Fake Game (The System #3)

Chapter Thirteen

THIRTEEN

JACKSON

“ H ey, just wanted to let you know I’m popping out for a bit. Ya know, in case you can’t find me and think I’ve been kidnapped by mafia men who helicoptered onto the roof to sell me for ransom.”

I swivel around in my gaming chair to stare at Deer. She has one hand braced on my doorframe, the other on the handle, as she leans the top half of her body into my streaming room. A fluffy white purse hangs from one of her elbows, and her pink hair is styled in two elaborate space buns with two small braids framing the front of her face.

I want to tug on those braids, see that frustration light up her eyes. The same frustration I saw last night when I pulled her into my date.

“Where are you going?”

“Nail salon.” She releases her grip on the handle and proceeds to wiggle her fingers at me. “They’re too long and messing with Parker’s keyboard. I was hoping to delay it a little longer, but I’m going to go nuts if I keep accidentally hitting the W key every time I go to tap S.”

“Okay, give me a second to save.”

I spin back around and pull up the save screen to make sure I save over the right file. I am in the middle of completing a quest and have to make sure I don’t save over the wrong file in case things go pear-shaped and I have to revert to a previous save.

I’m surprised to see her going out on her own. The first four days she was here, she barely even left my room. Lee managed to get her out last night, and I guess that’s made her feel more comfortable. It’s a good thing. I was worried the swatting had really shattered something within her, especially with the way she screamed in her dreams.

“Oh, no need. Syd texted me Francis’ number and said I could use him while I was staying here. Said it would be safer than calling a rideshare. Which is kinda valid, as much as I don’t wanna admit it.”

I frown.

Sure, it made sense to give her access to our private driver, especially since her car was still parked at her place. Syd’s been using Francis to get around Cali for years now, but that doesn’t make me any less annoyed at the situation.

Quickly saving my game, I turn off my monitor and twist back in time to see Deer tossing me a grin and a half-assed wave as she spins around on a pair of those ridiculously high heels she seems to own a million of and leaves.

“Bye,” her voice trills.

“Hang on.” I shoot out of my chair and stalk after her with a few long strides. “Are you sure that’s safe?”

She cocks a brow up at me. “He’s your driver.”

“Yeah, but you’ve been swatted twice in the last two weeks.”

“Thanks for the reminder.”

“Francis isn’t trained to be a bodyguard.”

“And you are?” She uses one of her pointed nails to purposefully press the elevator call button.

“I work out.”

“And you have the body to show for it, but I don’t really care.” Her bright blue eyes trail down my bare arms appreciatively. The elevator chimes as the doors open. “Catch ya later, hot stuff.”

“Wait.” My body moves on its own, my arm shooting out to bar her from entering the elevator.

“Seriously, Shield? I can’t be late. There’s only a fifteen-minute grace period,” she huffs, stomping one of her feet.

“Just give me a second.”

“One,” she bites out before attempting to duck under my arm. I use the movement to snake said arm around her waist and spin her into me. Her body locks up at the contact briefly before she tries to push away.

“Deer.”

“What?”

“I said wait.” The bite of my words has her pausing, a flash of heat passing through them so quickly that I think maybe I saw wrong. “I’m putting on shoes and coming with you.”

Her lips purse and lids narrow for a beat before she tsks, her body going slack with submission. “Fine.”

I slowly release my grip on her, watching her for any sudden movements. Woman is like a caged rabbit.

I jog back to my room and throw on a pair of Jordans and a hoodie before shoving my wallet into my back pocket with a face mask. When I return, Deer is still there. Her obedience to my words turns over in my mind—a curiosity slowly stitching itself together and causing my dick to twitch.

As soon as I step foot into the elevator with her, she begins aggressively pressing the button for the private garage level.

“You know that doesn’t make it go any quicker.”

“If I miss this appointment because of you, I swear to the Gods.”

For someone who promised sunshine and rainbows, she tosses threats around like free condoms at a college health center.

The elevator rockets down the sixty floors, and Deer practically skips out the second the doors inch open.

“Francis,” she chirps with a smile. The spindly man stands by the back door, holding it open for us, and she gives him a giant hug. “Thank you for making time for me.”

What the fuck? She’s never greeted me with that much enthusiasm.

Francis gives her a brief pat on the head with his free hand. “Of course, miss. I have some peach sparkling water in the center console for you per your request.”

“You’re the best!” she gushes as she hops into the BMW.

I enter on the other side as Francis gets into the driver’s seat and starts the car up to begin the winding exit of the apartment complex.

The sound of Deer popping open her sparkling water cracks against the silence before a quiet fizz hisses out.

“You want some?” She tips the can toward me.

“No.”

“Then quit side-eying me.”

I let out a huff and turn my body away from her, pulling out my phone and opening a gaming app to pass the time. I don’t understand this woman. Her emotions change more often than the wind.

I shouldn’t be surprised though. She said her makeup was a mask, and that is clearly the case.

“Hey, what’s up?”

I glance at Deer to see her shoving her phone between her ear and shoulder before she riffles through her handbag.

“Mm, I’m fine. Just headed to the nail salon. Thanks for checking in though.”

She pulls out a lip gloss and swipes on the sparkly pink color. My attention zeroes in on her plush lips, a thirst growing within me. I don’t know what’s going on with me.

At first, I thought I was just drawn to her because of a sense of protective duty, like how the guys and I are with Lee—but it’s becoming something more than that. She sucks me into her orbit without even trying.

When I look at Deer, there’s nothing PG about the way my brain conjures up scenarios of stripping her bare. Even now, I see those lips and instantly imagine the way they would look pursed around my cock.

“I appreciate it, Rick, but don’t worry, I’m being safe. Shield is with me.”

My hackles rise at the sound of another man's name slipping from her tongue.

Deer laughs at something the person on the other side of the phone says, and my upper lip curls slightly.

I seriously need to get my shit together.

I flip my gaze back to my phone and force myself to get lost in the game, zoning out anything and everything with regard to the woman next to me.

It works for a while, the LA traffic buzzing around me as I focus on shooting my enemies.

That is until a tendril of pink hair suddenly dangles in my periphery.

“That Kill Strike ?” Deer’s sweet tone shatters through my concentration like a hammer on glass.

“Does it look like Kill Strike ?” My words come off a little gruff, my earlier annoyance still peeking through.

She leans closer, her brown sugar scent cloying the air. There is no personal space with her sometimes.

“Mm, yeah it does.”

“Then there’s your answer.”

“Cool. I’m playing Love Love Passion School 4: The Idol Chapter . The mobile version isn’t as good as the Switch one, but it’s still pretty fun.” She moves her phone into my line of vision, effectively blocking my phone screen with her otome game.

I’m stuck looking at some anime dude with red hair and a headset mic.

“This guy is the one I think I want my girl to end up with in this playthrough. He is the leader of the rock band, so he is technically one of the harder characters to win over, but I already have three of the five hearts filled. I’m thinking I’ll be able to have his storyline done within the next day or so.” She doesn’t even take a breath before continuing to ramble. “I read on a forum that there’s a secret love interest you can unlock once you win each of the original four love interests on hard mode. I think it’s going to be the rival lead singer, which would be cool. Although, winning him over will be even harder than any of the others, but I like the challenge. Hang on, let me see if I can show you…” she trails off, her delicate hands tapping across the small screen until she pulls up some online diary with character profiles. Her nail clicks on the screen as she gestures to the white-blond character. “Ah, there, see? He’s the one I think will be the secret love interest.”

“Riveting,” I drawl, trying to keep up with the bombardment of information she is littering me with.

I like to think I have a pretty good read on Deer; most of the time she is this damn Energizer Bunny, but every once in a while, there is a crack in the wall where I see through to a more muted version of herself. I want to know how much of what she shows to the world is really her. I want to know what side of herself she would show me—just me.

Deer lets out a deep sigh before slumping back in her seat. “You can be a real stick-in-the-mud, ya know. You could at least pretend to be a smidge interested.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re the one imposing on my nail appointment.” She uses her phone to point at me, the little charm attached to the corner swaying. “If you’re going to be all Grumpy Cat, you shoulda stayed home.”

I should have.

But I can’t stay away.

I’m addicted to her like a finance bro is to his morning coffee.

Fuck. Why do I keep involving myself with her?

“Sorry.” The word leaves my lips before I can think better of it.

Deer’s mouth closes and her doe eyes blink several times. “It’s fine.”

“Is it that hard to win the redhead over?” I nod my head toward her phone.

“Aidan,” she corrects me before her eyes narrow. “Are you sure you want me to give you the lore? These games get pretty intense. I’m not sure you can keep up; it can be super technical—especially when you play on the hardest mode.”

“It can’t be that tedious.”

She snorts and rolls her eyes. “That’s what everyone thinks.”

“It’s a dating sim.” They couldn’t be that technical, for fuck’s sake. You just had to answer the prompts correctly. It was kind of a more basic and less violent version of the choice-based RPGs I’ve played.

A serpentine smile slides across her face. “Okay, just remember you asked.”

She scooches across to the middle seat and proceeds to tuck her left foot under her right thigh, causing her left thigh to plaster against my own. She continues to shift as she gets uncomfortably close, her elbow basically resting against my thigh as she leans over to show me her phone screen.

“All right, so each day is only twenty-four minutes, so you have to try to complete as much as you can within that time. But you only have a certain number of days from when the game starts until it ends. In the case of Idol Chapter , there are three months from when the storyline begins until the final concert. Each task you complete takes up time, and even when you move between locations, you lose extra time depending on how far the locations are.”

“Currently, I only have a month left until the concert, so I’m a little pressed for time to win those last two hearts from Aidan. The issue is, I can’t focus all my time on him because if his bandmates hate me, it causes him to hate me as well. I learned that the hard way during my last playthrough—which I failed,” she sighs. “It’s why he is the hardest of the four to succeed with.”

Deer tucks one of the small pink braids behind her ear before resting her elbow on my thigh, not bothering to hover anymore. At this point, her shoulder is nearly tucked under mine, and there is no discernable space between our bodies.

She might as well just climb onto my fucking lap.

I can barely focus on everything she is explaining, too caught up in the way her fuzzy sweater begins to slip off her shoulder, revealing a lacey pink bra strap and skin covered in a soft smattering of freckles that are barely darker than her skin color—you wouldn’t even notice them unless you’re this close.

My eyes trace the soft slope of her neck down to the dip at her collarbone. She’s wearing another one of those chokers today. This time it has a little metal heart clipped in the center of the black leather.

My dick twitches at the sight of it.

“Don’t you agree?” Deer nudges her shoulder backward to get my attention. When it takes more than a second for me to respond, she flicks her eyes up to me and narrows them. “Please tell me you were listening.”

“Of course.”

The arch of her brow rises. “Oh, really? Then what’s your suggestion?”

Shit.

I run my eyes over her phone screen, quickly piecing together the scenario in front of me.

“I wouldn’t sneak out to meet him. The note seems like a fake, probably from a rival.”

Her eyes turn to slits, and I worry for a second that I read the situation wrong, but she just lets out a disappointed tsk and sits up straight. “Yeah, that was my thought.”

“We’ve arrived, miss.”

I let out a sigh of relief at Francis’ interruption.

I was getting too confused being around her; nothing was making sense anymore. The more time I spend with her, the more sides I get to see, and it muddies the waters of everything I thought I knew about her.

“Thank you, Francis,” Deer chirps as we come to a stop in front of a nail salon with a familiar swan logo.

“Of course. I’ll be parked here when you need to return.”

“Oh Gods, no. It’ll be like two hours. Go grab a coffee or something. I’ll shoot you a text when I’m almost done.” She opens the door and hops out.

“Wait, two hours?”