Page 1 of Stalker

Chapter 1 – Peyton

“Did you survive day one?”

With a sigh, I threw myself back onto the delightfully comfortable bed and switched my phone to speaker, ready for what was undoubtedly going to be a long conversation with my sister, Olivia.

“I think my brain is officially mush from all the information.” Despite my weariness, I sighed and smiled silently because there was something else going on within me.

Fulfillment.

“Is the old stiff as anal as you thought he’d be?” Olivia chatted on and I rolled my eyes behind my closed eyelids.

“He’s particular.” I rebutted, “But he has a right to be. Mrs. Straight said he’s worked hard for his fortune, and I think that earns you a bit of grace when it comes to how you like your home run.”

I thought back over my entire day, shadowing Mrs. Straight, the current housekeeper, for Mr. Bryce. She was in her fifties and hands down the sweetest woman I’d ever met before. I was temporarilyreplacing her while she took a three-month vacation to visit her daughter, who lived in England.

Which left me three months to hide from my life and ignore the shitty turns it’d taken recently.

Mr. Bryce was some millionaire tech guru who lived his life in almost complete isolation on his three-hundred-acre estate in the middle of nowhere. Which was the perfect place to hide for three months, so I jumped at the chance when I saw the job posting a few weeks ago.

My family thought I was nuts.

My friends thought I was hiding.

My boyfriend Tyson believed that the time apart was the best thing that had ever happened to us.

Which should have alarmed me more than it did, but to be honest, I just didn’t care about the way my future with Tyson was playing out as much as I used to.

“Hello?” Olivia snapped her fingers through the speakers, “Are you ignoring me?”

“I think I fell asleep.” I lied, yawning and counting how many hours I had off before I was expected back up at the main house in the morning.

“That’s rude.” She deadpanned, but it didn’t stop her from chatting on and on after that.

I half listened, half imagined what it would be like to be locked away on the estate, essentially completely alone after Mrs. Straight left in two days. Mr. Bryce was away on business that couldn’t be completed at his primary residence. According to Mrs. Straight, he hadn’t left in almost a year before his current trip.

She also said he only scheduled it because he hated goodbyes, and it was his way of avoiding her departure, even if it was temporary.

He sounded like the cutest little recluse ever.

And I was excited to enjoy the peace his fortune would afford me in return for servicing his home and cooking him meals.

It was more than a fair trade in the end, given the gross amount of money the job paid on top of the solitude.

I would have done it for the vacation alone, but the money would help me figure out what I wanted to do with my life at the end of the three months, nonetheless.

“Don’t you think it’s weird that you’ll be alone with a man you know nothing about past his name and how he likes his underwear folded?” Olivia tried to speak to the small bit of doubt in my brain, but I had a perfectly crafted response since I’d been repeating it to myself nonstop since accepting the position.

“Funny.” I mused, “That’s exactly how it felt living with Tyson.”

“P.” She softened her tone, “Are you sure—”

“Don’t.” Rather than allowing her to start a pity party over my dying relationship, I steered our conversation back to my only focus. “I love it here. I just want to enjoy this break for a while and not stress what waits for me when I get back home.”

“Or what doesn’t.” She sighed.

“Exactly.” As I sat up, I attempted to inject some cheerfulness into my voice. “I’m going to go take a bubble bath in the tub deep enough to sink in, and then go to bed. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“You said nothing about soaker tubs being part of your benefits package.” She scoffed.

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