*
Day
Jessica waited by the curb with her purse and a small suitcase. Her whole body trembled with excitement. She was going to Tahoe with Luke and his GTO! It was a close tie as to which one excited her the most. The powerful engine rumbled before she saw the black top come into view. She swore the ground beneath her shook like a mild earthquake as Luke pulled up next to the sidewalk.
“Can I drive?” She jumped up and down as he got out and opened the trunk. It was very uncharacteristic behavior for her, but Luke and the GTO had her ready to do cartwheels down the hill.
“No.” He grabbed her suitcase and tossed it in the trunk.
She got in and felt the familiar car orgasm building as the seat vibrated to the purr of the engine. “But at some point you’re going to let me drive, right?”
“Nope.” Luke looked over and smiled all GQ at her: perfect hair, sexy shades, killer smile, plaid short-sleeve button down shirt, dark jeans, and Nike’s that looked fresh out of the box. Her panties were doomed.
“You look edible.” She winked at him then slid on her sunglasses as he put it in gear.
Luke flipped down his visor to block the setting sun then pulled away from the curb. “Thanks. It’s a bit of a disturbing compliment from you, but you’re still not driving.”
“So what’s in Tahoe? You’ve been so vague this week about our ‘field trip.’”
“You’ll see.”
“Are you secretly whisking me away for a weekend of sexual healing with your magical penis?”
Luke didn’t even crack a smile, which was unfair because her comment was not only flattering but funny.
He made a quick sidelong glance. “How did you find out about my magical penis?”
Jessica grinned. That’s all she could do. Luke had a way of making her talk, but he also had a way of rendering her speechless. Those speechless moments … they were the ones Jessica mentally logged into her Reasons I’m Falling in Love with Dr. Luke Jones journal that she kept in her head, and every time she added to it she moved it down a shelf closer to her heart.
“I think it was your Tumblr page … Cockfessions of an Argyle Sock Addict. It was just by accident that I came across your page. I’ve never seen so many animated GIFs of girls having sex with argyle socks pulled up to their knees. That’s some serious kink, Jones.”
“So you’re into online porn?”
She slipped off her shoes and hugged her knees to her chest. “Absolutely. It’s a reminder that there are people in the world that are fucked-up more than me. Pun intended.”
“Why do you think you’re fucked-up?”
She looked out her window and shook her head. “I don’t know. Ask my shrink.”
“And what do you think he’d tell me?”
“She. My shrink is a female. There’s no way in hell I’d see a male shrink.” Jessica smirked. “I’ve been down that road before. He made me iron his underwear.”
“Socks,” Luke corrected.
“Then we had sex in his closet.”
“Kissed.”
“Then he shoved me off my bike ten feet from the finish line because he didn’t want me to win.”
“You were never going to beat me.”
“I totally would have. Then he came to my apartment and I think had I not been covered in my own blood we would have had sex that night.”
Luke didn’t respond. Instead the air became thick and heavy until he cranked down his window. Jessica had drank and bled too much that night to make sense of Luke’s visit. He left his date—a sure thing—to come to her apartment. She remembered feeling something from him that wasn’t empathy, or the need to fix her, or anything that she’d ever felt with him before. That night all she saw was a man who wanted a woman … plain and simple. But until that very moment she hadn’t let herself believe it … she hadn’t let herself hope.
The rest of the ride was filled with nothing but the high-pitched scream of the tires over worn pavement. They stopped for gas and drinks, but the conversation never ignited again.
“We’re here.”
Jessica opened her eyes while sitting up. She blinked away the sleep, then squinted at the lit sign, the only thing she could see in the surrounding darkness. “We’re staying at a bed and breakfast?”
“Yes, but it’s under renovation so it’s not open to the public.”
“So … we’re squatters?”
Luke chuckled. “No. I know the owners.”
“Oh, friends?”
“Sort of.” He shifted in the driver’s seat so he was facing her. “What I’m about to tell you, you have to promise not to read into it, or get too excited, or anything like that. Okay?”
“Is it haunted? Just going to be honest. I used to love haunted houses, but Four kind of ruined them for me.”
A sadness stole Luke’s facial features for a brief moment. “No. It’s not haunted. It belongs to my parents.”