Page 96 of The Stalker

“I’m hoping this will help my hangover, since I’d like to enjoy my day off.”

She nodded and said, “Makes sense.”

He cut off a slice of bacon and put it in his mouth. They ate in silence for a minute or so, and Tatiana wondered how much he remembered about last night. He’d said he wasn’t drunk when they kissed, but he’d been pretty drunk before that.

It was entirely possible that he didn’t even remember it, which would make it easier for her. She could pretend it never happened and get their relationship back to a professional level so she could focus on his safety and nothing more. She decided to try and find out how much he remembered.

“Did you have fun last night?” she asked.

He smiled at her. “A little too much fun, apparently.”

“Do you remember playing poker after dinner?”

Hayden frowned and stared at his food for a few seconds, then said, “Vaguely. I remember Seb said we would go back to his suite to play poker.”

Relief flooded through her. If he didn’t remember poker, he probably didn’t remember anything else after that.

“You’ll be happy to know you won, even though you shouldn’t have,” she laughed.

“Well, that’s a relief,” he grinned at her.

“Yeah, then Ethan and I had to help you back to your suite so you could go to bed.”

Tatiana decided not to expand on the rest of the evening, turning her attention to her food as she ate some of her granola. They were silent for another couple of minutes. She was just doing a quick look around the room and making sure that Jesse was still watching them when Hayden spoke again.

“You forgot to mention watching a movie with me.”

Tatiana froze for an instant before turning to look at him again. “Oh yeah, you wanted to watch Quantum of Solace before you went to bed.”

Her cheeks flooded with heat as he met her gaze and raised an eyebrow at her. “Did you also forget to mention that we kissed?”

“I’m not—yes, that happened, but obviously it was a mistake and can’t happen again, so I didn’t think I needed to mention it.”

He looked at her for a while, then asked, “Did you really think I could forget that kiss?”

“A girl can hope,” she said with a chagrined smile at him. She sobered and told him in a serious voice, “As I said, it can’t happen again. I mean it, Hayden. The whole flirting and kissing and whatever has to stop. I’m your bodyguard, and I need to focus on your safety.”

He didn’t say anything straight away. He took a sip from his coffee and then looked at her for a while before he finally said anything.

“You mentioned in my car that you wanted to let loose. I can’t help wondering if you ever do that.”

“That’s not fair, Hayden. Yes, my job requires me to be a party pooper a lot of the time. In my regular life, I’m really quite a lot of fun.”

You’re supposed to be keeping him at arm’s length, not convincing him of how much fun you are, Tatiana.

“Tell me what you do that’s so much fun,” he said in a husky voice.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to tell you too much about myself,” Tatiana cringed.

“Hey, you’re the one who said you were ‘quite a lot of fun.’ You can’t blame me for being curious.”

The email from this morning came to Tatiana’s mind. Even though she could see the hurt in his expression at her rejection, she knew it had to happen. She’d gotten far too close to Hayden Vega, as evident by the fact she’d been making out with him less than twelve hours ago.

“True. Well, I think we should just keep things professional from now on, okay?”

She swallowed heavily as she waited for his answer. He took his time to reply, eating some more bacon and taking a drink from his coffee before he said anything more.

“Sure. Professional, it is.”

---