Jack barely slept. He kept replaying conversations he’d had with Kei Ren—Dianna. How did he not know? He should have known, shouldn’t he? All the times she complained about her neighbor—which he now knew was him—should have tipped him off. They had been playing online together since before Dianna moved into the building, but he still felt he should have known that his gaming partner lived right across the hall. It was almost— almost —another betrayal, but she didn’t know he was JJ from JJ and the Kid. She would never have been so open with him if she had known, especially not when they still hated each other IRL. And then there was the conversation they’d had recently when she told him she had an illness and how it had caused her last partner to leave. He’d encouraged her to be truthful with her new partner, assuring her that if he loved her, he wouldn’t run away. But Jack had run away. He’d done exactly what she was afraid he’d do. Jack had taken one look at her on the floor and im
“You bastard,” Jack said with a shake of his head. “Was that some sort of test?” “I wanted to make sure you were really in love with her and this wasn’t your rescuer complex coming out.” “I don’t have a rescuer complex,” Jack snorted. “Oh, you absolutely do, but I can see that this isn’t that. You really have fallen in love with Dianna.” “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Jack said with an exasperated huff. “So how do I fix this?” “Talk to her,” Finn said. “Talk to her?” “Maybe take chocolate.” “So she can throw it at me?” Finn grinned. “Maybe make sure they’re all soft centers.”They started coming as soon as she got to work, and then every fifteen minutes after that. Dianna had thought the tart debacle had been bad enough, but this was getting ridiculous. It wasn’t as if she could turn them away. They were Ashby Chocolates after all. No one sent back an Ashby Chocolates gift, especially not the soft-centered ones. Besides, each one was a different letter
“Jack,” Dianna said cautiously. His eyes ate her up greedily. She looked better than she had the last time he saw her and a hell of a lot better than when he found her on her bathroom floor. She looked better, but not There were still dark smudges under her eyes and she stood stiffly as if she were bracing herself. But that could be because he was in the office and he was the last person she wanted to see. “Take a seat, Dianna,” Mason said. Jack had forgotten Mason was even in the room, and by the little jolt that went through Dianna, she hadn’t seen him either. Dianna crossed the office and took a seat. Jack waited for her before he also took a seat. Mason knew why Jack was there. He knew Jack was trying to make up for his epic failure with Dianna. This was Mason’s way of trying to help Jack, although getting called into his office was terrifying. Jack couldn’t exactly pinpoint what made Mason so scary; there was just an air about him that let you know he was the alpha in the
He reached out and gripped her hand. He did it unconsciously, but he needed to touch her. He didn’t know what disorder she was talking about, but he already knew it had no cure. It scared him, the unknown. “Tell me,” Jack said. “I want to know.” Dianna looked at him for a long moment before she exhaled slowly. “I have fibromyalgia,” she finally said. “Fibromyalgia?” Dianna nodded. “Have you heard of it? Do you know anything about it?” “I’ve heard the word, but I don’t really know what it is.” Dianna took another deep breath. “I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a Wikipedia page,” she said. “Hit me with it,” Jack replied. “I’m all for a Wikipedia page explanation.” “Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder that causes widespread pain, general fatigue, brain fog, and a whole host of other things that pretty much make life difficult. In the most simplistic terms, my brain doesn’t interpret pain the same way other people’s brains do. There are also a myriad of oth
Jack took Dianna home. She probably should have stayed at work but…Jack was giving her his dragon-eyes and she’d missed him so much and, and, and…and she just wanted to be with him. They made it to her apartment before he started kissing her. They didn’t quite make it into the apartment. Instead, he pushed her up against the door and devoured her mouth. Dianna wasn’t complaining…although a less public place and fewer clothes would be better. “Bedroom,” she managed to breathe between kisses. “Naked,” he agreed, giving her enough space to unlock the door but not breaking their contact entirely. How they got to the bedroom, she didn’t really know. One minute they were in the hall and the next minute they were in her room and the front door was slamming shut. He must have used some sort of dragon magic on her…or maybe he just picked her up and carried her. Yeah, it was probably the second one, but he could have shape-shifted into a dragon and Dianna wouldn’t have cared
Dianna ran her hands down the skirt of her dress to smooth it…not to smooth it, but to wipe her sweaty hands. Who was she kidding? She was trying to be cool. She was not cool. A warm arm circled her waist and pulled her back against an equally warm chest. She breathed in Jack’s familiar scent and closed her eyes for a moment. “You okay?” he whispered into her ear before kissing her neck just below. “Nope,” she whispered back. “I’m freaking out.” He wrapped his other arm around her and tugged her closer. She let herself lean on him, stealing his strength, or if not exactly stealing it, borrowing it. “I’m here for whatever you need,” he replied. Dianna clutched his arms and reveled in the feel of them and his solid, steady body behind her. He was calm, his breathing deep and even. She slowed her own breathing to match his and let his steadfast calmness wash into her. Felicity walked into the small back room where they were waiting and Dianna’s eyes fle
Jack felt like his heart was going to pound right out of his chest. Dianna stood up on the stage beside Mason and she was absolutely killing it. She had the crowd in the palm of her hand as she showed them through her game. It didn’t matter how many times he watched her run through the explanation of the game from concept to completion; he was amazed anew. She was doing what she was born to do, and he fucking loved the way it looked on her. She glowed, and it made him want to burst with excitement for her. He also knew she was working on something new and it fascinated him watching the whole thing happen before his eyes. Was a competence boner a thing? Because he definitely got turned on when he watched her work. It was like watching da Vinci paint the Mona Lisa. Carter nudged his elbow and nodded to Dianna, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. “I suppose you’re going to take credit for this?” Jack drawled. “I was the one who got her to move into the building,” Cart
Jack put his arm around Dianna as they stepped out of the apartment and pulled her close. “Have you got everything, Riley?” Dianna asked as his son followed them into the hall. “Yup,” Riley replied, patting his backpack. They were going geocaching, not for the game, just ordinary geocaching. It had become something they did regularly. It was good for all three of them to get out into the sunshine and away from the screens for a while. Plus, Jack loved it, as did Riley. It was just another way Dianna had enriched their lives. It had been a couple of months since the game launch—which had made Black Sheep a household name, or at least amongst gamers it had become a household name, and Jack and Dianna were slowly entwining their lives. They hadn’t taken the final step to move in together, but Dianna spent nearly every night at Jack’s place and when Riley had sleepovers with Jack’s parents or sisters, they spent the night in her apartment. She had slowly been moving so