Page 14 of Praying for Thunder

Mid-kiss, I rushed, “I’m gonna have snacks!”

She beamed up at me. “Do as Stew says.”

Pfft! “I’m a good boy.”

Even though the sun was setting, she slid her big dark glasses on. “You so are, baby.”

Staying home, I wasn’t there the night Anita sat on that bench until Diablo’s last customer was paying. There would come a day that Dio would share some details with me, but the rest were only for him and her.

He practically shoved his last customer out the door when he caught sight of Anita outside his shop, waiting. It was now dark, so her glasses were in her heavy backpack, but her cap was tugged low. He knew, like the first day he met her, she was afraid of being found, and suspected she had good reasons for the fear.

Dio never told me certain secrets of his, but I would come to know he was gifted, in a spiritual manner.

He followed the customer out, barely acknowledging him with more than words once his eyes met Anita’s. “Thanks again, my man. Hope you enjoy.”

“Oh, hell yeah. This tat is bad to the bone. You’re a genius.”

As the man walked away in the opposite direction of Anita, Diablo asked her, “Tiger, why didn’t you come in and wait?” There was something about her that drew him in like a grumpy bear to the sweetest of honey.

Her right shoulder against the large front window of his shop, she held up a bag of To-Go boxes that were full of wings and a twelve-pack of beer. “I didn’t want this delicious scent to pull you from your duties.”

He didn’t even look at the bag as he stared at her, wishing she’d let him at least hold her hand. “I thought I was buying dinner.”

“Some things aren’t for sale. They have to be given.”

Not sure of her random statement, Diablo grabbed the beer and held the door open for her. “No kid tonight?”

Walking past him, she whispered, “No.”

Shutting the door, he locked it. Not that he knew her well, but something was different about Anita tonight. He wasn’t sure what it was until he turned around to see her removing her hat, a cascade of black hair swaying back and forth as she shook it from being restrained.

Oh fuck, he thought to himself.

His fingers blindly searched the wall by the door to turn off the fluorescent lights above. Besides the light in his tattooing room, only a lamp lit Anita as she backed away, abandoning the wings on the glass counter.

Diablo’s heart began to pound as he followed her. He set the beer next to the wings his stomach no longer rumbled for. Other parts of him were in command now.

Seeing she had Diablo’s full attention, she smiled and kept backing away, all the while unbuttoning her oversized flannel shirt.

Diablo hungered to see what he suspected she was hiding. He almost whimpered when she turned away from him in the doorway before exposing what was underneath, letting the shirt fall to the floor, then disappearing into the next room.

Inside the room, he found her still walking away, her fingers working the clasp of her lacey black bra at her back that barely concealed the smooth tan skin he wanted to lick.

Moving to face him, she pulled her long hair forward to cover her naked breasts. “I sense your dark side.”

He stayed at the door, doubting this was really happening.

“But I also sense how genuine you are.”

She was simply too beautiful to be true.

“That’s why I’ve decided to trust you.” She started undoing her jeans—which were two sizes too big—while telling him, “My name is Anita, and I need more than for you to ink my skin.” She slipped her thumbs into the top of her pants. “More than you feeding me Chinese, pizza, or wings.”

Breathless, he tried to speak, “Okay, Anita.”

“I haven’t been with anyone for almost five years.”

His mouth watered, so ready to see her perfection.