After the Rain (The Twisted Fate Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

he liked. Not something he wanted to do.
    “Please...” And then without warning she took his hand and intertwined his fingers through hers.
    Her hand was tiny – the smallest he’d ever held. Her wrists were so thin and delicate-looking, like small twigs, and as she stood up, he noticed that her collarbones looked like they could be snapped in a strong breeze. She was just so petite , and something about this seemed to stir another unfamiliar feeling within him. He suddenly thought back to a day when he’d been eight and had rescued a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. He’d picked it up so gently and cradled it in his hands as if it were the most breakable thing in the world. He’d run home and lined a shoebox with soft towels, and laid the helpless creature down. He’d tried to feed it, but it had refused. He’d sat up with it all night, fervently hoping it would survive. And when it didn’t, he had been crushed. He’d held a funeral for it the next day and buried it in his mother’s rose garden. He’d wanted so badly to take care of that small, helpless, breakable bird.
    “Wait.” Stormy abruptly bucked against his hand as he led her towards the boarding gate. Shit, was he going to have to throw her over his shoulder caveman-style and physically carry her onto the plane?
    “What now?” Marcus turned to face her just as she slipped her arm around his waist and squeezed. He flinched at the feel of it, especially when she brought her other arm around and locked him in a kind of bear hug.
    “Thanks.” She looked up at him and smiled gratefully, and he thought about the little bird once again.
    It was an awkward way to walk, with her attached to him like a baby joey to a kangaroo, but if that’s what it took to get her onto the plane, apart from knocking her over the head and rendering her unconscious, he guessed it was the least he could do for Damien.

    Stormy felt strangely safe with her arms wrapped around Marcus. He was big, and her arms were barely able to reach around him completely. He was clearly a large, mucho, muscley, manly man. She’d never had her arms wrapped around such a creature before; his type was totally foreign to her. She tightened her grip as they got closer to the gate, and felt him flinch in reaction.
    Blocked, grumpy and uncomfortable with touching. His list of not-so-nice attributes was growing rapidly, she thought with slight amusement. No doubt he was a party pooper; he was probably that kid that told on your parents if you and your friends snuck a ciggy and smoked it behind the garden shed. He looked like a grouchy, bad-tempered troll, who was also totally snoring-boring and a killjoy deluxe.
    So why had she got a little flutter-fluttering in her stomach when she’d tightened her arms around him? A ting-tingle in her thighs, a sex-sation up and down her spine and a very strong urge to jump his bones? Yup… the stars had been right – oh yes they had – they were definitely sexually compatible. To the max. But if the stars had been right about that, then they were also right about something else – this was a very bad day to fly.
    Stormy had no choice but to close her eyes and go to her happy place: rainbows and fresh spring rains, bouncing baby panda bears, flowers and rolling hills, a place where Bambi’s mother had lived and fairytales came true.
    Marcus finally came to a stop, and Stormy opened her eyes to find herself standing next to her ‘seat’ – or should she say, a sci-fi space pod. The seats were enormous, and enclosed by a kind of wavy wall that separated you from your neighbor. A giant screen was built into one of the mahogany-lined walls. The pods were all arranged around a big freestanding bar and lounge area. She could only imagine what tickets like this cost – the price tag must have been astrophysically expensive.
    This was not an environment she was accustomed to, let alone agreed with. Millions of people in the world were starving, and