Louis stood there between the armchair and the rumbling fireplace, feeling unbelievably awkward. Sitting down felt like a recipe for disaster--her joke about sitting in his lap, delivered in such syrupy sweetness, echoed in his mind--but standing felt weird and rude. It made it seem like he was just waiting for an excuse to leave.
Which he was. But he didn't want Noelle to feel bad about it.
He watched her flip the record, and soft, crackly Christmas music started playing again, harmonizing with the crackling of the fire. She flashed him a smile. He nervously smiled back.
Noelle came back over to him. Te'd thought for a moment that she was heading to the kitchen, but then her hand was back on his shoulder, and she was pushing him, gently, but firmly...
"
Down,
" she said, mock-annoyed. "
Sit.
I'll take care of this."
He chewed on the inside of his cheek, but didn't get back up this time.
Noelle made her way to the kitchen. He heard a cabinet door open, then the clink of glass on the countertop, and then something being poured.
Was she seriously...?
Louis clenched his fists. Bad idea.
Bad idea.
He needed to get himself together. Ignoring his racing heartbeat, he pulled out his phone and started fumbling for the rides app. His fingers felt like they were barely listening to his brain right now. Maybe his fingers were numb from the cold.
He had a whole bunch of notifications, apparently. Texts from the others, including seven from Natalia, that were presumably those last-minute cancellations Noelle had mentioned. He swept the notifications aside and opened the app. His head was buzzing. God damn it, why did it have to load so slowly? And why was the text so... blurry?
He suddenly felt Noelle pressing in next to him. He hadn't even heard her return. Her heat radiated against his skin, and her voice was soft as she learned down close.
"It's
bad
out there," she purred, and with a single deft motion, she plucked the phone from his hand and replaced it with his old mug, steaming with freshly poured hot chocolate.
"H-Hey!"
She flicked her head to the window with a sly smile. "Nobody's going to drive you in a storm like this, Louis."
"What storm?"
"Uh-huh." She moved around so she could smile down at him, her form silhouetted by the glowing hearth. "Why put yourself
and
some poor gig worker in danger on Christmas Eve?"
He tried to keep his eyes on hers. "I could walk."
"What, with that thin coat?" She laughed at him, her expression shifting from playful to condescending in the blink of an eye. "You'd freeze before you made it out of my driveway. Just a stiff little icicle."
"You could lend me a coat." Louis was starting to get frustrated. No, pissed. He didn't like being made fun of like this. It felt weirdly hard to focus on being angry--maybe it was the lingering buzz of the chocolate--but it was definitely starting to get to him.
"Oh, yeah?" Noelle smirked. "Wearing my clothes?"
"That's... not what I--"
"You know, there's easier ways to get my perfume all over you."
Louis felt his face go red-hot. She was very, very close, and her perfume--mixed with the chocolatey sweetness of the drink--suffused the air around him. Everything smelled wonderful, and he
knew
he shouldn't enjoy it, but his head felt like it was full of cotton, and...
"I would... like my phone back now," he said, trying to make his voice firm. He had to at least insist on this much. Noelle might be a little buzzed, but so was he, and he wasn't being nearly such an asshole. As much as he was starting to like Noelle, she was definitely starting to get on his nerves. It was past time to put his foot down.
Noelle just laughed.
Louis stared at her.
For a moment, he didn't know what to say.
He watched her tuck the phone into the back pocket of her tight jeans, and then it was gone. Her hand touched his and gently closed both his hands around the mug. Everything felt... soft. Squishy. Fuzzy.
Numb.
He blinked rapidly. Blinking helped him jolt his senses a bit, but there were diminishing returns. And when he was focusing on trying to think clearly again, she was doing things, she was blazing right past him...
"There's no way home," Noelle was cooing, "and you
clearly
want to stay." He tried to object, but her eyes were on him, piercing, sparkling, and his lips fumbled over the first syllable. "I can see it in your eyes, you know. I'm good at reading people. Your eyes are like starlight. Beautiful and open. Glassy."
Staring into
her
eyes was like... like staring at the only motionless thing in a world that wouldn't stop spinning. They shimmered, sparkled, endless forests that promised countless unsolvable mysteries within.
Louis's mouth was dry.
"Gosh, you're just
spellbound
by me, aren't you?"
Her arrogance prickled at his nerves again, and he finally managed to tear his gaze away, force his eyes down into his lap. But without her eyes to focus him,
everything
felt like it was spinning. His head swam. He tried to ground himself, to center his attention on something in front of him... and his vision settled on the mug.
"Hey," he whispered, though his tongue felt leaden in his mouth, "what's... in this drink?"
He looked up at Noelle.
She smiled. "Hot chocolate."
He hadn't drank any yet. He felt... he felt drugged, but he'd only had two mugs, and he'd seen her pour both, seen her pour her own. She'd had just as much as him, if not more, so she couldn't possibly have drugged him, but he still felt so... so...
Noelle reached over and plucked off his hat, then leaned across him--giving him a deep eyeful of her tits--to unspool his scarf. "Gosh, you know, you have such pretty hair! You should show it off more."
"I... uh..." He was blushing. No. Wrong emotional reaction. This wasn't flirting, this was--this was crossing lines, this was being pushy, she was being an arrogant asshole--
"You don't mind if I sit with you, do you?" Her tone was silken and smooth, filled to overflow with unbearable,
insufferable
confidence.
He wanted to say no. No.
No.
But by the time the thought made it to his tongue and started to form the word--such a simple word, but so exhausting to say all of a sudden--Noelle had already sat down. Her soft, warm curves squished against his, and hard as he tried to press against the other side of the chair, her
heat
was inescapable. He could barely at least keep her from being totally on top of him if he pressed far to the right and kept his hands in his lap and... but her
scent
was still all over him...
No. He had to say
no.
It was just one stupid fucking word!
But then her breath tickled his ear. "Mind if I move in closer?"