Twenty Times Tempted: A Sexy Contemporary Romance Collection

by Petrova, Em

  Alex stood up and gave her a card. “The least you can do is keep this card with my number on it.”

  Lisa thought quickly. If she knew his number, at least she could know when he was calling and ignore the call, or even block the number if he became a nuisance! She saved the number in her phone book and it was good that he did not see the name she used: Stalker Alex.

  “Okay, but I’d rather save the number than keep such a precious card,” she said as she placed some money on the table.

  “What! He’s not settling the bill?” Freddie demanded.

  “He didn’t offer to, but I can pay my bills, anyway,” Lisa snapped.

  “No, I will settle that,” Alex offered.

  “You will if we have a date,” Lisa said and headed for the door.

  “Look at that shape, dude,” Freddie said.

  “Shut up, Freddie,” Lisa said without turning and was gone.

  On Monday morning, three days after this “date” at ten A.M., Lisa was at home in the Coleman residence, reading a book as she lay on a sofa in the large living room and hardly listening to the radio in the background. Her phone began to ring and she picked it up.

  “Hi, Jerry. Good thing you called. I need to ask you about a guy named Alex. How are you doing anyway?”

  “Doing fine, Lisa. Funny thing you asked me that. Just received the most shocking news. Brace yourself: Alex has been found dead.”

  Lisa froze.

  “Are you there, Lisa?” Jerry spoke.

  “Y-yes,” Lisa breathed. “I must say I wasn’t braced for that, Jerry. Are you at work?”

  “Yes. Sorry to spring this on you like that, but the last time I spoke to him he was very excited...why don’t you drive over?” It seemed that Jerry was wary to say too much over the phone.

  “I will. Wow...I wasn’t ready for that, I can tell you.” Lisa ran to the kitchen, and found Jo the ex-nanny holding a whole uncooked chicken.

  “I don’t think your morning exercises should end in the kitchen, Lisa,” Jo said, giving the chicken a critical look. “Today you will find out what happens when chicken meets pastry in my kitchen. Call it chicken pie with a little twist!”

  “I love your twists!” Lisa said. “I suppose the pie will have a distant taste of lime or something. You are a food scientist, Jo. By the way I wasn’t running...”

  “I gotta be good at something too,” Jo interrupted. “Your uncle is a science genius, you are a computer whiz, and I’m a kitchen guru.”

  Lisa rolled her eyes. “Okay chef. I’m heading for Yours Digitally. Apparently somebody who is supposed to be a friend of mine has been found dead. Somebody I met briefly at the Snack King place on Friday.”

  Jo gaped. “Wow. Sorry to hear that. But I don’t think they need you at the scene of the crime...is there a crime, anyway? Accident, maybe?”

  “No idea. Going to find out from another friend. Apparently this person, Alex, was a regular customer at Yours Digitally. I didn’t notice him then, but on Friday he told me he used to notice me.”

  June 2016

  Lisa was half-heartedly watching TV that evening inside her Long Beach apartment. She had just been with Nick on the phone. She had told him she couldn’t visit him this evening. “I’m just kinda tired today, Nick. Besides, every evening I come to your place I end up spending the night and you end up doing things to me.”

  “I’d say we end up doing things to each other,” Nick had corrected. “It’s a two-way thing, baby.”

  “Hope I don’t dream about your ex,” Lisa said half-jokingly. “That would be like…a nightmare you know.”

  “Hey, why would you be dreaming about my ex when you can dream about me?”

  “Have you figured out which ex of yours is desperate to have you back, Nick?”

  “I wish there was a device that can measure desperation, but I guess there isn’t,” Nick said with a chuckle. “Be careful, hun, seems it’s not easy to forget me or get me out of your system.”

  “Oh, please,” Lisa snorted. “If we broke up you’d be the one stalking me.”

  Now she walked over to the dining table where Estella her daytime Mexican help had placed her dinner. Estella always came in at nine while she was out, cleaned, washed, cooked and left by one P.M. Lisa always left a key for her on their agreed secret spot. Estella, though, was a woman of vision and thirty-five or not, she was taking some fashion design classes with a hope to launch some clothing designs with a friend of hers.

  Lisa sat where she was able to face the TV. It was only twenty past eight. Just then the house phone rang, and she walked over and picked it up.

  “Hello.”

  “So we meet again,” said the same voice that had spoken to her earlier.

  Lisa was suddenly angry. “Listen to me, Nick’s ex…why don’t you sort out your issues with Nick? I don’t wanna be caught up in this drama, sweetie. If you ever call me again…”

  “Gal, I’m doing the talking here, not you,” again the malicious voice. Lisa had never heard a voice with so much attitude in it. “I’m the one that called. If you had things to say, you should have called.”

  Lisa rolled her eyes. She had seen in movies and in those TV series detectives or agents trace a call or have the police trace calls, but she didn’t know how she would go about that. She was getting tired of this.

  “Listen to me,” Lisa said with a snap. “I’m getting sick of this. I don’t even care how you got my home and office number, although that’s creepy enough. I just want you to stop harassing me. Sort out your issues with your ex and…”

  “Don’t you dare patronize me, woman!” the voice at the other end snapped. “You took my place, I want it back, and if I don’t get it back I will make your life a living hell. Nick is mine.”

  A vision of that guy, Alex, whom Lisa had felt was stalking her two years earlier, floated through her mind. Was she stalker-prone? She was just a regular girl trying to live a regular life.

  “You can have him back!” Lisa was almost shouting now; she was so angry. “Take him back and just leave me the hell alone!”

  “Does that mean you will end the relationship?”

  “Never mind about my relationship…you want Nick, take him back. My relationship with him is none of your damn business. But if you want him back, just go the fuck ahead and take him back!” And she banged the phone back on its cradle so hard she almost broke it. Then she dialed Nick’s number on her cell phone.

  “Missed me already?” he began.

  “Listen, Nick! Your psycho ex is calling me again, damn it! Just how the hell did she get my number? That bitch just won’t give me a break!”

  “Seriously?” Nick sounded concerned. “She called your place?”

  “Nick, I know this is a joke to you, but I’m getting scared. In case I never told you, two years ago this guy Alex was stalking me before he died. Don’t worry, I had nothing to do with his death, but the timing was weird. Maybe there’s a phantom out there killing my stalkers, and you had better warn your ex. Anyway, I’m going to the cops. Going to record a statement with the LAPD first thing in the morning. Will be late to the office.”

  “Can I come and drive you over right away? I’m getting worried too. This sounds like a persistent stalker. And I can’t wait to find out which of my exes is so obsessed with me.”

  “It’s OK. It can wait till morning. I’m sure she won’t attack me at night. Just trying to shake my confidence because apparently she can’t get over you.”

  “Some LAPD love might help her get over me,” Nick said, and sighed. “The police will want to know your office and home number and then will probably trace every call made in the next few days. They might also want to tap your phone and record all calls, maybe. It will be much easier than going back to all past calls made, but then I’m not an expert in these things. Do you realize that you just turned down an opportunity for me to protect you from my mystery ex by spending the night over there?”

  “Good night, Nick.�
�

  When she got to the nearby LAPD division the next morning, she recorded the statement and was ushered to a busy room milling with officers, detectives and even handcuffed criminals who seemed very much at home in the cop-filled room. She also saw two lawyers who seemed very much at home with the cops. Lisa was led to a desk manned by a man referred to as Detective Ray.

  “Ma’am, what we are going to do is use the info you have provided to trace the caller’s location if she calls again. Any call made to your phone or office number will be traced, and we shall do the same for calls made to your cell phone. We do not, however, consider this as a serious case of a potentially harmful stalker, but we may talk to your boyfriend if need be. This could escalate into a case of intimidation or threats, but for now we are hesitant even to brand it as stalking, since this woman has not been following you around or tracking your movements, at least as far as we know. Anybody can trace your number and make calls. For now you can leave it to us.”

  “Thank you detective.”

  As she drove away in her red Nissan Juke towards the office, she wondered if she should have told the detective about Alex and that possible stalking episode, but she felt that it was probably a coincidence. What had a possible stalker two years ago who ended up dead to do with a probably jealous woman who was trying to intimidate her ex’s current lover? Lisa realized that she may have overreacted after all. Did she really have to go running to the cops? But the fact that this caller knew even her home number…hmmm, all lines were easy to find in the directory, anyway. Had a directory already been created for the new office? But who used the physical directory these days, unless you found one in a booth or in an office? You could find people’s numbers and addresses online if you knew who you were looking for. All this woman needed to know was the company name where Nick worked. But how did she know about Lisa and Nick? They didn’t exactly advertise their affair.

  Once at the office, Lisa told Nick her concern that she may have overreacted to the whole situation.

  “Better safe than sorry,” he frowned as he held her face in his hands, listening in case a staff member from the warehouse below surprised them. They didn’t want to be the subject of all the office rumors as the lovey-dovey couple who couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

  “You have strong hands,” Lisa smiled as she held his hands.

  “Test my lips for strength or weakness,” he smiled as he leaned closer to kiss her. But the sound of somebody coming up the stairs made him take two quick steps away and he stepped away to the printer. Lisa sighed.

  At around ten past eleven, Lisa paused in her work while Nick was on the phone and she stared at him.

  “Kayla! How did you get this number? Are you the one who called my girlfriend, my fiancée, Lisa and almost threatened her yesterday?”

  Lisa grabbed the two-way extension. “Your fiancée?” It was the same woman. “Did we ever break up, Nick? You just walked away, like a coward. You may be finished with me, but I ain’t finished with you. Has that bitch brainwashed you?”

  “Listen to me, Kayla. If you don’t stop this habit, and if you continue badgering Lisa, I’ll let the police handle the rest of it. How did you find her home number?”

  “Either I get you back, Nick, or no one does.” The caller hung up with a click as Lisa felt a chill in her stomach.

  “What does she mean?” she gaped at Nick. “Did you hear what she said?”

  Nick frowned. “All she needs is a scare. If she knows that action may be taken against her, she will stop.”

  “Do you think the police will have traced that?” Lisa frowned. “After all the office line is one for this office, which is the one I gave them. I don’t think extensions make any difference.”

  “Telephone extensions make no difference here. If they are tracing every call made through the receptionist, they will have the records of even that call and location. But do we need it? I know Kayla, and she’s one of my exes, one I dated for five weeks before I realized that we were heading nowhere and told her it wasn’t working. I don’t remember her making such a scene. Except a slap and smashing my windshield, that is. She’s been quiet for three years. Why the sudden interest?”

  The phone rang again. Lisa heard a familiar voice. “Detective Ray! The woman called again…”

  “We have the call on record,” Ray said. “It was made from a public booth next to a shopping mall. Either the caller wants to remain anonymous or she is calling randomly from anywhere, and avoiding cell phones for some reason.”

  “Well, as you heard Nick my boyfriend knows her and dated her briefly.”

  “So I gathered. May I talk to Nick?”

  Nick soon found himself answering several questions about Kayla, her last known residence, full names, last cell phone number [which he couldn’t find], and whether he thought she was the kind who would do these things.

  “To tell you the truth, detective, I was surprised and puzzled that after the tantrum she created when I ended the relationship abruptly back in 2013, that she should break her three year silence so suddenly and so aggressively, going after my girl Lisa. How she got Lisa’s number, especially the residential phone number, I have no idea.”

  “Ok, we’ll find her and warn her to stop making the calls or there’ll be charges pressed. That should stop her, unless she has some deeper issues. We’ll warn her that you have the power to press charges or have a restraining order taken out against her, which should prohibit her from ever calling you or your girlfriend, physical or online stalking, phone messages or emails, threats, etcetera.”

  “Thank you Officer. Please tell me if you find her. I don’t want to have to call her.”

  “I wish I had a phone that had a screen that shows the caller’s number in the apartment…she might have been home when she called last night. Oh well, let the police handle it.”

  It was after three P.M. that detective Ray again communicated. They had traced her address and phone call, but would check on her in the evening when she was home.

  “That should scare her out of her wits,” Lisa smiled.

  “It’s nothing that can’t be stopped with a restraining order, anyway,” Nick said. “We can work in peace, now.”

  Lisa frowned. “So, Nick, you don’t know where your ex lives?”

  “Last time I heard she was living in Malibu, two years ago. So her old rented address can’t still be her current. She’s probably newly back in town.”

  “Okay, detective,” Lisa said with a trace of sarcasm. “Only I wonder how you can be so sure about something like that.”

  Nick shook his head. “We’ll never fight, Lisa. I have resolved never to fight you.” He rubbed his chin. “Why don’t we drive to her old address just to be sure? We would say we are looking for a girl named Kayla that lived there. If her old neighbors are still there they might remember me.”

  “Now you are talking sense. Even as the cops talk to her, we can give her a freakin’ scare of our own.”

  But when they got to her old address, they found that only one neighbor remembered her and remembered Nick, and according to him she had been gone for at least two years.

  “At least we are sure of one thing,” Lisa said as they drove back towards the office. “She may have indeed left for Malibu and is newly back in town, hoping to hook up with her old flame who is my new catch.”

  “Don’t say catch. Makes you look desperate, like you are lucky to have me,” Nick protested, “while the truth is that I’m lucky to have you.” He touched her knee and she slapped his arm away.

  “Hey, you okay?” he glanced at her, taking his eyes off the road temporarily.

  “I’m limiting you to three touches per day until you get rid of your psycho exes,” Lisa said, and Nick laughed.

  August 2014

  “Okay then. Stay safe. I’d hate to get a phone call telling me you are not okay. I wish your uncle was around to taste my new culinary invention, but as you know he’s locked up in a boring sci
ence meeting in San Francisco probably discussing the speed of a human walking towards an ice-cream parlor on a hot afternoon.”

  Lisa giggled. “Please don’t make me laugh. I feel guilty laughing after receiving that kind of news. See ya...I’m off.”

  Lisa Coleman was a twenty-four year old student in 2014, who had given up on her singing because a man named Cowell told her she couldn’t sing, but she was still determined to succeed in the professional arena. Her best friend had asked her why she should take the advice of somebody whose name begins with “Cow” seriously, but she had decided to leave it at that. Lisa was living with her wealthy uncle near the sea in Long Beach, and her parents, who had also lived in Long Beach, had moved to Canada, and Lisa had decided that she was addicted to the Los Angeles area.

  Lisa found a parking space outside Yours Digitally but earned herself a dirty look from an elderly lady who had been eyeing the same spot. “Good morning ma’am,” she said with a brilliant smile and walked into the building. She was dressed in a white t-shirt and blue jeans, faded around the knees. She found Jerry sitting behind his large flat computer screen, but there were shouts of “Hi, Lisa!” as soon as she arrived, so she went around, saying “hi” to her former colleagues before joining Jerry again.

  “Spill it out before you get mobbed by customers,” she said as she sat on the seat next to Jerry, on the inner side of the counter. The counter was over thirty feet long, with spaces in between after every two staff computers. There was a sales, repairs and accessories department and an electronics department inside this huge store. Huge plasma TV screens, computer monitors and heaps of CPU’s, DVDs, rows of phones, iPads, tablets and many other products were displayed all over. Screens set high up on the wall showed different parts of the big store: live images taken from cameras revolving from the corners, monitored from the security area.