Page 93 of The Spider & the Storm

Stormy turned away almost immediately to address the woman now standing at the counter. “Ashley, Melissa will ring you up, okay? You remember your aftercare?”

Ashley replied, “Of course.”

Stormy smiled, and although it wasn’t directed at me, I wanted to pretend that it was. “Cool. Come back and see me when you wanna get those snakebites.”

“I wouldn’t go to anyone else. Thanks again, Stormy.”

“Anytime, girl.”

I stood there, waiting. Staring. Focusing on nothing but her and the silver flecks gleaming against the deep emerald of her eyes. Like lightning illuminating a cloudy sky from within, and I was the spider, unexpectedly desperate to find shelter within her storm.

She returned her focus on me, tipping her head as her heavily lined eyes danced across my face, like she was trying to figure me out.

“Hey, mister,” she said, curling one side of her mouth into a half smile as she crossed her arms over her chest. “What brings you to my side of town?”

Before I could speak, my gaze quickly dodged toward Melissa and Ashley, still engaged in the transaction. As much as I wanted to spill my guts to Stormy—to tell her that I hadn’t stopped thinking about her since Blake’s party and that it had been many years since I’d taken the time to think of anyone new—I didn’t want to do it in front of these women.

Stormy followed my gaze, then sniffed a soft laugh before taking my hand in hers.

“Come back here,” she ordered, as if she wasn’t already dragging me through the heavy velvet curtain.

We entered a hallway adorned with framed pictures of tattoos. It branched off into workstations, sectioned off from the hall by more velvet curtains. With Stormy’s hand wrappedaround mine, she led me into a station at the end of the hall and pulled the curtain shut behind us. I took a moment to sweep my gaze over the small space. A heavy chest of drawers, an autoclave, and a cluttered countertop with a sink took up two walls of the room while the other housed a padded black chair and a matching stool on wheels.

I had gone with one of my ex-girlfriends to get a few piercings, and this room looked much like that one had nearly a lifetime ago. But this one was better; it washers. The wall toward the back was painted black, the wall behind the chairs was accented by a gallery of various framed pictures of skulls, and the mirror on the opposite wall was surrounded by black bats.

“Well, it’s not exactly soundproof, but we’re the only ones here for now,” Stormy said as she walked past me to the counter, where she turned to pin me with her gaze and gripped the black laminate edge. “So, what’s up?”

She had said before that she saw me, and I didn’t think I’d fully understood what she meant by that until this very moment. I stared at her for perhaps a moment too long while I allowed her understanding of my social issues to burrow beneath my skin.

Is it possible that she really gets it?

Nobody ever has before. But what ifshetruly does? Could she really be that special?

God, this is going to hurt so much when she inevitably leaves.

Stormy cocked her head and eyed me with more patience than I ever deserved. “Hey, you good?”

I cleared my throat and stepped forward as I shook my head. “No, actually, I’m not.”

“Oh?”

“I seem to remember you threatening to annoy me, yet it’s been five days, and”—I shrugged and dipped my hands into the pockets of my jeans—“I haven’t been annoyed once.”

She accentuated a furrowed brow and a black-lipped pout. “Oh, has it been five days already? I didn’t peg you to be the counting kind, but I guess you’re just full of surprises, huh?”

“There’s a lot of stuff you wouldn’t expect about me,” I countered. Or, hell, maybe she would. I wasn’t quite sure yet.

“Well, you know, you could’ve called—oh, wait.” She snapped her fingers. “Damn, forgot you didn’t ask for my number.”

I took another step and another until my toes were touching hers, her chin aimed up toward mine. Still, her arms remained at her sides, and my hands stayed within my pockets, but I caught the anxious tapping of her fingers, and there was no mistaking the clenching of my fists.

“Thus the reason for this visit.”

“Oh, is that the only reason? Because you realize, you could’ve just called the shop.”

I shrugged. “Don’t like calling people I don’t know.”

“Hmm.” She nodded. “Neither do I. I’m just surprised you came down here at all. You do realize the sun is out, right? And that there’s, like, people everywhere outside?”

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