On Contract • Lashton AU

Part Thirty Five

Hemmings stayed totally silent as Ashton went upstairs to sort something out. Luke didn't know what, and he didn't care to know either.
When he heard the knock at the door, Luke momentarily panicked.
He knew he couldn't open the door but Ashton was still upstairs. Or so Luke thought, anyway.
Hemmings got up from where he was seated and headed into the hallway to call up the stairs to Ashton. But Ashton was already descending the stairs.
"What did I tell you about opening the door?" He snapped, ignoring Luke's flustered response as he near enough shoved him back into the living room.
As they ate, the room fell silent, although Ashton began to hold up a conversation after a while.
"So, how you holding up?" He asked Luke, and Luke simply shrugged.
How could he even respond to that without lying or pushing his luck with Ashton? He couldn't. So he chose the safer option of the two and lied.
"Okay, I guess, I mean, uh, I've never really been in this situation before..."
Ashton asked Luke a lot of questions as they ate, in an attempt to find out more about him, on a personal level.
Of course Ashton knew a lot about Luke, it was part of the job. He just needed more things to withhold from Hemmings, other than food and drink.
The rest of the evening was spent in a comfortable silence. That was before Ashton led Luke upstairs to the spare bedroom.
It was small and perhaps a little claustrophobic, but it seemed to be okay really. One thing that Luke hadn't expected the room to have was a bolt. On the inside. There was also one on the outside, which he didn't like the idea of, but this seemed like the only room in the house with an inside lock.
Just one more thing to add to the ever growing list of things he was grateful for Ashton doing.