Interlude: Strangers in the Rain

She stood on a street corner, rain pouring down and beating hard against the magazine she held over her head in a vain effort to stay dry. When she had left that morning, the sun had shone as if focusing all the heat of the summer season into a single glorious day. She had decided to wear only a sleeveless top and a pair of shorts; she knew the outfit would draw the attention of all the men she would encounter. Her top was fairly low-cut, tight and white. Her shorts were black and fit snugly against the sides of her shapely hips. Her breasts bulged by the pressure of her push-up bra; she had been satisfied by the impact she would create.

But now, as it neared 9 o’clock in the evening, she wished for a raincoat -- the rain had started to sting her flesh and cool the air. Water flowed over the sides of the magazine and down her arms. But what made her shiver the most was the water flowing down her shoulders, around her neck, and down her cleavage. Her body tingled as the cool water conflicted with her hot flesh. But walking quickly, she managed to slip under the awning of a doorway near the bus stop. If the public transportation wasn’t late, she could be home by ten.

Across the street, he waited aimlessly at another bus stop. He wore a black T-shirt and slacks. Sitting on a bench, he felt the water run down his shaven head and over his features. The water was perhaps the only thing calming him enough to leash his howls of anger; he glared at the watch he had been given on his birthday. He tore it off and threw it away with all his strength. It landed across the street. He then leaned his head back and let the rain cover his face with its cool comfort. If it could wash away the image of his girlfriend riding another man, he would be happy. He then bent forward and watched water flow into a gutter. Maybe that’s where I’m headed, he pondered as rain water poured into his eyes.

She turned when she heard something splash in a puddle near her feet. She looked around and noticed a watch reflecting the light from a nearby street lamp. She picked it up and saw that it was still ticking. As she wondered where the watch came from, she saw him sitting on a bench, indifferent to the downpour. She looked down both sides of the street – all she saw was the line of lamps that illuminated the raindrops as they crossed the cones of light. Taking a risk, she ran across the street and approached him. She realized she had seen him before – everyday in fact. Actually, every morning. He always stood at that very bus stop -- probably when he went to work. As she noticed the way his shirt was sticking to his large chest and shoulders, she suddenly hoped he had noticed her as well.

“Is this yours?” she asked, shivering a bit from the increasing wind.

He looked up at her as she presented the watch. “It is,” he answered. “My girlfriend gave it to me.” He stood, took the watch and threw it back across the street, where it finally shattered and broke. “I don’t want to have it anymore.” He sat back down and listened to the rain.

She looked at him, her mouth open, stunned at his actions. “Why’d you do that?”

“My girl told me the watch was to keep track of all out good times together. Then I found her in bed with another man. I punched him and told her to leave. That’s why I threw the watch away.”

“Bummer,” she mused. “And the whole sitting barefoot in the rain thing?”

“I don’t feel like crying. The rain cries for me.”

“That’s… weird. Are you always this weird?”

“Pretty much. Except when I sleep. Then I just snore.”

She giggled and sat down next to him before realizing the bench was soaked. But ignoring the wetness – she started to wonder if it was only the rain -- she tossed her magazine aside and mirrored his posture. He watched her from the corner of his eye; the rain had made her white camisole sheer and the lace of her bra underneath was becoming intangible. As she leaned her head back and let the rain pelt her dark hair, he savored the way her nipples pierced her garments and challenged the cool air. Even in the dimly lit street, he was struck by how her tanned skin glowed beneath the streetlights. Her limbs were long and limber, and yet she retained sensually curved hips and large, beckoning breasts the beguiled her athletic shape.

“What are you doing?” he asked, suddenly wary of her intrusion.

“I’m just sitting with a stranger in the rain. And I’m wondering why you’re a stranger.”

“There’s a logical explanation for that.”

“Hmm?”

“We don’t know each other.”

Again, she giggled and gave his shoulder a good punch. She then bit her lower lip and felt a tingle between her thighs: his shoulder muscles were rock hard. She brought her legs together and shifted her position to face him – his eyes were bouncing from her tits to her full lips. His eyes were grey and sorrowful while his lashes were long and full. He blinked rapidly against the rain that ran down his broad nose – she loved the natural flare of his nostrils. And there were his lips – thick and heart-shaped; they could almost be a woman’s lips.

“I happen to know a lot about you,” she said as she slid closer to him. He did not appear to react, but she could see his thigh muscles tense through his pants.

“I know you work 3 blocks from here. You wear a suit every day except for Wednesday – I think you play tennis or racquetball or something… I know you have a tattoo of the cardinal points on the back of your head – kinda cute actually. What’s up with that?”

“What’s up with you knowing all that stuff about me? Are you a stalker? Be kind of cool if you were…”

“You don’t recognize me, do you?”

“No… no I don’t. Trust me though, I’m never going to forget the way you look right now.”

A satisfied smile spread across her face. “I take the same bus you do. In the morning. I usually wear glasses… and a uniform.”

He chewed the inside of his cheek and started to stroke his chin as he searched his routine for any memory of her. “You usually sit two seats in front of me reading Time magazine, right?”

“Bingo!” she exclaimed as she tapped her nose. “I think we’ve been taking the bus together for the past year.”

“Hmmm… You’re a waitress too, right?”

“Give the man another gold star… I work at Larkin’s. I’ve served you lunch a few times. You’re a good tipper.”

He laughed a bit. “Well, you’re a good dipper.”

“What?”

“When you lean over to put the plates on the table… your blouse usually dips, and I get a glimpse of your – er – laciness.”

“You’ve been peaking at my tits,” she said with false anger. But even as she acted pissed, she let her arms fall over the back of the bench which pushed her bosom outwards. “Are you looking at them now?”

“Do I have a choice? I think the heat and the rain is making us do weird things.” Suddenly, he stood up and walked over to a street lamp and leaned against it while facing her. She crossed her legs, waiting for him to speak. But he just looked down the alley behind the bench. While he was lost in the darkness, a bus came barreling down the street, carefully stopping farther from the curb than normal so as not to splash them.

People stared at them from the bus windows; they seemed somewhat curious and worried about this strange woman in a see-through shirt and the bald, muscular man dressed in black, standing barefoot in the rain. He was oblivious to the bus door that opened before them, but she motioned that they would stay here. The driver just shrugged, closed the door, and sped off as the passengers forgot their interest and returned to their indifference.

“You know,” he began as the rain suddenly went up a notch and became the imitation of a waterfall. “I’ve been with my girlfriend for less than a year. I met her when I worked for her father. He wasn’t crazy about us hooking up… he knew his daughter. She was just pissing him off while trying to convince herself she loved me. For awhile, she did. We were happy. We apparently aren’t so happy anymore…”

“It’s the heat,” she responded as she got up and walked over to him. “Anger, hate, passion… desire. The heat makes you too tired to express your feelings, and when the rain comes – it cools you down… those bottled up emotions suddenly boil over and you find yourself out of control. You do things against your nature…”

She trailed her sentence off and was now standing in front of him. Rain pelted their clothing, threatening to dissolve it away and leave them naked. She put her hands on his chest, feeling his heart beat through his large chest muscles. She imagined him as a statue, ancient and powerful against the ravages of time. Yet his eyes were alive and sad, aware of how time can simultaneously destroy and rebuild. But the thought quickly dissipated as he cupped her face. She felt the his calluses brush against her soft skin – the hands were strong, yet used to gently caress fragile surfaces.

“Is it against your nature to kiss a man?” he asked as he ran his thumbs across her thin eyebrows and down the sides of her face.

“I don’t usually kiss strangers,” she whispered as she placed her hand over his and came to within a hair’s width of his face.

“Am I still a stranger?” he asked as his lips brushed the surface of her nose.

“Please yes… be a stranger…”

The first light touch of their lips together brought a sizzle to the moisture in the night air. And each time, their lips parted a little more, leaving extra space for their tongues to meet. When their mouths were completely open, their tongues were soon exploring the other’s home. She tasted his saliva while he drank in the first of the moist places he would explore before the night was over. As their kisses became more brutal and desperate, his arms dropped down her sides and he gripped her ass roughly and rammed her against his crotch – she smiled coyly between kisses as she felt his manhood push through the wet fabric of her shorts. She pushed his head against the lamppost while gyrating and grinding her pelvis on his cock. He had no choice but to tightly grip her hair and pull her head back while moaning and grunting his satisfaction – she sighed more heavily as he punctuated each sound with a wild kiss and a lively lick across the flushed skin of her neck.

When he found her earlobe and started to nibble it, he reached up from her ass, over her steaming pussy, underneath her sheer shirt, up her taut belly until he found one of her tits. Massaging it through the padding, he slipped his hand into the bra cup and pressed down on her nipple with his thumb. She let out a loud moan and her tongue creeped out of her mouth and sought his with renewed fervor.

But, as the patter of the rain maintained its pace, they separated and stared at each other while panting wildly.

“This…” he started.

“This is right,” she added.

“Yeah. It’s very right.” He tosses his head back, hard enough to hurt himself on the lamppost and let out and almost maniacal laugh. “God help me! I want to fuck you so much … all night… all day… the rest of the fucking week!!”

‘I want that to,” she hissed. Then she joined him in laughter as they held each other.

A passing car slowed and a window rolled down. But before the occupant could see if they needed help, they both turned towards the car and another eruption of mad laughter escaped them. While they laughed, a flash of lighting tore up the sky and bathed them in eerie light. The person in the car motioned to the driver to get away from these weirdoes.

They both watched the car speed away and stayed motionless for awhile, their foreheads pressed together.

“Where?” he asked as he kissed the rain and sweat from her brow. “Where can we go to fuck? We can’t do it here, can we? We could but… Your place?”

“I don’t think I can wait that long,” she whispered as she brushed his lips with hers. “Besides, I don’t think any drivers would let you on without any shoes.”

“What? No shirt, no shoes, no service?”

“You’ve got a shirt on.”

“Oh.” With one quick movement he pulled his shirt over his head, revealing thick and well-defined chest muscles crowned by powerful shoulders and completed by a set of chiseled abs.

“Oh my!” she stammered as she floated her fingertips over his chest, coming to rest on the tattoo of a spider over his heart. The tattoo itself was comprised of a large four-sided lozenge as the body and smaller one for the head. From the body emerged two sets of legs aiming downward and two upwards. She also noticed what looked like flames coming from around his back to end on each shoulder. She looked into his eyes, and felt a chill run down her back while the space between her legs heated like a furnace.

“I knew about the tattoo on your head, but the spider… what are these flames?”

To answer, he turned around to reveal to her a colorful tattoo of a bird engulfed in bright red and yellow flames. The bird’s wings were spread and the flames surrounding them ended on his shoulders. She delicately touched the intricate artwork – it looked like each feather had been individually colored and each flicker of flame appeared to burn true. She put her hands on his lower back -- where the tattoo started – and pressed her chest onto the tattoo. Her hands ran up the sides of his muscular back while she moved up and down; her hard nipples seemed even harder as she showed what the tattoo was doing to her.

“I’m so hot,” she whispered. She felt him tense as she reached around his waist to grab his cock through his trousers. She rubbed it at the same rate she moved up and down his body.

“Ahhh…!” he exclaimed while the sensation of her nipples made goosebumps ripple across his skin, provoking strange life in the flaming bird.

“Stop that or drop my pants and do me now!” he shouted against the thunder. “And stop laughing.”

“Well, stop saying such silly things and I’ll stop laughing. Did you see the faces of the people going by?”

He turned to face her as she spoke. She gave him a bit of room, but never beyond her arm’s reach.

“I know. They must think we’re real freaks.”

“We’re not?”

“Nah… Just you.”

She gave him a playful punch in the chest. She then held her hand and feigned pain, indicating how hard his muscles were. He took her hand and brought to his lips where he kissed her knuckles gently.

“What had we been talking about before you went gaga over my back?” he asked.

“Maybe going somewhere to get our freak on. And you shouldn’t provoke me by taking your shirt off, you sexy bastard.”

“Well, maybe you should stop dry-humping me in the rain. On a street corner. Near a bus stop. Where every one can see us. Freak.”

“Bastard.”

“Freak.”

She lightly caressed his cheek. “Are those are names for tonight?” she asked wistfully. “ I’m freak and you’re bastard?”

“No. We have no names tonight. But I just thought of a place where we can be together for a while.”

“Hmmm…?”

“There’s a park a block from here. We could get there on foot. Be only a few minutes.”

“You sure about this?” she asked suddenly. A flash of fear and hesitation washed across her face. She realized she was about to go make love to a stranger in a public park. “I mean… what if we shouldn’t…?”

“You’re having second thoughts,” he said, resting his hands on her shoulders. He planted a gentle kiss on her forehead and said: “Listen. I’m going to go to the park. Follow me if you want. I would never force you. But… you’ve got to know -- despite how bad this evening’s been for me – the past few moments here, with you, have been some of the best of my life. I don’t know why, but they have.”

He softly pushed her aside while she looked down at the ground, chewing her lower lip. He picked up his shirt, and started to walk away. He paused and looked at her longingly over his shoulder: “If you follow me, I can’t promise it’ll the right thing for you to do. But I do promise to try my damnedest to make you feel good, and to make our time together… memorable.”

And with that, she watched him go, admiring the way his shoulders remained steady and confident while his ass swung slightly from left to right like a quiet, sensual pendulum. She took a step to follow him, then stopped; she tried to make sense of the chaos that drowned all reasonable thought. Fact: she didn’t know this man. Fact: she even felt a little fear about this man. Fact: she feared herself when she was around this man. Fact: the rain was starting to pour again. Fact: she wanted this man very, very much.

Before he could disappear around the street corner and into the shadows, she sprinted after him. He stopped on the outskirts of the light cast by a street lamp when he heard the rapid patter of her footsteps splashing through the puddles on the sidewalk. He spun to face her, but ended up catching her instead because she was running too fast to stop in time. As she rested in his arms, her face pressed against the spider tattoo on his chest, she listened his heartbeat. It was steady, strong, and comforting. He stroked her hair as she started to kiss her way from the tattoo to his face.

“So, you decided to follow me,” he whispered while he nuzzled her forehead before surrendering to her kiss.

“I’m going to follow you…” she muttered from between their touching lips. “Kiss you… fuck you…”

They walked languidly towards the park. Every once in a while, they would stop to kiss or hug each other. With each halt, their actions became increasingly fevered and sexual: the most intense came when he stopped and pulled her towards him as he fell against a tree – she yelped and pressed her ass against his crotch while he slipped his hands down the front and the back of her shorts. His fingers joined together beneath her thong, stretching the shorts almost to the breaking point. She pressed her tits together, turned to her side, and licked his lips hungrily as he tenderly applied pressure on her cunt. He felt her hot wetness overwhelm the cool dampness of the rain; he felt her labia spread and her pussy lips swell with the blood of desire; he felt her stiffen, open her legs, and cover his lips with ever desperate kisses when his middle fingers pushed upwards and slid inside her pussy to come to rest near her hungry cunt and excited clit.

“Ahhh…ohhh…Yes….” She moaned as he made small circular motions that caused her to push away from him while trying to get more of his fingers inside her.

“You like that, don’t you?” he asked smugly, enjoying the weight of her body against his.

“Yes… give me more…” she whispered.

His answer was to slip his hands out of her shorts and rest them on his hips.

“What’re you doing?” she asked suspiciously.

“If you want more, you’ll have to catch me!”

“What!?…” she started, but before she could finish her thought, he had slipped around her and was running towards a lighted field a few hundred feet away.

Without even thinking, she bolted after him. While she ran, she felt a sudden rush of freedom as rain and branches whipped a frenzy of emotions deep inside her. She was now a lustful predator hunting equally lustful prey. And she knew that when she caught him, their roles would interchange and the result would be unadulterated pleasure. Closing on him, she relished the way his back muscles flexed and swelled with each rapid stride – she imagined her fingers on that back while powerful thighs would rest against hers and the hard cock she had felt through his pants earlier would occupy its rightful place deep in her pussy.

His trek had taken him roughly to the middle of well lit soccer field. The light cast by the tall lamps on each side of the field negated any possibility for shadows, so he had to take a chance and slow down a bit and turn around to see where she was.

She plowed into him with enough force to knock him to the ground. While he laid there, he smiled up at her as she stood victoriously over him.