No Strings Attached (18+)

Chapter 1

Outside of the tall, lobby windows, lightning flashed, illuminating the angry sky.

Fuck.

A hand gripped my shoulder, and the man pulled me away from the desk.

"Look-"

"No. No way."

The man frowned, "I haven't even said anything yet."

"I know what you're thinking."

"What am I thinking?"

My eyes narrowed, "You're thinking, 'why don't we just share it?' and I'm telling you right now, that's not happening."

"Do you see a better solution?" He demanded.

"Dude, I don't know you - you could be a serial killer, a psycho, or just a garden variety creep."

"I'm not, I promise; I just want to sleep."

"No-"

"Come on! Clearly neither of us is going to concede, so we either play nice for the night, or we both get screwed out of a hotel room."

I glared at him, "Don't bring up screwing."

He rolled his eyes, "For fuck's sake - it's probably got two queen beds in it. You can take one, I'll take the other-"

Across the lobby, the receptionist shook her head, "It's got one king."

Aw, hell.

"Look," I faced him, "if you were a gentleman, you'd let me have the room."

He eyed me skeptically, "Are you even old enough to rent a room?"

I scoffed, "Okay, first thing? I'm twenty-three. Second thing? Flattery will not help you here. Third thing? Don't change the subject."

"Alright, you want to play the 'gentleman' game?" He leaned in closer, lowering his voice to a growl, "If you respected your elders, you'd let me have the room."

"At least you have a car to sleep in!"

"You don't have a car?"

"No!" I yelled, patience snapping, "My skeevy-ass boss tricked me into letting him drive me out here, propositioned me, and then forced me to choose between sleeping with him or getting stranded in bum-fuck nowhere!"

The man's eyebrows raised, and I felt the silence that followed my outburst.

Tears pooled in my eyes, and I felt more coming as I wiped them away. "I just want to change, and shower, and sleep; then, in the morning, I'm gonna have to worry about how the hell I'm getting home!"

His eyes dipped down to my chest. "I'm going to go ahead and guess that you live in the city?"

Glancing down, I saw the team's logo on my shirt. "Yeah."

"Okay, how about this - you let me get the room, and I'll give you a ride back in the morning."

There's no way I heard that right...

"What?"

"I'm driving to the city, too."

My uncertainty must have shown in my eyes.

Sighing, he added, "Look, if you don't want to share the bed, you can sleep on the floor. Hell," he shrugged, "you could sleep in the bathroom and put a locked door between us."

Watching him, I asked the question that burned on my tongue, "Why should I trust you?"

His lips quirked to the side as he thought. Gesturing to the receptionist, he said, "She's going to have a copy of my ID and credit card. If you give her a copy of yours, then the police will be able to connect us if anything were to happen to you, and I'd be the number one suspect." His eyes met mine, "It'll be in my best interest to make sure you arrive home unharmed."