Page 9 of The Games We Play

I grit my teeth. “Testing out a new security software,” I state evenly. Puppet’s moans grow louder, and I drop my eyes back down to the screen. She flings the quilt back, and I cough to cover the groan that nearly escapes me. Puppet is completely naked, and everything is on display just for me. She fists a vibrator between her thighs and runs it across her clit.

“The job is not making you enough money, so you’re what? Investing in security? You, of all people, should know there isn’t anything out there that can’t be hacked.”

If he doesn’t stop talking soon, I’m going to lose my shit. I’m not one to have friends, but Sierra is the closest thing I have. But right now, he’s getting on my last nerve.

“Which is why I’m the perfect person to design one,” I quip, but my voice is void of humor.

Her voice reaches a peaked cry, and I have to shift in the leather seat. My hand tightens around my phone, and I itch to wrap my hand around my dick, only to imagine it’s her sweet cunt instead.

But I won’t. Maybe I like the torture. But the longer I hold out, the more fucking incredible it’ll be when I finally have her on her knees, staring up at me and using those supple lips to swallow my cock down her throat.

Sierra snorts, but thank fuck he leans his seat back and closes his eyes.

I trace my lips with my index finger as she palms her breast and relaxes into her bed. She places the vibrator beside her and lifts a piece of paper from the drawer in her nightstand. The picture is too grainy for me to see what it is, but she puts it back before getting up and disappearing from the camera angle.

I switch to the one in her bathroom. She sits on the edge of the bathtub and checks the temperature of the water before placing the stopper and sinking into the filling tub. I should sleep. We have no idea what the parameters of this job will be, and once we land, rest will be the last thing on the priority list.

But I can’t risk missing these moments with Puppet, so I lean back and listen to her sing a song about heartbreak and wishing for death instead.

Little does she know, I’m the person death hates to see coming. And I’ll be the person she finds her retribution in, if only for a little while.

Six - Tess

Like after every timewe fight, Ryan texts me the next day to check on me and offers to take me out to eat. It’s his peace offering, so we can push everything that was said under our proverbial rug. My stranger didn’t come last night, and I’m beginning to think that I really imagined the entire thing. Some vivid dream my subconscious conjured.

I sit across from him in the booth. Apparently, Seth got in one good hit. There’s slight bruising along Ryan’s jaw, somewhat shadowed by his slight stubble. He runs a tired hand over his face and sighs.

“I ordered both of us the deluxe,” he says.

“Thanks.” The deluxe is the largest meal on the diner’s breakfast menu, and he knows I’ll eat every bite.

“Figured you could use a proper meal.” He flashes me a soft smile, and I return the gesture.

Awkward silence stretches between us, and we scroll through our phones until the food arrives. Ryan shovels his meal in and finishes before me. He drinks his third soda and then stands from the booth.

“I’ll be right back.” He doesn’t wait for me to acknowledge him and heads toward the back of the diner, where the restrooms are. I pick at my eggs and hash browns, counting down the minutes to when Ryan returns, and he tries to coax me into having the therapy talk, just like every other time. He’s like clockwork. When I glance out the large window to my side, my fork clatters to my plate.

He’sstanding beside Ryan’s car. His hood covers his face, but the way my body reacts tells me it’s the man who visited me at my house. The hair on my arm raises as he stands, staring right at me.

My masked stranger.

I track his movements, sliding to the edge of the booth seat as he disappears around the back of the diner. I push up from my seat and weave around the waitress carrying a tray full of food, nearly knocking itover, gaining some crazed looks. Pushing through the door that leads to the bathrooms and emergency exit, I finally reach the back of the diner when I nearly run into Ryan as he steps out of the bathroom.

“Tess? What are you doing?”

I can barely hear him over the pounding in my chest. I stare past him at the emergency exit, waiting for it to open, for someone to knock…for something. But Ryan is the only person there.

“Did anyone else go into the bathroom?”

Ryan looks over his shoulder and back at me. “No? Why?”

Am I going crazy?

I shake my head and back up. “Nothing. Never mind. Are you ready to go?”

“Are you sure--?”

“Yeah. I have to study for class tomorrow and have work tonight.”

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