"His Porsche," Theo said. "I was home from boarding school for the holidays. The twins were at some middle school party, and I was getting ready to go to a friend's. My mom and dad had had a big fight at dinner. She'd left the house. Taken the twins early to their party. I guess I thought she'd come back for me. I wasn't ready, which is why I didn't go with them.
"We had a lot of cars because my dad collects them. Motorcycles too. I had my learner's permit, and my mom would take me out sometimes to practice. Anyway. After the big fight, my dad went to his study. He'd been home for a few days. At first, when he'd come home from a work trip, he'd be Joe Nice Guy. But after a while...." Theo swallowed. "Sorry."
"Don't be," Nora said.
"Did I mention he has a wet bar in his study? All stocked up with whiskeys and bourbons and crap. He's a drinker, my dad. And he's a mean drunk. Likes to use his belt for any kind of infraction, real or imagined. He was good about hitting where it didn't show, especially on a kid like me who was in swim trunks all the time."
Nora reached for his hand, relieved when his fingers wrapped firmly around her own. She got up from her chair and stood next to him at the window.
"He came to my room while I was getting dressed to go out and started in on me. I don't really remember what it was about. My grades, my PSAT scores. Maybe it was the fact I'd come in second place during my last swim meet. Usually, I'd just duck my head and say as little as possible. It's like suicide to argue with him. It's asking for it.
"Then he said I couldn't go to my friend's. That pissed me off, but I think I did a pretty good job of hiding it. I decided I'd wait for him to fall asleep then sneak out to the end of our drive so my friend could pick me up. That would have worked, except...except my dad started to take his belt off. I begged him not to. I tried to reason with him. But when the blows started coming—" he swallowed again. "For the first time, I didn't just cower. I fought back. I pushed him." Theo squeezed Nora's hand. She squeezed back. "He fell. I think we both realized that I wasn't a little boy anymore, that I was actually nearly as big as he was, and only going to get bigger.
"Anyway, getting pushed over by me—that really pissed him off."
"What happened next?"
Theo gave a small, dry laugh. "It didn't occur to me to push him again. I think I was scared I'd hurt him. That I'd do to him what he'd done to me all my life. To my mom. That I might actually like hurting him. That I'd be like him." He shook his head. "So, I ran. I grabbed a set of car keys—his Beamer, his business car—and I got the hell out of there. I didn't know where I was going, what I was doing. I didn't even think to turn on the headlights. Just the fog lights. I was too panicked, especially when I realized he was on my ass. He'd gotten his Porsche and he was chasing me. Even drunk, he was a better driver. So, I sped up. I left him in my dust. And that...that's when the accident happened."
Nora looked out the window into sky, the orange fading away into a blue violet, and let the quiet of the moment bathe them. "I'm so, so sorry."
Theo turned to her, regret twisting his lips. "Those are my demons."
Nora shook her head. "Alexis was wrong about you."
He raised an eyebrow, bemused.
"You aren't boring at all." She smiled, encouraging him to do so too. He did.
"I'm not scared of your demons. They aren't you."
Theo pulled her to him. "Let's get this straight—I have demons, but I'm not a demon. Neither of us is dating anyone, nor are we engaged, promised, or married. We don't swim in the same gene pool—have I got it right so far?"
"You are correct."
"Okay then. Nora, would you like to go out on another date with me?"
She squinted up at the ceiling and pretended to think about it. "On one condition."
He looked wary. "Sure."
"Kiss me."
Theo's face lit up. He lowered his mouth to hers, pressed her body to his. With a deliberateness, he reached for her hands and interlaced their fingers. Nora came up for air from their kisses. She studied his hands in hers. His beautiful, strong hands. He gave her a tug, and she responded, but raised her eyes only to his chin with its scar. Before she could think twice, she leaned forward, letting her lips brush against the jagged line. She felt his mouth open and the warmth of his breath on her face. Green Dragon. Lightly, she ran her tongue on the scar, his rough beard stubble, pricking and bending under the pressure. Theo sighed. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her to him before bringing his mouth down over hers again. She didn't want it to stop. Theo's hands ran through her hair. He removed her hair clip and paused a moment to look into her eyes with an intensity she found herself matching. He broke away first, looking over her entire body, his fingertips running over her cheeks, down her neck, tracing the curve of her breasts, and across the skin of her stomach on the top of her belt. Nora shivered.
Theo stepped back. "Um, do you want to go for a hike?"
Seriously? "Do I what?"
"The sun just set. There won't be as many mosquitoes."
Was he joking?
No. He was being a gentleman. He probably surmised from their previous encounters Nora was inexperienced in these things, that she might want to put on the brakes. Be sensible.
She was tired of being that.
"Let's go hiking in the morning," she said. "Why don't you show me your bedroom again?"
He pulled back a little more to get a look at her face. His expression—a mix of wonder, tenderness, and desire—was her reward.
"All right, Miss Ko-Harvey."
Nora led the way. She shut the windows and pulled the blinds down. She didn't trust the walls' soundproofing, as she had a feeling about herself—ten would get her twenty she was going to be a noisy sex partner. She'd only been with two others before. Webster Chung, the summer after her senior year of high school—they'd agreed to swipe each other's V-cards if no one else came along before college—and Marco Calhoun, a boy in her Women's Studies 201 class junior year at Cal. Her study partner, he had seemed safe, and one late night as they quizzed each other for the final, delirious with exhaustion and needing to re-boot, Nora had opted for sex over Marco's unexpectedly proffered cocaine. Both boys had one thing in common. They were nerdy goths—not what anyone would picture for Nora Ko-Harvey, not even she herself.
But Theo Furlan. Theo fit her just right. Nora stood by the bed and turned to him, pulling his head down to hers, kissing him like it was their last day to be alive. And that's how she wanted to live—like there was nothing to lose—instead of the way she'd been living, like there was nothing to live for. She wanted to be on her death bed some day—hopefully, many, many decades from now—and regret nothing.
Theo kissed her back, matching her intensity. He gazed into her eyes, studied her face before reaching down and kissing her eyelids, her nose, her cheeks, and mouth. He leaned back and pulled his shirt over his head. He stood before her, waiting. She ran her fingertips over his skin, starting at his jaw, down his throat, over his shoulders, his chest, and abdomen. She pulled away reluctantly and quickly removed her top and bra, shimmied out of her jeans and underwear. She stepped forward and lined her body up to his, pressing, skin on skin. Their breathing quickened. Nora hooked her fingers into the waistband of his shorts, carefully pulling them down.
"Are you sure about..." But he stopped, unable to finish as Nora hands ran over him again. She nodded and shushed him. They scooted under the covers of his bed, kissing and touching. Theo knew all the places to explore, and while Nora lacked his experience, she worked on instinct, intuition, and the often unsolicited blow-by-blow recaps of Rainey's exploits as retold post-encounter.
Theo was expertly, almost reverently, attentive, and before she knew it, Nora was riding a wave that crested with her calling his name as well as God's. She would have been embarrassed if she hadn't craved it again immediately. For his part, Theo followed her swiftly, his eyes on hers, a look of vulnerability and beauty fusing them together for the first time.
But not the last.
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Thanks, everyone, for reading the third part of this chapter! Next week, I'll post some more. We are definitely getting close to the end. Have a great weekend, and stay well! x, Olivia