Cupid's Rude Work (1500 words)

Cupid's Rude Work

"Ready to be reasonable yet?"
Nessa gritted her teeth and kept her face down. There was nothing reasonable about sharing a hotel room with a stranger. But she wouldn't snap at him again. She was beginning to look like a crazy woman. Oh, who was she kidding? She already did. After running through the airport lugging a giant suitcase and wrestling a too large bag, and having slept only four hours in the last twenty-four, she couldn't make any claim to decency, sanity, and least of all reason.
She glared up at the annoying stranger, but he was blurry until she remembered to put her glasses back on. By then he had started running his mouth again.
"You look like you're exhausted and starving. Let's just go."
When was the last time she ate?
"I'm trying to help you."
"If you wanted to help me, you would let me have the room."
"Look, I need to sleep too. I've already been on two flights, I can't handle sleeping on airport seats. Can you?"
She waved her phone at him. "I have a few more hotels to call."
"Look," he crouched down in front of her and set his hands on her knees. Her brain had slowed right down so she couldn't summon any outrage. "You're not going to find a hotel."
"The airline -"
"No. That was lucky. You have two choices - spend the night here like all these people who couldn't get a room." He waved one hand around the other passengers walking or running, in transit or stranded. But she didn't take her gaze off his hazel eyes. If she moved even a little, she was afraid she would sprawl on the floor.
"Or you can have a good meal in a four star hotel, and the best night sleep you've had in days I'm sure."
She hated it when her emotions overcame her. The constricted throat, the trembling lips, the waterworks, the runny nose - she hated it. But sometimes, as in now, she couldn't help it.
"I need to sleep," she whined.
"Then it's settled." He tapped her knees and stood. "Let's go."
"I don't want to be killed," she wailed while he picked up her rucksack and flung it on his back. "I've never been to Cuba."
"You're not making any sense."
She had to take off her glasses to wipe her stupid tears. As she put them back on, he had her suitcase ready to roll and extended his other hand to her.
She looked around at people lying across seats. Some sat on the floor hunched over their phone. Some slept in a seating position and would no doubt wake up with a stiff neck. She could join them, or - she looked up at her stranger again, his outstretched hand - or she could have a proper bed. And food. She needed both. Desperately.
She slapped her free hand in his and followed him up. She swayed once on her feet but he let go of her suitcase to steady her. After a few seconds, the airport terminal had stopped spinning but her muscles still protested the lack of fuel and her brain the rest. His body heat was addictive. She clung to his solid arm and he didn't let go.

The woman fell asleep in the cab. Or maybe while they stood at the taxi rank for how heavily she leaned on him. At the hotel check-in desk, she had been unresponsive enough to earn him suspicious looks from the clerk. But they had made it to the room anyway. He dropped her on the bed as soon as they got in and she didn't stir again until room service delivered some food. She then looked like a sleep-walker.
Once she had adjusted her glasses, her eyes locked in on the food crowding the trolley and didn't stray until there was nothing left. Though semi-alert, she devoured everything on her side of the trolley, plus his two bread rolls. Although she did chew out an apology for that.
"I'm Owen," he said once she was done eating, as she rubbed her belly.
"Nessa."
They shook hands across the trolley.
"Nice to meet you." He took a proper look at her face, her very dark eyes and very bright smile, her short bedroom hair. She looked human for the first time. Before, he would have categorised her as a sloth with oversized glasses.
"That was the best meal I've had in... forever." She was back to rubbing her belly, smiling all the while. She could be the sweetest, cutest woman he'd ever seen.
"Glad you didn't stay back at the airport?"
She sighed. "Yes! I'm sorry if I was rude. I just can't function when I'm sleep-deprived. Or hungry."
"You're fine." He really enjoyed catching the flash of her smile.
"It's still so strange that we don't know anything about each other but we're sharing a room for the night."
Owen shrugged. "Happens all the time."
"Not to me."
Or him, but that didn't matter now. "Why did you mention going to Cuba earlier?"
"I didn't." At his raised eyebrow, she frowned and asked, "I did?"
"You did."
She burst out laughing, head thrown back, fingers in her messy hair. His kind of girl.
"Please don't hold anything I said earlier against me. I was in another dimension."
He was in one now. Mesmerized by her beauty, lulled by her voice, drawn to her bubble of charm.
"Well," she said, pushing her glasses up her nose. "I'm dying for a shower."
"Go ahead."
She heaved her backpack onto her shoulder and headed to the ensuite. "Thank you for taking my bags. Where are yours?"
He pointed at his duffle bag on the floor. "I travel light. You might -"
"Impossible."
"Have you tried?"
"I just said it's impossible."
His lips twitched and she flashed her dazzling smile in response. Lucky she retreated to the bathroom then or he might have pounced on her for how beguiling she was.
He had undressed and slipped into bed when she emerged, an enchanting creature still but shocked by the sight before her.
"What are you doing?"
He was simply lying in bed, covers up to his chest, hands up under his head. "What do you mean?" He had to blink off the lust that had hit him at the sight of her in a camisole and mini shorts. Hair tamed but damp. Braless.
"You said I could have the bed."
Ah, so she wasn't entranced by his half-naked body - just offended by its location. "I never said that."
"We're not sharing the bed."
"Neither are we sharing the room. And yet, here we are. Can we drop the hysterics and just sleep?"
"How can you go from charming to annoying in a second?"
"How can you go from bewitching to bitching in a second?"
"I'm a woman."
He couldn't help but smile at that.
"See? Back to charming."
So was she. "Just get in bed."
She padded over and lifted the covers. "Are you naked under there?"
"Underwear."
She pursed her lips but slipped in nonetheless, smelling like vanilla. "Stay on your side of the bed."
Smiling like an idiot as she gave him her back, he switched off the lights. "Goodnight, Nessa."
"Goodnight. Owen."
Now, why did she have to say his name in such a sultry, sexy tone?

She woke up in his arms. The alarm jolted her out of dreamland but not out of his embrace. He was even warmer without his clothes on. His hand cupped her breast, her nipple budding between his fingers. Her butt nestled against his erection. She wriggled a little, enjoying the sensation when she should be outraged, or disgusted, or anything but aroused.
"That's a physiological phenomenon that has nothing to do with whom I'm sleeping with."
"Uh huh, and your hand?"
He smiled against her shoulder. His breath caressed her skin. And then he kissed her shoulder, making shivers ripple through her body. Any more of this and they would miss their flight again. Which didn't sound too bad right now.
But they made it to the airport on time, having suppressed their morning desires. They queued hand in hand at the boarding gate. But she wanted to have his arms around her again.
They had seats ten rows from each other, unless she asked a fellow passenger to switch with her.
Owen stopped at her seat to store her bag overhead, his charming smile on. "See you in Lisbon?"
"Yes." Was she melting with infatuation?
"Maybe I'll come visit as soon as the fasten-your-seatbelt sign is off."
"Maybe I'll be waiting impatiently."
Passengers behind them complained that they blocked the aisle.
"Oh, Nessa," he squeezed in the row behind hers.
"Yes?"
"Happy New Year?"
She grinned at him as butterflies robbed her of breath, speech, sense and everything but happiness that Cupid's rude work had stuck her in London with Owen. "Yes."