AFTER THE RAIN (Bonus edition)

21. From zero to sex in a split second or less

Stormy took the stones crashing all over the show as a sign to keep her lips to herself. Marcus had obviously heeded the warning too, as he was shifting away from her in the back seat and clearing his (now unblocked) throat uncomfortably.

Stormy stashed the stones away in her bag and stared out of the window at the inky blackness, her heart rate slowly returning to normal. After a few moments of awkward silence, she suddenly felt nature calling. "I need a wee," she announced to Marcus as her hand reached over to open the car door.

"Hey. You can't go outside in the dark!" Marcus sounded adamant and he pulled her hand away from the door quite forcefully.

"Well, unfortunately Sammy doesn't have a built-in toilet, so unless you want me to –"

"Okay, no need to get graphic, I'll come with you." Marcus let her hand go and she opened the car door. "I'll also..." He stopped himself. Stormy knew this kind of conversation would make him feel awkward.

"Kinky. I didn't know you were into that," Stormy said, shooting

Marcus a teasing look. "All Fifty Shades of..." Stormy paused for a moment. "Of whatever-that-color-is."

"Gray. And I'm into all kinds of things you don't know about, Stormy," Marcus smiled and teased back. Had their conversation really just gone there? Again? It seemed that they could both go from zero to sex in a split second or less.

She climbed out of the car, which she hadn't realized had been acting as such a successful sound barrier between them and the outside world. The night was literally alive with strange, loud and sometimes frightening sounds.

"Not too far," Marcus warned, pulling Stormy by the arm. It was pitch black outside, apart from the millions of stars that were splashed like silver glitter across the night sky. It was beautiful. Stormy loved things that sparkled and twinkled – kind of like Marcus's eyes right now, as they seemed to reflect the pinpricks of light in the night sky. Stormy pushed the images of his eyes as far out of her mind as possible, and squatted as gracefully as she could in the dirt. It was so unfair, she'd often thought, how men had such an easy time of this, peeing standing up, whereas women always had to get into that precarious squat position that required both strong leg muscles and expert coordination. There was something rather flawed with the whole design – sexist, even. Clearly a man had been behind it.

"Hey," Marcus turned and covered his eyes immediately. "What are you doing?"

"You said not to go too far..." She was amused once again by Marcus's reaction.

"I didn't mean you should go right... right there." With his eyes still closed, he waved his finger around in Stormy's general vicinity.

"Well, don't look if you think it's such a big deal."

Marcus turned around, looking highly uncomfortable. Something about the whole thing put an amused smile on Stormy's face – the way he was kind of sighing and pretending to look at the stars and then at the ground again.

"Can I get you a tissue, or –" He stopped short. "Oh, I guess we don't have any." What gentleman, Stormy thought.

"It's okay, I'll drip dry!"

"What!" Marcus sort of half-shouted. "Did you really just have to say that, Stormy? Was it truly necessary to say that out loud, I mean... drip dry?"

"Hey!" Stormy retaliated while bobbing up and down, doing the requisite drip dry motion. "That is so sexist and wrong. You guys all do the three shake jiggle –"

"Whoa!" Marcus threw his hands up. "Stop talking about my..."

"I'm just saying, it's okay for men to do a little jiggle, what about us poor women? You have it easy, just standing up and whipping it out-"

Marcus cut her off again. "You're still talking about it."

Stormy smiled to herself. She liked riling him up, and it was so easy. She'd figured out exactly what his buttons were – unlike his phone, he had some rather cute buttons that she liked to push. She got up and straightened herself out. "Your turn."

"I'll wait until you climb into the car," he said, finally turning around with a kind of frazzled look on his face.

"Stage fright?" Stormy teased.

"No. It's just that – unlike you – I know what's appropriate and what isn't," he said indignantly.

"Well, who says what's appropriate and what's not?" Stormy had always been fascinated by most people's punitive self-imposed boundaries. Their rules and regulations.

"Societal norms, and the law, usually dictates that kind of thing," he answered quickly.

"Lucky I don't believe in the legal system, then," Stormy said.

Marcus shook his head. "Maybe you've forgotten, but I'm a lawyer. And if we didn't have laws, we might be running around like savages doing whatever we wanted to." He looked angry and Stormy felt bad – she hadn't meant to attack his belief system. She knew all too well how that felt.

And he did make a good point – humans were just animals, after all. Maybe they did need a few rules. "You're right. I'm wrong," she admitted gracefully.

***

Marcus launched into his defense. "If the world just did..." But he paused. Had he actually heard correctly? "Did you say I was right?"

"Fully," Stormy said with a smile. "You're totally right. I mean, if we didn't have rules like that, I might have knocked you over the head ages ago, dragged you into a cave and had my way with you." She gave Marcus a big wink before striding back to the car. Marcus felt his mouth go dry again. Why did the topic of sex always have to come up between them? Even if it was in jest, it only seemed to make this thing harder (excuse the pun).

After taking care of his business in a more dignified manner, Marcus climbed back into the car, suddenly feeling pretty tired. He looked over at Stormy, who yawned widely. "So, how should we do this?" He was looking around the car, trying to figure out the best way of sleeping.

Stormy looked around casually, as though she was totally unfazed by this sleeping arrangement. "Whatever works best," she said, dazzling him with yet another Stormy smile. That specific brand of smile that only she had – that cute, friendly open smile that suddenly made everything in the car look a little brighter. God, he knew how corny that sounded.

"Why don't you take the backseat?" Marcus offered.

"Always the gentleman," Stormy responded, climbing through the gap between the two front seats. She sat down and looked up at him. Then she patted the seat next to her. "Join me?" Another dazzling smile followed.

Marcus didn't think that was a good idea, and shook his head. "I'd rather not."

"Marcus," Stormy looked at him quite seriously. "I promise nothing will happen. It's a little cold in here, and I could do with some warmth." She patted the seat again.

Truth was, it wasn't that cold. But – and oh God, he hoped he wasn't making a serious error in judgment – he climbed into the backseat next to her anyway. She smiled at him and the two maneuvered around a bit until they found a comfortable position together. It felt so good to be this close to her, and he wasn't even feeling anything sexual right now. In fact, quite the contrary.

Marcus heard Stormy sigh. "Goodnight, Marcus."

He smiled to himself; he liked the sound of that. "Goodnight, Stormy-Rain."