both billionaires themselves, several times over, was not something to add to my resume.
But I did as Jordan asked and I thought about it… all the way back to the Den.
I had my own work to do, and now I had to magic some kind of special project to wow Adam’s and the Board of Director’s socks off.
Or something.
Chapter 2
Katya
I never thought I’d start out my very ordinary Tuesday morning surrounded by four hunky astronauts. But here we were, walking together down the corridors of Draco Multimedia Entertainment Inc., and through the displays of Dragon Epoch, our most popular game.
“Whoa,” one of them said. I wracked my brain to remember his name. Colonel Noah Sutton. Tall, dark-haired and with arms like tree trunks where his tight gray NASA t-shirt hugged them. Holy Moly. He had stopped in front of an as-yet-unrevealed exhibit in the back hall that was part of our promotion for the new expansion on Dragon Epoch. “I don’t recognize this area in the game. Is this something new?”
The diorama showed an icy snowscape—a frozen world that would soon be discovered by players all over Yondareth, the name of the world depicted in our game. The Sunderlands were located on the polar continent of that globe, lava-heated realms existing under kilometres of thick ice in the polar caps. Only in fantasy.
I twitched my brows, impressed by the astronaut’s knowledge of the game. Who knew they had enough spare time during all their hours of training to play our game?
I darted a look at my co-tour guide. Oh yeah, Lucas was also with us, oddly quiet except when lapsing into lengthy explanations to the astronauts about what they were looking at. He seemed distracted and out of sorts, though I couldn’t put my finger on why. He also wasn’t doing much to engage personably with our guest celebrities.
No, he left that up to me. Which was not much of a hardship after all. I was swimming in a sea of hulking muscles and alpha male testosterone. Nevertheless, it was necessary to dial up the perkiness to make up for Lucas’s grumpier-even-than-usual demeanor. The only problem was, the more I flirted with the astronauts, the grumpier he seemed to get. Which, of course, egged me on even more.
It was almost like a challenge. How grumpy could Lucas get? That’s just how the two of us interacted. We seemed to enjoy pushing each other’s buttons.
So why not just irritate the hell out of him by flirting with a couple or four guys who were extremely easy on the eyes?
“How long have you worked at Draco, Miss Ellis?” another one of the hot hunks—er—astronauts asked. He had a sexy Russian accent and was beyond huge. At least two metres tall and what a body! I’d forgotten his name. It was something unusual and Russian-sounding.
“Call me Katya,” I said.
“Short for Ekaterina?” he raised his brows. “A good Russian name.”
I smiled. “Katharina. My mum just liked the name.”
He laughed, his eyes taking me in with obvious appreciation. “Too bad.”
I winked at him. “I haven’t gotten any complaints yet.”
“Back to the display,” Lucas said between his teeth with another dark look at me. “To answer your question, Colonel Sutton, this is part of the new expansion and you are getting a sneak peek.”
The only reason they were getting even that was that they’d left their phones in the front, as requested. They’d also been asked to sign NDAs agreeing not to discuss anything they saw here today.
Another astronaut hit Noah Sutton on the back. This one I recognized immediately, being the real celebrity of the group—Commander Ryan Tyler. But he was famous for a sad reason. He’d been involved in the awful accident last year on the International Space Station. Who’d have thought he’d be here, walking around on a tour I was giving at Draco? I was a little star-struck about it, truth be told. So my nervousness just forced me to be even more bubbly and outgoing.
I had the best job ever. Playing video games, one of my favorite things ever, check. Working in tech, like I’d studied for years to do, check. Hot guys all around me? Today that was a big yes.
Today Lucas didn’t count. His grumpiness was outweighing his hotness.
A girl could get into trouble quickly with Lucas. Not me. No. We weren’t right for each other, anyway.
Sure, I’d blurted his name out in the immigration office when I’d been put on the spot and threatened with deportation. It was