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Ian had told me that I’d liked the fact that they’d been watching me. The idea of being watched morning and night by security cameras set up throughout my apartment made me feel both trapped, almost violated, yet at the same time safe, but just as Ian had said earlier, it also left me with a feeling I couldn’t explain. Something perverse and wrong.Idolike it,I admitted silently. It was something that connected us. I liked feeling their eyes on me, watching me from the shadows. They liked watching me, and I liked being watched. It was fucked up, but I loved it.
* * *
Archer droveme back to my apartment and when we arrived, I noticed that all of the streetlights—that had been half-broken and dull before—were lit up all the way down the sidewalk. Frowning, I glanced over the SUV’s front console at him. He shrugged. “Ian doesn’t like it when you walk home in the dark,” he explained.
I smirked. Of course, he didn’t. Ever the control freak. I got out of the SUV as Archer circled around the front. I cocked my hips and arched a brow at him as I held out one hand. With a grin, he fished my keys out of his pocket and handed them over. I frowned when I reached the side door to my studio, seeing a small gift on the stoop.
“Archer?” I lifted the small teddy bear with a heart drawn over his eye and chest and shook it at him. “Don’t you think this is a bit much?”
He put his hands up. “Don’t look at me. It was probably Jensen.”
I shook my head, seriously doubting that, but I couldn’t bring myself to argue anymore. Unlocking my door, I tossed the bear onto the bed as I walked inside. When I felt Archer enter at my back, I whirled and slapped against the doorframe, halting his forward movement. “What do you think you’re doing?” I asked, my eyes narrowing on him.
“Coming inside?”
I laughed and gently but firmly put my hands against his chest to push him back out into the night. “I don’t think so, hot stuff.”
“Hot stuff?” he repeated with a frown. “No, Mare. Ian wanted me to check and make sure the cameras were installed.”
“I’m sure he did, but I don’t want you in my space,” I replied.
“Mare—”
“Nope.” I popped the p and laughed as I took a step back into my mini foyer. With one hand on the door and the other on the frame, I smiled at his handsome boyish face. “My space, Arch.Mine. Not yours.”
“Come on, Mare,” he whined, pushing forward again just a little bit. “Ian’s gonna be pissed if I don’t look at the equipment.”
“Awww, poor baby.” I paused for a moment and lifted my hand from the frame to tap at my lips delicately as if I were contemplating letting him in. I noticed the way his eyes zeroed in on the movement. His lips parted, and he straightened, leaning towards me, and as much as I enjoyed being able to enrapture him like that, I spouted out, “Sounds like a personal problem.” Snapping the door shut with my opposite hand, I relished the groan that emitted from his chest and vibrated through the door.They aren’t the only ones who knew how to be assholes and tease,I thought in triumph.
“Mare!”
I locked the door and took a step back, calling out, “Sorry, Arch, you should’ve thought of that before you kidnapped me, held me hostage, and bugged my fucking apartment.”
“Ian’s gonna spank your ass,” he threatened, and I smiled.
“I look forward to it,” I replied nonchalantly.
“Fuck, I just bet you do,” he muttered, his tone thick and husky, but after another long few moments, he finally sighed in defeat.
I stayed next to the door until I heard his footsteps recede before proceeding to search my apartment for every single fucking camera they had wired up. How they had managed such an intensive wiring job in only a couple of hours I didn’t know, and they had some questions to answer. Until then, I shoved the thought away and got to searching.
Without a doubt, I knew every corner had probably been fitted with a camera that would be routed to their system. I found an obvious camera above my windows, set to capture the majority of my living room-bedroom area as well as a sliver of the kitchen. There was one in a fake plant, and another angled out from behind a stack of books directly in front of my bed on the entertainment center. I lifted the teddy bear from my bed and shook it, but its weight was negligible. Sighing, I stuffed it to the side of my pillows, clambering onto my bed and rolling to my back. I had a little time before I had to start getting ready, and I grinned as a plan formed.
They want to watch?I thought.Then let the show begin.
