Page 7 of Stalked By the Recruiter

As a man who always had a plan, I’d reached out to the University of the Desert, and without shame, I’d had talked to the dean about finding a position within the athletics department. I didn’t want to go back to coaching. I knew the position was more than filled with Goodwin and Bridges there, plus all the rest of the coaching staff.

But somehow, I’d been in luck. The dean had been about to reach out to me. One of his associate football directors had retired early for personal reasons, and he needed the position filled. I took it without even asking how much it paid.

That was how much everything inside of me needed to return to the woman I hadn’t even said hello to. To a woman who didn’t even know I existed. To a woman I had fallen in love with at first sight.

When the call ended, I’d gone out to the balcony and looked out toward the city, when a hummingbird perched itself on the rail and looked at me. The whole thing probably lasted maybe thirty seconds but felt longer.

But more importantly, it’d felt like a sign.

My mom would always tell me the biggest thing you could count on in life was that things were always changing and evolving. Hummingbirds had always made me think of her. Not because she had been some kind of bird watcher but because like the bird itself, she had been tiny, feisty, and never stopped. She’d always kept going and moving.

I wasn’t a spiritual man or a religious one. I was a dick, if I was being honest. My little sister, the only family I had left, would be the first to vouch for that, even now when we weretrying to repair our relationship. But the whole thing had made me feel like maybe for once, I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

I’d talked to the team, and they had convinced me to stay on part time. And doing my due diligence for my position with them, even though I knew there was no hope of recruiting the linebacker, I’d scheduled one last meeting with him. In the library. Taking down two birds with one stone. The kid was dead set on becoming a doctor, and I had a feeling Hector ‘Crank’ Dominguez would do just that. He was smart and crazy dedicated when he went for something he was after.

Everything had changed so quickly, yet it all felt right.

Even if three days ago, Carmen had called security on me. Not that the guard told me it was her who made the call. But I knew. I’d scared her with the way I’d been lurking around and staring at her. I’d been too intense. Too obvious. She probably caught me around campus or in town when I followed her about. She didn’t know she had nothing to fear when it came to me. But from everything I’d learned about her, my sexy librarian had gone through enough and didn’t need to take any more shit from any other man.

Especially not from me.

I wanted to give her the peace she gave me by just sharing the same space as her. Or a smidge of it, if possible. Fuck, the things I wanted to do to her. A lot of them fucking dirty and depraved, but for the most part, I just wanted to take care of her. Protect her. Cherish her.Dominate her.I shook the last thought away. I couldn’t go there. That side of me, the darker one that behind closed doors needed to be handed control to make the woman in his bed sing and feel cherished, would have to calm the hell down. Maybe with time, I could show her that side of me? Maybe she would even indulge me in playing. One day. But that was far off in the distant future.

It was past time to make a move.

She walked out of the aisle, her face in a book while she made her way back toward the office she had in the back. I knew her schedule. I’d been here often enough to learn it. Watched every move she made.No wonder she got creeped out by me.

Today, she was in a cute little sundress with bright flowers under a yellow background. The skirt ended just above her knees. It swished and swayed with every step she took, making me ache for just a glimpse of an inch or more of skin. I forced myself to turn around and take my cell phone out.

I checked my emails, or better yet, pretended to. I had a handful of messages I’d been ignoring. Work mail. Shit I should have been taking care of but couldn’t because my head was somehow stuck so far up my own ass, I didn’t know which way was up.

Carmen.

It was the sexy little librarian’s fault I was so fucking spun out. I ran my hands through my hair before scratching the scruff on my face. I should have shaved. Maybe I should wait another day before I approached her?No, a voice growled in my head. The obsessed part of me that had no comprehension for what was right or wrong when it came to her had quickly taken over.

Now I lived on the campus’ professor row in a small two-bedroom bungalow that shared her fence line since I was living right behind her. Something I might have had a hand in, too. But fuck me, what were the chances that particular house had just been vacated by a professor who transferred to a school in Minnesota?

So many changes in so little time.

Now it’s time for one more.I licked my lips and stood up. Stretching and breathing in deep before I walked over to the information desk, where she was currently talking to one of her student employees.

“Thanks, Miss Villalobos.”

“I told you to call me Carmen, Libby.”

“Carmen.” The girl smiled. “I really appreciate you letting me out early. I just have to get to my other job.”

“Hey, don’t worry. Anytime there is an issue with the schedule, you come find me, and I will see what I can do.”

“Thanks.” The appreciation was crystal clear in the girl’s voice.

“And, Libby?” I heard her call after the girl with big glasses perched at the end of her nose. “Next year, if you want, we can look into maybe you doing more hours here? That way, you can quit the diner?”

“Maybe.” She smiled and shrugged. “I might take you up on that.”

“I hope you do.” Carmen waved at the girl before she turned. Those pretty, green eyes I’d fallen so damn hard for connected with mine. “It’s you.”

“Me.” I grinned cockily. Yeah, it had definitely been her who had called security on me. I kinda liked the fact she knew who I was and had noticed me even though I tried to be stealthy.

---