Page 216 of Texting Dr. Stalker

“The point—” Zander swayed and closed his eyes. “—the point is, I had the keys, so I went back to the movies and drove her car back. It was my fault it was stranded there after bringing her home on my bike. Do you know I kissed her that night? Did I tell you?”

“You didn’t. How did that go?” Colin crossed his arms.

“About as well as you’d expect.” Zander sighed. “It couldn’t even be called a kiss. I should’ve asked permission, right? I tried kissing her, and she freaked out, and fuck, I should’ve asked before I did it.”

My worry over Peng overrode my desire to listen to my neighbour have a drunken moment. He hadn’t told me he’d been the one to return my car. It was yet another favour he’d done, all while expecting nothing in return.

Tomorrow, I would pop round and deliver the vanilla sponge I’d made him. I’d look him in the eye and thank him profusely for all he’d done for me, but then I’d tell him we could only be friends because I’d fallen in love with a masked flight-risk of a man, and it wouldn’t be fair to lead him on. As incredible as he was—as sweet and kind and thoughtful as he’d proven to be, now that I’d tasted the level of freedom with X…I didn’t think I could be with a man who asked permission for every kiss.

Backing into the shadows, I held my breath in case they spotted me.

God, that would be next-level embarrassment after what I’d heard.

Taking another step backward, I swallowed my yelp as something squeaked.

Twisting around, I narrowed my eyes in the dark…then dropped to my knees in absolute relief. “Penguin!” Snatching my wayward kitten into my arms, I made sure to keep my exclamation to a whisper. “Where have you been, you naughty cat?” Burrowing my face into his scruff, I rocked and squished him. “Good God, I was so worried.”

He purred and wriggled, his little body as fizzy as I felt inside.

Pulling him away from me, I held him upright—his little legs dangling and green eyes blinking innocently. “Don’t you ever do that again; do you hear me?”

He meowed quietly.

Gathering him against my chest, I struggled to my feet and went to head toward the fence palings to go home. Damn kitten probably ran away because he was hungry. I’d neglected him all thanks to X’s distraction. Therefore, I would feed him until he was too fat to waddle anywhere. “You’re grounded, Mr Fluff—”

“—and it was the best sex of my life.”

I froze, my gaze whipping back to the conservatory where Zander sat slouched with his elbows on his knees. His voice echoed in the garden, licking around my feet. “I’ve never felt that way…with anyone.”

Stinging jealousy hit me.

Which made no sense as I’d just made up my mind to establish boundaries between us, yet…hearing that he actually had a life outside of this suburb?

It hurt.

Like…really hurt.

W-Who did he sleep with?

Not that I had any right to be possessive after what I’d just done.

“Okay, so you’re in love with her. I could’ve told you that years ago. In fact, pretty sure I did. Multiple times.” Colin sniffed, looking at Zander with very little sympathy. “I told you to ask her out, and what did you do? You decided that falsifying your identity was a better idea.”

Wait, what?

My arms stiffened around Peng as Zander raked his hands through his hair. “I’ve messed everything up so bad.”

“Meh, don’t beat yourself up. These things happen. Just come clean and—”

“Ican’tcome clean.” Zander’s red-rimmed eyes shot up. He wasn’t wearing his glasses, and a pang of familiarity kicked me in the gut.

An image of X spliced over Zander. Replace the red hair with black and—

“I hurt her tonight, Col. I-I bruised her like he did, and—”

“Hold up.” Colin adopted a patient-doctor pose, eyeballing his friend. “You said that on the phone. I know I’ve been supporting you with this crazy idea, but only because you did it for the right reasons. You were supposed to help her, Zan, so…how did it go from helping her to hurting her?”

My heart rate picked up.

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