He looked a little nervous. His hands were in his pockets, and his expression was uncertain, but she didn't know whether he was uncertain about his welcome or what plans she had for him. Hopefully, he wasn't expecting her to take him to her bed.
Not that she was entirely opposed to the idea, but she shared a room with three other women, so that wasn't going to happen even in her fantasies.
"Hi," she said, feeling stupid.Hi?That was the best she could manage?
"Hi," he said with a smile, that same genuine smile that made her stomach do strange things. "I'm glad you came."
"I said I would."
He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it slightly mussed. "I was afraid you would run into someone and decide that it wasn't worth the risk. I had so many crazy scenarios running through my head."
"I didn't run into anyone, but you are right about it probably being too risky." Mattie glanced around, then smiled. "But I feel adventurous. Come in before someone sees us."
He lifted his eyes to the camera mounted above the door. "I think someone already has, but they only saw me. You can still change your mind."
She hadn't thought about the surveillance cameras. "Well, I guess it's too late for second thoughts. I have been seen heading here on all the cameras I passed on the way. Let's just hope that whoever is watching the feed decides that two humans meeting at night is not worth their attention."
She should feel more concerned, but for some strange reason, she didn't. There was something about Dimitri that felt right in ways she couldn't explain. Perhaps it was fate that had arranged for them to meet, and it wasn't so they would get caught and punished.
Leading him through the corridors, she walked as quickly and as quietly as her damaged legs allowed, and he had no problem keeping pace, given that there was nothing wrong with his legs and they were much longer than hers.
As Mattie had expected, the staff kitchen was empty. The lights were on because they were always on, but there was no one there. An industrial refrigerator hummed along one wall, and the prep tables stood clean and bare. The smell of bleach and old coffee lingered in the air.
"It's not much," Mattie said, suddenly self-conscious about the setting. Plastic chairs, fluorescent lights, and the faint smell of lemon cleaner. "But it's private, and hopefully, safe."
"It's perfect." Dimitri sounded like he meant it.
Mattie walked over to the coffee maker. "How do you take your coffee?"
"Black is fine."
"You're a Russian, and you don't want sugar in your coffee?"
"I don't." He pulled out a chair and sat at one of the tables. "My parents believed that sugar was a bourgeois indulgence."
She laughed. "Seriously?"
"Very. But the truth is that I never liked sweets. I'm a savory kind of guy."
For some reason, the comment made her tingle in places that she had no business tingling. He was talking about food. Not sex.
Mattie poured two cups of coffee, leaving Dimitri's black and putting a generous amount of sugar in hers. She carried them to the table and sat down across from him, suddenly unsure what to say, how to act.
This was supposed to be a date, her first in a very long time, and she'd forgotten the steps to this particular dance.
Not that she'd been good at it even when she'd still been trying. Having a pretty face made first dates easy. It was the rest that had been difficult.
"Thank you," Dimitri said, wrapping his hands around the coffee cup. "I appreciate your trust."
"I don't trust you," Mattie said honestly. "I don't trust anyone here."
He didn't look hurt. "Smart." He took a sip of his coffee. "You shouldn't trust me. I can't protect you here. I can barely protect myself."
"That's not why I don't trust you. I just don't know you."
The scary part was that she did trust him for some inexplicable reason. She felt a connection that shouldn't be there. They had nothing in common except being captive in this hellhole. They weren't even from the same country.
"And yet you agreed to go out on a date with me."
