Page 125 of Texting Dr. Stalker

All of that doesn’t mean you’re ready to gallivant around the streets on the back of a damn bike!

Peng meowed as he tried to get away from the snarling machine.

Zander killed the engine with a flick of the key and braced his legs on either side of the bike. Tugging his helmet off, the shock of fire-red hair tumbled over his forehead, making him seem so much younger than he was.

In that moment, I couldn’t see him as a doctor. He returned to the gawky teenager in the garden that day when Dad had broken my heart. He’d promised to take me to a local waterpark for weeks and weeks but then said he couldn’t be bothered.

If it’d just been that one time, I would’ve been okay. I was old enough to know that sometimes things didn’t work out. But his broken promises had become habit, and I knew better than to get my hopes up all while hating myself that I still did.

Zander was right that I’d been hurt that day. Hurt and well and truly over boys. Maybe that was why I’d let Milton into my life? Because I’d never felt connected to him. Therefore, he could never hurt me?

Emotionally at least.

I hugged Peng a little closer as I recalled Zander’s earnestness back then. How he’d steal my nana’s baking and laugh at her terrible jokes. He’d always be there, rain or shine, to do any chore she asked of him.

I blinked as all the pieces suddenly slammed together.

He’s always been a great guy.

How could I ever feel such terror when I looked at him? I’d literally never seen him hurt the tiniest bug, let alone me.

X had freed my body last night with the best orgasm I’d ever had.

And I had a feeling Zander could free the pieces that I’d lost well before Milton ever came on the scene by racing me through the sky.

“Stay right there,” I ordered. “I’m just going to set Peng up at my place.”

“No, wait.” His hand came up, already encased in a leather glove. “Sailor, stop—”

I didn’t obey.

Bolting up the garden path, I charged inside and deposited Peng in the kitchen where his litter tray and food bowls were. “I won’t be long, little Penguin. Just…Nana will look out for you. I’m sorry to leave you alone, but…I really need to do this.”

Grabbing an old canvas jacket that I used in the garden on bitter winter days, I locked up and sprinted back to Zander’s side.

He blinked as if I’d made him speechless. “You weren’t kidding. You truly want to come?”

That word.

Come.

The way he said it sounded so similar to how X had growled it last night. Heavy and thick, an innocent word turned into something sinfully erotic.

My pulse picked up as I narrowed my eyes.

Sunlight blinded me as I studied Zander all over again.

I tried to picture him with a baseball cap and mask on—of him hugging me or slipping down my body to stick his tongue between my legs.

And I couldn’t.

“Lucky for you then, huh? You let one finger fuck you last night, and now you’re riding another one today. See? Youarea slut.”

I shuddered at the memory of Milton throwing me onto the coffee table and laughing as I fell, bleeding and bruised, onto the carpet. All my carefree hope that I was healing screeched to a halt.

Everything turned dark.

Shadows crept over the sunshine.

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