Page 21 of Hayden's Stalker

I burst into laughter. “Hey, that’s me!”

“It sure is.” Tatiana takes a sip of her coffee, and when she swallows, she closes her eyes and gives a soft moan that causes my cock to jerk. “Mmm, this coffee is good.” She opens her eyes and looks at me as she says, “So yeah, now you know basically everything about me.”

“Thanks, and ‘basically everything,’” I quote, laughing even harder because we both know she’s told me sweet fuck all. She laughs as well, and I like joking with her. “Fair enough. Well, thank you for telling me ‘basically everything’ about you.”

“You’re very welcome,” she says as her laughter dies down.

I also stop laughing, and I look into her bright blue eyes while the air around us grows thick with tension. She’s doing it again. Looking at me in a way that makes me think we should finish this conversation in my bed.

I can’t. I know I can’t. There are so many reasons why I can’t. But by fucking god, do Iwantto.

“I hope you don’t think I find you any less interesting now,” I say, unable to look away from her.

“I’m really quite boring.”

It’s a blatant fucking lie because there is not a single thing this woman has said or done since I met her that has been in any way boring.

“How come you’re allowed to lie to me, but I’m not allowed to lie to you?” I raise an eyebrow at her.

She smiles at me. “Perks of the job?”

Everything hits me all at once as I look at the beautiful woman in front of me. How shitty my relationship with Blake makes me feel. How much I like this woman and could definitely fall for her under different circumstances. But especially how much I don’t want her to lie to me.

I turn to stare out the window the way she did earlier, looking at my city. The city I wouldn’t leave for Ally. The city Blake won’t leave for me. My two most recent relationships have impacted me in very different ways.

Ally never wanted to be more than fuck buddies. Meanwhile, I love Blake, and we have a history together. I’m just unsure if I can see a future with him. My friends all hate him because he does his best to piss everyone off all the time. I’m not sure I can live the rest of my life with a man who doesn’t fit in with my friends.

Tatiana is something else. I know I can’t be with her. I know that even if I wasn’t with Blake, I’m her boss, which would makebasically every thought I’ve had about her inappropriate. I really like her, though, as a person and not just because she’s beautiful.

I just want something to be real and true with us. I don’t want to ever wonder if she’s not telling me the truth like I sometimes do with Blake.

I don’t intend to speak any of my thoughts aloud, but I find myself begging her, “Please don’t lie to me, Tati. I know you’re joking now but in general. Please, just don’t.”

Her small, soft hand touches my chin, and it’s like being burned as she turns my face to hers. She snatches her hand back once she’s looking into my eyes, but I can still feel where her skin touched mine.

I don’t know why this means so much to me, but a huge part of me is afraid that she won’t promise this. That she’ll have some professional reason why she would need to do it. I’ll accept whatever she says, but I really don’t want her to ever be anything less than truthful with me.

“I won’t lie to you, Hayden. There are things I won’t be able to tell you, but I won’t lie about them, okay? I can do that if you can accept me telling you that I can’t tell you something.”

I search her gaze, looking for some sign of untruthfulness, but I’m sure she’s being honest. What she’s offering me isn’t even a compromise. All she wants in return is for me to accept the truth from her.

“Thank you,” I say in a croaky voice. I clear my throat before continuing, “I accept that you can’t tell me things. That is an okay answer. Just, no lies.”

I can’t stop myself from staring at her. I know I should look away, but she doesn’t, so neither do I. Her lips are slightly parted, and I can hear her soft breaths in the air around me.

I have to fight the strong urge to kiss her, push her down on the sofa, and cover her body with mine. Despite how intense thisdesire is, I have just enough coherent thought to know I’m in extremely dangerous territory right now.

I force what I hope to god is a casual smile onto my face and then try to break the tension by teasing her, “And you’re not boring.”

“Okay. I’m not boring,” she concedes. She looks away from me, and I feel like I can breathe again as the tension in the air dissipates. “I should probably finish eating quickly, though. We have quite a few things to do today.”

“Sure,” I say.

I call Jesse to ask him to come around while Tatiana finishes her breakfast.

Tati stares at the secret door as she asks, “Does Jesse know about the library?”

I shake my head. “No. I’ve never gone in there when he was here.”

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