First Time Player

By Poppy Parkes

It's their first time — in more ways than one. But will that be enough to make their second chance at love last?

Ana has worked hard — and endured a lot of b.s. — to establish herself as owner of the best damn video game store in town (if she does say so herself).

She's at the top of her game, nerd pun intended, but she can't help longing for love. At the same time, she can't decide if true love really exists, thanks to all the basement-dwelling, toxic, doxxing men she's had to handle in her line of work. 

Then she runs into Wes, her secret high school crush, at a gaming con. The sweet desire she felt for him as a teen has transformed into an overwhelming, magnetizing attraction, and Ana doesn't know if she should resist it or abandon herself to it.

But Wes has his own secrets, and his own doubts. If Ana breaks all her rules and gives into her hunger for him, will he meet her there or break her heart?

First Time Player is a steamy second chance instalove nerd romance from the author of The Mountain Men of Heartwood series and will be sure to please fans of quick 'n' dirty love stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Parkes Publishing
• Release date: Jan 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201979614

Book preview

First Time Player

Reader Praise for Poppy Parkes

These two were so sweet together.

---

I loved this story and was rooting for Wes and Ana from the moment I met them! What a great romance…!

---

A fun, light, romantic short story with a gamer vibe…Wes and Ana will steal your heart!

---

A quick fun read!

---

Poppy Parkes is brand spanking new to me and I gotta say I really liked this book…. This romance will warm you up and have you wanting to read more.

This is a great, quick, second chance story!

---

A very enjoyable read that offers a great blend of cuteness and heart.

First Time Player

A Geek Romance

Poppy Parkes

She of the Wild

Copyright © 2018 by Poppy Parkes.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

For those who still believe in love at first sight.

Contents

The Oops Club

Wes

Ana

Wes

Ana

Wes

Ana

Wes

Ana

Wes

Ana

Wes

Ana

Wes

Ana

Wes

Epilogue

A Free Book For You

Also by Poppy Parkes

About the Author

The Oops Club

Find a typo or grammar error? Let me reward you for your skills!

Email the following to [e-mail]:

Screenshot(s) with the error highlighted or circled

Title of the book you found the error in

Email you’d like your free ebook book delivered to

Please use Oops Club as the email subject

If you’re the first one to find the error, I’ll send you one of my ebooks books* of your choice — for free!

The reason I’m doing this is because editing is expensive — and even when you get the best editors, things get missed. While I hope to be able to add professional editing in the future, I have not yet reached this point; I do all my editing myself because that is what is currently accessible to me. My hope is that The Oops Club can be a middle ground.

Thanks so much for supporting indie authors!

With love and gratitude,

Poppy

---

*Anthologies, box sets, and collections excluded.

Wes

Wes surveyed the contents of his small suitcase. Sure, he lived in the same city as the MNC -- Miscellaneous Nerdery Convention was the weight of its full title -- but he'd still booked a room in the hotel just outside the venue. It was not only his first time attending a con, but he was also presenting his app for the first time. He didn't want to waste time or energy driving back and forth to his apartment when he needed to focus on garnering attention for his digital work.

He'd tucked a couple of changes of clothing into the bag. Surveying his modest apartment, he ran through a mental checklist of anything else he might need, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

His apartment was small by choice, not necessarily by need. Not yet, at least, he hoped. Against the advice and wishes of his family, his colleagues, his friends -- hell, probably any clear-thinking person, he'd left his law career to create apps for gamers.

His parents had expected him to be their golden child, high-achieving, a credit to their lofty legacy. Going from high school football star to the fast track to becoming the next partner in his father's law firm had been a matter of course for as far back as Wes's memory spanned.

But law hadn't agreed with him -- the long hours, petty arguments, manipulation of the tiniest of loopholes. It had ground against his soul, and each night he'd head home with a sense of having been pulverized, beaten, exhausted.

He was only twenty-eight years old. Way too young to feel so old.

The one lifeline to a sense of normalcy was the video gaming habit he'd picked up from his friends as a preteen. He'd meticulously hidden it from his parents through adolescence. Now he used it to decompress after work.

Although Wes was well-versed across all titles and platforms, his particular favorite game was Overhorde -- a multi-player first-person shooter that digitally teamed up players from across the globe to defeat the creeping and dangerous apathy casting its pallid shadow across the in-game world.

He liked it because, as stylized and unrealistic as the gorgeous characters and animation were, the game's overall storyline wasn't all that different from the challenges in the real world -- the world's leading nations turning brittle at the foundation, more and more young people feeling too jaded too soon, a pervading sense of hopelessness that perhaps only a superhero might puncture.

He could relate.

As he'd played, he found himself drawn more and