Harvey (A MacLaughlin Family Novella Book 3) (4 page)

“Damn you, bitch!”

She stood from her cubby. Relief swept through her. The angry voice wasn’t Harvey. The guy standing a few yards away was a very young teenager. “Watch your language. This is a public area.”

“Fuck you, bitch. You play dirty and nobody even has a chance.”

She shook it off and sat back in her chair.

“Liv, is it you? Are you really Harbringer12?” Harvey’s voice took her out of focus and her hands loosened on the controller. In the back of her mind, she could hear the faint sound of boots on stairs.

Damn it. The little punk had distracted her. Had he let his avatar take a bullet just to flush her out?

She directed her avatar for the opening to the windmill platform, dove for the floor, rolled to her back, and fired. The guy who’d just climbed up fell with a loud thump.

“CharlieFoxtrot10 bites the dust. Harbringer12 is living up to her name and making short work of anyone who comes near,” the rep announced, her voice filled with excitement. The noise from the crowds cheering was mildly annoying, but she focused in on listening to the headset. Harvey, or HoundDog 23, and the last player were still out there.

“She’s up on the windmill,” an unfamiliar voice stated.

“I know,” Harvey’s warm sexy tone answered.

“You listen, don’t you, bitch? You just don’t talk. You never have.”

“Asshat, watch your language,” Harvey growled. “You’re talking to a lady.”

A shot went off in the distance.

Liv held her breath, waiting for the announcement.

“It’s down to Harbringer12, our top scorer of the year and HoundDog23, our number two scorer. This is going to be good.” The announcer’s voice rang out through the stage area.

“You said you were saving me for last. Guess you stayed true to your word.” Harvey’s voice was soft, but laced with humor. “I can’t believe all this time, you were my nemesis in this game.”

She scooted closer to the edge of the platform and scanned the ground below. No movement. Nothing. She listened through the headset, but heard nothing to indicate he was moving at all.

Backing away, she turned and shrieked in surprise. His avatar filled her viewing area. A shot went off and her display went red.
Damn it!

“You distracted me!” she yelled, jumping up from her seat. “You sneaky little devil!”

Harvey stood from his cubby and grinned. His eyes twinkled and he winked. “Learned from the best, precious girl,” he whispered through the headset.

Heat crept up her neck and cheeks at his endearment. Memories of last night and this morning flooded forward, making her body ache.

Harvey put his headset down and walked over to the announcer who was motioning them both to come forward. Liv followed suit and they stood next to each other while the announcer talked about where the game would be available to buy. Then she turned to them and handed them each a large Rock Star Entertainment gift bag.

“Thank you both for being such good sports and putting on a great show for our audience. Harbringer12, you’ve been the dreaded
opponent all year for most players. HoundDog23, how does it feel to finally be able to say you took her down?”

He smiled at the announcer. “I am vindicated for all those long hours of frustration. Now that I’ve taken her, I look forward to repeating the process.”

Liv’s face heated with embarrassment. Thankfully, his double entendre went unnoticed by the announcer and everyone else around.

“I’m sure Harbringer12 still has a couple of tricks up her sleeve, don’t you?” the spritely young announcer asked.

“Definitely,” Liv answered and smiled.

“We’ve given you both a brand new game console and two limited edition copies of the new Soldier’s Call. I want to thank you both on behalf of Rock Star Entertainment for being a good sport and taking time out of your busy lives to play for us here today.”

The announcer turned back to the crowd. “Thank you all for coming! We hope to see your names on the new scoreboards soon.”

Liv turned toward the stairs down off the stage, but stopped dead in her tracks.
No. No. No.

The brunette standing with her phone out videoing smirked wickedly at her and waved. “Hi, Olivia. Or should I say Harbringer12? Mr.
Stinebach is going to love this. All the cussing and name calling is golden. You might have just given me that promotion. Thanks.”

“Celine, please.” She started toward her coworker, but stopped at the touch of Harvey’s hand on her shoulder.

“It’s not worth the worry.”

She turned and met his compassionate gaze. “I really want that promotion and she’s going to paint me in a nasty light over this. I can’t believe she followed me all the way out here.”

He pulled her into a hug and tucked her head neatly under his chin. She took a deep breath. He smelled like her vanilla body wash and man. It was a nice combination.

“If your boss doesn’t give you the promotion because you like to play video games, he’s stupid.”

She chuckled and pushed away from his chest, surprised that all her stress and worry had already melted away. “I still want it. Whether he’s stupid or not.” She did want it, but now it didn’t seem like the end of the world if it didn’t happen. There was more to life than work.

“Just wait and see how it plays out.” He waved across the walkway. “Let’s go look at some of the other new games, shall we.”

They walked through booth after booth, laughing at some of the new ideas and drooling over others. She wasn’t surprised they had the same taste in games. They did both play Soldier’s Call.

Harvey stopped at the end of the last aisle and turned to face her. “So what’s next?” he asked.

“The beach.” She smiled. “I always go walk and sit on the beach before I have to go home. “But, when is your flight? I know you said it was today.”

He glanced away for a moment. “I fly out tonight. But, I could try and get it changed.”

“My flight is in the morning at ten. It will be easier for me to get out of bed if you aren’t in it.” The fact was, unless he pushed her out of bed, she wouldn’t be able to leave him. She was dreading the separation. What if it was just a fling and he had no interest in pursuing any type of relationship? Granted the sex was fantastic and now she knew her ex was a lying sleezeball, but she wanted more. Harvey MacLaughlin had the potential to be a great boyfriend. More importantly, he had the potential to be a really great friend. A girl didn’t come across that every day.

“Why don’t we stop and get something to eat before you have to go? I know you’re hungry, I heard your stomach growling twenty minutes ago.”

“I like that idea,” Harvey answered. He gave her waist a squeeze and led her out of the convention hall.

4

The afternoon was brisk, but the sun was warm on his skin. There was just enough breeze to bring in a hint of salt in the air. The DFW area had some nice lakes, but there was no comparison to the pleasures of standing on a coastline breathing fresh saltwater flavored air. He was pleased she appreciated the ocean as well and wished he could stay longer with her. But there was a company to run and his busy brothers couldn’t do everything.

Though it might be time to hire a few more managers to help lighten the load. With Trevor and Lorelei planning a wedding for late summer and Caiden and Lina trailing in their wake, the MacLaughlin house had become quite chaotic. His mother was eating it up like Sunday brunch, though. She couldn’t get enough of his brother’s girlfriends. How would she react to another new woman in the group so quickly?

He stole a quick glance at Olivia from the corner of his eye. Her blonde hair blew softly around her heart-shaped face. Her hazel eyes switched from brown to green depending on the light she was in. Right now they were a lovely mossy green.

She was wearing painted-on jeans that made him want to reach over and pinch her cute little ass. She was wearing another hoodie, this time a bright cherry red with another black tank top that highlighted breasts he couldn’t possibl
y ever get enough of. Beautiful and casual, just the kind of girl he wanted in his life. He like the outdoors, hiking, rock climbing. A high strung girl who lived for high heels and manicures, just didn’t fit into his life plan.

He wanted someone who loved the same activities he did and wouldn’t mind him relaxing with video games on a regular basis. Not only did Liv not mind video games, she might race him for the controller. As far as the outdoor stuff, she seemed like the type to be open to trying it, even if it was new.

The sidewalk was filled with people entering and exiting the convention. It thinned a little as they made their way down a few blocks. He pointed to a bar and grill sign on the next street corner and she nodded.

“What are you thinking about?”

“You.” He answered immediately. “I’m trying to decide how long I have to go before seeing you again.”

“You haven’t even left yet,” she answered back and giggled.

“I can see you again when you get home, right?”

“Of course.” She pulled him down and whispered in his ear. “I can’t imagine anyone being a better match for me.” She nipped his earlobe gently before releasing his shoulder.
A shudder fluttered through him and his heart stopped for just a moment.

He grabbed her hips and pulled her close. “Not fair. Now I just want to throw you over my shoulder, take you back to my room, and have my way with you. Forget the food.”

She giggled in his arms. “I'm hungry now.”

He smiled. She wasn’t the only one. The fresh smell of bread and
barbecue smelled delicious and his stomach was grumbling.

A hostess greeted them and they followed her back to a table. She left them with menus and said their waitress would be right there. He thanked her and turned back to Liv.

“So, do you have family in Fort Worth? Or is it just you?”

“Just my mom. My dad passed away a few years ago.”

“I’m sorry. That must’ve been hard.”

“He was sick for a really long time. When we finally lost him, it was time and we’d both said our goodbyes. But, yes, it was still really hard to lose him.”

“No other family?”

“
Nope. Mom and Dad were both only children. But I do have grandparents. They live on the east coast. Mom’s parents are in South Carolina and Dads are in Virginia. Mom and Dad met at school. Then Dad got a good job out here and we moved.”

“
You didn’t go back?”

“
Dad is buried here and we both love Texas, so we decided to stay. Mom keeps saying she’s going to go back, but I don’t think she will. What about you? I know you have brothers and a sister. And you mentioned your mom.”

“My dad passed away about six years ago. My mother and brothers took over the business and we’ve been running it ever since.”

“I’m so sorry about your Dad.”

He nodded and started to speak again, but the waitress walked up.

“Hi! I’m Toni. I’ll be your sever this afternoon. What can I get started for you?”

“Can I get a glass of iced
tea and,” he paused and looked back at Liv.

“Tea as well. Thanks.”

“Would you like to get a plate of fajitas to share?”

Liv nodded.

“We’ll take the fajita platter you had advertised in the lobby.”

“Great. I
’ll get that right out for you,” the waitress answered.

“So, where do you live?” Liv asked after the waitress had walked off.

“In the Benbrook area. What about you?”

“
I live in the middle of downtown Fort Worth. Mom and I have apartments in the Sunrise building near Sundance Square. But we live on different floors,” she added quickly.

“
I can’t say much. I bought a house in the same neighborhood as my mom. Actually, all three of us did. We didn’t want to be too far away from her, especially after Dad passed. Lizzy still lives with Mom. But she’s working on her masters, so mostly she lives in the college library.”

“I think it’s
nice you all stayed so close. A lot of families don’t these days. I imagine your mom really loves it. I know my mom does.”

“
She does like it.” He grinned. “I have to admit, I eat breakfast with her almost every morning. At least when I’m in town, anyway.”

“So what is your sister studying
?”

“
English Literature. She wants to be a professor.”

“
That’s great. And your brothers all work with you.”

“
Yep. I got a text this afternoon from the office manager, I’m flying out on Sunday night to start a new contract in Ohio. A fire. The guy’s office had an electrical fire. We’ve done work up in his town before, so one of his neighbors referred us.”

“Oh,” she paused. “How long will you be gone?”

“Probably a few days. My crew finished a job in Tyler yesterday. So they need a couple of days to recoup before I send them out again.”

Food arrived at the table and he smiled when Liv dug in. A healthy appetite was important. He didn’t like girls that viewed food as an enemy. Taking a sip of his tea, he grabbed a tortilla and made a chicken taco. The meat was soft and juicy. Perfectly done.

Liv made a soft moan as she bit into hers and he sucked in a breath, breathing through his rock hard erection. It wasn’t fair. He didn’t have time to take her back to the hotel and ravish her.

His brothers would kill him for missing the flight and if he was late to meet a client it looked bad on the whole company. Karen, their office manager, had already booked both his flights back into town and out of town on Sunday.

“So what’s your plan when you get back to town?” he asked, trying to get his brain off of tasting her naked body.

She sipped her tea and put the glass back down gently, twirling the straw in it, making the ice click inside. “I will go to work Monday morning and hope that my boss doesn’t think I’m a strange video game groupie who’s not worthy to ever promote to weekend anchor.” She smiled. “But mostly, I’ll be waiting for you to get back into town.”

Good.

<><><>

Liv walked into the station’s workroom and checked her mailbox. Nothing. No notes about the promotion one way or the other. Celine walked in behind her, checked her box and walked back out. No comment, not even a glance was thrown her direction.

“Olivia!” Her bosses’ voice carried across the set floor.

She popped out of the workroom and hurried toward him. He gestured for her to follow him into his office. She stepped through and he closed the door behind her.

Damn. This doesn’t bode well.

He moved a few steps and sat behind his desk. “Please sit, Olivia.”

“Thank you, Mr. Stinebach. Is there something I can help you with?”

He was silent. His grey-speckled brown hair was cut short to his head and he wore a trimmed goatee as well. The tan suit he was wearing cost more than her entire wardrobe. He was a very intimidating man. But, he’d never been anything but polite and kind to her. However, that was before she’d been caught on video at a gaming conference. Celine would’ve made sure to identify her in the video, if not worse.

“Did you see this video?” He turned his screen. The footage of her on the Rock Star Entertainment stage with Harvey was playing. “Ms. Lake says she found it online over the weekend? Though I’m under the assumption she was the one who uploaded it. Bryan in IT said it came from her account here at work.”

She used a work computer to upload it and then said she found it? She’s dumber than I thought.
She met Mr. Stinebach’s hard gaze. “I haven’t seen it yet, sir. But I saw her taping it.”

“So you knew it was coming?”

“Yes, she’s been following me for weeks since I applied for the entertainment anchor position. I’m so sorry. I never meant for the station to be dragged into my personal life.”

“Ms. Hampton…Olivia. This is nothing. In fact, our ratings shot up yesterday after the video was loaded and we are getting an overflow of tweets and online comments about the ‘hot’ traffic reporter being revealed as a power-player in the first-person-shooter gaming world.”

He grinned, pointing to the view counter on the screen. “Do you know it has over a hundred thousand views so far? My favorite part was the exchange at the end between you and the player called HoundDog23.” Chuckling, he leaned forward and turned the screen back to face himself. “You know Celine’s video was called traffic girl gets caught, but it’s been shared and renamed as traffic girl meets her match. It seemed like you already knew him, the big guy at the end. Did you?”

“So you’re not mad?”

He shook his head. “I don’t care if you play video games, Ms. Hampton. You’re a fine employee and do your job with gusto. Traffic is boring, but important. Keep doing a good job.” He paused, running his hand over his chin. “Your application for the entertainment anchor position is being reviewed. I should know something in a few weeks.”

“Thank you, Mr. Stinebach. I really do appreciate the opportunity.”

“I know. And I really respect you for choosing to ignore what Celine did and just let it ride without making a scene.”

Her cheeks heated. “It’s what a friend said would be best.”

“He was right.”

She stood from the chair and moved to the door.

“Ms. Hampton.”

She stopped and looked back.

“He cares for you.”

“Who?”

“Your friend.”

“How…” She shook her head. There was no way he could know, but yet it seemed so plain to him.

“On the video. It’s the way he looks at you. Any guy would recognize that look. I’m happy for you. You’ve seemed lonely for a long time.”

“Thank you, Mr. Stinebach.”

<><><>

“So any news?” Harvey’s voice traveled through the phone receiver, brightening her evening. She hadn’t seen him since their dinner in LA, but they’d talked on the phone several times a day for the entire week. In fact, Harvey had taken up calling her right before she went to bed and they spent at least a half hour talking about what he planned to do to her when he got back. She enjoyed those ‘what are you wearing’ sex calls and looked forward to them with unhidden enthusiasm.

“No, nothing yet,” she answered, grabbing the freshly made bowl of popcorn from the counter and her glass of merlot.
Dinner of champions.
“He said it would be a couple of weeks.”

Harvey whined. It was adorable. He was more upset about hearing whether she got the promotion than she was.

Plopping down in the center of her couch, she tucked her feet under her body and put a small handful of the warm buttery popcorn in her mouth. The salt hit her tongue with a bang and she moaned.

“You’re eating popcorn aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” she giggled. Then popped a few more kernels into her mouth.

“I’m jealous.”

“Of the popcorn?”

“Yes. It gets to be in your mouth and I don’t. Plus you’re making all those delicious sexy noises, giving me a killer hard-on, and I’m two thousand miles away.”

His teasing made her face red-hot. She wanted him there with her, too, but he had work and so did she. They were busy people with demanding jobs. He promised they would find time as soon as he got back to town.

“You’ll be back soon. You said your crew was getting everything started yesterday, right?”

Silence filled the line.
Where did he go?
“Harvey?”

A firm rap at the door startled her. She looked at her watch.
8:25pm
.
Must be Mom.