“What about other people in your life? Have you made any friends or gotten established in any sort of community?”
 
 “I’ve definitely been more social since Alex and I have gotten together. She’s good for me like that.”
 
 “That’s progress, but that centers Alex again. I think we should focus on building up your lifeoutsideof Alex.” Is she stupid? Alex is my entire life.
 
 I give her a tight smile. “Fine.” This is such fucking bullshit.
 
 “So, what’s something outside of Alex that interests you?”
 
 “Um, I was kind of into coding in high school and college, I guess.” Hacking, technically. “Lately I’ve been working on some coding projects for fun.” I’ve been making better phishing emails to trick Danny into letting me into his computer, which finallyworked.
 
 Dr. Mills smiles. “That’s great. Let’s start there.”
 
 ***
 
 “I want you to be good for me, okay?” Alex glances at the things on the bed and looks at me with barely concealed excitement.
 
 “What doesthatmean?” I laugh a little and pull her dress off, kissing her skin as I go.
 
 “It means you’re going to get on the bed and stop asking questions.” She shoots me a heated look as I unhook her bra and pull her thong off.
 
 “Theo -”
 
 “Get on the fucking bed,” I growl at her, and she does immediately, looking eager. I’m pretty sure she’s learned that when I talk to her like that, she gets into that headspace she likes so much, the one I’ve figured out how to get her into fairly quickly now. All I have to do is overwhelm her, which is relatively easy anyway.
 
 She lets me tie her wrists tightly to the headboard, watching me with pure desire on her face, her lips pink and parted and ready for the ball gag I slip into her mouth. I climb onto the bed, bending her legs and binding them, tying her ankles tightly to her thighs, praising her with every knot. She’s flexible, so I know it won’t hurt her if I leave her bent up like this for a while, which is good.
 
 I have no idea how long this will take.
 
 I look at her lying on the bed, her legs bent and her cunt exposed to me, her perfect tits on display, her expression nervous and excited and needy, and I’m so hard for her it hurts.
 
 “You’re so fucking pretty tied up like this for me,” I coo, and her eyes flare wide and her cheeks flush. I slip a thumb into my mouth to wet it, rubbing her clit for a moment until her eyes roll back in her head and she makes a low, sultry sound through the gag.
 
 I donotwant to leave her here unfucked, but I have things to do.
 
 I slip an eye mask over her eyes, and she makes a high-pitched sound, trying to question what’s happening.
 
 “Sweetheart, I have to run some errands. I’ll be back later, okay?” Alex whines in protest. “If you’re good for me and come while I’m gone, I’ll reward you when I get home.” I slip a pair of headphones over her ears and pull up the audio porn she likes, putting on a playlist of things I know she’s gotten off to before. She freezes the second she hears it and laughs a little. I pull a few more things out of the nightstand for good measure. I bend down and suck one of her nipples into a tight peak, biting gently, then slip a clamp around it and tighten until she makes a little squeaking sound.
 
 “You like that?” She doesn’t respond, which means the noise-canceling headphones are working, but her breathing is harder. I tease her other nipple the same way and slip the clamp on, eliciting another little squeak from her. I could leave her like this, and I’m sure it would be enough to drive her wild, but I want her to feel good while I’m gone. I run a finger against her cunt to find that she’s already dripping, and I palm myself through my jeans for a moment as I touch her.
 
 Fuck, this is torture for me.
 
 I pull out a rabbit vibrator from the nightstand, coating it in lube before I push it slowly inside of her, and she lets out a series of short, surprised moans. I lift up one headphone, and she mumbles something around the gag that sounds suspiciously likefuck me.
 
 “Be a good girl for me,” I whisper in her ear before I turn the vibrator to its lowest setting, and the sound she makes goes straight to my dick. I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to hold out listening to her from the other room, so I lower the headphones and launch myself off the bed and away from her. I can’t help standing in the doorway and watching her writhe onthe bed, tied up and perfect and ready for me to use when I’m done.
 
 She’s so fucking gorgeous, and she’s all mine.
 
 I just need to figure out how to keep it that way.
 
 I listen to the sounds she makes around the gag, and I can feel my cock straining hard against my jeans as I head to my office. I pour myself a drink and focus on my breathing, because I know this will be unpleasant. Danny might be a stupid fuck, but he’s paid attention to whatever training on phishing they give cops, because it took me weeks before the dipshit finally clicked on something I sent.
 
 Now that I’m in his computer, the first thing I look for is information on Alex, and he has quite a bit. He tracked her for a while using a sophisticated image-tracking software I’m sure he got from work, but she’s been so fucking smart about hiding that he lost her in Seattle. That’s too close for comfort, but it’s far enough away that it won’t cause problems.
 
 No matter what, he’s never going to fucking touch her again.
 
 On second look, Danny’s slightly less stupid than I’d like to think he is. He’s fairly organized and keeps good records, but nothing’s secured or encrypted, so he’s still kind of stupid. His tax returns indicate that he makes a good living, but not enough to explain how he owns two very expensive cars and a motorcycle outright, how he and Alex took long, expensive international vacations every year, and how he affords a lifestyle that shouldn’t be available to him on his salary alone.