Page 15 of The Stalker

She left Hayden in the kitchen and went downstairs to escort the locksmith up to the apartment, feeling on edge with leaving Hayden alone but accepting it as a necessary evil. She showed the locksmith the door, and he replaced the handle with a lockable one, as well as drilling out holes in the door and doorframe to add two deadbolts.

Tatiana thanked him when he was finished, and as soon as he’d left, she went into her room and quickly pulled out her lock-picking tools. She placed the tension tool in the keyway of Hayden’s bedroom door and put tension on the lock, then inserted her hook pick. It took about thirty seconds for her to set the pins and turn the lock.

Tatiana sighed, because anyone with some skill at lock picking would be able to get these open very quickly, but the goal was to slow them down and give Hayden time to call her if he needed to. The point of the second deadbolt was to cause them to have to do it a second time. A minute would be enough time for her to subdue any intruder.

She put her tools away and did a sweep of the apartment before heading back to the kitchen, which smelled amazing as Hayden simmered four fillets of fish in parsley sauce.

“Okay, I know I said I wouldn’t die of starvation, but that smells so good that my hunger is definitely raging now,” Tatiana laughed.

“Thanks. It’ll only be a couple more minutes,” he assured her.

Once he’d served up the fish, along with cooked rice with vegetables, Hayden placed some leftover rice and fish in containers that he put in the fridge. They took their food to the dining table, and Hayden sat next to Tatiana as they ate it.

She could smell his woody, masculine scent and watched while he took a sip of his white wine as she asked, “So, have you lived in Chicago all your life?”

“I have. What about you? I imagine that your work takes you quite a few places, but where did you grow up?”

“Los Angeles,” Tatiana said with a smile on her face. “I definitely miss the beaches when I’m traveling around the world.”

“Did you go to the beach when you were in Australia?”

Tatiana laughed as she remembered the day her beach trip was cut short by some asshole hitting on her, and she came back to her accommodation to find an email from Cooper.

“Yeah, every day I was there. Some of the best beaches in the world are in Australia.” She smiled and took a sip of her water.

Hayden gave her an interested look. “Do you surf?”

“Sometimes. I’m not addicted to it, but it is fun. Mostly, I just like to swim. There’s something about the ocean that’s just so enjoyable. The salty air and water, it’s as though humans shouldn’t be there, but it still calls to me.”

Heat rushed to her cheeks. She didn’t normally reveal so much about herself personally as quickly as this, even to the clients she connected with.

“Anyway, enough about me. How did you meet the guys?”

Hayden told her about meeting the rest of his band at a music camp, and she enjoyed the rest of their meal. Tatiana used questions about Hayden to deflect from talking about herself, and also as a means of finding out more about his situation.

After they cleaned up from their meal, Hayden took her to the living room, where they watched a movie on Netflix. She kept her eye on the entryway the whole time and did two sweeps of the apartment.

Shortly after eleven, Hayden told her that he was ready for bed. Tatiana escorted him to his bedroom and showed him the door.

“There are two deadbolts. If you hear anyone trying to open this door, call me immediately. I can get to you before they manage to get through the second lock.”

Hayden nodded solemnly and swallowed heavily. “Okay. Thank you. Um, good night, then.”

“Good night, Hayden. I’ll see you in the morning.” Tatiana smiled at him.

He shut the door, and Tatiana heard both the handle lock and the deadbolts being shut. She breathed a sigh of relief as she went back to her bedroom. The locks were small comfort. She knew that somebody could come in and blow the door off its hinges if need be, but in that kind of scenario, not much would be useful anyway.

She found that she wasn’t tired at all. The transition from the Australian time zone to the American one was never a switch she was fond of. She’d tried to spend a decent amount of time in the sun today to try and force her body clock onto the right schedule, but it hadn’t worked.

Tatiana took a hot shower in the hope that a wave of tiredness would hit her as she cooled down, but it didn’t work either. She paced her room, getting more agitated as time passed. She tried doing some push-ups and sit-ups to get some energy out of her body before she gave up, got into a nightgown, and lay in the bed with her eyes closed.

Eventually, she allowed her hand to drift between her legs. Sometimes if she had trouble sleeping, giving herself an orgasm would release the tension and allow her to drift off. She slowly stroked her clit a few times before dipping her fingers inside herself to find some lubrication.

Unbidden, an image of Hayden’s face came into her mind. She bit her lip and tried to push it away, but she could hear his sexy laugh in her head. She knew he was her client, and that he was in a relationship, but she stroked herself faster and moaned softly as she imagined him shirtless.

In her research for this contract, she’d come across many pictures of Hayden Vega in various states of undress. An image from a magazine shoot of him lying in a bed with the sheets low around his waist came to her mind, and she groaned as her orgasm approached.

Tatiana imagined herself in that bed, pulling the sheets off him and closing her lips around his cock. That thought was enough to tip her into orgasm, and she moaned again as she came.

Immediately, Tatiana was flooded with shame and guilt. Hayden was her client. He had a boyfriend.

Fucking hell. He is not appropriate masturbation material.

She pulled her hand out of her underwear and rolled to her side, lying in the bed and feeling guilty for another hour before she finally fell asleep.

---