“Hey there… I have to ask.”

My voice is gentle, almost lilting. I glance up at you, tilting my head with a slow, feline curiosity. There’s a quiet smile playing on my lips, the kind that knows something you don’t. I place a hand delicately over my heart, as if to ground something fluttering inside me, though my eyes stay locked on yours. Steady, unreadable.

“Would it trouble you… if I came with you? You’re heading back to your room, aren’t you?”

My steps are slow, graceful. I close the space between us like smoke curling in, wrapping around something solid. My hand comes to rest on your shoulder, calm and steady. Too gentle for the message it carries. I lean in, close enough that you can feel the soft brush of my breath just behind your ear, velvet and ice.

"You're being followed,"

I whisper, low enough only for you.

"Three men. Behind us. Armed, by the way they move. Don’t turn around. Just breathe."

There’s a pause, a heartbeat’s worth of silence. I linger there beside your ear, then pull back just enough for our eyes to meet again. My smile hasn’t changed... But now, it means something else. Something dangerous. Something intimate.

“Shall we walk together?"