The windows were rolled halfway down, letting in the warm dusk breeze as the city blurred past in golden streaks.
Kelsey gripped the steering wheel with one hand and held a half-eaten lollipop in the other, her voice completely out of tune as she belted out the lyrics to a cheesy love song on the radio.
"I'm never gonna dance again, guilty feet have got no rhythm..._"
She twirled the lollipop dramatically like a microphone, shaking her head to the beat.
"I wonder why they stopped releasing such great music," she muttered to herself with a small laugh—but kept singing anyway.
It had been over a year since she had run away from the life planned for her, a year since the night she left everything behind—even the newly wed- groom she barely knew.
Since then, she had vowed to live for herself. To be wild in the small ways she could.
As she finally pulled in to the parking area, she turned off the radio, took her backpack and stepped out of the car.
Today had been a busy day because after her shift at the hospital, she, together with a few of her colleagues had visited a nearby children's home. It was a place they usually visited the last Friday of the month, and yes. She loved every single moment she spent with kids.
She was exhausted. A long shift, hours on her feet, and the emotional weight of the day tugging at her bones. All she wanted was to wash the day away, eat something and, then collapse under the warmth of her blanket.
Once the elevator doors opened, she pressed the fourth floor and it took a few seconds before it dinged again. Finally, she would have a deserved rest.
Reaching out of the keys, she opened the door, but immediately she turned on the lights, her soul almost left her body.
There was a man seated on her couch. The very same man she had ran away from and also her legal husband.
He comfortably sat on her couch as if he owned the place.
His long legs crossed, his hand flipping through her old photo album as though he lived there. As though he'd been there a thousand times before.
The photo album—that album—held the only pictures she had salvaged from her childhood. A small collection of memories: her mother before she passed, her twelfth birthday party, a picture with her father before he changed.
Kelsey froze. Her breath caught in her chest like a scream that never made it out.
Her fingers curled around the doorknob behind her, slick with sweat, her back pressed against the wood as if she could melt into it, disappear through it.
"Lucien.._"
She whispered. His name coming out of her lips shakily.
He looked… untouched by time. Still as dangerously beautiful as she remembered. Jet-black hair slightly tousled, skin like carved stone, dark eyes that watched her without blinking.
And that was enough to make her wary.
Closing the album and placing it on the nearby coffee table, he finally got up on his feet.
All that kelsey would think of was a way to just get away from this enclosed space. There was that looked on his face that made her heart accelerate it's beats and as he got closer, she twisted the door knob, but the door refused to open.
Her heart thundered in her chest as she made several attempts to open the door, but it did not open.
Not knowing what to do next, she parted her lips to ask.. "Wh.._ what are you doing here?!"
He finally stopped, just a few feet away from her to respond to her question.
"And why would you be asking that question? You know exactly why I am here.._" He trailed, his words serious, yet deliberate. "I got myself a wife, married her, but funny enough, she ran away on the very same night that we were to consummate our wedding. I wonder if we should do it right here." His words held thoughtfulness, as if he meant every single word he meant and that only continued to add worries to kelsey's body.
As he took more steps closer, kelsey warned. "Don't take any step closer!"
"Or what?" He shot back and taking more casual steps, he reached for the vase that she was slowly trying to reach out to and taking it away from her, he finally ate up the space that had remained between them.
In a too abrupt way, he circled his hand around her waist and tugged her towards him, he was too close. Too close that it scared her and as she tried to wiggle her way out, his hold on her became more firm.
"You know, you could have talked to me if you were scared of marriage. Now we wouldn't be where we are."
He said. His eyes looking at her pink lips. If he wasn't supporting her with his hand right now, she would have fainted, partly because of fear, and partly due to embarrassment that was slowly crawling in her mind.
"Would you have stopped the wedding if I told you?" Her voice was barely a whisper whereby she still tried to free herself from his hold. At her words, a small smile formed on his lips, one that disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
"Of course not. Once I have my eyes on something, I tend not to let go."
His face had moved away to the side of her head. And those words smoothly fell on the shell of her ear. She could feel goosebumps rising on her skin, and it scared her of how a man could be attractive, yet intimidating at the same time.
Finally freeing her from his hold, he added, "Why don't you start packing your things. We are going to my place."
"No!"
Her words came out quickly while also she moved away, making as much distance as she could.
Lucien raised a brow, unamused by her response and going to her small kitchen, he got himself a glass of water.
"See kelsey.._ I don't like it when people say no to me. And in as much as I am trying to tolerate your defiance, I won't tolerate this one. Actually, you don't have to pack anything. We are leaving."
Taking a gulp of water, he got back to her living area, where she was busy taking her keys to ran away and without a warning, she took her hand in to his and led her towards the door.