Two of a Kind by Susan Mallery

laughed. “Yes. One would want to be above or to the side of an avalanche.”
    She was aware of the furniture on the deck. They weren’t exactly where they had been last time, but if she turned slightly, she could see the lounge chair where they’d had sex.
    Wanting surprised her with an intense surge. She found herself thinking about stepping closer to Gideon so she could lean against him and have him hold her. She wanted to kiss him and touch him.
    “Are you working tonight?” she asked.
    “My shift starts at eleven.”
    She did the calculations in her head. “So a sexual encounter is unlikely.”
    He’d been swallowing and now started to choke. She monitored his coughing to see if she should offer assistance, but decided he would recover. A few seconds later, he caught his breath.
    “It’s not a time issue,” he told her, his voice raspy.
    “I suppose that’s true. We could not have dinner.”
    He shook his head. “I was thinking more along the lines of this being a first date. I’m not the most traditional guy around, but I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to wait. Maybe get to know each other.”
    “Oh.” She considered that. “Establish an emotional bond before having physical intimacy. You’re right. That’s how it usually happens.”
    Although she’d very much enjoyed making love with Gideon, she could see the appeal of waiting. From what she’d been told, sex was even better with someone who mattered. She couldn’t imagine making love with Gideon being more pleasurable than before, but finding out would make for an excellent experiment. Plus, if she wanted a normal kind of life, she needed to act in a normal way.
    “You’re right,” she told him. “This is a first date. We should get to know each other.” She turned to face the house. “How long have you lived here?”
    “Just over a year. Some guy from L.A. had bought the land and started construction only to realize he didn’t like being this far from the big city. I bought it from him and had it finished. Made a few modifications.”
    She would guess he’d put in more windows, maybe the skylights.
    “What happens when you get stuck up here because of weather?”
    “I’m prepared. There’s a generator, and I keep plenty of food on hand.”
    “Occupational hazard,” she said.
    He shrugged and picked up his wine. “Being prepared isn’t a bad thing. What about you? Where did you grow up?”
    She drew in a breath. Right—he wouldn’t know about her past. That night together four years ago hadn’t had much in the way of conversation.
    “Outside Chicago.” She paused, cautious about the details of her past. People reacted in unexpected ways when she told them how she’d grown up. “I wasn’t the easiest of children,” she began. “I was reading by the time I was two, doing complex math equations at three. When I was four, I used items I found under the kitchen sink to make a bomb.”
    Gideon raised one eyebrow. “On purpose?”
    “I knew there would be an explosion, and I thought it would be funny. I wasn’t trying to destroy anything. My parents didn’t see it that way.”
    “Got in trouble, huh?”
    “They felt I needed a more structured environment. Somewhere I could be mentally challenged. I was more than they could handle.”
    She knew she was making excuses, saying what she’d always said. While it was true, it also avoided any emotional reaction to the stark reality. Her parents had been afraid of her. They hadn’t wanted her around.
    She sipped her wine. “They were approached by several professors at the university. I was to study with them, learn as much as I wanted, and in return they would try to understand what made me different.”
    Her parents had signed her over to be a lab experiment, she thought, telling herself it was fine. She was fine.
    “I had access to every class on campus, to the finest professors. I studied with Nobel prize winners and scientists. It was an amazing opportunity.”
    He