Page 94 of The Spider & the Storm

“Oh, believe me,” I huffed with agitation, “I’m aware.”

“Oh, okay. Because I thought you might spontaneously combust if you ventured outside in anything but darkness.”

I tried to fight my grin, tried to suppress my chuckle, but it was hopeless. My lips split with a smile as I shook my head and sniffed a laugh through my nose.

“Ah, so youdothink I’m funny,” Stormy teased, reaching out to poke my chin.

I caught her hand in mine. “I find you endearingly annoying. There’s a difference.”

“But youmissedme,” she pointed out, dropping her voice to a teasing whisper as she flipped her palm within mine to interlock our fingers.

My poor, battered heart sped up, hammering against its brittle, bony walls, as I nodded and tightened my grip on hers. “Yeah, so maybe I did.”

“Hmm,” she uttered again, nodding. “Well, I’m sorry for ghosting on you.”

“Don’t do it again,” I replied in a low, gruff whisper.

Stormy giggled, pressing her other hand to my chest. “Oh, yes, sir. I’ll—”

“No … Stormy …” I shuddered with a relenting sigh, my resolve to keep it together crumbling by the second. I dropped my forehead to hers, squeezing my eyes shut to the world and her piercing green gaze. “Listen to me, okay? You wanted me to let you in. I didn’t want to, but it happened, so I’m here, accepting this for whatever the hell it is. But you can’t disappear on me, and if you do, it can’t be out of the blue. I can’t handle it, as fucking pathetic as it sounds. I just can’t do it.”

We were blanketed in a concerning silence, and I was left to regret ever saying anything. What woman in her right mindwanted to dive headfirst into something with a man she not only knew little about, but one with apparent abandonment issues?

Yet there she was, breaking the silence with a hushed, “It's not pathetic, Charlie,” as she tipped her head back and stood on her toes.

At the touch of her lips against mine, I inhaled deeply, sharply. My nerves were snapped into overdrive at the impact before being lulled toward desperate lust as her lips parted—a silent invitation to deepen the kiss. I answered with a groan at the reacquainting of our eager, wandering tongues. My hands moved to cradle her face, my fingertips skirting her raven-colored hairline. She gripped my shirt, pressing her fists to my heaving chest, as we made out like desperate teenagers against the countertop in her workspace. Both of us too wrapped up in the moment to hear the footsteps coming down the hallway.

“Hey, Stormy. You in—”

Metal rings slid along the curtain rod, and Stormy reluctantly pulled away but kept my shirt within her grasp.

“Oh shit. Sorry,” a man’s voice said.

I glanced over my shoulder to see Blake standing there in the now-open doorway. His eyes were already cast downward, aimed toward the floor.

“I thought we had a rule, Blake,” she snapped as a deep blush spread from the collar of her dress to her cheekbones. “Knock on the wall before opening the curtain, right?”

He cleared his throat and still made no move to leave. “My bad.”

She furrowed her brow and cocked her head as she glared at the man behind me. “And whose rule was that? Hmm … let me think …”

“I said I was—”

She unraveled her fingers from my shirt to tap her temple. “Oh! That’s right! It wasyours.”

Blake sighed. “Melissa told me you weren't with a client. It hadn't occurred to me that you might be back here, sucking face with some guy.” He met my eye with an almost-apologetic raise of his brows. “Sorry, Charlie.”

I cleared my throat and smoothed my shirt over my chest, feeling a lot like a kid who'd just been caught doing something he shouldn't have been doing. “It's fine.”

“Anyway,” Blake said, clearly changing the subject, “there's someone up front, looking to get pierced.”

Stormy didn't even try to not look disappointed as she nodded. “Okay. I'll be right out.”

“Cool.”

He turned to leave when Stormy stopped him.

“Can you do me a favor though?”

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