Trudi’s eyes glared at him in an arousing manner, indicating that she seemed to be guessing what his thought processes were.

“Just to let you know, I’ll be doing exactly the same thing with the landline telephone in California too. I have a mobile phone for my new agent to reach me on, and I’ll have it with me at all times. I know you’ve used a second round of time travel, and various other tricks, and the help of your friend to escape me once before. It seemed only fair to turn the tables on you, by using the coerced help of one of your little leprechaun friends to help me to recapture you today. I won’t be taking any chances on you escaping again, not here, not in California. I’m giving you the two weeks or so of romance with me first, but that’s the only break you’re getting. After that, you’ll be going down my throat for the last time (which from my perspective, will be the first time), and I will take every possible precaution to make it absolutely impossible for you to even attempt another runaway caper. Do you accept the reality of your situation?” asked Trudi.

“And the way it’s driving me wild, for now at least,” said Murray.

“Then there’s no point in trying to conceal the identity of your previous rescuer, is there?” said Trudi.

“I guess not,” said Murray, also thinking that it would heighten the chemical arousal between them while he was telling her the full story of his escape three or four months earlier.”

“Then you may begin,” said Trudi.

“Well you were right in guessing that I time travelled out of your throat and only managed to go back as far as the second sleeping session we had, the one after you got back from your middle of the night foray to the bathroom,” said Murray, “Since you’d woken up before me in the previous timeline, I didn’t know how much earlier it was. That left me having to second guess how much of a headstart I’d get on you if I vacated your bedroom as soon as I could. It also left me not knowing just exactly what time it was that morning that you’d decided to go ahead with eating me after all. I didn’t want to be still around if you woke up before sunrise, for example, and made that decision and told me about it before I could get away.”

“Well I can fill in a few gaps for you there.  What time did you wake up in the timeline that’s been lost to my memory?” asked Trudi

“Around seven-thirty,” said Murray.

“Well if I got the same amount of sleep in both timelines, then I must have woken up at the same time that I did in this most recent one. I opened my eyes just after six am, and saw that you weren’t beside me on the bed,” said Trudi, moistening her lower lip with the tip of her tongue.