Page 55 of Hayden's Stalker

Tatiana laughs. “The ‘you,’ huh?”

“Yup. The me. The friends as well. God help me if the friends are with the me in the car.” I wink at her.

“Sounds like a recipe for trouble,” she jokes.

I grin as I decide on the recipe for how I can easily cause a commotion anywhere. “Take one ridiculously hot car, one drummer, and one friend. Stir. Wait for panic to ensue.”

“You forgot that the drummer is ridiculously hot, too.”

I’m pretty sure my heart has stopped beating, and the silence in the wake of her words is completely deafening. I knew shelookedat me like she wanted me, but she just went right on and said it out loud. I can’t ignore that…and neither can my cock.

“And the friend is no doubt ridiculously hot as well,” she says in a rushed voice. “I mean, I’ve seen all your friends, and you could all be on the cover of a magazine. Well, I guess you often are.”

I can’t wipe the smile off my face at the way she tries to cover up what she said, but we both know what she said, and it sure as shit wasn’t about her being attracted to my friends.

She glances over at me quickly, her face completely beet red, and I decide to give her an out from the conversation since she’s clearly very uncomfortable.

“Yes. I suppose, objectively, my friendsareridiculously hot.”

I’m surprised when she follows up with the question, “Which one is the hottest in your opinion?”

It’s amusing, but if I think about it objectively, there’s an obvious answer. I’m pretty sure it’s going to do precisely nothing to decrease the sexual tension between us, but I’m interested to see how she reacts.

“Well, I mean, Seb has that whole bad boy thing going on, right? Even now he’s settled down, he just looks like trouble, which we all know is because he is,” I laugh because I can picture Seb drunk and causing trouble somewhere.

“Definitely,” Tatiana agrees.

I grin as I continue, “Meanwhile, Harrison has that whole sweet puppy dog thing going on. Like, you could take that man home to meet mamá and she would start talking seating charts.”

Tatiana bursts into laughter as she pulls the car up at a stop light and turns to look at me. “Well shit, I’d never considered it, but yes. One thousand percent correct there.”

“But the hottest is definitely Gabriel,” I tell her. I look into her gorgeous blue eyes, and she has her long, blonde hair braided around her head as usual. “Hear me out. He has a man bun, yes, but I like long hair, and I’ve always beenverypartial to blondes.”

I know I shouldn’t have said it the moment the words are out of my mouth. Where she unintentionally called me hot without thinking, I very deliberately told her this, knowing how she’d react.

She’s got that look on her face again, the one where her eyes are wide, and she stares at me like I’m the only thing in the world that matters to her. I know that I enjoy this feeling far too much, and I know that I shouldn’t want to matter to her at all, but I do.

Neither of us looks away until a car honks behind us. Tati gasps and whips her head around to look back at the road ahead, where there’s an empty space between us and the intersection.

She quickly puts the car into gear and takes off as she says in a rush, “Of course, that makes sense. Blake is blonde.”

Jealousy

Def.

8

The Tour Bus

Words can’t describethe guilt I feel in the wake of Tati’s reminder once again that I have a partner, even if I don’t feel very supported by him a lot of the time. We drive in silence as she winds us through the streets of Chicago and onto the interstate.

I’m tempted to text Blake, but I know I’d only be doing it because I feel guilty about flirting with Tati. At what point is this flirting going to be too much? It’s a moot point because anything at all would be too much for Blake. He’d certainly be fucking pissed it if he discovered I’d masturbated while thinking about her, that’s for sure.

Tati shifts gears, and we’re both thrown back in our seats as she puts her foot down on the accelerator.

“Shit. Too rough,” she mutters under her breath.

I can’t help but chuckle at the innuendo and tell her, “You definitely don’t want to be too rough, that’s for sure.”

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