The Storm by Cleo White
Chapter One
Cassian
“Idon’t think we’re going to have a busy day and this storm is looking like it’s going to be intense. Should we send everyone home?”
I turn, staring out at the snow coming down on the street outside the shop, forcing away even our most intrepid clients. I don’t blame them. Behind me, my business partner Jace rattles around in his desk which is crammed next to mine in the tiny back office, oblivious to my preoccupation.
We should send everyone home. It’s the responsible thing to do, let everyone get home before the roads get too bad and a weather warning goes into effect, save ourselves the overhead of half a dozen bored tattoo artists with access to unlimited ink and needles. Pretty soon, somebody is going to suggest tattooing somebody else, someone will break out a bottle of whisky, and the day will go downhill from there. No, we’re better off cutting our losses and closing up for the day. But that would mean I won’t get to see her.
It’s a fucked-up obsession, even I know that. I’ve been in Luna’s life, well, always. Jace was my best friend growing up, I was around for all the shit he got into, including getting his high school girlfriend pregnant. I was there when Luna was born, when she went to kindergarten, when she graduated High School. I was the one who convinced Jace to let her take a year off to go traveling before starting college.
She went everywhere, sending me pictures of the incredible places she found and all the amazing people she met from every corner of the world. One year turned to two, then three. She worked along the way, taking a few months off at a time to wait tables in Amsterdam or clean hotel rooms in Paris. A romantic, bohemian existence, and no less than I would expect of my free-spirited pseudo-niece. I was fucking proud of her.
Then, about six months ago, she called Jace to tell him she’d decided it was time to come home, start college and get back to the “real world”. Finally. Overjoyed, he’d booked her a plane ticket and not even two days later, I was standing with Jace, his wife Natalie, and their youngest daughter Sunny at luggage claim at JFK, waiting for Luna to arrive.
I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to what was going on around me, too distracted by who was coming down the escalators ahead of us. I was never the type to chase younger women. At nearly thirty-seven, I valued experience and confidence in my sexual partners and appreciated that most women my own age didn’t ask for more than I had to give.
This woman though. God damn. She couldn’t have been older than her early twenties but one look at her made me want to throw out every single rule I had. My cock had become uncomfortably hard in my jeans, pressing viciously against my fly as my eyes roamed hungrily over golden tan legs in cutoff shorts and a tiny waist, begging for me put my hands on it.
It wasn’t until Sunny squealed and ran forward that I realized, a moment too late, the stunning creature on the escalators was Luna.
I barely recognized her. Three years abroad had effectively shed her of the last traces of childhood. Her face had slimmed, her belly had flattened, she’d changed her hair and pierced her nose. Suddenly, I was struggling to breathe, trying frantically to get myself under control as Luna greeted her family.
Then she’d turned her gaze to me, smiled, and the whole world shifted beneath my feet.
Call it love at second-first sight, obsession or what-the-fuck-ever, I’d walked into that airport a free man and walked out owned completely by a woman I’d never have.
It’s enough to fuck up anyone’s head and make them do irrational things. Like keep their entire staff at work in a snowstorm just so they won’t have to spend the next two days without their drug of choice.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache coming on as Jace continues to rattle around behind me, looking for God knows what.
“Hey guys.” My eyes snap open as my head turns automatically toward the door of the office, so quickly I twinge a muscle in my neck. Cursing, I rub it, gazing blearily at the angel leaning against the doorframe in black leggings and a plain t-shirt.
Luna’s eyes widen in alarm. “Are you alright, Cass?”
I wave her off, backing away to the farthest point in the office from the door and sinking own on the radiator. “Just strained a muscle. I’m fine.”
“I could rub it if you-“
“Nope.” I drop my hand from my neck, even though it’s still throbbing. “Already fine.”
“What’s up, Luna-Tuna?” Asks Jace, smiling obligingly at his daughter. She’d been looking for a job when our receptionist decided to follow her boyfriend to Nevada and Jace was thrilled to give her the job. He hadn’t even told me, assuming I wouldn’t care, so I’d just walked in one day and there she was.
Now my torment isn’t reserved for family dinners and the occasional party. No, now I burn every fucking day.
Luna tilts her toward the side of the shop where the artists have their own rooms. “I thought you’d like to know that Nancy is currently placing a stencil of a pizza slice on Tommy’s ass. In case you want to get out in front of that.”
Jace chuckles, shaking his head. “Christ. Yes. Tell them to go home. Call up whoever is left on the schedule for today and bump them, would you Luna?” She nods, giving me one last look before vanishing as Jace picks up his phone, speaking to me over his shoulder as his thumbs fly over the screen. “I’ve got to get Sunny from school, I don’t want her walking in this. Do you mind giving Luna a ride back to her place?”
It’s a perfectly reasonable request. Luna’s apartment is only a few blocks away from mine, and I go right by it. Still, the thought of five minutes alone in the car with her is enough to make me screw up my face and wince.
“Um.” Jace and I both look around to see that Luna’s returned, her lips are pulled into a pained smile and my heart sinks, realizing she saw my dismay at being asked to give her a ride. Shit. “I forgot to ask if you wanted me to post anything to the shop’s social media pages about the closure.”
“Sure.” Jace tells her, oblivious to the underlying tension in the room. “Cass is going to give you a ride home since he’s heading that way anyway. I don’t want Sunny out in this.”
“That’s okay.” Luna says a little too quickly, looking anywhere but at me. “I’ll get a rideshare, seriously don’t worry about it.” And she’s gone again, leaving Jace and I in stilted silence.
“What was that about?” My best friend asks, turning to me with a frown.
“No idea.” I heave myself off the radiator, heading over to my own desk chair where I can pretend to look busy.
Jace isn’t put off though. “You guys have been cold as fuck for months now. She used to be your little bud, what the hell happened? Did you have a fight?”
My “little bud” grew up into the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen and the only way I can resist bending her over the nearest flat surface and fucking her senseless is by keeping as much distance as possible between us. The Atlantic Ocean would be ideal but being an asshole will have to do.
“We didn’t fight, Jace.” I sigh, fighting to keep my expression impassive. Hiding something like this from the person who knows you best in this world is a fucking uphill battle. “She’s an adult now. She doesn’t idolize me anymore. I don’t know what to tell you.”
Thankfully, Jace seems to accept this and turns back to his computer. “Just take her home, alright?” He insists over his shoulder. “I don’t want her getting in the back of a rideshare in a snowstorm.”
How the hell am I supposed to argue with that?
****
I linger in the back office, making up shit to do, while the shop empties, everyone talking happily about their snow day plans. I can hear Luna’s voice speaking indistinctly from her desk in the lobby in a sweet, apologetic tone, presumably calling all the clients who had appointments for later today. We’re booked out for months, but thankfully this was a light day so the closure won’t mean too many late nights and weekends playing catch up.
When the shop is finally silent and the sound of Luna gathering her things can be heard, I finally venture out, bracing myself.
She glances at me out the corner of her eye while pulling on a pair of fluffy black snow boots. “You didn’t have to stay.”
“I told Jace I’d give you a ride.”
Her lips press together in a flat line as she bends down to push her sneakers under the desk. “I already called a car.”
Christ, her ass looks incredible in those leggings. I have to bite the inside of my cheek hard enough to draw blood just to stop my cock from hardening. “Cancel it.”
Luna heaves a sigh and straightens up, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. “Look, Cass, I don’t know what I did to you exactly, but I know you don’t want to drive me home any more than I want to be driven home by someone who so clearly hates to be in my company now. So why don’t we just tell Dad you drove me and save both of us the misery.”
My gut twists. She always did know how to make me feel like shit. “Luna-“
She shakes her head, honey brown curls bobbing beneath her knitted hat. “Just don’t, okay? Don’t insult us both by denying it.” She snatches her purse off the reception desk and pulls it over her shoulder before marching to the door. As she pulls it open, a gust of icy air blows into the shop, snowflakes coating the non-slip mat in the few seconds it takes her to get outside and slam the door behind her.
I stand there, feeling like the biggest asshole on the planet as Luna’s bright pink jacket vanishes from sight outside the shop windows. I can’t let her go out in this though. It’s my fault I feel the way I do for her, she shouldn’t be getting a ride from a stranger in a snowstorm just because I can’t keep ahold of myself.
No fucking way.
I’m out the door before I even have a chance to zip up my coat, fully prepared to chase down an Uber. It’s freezing outside, the snow coming down so hard I have to squint in either direction, almost sagging in relief as I see Luna’s coat a little way up the street, huddled in the doorway of a closed dry cleaner, poking at her phone screen.
“Luna!” I yell over the howling wind, jogging up to her while the cold burns at my exposed face and hands. At the end of our little one-way side street, I see a snowplow drive by, adding to the bank of snow which is cutting us off from getting out of here without damn-near getting hypothermia. Shit.
“My car was canceled!” Luna tells me as I approach, her teeth already chattering. “I’m trying to get another one. Don’t worry-“
But I nudge her shoulder, pointing to the other end of the street which is also clearly unpassable. “Come inside the shop.” I take her arm, tugging her back the way we’d come. “We’re snowed in.”