Page 157 of Hayden's Stalker

Tati’s body gets tense next to me, and I put my arm around her shoulders and pull her into me. The tension flows out of her, and she looks up at me with a frown on her face before her expression clears.

I smile down at her, then turn to April. “Good thinking. You’re right that Heather would be suspicious if you suddenly do an about-face from before our date.”

“You two are so freaking cute together, did you know that?” April asks with a smile on her face.

Tati stares at her, then turns to look back at me. I love getting to be with her openly, and I look at her beautiful face for a few seconds before I lower my head to quickly kiss her on the lips.

“I didn’t know that,” I say, still looking at Tati. “I do know that Tatiana is amazing, and I love her.”

“Ooh, the ‘L word,’ huh? Seems serious, Hayden Vega,” April laughs.

I turn to look at her and nod. “It is.”

“Well, I’m happy for you. Even if it means I can’t date you and force you into a big celebrity wedding one day,” she teases me.

“What a shame,” I chuckle.

“Look, if I leave now, the bodyguards in the hallway are going to notice how quickly this date ended. How about we have a few drinks, then I can leave after a respectable amount of time has passed.”

I’m so grateful that she’s willing to do this for us, and I smile at her as Tati nods. “Thank you. It’ll add to the illusion within their group if you do that. Even not going on any more dates with Hayden, they’ll probably thinksomethinghappened between you two, which is useful.”

I get up to get drinks for us all. April and I drink beers while Tati sticks to water as usual, and we talk for a few hours before April leaves just after ten in the evening.

She hugs Tati before she leaves and says, “Thank you for trusting me. It’s nice to see Hayden happy, and we can talk more sometime in the future. He can bring you to one of my concerts or something.”

I’m so grateful to April for this offer, and I love that my friend has been so willing to open up her friendship to Tati. Unlike back at Club Delirium, I can tell this is more of a true offer for a friend rather than just being a polite one to a fan.

“That would be awesome. Thank you,” Tati says, sounding stoked. She lets April out of the suite and turns to me as she says, “Well, that didn’t turn out how we expected.”

“No, but April is awesome, and I think she’ll keep our secret.” I smile at her and hold my hand out toward her. “Shall we go to the bedroom? We’ve got less than two hours until our curfew.”

She walks over to me and slips her hand into mine as I lead her to the bedroom so we can enjoy these last couple of hours together before we have to go back to pretending we’re not in love.

23

The Soundcheck

I enterthe bedroom on the tour bus after using the bathroom to find Tati awake in bed, and I smile at her. “Morning, preciosa. You slept in.”

We were up into the early hours of the morning last night doing a BDSM scene, so I let her sleep in when I woke up.

She nods as she yawns and gives a big stretch. “What time is it?”

“Almost eight. We shouldn’t be too far away from the venue. Maybe a couple of hours?”

“Soundcheck is at noon, yeah?”

I nod as I slip into the bed next to her and pull her into his arms before I kiss her. We lie together in silence for a minute, and Tati closes her eyes. I hold her against me as her breathing evens out, and she falls asleep again.

I reach into my sweatpants pocket and pull my phone out, smiling as I see a text from April.

Heather still thinks you’re together, but I told her it’s unlikely from what I saw.

I type a reply.

I appreciate it a lot. Trust me. I wish I could tell her. It would make things a lot simpler. I trust Tati’s judgment, though.

I reach over andjustmanage to grab my book from nearby without disturbing Tati before I look down to read April’s reply.

---