Smoking Hot Read online

  

  Geeks and Dragons 2

  Smoking Hot

  When socially awkward recluse Toby meets a smoking hot dragon shifter who doesn’t accept no for an answer, sparks fly and hearts are set on fire.

  Toby likes being a work-from-home recluse. He’s never understood people and lately, he’s been spending way too much time on his favorite MMORPG. When another player suggests they meet in real life, Toby panics. When it turns out Smoke is a six-foot-plus sexy titan who claims he’s a dragon shifter to boot, Toby feels way out of his league.

  Smoke’s certain that Toby’s his one true mate and he’s determined to lure the shy and cute human out of his shell. When Toby finally lowers his walls down, Smoke is determined to claim Toby as his but an unexpected enemy catches them both off-guard. Smoke’s done playing nice. He’ll incinerate anyone who’s foolish enough to get in the way of his and Toby’s mating.

  Genres: Alternative (M/M, Gay), Paranormal, Shape-shifter

  Length: 22,966

  SMOKING HOT

  Geeks and Dragons 2

  Fel Fern

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  Smoking Hot

  Copyright © 2018 by Fel Fern

  ISBN: 978-1-64243-479-8

  First Publication: December 2018

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2018 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book or print book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at [email protected]

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  DEDICATION

  To my readers, I hope you enjoy Toby and Smoke’s story as much as I loved writing it.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Fel Fern loves penning M/M paranormal erotic romance.

  A sadist who loves watching her heroes break their backs trying to earn their happy endings, Fel likes throwing in the occasional dash of the unknown to the usual romantic concoction.

  www.felfern.com

  https://tinyletter.com/authorfelfern

  https://www.facebook.com/author.felfern

  For all titles by Fel Fern, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/fel-fern

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  SMOKING HOT

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  SMOKING HOT

  Geeks and Dragons 2

  FEL FERN

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter 1

  Tobias Singer plopped himself on his favorite, custom-made gaming swivel chair and quickly turned on his PC. He looked at his reflection on the screen and shifted his glasses. Thank God, his login screen appeared, because he always hated how dorky he looked with his dirty blond hair and muddy blue eyes.

  He could still hear it, the unkind laughter of those jerks at the convenience store when he placed his bag of sandwiches, drinks, and the half a dozen reload point cards for BeastWorld Online on the checkout counter.

  Look at that loser, I bet he hasn’t changed his hoodie in a week.

  I bet he still lives in his momma’s basement.

  Tobias could have unloaded some of his ammunition, told them he had his own place, was probably richer than all of them combined, being a freelance web developer. Plus, his hoodie was freshly washed, thank you very much. He loathed leaving his apartment for encounters like that, but BeastWorld’s website was down for maintenance, and he needed to get online soon. Plus, he also ran out of food. He’d make his online groceries order later, after logging in.

  Tobias closed his eyes, shoved those annoying jerks in a box, and locked them away. He always resorted to this little neat trick whenever he didn’t like facing the real world.

  He made a grab for his tuna sandwich, quickly finishing it as he opened up BeastWorld and logged into his character, champion-class AceOfSpades. His avatar had the same blond hair and blue eyes but nothing of his skinny and awkward frame. Real life Tobias would never be that buffed or carry such a huge ass sword.

  Once he was in the world of Terra, he spotted a greeting from his guild, the Lonely Hearts Club or LHC for short. Guilt consumed him. He hadn’t been on any quests or chatted to any of his guild members in weeks. Sure, he helped out noob adventurers starting up, but lately, he was spending way too much time with one particular player who wasn’t a fellow guild mate.

  He checked his friend’s list. Weeks ago, he’d have multiple invites from friends and guild mates, but he guessed they stopped bothering. Online friendships were finicky things. Given he spent so much time online, he knew what it felt like, making friends, experiencing so many battles together, only for that friend to suddenly disappear. Tobias didn’t blame them, because real life probably got in the way.

  Finishing his sandwich, he took a drink of his canned ice coffee. He needed caffeine if SmokinHot11 and he planned on doing that four-hour raid again. He checked for SmokinHot11, or Smoke as referred to himself, but Smoke was still offline. Tobias checked his computer time. Strange. Smoke was usually online at nine in the evening.

  What if Smoke ended up like all the old friends he made and lost online? Did Smoke have some real life issue to tackle? From the brief chats and conversations they had, he gathered Smoke was some kind of freelancer, like him, so he logged in at odd hours. He picked up his headset, adjusting it a few times.

  Tobias always used the voice function in-game since he was more comfortable chatting with strangers who shared the same interests as him, but for some reason, he got nervous when chatting with Smoke. Smoke had an amazing, deep, funny, and confident voice. Hard to believe Smoke was a nerd just like him.

  Seconds tickled to minutes. Then half an hour. It was crazy, but disappointment sat in his heart. His latest client transferred him some cash for his completed project so he went out and got all those reload points. There was an event in the game running, and he wanted to use those points and give Smoke some cash items so maybe they could open stuff together. Get a laugh out of it.

  Just as he was about to log off, Smoke’s status changed to online.

  He blew out a breath.

  “Didn’t think you were coming online,” he said through the private party chat he shared with Smoke.

  “Evening, cutie,” Smoke drawled.

  God. That voice. Smooth like melted caramel. It was always capable of making his dick pay attention in his jeans. Sometimes, he wondered if Smoke used some kind of voice modifier to make himself sound deeper. It was highly possible. Smoke was kind of a legend not just in BeastWorld but he also streamed his other games and had a huge following. Smoke never revealed his face, though. Tobias respected his privacy, but some part of him secretly wanted to see what Sm
oke looked like in real life.

  “Sorry, had to put out a fire. My damn brother got all huffy when I ate the last slice of chocolate cake.” Smoke scoffed. “Aren’t brothers supposed to share?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t know. I’m a single child.” Tobias cleared his throat.

  Not good. This was going to private life category, and he couldn’t have that, not when he was seriously falling for Smoke. He knew it was crazy, that it was unlikely that Smoke’s avatar in game reflected the real him. He looked at Smoke’s character, a tall and buffed silver-haired guy with matching silver wings, light leather armor, and an ornate spell-casting staff. Smoke picked a dragon mage character, one only unlocked under special conditions.

  Smoke might be a forty-year-old overweight guy in real life for all he knew.

  He didn’t know how, but Smoke must have sensed his tone and said, “Well, what do you want to do today?”

  “I got some reload points, bought some cash boxes. Want to open them?” he asked, clicking on cash store at the same time.

  “Hmm, didn’t you just buy, like, a hundred of those boxes from the last event?”

  He blushed. “Is that wrong?”

  “Nope, just don’t want you to spend so much.”

  “I can afford it.”

  “Well, me too.” Just like that, the tension diffused.

  They had a good laugh, opening all those boxes and getting nothing interesting. He was about to suggest they go on that raid when Smoke asked, “Hey, Ace, I’ve been thinking. You ever want to, you know, get a drink or something?”

  He frowned. “But we already did that, got the special ale from the bar to power up our stats.”

  “That’s not what I mean. This, you, us. Strange as it sounds, I really like you.”

  “You do?” Hearing his hopeful voice made him want to kick himself in the balls.

  “Yeah, we click, you know? Plus, did I ever tell you why I picked this username? It’s because I’m smoking hot in real life,” Smoke joked. “So, what do you say? Want to meet up in real life and go on a date?”

  He choked. Bad memories of his high school prom flashed through his head, how excited he’d been when his crush, Josh Miller, football quarterback, agreed to have one dance with him. In the end, Josh humiliated him in front of the entire school. Even years later as an adult, he could still hear Josh and the football players laughing at him. One even threw a punch at him, ruining his rented tux completely.

  Panicked, he used his mouse and turned off the game. Tobias breathed hard, staring at his desktop screensaver for a couple of seconds, stunned. He wished he could take back those last few moments. Tobias ripped his headphones and tossed it aside, clenching his hands to fists.

  Why did Smoke have to ruin everything? He should have known jerks existed in-game and in real life. Tobias just thought both his worlds would never cross. He thought back to all the hours he spent on the game with Smoke. It was easy talking with him. Smoke was always so confident, good-natured, and helped out anyone.

  He looked up to Smoke, saw him as an idol, but now? Smoke finally showed his true colors. Maybe Smoke got a kick out of playing with guys like him, guys who were too flawed and fucked-up to function fully in society. Okay, perhaps Tobias might be overreacting. Maybe Smoke might not turn out to be a jerk, but he was too scared to risk dating again.

  Tobias logged into his social media networking site and typed out Josh’s name.

  Seeing a now overweight Josh with four kids and a miserable life always cheered him up. Yeah, Tobias knew it was bad, enjoying the misery of others, but it usually helped. Not tonight though. Josh had a wife, kids, and sure, he worked a shitty job at the gas station, but he had all the things Tobias didn’t. A partner. A family.

  “Don’t do this to yourself, not again,” he whispered.

  Tobias constantly reminded himself that he did good, got a more than stable income, could immerse himself in a number of any MMORPGs when real life got tough or uninteresting. In truth, some days, he became aware of his incredibly lonely existence. He wondered what it was about him, that he couldn’t seem to function like other normal people.

  He was fine, wasn’t depressed, wasn’t unhappy. Okay, he wasn’t exactly living, but he made the best of his situation. Tobias had been in a good place, until stupid Smoke had to come ruin it all.

  Chapter 2

  Smoke checked his friends’ list again, but Ace hadn’t come back online. One hour had passed since he asked Ace out, and it became clear to him that the question freaked Ace out. He let out a huff and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. The silver dragon that shared his body huffed inside of him, impatient and annoyed.

  Smoke blew it, moved too fast and knew it. He’d known from the conversations they’d had during the hours most people went to bed that Ace was shy, reluctant to initiate things. He knew it was strange. Anyone can be whoever they wanted online, create an entire new persona for kicks, but in Ace’s case, he knew Ace used that identity like an armor.

  Crossing personal and gaming lives was one taboo he knew he shouldn’t have crossed, but it had been weeks, months even, since Ace and he started to—to what exactly? Smoke had no problem hooking up with other guys. Most of the time, he’d hide his animal and they’d assume he was some kind of apex predator like a bear or wolf and went with it.

  One night, then it was all over, but Smoke was sick of that lifestyle, especially after seeing his brother happily mated. Darn it, but he never thought his growly, angry older brother, Dark, would get ahead of him. Dark scared off everyone, chose to live on top of a bloody cliff to get away from people. Who knew Dark could hold onto his human for so long?

  Seeing those two all lovey-dovey and shit made him want more, too. Dragon shifters weren’t like the other animal groups. They didn’t and couldn’t function in a pack or group, because eventually, the aggressive and territorial winged beasts in them would want to establish dominance.

  Even Smoke, who considered himself down-to-earth and friendly, chose to live on top of an inaccessible mountain. Only thanks to his skills and connections did he manage to set up his own sweet digital fortress in such a remote location. It shocked Dark when they were growing up that he’d grown interested in computers.

  He suspected his brother had been kind of relieved, because Smoke had a way of getting himself into fights.

  Smoke glared at his screen as if that would make Ace magically log in again. He twitched his fingers. Smoke wasn’t just a gamer or streamer, he hacked security systems for a living. It wouldn’t be hard for him to start digging, to find out everything there was to know about Ace.

  Hell, Ace didn’t even tell him his real name. That could change. His dragon certainly approved of hunting Ace down. Smoke scowled. Just great, he was becoming like his brother. After being conned by a catfisher, his brother had hunted down his current mate Jake and took him captive.

  Smoke cracked his knuckles, appalled to see silver scales covering his arms. Gritting his teeth, he willed the change back. No use. His dragon battered the walls of its prison, needing to spread its wings. He left the room, shedding his clothes on the way out to his backyard, which had no fence. He didn’t need one, given he built his house on the edge of a mountain ledge. Smoke let his beast take over.

  Metal-like scales covered him. He increased in mass, dug his talons into the earth, created more scratches on the ground as his wings erupted from his shoulder blades. Full-on dragon mode now, he lifted his wings to the air and took flight. Smoke circled around the area he called his territory, swept past the small panther pride compound that lived at the foot of his mountain. They had good relations, an understanding to keep their own side of the metaphorical fence and not bother each other.

  He flew past more trees, covered more ground, and felt a little better. Feeling the wind on his wings always put him in a better mood, but what to do about Ace? Smoke debated going over to Dark and Jake’s place, but being newly mated, his brother was in an incredibly aggressi
ve and territorial mood. Besides, he hadn’t seen Dark in this new light before. Happy. The last thing Smoke wanted to do was ruin that, so he decided not to bother the couple at all.

  We’ll get to Ace eventually, he told his dragon as he made his way back to his home. Feeling more relaxed, he donned his pants, grabbed a beer from his kitchen, and returned to his computer. Smoke logged into BeastWorld again, amused to find more of his guild mates from DragonStuds online.

  Most of them didn’t just have dragon-kind characters but were actually shifters in real life. His brother and most of his kind might not like being in the same physical space, but cyber space was a different matter entirely. He didn’t tell his brother, but he’d been keeping an eye out for others of their kind who might become potential threats in the future. At first, it was for their extra protection, but he realized that a lot of the other dragon shifters were like Dark and him.

  They felt the same sense of isolation despite trying to fit inside a world which considered them monsters without giving them a second chance. They shared the same fears of rejection, of having to settle for living the rest of their lives alone. Having scales and being able to breathe fire meant no longer needing to fear other paranormals, but what was the point of being a creature of destruction if they had no one to protect?

  He put his headphones on, checked his friends’ list. Ace wasn’t online, which was odd. Ace was always online. Smoke really must have screwed things up between them. Don’t panic, he told himself. Ace was addicted to BeastWorld and would eventually come back. Smoke wasn’t as tied to it as Ace, merely stayed on because Ace continued playing it. That, and because he knew a couple of shifters who played it.