Page 7 of By Candlelight

Against my better judgment, I opened the door. He was dressed now, in a clean black henley and gray sweatpants. Of course. One look at them and I almost closed the door again. My face was hot and I knew my cheeks were a deep shade of scarlet. But he seemed to be ignoring me now. He walked down the hall to the stairs and disappeared down them.

“Wait.” I followed and nearly tripped in my quest to not let him out of my sight. Until I confirmed he was who he said he was, my hackles were up.

Downstairs, I found him in the kitchen, phone already to his ear. He opened the fridge and pulled out a beer, offering it to me. I scrunched my nose and shook my head. He rolled his eyes at me and twisted the cap off, taking a good long drink. I absolutely did not stare at his throat while he swallowed it. Nope, not at all.

“There was no answer,” he said, pressing end on the call.

“I’m not falling for that.”

“Call her from your phone, then.”

“I will.”

“Good.”

“I’m doing it now.”

“Okay.”

Except my feet weren’t moving from their spot on the tiled kitchen floor. Something about this strange man had taken me over and obscured my good judgment. It’s his penis. It’s the fact I saw his penis. He could be a dangerous criminal and all I can think about is his penis.

“You need your phone if you’re going to call.”

“I know that!” I finally turned away and shut my eyes in embarrassment as I walked back to the front of the house where I had dropped my bag. Rifling through it, I found my phone and opened the CozyHost app. The man just strolled into the room behind me and sat on the couch, calm as could be. His gray sweatpants shifted as he spread his legs wide and I gulped and turned away.

Finally finding the host contact button, I placed a call. It rang. And rang.

“Hi, you’ve reached Alex. I can’t get to the phone, but leave me a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

Shoot.Beep.

“Hi, Alex. This is Mia. The guest from CozyHost. I’m at the cottage now, it’s absolutely lovely, by the way. A dream, really. But, um, there seems to be an issue. A man is here claiming to be your brother and insisting he is staying here, and I would very much like to speak to you and address this as soon as possible. Please call me back. Thank you.”

“Are you always so polite?”

I turned my head to find him staring at me.

“Well, yes. What’s the point of being mean?”

He seemed to think that over. “I don’t know that there is a point to it, it’s more of a basal reaction.”

Huh.

“Look, I’m sure you paid good money to be here, I don’t blame you for being pissed off.”

“I’m not pissed off, I’m just confused. And surprised. And scared.”

“I might be scary, but you don’t have to worry. I have no plans to hurt you.”

“As…reassuring as that is, I suppose, I just want to know when you’re leaving so I can get on with my night.”

He stood then, and approached me. He got so close I could smell the hops from the beer mixed with mint toothpaste. Why did I think that was so attractive?

“Well, baby, I’ll tell you this. I’m not going anywhere. And,” he looked at the time on his phone, “it’s past ten now. I know for a fact there are no other vacancies in town. So whether you like it or not…” He looked me up and down like I was a tall glass of water. “We’re stuck together for the night.”

five

DREW

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