Page 57 of Hayden's Stalker

I’m genuine intrigued to know the answer. The Sián is a far more expensive car, but I know that ‘car people’ don’t let something as small as a price tag effect their preferences.

She presses her foot down on the accelerator, and the car shoots forward before she flashes me another grin. “This is plenty of fun.”

“But that doesn’t answer the question.”

She looks thoughtful, then shrugs. “It’s hard to say. I’ve only driven an Aventador the one time, and it was nothing like this experience. I basically commandeered my clients’ Lamborghini, told him to buckle up, and we drove like the wind to where we had to go.”

It’s fascinating to hear her talk about herself for once. I wonder what it was like for her client and what caused them to need to flee some kind of situation in the client’s car. If anythingdoes happen to me, I hope like fuck that she’s with me to keep me safe.

I’m disappointed that I can’t offer her to drive in her actual dream car, though. I like making her happy, and I can imagine that driving my old Aventador would’ve made her very happy.

“I wish I still had mine. You could have driven it for comparison.”

The missed opportunity to give her this makes me sad, and I kind of want to buy another one just for her to drive, but I know that would be wildly inappropriate.

“Yes, you should definitely apologize for having a completely epic car. You also should’ve checked your crystal ball before getting rid of your old one to know I’d want to drive it before you did,” she teases me.

“Oh, that’s the thing. Ididcheck it, but it told me that I would be getting an old, graying man whose dream car is a Volvo wagon as a bodyguard,” I joke.

Tati bursts into laughter, and I’m pleased that she found my joke funny. She pulls up to another set of lights and turns her beautiful face to look at me.

“Your crystal ball might need a tune-up.”

I can’t resist running my gaze over the amazing woman in front of me before I tell her, “I think it might. It didn’t prepare meat allfor you, Tatiana Swanson.”

Her eyes widen, and she swallows as she looks back at me. I know I shouldn’t be flirting with her, but in this moment, I can’t even bring myself to feel guilty about it. She’s amazing, and I enjoy being with her so much.

She turns back to the road, and I know I should probably change the topic of conversation, so I joke, “What’s the point in having a crystal ball if it doesn’t tell you the truth?”

She frowns and is silent for a moment before she asks, “You’ve got a big thing about truth telling. Why?”

I didn’t even mean it like that, but when she asks the question, it makes me pause to actually think about it.

Harrison’s reaction when we were drugged was understandable, but he kept telling us he couldn’t remember anything about that night when he could. I’ve never had a reason to distrust Harrison. Ever. So whenever he lied to me, it made me even more worried about than I was. Considering spending nearly every waking hour drunk, that was a real concern.

Sebastian not only lied to Lita and all of our friends about whether or not he was sleeping with other women, but he also made me lie. I only lied by omission, but it still sucked to be a part of conversations with my friends where I had to sit tight-lipped while they dragged him for sleeping around. I wanted so badly to tell them he wasn’t, and I could see that the only way forward for him and Lita was for him to tell her that, but he insisted on keeping it a secret.

Then there’s Blake…sometimes he seems like he’s lying to me about things when I ask him questions, but I have to take him at face value. I hate second-guessing my partner and I don’t want to be the jealous asshole boyfriend, but a lot of the time his answers don’t sit right with me. I hate that I can’t bring myself to question him when his stories don’t line up because I know he’ll start a fight if I do.

There’s so much behind my dislike of lying that aren’t things I should tell her, but I know I need to give Tati some kind of answer.

“It’s not something I’ve ever really thought about. I’ve just always hated being lied to. In recent years, though”—I stop talking for a second, trying to think about the best way to word it without saying too much and continue—“I’ve seen lies, both spoken and unspoken, do a horrendous amount of damage to people and their relationships.”

Tati pulls the car into the tour bus company’s parking lot, where she parks it in a shady spot near the entrance. She presses the button to turn it off before she turns to look at me.

“That sounds bad,” she says quietly.

Just being here with her and having her look at me, I have the strong urge to tell her more. I want her to know everything about me, but I also want to know everything about her in return. It’s a strange feeling and one that I haven’t really had with anyone else. The desire to connect with her is almost all-consuming and not something I’ve experienced in past relationships..

“It was,” I tell her, and I can’t bear to look in her eyes any longer, so I look down at the center console between us. “I don’t like lying, and I like being lied to even less.”

I realize that when it comes to it, a part of me thinks Blake lies to me because he’s cheating on me and won’t admit it. At the same time, the thought of him cheating on me hurts far less than the thought of Tati lying to me, and I know that’s an indicator that something is seriously wrong.

Being with her and talking during this car ride has been a thousand times more enjoyable than spending time with Blake. It’s easy with her. There’s no constant concern that she might get upset and make me feel bad for talking to a friend, for not paying her enough attention, or that she’ll accuse me of cheating on her.

“I know Blake treats me like shit,” I whisper, finally voicing aloud the words that I haven’t spoken to anyone.

“I don’t know what to say to that, Hayden.”

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