Page 45 of Shelter from the Storm

Theo crossed his arms, drawing her attention to those beautiful, thick biceps of his. “Smoking cigarettes behind the school, sneaking beer from our folks, drag racing on the straight stretch of road behind Roscoe Prescott’s farm, shit like that.”

“Ohhhh. So you were a bad boy.”

“What do you mean were?” Theo joked. “There’s nothing past tense about my bad boy ways.”

“Is that right?” she drawled.

He crooked his finger at her. “Come here, wallflower.”

She was, in fact, still hanging out next to the wall, foolishly thinking that keeping a distance would help her resist him. But Gretchen was helpless to stop herself, so she walked closer. She stopped a few feet away, and as was becoming his habit, he cut the distance, moving close enough that she had to tilt her head back slightly to look up at him.

His gaze dropped to her lips, and Gretchen resisted the urge to lick them.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been kissed without fear lacing the touch. Kissing had stopped being about her a long time ago and was simply one of the ways she tried to make a miserable, abusive man happy.

If she kissed Theo…

Kissing him would be all for her. Her desires. Her pleasure.

She’d bet every penny she had he was a great kisser.

Gretchen took a step away, needing to put space between them before she did something really stupid.

She cleared her throat. “Um. So, were you and Renee one of those high school power couples or something?”

Theo shook his head. “No. Truthfully, I needed a date for prom. It was the only time we ever went out. She was a little too nice for me.”

Gretchen narrowed her eyes. “Are you saying she wouldn’t put out?”

Theo barked a loud laugh. When she first arrived on the farm, his boisterous laughter had triggered her. Loud noises always reminded her of Briggs yelling or slamming doors. After five weeks of hearing Theo’s laughter almost daily, she was no longer shaken by it.

“Jesus,” Theo said. “While I liked to pretend I was a stud and lady killer in high school, the truth is, I probably would have shit myself if Renee wanted to have sex with me. What I meant about her being too nice is, she wouldn’t even let me hold her hand or kiss her, and despite the fact prom didn’t end until midnight, she still had a ten o’clock curfew because she had to be up early for church the next day. I wound up driving her home, then going back to the school gym to finish the dance stag.”

“You’re starting to sound less like a bad boy,” she teased.

He ruffled her hair, something else she was becoming accustomed to, along with his shoulder bumps, and the way he placed his hand on the small of her back, and how he always offered a hand to help her in and out of his truck during their driving lessons.

Theo found countless ways to touch her, and while it had taken a bit of practice at the beginning not to stiffen or flinch, now she adored his sweet touches as much as his laugh.

“I was a late bloomer when it came to sex,” Theo confessed. “Didn’t lose my virginity until I was seventeen. Fell madly in love with Sandy Jenkins, and the two of us dated most of our senior year.”

Theo had proven himself to be one of those open-book types of people, often recounting stories from his past, even embarrassing ones. She’d discovered there was nothing he wouldn’t share if she asked. “Why did that relationship end?”

“Sandy went off to college and I stayed in Gracemont. Neither of us was interested in a long-distance romance. Especially considering she had no plans to return to town after getting her degree, and I was never leaving the farm. She lives outside of D.C. now with her husband and three kids.”

“She was your first love?”

“Yep. First, but not last. I was pretty good at falling in and out of love in my early twenties, but looking back now, I think it was safer to say I was falling in and out of lust,” he added with a shameless wink.

She laughed. “Wait. Are you saying you haven’t had a serious girlfriend since high school?”

Theo shrugged. “I’ve done a fair bit of dating, and there were a few women I might have considered girlfriends, though none of the relationships were serious. No discussions of moving in together or rings or stuff like that.”

“Is that something you want?”

“Marriage?” Theo asked, as if surprised by her question. “Hell yeah. I definitely want to settle down and have a family.”

Gretchen wasn’t sure why that answer pleased her so much. It wasn’t like she could toss her name into that hat.

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