ridiculous tangents about how attractive this girl was, particularly considering her "attractiveness" boiled down to an avatar and the way she described herself in that character sheet. And yet there was something compelling about her writing, about that description and the way she hooked me initially, that had me shifting in my seat out in the real world.

“My apologies lady elf,” she said, seeming genuinely sincere. “But a pretty face on an old soul isn’t going to protect you from creatures with sharp teeth any more than my clumsiness would protect me.”

My character blushed in game and out of the game I felt a flush rising to my cheeks. A surprising flush rising to my cheeks. What was going on with me tonight that this girl was able to get that sort of reaction out of me with just words on a screen?

Focus. Get back in the game.

I held up my fingers and allowed a flame to dance from finger to finger. She raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn’t react. Obviously this was a woman who’d seen magic before. Or at least she’d heard of it. Either way she didn’t react with the wide-eyed surprise that usually accompanied that display. A slight disappointment, but behind my keyboard I was secretly jubilant. I was so sick of people who thought that wide-eyed surprise was the only way to react to magic, as though anybody who lived in a world where magic was a commonplace thing would be surprised by the damn stuff.

“Ah, I see,” she said. “A sorceress, I presume?”

I winced at the human word.

“If you want to reduce calling down the very forces that power this universe and bending it to my will “sorcery” then I suppose you could call me that,” I said.

“Impressive,” she said.

She dug into her pocket and pulled something out. I saw a flash of black and then the flames dancing on my fingers winked out. The tingling sensation that let me know I was drawing upon the magical forces that powered the universe disappeared at the same time. I blinked, looked at the object in her hand, and then my eyes widened in surprise. I hated that I reacted like that, but it was the only thing I could think to do in this situation. I did a quick inspect of her character just to be certain.

“Is that…”

An Elassa Shard,” she said. “It’s been passed down in my family, though I’ve never had occasion to show it off before. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to show it off to someone who would actually appreciate it.”

The way she leaned against the barstool with a cocky smile on her face was only slightly ruined when she slipped in a puddle of something on the floor, no doubt left over from her spill a moment ago, and nearly sent the Elassa Shard flying across the room. I cried out and held my hand out trying to catch it, but she did a surprisingly nimble dance and snatched it out of the air before it went flying too far. It appeared being constantly clumsy has given this strange woman one hell of a set of reflexes.

And a good thing too. If that really was what she said it was then it was more valuable than the combined wealth of the entire city. They were so rare in the books that kingdoms rose and fell based on possessing one. I didn’t even know they were in the game.

I opened her character window and did a quick inspect. Sure enough equipped right there in her offhand was an item labeled as an Elassa Shard. Huh. I didn't realize they'd added them into the game. I closed out the character window and went back to the chat window.

“How did you get that?”

She blinked, cutting those delicious green eyes off from me for a moment. Her delicate jaw line worked for a moment and she fixed me with an expression that told me she was wondering if I was entirely right in the head.

“I told you,” she said slowly. “It’s been passed down in my family.”

I shook my head. “That’s not what I mean. How did you get that? I didn’t know Elassa Shards were even in the game! At least I’ve never seen one before…”

Of course that didn’t mean they weren’t in the game. It just meant I hadn’t seen them in the game before. I wasn’t really a big fan of the higher level dungeons, and they were always releasing new toys to entice people to go through that particular treadmill over and over. Megan was a perfect example of the type of personality that was perfectly willing to run the leveling treadmill as long as a shiny new in-game item was dangling tantalizingly just out of reach. It was entirely possible this was just some new bit of end game content I didn’t know about because I didn’t ever play end game content. It wouldn’t be the first time the developers took an all-powerful item from the books and reduced it to a trinket with a fun animation.

Of course if that was the case then how did a lower-level player get her hands on one? She wasn’t even halfway to the level cap and she was walking around with something that shouldn’t exist. Even if she had a higher level character and this was her role-playing alt there was no way to transfer items like that between characters. Color me intrigued.

She shook her head and now she really was looking at me as though I’d grown a second head. Or as though I’d sprouted fangs like some of the bloodsucking creatures that totally weren’t vampires even though they sucked and blahed like a duck lurking along the paths to human lands after dark.

“Game? What game are you speaking of? Are you quite all right my lady elf?”

I pulled away from my keyboard and shook my head. Damn! Here I was complaining about people breaking character, complaining about people pulling in information they’d have no idea about, and I’d been so surprised by this strangely compelling woman that I went and did it myself! I never did that. I never lost control. That never happened to me. What was going on here?

And yet I couldn’t deny the way I was feeling talking with this woman. There was something about her prose that went straight to my heart. There was something about her prose that went straight down to other areas in a way that few women ever had before. There was just something about her that was so compelling, so fascinating, so mysterious. And she was just some pixels on a screen with a particularly well written character sheet!

I put my hands back on my keyboard.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I forgot myself for a moment.”

She chuckled, a melodious rich sound that rolled over my body and sent a bolt of pleasure running through me as it hit my ears. “All is forgiven my lady elf.”

I sighed in contentment. There was something about the way that sounded. “My lady elf.” As though she was claiming me for her own. I blinked. What the hell was I thinking? Wanting someone to claim me? Wanting a woman in particular to claim me for her own? Now that was entirely out of character both in game and out! That was dangerously close to the sort of thoughts that led to the sort of role-playing the first asshole I'd threatened was into.

“I’m sorry to cut this short,” she said. “But I’m afraid I have some work to attend to.”

“Certainly,” I said. “It was nice making your acquaintance…”

I trailed off and hoped the question was obvious. Of course I knew her character's name because it was hovering right over her head, but there were points of role-playing etiquette to be observed and I was going to observe them to a fault considering how bad I'd just screwed up. She grinned and shifted, her enticingly lithe body moved this way and that and I found myself swaying back and forth hypnotized by the sight. “My lady elf may call me Kaira, if it pleases you.”

I grinned. So maybe there was a little bit of hubris to this one. Kaira was the name of the great human queen who unified all their kingdoms in antiquity and who forged treaties with the elves and other races. Of course it was also ironically enough Kaira's alliance that ended war long enough for scholar mages to turn their focus from fighting and delve too deeply and too greedily into arcane arts probably best left alone, but I’m sure she wasn’t thinking about giving some crazy mages enough breathing room to shatter the world a thousand years after her reign when she consolidated political power in this world. In my experience humans didn’t tend to think beyond their lifetime, though her reign was still within living memory for my people.

I arched a curious eyebrow at this intriguing woman and she looked me up and down as I did so. Normally I didn’t go for this sort of scene, but there was something about this girl that was making me enjoy this thoroughly. Far more thoroughly than I’d enjoyed a role-playing scenario in quite some time. I blushed and told myself it had nothing to do with the way my hair was standing on edge all over my body, the way my nipples were straining out, with that impossible delicious feeling between my legs that she was somehow able to elicit with just a few words despite my never having a particularly strong interest in the fairer sex before now. At least not that I'd admitted to myself, though I was starting to wonder after this brief interaction.

Not that any of that mattered. This would probably be the only time I met this woman. Assuming she was even a woman and not one of the many men who masqueraded as women in the game for various reasons. So many role-playing interactions were so many ships passing in the night never to see one another again, so why should this one be any different? So I figured I'd just enjoy myself and forget about any underlying existential crises that could potentially arise from how this woman was making me feel.

“Interesting name,” I said. “Hubris?”

Kaira fixed me with that easy-going grin. A deliciously sexy grin that made me want to kiss every inch of her lips even though that was completely out of character both in character and out of character, if you catch my meaning. And suddenly there was none of the clumsiness about her. Suddenly she was every bit the cocky role-player coming here for the first time, only with her it was somehow different. With her I got the feeling she could back it up.

“Not hubris,” she said. “Just the truth. Or a version of the truth. And it’s a family name.”

Well that was an answer and not an answer at the same time. Not sure what I was expecting. Either way I needed to know more about this mysterious stranger. I needed to know if this was a one-time thing or something more.

“Will I see you again?” I asked.

I bit back a curse as the words flew unbidden from my fingers to my keyboard and into the chat window. That wasn’t how this worked. If you liked role-playing with someone then you added them to your friend list. You kept an eye on their location and tried to engineer a “chance” meeting to avoid your one promising interaction fading into obscurity. After a couple good role-playing sessions you’d maybe start sending them out of character private messages. Maybe start working on a collaborative story. But at the beginning everything was supposed to feel organic. It was supposed to seem like you were stumbling into one another by accident even if it was nothing but.

At least those were the role-playing principles that my guild lived by. Those were role-playing principles I’d helped draft as the mistress of role-playing. And here I was throwing my own rules out the window because I was intrigued by a mysterious woman who wasn't even the gender I went for, who I didn’t know anything about, and who could very well be a dude for all I knew given the statistical breakdown of gender in this game!

And yet as I sat there at the keyboard, as I thought about this session, the mysterious object she held, and most of all her incredible skill with the written word, I realized I didn’t give a damn.

Fuck the rules. Some of them were stupid anyways.

She grinned one final time as she faded away. “Perhaps?”

3: Digital Sleuthing

I pulled back from my chair and concentrated on breathing. If I didn’t do that then I was worried I might actually forget to breathe. That I might pass out at my computer chair, and then that would worry Megan and pull her away from her raid which always made her cross.

I looked over my shoulder to Megan. Really looked at her in a way I hadn't before. At least I tried really looking at her in a way I hadn't before. I felt bad for using my roommate like that but she was the closest girl available.

Megan was pretty in a geeky sort of way. Behind those glasses was a pretty face with nice blue eyes. And I had to admit that she also looked pretty good in her tight fitting pajamas that were her usual uniform when she was raiding. I'd seen her in those outfits before and always thought she looked hot. I'd always thought objectively that she had a nice figure, but did that mean I was attracted to her? I mean it was one thing to look at someone and know objectively that they were attractive and another thing entirely to look at an objectively attractive person and be attracted to them.

Wasn't it? That chat session had me all sorts of confused.

As I looked at Megan I thought back to that chat session and it was as though something clicked. I was looking at her with new eyes. I didn't just know she was sexy. I thought she was sexy, if that makes any sense. I found myself staring at my roommate's lips and wondering what it would be like to run my own along their soft contours...

And I immediately shut down that line of thinking. For one this was Megan, my roommate, and that was an avenue I definitely didn't need to be traveling down any more than I'd allow myself to start fantasizing about a male roommate if I was in that sort of situation. Second, I was scared exactly what that line of thinking meant. Where it would lead. So I shut it down.

I needed something else to focus on. Like that Elassa Shard she'd been carrying. That was safe. That was something Megan could help me with. That was a distraction. I tore my eyes away from Megan to her screen and her raid. It looked like they were in a lull. I’d learned to read the patterns of those high-level raids even if they didn’t interest me at all, if for no other reason than so I could get a word in edgewise with my roommate.

“Hey Megan, quick question.”

Megan pulled her headphones down and laid them across her neck. Turned and smiled at me. That was a nice smile. I ignored that thought.

“Shoot,” she said.

“Did they add Elassa Shards as a high-level item or something?”

Her face scrunched up. “Elassa Shards?”

I rolled my eyes. Megan was so obsessed with Tales of Elassa that there were times I forgot she hadn’t ever bothered to read the book series that had taken the fantasy world by storm in the past five years and caused the game to be created in the first place. I ran into a lot of people like that. I even ran into people who were into the role-playing scene who hadn't cracked open the books and didn’t know anything about the world’s lore.

It was a point of mild personal shame that my own roommate hadn’t read the books despite trying time and again to get her to. Of course at the same time I’m sure it was a small point of personal shame for her that her roommate wasn’t a hardcore raider.

“They’re items from the books that negate all magical power. If anyone tries to throw a magical spell at someone carrying an Elassa Shard the spell disappears as though they’re in some sort of anti-magic bubble. And if you get near someone using magic then it stops them from casting whatever spell they were working on,” I explained.

Megan thought about that for a moment, tapping her finger against her lip. “Nope, nothing like that in the game.”

Huh. That was interesting. Megan knew everything about everything in game, and if she said an item wasn’t in the game then the item wasn’t in the game. And yet I couldn’t deny what I’d seen with my own two eyes. Kaira used that item and my character’s spell animation stopped immediately. As though I was being surrounded by some sort of anti-magic field. Although I suppose it was actually my character coming in contact with some ones and zeros that some clever programmer had put together to make the magic animation stop when that item got close to me. Whatever. I tried not to reduce the magic in game to its component programmable parts.

I’d even inspected her character. There was clearly an item equipped in her offhand labeled as an Elassa Shard. I wished I’d gotten a screenshot of the thing now, because I was starting to think I was going crazy. Or at the very least I was imagining things.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty damn sure,” Megan said. She leaned back in her chair. “Something like that would be a game breaking item. Being able to interrupt any magic spell? The implications for dungeon runs, for PVP, would be incredible! Anyone who has something like that would be like a god in game!”

“You’re absolutely sure?”

“I’m absolutely sure,” Megan said. “Look, I’ll try pulling it up in the Elassa Item Database.”

She alt tabbed out of the game and pulled up the item database. There was a plug-in that worked in game, but she never used it because she claimed it affected performance. That was all stuff that was beyond me though.

I stood and moved over to her computer. Watched as she clearly typed in Elassa. Plenty of things came up. There were a lot of items in the Tales of Elassa database that had Elassa in the name.

Megan narrowed it down. Elassa Shards. Zero results. She modified the search so she was just looking for shard. There weren’t nearly as many results as what had come up when she typed in the name of the game, but there were also no combinations of the name of the game and the word shard.

I blinked. Was I really going crazy? Had I hallucinated that item?

“Nothing like that in the game,” Megan said. “Like I said, anyone who had something like that would be a major game breaker. They’re either a developer having some fun or a hacker doing one hell of a cheat that’s going to get them caught eventually.”

“Interesting,” I said.

“Why do you ask?”

I shook my head and blushed. The last thing I wanted right now was to explain my encounter with Kaira. The last thing I wanted was for her to think I might potentially be going insane thinking I saw items that didn’t exist. The last thing I wanted was to think my strange role-playing partner was actually some sort of cheater or hacker. Partly because something told me she wasn’t the type, and also because I didn’t want her to get banned from the game. I wanted to see her again.

Now there was an odd emotion. I wanted to see her again? She was just an avatar and some text on screen!

“Oh nothing,” I said. “Just some low-level role-player bragging about something I figured wasn’t true.”

Megan shrugged. “That’s what you get from people who think it’s more fun to spend time making up stories about the game than it is to actually play the game.”

I fixed her with a sour smile. That dig wasn’t lost on me, but I was too adult and too confused at the moment to give as good as I got. I went back to my computer and logged out of my own game.

“You’re logging out already?” Megan asked.

I jumped. I hadn’t realized she’d come up behind me.

“I have class early in the morning,” I said. “I figured I’d better turn in.”

Megan looked at me long and hard. “Are you sure you’re okay? You've had class every other day this entire semester and you’ve never gone to bed before 2 o’clock. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Well I need some sleep now,” I said as I got up and made my way towards my room.

To be perfectly honest I needed some time away from the game. I needed some time to think. I needed some time to process what had just happened and why I’d thrown every rule I had about meeting people in game out the window. I certainly needed time to think about this strange new attraction I was feeling towards other women. More than anything I needed time to think through why I couldn’t stop thinking about somebody that I only knew as a few words and a game avatar on screen.

I felt like I was going crazy, and it had absolutely nothing to do with an item that seemed to not exist.

4: Creative Writing

“Magic? Really?”

I blinked. I wanted to reach across the table and smack that smarmy look off of that bitch's face. I don’t know why I expected anything different from a critique from the great literary master Carrie Arnold, at least she was a great literary master in her own mind, but there it was.

“Do you have a problem with magic?” I asked.

“I have a problem with genre fiction,” Carrie said. “You’re getting an MFA in creative writing. Why are you wasting your time with this garbage?”

I balled up a piece of notebook paper in my hand and concentrated on crushing that rather than reaching out and trying to crush Carrie. Not for the first time I cursed the day she’d ever sat at the same table as me.

“I don’t know, I thought it was okay and that stuff seems to be really popular right now,” Devon said, though the way he hesitated, glanced down at the short story I’d presented for a critique, told me he was thinking the same things but he was too polite to say them out loud. It wasn’t exactly the best defense in the world.

“Just because something sells well doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile,” Carrie said. “And besides, we’re here to expand our writing ability. We’re here to learn new things about the craft. We’re not here to write about witches and wizards fighting goblins or whatever the hell this is about. It's not like you're going to be the next Kaitlyn Morgan or anything.”

I rolled my eyes. I was surprised this crazy bitch even knew who Kaitlyn Morgan was. I suppose it just went to show how deeply the Elassa series had insinuated itself in pop culture that someone who "hated" genre fiction knew about the series.

I couldn't believe Carrie was talking like this! Wizards fighting goblins? There wasn't a single mention of wizards or goblins in the piece I presented for critique! She hadn’t even bothered to read the damn thing! And to think I’d wasted valuable time I could’ve spent playing Tales of Elassa a couple of nights ago reading the crap she’d vomited out about some girl who dumped her a couple of years ago. I’m sure she thought it was all very literary and mysterious, but the only thing I could think the entire time I read those twenty pages of crap was boo-hoo, baby’s still upset that one of her girlfriends threw her to the curb and she hadn't gotten over it yet.

But I wasn’t going to be violent. I wasn’t going to rise to what she was trying to start here. I was going to be the better person.

“Do you actually have any constructive criticism?”

“Yeah, stop writing this fantasy crap,” she said.

I rolled my eyes. There wasn’t a chance I was going to stop writing this “fantasy crap” as she called it. For one it was my favorite kind of book. For two I was spending so much time playing Tales of Elassa these days that I’d started taking some of the role-playing scenarios I’d worked up and changed some of the names, reworked some of the settings, and presented them to my class as original works rather than stuff that was based on a videogame I happened to be spending way more time than was strictly healthy playing.

Genre fiction was already a four letter word in this class. Carrie wasn't alone in that opinion. They’d have kittens if they realized the stuff they were reading was fan fiction as well as genre fiction. Of course I still thought it was damn good even if it did start its life as role-playing scenarios for a video game.

“What’s your problem with this anyways? It seems like this goes a lot deeper than not liking what I wrote,” I said.

“You’re right,” Carrie said. “It does! I have to see this crap on TV, I have to see this stuff taking up space on bookstore shelves while real writing by real writers…”

She punctuated that sentence by smacking her own short story on the table in front of her. As though that emotionally stunted drivel was somehow real writing or something. Who wanted to read about leftover angst from a girl who was a couple of years out from the scarring life event that still seemed to dominate her writing? Not me, thank you very much. Give me the swords and the wizards and the goblins any day of the week.

“Real writing like this barely even gets a shelf at the bookstore. The public doesn’t even know what’s best for it! It’s ridiculous that crap like this sells so well and literary stuff barely gets a mention!”

“Well if they had a Nobel Prize in whining about literature then you’d certainly win it…” I muttered.

“What the hell was that?”

“What seems to be the problem here?”

Like a guardian angel professor Timms stepped in. She was an older woman with auburn hair that definitely looked like it came off of the shelf at Target or Walmart. Probably Walmart considering what the average college professor, even one with tenure, pulled these days. Not that I was judging or anything. I actually really liked her most of the time. She had a way of cutting through bullshit that only an older battle scarred prof who’d been through more than a few dances with undergrads could. Like right now as she stared down at us over her glasses.

She didn’t look happy.

“Carrie here seems to have a problem with genre fiction,” I said. “Such a big problem she can’t even follow the critique guidelines.”

Professor Timms looked down at Carrie and she actually looked down. One thing that could get her to shut up was a glance from professor Timms. Then again I had a feeling that a rampaging bull would probably stop and apologize if the good professor fixed it with that glare. She was just that kind of professor. Fair, but severe if she thought you were stepping out of line.

“Is this true Carrie?”

“She keeps writing genre crap,” she muttered.

Professor Timms arched an eyebrow. That was never a good sign. “Genre crap? Did you really just say that?”

Carrie looked up and some of the anger she’d directed towards me was directed towards professor Timms. Only that anger seemed to crash over her like a wave slamming into a mountain for all the effect it had on her. She stared down at Carrie, tapping an irritated finger against her arm, the only sign other than an arched eyebrow that showed she was irritated and a sure sign that whatever student she was talking to needed to shut the hell up if they knew what was good for them. She had the unflappable calm demeanor of a woman who’d been teaching creative writing to artistic types for decades, and she’d seen everything at this point.

Professor Timms turned to me. “And what do you think of this Amber?”

I was so angry. I was seeing red. I was starting to not care about consequences. I got that way when I got really angry. Like so angry that I saw stars dancing in front of my vision. Like how angry I was right now when I looked at Carrie's smarmy face.

I wasn’t going to launch myself across the table and smack her a couple of times like I wanted to, but I was going to lay into her.

“I think if Carrie has a problem with something then she should probably follow the guidelines we were given for critiques at the beginning of the semester instead of resorting to personal attacks,” I said.

A hint of a smile played across professor Timms’ face. “Such as?”

I picked up Carrie's story and flipped through it. I thought about looking at the notes I’d made. The red marks I’d jotted down while I was doing a proper critique. I noticed she had none of that on the stuff she printed out for my work.

“Well she could come after me on technical grounds if she had a problem with the way I wrote. For example if I were to say something to her about craft then I might tell her that commas and dashes aren’t an appropriate replacement for proper punctuation. Or I might tell her that tossing an adverb after every dialogue tag is something that she probably should’ve gotten out of her system back when she was in middle school. I’m surprised that grumpy old Mrs. Ericson, the teacher with gray hair who was divorced and not exactly happy about teaching English at her age, didn’t beat that out of poor Carrie back in the day.”

Carrie's mouth opened and moved, but she didn’t say anything. I glanced up to professor Timms and her smile was growing wider. The tapping on her arm stopped. I figured that was all the permission I was going to get, so I kept going. I held up Carrie's story and waved it in the air.

“Or if she was going to attack a story she could go after the substance. For example if I was to say something about her story then I might go on about how a story dripping with thinly concealed angst isn’t exactly deep nor is the prose particularly literary. Unless playing fast and loose with punctuation like we mentioned earlier is your idea of being literary.”

“Very good,” professor Timms said. “All valid critiques. All getting at the substance of the story without actually attacking the person who wrote the story or the genre the story’s written in.”

I was really on a roll now. And the support from professor Timms was egging me on. “Exactly! If I was going to be so low as to attack something just because of the genre it was in then I might say something about how a story about a girl being upset because she got dumped a few years back isn’t exactly original, nor would anybody care to read it even if it was well-written.”

That tapping started again and I knew I’d gone too far. Only it was so worth it. It was worth it to see the utterly pissed off look on Carrie's face. It was worth it to give as good as I’d gotten. Let the bitch stew for awhile. She'd been my nemesis since day one with that peculiar ax she had to grind against fantasy. The way she went on about it you'd think Kaitlyn Morgan herself had personally wronged her somehow just by existing.

Like I said. Crazy.

“An astute observation,” professor Timms said. “That last remark probably isn’t quite in keeping with our critique guidelines in this class, though it might be deserved considering what prompted this conversation. Carry on, and I trust we won’t have any more problems at this table.”

That last bit was said with a pointed glance at Carrie, but she also looked over to me and I blushed. Okay, so when I got angry maybe I got a little too angry. Maybe I got carried away. But she’d really pissed me off. She deserved it! Always flitting around the room like she was the bad girl of the creative writing program. Always flipping her shiny blonde hair and giggling to get guys' attention in class even though the sad breakup story she kept repackaging for each assignment made it pretty damn clear no guy was getting close to her. No, with that blonde hair and the girly-girl looks she definitely couldn't pull off the dark and mysterious vibe she tried to convey in her writing because she was still upset two years after the fact that she got dumped. If I had to read one more boring story…

“Bitch,” she muttered.

“Hack,” I whispered right back.

“Fine,” she said, low enough that she couldn’t be heard by anybody else. Not even by anyone else sitting at our table. “You want a critique? I’ll give you a critique. This stuff reads like trash. It reads like something somebody who’s trying to write a trashy pulp novel from the ‘50s might come up with. It reads like you’re doing some sort of cheap fan fiction or something. It reads like you're trying to pull off a Kaitlyn Morgan novel and not doing a very good job of it. It’s no good, your writing is no good, and you’ll never amount to anything!”

I knew I shouldn’t let her get to me. I knew she was trying to get a rise out of me. And yet what she was saying hit so close to home that I couldn’t help it. The way she seemed able to pinpoint exactly where I got most of my ideas while also tapping into my fear that everything I wrote was derivative instead of new and creative stung. Was I really any better than her if I was repackaging fan fiction instead of repackaging a story about a particularly nasty breakup?

Every time she finished a sentence it felt as though she was stabbing straight into my heart. I felt moisture gather in my eyes, and I hated that I was letting her get to me like this.

“Oh yeah bitch?” I said as I stood.

I picked up my bag and threw it over my shoulder. I was reacting badly to this, I was really angry and about to do something very stupid, but I couldn’t help myself. It was as though I was in the middle of a wreck that I could stop before it really started, but I was going to see it through to its messy end. “Sorry I can’t be more “literary” like you. Maybe I’ll go down to the local gay bar so I can ask some girl to wine and dine me and dump my ass so I can be as great a writer as you are!”

I was yelling at the last part. I looked up and every eye in the room was on me. Professor Timms was looking at me and her finger was tapping furiously enough that it could've powered the city for a week if the Engineering School could find a way to hook her up to a power plant. I blushed and turned to run from the room. My only consolation was the look of shell shocked surprise on Carrie's face. Good. At least I’d finally got through to that bitch!

The waterworks finally came when I got out into the hall. I wiped the tears from my eyes, but I couldn’t help it. I was proud of my writing. I thought I did good stuff. I also wasn’t very good at dealing with harsh critiques like that. I knew she was just trying to get a rise out of me, I knew she was just pissed off about getting called out by our teacher in the middle of class like that, but there was a gnawing dark doubtful part of my soul that was whispering to me that she was right. That I was no good. That I would never amount to anything seeing as how I had trouble actually coming up with an original idea of my own and I was wasting my time in a creative writing program.

It was a dark part of me that I tried to ignore. It was a dark part of me that I chased away by playing Tales of Elassa and enjoying my time in there where I could get positive feedback. And yet that dark part of me always whispered that I was just running away from reality. That I was just seeking approval from people who were going to be nice to me no matter what because they were my friends.

Luckily I managed to get out of the English building before the waterworks really started. Then there was no stopping it. I’m sure I got a few weird glances from people watching the crazy girl walking down the sidewalk crying. I couldn't tell since it was hard to see through the tears. Not that it was entirely odd to see that sort of thing on campus, but I hated that I was the source of the spectacle.

I needed to get home. I needed some comfort.

5: Comfort

Comfort meant one thing. I felt that familiar rush of endorphins as I sat down at my computer and double clicked on the icon to log into Tales of Elassa. The familiar violin music washed over me and it felt as though I was immersing myself in a cold pool of water. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Typed in my username and password and then I was in.

I became Maia, high elf priestess of the Elven Order. A high elf priestess who was respected. A high elf priestess who was considered one of the best role-playing scenario writers on the server. Here was a place where my talent for genre fiction was definitely appreciated!

Fuck that bitch Carrie and her irrational hatred of genre fiction! And yet at the same time that voice was whispering that I was just trying to escape reality.

Whatever. I’d escape reality. Reality sucked right now.

A beep. A ding. I looked up in curiosity. My message icon was blinking on my UI. Now that was interesting. Most people who I knew in game didn’t play during the day. Sure the server was online twenty-four hours a day unless it was down for maintenance, but at the same time I tended to only have friends who played at night because that was when I was on. My understanding was the place was pretty sparsely populated during the day when most of the US population was at work or at school or doing other things that people with normal lives did.

The only people on right now were mostly the unemployed, kids who didn’t have to be at school for whatever reason, or crazy girls who’d decided to cut out of their creative writing seminar a half hour early because they were upset about a bad comment they got on one of their stories.

I clicked the icon and a message popped up. Immediately I felt my pulse race. Immediately I felt blood pump through my body, course behind my ears. I felt my nipples harden and strain out towards the computer which was definitely a surprising reaction considering I was just looking at some text on a screen. The hell?

Her. Kaira. She was on, and she just sent me a message.

“How’s it going?”

Three simple words, and yet I found myself racking my brain trying to think of a way to respond to them. I desperately tried to think of something that would make me seem witty, clever, a sophisticated woman of the online gaming world, and yet my words failed me. I found myself simply responding honestly.

“Pretty fucking terrible actually. How about you?”

“Sorry to hear that,” she said. “Want to talk about it?”

The words started flowing from my fingers before I had time to think about it. This was a complete stranger, and yet something about her concern touched me. Maybe it was because I was vulnerable in the moment, but I found myself explaining everything. My class. How they’d reacted to me. My insecurities about my writing.

All that poured out into the chat window. It was the first time I’d ever talked to anybody about any of this. It was the first time I’d gotten any of this off of my chest. Megan was usually the only person I had in-depth conversations with about these sorts of things, and that was typically talking about whatever guy we were dating that week. Well, whatever guy she was dating that week. I didn’t do a lot of dating what with my busy schedule of playing video games and going to class. At least I always told myself that was the reason I never seemed to find just the right guy or lost interest after a week or two when I did seem to find just the right guy.

I always told myself that, but recent developments suddenly had me seriously questioning whether or not disinterest and a busy schedule were the real reasons why I dropped guys so fast. Not that I was going to unpack that particular bundle of anxiety. Not with the girl who was the source of it in the first place!

The cursor blinked at me from the end of the chat window. There was a long pause. So long that I started to worry that maybe I’d said too much. Maybe I downloaded too much right at the get-go. I’d just met this girl after all. I didn’t really know her all that well, or at all, even if I did have the strange feeling that I could talk to her about anything.

Great. I meet a somewhat nice girl, a girl who could turn a phrase with the best of them, and already I’d chased her away venting about all my problems and insecurities. Good job Amber. Great fucking job!

“I know how you feel,” she said.

I blinked. “You do?”

“I don’t know if you can tell, but I do a little bit of writing myself,” she said.

I smiled. She didn’t know if I could tell? As though it wasn’t obvious she was good at this sort of thing from the way she spun that scenario last night. From the way she put words to the screen so effortlessly.

“Oh no, I had no idea!”

I made sure to put in an eye roll emoticon so she'd know I wasn’t being completely serious. Meaning and tone could be difficult to convey in text.

“I do a lot of writing actually,” she said. “A lot of it for my job, and I always worry that it’s never going to be good enough. Everyone tells me it’s great, but as I’m writing I always have this little voice in the back of my head telling me everything is crap. That everyone’s going to hate it this time. That this is going to be the one where everybody realizes I just got lucky with the other stuff.”

I blinked. “You write professionally? Like novels or something?”

“Probably nothing you’ve ever heard of,” she said. “Technical writing and that sort of stuff, but still. I have that gnawing doubt. Heck, for awhile now it’s been hard for me to write anything. I’ve been coasting for awhile. Trust me. I know exactly what you feel like, and I get paid to do this stuff!”

I smiled and felt warmth spreading through my body. Here was someone who understood me. Here was a girl who knew exactly what I was going through! And the admission that she was a writer, even if it was just technical writing which was something of a four letter word in creative writing circles even though most people I knew who graduated went on to do it because they quickly discovered they couldn’t pay the rent with their literary fiction.

“So you’re saying that feeling never goes away?” I asked.

“Nope. Never does in my experience. All you have to do is learn to take that voice and squash it. Listen to it from time to time to make sure you’re not actually turning out crap, but I figure if most people around you tell you that you’re doing a good job then that’s good enough,” she said.

“What about bad reviews?”

And then I realized I was probably being ridiculous. Like she would get a bad critique when she was doing technical writing!

“Everyone’s a critic,” she said. “You just have to learn how to let that roll off of you. I can get nine people out of ten telling me what a wonderful job I’m doing at my work, and still that number ten who had a problem is going to get more attention than the nine people who told me how great I was!”

I smiled and actually laughed. I was amazed at how easily she could put me at ease. I was amazed at how quickly all of my worries from class washed away. I was actually starting to feel kind of foolish for walking out of class like that, for getting so emotional. And yet at the same time I was glad I’d gotten so emotional because it meant I came home to Kaira and getting this pep talk to cheer me up.

“So you write fantasy stuff?” she asked.

I blushed again. “Mostly. Lately I’ve just been writing stuff in Elassa because that’s where I spend most of my time, but it’s always been my favorite genre. The Elassa books have been my favorite ever since the first one came out!”

“Oh? You’ve been reading them since the beginning?”

“Of course. I’m always on the lookout for a new good book, and as far as I’m concerned Kaitlyn Morgan has been a literary genius since the first word she put to paper. I'm so jealous that she hit it so big so early! Now if only she’d get out the next one...”

“It’s always nice to find someone who’s liked the books almost as long as I have! Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who knew about them back at the beginning,” she said. “Besides, I’m sure she has a good reason for making us wait!”

“I thought it was a revelation when I read the first book, so I really don’t care if she takes her time. I’m not like those rabid fanboys that seem to think she owes us something. My love for the books is probably why I spend so much of my time playing Tales of Elassa. Sometimes I wish I could be in that world! Other times I just wish I could craft something as amazing and original!”

“You never know,” she said. “Just look at that chick with those kinky sex books, and that started out as a fanfiction didn’t it?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, like something like that would happen to me!”

"You never know. Like you said, Kaitlyn Morgan hit it big early and look how far she's gone. It could happen to you too."

"I'm not going to hold my breath."

“So you’re a huge fan, does that mean you’re going to Elassa Con?”

I sighed. “I’d love to go to Elassa Con! I’ve been to a few regional cons, even have a stupid costume I wear to them, but I’m afraid Elassa Con is more than a poor grad student like me can afford.”

“Pity, I was thinking of going. We could meet up,” she said. “I’d love to see that costume. ;)”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’ll go someday if I get rich off of my writing,” I said.

“I’d like to read some of your stuff,” she said.

I pulled away from the keyboard. I blinked a couple of times. I stared at the chat window. At those words burned onto my flat panel. Sure I shared my stuff in the critiques every day, sure I shared my stuff with the people I role-played with online, but there was something about this that seemed different. I was suddenly self-conscious about sharing my work with this woman. Maybe it was the way she wrote. Maybe it was knowing she did this professionally. But for whatever reason, I was hesitant.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m sure it would be boring for you…”

“No! I’m definitely interested! If you’re half as good as what you write in game then I have a feeling I’m going to be pleasantly surprised!”

I blushed and had to stop. I had to count to ten. It was like this girl was pressing all the right buttons, and I didn’t even know her real name. I had no idea what she looked like or if she was even a she. For all I knew it could be some fifteen-year-old kid who was home from school today. For all I knew she could be some old man. And yet I didn't think that was really the case. I didn't want to think that was the case. I was drawn to her in a way I hadn't been drawn to a woman before, in a way that had been missing even from my interactions with men, and to discover that it was all a lie would be crushing.

Catfishing was an ever present danger online, but something was telling me I should take a chance.

“Fine, what’s your email address?”

“Kaira@elassa.com”

I arched an eyebrow at that. I was surprised she was actually able to get that email address. It’s not like Kaira was a super famous character in the series or anything, but she was a driving force in the narrative for anybody who bothered to pay attention to that sort of thing. It was the kingdom she created that led to the catastrophe that created the world I was running around in right now. The world I loved reading about so much. The world that had taken the real world by storm over the past five years with its explosive popularity. And I figured a name like that would’ve been snapped up immediately by someone who was way too into the lore like I was. Only here she was with that email.

Interesting. And it also made me respect her all the more. It was slightly cocky choosing that name, but at the same time it showed that she really knew her stuff. She really knew the story in-depth in a way that even a lot of people who'd read the books didn't because they didn't ever read any of the supplementary materials or appendices. A lot of people didn’t pay attention that deeply. They just enjoyed the action in the books or they enjoyed the boobs on the pay cable miniseries. No, that name told me this was a girl who really got the series. This was a girl who was definitely a fan.

And that made me both respect her more and want her more. Want her more? I thought about that for a moment. Thought about the strange feelings washing over me. Maybe it was just a bit of confusion in finding a kindred spirit, but I couldn't deny the heat and the rush I'd felt when I saw her sending me a message. I couldn't deny how I was feeling even if these new feelings terrified me. I might as well own up to it to myself even if I had no intention of telling Kaira and scaring her away forever.

It was ridiculous to fall for a girl over something silly like writing skills and the fact that she obviously was just as into my favorite books as I was, but there it was. People had fallen for sillier reasons than that, so why not an intense intellectual attraction? I was an intellectual woman first and foremost, and she was definitely able to stimulate my brain in a way most guys had never been able to, let alone a woman. That intrigued me. That turned me on if I was being perfectly honest, and I needed to start being perfectly honest with myself, damn it.

“Fine, I’ll send you something I worked up for class,” I said.

“No, I want your novel,” she said.

I blinked. “How did you know about that?”

“You said you’re in a creative writing program and you just got in a fight about liking genre fiction. I know you have a novel you’ve been working on. I want to see it.”

Now this really was asking too much! She was absolutely right, but I’d never share that with anyone. I even turned the screen away when Megan was in the room. Not that I’d actually worked on the thing in a while because I was so busy with the creative writing program and all the creative writing I’d been doing for the game. But still. Sharing something like that was so personal.

“Come on…” she said.

I sighed. “Fine. I’ll send you the first few chapters, but that’s it!”

“Glad to hear it.”

Damn. She was so cocky. So arrogant. So sure she’d get her way! I wondered what kind of woman she was in the real world, outside of the videogame, that she had that calm and confident demeanor. That she just assumed everyone was going to do what she asked.

I alt tabbed out of the game and opened up my email client. I had my own Elassa mail account. They called it Elassa mail, but really over the years it had morphed into a giant social network for fans of the series. I typed in her email and attached the file, but when I tried to send it at first it bounced back. I frowned. I clicked over to her profile but that was locked down too. Usually you didn't see that in the Elassa social network.

I tabbed back into the game. "Your account is locked down."

"Oh, right. Sorry." A moment passed and then the little icon that indicated she was typing popped up again. "Try now."

Again I alt tabbed out of the game. Again I drafted a mail and attached the file, but I held off on sending it for some reason. I stared at the screen, wondering if I really wanted to do this, and as I stared I realized that her whitelisting me for access to send her mail directly also allowed me to see her profile, though I wasn't going to tell her that. I figured if she was going to try and keep secrets then I was going to do the same in the name of revealing some of those secrets.

I got a good look at her profile picture. Not everybody bothered with the picture, but she had one. And I found myself staring, transfixed.

The character creator for the game meant you could pretty much write your own ticket in terms of looks. Most people chose a character who was muscular or slim in all the right places. Basically the perfect figure and the ultimate in wish fulfillment. What I’m trying to say is you didn’t see a lot of chubby characters walking around Tales of Elassa unless it was somebody who was doing it to make a point for a particular brand of role-playing.

Only as I looked at the picture attached to Kaira's profile, I wondered if she realized I was going to be able to see that picture when she gave me her email, I realized that in this case at least, assuming this was actually her and this wasn’t an elaborate catfishing expedition, there wasn’t much difference between the girl behind the computer and the beautiful character in game.

She wore a huge pair of sunglasses that obscured most of her face, but there was no obscuring the sexy contours of that face even if I wouldn't be able to pick her out of a crowd. She had the same pixie-cut short blonde hair as her character that looked unkempt but was so cute. And the rest of her. She was in a tight fitting tank top that showed off her smooth shoulders, slim arms, and what looked like a petite but incredible figure under that tight fitting tank top. I could see a strip of her stomach below and the hint of her belly button and I found myself leaning forward to stare in a way that I never had before with a girl, but I didn't care. I was all alone in the apartment and it's not like Megan was going to walk in on me by surprise. She looked like she was anywhere from five to ten years older than me and she looked absolutely delicious.

Not for the first time since I started interacting with this woman I found myself staring at the screen while my brain short circuited. What the hell was going on here? Could that really be her? That couldn’t possibly be her! There was no way that a girl who looked that good, a girl this compelling and nice, the first girl I ever found myself truly drawn to, a girl who seemed to know what I was thinking before I even thought it myself, could be that gorgeous! The universe just didn't work that way. I wasn't that lucky. Of course it was entirely possible that I could be that lucky and still I'd be unlucky in that she wasn't into girls that way. But who knew? A day ago I would've said I wasn't into girls that way and here I was salivating over Kaira's picture.

I instantly felt self-conscious as well. If I sent her an attachment through my account at Elassa.com then she’d see my profile picture. My mess of brown hair. A face that was definitely not anything to write home about even if I did have guys pestering me all the time in what I was pretty sure were clumsy attempts to get a date. And I had a petite frame that definitely didn’t bear much resemblance to my buxom character in game. Not that I even knew if she was into tits at all, buxom or otherwise, and it's not like I was going to ask her and scare her away. Hell, I was scared enough of these strange feelings without terrifying the object of those feelings!

I thought of my profile picture and groaned. I was staring into the camera with a goofy expression that definitely wasn’t very flattering making the hand symbol of the Bendai sisterhood which figured largely in the books. The juxtaposition between that very serious hand signal and the weird look on my face wouldn’t be lost on her, but I looked absolutely ridiculous.

I couldn’t send her an email right now. I couldn’t send an email when she’d see that picture of me!

I alt tabbed back into the game fully intending to make an excuse.

“I’m waiting…”

There she was again with that infuriating casually insistent confidence. As though she expected me to send her my manuscript right now. And I found myself blushing, moving out of the game client again, and hitting send. It was as though I was under some sort of spell. It was as though she was able to get me to do whatever she wanted. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until I’d sent it, and immediately my hand went from my mouse up to my mouth. I stared in wide-eyed shock.

Damn it!

I moved back to the game. I waited to see what the damage was.

“Got it.” she said.

There was a pause. A pause that stretched into eternity. A pause where I was sure she was looking at my picture, where she was sizing me up, where she was realizing that the sexy seductive elf priestess was nothing like the girl in my profile picture. She was probably looking me up and down and thinking how ridiculous she’d been to ever pay any attention to me. I’m sure she’d come back and say that she didn’t have time to read my manuscript.

“My my,” she said, adding a smiley face to the end. “You are a cutie my lady elf.”

Was that what I thought it was? I reread the sentence over and over trying to process it. That seemed downright flirtatious. Usually I was pretty oblivious about that sort of thing, but this was like a massive signal being projected onto the sky that even I couldn't miss. I felt my breathing catch as I read the sentence. I felt warmth settle into the pit of my stomach. I couldn't believe it.

Damn it. This girl kept blowing my expectations away! I blushed again. I blushed! And I felt a tingle at the tips of my fingers that I was pretty sure was from getting turned on and not an impending stroke as I started typing. At least I hoped it wasn't an impending stroke. That would be just my luck. I start falling for a girl. The girl seems interested in me. I have a stroke and I'm dead or incapacitated to the point that I can't explore this strange new romance. Only that didn't happen as I kept typing.

“You’re not so bad yourself.” I said with a wink emoticon. I was so nervous as I hit enter but I did it.

Was I really doing this? Was I really flirting with a girl over the Internet on the basis of a picture and a silly crush? This was ridiculous! I hadn’t done this sort of thing in at least five or six years. Not since I was a teenager using the Internet for the first time. Not since I’d first got involved in non-Elassa role-playing communities that were best forgotten all these years later.

And yet here I was, very much feeling like the giddy schoolgirl I’d been back then talking to a cute guy. Only now it was a cute girl I was talking to, and unlike with those early role-playing chats this time I had actual proof that she was a cute girl. At least I hoped she was a cute girl. I wasn’t completely naïve. I knew there was still a good eighty percent chance that picture was bullshit, but a girl could dream, right?

“That’s all?”

I blinked. Was she expecting more? Was she really that cocky? Did she really need me to validate her looks? I have to admit that it took some of the shine off of the moment.

“Was there supposed to be more?”

“No, nothing…”

She seemed surprised. She seemed to be avoiding telling me something. And yet I’d just met her. I was still so surprised that she looked like that, I was still so surprised that she was the complete package, that I decided I wasn’t going to dig any deeper. Not yet. If she wanted to have her little mystery then let her have her little mystery. It was enough that we had what we had for now.

“Think I’m going to log off and have a read of your story,” she said. “Talk to you later?”

“Sure. Looking forward to it!”

“Me too.” And she winked at me. Well, it was a wink emoticon, but I'd grown up online. To me it was as good as the real thing. The physiological reaction it provoked through my body was certainly the real thing!

It was amazing how punctuation could make me feel so amazing. It was really just a semicolon and a closed parenthesis, and yet that simple bit of punctuation was getting me worked up in a way that I hadn’t been in quite some time. Since the last guy I dated seriously. Where "seriously" is defined as going on a couple of dates but I didn't really feel much of a spark when he tried to get physical so I'd called things off.

Since then I didn’t really have time for dating what with my busy schedule. At least with what I told myself was my busy schedule, though it would probably look rather pathetic to anyone who actually had a busy schedule or real responsibility instead of a full plate of video game playing every night.

The chat window indicated she’d gone off-line. I paused for a moment, and then I added her to my watch list. She must’ve already done the same to me if she knew when I was online. That sent another thrill running through me. A girl that gorgeous, a girl who could write like that, a girl who could make me feel this way with just a few words on the screen, and she’d obviously been interested enough to talk to me first!

It was weird, but I was starting to feel very much like that giddy schoolgirl even when I wasn’t talking to her. Just the thought of her was enough to set me off. It was an odd feeling, it was strange thinking of another woman like that, but it wasn't unpleasant. I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, I was still really confused, but I knew that I liked it. And really wasn't that enough to see where this was going?

I closed out the game. Without her on there really was nobody for me to talk to at this time of day. Most of my friends didn’t start coming online until after the work day was over. As the game closed a window popped up advertising Elassa Con which was coming up very soon. I sighed as I looked at the pictures streaming past. It looked like everybody was having a hell of a time.

I’d been to a couple of local conventions, I even had a costume I put together that was slightly scandalous since it took a fashion cue from some of the more bikini oriented outfits that the sorceresses could wear in game, but I’d never been to the big convention. The one put on to showcase a combination of all the different component parts that made up the Elassa media empire.

People from the game were there. People from the TV miniseries were usually there. I even heard that Kaitlyn Morgan herself made appearances.

With a wistful sigh I closed out the advertisement. However nice it would’ve been to go to that convention there was no way a girl who made what I made, absolutely nothing aside from loans and a stipend, would be able to afford a ticket out to Indianapolis. There was definitely no way I was going to be able to afford the price to get into the convention, or the price of a hotel stay. I heard those got really ridiculous as the convention got closer, and there were even a special team of moderators on the forums to make sure scalpers didn’t go around trying to sell hotel rooms via official channels.

No, it was definitely out of my price range.

I needed to forget about that stuff though. I had more important things to concentrate on. Like the fact that I had to get to work. All that talk about my novel, all the anger I felt towards Carrie, all of the encouraging words I’d gotten from this mysterious woman, had put me in a mood to write. Really write. Not stuff for the game.

I opened up my novel and got to work on it for the first time in a couple of months at least. The muse was upon me, and I was going to take advantage of the moment since I didn’t have much else to do until later in the evening when it was time to log back into the game.

6: Waiting Game

I went absolutely crazy in more than one way over the next couple of days. I started working on my novel at a furious pace. Words flowed from my fingers into the computer. I hadn’t written this much on one of my own projects in ages, but I felt inspired. Maybe it was showing my book to someone. Maybe it was the inspiration I’d taken from her encouragement. Whatever it was, I was writing like a maniac and I was putting out thousands of words a day which was unprecedented even before I got sucked into Tales of Elassa and spent all of my writing energy on the game.

Kaira was driving me crazy in other ways too. Mainly by her absence. I’d only talked to her a couple of times and so it was totally weird that I’d miss her like this, and yet with each passing day that I didn’t see her on I grew more frustrated. Her profile said she hadn’t been on since the last time we spoke a couple of days ago, not that I was stalking her profile and obsessively refreshing it or anything.

It was driving me nuts. I was busy writing, but I also kept myself logged into the game on the off chance that she’d show up. I kept myself logged into the chat client for the game on my phone so that if she showed up while I was in class or at my job I’d be able to catch her.

And still days went by with absolutely nothing. Like I said, I was starting to go crazy.

Her absence was so pronounced that I started to wonder if there was something I’d done wrong. I was starting to wonder if she’d read through my story, realized that she absolutely hated what I did, and decided it would be easier to just never log onto that character again rather than disappoint me. It was amazing the lengths my mind went to coming up with a worst-case scenario, and yet I couldn’t help it.

So I was very surprised on Friday when I was sitting at my job, though I wouldn’t really call working as a receptionist for the history department much of a job at all since it mostly involved sitting at a desk that nobody came to unless one of the profs was trying to get into their physical mail.

Even that didn’t happen very often, which I thought was odd considering this was the history department and most of the profs who worked here looked old enough that they probably didn’t have the greatest grasp of technology or email. Not that I was going to knock it. The dean of the department was nice enough to let me do my own thing on the computer if we weren’t that busy, which was most of the time.

And so I was doing my own thing and working on my book when I saw an icon pop up in the bottom right-hand corner. My breath caught as I saw it. It was the Elassa chat icon. I’d installed the chat client on this computer ages ago and nobody had ever said anything about it even when the dean walked by and saw me chatting. So I figured it was okay. I never asked outright, but whatever. Easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission and all that.

I felt a thrill and apprehension as I saw that icon blinking. Every time that icon popped up in game, on a computer, or on my phone it set my heart to racing. Of course that racing heart was inevitably followed by disappointment when it turned out to be Megan or another one of my in-game friends and not her.

And so it was with a mixture of anticipation and resignation that I clicked on the icon and brought up the chat window. My breath caught and boy did my pulse really start racing in a major way.

“Hi.”

One word. One single word. And yet it was so weighted with significance because of the name it was attached to. Why was she only sending me one word? Where had she been? Why wasn’t she saying more? Did that mean she didn’t like what she read? Why was I such a pessimistic mess?

Deep breath. Get control of yourself Amber. Don’t overanalyze!

“Hi yourself.”

“Sorry I’ve been away,” she said. “I’ve been ridiculously busy at work. We’re getting ready for a big event here.”

“What kind of a big event?”

“Nothing special,” she said. “But it’s the biggest event we throw at my job, so it takes up a lot of my time. Haven’t had much time for anything other than work.”

My spirits fell. If she hadn’t had much time for anything other than work that meant she also hadn’t had much time for anything like reading.

“I understand,” I said. “You get busy at work sometimes!”

Of course it’s not like I really understood. I was self-aware enough to realize that I’d gotten a pretty cushy gig with my current job. I knew this was probably something I’d look back on with fondness when I was eventually forced into the real world. When I was eventually forced to get a job outside the university where they expected results.

“I did have a chance to read your story though,” she said.

Damn! If just the sight of her screen name showing up was enough to set my pulse racing, well her telling me that she’d read through my work was enough to make me feel lightheaded. It was enough to twist my stomach up into knots.

I imagined this gorgeous creature sitting back in a chair with a tablet in between doing stuff for her job, whatever that was, and thinking about me the entire time. It also sent a warm feeling coursing through me knowing she’d been thinking about me even if it was sort of indirectly as she read through my story. Knowing I’d been on her mind even if she hadn’t been able to hop on and talk to me all that much was nice.

“That’s cool,” I said. I was not going to fish for a reaction. Let her say what she was going to say.

“It was fucking amazing! I’m seriously blown away, and I don’t say that lightly,” she said.

“Really?”

“You’re just full of surprises Maia,” she said. “Brains, beauty, and talent. You really are the whole package. You’ve even inspired me to really get to writing again!”

I blushed. And glanced around the room to make sure nobody else was looking. Now that probably looked suspicious, the receptionist sitting at her computer typing away furtively, leaning close to the monitor, and then glancing around to make sure nobody was actually looking to see what I was doing.

If that didn’t get the dean interested in what I was doing on my work computer then I figured nothing would, but glancing in his office he wasn’t there anyways so whatever. There weren’t even any students or professors milling around in the hall outside.

I turned back to the chat window.

“You mean that?”

“Of course I mean that,” she said. “Why would I lie about something like that?”

“I don’t know what it is about you, but I feel like a giddy schoolgirl every time I talk you!” I said. I don't know why I said that. Here she was online and talking to me for the first time in days and I said something stupid that was bound to scare her away, flirtation aside.

And I was astonished I’d feel like that even as I said it. There was just something about this girl that short-circuited my brain. There was something about this girl that made me say the most ridiculously inappropriate things. There was something about this girl that made me type things that I was sure would lead to her getting scared and running away for good.

“I’m kind of glad to hear you say that, because I’ve been feeling the same way,” she said. “I’ve been so busy with work, but all I could think about was how much I wanted to sneak away and log into the game so I could talk with you!”

I didn’t think it was possible for me to blush any more than I already was, but somehow my cheeks found a reserve of bright red to color them. I was so entranced with the chat client that I jumped when somebody cleared their throat. I looked up and saw an undergrad staring down at me and looking over to the screen. I blushed even more furiously, wondering if he'd seen what I was talking about. I quickly minimized the window and put on my best smile, though it was difficult with the way I was turning bright red.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“Um, I need the form for dropping a class…”

“You need to go down to the registrar’s office,” I said. “We don’t do that sort of thing in this office.”

The guy muttered something under his breath. I caught a bit about how it was bullshit that we didn’t have his form but did have time for Elassa chat and I blushed as I realized he knew exactly what I was doing even if he didn’t know exactly what I was talking about. That was bad enough. Only as soon as he was out of the room I immediately brought that window back up. It was blinking furiously.

“Still there? Was it something I said?”

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m using the chat client at work and I needed to help someone.”

“That’s fine,” she said. “Will you be on tonight? I made sure to clear a hole in my schedule.”

I blinked. What kind of work was she doing that she had to clear a hole in her schedule to play a video game at night? What kind of work was she doing that she was getting ready for the busiest event of the year with whatever the hell it was she did and yet she could just clear a hole in her schedule like that? This girl was definitely a mystery in more ways than one. A mystery that I fully intended to solve.

“I should be on later,” I said. “Why?”

“Well I want to take you out on a date,” she said. “Only I’m not sure if it qualifies as a date if we’re doing it in a videogame…”

My face broke into a huge grin and I felt butterflies dancing in my stomach even as it twisted into nervous knots at the thought of actually going out with a woman. A date! Sure it was in a videogame, but when you were separated geographically I suppose it was the best I could hope for. It was also crossing a line. If we went on a date, two women going out on a date even if it was in-game, then I was admitting something to myself that was a major change. Did I want to do that?

It really wasn't a question of whether or not I wanted to do that though. I had no choice. These feelings were insane, but they were also so damn strong. I couldn't deny how I was feeling, and I wanted nothing more than to enjoy a digital date with this woman.

Besides, it’s not like meeting someone online was too different from getting to know someone in person. It wasn’t all that weird these days. Sure, meeting someone online in the middle of a videogame and then going on a date with them in that videogame was probably a little weird even by modern standards, but whatever. Fuck anybody who judged me for that. And fuck anybody who judged me for going on a date with a girl. I was going to do this.

“Sounds like a plan,” I said.

“What time should I pick you up?”

“I get off work at 4:30 today. I should be online shortly after that, so whenever.”

“Sounds like a plan. Look forward to seeing you then!”

And then she was gone.

I was so giddy that I tapped my feet against the floor and let out a triumphant shriek. And then I quickly schooled myself to seriousness as an older professor stuck her head in, looked around the office for a moment, settled on me with a raised eyebrow and then a smile, then disappeared.

I blushed again, it seemed like that was going to become a common thing if I was going to be spending much time around this girl, but I didn’t care. A date! Sure a date in-game, sure a date with a woman which I was still a little unsure about despite all my bluster, but I’d take it. Pretty much all of my social life was taking place inside that game these days anyways, so why should my love life be any different? And why should I care if that love life was igniting again with a woman rather than a man?

If my in-game love life was bringing me a girl as incredible as this then I was all for it. I just hoped she really was what she said she was. That this wasn’t just some scam. That she wasn’t just playing me for her amusement.

Sometimes I really hated that the worst-case-scenario centers in my brain were so overactive.

7: Digital Date Night

A blinking light showed in the top right corner of my heads-up display. I felt butterflies running through my stomach. I felt my breath start to quicken. Hell, I felt my nipples start to harden and I even felt a tingle between my legs. A hell of a reaction to a chat notification.

And it might not even be her. I had that reaction every time I got a chat notification. That’s how powerful her hold on me was.

I glanced over my shoulder to where Megan sat bathed in the glowing light of her massive monitor engrossed in a raid or something. It looked like she was just clicking her mouse over and over, but I knew from the way she was staring at her screen with intense concentration, the way she was listening intently to whatever voice chat was happening over her ridiculously expensive gaming headphones, that the entire world, myself included, was shut out. She wouldn’t be paying attention to anything going on over on my screen.

Good. I still didn’t want her to know about this girl. That I was actually falling for a girl. In a video game. Not yet. Both because I didn’t want to deal with the inevitable barrage of questions and because I didn’t want to hear her not-so-expert opinion on the state of my love life, which was usually pretty dismal.

I turned back. I clicked that blinking icon, a thrill running through me as I did so, and it popped up with a message.

“Good evening my lady elf,” she said. “Ready for that date?”

Those butterflies in my stomach were fluttering around on overdrive. To the point that I thought I might actually get sick from how nervous I was. I’d been doing this for years and yet this girl was the only person who’d ever managed to get this sort of reaction out of me. I forced myself to control my breathing. Maybe it was a date, but it was also a role-playing session. I needed to get in the zone and I definitely wasn’t going to get there if I was acting like a silly girl with a crush even if that's exactly what I was!

“Mother fucker!”

Megan’s shout pulled me away from the chat window which I quickly minimized since that phrase coupled with the sound of her expensive headset being thrown against the wall usually meant she was back in the real world.

I looked over my shoulder. Megan looked over at me but there was a frown on her face. Obviously the raid hadn’t gone well, though at least she hadn’t launched her mouse across the room along with the headset this time.

“I take it the raid didn’t go well?”

“No, not really,” she groused. “We’re stuck on a boss because this idiot healer keeps fucking up and he’s trying to blame me for it! I can’t take this shit. I need to go get drunk. Wanna hit the bars?”

I blinked. This was definitely a development I hadn’t anticipated. It was an unfortunate development considering that I had date night planned with Kaira and it didn’t seem like she’d be available any time soon if I passed up on tonight. Damn it.

“I actually think I’m going to stay in tonight,” I said. “I’ve got a scene I’ve been working on for awhile and the person I’m doing it with is only available tonight.”

Megan grinned and I winced at my choice of words. Perhaps “doing it with” somebody wasn’t the best way to phrase that. Damn it.

“Oh really? Is this special person a dude?” Megan asked.

“No,” I said.

So maybe that wasn't entirely honest from a certain point of view. I knew exactly what she was asking when she asked if it was a dude. She was asking if this was a role-playing session with someone I had a romantic inclination towards. The answer to that question was a definite yes, but that wasn't the question she asked. She just asked if it was with a guy and I'd answered truthfully even if it wasn't quite the truth considering what she was really asking. I wasn’t going to reveal anything else unless she dragged it from me though. Not yet.

Megan walked over to stare at my screen and I quickly flicked it off. She crossed her arms and looked down at me with a huge grin splitting her face. A grin that made me blush as much as I would if I was talking with Kaira. I knew I was giving myself away, but what could I do?

“Keep your secrets for now Amber,” she said. “I’m going to go get drunk. Maybe head down to the bar if you get done with your new boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said. Now I was playing the pronoun game. Still, she hadn't used the right pronoun so I definitely wasn't giving that away. Using the right pronoun would cause it all to come out and that would ruin date night as I tried to pry Megan away from my monitor as she attempted to to learn more about this girl I was suddenly so into.

“So it is a guy!”

I rolled my eyes. Let her think what she was going to think. Let her think she was being crafty.

“Go have your drink Megan,” I said.

She took her sweet time getting ready. I waited until I heard the front door slam shut before I moved back to my own machine and clicked on the blinking chat icon. It felt like it’d been an eternity, I wondered if she’d even still be there, but when I looked at the screen I was surprised to see that only about five minutes had passed.

“I’m ready now,” I said.

“Glad to hear it. I was starting to wonder where you’d disappeared to my lady elf.”

I glanced over towards the front door one last time and then put my hands on the keyboard. I closed my eyes, opened them, and I was in the world of Elassa.

I stood at the entrance to the Pirate Caves of Aktor. This was one of my favorite dungeons in the game, even if it was one of the earlier dungeons that only new players tended to go to. New players and higher level players who were looking for a convenient spot for a quick role-playing session. Megan always laughed when she saw me exploring the place. She always acted like it was ridiculous that somebody with a character my level would bother with the place, but I loved it.

I rounded the corner towards the dungeon entrance and moved inside. My breath caught as the screen loaded up a private instance of a dungeon where no one but a game moderator could bother us, and it's not like they were going to be poking around one of these dungeon instances without being called down anyways. We were already in a party together and she was waiting for me in there. As soon as I stepped through, as soon as that loading bar finished, she was there. Looking me over with a very intense stare.

Or, rather, looking over my character. But it might as well be the same thing. It caused the same reaction sitting in the real world in my computer chair as it would have if I’d suddenly rounded a corner and saw a beautiful woman with striking green eyes staring at me in the real world.

This was ridiculous. I’d only seen that one picture of her before and I was drooling over just the thought of that delicious body. Assuming she actually was who she said she was, and I wasn’t just getting catfished.

I needed to stop that. I needed to just enjoy myself. More than anything I needed to avoid getting pulled out of the game like that!

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, put my fingers down on my keyboard, and when I opened them I was my character. I was Maia the high priestess of the Elven Order. I was a gorgeous high elf priestess going to meet a human adventurer in a forbidden rendezvous in a less than savory part of the world.

I eyed the human barbarian warily as I stepped into the cave leading to the pirate’s cove. I called her a barbarian, though to be perfectly honest that wasn’t an entirely accurate description of what she was. That assessment was a product of one of the unfortunate attitudes towards the lower races I’d picked up. I tried to be careful about those assumptions, but it was difficult after so many years of seeing humans prove themselves worthy of the barbarian name time and again.

Though this human probably wouldn’t have considered herself a barbarian. Not in the way they reckoned it. Muscular men in loincloths wielding giant swords and attacking one another with no care in the world aside from where their next meal or their next mating would come from.

This one, at least, had once fine boots and wore a tattered shirt and pants that looked like they were well cared for but a far cry from the finery they’d started as. She also wore a belt with a buckle on it that bore some house sigil. Not that I could determine which house it was just from looking at that sigil. There were so many minor human noble houses scattered by the Sundering that nobody could keep track of all of them. Not even the humans. Not that it stopped them from fighting incessantly with each other over those houses and the paltry territory they controlled.

I could guess her story from a simple look. She was the daughter of a minor noble house with a tomboy streak that served her well in this new world where might so often made right. The Sundering had hit her hard, had separated her from everything she once knew, and so now she wandered the world selling her sword for her next meal and probably holding herself to some outdated moral code that didn’t apply in the new realities of the world after the Sundering.

Still, it also meant I could probably trust her. To a point.

Still, trust could be dangerous and I wouldn’t throw caution completely out. I was well aware it was a dangerous place I was going. I was well aware that the world wasn’t the perfect place that the Order would like to believe, to be cataloged according to their view of things.

I was aware of all of those things, and so that’s why I was keenly aware of the incredible danger I could find myself in if this strange human I’d only met once in a tavern was hostile. If she decided to cause trouble.

I prepared several nasty magic spells that would catch her by surprise if she should choose to try and take a high priestess. If she tried anything then I would at least make her very sorry that she tried, if not kill her outright. Assuming she didn’t have that little toy that negated my magic spells.

“My lady elf,” she said, sketching a quick bow.

My eyes narrowed. There was a rakish grin that crossed her face as she made that bow that told me her supposed show of respect was anything but.

I raised an eyebrow. “Is that mockery?”

She moved up from her bow and that rakish grin was still on her face. I had to steel myself. Had to suddenly concentrate on my breathing so it didn’t start coming in quick gasps. This woman was beautiful, there was no denying it, even if she was just a lowly human from what looked to be a noble house fallen on hard times.

“Merely showing my lady elf the respect she deserves,” she said.

Her voice was melodious, hypnotic. It had me swaying and I had to blink. I had to shake my head and concentrate on the business at hand. I was here on the Order’s business, and I definitely didn’t have time to indulge in impossible fantasies about lowly human nobles.

I sniffed and turned to enter the caves that led to the hidden cove. “Very well human, we must be about our business.”

“Are you sure you want to do this? I wouldn’t go in there if I were you,” Kaira growled.

I turned and looked at her, once again trying and mostly failing to control myself. Trying to control my breathing. I was not some novice to go mooning over a girl of all things! Especially a human!

“And why is that?” I asked in a quiet voice. I wanted to laugh. She obviously hadn’t yet realized that I was easily one of the most dangerous women she was ever going to run into in the course of her travels.

“Lots of criminals, thugs, nasty people in there,” she said. “I’d hate for a pretty little elf such as yourself to get in trouble.”

This time my eyes lowered in a stormy expression. Who did she think she was? Pretty little elf? And yet even though I was indignant, even though I was angry, there was also a part of me that was undeniably flattered. My body was betraying me and a blush was rising to my cheeks. I felt a rush between my legs at her words. There was a part of me that was definitely interested in the promise that flirtatious smile offered, and the fact that this was a random girl I’d just met who I didn’t know much about didn’t seem to mean anything as I stared at her.

I pulled my hands away from the keyboard. I had to stop and catch my breath. This was so wrong. I was on the verge of going to a very dangerous place that I promised myself I’d avoid when I started in the role-playing community on this server. I shouldn’t be indulging in this fantasy.

I should go to a public role-playing location with her where I wouldn’t be tempted. I should be anywhere but where I was, continuing this role-playing session with a flirtatious girl who got my blood pumping with just words on a screen! And yet I'd already broken so many rules for this woman. I'd already crossed so many lines. What was one more? I paused in the quiet of the computer room. Made my decision. I reached my hands out, placed them back on the keyboard. Found myself transported back to the forbidden world.

I looked the human up and down, an appreciative glance that took in her slim muscular figure, her smooth shoulders, the way her armor molded to all of the above leaving nothing to the imagination. And yet I kept returning to that easy, cocky, rakish smile with her short hair above it all. There was no denying it. This woman was gorgeous. Not just for a human. She was one of the most gorgeous creatures I’d ever laid eyes on, and it was no surprise she was having such an effect on me.

Of course her attitude was infuriating. That ruined the other effects she was having on me slightly. But only just.

“What makes you think I can’t handle myself in a den of thieves such as this?” I asked. As I did I held my hand up and a small flame danced from finger to finger. Her eyes widened for a moment which disappointed me out in the real world since she'd been so good about not having that reaction earlier, but that was the only surprise that registered. Meanwhile back in the game world my character felt another stab of frustration. Usually when humans saw me working the elements like that it sent them running in terror, but not so with this woman. She was calm, confident, collected, and she still had that cocky grin plastered on her face. Then again if I had an ancient artifact that wasn’t supposed to even exist that negated magic I’d probably have that same delicious smile on my face.

This woman was as infuriating as she was beautiful!

“I’m not saying I don’t think you could turn any of those ragamuffins into a pillar of fire if you saw them coming at you,” she said.

I nodded and smiled in satisfaction at that admission. But that smile soured at her next words.

“Of course you have to be able to see someone coming at you to turn them into a pillar of fire. That won’t help you much in those pretty robes if someone comes up behind you with a knife.”

“Then what do you propose I do?”

The human stepped forward from where she’d been leaning against the cave wall and she stretched. She lifted her arms up above her head which gave me a clear view of how muscled she was even on her slim frame. I realized I was staring, captivated, with my mouth hanging wide open and quickly remedied that situation. I was not going to sit here and stare at this woman like some hormone addled novice, no matter how beautiful she was!

As she stepped forward she clearly eyed me up and down with something more than the professional interest of someone who’d been hired to act as a bodyguard. I blushed and looked away as she eyed me, then realized what I was doing and anger flashed through me.

I forced myself to meet her eyes, to ignore the thrill running through my stomach at that eye contact. I forced myself to channel some of the fury I was feeling at the casual way she was addressing her elven betters, though I felt a flush of embarrassment as the casual dismissal of "lesser" species that I hated so much from my own people drifted through my mind unbidden.

“I have no doubt what you’re interested in, human,” I spat out.

She looked me up and down once more, and there was hunger there. And there was something else. Amusement?

“I’m simply giving my lady elf the same consideration she’s been giving me ever since she first laid eyes on me.”

I blushed. So she’d caught me looking. Interesting. Very interesting. She was far more perceptive than I would have given a human credit for. There were hidden depths to this one, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Very well human, I am the one who has hired you but I assume you are about to present me with terms despite the fact that I am the one paying you to do my bidding?”

She sketched another bow. “My lady elf is quite perceptive.”

My lips turned to a frown, but I decided to let this particular dig slide. Maybe if I just ignored her referring to me as her “lady elf” she would tire of the jest and stop using it entirely. I could hope, at least.

I reached into the pouch at my side and pulled out a gold mark. I held it up in the fitful torchlight that illuminated the entrance to the pirate’s cove.

“This is one gold piece. I imagine that will be enough to feed you for a week if not longer. Maybe even get you some proper clothes. You get one of these at the beginning, and another when we are finished if you desist in this ridiculous insistence on dictating terms to your employer,” I said.

“No.”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You really are a fool for all your finery. I’m not here for gold. I’m here because you intrigue me my lady elf. Besides, what’s to stop me from just killing you and taking all of your gold?”

I tried to control myself at that admission that she was here because I intrigued her. I tried not to read too much into that despite the way my mind was screaming and my body was consumed by a raging fire. I tried my best to bring both mind and body under control, but it was difficult.

“You won’t kill me. And not because I would kill you for it or because I intrigue you enough for you to keep me alive until it’s no longer convenient. No, you wouldn’t do it because it isn’t the right thing,” I said.

The human, Kaira, moved forward with lightning speed. So fast that I only had time to let out a yell of surprise. I didn’t know it was possible for humans to move that fast! One moment we were standing in the entrance, I was in control of the situation, and the next moment she was pressing me up against the cave wall. Her body pressed against mine and it felt so delicious. It would’ve been a welcome distraction if I wasn’t so terrified that my life was about to end. Her face was inches from mine and that hunger was back. She'd been so fast I hadn’t even had time to work up a spell, though I had plenty of time to prepare a fireball or some other nasty surprise now, but I didn’t. Something stopped me.

She'd pressed me against the wall, but she hadn’t actually made a move to slit my throat. A woman who moved like that could easily have done so. A woman who moved like that could have killed me and left me to be looted by whatever robbers followed her. And yet she hadn’t. She was just staring down at me with that smoldering hunger in her eyes. That burning lust barely contained. I wanted to reach up and kiss that beautiful face, and I had to pull my hands away from the keyboard at that thought.

What the hell? This was definitely getting hotter and heavier than I’d ever gotten before, and yet I couldn’t deny how it was making me feel. I was so turned on that I’d been pulled out of virtual reality and back into the real world. That hardly ever happened. And it was also having one hell of an effect on me back here in the real world. I worried there’d be a wet spot on my gaming chair when I got up, but no, that couldn’t possibly be the case.

Still, I was so fucking turned on. Moisture was definitely gathering in my pajama bottoms. I reached down and traced a finger lightly along the edges of my pussy lips as I imagined doing the same to another woman and I nearly jumped. Just running my fingers down there was enough to set off an electric shock that ran through my entire body. It was enough to cause me to let out a quiet gasp. A quiet moan that was an unmistakable moan of pleasure.

Good thing Megan decided to go to a bar down the street.

I had a choice to make. I could pull away from the computer. I could disconnect. All it would take is closing down the game client and then I’d be free of the immediate scenario, but I wouldn’t be free from my feelings. I’d be thinking about Kaira, thinking about this forbidden role-playing session that was quickly spiraling out of my control, all night long. It was clear this was going someplace I hadn’t ever gone before with someone I role-played with, or with another woman for that matter. It was clear that this particular role-playing session was becoming something more. It was becoming something deeper, hotter, far more passionate.

I made my decision. My hands moved back to the keyboard. I stared up into the eyes of this dangerous human who was staring at me, her muscular arms to either side of my head. My breath was coming in ragged gasps. My nipples were pressing out against my dress and my body was betraying me with its arousal.

I wanted to say that the reason I didn’t vaporize her was because I was worried my magic might blow back on me. The problem with setting things on fire is that it didn’t do much good if you were in close proximity to the fire that was being set. I wanted to say that the reason I didn’t turn her into a pillar of fire was because I didn’t believe in killing unless someone was obviously threatening my life. Of course this situation could almost call for that. I could even blame that little anti-magic surprise she carried if I wanted to.

But that was all bullshit. No, the real reason I didn’t incinerate her where she stood was because I was intrigued as well. I was excited. By a human of all things. By a woman, which was a surprise. If anything, that intrigued me even more. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, I wasn’t sure why my body was betraying me like this, but I couldn’t deny how I felt. I couldn’t deny how incredible this was.

I looked up at her and smiled. “Point taken.”

She grinned. She pulled back and I wanted to cry out in disappointment as her body moved away from mine.

“I’m glad we have an understanding,” she said. “You hired me to guard you and I’m going to do that. That means that you do what I say while we’re in there and follow my orders with no questions. The fact that you’re the one paying me means nothing if you get a knife in your back because you think some flashy magical fireworks will save you from a crafty pirate who’s used to working in close quarters.”

I nodded. I tried to ignore the thrill running through me at the way she was casually taking command. Casually ordering me around. I should be furious, but instead I was just incredibly excited.

Kaira gestured towards the entrance to the cove. Deeper into the cave. I glanced at the dark entrance, lit only by the fitful burning of torches, then back to her. Did I dare go in there with her? Did I dare descend into the darkness and all the potentially forbidden pleasures that it offered?

I moved forward and I could hear her following behind me. I smiled, wondering where this was going. Because this certainly was unlike any dungeon run I’d ever been on before.

8: Into the Pirates' Den

I was keenly aware of how close she was as we made our way through the tight confines of the dungeon. The dungeon was actually a series of caves that led deep into the rock and came out on the other side of a series of impassable mountains onto a sheltered bowl with beautiful open water that provided a perfect port for people who didn't want to be bothered by the authorities and only wanted to defend from one direction. A perfect port for the kind of criminal activity that only pirates could be up to.

I had no idea if there was anything even close to it in the real world, but I didn’t ever concern myself with those sorts of questions even though there were entire forum threads dedicated to the real life inspirations for in-game geography. Anyone who looked for reality in their video game design was doing it wrong.

The tight confines meant she was right up against me. I could feel her heat, see her sweat glistening in the torchlight. It was pretty hot down in these caves, for more than one reason tonight if you catch my drift, and before long I was slick with sweat as well. I reached up and loosened my dress which made it less than modest but I was beyond caring about modesty.

And I was wet and slick with more than sweat every time I got close to her. I could smell her intoxicating scent. I could feel her incredible body so close to mine. I felt lightheaded every time I came near her and I wanted nothing more than to rip her clothes and armor off and have my way with her.

I couldn’t believe I was having these sorts of thoughts for a mere human! For a woman! I was a high elf priestess. I'd always thought I was straight and yet all I could think about was this human and how much I wanted her.

Kaira's hand shot out across my breasts. The contact was unexpected and amazing. I found myself breathing hard, and that hard breathing made her realize exactly what she was touching. She turned and looked down at me, only instead of a blush rising to her cheeks like it should have for any proper lady, like it was for me at the moment, she just grinned and leaned closer to me. No, she was anything but proper.

“Need to be careful,” she said. “We’re coming up on an ambush point.”

I nodded and prepared a couple of spells. My fingers started to glow but she shook her head and moved her hand away from my chest. I sighed in disappointment at the loss of contact even as in my head I was screaming at myself for being an idiot in more than one way.

In-game, in my characters head, I was an idiot for having these feelings for a human. Out of the game, sitting in my chair and staring at the screen losing myself in this scenario I was an idiot because I was carrying on like this, because I was getting so turned on by a woman who was just some pixels on a screen. Sure she was incredibly hot if her picture was actually her, and the jury was still out on that, but mostly I was turned on because she had a talent for writing that got me worked up more than any porn ever could.

Kaira looked down at me and grinned. Her eyes were zeroed in on the spot where I’d loosened my dress, where I’d pulled it down so my breasts were showing a little more. I smiled to myself. I shouldn't be enjoying that attention but there was no denying how it made me feel.

We stopped at a spot where the cave started to widen. Where it turned a corner. In character, in world, I peered at that turn wide-eyed, not knowing quite what was waiting on the other side. Was it an ambush?

Sitting in front of my computer I smiled to myself. I looked at that familiar spot. Just around the corner was an ambush spot where a bunch of bad guys would come in and try to kill us, followed by a boss encounter.

The encounter took place on a bridge over a raging river, and the trick to this particular boss encounter was that the only winning move was not to play. Players were supposed to kill the lackeys, get their asses handed to them by the big guy, and then decide that jumping off of the bridge into the raging underground river was preferable to dying. There was no way to kill this particular boss at this stage of the dungeon.

I’d read stories of people discovering this dungeon for the first time back when the game was new who thought they were doing something wrong, or who thought something was broken because they kept dying over and over on what was supposed to be an easy low-level encounter. It was a ridiculously devious bit of programming on the game designers’ part giving that easy low-level boss immortality at the first meeting.

It was also something that made this one of my favorite dungeons. Most people liked it just because jumping in the water and going on that wild ride was fun, but I liked it because it was such a rich storytelling element. It was so much better than some of the crap they had players doing today as far as dungeon encounters went. At least from what I’d seen watching high-level encounters that Megan went on. Go in, kill a boss, move to the next spot on the treadmill.

No, this encounter had some class to it from a time when the game designers actually cared about delivering a story along with the dungeon.

“What’s up ahead?”

“Just a bridge over a river that runs through these caves and eventually out to a hidden part of the cove,” Kaira said. “But we need to be careful. It would be a good spot for an ambush.”

I rolled my eyes. She was alluding to game elements in her role-playing dialogue. Though I could forgive her for being distracted on this one occasion. Something told me from the way we’d been role-playing earlier that she had other things on her mind than going through this dungeon.

“Fine,” I said. I summoned a fireball and set it to dancing across my fingers. “Let’s go.”

I strode confidently out onto the bridge. It was surprisingly well put together for a bridge going over an underground river in a known a pirate den. It was wide. Wide enough to accommodate several men, and it looked sturdy, as though someone had maintained it over the years. Then again, the pirates who ran this place were so rich from their ill-gotten gains that it shouldn’t surprise me that they had money for the thieving equivalent of a public works project.

I felt a delicious warmth come up behind me. I felt an arm wrap around me, press against me down at my stomach. I closed my eyes and took in a sharp breath as I felt Kaira pressing against my body, and then my eyes opened wide as I felt her exquisite breasts pressing against me from behind. Without thinking I pressed myself back against her. Pressed myself back against a woman!

I leaned back from my keyboard. I couldn’t believe it. Here I was deep in a dungeon having what had, up until this point, been a mostly innocent but flirtatious role-playing session and now it had taken a turn into a decidedly sexy territory that I’d sort of expected, but was still surprising now that it was happening.

And rather than stopping her, rather than telling her that wasn’t the sort of role-playing I was into, I was responding! My character was acting like a regular common whore, and acting that way was causing my pussy to tingle. If I kept this up for much longer then I was going to be running this dungeon one-handed, if you catch my meaning.

Back to the dungeon.

I came to my senses and tried to pull away from this human. Who did she think she was, laying her hands on me? I was a high elf priestess! She should be dead for daring to touch me!

Only when I tried to pull away her grip tightened, she pulled me back against her. And I found myself moaning against my will even as I was pulled against her, also against my will. And yet there was something so incredibly arousing by the way this human was just taking me, the way I felt her rubbing against me taking her pleasure from me.

I might be acting scandalized, but there was no denying the way this was making me feel. There was no denying the way my pulse was picking up, the way a flush was running down my body, the way I felt lightheaded, the way my body was tingling from head to toe as this ruffian had her way with me. God it was so hot!

Before I realized what I was doing I’d leaned my head back on her shoulder and I was moaning. That seemed to be all the encouragement she needed, as though she needed any encouragement at all considering how forward she was being! Considering how forward I was being, for that matter.

Her lips descended on my neck and I moved it to the side, allowed her better access as her slim feminine hands started to explore. One hand ran down in between my legs and I felt myself going weak between the knees as her powerful and yet oh so tender hands made contact with that spot between my legs. As she started rubbing through my dress.

Her other hand moved up and she was cupping my breasts through my dress. She moved one hand up and traced along my cleavage, along the top of my tits which were heaving at the contact. I was lost in a world of pleasure. I was lost in a world of arousal. I was lost in a world that was her strong, hot, sweaty body pressing against me from behind taking what she wanted. Even though I knew this went against every role-playing principle I believed in, that I shouldn’t be doing this at all, let alone exploring this sort of thing with a woman!

And yet that was adding to the turn on.

I was lost in the incredible feeling, in the feel of her lips running against my neck, nibbling on one of my pointed ears, her hands exploring my body as her body rubbed against mine. As this human took my petite body and made it hers. Giving over to her, giving myself to her completely, allowing her to take control, take what she wanted, was so wrong and yet it was so fucking hot!

Remember what I said about a one-handed gaming session? Well one of my hands moved down in between my legs. Started running up and down my pussy which was so wet. I was so incredibly turned on. I stroked myself as this new and forbidden scenario played out on screen.

Only I heard something that pulled me away from that one-handed gaming session. That pulled my character’s attention away from that incredible pleasure coursing through her body. Shouting. I knew that sound from the many times I’d been through this dungeon.

One of us had stepped forward just enough to trigger the in-game event. Damn it!

The yelling grew louder. And then some rough men rounded the corner, men carrying nasty looking weapons. Men who had murder in their eyes, and when they looked at me they had more than that in their eyes. The way they looked at me promised nothing good for me if they managed to capture us.

Once more I was surprised at the speed with which Kaira moved. One moment she was using me as her plaything, I was a rag doll that was completely in her thrall, and the next moment she was charging forward and pushing me to the side with her sword drawn.

I stood there for a moment, my breasts heaving and my breath coming in ragged gasps as I recovered from the incredible feelings she’d sent coursing through my body. As I took stock of the reality of the situation. We were under attack!

I smiled. I might be losing control when it came to my delectable human, but rampaging pirates were definitely something I could handle. I held up my hands and a ball of fire materialized in the air above one as a ball of ice materialized above the other.

Before Kaira even reached the pirates a fireball flashed out and took one. He fell over, screaming, the fire consuming his body. Meanwhile, back in the real world, I almost laughed as one of the mobs went down for the count. I was such a high level, I was so powerful, that all it took was one hit from one of my spells for them to go down.

The ball of ice slammed into another one and his entire body turned to ice before shattering. On screen it was a far less dramatic than what I described in the chat window. He was covered in a white ice animation before that exploded away and then he fell to the ground just like every other death animation for the bad guys in this particular dungeon. Still, in my imagination it was far more impressive. Everything about this game was far more dramatic and impressive in my imagination, including the way Kaira charged forward to save her elf priestess.

Kaira's sword took a pirate through the gut and cut down another as I roasted a third with a fireball. And then, just as quickly as it had started, it was over. There were five men dead on the ground and I was heaving from the exertion. I was shaking, and for a completely different reason than the shaking I felt when Kaira was pressing against me.

She turned to smile at me and I saw something flash behind her.

“Watch out!”

That warning was enough for Kaira to go diving just in time to miss the flash of smoke and retort from the primitive gunpowder weapon the pirate who’d been hiding in the caves was carrying. He stepped forward revealing a long beard that had been braided. He held a gun in one hand and a sword in the other. The massive pirate regarded both of us with open disdain. My breath caught as I saw him. As I noticed the distinctive white braided hair that ran down the middle of his otherwise black beard.

“Whitebeard,” I breathed.

The pirate flashed forward and Kaira met him with a clang of swords. I wanted to do something, I wanted to try and save her, but they were so close together that there wasn’t anything I could do. Any fireball, any ice magic I used, ran as much risk of hitting Kaira as it did Whitebeard.

And of course the real reason I couldn’t do anything was because the game programmers had programmed the encounter to make Whitebeard effectively immortal. I could be the most powerful player on this server with the best gear possible and I still wouldn’t be able to take this guy out without cheating. He was immortal until the end of the dungeon, at which point his plot armor dropped and I could easily one shot him.

Kaira turned to me and for the first time since I’d met her at the entrance to the cave there was something new on her face. Something other than the cocky arrogance I’d come to expect. Something different, something strange, something very disquieting.

Worry.

“Maia! Jump!”

I glanced over the edge of the bridge and then back to her. I hoped the incredulous look on my face communicated just how ridiculous I thought that idea was. Her sword flashed as she parried a thrust from Whitebeard. She landed a hit on the rotund pirate who was thrown off balance for a moment, but then, almost supernaturally fast as though he was gifted by an algorithm that was meant to make him impossible to defeat, he hopped back up and was advancing on Kaira again.

There was an unpleasant smile on the pirate’s face. He glanced to me and that smile grew even wider, revealing several missing teeth. Which was a huge improvement over the teeth that had turned yellow or even black. Either way, it was an unpleasant smile that promised very unpleasant things for me.

Kaira turned to me again. “Maia! You need to jump!”

Only I stood there with a fireball at the ready. Waiting for a moment when I could get a good shot at the pirate. I was confident that no matter what her skill, if Kaira would just step back long enough for me to get in a good shot then this seemingly immortal pirate would quickly find it a lot harder to dodge a giant fireball than to dodge Kaira’s steel.

Of course the real world me knew I was just posturing, but one of the principles of the role-playing community, at least the role-playing community I associated with, was that you didn’t mix out-of-game knowledge with in-game knowledge.

Back in the game Kaira let out a growl of frustration and knocked Whitebeard down again. The pirate went sprawling, and this time he fell back far enough that while he was scrambling up Kaira was able to run across the bridge. She tackled me and the fireball I’d been preparing, that had been crackling oh so delightfully over my fingers, winked out of existence as she hit me like I was a sack of potatoes and then we both were flying over the edge of the bridge. We were both doused in water. I felt myself go under and wondered if I would survive this, but I had the comfort of her arms wrapped around me. The comfort of her hard body pressed against me as she held me against her, as we were carried along by the current. Carried far from the bridge where Whitebeard stood shouting at us.

I realized that as long as I was in her arms I didn’t care what happened to us.

9: Pixelated Passion

I blinked as my character landed in the water and then a thrilling animation of her being pulled along underground tunnels started up. At least that animation had been thrilling when it was new a couple of years ago when the game was new. Now that I’d seen it the hundreds of times I’d been in here on my own, now that technology had marched on and there were far more impressive games, graphically speaking, on the market, the animation just gave me some much-needed breathing space to sit back in my chair and wonder how far I was going to let this go.

It was insane, but this woman had a way with prose that set me on fire in a way that I hadn’t felt in a good long while. That I hadn’t felt since my last boyfriend, a fellow creative writing major, and let’s just say his prose hadn’t been enough to get me very hot and bothered at all if you catch my meaning.

There was also the little problem of me breaking my rule about sexy times in a role-playing scenario. That used to be one of my hard and fast rules, but now there was a small voice in the back of my head whispering that it wasn’t a big deal. That this was just a game, after all. It was just a little role-playing session that was getting hot and heavy in a way my role-playing sessions never did, but was that really a big deal?

Was it really a big deal? I was just violating every principle I held dear when it came to this sort of thing. I knew people who enjoyed this sort of role-play, but I wasn’t that kind of person. Except now that I was in the moment, now that I was being honest with myself, it seemed like I was that kind of person. I’d always looked down on the people who did this sort of role-playing, and yet now I was becoming the sort of person who did this sort of role-playing.

Plus it seemed like a non-threatening way for me to explore some of the strange new impulses regarding the fairer sex that had been running through my head. Were these feelings real? Was it a passing fancy? It seemed like exploring that in a digital space where there was still some separation that somehow made it seem more "safe" would be the way to go.

I just couldn't believe I was considering this in the first place!

It was all her fault. It was because she was so great at crafting a story. It was because she had a way of turning a phrase that could make a girl weak in the knees. It was because I kept thinking of that picture and how sexy she looked. It was because before her I'd never looked at a picture of a girl and consciously thought about how sexy she looked, and that newness excited me as much as it frightened me.

And really, what was the harm? This really was just like reading a dirty story. Except it was a dirty story I was helping to write. It was a dirty story I was working on with my co-author who happened to bear more than a striking resemblance to her sexy character if her Elassa profile picture was anything to go on.

Deep down, in that part of me that was being completely honest, I knew that stopping was the last thing I was going to do. I knew that this animation was going to end in a moment, and I was going to keep right on with this forbidden role-playing scenario. I was going to see where it led.

The entire time I’d been idly running my fingers up and down my pussy. I was amazed at how incredible this felt just from my hand. My fingers were providing more intense stimulation than my plastic vibrating pal could ever hope to and it was all because of how turned on I was. It was all because of how incredibly hot I was because of Kaira, because of how great she was at this.

It was a conundrum. I wasn’t the kind of girl who did this sort of thing. I wasn't the kind of girl who got with other girls. And yet for my sexy confident Kaira apparently I was.

The animation finally came to an end and my character popped out at the top of a waterfall. Both of our characters splashed down in the water and she started advancing on me. I put my hands back on the keyboard and licked my lips in anticipation.

The water was surprisingly warm as I splashed down into it. I swam for the surface and took in a deep breath. I looked at my surroundings and my mouth fell open. It was absolutely beautiful.

Light streamed in from a wide cave opening about twenty feet away. It illuminated clear blue water with fish swimming by idly. I smiled as I moved my hand through the impossibly warm water. This kind of ocean life was a sharp contrast to the stuff I usually saw which tended to be creatures with giant teeth intent on killing me.

I turned away from the entrance to this little grotto and let out a surprised squeal. There was a very beautiful, extremely sexy human fighter with short wet hair advancing on me with an intense look on her face. A look that was similar to what Whitebeard had given me earlier, and yet it was different coming from her. It was a look that promised things that set my body on fire. Promised things that were turning me on so much as I tried to manipulate the keyboard and mouse with one hand while the other was down between my legs manipulating something else.

In game I turned and started swimming towards the edge. Backed away from her, and yet she continued advancing. Inexorably. As she got closer I smiled. She looked me up and down and it sent a chill running through my body. It drove me wild with lust. I couldn’t believe a woman could make me feel that way just from one look, but there it was.

“We’re alive,” I said in a tone that said I couldn’t quite believe it. I looked her in the eyes. “And you were amazing back there.”

Kaira leaned in even closer. So close that I could feel the heat radiating off of her body. I could feel her rock hard muscles. I wanted to wrap my arms around her. I wanted to wrap my legs around her. God! What was it about this girl, what was it about the way she could turn a phrase that made me weak in the knees? That made me want to violate every principle I had about role-playing, about what I'd thought my sexuality was up until a few days ago, to have a little fun with her?

And yet I was willing her on. Secretly I was screaming in my head, begging her to make the move.

I sighed as she leaned forward, as her lips made contact with mine. Holy shit! My arms pulled tighter around that impossibly built torso. It was everything I’d imagined and more. It was so incredibly hot. I was done denying myself. I was done denying the world of pleasure that was opened to me by this forbidden experience with this incredibly talented writer, with this incredibly sexy woman.

“This is so wrong,” I sighed. I was so distracted that I fell out of character. “I’ve never done this before.”

She pulled back and looked at me, a grin on her face. “Never?”

“Well, it was never really my thing. I always thought it was sort of…”

“Silly? Stupid? Ridiculous when you could go out and get it in the real world?”

I bit my lip, blushed, and nodded. “Pretty much all of the above. Plus I've never... With a... You know...”

She leaned in closer, though it was obvious we were both having an out of character conversation at this point. I was just breaking all sorts of my role-playing rules tonight.

“Do you want to know a secret?”

“What?” I breathed.

“I’ve never role-played like this either,” she said. “Never even considered it. You’re just so goddamn…”

And she leaned forward and kissed me. It was a hungry kiss. Insistent. I felt her body pressing against mine and it was all I could do to hang on as a roller coaster of emotions washed over me. I was a bundle of sensations. The warm water surrounding us, her body towering over mine, feeling her pressing against me like that, the naughtiness of doing something I’d never done before, that I swore I’d never do under any circumstances, and yet it felt so right with her. I let it all wash over me.

Kaira pulled back and grinned. "Of course I'd be lying if I said I'd never been with a woman before. It's kind of my thing. But I'd be more than happy to show you a whole new world."

I felt a hunger, a lust, an urgency that was surprising. It was more intense than anything I’d felt in the real world, and this was something that was just happening in a video game! I couldn’t believe I was doing it, but I tugged at her shirt and armor which was taking some creative license with the whole armor removal process but whatever, pulled it up revealing her toned stomach underneath leading up to those delicious breasts that I so desperately wanted to taste.

And as I sat in my chair hunched over the computer looking at her avatar on screen I couldn’t help but think back to the picture I’d seen on her Elassa account. I imagined her over me in the real world. Pressing against me. God it was so fucking hot!

She growled and pressed into me, her growl vibrating down my throat even as her tongue explored my mouth. As I arched my back and pressed myself against her, loving the feel of my sensitive nipples brushing against her breasts which popped into view as I pulled up on her shirt and bikini armor bringing them into view.

We pulled away from the kiss and I didn’t know what to do. I was unsure of myself, so inexperienced never having done anything like this, but knowing that it was so right. Knowing that this was something I definitely wanted.

I reached down and started fumbling at her belt. She grinned that cocky confident grin and then she was looking at my own clothes. Yanking at my dress and ripping it down, pulling at the armor underneath, one of those ridiculous bikini armor pieces that I always wore a more appropriate role-playing dress over. I’d made sure to have that particularly scandalous set of armor on my character tonight because something in my subconscious knew something like this was going to happen.

And I realized that my subconscious knew it and wanted this to happen even as my conscious mind was being washed away by waves of pleasure, by waves of pure emotion, by the unstoppable wave of femininity that was this incredible woman.

We must’ve gotten each other out of our clothes in record time. She was a woman possessed. She was a woman who was taking what she wanted, and I was a woman who wanted her to take what she wanted. I felt her body press up against me, her thigh grinding against my pussy, and then she was moving down kissing along my body leaving a wet hot trail with her tongue until her mouth was even with my pussy.

I looked down at her and licked my lips. This was it. This was the moment of truth as her mouth and her warm lips hovered over my own. Did I let her do this? Fuck. There was never any question in my mind. I nodded and she smiled, pressing forward and licking out with her tongue. Moving inside me.

I threw my head back, allowed my wet hair to fall against the rocks with a slap, and gasped quietly as her incredibly talented tongue slid up inside me. It was so fucking incredible! Her hands reached out and grasped my waist as she explored my pussy with her mouth. My breath came in short gasps, her own breath came in ragged gasps as she looked up at me with a hunger that was mixed with something else. A loving expression.

I blinked at my keyboard. She described it exactly like that. She described her character looking at me with a loving expression. Did that mean… Could that possibly? I shook my head. No, I wasn’t going to read anything into that. Things were going fast, but I had only known this girl for a few weeks and it's not like we talked all that much in that time. Besides, she was probably caught up in the moment, and I wasn’t going to hold her accountable for things she said when she was caught up in a passionate moment like this no matter how much I wanted those words to be true.

I leaned forward and I got back into the game.

She ran her hands all over my body as her tongue continued its delicious work on my pussy. Running along my stomach, up to my breasts where she played with my nipples sending electric jolts running through my body. Her hands roaming along my own petite frame was so incredibly sexy. She was completely dominating me. I looked from her beautiful face down to her sexy chest with nipples that were pressing out against my thighs with arousal, down to the spot where her tongue was buried in me as our bodies came together in a forbidden embrace.

An embrace that was forbidden by my own rules of role-playing. An embrace that was forbidden by the terms of service in Tales of Elassa even though it’s not like they could stop that sort of thing from happening since there were so many people playing the game, an embrace that was forbidden in the world of Elassa because she was a human and I was an elf, an embrace that had been forbidden in my mind up until recently because we were both women, and yet the naughty combination of all of those taboos being shattered at the same time was so incredibly hot that it had me over the edge.

In the real world I moved my hand down and started running it up and down my pussy as she started really giving it to me me in-game. I was so hot. I felt the hair standing up on the back of my neck, I felt my nipples pressing out towards the computer monitor. I felt my pussy getting so wet as I ran a finger up and down, as I felt small sparks going through my body outside the game world as explosions were running through my body in the game world.

I really hoped Megan didn’t decide to come home from the bar any time soon.

My character's movements grew more erratic. This was going fast, but that was just fine with me because I was so damn close. I realized that only one of her hands was exploring me at this point. The other was down between her legs and her ass was moving back and forth in a hypnotic dance as she continued going down on me. Huh. I guess going down on the straight girl for the first time, even if it was a digital encounter, was doing something for her as she moaned into my pussy. That was enough to send my character over the edge, squeezing her eyes shut and screaming as impossible waves of pleasure crashed over her body.

Of course the explosion my character was feeling were nothing compared to the explosions that were going off in my computer chair. I was breathing heavily, crying out. I pressed my fingers against my pussy, not even inside my shorts, and then it was happening. I was shuddering, my entire body felt like it was on fire as explosions of tingly pleasure shot off all through me. I felt an impossible warmth spreading through my stomach, I felt an impossible pleasure between my legs. I had to grip my chair with my free hand as I rode out that wave of orgasmic pleasure.

Holy shit! This was more intense than anything I’d felt with a guy before, and I wasn’t even with a guy! Fuck, this wasn't even in person! This was just characters on a screen!

And yet it was so fucking hot. It was going straight to the pleasure centers of my brain. It was short-circuiting every other part of my body, it was short-circuiting every bit of conscious thought I had. All I could think about was this incredible woman who’d gone from a stranger in an inn to a confidant, someone I felt I could trust, to a lover in almost every sense of the word who'd completely redefined what gender I thought I was into, and all in such a short amount of time.

And the end result is I was sitting in my computer chair with my hand buried between my legs, not even touching myself directly, feeling the most intense orgasm of my life exploding over me. I was seeing stars. I was seeing double. My monitor seemed to split in front of my vision for a moment and then everything was blurred as I concentrated on that amazing pleasure.

Then it was over. I was coming down and still breathing heavily. I looked to the screen where I saw a couple of messages waiting for me. I blushed as I realized she probably knew exactly what I was doing.

“You there?”

“Amber?”

“Seems like someone’s having a good time over there! ;)”

I smiled and typed out a response. A one handed response. “Wouldnt yu like to kno?”

“Oh I think all the spelling errors you’re suddenly making tells me everything I need to know baby,” she said.

I blushed. Damn it. Of all the times to throw proofreading out! “You’re very cocky.”

“And I think you love it that way.”

I bit my lip. She was absolutely right. She was cocky, arrogant, and sort of full of herself. And yet if she really looked the way she did in her picture, as good as she was at writing, I could understand why she was so cocky and confident. And it made me wonder why she’d be interested in a girl like me, but I pushed that thought down. That wasn’t something I was going to get into now. Not with that wonderful experience we just shared.

“So is there any point in finishing the dungeon?” I asked.

“Up to you,” she said. “I hear there’s some sweet gear at the end, and that fight with Whitebeard is supposed to be pretty gnarly!”

I grinned. “And here I thought you were just taking me down here to get me all alone.”

“Well I was,” she said. “But this also happens to be one of my favorite dungeons. Also happens to be one of my favorite stories from Elassa.”

“Me too!” I said.

I couldn’t believe she knew about that story. Most people didn’t. It was from a short story that most people never gave a chance because it was a short when they felt like Kaitlyn Morgan should have been working on the next novel in the series, but as far as I was concerned they could all take their opinions and go to hell. Anything that woman wrote was genius in my opinion.

“Really? You like it? Most people hate that story!”

“Anyone who hates an author for giving them something because they want something bigger is a selfish asshole in my opinion!” I said.

“I feel the same way,” she said. “Though I can’t really say that.”

“Why not? Just lay into people on Amazon or something!” I know I do from time to time when I’m pissed off.”

“I wish, but I can’t. Trust me on this one,” she said.

“Whatever. Yelling at people on the Internet is half the fun of being on the Internet!”

“Uh-huh. So we’re finishing the dungeon?”

“Sounds like a plan to me!”

“Can you give me maybe five minutes?”

I smiled as I realized exactly why she probably needed five minutes after that intense session. Hell, I felt like I needed a breather as well. Maybe some time to go back to my room and change my panties. My current pair were thoroughly soaked through and that was going to get uncomfortable here in a few minutes.

“Sure,” I said. “I could take five.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she said.

The rest of the evening wasn't quite as intense as what we experienced after that encounter. We still flirted hot and heavy though, and something had changed between us. Changed for the better. We chatted, but underneath all the flirtation there was something else. There was a warmth that settled into the pit of my stomach. There was the knowledge that she wanted me as much as I'd been wanting her almost since that first night. That she’d seen something she wanted and took it, and it had been so fucking hot! I’d never really been attracted to the bad boy stereotype before, though I guess in this case it would be the bad girl stereotype, but there was something about this girl that had me going wild in the best possible way.

And so we ended up staying awake well into the morning chatting with each other and having a good time, visiting some of our favorite dungeons in the older parts of the game and going on what turned out to be one of the best dates ever, even if it was just in a videogame.

It was crazy, but I was starting to fall for my digital lover. That thought terrified me even as it filled me with warm fuzzies. It was new territory. Completely uncharted. And yet it was so much fun, so right, that I couldn't stop.

10: IRL?

It seemed like a rule of the universe. Something incredible happened between me and Kaira and then she disappeared for several days. Once again I found myself obsessively checking my phone whether I was in class or at work. Once again I was leaving Elassa chat up on my work computer and my home computer. I was constantly refreshing my friends list to see when she was last online. And every time the last time she was online ended up being the last time we chatted. That magical night where I’d let things go perhaps a little too far, but it’d been so wonderful that I didn’t care.

And then nothing. No contact whatsoever. No word from her, no messages, not even anything from her email even though she had mine thanks to me sending her my manuscript.

I told myself she was busy with work and she’d get in touch with me when she could. And yet there was still that gnawing sense of doubt that something would inevitably go wrong now that things seemed to be going so very right.

That voice grew more insistent as the week wore on with no contact. Almost to the point that it was screaming at me that I’d been ridiculous for thinking anything like a romance could blossom in a fucking video game of all places. She probably just told me what I wanted to hear, blowing smoke up my ass until she got what she wanted, and I’d played right into her hands.

It was a real pain in the ass having a brain that automatically jumped to the worst-case scenario no matter what the scenario happened to be, but it was something I’d learned to live with.

Needless to say after a week of stewing in that worst-case scenario mindset I was pleasantly surprised one evening when I was sitting at an inn in the middle of nowhere and I saw her come online.

My hands were immediately on the keyboard without thinking. And immediately I forced myself to sit still. Forced myself to not say anything.

No, I wasn’t going to be the one to make the first move. I knew it was petty, especially considering she was probably just busy with work, but there it was. I couldn’t help myself. I was irritated that I’d been left waiting for so long.

My chat window started blinking. I felt butterflies in my stomach as I saw that blink. So familiar, something I’d seen countless times since I started playing Tales of Elassa, and yet it was something that made my stomach twist ever since I’d met this woman.

It was hard not to reach up and click that notification immediately, but I was still feeling annoyed. I knew it was irrational, I knew it wasn’t exactly fair to her, but I couldn’t help myself. I felt abandoned and annoyed at the crazy roller coaster of emotion I’d been on waiting for her to come back online. I knew objectively that was mostly my issue, that was mostly me and my tendency to read a worst-case scenario into absolutely everything, but I couldn’t help the way I felt.

My chat window dinged again. Another private message.

“Are you going to answer that thing?” Megan asked.

I looked over my shoulder and she pulled her headphones off. I didn’t realize my speakers were that loud. Loud enough for her to hear through her expensive gaming headphones, at least. I blushed and muttered an apology as I turned back to my computer. As I reached up and clicked on that message.

“Hi!”

“Hello?”

“Are you there?”

“Is something wrong? Did I do something?”

I went from anger and annoyance to guilt in an instant. Like I said, a roller coaster of emotions. She was excited to see me and I was ignoring her. Obviously I’d pushed her into her own worst-case scenario when she saw me online and I didn’t answer her right away. And yet I was also still a little irritated that she just expected me to answer her right away. That she expected me to jump when she decided she had time for me.

I knew it wasn’t a fair thought, but I never said my mind was entirely rational. If I was completely rational then I never would’ve done something crazy like fall for a girl I only knew through a videogame in the first place!

Okay, that was enough guilt. Time to let her know I was here.

“Sorry,” I typed. “I was away from my computer.”

“Good! I was hoping I’d catch you online today!” she said.

I arched an eyebrow. She certainly seemed very excited to see me online. And her excitement was feeding back into me. It was making all the worries I’d had over the past week about her not wanting to see me anymore melt away.

“Really? Why?”

“Well I’m actually kind of excited and kind of nervous about what I’m about to ask…”

Now I was really curious. She goes away for a week, probably busy with work or whatever, and when she comes back she has something to ask me that has her nervous? Color me intrigued.

“You have my attention,” I said. “Go ahead…”

“I want to meet you.”

I blinked. That’s what she was so worked up about? That’s what had her hesitant to talk to me? That wasn’t a big deal! I almost wanted to laugh.

“Well that’s not a problem!”

“Really? I didn’t expect you to say yes so quickly!”

“Sure! Where do you want to meet? One of the dungeons? One of the inns? We could go and hang out in one of the elf zones, get away from human territory for a while if you’d like,” I said. “I’m getting kind of tired of human territory anyways.”

There was a pause. A definite hesitation. Something about that hesitation told me I’d just said something wrong. What could I possibly…

Oh.

No. she couldn’t possibly mean…

“I didn’t mean meet in game,” she said.

Well yes, it looked like she certainly could mean that. I blinked. she wanted to meet me? We’d only known each other for a few weeks. Sure it had been a whirlwind few weeks, but I was still hesitant.

It’s not like I’d never met people I knew from the Internet. Sure there were crazies out there, but we lived in a world where most dating started online and most of the moral panic about ax-murdering Internet predators had died down, and yet something about this whole situation, something about how she was jumping to meeting me in person so quickly, gave me pause. It had me wondering once more if this was all a setup for something sinister. It had the worst-case scenario part of my brain kicking into overdrive almost immediately.

I hated it. I’m pretty sure the creative side of my brain that came up with all of my favorite stories, that helped me when I was writing my novel, was also the part that went into gear when I was spinning out a worst-case scenario. It was both a blessing and a curse being creative like that.

I looked back to the screen. “I don’t know…”

“I figured you’d be a little hesitant,” she said. “But hear me out. I was thinking we could meet at Elassa Con next week!”

I blinked. Elassa Con? The idea of going to the convention was enough to set my heart racing. The idea of going to the convention and also meeting Kaira set my pulse going so quickly that if a doctor were to examine me at that exact moment they probably would’ve diagnosed me with hypertension and put me on medication.

I fought down that quickening of my pulse though. There was no way this was going to happen. There was no way I was going to be able to make it to Elassa Con, no matter how exciting the prospect of going to one of the biggest conventions of the year and meeting my mysterious online “friend” at the same time might be.

“I really can’t afford that,” I said. “I’m kind of a poor college student. It’s not like people in an MFA program are really loaded with money…”

“What if I told you I could take care of your tickets?”

I laughed. A laugh that caused movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see Megan turning, raising an eyebrow. A crazy idea occurred to me.

I turned back to the screen. “Sure! You just pay for plane tickets and a hotel room for me and my roommate so I can make sure I have someone with me in case you turn out to be an ax murderer and we’ll call it a deal!”

I figured that would be the end of it. That would be all it took for her to admit she was just joking around, though I didn’t think it was a very funny joke and it was making me seriously question her judgment. As much as I would’ve loved going to Elassa Con, as much as I would love to meet her assuming she was actually the girl she seemed to be, there wasn’t a chance she was going to foot the bill for all of that. Not for me and Megan. No girl was that into me. In my limited experience no girl who played Tales of Elassa would be so loaded that she could blow that much money on what would amount to a first date, for that matter.

“Yeah, that’s not going to work out,” she said.

I smiled even as I fought down disappointment. I knew it. Then my eyes went wide as I read the next words that popped up in the chat window.

“If you can’t swing the plane tickets then I’ll probably also need to get both of you tickets to the convention,” she said. “How’s that sound?”

I blinked. “Okay, that’s enough. This isn’t funny anymore.”

“Who said I was joking?”

“Well obviously you have to be joking. You’re not going to pay for me and my roommate to fly out and go to that convention.”

“Why not?”

Why not indeed? It was a perfectly reasonable question on its face that was absolutely ridiculous when examined closely. Why would some random girl pay for a girl she just met to fly out to one of the biggest conventions in the country so she could meet her? Why would she pay the added cost for my roommate just in case she was an ax murderer? For that matter, probably the most important reason even though it was the reason I was least likely to admit to, why would she do all of this for me? I wasn’t anything special despite the way she gushed over me. Despite the way we’d gotten along. Despite our whirlwind online romance.

I knew I shouldn’t be listening to that quiet voice in the back of my head, and yet it was so insistent. It made so much sense in this case. If a girl was going to do all of this just to meet me then there had to be some catch. There had to be something wrong with the situation. Whether that was that she was a crazy murderer or something else I didn’t know, but I just couldn’t believe that this sort of thing was happening to me. This was the sort of thing that happened in a cheesy romance, not in my life!

“I’m dead serious Maia,” she said. “All you have to do is say yes.”

“This isn’t a joke?” I asked.

“No joke. I want to see you. I want to fly you out to the convention. I think it would be the perfect time for us to meet. All you have to do is say yes.”

I still didn’t quite believe it. Only she seemed so certain. So sincere. If this was a joke she was certainly dedicated to it, but something told me she wasn’t telling a lie even if I hardly believed it. And yet even as that ever present quiet voice of self doubt was whispering that this couldn’t possibly be true there was another part of me that was jumping for joy and desperately hoping this was true. I realized that I desperately wanted to meet her in person.

I hadn’t felt this way about anyone in a long time. It didn’t matter to me that our romance essentially took place on a computer screen. It felt real to me, and that’s all that mattered. Now all I needed was to meet her in person and see if it was real in the real world, as they said in-game. It was another huge step, but I'd already thrown myself into this and had a wonderful time so what was the point in stopping now that I'd mostly gotten over most of my inhibitions?

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

“Don’t think about it too long,” she said. “It gets more expensive to get you out here every minute you wait.”

I chuckled. “But you don’t even know where I live.”

“Doesn’t matter. This is Elassa Con. The longer we wait, the harder it’s going to be to get a ticket into Indianapolis. And it’s going to get really hard to find a place to stay.”

I rolled my eyes. She was laying it on pretty thick. I wasn’t sure what to think. Surely if this was a joke she would’ve given it up earlier. Surely she wouldn’t still be going along with it, unless this was part of some sick joke and she’d been playing me all along. Unless this was her endgame. I’d known some pretty terrible people in my time online, and this definitely wouldn’t be the worst thing I’d heard about someone doing to somebody else.

And yet there was a voice that was louder than my nagging self doubt for a change telling me this was the real deal. There was a voice that was dueling with my inner pessimist and telling me to go for it.

I really needed to talk this over with someone. And there was only one someone I could think of to talk over something like this.

I looked over my shoulder. It looked like Megan was in the middle of a raid, but we had a roommate protocol for that. “Megan, I’m calling an emergency meeting!”

11: Emergency Meeting

Megan didn’t even hesitate which made me grin. Emergency meetings weren’t something we took lightly. Usually they were for big events like a breakup or something like that, but the deal was any time one of us called an emergency meeting we dropped everything immediately.

Megan was in the middle of a raid. Probably something important at this time of night, but she typed something and then she was pulling her headphones down and coming over to me with a worried expression on her face.

She glanced at my screen but I’d minimized the game. I didn’t want her to see my conversation. I didn’t quite believe what was happening. I couldn’t quite believe that I was about to have this conversation with her.

“Living room,” I said.

Megan nodded. “That’s fine.”

We walked the short distance to the living room and Megan flopped down on the couch. I flopped down on the other side and sighed. Megan raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, out with it.”

I opened my mouth tell her everything and then closed it. Opened it again, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell her what had been going on over the past couple of weeks. I couldn’t quite bring myself to explain my situation to her. There was so much to cover. A whirlwind romance. The fact that the whirlwind romance was with a girl. That the girl wanted to fly both of us out to see her.

“Is it really that bad?” Megan asked.

I rolled my eyes. “You have no idea!”

“Amber. I just ruined an entire night of raiding because you called an emergency meeting,” she said. “If you can’t tell me what it is then I’m going to go back and try to salvage the raid.”

I looked down. Looked back up. Smiled a smile that must’ve looked pretty sickly from the worried expression that crossed her face.

“Would you want to go to Elassa Con next week?”

Megan blinked. And she fell back rolling on the couch laughing.

“That’s good Amber! But really, what’s going on?”

“I figured you’d react that way,” I said. “But I think we really did just get an invitation to Elassa Con. All expenses paid.”

Megan sat up and locked eyes with me. Her eyes moved back and forth searching for any sign that this was a joke.

“Bullshit.”

“That’s exactly what I said at first!”

And so I sucked it up and laid it all out for her. I told her how I’d met Kaira in the game. How we’d been talking with each other over the past couple of weeks. I went into almost everything, how great she was, though I left out the bit about what we’d gotten up to in our dungeon run the last time we met up. I even pulled up her picture on my tablet which was sitting on the coffee table. Megan looked her up and down with an appreciative whistle and raised an eyebrow.

“Well she’s definitely a hottie if you're into women,” Megan said. "You and another girl! I never would've imagined it. Then again considering how quickly you always lost interest in guys maybe there was a hint..."

I reached out and gave Megan a playful smack. "Shut it."

Megan grinned and then she looked serious again. “The question is, is she really who she says she is or is she just some troll getting her jollies online?”

“That’s exactly what I was wondering,” I said.

And it surprised me to realize that the only problem I had with this whole scenario was the question of whether or not she actually was who she said she was. There was never any doubt in my mind that I wanted to meet her. There was never any doubt in my mind that I had to meet her. There was just a quiet terror that if I did meet her she’d turn out to not be as advertised. She'd become just another story of online dating gone wrong, albeit a story of online dating gone wrong featuring a girl who apparently had much deeper pockets than most people in those sorts of horror stories.

“You really like this girl, don’t you?”

I smiled. “Yeah. Is it that obvious?”

“You have that ridiculous look on your face that you get whenever you’re reading one of those cheesy romance books.”

“Hey! Those aren’t cheesy romance books! They’re cheesy fantasy books. Big difference,” I said.

“Is there a difference? Heaving magic? Heaving breasts? Same stories, different fixation.”

I shook my head. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“But seriously,” Megan said. “What do you have to lose? I haven’t seen you look like this about a guy ever, and if it turns out you don’t click with a chick what’s the worst that happened? You got free tickets to the hottest convention in the country!”

“I know…”

“And if you get there and it turns out that she’s just as awesome as you expected then that’s even more of a win!”

“I know,” I said with a sigh.

“So what’s the hesitation? Free tickets either way, just make sure you get round-trip tickets instead of a one-way ticket to the pit in her basement or whatever.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “You’re horrible Megan!”

“Hey,” she said. “If I’m going to be going along with you then it’s my job to make sure you don’t wind up getting tossed in some creepy pit in a basement. Hell, it’s my job to make sure both of us don’t wind up in a pit in a basement somewhere.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re starting to sound like me and my worst-case scenario problem.”

“Whatever Amber,” she said. “I really don’t see what the hesitation is. Either you get free tickets to the convention and a great girl or you get free tickets to the convention and it turns out that lover girl is a complete slob. Either way all I’m hearing is free tickets.”

“You mean all you’re hearing is that you get free tickets because you’re coming along as my chaperone?”

Megan shrugged. “So what if that enters into the equation just a little bit? Can you blame me?”

“Selfish much?”

She fixed me with the most wide-eyed innocence she could muster, which wasn’t much. “What can I say? If I’m selfish and my selfishness helps your love life then I’m all for it!”

I rolled my eyes. “So we’re really doing this?”

Megan nodded. “We’re really doing this!”

I sighed. “You do realize, of course, that what’s probably going to happen is I agree to meet this girl and it’ll turn out she’s completely full of shit and we don’t get plane tickets or anything.”

Megan shrugged. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

“I’m sure it is,” I said. “Okay, well it’s decided. I guess that means the emergency meeting is over!”

“That was quick,” Megan said. “Mind if I go try to salvage raid night?”

“Sure thing,” I said. “Besides, I need to log back into the game myself.”

My fingers tingled as I logged back into the game and looked at my friends list. Sure enough she was still there. Apparently she’d been confident that I was going to make a decision pretty fast. I smiled. Her name lit up and my chat window started blinking.

“So?”

“We’re game if you are,” I said.

“We?”

“My roommate,” I said.

“Oh, right! Let me check something here real quick…”

I waited. I was definitely curious how this was going to work. How was she going to just pay for this? And then another thought occurred to me. In order to get a plane ticket you needed to provide identification, an address, that sort of thing. How was she going to pull this off? Because I wasn’t particularly comfortable giving her that information.

“Okay, all taken care of,” she said. “You should have email.”

“What?”

“Oh, and one more thing,” she said.

One more thing? As if all of this craziness wasn’t enough?

“Bring that costume. Can’t wait to see it! I’ll have one of my own ready to go.”

I blinked. My costume? Oh, right. Though I wasn’t sure my semi-slutty con costume was first date appropriate…

“I have to get going, more work stuff, but check your email. Trust me.”

I guess she wasn’t going to give me time to get out of bringing the costume. Crap. I needed more information here.

“That’s it? What about how we’re going to meet once we get there?”

“Just keep your messenger up. I’ll take care of everything.” And she left with a smiley face. She was gone. I sat at my computer fuming. This was all very peculiar, and it was making me wonder if she’d gone crazy. If I wasn’t about to be the butt of an elaborate joke.

Curiosity burned though. I flipped out of the game client and fired up my Elassa mail. I was expecting to see something from Kaira, but nothing prepared me for what was actually waiting for me. An official communication from Elassa Corp. What the hell?

The subject line was an Elassa Con all-in-one VIP package. I clicked to open it. I gave it a once over, and then I gave it a second over. I double checked the email headers to make sure it wasn’t spoofed or anything, but everything look official and it wasn’t coming from some strange server in Nigeria or anything. Still, there was absolutely no way this could possibly be real.

“Megan! Emergency meeting!”

Megan let out a frustrated sigh, but once more she typed something and pulled her headphones down. It sounded like she’d been talking to somebody, but she dropped it as soon as I said the magic words.

“Most everybody logged off anyways,” she muttered. “What’s up?”

“Look at this email. Does that say what I think it says?”

Megan looked and as she did her eyes grew wider and wider. Apparently she was having just as difficult a time believing what had appeared in my inbox as I was.

“No way,” Megan said.

“Way.”

“That says all expenses paid VIP trip to Elassa Con courtesy of Elassa Corp,” Megan said. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to get those? Forget expensive, this is invitation only shit right here! You don’t get this unless you have one hell of an in. Like I'm talking an in with someone who works for the company. Not just winning a contest or some bullshit like that.”

“It has to be a mistake.”

“Well there’s a phone number down at the bottom. Call’em and find out what’s going on.”

So I called the number, but not before looking at the Elassa Corporation website just to double check that the number was actually an Elassa Corp phone number. They definitely matched up. Either this was somebody who was going through an elaborate con, or it was somebody who didn’t expect me to actually call the number. So I dialed. After a few minutes on hold, after a few minutes talking with a very nice representative, I’d confirmed that yes, everything was absolutely one hundred percent true. I was now the recipient of an all-expenses-paid trip for two, VIP package, to the convention.

I put my phone down and I must’ve looked shell shocked.

“It’s real?” Megan asked.

I nodded. “They confirmed everything. It’s all real. We just have to fill out our information and Elassa Corp gets everything squared away with the airlines and hotel.”

“Damn,” Megan said. “Who is this girl? And how did you get so lucky?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But I’m really looking forward to finding out more about this mystery girl.”

“Me too. Think she has a friend?”

I cocked an eyebrow. "I didn't think you swung that way?"

Megan shrugged. "She could have a guy friend. Besides, for those tickets I'd take a walk on the wild side!"

I rolled my eyes and pushed Megan back towards her side of the room and her computer. "Go raid or something and get out of my hair."

12: Surprises

The Indianapolis Airport was a hell of a lot busier than I’d expected, though I guess that shouldn’t have been a surprise considering there was a major convention in town that was supposed to easily draw in a hundred thousand people if not more. There were a lot of Elassa fans throughout the country, all over the world, and they were all converging on this town in the relative middle of nowhere that happened to have a big convention center because of some sports game a few years back.

Though I guess it wasn’t entirely fair to call the place the middle of nowhere. The place was definitely a lot bigger than my hometown up in Wisconsin. It was even a hell of a lot bigger than the university town where I went to school. And from the looks of things at the airport pretty much everybody streaming through were people planning on going to the convention. There were a few people who were watching the people who were going to the convention with disbelief, but there weren’t many normals.

I was sure the TSA was having a field day with this particular crowd. Some people were walking around with obvious prosthetic elf ears on. Others had their convention badges out already even though we weren’t anywhere close to the convention center.

“Were not in Wisconsin anymore,” Megan said.

I shrugged. “We’ve replaced a state covered in cheese for one covered in cornfields,” I said. “Not much difference as far as I’m concerned.”

Megan smacked my shoulder. “Come on Amber! We’re two girls in the big city!”

“The big city?” I asked, looking around. Outside the windows there seemed to be a whole lot of nothing except for planes and runways. No tall buildings or anything in evidence.

“Well big enough,” Megan said with a shrug. “Definitely bigger than anything we have in Wisconsin, that’s for sure!”

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

Megan looked around. “So I know we’ve been busy trying to figure out how we’re going to get to the airport back home and everything, but it did you ever stop to think about how we were going to actually get to the hotel from the airport?”

I stopped and blinked. “No, actually I hadn’t thought about that at all.”

“So you mean I’m going to be getting a cab for us?” Megan asked.

I turned and smiled. “I’d be ever so grateful if you did, because I definitely don’t have that kind of cash.”

Megan rolled her eyes. “Well it’s not like I’m paying for it either if it’s my dad’s credit card. I don’t suppose he can be too mad anyways. His little girl being stranded at the airport sort of qualifies as an emergency, right?”

“Something like that,” I said.

We made our way out of the baggage claim and luckily nobody lost our bags on the flight down. That would have been a real pain in the ass, especially considering I’d stuffed my old con costume in there. Kaira had specifically mentioned wanting to see me in the thing and I don’t know what I would’ve done if they lost that bag. Not that I’d ever actually been in a situation where an airline lost bags. There were times that I wondered if that was just a contrivance from Hollywood writers that painted the airline industry in a bad light.

When we got to the airport entrance there was one thing straight out of Hollywood. A line of people holding up signs just like in the movies. Only apparently one thing had changed since the days when I watched movies about rich people getting picked up at the airport or not-so-rich people being picked up at the airport as an indicator of how fabulously wealthy the person they were getting with was. All the "signs" were actually tablets with names printed on the screen. Interesting. Wasteful, but interesting.

Oh well. It must be nice for the drivers to be able to play games in between jobs.

“Look at those high rollers!” I said. “Wouldn’t it be nice to get to the hotel in a limo?”

“Easy there girl,” Megan said. “I’ve got money for a cab, but dad’s definitely going to be pissed off if I spring for a limo!”

I sighed. “I know. It’s just nice to dream.”

I glanced past the row of drivers holding up tablets and sighed. There was a glimpse into a world I was probably never going to experience. Sure there were super rich writers in the world. Stephen King. JK Rowling. Kaitlyn Morgan. Writers who pulled the kind of money that got them the royal treatment wherever they went. Only I had no illusions about my own prospects of getting a book deal that’d ever be able to pay for the whole “limo waiting for me at the entrance” treatment.

Megan slapped my shoulder. I kept walking. She slapped me again. I turned and fixed her with an irritated glare. “What?”

“That limo person over there is holding up a sign with your in-game name!” Megan said.

I followed her finger to where she was pointing. I squinted at the sign. I blinked. Sure enough, she was right. The guy was standing there with a tablet held up with my name on it. Well, with my character’s name on it. There it was, Maia, plain as day. Okay, so it was a rare name but that couldn’t possibly be for me.

“What the hell?” I asked.

“Maybe it’s part of the VIP package?” Megan asked.

It was a very nice package. It included airfare, a stay at the hotel for the entire time we were at the convention, admission to the convention and all of the after parties, and VIP access to everything. We checked on the Elassa Con website and the total cost would’ve run in the thousands of dollars if someone tried to buy it all, but it couldn’t be bought in one package. Some of the stuff in our package wasn't even for sale. As far as we could tell our package wasn’t for sale. It made me wonder exactly who Kaira was that she could swing that package.

But it didn’t include transportation from the airport which is why I didn’t think to bring money money for a cab. Why bring money if everything was paid for?

“I don’t think so. That has to be for someone else. I don’t remember reading anything about a limo in that package,” I said.

Only that didn’t stop Megan from walking over to the driver. I rolled my eyes and followed, and to my surprise his face lit up when he saw me. “Maia?”

“Yeah? How did you know?”

“Let’s just say my employer provided me with a picture,” he said. He leaned in and whispered. “It was actually quite funny to see a lady of the Bendai Sisterhood sticking her tongue out and grinning like that.”

I rolled my eyes and groaned. Someone had been into my Elassa profile. And I had no idea of knowing if that somebody was Kaira or somebody from Elassa Corporation. Obviously they had to know something about my profile if they set me up with the VIP package. So I guess it stood to reason that somebody would pass on my information. And yet I still didn’t remember anything about a limo when I read over the package, and I’d read over it quite a bit in the past week.

“Are you taking us to the hotel?” I asked.

“Sure thing!” The guy said.

“Is it a long drive?” Megan asked.

“Not really,” the driver said as he took our bags and led us out to the arrival area where a limo was waiting. “That’s the nice thing about Indianapolis. No matter where you’re going it usually only takes thirty minutes. Unless you’re driving in rush-hour. Then it takes forty-five minutes.”

And so I found myself being loaded into a limo and driving down the interstate in style. The driver was friendly enough and pointed things out to us as we approached downtown. The buildings were appropriately tall enough, though nothing compared to when I visited Chicago. Basically it seemed like your average Midwestern city, though maybe a little bigger than normal.

“I can’t believe this!” Megan said drumming her feet against the bottom of the limo. She looked over and saw that there was alcohol set out. She turned towards the driver. “Is this stuff free?”

“Not free ma’am,” he said.

“Oh,” Megan said.

“But it is included in the cost, and I’m sure my employer wouldn’t mind if you enjoyed yourself. Especially since you’re not paying for it,” he said.

Megan squealed and poured herself a drink. I smiled and figured what the hell. I might as well enjoy myself if it was paid for. Besides, everything was working out strangely well, and so I figured I should probably get some alcohol for when the other shoe inevitably dropped.

We had another surprise in store once we got to the hotel. The place was a huge blue glass monstrosity, but apparently it had a connection to the convention center and was one of the nicest places in the city. The lobby was definitely pretty intense.

The place was full of people who were obviously here for the convention. There was a wide variety of ages, gender, and body types on display. I even saw a couple of people wearing ridiculously elaborate costumes which made me blush as I thought of my own costume packed away in my luggage. I’d spent more time than I cared to think about putting the thing together for a smaller regional con, and I was damn proud of it. If the airline lost the thing I might’ve killed somebody.

The only problem was I got ridiculously embarrassed every time I thought of actually putting the thing on. It was, how to put it, just a little skimpy. An armored bikini, definitely not the kind of thing that you’d wear out to dinner and drinks with friends, but as I had a look at the convention people in the lobby I felt better. I had a feeling I was going to fit right in.

Most everybody already had their convention badges out and I wondered if there was some sort of early registration that I wasn’t aware of. I’d have to look into that, maybe mosey over to the convention center and see what was going on.

Megan was staring wide-eyed at the hotel.

“Damn,” Megan said. “We’ve made it!”

I felt my phone buzz as she said that and I stopped and reached down to fish it out. Our driver stopped with us and waited for a moment. I pulled out my phone and glanced at it. It was a message over Elassa chat. I pulled up the app and had a look. I smiled. Kaira.

“Enjoy your surprise at the airport?”

“It was nice,” I said. “But you’re being too nice.”

“Just wait.”

“What do you mean?”

Only it appeared the messages from Kaira were done for the moment. I glanced around the hotel and wondered what fresh surprise could possibly be waiting for us, but there was nobody holding up a sign with my name on it here. Whatever. Time to check in anyways. I had a feeling the rooms at this place were going to be pretty swank.

I moved up to the desk and gave the receptionist my name. The girl was nice enough with the same checked out vacant smile on hospitality workers around the world. Only her eyes grew wide when she typed in my name and she looked up with a genuine smile. I blinked. I wondered if this was the next surprise Kaira had been referring to.

“Welcome to the hotel ma’am!” she said. “It looks like you’ve been upgraded to our rooftop suite!”

I blinked. “Is there an extra cost associated with that?”

“It’s all been paid for and taken care of ma’am,” she said. She pulled out our key cards and handed them over. Megan looked down at the thing as though she couldn’t believe it.

“To use that you’ll have to use a special elevator. Take the express elevators up to the top floor, and then go down the hall to the dedicated elevator for the suite," the girl said. “That elevator is keyed to only open with your cards, so you’ll be the only ones who can get up there.”

“We’re the only ones staying in the suite?”

“The only ones ma’am,” she said.

I was just a little irritated by the ma’am thing. After all, I didn’t think I was much older than her. In fact as I looked her up and down it was entirely possible we were the same age, or I might even be a little younger. But apparently finding out that I was staying in the suite was enough to upgrade me to ma’am, and I wasn’t in the mood to get in an argument with someone on hotel staff over something that stupid. Especially when she was apparently giving me an upgrade to the nicest room in the whole place!

Of course I also smelled a rat.

“You’re absolutely certain nobody else is booked up there?”

“Only one booking, and that’s for you,” she said.

Megan elbowed me in the ribs and I let out a yelp of surprise. “The nice girl said we were upgraded to the rooftop suite,” Megan muttered under her breath. “Why don’t you just let her go ahead and upgrade us and not look a gift horse in the mouth!”

I sighed but decided to go along with it. A limo driver meeting us at the airport was bad enough, but I was starting to think that somebody had really gone above and beyond! My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out.

“Surprised?”

“When do we get to meet? I have a few questions for you,” I said.

“All in good time,” she said. “I’m a little occupied right now, but I should be available for lunch in about an hour or so. Sound good?”

“That’s fine with me,” I tapped into my phone. “Where?”

“I’ll tell you,” she said. “Just keep an eye on your phone.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. I was really starting to get tired of all this cloak and dagger stuff, but if she wanted to play mysterious then I guess I'd go along with it for a little longer. Especially considering the ridiculous VIP treatment we’d been getting so far. Not for the first time since we started this trip I found myself wondering exactly how much this was costing Kaira, and exactly what it was she did for a living that she could afford all of this!

I was starting to wonder if I hadn’t inadvertently run into a multimillionaire while I was playing that videogame. I knew stranger love stories had happened, but I still couldn’t believe it would happen to me. Not that I particularly cared if somebody had a lot of money anyways. I was so used to living the life of a poor college student, and before that my parents hadn’t exactly been rich, that the idea of spending all this money almost felt wasteful to me. Megan seemed more than happy to enjoy all the cash being thrown around though.

She threw herself down onto the massive bed in her room once we got up to the suite. The place really was impressive. It had a view of the entire downtown Indianapolis skyline, and as I looked down I thought I could make out the convention center which wasn’t very far away at all. I could even see some of the skywalks leading from our hotel to the center.

“This place is incredible!” Megan said.

I turned and smiled at her. “Yeah, it’s something all right.”

It really was impressive. There was a massive living area that was bigger than our entire apartment. At least it felt bigger than our entire apartment. There were two rooms off to either side, and as I walked into my own I realized that I’d been wrong about the main area. My bedroom was bigger than our apartment! Hell, the bathroom alone felt like it was as big as my room. Megan came in behind me, a whirlwind of excitement and smiles.

“When we meet this girl you’ll have to make sure to give her an extra special thanks,” she said.

“I’m definitely going to do something with her,” I said, looking around and still not quite believing it.

Apparently Megan took that the wrong way because she squealed and started laughing. I smiled, but I wasn’t so sure of myself. Sure there'd been that session in the pirate cove online, but that was online. I was still nervous about trying that sort of thing in the real world. That would be crossing another line. That would be admitting something to myself, admitting that I really was attracted to a woman. Assuming I met her and the attraction worked in person. There were so many things going on here and it was all happening so fast that it was dizzying.

Who was this girl, why was she acting so mysterious, and how the hell had she been able to afford all of this? And again, why would she ever spend all this money on me?

My phone buzzed and I pulled out again.

“Ready for lunch?”

I tapped out a response. “Where did you have in mind? And nothing expensive!”

“I know the perfect place. Called St. Elmo’s. Nice and cheap so it’s my treat, and also pretty quiet this time of day,” she responded.

I shrugged. I’d never heard of the place, but then again I wasn’t exactly up on local cuisine in downtown Indianapolis. I figured one place was as good as another as long as they had food.

“Looks like it’s lunchtime Megan,” I said.

“Oh! We finally get to meet your mysterious girl?”

“Yup.”

I was excited and terrified at the same time. Excited because I was still feeling that strange mix of emotions, that strange schoolgirl giddiness that I felt every time I saw her name pop up on my screen. I was also terrified at the same time though. I had the same worries that anyone has when they’re going on a blind date or meeting someone from the Internet for the first time. What if she didn’t live up to expectations? What if it turned out this strange girl crush I'd developed didn't translate into the real world? For that matter what if it did translate into the real world but I didn’t live up to her expectations?

And on top of all that there was one hell of a price tag associated with her flying me out here which made me more than nervous. What if things didn’t work out and she still expected… Things?

I shook my head. That was the worst-case scenario voice whispering to me. I was not going to let that ruin my trip. We were going to have a nice quiet and cheap early lunch at this St. Elmo’s place and then I was going to enjoy the convention. Hopefully with this mysterious woman, a woman whose name I didn’t even know yet! I hoped she was going to turn out to be everything I imagined.

It was time for lunch, and to meet Ms. Maybe Right.

13: Lunch Date

“This doesn’t look like a cheap place for lunch,” Megan said when we walked through the door.

I couldn’t help but stare with my eyes and mouth wide open. No, this definitely didn’t look like the kind of place where you could have a cheap lunch. This didn’t look like the kind of place where you could have a cheap anything. This looked like it was one of the most expensive damn restaurants in the entire city!

“Can I help you?” A pretty hostess asked.

“We’re supposed to meet…” I stopped. I didn’t even know her name. All I knew was her screen name. “Kaira?”

The girl’s face lit up and she gestured for us to follow. “Right this way ma’am.”

There we were with the ma’am thing again. I wasn’t sure I liked that. We made our way through a sea of empty tables and then she led us into a small alcove set back from the main room so that nobody in the restaurant proper could actually see us, though we had a good view of the restaurant from where we sat. Not that there was much point in all the secrecy since it's not like anyone was in the restaurant anyways.

I stopped as we reached the table. My breath caught. Someone was sitting there.

A woman.

Kaira.

Only I realized that I very much knew Kaira's name. I knew exactly who she was as striking green eyes stared out at me from a face that was every bit as gorgeous as her picture made her look! A woman with short styled hair in her early thirties, though it was hard to put an exact age to her. A smile that was all too familiar, though in person when she looked up at me and smiled I nearly fainted. I looked into her gorgeous deep green eyes and damn were they worth the wait. Those were eyes that sent an icy chill running down my spine and straight to my pussy.

All of it familiar because I'd seen her countless times before. And suddenly the image on her profile clicked with the image I'd seen more often on the back flap of the dust jackets where she was always smiling out to the world.

Kaira. Kaitlyn Morgan. One and the same.

Damn.

Megan elbowed me in the ribs and I jumped. “Damn!” she whispered.

I couldn’t help but smile. It was a goofy smile. A lovesick smile. It was a relieved smile more than anything else. I saw her and she was exactly as I’d imagined. She was exactly as gorgeous as I could have hoped for. I'd been going on about how she was a great writer. Well no shit she was a great writer. She was one of the most famous and wealthy writers in the world! She was Kaitlyn fucking Morgan!

The surprises seemed to get bigger and bigger each time. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to survive the next one, whatever it was!

Kaira, Kaitlyn, stood and walked over to me. She paused for just a moment looking between the two of us as though she was expecting something, and then it hit me. She was wondering if I recognized her. As though I wasn't going to recognize who she was in person. She could be all mysterious online, she could pose her photos in such a way that it was difficult to figure out who she was, but there was no hiding it in person. Maybe she was worried about how I'd react? That I'd be star struck?

I was a little star struck, but that didn't change that this was also Kaira, the girl I'd fallen for online. I wasn't sure how to break the awkwardness as she realized that I realized who she was, as she saw that star struck look in my eyes, so I decided to be impulsive and I wrapped her in a hug that had her eyes going wide in surprise. I instantly forgot that moment of awkwardness as she sighed and melted into my arms.

I soaked up the moment. Her body pressing against me felt so good. She was just as tight and toned as I'd imagined. Her breasts pressing against mine were incredible. Yeah, it definitely seemed that the appeal of the fairer sex was hitting me in the real world as much as it had in the online world. God she smelled good. God she felt good!

The first hurdle of meeting someone I’d met online had been met and cleared on my end. She was just as gorgeous as she appeared in that picture. Perhaps more so in person. The feel of her smooth cheek pressing against mine, the feel of her breasts and slim stomach mashed against my own, 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 she think of me? Sure she’d seen that ridiculous picture I took making the Bendai salute and smiling at the camera. Sure she seemed to react positively to that when she was looking at it from across the country, wherever the hell she 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 she seemed to like a picture well enough, the real question was whether or not she’d like what she saw in person. Whether or not she liked the package presented in the real world as much as what she 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 her she’d take one look at me and decide she wasn’t interested.

Only now I knew that definitely wasn’t a worry. She was holding me tight as though she didn't want to let go and it was incredible. The attraction definitely seemed to translate into the real world for her as well, and it sent a tingle running straight down between my legs. I was getting wet to the point that I worried I’d have to go back to the hotel room and change my pants after I broke the hug!

Yeah, she was definitely greeting me with one hell of a happy hello, and it seemed that she 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 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 her arms just made me feel that way. It made me feel as though all was right with the world.

Then I heard Megan clearing her throat which brought me back to reality. I pulled away from that wonderful body, so soft and yet so firm at the same time, though I wanted nothing more than to stay there in her arms forever. I wanted to be locked in that moment for all of eternity.

I turned and smiled at Megan, a blush rising to my face. She nodded to Kaitlyn and I turned back to my new maybe-more-than-a-friend who also seemed to be an internationally bestselling fabulously wealthy author in addition to being a pretty good writer and role-player in the game.

Like I said: damn.

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

I blushed. “You can call me Amber. 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 her voice was sexy! Everything about her was sexy. And she was Kaitlyn Morgan! Somebody needed to pinch me to wake me up because there was no way this was reality.

Kaitlyn turned to Megan and grinned. “And you must be the best friend here to make sure that,” she 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. She'd been so nice, so generous, and I’d accused her 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 she got pissed off that I even insinuated she might be anyone other than who she was.

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

Kaitlyn moved forward as though she was going to hug Megan 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.

Megan, for her part, held up a hand and pressed it against Kaitlyn's chest. Kaitlyn looked down then back up with an arched eyebrow and a smile that finally broke through Megan's tough exterior and brought out a blush. Still, Megan didn't lose her composure entirely even if she did seem flustered as her next words came out.

“Whoa there! 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!” Kaitlyn said with a chuckle. “And your name is?”

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

"Her name is Kaitlyn," I said.

Megan blinked. She looked at me and then back to Kaitlyn, confusion plain on her face. "How do you know that? Did she message you or something? Are you holding out on me?"

I shook my head and laughed. "Y'know it's times like this that make it clear you should read the books your favorite video game is based on, Megan."

"What? What do those books have to do with anything?"

Kaitlyn laughed and then quickly schooled her face to a serious expression when Megan fixed her with a sharp glance. I suppose in a way it was probably a good thing that Megan was here to provide a little bit of reality as I was sitting here star struck at meeting my favorite author and finding out that my favorite author also had the hots for me at the same time!

Kaitlyn held a hand out to Megan, who reluctantly took it and shook. "Kaitlyn Morgan," she said. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"That sounds familiar," Megan said. "Like... Oh shit!"

Kaitlyn devolved into giggles and I couldn't help but join her. The look of surprise on Megan's face was just too delicious. It was so hilarious seeing her freaking out like that as she realized she was looking at one of the world's most famous authors.

"I guess that explains how she's able to afford all this stuff," Megan muttered, crossing her arms and suddenly looking annoyed at the whole situation.

"And your name?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Megan," she muttered.

Kaitlyn gestured to the table behind her. “Maybe we should have a seat and keep talking?”

“Fine by me,” I said.

Megan looked around as she took a seat. Then she looked pointedly at Kaitlyn. “Amber said she wanted someplace cheap for lunch. This place doesn’t look cheap, Mrs. Rich-and-Famous-Author.”

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

“Guilty as charged,” she 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,” Kaitlyn 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?”

She shrugged with that twinkle back in her eye. “You’d be surprised. I like to try a new way to get through the crowds without a lot of security every year. You're going to get to see firsthand if it works this year or if we get mobbed!”

Huh. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. On the one hand she was talking about spending time together which was great as far as I was concerned. On the other hand the prospect of being captured and potentially ripped to shreds by a bunch of rabid fans didn't seem quite as fun. I'd seen videos of just how crazy the crowds could get at these things over something as silly as a booth running out of a limited edition plastic figure. I didn't want to think about how ugly things could get if people thought they had a chance to get at Kaitlyn Morgan.

Megan 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 Kaitlyn here isn’t a crazy murderer. Or at least she’s not going to do much murdering in the middle of an expensive restaurant like this.”

Megan fixed an eye on her and pressed her finger into her chest which resulted in another raised eyebrow, but this time at least Megan didn't rise to the bait or blush. “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!”

Kaitlyn chuckled and held her hands up. “No murdering. Promise.”

“Good,” Megan 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!”

“Are you sure Megan?” I asked.

“I really don’t mind having you here,” Kaitlyn said. “And the steak here is delicious. I might even be able to get them to sell it 'ground up and on a bun like God intended' as you so eloquently put it, though the chef will probably cry the entire time he's doing it.”

“No, I’ll just get in the way, and I wouldn't want to make a chef cry,” Megan 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 at Kaitlyn and smiled, a hesitant and uncertain smile. I’d felt the way she reacted when she was hugging me earlier, but there was a part of me that still couldn’t quite believe this wonderful specimen of woman 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. It really was like some sort of Cinderella story, only it was another girl I was interested in rather than Prince Charming. And she was a famous author instead of a Prince. Or a Princess. Whatever.

I was going to have to get used to switching pronouns and titles around if this became a long-term thing.

“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 Kaitlyn do the ordering for me. She seemed to know the place. Once the waiter was gone we launched back into our conversation.

“So did you have a good flight?” she 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,” she said. “I couldn’t resist though.”

I leaned forward and felt her body press against mine. Felt my breath pick up at that simple contact. Yeah, there was no denying the way she 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 I guess this explains everything. How you could just give me a VIP package that’s not even available to buy and act like it’s not a big deal. You own the damn company!”

Kaitlyn shrugged and grinned. “Guilty as charged!”

I shook my head. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't fucking believe it! Kaitlyn Morgan. My online lover was Kaitlyn Morgan! Of course at the same time that had doubt rearing its ugly head. It had my worst-case-senario center going into overdrive. It was one thing when she was just an online hottie who was interested in me, but this was one of the most successful women in the world! I didn't even know she played for the other team, and now she was interested in me?

To say it seemed too good to be true would be one hell of an understatement.

Kaitlyn looked at me and 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 she smiled like that I could almost believe that she really was that into me. That I'd gotten lucky with online dating and gotten one hell of a winner rather than the catfish I was expecting. Hey, I was nothing if not a realist, but when she smiled at me like that realism took a back seat to the fantasy for a moment.

“So are you enjoying everything so far?” she asked. "Is everything what you expected?"

And there was another surprise. It seemed like she was uncertain. That question was asking a hell of a lot more than whether or not I was enjoying the trip so far. Could it be that the great and famous Kaitlyn Morgan was worried about what I thought of her? I suppose if she really was genuinely interested in romancing me that could be the case, but at the same time there were those doubts. Why me? And there was the other question that'd been bothering me ever since I saw her and made the connection.

I hadn't heard anything about Kaitlyn Morgan being a lesbian. Sure that was her own business, but I was pretty damn sure that if she was out I would've heard about it.

"Why aren't you out to the world?" I blurted out. My hand went to my mouth as soon as I said it, but it was out there. Hanging in the air between us. Kaitlyn looked at me for a good long moment and I thought it might be over. I thought I might've ruined the entire thing before it even really got started with my ridiculously nosy question, even if it was a ridiculously nosy question that I felt like I had some right to know considering, well, everything.

Finally she sighed. "I suppose that's a fair question. The truth is it's not really a secret with people I know and am close with. It's sort of an open secret with people I work with and at conventions like this, and it just hasn't really been a thing in the wider world because..."

"Because?"

I knew I was needling her about this, but I was genuinely curious. I knew we were still pretty early in our romance, if you could call it a romance, but at the same time just coming out here to meet her considering she was a "her" was a pretty big deal for me. It was crossing one hell of a line, and I figured that at the very least I deserved some sort of an explanation if I was going to be seen hanging out with her and potentially find myself getting pulled into her "open secret."

Especially considering that I still wasn't one hundred percent sure where I fell on the whole sexuality spectrum aside from the knowledge that I was starting to wonder if I hadn't found a reason why I inevitably got bored with most of the guys I'd been with. I definitely knew I was drawn to Kaitlyn in particular even if I wasn't sure how that translated to other women. I was still confused, and that wasn't helping things let me tell you!

"Because I'm afraid, okay? I've got a good thing going here and a lot has changed, but the idea is still sort of terrifying because what if it all comes crashing down? What if the worst thing possible happens or something and I end up out on the street because fans won't accept it?"

I smiled. A smile which earned an odd look from Kaitlyn. Okay, so maybe a smile wasn't the best response, all things considered, but I couldn't help it. What she was saying felt like such an accurate reflection of my own anxieties. My own tendency to project a worst-case scenario onto any situation. That was a motivation I could understand. That more than anything else went a long way towards explaining why she was so reluctant. So hesitant to come out to the public with her little secret. Okay, her big secret. Her whopper of a secret.

Not that it should really matter. Not today. Not with the way things seemed to be going with gay rights, not that I paid particular attention to that though I suppose I was going to have to now since my dalliance with Kaitlyn meant I fell somewhere on that spectrum even if I wasn't exactly ready to dress exclusively in Birkenstocks and flannel and declare myself completely for one side.

The important thing was I could understand her hesitation. And she did have a hell of a lot to lose considering the empire she'd built up around herself. I reached out and took her hand. A move which sent a shock running through me and caused her to smile.

"Hey, it's okay. I totally understand," I said. "I'm always worried things will take a turn for the worst too."

"Really? I thought I was the only one. Well, me and my mom," she said with a laugh.

"My mom is the same way. I totally think it's a genetic thing!" I said.

We were both almost finished with our lunch and the waiter came over and set the bill down. I grabbed it before Kaitlyn could get it. More out of instinct than anything else. I was used to trying to fight guys to pay for my half of the bill when I was out on a date. Maybe that was another sign? Either way it's not like I had a chance in hell of actually being able to pay the bill at a swank joint like this, but still 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!

“Come on Amber,” she said with only a little bit of reproach in her 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. There really wasn't a chance I was going to be able to foot this bill. Even paying for the tip would probably come close to maxing out the one credit card I had. I felt like I was spiraling further down this fairytale rabbit hole she’d constructed for me, though so far it's not like I really had anything to complain about!

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

Kaitlyn chuckled and took the bill from me. A thin smile moved across her face as she took it. And I blushed. Damn she looked so goddamned delicious every time she smiled like that!

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

“Right. I'm guessing it's tough for you to stop at the food court with everyone stopping and asking for your autograph?”

“We'll see. Did you bring the costume like we talked about?”

“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. Under a modest more role-playing appropriate dress, of course. I’d gotten a good reaction at the regional cons I'd attended but this was the big leagues. Even bigger league than I ever would've imagined since I had a feeling Kaitlyn had access to some of the best costuming supplies known to man. It would be hard to compete with someone who could just call up the production company doing the pay cable miniseries and ask for something custom made, and I was going to be seen right next to her in one of those costumes!

I barely even thought about how risque my own costume was. Only now that I’d gotten a good look at Kaitlyn, now that I knew exactly who it was I was trying to impress, well let’s just say I was glad I’d decided to slut it up just a little bit for the convention.

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

She 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 suite 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 her that she 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 I could give into some of the urges I was feeling right now that ran a very real danger of screwing everything up by going too fast.

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 her. That voice was screaming about how lucky we were that this fine specimen of a girl had flown us out here and she was so nice in person as well as being so incredibly fucking hot. That voice was screaming at me that there was a gorgeous woman who was showing interest in me. That giving in and maybe taking things a little too fast wasn't a huge deal considering how we'd already gone from zero to sixty textually.

That voice won out.

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

Kaitlyn giggled. But there was something that flashed in her 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 her right in the middle of this restaurant, but I held myself back.

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

I needed to calm the fuck down.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

I reached out and took her hand. Sparks danced at that touch. I took in a deep breath as I felt the contours of her hand. As I wondered what it would feel like to have those contours running over my body and not just my hand. To feel them running over me for real and not just in my imagination as I sat in front of a computer screen working on some of that two-person erotica improv I promised myself I'd never partake in.

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

Kaitlyn 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 the 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 here in the big leagues, but I’d been the belle of the ball at the regional cons 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 Kaitlyn about that when we had a free moment, though I found myself desperately hoping we didn't have too many free moments to ourselves!

Not that I minded. It was one of my favorite outfits on my own character even if I did usually cover it up for role-playing and I definitely wasn’t a pervy guy. Then again considering some of the new truths I'd learned about myself with this new relationship with Kaitlyn I suppose it was entirely possible that part of the reason I enjoyed the outfit so much was because of that inclination towards the fairer sex that I hadn't been able to admit to myself until Kaitlyn came along and unlocked it. Either way I knew of one girl who I couldn’t wait to show off for. I felt a rush that went straight down between my legs as I hoped she was feeling just a little pervy today!

I stopped cupping the bikini top and immediately it fell causing my tits to pop out. Again. Now there was something that would 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.

Then again I'd definitely get on there if I had that sort of wardrobe malfunction while I was walking around with Kaitlyn Morgan. No, better to play it safe. Very safe. 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 Kaitlyn. 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 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.

I had to take the elevator down to the top floor since the suite was only accessible by said elevator. I was all ready to go by the time it dinged and started opening.

“My…”

I looked her up and down in her costume and my mouth fell open. Damn.

“Hero!”

I mean, I knew Kaitlyn looked good. I’d seen firsthand just how damn sexy she was back at the restaurant. Still, none of that could prepare me for seeing her in that costume. Bright green eyes, tousled short hair that she'd somehow found time to restyle in the short amount of time we were apart, a stunning smile, mouth watering tits barely contained by her bikini top that ran down to a slim waist and perfectly flared hips, all revealed thanks to the lack of clothes that went with her warrior costume.

Then again I suppose that was to be expected considering some of the resources she had access to!

It was completed by a warrior helmet that looked almost movie-quality it was so good. I say "helmet," but in reality it had more in common with a mask than a helmet. There had to be some in-world excuse for a magical field providing all the protection because the "helmets" that lady warriors wore in game were really just masks that covered their eyes and nose. More Zorro than knight in practical armor.

Her mask was pulled up revealing her twinkling eyes though. She probably wanted to make sure I knew it was her and not some random sexy girl walking around in a costume that looked like it had been pulled directly from the costume department of the pay cable miniseries. If this actually blossomed into something real I'd have to talk to her about getting at her costume supply.

"My lady elf,” she said with a bow.

I blushed as she used the term from our role-playing sessions. Just hearing those words on her lips was enough to send another wave of warm pleasure coursing through my body and pussy. God was she gorgeous.

She stood up from her bow. “May I come in my lady?”

“Sure,” I managed to get out. I gestured and we rode back up to the suite in silence. I was so nervous. Where was this going? I knew where I wanted it to go but was she on the same page? Who was I kidding? It seemed like she was on the same page as me. Was she really on the same page as me? And why was my mind running on overdrive like this?

I turned and watched her ass sway seductively back and forth in her costume as she moved into the room. She turned to me with a raised eyebrow. “Nice digs. How's a poor grad student like you able to afford all this?”

I giggled. I wasn't normally a giggling sort of person, but for Kaitlyn it seemed that giggling was the order of the day. Only that giggle was quickly stifled. The way she looked at the suite was nothing compared to how she looked at me. Her eyes ran up and down my body like a lover’s caress. Seeing her eyes run over me like that made me want to feel her running other things all over me in a lover’s caress. I needed her. I desperately needed this to go where I thought it was going, even if it was crazy that things were moving so fast.

Kaitlyn made me want to do things I'd never done before. Try things I'd never tried before. She made me want to speed things from zero to a hundred and damn the consequences.

“You look amazing Maia,” she said. “Or should I say Amber?”

The sound of her voice made me blush. There was a barely concealed lust, an obvious hunger, hidden in the way she choked out those words. It was as though this goddess standing before me, deadly curves and all, was barely able to control herself. I pressed myself back against the elevator wall both because I didn’t trust myself and because seeing her standing there in that costume brought to mind some of the naughty things we’d gotten up to in that dungeon a few weeks back. Things that I desperately wanted to repeat here.

Only we’d just met! The rational part of me said it was too soon even as the heat in my belly, and in other more interested bits of anatomy for that matter, was screaming full steam ahead!

The elevator dinged and I realized it was about to close with me in it and Kaitlyn in my room. Damn it. I was getting distracted by the sexy. I needed to stop getting distracted by the sexy. I quickly put a hand in the door before it could close leaving Kaitlyn alone in the suite. I made sure to shove my hand through because I didn't want it to ruin the costume and my wrist was the only bit of my anatomy that didn't have a fragile piece of plastic attached to it.

“You’re looking pretty good yourself,” I said as I stepped through the door and it closed behind me.

“Well I wouldn’t want to disappoint my lady Maia,” she said.

It was odd hearing her use my in game name. Of course that’s what I went by most of the time, considering how much time I spent in game, but it was still weird hearing it in the real world. Over voice chat? Sure. In guild chat? Not odd at all. It really was my second name. This was just the first time that name had intruded into real life other than brief conversations with Megan.

I kind of liked it.

“My Lady is too kind,” I said. Talking like this actually helped to take the edge off. If I was in character then it’s as though it wasn’t happening to me even as this most definitely was happening to me. It was like I was in the world’s sexiest out of body experience as she took a step towards me. Was this really happening? It was happening. I couldn’t believe it but it was happening.

I gasped. she looked so amazing. It was obvious from her catlike grace and the way her toned body moved that she spent her fair share of time in the gym. She took another step, and another. My breathing was picking up. This reminded me of her character advancing on mine in the forbidden role-playing scenario from a few weeks back. From that night when I violated all of my principles for this girl.

From the barely concealed lust playing across her face it was obvious that’s what she was going for. That’s what she was remembering.

“I think my Lady elf is just being polite,” she said. “I think my Lady elf is only saying such things because I’ve managed to capture her.”

I turned my head away, both so she couldn’t see the blush on my face and because it seemed like the right thing to do. I knew where she was going with this and it had me so fucking turned on for some reason. There were so many things we could do with this scenario in the real world that we couldn’t when it was just two characters on the screen chatting at one another. The way Kaitlyn was able to switch into a role-playing scenario at the snap of a finger was so damn hot. Just like with the online session I couldn't believe I was doing this, this wasn't something I'd ever done before, and yet I was so fucking turned on that I couldn't stop!

My nipples strained out towards her body, brushing against the hard plastic of my bikini top, and I could feel myself soaking through my panties. Damn. I was going to have to get control of myself before I ruined this damn costume before I even had a chance to wear it out on the convention floor.

“I would never try to deceive my Lady,” I whispered.

I felt her rather than saw her as she approached. My head was still turned to the side. I was still looking down. Demure, proper, exactly how I imagined an elven sorceress would act when captured by a dangerous and devastatingly beautiful human.

Or at least how I would want to act in this scenario. This was all play, after all. Probably the hottest role-play I'd ever had in my life. Damn!

“Yet my Lady elf mocks me even with her words,” she said.

I gasped and closed my eyes as one of her delicate yet surprisingly strong hands reached out and cupped my chin. Forcefully she pulled my head to the side, and I felt another thrill run through my body accompanied by a rush of wetness between my legs as she held my gaze. She was staring down at me with that same intensity, that same hunger, and I saw her eyes run up and down my body. My chest was heaving, my breasts pressing up as they strained out to her.

“How am I mocking my Lady?” I asked.

“Every time you call me my Lady, elf,” she said, making “elf” sound like a four letter word. “I am no Lady.”

“But you’ve captured me,” I said. “Doesn’t that make you my Lady?”

Kaitlyn grinned, a suddenly rakish grin that had me conjuring up images of a powerful warrior taking control that was completely at odds with the rather mundane surroundings of the suite. I smiled and I melted under that grin. I was starting to feel weak in the knees. It was everything I could do to maintain my composure, to stay standing while she looked at me like that. That smile, a cocky half grin, was such a turn on. All I wanted her to do was lean down and press her lips against mine. Only she couldn’t. Not yet. That wouldn’t be in keeping with this suddenly deliciously dominant character, and keeping in character was part of the fun.

“I think I like the sound of that,” she said.

I licked my lips. “What else would my Lady like now that my Lady has me at her mercy?”

Her eyes running down my body left no doubt as to exactly what it was she wanted. Our one role-playing session that veered into this territory also left no doubt in my mind as to exactly what she wanted from me. I was a little hesitant because this was so new, because I'd never done this with a woman before, but at the same time the horny side of me that was so intrigued by this woman was throwing caution to the wind and saying "fuck it." It was one hell of an introduction to the fairer sex!

“It’s not what I want,” she said. “It’s what is mine. What I’m going to take.”

Besides, in the context of this role-play it's not like I had any choice anyways. Of course I could tell her no. I could back out and she'd go along with it, but that wouldn't be any fun, would it? I licked my lips as she moved closer. As her hand reached out.

I moaned as her hand made contact with my skin. She ran it up and down my stomach, moving down to just over the top of my bikini bottoms where she ran the tips of her fingers just inside but refused to go further, leaving me panting and wanting so much more.

It was crazy. It was just a little forbidden. It went against everything I thought I knew about my sexuality before I found myself captivated by this woman. And I couldn't deny it. I wanted to feel her touch, I needed to feel her body against me. I wanted to feel her hands against my pussy. Yet she withdrew her hand with a smile and a quiet giggle. Obviously she could tell exactly what I wanted and obviously she was going to leave me in delicious agony for a little longer.

Kaitlyn's other hand traced up my stomach and in between my cleavage, pausing to run along the underside of my breasts. Looking at her eyes looking at me and my costume, seeing the hunger there, was too much for me. I took a deep breath and pressed my tits out, wanting her to appreciate them.

I’d dreamed this would happen when I invited her up here, and now that we were actually doing this I was ready to throw myself at her. It had been far too long, I was far too turned on, and who cared if this was another girl making me feel this way? Fuck it. I was going with it if it felt this good! Standing here in this costume, wearing this outfit that I wore so often in the game, feeling her eyes on me and knowing this gorgeous creature obviously wanted me so much, it made me feel like I could be myself, the game me, the real me, out here in the real world. It made me feel bold in a way hadn’t been in a good long while. The way I was acting with her considering we’d just met in person for the first time was so brazen that I was astonished at myself, and yet I was completely at her mercy.

Here I was in a suite over the biggest Elassa convention in the world, this amazing girl pressed against me acting out a scorching role-playing improv, and all I wanted to do was get down on my knees and beg for more. Get down on my knees and beg to be her captive elf slave. Get down on my knees and do a hell of a lot more than beg, if you catch my meaning. Submit to her entirely.

Kaitlyn’s hand ran along my tits and then she was moving her hand around the back of my outfit where I’d pulled my hair together in a braid to give a good view of my pointed prosthetic ears. I made another mental note to ask her if she could maybe get me access to some of the prosthetics they used on the cable show because they were always so much better than anything I could do myself. I closed my eyes and gasped as her hand wrapped around the braid.

She gripped my hair and pulled, just hard enough that it was obvious she was in control, just on the edge of pain, but not to the point that she was actually hurting me. I gasped.

“I think I see something I want to take right here,” she said.

“No…” I whispered.

I thought things were hot and heavy when we were doing this sort of thing in-game, but it was so much hotter, so much more incredibly sexy acting this out in person. Feeling her pressing her body against me, actually having her hand wrapped around my braid taking command in a way she hadn’t even when we were together in-game.

“What was that?”

I opened my eyes and glared at her. Decided to really play it up. “No. You’ll never have me!”

“Are you defying me?”

I wasn’t sure how this next part would be received, but I did it anyways. I leaned back, summoned all of my courage wondering if this would ruin the moment even as I did it, and spit in her face. Talk about going for some veritas!

“That’s what I think of you and your orders,” I said.

I didn’t ruin the moment.

Kaitlyn's response was immediate and incredibly hot. She whirled me around, keeping a hold on my hair while her other hand ran around behind me so she could pull me along. Which might've hurt but I got the idea so I just went along with it as she pulled me by my pony tail through the suite and into my room. After a false start where she started towards Megan's room and I had to grunt and point her in the right direction with my eyes. Once we were in my room she pulled me right over to my bed and threw me down. Briefly I worried that being thrown around like that might be enough to dislodge something on my costume. It was certainly enough to dislodge my phone from where I’d wedged it between my tits.

I wasn’t really concerned about my tits popping out so much as something on the costume breaking. I’d taken a long time putting the thing together, after all, and no matter how hot this was I didn’t want my elaborate costume breaking right before the convention. But it held. Surprisingly enough even the double-sided tape keeping my top in place held. I suppose this was as good a stress test as I could hope for.

Only I didn’t want to think about my real world costume. I wanted to be lost in the fantasy right now. I wanted to be as far from the real world as possible. I wanted to feel like I was in the world of Elassa, that this was my lusty human guardian being overcome by her desires as she captured me and took me for the first time. I wanted to feel it all. I didn’t care if I’d just met her in person for the first time. I didn't care if I'd never done this with a girl in a non-textual way. I didn’t care if this was crazy. It was crazy, but I didn’t care.

I wanted Kaitlyn. Needed her.

I quickly got my wish. No sooner had she thrown me down on the bed, the springs squeaked under me as I bounced once then came to rest which was a little surprising considering how expensive everything was here, than she was on top of me. Our plastic armor clacked together and I couldn’t help but giggle. She looked down, realized what was going on, and let out a laugh of her own. It was definitely an odd little out of character moment, but it was comforting for all that.

Only she didn’t give me much of a chance to think about it. No sooner had she looked down and chuckled at our costumes clacking together than she was on me again, attacking me. Her lips pressed against mine, insistent. I didn’t open my mouth to her so much as she pressed her tongue against me and forced it open. I clenched my teeth, pretending to fight her, and she tightened her grip on my braid until I opened my mouth with a gasp and then her tongue was inside exploring my mouth.

Kaitlyn was playing me like I was a familiar instrument and she knew how to hit every note. And now that we were coming together in the real world, having a real experience instead of secreting ourselves away in some secret online dungeon, it was oh so much hotter. Oh so much more incredible than anything we’d done online. The only thing that was preventing this from being even more awesome was the plastic armor getting in the way. Time to fix that.

I reached down and ran my hand along her costume but couldn’t figure out how to get it off. When she realized what I was doing Kaitlyn rolled to the side and started fumbling at the plastic from her top. I heard a snap and a moment later the plastic fell to the bed and she kicked it off the side as her perfect breasts stood out proud just begging to be licked and sucked on. I was surprised she’d toss around her costume like that, but at the moment I was more concerned with what was under her top than with her willingness to risk breaking her costume that she could probably replace in an instant anyways. In a daze I reached out and ran my hands along her nipples and she closed her eyes and gasped in pleasure.

I spent what felt like an eternity just exploring the contours of her breasts. They were so soft and yet the tips were so hard as they strained for my touch. Holy damn was this amazing! I mean I'd felt a pair of tits before. I had my own, after all, and I knew how much fun it could be to have them played with. Yet there was something different about feeling hers. Something so naughty and forbidden and different about exploring another woman's body that was setting my own body on fire.

I'd never seen what the big deal was before when guys got so obsessed with these things, but I was starting to see the appeal now! Damn! And if her tits felt that amazing then who's to say other parts of her wouldn't be equally fun?

With that in mind I slipped my hand into her bottoms, though it was made more difficult because the costume was so tight against her body. Once more she reached down and gave me an assist, pressing her breasts into my stomach as she lifted her ass up and worked at the clasps on her bottoms, then they came loose and my hand was moving down between her legs. I sighed even as she moaned as my hand made contact with that treasure between her legs. My eyes widened in surprise.

“Oh God Amber,” she said, apparently forgetting herself in the moment and using my real world name rather than my in-game name. Not that I was complaining.

“I think this is my favorite surprise of all,” I purred.

“I hoped you'd like it,” she said.

God. The cockiness was such a turn on. I moved my hand up and down her pussy, feeling the delicious contours as my fingers danced over its warmth. She felt so amazing, so soft, and I pressed a finger inside her in a little move that I always loved when I was having a little fun on my own. My mouth watered feeling her.

I had to see her.

Only first things first. I had to make sure I was staying in character, after all.

“Please don’t make me,” I said.

Confusion crossed her face for the briefest of moments, and then confusion was replaced with understanding. She smiled at me, but then her smile turned to a scowl.

“I command you to pleasure me,” she said.

“No please,” I said. “Anything but that!”

Okay, so it wasn’t like I was going to win any awards for my acting, but at the same time it’s not like there was an Academy award for best female lead performance in a dirty hotel fantasy scenario. Plus, judging by the way her body twitched against my hand as I said that, she definitely seemed to approve of my performance.

Kaitlyn’s hand moved around and pulled on my hair again, only this time she pulled up just enough to guide me down. My mouth watered and my eyes twinkled as I looked up at her, not quite believing that I was actually doing this, but then I let out a cry as though I was in pain. We both knew it was bullshit, but it was all part of the performance. All part of the fun.

And talk about fun. I was turned on in a way that I'd never been before when I was going down on a guy, and I hadn't even gotten down there with her yet! Usually going down on a guy was something that I did out of a sense of obligation more than any sense of enjoyment, but this was something that I was anticipating in a major way. My body was shuddering with desire.

Kaitlyn continued pulling down and my face was moving past her amazing chest, down past abs that I couldn’t help but flick my tongue out and lick. They were rock hard. And they were fucking amazing. Everything that I’d fantasized about, everything that I’d imagined and hoped for, and then some.

Then she was pressing me down between her legs and I was lightheaded. I was on fire. I felt more alive sexually than I ever had before. Like I was discovering something for the first time. Like I'd found a key to open a door that made everything right with the world and I hadn't even realized anything was wrong. I couldn’t help myself. I took a deep breath and inhaled her scent, moved my tongue out again and ran it along the outer edge of her pussy lips which tasted different, but amazing.

I moved my tongue out a third time and pressed it in between those lips, exploring the contours of another woman's body. Hers was similar to my own and yet completely different. The taste was different, the feel was different, everything was different and it was intoxicating.

“Yeah, that's it!” she gasped.

The commanding tone sent a delicious shiver running through me.

My eyes widened in astonishment as I buried my face between her legs. As I decided to jump straight into that forbidden world I'd started to explore online and needed to continue exploring now that I had this opportunity right in front of me in every sense of the word. Her taste was intoxicating. Her smell was intoxicating. The way her body jumped and writhed under my tongue's movements was dizzying. Hearing her gasps, feeling the way she was pulling on my braid and using it to subtly exert control as though I was still some captive elf under the thrall of a sexy human warrior drove me wild.

Hell yes!

I didn’t have any experience with this. It wasn't anything like sucking a dick which I had more experience with even if it wasn't my favorite thing in the world. So I just did what I liked. I thought about what I enjoyed, what I wished a guy would do for me when he was going down on me. I took every fantasy, every little trick that drove me wild when I was working on myself. I figured that was as good a place as any to start, and from the way she was writhing under my tongue it seemed like it was working! Making her feel good made me feel good. It was sending an impossible warmth coursing through my body. It was setting every nerve ending in my body on fire in a way that being with a guy never had.

Once again, it's like I was discovering something new about myself. Something a little scary, sure, but amazing for all that.

As I devoured her I felt like everything was right. She was delicious. There seemed to almost be a sweet flavor that had me wanting to lap it all up. It had me wanting to feel every part of her sex inside my mouth.

In the past when giving head I’d been hesitant, unsure of myself, but I wasn’t feeling any of that now. I was a high elf priestess, I was the object of this girl's desire, she was taking me and I was hers, and I was going to make sure that I gave her the best head of her life even though she probably had way more experience giving and receiving from a woman than I did and it's not like this is something I'd ever done before but damn it this was new and exciting and I was going to try my best and I was letting my thoughts run away again.

In an instant I buried my tongue completely inside her. I blinked in surprise even as she gasped in pleasure up above. I was rewarded with a low guttural moan. It was fucking hot listening to the sound, knowing she was moaning like that because of my mouth working on her pussy. That encouraged me to new heights of performance. I paused for a moment, holding my breath, and adjusting to the sensation of a pussy against my lips.

Then I pulled my tongue back and moved in again. I held my tongue in place then ran it along the length of her pussy lips as best as I could, and once more I was rewarded with her body jerking under my tongue. The taste of her outer lips was different from her depths, but it was no less sexy. It had a tangy quality to it. A feminine quality that had me going wild.

Her moans only grew louder and louder as I continued to work my inexperienced magic on her pussy. I felt so naughty, so dirty. Yet it felt so right, so amazingly sexy. I couldn’t believe I was doing this when I’d only known her in person for a few hours, couldn't believe I was actually doing this to a woman, and yet it felt so right.

Her hand moved down around my braid again and she was moving her hand up and down as though she was guiding my mouth. Not to the point that she was actually forcing me down on her pussy, but just enough that it felt like she was taking control. To be perfectly honest I welcomed the feedback. I didn't know if what I was doing was right, and her hand guiding my head provided a little extra feedback that was sorely needed in the moment.

“Yeah, that’s it,” she said. “Eat my pussy! Eat it elf bitch!”

Kaitlyn’s dirty talk sent a thrill through me as she took command. We’d only hinted at a bit of submission in our previous role-playing session, but in the moment I was discovering how much of a thrill it gave me to take on a submissive role like this.

I continued devouring her until I felt an odd sensation, a twitching coming from her hips. Suddenly her legs were squeezing around me and she used that grip on my long braid to hold my head in place, preventing me from pulling away but it's not like I was complaining anyways as she threw her head back and started screaming. As her body started shuddering and I knew she had to be coming.

It was amazing. It was enthralling. I felt lightheaded as I felt her coming against my lips, against my tongue. As I felt that explosion running through her body and knew I was the one who caused it. I was the one who made her feel this damn good! It seemed like she held me there for an eternity, to the point that I worried I might have trouble breathing if she kept it up for much longer, but then with a final gasp she released me. Her legs moved apart and I looked up at her as she grinned down at me.

“Damn,” she said in a strangled voice, like she was barely in control.

Kaitlyn tugged on my hair and pulled me away from her pussy. I felt a stab of disappointment as that heaven pulled away from my mouth, but something told me she had far more interesting things in store for me. I was a dutiful little captive elf priestess and did as she commanded with her hands.

Those far more interesting things became obvious almost immediately as she pulled me up and flipped me around on the bed. she held a wrist in each of her hands as she pressed her naked body and her soaking wet pussy against my bikini bottoms. Feeling her pressing against my body was amazing, it was sending me over the edge and she hadn't even touched my pussy yet! I felt lightheaded, dizzy, overwhelmed with pure lust. I needed her to take me.

One of her hands moved to my neck. I opened my eyes and looked up at her with a smile, but then almost immediately schooled my expression to one of worry.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to fuck you my pretty little elf priestess, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” she said.

“Oh no! Anything but that,” I said.

“You don’t have a choice,” she said.

“Be careful with the clasps,” I muttered.

“What?”

“The clasps on my costume. I don’t want you to ruin the thing,” I whispered.

“Oh,” she grinned sheepishly. “Right. I'm so used to these things being disposable.”

I had to really work not to let out a sputtering choking gasp of surprise at that. Disposable? The thing she was wearing? That screen accurate thing that probably cost thousands of dollars? Yeah, it was just another reminder that she lived in a completely different world from the one I was used to.

Then immediately the scowl was back on her face. “Did I give you permission to speak, elf bitch?”

“I’m so sorry my Lady!”

Yet when she reached down she was careful to undo the clasps holding the entire contraption in place. Good. I spent enough time working on this thing that I really didn’t want her to ruin it by getting overcome by the moment and doing something silly like ripping the bottoms aside thinking it would be hot.

Fuck, it would be hot, but I would also be extremely pissed off. These costumes weren't disposable to me. They were fucking expensive!

The clasps flipped open and she pulled my bikini bottoms aside. I was completely exposed to her, and it was fucking incredible. I reached behind to undo my top and set it off to the side where I hoped we wouldn't roll into it in the throes of passion.

A moment later we were both completely disrobed and she was over me, one hand holding down my wrists while the other moved down in between my legs. I'd hoped for her to give me the same treatment I'd just given her, but I also had to admit that the way she was holding me down, the way she was staring at me as her fingers made contact with my sopping wet pussy, was pretty damn hot too! I let out a gasp followed by a quiet moan as her fingers pressed against me. Only before she pressed inside we had another brief out of character moment.

“You’re okay, right? Everything's still cool?”

“Yeah,” I gasped. "Though there is one thing..."

I reached up and pulled her mask up. She grinned, seemed to get the idea, and allowed me to pull it off and toss it to the side.

“Good," she said with a grin as she leaned down to peck me on lips that were still slick with her juices. Then the smile was gone and the commanding human warrior was back growling down at me. "Because I’m going to blow your mind and make your tight elf pussy mine and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

It was odd the things you thought about at times like this. I should've been thinking about how hot this was. About how crazy it was that I was getting with a woman. Instead I found myself desperately hoping that Megan decided to stay down at the convention. I’d die of embarrassment if she happened to wander back up to our suite and heard us yelling these things at one another that, while hot in the moment, would sound absolutely ridiculous to someone listening in. Still, nothing for it but to go along with the act!

“Oh no! Anything but that! I can’t be sullied by a human barbarian!”

“You don’t have a fucking choice, my lady elf. I'm going to take you and there’s not a fucking thing you can do about it,” she roared.

And then she plunged her incredible fingers deep inside my pussy.

Oh my God. I don’t know if it was her, the scenario, or just how completely out of character I was acting now that I was playing the part of this character, but the feeling of her fingers expertly exploring my pussy was incredible, overwhelming. I felt sparks go off throughout my body and lights danced in front of my eyes, only to be replaced by her face looking down at me. She still had the scowl, and I looked down and took in the sight of her incredible tits heaving and pressing down against my own, of her amazing tight body, of her fingers sliding in and out slick with my juices as she pulled out and thrust inside me again. Of her tongue as she leaned down and ran it around one of my nipples as she continued working her magic down below.

I was wetter than I’d ever been in my life, which was understandable considering how worked up I was by the situation and how she seemed to know exactly what the fuck she was doing as she explored me with those magic fingers. I was more turned on than I’d ever been in my life, which made it all the more amazing every time her fingers found a particularly delightful spot even I didn't know about sending new waves of orgasmic pleasure roaring through my body.

“Oh no!” I yelled.

“Oh yes,” she growled.

“Please, please my Lady I beg you! I can’t sully my body with your human touch!”

“You’re being blessed with my human touch, elf!”

Briefly I wondered if maybe we were getting a little out of hand with the whole role-playing scenario. If somebody who wasn’t from the convention, who wasn’t used to all the hanky-panky that supposedly happened at these things, heard us then they might be making a call to the police even as we were screaming. Of course it’s not like there was much danger of anyone other than Megan overhearing us anyways since we were all alone up here in this suite at the top of the hotel.

Not that I had much time to think about that. I let out a moan as her fingers bottomed out inside me. “I know you want this, elf. I can feel the way your body is responding. Give in!”

Oh God. That was it. It was ridiculously over the top, but it was what I needed. The sparks that had been dancing through my body as she expertly manipulated my pussy turned into an explosion. I felt blood rushing to my head and my pussy clamped down on her fingers as she buried them inside me. I felt an impossible tingle, an incredible heat, as my back arched and every muscle in my body tensed at once under the incredible feel of the orgasm crashing over me.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer to me, pulled her delicious tits against my own. Struggled to feel as much of her body pressing against my own as I could. Fuck was this intense! It was more incredible than any orgasm I'd had before and it just kept coming!

“No! Oh please no!”

“Yes! By the gods yes!”

With one last mighty roar, a roar that was probably a little over the top but I wasn’t judging, I felt an explosion that was more intense than anything that had come before. An explosion that sent stars dancing at the edge of my vision. An explosion that actually blacked me out for a moment, and when I came to she was smiling down at me and I was feeling delicious smaller explosions running through my body as she pulled her fingers out and then pulled them up to smell them and lick them clean which sent another orgasmic aftershock surging through my body.

Then she rolled off to the side and I turned to face her, smiling at her, running a hand along her cheek and then down to the delicious swell of her tits, down to her abs. God she was so sexy, so hot. I still couldn’t believe I’d done that, but I couldn’t deny how wonderful it felt. I couldn’t deny that I desperately wanted to do it again, and soon.

“That was amazing,” I said.

“More incredible than I could’ve imagined,” she said.

I leaned forward and kissed her, a quick peck on the lips, but a familiar kiss that seemed to wrap all of our time with one another online together with this incredibly hot session we had in the hotel room.

“I’m thinking this is the start of something wonderful,” I said.

Kaitlyn grinned, and the grin was all the response I needed. It sent a warm feeling coursing through my body that had nothing to do with that amazing session we’d just had. Okay, maybe it had a little to do with that session, but there was so much more there as well. She really was everything I’d fantasized about and more. I was afraid to say more than I already had, but I could feel myself falling for her and I desperately hoped she felt the same way.

A few minutes later I was still lying back on the bed, completely nude, as Kaitlyn stood and started putting her costume back together. I leaned up on one elbow and watched. God she was so delicious. So much more delicious than anything I could have imagined. The picture I saw on her profile definitely didn’t do the real-life version justice.

She looked down at me and grinned. A blush moved across her face and she looked down as though she was suddenly self-conscious. Though I couldn’t imagine why a perfect specimen of woman like her would ever be self-conscious with a body like that!

“That’s an odd look,” she said.

“What can I say? You're fucking gorgeous!”

She paused as she was pulling on her plastic armored top. “You’re pretty fun to a look at yourself you know."

I blushed at the compliment, but I also felt a delicious rush of the most amazing arousal running through me. It was definitely making me feel more confident by the minute the way she was looking at me. Knowing that I’d managed to catch the interest of a girl that sexy, and not only because of my prose, was one hell of an ego boost. Part of that might've been that I was still basking in the afterglow of all the amazing impossible things we'd just done, but whatever. I'd take this incredible feeling.

Kaitlyn went back to putting her costume on and I decided it’d probably be a good idea to get my own on. To be perfectly honest I was a little annoyed that I’d taken the costume off in the first place, no matter how much fun the actual taking off had been. The thing took forever to get into, and I was going to have to get out more double-sided tape.

For about ten minutes the room was filled with the whoosh of cloth undergarments being pulled on and the clattering of plastic armor being snapped into place over that cloth. Finally I stood in front of the mirror once more and looked myself up and down. Sure it was annoying getting and out of this thing, and I prayed to any higher power that might be listening at the moment that I wouldn’t feel the urge to go to the bathroom while I was out on the convention floor, but I looked damn good.

I turned around just in time to see Kaitlyn pulling her mask back on. I arched an eyebrow.

“Do you have to put that thing on?”

“Well it is part of the costume,” she said. "Besides, it's not like we're going to get that far out there on the convention floor if I'm not wearing a mask."

I stared and was feeling just a little skeptical. It always seemed ridiculous that a simple mask or a pair of glasses would be enough to hide someone's identity, and as I stared at her I had a hard time believing anyone would be able to look at her and not see Kaitlyn Morgan. Still, I knew who I was looking at and what I was looking for. I suppose anyone who stared at her on the convention floor might just see a hot girl in a bikini, and it's not like anyone would expect the author of the books and convention guest of honor would be running around in a ridiculous getup like that.

Maybe hiding in plain sight was just what was needed. She'd know better than me.

Kaitlyn held out an arm and I moved to take it. She smiled and we made our way to the door. Only before I hit the button to call the elevator she turned to face me. I found myself distracted by the sexy in a major way. The way she held herself, the way her body looked in that bikini. I'd just had her and still it was taking all of my concentration not to try and jump her again! My mouth was hanging open and watering as I stared at her.

“Amber?”

I shook my head. Had she been talking to me? She'd been talking to me. Damn it. She'd been talking to me and I’d been so lost in staring at her body that I hadn’t even realized it! I was definitely going to have to get control of myself if we were going to have any sort of weekend.

“I’m sorry, I got distracted for a moment there,” I said.

“No problem,” she said.

I sniffed and crossed my arms under my breasts, a move that seemed to draw her attention in much the same way that she'd been drawing my attention moments ago. “You were saying?”

Kaitlyn reached out and ran a finger along my cheek. Despite myself I closed my eyes and leaned into that loving caress. “I was just saying that I know this is early, but I have a feeling this is the start of something special.”

I felt myself melting at those words. I was going weak in the knees, which wasn’t a good thing. If I collapsed while I was wearing this costume then there was a very good chance I’d break something. So I leaned forward and pressed against her chest.

“I think I agree,” I said. “You’ve definitely been a pleasant surprise.”

I swiped my card and we moved into the elevator.

“A pleasant surprise? How so?”

I looked her up and down and was pleased to see her blush under that appraisal.

“Let’s just say that a girl like you should be too good to be true,” I said. “Usually in a situation like this I’d figure I was getting catfished, or that you were lying about something, but this has turned out to be a crazy Cinderella story I never would've believed before I found myself in the middle of it!”

Kaitlyn grinned and she held out her arm again as the doors opened onto the top-level. We made our way towards the elevators and down to the convention and all the crazy fun that awaited us there.

15: Elassa Con

The convention hall was absolutely incredible once we actually managed to get in there. I learned the hard way that people in impressive and/or sexy costumes quickly got waylaid by anyone with a camera. It didn't matter whether or not they knew this was Kaitlyn Morgan they were taking a picture of because the sexy costume and two attractive girls in said sexy costumes was more than enough to draw attention all on its own. It seemed like no matter how many people came up to take a picture there was always somebody there ready to replace the person who just left.

I had a feeling if I’d stayed in the first spot we got stopped, right off of the elevator into the main lobby of the hotel where thankfully the flimsy mask seemed to be enough to hide Kaitlyn's identity after all, it would’ve been possible for me to stand there for the entire convention and never run out of people trying to take a picture.

Thankfully Kaitlyn pulled me away. She seemed to have more experience with crowds of people wielding cameras, and why not? She'd probably been to plenty of these since she first hit it big, and I'm sure people with cameras trying to sneak a picture was part of the territory for her. Walking along at a brisk pace coupled with keeping our heads down and shaking our heads at anybody who held up a camera seemed to do the trick until we got into the dealer hall. From there it was packed tight enough that we didn’t have to worry too much about people trying to stop us. The flow of the crowd was enough to keep us going past anyone who held up a camera hopefully.

All their hopes were inevitably dashed by the flow of traffic or angry dealers telling people to stop blocking their booth for a picture. I was thankful for those dealers even if some of their anger seemed directed towards us as much as it was towards the assholes with the cameras who were holding up traffic in the first place. Talk about misplaced annoyance.

“So what do you want to do first?” Kaitlyn asked. “We’ve got an hour before I have to give the opening speech, and after that everyone's going to know about this costume and it'll be useless as a disguise for the rest of the convention.”

I looked around the room at the crowd. I couldn’t help but feel like a country girl visiting the big city for the first time even though I was anything but. There was just something about being at my first big convention that was dazzling me.

“This is amazing. It’s so crowded!” I said.

Kaitlyn’s masked head turned to me and she shrugged. “This is actually just the advance crowd. People who got VIP tickets or whatever so they could gain entrance before everybody else. Just wait until you see how packed it gets later this afternoon just before I give the keynote and they let the real crowds in.”

I looked around at the crowds moving through the dealer hall and I couldn’t believe there’d actually be more people. It was amazing being surrounded by this many fans of the Elassa series. Seeing so many people who were kindred spirits, so many people who loved the series as much as I did, all in one place was incredible. Hell, some of these people probably had a lot more dedication than I did. They’d actually paid their way out here. I just happened to get lucky and had no intention of attending the convention until I stumbled into Kaira. Kaitlyn. Whatever her name was. I was still getting the names mixed up. It was hard not to after living so much of our romance online rather than in person.

Something Kaitlyn said finally sank in. Something she said twice, actually, but I'd been so distracted by everything else that it had whooshed right past me the first time she said it.

“Did you say you're giving a keynote?” I asked.

Kaitlyn looked around and grinned at me. “Why yes. I do a keynote every year. I figure it's the least I can do since I haven't actually come out with a new book in a couple of years.”

“Do you have to?”

It was odd, but there was something about being in front of a crowd that was bothering me for a couple of different reasons. The first was that I didn't want to share her with anybody else, not yet. Even thought that was a ridiculous line of thinking since this was a convention dedicated to her works and it was only natural she was going to be the center of attention at some point.

Which brought me to the other reason why I was suddenly feeling a little bit of apprehension. We were supposed to spend the whole day together. That meant we'd be together at the keynote when all the attention would be on her. I desperately hoped that she wasn't planning on doing something silly like pulling me up on stage, though even if she didn't do something like that all attention was going to be on her and it's only natural that people would start asking questions about the girl standing next to her. What sort of answers would she give?

She wasn't out yet. I wasn't out yet. Hell, despite all the recent evidence I still felt like the jury was out on whether or not I had an orientation that needed to be "out" at all. I was probably kidding myself, deluding myself into avoiding the truth because of what it would mean, but there it was. If she was afraid to be out to the crowds, open secret or not, then what about poor me who wasn't used to life in the limelight?

I was coming to the realization that I was about to be pulled into that limelight in a major way even if I wasn't a main fixture. I was going to be the new girl with Kaitlyn Morgan, and I'm sure that was going to raise questions. Even more questions considering she wasn't out, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that. On the one hand I wanted to shout this to the world, but on the other hand I was still a little scared about my private life becoming the public's business. Especially when it was such a major lifestyle change.

In short, I was fucking confused. I wasn't sure how I felt. All I knew was that all the ramifications of this being a woman I was falling for, a woman who led a very public life, had me scared as much as it had me excited. Talk about fucked up, right?

“Well I am the author of the books that started everything. It’d be a little silly if I didn’t say something at my own convention, right?”

I shook my head. I'd been walking along in a daze indulging the worst-case-scenario part of my brain and meanwhile she was going on as though nothing was out of the ordinary. I needed to stomp down on those worries and just enjoy myself, damn it. I needed to stop gaming everything out and worrying about being in the limelight or being out or any of that stuff!

“I suppose that makes sense," I said. I almost brought up the question burning at the forefront of my mind: what was she going to tell people about me, but before I could ask I got distracted by one of the many wonders on offer at the convention.

She pulled me into a booth that had costume supplies. I was so distracted by all the pretty costumes on display that all other worries and concerns left my mind. Damn. They didn't have costumes like this at the regional cons I'd been to, but then again I suppose something like this really was the big leagues for these dealers. I saw plenty of toys I wanted to get my hands on while we were looking at the costume booth, but the prices were enough to dissuade me from actually trying to buy anything.

I studiously avoided looking too interested in any of them for precisely that reason. I glanced sidelong at Kaitlyn who was doing the same to me. The last thing I wanted was for her to step in and start buying me things left and right. I didn't want her to think she could buy her way into my heart, or that she needed to since it was completely unnecessary. I also felt like she'd already spent way too much on me already.

“I could get one of these for you, no problem,” Kaitlyn said.

I held up a hand to forestall her. I guess not looking interested wasn't enough. Or maybe it was being too obvious, since the costume she went for was a corset that I'd been not looking at so hard it had to be damn obvious how interested I was.

“Please. You’ve already done more than enough. You don’t need to spend any more money on me.”

“It’s really not a prob…”

“Seriously, it’s okay,” I said. I glanced down at my phone. “Besides, if we don’t go soon we’re going to miss that keynote.”

I was starting to worry we weren’t going to be able to get into the opening keynote anyways. I’d heard those things filled up pretty quickly, and it was only fifteen minutes until Kaitlyn was supposed to take the stage. I had a feeling we’d get there and find a line of people running through most of the convention center trying to get in and being turned away because the fire marshal frowned on overcrowding rooms even for a major convention appearance by a world-famous author. Not that it would stay overcrowded for long if that world-famous author didn't make an appearance.

Idly I wondered what it would feel like to be stuck in the middle of a riot as Kaitlyn glanced down at her own phone and cursed.

“Shit. I’ve really lost track of time this morning,” she said. Then she glanced at me and grinned. “In the best possible way, of course.”

I grinned right back at her and blushed at the same time. I knew exactly what she was referring to. “So how do we do this? You're not going to make it through the crowd in disguise and you're not going to make it through the crowd if you reveal who you are.”

Only I didn't get an answer. Kaitlyn was furiously tapping something into her phone with one hand and the pulling me along with the other. I stepped out of the booth we were in and looked around. I really didn’t see how we were going to make it to the opening ceremony. The dealer hall was still packed, probably with people who couldn’t get to the keynote in time or who couldn’t afford the VIP seating but could afford to show up to the convention a day early.

“There’s no way we’re getting there in time,” I said.

Kaitlyn lifted her attention from her phone for the briefest of moments and winked at me. “Just wait.”

A beeping noise sounded off in the distance and a moment later that beeping noise turned into a golf cart working its way through the crowd. It had a yellow light flashing up above and it came to a halt right in front of us. Kaitlyn turned to me and grinned. The golf cart with the flashing light was drawing its fair share of attention, but I suppose at this point it wasn't a huge deal if security was here to beat a path for us. A crowd of people watched us, no doubt wondering who the hell we were that this golf cart was picking us up.

I didn’t have much time to think about the gathering crowd though. We were whisked through the convention center and bypassed the long line of people that started outside the dealer hall and ran all the way to the massive room where they were holding the opening keynote. We pulled up to the door where a group of guards took a look at our VIP passes, giving a second look to Kaitlyn when they read the name on the badge but thankfully they kept their mouths shut and avoided inciting a small riot at the entrance to the massive room where they were holding the keynote, and we were escorted right up to the front. An old phrase I'd heard somewhere or another came to mind: it's good to the be the king. Or the queen, in this case.

My seat was front and center. I glanced at my watch. We had five minutes to go. Five minutes until Kaitlyn took the stage. I was so nervous, and I wasn't even the one going up on stage! I looked up at Kaitlyn who was standing over my seat smiling down at me and giving me a once over that sent a chill down my spine at the same time. I couldn't wait until later when we had a chance to get back to the hotel room for round two, especially if she kept looking at me like that!

“You okay here?” Kaitlyn asked.

“I’m fine. Now get up there and do your thing!"

Kaitlyn stood to her full height and looked out over the crowd. I noticed a couple of people taking pictures of her, but it's not like I could blame them. Even if they didn't know she was the main attraction at this thing her costume really was damn impressive. Kaitlyn looked down at me again, took a deep breath, and pulled her mask off.

I know I said that it was ridiculous that something as simple as a mask could be enough to hide someone's identity, but sure enough as soon as she pulled hers off I heard a couple of people around us gasp. It's like they couldn't make the connection between the girl they saw on the back flap of all the Elassa books and the hottie wearing a bikini outfit. Sure it was a little out of character to wear an outfit like that, but it's not like it completely changed what she looked like.

Kaitlyn smiled and gave a little wave to some of the people who recognized her. Some of them started pulling out cameras and phones and taking pictures which had me ducking down in my own seat since it'd be pretty damn obvious that I was with her and that was opening up a confusing can of worms that I didn't want to deal with. Then Kaitlyn turned and headed for the stage.

“What’s your girlfriend up to?”

I looked up and saw Megan taking a seat next to me and looking at Kaitlyn with a slightly bemused expression.

“Well she's sort of the whole reason this convention is happening. Kinda makes sense for her to give a speech. What are you doing here anyways?” I asked.

She held up her pass and it had the same VIP credentials I had. Of course we’d be sitting together. Duh. I felt like an idiot for not thinking of that.

I looked up to the stage where Kaitlyn slipped past security, I noticed a couple of the guys giving her a once over once she was past them and they didn't think she could see which didn't seem like a good idea for their career longevity.

On the other side of the stage a pretty blonde girl in a polo shirt was moving out to a microphone. She had the look of Elassa Corp staff, or maybe a volunteer, and she had the fakest smile I'd ever seen plastered on her face. I blinked as she came up to the microphone and put her hand around the stand.

I recognized that blonde girl, but it was impossible. There was no way she should be here at this convention. She hated genre fiction. In particular she seemed to hate Kaitlyn Morgan. She should be back at our tiny college town and not up there on stage introducing an author that she hated. What the hell was Carrie doing up there?

As she moved up to the microphone she turned and looked out over the crowd and for just a moment her gaze passed me and my breath caught.

"Damn, what did you do to her?" Megan asked.

"What the hell is that bitch doing up there?" I asked.

It made no sense. She hated this stuff with a deep and abiding passion. She was always giving me shit for writing "genre crap" in class. It defied explanation that my nemesis from a small creative writing class at a small college in a sleepy quiet college town would suddenly be right in front of me staring daggers, and yet here she was.

I guess sometimes reality was stranger than some of the improbable twists and turns fiction could take. Figures that reality would be stranger in a way that brought one of the people I least wanted to see in the world to a convention that had otherwise been going pretty damn well.

"No missing that. That was a grade-A bitchy look if I ever saw one," Megan said.

"Yeah, but I want to know what the hell Carrie is doing here," I said.

"Carrie? You mean that crazy chick from your class you're always going on about?"

"None other than," I said.

"Weird," Megan said. "What are the odds?"

It was weird. Very weird. I racked my brain trying to remember if I'd ever noticed anything that would indicate she actually liked Elassa. Sure she knew about Kaitlyn Morgan and seemed to know the series, but other than that I was bringing up a complete and total blank. What the hell was going on here? As though I needed more confusion right now.

Carrie reached the microphone and beamed. "Are we ready?" she shouted, though the shouting didn't really seem necessary since she was shouting into a microphone and all. Leave it to her to grandstand at a thing that wasn't even her event. That was so like her. I crossed my arms and scowled up at her for lack of anything better to do.

The entire room erupted in cheers. Carrie glanced at Kaitlyn and then back to the crowd, but I noticed that was one hell of a lingering glance she gave Kaitlyn. A lingering glance that showed a great deal of interest. Far more interest than I cared to see between another woman and Kaitlyn. What was going on there?

Carrie threw her hand out towards the crowd and her voice boomed through the room as she smiled for the first time, though it looked like a forced smile.

"Okay then! Let's get this con started! Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, her voice echoing through the room. “The one, the only, the great Kaitlyn! Morgan!”

Kaitlyn was a rock star. The room erupted in a standing ovation. They were applauding, screaming, hooting, and making more noise than I'd heard even at rock concerts. Meanwhile Kaitlyn was beaming at the crowd, a calm rock in the middle of that wave of adoration crashing around her, but she also took a moment to look down at me, smile, and wink.

Yeah, this was a whole new world all right. I was still confused about what the hell Carrie was doing up there on stage, but it's not like there was anything I could do about it. So for the moment I just sat back and went with it. Decided to enjoy the show.

I could figure out what the hell was going on with that bitch and why she was staring at my girl later.

16: Action Plan

“So what did you think of the keynote?”

What did I think of the keynote? I thought I was still stunned about this whole thing, and seeing her up on stage with that massive crowd cheering at her had driven home how crazy this was in a major way. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was still in the middle of some sort of geek girl fairytale. After all, it wasn’t every day that you got to meet your favorite artist in the whole world, let alone have a little fun with her in your hotel room and maybe find yourself falling in love with her at the same time!

“I honestly don’t know. I was still so busy processing everything that it kind of went by in a haze,” I said.

“Well did you like it?”

I grinned and reached out to take her hand. Gave it a good squeeze as we walked along the hard concrete. "Yeah, it was a great speech!"

We were being led by a convention staffer who kept a respectable distance through one of the many tunnels that ran under the convention center. One of many tunnels that was cleverly concealed, I might add. I hadn't even realized the things were here until a door opened and we were whisked away to this subterranean world while a horde of fans clamored against a wall of security guards on the other side.

Now that had been an interesting experience. People shouting questions at Kaitlyn. Demanding to know when she planned on getting around to finishing the series. It was like all the bile and hate that you saw directed towards her online was manifesting in the real world and it had been surprising. I couldn't believe people would feel that entitled to be complete pricks over a book of all things. It made me wonder what I was getting myself into being pulled into this world above and beyond any misgivings I might already have about the whole dating a girl thing.

There'd also been Carrie. I was curious what the hell was going on with her. She'd continued to glare at me from time to time. I still had no idea what was going on there. What I did know was that as soon as Kaitlyn hopped off the stage and took my hand, pulled me along with her through that crowd into the line of waiting security guards, Carrie was somehow there and she was staring at me with pure hatred. Even more hatred than all the angry fans who were upset that their new novel had been delayed by a couple of years.

"So what's up with Carrie?"

Kaitlyn stopped. "Carrie?"

There was something about the way she said Carrie's name that had me on guard. She said it slowly, as though she was trying to sound like she was saying the name for the first time but she damn well knew who Carrie was. I immediately felt myself on guard.

"The girl who was introducing you on stage?"

"How do you know her?"

Again there was that odd tone. Slow, as though she thought she was walking through a minefield or something. Now I was even more interested even as I felt panic rising inside me. What the hell was going on here? What had I stumbled into? Another dark thought rose in the back of my head and I stomped down on it.

Carrie was always writing a story about a girl who dumped her a couple of years back. Could Kaitlyn...

No, that was ridiculous. That was my brain working on overdrive and coming up with a completely crazy scenario. I pushed down on that part and concentrated on the conversation at hand.

"She's actually in my creative writing class. Kind of a bitch too," I said.

Kaitlyn barked out a short laugh. "Wow. Small world. You can add "completely crazy" right on top of that whole bitch thing."

I laughed too. "Yeah, you've got that right."

"Yeah, she's sort of been coming to these cons for years," Kaitlyn said.

I blinked. For years?

"You look surprised," Kaitlyn said.

"I am, sort of. I mean the way she goes on in class you'd think she hated fantasy and you in particular."

Kaitlyn took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Well she sort of does hate me. Long story short let's just say she had a crush on me and didn't like being let down."

Huh. Well that seemed reasonable enough. Of course that didn't stop my mind from racing into overdrive. From thinking about how that seemed a little too convenient. At the same time things were going so well otherwise and it seemed like even if Carrie did maybe carry a torch for Kaitlyn the feeling wasn't reciprocated based on the way Kaitlyn talked about her.

Maybe it was a little stupid, but I decided not to pick at this subject any longer. I was supposed to be enjoying myself. I was supposed to not be letting the worst-case-scenario centers of my brain take over. So I ignored the quiet alarm that was going off in the back of my head and decided to trust Kaitlyn.

I took her hand and we started walking again.

"These tunnels are nice," she said. "Some convention centers don't have them. That's actually become one of my conditions for making an appearance. The days when I could walk through a crowd anonymously without a mask or a costume are long gone now. I'm worried it won't be long before someone realizes I go out in costume and then even that will be over."

She sighed and I guess I could understand the sentiment. I wondered how I'd feel if tunnels were the only way to get around without getting rushed by mobs of crazed fans. Of course wasn't I sort of in that situation now? Plenty of people had seen me with her. Plenty of people probably got my picture. I wondered if we'd wind up on any of the gossip sites.

"Well I can sympathize with someone being a little star struck when they see you," I said.

"Oh? Do you know from personal experience or something?"

"Let's just say it's probably a good thing we met online before we met in person. I might've short-circuited if we did things in reverse and then I wouldn't know what a great person you were independent of the superstar mystique," I said, hoping even as I said it that it didn't sound as stupid to Kaitlyn as it sounded to me.

“I’m glad we met the way we did,” she said after a pause where I worried I'd accidentally shoved my foot firmly in my mouth. It wouldn't be the first time I'd done something like that, but it's not like it was entirely my fault either. I had absolutely no experience dealing with the potential minefield that was a superstar dealing with some of the fallout of that stardom!

“Why’s that?”

“In my line of work, especially at these conventions, it’s very difficult to find somebody who likes me for who I am and not for what I am, if that makes sense,” she said.

“No, that makes perfect sense,” I said.

I could only imagine how lonely it must get at these conventions. There was absolutely no one here who would see her for her. For the person rather than the famous writer. Hell, not even some of the star guests, and there were some pretty A-list people here if the online roster I saw was any indication.

I couldn’t begin to pretend to understand leading that sort of life, but I could imagine that it would start to be a serious pain in the ass to wonder whether or not somebody was interested in you because they liked you or if they were just interested in you because you were world-famous and coincidentally super rich.

I suppose in a way meeting online was the perfect way to get around those awkward questions. I liked Kaitlyn well before I knew who she was. If I'm being perfectly honest in the deep secretive recesses of my brain I loved Kaitlyn well before I knew who she was. Still, I figured it would be better to steer the conversation away from getting too deep into that particular subject too early. Besides, she seemed uncomfortable now that we were getting close to questions of her fame.

God. I was still kind of surprised at the whole fame thing. She was Kaitlyn Morgan. She could have any woman she wanted even if it did seem she was still sort of in the closet, and yet she was with me. It was a crazy world if something like that could happen. I didn’t understand what it was she saw in me, not exactly, but at the same time I decided I wasn’t going to worry about that too much. I was going to do my best to strangle the worst-case scenario part of my brain before it could ruin this for me.

“So what’s the plan for the rest of the day?” I asked.

Kaitlyn blushed and looked away for a moment. I felt a moment of panic as she did that. Was something wrong?

“Well the problem is I have a lot of obligations here at the convention,” she said. “A couple of panels, meetings with some people.”

My heart sank as I heard that. She had a busy day, probably too busy to spend time with me.

“If you’re busy then I can make myself scarce. I can find Megan and hang out."

Megan. I hope she got out of that crowd. Hopefully nobody put together that she was sitting with me after Kaitlyn did that hand grab. Megan was scrappy despite the whole pale gamer thing she had going though. I had a feeling if any crazy fans tried to corner her they'd find themselves in a world of hurt.

I forged right on, mumbling and suddenly feeling a bit more morose about what the day had to offer after everything had seemed so promising. "Maybe we can meet up later or something.”

Kaitlyn must’ve stopped as I kept walking because I felt a tug on my arm. I yelped and then turned to a look at her, wondering what the hell she was up to. She was staring at me, totally serious. That sexy smile that I loved so much was gone.

“That’s the last thing I want,” she said.

I felt a chill run through me as she said those words. I felt heat as though I was in the center of a volcano erupting from between my legs to every nerve ending in my body. A very unladylike reaction but fuck it. That was just the sort of reaction she inspired in me.

“I’d like nothing more than for you to spend the rest of the day with me,” she said. “I just worried that’d bore you when you could go off and have fun at the convention.”

I smiled and moved closer to her. The plastic from our costumes clattered together and I giggled but didn’t pull away. I closed my eyes and inhaled her scent. I luxuriated in the warmth radiating off of her sculpted body. In the feel of her red hot skin where it was peeking out from under her costume.

“I’d love nothing more than to spend the day with you,” I said.

I was already in a mood to melt into a puddle just from her smiling at me, but that was nothing compared to the look that crossed her face when I said I wanted to spend the rest of the day with her. She looked both relieved and excited at the same time and it very nearly made me come just from that look alone. Seeing her look at me like that made me happy. Content. It made me feel secure and comforted in a way that I hadn’t felt in a relationship in a while.

“I’m glad to hear that,” she said.

Kaitlyn wrapped her arms around me and pulled me closer. Or at least she tried to pull me closer. It was a little difficult because we were both still in these ridiculous getups. Our costumes clattered against one another again and part of her chest piece very nearly got knocked free. I managed to reach up and grab it which put my hand in a precarious position where I very much wanted to just let it fall free, but I also had to consider the poor staffer from the convention center who'd been tasked with leading us through this labyrinth, though she seemed oblivious to what was going on behind her as she kept walking.

I also had to keep in mind there was the very real possibility that someone else working for the convention center might walk past us so I decided it would be a better idea to just let her take over fixing her costume despite the way we were both blushing and obviously thinking the same thing about maybe having a little bit of fun in one of the tunnels under the convention center.

Though I suppose it would be okay to have maybe just a teensy bit of fun. Not as much as I'd like, but just a little wasn't going to hurt anything. I looked down at the hunk of plastic and back up to Kaitlyn. I moved a finger up and ran it along the seductive curve of her chest where it was exposed. she closed her eyes and breathed in sharply as I did so and I giggled at her reaction. It was nice to know I could get as much of a reaction out of her as she seemed capable of getting from me!

“You know this gives me an idea,” I said.

Her eyebrows rose. “Oh? What sort of idea is that?”

“Maybe we should head back to the suite and change into something a little more practical before we go to your business stuff and your panels? I know I’d love an opportunity to help get you out of that costume.”

I walked my fingers up her chest and she took in another sharp breath. I looked over my shoulder at the convention staffer who was supposed to be leading us through the labyrinth. She was still oblivious that we’d stopped. She disappeared around a corner so I decided to risk reaching down and running my free hand between Kaitlyn's legs, though it's not like I could do much for her with all the plastic in between my fingers and the prize, damn it. Oh well. I'd have to make the best of it. I smiled at her and gave her my best sweet and innocent look as I bit my lip.

“Does that sound like fun?”

“Fuck yes,” she said.

I wanted nothing more than to rip her costume off, pull her down to the rough concrete floor, and have my way with her right here and now. Only I resisted the urge. It could wait until we got up to the suite. Besides, I was truly worried that if we got too far behind our minder we’d get lost in this labyrinth of tunnels running under the convention center never to find our way out.

So I reluctantly reached down and pulled Kaitlyn's hand away from where it had slipped around and started to squeeze my ass in a most delicious way.

“Save it for getting changed,” I said.

Kaitlyn grinned but pulled her hand away. I promptly grabbed it and started dragging her through the tunnels. I needed to get her back to that fucking suite, and the way I was on fire I needed to get her there twenty minutes ago.

17: Whirlwind

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of activity. It started with an exclusive signing ceremony for people who paid for the top level VIP package which meant they each got about five minutes with Kaitlyn after she signed one of their books. The ones here were much better behaved than the fan rabble at the opening ceremony, though that might've had more to do with the impressively angry security guards standing around her than anything else.

I got a few odd looks. And why not? A random girl standing behind Kaitlyn feeling just a little like an idiot because there was no reason for me to be there? I could hope they thought I was a booth babe there to add some eye candy, but I wasn't in costume anymore and my opinion of myself wasn't high enough to seriously entertain that thought no matter what Kaitlyn said.

And Carrie. She was back and getting a book signed. Of course the entire time she was all smiles for Kaitlyn, but it seemed that Kaitlyn was a little stiff around her now that they weren't on stage. I watched them like a hawk despite my promise to myself that I was going to take Kaitlyn's word as to the exact nature of their relationship, but there wasn't anything there but stiffness on Kaitlyn's end and maybe Carrie leaning a little too close on her end. And once more I found myself on the business end of a glare as she made her way away from the signing area.

Weird. Fucking weird. At least she didn't try to talk to me. It was almost as though there was a spell that I was afraid would be broken the moment she decided to talk to me. Not that I wanted to talk to her anyways whether we were in class or in a completely different part of the country at a convention.

After that it was off to a panel where she answered questions from fans. Most of it had to do with where the series was going, though in here without security right there to look threatening there were a few people who were vocal about their anger that it’d been a few years since her last release with no release date for the next one. I realized I had a very real power if I wanted to use it or abuse it. I could just ask her what was going to happen with the books.

Only I dismissed that thought almost as soon as it occurred to me. Kaitlyn had opened herself up to me, and I decided in the middle of that Q&A session that I wasn’t going to take advantage of that trust. I wasn’t going to ask her any questions about her plans for the books or why the latest one wasn’t even announced, despite the burning curiosity I had about where the series was going.

I also felt something new, interesting, and completely irrational in the Q&A session. Jealousy. I’m not proud of it, I was reluctant to even admit to myself that was what I was feeling, but by the end of the session I couldn’t deny it, though it was something of an odd feeling since I was getting jealous of men showering attention on her even though I knew with certainty that there wasn't a chance any of those men throwing themselves at her had a chance.

Let's face it, Kaitlyn was an attractive woman. A very attractive woman. That pretty face coupled with her killer body and the fact that she'd been seen running around wearing a costume that revealed practically everything earlier in the day seemed to have really drawn out some of the creepers by the time we reached the Q&A. Let's just say she'd attracted quite a bit of interest from her male fan base. How could she not attract that interest the way she looked and being as rich as she was?

Of course if those male fans were hoping to catch her in that costume they were in for a bit of a disappointment. We hadn't been as thorough as first thing in the morning, but I had managed to get her out of the costume entirely and into one hell of a makeout session before her phone beeped with a text from someone at Elassa Corp asking where the hell she was. She threw on some jeans and a T-shirt with the logo of the last book on it and we were off, leaving me high and dry and with a better empathy for guys who complained about being left with a case of blue balls even though I had no balls. So the sexy costume was gone, but even in jeans and a tight T-shirt Kaitlyn was quite the distracting package.

I thought one guy was having a seizure when he went up to the microphone and Kaitlyn repeated his name back to him. It turned out he wasn’t having a seizure, not at all. He was just freaking out that Kaitlyn Morgan actually said his name, and told her as much at least five different times while he was asking his question.

Apparently that first crazy guy who was so excited about hearing her say his name gave ideas to another creeper who came up to the microphone a few questions later. He had his phone out and he was taking a video, only he didn’t have a question. No, he was just interested in hearing Kaitlyn say his name while recording it for posterity. I tried not to think about what he might do with that video.

Of course that was nothing compared to a guy who came up to the microphone and actually had the audacity to ask her what her bra size was! Kaitlyn had fielded all the other questions pretty well up until that point, but even that one obviously threw her for a loop. It threw me for a loop as well. I was standing and about to walk across the aisles to the microphone to scratch the guy's eyes out when I saw Kaitlyn pointedly look to me and make a motion for me to sit.

I didn’t want to, but she had more experience with this sort of thing so I was going to defer to her judgment. For now. Maybe if I saw the guy out in the convention hall later I’d scratch his eyes out, or give him a swift kick in the nuts. Assuming I could find his nuts in amongst all the folds of fat. Ugh. Security came up and pulled the guy away from the microphone as he kept screaming his question over and over while people around him took pictures and videos of the ridiculous display.

I also have to admit to feeling a sense of smug satisfaction as I listened to the guy screaming. I knew the answer to his question. I knew it in the most intimate way possible. In a way he’d never know.

Of course all those guys were nothing compared to her. Carrie. She was still up there doing introductions and she was still staring daggers at me and had been staring with barely concealed worship at Kaitlyn. She was sitting back on the stage, the same stage where Kaitlyn delivered the opening keynote, and she was staring at her the entire time with a blissful expression on her face. Except for one brief diversion. One moment where her eyes swept out across the crowd and she noticed me sitting near the front. Then that blissful expression turned to a glare.

Even more interesting was how Carrie reacted to those guys asking their stupid questions, particularly the last guy with the bra size question. She reacted in much the same way that I was. With a possessiveness that made me want to jump up on stage and scratch her eyes out along with the guy who was being carried out by security screaming at the top of his lungs.

Yeah, that was just a little weird. It had me wondering what the hell her problem was if the story Kaitlyn told me was true. That had me wondering exactly how true the story Kaitlyn told me actually was.

Seeing all these guys throwing themselves at her was unsettling. Once again it brought up some of those doubts I’d been feeling since I found out who she actually was. Sure there was just your run-of-the-mill jealousy that there were other people trying to move in on my territory even they didn't have a chance due to her orientation, but the fact that it was guys hitting on her was more telling than anything. It was guys who thought they had a chance because she'd never made it known that she was interested in girls. Once more I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff when it came to my own sexuality, ready to jump off, but Kaitlyn seemed terrified of jumping with me.

What sort of future did we really have if she was too afraid to tell the world the truth about who she was?

No. I wasn't doing this. I wasn’t listening to my worst-case scenario brain. I was even going to ignore Carrie and the crazy she was bringing to the proceedings. I was going to enjoy the Q&A and laugh at all of those guys who couldn’t have what I’d already had. What I hoped to have again later tonight!

Of course that didn’t stop me from asking a few questions when we got out of that Q&A session.

“So that was interesting,” I said.

“Was it?”

“Those guys who asked you to say their name? What about the one who asked about your bra size?”

I was incredulous. I couldn’t believe it. She shrugged as though it was no big deal. As though nothing all that odd had happened. Could she really be that oblivious? Or was that actually normal for her? I’m not sure which prospect was more terrifying.

“All that?” she said. “That sort of thing happens at all of those Q&A sessions. It’s just something I’ve learned to tune out over the past couple of years.”

I stopped in the middle of the tunnel and stared. My mouth must’ve been hanging open because a look of concern flashed across her face when she finally realized I wasn’t walking next to her anymore and she turned to see where I’d disappeared to.

“You can’t really be that nonchalant about that?”

A sympathetic smile crossed her face and she stepped forward to wrap her arms around me. I closed my eyes and inhaled her scent as I enjoyed the feel of her arms surrounding me. I felt so safe, so secure, every time she did that. Every time she wrapped her arms around me it was as though all my insecurities were washed away.

For a moment. Never mind that they’d probably come crashing back in full force once she no longer had her arms around me. I was going to enjoy the moment.

“I’m so sorry Amber,” she said. “That really was throwing you into the deep end. I’ve been dealing with this for so long that I forget it’s all brand-new to you. I hit it big when I was about your age and I’ve had a decade to get used to the crazy. I can’t imagine how that must’ve looked to you.”

I looked up at her and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. Damn it. I was not going to do this. I was not going to lose control. I was not the jealous type!

And yet here I was, definitely feeling just a little bit jealous. Maybe more because it was guys hitting on her than anything else, for the aforementioned reasons. Was it a little crazy? A little unfair to expect she'd make such a major life change just for me? Maybe, but who said love had to be rational? Not being entirely rational might explain what I said next.

"I noticed it was all guys hitting on you. No girls," I said.

"What does that have to do with anything? I figured you'd be happier about that. It's not like they have a chance!"

"That's the thing. They think they have a chance. The world thinks they have a chance," I said, my voice trailing off at that last part.

Kaitlyn leaned back against one of the walls and let out a sigh. She closed her eyes and for a moment I thought I'd really fucked up. She opened them and locked eyes with me.

"So this is about me not being entirely out?"

I shrugged. "Maybe? I've never felt like this about a girl and it's just such a huge leap and it feels like I'm lying to myself and the world if you're saying all these things about me but you're not willing to tell anyone who I am."

Kaitlyn held out a hand but I pushed it away. I wiped a tear from my eye. “I’m sorry. I know I’m being ridiculous.”

“No, not at all,” she said. "I've had my reasons for keeping this part of me quiet. You're talking about risking a change in how you see yourself, but I feel like I'm risking so much more. I just have to remember that you’re not used to this life. Not yet.”

That sent a thrill. Yet? That implied there was a future to this. Only at this point I didn’t dare hope for something like that. Especially with her talking about being afraid to be who she was in this day and age. Sure I wasn't exactly too up on the whole LGBT culture but my understanding was things were a hell of a lot easier now than they once were. Still, that wasn't my call. We’d only just met. Sure we seemed to have really clicked, but I wasn’t going to hope. Hoping meant the crash would be that much more painful when it eventually came, and if she wasn't willing to go public then was there really a future?

I just didn't know. Focus on the convention. On the here and now.

“No,” I said. “I have no right to act like this. It’s not like we’re actually dating or something…”

Kaitlyn's hand moved out and cupped my cheeks. I felt like I was on fire where her hand made contact with my body. Her thumb stroked my cheek and I felt another thrill run through me. It seemed like life was one thrill after another when I was near her.

“Aren’t we?”

“Are we?”

“I know where I am on that Amber,” she said. “I flew you across the country so I could see you. I just had one of the most intense experiences of my life with you in that hotel suite. You’re the one who calls that particular shot though.”

I tried to smile, but it was difficult.

"I just don't know. Not with..."

Kaitlyn opened her mouth and it looked like she was about to launch into another justification so I decided it was my turn to do a judicious changing of the subject that she seemed to be so fond of. I certainly knew how I thought I felt about her, but I didn’t want to say it. Not this soon. Not when we’d only really met one another for real for the first time earlier today. Not when she didn't seem willing to admit who she was, and by extension who we were, to the world. Giving voice to what I felt seemed stupid, headstrong, given the circumstances.

“We’re going to be late to your next event if we don’t get a move on,” I said.

Kaitlyn blinked and despite the gravity of what we'd just been talking about I resisted the urge to giggle at the look on her face. Let her enjoy a taste of her own medicine. Let her feel the frustration of somebody changing the subject when important questions were being asked. I could prove to her that she wasn’t the only person in this relationship to have a little bit of frustrating mystery.

Relationship? Was that how I was starting to think of this? I guess if I was completely honest with myself that’s what I was hoping was happening here, though I was still reluctant to call it that given what we'd just discussed and that major stumbling block that seemed to be in the way. Besides, there was something inside me that was saying I’d ruin everything if I went ahead and said it prematurely.

She looked at me for a long moment and then sighed. Reached out and took my hand which excited me and sent goose bumps running all over my body despite the semi-argument we'd just had. “I suppose you’re right, we’d better get a move on.”

The next meeting was less eventful than the Q&A. It was a meeting with her publishers which was interesting because they were talking about the next book, or rather how the next book had failed to materialize after two years.

After a little shouting at the beginning it quickly devolved into talk of sales figures and how much money everybody in the room was making which really didn’t interest me at all. I got a few glances when I trailed in behind Kaitlyn, but after that everybody pretty much took it as a matter of course that she’d bring a random girl along with her to one of these meetings.

I knew I was being ridiculous, I knew I was reading too much into their reaction, but I couldn’t help but worry at their nonchalance about me showing up to that meeting. Were they acting so nonchalant because Kaitlyn Morgan was the one who brought me, the big boss who controlled all the purse strings, and there wasn’t anything they could say about it one way or another?

Or were they acting so nonchalant about a girl showing up to that meeting because that was the sort of thing she did at every convention? Was I just the latest piece she’d brought to parade in front of them before she whisked me away to do more of this Cinderella at the ball routine to dazzle me into letting her into my pants?

Damn it! Why did I keep thinking like this? Why did I keep letting these thoughts intrude?

Thankfully that meeting was a fast one because it was ridiculously boring. I got a couple of glares when I pulled out my phone as though I was some sort of corporate spy using my feminine wiles to get secrets out of them, so I eventually put it away and sat in bored silence.

Mostly I was relieved that the meeting was over quickly because that meant I wasn’t alone with my traitorous brain for very long. I could concentrate on how nice it felt to have her arm wrapped around mine. I could concentrate on how nice it was just being with her after so much time getting to know one another online. I could avoid thoughts of where this was going, what she could possibly want with me, and why if she was as interested as she seemed to be she wasn't willing to admit a truth that had apparently been true for quite a long time.

After that first argument I wasn't going to scratch that particular itch anymore. Besides, we'd only actually known each other in person for a day. It seemed way too early to be laying down ultimatums about that sort of life choice even if it did leave me feeling hellaciously uncertain about any sort of long-term prospects we might have.

I glanced at my phone after we got out of that meeting and was surprised to realize it was getting pretty late in the day. I looked up to Kaitlyn. “So are we getting close to the end of the schedule? Maybe getting close to going back to the hotel room?”

“Just one more thing today,” she said. “We have the opening day banquet in the convention center. I have to give a speech and then we’re done. You do get a free meal out of it though.”

My stomach rumbled at the mention of food. We’d been going full tilt all day and I hadn’t even had a chance to grab a quick snack while we were moving around the convention center.

“Free food sounds good,” I said. “Is it anywhere near as nice or as expensive as lunch?”

Kaitlyn chuckled and shook her head. “I’m afraid not. It’s your typical hotel catering stuff. Twenty bucks of cafeteria quality food that the hotel charges fifty bucks a plate for because they can.”

My stomach growled again. “Whatever. At this point I’d be willing to hunt down a cow and kill it with my bare hands if it meant getting a steak.”

Kaitlyn giggled again as we emerged from the tunnels under the convention center into a massive room set up like a banquet hall.

“You might have to hunt down that cow. I don’t think steak is even on the menu. That would cost extra and for some reason the bean counters think scrimping in years when I haven't produced a book is somehow going to magically make it appear,” Kaitlyn said.

“Whatever. Where do we sit?”

“There’s a table right near the front. It’s mostly people from the publishing company and a couple of high level volunteers who’ve been helping out. But I made sure they got you a seat front and center right next to me.”

I smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

So I found myself sitting at a wide round table right in front of the stage where Kaitlyn was supposed to give her big speech. She made sure I was situated and then she disappeared to get ready.

Despite the roller coaster ride that was today, despite how overwhelming it all was, and most definitely despite how I’d had that little breakdown under the convention center just now, I was feeling pretty good about myself. The day was actually ending on a high note. Aside from my breakdown and the occasional bout of crippling insecurity there’d been no major disasters and I was actually feeling pretty damn good about myself and how things were going with Kaitlyn.

Those good feelings lasted right up until the moment I felt rather than saw somebody sidling into the empty chair next to me. I turned and my heart nearly stopped.

It was her. Carrie. The last person in the world I wanted to see up close and personal. The last person in the world I wanted to talk to on any day of the week, but never more so than on this day in particular.

And rather than glaring at me like earlier when she was on stage she was smiling. A smile that definitely didn’t reach her eyes. That was a smile that I knew from class, and it usually only came out when she was about to rip into me for some reason. I was immediately on guard.

What the fuck was she up to?

18: Insecurities

Okay. Stay cool. She was sitting right next to me. She was looking at me and obviously I wasn't going to be able to keep avoiding talking to her.

“Hi,” I said.

That smile grew even wider. “Hi yourself.”

“I didn't expect to see you here given your... opinions on this sort of work,” I said.

She looked me up and down and some of that hostility was back in that look. What the hell was her problem that she kept looking at me like that?

“Yeah? Well you're the last person I expected to see here hanging on Kaitlyn Morgan's arm as her new piece on the side,” she replied.

I blinked. Okay. So that was kind of rude. No, that was more than rude. What the hell was her problem? But I didn’t want to make a scene. I definitely didn't want a repeat of the angry screaming that happened in class a few weeks back which, now that I thought of it, had sort of also been the day my romance with Kaitlyn started in earnest.

I especially didn't want to make a scene since we had a table full of convention volunteers and people from the publishing company sitting around us. The last thing I wanted to do was embarrass Kaitlyn in front of the people she worked with. To get a reputation as the crazy girl she was dating or something. Not that any of them knew she was dating me, which was still sour grapes even if I decided to keep my mouth shut about it. So I kept my voice down.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Carrie looked me up and down again and a look of sympathy crossed her face. Only I didn’t believe it for a moment. Just like with the smile on her face earlier that sympathy never quite reached her eyes. She looked decidedly insincere. I was starting to wonder if this girl had the capacity for genuine emotion. My hackles were certainly raised. I was starting to feel the same as earlier when jealousy got the better of me and I nearly launched myself across a convention hall to claw at one of those crazy guys.

“Oh honey,” she said, her voice dripping with false sympathy. Though there was a twinkle in her eye that said she was enjoying this. “Everyone who volunteers for these conventions knows all about the girls she brings to these things.”

Her eyes seemed to harden at that last bit, but I wasn't paying much attention to her expression. No, I felt a chill run through my body. I felt as though I’d been punched in the gut. On the one hand I didn’t trust her any further than I could throw her, and even though she was pretty petite I wasn’t nearly strong enough to toss her very far let me tell you.

Only what she’d just said hit too close to home. It was too close to all the worries, all the insecurities that had been running through my head ever since I first discovered who my mysterious online stranger really was. All the worries I had about why she’d ever be interested in a girl like me came crashing down around me at this girl's words. I definitely didn't like her, I definitely didn't trust her, but that didn't mean there couldn't be some truth to what she was telling me. Especially when what she was saying jived so closely with all the worries that had been running through my head to begin with.

A wide grin split her face as a sickly expression crossed my own face. A predatory grin that was the first genuine emotion I’d seen from her since she sat down. I felt like she could see the mix of insecurities and worries running through my head. Taking over. Making me short of breath as I spiraled dangerously close to a full-blown panic attack.

“You’re lying,” I said. "You're a bitch to me in class and you're a bitch now. I don't believe a word you're saying."

“Ladies and gentlemen,” an announcer said up on stage. Not Carrie for a change. I wondered if that was because she was taking a break or if she specifically took off from an event so she could find me. “Kaitlyn Morgan!”

Kaitlyn strolled out onto the stage with a huge smile on her face. She looked amazing. She looked dazzling. She looked so delicious. She didn’t look like the kind of girl who would deceive a girl for a one night stand at a convention, but then again when I’d known her online she didn’t seem like the kind of girl who would lie about every little detail about her life and who she was, who would conceal such a huge part of herself from the world, either.

If she was willing to lie about who she was who’s to say she wouldn’t be willing to lie about other things? It’s like the worst-case scenario centers in my brain were going into a tailspin, spiraling out of control, and now that I had the smallest bit of confirmation I couldn’t resist those thoughts. They were threatening to overwhelm me.

The girl reached out and placed a hand on my own. She looked me straight in the eyes. “Come on Amber. We're buddies! We have class together! I'm only looking out for you. I wouldn’t tell you this if I didn’t think you needed to hear it.”

“Needed to hear what? Don't act like we're best friends. You hate me, I hate you, and I said you’re lying!”

I don’t know why I kept saying that. Perhaps I wanted to protect myself. Only no matter how many times I said she was lying it didn’t chase away my doubts. If anything it just confirmed them. Magnified them.

The people sitting at the table were starting to notice something was going on. They were turning to look at us. Turning to look at me in particular as though I was crazy. I glanced up to the stage and Kaitlyn looked down. Drawn no doubt drawn by my shout. I blushed, but I didn’t care. Her eyes moved to Carrie sitting next to me and I saw something replace the confusion on her face.

Fear.

That fearful glance when she saw who I was sitting next to was enough to cause the entire fantasy world I’d been building up around me leading up to this weekend to come crashing down. That fear in her eyes told me everything I needed. Kaitlyn was afraid of me sitting next to Carrie. No doubt afraid the crazy bitch was going to tell me exactly what she was telling me right now. I turned back to her.

I didn’t want to hear anything she had to tell me, but I at the same time I had to hear it.

“Tell me what you’re talking about,” I said.

Her eyes darted up to the stage and she flashed a triumphant smile. I had no doubt Kaitlyn was still looking down at us, but I didn’t turn to see. Let her look. Let her see the truth finally coming out. I felt sick, but I had to hear what Carrie had to say.

“Why do you think I hate this crap so much? I used to love it, and she stole that from me. I was sitting exactly where you were a couple of years ago. She wined and dined me, did the whole fan girl meeting her hero routine, and then at the end of the convention when she got what she wanted she tossed me aside."

Used her and tossed her aside. It made sense. She was always writing those angry stories about how she got jilted a couple of years back. I just had no idea that on the very day I would find myself starting to fall for Kaitlyn Morgan that meeting would happen because I was angry over a story that was inspired by her using and dropping another girl. Talk about your all time huge ironies!

A new girl at every convention. Somehow that made more sense than a rich famous person falling for me of all people. Her falling in love with me was something I had a hard time imagining. Her taking advantage of me was something that seemed closer to reality, as much as I hated it. Carrie rambled right on over my stunned thoughts.

"Oh I wanted more, but it "just wasn't the right time for her." She couldn't risk her fans finding out her big secret that everyone at these fucking conventions already knows anyways. Talk about bullshit. That's why I keep coming to these conventions. To warn poor unsuspecting girls like you. I just never thought the poor unsuspecting girl would be someone I actually knew.”

It was bullshit. It was also so close to the terrified musings that had been running through the back of my mind today that I took what she was saying at face value. Why wouldn't I? My breathing was coming in labored gasps. Everything she was saying sounded so close to the truth I’d been afraid to admit to myself. It was finally happening. That other shoe I’d been afraid of this entire time was finally stomping down on me, on the silly dreams I’d constructed, and it was stomping down with one hell of a vengeance!

I put my head in my hands. I couldn’t believe I’d been so naïve. It was obvious Kaitlyn had lied to me about a hell of a lot more than who she was leading up to our meeting earlier today. It was obvious she'd pulled this routine before and I was just the latest unlucky author groupie being thrown into the meat grinder to be used for her pleasure and tossed aside when the convention weekend was over and she was ready to go back to her safe closet.

I was a silly girl. If she'd already bent the truth or outright lied about so much then why in the world would I assume she was telling the truth when she acted like she actually had feelings for me? I was nothing more than another convention conquest, and I felt used.

I needed to get the hell out of here. I didn’t even want to go back up to the suite, it was tainted with her money that she'd used to dazzle me this weekend after all, but it was the only option. Even if it did have the taint of what we’d done there twice today. Maybe Megan would let me stay in her room on the other end of the suite while I figured out a way to get home. She could at least enjoy the suite. We had it for the rest of the weekend after all.

I didn’t want to be anywhere near it though. I didn’t want to be anywhere near any location where Kaitlyn would be able to find me easily. Where I’d be at her beck and call. The last thing I wanted was to be in a hotel suite purchased for me so I could be nothing more than a glorified booty call for the duration of the convention weekend!

“I know it’s a lot for you to deal with,” Carrie said, reaching out like she was going to try and take my hand. Her voice dripped with false sympathy. I needed to lash out at something, and she was convenient. I pulled my hand away from her before she could make contact.

“You can shut the fuck up!” I screamed.

It was happening again. Just like the meltdown in class. Carrie seemed to inspire that sort of anger in me at the most inappropriate of times. I was surprised at how loud I was. Loud enough that the publishing people and convention staff sitting at the table weren’t the only ones who turned and stared this time. No, more people were starting to realize there was a cat fight brewing. Kaitlyn even stopped her speech for a moment and looked down. It was a nervous and fearful glance that just served to further cement in my mind that this girl talking to me was telling me the truth and that truth telling was the last thing Kaitlyn wanted to happen.

“What’s your problem?”

“You’ve been glaring at me all day long! You hated me before this convention and you hate me now! Don’t act like you’re not happy that you’re chasing me off! Maybe she did use you and drop you a couple of years ago, but you’re not telling me this out of any sympathy or the goodness of your heart. You’re telling me this because you can’t stand the idea of another girl with her! You can't stand the idea that maybe someone will succeed where you failed!”

“Well sorry I tried to help you, you crazy bitch!”

I had a feeling that if she’d gotten a little too close to home telling me the truth about Kaitlyn then I’d also hit a little close to home speaking the truth to her about her motivations for telling me all this. No, Carrie wasn’t the kind of girl who would tell me something like that out of some altruistic desire to help. She was looking to get at the new girl, and if getting at the new girl also meant she could get in a dig at me that was probably icing on the cake considering how little we cared for each other on a good day. Only I wasn’t going to be the new girl for much longer. This girl could have the bitch if that's the way Kaitlyn was going to treat me.

The devastatingly gorgeous and charming bitch. Even through my anger it was difficult for me to stay angry when I had all the warm fuzzies saved up from the past couple of weeks to counterbalance it.

I needed to get out of here. I needed to hold onto that anger. I needed to keep it balled up deep inside me as a reminder of how I'd been played for a sucker, there had to be enough truth to what Carrie was telling me even if she was embellishing here and there that I was being played for a sucker, so that I wouldn't find myself trying to do something stupid like forgive Kaitlyn just because I didn't want the truth to be the truth.

I stood, nearly sending my chair flying as I did, and flew towards the back of the room. I needed to get the hell out of here, and I needed to get the hell out of here now. I felt tears welling up. Damn it. The last thing I wanted was to start sobbing in the middle of a massive banquet hall like this. The last thing I needed was to make even more of a spectacle of myself than I already had. I’m sure this was already going to become a piece of convention lore. The day two of Kaitlyn Morgan’s women who were totally just her friends and nothing more despite the rumors people might've heard got into a catfight and one of them ran out of the room sobbing.

The thing that hurt the most wasn’t hearing the truth from that crazy bitch. It wasn’t that everything had finally come crashing down around me after spending the day pretending I was in the middle of some fairytale. Pretending something like that could happen to a girl like me.

No, the thing that hurt the most was that Kaitlyn didn’t stop her speech. She kept nattering on about how she created the Elassa series and making excuses for why the latest book was taking so long. What she wasn’t doing was running across the convention hall to try and stop me in some grand romantic gesture like in the movies. She wasn’t doing anything to try and hold onto me even though she could obviously see me leaving.

I was being a silly girl though. I don’t know why I was expecting that. It was so ridiculous. Rushing down to tell me everything I just heard was wrong? That it was all a misunderstanding? That she wanted to be with me? That was the kind of thing that only happened in cheesy romance books, and I was strictly a fantasy and science-fiction kind of girl.

I paused at the hall doors and turned around to look at Kaitlyn one final time. Most of the convention center had no idea what was going on. Most of that crowd had no idea that my world was being destroyed. Megan wasn’t even around to keep me company. No, I was all alone, tears welling up in my eyes, as she continued talking about how wonderful she was and how wonderful her stupid Elassa series was and why the next book would totally be worth the wait.

And I realized something that made me hate her even more. I was never going to be able to read those books again. The bitch!

I turned and walked out of the convention hall. There was no happy ending waiting for me. For a moment I’d almost hoped like a romance girl, but it was time to face reality.

Kaitlyn Morgan was nothing more than an elaborate player with a lot of money, and I wasn’t Cinderella at the ball. I was a naïve girl who’d been played. Apparently by one of the best.

19: Escape

I was on my computer trying to find the next flight out of this place when I heard the elevator door ding and open. I turned and looked with hope, and I immediately chided myself for being hopeful at all. Even if that was somehow her I should be angry at her for getting a key to my room and not glad that she’d come to see me.

Only it turned out it was just Megan. I let out a sigh of relief and then went back to searching for a flight.

“What the hell happened to you?” Megan asked.

“Nothing,” I said with perhaps more heat in my voice than I’d intended.

Only there was no getting around it. I was a mess. I’d been sitting up here crying for the past half hour while I looked for cheap flights out of here, only there was no such thing as a cheap flight out of here this weekend. Not with the convention in town. No, there was no way I was getting out of here without spending more money than I had, which admittedly wasn't much to begin with.

I felt two hands on my shoulders and Megan started massaging. “Come on Amber,” she said quietly. “Tell me what happened.”

I couldn’t help it. I broke down again. All of the commotion, all of the conflict I’d been feeling since I we first met up with Kaitlyn earlier in the day came crashing out. I told her everything. All of my doubts, all of my insecurities about her with other women. How men were throwing themselves at her throughout the day and it was just going to keep up because it didn't seem like she was going to tell the world about me.

Megan started to make comforting noises but I held up a hand to stop her. I went on to tell her about the girl who’d been staring daggers at me. I told her about how she apparently chose a new girl for every convention to wine and dine, made her feel like a real princess, and then dropped her when the con was over. When I was done I looked up at her, tears in my eyes, and she definitely didn’t have the look of sympathy I was expecting.

“What?” I asked.

“Amber,” she said slowly. “That girl was staring at you like she hated you all day. She knew you were with Kaitlyn. Did it ever occur to you that she might be trying to sabotage things between the two of you?”

I blinked. Actually that thought hadn’t occurred to me. I’d been so busy wallowing in self-pity and thinking about how the worst-case-scenario part of my brain had been exactly right all along that I’d never stopped to think of alternatives. Only that alternative seemed pretty far-fetched. A lot more far-fetched than the idea that a fabulously wealthy and world-famous author would fly me of all people out here because she was falling for me. No, the one night stand theory made a hell of a lot more sense.

“Do you really believe that Megan?” I asked.

Megan shrugged. “Women can be bitches sometimes. Especially if they think you’re going after their man, woman, whatever the hell it is. You know what I mean. They can be nasty if they think you’re going after someone they think should be theirs. It's way more catty and way less straightforward than dealing with dudes who tend to be pretty single minded when it comes to conflict resolution.”

“So you think this girl looking to tank my relationship with Kaitlyn before it starts makes more sense than the rich author playing some naive girl she just met playing a videogame and flying her out for a fake whirlwind romance and some very real and very great sex?”

A grin split Megan’s face. “So you got laid?”

I let out a disgusted noise that communicated this clearly wasn’t the time to talk about that.

Megan shrugged. “I didn’t say which I thought was more likely. I was just saying it was a possibility.”

I smiled and reached out to pat her hand. “Thanks for trying to make me feel better Megan. But I think the only thing that’s going to get me out of this funk is getting the hell out of this city and getting as far away from the great Kaitlyn Morgan as is humanly possible.”

“Suit yourself. You need help with the plane ticket?”

I must’ve had a look on my face because she squeezed harder on my shoulders. “Don’t be too proud. I’ve got some extra money sitting around and I can use my emergency credit card. Dad won’t even care about the charge. If you really need to get the hell out of here then consider it my treat.”

“Let me look for a little longer, but I’ll consider it,” I said. Not that I had much choice. There was no way I could afford to get out of here on my own, but stubborn pride was going to have me sitting here at my laptop hitting refresh for awhile longer as though I could will the airlines to charge less than a couple hundred dollars for a ticket out of this place by sheer force of will.

“Or you could stay and enjoy the rest of the weekend,” Megan said. “I mean you are at the biggest Elassa convention in the country and you’ve got this awesome suite.”

I scowled. “No. No way. I’m not going to stay at this convention. I’m not going to stay in a hotel suite she paid for because she was expecting a booty call.”

“I’m not going to stop you,” Megan said. “Just making a suggestion.”

I clicked around a little while longer while Megan sat off to the side on her considerably beefier laptop that could actually run Tales of Elassa in full unlike my dinky laptop I'd had since undergrad which could barely load some of the starter zones, but that was enough for me to get some role-playing in. Finally I found a flight for several hundred dollars. It was a little pricey, but at this point I’d be willing to pay whatever to get the hell out of here. Well, I’d be willing to have Megan pay whatever and then I’d pay her back over time no matter what she said about her dad not caring about the charge.

“You sure about helping me get out of here?” I asked.

Megan was still engrossed in her computer, but for a change she actually seemed to be typing. That was weird. Usually when she was in the middle of the game she used voice chat for raids and stuff. She was always going on about how typing took too long.

"Megan?"

She looked up and shook her head as though she'd been distracted by something in the game. Normally I would've asked her what was going on, but right now I was too busy wallowing in my own self-pity to care. "What? Oh, yeah. Absolutely sure.”

“Then could you go ahead and order this?”

So Megan took a seat and put in her credit card information. A moment later she looked up from my laptop and grinned.

"You're on a flight out of here tomorrow at noon!"

I frowned. "Do you have a pass or something? A confirmation email? I'm not hearing buzzing on my phone.

Megan waved a dismissive hand. "You pick up the boarding passes at the airport. Duh. All you need is your ID and you're good to go."

I suppose that seemed reasonable enough, though the lack of a confirmation email buzzing on my phone was odd. Still, I was getting out of here. I was escaping. Sure I’d have to get up a little early to make sure I got a cab, but I shouldn’t have too much trouble getting out to the airport in time. The heavy traffic days for cabs were today and Sunday when everybody was coming and going. I had a feeling it was going to be business as usual with little to no convention traffic tomorrow even if it was a Saturday. All I had to do was grab a cab tomorrow and I’d be out of here. I’d be away from Kaitlyn Morgan and her bullshit for good.

I sat back down at the computer and sighed. Normally if I wanted to get my mind away from things all I’d log into Tales of Elassa and forget about the real world for a little while. Only as I stared at the icon I realized that the last thing in the world I wanted to do was anything related to Kaitlyn Morgan’s cash cow.

Damn it.

I really did feel like a hole had been ripped in my life, and not just because of the way my world had been ripped apart with the revelation that Kaitlyn Morgan was something of a lady cad. Not just because of the evening’s drama.

I was starting to realize just what a big part of my life Elassa actually was. The books, the miniseries, the damn videogame where I did most of my socializing. The game which was my main creative outlet. It was starting to sink in that I wasn’t going to be able to enjoy any of that ever again. Even as I sat staring at my computer’s desktop, stared at the Tales of Elassa icon, I couldn’t bring myself to click it.

Looking at that icon made me want to throw my laptop across the room. I felt a white-hot rage burning inside me at how I’d been treated. Walking around my favorite in-game environments was just going to remind me of the failed romance with the woman who created all of it. With the woman who’d just single-handedly ruined any enjoyment of something that’d been a huge part of my life for so very long.

Damn it. Damn her! And not just for playing with my emotions, not just for treating me like a booty call, but for taking away something that brought so much of pleasure to my life!

I was about to close down my computer entirely, it looked like the only thing I could do was sleep since my usual evening hobby was a bust, when there was a buzz from the elevator. Megan looked up from the massive couch in the center of our suite where she was watching TV. She got up and walked to the elevator.

“Did you order room service or something?”

“No, what about you?”

“Nope. I have no idea who the hell that could be,” I said.

I looked down at my laptop screen and then I turned and held a hand out towards Megan as she hit a button to let whoever that was onto the elevator. Not the smartest move, but we were from a college town where crime wasn’t really a thing. Not that it mattered. That wasn’t a hardened criminal buzzing us. No, it suddenly hit me exactly who it would be, and it wasn’t anyone that I wanted to talk to, damn it!

“Megan! No!”

Only the damage was already done. The door swished open and she was standing there. Kaitlyn. And she looked super pissed off.

20: Trust Issues

“You can’t come in here,” Megan said.

Good ol’ Megan. I felt warm and fuzzy all over as she told Kaitlyn to get lost. Only this wasn’t her battle to fight. No, I needed to take care of this.

“I need to talk to Amber,” Kaitlyn said. She peered past Megan and locked eyes with me. “Did you hear me? I need to talk to you Amber!”

I walked up to the door as Megan leapt to my defense. “What’s the matter? Upset you didn’t get your evening booty call like you were planning?”

I put a hand on the Megan’s arm. “I’ve got this, but thanks.”

“You sure?” Megan asked.

“I’m sure. This won’t take long,” I said with a pointed look at Kaitlyn.

Megan shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’ll be in my room. If you need me to call the cops just yell.”

I turned back to Kaitlyn as Megan made her way back to her room. “What do you want?”

“I just want to talk to you,” Kaitlyn said, pleading in her eyes. Pleading that almost made me feel sorry for her. Almost. “Can I come in?”

“No,” I said. Even after everything that had happened that "no" was still fucking difficult to get out, but I’d done it. She could fuck off as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t interested in anything she had to say, only she insisted on continuing to talk.

“I was terrified when I saw you sitting with Carrie,” she said.

I arched an eyebrow. “Oh? Afraid I’d learn the truth?”

“What you heard from her was a version of the truth,” she said.

“A version of the truth? She said you had some fun with her over a convention weekend a couple of years back and then you left her high and dry. That you told her you weren't ready to tell the world about the two of you and you ended it. That sounds a little different from the story you told me earlier, but it also sounds pretty damn familiar!”

Kaitlyn's shoulders slumped and once more I felt vindicated. I felt like I’d been absolutely correct. And at the same time I hated that I was absolutely correct. It was silly, but there was still a part of me that very much wished I’d been wrong.

“Okay, so I know that looks bad. And what she said was more or less what happened. We had a little fun at this convention a couple of years ago, but I decided things weren’t going to work out between us. Because things weren't going to work out between us and not because I was afraid of... you know. I mean I guess that was part of it, but it was like the fifth or sixth down on a laundry list of reasons..."

Kaitlyn paused. Took a deep breath. Let it out. I crossed my arms and let her take her time. It's not like I had anything better to do since she'd ruined every form of entertainment I enjoyed.

"Listen, the point is I broke things off on the last day and she’s never been happy about it. It’s always made coming to the convention a little awkward because she always uses that bullshit story to gain sympathy with some of the volunteer organizers and get a spot close to me. They're more than happy to annoy me because they're annoyed about the next book being delayed, and when I saw her talking to you…”

“You mean when you saw her actually getting a chance to talk to me and telling me the truth about who you are? What you were really doing with this whole Cinderella song and dance?”

“That’s not who I am and that's not what I was doing with you!”

I heard a door open and turned to see Megan sticking her head out. I shook my head slightly and waved her off. Let her know that everything was okay. That Kaitlyn hadn’t gone completely crazy. Yet.

“I tried to explain this to you earlier,” she said. “You have no idea what this can be like. What people act like around me. How much could be at stake if I...”

“Oh yeah,” I said. “Poor little rich and famous girl hiding from what she is. Life’s so hard you can’t even finish the latest book in your series.”

“Yeah, that’s part of the reason,” she said. “I deal with this all the time. All Carrie was interested in was Kaitlyn Morgan the famous writer. Kaitlyn Morgan the rich author. You’re not like that! You’re different!”

I couldn’t help but laugh as she said that. “Different? I’m different? Why would you expect me to actually believe that line of bullshit?”

“Because it’s true!”

I felt lightheaded. I felt darkness moving in around the edges of my vision and I was falling forward. I managed to throw my hand out to steady myself against the elevator door even as her hands reached out and encircled my waist causing a weird conflicting mix of emotions to wash over me.

Oh how I wanted what she said to be true. How I wanted to believe her. For that matter how I loved the feel of her hands wrapped around my waist holding me there. It was almost enough to make me forget everything that had happened, but not quite. It was too much. The damage was too great.

And so that mixture of longing, of wishing she would finally tell me the truth, was replaced by something else. By anger. White-hot anger. I looked up and locked eyes with her.

“Get your hands off of me,” I growled.

Kaitlyn's eyes widened and she took a step back. her hands left me and I felt a pang of disappointment even as I felt a perverse satisfaction at that hurt look on her face. Good. Let her feel hurt. Let her feel some of the disappointment that I'd had to deal with as I sat in the glow of a laptop screen trying to find a flight out of this place.

I poked her in the chest and she took another step back, but that didn't stop her from talking. Still trying to convince me that I was all wrong about her. Fat chance that was going to happen, though, because she was addressing all the wrong things. No, ultimately it came down to one very important thing. This was still new. This was still very early days, but if she couldn't be honest about who she was, if she couldn't go out on a limb for me when I was going out on a fucking limb by having the entire world shifting underneath me regarding my own sexuality, then I couldn't see myself having a future with her.

I'd go back to school. I'd have to come to terms with this new part of me, with what I'd learned about myself over my whirlwind romance with the great and very female Kaitlyn Morgan, without the great Kaitlyn Morgan actually in my life. Though I suppose I could be thankful that she introduced me to this side of me even if she broke my heart in the process.

Still she rambled on. About the wrong damn thing.

“You don’t understand. Carrie is crazy! Did she tell you everything? Did she tell you how she spent that entire weekend gushing about how she couldn’t believe she was with Kaitlyn Morgan? Did she mention how I took her to dinner on Friday night and the next day she tried to use the fact that she was my “girlfriend” to bully people in the dealer hall into giving her free stuff, and when that didn’t work she tried to get them to expense it to my account? After I specifically told her that wasn't what we were, which is a big difference from you? Did she tell you how I didn’t find out about any of that until I discovered her trying to break into my laptop so she could get at my notes and figure out what was going to happen next in the story? I can’t even bring my laptop to these conventions anymore because of her! We didn’t even have sex! She’s a crazy who meant nothing to me!”

I took a deep breath. She might have a point. I could understand where she was coming from after everything that had happened to her with the crazy. But it still didn’t change the lies or the secrecy or anything that had been bothering me today that she hadn't really addressed by trying to pin the blame on one crazy person.

“She sounds crazy. I could tell from talking to her,” I said.

Kaitlyn breathed a sigh of relief. She smiled at me as though she thought that made everything better. But it wasn’t. How I wished it was, but it wasn’t.

“But none of that changes the fact that you lied to me and you're ashamed of who you are. How could you possibly think we had any sort of future together if you aren't even willing to admit your feelings to the world? What makes you think I'd want to be with someone who's ashamed to admit she's in a relationship with me?"

Kaitlyn opened her mouth as though she was about to say something but I held up a hand to stop her. I wasn't in the mood for more excuses so I just rolled right over her. "Better to go home and find a girl I can explore this with. Publicly. Even if I am somehow different from this Carrie girl it's meaningless if you won't even entertain the idea of telling the world I'm different. If you won't even consider that then how am I supposed to believe I’m somehow different from any other girl you brought to a convention, banged, and then tossed aside when you were done with her?”

“I didn’t bang her!” Kaitlyn said.

“Yeah, the jury’s still out on that. Why should I believe you there given all the other crazy lies?”

“But this is different…”

“Different? I don’t think you’ve told me a single true thing the entire time we’ve known each other! And you expect me to start believing you now?”

Her mouth worked silently for a moment but she obviously couldn’t think of anything good to say. Obviously couldn’t think of a good defense.

“My biggest regret is that I think I was really starting to fall for you,” I said. “But after all the lies and half-truths, after all this talk of hiding a new part of me that I'm pretty damn excited to explore now that I've discovered it, I don’t think I could be with you in your closet. So I’m leaving tomorrow. You won’t have me to kick around anymore.”

And then I hit a button and the elevator door closed in her face. I heard one last “Amber, wait!” but that didn’t stop me. I leaned against the door and slid down. I felt tears come to my eyes and then I was sobbing. How I wanted to believe her. How I wanted her to be telling the truth. Only I was completely right. How could I explore this wonderful new thing I'd discovered about myself, about my sexuality, with someone who was still ashamed of her own feelings and, by extension, ashamed of me in her own little way?

I couldn't live like that, but I’d have plenty of time to think about that when I got home. Right now I just needed to cry.

21: Leaving

I sighed as I got everything together in my backpack. It was amazing how everything I’d planned on wearing for the convention could fit into one oversized laptop backpack. Oh well. I always traveled light. And I suppose that was a good thing this time.

I briefly considered going down to the dealer hall to get a souvenir, but ultimately I decided against it. Anything I bought down there would be related to Elassa. Even if I could find something that wasn’t related to the books in any way it’d still have the taint of this trip. No, better to just cut ties completely and get the hell out of here.

I paused in the suite wondering if I should bother Megan, but decided against it. I wanted her to enjoy the rest of her weekend. I wanted her to have a good time even if I couldn’t. At least somebody should get some enjoyment out of that suite and VIP tickets.

Of course she was waiting for me when I stepped out of my room.

“Trying to sneak away?” she asked with a grin.

“Maybe,” I said.

“Not happening without me,” she said.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"Because I know how much money you have in your bank account right now and that's not enough to cover a trip to the airport. Now let’s go get you a cab.”

She had a point, so as much as I hated to take more money from her I figured I was stuck depending on her charity one more time. Normally I would protest, but I needed to get the hell out of here as quickly as possible so I made an exception this one time. We stepped out of the elevator and I went for the hotel lobby but Megan grabbed my arm and pulled me towards one of the skywalks. The skywalk that led from the hotel to the convention center.

I stopped.

“I’m not going to the convention,” I said.

“Of course you’re not going to the convention. You’re going to the front of the convention center to get a cab. Have you ever tried getting a cab at a hotel first thing in the morning when all the hung over business types are trying to leave after a night of schmoozing and partying with a bunch of people they don't really like in a desperate bid to make money? It’s not fun,” Megan said.

I rolled my eyes but followed her. She had a weird way of being right about that sort of thing. Maybe I would save time by going to the convention center. I still had plenty of time to get to the airport, but I didn’t want to cut things too close. Not that I had much choice but to follow her seeing as how she was the one who'd be paying my way.

And so I found myself walking through the elevated tunnels to the convention center with Megan walking in silence beside me. The convention center was the last place in the world I wanted to go right now with all of its reminders of yesterday and how wonderful that day had been before everything came crashing down around me. I wiped moisture away from my eyes. Damn it. I didn’t want Megan to see me like this. I wasn’t going to think about that. I wasn’t going to think about Kaitlyn. I just needed to get the hell out of here before I lost it.

Megan kept glancing over to me but whenever I looked back at her she was staring straight ahead with a weird look on her face. Maybe she noticed the tears? Maybe she actually wanted to give me a moment of privacy for a change? That didn't sound like the nosy Megan I knew, the only thing that could keep her from poking her nose into my love life was a raid night and even that was only a temporary reprieve, but maybe today was different.

We went down an escalator from the skywalk into the convention center and what I saw there amazed me even as it filled me with apprehension. The place seemed oddly deserted. Eerily deserted. The convention center was packed yesterday and today was supposed to be even busier, Saturday was supposed to be the biggest day for attendance since only the diehards who took time off of work were there for Thursday and Friday, but there wasn’t a single person around.

Only the place was like something out of one of those cheesy post-apocalyptic movies that showed abandoned infrastructure improbably hanging around for more than a few hundred years after there were no humans around to maintain it anymore. No convention center staff. No attendees. Sure this was just a hall feeding from various hotels into the convention center but I still figured it’d be packed like yesterday. Had the thing been called off for today and I didn’t get the memo or something?

“What’s going on here?” I asked.

“No idea,” Megan said. “I thought you didn’t care about the convention?”

I frowned. “I don’t. Let’s go get a cab.”

I sighed and we made our way towards where the actual convention was happening. Surely there’d be somebody there. Only the emptiness continued as we made our way through the convention center. The place was a complete ghost town. Where the hell was everybody? It was like one of those twilight zone episodes where somebody finds themselves in an alternate dimension or something, only there wasn't a creepy guy in a suit to explain that everything was about to go to hell for me. That eerie emptiness continued right up to the moment we rounded a corner and stepped into the massive two floor hall that ran next to the Elassa Con dealer hall.

I stopped and stared.

We’d found everybody.

The main concourse was open on the second floor allowing people to walk the halls upstairs and look down on the first floor. Every railing on the second floor was lined with people staring down. All the walls along the first floor were lined with people as well. They were packed at least ten deep running down the entire length of the convention center. And there at the end, near the entrance that opened out onto one of the streets in downtown Indy, stood a lone figure.

I turned and looked at Megan who was grinning at me. I wanted to punch her in the face. Apparently my desire to punch her in the face was pretty clearly communicated through that look because she held up her hands defensively and took a step back.

“You can still get a cab and leave,” Megan said. “But I’m going to say my piece. I heard your argument last night and I think she had some good points. I think you’re maybe a little afraid and maybe looking for any excuse you can find to run away from what’s probably the best damn thing to happen to you in awhile.”

I balled my hand into a fist, anger pumping through me, but then I released it. I let out a sigh and all the tension I’d been feeling all morning drained out of me.

“You really think so?” I asked.

Megan stepped forward and wrapped me in a hug. “Just do what feels right Amber. Don’t go crazy over thinking things or thinking about all the ways something could go wrong. Let something go right for a change. Hear what she has to say and then make your decision, because I can always book you on a later flight.”

I blinked. "A later flight? What do you mean?"

Megan at least had the good grace to blush, though not by much. She wasn't the kind of person who felt much in the way of shame. Particularly when she was meddling.

"You think I'm going to waste a bunch of money on a plane ticket when I know this is in the works?"

"You knew?"

The blush deepened, but again not by much. "Let's just say your girlfriend over there has ways of tracking people down in Tales of Elassa and she recruited me for this."

"If this doesn't work out I'm never trusting you again," I said with a laugh.

Megan let out a laugh of her own. "Yeah, you'll at least need to trust me enough to use my credit card and take advantage of the low rent house I have, so I'm not too worried."

I sighed as she released the hug and turned to look behind me. There was still a clear path back to the skywalk and then the hotel if I wanted to escape. Apparently everyone at the convention had gathered in this hall. Waiting for me. I couldn’t believe there was an entire convention of people waiting for me. How had Kaitlyn even managed to pull that off?

I seriously considered escape, only something stopped me. I turned and looked at the crowd again. At everybody staring in absolute silence, all of them hopeful, and then I looked down at that lone figure standing at the head of the crowd.

Kaitlyn had gone to this much trouble. I might regret it, I might decide it was the most ridiculous decision I ever made, but I figured the least I owed her was hearing her out if she went to all this trouble. Wasn't I the one hoping for a grand romantic gesture last night? Something straight out of the movies or a cheesy book? Well here it was, so I at least owed it to her to hear her out. I still couldn’t quite believe that this was all for my benefit, but after everything else that had happened this weekend I could also very much believe she would pull something ridiculous like this.

I suppose there was nothing to do but see it through to the end.

So I took a hesitant step forward. No one stopped me. It seemed this show definitely was for my benefit. So I walked down the center of that big group of fans. All of them staring at me expectantly.

I got closer to that figure standing alone. Kaitlyn looking pretty casual in a T-shirt that had the logo of one of her books on it and a pair of shorts. The shorts surprised me just a bit, but then again she was the boss so it's not like she couldn't do whatever she wanted anyways and it was hot as fuck. She held a single rose in her hand and had a hopeful smile on her face. A smile that grew bigger and an expression that grew ever more hopeful the closer I got.

Finally I stood in front of her. I fixed her with my best neutral stare. If she thought all this was going to impress me or pressure me into anything then she had another thing coming, but I was also thinking over everything Megan said. Was I trying to sabotage this?

No, not entirely. Everything I'd said the night before was still true. Sure I was a little scared of how I felt about her, both because this was the first time I'd felt this way about a girl but mainly because I was scared at how strong those feelings were so soon. I was afraid of her not wanting to tell anyone the truth about her or about us.

Still, I could hear her out. I figured I owed her at least that much if she'd gone to the trouble of getting an entire convention to come down and watch her make a grand romantic gesture. I wondered if that Carrie bitch was anywhere in the crowd and had a moment of satisfaction thinking about that. She never got a grand romantic gesture like this.

Eat your heart out, bitch.

Kaitlyn got down on her knees and held the rose up to me. I blinked in surprise. I wasn’t expecting that.

“Amber,” she said, her voice catching for a moment and then she seemed to get control of herself.

Kaitlyn was either the world’s best actor or this was a genuine moment. In a daze I took the rose, still not quite believing this was happening. Still not quite believing I was actually going along with this after all the anger and shouting yesterday. Finally she seemed to regain control and started talking again.

“You were absolutely right last night Amber. I haven’t been honest with you about who I was, and I haven't been honest with the world, with my fans, about who I am. It's paralyzed me creatively and I'm tired of living with this. I did it because I was afraid, but I should’ve given you more credit than that. I realize that, and from now on I’m going to be completely honest with you from here on out. I want to start over with you, and I want everyone to know the truth.”

I was getting a little overwhelmed. I was weak in the knees. Actually, shit. I was losing it. I was falling to the floor only she caught me in her arms and I wanted to sigh and just lean into her, but I couldn’t. Not yet. I owed her an apology.

“I’m sorry for not listening to you,” I said. “I think I was afraid and it was easier to lash out at you and believe my version of reality than admit to myself how I feel about you.”

She arched a sexy eyebrow. “How do you feel about me?”

I arched my own eyebrow. “That’s not obvious? I love you, you idiot!”

Kaitlyn grinned. "Well I suppose it's only fair since I was afraid to admit to the world how I felt about you. I love you too!"

Kaitlyn stood and held out her hand. Not the reaction I was expecting but I took her hand and she lifted me up. “In that case we’d better start this out right. Hi. My name’s Kaitlyn Morgan. I write books, I’m here with a few thousand of my closest friends, and I’m falling absolutely, totally, irretrievably head over heels in love with you too.”

She stopped and looked at the massive crowd gathered around us. At the people who were recording all of this on their phones. She raised her voice so that it would carry across the eerily silent crowd. "This is Amber. My new girlfriend. Also, I'm totally a lesbian!"

I looked up at her and blinked in disbelief. her girlfriend? Then I smiled. Yeah, her girlfriend. I liked the sound of that.

I launched myself at her. I had the satisfaction of seeing her eyes go wide and then a moment later she was wrapping her arms around me and our lips came together. We were locked in a passionate embrace with thousands of fans erupting and cheering around us. Definitely not the doom and gloom reaction Kaitlyn seemed to be expecting from the way she tiptoed around coming out. I closed my eyes and I was completely oblivious to the world around me. My entire world was Kaitlyn, that incredible kiss, and a wave of relief that washed over me.

Maybe I was going to get my happily ever after!

I have to admit it felt a little weird to have my love life playing out in front of an audience of thousands, particularly when that involved coming out to the world in a majorly public way on top of letting the world know about my new relationship, but I suppose I was going to have to get used to that sort of thing if I was going to be dating one of the most successful authors in the world. I pulled away from the kiss and disentangled myself from her, turned around to look at the crowd gathered for us.

Kaitlyn held up a hand and everyone immediately grew quiet. I marveled at the level of control she seemed to have over her fans, at the level of dedication they had.

“I want to thank all of you for taking the time to help me out this morning,” Kaitlyn said. “I really appreciate it! And to sweeten the pot, thanks to Amber here I've been inspired to start working on the next book. Expect it this time next year!”

Once more everyone erupted into applause. Whether for our budding romance or announcing the new book was anyone’s guess.

I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just went with the moment and pulled her into another kiss.

Epilogue: Getting Even

About an hour later I was lying back in disbelief on the bed in Kaitlyn's suite. Her room was a surprisingly subdued affair, especially compared to the one Megan and I shared. She said something about not wanting to travel too ostentatiously.

I looked over to her. We hadn't actually done any of the fun that we got up to yesterday. No, after everything that had just happened down below we were just sitting back and relaxing. Basking in one another's presence.

She looked over at me, intertwined her fingers in mine. "So what do you think?"

"I still can't believe you did that," I said.

"I told you that you were different from Carrie," she said. And she punctuated that by leaning in and giving me a kiss. Yeah, I suppose I was different from Carrie in one hell of a major way. Kaitlyn certainly hadn't made any sort of grand romantic gesture in the convention center for that crazy bitch!

I turned over to the television. To one of the news channels. Apparently it was a slow news day with nothing blowing up somewhere in the world, because the only story that was plastered across cable news was Kaitlyn's display and coming out. People pontificating about what it meant. Though thankfully so far the response amongst the fan communities seemed to be pretty damn positive. We had a laptop in between us and had been cycling between all of the major blogs which were plastered with pictures from the convention and the big announcement.

By far the only people who were really upset seemed to be guys who had the hots for Kaitlyn and had just had their fantasies of wooing her and running off to live happily ever after dashed. Well, that was tough shit for them. This was my happily ever after now.

"See? It wasn't as bad as you thought!" I said.

Another email made its presence known with a pop-up notification in the bottom corner of her screen. She reached down and clicked to pull it up. There'd been a steady stream from people all day long, though most of them had come from her suddenly overworked head of the PR team who apparently had no idea Kaitlyn was about to drop this bomb on the world.

Not that I thought it should be a bomb. It's not like someone being gay was exactly earth shattering anymore, but I suppose any sort of salacious gossip was going to sell in the gossip rags. Particularly with someone as well known and as rich as Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn laughed when she saw the email. It was basically the PR person begging her for more information and then admonishing her for making the decision to do this without at least consulting the poor girl first. I suppose I could sympathize with that, but it didn't stop me from getting the same rush that I felt every time I thought about Kaitlyn's very public display. All for me. I still couldn't believe it. She'd gone out of her way to make a display like that, and it was just for me. It was incredible!

Kaitlyn tapped out the same response she had before. "My personal life is my business, and I'm not going to tell you anything more than I already have. Not until we're ready."

I giggled and fell back against the bed again. And then I popped my head up on one elbow and looked at her. She glanced over and then looked again when she realized I was staring.

"What?"

"Oh nothing," I said. "Just thinking about how gorgeous you look!"

She blushed and I felt a warm flush running over me. God I loved that I could make her blush like that. That I could get that sort of reaction out of this goddess. She was so fucking beautiful!

That still felt odd. Saying that a girl was beautiful. I'd spent so long with these feelings buried in the back of my mind, refusing to acknowledge what they actually meant, that it was weird having them up front and center even though, if I'm perfectly honest and doing some soul-searching, they'd always been with me. It felt good to have them out in the open. It felt good to be honest with myself about who I was, and to be with someone who was honest about who she was.

And those feelings really were out in one hell of a way. My face was plastered across all of those blogs right alongside Kaitlyn's. I'm sure anybody who knew me was probably getting a look at those pictures right now. It was a hell of a way to come out. I was still waiting for a call from my mom, but it hadn't come so far.

I suppose I had her general computer illiteracy to thank for that.

Kaitlyn moved in closer. Close enough that her face was just inches from my own. Damn it was so sexy having her that close. I could smell her scent. I could practically taste her.

Come to think of it, I could think of a couple of ways that I'd like to taste her in the near future, if you catch my drift.

"So we overcame the big obstacle. We both got the girl. What do you want to do now?"

I paused and thought about that. Sure I knew exactly what she was talking about. I wasn't an idiot. I could tell a come on when it was being thrown at me. I reached out and started running a hand up her arm. We hadn't bothered to change out of our clothes from the convention, but I had a feeling that was going to change pretty damn soon.

I smiled at her. An evil idea occurred to me. And I told her exactly what I'd like to do. She blinked in surprise as I outlined what I had in mind, but then a huge grin split her face. By the time I was done she was outright cackling right before she rolled on top of me.

Later in the day, after exactly the sort of distraction that had kept us from doing anything productive for the early part of the afternoon yesterday, we were making our way down through the convention center. No costumes this time. No anonymity. And my hand was firmly grasped in Kaitlyn's which felt so damn good.

Of course it also meant we couldn't walk more than five feet without people stopping us and asking to have a picture taken. Or asking for an autograph. All of the flashes from the nonstop picture barrage created a dazzling star field that very nearly had me blinded. I wondered how many of those were going to various news blogs. Or maybe even national news organizations, assuming there hadn't been some other bigger story somewhere in the world to pull them away from the salacious gossip of an author coming out of the closet.

A couple of people even asked me for my autograph, as ridiculous as that sounded. That was something I refused outright, but I saw Kaitlyn grinning at me out of the corner of my eyes every time I pushed someone away. That was just ridiculous. I wasn't famous. I wasn't anything special.

Well, I guess I was something special to Kaitlyn. That's all I needed though. The last thing I needed was a bunch of people clamoring for my autograph when I hadn't done anything to earn it other than making a splash in the news because of who I happened to be dating!

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we managed to make our way to the spot we were looking for. It was an out-of-the-way hall that didn't get much traffic, though of course it was starting to get a hell of a lot of traffic now that people realized Kaitlyn Morgan was down this way. I looked behind us and saw security guards surreptitiously setting up and creating a human barrier to prevent anyone from getting down here.

I shook my head at all of it. This was completely ridiculous.

"What's wrong?" Kaitlyn asked.

I took in a deep breath and let out a sigh as I looked at the crowd that was bunched up against the security guards back there. It was like something out of a zombie apocalypse movie. It was completely ridiculous. And I was starting to realize that was going to be my life now. At least for as long as I was in a relationship with Kaitlyn. Which I hoped might be awhile, considering how well we'd clicked so far.

"Just thinking about those crowds," I said. "It's ridiculous!"

Kaitlyn came up behind me and wrapped her arms around me. A feeling that had me closing my eyes and taking in a deep breath even as a wave of pleasure went crashing over me. God how I loved feeling her pressing up against me!

"Don't worry about it too much," she said. "The whole convention thing is probably giving you a skewed idea of what it's like. This is one of the only times of the year where I have this sort of problem."

I giggled. "Either way, it's going to take some getting used to!"

"Well I hope you have plenty of time to get used to it!" she said. And that sent another thrill running through me. It seemed like she was just as interested in the long term as I was, and that felt good.

I turned around and smiled at her. "So are you ready for a little fun?"

"Am I ever! I've been meaning to do this for years, but this is finally given me the excuse I needed."

Our fun upstairs had been interspersed with a lot of emails back and forth between Kaitlyn and her business people. Trying to get everything in line to make the announcement we were about to drop. I was impressed that she was able to get it turned around in a matter of a couple of hours, but then again I suppose when you were the head of your own company you could make people jump just as fast as you wanted.

And so we moved down to a double door. Kaitlyn took a deep breath and then she opened it.

We found ourselves in a decent sized room that was set up with numerous tables and a platform at one end. People wearing volunteer uniforms and volunteer badges were at various tables, and it looked like there were a lot in here right now. There was somebody standing on a platform at one end of the room with a PowerPoint running. My eyes narrowed. It was Carrie standing up there.

"So to recap," Carrie said. "This emergency meeting is because Kaitlyn Morgan decided getting laid was more important than writing the next book, and more important than telling us, the people on the front line who are going to be hit with a bunch of questions about this, about her plans."

I saw some people muttering around us. It was obvious they didn't particularly care for what Carrie was saying, but no one was saying anything. It made my blood boil. This bitch could take anything and turn it into a negative. I couldn't believe I'd actually listened to her yesterday!

I still felt like an idiot when I thought of that, though I suppose the end result was way more positive than I ever could've imagined.

A couple of people turned around as we walked through the door. And their eyes went wide. They started muttering and elbowing people next to them. The muttering and elbowing spread until the entire room was turning and looking at us instead of Carrie. The bitch, for her part, just stared at the crowd who was muttering rather than listening to her.

Then her eyes moved to the back and she saw me. Her eyes narrowed, but then she saw Kaitlyn standing next to me and her eyes went wide. Her mouth opened in an "O" shape. Good. Let her be a little surprised. Let her be a little worried.

The bitch.

Kaitlyn gave a little wave to the room and then she stood tall. She made her way up to the front. Hopped up onto the stage and gestured for me to follow.

Carrie opened her mouth as though she was going to say something, but then closed it very quickly at a nasty look from Kaitlyn. I suppressed the urge to giggle at that look. It was so much fun seeing that. And from the way Kaitlyn turned and smiled at me she was having some fun as well.

Yeah, she was taking care of some long overdue business. Now that I'd seen how truly crazy and vindictive Carrie could be I could understand why.

"Hi everybody!" Kaitlyn said. She clapped her hands together. Everybody said hi back and there were some smiles in the crowd.

"So I know it's been awhile since I've come down and addressed all of you directly, but I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate everything you do, and how sorry I am that you're kind of getting hit with the brunt of my little announcement I made today."

She reached out and took my hand. Pulled me closer. Held up my hand in hers.

"By the way, this is Amber. My girlfriend!"

The smile on her face and the happiness in her voice seemed infectious. At least it seemed to be infecting the room. Volunteers were smiling and laughing as they looked back and forth between us. There was none of the solemn silence that had been there when Carrie was addressing the room just a minute ago.

"Hi Amber!" A couple of people shouted.

I blushed and waved to the room. I hadn't expected to be introduced to a bunch of diehard fans like this, but I figured I was going to have to learn how to roll with these things if me and Kaitlyn were going to be a going concern.

So I grinned and waved. A couple of people waved back at me. I saw a couple of guys giving me jealous glances, but whatever. I guess that was to be expected since I was the one who managed to land the hot rich author. It wasn't my fault she didn't swing their way.

"I've been thinking a lot about all the work you guys do for me at these conventions," Kaitlyn said. "And I think it's not enough that you guys get free admission to the con. No, I'm thinking it's high time we make you guys actual employees of Elassa Corp. We certainly have the money for it!"

There was more laughing, and a few disbelieving stares.

"That's right! I want all of you to come work for me! At least during convention season."

This time the excited muttering in the room had nothing to do with Kaitlyn's personal life choices. People were grinning and giving each other high-fives. I looked over to Carrie. She'd turned absolutely white.

Kaitlyn went right on. "Of course this also means we're going to be officially taking over the informal volunteer system you guys had, but I'm sure nobody will have a problem with that if you're getting paid to do something you love, right?"

There was more murmuring from the room, but the general reaction seemed to be that no, they didn't care at all. I grinned and looked over to Carrie again who was getting whiter by the moment. Yeah, I'm sure she could see the writing on the wall. I'm sure she could see what little power she had slipping out of her fingers.

Someone else came through the back door. A girl wearing an Elassa corporate shirt. She had a pile of those same shirts in her hand. Another girl followed behind her carrying a stack of papers.

"Of course it's too early to get the ball rolling for this particular convention, but I have some of my business people in the back with complimentary Elassa corporate T-shirts and job applications." She paused for a moment and smiled out over the crowd. "And don't worry. I'm sure almost all of you will be accepted into our new convention helper program!"

At that last bit she turned and looked at Carrie. Fixed her with a huge grin. A huge grin that communicated exactly what kind of person wasn't going to be accepted into the new program. I leaned past Kaitlyn and gave her a little wave and a smile of my own.

Carrie, for her part, had a look on her face that seemed pretty close to what I probably looked like yesterday when she was telling tales. When I'd felt like my entire world was crashing down around me. I probably should've felt some sort of pity for her, but I just couldn't muster it up. She was the one who decided it would be more fun to meddle, more fun to stir the pot. And so if the drama was coming back to bite her in the ass, well that was her own problem. Not mine.

So I just grinned at her as Kaitlyn took my arm and we made our way back out. When we reached the door I turned and looked, and Carrie was still standing there on the stage, looking utterly defeated, as everybody else was streaming to the back of the room to fill out their application.

When we were out of the room Kaitlyn leaned against the door and let out a giggle. "That was so much fun!"

I took her by the hand and looked at the zombie apocalypse of rabid fans that was waiting for us down where more security had showed up to keep the tide back. If anything the crowd seemed to have gotten even bigger, but that was fine with me. I suppose this was my life now. We'd survived learning who Kaitlyn really was, we'd survived admitting to the world what we really were, and we'd survived someone trying to come between us and even gotten a bit of revenge.

There was still plenty that I had to figure out, plenty that I would have to come to terms with, but there was one thing that I was certain of.

Kaitlyn was mine. I was hers. And as long as I knew that, everything was right in the world.

We walked out towards the crowd and our new future together.

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