Have you ever stood in the middle of a storm?

Felt its power?

The high you got from it?

That was how I met Syler Hunter. He was unforeseen, and he crept up on me in the most unexpected way. He had no idea he was my storm, but I think she knew he was my storm.

Toska Hunter, his sister with the fiery red hair. I worked with her, spent countless hours listening to her talk, and not all of it was good. She was unlike anyone I’d ever met, and meeting her changed my life. We both worked at the local cinema, going absolutely nowhere. Sometimes we shared the same shift, and when we did, we snuck into whatever horror movie was playing and watched.

She told me how she wanted to try it all and I would nod and listen as if I understood everything she said. As if it was normal. I didn’t know her well enough to tell her the kinds of things she was clearly comfortable telling me. She was so open with me, yet she shut out everyone else like a bad smell. I didn’t quite understand her, and sometimes she scared me, but most of all she intrigued me.

Toska spoke a lot of her brother—no one else, just him. Then she would tell me things, vivid details about her foster home experiences. I didn’t understand them all, or why she wanted to share them with me. I didn’t share things like that with people I liked, let alone those I’d just met. Still, she felt comfortable enough around me to discuss how she was molested by her first foster father at the age of ten, and then how her brother, at the age of twelve, stabbed him in her defense.

She smiled as she talked about that part.

I didn’t.

Different was something I’d always been. I knew I wasn’t like the other kids—I didn’t mesh well with them. When I’d tried to be normal in high school, it was tiring. I hated them all, even the ones I pretended to like.

Toska eventually invited me out places, but I usually declined.

Then I met him.

Syler.

Her brother.

Syler’s a man who silently screamed fuck me but stay the fuck away. He was unlike anyone I’d ever met, his presence alone was demanding, yet scary, and I got a kick out of it. I’d never met someone so intimidating in all my life, yet I longed to get to know him better. Those sea-green eyes he had stared at me and saw through me. He was a conundrum. My very own puzzle that I wanted to crack and win, and now my interest had spiked. I didn’t feel the dead weight I’d felt all year, it was lifted the moment he stepped into the cinema to collect his sister, Toska. Her eyes followed my line of sight, her hand offered a wave and she smiled, then she turned to me.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of him—he hadn’t even looked my way. I needed him more than I needed my next breath.

He was hypnotizing.

He was my storm.

It was in that moment I became her new plaything.

“So, tomorrow?” Toska asked, sliding her bag onto her shoulder and popping her gum which broke my stare. As Syler turned to look at me I glanced away. I didn’t want to see his disapproval of me. He was used to people who looked like his sister—slim, big boobs—and I was everything she was not. I liked food- fuck, I loved food- and I was not going to apologize for that fact, not even when my stomach rolled over my jeans.

“Yeah, tomorrow,” I replied nodding, with no idea what I’d agreed to.

“Okay, bring a spare pair of clothes, we’re not going in our uniforms.”

I nodded, then Toska turned, walking toward her brother.

Syler was dressed in all black, his shirt had white writing on it, but I couldn’t make out what it said as my eyes skimmed him. They landed on his face, his full lips, his nose had perfect symmetry, his eyes, those eyes that were staring at me, and they didn’t seem happy. No. In fact, they appeared fucking furious.

***

HE HAUNTED MY DREAMS, the man with the sea-green eyes. I didn’t quite understand it, but he was there, and it wasn’t all pleasant. He scared me, excited me and he hadn’t even said a word. I’d only seen him from a distance, enough to notice his features but not enough to touch him. Today was going to be different. Today I was following Toska to wherever she wanted to go, in the hopes of seeing her brother one more time. It was weird. But I didn’t care because I was weird.

“Are you going to get changed?” Toska asked as I closed the till after the final counting. She looked me up and down, and I noticed she was already changed. She was wearing a skirt that was very short, with a shirt knotted to the side.

“I’m not dressing like that,” I said, waving my hand around at her outfit, and she shook her head.

“Hurry up.” She leaned in close to me. “Oh, and there will be drugs, lots and lots of drugs.” Her eyes twinkled with excitement as she pulled back, assessing me. She passed my backpack over, and I walked past her to the staff room and quickly changed into my three-quarter jeans and tight-fitting shirt. I slipped on a pair of ballet flats and went back to her. She was on her cell, turned to check me out, then nodded toward the door. I noticed she didn’t offer to drive. Instead, she walked to my car and waited at the passenger door for me to unlock it. I climbed in the driver’s side.

We drove over to the party, to a house hidden in the woods, which was down a turn I would have missed if Toska hadn’t pointed it out. The house was concealed behind trees, and there was a pond area out front. A few people were walking around the gravel driveway.

I stopped, and she didn’t wait for me as she slid out, still talking on her cell. I shut my car door and locked it, and watched as she pocketed her cell phone and stopped walking.

Syler was standing in front of her, shaking his head—his posture rigid, hers relaxed. She pushed some of her hair behind her ear and looked back to me. His eyes followed her and landed on me. My heart beat fast, and I waited for either of them to say something, but they both just watched me—his eyes hard, hers curious. They were always curious, it was why I’d never said yes to joining her, until today.

“Jaya,” she called my name after what felt like an eternity, and I took my first steps toward them. Syler’s hands slid into his jean pockets, and his eyes were fixed on me as I stepped closer. I stopped in front of them, avoiding his burning stare by looking down at the ground.

Syler and I still hadn’t uttered a word to each other. I was pretty sure that was the first time he’d even heard my name. I only knew his name because Toska had told me. Yet, I felt as if he was the man that would bring me to my knees, leaving me smiling up at him like a lost little puppy, and that scared me. A man who I didn’t even know could have control over me, though I’d never willingly given to anyone. I’d always been the dominant one. All my past conquest —yes, they were my conquests because that was all they were, men I fucked—were controlled by me, not the other way around.

“This is Syler,” Toska said after a moment of silence that brought my eyes back to him. My heart beat hard. So fucking hard.

Stop it.

I lifted my hand to offer it, and it hung in the space between us. His eyes met mine, appearing indifferent, then skimmed down to my hand. His hands were still in his pockets.

Toska spoke up, “Oh, no Jaya, Syler doesn’t like contact of any kind.”

I shook my head, intertwining my hands quickly. “Sorry,” I muttered, but it wasn’t a real sorry, and his eyebrow perked up at me because it came out as more of a smartass sorry.

“Oh God... you two are going to be a blast.” Then she walked off, leaving us both in a standoff wondering who would crack first.

I knew it wouldn’t be me.

My father was a CSI agent, and my mother was no longer there. I’d sat in cars for hours while my father investigated crime scenes, so standoffs were something I was definitely good at. You had to be when all you got growing up was a measly hello, unless you stood in front of your father long enough for him to look up from his computer to notice you.

Syler’s hands stayed tucked in his pockets, his dark eyebrows pinched together, and his steely sea-green eyes pinned me in place. His lips formed a straight thin line, and he held a touch of stubble around his mouth. I wondered what he was thinking, not how long we could last in a silent standoff.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Syler... stop scaring everyone.”

My eyes broke contact, and I turned right to see a man taller than me, a body covered in ink and his face half covered with intricate tattoos. He stood strong, and his smile was warm. He winked at me as he stepped up next to Syler, careful not to touch him.

“I’m sorry...” he trailed off.

“Jaya,” I said, finishing his sentence.

“Yes, Jaya. You see, Syler here doesn’t like people. Don’t take offense. How about I get you a drink?”

My eyes were still drawn to Syler. He was watching me, and he hadn’t moved or even shifted his eyes. Syler was devilishly handsome, his cheekbones were high, his jaw impeccable. I glanced back to the man, who was smiling warmly at me and nodded my head. He offered his hand, and I placed mine in his, and he pulled me inside. I glanced backward as we entered the front door. Syler rubbed his jaw and looked up at me, his head dropping to the side as if he was studying me, then he walked off taking my confusion with him.