Arianna Rose: The Awakening (Part 2) Read Online Free Page B

advantage.  And she aimed to conceal her advantage from him.
    “I guess it was adrenaline or something,” she said flatly wishing he would just drive already.
    He reached a hand across the console and rested it on her leg.  “Well whatever it was, I’m glad you’re okay, that you weren’t, you know, hurt,” he said and she knew exactly what he’d meant.  “And thanks for watching my sister’s back,” he added then moved his hand from her leg to the gearshift.
    The car began to rumble slowly as Luke backed out of his driveway. The short ride to her trailer park was blissfully quiet.  When Luke pulled up in front of her porch, she resisted the urge to bolt out of his truck and run inside, not stopping until she reached the shower.  She wanted, needed , to scrub the events of the night from her skin, fill her nostril s with the scent of strawberry shampoo in hopes of it purging the fetid stench of charred flesh from them.  She wanted to cleanse herself of the man with the neck tattoo’s touch , wash away the entire night.  She like d Luke, liked him a lot, but need ed to shower, needed to process everything that had happened. 
    She watched as Luke turned the key in the ignition and the engine stilled.  He opened his door and walked around to the passenger side to open hers.
    “Let the wooing begin again” he said and smiled. 
    “Wow, this is some big-time wooing,” she said and smiled back , unable to resist the sincerity he ’d radiated .
    He took her hand and helped her out.  I n the night air again, Arianna felt the need to busy her hands.  She released Luke’s hand and reached into her bag and felt for her pack of cigarettes.  Luke produced two of his own and offered one to her.  She accepted it, placed it between her lips and waited for him to light it.  He lit hers first with exaggerated arm gestures .
    “Still wooing,” he joked and winked .
    She wondered why, and how, he was able to behave so normally after what he’d heard.  Perhaps it was just her guilty, possibly murderous, conscience convincing her that he ought to be doubtful of the story she’d told him and nothing more. 
    “Listen Arianna, I know this isn’t great timing, but I just want to say that I like you, you know?  I care about what happens to you,” he admitted.  “When you told me what had happened, what that scumbag tried to do to you, I freaked out.  I wanted to kill him.  I mean literally kill him.”
    Little did he know, she had likely killed at least one of the them .  “Honestly, I wanted them both dead, too.”
    “Feeling like I did, as angry as I was, I never felt that way about a girl so quickly.  I mean, I haven’t known you a long time, but I liked you right away.  And tonight, everything that happened,” he said then paused.  He stared at the ground for several seconds before he looked up at her and said, “It made me realize I care about you.”
    Arianna wasn’t sure how to react, what to say.  Hours earlier, if he had said anything even similar to what he’d just said, and with the earnestness he’d just said it with, she would have been kissing him already.  But a lot had happened, more than he could ever know, more than she could ever tell him.  She knew that with every second that passed, every second she remained silent, he was dying a small death.  Like her, Luke did not seem like the kind of guy who offered his heart to others readily.  She cared for him too, despite the fact that she was a supernatural being with a bounty on her head.  She dropped her cigarette to the gravel beneath her and closed the distance between them.  She wrapped her arms around his waist and tipped her chin up.  He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers.  Warm and soft, his mouth was suddenly exactly what she needed.  She began to kiss him eagerly, hungrily.  She slipped her tongue between his lips and tasted the nicotine in his hot breath.  He returned her kiss but with less