Captivating Lucinda

Captivating Lucinda

They must have driven somewhere between fifty to a hundred miles without a bend in the road or a change in the landscape. Now it was dark and his vision was restricted to what the car's headlights illuminated and the fault line between the black earth and the dark blue sky. Clouds were billowing up as far as he could tell, blacking out the bright pinpoints of light that not long before coated the sky like rhinestones. The monotonous scrub landscape continued. It was an alien landscape to him and he was now resigned to it remaining that way. A little over a month ago he found this same landscape beautiful in its desolation. He briefly looked at Lucinda out of the corner of his eye. She was expressionless as she stared into the distance. At one point he thought he had got beneath the surface of her countenance but now accepted all he knew about her was the same hard outer shell that everyone knew as Lucinda. He dismissed his thoughts, for one thing he had learnt this past month was that he didn't even know himself so how could he know her? Whether it was Lucinda's eruptions of instability that prompted his erratic behaviour or whether it was the other way round he could not say. He went to light a cigarette.

'Please don't' Said Lucinda flatly.

He sighed, replaced the cigarette lighter and threw the cigarette onto the dashboard. It's a long road between love and hate he thought and they had travelled it at record speed. He settled back in the seat and rubbed each aching shoulder in turn. In the distance an explosion flashed, forked lightening ripped the fabric of the sky. A tremor shuddered through the breathless air, slowly increasing in volume before erupting into a great timpanic crescendo.

Ten seconds' She blandly stated, referring to the time between the lightening and thunder.

Even this he found irritating. She had a way of being moody that got right up his nose. How could he have ever found it amusing? In a series of intervals lightening streaked the sky followed by violent quakes of thunder. Great globules of rain splattered the windshield like exploding balls of sputum. Within the minute floods of water were flowing down the windshield almost overwhelming the efficiency of the wipers. Max squinted and pressed his nose against the screen as the quantity of rain impaired his vision. He ploughed on, aware he could lose sight of the road at any moment.

'Slow down. You're driving like an asshole.' Remarked Lucinda. Aware should she emphasise her concern too strongly she would only urge him on to greater speed.

Max carried on regardless but kept at a steady speed. He had no intention of losing control of the car and ending up off the road and so prove her right. They ploughed on into the storm. His nerves were alight as he drove on the edge of his skills. He felt like his whole body was glowing and was being charged up by the electric in the air.

'Take your clothes off.' He said out of nowhere.

'What?!' She looked at him with a screwed up face 'You must be mad'

'I said. Take your clothes off.' Trying hard not to lose his temper.

'No.' She said as she returned to staring blankly at the windshield.

'TAKE YOUR DAMN CLOTHES OFF!' He screamed.

Lucinda jolted as though a bolt of lightening had just passed through her. She sat and waited for her heartbeat to return to a more normal rate. Uncertain of his intentions she considered the possibilities before obeying. She pulled her tank top over her head and she then shuffled out of her shorts, remaining in her underwear.

'All of them!' He emphasised through gritted teeth.

Looking at him suspiciously she slipped her arms out of her bra straps, pulling the bra down and releasing her breasts, then turning the bra round her torso she unhooked the bra and pulled it free. He turned and burnt a stare into her eyes as if to say she had not yet finished. She pressed her back against the back of the seat and lifted her ass and rolled her panties off over her thighs. Settling back in the seat she lifted her knees and slipped the offending garment off altogether, letting them drop to the floor.

'Happy now?' She said as she raised her eyebrows.

'No.' He said simply and careened the car to the side of the road before hitting the brakes. 'Now get the fuck out!'

'You're crazy!' She exclaimed. Refusing to believe he meant his command.

'Out!' He leant over her and opened the car door 'Out! Get out!'

'Nooo!' She protested.

'Out out out!' He said as he pushed her out of the car. Lucinda unable to fight his strength, rolled off the seat and out of the car, landing on her feet, only to feel them sink into the wet earth.

'Stop it Max. Let me back in.' She cried 'Please.' Hoping this was some sort of joke.

'I want you at least ten yards from the car.' He insisted as he pointed into the night. 'Ten yards!' He emphasised.

Lucinda retreated from the car, on the edge of panic should he drive off and leave her there. For the moment she thought the best thing would be to obey him. Once she was as far from the car as Max had ordered she turned and looked back forlornly in the pouring rain. Max studied her as she was lit up by the lightening. She was small and fine boned which gave her a vulnerable look that was now emphasised as she stood with one arm across her breasts and a hand over her crotch. Her bobbed hair was quickly plastered to her skull in the driving rain. When the lightening lit up the landscape he could see her flinch. Her big mournful eyes pleading with him. She looked like a waif, it always was her way at getting round him, he was too sentimental but not this time he thought. Lucinda remained exposed to the lashing of the torrential rain and terrorised by the celestial eruptions that threatened to tear the earth apart and her with it. She had stopped trying to protect her modesty and wrapped her arms around herself as she hunched her back to reduce her vulnerability but remained standing so not to disobey Max, who observed her from the car. Her eyes were wide and full of fear. Max loved those big eyes and would always love those big eyes, long after all vestiges of feeling for her had been expunged from his mind.

'LET ME BACK IN THE CAR!' She screamed through the roar of the storm as her nerve began to fail her. Max looked back passively, not so much ignoring her as revelling as she teetered on the edge of panic. The sky fractured and blistered letting out a great CRACK and a blinding FLASH immediately above, prompting Lucinda to bolt for the car. He waited until she was just about to dive into the car before pulling the door shut on her. 'Let me in! Let me in!' She cried as she hammered on the window.

He opened the window slightly to make sure she could hear him 'Not before you go back and stand where I told you to stand.' He said firmly.

She turned with a look of defeat and quickly trotted back to where she had been standing. Was her spirit broken or was this her doggedness to do she was instructed? He wasn't sure if it was this lack of certainty that left him indecisive as to whether he should bring the scene to an end or to continue. There was a certain piquancy and delight in his wickedness that made him decide to continue her torture. Whether love or hate, there was a necessary cruelty that had to be meted out on the person who consumed ones passions, he concluded. The more he could enhance her fragility the more he wanted to consume her. He put his feet up on the passenger seat and looked through the open door at the forlorn figure that was shivering in the pelting rain. There were times when he could just lose himself while he studied her as all sorts of erotic and sadistic thoughts drifted through his head. One moment his hand is stealthily sliding up between her thighs while his tongue fights with hers, the next moment he is pushing her face into the sodden earth as he attacks her from behind. There was no way to control the flood of images that flashed up in his head as Lucinda was left abandoned to the elements. She was kneeling at his feet begging him to thrust his erection in her mouth when the spell was broken.

'LET ME IN THE CAR!' She yelled through the rain that was now easing somewhat 'PLEEEASE!'

Max suddenly became bored and waved Lucinda back to the car before having second thoughts 'ON YOUR KNEES!' He shouted at her as he changed hand signals to motion her down on the floor.

She halted for a moment and gave him a look of defiance before seeming to give a mental shrug as if to say, anything to get back to the car. Easing herself down onto all fours she splashed her way through the pools of mud that had formed. He enjoyed watching her breasts gently wobble from side to side as she crawled back to the car like a crippled beggar. Just as she was about to pick herself up to get in the car, he shut the passenger door and opened the rear door.

'Get in the back.' Reaching over into the back seat he spread a couple of towels around and pulled a blanket that was there over onto the front seat 'Dry yourself off then warm yourself in this.' He said holding up the blanket. Climbing with some effort into the car she flopped onto the back seat before curling up and wrapping the towels around herself. She attempted a few pathetic wipes of the towel.

'I'm just spreading shit over myself.' She struggled to articulate through chattering teeth before pulling the blanket out of Max's hands. 'You can be a sadistic bastard at times, Max.' She lamented.

'You're the one that likes extreme games!' He said defensively.

'I like games that arouse me and end in wild sex.' She said giving up on him. He noted she said, "sex" as opposed to "love making" and wondered if this was a shift in how she saw their relationship. Relationship, he repeated in his head. She was always talking about damn relationships at one point. Slipping back into position in the driver's seat he started the engine and pulled away.

'Get some rest while you're back there.' He said trying to bring any discussion to a close before it started.

It all started out so well but don't all relationships? There was that word again, relationship. He was just sating his lust and while she wanted a relationship. Hell! He had just liberated her from one relationship. She dropped out of university against her parent's will to shack up with a loser. No doubt she was happy for a week or two while her loser lover had the will and the energy to make sure she went to sleep with a smile on her face. After that she was too proud to admit she had made the dumbest move she was ever likely to make and took a job serving tables, to spare herself the humiliation of admitting to herself her parents were right. Then he turned up at the rundown diner with his talk of going to Hollywood with a script. If he had bathed in a tub of pheromones he could not have got a more aroused response, she was instantly on heat. He was not only someone whose horizons went beyond the town limits but he had arrived with a dream too. Since then they had been avoiding arriving and just kept driving around fucking each other's brains out, living on the money he had saved to keep him going while he set up in Hollywood.

Dawn broke on the tail of the storm. Time had drifted by with the miles without making much of an impression on Max. He had been busy scouring the time he had spent with Lucinda. The fresh young woman who had attached herself to him had proved to have a wild side she had been intent on discovering with him. She had sucked him into her fantasies with her and with their collective lack of experience of such mind games had put tensions on the initial trust they had too quickly cultivated. Where he had been content with the wild abandon and explicit talk of newly infatuated lovers, she had soon confessed conventional carnal exploration bored her. "Treat me like a nasty slut that needs controlling" she had implored. Max had proved lost with this demand and she had been too inexperienced to guide him. They had pinballed each other unsatisfactorily from one experience to another, either creating such an erotic tension they hit a heady high or more often than not, they left each other feeling flat and empty.

He glanced over into the back seat to see Lucinda still sleeping as they entered the town of Wellbeing, population six thousand seven hundred and twenty four. His initial impression was a town that seemed populated by old folk and the young who looked too retarded to cope with a world outside their restricted horizons. Maybe it was his metropolitan prejudice that painted such a picture. He drove down the main street and pulled up into a parking lot outside the hardware store. Checking the back seat again, Lucinda was still in Neverland. Tidying the car he left her where she was and made his way across the road to the diner where he sat at the rear in the shadows and ordered breakfast. From where he sat he could see the car and watch people looking into it as they passed along the sidewalk.

'I'll have to try some of that coffee myself.' Said a voice.

He looked round 'Huh?'

'You've been sat there with a stoned grin on your face for the last five minutes.' Explained the waitress who had been serving him. He gave her a less vacant smile as if to say he was pleased with himself. She left him to his breakfast.

An old man entered the diner 'The country is out of control if you ask me.'

'Why?' Asked the cook behind the counter as though not to ask would only lengthen the old man's tales of woe.

'Darn naked woman under a blanket in that car across the road.' Said the old man as though he was suitably shocked at such deplorable exhibitionism.

'How do you know she's naked if she's under a blanket?' Came the bored reply.

'You don't get to my age without seeing a thing or two.' Staking his claim as a font of worldly wisdom as he looked round at the car.

Max spotted Lucinda's head pop up in the back of the car like it was on a spring. 'Jesus!' he chuckled to himself.

'What are you laughing at son?' Said the old man raising his eyebrows, drawing Max to say what he's got to say. 'This town has standards!' Max put his hands up in surrender.

'Yep. This town has standards.' Smiled the cook 'That's why everyone is leaving.'

Max returned to observing Lucinda who was looking quite frantic in the car. He slowly finished his coffee and ordered a burger and coke to take out. Meanwhile Lucinda was pulling the blanket up round her shoulders while mouthing a curse. Aimed at him no doubt. He paid and took the burger and coke from the counter on his way out and made over to the car.

'Jesus!' Came the greeting from Lucinda as he opened the car door 'Where the fuck have you been?'

'Getting your breakfast.' He said handing her the bag. 'You were asleep and I thought it would be a shame to wake you.'

'No you fuckin' didn't.' She accused 'You thought it would be a big laugh to leave me here naked in the middle of this god forsaken town!' Taking the burger out of the bag she took a bite 'Where the fuck are my clothes?'

'In the trunk.' He said as he started the car. 'I tidied up in here. It was like a shit heap.'

'My clothes are not shit. Now turn the engine off and get my clothes out of the trunk!' She said as she spat burger.

Max ignored her 'The guy in the diner said there is a motel on the way out of town. We'll head for there.' Lucinda saw no point in arguing and carried on eating. Max looked in the rear view mirror. She was pissed but when wasn't she? He cruised down the main street scanning the road ahead.

'Why did you do that?' She began again now her burger was finished.

'What?' He said, only half listening as he spotted the motel that seemed far too large for the clientele it could attract on this dirt track of a highway. Pulling off the road he pulled in front of the office. Lucinda gave up once again and waited patiently for Max to return. This time she decided to protest in silence.

'Okay what's eating you?' He asked feeling the ice in the air.

'Oh nothing.' She said 'Just some fucking jerk took my clothes!'

'Here we are.' He said, ignoring her again as he pulled up outside a room. He got out of the car and opened the door and went inside leaving Lucinda open mouthed in the car. She got out wrapped in the blanket and followed him into the room.

'What about my clothes?' She asked, conscious she sounded like she was on a loop. Turning he gave her a "shut up" look, then pulled the blanket off her leaving her standing naked in the middle of the room.

'You need a shower. I'm not fucking you covered in that shit.' He said referring to the dried mud from the storm.

'You're not fucking me full stop!' She snarled.

Satisfying herself she had impressed on Max that she was taking a shower for reasons of her own comfort, she then disappeared into the bathroom. When she reappeared in the room Max was stripped to his underpants and was pretending to be asleep on top of the bed. He listened to her cursing him about her having to remain naked because he had not yet unpacked the car. She perplexed Max with her demands for him to use her like he owned her and then demand for such ownership to be on her terms. At times he found the stewardship of her erotic fantasies too much and he just wanted to go back to straight forward "wham bam thank you mam" sex. How the hell was he to know what turned her on, whenever he made real one of her fantasies she would complain that such a literal translation was not enough. He had to use her fantasy like a musician uses a manuscript she would insist and play her like a violin, interpreting the abstract ideas on the page into reality with feeling. Why hadn't he taken a degree in "female submissive erotic psychology" rather than English literature? He felt Lucinda scramble beneath the bed covers and regretted he had remained on top, pretending to be asleep.

By the time he had woke up the sun was high and the room was sauna hot. He felt as though he had a ball of damp cotton wool in his throat and yawned to rid himself of the feeling. Lucinda had kicked off the bed covers in an attempt to get cool but remained asleep. She was on her back with her arms outstretched and her legs slightly parted like she had been poleaxed and maybe she had! Max felt as though he had been in a deep sleep and one deep enough not to be woken by such an attack on her. Approaching her from the bottom of the bed he gingerly parted her legs a little more and eased his way up the bed between them until his nose was no more than a foot from her pudendum. Her labia was cute and protruded somewhat, surrounded by neatly trimmed hair. Small almost microscopic pearls of sweat had formed on her mound giving off a mellow scent of sex. He had the urge to take a bite of her or violently penetrate her with his fingers, watching them disappear up to his knuckles. There was something invitingly masochistic about the way she gasped when penetrated, as though she was willing him to ever more aggressive attacks on her. There was a desire in him to step back and watch her respond to being fanatically fucked, in a way he that required him to be an observer rather than a participant in the act.

He took off his underpants and released his erection from their restraint. His initial thought was to ease his shaft deep into her cleft but on glancing at her face he noticed her mouth was slightly open. It was one of her fantasies to wake up to a penis being rammed down her throat and this thought had the reaction of hardening his already stiff cock. He straddled her across her chest, a movement that woke her. Just as her eyes opened he thrust his shaft into her mouth and thrust hard. Lucinda fought, flailing her legs and arms in an effort to break free. He carried on thrusting, ignoring her fight. Minutes seemed to pass rather than moments it really was, when Lucinda relaxed and sequenced her breathing to his pumping action. Her eyes sparkled with hungered arousal. It was at moments like this when Max had done the right thing at the right time, all the angst he experienced in his role as dominant seemed worth while. Buttressing himself against the headboard he carried on thrusting down into her mouth, ever more aroused by Lucinda who had begun to masturbate. He gasped as he made the last few forceful strokes as he ejaculated into her mouth.

'There's your breakfast, slut.' He cursed, knowing she enjoyed dirty talk. He got off her and dressed as he watched her bring herself off.

After she had savoured the spasm that had welled up between her legs she turned her attention to Max 'Where are you going?' She quizzed.

'I'm going to get some condoms and finish you off!' he stressed.

'What!?' She exclaimed incredulously 'You haven't got any?'

'No.' He said, giving her a look that suggested he thought she'd understand 'Just keep yourself aroused and I'll be back before you know I've been gone.'

'I'm not a clock that can be wound up.' She tailed off, not knowing whether to believe what she was hearing or not.

'I could always bust your ass. We don't need condoms for that.' Giving her an alternative choice.

'Fuck off and get some condoms!' She bawled, throwing a lamp at him in frustration. He caught it and put it on the floor as he rushed out of the room.

If the moon had a town it would be like Wellbeing, he thought. What amenities it had were basic, just the barest necessities to survive. He was looking for a drug store but he had either blinked and missed it or there wasn't one. Not believing that even a town like Wellbeing could not have a drug store, he turned as the town appeared to peter out at the opposite end of the main street to the motel. It was then he noticed Bernie's Bar. If he could miss a bar he could certainly miss a drug store he concluded. The invitation of a beer overwhelmed his sexual appetite that had been somewhat subdued. After a brief thought about Lucinda trapped naked in the motel room, he weighed up the consequences and pulled over to the bar. With a bit of luck there would be a vending machine in the john anyway.

In the bar were two guys a little older than him that were drinking and whom he assumed was Bernie, serving behind the bar. The men looked too bright to come from Wellbeing so he assumed they were like him, passing through.

He put up his finger signalling to Bernie 'A beer please Bernie.' He said, being somewhat familiar.

'Joe to you.' Said the barman dryly 'Bernie died ten years ago.' Then adding with an air of resignation 'This bar has never made enough profit to change the sign.'

Oops, thought Max 'Better make that a large beer then.' Joe gave him a sarcastic look that said he was eternally grateful, prompting Max to head straight to the bathroom. There as he had hoped, was a vending machine. First he relieved himself, where he took note of a series of grazes made by Lucinda's teeth along the length of his penis. Everything has its price, he thought with a philosophical note. He fiddled with his loose change and won two double packs of condoms out of the vending machine. Pleased with himself he returned to the bar where his beer was waiting. He emptied his pockets of a cell phone, cigarettes and the condoms so he could comfortably bend his thighs and hitch himself up onto a barstool.

'I can see someone is in for some fun.' Said one of the guys down the bar.

Max gave the guy a puzzling look before realising he had noted the condoms 'Oh!' He smiled 'I had my fun this morning.' He admitted, feeling little allegiance to Lucinda.

'So you're out celebrating your conquest?' Asked the guy, as if testing whether Max's adventure could be shared over a beer or whether it was a more private and intimate affair.

'Well you know yourself, once you've dabbled its no fun hanging around to be compared.' Smiled Max, betraying Lucinda a little more. 'I'm having time out before going back to finish what I begun.' He said as if confessing to at least a little emotional investment.

'If you prefer a beer, me and Jeff will go and finish the job off.' Said the other guy. Then slapping his friends shoulder 'Hell! We'll have her coming so hard and fast it'll be next month before getting laid crosses her mind again.'

'Oh not with this one.' Said Max carelessly, as he drank beer on an empty stomach. The bar went quiet but an excitement stayed in the air as he sensed the two guys whiff the vague scent of a brief encounter. He thought how little over an hour ago as he contemplated Lucinda's lean body, he visualised her being taken by another man. The idea he found a turn on and Lucinda had confided in him that the idea of being taken by strange men was a hot fantasy. He became a little despondent The last couple of days he had made real a couple of her fantasies which didn't seem appreciated. However this morning's was, he smiled and ordered himself another beer. Any pangs of jealousy were anaesthetised by the alcohol. He threw a packet of condoms along the bar

'She's at the motel on the way out of town, in room six.' They looked a handsome couple of guys as far as he could tell. Lucinda might really go a bundle on them, he thought.

'Are you serious?' Said the first guy as he studied Max.

'Sure!' Said Max with an air of bravado 'Let me know how you get on.'

The two guys looked at each other and laughed 'What's you're game man?' Said the second guy.

'Nothin'.' Max replied, now suddenly feeling a little resentful of Lucinda for being critical of his attempts to make real her fantasies 'Look. I've been organising making a few of her fantasies for her....yah know....she tells me what turns her on and I sort it......simple.'

The first guy nudged the second as he picked up the pack of condoms 'We've got to get going and we're going past the motel. Maybe we'll take up your offer.' He said thoughtfully, as the two guys paid their bill and left. Max was left alone with Joe, the barman. He ordered another beer.

'Don't you think that was just a little dumb?' Joe commented more than he asked as he placed a beer in front of Max.

'Why?' Asked Max who couldn't see any problem, largely because of the beer he had consumed.

'You've set those guys up for a rape charge.' Said Joe through pursed lips 'Not to mention freaking out whoever the woman is back at the motel.'

'Oh. She's a regular nymphomaniac, she'll take all comers.' He lied, uncertain as to whether he was trying to convince himself of this fact or if he was fending off Joe's disturbing observations.

'I hope the hell you're right.' Commented Joe as he disappeared into a room at back of the bar, leaving Max to brood over his beer.

Max looked into his beer and found no reassurance there. Lucinda would love fighting with the erections of the two strangers, he tried to convince himself. He visualised a montage of images of her in a multitude of positions trying to reach for that extra stimulation to send her over the edge. She's a slave to sex he insisted as he heard her voice in his head demanding more and demanding it harder. However he was not so much convincing himself as stirring up jealousy that had started to twist his guts. He jumped thoughts, what if Joe was right? What if he had set up a disaster? Maybe the guys faced with a beautiful naked woman would lose control? Damn. He had encouraged the guys to think Lucinda would throw her legs in the air in an act of surrender but would she? Why would he want these guys to fuck her anyway? Why had he presumed it would be something what she really hungered for in reality? He got off his stool and lit a cigarette and walked up and down the bar. What the hell was he thinking of? Why doesn't he just go to the motel and rescue the situation? He looked at his watch as if time was significant in the matter. It would be too late, if anything were happening it would already be happening. The truth is that frantic as he was, he would have found it unmanly to prevent something that had been so clearly an invitation. Despite all the jealousy that was fermenting inside him it was this need to remain a man in front of his own gender that kept him paralysed. He lit another cigarette only this time he sat back on the stool and forced himself to wait.

Joe appeared out of the back 'No sirens yet.' He commented.

'And there won't be.' Said Max trying to keep panic at bay. He ordered another beer, not so much because he wanted one, he just needed a distraction.

'Will you be driving afterwards?' Asked Joe, more out of curiosity than any safety concern.

'Have you got a problem?' Squinted Max.

Joe put up his hands 'Nope. I make little enough in here.'

Everything went silent again and Max returned to brooding. After consuming several more cigarettes and a beer in an effort to control his fretting, he was shocked out of his self pity by the sudden ring of his cell phone. He made a grab for the phone as though he was in competition with Joe to answer it.

'Max here!' Anxiously announcing himself to the caller.

'YOU ASSHOLE!' Blurted a voice 'YOU FUCKING MANIAC!' The voice carried on 'YOU COULD HAVE GOT ME RAPED!'

Max's initial reaction was to pull the phone away from his ear 'Lucinda! Are you okay? Where are you? What happened?' He said wanting as much information as quick as possible, to ease his guilt more than out of any real concern for Lucinda.

'Oh I'm okay.' Came the reply with a sudden softening of tone before another blast 'BUT NO THANKS TO YOU JERK!'

'Where are you? Tell me!' He asked urgently.

'Would you believe me if I said I was on my way to Vegas with two of the nicest guys a girl could wish to meet in A FUCKING MOTEL ROOM!'

'I'm coming to get you!' Promised Max.

'I don't want you to.' She replied 'I'm in the middle of a good time, MUSCLE HEAD!'

'ITS JUST A FUCKIN' FANTASY BITCH!' He screamed down the phone.

'Hey if you want to use that language, outside!' Intervened Joe.

'Like who the fuck am I upsetting.' Asked Max 'Your customers?' He added looking round the empty bar.

'Adios Max.' Said the voice in the phone.

'COME BACK HERE BITCH!' He screamed at the phone.

'Oi Language!' Said Joe forcefully.

'Haven't you got a dick to suck on?' Asked Max thrusting his finger at Joe as he left the bar, slamming the door behind himself.

Within a moment Max banged his way back into the bar with his arm extended and pointing a gun at Joe the barman who looked up in surprise, unable to register what was happening.

'HAND OVER THE MONEY FUCKER!' Screamed Max, frightening himself more than Joe.

Joe put his hands up when reality clicked 'Com'on man. I've got little enough.' He protested.

'ON THE FUCKIN' FLOOR!' Cried Max, poking the gun in Joe's face. 'I'LL GET THE FUCKIN' MONEY MYSELF!.

Joe looked into Max's eyes and realising how nervous Max was duly opened the till and got onto the floor. Max jumped over the bar keeping the gun pointing in the general direction of Joe and made a grab for the few dollars in the open till. Jeez! He thought. This place really is on the road to fucking ruin! He barely had more than his own money back and now he was on the most wanted list! Meeting Lucinda was like meeting the 'She Devil' he blamed. Within moments, Max was in the car with his foot pressed to the floor and the engine screaming. If his Ford could have done a wheelie down the main street it would have but it couldn't so he just screeched erratically away. After making several people scramble to the side of the road in fear of their life, he got to the edge of town to realise he was driving in the wrong direction. Immediately he put his foot on the brake and simultaneously made a U turn. Half way through the manoeuvre and almost sending the car into a spin, he remembered that such a turn required use of the handbrake. Almost pulling the handbrake out of the floor he ground the car to a halt in a cloud of dust, exhaust fumes and burning rubber as it straddled the main street. Unperturbed by his near disaster he started the engine again, screeching off in the opposite direction, leaving another group of people running for their lives. He was quickly leaving Wellbeing behind him as he sped down the highway with his foot to the floor and his nose to the windshield, willing the car to go faster. His pathetic robbery to regain his money for gas was quickly forgotten amongst all his other attempts to play the anti-hero for Lucinda and focused on the job in hand, the road. He had yet to consider what he would do once he had caught up with the car he was chasing.

After tailgating several cars to study their occupants before overtaking them and leaving them behind with drivers trembling in his wake, he saw a vaguely familiar Oldsmobile cruising along in front of him. Within minutes he was nose to ass with the suspect car and recognised the back of Lucinda's head. He had driven up her rear end enough times, there was no way he could mistake someone else for her, he maliciously sniggered. It was then he realised this was more about him than her, which caused him to ease off the gas and consider things a little more. Why had he initiated this chase? Only twenty four hours ago he would have been happy for Lucinda to have left him. He gave up. How was he supposed to know the finer points that were driving him through a mist of jealousy, lust and alcohol? Pressing his foot on the gas he once again eased up behind the Oldsmobile before blasting it with his horn and flashing his lights at it. The car in front jerked erratically for a moment as Max stirred up a commotion. Three faces suddenly looked round at him, the driver a little longer than he should have as the car briefly hit the side of the road. Lucinda was looking at him nonplussed. She had obviously not expected to see Max again, which boiled his blood. He pulled out into the opposite lane to overtake Oldsmobile when it accelerated away and started to swing from one side of the road to the other to defeat his manoeuvre. Several times he was confounded in this way. There was only one thing for it and that was to scare them into stopping. He again eased up behind the Oldsmobile only this time when it accelerated away he stayed right behind it not allowing the car to slow down without having Max's car hit them. They were up to doing a ton along the two lane highway when the driver of the Oldsmobile cracked, waving his hand out of the window as he signalled Max to slow down. As the Oldsmobile slowed down Max pulled in front of it to prevent it pulling away. He studied the car in his rear view mirror and when he was content no funny business was going to be tried he took hold of a heavy wrench and got out of the car. Holding the wrench with purpose he approached the offending car.

'Give me back my girl or I'll smash this mobile junkyard!' He threatened.

'Now just hold on there!' Said the driver as he sat well back from his open window 'She wanted to come with us!'

'Get out of the fucking car Lucinda!' ordered Max ignoring the driver. Lucinda remained seated in the back of the Oldsmobile, her eyes flashing between the three men. After some silence Max continued 'She's coming with me.' He stated once again looking at the driver.

'Considering the day's events why the fuck would she want to go with you?' Asked the driver as though he had just played checkmate. Max dropped his pants and lifted his shirt. 'Okay.' Said the driver, nodding his head slightly 'You've got a dead snake between your legs.'

The second guy pushed over the driver and took a look at Max 'Jesus. That's not human!' he exclaimed.

'It gets no bigger when it salutes.' Said an unimpressed Lucinda.

'It doesn't need to!' Said the second guy more than impressed.

'Are we going to Vegas or are you going to admire his ...his...' She stuttered as she searched for the most appropriate name for his penis in the current situation before settling on the proper name '...penis all day!'

Both guys looked round at her and said simultaneously 'I can't match that!'

'Is the world always reduced to the size of your fucking penises!?' She looked at them in turn before putting her head in her hands 'Oh my god, it is!' She said feigning despair.

Max pulled his pants up and brandished the wrench once again 'If she is not out of your car in ten seconds I'm going to smash your fucking lights.' He warned through gritted teeth 'One, two, three, four...'

'Get out of the fucking car. He means it!' demanded the driver as he leant over to open the rear door.

'I'm not!' said Lucinda defiantly.

' GET OUT OF THE FUCKIN' CAR!' Commanded the driver. Freaked by the sheer volume of his voice she leapt out of the car.

'You fucking asshole!' She screamed back at the driver, as she stood there in a shirt that fitted her like a caftan and pants that had been turned up so much she appeared to have great doughnuts round her calves. 'You promised you would take me to Vegas, welch!'

'That was before I knew your boyfriend was nuts!' said the driver.

'He gave me away!' she carried on screaming at him 'Of course he's fucking nuts!'

The second guy leant over the driver again 'Hey. I want my clothes back.'

'Fuck you!' She yelled.

'Give him back his clothes.' Ordered Max.

'If you think I'm going to stand here naked...' She started to say as she clenched her fists and turned her attention to Max.

'GIVE THE GUY BACK HIS CLOTHES!' He bawled at her.

In a fit of temper she ripped the shirt off, spraying buttons around and threw the garment at the driver's open window before doing the same with the pants. 'Happy now?' She said as she stared defiantly at Max for a moment before going to sit on a rock at the side of the road.

'You're going to burn sat there naked in this sun.' Max said in a reasonable voice before adding 'NOW GET IN THE DAMN CAR!' The three men watched her walk over to Max's car in a huff before opening the passenger door 'IN THE BACK!' Max yelled. Lucinda signalled to him with her finger before getting into the rear of the car. 'Okay gents. Thanks.' He said to the two guys in the Oldsmobile as if they had just given him directions before following Lucinda back to the car.

'Think nothing of it. JERK!' Said the driver.

The passenger leant over the driver again 'Do you want your condoms back?' He said holding out the small packet.

'Will you stop doing THAT!' Said the driver getting irritated as he pushed back his friend.

'Damn right I do!' Replied Max as he returned rather sheepishly for the condoms and snatched them out of the passenger's hand. He returned to the car, getting in behind the wheel and slamming the door. He looked in the rear view mirror to see Lucinda with her arms tightly folded and her lips pursed.

She took the opportunity to ask 'When do I get to have my clothes out of the trunk?'

Max looked round at her and scowled 'When I say so.' He remained staring at her with his face twisted in frustration with her 'NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP!' He turned and sat looking forward for a moment waiting to see if there was some backchat. There was none. He started the engine. The two guys sat in the safety of their car making exaggerated gestures of jerking off at Max. Max got out, only this time he didn't brandish a wrench he was brandishing his gun. The two guys who were alarmed to see Max back out of the car and strutting towards them, began to freak at the sight of his gun. The driver of the car started the engine and put his foot down and stalled the car, forgetting to take his handbrake off. Within seconds they were looking straight into the eyes of Max's screwed up face. Max shot the six bullets in his gun randomly into the windscreen of the car, hitting both guys before turning away and strolling back to the car, not caring if the guys were dead but sure in the knowledge he'd have no more trouble from them.

Max got back into the car and screamed at Lucinda 'NOW LOOK WHAT YOU"VE MADE ME GO AND DO!

Lucinda ignored him and the shooting incident altogether, it was as though he had no more gone to take a piss. She remained sulking on the back seat until she could restrain herself no more 'You know this is kidnapping?' she stated flatly.

'So what?' He said, again looking at her in the rear view mirror. Her defiance had failed to mask the spark that had returned to her eye. Inside he allowed himself a little smile of smug satisfaction. He was beginning to enjoy his roll and she could learn to love it or at least get used to it. The beast has been aroused he told himself. If she wanted her fantasies realised he was going to do it and on his terms. It was not lost on him that to excite Lucinda he just needed to ignore her whims and do what the damn well pleased with her. He felt an erotic energy surge through his body as he felt in total control of Lucinda's wayward spirit.