“Hi!” she chirped. “Can I get a double cheeseburger with American cheese, no onions, extra ketchup, double pickles, fries with a side of mayo,and…”She took half a step back to quickly eyeball the menu. “A cookies and cream milkshake, please?”
The cashier started to sweat when he turned his wide eyes to her date. “A-and you, sir?”
Sloane took a beat before he asked Cecilia, “Am I required to eat to qualify this as a date?”
“Um, technically no. I don’t think so, anyway.” Giving him a narrow-eyed look, she asked, “But aren’t you hungry? I haven’t seen you eat anything.”
“I can eat later.”
“Or you can eat now, while we’re on our date.”
Sloane rolled his shoulders again. “That is unwise.”
“Why? You have bad table manners or something?” She was certain that wasn’t the reason. It absolutely had everything to do with him keeping that helmet on, which only made her want to push him more.
If he’s going to stalk me for a year, kidnap me, coerce me into staying at his serial killer bunker, and also date me, this man hasgotto show me his face.
Unfortunately, Sloane didn’t seem keen on giving her what she wanted.
Shaking his head, he promised, “Another time.”
Even more curious than she already was but aware this probably wasn’t the place to push the topic, Cecilia shrugged and turned back to the cashier. “I guess that’s it.”
When the nervous man rattled off the price for the meal, she reached out to scan her ID chip across the old scanner he pushed through the hole in the window, but Sloane intercepted her with a matte black card.
“Hey!” she complained, aware that it was probably ridiculous to want to pay for herself whenhewas the one still kinda-sorta holding her captive. “You didn’t even get any food. I should pay.”
“You will not,” he flatly refused.
Using her hand to steer her toward a table at the far end of the less than polished dining area, he continued, “I don’t know much about dating, but I do know that I get pleasure from providing you with things you enjoy. This food makes you happy. That means I pay.”
Settling down on the chilly plastic seat, she muttered, “You know, for a stalker, you’re pretty charming.”
The chair opposite her own looked comically small when Sloane sank into it. The plastic squealed a bit in protest, but it somehow managed to hold itself together under what she could only imagine was considerable bulk.
“You’re the only person in this world who could say that,” he informed her.
“Don’t got a lotta good reviews from ex-girlfriends, huh?”
Sloane rubbed his thumb over the line of her knuckles when he admitted, “I don’t have any ex-girlfriends.”
Cecilia was glad she didn’t have her milkshake yet, otherwise she was pretty sure it would’ve ended up sprayed across his visor. “Sloane… have you never datedanybody?”
“No,” he answered immediately. “I’ve never had any intimate partners.”
Truly, she thought watching a man get his arm ripped off would be the most shocking thing she’d experience in a week. It turned out that finding out Sloane was apparently completely inexperienced was a pretty close second.
She wasn’t even sure why, really. It wasn’t like she knew anything about him. For all she knew, it could’ve been standard practice for elves or members of Patrol to eschew romantic relationships.
But it didn’t feel that way.
Despite the fact that there was no inflection or emotion in that modulated voice, Cecilia sensed there was much more to the story than something as simple as protocol. Maybe it was madness, but she thought there was vulnerability there, hidden beneath the layers of his visor and plain black, military-style clothing.
Taking a second to process her immediate shocked reaction, Cecilia coughed into her free hand, hoping it would cover up the strange pitch in her voice. “So, you’re… a virgin?”
“I have not had sex,” he confirmed, as dry as her old high school med class’s sex education.
Taking a breath, she worked hard to school her expression. “Are you comfortable explaining why you haven’t… done that?”
