A small burst of pride spread through me. I was impressed.

“Hudson,” Monica said, reminding me she was still there—like I could forget with my dick still throbbing in my jeans. “Who the f**k is she?”

“She’s…” I ran a hand through my hair and looked from one woman to the other, as if searching for an explanation.

“I’m Celia. A friend.” She tugged her towel higher over her lithe body. “I’m really sorry to interrupt your date. I’ll just go get dressed. Excuse me.” She apologized again as she ran to my bedroom.

“Hudson?”

I took a deep breath, removing the delight from my expression, before turning back to my date.

“She’s no one, Monica. An old friend. I didn’t know she’d be here.”

I moved back in to kiss her again, but she turned her face from mine. “Why is she here then? Does she have a key?”

Her suspicion delighted me. The entire setup of the scheme with Celia was to make my latest “girlfriend” doubt my fidelity. The experiment was meant to examine how long the subject—Monica—would stay with me if given repeated evidence that I may not be faithful. This was the first time in our relationship I’d given Monica any cause for doubt. We’d only been seeing each other for a week. I hadn’t even f**ked her yet, an activity that had been on the evening’s agenda.

Until Celia had shown up, anyway. Now I was even more interested in getting it on with Monica, because, though I hadn’t expected my partner in crime to show up on this particular night, the fact that our game was proving fruitful made me very happy. Turned me on.

“Yes, she does have a key.” I did my best to sound like I was ashamed of this admission. “But only because she stays here now and then. When she’s fighting with her boyfriend. I didn’t know she’d be here.” The excuse was made up on the fly since I hadn’t been given a chance to prepare for this scenario.

Monica’s eyes widened. “She’s naked, Hudson!”

“Obviously she didn’t know I’d be here either.” I pulled her into my arms, and leaned my forehead against hers. “Come on. I’ll make her sleep on the sofa. Or we can get a hotel room.”

She melted into my body, her hands resting on my forearms. “I can’t believe I’m even considering this.”

“Monica, come on. Stay. I want you to stay.” This was easy to say because it wasn’t a lie. I’d been looking forward to burying myself inside her since the moment we’d picked her out for our experiment two weeks before. I kissed down the side of her face. “You know you want to stay too.”

“I do want to, but I don’t know.”

God, she was so close to being convinced. I rocked my pelvis into hers as I descended upon her mouth for a kiss she couldn’t say no to.

But before my lips met hers, she pulled away. “No. I can’t. Maybe this is innocent like you say, but I think it’s a cue to take a step back.”

I dropped my head with an only slightly exaggerated sigh. “Okay. I understand.” I grabbed my c**k through my pants. “I’m crazy hard for you right now though. I’m going to be thinking about you all night.”

“Good. I’ll be thinking about you too.”

I escorted her out to the hall with a mixture of satisfaction and disappointment. On the one hand, she was going to present quite a challenge. That was a thrill I was looking forward to. On the other hand, she was leaving me with an ugly case of blue balls.

While we waited for the elevator, she turned to me with doe eyes. “Call me?”

“Tomorrow.” I planned to call her, but I already knew it wouldn’t be the next day. I’d make her sweat first. It would plant more seeds of doubt. “Goodnight.” I kissed her seductively, letting her know what she was missing out on.

After, I put her on the elevator. I kept her gaze locked with mine until the doors closed.

Then I went back to my apartment to deal with Celia.

She was lounging on the couch when I returned, sipping a bottle of Diet Coke. She was dressed now, or more accurately, no longer in a towel but in my bathrobe. Her hair was also no longer wrapped up, and I saw it wasn’t even wet. I suspected she had underwear on under the robe as well.

“How did it go?” she asked.

“Considering that I’m hard as stone, I’d say not very well.” I adjusted myself as I walked to the bar to make myself a drink.

“But she still wants to see you again?”

My back was to her, but I could tell she was eager for a progress report. It was understandable, though I imagined she’d listened to a good portion of it from the bedroom and already knew what had happened. Plus, it was fun to taunt her, so I delayed answering.

“You don’t seem to care that you cock-blocked me,” I said instead as I poured myself two fingers of Scotch, a recent discovery of mine.

“I don’t. I care about whether she’ll see you again.”

I turned toward her and took a sip of my drink. “She’ll see me again.”

Her entire face lit up, and she clenched her fists in a sign of victory.

While I was also feeling triumphant, there was a bone to pick. “But what the f**k, Celia? It wasn’t in the plan for you to be here tonight.”

Celia had shaped into being a great component of the experiments I conducted. She made variety possible, and I’d studied many new emotions and situations since she’d joined me nearly three years before. But as long as we’d played together, I’d always been the driver. I dictated the parameters of our research. I wrote the script. Of course, there was always a fair amount of ad-lib required, but as much as could be controlled was. And it was controlled by me.

This had been the first time Celia had surprised me in our ploy. It had been a good move, but I wasn’t ready to tell her that. Wasn’t ready to concede any of my authority.

“It was awesome improv though, wasn’t it?” She already knew she’d played well, whether I was ready to say so or not. My reprimand did nothing to shake her confident grin.

“I’ll admit no such thing.” I played smug as I joined her on the couch.

She swatted at my shoulder with the back of her hand. “Come on, it was perfect. I’m supposed to make her jealous and suspicious, and trust me, old friend na**d in boyfriend’s apartment is the perfect way to do that.”

I rested an arm on the back of the sofa and studied her. “You’re extremely happy about this.”