She refastened the towel around herself, and the urge to storm in there and rip it off was strong, but I knew firsthand the break your body needed after an edging like the one I’d just given her, so I shoved my need down and was just about to go back to cooking when I noticed the sly look on her face.

What are you up to, baby? I wondered as she paced over to her purse and pulled out a small brown box.

She tiptoed toward her door and gently shut it before turning the lock into place. Had she already forgotten about the camera? Or did she think I wasn’t watching her through it because I was only on the other side of the door? If it was the latter, she’d clearly underestimated my obsession.

I absently stirred her eggs as I watched her open the box and turn it upside down, something silver – she was too far from the camera for me to make out what it was – dropping into her hand. She pressed the object like she was turning it on, then walked right over to the backpack I’d left propped on her armchair and shoved it deep inside the front pocket.

The self-satisfied grin on her face when she turned back toward the camera and went to unlock the door was downright diabolical. That little vixen. I was willing to bet good money Aly just put a tracking device in my bag.

Oh, this was going to be so much fun. I knew she’d be a worthy adversary in the game we played, and I was proud that she’d risen to the challenge so quickly. But what to do about her little spy device? I could put it in a plastic baggie and drop it into a river. Tie it to a subway rat and let her think her stalker lived underground like the mole people rumored to dwell below the city. Or I could –

Oh, fuck, there went her towel. Aly was naked. Aly was no less than thirty feet away from me. Naked.

My chest heaved as I sucked in a breath. All the blood in my body went rushing straight to my dick, and I was instantly hard again. And also kind of lightheaded. Goddamn, I needed a bigger screen than my phone to fully appreciate the sight of her in all her glory. Sure, I’d seen her like this less than half an hour ago and much more up close and personal, but her room had been darker, and seeing her swathed in shadows couldn’t compare to the way the rising sun limned her form in golden light. She looked like a goddess straight from the pantheon of our ancestors, curvaceous and strong, like she’d be equally at home in an Olympic stadium or lounging on an Ionian beach.

The bacon popped, startling me, and I looked down to see it sliding past perfection and into the realm of fricasseed. I scooped it onto a paper towel-lined plate. Aly’s eggs were ready, too, and I’d had about enough of this separation, so I scraped them onto another plate beside the orange slices and toast I’d already prepared, grabbed a fork, and headed into her room with everything.

She was pulling on a pair of blue and white striped pajamas when I pushed the door open, and seeing the breasts I’d so recently branded with my cock disappear behind her top was akin to watching my favorite bar burn to the ground. She should be naked. Always. I’d have to find some way to spirit her away to a cabin in the woods and then hide all her clothes. I’d make sure there was the odd blanket she could wrap herself in, and I’d stoke the woodstove until it was sweltering inside so she wasn’t cold. That way, she might not be too mad at me to participate in all the fun things we could do throughout a long, naked weekend.

Yes. It sounded like a most excellent plan.

“Is that for me?” Aly asked.

I shook my head. “Absolutely not. I brought it in here to eat in front of you while mocking your hunger.”

Her eyes narrowed. “After what you just did to me, I’m inclined to take you at your word.”

I reached her in three strides and tugged her to me, holding the plate out to keep from spilling anything. I could tell she wasn’t really mad by how she melted into the embrace, both arms snaking around my middle, her cheek pressed between my pecks as she nuzzled in close.

“You were perfect,” I said, wrapping my arm around her shoulders and squeezing tight.

She shuddered. “I was a gross, sweaty mess. I half expected you to be gone when I got out of the shower.”

I tried to drop a kiss on top of her head and nearly cursed when the voice modulator I’d glued to the inside of the mouthpiece clicked against my teeth. I needed to figure out a better setup, or this would get old real fast.

“You were beautiful,” I told her. “And in the end, wasn’t it worth it?”

She stepped backward out of my embrace, a brow arching. “I honestly don’t know yet. I’m still trying to decide whether to beg you to never do that to me again or do it right the hell now.” Her gaze slid down, landing on my crotch.

Aaand there went my cock again, right on cue. “Let me know when you figure it out,” I said, ignoring the lust roaring through me, demanding I push her onto the bed, bury my dick into her hot, tight pussy, and fuck her until she forgot everyone else she’d ever been with. I wanted my name and my name only on her tongue, wanted to drink down every future cry of pleasure this woman ever made.

Fuck, I had it bad. And from the unfocused way Aly was still staring at my obvious arousal, I wasn’t the only one on the brink of making another move.

I shoved her food between us. “Breakfast?”

It took her a beat to process the word and pull her gaze up to the plate. “Oh. Yeah. Thank you.”

She took it from me and sat cross-legged on her rumpled bed. The bed I’d so recently pinned her to. The bed I needed to stop staring at if I had any hope of leaving this house and letting her get the sleep she so desperately needed.

I turned on my heel and went to get her bacon and chamomile tea.

Only two pieces of bacon were on the plate when I returned to the kitchen. Hadn’t I made three? What the hell? Where did the missing one go? I started looking around, wondering if it slid off the plate or if I forgot to take it out of the pan. I was positive I’d made three.

The sound of crunching drew my gaze to the dining room, where Fred was holed up beneath the table with a squirrely look in his eyes while he choked down the missing piece of bacon as fast as he could.

“You sneaky little beast,” I said, ducking down to pluck it away from him. I might not know much about animals, but that amount of grease in such a small body could only end in digestive gymnastics, and I didn’t think his mommy would be too happy with Daddy if she woke up to her house covered in explosive cat diarrhea.

I chucked the wayward bacon in the trash and grabbed the rest of Aly’s breakfast.

“What did Fred do?” she asked when I re-entered her bedroom.

“Our angel baby did absolutely nothing wrong, and I resent the insinuation that he ever could,” I said, setting the small plate of bacon beside her and handing her the tea.

She shook her head at me, but I knew she was fighting a smile from how tightly her lips pressed together.

I let out a relieved breath, glad to return to safer, more antagonistic ground. Not that I didn’t want to fuck Aly – standing up, sitting down, sideways, backward, against a wall – but something was holding me back besides her need for sleep and recovery. It felt almost wrong to have sex with her before she knew the whole truth about me. Not just who I was but where I came from.

I hadn’t told any romantic partners after my high school girlfriend about my dad. Hell, all my hookups and situationships ended when it felt like we were getting too close to that information. That was because I’d gone into them thinking they were short-term, but that wasn’t the case with Aly. This wasn’t just a kinky hookup anymore. Sometime in the past week or so, I’d begun to develop feelings for her, and though it had been a while since I’d had a real relationship, I knew that starting one on of a foundation of lies was a great way to set yourself up for failure.