Page 217 of Texting Dr. Stalker

Something itched inside, growing more and more intense the longer I stood there. Even Peng didn’t struggle, lolling in my arms and watching the two men.

“I-I let go.” Zander groaned. “She told me to stop thinking of others and put myself first for a change.”

“Sounds like wise advice. Go on.”

“I went over there angry as hell. And…I did something.”

“You fucked her, you mean.”

Zander didn’t respond.

The itch grew worse and worse, intuition flaring brighter and brighter. The rasp of Zander’s drunken voice sounded so similar to the gravel whispered into my ear when X took me from behind. The way Zander suddenly launched out of his chair and paced the conservatory as if needing to run, unable to stay…

No…My arms wrapped tighter around Peng.It can’t be.

“I snapped, alright?” Zander spun around, agony etching his face. “Fuck, what have I done, Col? Why did I think I could do this? Why did I go this far? Why did I go over there when I knew I was at my limit? She absolutely petrified me by climbing up that ladder. I should’ve walked away the moment she was safely on the ground. I should’ve torn off my mask and told her. I mean…I’d already gone too far, but at least I hadn’t slept with her.Fuck!”

Wiping his mouth, he continued to pace with jerky, horrified steps. “I told her to pick a safe word for Christ’s sake. I fucked her without telling her who I was. I don’t care that it was the best experience of my life. I had no right to do that.None.And now I’ve fucked everything up because there’s no way in hell I can tell her, and I have to move. I’m going to leave because I can’t look her in the eye, and when X doesn’t come back, she’ll swear off men anyway. I took my chance, and I blew it. And I deserve to have blown it. What sort of bastard does what I did? What sort of asshole bruises her that badly when she’s only just healed from another asshole’s marks?”

Storming into Colin, he snarled, “I’ll tell you what sort of asshole. Me.I’mthe asshole. And if she finds out, she’ll call the police and, fuck…I’m still being selfish.Ishould call the police. I should turn myself in on her behalf because what I did was wrong, and that isn’t me, and fuck me, I can’tdothis.”

Throwing himself into the chair, he buried his face into his hands.

Colin sat there unfazed, watching his friend have a breakdown.

I couldn’t move.

Couldn’t breathe.

I’d heard every word, yet I couldn’t compute.

He knew things he shouldn’t if he wasn’t X. His voice was the same. His mannerisms the same. Yet my mind and heart still saw him as two completely different people.

I literally couldn’t combine them.

I couldn’t see my slightly standoffish doctor who barely slept and did house calls asking me to kneel and suck him.

It…just…they’re not the same.

Peng squirmed closer, no doubt feeling my thundering heart. I kissed the top of his head, my mind spinning. Every moment of X interacting with Peng collided. Of Peng clinging to X. Of Peng acting as if he knew him.

“Oh myGod! You knew all along,” I gasped, glaring at the kitten. “You little traitor!”

He yawned as if this was old news, and I was just an ignorant human.

He’d probably followed him when Zander left earlier tonight, sneaking to his house as if he belonged.

The movies.

The messages.

I gasped as every clue slipped into place.

I’d messaged X at the cinema, but Zander was the one who turned up.

I’d been afraid of being alone, and Zander gifted me a cat.

I’d been at the market with X messaging me, but Zander had been there too…

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