Texting Dr Stalker Read Online Pepper Winters

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Contemporary, Dark, Erotic Tags Authors: Pepper Winters Advertisement

Advertisement

I’d survived.

He was locked up.

The end.

Luckily, Milton had tried to murder me on a Monday, which worked in my favour as I didn’t have to be at the market until Saturday. That gave me four whole days to heal and figure out how to use enough concealer to hide my black eye and paint-by-numbers bruises.

Shutting off the engine of her silver Mercedes coupe, Lily turned to face me. “I know you can’t talk, but I feel your annoyance, Sails.” She frowned and pointed a finger in my face. “I don’t like this. I really, really don’t like this. What if he comes back? What if you need someone to help you cook or go to the bathroom or—”

I slapped my good hand over her runaway mouth and smiled as best I could.

God, I didn’t think not being able to speak would be such a pain, but it literally killed me having to stay silent. (And yes, I was aware of the irony that being killed had gotten me into this mess.)

Shaking my head, I dropped my hand and pointed at my inherited home.

Sitting on the grass-striped driveway, the red-brick garage full of Pop’s tools welcomed me back. White jasmine vines draped off the slate roof, window boxes full of rainbow flowers, the gorgeous archway made of bent willow branches, the little fountain that attracted all the blackbirds and finches, the bird feeders, the Japanese maples, the lemon trees and feijoas, right to the huge hobbit-style gate leading to the secret garden of a backyard. The two-story house sat nestled in all of that. Softened by lichen and love, wrapped tightly with a white veranda with a swinging egg chair, and crowned by a front door with a stained-glass window showing a riot of frangipani and freesias.

This place wasn’t like the house I’d grown up in with my parents across the country. That had been stark and sterile with no garden, no welcome, no soul. I’d found who I truly was ever since I’d moved in with Nana, and I’d never felt so safe or so comfortable…so yes.

I was sure I wanted to do this.

I needed to do this.

I wouldn’t let Milton chase me from my happy place. No matter that my pulse skipped and adrenaline made me jittery at the thought of going inside.

Sighing heavily, Lily nodded as if she’d heard all my thoughts as we stared at the house. “I get it. You love it here. You feel safe here. But…”

I clucked my tongue and arched my eyebrow.

She smirked. Her dark brown hair caught the late morning sunshine, her fierce blue eyes like sapphire chips. She wore a navy power suit with white lapels and pocket trim, looking every inch the successful real estate agent. Next to her, I was the unnoticed skinny Minnie who preferred inappropriate jokes and comfy leggings.

I didn’t always used to be that way.

I used to work in corporate.

I’d been an executive assistant to a publishing house editor. And as much as I loved to read the slush pile and help make other people’s dreams come true, when Nana had admitted that she was past the point of living on her own and was deliberating moving into a home now that Pops was gone, I upped and quit and moved in.

My life had irrevocably changed.

For the better.

And Milton is not going to take that away from me.

With a huff, I opened the car door with my good hand and gingerly climbed out. Every bruise and injury seemed to hurt even worse today. The throbbing and stiffness almost crippled me as I hid my shuffling limp and strode as straight as I could up the garden path.

“Hold up, you stubborn woman.” Lily scrambled after me, grabbing the overnight bag she’d brought to the hospital for me from the trunk. Locking the flashy car, she darted to catch up.

Cutting in front, she strode up to the front door.

I shook my head and pointed at the round portal leading to the backyard.

I didn’t have a key.

But the spare was tucked under the lavender pot, courtesy of Jim.

He saved my life.

If Jim and his dog hadn’t heard me…

I shivered and pushed away such morbid thoughts.

How did you repay someone for saving your life?

Bake a cake? Buy him a new something or other? Get on my knees and tell him how grateful I was that I was still here?

“Ah, that’s right.” Lily nodded and hoisted my bag higher up her shoulder. “Ambulance ride while unconscious equals no key.”

With a nod, I pushed open the hobbit gate on its well-oiled hinges and stepped into another world.

The back garden might look chaotic to some, but to me, I understood the madness within which Nana had planted. In the west, all the herbs for her essential oil pressing grew with wild chaos. In the east, all her vegetables. In the north, all the flowers she dried and designed into jewelry, and in the south, all the medicinal plants she turned into tinctures and ointments.


Advertisement

Advertisement