Chapter 23
Norah
She flipped me off! The audacity! My eyes widen as I continue to stare at the computer monitor, completely exasperated.
Lizzie went from being completely malleable to this rebellious diva.
My lips quirk up into a smile as I follow her on the cameras from the living room and into the spare bedroom, a place that has certainly become her refuge.
I squint at the computer as she turns it on, trying to make out what she’s doing on it. An alert pops up on my own computer. Moving my feet from the stool they’ve been resting on to plant them on the floor, I tap the alert and let out a laugh.
“God, you’re incorrigible.”
She’s trying to hack my website, once again attempting to slide into the back end of it, probably to figure out who the hell I am. She’s never really given that one up, which, considering her background in tech, makes sense. But I have way more knowledge when it comes to these things than she does.
I watch her flit around in my website, pulling information that she can but not getting what she really wants, and I continue to watch her on the cameras.
“Have I become your obsession?” I ask the monitor. I know she can’t hear me. I don’t want her to.
The problem is Lizzie has become my obsession, and I crave to have her under my fingertips for more than just the one night we’ve had so far.
But to allow myself into that dark, invigorating world again would send me down a path I’m not willing to go.
Not again. I have to make sure that I hold the boundary line between reality and fantasy.
I throw up a few roadblocks that Lizzie has to work through as she continues to try and break down the safeguards on the website when my phone rings. I turn around, staring at my other desk and computer, the one the real work happens on. I roll to it in my chair and pick up the phone quickly.
“This is Norah,” I say confidently.
“You haven’t clocked back in from your lunch.” My boss doesn’t sound too annoyed, but there’s no other reason she’d be calling. I’ve forgotten to clock back in before.
“You’re right. I didn’t. I’m sorry.” I log into the website and clock in for her. “There, all fixed.”
“You’ve been falling behind, Norah. This is your warning before the actual write-up happens.”
My stomach tightens. I glance back at the monitors and computer where I run my separate business, the one that no one in the world knows about. Well, some know, but they don’t know who I am, and I plan on keeping it that way.
“Thank you for the heads up. I’ll make sure to get everything done in time.” I swallow the sudden lump in my throat. “I haven’t been feeling well and have just been trying to keep up instead of taking a sick day.”
“I suggest you get caught up before the end of the week.”
“Thanks,” I say again. Rolling my shoulders, I end the call and pull up my work.
Medical coding. It’s boring, it’s easy, and it pays the bills, which is exactly what I need it to do. That and it gives me the freedom to do whatever else I want while working from home, where I can be as sadistic and disturbing as I want to be.
I look back over my shoulder, making sure that Lizzie is still sitting at her computer, trying to break into my systems and making sure that she hasn’t managed it yet.
Which she hasn’t. Then I turn and focus on my work, getting it done in half the time it should take me.
Well, maybe not half, but way quicker than normal.
By the time I look back at the cameras, Lizzie is very nearly through all the firewalls.
I quickly spin around and type furiously on the computer, adding more and then shifting some of them to trick her down false paths.
That ought to keep her busy for a few more hours at least. Which will give me just enough time to finish up my workday.
By the time I’m done, Lizzie is still sitting at her computer, working away at trying to figure out who I am.
I stop and stare at her. Eleven hours wasn’t enough.
But she only gave me one night, and it was a glorious night.
My body is still on fire from every moment of it, sizzling in the energy of everything we’d done.
I tap my fingers against my lips as I watch her continue to work at uncovering my identity. She’ll get there eventually if she keeps trying, but I’ll be sure to hold her off as long as I can.
And how will she feel when she figures out that I’m a woman?
Because every ounce of research I found on her suggests that thought has never occurred to her, and I did my research before I took her. Hours I spent uncovering her past and her present, how she went from working to married to this…whatever this is. Depressed, lonely, downtrodden.
Reik isn’t good for her, but it’s not my decision to make for her to leave him.
Which is where I know I’ll get into trouble.
Lizzie isn’t just another woman to have a scenario with, to entertain myself.
No, she’s become way more than that. Lizzie stands up, stretching her back, and faces the camera, glowering.
A shiver of arousal rolls through me, and I scoot closer to the monitor to watch her.
Again, she flips off the camera as she walks out of the room.
Oh, she knows I’m still watching.
She knows that I’m still pulling all of the strings.
She knows that she’s not ready for this to end.
And neither am I.
Snagging the phone I got specifically to contact her, I dial the burner I sent and let it ring. She’s not wearing the ear device I made, and this way I can hear her more fully. I snag the device I use to change my voice and press it near my lips as I wait for her to answer.
Lizzie slowly walks to where she left the phone in the living room and picks it up. She stares directly at the camera as she answers the call but says nothing. This is a power move if I’ve ever seen one, and unfortunately, I’m going to give in to it.
“You can try to figure out who I am, but you’ll never manage to do it.”
Lizzie snorts.
“To what end, Elizabeth Jane Noble? When will you stop?” I ask, fully expecting an answer.
“I don’t want to stop,” Lizzie answers, her voice unwavering.
I pause, biding a moment of time before I ask the question I’ve been avoiding. Because to dip my toe into another evening with Lizzie will throw me into the spin of obsession that I know I won’t be able to escape. And if she says she wants it, I’ll have to give it to her.
“Do you want more?” I say, my voice clear and precise.
“Yes,” Lizzie answers, her voice filled with hope.
My lips curl upward, and arousal courses through my body. I stare back at her through the monitor, memorizing every inch of her body, the parts I’ve touched and the parts I have yet to explore. My heart races.
“You are my good little slut, aren’t you? Before you agree, you have to be prepared.”
“Prepared for what?” Lizzie asks.
“To become mine.”