MATED TO SERIES COLLECTION

21. ARIANA: STRANGER IN OUR TIME OF NEED

"Do you regret it?"

I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes. "Do you?"

"Don't answer my question with a question, Ariana." He angrily shifted gears. "You haven't said a word to me since we left and it's worrying me. Did I do something wrong?"

I licked my lips. "You didn't do anything wrong. It just wasn't what I thought it would be like."

"So I fucked things up."

"You didn't," I quickly denied. "Forget I said anything."

"Kinda hard to do that," he muttered. "You. . .forget it."

"What were you about to say?"

Running a hand through his hair, he sighed loudly. "I liked it, Ari. It was good for me but then you say that it wasn't what you expected and it kind of makes me feel like shit. I felt like I was doing it right."

I smiled. "Everyone's first time is different," I told him. "We can't compare it."

Our eyes locked for a few seconds before he focused back on the road. I reached over and placed my hand on his that was resting on the gearshift.

"Did I hurt you? Was I too rough?"

"It hurt a little at first but then it was just a bit uncomfortable afterwards," I said. "I liked the. . .the sound you made and the weight of your body on me." My lips twitched. "And the way you cursed when you came. To be honest with you, I wouldn't want to change anything that happened."

"Would you want to do it again?" he asked so quietly that I almost didn't hear him.

"I—"

Lucas suddenly started cursing, cutting off my words. I sat up straighter and glanced over my shoulder out the back window to figure out why he was cursing. No cars were following us and there wasn't anything alarming going on around us.

I looked back at him and found him staring at the dashboard.

"What's wrong?"

"I have no clue, but I do know that we need to stop somewhere otherwise we'll be stranded."

I leaned closer and followed the direction of his gaze. Lights flickered on and off while a few stayed on. Something was wrong with the car and clearly neither one of us knew what it was.

Luckily we were driving through one of the small towns I recently found out existed. We made it to a car repair shop just in time. Parking the car in front of the garage, Lucas glanced around and frowned. There was nobody in sight.

"Stay in the car. I'll be right back."

I watched him until he disappeared into the garage. Unclipping my seatbelt, I leaned down and started searching through the bag at my feet.

I wanted to call Eva or Dad from the hotel to let them know that I was okay but Lucas had refused. He said that we couldn't take the risk of the call being traced. Before we left the motel, we'd stopped at a 24/7 shop where Lucas bought us some clothes and a few snacks but I thought I saw him slip a phone between the stuff he purchased.

My hope deflated when my search for a phone in the bag came up empty-handed. I sat up and looked at the garage again. There had to be a phone inside that I could use.

I climbed out of the car, hesitated a moment and then headed towards the building. Lucas had disappeared through another door earlier. My eyes darted around nervously. There were a lot of places for someone to hide. They could jump out and grab me at any moment.

"Lara?"

My steps faltered at the sound of my mother's name falling from the lips of a man.

I gasped and jerked my arm away when he grabbed hold of it. Spinning around, I stumbled backwards and stared at the man.