Chapter 236: Damn Well Worth Trying
Martin looked away again, but the words stayed with him.
A few minutes earlier, he had been ready to call Alexandra’s proposal a joke and walk off. The idea still sounded insane, but she had spent hours thinking about the same fears that kept him frozen.
That didn’t make it good. It only made it harder to dismiss.
"You want to start in the game," Martin said.
"Yes."
"That’s still real to us."
"I know. That’s why I’m suggesting we begin here instead of making promises we don’t understand in the real world."
Alexandra gestured toward the academy.
"We already spend time together here. We fight beside one another, trust each other with monsters, and discover things about ourselves we might never have learned outside."
"Dying here isn’t permanent."
"Neither is making an ass of yourself."
"You underestimate my ability to remember embarrassment."
"I’m painfully aware of it."
Martin clicked his tongue.
"We can go on dates here, spend time alone, and see what happens when you answer one woman’s feelings while the others know about it."
"And if it turns into a disaster?"
"We stop."
"You make that sound easy."
"It won’t be."
"Then why do it?"
"Because I want to."
She answered without pausing.
Martin waited for more, but Alexandra only raised one eyebrow. "What?"
"That’s the argument?"
"It’s the best one I have."
She shifted closer.
"I’m excited by the idea. I want to compete for you. Sometimes I want to steal your attention from the others and make them jealous."
"That sounds healthy."
"I’ll get jealous too."
"You’re still doing a terrible job convincing me."
"I’m not trying to sell you a perfect fantasy. I want to date you while you’re still free to pursue someone else."
Martin studied her face. "You’d really be fine with that?"
"No."
He blinked.
"I’ll hate it sometimes," Alexandra continued. "I’ll want to drag you away from them, and if another woman gets too much of your time, I’ll probably demand more for myself."
"That sounds closer to the Alexandra I know."
"Being jealous doesn’t mean I have to ruin someone else’s life. I don’t want Katherine, Elisebeth, Cassandra, or anyone else to disappear just so I can call myself the winner."
"What if Katherine kisses me?"
Alexandra’s eyes narrowed. "I’ll kiss you better."
Martin stared at her. "That was not the serious answer I expected."
"It was serious."
He laughed despite himself. "You have an answer for everything."
"No, but I’m not afraid to make one up."
Alexandra’s smile softened. "I can’t promise none of this will hurt. A normal relationship can hurt too. Choosing one woman doesn’t magically protect everyone else when the feelings already exist."
Doing nothing had always felt safe. If Martin never answered anyone, he never had to reject the others or risk changing the group. Yet the women had already changed it themselves. They flirted, competed, confessed, and made plans around him.
His silence wasn’t preserving anything. It was forcing all of them to guess.
"You’re talking as though all of them already agreed," he said.
"They haven’t. I can’t promise you anyone but myself. The other women decide what they want."
"Good."
"I’m asking you out, Martin."
His hands stopped moving.
Alexandra held his gaze. "I want to date you."
She didn’t soften the words or cover them with another joke. She said them plainly and waited.
Martin’s throat tightened. "You hid your identity from me for weeks."
"I did."
"You let me think you were an ordinary player."
"I liked being ordinary around you."
"You were never ordinary."
"That’s sweet, but you know what I mean. It was the first time in years a man looked at me without already having an opinion. You competed with me because I annoyed you, praised me when I did well, and called me stupid when I deserved it."
"You also caught me staring at your thighs."
"Frequently."
"That was research."
"Into what?"
"Whether they were actually that thick."
Alexandra’s lips curved. "And your conclusion?"
"Can we stay on topic?"
"We are."
She leaned closer. "I want you to see more of me now. Not only Chaosgraphy or the actress everyone thinks they know. I want dates here first, and I want real ones too."
Martin’s eyebrows rose. "Real dates?"
"Yes."
"With cameras following you?"
"I know places where they won’t."
"What about your managers?"
"I can make room in my schedule."
"And your fans?"
"They don’t own me."
"That might be the most arrogant thing you’ve said today."
"It’s also true."
Martin looked down at his hands while Alexandra waited.
After a while, she said, "I’m not asking you to promise me marriage tonight or swear that you’ll build an entire harem. I’m asking you to stop killing every possibility before it has a chance to begin."
Alexandra rose from the bench and stepped in front of him.
"I just asked you out," she said. "Answer me."
For the first time since appearing behind the bench, she made no move to touch him. Her hands clasped behind her back as she forced herself to wait, leaving enough room for Martin to decide whether he wanted to come closer.
He stood, but she remained where she was.
From a distance, Alexandra’s sharp beauty could make her seem untouchable. This close, Martin saw the strain in her jaw and how tightly she had clasped her hands.
She was nervous.
His gaze dropped. Her fitted outfit hugged her waist and hips before tightening over her thick thighs. Those thighs had distracted him since their first dungeon runs, and knowing the woman behind them only made the effect worse.
A blunt image flashed through his mind of Alexandra straddling his face with those thighs locked around his head, looking down with the same villainess smile she wore whenever she thought she had won.
His cock twitched, forcing him to shift his stance.
Alexandra’s gaze dipped just far enough to catch the movement. Satisfaction flickered across her face, but she held back the comment he knew she wanted to make.
Martin looked up again.
"You’re still an idiot."
"I’ve been called worse."
"This idea is completely insane."
"That’s part of the appeal."
"It could end horribly."
Her smile faded. "I know."
That answer sounded more real than everything she had said before it.
Martin stepped closer until he could hear her breathing. Alexandra’s fingers tightened behind her back.
"I still don’t know whether any of this can work."
"I know."
Only a few inches remained between them.
Martin thought about the way she had challenged him from his first day in the game, taught him without making him feel small, and looked happiest whenever he surprised her. He wanted more of that, but he also wanted the woman underneath all that confidence.
His gaze dropped to her lips one last time.
"But I think it’s damn well worth trying."