four
Lucy
“Shit, shit, shit!”I chant to myself as I fumble on the nightstand for my phone. I flick on the flashlight app and hold it up into the pitch-black darkness.
My power just went out, and I know I paid my electric bill. I walk over to the window and peek out the blinds, frowning when I see that everyone else's house on the block has lights but mine.
I swipe up to unlock my phone and call the electric company to report the outage, but no sooner do I pull up the keypad does my phone die.
“Shit, shit, shit!” I chant again. I'm notorious for not keeping my phone charged, and I guess Sharon is right when she's always ragging me about it. If I was more responsible and kept it charged up, I wouldn't be in this mess.
I chew on my bottom lip as I consider what to do. I've got to call the power company and let them know that something's up with my power, but now I don't have a phone to do that with. I don't really like the thought of traipsing over to one of my neighbor's houses in my sleep shorts and ratty old tank top, but it's much too dark in here for me to see to change clothes.
I fumble around where I keep my rope hanging and finally find it and slip it onto my shoulders before I stumble my way to the kitchen and feel around for my shoes.
“Dammit!” I curse when I can't find them anywhere.
I finally yank open the door and step out into the humid night air sans shoes. I look left and right indecisively. I don't know any of my neighbors. I've always kept to myself, so I don't know which way to go.
It's completely juvenile, but I recite a verse of eeny, meeny, miny, moe in my head. I turn to the house that was “not it” and begin marching across the yard barefoot.
Hopefully, my neighbor won't be too pissed off about me knocking on their door this late at night, though in all fairness most people don't go to bed as early as me, so they should be up.
My suspicions are proved correct whenever I walk up to the door and hear heavy metal music blaring through it. I chew on my lip nervously, contemplating whether I chose the right house, but I'm already here, so I raise my fist and knock on the door firmly.
There’s no answer. They likely can’t hear me over the blaring music, so I increase the force of my knocks. I suppose I could just traipse over to my neighbor on the other side.
When nobody comes to the door, I drop my hand with a sigh and turn to leave, but then the music suddenly gets louder as the door opens.
I turn back around, my eyes widening and a gasp falling from my lips when I see who's standing in the doorway.
It's Luke.
He's completely bare-chested, answering my question about the tats covering the rest of his body. His entire chest is inked as are both sleeves. I can't stop staring at the colors as well as the hard ridges of muscle lining his abdomen. He clearly hits the gym very regularly. Either that or he's the most blessed man I've ever seen in my life.
He's got on a pair of low-slung joggers, and his dark hair is carelessly disheveled in that sexy way that only men can accomplish.
My eyes finally make their way up his chest to his blue gaze.
I see surprise on his slack-jawed face that’s lined with stubble, but then his lips press into a thin line, and his eyes harden as he growls, “What are you doing here?”
* * *
Luke
“I'm sorry,” the girl who I haven't been able to get out of my mind all day stammers as she takes a step back and turns to hurry back to wherever she came from.
My eyes flick to the street. I don’t see a car there. I take in her bare feet and scantily clad form under her robe and frown.
A pang of guilt hits me at the thought that she might be in some sort of trouble. “No, wait,” I call after her as I grab her hand.
She stills as my hand closes around her wrist, looking down at where I hold her captive before her eyes lift to mine.
I suck in a breath. It’s like a punch straight to my jugular seeing those big doe-brown eyes staring up at me again.
“Something's obviously wrong.” My voice comes out low. “What is it?”
She pulls her hand from mine before she glances over to the house next door. “My power went out, and my phone is dead.” She holds up an iPhone with a blank screen as if to illustrate. “I thought I'd ask one of my neighbors if I could borrow their phone to call the electric company. I obviously chose the wrong one,” she adds before she turns and starts walking off my porch again.