Dearest Stalker: Part 2

by Lane Parker

  He gave me a sensual kiss before he rolled and pulled me on top of him.

  We stayed just like that for several minutes as we caught our breath.

  My heart was slowing as I murmured, “Is sex always this good?”

  “No,” he answered huskily. “Not in my experience.”

  “Do you have a lot of experience?” I asked.

  “Enough to know that what we have is pretty extraordinary chemistry,” he said with a rusty chuckle.

  I moved off him and collapsed on the bed. “But this can’t happen again,” I warned him. “It messes with my head, and I’m already screwed up enough.”

  He wrapped a strong arm around me and pulled me to his side. “You’re not screwed up,” he said gruffly. “I am.”

  I was silent for a moment, savoring his rock-hard, warm body against mine. “Can’t you tell me why you won’t let me know who you are? Please?”

  “This has nothing to do with you, Kate. It’s all me. And the circumstances are irreversible. Don’t ever think that I don’t want to claim you. That I don’t want to take you out and spoil the hell out of you the way you deserve. But I can’t. I’m not that guy. I can’t give you what you need.”

  “Why? Please just tell me why. I don’t understand.” I suddenly felt my nakedness, but it had nothing to do with my nearly-nude state.

  I was still stuck on the idea that I might be screwing some other woman’s guy, and it made me nauseous. I’d always hated women who knowingly messed with married or involved men. But couldn’t I be doing the same thing without knowing it?

  “I’m sorry, Kate.” His voice was remorseful. “I never planned on any of this. But I should have known that once I’d touched you, I’d be screwed. Maybe I did know, and I just didn’t care because I’ve wanted you for so damn long.”

  “How long?” I questioned.

  If Stalker had been somebody who had known me for a while, then it still left Ben and Doug in the running. I’d met Ben at my mother’s funeral. I was pretty sure he’d only shown up because my father hadn’t.

  Stalker sounded a lot like Ben, but I couldn’t be sure he wasn’t trying to disguise his voice a little so I didn’t recognize it.

  He was stubbornly silent, so I assumed he wasn’t going to tell me when we had met.

  “You sound like Ben Blackwood,” I ventured.

  “I’d kill him if he touched you,” he answered harshly.

  “You know Ben?” I asked. “Do you know Doug Ryker, too?”

  “Yes. Enough that I’d probably beat the hell out of him if he touched you, too.”

  “But you aren’t him, either?”

  “Hell, no. Doug is barely old enough to drink,” he grumbled.

  “So am I,” I reminded him.

  I didn’t believe for a moment that Stalker wasn’t lying to cover up his identity, or to throw me off.

  He brushed the hair back from my face. “I doubt you were ever really a child, Kate.”

  His words touched me because they were probably more than a little bit true. My mom had done her best, and I’d loved her fiercely. But I’d always felt like an adult, and I’d been a latchkey kid taking care of myself from a pretty early age.

  “Did you know my mother?” I questioned.

  He stroked my hair as he said, “I never had the privilege, no.”

  My heart tripped. If Stalker was telling the truth, he couldn’t be Doug. My mother had met Doug Ryker a few times in passing at the market we’d worked at in high school.

  “We never had any money, but we loved each other. We used to come to Sanibel to hunt for shells. It was one of the only things we could afford to do. That’s why I love this house so much. It brings back some of the good memories we had.”

  I had no idea why I was pouring my heart out to a man I didn’t know, but I sensed that Stalker would never judge me. So I felt comfortable telling him some of the things that I didn’t talk about with anybody else.

  He pulled me tightly against his muscular chest as he said, “Everything will be okay, Kate. I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but I’ll always make sure that you’re all right.”

  I relaxed against him. “I’ll have a degree, but no documented experience in programming. And the only thing I’m qualified to do is cocktail waitressing. I’m basically freeloading in a house that isn’t mine, and that I have no right to even be in right now. So you’re right. Everything doesn’t seem okay at all. But my whole life has always been a struggle, so I know I’ll survive.”

  I had tough skin, and I’d been conditioned for hard times since I was a kid. I had no doubt I’d find a way through my difficult position. I always did.

  “I’m sorry that you were disappointed about your dad.”

  “I honestly did need to know,” I told him with sigh. “And being disappointed about my father is nothing new. In some ways, it makes it easier for me to heal since there was never any possible relationship between him and I.”

  Even though I was blindfolded, I closed my eyes. I was pretty much physically and emotionally depleted.

  Stalker was silent, and I felt my body start to drift.

  It was the last thing I remembered until I woke up alone and pulled off my blindfold, the space beside me cold, and the pillowcase he’d used to tie my hands thrown over the headboard.

  At some point during the early morning hours, my stalker had left without a trace.

  Chapter 7

  Kate

  “At least take the test, Katie. That’s all I’m asking.”

  Ben’s words brought my eyes off my plate of seafood, and back to the gorgeous man sitting across the table from me. He’d insisted on taking me out to dinner since I’d already cooked for for him several times.

  The restaurant was good, but I was more interested in whether or not Ben was my stalker to really enjoy the seafood on my plate.

  I’d spent the last three days, since stalker had left my bed, wondering about Ben. There was something familiar about him, and even though stalker had blown off my suggestion, I couldn’t shake the nagging voice in my head. Their voices were similar, and Ben’s body fit Stalker’s build.

  I’d pretty much ruled out Doug. We’d walked together again yesterday, and even though he was fit and good looking, he was a little slenderer than Stalker. Plus, Doug had known my mother. Not well, but they had definitely met several times.

  Yeah, Stalker could be a liar. But I sensed he hadn’t been making it up when he’d said he’d never had the pleasure of meeting my mother.

  “I can pass the Blackwood test,” I informed him. “I’ve tried the practice exams and never had a problem.”

  Ben had been harping on me about going to work for Blackwood since we’d met in the parking lot tonight, and he didn’t seem ready to lay off the subject anytime soon.

  He grinned, a smile that would probably cause other women to drop to the floor and worship the man. Really, he was way too hot, and so charismatic that I smiled back at him.

  “Good,” he said, his eyes shooting me a mischievous look. “Then the test won’t be an issue.”

  I knew the Blackwood entry exam was rough, and even though I was shy and hesitant in just about every other area of my life, I didn’t doubt my ability when it came to computers and programming.

  “I can’t just take the test and let you hire me. You haven’t even seen my resume.”

  He reached for his drink and downed some of it before he answered, “Yeah, well, I might have snagged a copy when I was at the guest house. They were just lying there, and it may have found its way into my pocket so I could put you in for a junior position on the robotics team.”

  My eyes widened, “You stole my resume?”

  He nodded. “Guilty.”

  Ben didn’t look the least bit remorseful. “That was rather highhanded,” I told him.

  He shrugged. “Maybe because you’re rather stubborn, and I know you’d be an asset to Blackwood if you’d just stop protesting. Every one of your prof
essors gave you glowing recommendations. I know because I called them, and asked for them. All of them sent one the same day I called. I have seen your resume, and I passed it on to the project manager along with the letters from your college. He’s interested, and I didn’t mention that you’re family. I just asked him what he thought about taking an exceptional new grad for an entry level position on the team.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “He doesn’t know that I’m somebody you want to see get a job at Blackwood?”

  “I didn’t have to mention it. It wasn’t necessary. He was impressed by all of the independent software work you’ve done in robotics according to your professors. You’d be perfect to go into the program, and we could probably hook up with your college of choice to arrange for some of the work to count as coursework for your master’s program. Kind of like a working intern. We’ve done it before with a few of the universities we partner with for education. You could complete your program online for the most part. Blackwood encourages talent, even without experience, if that person can pass our exam.”

  The whole idea was so damn tempting I almost groaned out loud. I could finish my master’s while I was making a living. And I could work at the best tech giant in the industry. Blackwood was my dream job. It always had been. But I thought it would be years until I could get them to look at me.

  “So will you interview, and at least take the test?” he asked.

  I took a deep breath as I stared at him. “I don’t know how to say no,” I confessed.

  Ben pulled out his phone and started to text. “Then don’t say no,” he advised. “And don’t think we’re doing you a favor, because we aren’t. You’ve worked hard, Katie, and you’re brilliant. You’d be an asset to us. If I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t be so persistent. I might care about you, but I wouldn’t be putting you in my company if I didn’t know we’d come out on top of the deal.”

  Ben was a businessman. Maybe he was telling me the truth. I highly doubted he’d put nepotism over his tech company. “Okay,” I said, my heart hammering with excitement. “I’ll interview and take the test.”

  He looked down at his phone. “Are you busy tomorrow at two o’clock?”

  “No.”

  “Then I’m going to let the project manager know you’ll be there,” he said as he texted, and then put the phone back in his pocket.

  “You just arranged a job interview at eight o’clock at night?” I questioned.

  He looked at me, his hazel eyes dancing. “I do have a little bit of pull, and all of the important phone numbers.”

  A little bit of pull? No doubt everybody jumps when Ben contacts them since he owns the company.

  “I haven’t gotten a single interview call yet, and you just arranged one in a couple of text messages,” I answered with a sigh.

  “Their loss,” he answered. “You know that sometimes resumes sit in human resources forever. Blackwood prides itself on getting ahead of the competition.”

  I shot him a small smile as I reached for my water. “I’m kind of nervous,” I confided. “I haven’t had a professional interview yet. I was thinking I’d hear about the cocktail waitress job that Doug Ryker is working on for me first.”

  Ben paused in his mission to demolish all the food on his plate and frowned. “Why is Ryker trying to get you a waitressing job? You’re a programmer.”

  “Because I have experience, and I need some kind of income. I can’t hang out in my stepbrother’s home forever.”

  “So you’re willing to take his help, but not mine?” Ben said in a voice that sounded just a little bit injured.

  Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to say. He was right. I was willing to use acquaintances to help me get my foot in the door for another position. “It’s a waitress job.”

  “You’re more qualified to be a programmer. You just finished four years of college, and worked some independent study on the side. You’re going to graduate with high honors, Katie.”

  “I worked in a club in Massachusetts. I have work experience.”

  “Tell Ryker to forget it. You’re coming to Blackwood,” he grumbled.

  I swallowed a bite of my grouper entrée before I answered, “I haven’t gotten the job yet, or taken the Blackwood exam.”

  “No clubs,” he said in a terse voice I barely recognized coming from Ben, a tone that sounded suspiciously like my stalker’s.

  He looked annoyed, not at all like the Ben I knew.

  “What’s wrong with clubs?”

  “Too many horny, drunk men who think they have the right to feel up any waitress they want,” he replied, sounding genuinely concerned.

  I laughed as I dropped the fork on my empty plate. “Seriously? Do you really think any guy is going to fondle me?”

  “Yes,” he snapped. “In a heartbeat if the opportunity is there. Just go to the interview tomorrow, Katie.”

  “I’m going,” I said in a calm tone. “Are you okay, Ben? You’re not acting like yourself tonight.”

  He’d pressured me before about coming to work for his company, but I’d never seen him quite as uptight as he was this evening.

  “Am I being a dick?” he dropped his utensils on his plate and looked at me.

  “No. Not really. You just seem…troubled.” And he was starting to sound a hell of a lot like Stalker.

  Ben was usually upbeat and smiling. But tonight, he seemed like a whole different person.

  He let out a masculine sigh. “I’m sorry, Katie. I guess I just have a lot on my mind. And I don’t really like the fact that you’re hanging out with Ryker. I don’t know him that well, but he’s young, and he’s gone through a lot of women since he’s come back to Florida. Is it romantic?”

  It wasn’t really any of Ben’s business what my relationship was with Doug, but I answered him anyway. “No. We’ve run into each other on the beach a couple of times when he was staying at his grandparents’ house next door. And he’s not that young.”

  Ben was twenty-seven, but now that I thought about it, Doug did seem young next to my stepbrother. Maybe it wasn’t the age, but the experience. Ian and Ben had been heading Blackwood for the last five years, and had probably been groomed to be in powerful positions since they were young.

  “He’s been drinking and partying since he dropped out of college, Katie,” Ben warned. “His parents are good friends with my mother. He’s trouble.”

  “We’re just friends,” I assured him. “I really don’t know him well enough to be familiar with his social habits.”

  “Keep it that way,” he advised. “He drinks way too much, which is probably why he knows so many people at the clubs. And he still hasn’t gotten over losing his career in football. He’s not the guy for you.”

  “I know. He’s filthy rich.”

  Ben reached out and put his hand over mine on the table. “The money isn’t the issue. Any guy would be lucky to have you. But you deserve more than Ryker is ever going to give you,” he said huskily.

  My heart tripped as I looked into his earnest, gorgeous hazel eyes. The flecks of gold in his eye color seemed richer and brighter than usual. Ben Blackwood was easily the hottest guy I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his face.

  It wasn’t just his genetics; it was the whole package. Ben had come to the restaurant from the office, and he rocked the custom suit he was wearing. He looked as comfortable dressed this way as he did in a pair of jeans.

  His touch is so familiar. It’s somehow comforting.

  Could he really be my stalker?

  I almost protested when he pulled his hand away.

  “Are you dating anybody?” I blurted out the question before I could censor it.

  “I date,” he answered matter-of-factly. “But I guess I just haven’t found a woman who will put up with me, yet. I work pretty long hours, and my mind is usually on Blackwood. I wouldn’t make any woman a decent husband. And they don’t usually hang around all that long.”

  I desperately wanted to po
ur out the whole story about Stalker and see what his reaction would be. Ben was the logical culprit, but I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact the man sitting across from me could be my stalker.

  I was certain that it wasn’t Doug.

  But I kept coming back to the question of why Ben would ever try to hide his identity. He had no reason to.

  In the end, we left the restaurant without me saying a word about Stalker.

  The thought still seemed so ludicrous to me that I couldn’t find the words to ask him if he was the mystery man who had looked out for me over the years. And I didn’t want to lose his friendship if I was wrong. Besides Ariel, Ben was the only person who seemed to care about me.

  I’m done with Stalker.

  I knew I needed to forget about him. He’d left me three days ago, and I hadn’t heard a word from him since.

  The crazy obsession I had about his identity had to end. Like I’d told him, I needed friends, not fantasy. I wanted real people in my life.

  I hadn’t been able to get the money he’d deposited out of my account yet. According to my bank, the payor insisted that they owed me the money, so it was going to be a drawn-out process.

  What bank wanted to pay back a half million dollars when the person who deposited it claimed the money belonged to me?

  I forced Stalker from my brain and turned my attention to Ben.

  He was here.

  He was real.

  And if I was going to spend time with one of the most eligible bachelors in the world, I was damn well going to start enjoying every moment, even if we were just friends for now.

  Chapter 8

  Kate

  “You passed the Blackwood test with one of the best scores we’ve even seen,” Ben shared as he sat across the table from me in the guest house. “If Ian doesn’t approve your addition to the robotics team, you’re going somewhere else at Blackwood. We’re not letting you get scooped up by anyone else.”

  It had been several days since my interview. I’d been nervous, but I’d eventually fallen into an enthusiastic discussion with Martin Englewood, my interviewer and the project manager for the robotics research team. I was pretty sure that he’d been at least slightly impressed with my knowledge on the subject.