Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
“I want to show you something.” He smiles so wide it reaches his blue eyes.
Jamie’s hand slips behind my back, and he edges me closer to the projection screen on the wall.
Our friends follow behind us, and I look over at Bex and Taylor to see if they’ll give me a hint what Jamie has up his sleeve. Bex shrugs, holding up her hands with a goofy expression on her face. No one seems to know why we’re here.
Jamie lifts a remote from the table in front of the couch and flicks on the screen. I stare at the video game in front of me, wondering why it doesn’t look the least bit familiar. It’s called Quest for Shanaya. The graphics are amazing, so bright they practically jump off the screen.
From the main menu, Jamie selects two players, a warrior woman with blonde hair dressed in a tight black outfit, a sword in hand. She looks fierce, like the woman who can kick some serious ass. A few characters like her are in Mage Wars, but the closer I study her face, I realize she’s… me. Holy shit, this girl could pass as my twin.
I angle my body toward Jamie, my mouth open in complete shock. He notices my expression, rewarding me with a cute smile.
“I had a hard time capturing your beauty,” he says, pointing at the woman. “But I think you turned out just right. What do you think?”
His eyes find mine, and I have to blink back the tears forming. “This is…” I shake my head, at a loss for words. “You did this for me?”
He nods, inching toward me, his fingers slipping between mine. “For us.”
I reach up to cup the side of his face with my hand, and he sucks in a deep breath. “Too much?”
“No, it’s perfect,” I whisper, staring into his eyes. “You’re perfect. I can’t believe you wrote me into your video game.”
“You are my game,” he admits. “You’re my muse. I want you in my life, Shan. I was an idiot to let you go. Every time I close my eyes, I think of you. When I roll over in bed, I reach for you. I miss you. I need you. It’s always been you. You were right in front of me these years, and I was too stupid to see it. I’ve learned over the past few months that time is a commodity, and I don’t want to waste another second without you.”
Now, the tears spill from my eyes, coating my cheeks. “Jamie,” I choke out.
“Every line of code in this game…” he says, motioning toward the screen, “… I wrote for you. But there aren’t enough ones and zeros in the universe to express how much I love you.”
I chuckle. “Did you just… tell me you love me more than binary code?”
“No… yes. I guess so.” Jamie puts his face in his hands and sighs, now laughing as he looks at me. “Binary is a two-symbol system, kind of like us. You need both the one and the zero.”
He’s so adorable when he does his nerd speak. Most of the time, I don’t understand all the complexities of coding and video games, but I love seeing how much his face lights up when he talks about it.
“Which one would I be?” I ask, joking. “The one or the zero?”
“Zero,” he says without hesitation.
“How come?”
“Because zero comes first. But you will always be my number one.”
I fling myself into his arms and kiss him so hard it takes my breath away. He lifts me up, clutching me against his chest. Our friends clap and whistle in the background, some of them making dirty comments. We ignore all of it, lost in each other, drowning in our love for one another.
Once our lips separate, I’m out of breath, my head spinning. “I love you, too,” I whisper, and he smiles in response. “So… are we playing the game or what?”
He glances over his shoulder at the screen and then leads me by the hand to sit on the couch in front of the gaming console.
“I felt stuck until you came into my life,” he admits. “I couldn’t finish this game, and that’s because you were missing. But you gave me the motivation I needed to get my shit together. You helped me see what I needed to do.”
“What’s my character’s name?”
“Princess Shanaya.”
“Shan-ay-a?” I exaggerate the pronunciation, not knowing if I’m right.
He nods. “Yeah. It’s not my most creative name, but I wanted something that sounds like Shannon.”
He named game after me. It’s Jamie’s quest for me… for Shanaya.
I smile. “I’m a princess. How come I’m not a queen?”
He hands me a controller and laughs. “Because Princess Shanaya will eventually become the Queen of Dragonbane.”
Squeezing the controller in my hand, I smile. “And does the Queen of Dragonbane marry the king?”