LOST

by Lane Parker

  I was still trying to convince him that all I really wanted was…him.

  Over the last several months, I’d discovered that the money and his fame really didn’t mean anything to him. They were just a byproduct of his career. His passion. He payed very little attention to how much money he was making, or how people on the outside praised his work.

  Simply put, he didn’t give a damn what other people thought. And I actually loved that about him.

  I yanked my suitcase from the car, not surprised that James wasn’t here to do it for me. I was really early. He wouldn’t be expecting me for hours, but I’d moved my ass to get here faster because I missed him.

  Not that we hadn’t spent a lot of time together; him visiting California, and me returning to Colorado. But it was never enough.

  I’ll never have to leave again. I’m here to stay. Thank God.

  James and I had taken our time, both of us figuring out exactly what we wanted. He’d wanted to prove that I didn’t need to fix him. That he could resolve his issues. And he had. Splendidly.

  He’d found his sister, Olivia, living in California. It turned out that she’d been trying to find him for a long time. His sister had kicked the abusive asshole to the curb years earlier, and she finally understood why James had tried so hard to protect her. I had to admit, seeing the two of them together again had brought tears of joy to my eyes. As it turned out, James had a nephew, and I doubted if anybody could find a prouder uncle. He spoiled the little boy shamelessly—no matter how much Liv asked him not to.

  Olivia had gone back to making pastries in California, and I knew that James was doing his best to try to talk her into making a move to Aspen to open her own shop.

  He wanted to fund her whole operation.

  Liv was determined that he wouldn’t.

  I smiled as I entered the house, wondering how long before she’d give into James’s not-so-subtle pressure to move here. I was pretty certain it wouldn’t be long since he could be incredibly persuasive when he wanted to be.

  The house was quiet as I entered and put my stuff down on the floor.

  My heart skittered as I looked at the kitchen counter.

  James still loved his postcards, and they were spread out on the granite surface like somebody had been looking at them just this morning.

  I gingerly touched the ones I’d sent him from California. The minute he left me there to return to the mountains, I’d run out and found a postcard for every place we’d visited together and sent them to him in Colorado. Maybe it was kind of sappy that I sent him postcards of every memory we’d made, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he apparently treasured every one of them since the majority of them were beaten up like he’d looked at them over and over.

  I turned one of them over, already knowing what I’d find since I’d written them.

  I miss you.

  Three little words, but they’d come from my heart every single time. The minute we’d separated, my heart had always ached like part of it was missing when he wasn’t with me.

  Maybe the separations had been necessary because I’d pulled my life together, too, and wrapped up everything in California so I could leave on a high note.

  I put my purse on the counter and started looking around the cabin, but to my disappointment, James wasn’t anywhere to be found.

  I stepped outside, and there was his carving table with his latest piece. It was a tall, curvy block of golden wood. The smooth lines he was finding in the grain twisted lusciously. My eyes followed their path, and they wound and curved across the soft surface.

  Gorgeous.

  James had mentioned that he’d been working on something that reminded him of me, and strangely, I could feel the heartwarming pull toward the sculpture, knowing it was all about us.

  Closing the door behind me, I started toward the woods. I pretty much knew where he was if he wasn’t inside or working on a sculpture.

  Turned out, there was a beautiful pond near this house, just like the one near his old cabin. We’d spent hours there just watching the wildlife, being still and quiet, wrapped up in each other. It was a special place, the location where he’d asked me to marry him the last time we were here at the cabin together.

  Of course, I’d said yes—because we were both ready. There had been nothing standing in our way anymore.

  Not his issues.

  Or mine.

  Maybe we’d needed that time to work things out by ourselves, but we were both getting damn tired of having to say goodbye.

  Never again!

  I was enrolled in a cooking school in Aspen, and I was about to pursue my love of all things culinary.

  I’d given my work plenty of notice, and although I was going to miss Yasmine and my other friends, I decided I was not going to miss my job.

  My breath caught as I got to the edge of the clearing with the sparkling pond.

  My heart tripped as I saw James sitting next to the water, drinking a mug of coffee, his expression looking like he was far away.

  God, he’s so beautiful.

  The man was as big and as bold as the pieces he made, and just as magnetic.

  He must have heard the rustle of my footsteps because he turned as I moved toward him, and my heart soared as those panty-melting blue eyes became laser-focused on me. He looked like a predator who had just spotted some very tasty prey.

  He stared at me like I was all he needed.

  Everything he wanted.

  “You lost?” he called out roughly, his voice cracking just a little, even though I knew he was trying to be nonchalant, mimicking the very first time we met.

  You lost? Oh, hell no. Not anymore. He’d found me.

  I smiled at him. “Not anymore, handsome,” I yelled back.

  He put his mug aside as I sprinted toward him.

  I flung myself into his arms before he could stand up, landing solidly in his lap.

  He was so damn warm, so solid, and totally…mine.

  He was quick to put those powerful arms around me like he’d never let me go. So eager to kiss me that my lips were already parted as his mouth crashed down on mine.

  I savored the feel of him, the taste of him, and that masculine pine, mountain-man scent that always drove me crazy.

  The embrace was deep and wet, and so intense that molten heat flooded between my thighs. His hands ran up and down my back like he was still trying to convince himself that I was in his arms.

  When we surfaced, I pulled back and saw him grinning at me as he said, “You’re early.”

  “You complaining about that?” I teased.

  He shook his head and continued to grin.

  God, I love that smile.

  “Welcome home,” he said huskily against the sensitive skin of my neck, a sound that vibrated through my entire being. “I would have been back in the cabin if I’d known you’d show up early. God, I’ve missed you so damn much, Keeley.”

  He rolled me down to the ground, and settled himself on top of me, between my legs.

  He kissed at my throat, and then moved down my body, unbuttoning my shirt, dragging his beard across my skin. He dug into the cut-off shorts I was wearing, pulling them open, and dragging them down my legs. His lips found the inside of my thigh, and he started kissing farther up, until he reached the spot that never failed to make me gasp and moan.

  “James.” His name came from my lips with a sigh.

  “You’re never leaving me again, Keeley. I can’t take it one more time. I’m done with that shit,” he said gutturally.

  My body tensed as he continued to devour every inch of skin he could find.

  “I’m never leaving again,” I promised in a tremulous voice. “You’re stuck with me.”

  “Thank fuck!” he growled as his big hands cupped my ass.

  I let out a sound that was a combination of a laugh and a moan.

  We had plenty to talk about, but we’d get to that later.

  Much later.

  I shi
vered as James got closer to my slick heat with his wicked mouth.

  Maybe my mountain man was a guy of few words when his sensual hunger overrode any other priorities, but I would never want to tame him. He felt too damn good on top of me, and I loved him exactly the way he was.

  Right now, we had lost time to make up for, and sometimes conversation was highly overrated.

  *****The End*****

  Please continue reading for a sneak peek at Dearest Stalker

  Prologue

  Stalker

  Four Years Ago…

  I watched, my stare completely transfixed on the woman who was center stage, giving her valedictorian speech at the local high school graduation.

  Katherine Riley.

  I clenched my fists as they rested on my thighs, willing my emotions and my dick to stop trying to rule my actions.

  Kate didn’t belong to me, and she never would. But she damn well needed a protector, because everyone in her life had done a pretty shitty job of keeping her safe for the first eighteen years of her life.

  People called her Katie. But in my mind, she was Kate.

  The woman who was stumbling valiantly through her talk about goals, dreams, and education after graduation was way too much of an adult to ever be anything else but Kate.

  Had she ever been a kid?

  I expected that she hadn’t.

  I did know that she was smart.

  She was beautiful.

  And she was so damn brave that my heart felt like it was in a vise as I watched her struggle. I was pretty sure I was more worried about her making it through the speech than she was at the moment.

  Jesus! I knew what it was like to be uncomfortable in front of large crowds. Most people would probably never notice because I had become a master at hiding my discomfort, but I somehow knew this woman was going through hell.

  She seemed to radiate pain and hopelessness, even as she spoke of upbeat topics to the crowd.

  I could sense it.

  I could feel it.

  Even though I seemed to be the only one who noticed as I looked around at the crowd of smiling faces as Kate continued to speak.

  She was so fucking alone, and for some reason I didn’t understand, I felt that, too. Her mother had died just months ago, and all she had was a father who had never given a damn about her.

  I had to wonder what was going to happen to this smart, intrepid female once graduation was over.

  Godammit! I hated the thought of her leaving Florida. She had ability and intellect, but where was her opportunity to pursue her own destiny?

  Top of her class, yet she’d lived in poverty her entire life. Pretty fucking extraordinary.

  I clenched my fists harder, and locked my jaw, forcing myself to control the possessive emotions that threatened to swallow me whole.

  What the fuck is wrong with me? I don’t covet any woman. Never had.

  And the shit I was feeling was pretty unwelcome for a guy who was known for not having any discernable emotions.

  My reaction to Kate was visceral, primal, and I had no damn idea why I felt I needed to jump onto the stage, scoop her ass up, and make sure that she never experienced another day of deprivation for the rest of her life.

  I’d never felt like this before.

  But shockingly, the instincts were there.

  And they were damn near impossible to control, but I would master them. I always did.

  I can never have her. It doesn’t fucking matter how I feel. It’s impossible.

  It didn’t matter that I didn’t understand my bizarre connection to her. I was never going to act on those emotions.

  I could, however, make sure she was safe. I’d make sure that she would always be okay.

  I couldn’t ever touch her, but I could take care of her for as long as she needed me.

  I didn’t ever want her to be alone in the world now that her mother was gone.

  Even though my eyes never left her, my mind started to work on exactly how I could get close to her, but not too close.

  My dick was protesting because it wanted nothing more than for me to get just as damn close as possible to her so it could lose itself in Kate.

  So I could lose myself in her, too.

  Buried deep.

  Buried hard.

  Surrounded by the moist heat that I instinctively knew would send me over the goddamn edge.

  Son of a bitch!

  Not. Going. To. Happen.

  My body was tense as I tried to figure how much of my help she’d take.

  It was better if I was anonymous. I knew that.

  My eyes searched her face as well as they possibly could at a distance, taking in the dark smudges under her eyes, and the defeated downward curve of her shoulders.

  Nobody has ever taken care of this woman.

  She was only eighteen years old, and Kate already knew all of the harsh realities of life. She’d been living them for years.

  She needs a chance to get all the education she wants and deserves. Hell, she’s top of her class.

  I’d scanned the program before the ceremony had started. Kate had received scholarships. Several of them. But I had no idea what her plans really were now that her mother was gone.

  “Thank you for coming to see the graduating students today as we move on to the next chapter in our lives,” Kate mumbled, looking relieved that she could finally stop talking and get out of the limelight.

  I watched her as she left the stage, knowing that I’d always make damn sure I knew where she was and how she was doing.

  I’d always keep track of her because I knew I wouldn’t be able to help myself.

  I’d been fucked since the first time I’d laid eyes on her.

  In fact, I was pretty sure I’d just become her stalker.

  It wasn’t just a physical attraction. There was something else, something more…

  I stood with the rest of the crowd, clapping for her.

  God knew she deserved the accolades she was getting. It took a lot of guts to get up in front of this many people when it was the last thing she probably wanted to do.

  “You ready?” the woman beside me asked.

  I nodded as I put my arm around the beautiful female, and led her out of the auditorium, my brain distracted with ideas about what I could do to help Kate Riley.

  Get the rest of the story at https://amzn.to/2SCOLNk

  About the Author

  Lane Parker is an alter-ego of J.S. Scott. She got sucked into reading romance since her teenage years. She reads all kinds of romance books, the hotter the better. She writes what she loves, hot happily ever after contemporary romance stories that feature strong women and bossy Alpha Males.

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  Books by Lane Parker

  Dearest Stalker: A Complete Collection

  Dearest Stalker: Part 1

  A Christmas Dream

  A Valentine’s Dream