Lights Out: A Dark Stalker Rom-Com
Lights Out: Chapter 12

I might have pushed Aly too far. She’d probably been exhausted and emotionally drained after another punishing shift at work, and what had I done? Edged her right to the point of breaking.

I couldn’t help myself. The second my phone pinged on the way over and I saw Aly getting herself off without me, something snapped. And then I walked into her room and found her perched on her vibrator, the terror in her eyes quickly turning into desire, and all my nerves disappeared.

A calmness had taken hold of me, shredding my lingering worry that I would turn out like my father. The feelings I had toward Aly had nothing to do with violence or pain, and memories of the man who bore me didn’t belong in that room with us, tarnishing what we were about to experience. I’d shoved them from my mind once and for all as I approached the bed, trusting myself to wrap my hand around Aly’s delicate throat without worrying that I would go too far or squeeze too hard.

God, Aly was perfect, absolutely perfect. Not only while she got me off but afterward, when she thrashed within my grip, calling me every name in the book and cursing my very existence.

I hoped she wasn’t too angry because what we just did was satisfying on a bone-deep, primal level. We’d played out our shared fantasy of a masked hookup – sans knife because, in my haste to get here, I’d left it behind like an amateur. Or maybe that was my subconscious trying to save me in case Aly got her hands on it again. Two stabbings in two days would have been a bit excessive.

A soft meow interrupted my thoughts, and I glanced down to see Fred sitting by my feet, staring up at me while patiently waiting for another piece of bacon like the little gentleman he was. He might have scared the shit out of me the first time we met, but now that I no longer worried I might get the sudden urge to skin him, he was growing on me.

I especially enjoyed the way he all but ignored his mother every time I was around. Mostly because it probably pissed her off, but also because it was nice to be chosen for once. I couldn’t remember the last time someone laid claim to me.

I dutifully broke some bacon off and held it out for Fred, and he rose onto his hind legs and carefully took it before scurrying away to eat it underneath a dining room chair like a lion dragging its kill into a cave.

I fought back a gag and turned up the stove vent to suck away the smell of searing meat before flipping the bacon over in the pan and then stirring Aly’s eggs so they didn’t get lumpy.

As the nausea died down, a feeling of contentment washed over me. I was satiated, damn near lethargic, and all I wanted to do was curl up with Aly beneath her covers and sleep for about a week straight. Unfortunately, I’d never worn my mask this long, and certainly not while doing something as strenuous as titty fucking and then tormenting the woman I was obsessed with. I’d underestimated how sweaty and itchy the inside of it could become, and if I didn’t get it off my head soon, I was going to break into hives.

Movement caught my attention, and I glanced at where my phone was propped on the windowsill. It displayed the camera feed from Aly’s room – even now, I couldn’t stop watching her. She’d just exited the bathroom, finishing her second shower of the morning, a towel wrapped around that luscious body.

She’d been so out of it after coming that I’d had to help her into said shower, supporting her weight with one arm while turning the water on with the other. I’d petted and praised her while we waited for it to heat up, hating that I had to abandon her there and couldn’t climb in with her because of my mask. I was hoping to make up for that desertion with breakfast.

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 replace 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.

That didn’t mean I was ready to stop toying with her yet. Our game had just gotten started, and as much as I wanted to stay here and watch her fall asleep, I was excited to make the next move and see how she reacted.

“Hey,” I said, tilting her chin up to see her eyes.

Her expression softened, turning into something my traitorous mind tried to tell me was longing. “Yeah?”

“I’m gonna go so you can eat and then sleep in peace.”

Her face fell, and I probably shouldn’t have felt so triumphant at seeing her open disappointment, but I couldn’t help it. Aly didn’t want me to leave. Good. It might not have been a declaration of her undying love, but it felt like the first step toward getting there.

I leaned down and bumped my masked forehead against hers. “I meant what I said earlier. You were perfect. The hottest thing I’ve seen in my fucking life, and the next time I get the chance, I’m going to replace some way to make you come even harder.”

Her eyes flashed wide. “Is that safe?”

I chuckled. “Only one way to replace out. You in?”

She let out a shaky breath and grinned up at me. “Fuck it. Yeah, I’m in.”

“Good. I’ll see you later, baby.”

I turned to leave, but she surprised me by grabbing my hand. “Wait a second. I want to make sure it’s healing okay.”

“I was joking about the infection,” I said.

She shot me A Look. “I know that, but I would never forgive myself if I didn’t check and something went wrong.”

I flinched as she tugged up the bandage and then poked and prodded the area around my wound, testing the skin and then leaning in close to inspect the stitches. “It looks okay. Have you been following the instructions I gave you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

She released my hand and shook her head at me. “Then I guess you’re free to go.”

I snagged my backpack from her chair but paused before her on the way out to tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ear, unable to stop myself. It was impossible to have her so close and not touch her. “Take care of our son while I’m gone,” I said, forcing myself away. “And don’t give him any more bacon. He’s had enough.”

Her laughter followed me out of the room. “You are so presumptuous!”

I paused and leaned back through the doorway to have an excuse to look at her one last time, perched on her bed in her prim pajamas, balancing the food I made her in her lap, dark hair tumbling around her, sunlight streaming through the cracks in her blinds.

“Presumptuous?” I said. “Nah. I noticed how you look at me and decided not to fight your inevitable claiming.”

She chucked a pillow at my head.

I laughed and ducked out of the way, pausing to say goodbye to Fred before turning off her front door camera and leaving.

I tugged my mask off as soon as I stepped outside, sucking in my first unincumbered breath in over an hour. God, it felt good to be out of that thing. I was going to scrub my face raw when I got home because, otherwise, I’d probably end up breaking out.

I pulled the hood of my jacket up to hide from Aly’s view if she decided to peek out her window, then turned my back to her house and strode down the front walk, pausing to wave at her next-door neighbor, Wendy, who was out getting her mail.

Ten minutes later, I was in my car, heading back into the city. My phone was propped on the dash, showing Aly sitting in the middle of her bed beside her half-eaten breakfast while she stared intently at her open laptop, tracking me. I grinned and palmed the quarter-sized device she’d hidden in my bag. It was good that I’d been watching her, or I would have stumbled into her trap.

See, this was why you had to keep your eye on women. They were always up to no good, invading your privacy, pushing right past the boundaries you set for them, with no care for things like societal norms or laws. What next? She broke into my house?

I chuckled at my own bad joke as I turned right and drove east for several blocks before turning left. I went north for two blocks, watching my map so I knew when to make a U-turn and drive back to the street I’d turned off. I got onto it again and headed east for two more blocks, writing out the letter L before making another carefully timed left, heading north again for two blocks, and then making more lefts until I spelled out the letter O.

“What the fuck is he doing?” Aly asked, leaning close to her screen.

I was grinning so hard it hurt now. This tracker brand came with a trace on it so you could watch everywhere it went, which meant that any second now, she would realize what I was up to.

Fred jumped onto the bed beside her as I made another left, but she intercepted him before he could reach her forgotten piece of bacon.

“Does he think I’m trailing him or something?” she asked. “Is he trying to lose me?”

I made yet another left, drove for two blocks, then made a U-turn and went back down the same street I’d just come up.

“No,” Aly said.

My shoulders shook as I tried to hold back my laughter.

She grabbed the edge of her laptop and shook it, startling Fred. “Don’t you dare take another left.”

I took another left and gunned it, cracking my window to drop her tracker onto the road, leaving her staring at what I’d spelled out for her.

“LOL?” she yelled. “LOL, you motherfucker?”

God bless the city planners who’d decided to lay these streets out in the grid pattern that made what I’d just done possible. This was, perhaps, the proudest moment of my life. If I died tomorrow, it would be with the knowledge of this one perfect prank.

Aly’s head whipped up, her gaze locking onto the camera. “Damn it. He watched me while making breakfast?” She slid off the bed and stalked toward the device. “Why? I was only a room away from him. Wait. Are you watching me right now? You must be.” She crouched down to look into the camera, which, in a happy coincidence, gave me a great view straight down her shirt.

Hello, boobs. I’ve missed you.

“I bet you’re real proud of yourself right now, Josh,” Aly said.

I jerked my gaze back up to hers. Uh-oh.

“You think I don’t know who you are, but I do,” she said, looking furious. “None of your bullshit threw me off. In fact, it did nothing but confirm my suspicions. I tried to do this the nice way, beat you at your own game, but fuck it. You’re not playing fair, so neither will I. Guess what? I plucked a few pieces of hair off your sweatshirt while rubbing your back yesterday, and if you think I’m not going to DNA test them against the bloody bandages I stashed in my freezer, you’re dead-ass wrong.” She winked. “Later, Boo.”

The screen went black as she ripped the camera from the socket.

Well, that just happened.

Unfortunately for Aly, I’d grabbed that sweatshirt from Tyler’s dirty laundry basket just in case she was as devious as I was and did something like this.

She was going to be so mad when the DNA didn’t match.

I spent the rest of the drive home laughing maniacally, picturing the range of emotions that would play over her face when she realized she was either wrong or, even worse, had been outsmarted again.