Page 152 of Hayden's Stalker

She nods. “Yeah, I do. It’s the best way to throw everyone off the scent, especially Jesse.”

She doesn’t seem to have any reservations about it, but I still wish I didn’t have to do it. All of her reasoning is sound, however, so I know that I need to go on the date. At least I know that I’ll be able to come back to the room with Tati after the date is finished and spend the rest of the evening with her.

We order room service for breakfast, which Tati accepts because she’d never let me go to speak to an unknown personbefore she returns to my room, and we eat breakfast in bed together. Tati goes to set the empty tray back outside the suite before she returns again. She secures the door of the room and climbs into bed with me.

We relax for the next few hours before lunch, reading books together and talking whenever we have something to say. It’s so blissfully ‘normal,’ and I love it. This is exactly what I’ve always wanted out of a relationship.

I’m reading a new mystery novel when Tati sighs and puts a bookmark in her latest Bond novel before she sets it aside. I frown at this behavior and bookmark my own book before I set it aside as well.

“Everything okay?” I ask, worried about her.

She swallows heavily and nods. “Yeah. Just the usual concern for your safety. I don’t know what I’ll do if anything happens to you, Hayden. I really don’t.”

She shudders, and my heart beats faster in my chest because it always worries me when Tati is worried. I know that she needs comforting at the moment, though, so I squeeze her shoulders and pull her tighter to me.

I place my fingers under her chin and tilt her face up to look at me. Her blue eyes are filled with fear and worry, a look that I’ve seen on her face all too often since we started falling for each other.

“I trust you with my life, Tatiana. The authorities will catch my stalker, and we’ll be together, free of all of this stress. I believe that with every fiber of my being.”

I can see it for us. The life we’ll have together when this is all over. A life where Tati won’t wear this look as often as she does now. A life where she’s my wife and the mother of my child. We will have the rest of our lives once this is over to be blissfully happy. I have to believe it strongly enough for both of us because I know that Tati is too much of a realist to dare believe it.

She sighs again and says quietly, “I’ve never had to have a client givemea pep talk before.”

“I’m sure there are a lot of things I’ve done to you that no other clients have done.” I wink at her, and I’m pleased when it makes her laugh.

“No. I have definitely not fallen in love with any clients before you. It’s not exactly how I expected this contract to go.”

“You thought I could be ‘just a job,’ huh?” I raise an eyebrow at her.

“A job like any other job with a ridiculously hot client,” she jokes.

I laugh as I’m taken back to that day in the car when we went to see the tour bus together. So much has changed since then, and yet, the thing that’s the same is our connection. At least neither of us is fighting it now. I love that I can love Tati the way I do. I love that she loves me as well.

“We should head to lunch,” Tati says, and I nod begrudgingly.

“I don’t want to. I want to stay with you every second until I go on a date with another woman.” I wrap both my arms around her and hug her tight.

“I’ll be with you the whole time,” she laughs.

“But I won’t be able to do this.”

I kiss her and pull her soft body roughly against mine as I do. She parts her lips, and I explore her mouth with my tongue as I gently stroke her back. She wraps her arms around my neck and holds my head in place.

I’m sorely tempted to pick her up and head straight back to the bedroom to fuck her. As much as I love my friends, I much prefer fucking Tati to spending time with them.

I break our kiss and tell her, “I should tell them I’ve come down with a terrible illness.”

“I thought you didn’t like to lie?” she asks with a smile.

I look into her eyes and realize how much lying I’ve done to be with her already. I don’t like lying, but she’s definitely worth it. I would do pretty much anything to keep her in my life.

I frown at her and admit, “For you, I’d do anything.”

She stares back at me with a strange look on her beautiful face before she says, “Well, you’ve already told them you’re coming. Do you really think they’d buy your excuse?”

I laugh because there’s no fucking way Heather, of all people, would buy that shit, and I shake my head. “No. Heather would be beating down the door of this suite before we had time to get back to the bedroom.”

I kiss Tati deeply, our tongues dancing together as I softly stroke her side. She moans into my mouth, and the desire to take her back to the bedroom becomes close to all-consuming before I end our kiss.

---