After the Rain (The Twisted Fate Series Book 1) (7 page)

“Fine,” Marcus said, peeling off his shirt and tossing it to the ground. “Let’s do it.”

“Good. Good. Let’s go for it. Whoo-hoo.” Stormy clapped her hands and readied herself. He couldn’t help but notice how her breasts shook a little as she moved. She was obviously very comfortable with her body. It showed – and it made her even sexier.

“Yes, let’s do it.” Marcus was loosening his belt now and pulling his pants down.

“Abso-mundo,” Stormy agreed, appearing fired up and ready to go. She jumped from side to side, almost like a cheerleader with pom-poms. “It doesn’t have to be long or a whole big thing. Just a quick
wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am
and then it’s out of our systems.”

“You’re right! No big deal. Just a quickie.” Marcus had pulled his clothes off and was also completely naked now. He couldn’t help but notice how Stormy’s eyes moved over his body, lower and lower, and settled on his…

“Mmmm,” she actually mumbled it out loud.

“Mmm, what?” He felt a bit sheepish now, under the intensity of her gaze.

“Mmm, not bad!” Stormy replied.

“You too,” Marcus responded awkwardly. Although what he really wanted to say was,
the most amazing thing I
’ve ever seen
. But as he gazed at her, and she gazed back, as they looked from each other’s eyes to naked body parts and back again, the whole thing started to feel
very
awkward. The silence stretched between them, and neither one made a move. This thing started to feel like a doctor looking at a patient.

“Okay,” Stormy said a little less enthusiastically, shuffling from side to side. “So, let’s do it.” She fist pumped the air. “Yee-ha! Lets go!”

“Yes! Okay. Let’s go for it,” Marcus responded enthusiastically, almost as if he were trying to convince himself.

Except no-one moved. They both stood dead still.

“I can’t just
do it
, just like this. We need to… you know, kiss first or something,” Marcus finally said, painfully aware that although there was a beautiful naked woman in front of him, his body was simply not responding in the way it should have been.

“Okay.” Stormy moved closer to Marcus. She tilted her head to the left to go in for a kiss – just as Marcus did the same thing.

“Sorry,” he mumbled as they bumped noses, and tilted his head to the opposite side. But Stormy did the same.

“Um… you go left, and I’ll go right,” Marcus said, pointing in the different directions.

“Don’t tell me which way to go, what happens if I like right?”

“Okay, whatever, then go right and I’ll go left.” Marcus was getting frustrated now. This wasn’t exactly how he’d imagined them having sex. It felt wrong.

“I didn’t say I
wanted
to go right, I just said that
maybe
I wanted to.” Stormy placed her hands on her hips again in that defiant pose that he was becoming quite familiar with. It was her signature move.

Marcus sighed. “This is not working, is it?”

He looked her in the eye and he could see the relief. “No, it’s not.”

Admitting defeat, they both turned away from each other and went back to their wet, sticky clothes.

After pulling the wet stripper dress back on, Stormy walked over to the bed and sat down. Something about what had just happened left her feeling very uncomfortable.

She couldn’t put her finger on it. But it hadn’t felt good, offering herself up to him like that and then him not jumping her. Mind you, in that moment, she hadn’t exactly wanted to jump his bones, either. Goddess, that had been a total disaster. Luckily she wasn’t prudish with her body, or she might have been embarrassed about the nudey thing. Despite the awkwardness, she had to admit – he looked
good
. Better than good. His chest was broad and his stomach was chiseled and lined and rippled in all the places that Stormy had never thought she would find attractive. Muscles and ripped gym physiques had never been her thing, but when she’d gazed upon those two distinctive lines that had run in a ‘V’ all the way down to his…. Well, well, well, her mind had been changed. So why had it not happened, when she’d found him so damn hot?

When they were trying
not
to jump each other, they couldn’t control themselves. And when they were trying for mutual jumping, they chickened out. This was strange – to say the least. She felt Marcus sit down next to her and could sense he was thinking the same thing.

“Maybe we’re over it?” he offered quietly.

Stormy nodded. “Yeah, maybe we are.”

“Well that’s good news, isn’t it?”

“I guess it is.” Stormy turned towards him, and his dark eyes met hers.

“We need to change into dry clothes or we’ll get sick. Why don’t you go shower first and get into some more dry stripper clothes?”

Stormy smiled at him. Strange turn of events this was, wasn’t it. Their stars were well and truly crossed and confused and tied in crazy knots.

The warm water felt amazing as it rushed over her freezing cold, muddy body. She thought about Marcus sitting there in the other room alone, naked just a few minutes ago. What
was
this thing between them? It was volatile and clearly dangerous, since it had gotten them kicked out of a hotel and caught in a storm. But perhaps Marcus was right; maybe the sexual tension had finally fizzled out. Maybe the incident in the elevator had beaten it out of them.

Yes, that was probably it!

They were no longer sexually attracted to each other. Stormy breathed an enormous sigh of relief and hummed happily.

Marcus was relieved that they were finally over it.

It had gotten them kicked out of a hotel and into a deadly storm. Imagine what could have happened if they hadn’t found this motel? Mind you, finding it may yet result in catching some dreaded disease, from the look of that bed.

That bed!

Another issue.

One bed.

Two people and nothing but a dirty carpet to sleep on.

He looked up as he heard a happy humming coming from the shower. He couldn’t help but smile to himself. Stormy was definitely one of a kind. She was herself, all the time. Uncompromising. Genuine. No pretenses. She was just
Stormy
.

In a way, he envied that quality. If he said some of the things that he felt half the time, he’d probably be fired on the spot. Or if he came to work in some of the moods he’d been in recently – definitely fired. Especially since the break-up. Emily hadn’t made it easy; she’d been calling him constantly and had him on one of those guilt trips that women were so good at.

“Your turn!” Stormy said cheerfully, coming into the room wearing a towel.

Marcus jumped up fast – he’d never wanted a shower so badly.

The cascade of hot water was exactly what he needed, and he emerged from the tiny shower cubicle feeling like a new man. They had been traveling for almost twelve hours now, and it had been an exhausting day.

He wrapped the towel around his waist and walked into the room, where he was almost knocked off his feet. Stormy was wearing his shirt. That part he didn’t mind; but what he
did
mind was that she looked so damn hot in it. It was way too big and hung off her like a tent. This just made her look even more petite. There was something so intimate about wearing his shirt, like she’d stayed the night and they’d had sex, and she’d woken up and slipped it on.

“Hey,” she swung around. “Sorry, do you mind?” she asked a little sheepishly, gesturing down at the oversized rugby top.

Marcus shook his head. “Not at all.” He noticed that the green rugby jersey made the color of her eyes even more intense.

“I’ve never worn a rugby jersey,” Stormy said, running her hands over it. “In fact, I’ve never even watched a rugby match. It’s such a barbaric sport.”

Marcus gave her a knowing smile. “Of course you haven’t. What sport do you like?”

“I don’t believe in sport!” Stormy stated emphatically.

Marcus laughed out loud – he was starting to get her. Anything that was normal and that most people liked or took part in – she did not. “Why not?”

“It brings out aggression and competitiveness. Not cool.”

“Competition and aggression are what helped the human race survive. Imagine if our ancestors had sat around in their caves all day doing nothing.”

“Maybe. But it’s not okay for now. Our society is already way too agro, there’s far too much competition and capitalism already.”

Marcus was the epitome of all those things: aggressive in business, fiercely competitive and an unashamed capitalist. He liked making money and he wasn’t embarrassed of that fact – he worked hard for it.

“So tell me, Stormy, what is it that you actually
do
? Damien mentioned acting and something with crystals?”

Stormy shot him a cynical look. “You don’t really want to know what I do, you just want to mock me.”

“No, seriously, I do. No mocking intended. We have a whole night ahead of us in a pokey motel room. Might as well get to know each other, since we may be stuck here for a few days.”

Stormy looked startled at this. “You think? But the wedding…?”

Marcus walked over to the window and looked out again. “It will be a miracle if this is over by morning. And I don’t believe in miracles.”

“Oh, cheese and whiskers! I really wanted to be at the wedding.” She joined him at the window and looked out bleakly.

“Cheese and wh–?” Marcus stopped himself. “Never mind. We might just make it to the wedding, but I doubt we’ll make it to the wedding rehearsal. Unfortunately, it’s out of our control.”

“Mmmm. Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference,” Stormy murmured, wiping away some of the condensation that had gathered on the window.

“Huh?”

“The serenity prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous,” Stormy explained, making an elaborate drinking gesture. “My dad. He likes a few whiskeys.”

“Yes. Damien told me.”

Stormy nodded. “And you? What about your family?”

“No alcoholics. My parents are workaholics though, I guess.”

“See, there!” Stormy’s face lit up with a smile and she clapped her hands together. “Finally we have something in common: Parental-holics!”

Marcus smiled at her. She had such a strange way of talking about and looking at the world. “I suppose we do. That, and we share the same basic human anatomy,” he quipped sarcastically.

“Ha ha. I bet we’re not all that different. I bet if we got to know each other, we’d find we have lots in common.”

“Well, it looks like we’ve got a lot of time for that,” Marcus said. “But first, I need to put some clothes on. Can you turn around for a second?”

Stormy shot him an amused look. “It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”

“Exactly, so there’s no reason to see it again. Turn around,” Marcus commanded, making a circle gesture with his hands, and Stormy obliged.

“Just so you know, if you’re embarrassed, you have no need to be,” she said over her shoulder.

“Stormy!” Marcus exclaimed loudly. If he wasn’t embarrassed before, he was now. She had an uncanny ability of saying the most inappropriate things.

“I’m just saying, it’s very attractive.”

“Jesus! Do you have to say stuff like that?” Marcus felt his face growing hot.

“But it’s true. Good proportions and a good shape. You know, sometimes they can be a little strange-looking, like a bit too big on the top or –”

“Stop it, okay!” he cut her off, exasperated. “I can’t believe the stuff that comes out of your mouth sometimes. I’ve never met a person who says the things that you do.”

“I say what I say and mean what I think,” she replied tartly.

“I think you mean,
you say what you think and mean
what you say
.”

“Same thing,” she shrugged.

“No, it’s not.”

“Of course it is!”

“Nope.”

“Who says?”

“Um…” Marcus said, pulling on his pants and shirt. “Just about every literature or English teacher in the world.”

“Well, have you ever thought that maybe
they’re
all wrong?”