Part Eighteen:
 

Rating: PG
 

"You can have the bed." Arianna offered.

"What?" The only word Gabriel had heard was "bed."

"You can have the bed," she repeated. "To sleep in. There's a cot in the kitchen. I can sleep on that."

"No," Gabriel told her. "It's your bed; you sleep in it. I'll take the cot. Believe me, I've slept on worse."

"So have I." She absently tossed her long brown tendrils of hair over her shoulder. "Besides, you just helped me out. It's the least I can do."

Gabriel shook his head. He didn't think he would be able to handle sleeping in her bed. "You've already fed me. Just let me stay for a while, using the cot. I've got no place else to go, but I don't want to inconvenience you."

"You're not inconveniencing me," Arianna told him. "If you were, I wouldn't have brought you here."

"Which brings me to that." Gabriel studied her. "Why exactly did you bring me here?"

"Because you saved me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Arianna answered, not feeling sure at all.

"Alright." Gabriel backed down. "In any case, either you sleep on the bed, or no one sleeps on it. It would be a shame to waste the use of such a comfortable looking bed."

"And just what is the use of it, dare I ask?" She grinned.

Gabriel shot one of his disturbing smiles in her direction, and once again it didn't phase her in the least. "Sleep," he told her. "The purpose of that bed is for sleep."

"Are you sure?" she mocked. "Or was that a Freudian slip?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Gabriel said firmly, not feeling sure at all. All he was sure of was that it would do no good to become too involved with this girl.

Unfortunately, he could see it happening very easily.

Damn.