“I like it.”
“Are you blind?”
“It’s not that bad.”
“It’s worse than bad. Even using your perfect sketch, I still messed it up.”
“The antlers are good. And the nose. Clearly Rudolph. Mine could be any old reindeer.”
“Oh my God. You need your eyes tested. I am young and cute, just in case you hadn’t seen me clearly.”
“Very cute.”
That made Corey smile. “Are you glad you met me?”
“You saved my life.”
He’d have preferred a slightly different answer but… “I’m going to take these back up to our room with the champagne. You wait down here. If you come with me, we’ll stay up there because I want to do bad things to you and you want to take my clothes off with your teeth. Though I’m going to make you wait to do that and if it proves tricky, we won’t bother.”
“We could skip the line dancing. Give me more time.”
“So tempting but dancing might be the one thing I’m good at. Though I’ve only ever danced in a line when I needed the loo and there was a queue.”
Tal’s shoulders shook as he laughed.
Corey ran upstairs, put the paintings and bottle in the room, but on the way back down, he suddenly felt lightheaded, thought he was going to fall and clutched at the banister. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a few deep breaths. When he opened his eyes again, he wasn’t on the stairs. Everything around him was white, as if he was standing in a cloud and he was freezing cold.What the hell?As panic set in, he blinked and the world came back.God!He hadn’t had anything but water to drink with dinner. That was so weird.
Tal was waiting for him outside the dining room. Corey thought about asking him if he’d had any strange sensations,because that wasn’t the first Corey had had since they arrived, but he didn’t want to hear that he hadn’t. Or that he had, for that matter.
Country music poured through the closed doors. Corey didn’t recognise the tune. As they stepped inside, cowboy hats were pushed into their hands. When Tal didn’t immediately put his on, Corey took it from his hand and did it for him.Ooh hot!
“Howdy, partner.” Corey’s attempt at an American accent was dire. “Chores all done for the night? Cattle tucked up in bed? Any wolves lurking?”
“You look…” Tal swallowed hard.
“Stupid?”
Tal shook his head. “Sexy.”
Corey groaned. “So do you. Plans to do bad things are yelling at me.”
“You could dance upstairs, just for me.”
“Later.” Corey held out his hand and Tal took it. “We’ll watch for a while, okay? Just to get the hang of it.”
Tal nodded. Corey felt the grip on his hand tighten as they took in the slick moves people were making. Tap, kick, twist, turn, slap… It was complicated. There were more people watching than dancing.
“I need a drink if I’m going to do this,” Tal said.
“Good idea.”
They walked around the edge of the room to reach the bar.
“What would you like?” Tal asked.
“Surprise me.”
“Do you like mint?”
