Needs (An Erotic Pulsation) by Scarlet Chill

Delicious Freedom
    With a shudder, Steel glanced over his shoulder at the wire fence as it slowly became smaller in the distance.  Shoving his hands in the pockets of his torn stonewashed jeans, he headed towards the bus station.  With only $80 to his name and not a single family member to stand beside him, Steel had no idea where he would go.  But one thing was certain: he was getting the hell out of Oregon.  Ten years of false imprisonment for murder in the state’s most notorious men’s correctional institution had infused a vagabond longing in the 37 year old man.
    Browsing the various destinations at the bus station, he selected a route bound for Oakland, California.  He had never been to California but had spent countless hours in prison dreaming about the Golden State…and about its beautiful, tanned women.  Handing over a 5 dollar bill to the driver, Steel walked towards the back of the bus and took a window seat.   Immediately, he felt a pair of suspicious eyes boring into him from the side.  Steel knew he made an intimidating spectacle in his tattered old clothes that were too tight for his exquisitely defined muscles.  He scoffed under his breath, thinking how the old woman staring at him didn’t know what he had endured in the past decade.  Exercise, in the form of hours of punishing daily drills in his cell, had been his only release.
    Steel stared out the window throughout the entire bus ride, grinning crookedly when he saw a sign that said “Leaving Portland” and smiling from ear to ear as they crossed the border into California.  He drank in the sights as though he had spent the past 10 years as a blind man and finally received the gift of vision.  But the gnawing concerns of where he would sleep and how he would earn money were like new prison bars forming around his heart.
    Wrestling his concern’s aside, Steel exhaled in relief as the bus pulled into the station.  Oakland wasn’t a pretty city, but it also wasn’t his final destination.  On a particularly brutal day laboring in the prison yard, Steel had decided that he would go to the glorious wine country of Sonoma if he were ever set free.  That way, if he couldn’t find a job or a place to sleep, at least he could drink himself into oblivion with fine wine.
    Steel boarded the connecting bus as his stomach rumbled.  He hadn’t enjoyed a good meal since the days before his bogus murder trial.  During the trial for the homicide of his neighbor, he had been so stressed that he lost all appetite for food.  In prison, his appetite had returned with a vengeance, but he couldn’t stomach the moldy sandwiches and mystery meat, so he usually wolfed down a stack of protein bars from Commissary.
    But tonight would be different.  Rubbing his hands together, he salivated at the thought of a thick steak marinated in its own juices and served alongside a pillow of mashed potatoes drowning in salty gravy.  A spicy bottle of Pinot Noir would go nicely with that meal.  So what if he would be flat broke after eating like a king?  He had been living like a pauper for too long and couldn’t endure another minute of it.
    Spying an expensive steakhouse shortly after hopping off the bus, Steel began striding towards it and then stopped dead in his tracks.  Grimacing, he looked down at the rags he wore and touched a hand to his unshaven face.  His electric blue eyes shone with rage as he realized that he wouldn’t be seated in the restaurant without a jacket and tie.  So he improvised and plodded over to a national chain steakhouse and sat in the corner.  The meal might not be as tasty, but at least it would leave him with some money.  Then he could use the remainder of the funds to do a little tasting at a local winery.
    The waitress who took his order wore a black apron and a swinging auburn ponytail.  She was young and fresh and looked very appealing in his state of sensory deprivation.  But she was just a girl.  Not more than 18