Her Only Salvation by J.C. Valentine

life.
    Tucking the car into a bare area next to the house that she assumed acted as a regular parking space ; Luke cut the engine and got out of the car. Before she had a chance to open the door herself, he was there, offering her his hand. Smiling, she took it, and allowed him to pull her from the car.
    “Someone taught you manners,” she said appreciatively, then backed up a couple steps so he could fish around in the back seat for her bags.
    “Mothers are good for that sort of thing,” came his gruff reply. Ducking his head to clear the opening as he backed out, he rose to his full height and offered her a boyish grin. He held out his hand to her again. “Shall we?”
    Terri nodded and absently slipped her hand into his, then followed him up a set of wooden stairs that creaked under their weight.
    “You really should leave a light on,” she said, echoing his earlier words to her. “You never know who’s lurking in the shadows.”
    Luke grinned as he slid his key into the lock and pushed the door open wide. “You’re funny, Terri. Very funny,” he said, his voice ringing with good humor. “Welcome to my humble abode.” Together they stepped inside and Terri watched as Luke walked around the room, clicking on lamps as he went and filling the small space with warmth.
    Luke looked so massive, his large frame overpowering the room. She studied his profile, her eyes tracing the strong lines of his jaw and the curve of his full lips. Bending to flip on a squat television straight out of the seventies, the room suddenly filled with the low murmur of a nightly sports newscast, and for some inexplicable reason, she noticed that his dark hair curled up against his shirt collar, making her fingers itch to reach out and touch it. He was lovely to look at, and not for the first time did she wonder what it might be like to be cared for by a man of his caliber.
    A secret smile curved her lips and she made herself look away. No use in pining after something you couldn’t, and shouldn’t , have.
    When she finally did look up, Terri found herself looking into Luke’s denim-blue eyes reflected in a large mirror hanging on the wall, and a furious blush rose up to color her cheeks. When their eyes locked, Luke lifted one amused eyebrow and a knowing smirk tilted one corner of his mouth.
    Desperate to shake her embarrassment and shift the focus away from her, Terri asked, “So, uh, you live in the woods, huh?”
    Luke smiled proudly. “It’s the best worst place I could imagine.”
    “Alone?” Terri asked, trying not to sound too interested, and failing. “No girlfriend or anything to keep you company?”
    His shoulders lifted and fell. “Company is overrated. After working the club all night, I find that I like the quiet all the more.”
    Terri’s gaze fell to her feet—ignoring the giddy feeling that bubbled just below the surface at his answer—as she sifted through her brain for something to say other than the questions that she wanted to ask. Like, if he didn’t like company, then why had he brought her here? And how did a guy like him manage to not have a girlfriend? She figured someone like him would have been snapped up the second he stepped foot out of the nest. The longer her brain churned the more questions she asked herself, until she began to grow suspicious. What was wrong with a guy his age, without any romantic connections, who lived in a house in the middle of nowhere? Something had to be up, because for some reason she had a really tough time viewing Luke as anything less than comfortable in his own skin.
    There was one other option that Terri had never considered, and she was aware that asking it could be an incredibly insensitive and tactless, but, well, Terri was the one alone in the woods with a man who, aside from being her boss, she didn’t really know anything about.
    “You’re not gay, are you?” she blurted.
    There was a long, tense pause, in which Terri wished a trap door would open at