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    “I have what you need.” He reached into his pocket, withdrew his hand, and held out his palm to her.
    Anja leaned closer and saw he held a few chunks of what appeared to be gold. She sucked in her breath. “You’re proposing to give me that gold?” she asked incredulously. “Why would you do such a thing?”
    “I want to help,” he said simply, as if that were all she needed to know.
    Anja’s head spun—a thousand questions needed answers. “But why would you give a complete stranger gold?”
    “I have no need of it.”
    Anja scoffed. Any fear or curiosity was completely superseded by a feeling of ridiculousness. “Everyone has need of gold,” she said.
    “I do not. I cannot eat it, nor wear it, nor keep warm by it. What use does it hold for me? None. Yet it can save you from Werner’s wrath.”
    Anja shook her head, trying to clear it of the sense of unreality. “Even if that were so, that you didn’t need it—” Anja remained skeptical on this point, “—why don’t you just take me out of here? You entered the cottage somehow. If you truly want to spare me Werner’s wrath, just leave with me in the same manner.”
    “Because Werner would never let that be the end of it. If he came in the morning and discovered you gone, with no gold left in your place, he would simply hunt you down.” The stranger didn’t need to elaborate on what Werner would do once he found her. “No, it is better for him to find you here tomorrow, with the gold.”
    “So you will just hand over your gold to me?”
    “Ah, I did not say I would just hand it to you.” The stranger took a few steps toward Anja. She couldn’t stop herself from doing the same. It was as if the stranger were pulling her toward him by an invisible thread.
    “But … then … what would you want in return?” Anja was forced by their nearness to look up at the man to see his eyes, and she felt hypnotized by what she found there. “I haven’t … anything … to give you.” She was barely able to focus on what she said. A strange heat suffuse her limbs.
    “A kiss,” he said.
    “I cannot kiss you!” Anja said, shocked at the suggestion.
    “Not even to save your life?”
    “I-I don’t even know your name,” Anja said, as if knowing his appellation would somehow make his request less absurd.
    “Tillz,” he said.
    “But if I … if you … how would…” Anja struggled to complete her thought.
    “I will give you the gold and save you from Werner. All I ask in return is a kiss.”
    Anja’s gaze travelled involuntarily to his mouth, and she wondered what it would be like to kiss him, to have his lips on hers. What would he taste like? She looked at his hand, still holding the gold, and she imagined his long, strong fingers touching her. What would his hands feel like upon her skin?
    His offer tempted her.
    Her heart pounded from his nearness, she was breathless.
    “I…”
    Tillz took one last step toward her, closing the small gap between them, and reached out to touch her lightly on the arm. “Enough talking, enough questions.” His voice was low and soft. Anja’s skin was hot, electrified, where he touched her.
    “Just a kiss,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.
    “Just a kiss,” Tillz repeated.
    The room seemed to disappear. In that moment, all that existed for Anja was the man standing before her, one of his arms resting lightly on her arm, the other snaking around her back to draw her to him. She smelled the light musky scent of him, his breath warm against her cheek. She was hot, liquid, lightheaded. If she had been thinking clearly, she would have wondered why she felt such a surge of desire for a man she had never seen before, why she was drawn to him like a sailor following a siren’s call. As it was, her mind was cloudy with inexplicable passion, and she could think of no reason why she wouldn’t be here, now, standing with this mysterious stranger, about to acquiesce to his requests for a kiss in