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“Well you’re on fire tonight.” She played with her phone for a moment, looking conflicted and then sat it back down with a sigh. “I’m having fun and I really hate to end this, but it’s late and I’m exhausted. And freezing.”
“Oh yeah, no problem.” He shuffled to his feet, oddly resistant to leaving. He glanced out at the continuing downfall of snow and looked back at her. “Um, I have a proposition for you. No, not a—um, wait that’s not…” He groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face.
She stared at him with amused eyes. “Well, I’m not sleeping with you, nor am I telling you where my piercings are.”
“No no, not those things…” He shifted, the half-baked idea sounding worse and worse in his head. “You know what? Never mind. I was just…there’s no proposition.”
“You can’t do that now. I won’t be able to sleep. I’m too intrigued!”
He zipped up his coat. “Nope. You’ll have to live without your curiosity being assuaged.”
“Nooooo.” She sat up straighter, with her legs folded beneath her and it made him think things. Adult things. “Please,” she said, her amber eyes wide.
He swallowed hard past the rush of desire suddenly choking him. “Well, it’s just that it’s too dangerous for me to drive home, and since I have to cover in the morning, I was going to sleep on the couch in the hotel anyhow, but it’s still snowing. It’s really not far to the hotel, but it’s just a stressful drive back in the dark…” he trailed off.
“So you wanna sleep here. With me?” She stared at him for a long moment, as if she could see into his soul. “I don’t know if I should trust you like that.”
Disappointment hung over him like a winter storm cloud but he kept his expression cheerful. “That’s absolutely fair. I can head back to the hotel. Like I said, it was a dumb idea, that’s why I—”
“You’re not upset about it?”
“I work in security, remember? Safety is everything. You’re smart not to trust some random stranger who literally gave you candy.”
“True. But I didn’t even hesitate to eat it. For some reason, I trust you. Even though my better judgment says I shouldn’t trust anyone I just met.”
“You should probably always heed your better judgment.”
“Probably.” She picked up her phone and toyed with it. “Are you comfortable being on camera?”
“Like in a video? I guess. Why?”
She dug into her bag and pulled out a little tripod. He watched, baffled as she sat it on the cot and attached her phone to it. After a few seconds of moving it around, she leaned it downward and sat back on the floor. “Alright, come here.”
Unsure what was happening, he shifted over onto her side of the blanket and she scooted closer until they were shoulder to shoulder. Her hair smelled sweet and slightly tropical. She held up a tiny microphone in one hand and a remote in the other. On her phone screen, the record symbol appeared over their faces.
“I have a dilemma,” she said into the mic. “I’ve been taught that one should never take candy from strangers. But this very handsome stranger here, brought me some dinner as well as candy. Now, a smarter woman would definitely not trust a man with this face.” She pointed her long dark nails at him.
He stared at himself on the screen. Fair skin. Black hair. Brown eyes. Strong nose. Scruffy five o’clock shadow. He looked fine. “What’s wrong with my face?”
She waved off his question. “Anyway, I’m camped out in an airport and he brought bedding to help us all out. Since he can’t go home tonight, he might as well stay here. And if I share space with him, I’ll be twice as warm, but I’ll also be cuddling up to someone who seems very nice, but whom I don’t know at all.”
“All I am is warm bedding to you, aren’t I?”
Her lips quirked. “Right now, yes.” She returned to addressing the screen. “Please tell my viewers who you are in case you pull some shady shit on me.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Hello, I’m Gabriel Tilki.”
“What do you do for a living, Gabriel Tilki?”
“I’m the head of security at the hotel across the street.”
“Can verify. I actually saw him at work, plus he’s got the badge.” She pointed at his chest. “So Gabriel, do you live in Detroit?”
She was looking at him now and she was sitting so close. He glanced at her lips and a sudden reckless urge to kiss her pushed its way past anything resembling common sense. He resisted that urge with every fiber of his being and dragged his eyes where they belonged. “No,” he said slowly. “I live outside the city. It’s not too far from here, when there’s not a major storm anyhow. But I’ve been in the area for most of my life.”
“Where did you live when you weren’t here?”
“Wherever the Marines sent me.”
