CHAPTER 26: CHAPTER 26 IN THE DARKNESS

*ALORA*

“Alora.” He said in that dark, growly voice like he was tasting it, experiencing flavors no one else did.

It was ridiculous but I started feeling excited like a teenage girl who had just gotten her crush to notice her.

I’ve never felt this way in years.

I had thought the hopeless romantic in me had died.

“My name’s...Ford.”

There was something about the way he hesitated before he told me that, like half-truths and lies were accepted in the darkness.

I wondered why I sensed an air of deception.

I didn’t know him. We just met.

And I’m still holding his hand.

Why did I liked holding a stranger’s hand?

I shook my head, I have to get a hold of myself.

“May I have my hand back, please?”I noticed he paused for a beat before responding.

“Sorry.”His thumb slid over the back of my hand slowly, making me shiver before he released me.

As I slid down to the floor and tucked my legs beneath me, I couldn’t help the feeling that he wasn’t sorry at all.

Lord, I was having stupid fantasies about a stranger I was trapped in an elevator with.

“There’s nowhere to hide in here, Alora.”He said as he took a seat on the floor beside me, and I knew he didn’t mean hide in the physical sense.

I blamed his voice for the naughty twists and turns my mind had taken.

But in my defense, he really does have the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard, deep and dark, gravelly with a promise of naughty pleasures.

He was close.

The heat of his body was comforting, arousing and disturbing.

And his manly scent was driving me wild.

“I don’t think I’m the type to hide anyway.”I replied.

“No deep, dark secrets?”

I shrugged.”I’ve just been having an awful time these past couple of weeks.”

There was a long pause from him before he asked.

“Want to talk about it?”

“Nah, I’ll pass. No need to bore you.”

“Who said I’d be bored?”

“Trust me, you’d be bored.”

I could almost feel him smiling, and his voice was warm when he responded.

“Somehow, Alora, I don’t think I’d find anything about you boring.”

I curbed a sudden urge to fan myself.

Why does everything he says sound so suggestive?

“Were you about to check out of the hotel?”I asked him.

Somehow, I wanted to know more about him.

“Yeah.”

The elevator shook and lurched once more.

Ford reached over and stroke his fingers over my hand like he could see me in the dark.

Maybe he could.

Maybe he could sense me.

His touch was intended to soothe, I knew that, but it did the opposite.

I felt my heartbeat speed up in my chest.

I wanted to...

The elevator hummed and swayed like a drunk in an alleyway.

It dropped downward from beyond the doors, voices filtered in.

Then, it shuddered again. Right outside, someone was scraping and banging at the doors.

There were muffled voices as Ford’s hand closed over mine.

He rose and helped me to my feet.

“See? Miracles happen.”

“And it’s not even Christmas...”

And then, he said something that momentarily stunned me.

“Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.”

It was a quote from my all-time favorite movie, Miracle on 34th street.

It was at that moment that I wondered about this whole encounter.

Were the two of us meeting each other...random strangers by complete coincidental factors, or was there an underlying fate at work here?

Oh jeez.

I got locked in a dark, enclosed space with a gravelly voiced, scrumptious-scented stranger and now, I’m an hopeless romantic again?

I wished I could blame it on the lack on oxygen in here.

“I...Listen, I...”

But whatever he was about to say, he was robbed off the chance when the doors slid open and light poured in.

The manager of my hotel, Gareth stood at the forefront of a small crowd.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” He asked as an EMT shone a flashlight in my face.

I tried to get a glimpse of Ford, but I’m momentarily blinded.

I reached out for him, but no one was there.

The lights in the elevator came on, the flashlight switched off and my vision became normal again.

But Ford was gone.

As I was manhandled out of the “elevator of death and surprises” I looked around anxiously, but I seem to be the only one emerging.

It was like he had been a figment of my imagination.

Pulling free, I searched the faces of the crowd, not even knowing who exactly I was looking for.

I didn’t see anyone who might be the mysterious stranger with a dark sex appeal and an air of danger and intrigue.

I was about to give up when I saw a tall, broad-shouldered man with hair the color of dark chocolate.

I only caught a glimpse of his back as he strode away from the crowd and through the exit.