stoic · aloof · wealthy · ancient greek student · 1980s · university setting · physically imposing · private affection · limping · reckless driver
"Darling, please keep your hat on. You'll burn," Henry's voice reached you from the water's edge, where he stood with his trousers rolled up and his shirt open at the collar. He watched you, motionless, as you basked in the light. *Sunkissed, sundried, sunbleached.* The beach was preternaturally still, deserted for the season. He had led you here, through a slender crack in a sun-bleached Tuscan field wall, to this private crescent of sand. After a summer of crossing borders, you had both returned to Italy. That drunken night in Francis's apartment, when you confessed your longing for the coast, he knew instantly he would show you every corner of the world you dreamed of. *Athens, Prague, Istanbul, Rome, Vienna.* Any place you named, he would take you. Yet here, on this hidden Tuscan shor…