He hated leaving her. He wanted nothing more than to stay curled up next to her all night, wake up next to her in the morning, and make love to her first thing. But that wasn’t part of the plan. At least, not right now.

Someday, he told himself in consolation. Someday.

She was deeply asleep in his embrace, which satisfied him to no end. The fact she was able to relax so thoroughly meant that even at an instinctive level, her body trusted his body to take care of it. He was breaking down her walls, little by little.

As Talon slowly crawled out of the bed around 2:00 am, he firmly tucked the warm blankets around Olivia to mimic his hold on her. Softly, he brushed the hair away from her face, and she let out a little sigh.

His heart almost burst. Why was she so cute? After that, he had to stare at her a few more minutes, watching her face in the dim room, lit only by the streetlight outside peeking through the curtains.

To avoid waking her, Talon gathered up his clothes to get dressed elsewhere, but before leaving, he set her wallet and phone on her nightstand. He’d already stuffed some cash (to make up for the trouble) and a note inside that said, “You forgot to take these with you, silly. -T.”

With one last look at her, he left his sleeping princess. Then, it was only a matter of quietly getting dressed, quickly poking around the house to gather intel (his habit), and leaving through the front door, making sure it was locked behind him.

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He left no trace of himself apart from the note and what was slowly dribbling onto Olivia’s thighs. The mission here was done for now—he’d proven he could find her, satisfy her, and then give her space…space she still thought she needed.

But the fact she’d begged him to help her come…Talon smiled as he hopped into his car a few blocks away. Was he a little bit evil for not leaving the vibrator behind? He knew she needed it to orgasm.

No. That would make her all the more desperate for him the next time he showed up, which wouldn’t be for an entire week. To be fair, he’d be pretty desperate for her by then, too, but at least he could jerk off in the meantime.

Would she go back to her apartment? Would she move in with one of her friends? Talon was a little excited thinking about what Olivia’s next move might be, especially now that, in his opinion, they’d gotten closer.

“Think of the endgame,” he told himself while driving. His goal—to be her dream guy made real. The fact she hadn’t gone to the police was an excellent sign things were headed in the right direction.

But that didn’t matter. Sure, it would be ideal if she went along with everything…if she didn’t, well, he’d already taken precautions.

No matter where she went, he could find her. She would never be able to hide from him. So far, Talon had been able to keep most of this side of himself hidden from her, but if need be, he would show her.

He would much rather mold her to the ideal, but if he had to break her first and then reshape her…he would.

It was still too early to tell.