Page 6 of Senescence (Inferno World)

For the briefest of moments, I thought Bob was going to hulk out on the man. The tension between the two was like a rubber band stretched to the full extent of its elasticity, ready to snap in one direction or the other, and I was caught in the middle.

Just as quickly as it had come, the moment was gone. Bob let me go and took a large step back, his head bowing in apparent shame. He didn’t say another word and marched back towards his office. I had a feeling I was going to receive the brunt force of his anger later when he got home, but I didn’t want to think of that now. The exchange had left me feeling awkward, scared, and surprisingly a little turned on. It was weird.

This man--this stranger had stood up for me in a way no one ever had before. He didn’t know me from Adam, and yet, he stuck his nose out there to stop Bob from manhandling me. The uneasy feeling I had felt when this man had first arrived was gone, replaced with appreciation and something else I couldn’t describe.

“Thank you,” I whispered, hoping my gratitude was evident in those two simple words.

“Luke,” he said matter of factly.

“Thank you, Luke,” I repeated.

For a few moments, I couldn’t do anything but stare at Luke. Besides Arthur, he was the first guy in my life to ever show an ounce of kindness towards me. It wasn’t something I was particularly used to and I revelled in it for half of a second.

“What time are you off?” Luke asked, pulling me from my haze. His question took me off guard, and his face confused me. His lips were straight and unyielding with no hint of joviality, but there was underlying mischief and peril lurking just under his skin. The mixed vibes coming off of this guy was dizzying to say the least.

I punched in a few items on the register zero’ing out his total and smiled. “Five minutes.”

“Meet me out back,” he commanded before pushing his cart away from me without giving me the chance to respond.

My knees shook as I hung up my apron and grabbed my purse. Luke’s request hadn’t seemed like an ask, but more of a tell, and I had absolutely no fucking idea what he wanted with me. I sat down at the break room table to compose myself before I went out to meet him. My brain rattled through a hundred different scenarios of what he might want with me.

The little girl fantasy in my heart told me he was going to sweep me off my feet and carry me away from this hell I had been living in. He was old enough to be my dad, but he hadn’t been wearing a ring, which meant he was available. My head called me an idiot for having such a lavish daydream about this sexy stranger, but I couldn’t help it. Luke was everything I envisioned for my life. In one encounter I had mapped out our entire lives together.

“Snap out of it Lucy. You don’t even know this dude.”

I rolled my eyes and stood up. My life had been so boring up until this point, why couldn’t I just take a chance and be free for once? It was time to see what this sexy stranger wanted.

***

“You’re late,” the now familiar voice sounded from behind me.

I turned around quickly and stumbled, falling to the ground in front of him.So much for sweeping me off my feet, I thought to myself.

Quickly, I pulled myself together and stood up facing him. “Sorry, I had a few last minute things to tidy up around back,” I mumbled.

“Lying to me already, Lucy Marie?” Luke admonished me.

Looking up at him in shock, I blushed scarlet. How had he known I was lying? A shiver rocked me to my core.

“Get in the truck, Lucy,” Luke ordered not-so-lightly, before climbing into his own driver’s seat.

My head told me I was an idiot to get in this stranger’s truck, but my fantasy of being whisked away by a handsome stranger won out as I climbed in the passenger seat.

“Put on your seatbelt. We don’t want anything bad happening to you.”

Another jolt of fear crawled up my spine, but I shook it off. There was just something about this man. Every wall I had ever put up seemed to come crashing down with each second I spent in his presence. There was no rhyme or reason to it. It just was.

We didn’t speak as he drove around the downtown area. Luke occasionally glanced at me as if he had many secrets on the tip of his tongue, waiting to come spilling out, but he never did. When we pulled up in front of my house a few minutes later, I was flabbergasted.

“How do you know where I live?” I asked.

“No questions,” his shallow retort sounded.

Taken aback, I sat there open mouthed and stunned. There was a definite roughness about him, an alluring but dark aura surrounding this man who had driven me home. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew there were secrets shrouding him in his darkness, and something inside of me wanted to find out every single secret he held.

This feeling and exhilaration swirling inside of me wasn’t something I was accustomed to, but it was something I wanted to explore. Being cooped up in my own brain and this miserable life for as long as I had, made me want to break free from my prison and rise from the ashes like a phoenix. Would Luke be the one to help set me free? Would he unlock things inside of me I didn’t know were there? I wasn’t sure, but with a deep breath and a firm resolve, I opened the truck door, determined to find out.

I stiffened my shoulders and walked with a purpose I hadn’t otherwise known or felt, before catching up with him as he reached the front door. Pulling out my keys, I let us both in. I expected him to let me lead the way, as it was my house and he had never been here before, but he grabbed my wrist in one of his hands and walked me towards the back. There was no small talk. No talk at all in fact. There was just Luke and myself and adrenaline coursing through my veins.

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