Winter Hearts

Each Other's

*mature - you may skip to the next chapter without a break in plot

Leo waited for the others to pass and turn the corner before taking Siana by the elbow and guiding her into a side alley full of tiny shops selling trinkets and jewellery, that stretched parallel to the main road the others were taking. He looked down at her as she smiled, slipping his hand down along her forearm until he grasped her hand.

After their dinner he had felt overly warm in the restaurant, and when they had finally reached the chill night air, he had found it a relief to be outside and next to Siana - and now, alone with her.

Their talk in the morning had set his mind at rest, even though communication seemed to have hit a few bumps during it. During the time they were together atop the hill, they had barely spoken, but had found an ease around each other that had been missing since having been discovered.

He felt now that he had long been foolishly clinging to the idea of secrecy, or privacy, or whatever he felt he was protecting about himself or her. Perhaps it was the vestiges of his younger self, a someone who was immensely concerned with not giving away anything of his personal being.

He wondered how he could ever have spent so much energy doing that, now that not having a secret made him feel free and light.

He glanced at Siana, who sauntered alongside him with what looked like pleasure on her face. She struck him as a person who might never have felt bound by such a concern, who perhaps looked outside of herself by instinct.

Did that make her more caring of others than he? Or, less caring of herself? He thought that the distinction seemed so trivial now.

He frowned, a stray thought jumping into his head.

"Stripper pole at a corporate event," he murmured, a little sourly.

He sensed rather than saw her look at him incredulously before she turned away. He could feel her chuckling.

"Best bunch of money I ever made. And the easiest." She said loudly.

It rifled him that she wouldn't explain the situation, even though in the back of his mind he was sure that it was just another gig.

"Easiest?"

"It's so easy to part men from their money, you know," she said, again, loudly.

He had to laugh.

"That's a blanket statement, don't you think?"

She stopped, turning eyes bright with challenge on him. He loved those eyes. How quickly they turned their conversation into something else. Something heated.

"Money is no object for men, when it comes to pride. Or ass."

Leo was a little shocked that she was generalising so, and more than a little turned on that she was speaking so bluntly. He wanted to rebut her statement, but also to pull her in for a kiss - you know, as punishment.

He settled for indignance.

"How dare you," he said, mad that he sounded meek.

"Prove me wrong, Mr I-WIll-Buy-You-All-The-Tickets-You-Need-To-Come-See-Me."

She let go of his hand to walk on ahead, but not before fixing him with a sly look and a barely-contained smirk.

He tried to grab her hand but missed, and was peeved to find himself grasping at air. She saw it before she turned, and the smirk burst into a full snicker before she walked off, her gait jaunty and smug.