Elijah smiled again, the gesture making the glint in his eyes even more apparent. “Something like that. I dunno—you tell me. Want to overshare with me?”

It wasn’t the most romantic of proposals, but for some reason it appealed massively. Was it him, the weird situation, or the fact he’d expressed an interest in femdom? Possibly all of the above. That; and she’d never told a soul about her inclinations, had merely kept them all bottled up until they’d eventually exploded all over her laptop screen and led to this most surreal of moments.

“Yeah, all right,” she said, her voice indicating a confidence she didn’t really feel. “But not here. Are you free… after? You know, when we’ve eventually reached the front of this queue?”

“Maybe we never will,” Elijah said, grinning wickedly. “Maybe there are no books, no till at the front of this queue—we could all be being led to our doom, through some magical door into another dimension, or pushed into a rabbit hole and landed in a fantastical world. Just lemmings, dropping off the edge, one after the other.”

Catriona snorted, then cringed as she realised how unattractive it must have been. “Are you stoned? Or drunk?”

With a fingertip, Elijah drew an X across his chest. “Sober as a judge, m’lady. Cross my heart. Just got a bit of a wacky imagination, is all.”

Raising an eyebrow, she replied, “That so?” That could certainly come in handy. “So, do you have a sensible answer to my question? Are you free after we’ve achieved our goal here—assuming, of course, we don’t end up in another dimension, or in Wonderland?”

“Oh?” Surprise seemed to be her default setting for the day. “You’re buying it for yourself, then?”

He grinned. “Yes. No point in lying now, is there? What can I say—the, uh, subject matter floats my boat.”

“Really?” The guy grew more intriguing by the second. And now she came to think about it, he was hot, too. Tall, just a touch wider than athletic, dark cropped hair, a couple of days’ worth of scruff, and browny-green eyes that seemed to sparkle with mischief. An image of him, naked and blindfolded and on his knees before her popped into Catriona’s mind, but he spoke before she could explore it any further.

“Yes, really.” A faint flush coloured his cheeks, and a responding burst of heat hit Catriona, only much lower down. He was adorable. “Sorry if that was too much information, but I figured since you’re here, that maybe we had that, uh, interest in common. But then, you never said you were buying it for yourself…” He tailed off, ran a hand through his hair and looked chagrined. “Sorry.”

“No,” she said, reaching out and touching his arm, “it’s okay. No need to apologise. You’re right—we do… I mean, I am buying it for myself.” Damn, now she was the one blushing. “I’m just not used to people being so honest about this kind of thing, especially to total strangers.”

“You’re right,” he said, holding a hand out, “I’m sorry. I’m Elijah. Pleased to meet you.”

Catriona took the proffered hand and shook it, trying not to think about how it would feel caressing her naked skin. “I’m Catriona. So, what—now we’re not total strangers any more, then it’s okay to overshare?”