Is this destiny?

(Bedroom suite: Sarah & Aiden)

Aiden got out of the bathroom and found Sarah on the bed with her laptop.

Since they got inside bedroom, she busied herself and didn't speak.

Aiden noticed that Sarah is colder toward him than usual, and he assumed that she is upset because he organized such a dangerous activity like cutting down a tree, and he didn't back down even though weather was bad, and it all ended up putting them in danger. She just needs time to cool off, and then they will talk.

He decided to let her work and went to take a bath that JoAnna recommended.

Now that he is done with his bath, he observed that Sarah is focused, which means that she is working on something important. Hacking probably.

Aiden sat on the bed next to her. "What are you up to?"

"Digging through your last three years."

To say that he was surprised is an understatement. "Why?!"

Sarah didn't look at him while responding. "Remember what my mom said? Someone is watching you. My guess is that it's someone you know, and you just didn't pay attention. They started watching you after your old master died, which is about three years ago. And it could be more than one person. Based on this, I'm looking into your last three years."

Aiden could not tell what her mood is, but based on her tone of voice devoid of any warmth, her mood was not good. He looked at her laptop and saw rows of data flying over the screen on the right, and photos flashing over each other on the left. Photos with him on it. "What do you have so far?"

Aiden noticed that Sarah is biting her lower lip. She does that sometimes when she is uncomfortable.

"I see that besides occasional stays at the University, you were mostly in Reno, Nevada and Austin, Texas areas. Eve is helping me find people who were around you at that time, photos with you on them… to see if anyone shows up more than usual at work, school and… parties."

Aiden felt panic rising in him. If she looks up all that, she will inevitably find out about some of the girls from his past. He focused back on the photos which flashed on the screen, and he saw that he is right. On some of those he saw himself with girls who are… too familiar. He reached out to take laptop from her. "I will do that."

Sarah blocked his hand, guessing what got him so worked up. "No need. I already saw a wide array of females who are all over you, and you are… not uncomfortable."

He could not miss her icy tone. She is upset. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because you are not. If I find out who is watching you, we can get a head start." She wanted to add that in that case they can come up with a plan and handle whoever is after him and he does not need to push her away. But the words got stuck in her throat.

"That's not what I meant." Aiden took her laptop and kept it on the side, ignoring her protests. He wanted to ask why is she looking into his past knowing that she will find things that she does not want to know about. "Why are you hurting yourself?"

Sarah stared in front at the place where her laptop was few seconds ago. "So, it's OK if you hurt me, but I can't do it myself? Since when it's up to you to decide who can hurt me?"

Her words reminded him of what Jeff said. "Jeff told me that I should not make decisions for you."

Sarah sighed. "He is right."

"I'm just worried. I hope you know that."

Sarah turned to look at him while doing her best to stay calm. She felt familiar surge of emotions which threatened to start a flood of tears. "I know. You are worried because you care. And so was my dad when I told him that we are dating, and he practically disowned me… and so was my mom when she found out about your unique skillset and called you an enemy and told me to stay away from you… You are all worried about me, but that does not justify your actions!"

"I'm sorry." Aiden was truly feeling guilty. He remembered that she did all she could for them to be together, and he ended up pushing her away.

"I don't want your apology! Especially not if you will do it again."

Aiden took a deep breath and looked at her with a troubled expression.

Sarah frowned. "I heard you saying that you don't want us to separate, that you are sorry… but I didn't hear that you will not push me away next time when we face danger."

Aiden didn't respond. How can he say that he will not keep her safe?

Sarah looked at him in disbelief for a minute before standing up and getting out of the bedroom. She opened the door and was about to step outside when she felt his hands on her shoulders, pulling her back inside.

Aiden closed the door with his leg and cupped her cheeks with his palms, forcing her to face him.

He looked her in the eyes and said: "I will not push you away next time when we face danger."

Sarah held her breath, surprised by his sudden declaration. "Can you say that as a promise?"

He was serious. "I don't believe in verbal promises, and neither do you. But I will do more than that. Next time I will use you as a shield. If someone pulls a gun at me, I will hide behind you. How about that?"

Sarah stifled a laugh and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I will happily be your shield."

Aiden smiled. "And I will be yours."

He pulled her into a tight hug.

Aiden saw her going out of the room and his whole world was on the verge of collapsing. He does not care about anything other than having Sarah by his side. Can he let her face the danger? He does not have an answer to that question, but he will be damned if he lets her go out of that door.

Now that she is next to him, there is one more thing he needs to handle in order to avoid impeding disaster. "Sarah? Can you do one thing for me?"

"What?"

"Let me finish going through those photos. I will not hide anything from you. But there are things that you might see, and you will be hurt."

Sarah's mood dropped. She lowered her gaze. Sarah remembered seeing one after another photo, girls-girls-girls all over him, and he was smiling, looking at them, holding them… acting like a man-whore. And that was only in first few minutes of image search before she forced herself to look away!

Aiden panicked. "I need you to understand, whatever you saw, all that is in the past. That is not me. Not anymore. You changed me. But seeing some of the things on those photos will not be pleasant. If you look at those, you will only get hurt for no reason, because they don't matter. None of them matter. The only one for me is you. The only one in my heart is you. Please, let me do that."

Sarah didn't need to think about her answer. She didn't want to look at those anyway. "You can handle photos. I will look at the rest."

Not long after, they were in the bed.

Aiden cradled her in his arms and held her tightly while whispering how much he loves her.. And he didn't stop until he noticed that she slept off.