For The Win (Gamer Girls, #6) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,15

get, but I promise that's not at all what I'm chasing."

"Thought we were here to talk about gaming stuff and mods, not..." She flipped her hand at him. "That."

"Nope. That's me putting it in your head. It's me being brutally honest. Kinda like it is when I say that we're thinking about stealing some of your ideas for the Renegade display, and Chance was going to talk to you about it in Denver."

Her breath fell out in a rush. "What? You're joking!"

"Nope." And he lifted his cup in a mock salute. "All your other friends may think that Eternal Combat is the only game in the world, but us? We have a whole collection of titles, and we notice things that can make the next one better. So... Want to tell me how you came up with your designs?"

Finally, Rhaven reached for the cream and started fixing her coffee. Yep, that one little line convinced her that she wasn't leaving. "I just decided that it would be a waste to cover up half the screen when the game's that pretty."

"Yeah, but you made it functional," he said as he pushed a menu at her. "And beautiful."

Her eyes jumped up to find his waiting. That last part clearly wasn't about the game, and it felt good. No, that wasn't a strong enough word. That one little compliment felt life-changing.

Chapter 6

Damn, but she looked good as a "guy," Braden thought. Not that she really looked like a guy, though. She looked like a woman without makeup wearing casual clothes. Maybe the other idiots around here looked at her and saw the young man they'd always known, but he couldn't. Mostly, it was her eyes. Those dark lashes were sultry, and she kept biting her lip the way only a woman would.

And he wanted to kiss those lips of hers. Even without lipstick, they were still a wonderful burgundy color, a perfect complement to her skin tone. She wasn't the porcelain type. She also wasn't really olive-skinned. Then again, maybe that was just her shirt. Either way, she had that naturally sun-kissed look. Plus, her hair had grown a bit since the first time he'd seen her, which made him wonder just how long she'd been transitioning.

Not that he'd ask, though. That was much too personal of a question for the first "date." If she wanted to tell him, she would. Otherwise, he'd just accept what she offered, and right now it was some brilliant insight into the user interface for game controls.

"The thing that most game designers can't wrap their minds around," she said, "is that we don't need to click the buttons. Anyone mousing over the icon on a regular basis is going to be too dead to enjoy the game. Deviant makes stuff that's just too hard for that. We want the challenge, but we're also used to mapping our keyboards to work with our own style."

"So, smaller icons," he agreed. "But I like how your skill toolbars auto collapse and then open back up when you use an alt or control option."

"It just keeps the screen less cluttered," she said. "I got used to all that viewable space when playing shooters, and it's so full when playing massively multiplayer online games. I get it, there's so much stuff, but so many overlays fade out when not in use. It just made sense to steal the idea."

"And we love it," he told her. "I'm not even kidding, Rhave. We're all stuck in this traditional idea of what's expected, and you're not."

She lifted a brow at him. "Double entendre much?"

He ducked his head and laughed. "Um, that was kinda accidental, actually. I just meant that as a developer, it's easy to fall into habits. Every MMO does things one way, so we assume it has to be that way. If we push too far, the customers aren't interested. They get confused."

"Still doing it," she pointed out.

He just reached up to scrub at his face. No, he wasn't trying to say anything about her transition. He really was just talking about the habits of being a game designer, but he saw her point.

"Ok," he said, massaging his brow. "My point is that people want new and unique, but they don't want it to be too new or too unique. They like to have some foundation to their controls that they can understand. Just like any computer program. If you can't figure out how to close it, then you get pissed off." And