Two decades ago, computer gaming was a fairly solitary endeavor. These days, gamers often congregate online to quest together in groups and the results can be very social indeed. There’s teasing, lots of teasing, and a new vocabulary to master. A smart mouth is a huge advantage. Friendships form between people who’ve never met. Alliances are built and broken. Flirting can happen too.
The Honeymoon Trap starts with a computer gaming scene between three brothers and a young woman (whose gaming name is Fuzzy). Cutter is the eldest brother. Caleb comes next. Eli is the youngest. Within the game, Eli’s character marries our lovely heroine’s character for a boost (more power, better recovery time etc.). Eli’s brothers can’t help but have some fun.
‘We should get this wedding underway. I love a good wedding. All rise.’ Cutter had suddenly developed a lisp worthy of a television cardinal. ‘Dearly Beloved. We are gathered here today to witness the blessed union of this man, and this woman, and… who’s got the rings?’
‘There’s really only one ring,’ Caleb intoned. ‘And I don’t think it’s available.’
‘We don’t need rings,’ Fuzzy said. ‘We don’t even need a ceremony.’
‘No ceremony?’ Cutter sounded deeply offended. ‘At all? What kind of wedding is this?’
‘Healer, how old are these brothers of yours? Have they hit puberty yet?’
‘We’re his older brothers,’ injected Caleb helpfully.
‘So how old are you?’ Fuzzy didn’t wait for his reply. ‘Good grief, I’m marrying a two-year-old.’
‘He’s twenty-six.’ This from Cutter. ‘Are we ready? Because, seriously, our boy here’s so shy with women that this could well be his only chance at heavenly matrimony. All rise—'
‘Be right back.’ Eli pushed away from the console with undue haste. He wasn’t panicking, much, he just… beer. He needed another beer, never mind the recently opened bottle sitting right there on the table. He needed pretzels and more beer. Possibly new brothers. Preferably no brothers, except that they were going to help him put a wall full of windows in this place this weekend so maybe he could disown them after that. He plucked a beer from the fridge and a bag of pretzels from the cupboard and took his sweet time returning to the game. He put on his headset, took a deep breath and reminded himself that it was only a game. ‘Am I married yet?’
‘Yes!’ Fuzzy sounded a little desperate. ‘It’s done. There was cake. Is anyone beside me ready to play the game?’
The Honeymoon Trap is the 4th and final story in Tule Publishing’s Honeymoon series. Check them out at http://tuleholidaybooks.com
As for gaming, do you? Would you? Is there not enough time in a day? Does the learning curve keep you away? Me, I worry about falling down the online gaming rabbit hole and never coming back out.
Accidentally educated in the sciences, Kelly Hunter didn’t think to start writing romances until she was surrounded by the jungles of Malaysia for a year and didn’t have anything to read. Eventually she decided that writing romance suited her far better than throwing sterile screw-worm flies out of airplane windows, and changed careers. Kelly is a USA Today bestselling author, a three-time Romance Writers of America RITA finalist and loves writing to the short contemporary romance form.
0 Komentar