Jordan didn’t react to the obvious lie. Good for him. He fidgeted for a moment and then gestured to the stack of papers in his hand. “I better be getting along, but I’m glad I got to say ‘hi.’ I’m glad to see you are doing so well.”

A brief frown crossed Emilia’s face, but she thanked him, and Jordan grabbed his stuff and left.

“Wow,” she said when the front door downstairs had shut. She turned back to me with a sardonic smile curving her lips. “He must think I’m on the verge of death or something.”

I grimaced. “No, he doesn’t. Why would you say that?”

“Dude has never been that nice to me.”

I laughed. She laughed.

“I guess if he’s going to keep being that nice, I’ll bother to powder my head next time.” She rubbed her scalp again.

“You brazen hussy,” I said. “Flashing all that skin!”

She stuck her tongue out at me.

“Now you’re just torturing me,” I said.

She slunk around the desk in an overtly seductive manner, swiveling her thin hips in her yoga pants, and came up next to me. “Is it working?” she whispered into my ear as she put her arms around my neck.

“Mmmaybe.” I closed my laptop and turned my office chair to face her, hooking my arms around her waist and landing a light kiss on her cheek as she sank into my lap. She pulled her knees up, leaning in against my chest.

“Whoa,” I said, suddenly very uncomfortable at the closeness. I may have been joking around but it had been a while, and she was now sitting on me in her very sexy yoga pants and thin T-shirt. I had to fight a mental battle with myself not to cop a feel of her ass. Because, damn, I really wanted to.

“What’s up?” I asked a little shakily.

She shifted against me, sending a not-unpleasant jolt to parts south. “Nothing. Just wanted to say ‘hi.’”

“Okay,” I said, my mind racing to find a way to get her off my lap without hurting her feelings.

“You aren’t going to work today?”

“Naw.”

“Why not?”

“You have another round tomorrow. I thought maybe we could do something before… before you aren’t feeling so great again.”

She sighed. Her hand came up to press flat against my chest and rub it lightly. I bit down on the inside of my cheek and tried to think about something other than the fact that it had been months since I’d had sex.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Sure. Never better.”

“Jordan and your mom aren’t here now. You don’t need to lie to me.”

“Well, I’m good, really. Just got a weird e-mail, though.”

“Who from?”

“From another gaming blogger. The owner of GameGlomerate. He wants to buy out Girl Geek.”

“Are you kidding me?” I stiffened, leaning back to look into her face.

She smiled. “I do bullshit you a lot, but not this time.”

“Those guys are tools. Why do they want your blog?”

She pulled a face at me and then rested her head back against my shoulder. She fiddled with a button near the collar of my shirt. “Don’t act so surprised. It’s a good blog.”

“It’s an excellent blog. But what are they planning to do with it?”

She shrugged, avoiding looking into my eyes. “I think they are buying up several smaller popular blogs to expand their platform and readership.”

I laughed. “They could just do that the old fashioned way by writing their own content. But they’ll never be as clever as you are.”

She didn’t say anything for a while, just continued to fiddle with my shirt. I studied her. “You aren’t thinking about it, are you?”

She shrugged.

“You aren’t selling your blog, Mia.”

She looked up at me. “It’s my blog.”

“You’d really tolerate someone else swooping in and picking up your platform that you took years to build? All the content you’ve written, all the connections with your readers, other bloggers and commentators. What would you do without it? Why would you sell it? You don’t need the money.”

She was silent for a moment, then she quietly unbuttoned one button, opening my shirt at the neck. “I didn’t say I was selling it. But sometimes…blogging about DE can get awkward…especially with all the new traffic I’m getting about the secret quest.”

I swallowed and looked away. Her hand slipped to the next button at the base of my neck.