Chapter 4
Nora
Of all the things she thought he was going to say, that wasn’t it. “Forever?”
“The expectation is that, yes, I stay there forever.”
He came back to sit on the bed. Nora shifted, tucking her legs beneath her. She didn’t relish having this conversation in her bra and underwear, but at least he was talking.
What she knew about his past she could count on one hand. He was from South Korea—one. He’d lived in Canada for a time—two.
Anything beyond that… it was blank.
“Do you want to stay there? Has that always been your plan?”
He was silent, but stood abruptly and paced the length of the bed. Reaching down, he grabbed his shirt off the floor. “Never.”
She stood as well, stopping him before he could put the shirt back on. “But someone expects it of you. Your family, I’m guessing.”
He didn’t look at her. Instead, he trained his gaze on the floor. “I was brought up knowing this was my destiny. I thought I’d escaped for a while.” His hair fell into his face when he shook his head, so she pushed it away and left her hand on his cheek. “I didn’t. It’s as if they let me believe what I wanted. They were just biding their time.”
“Korea.”
He lifted his gaze to her and then dropped it again. “Yeah.”
So he didn’t want to go there but felt like he should. She understood that sense of responsibility.
“We’ll figure it out.”
Spinning away, he suddenly flung the t-shirt against the door. “There is no we. Only I. It is my burden. My responsibility. My loyalty.”
Except now he’d confided in her. “A secret told is a burden shared.”
Scoffing, he shook his head. “That’s not how it works.”
“I’m going to help you carry this, Seok,” she said. She limped across the floor to him and tucked her fingers in his jeans. With a tug, she pulled him against her so their skin was flush. “If I have to buy a ticket to Seoul, I won’t leave you to worry about this alone.”
Seok was a blur of movement. He lifted her into his arms and kissed her, but this wasn’t like his kiss before. This one was gentle.
Placing her on the bed, he knelt over her and kissed her again.
It was a sweet kiss, like a wish or a compliment, and she loved it. He was letting her in with this kiss, not distracting and deflecting.
His fingers trailed along her ribs as he moved over her, sliding between her legs. She made room for him immediately and wrapped her arms around his back. Smoothing her hands over him, she returned each of his kisses with one of her own.
That tightness in her chest eased. They were fully in this together.
He pulled back, just for a second, to get his pants and underwear off. Then he was back, his long, thick length nestled between her legs.
Nora rolled her hips, coating him in her wetness. It was getting hard to breathe. He lowered his head to her breast, drawing her nipple into his mouth. He rested the flat of his palm on her lower back, urging her to roll and buck against him.
“Nora. I’ve wanted this for so long. But what if—” He lifted his head to stare at her.
She kissed him, licking the seam of his mouth and then drew back. “Even if the very worst happens and we somehow don’t end up together, then I know I wanted this. With every bit of my heart, I want this, Seok.”
He groaned. “Fuck.” His hand left her back to pull out a drawer next to his bed. He wasn’t at all coordinated. The box of condoms fell out of his hand, spilling onto the floor. “Fuck.”
Nora let her head fall back to the pillow and laughed. “At least you have them.” But they didn’t need them. After an oops with Ryan last year, she had gone on the pill. These guys made her lose her mind at times, and she didn’t want to leave anything up to chance. “I’m on the pill and I’m clean.”
Seok stared at her. “I didn’t know.”
Her face heated. “It hadn’t come up until now.”
He leaned down to kiss her, sweeping into her mouth to gather her taste and then drew back. “I’m clean, too. I’d love to feel you. Only you.”
His words made her squeeze her legs together. That was what she wanted, too. Opening her legs, she slid her knees along the outside of his thighs and gripped his hips. All it took was one shift, one thrust, and he was inside her.
“Holy shit.” He panted and squeezed his eyes shut. “Don’t move. Please.”
Asking her not to move was like asking her not to love him. She wasn’t in control of her body when he touched her. She was a creature of feeling, not logic.
But she tried.
She tried to hold herself still, but her inner muscles clenched around him and he groaned.
“I want this to last, but I don’t think…”
Digging her fingers into his back, she rocked toward him. His pelvis ground against her clit and she moaned. Oh, God. If he didn’t move…
Inside her, his cock twitched, and she clenched in response. “God damn,” followed a string of Korean words she couldn’t understand.
Rearing back, he drove inside her. Nora cried out and then bit her lip. It was the middle of the day, and the others could be home any minute.
Seok did it again. And again. And now Nora didn’t care if the entire neighborhood heard her. She chased her orgasm, desperate for her pleasure as well as Seok’s.
He kissed her, nibbling her lips and then sucking hard on her tongue. The slow draw of his tongue was like the friction of his skin against hers.
Heat built at her core, deep inside her at the place Seok hit each time he sank into her. She wrapped her arms around him even tighter. He was her anchor. If she clung to him, she wouldn’t drown.
“Nae sereang.” He let out a grunt and a wave of warmth filled her. At the first wash, she started to come. It went on and on, lasting as long as Seok rolled his hips against hers.
“Did you mean it?” he asked, lifting his head to stare at her. “You’d come with me?”
She didn’t have a passport, but she had zero qualms about following him to the ends of the Earth. “I love you, Seok. I’ll go anywhere you go.”
Maybe he didn’t understand what it meant when she said she loved him. But he’d learn. She was going to show him, and she didn’t care how long it took for him to believe it.
Chapter 5
Seok: Eighteen Years Old
It was a relief to return to school. He wasn’t the only one who felt that. On his flight from Seoul to Vancouver were three other students from Saint Martin’s. Unlike Seok, they’d arrived at the airport terminal with their families.
From his spot at the counter, he watched them bow and hug and noted the sag of their shoulders when mothers and fathers finally left. International students like them found home—and family—could be stifling
The same emotion had passed through Seok when he’d gotten into his car this morning. Freedom.
Certainly, Saint Martin’s, with its rigorous academic standards and athletic expectations, put a heavy amount of responsibilities on the students’ shoulders. But it was nothing like the expectations Seok had on him when he came home.