For The Win (Gamer Girls, #6) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,110

place. The match was done. It had been hard, exciting, and innovative, but now it was done, and she'd just made it to round two.

"Wow," she breathed, pulling off her headphones.

"That kicked ass," Knock said beside her.

"I died so bad," Kate groaned. "So, does this mean I get to buy the winners breakfast?"

"Coffee," Riley said, pushing her chair back. "And is the whole high table still in?" She looked right at Rhaven.

"I am," Rhaven assured her.

And the rest of the guys agreed that they'd made it too, with Psyc adding, "Thanks to Rhaven. I was a goner till she took out that guy on the ground. Two bars of life left!"

"Can't wait to see what they have for round two," she mumbled, and around the table, everyone nodded in agreement.

It seemed the difficulty level had just gone up a few notches. If she wanted her contract, she was going to have to work for it - and hard.

Chapter 37

The break between round one and two was only thirty minutes. Everyone headed to the hotel dining room to grab a coffee, but there wasn't time for much more. Naturally, the conversation was fixated on the new "map" - if they could even call it that. Somehow, Deviant had managed to take all the aspects of FPS game play and change it completely, without destroying it. But did that mean all the rest of the maps would be just as new and innovative? Rhaven hoped so.

When Riley's alarm went off notifying them that they only had ten minutes until the next round, the group headed back toward the gaming hall. Psyc fell in beside Rhaven, tossing his arm over her shoulder. She almost said something, but he caught her eye and shook his head. That made her want to look around, but she resisted the urge, trusting that Psyc had his reasons.

As soon as they were inside the gaming hall, he leaned in and whispered, "Had some guys pointing. Just wanted to make it clear that you're not alone."

"Psyc," she breathed.

He pulled his arm away and turned to face her. "Rhaven, I talked to Braden this morning. Made sure he knows so that this is all on the up and up. No cheating. No upsetting him. If having a man around scares off some incels, then I'm down for it. He agreed."

Standing this close, she realized that Psyc was just a bit taller than her. An inch, maybe two. The guy wasn't big and buff like Braden. He wasn't chiseled and sexy like Void. Nor was he flamboyant and sensual like Murder. He was just Psyc, an average looking guy with an amazing personality - and some beautiful dark green eyes.

They weren't the kind of vivid green that was noticed across the room. They weren't shocking like Cyn's silver-green eyes. They weren't almost blue, nor were they hazel. These were like a cross between olive and pine green. Except for that, everything else about Psyc was pretty average. He wasn't overly fit. He wasn't overly tall or short. He wasn't gorgeous or ugly. Psyc was just Psyc, but looking into his eyes made her stomach flip stupidly.

"Um," she said, glancing away, "thanks? I'm just not used to, you know... this."

Then he reached up and cupped the side of her face. "You should be. So, for the rest of the day, I'm the stand-in man, ok? Don't kill me. I'm just doing this because there are a lot of assholes in the world, and..." His lips curled into a smile and his cheeks turned a bit darker. "Yeah, I'm just trying to be a good guy. Not make this weird."

"You have pretty eyes," she told him.

He laughed, then turned her toward her side of the table. "Go sit down and stop embarrassing me. Oh, and Braden said to ask Riley about Murder."

Yeah, she knew that story. Pretty much everyone who made it into Riley's version of an after-party had heard it. In order to take the heat off her budding relationship with Void, Murder had seduced her in public. Wait, was Psyc saying... No. But if he was... Damn it, she was smiling and couldn't make it stop. The real question was what she'd do!

Braden was saying it was ok. He wouldn't be hurt if she got cute with Psyc. Psyc was saying that he didn't mind either. The problem was that she had no idea how to make this work. She wasn't Riley to be simultaneously flirty and badass. Nope, Rhaven was