Dallas couldn’t hide her smile. He liked her. He really liked her. The kiss wasn’t some drunken, horny play for sex.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” Dallas said. She was feeling no pain. Then he brought up a party they’d both attended the summer before. At one point, they’d been alone in a dark corner of the backyard. The sexual tension had been off the charts. But nothing had happened. Someone else had walked over and the moment had gone.
“You know that night at the party? I really wanted to …”
Before she could answer, the server came with the bill.
After they paid, Colton looked at her with hooded eyes. He was quiet for a second and then said, “What now?”
“We go back to our room.” Even saying ‘our’ sent a thrill through her.
Colton reached across the table and took her hands in his.
“Dallas?”
Her heart thudded in her chest. “Yes?”
“You know that I’m your direct supervisor, right?”
She shrugged. “Sort of. Maybe. In a way. Depends how you look at it.”
“No, I … I think I am.”
Inwardly, she cringed. She hated the sound of that. And the meaning of it. She could see where this conversation was going.
“That’s debatable.”
“I like you a lot,” he said.
She pulled her hands out of his grasp. “I like you a lot too, Colton. What’s your point?” Her voice was harsher than she’d intended. She could tell by the small grimace that flashed across his face.
“As you know, I’m technically your boss.”
“So?”
“You know what I mean.”
She blushed. She did. They were on the verge of more. So very close.
“I’ll quit.” She winked and smiled to lighten the tension, but Colton didn’t bite. He shook his head.
“I think we need separate rooms is all I’m saying,” he said.
Dallas was feeling heady. He did want her. The same way she wanted him.
Instead of answering, she stood and leaned over to him, grabbing both his hands and pulling him to a standing position. Then she pulled him even closer so their bodies were pressed against one another and their faces mere inches away.
“Dallas?” He groaned her name in protest.
“Colton.” She said it as she pressed her lips against his. “What happens in Egypt stays in Egypt.”
“I’m serious,” he said, pulling away. “We can’t stay in the same room. The University will know, I mean I’m supposed to submit all my receipts, etc. And even so, it’s just not ethically, right for us to …”
“For us to what?” Dallas said, her lips touching his. “Do this?”
He didn’t protest. She drew back and took his hand leading him through the streets back to the hotel.
The walk back took way too long in Dallas’s book. As soon as they unlocked the door, without even turning on the lights, she pulled him inside and pushed him up against the wall and resumed what they’d started at the restaurant.
At one point, she ripped off his shirt. Soon they were on the bottom bunk. Slivers of moonlight shone in from between the slatted blinds, allowing her to see Colton looking at her as she climbed on top of him. She was straddling him and leaning down to meet his lips when he reached for the binder that kept her hair in a ponytail. She was about to bat his hand away when there was a sound that made her blood run cold.
The hiss of a snake.
It was unmistakable.
It wasn’t just the hiss of any old snake, either, it was that odd exhalation growling sound distinctive to the Egyptian cobra.
Dallas had never been afraid of snakes but this growling exhalation hiss sent chills down her spine.
Colton froze underneath her. His hands gripped her wrists tightly. “Don’t move,” he breathed the words under his breath.
The snake hissed again. It was to their left. On the floor. Without turning her head, she strained to see anything in that direction. That’s when she saw it in the moonlight. It was standing up a foot high, displaying its iconic hood. It wasn’t a giant cobra, but the size wasn’t anything to sneeze at, either. And really size didn’t matter since even a small cobra likely had enough venom in its fangs to fell an elephant, inducing likely death within hours. A person would be lucky to last 15 minutes.
Her hand gripping the side of the bunk bed felt something metallic. The rim of the trash can. She had seconds to act. And she’d be using her left hand. She was right-handed. But she had to try.
“I’m going to grab this trash can and try to trap it.”
Colton froze at her words. “Don’t worry, cobras can’t really hear ambient noise. He, or she, smells us, so talking won’t matter much,” Dallas said, straining out of the corner of her eye to watch the snake. It was weaving. It hissed again.
The growling dog sound sent chills down her spine. Now or never. She imagined it, she would lift the can and then in a swooping arc come down upon the snake’s head.
But just as she was about to pick up the trash can, Colton had grabbed her shoulders and flung her against the wall behind him and leaped off the bed landing with a scream and a thud. She was right behind him screaming and flailing hoping by some miracle she’d manage to grasp the snake by its neck and hold its fangs away from them or at the very least, find its tail and fling it across the room. She landed on the floor at the same time the lights flickered on. The first thing she saw was Colton standing against the wall by the light switch with a wild look in his eyes.
The second thing she noticed was the snake at her three o’clock. It was reared up and she heard it growl like a dog right before it became a bronze blur and she felt wetness on her shoulder. She looked over as the snake rubber-banded back to its original position. She began to laugh.
Colton’s mouth was wide and
