S. K. Lessly's Book Excerpts

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When he pulled his Black Infinity Q50S into the parking lot at 7am, he started not to get out.  He loved his coffee but shit, he didn’t want to smell like grease for the entire day.  The place looked as if someone used a time machine to travel back to the fifties, extricated the popular diner from a small remote town with only two-hundred people, and settled it here. It looked so authentic from the outside and completely out of place for this artsy neighborhood, but looking in the window, the place seemed packed.

 

“Okay, just go in quickly, ask for a cup to go, and get out,” he coached himself.

He unfolded himself out of his car and headed for the steps of the diner. When he opened the door to Rock’s Diner and stepped inside, it was just as he thought, he felt his arteries clog up from the sheer smell of grease.  He hadn’t had anything fried in years, and as his heart became constricted by just the smell of the heavily greased foods, he knew he needed to continue that healthy habit.

 

Stay the course A.P., he encouraged himself.

 

He looked around the diner and smirked. It was as he noticed from the outside; packed. This place was as authentic inside as it was outside. The booths and tables were the authentic diner-style, straight from the fifties with vinyl-covered benches and chairs. There was a bar-style counter stretching just about the length of the place with bolted down rounded vinyl-covered stools, situated underneath the counter. The tables that were strategically placed around the room had chairs with chrome legs and chrome strips, which accented both the tables and the front counter.

 

Regardless of the aged look and seemingly caked on grease that looked to cover the walls and windows of this place, no one seemed to care.

As Andrew surveyed the room, he noticed that the breakfast counter that stretched the length of the diner seemed to be the place to go to be in and out.  He looked at his watch. He had a meeting in about forty-five minutes.

I can make it if I…

 

The rest of Andrew’s thoughts suddenly fell away as a familiar feeling unexpectedly came over him. It was something that he hadn’t felt in years. No, he was wrong. What he now felt was nothing he had ever felt before in his life. He quickly searched his surroundings, looking for a source of this sudden surge of emotion, wishing for the impossible, when his eyes fell on her. His heart seemingly stopped in mid-beat. He gripped the door handle next to him, trying his best to get a hold of the visceral urges that were suddenly threatening to take over. Could she be the reason he was feeling this way?

 

The sensation that was overpowering him was becoming too much for him. He could feel the aggression in his eyes, burning him to his core. He closed them quickly.

 

Fuck, this can’t be happening. Not here!

 

It wasn’t until he felt a profound and dominant rumble building within the pits of his soul that he realized just how out of control he was getting. Something was pulling his inner being out; it was calling to him, taunting him, pushing him. Fuck, he was beginning to slip back into complete darkness, something that he hadn’t done in a very long time.

 

A growl that suddenly fell from his lips tumbled him back into the light. He removed his hand from the now dented door handle behind him. He hadn’t felt like this since…

 

His breath hitched in his throat, at the implication of what he was thinking. He blinked a few times, trying desperately to gather himself. She was the cause of what was happening to him, which was clear. He was being pulled toward her; with a salacious and dominating force so strong, it rendered him helpless.

He attempted to look away from her, hoping that his heart would start to beat, that the blood would stop pulsing frantically in his ears, and that the sudden urge to claim this woman would subside, but neither happened. He was battling the engrained desire to claim her right here in this diner.

Fuck, he couldn’t breathe.

 

His heart had been comfortably on ice for a very long time, and he had not intended for it to thaw.  He rather liked feeling that way.  It worked for him in the courtroom, in the office and since he was a cold-hearted asshole, he had been able to be by himself without reproach.  However, as he watched her move around the diner, speaking to a few customers as she glided, he felt his heart warm a bit. 

 

This cannot be happening!

 

He was just about to turn around and leave before he found himself relinquished of all self-control when her eyes finally met his. He held her there, unable to take his eyes from her sweet, hazel ones.  She was undeniably beautiful. Her skin was the color of the Dove chocolate nuggets that he kept in his desk drawer at work and at home. She radiated through the grime and dismal weight of this place, bringing about a peace and welcoming so strong that he wondered if it was her that had this place filled with people, rather than the food.

 

She was graceful, with just the simple things that she did, such as walking, waving or just taking someone’s order. He was stunned at how much she exuded life and a tenderness that captivated everyone around her with just her smile. He could see how rich and deep her eyes were without even being close. She was exotic to him, with high cheekbones and a bow tie shaped mouth that made him daydream about how they would look wrapped around him, touching him.

 

He felt his face frown slightly; confusion laced his mind as he tried to figure out why she was invoking these feelings from him. Why he couldn’t stop looking at her, and why he wanted desperately to have her. He felt like he was under some type of spell.

 

Disbelief choked him swiftly.

 

No, this can’t be what I think it is, he tried to convince himself. Could it?