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never showed?”
    Sosie was so caught up in worrying about the mess she was in
she didn’t realize anyone was talking to her until she felt a gentle hand on
her arm. She turned to see the handsome man from the club standing beside her,
a concerned look in his kind, dark eyes. She was so happy to see a friendly
face she almost hugged him. Of all the things that had happened to her tonight,
meeting Derek Clayton was by far the best.
    She resisted the urge to throw her arms around him and shook
her head. “No. We got kind of separated when we got here and I don’t think they
realized I went into the club.”
    She hated lying to him, especially after everything he’d
done for her, but it wasn’t as if she could admit her elfin transport sled had
flown away and left her. On the other hand, she hadn’t really told him a lie.
Her fellow elves didn’t know she’d gone to the club.
    “Oh.” He regarded her in silence. “Couldn’t you take a cab
home?”
    If she weren’t about to cry, she would have laughed. He had
no idea how hard it was going to be for her to get home. She caught her
trembling lower lip between her teeth and shook her head again.
    Derek must have realized she was close to tears because he
reached out and gently brushed her hair back from her face. “Hey, it’s okay.
I’ll pay for a cab for you.”
    Sosie had learned on the news that a cab was a street sled
people hired on a short-term basis to drive them wherever they wanted to go.
The only problem was that there wasn’t any street sled that could drive her to
the North Pole. She couldn’t tell him that, though.
    “It’s kind of you to offer, but I live a long way up north.
I don’t think a cab could take me there.”
    He looked surprised at that. “You’re not from New York?”
    She shook her head. “I’m just visiting.”
    “And your friends up and left you? Well, that sucks.” He
thought a moment. “Do you have their address in the city? You know, where you
were going to stay while you were in town?”
    “No.” She gave him a shrug. “I thought I would stay with my
ride and that would get me where I was going.”
    Again, not really a lie.
    “Okay. So you can’t call your friends and you can’t take a
cab to their place. Do you have money for a hotel?”
    Sosie knew enough about the BP world and money to know she
wasn’t going to get anywhere without it. “I left everything I had in the
transport…with my friends.”
    He didn’t say anything. Probably because he thought she was
dimwitted. Looking at the mess she’d landed herself in, she was beginning to
think so, too.
    “Maybe you could suggest someplace I could stay that
wouldn’t require money?” she asked hopefully.
    He let out a snort. “Not anyplace you’d be safe.”
    Figgy. She’d been hoping he might know of a nice park or a
nearby forest. The weather was much milder than it was up at the North Pole.
She could sleep under a fir tree.
    She glanced up at the roof across the street again. “Maybe I
should wait here in case they come back to get me.”
    He scowled. “You can’t stay here all night. You’d freeze to
death. Besides, it’s too dangerous.”
    She hadn’t thought about it being dangerous, but then she
remembered what had almost happened to her in the men’s washroom and she realized
he was right.
    “Look, why don’t you spend the night at my place?”
    Sosie blinked. Derek was offering to let her stay in his
home, a woman he’d met in a club only a few hours ago and barely knew at all?
She never imagined a BP could be so considerate or so nice. Not only had he
protected her from those mean men, but he’d followed her outside afterward to
make sure she was okay. Of course, he would downplay the whole thing and say
he’d only been doing his job, but she knew he’d done it because he was a sweet,
caring man. She could tell.
    “Yeah,” he said when she didn’t answer. “I completely
understand how uncomfortable you’d be staying with a guy