All The Way (The Sarah Kinsely Story - Book #1) (7 page)

We drove by my house so that I could change. He waited in the car and I slipped into jeans and a teeshirt and some sexier underwear. He had asked for informal so I gave it to him on the outside but underneath I had my own agenda. I kept my hair tied up and applied some basic eye liner and a quick stroke of lip gloss. I had learned that when boys said they liked girls without lipstick they didn’t mean they liked girls all natural - they liked ‘em in lip gloss.

Per usual I wasn’t in the know in terms of our destination. He said he was taking me some place
special
and that he was sure I would like it.

“Do you take all your girls to this
special
place?” I asked.

He didn’t take his eyes off the road.

“Are you going to ask me this question every time we do something fun?” He said smiling.

“No. Well, probably yes actually.” I slipped my hand over his.

“Fair enough. I suppose I should join you then. Was I the first guy you ever punched in the balls?”

It had taken us all morning but we had finally arrived. Time to talk about last night.

I searched his face trying to see what the right move was.

“I usually try to hit every guy I date in the balls at least once. You were just the first one I connected with.” I waited for his reaction my face in a grimace.

He held on as long as he could but he couldn’t contain himself. He burst into laughter. So did I.

We wound our way through the hidden wine country of the northwest until we pulled into an unmarked road. For another 10 minutes we kept on driving through the dense forest.

Suddenly, the car stopped.

“Is everything ok?” I asked.

“Yep, just wait here for a moment.”

Aiden got out of the car and walked to a rickety old fence. He pulled a key from his pocket, turned it in a lock and swung the gate open. He walked back to the car with a giant smile on his face looking at me. He got back into the car.

“Almost there.” He said.

We drove another few minutes until the forest cleared away and revealed rows upon rows of grape vines. Aiden stopped the car next to a path that seemed to lead down the hill and over the edge.

“C’mon.” He said and grabbed the soft coolers.

I grabbed the drinks, soda and water, and the cups and followed after him. I was glad to be wearing flats.

As we walked down the path I noticed the pointy white roof of a little gazebo set on the side of the hill. We made our way to it and Aiden set out the the food on the table. He poured us each a glass of soda.

“To the prettiest girl I have ever met.”

The view was something to remember. The hill we were looking out from overlooked a broad and sweeping valley of vineyards. Hills were rolling to and fro and each were lined with stitchings of grapes. Every other hill or so was dotted with a large house - houses even larger and more impressive than the ones I had seen on Nob Hill as the girls and I drove up to Aiden’s house.

“Do you like the view?” Aiden asked as he snuggled against me. His body was warm and even though the sun was shining I felt a sense of gratitude for his warmth.

“I do. How do you know about this place?” I asked.

“I own it.” He said pouring another glass of the dark stuff. It popped and sizzled in the glass and I thought how cute it was that we were drinking soda. Sure, a glass of wine would have been nice but I admired that he was comfortable enough with himself and with me to serve soda instead of alcohol.

“Of course you do.” I said and tipped my glass to him.

“Oh, it isn’t like that at all. I didn’t buy it persay, my mother did. It was her dream to own a vineyard one day. When she got sick my father poured every penny he had into trying to give her what she wanted.”

“That explains the house.” I thought out loud.

“Yes, that house is excessive and so is this vineyard but you should have seen my father during my mother’s last months. He ran himself into the ground. As a matter of fact, he ran his restaurants into the ground too. Sure, he bought a nice big house and this fancy vineyard but he lost it all right after she died.”

“Wait, so you didn’t inherit this place?”

“Nope. My father lost it all. I am talking repo-man-style lost it all. He tried to sell his restaurants to save it but he mismanaged them so badly in the end trying to take care of my mother that nobody wanted to buy them. He lost everything. I hired him to come work for me but that was before I owned my first place and he hadn’t worked the line in a really long time so-” He drifted off.

“What happened to him?”

“He died. It didn’t take him long after mom was gone. 3 months and his heart just exploded. Years of drinking and loving my mom too much finally caught up with him I guess.”

“Oh God Aiden, I am so sorry.” I put my arm around him. I wanted him to know, to truly know that I cared for him. I may not have known him that long but my feelings didn’t care.

“Sometimes it takes a lot of really bad times all lined up in a row before you get yourself together to start having some good ones. When my mom died I promised to quit drinking. I have been clean ever since. When my father died and everything he had built was gone I promised that I would get it all back. So far, I am right on track.”

“I would say so.” I looked into his pale blue eyes and suddenly saw the man behind the secret back room dinner dates and opulent extravagance. His strange and forward moves towards me started to make sense. His whole life revolved around his work in a way that I had never understood any other man’s obsession with work before. It wasn’t just food, it wasn’t just dedication to craft, it was therapy, it was grieving, it was his connection with people. That first night that we met and he invited me and the girls to the back table suddenly became more special. It seemed the more I came to understand his complexity, the more I understood his desire to share his talents with me.

“I had to battle for this piece of property. The house was easy. The owners were about to foreclose on it themselves, they were in tears when I called them with an offer but the property was a different story entirely. The owners were sympathetic at first but as soon as they did their research on me and found out who I was, they tried to milk me for everything that I was worth. It was painful and I ended up paying twice what I should have, but it was worth it. I just wish I could have done something more with it.”

“What’s stopping you?”

He took my hands into his and brought his face directly in front of mine.

He said, “It needs a feminine touch. This is my mother’s vineyard, not mine. I tried to hire a company to come in and take care of it but they just didn’t care about the property, not like my mother did. I need a woman to help me, a woman who would care for it like I did.”

Part of me felt a sudden rise of pressure form between us. I had dated a guy with “mommy issues” before and it didn’t end well. Still, it was hard for a girl not to get wrapped up in the moment of it all. The beautiful view, the handsome man, the potential to pour myself into a project where the only motivation behind it would be love. I sighed at the prospect of it all.

“I’m sorry.” He said.

“For what?”

“I don’t mean to put pressure on you like that. I have never taken anyone here before, not like this, and I guess I just got caught up in the moment.”

“I guess you have gotten used to me asking who else you have tried this move on before, huh?” I smiled on the outside but felt a twinge of guilt on the inside knowing that as soon as the words had left his mouth he felt a need to check himself.

I said, “Listen Aiden, don’t be sorry for being yourself. Never, ever, never be sorry for being yourself.” I touched his stubbled face with my hand and looked at him.

“Sarah, I need you more than you could possibly ever know.” And he leaned in to kiss me.

Our lips met. He cradled my head with both of his hands and pulled me deeper into his lips. I ran my hands across his chest, exploring, feeling, touching. He wrapped his arms around my body and pulled me close. His body was solid, and his arms wrapped around me entirely. I felt safely tucked away.

I wanted to give myself to him right there in the gazebo. I could see in my mind’s eye the two of us naked, passionately intertwining our bodies, our lives, our selves on that hill overlooking the beautiful wine country of Oregon. I imagined what he might feel like inside of me, pressing his body weight against my naked skin. I imagined the cool grass tickling my ass as he thrust himself deeper and deeper until my body gave way and we both climaxed. The thought caused a deep heat to well up between my legs and his voice snapped me out of the fantasy.

“I should get you back.”

Aiden was now sitting erect, half holding me. Something was wrong.

I agreed that it was getting late in the afternoon and we probably should start heading home. My mind was confused.
Was it something I did? Was I too involved in my own fantasy to give him what he wanted? How bad did I just mess up?

I wanted him like I had never wanted a man before. It was so much more than the physical. I wanted to be something special to him. I wanted to fill that hole in his heart that was so evidently needing a woman’s tender care.

What had started out as an attempt at rebound sex was quickly becoming something more. I was sliding into his world and I didn’t want out. As we packed the picnic into his car I realized that if I wanted to see him again I had to let him know. I had to do something that I had never had to do for a guy before. Something big. Something that painted a clear enough picture that even a
man
would understand its meaning.

I had just the thing in mind.

Chapter 9

The first few moments we were back at his place were terribly dull.

We sat in the library again, trying to make small talk. All the while we burned for each other. He kept roaming my body with his eyes and I kept touching his arm. An outside observer may have screamed, “
Just do it already!
” but we were two people too involved in the moment to see our own ridiculousness.

Minutes turned into an hour. One hour into two. The sun set. The city lights came on and cast an orb of radiant light that could be seen from the library window. I turned to look at it and imagined the people below. I wondered how they were spending their Sunday evening, if they were trying as hard as we were to grasp onto some semblance of happiness or if they were just trying to make it through another day.

My thoughts were interrupted.

“Sarah.”

“Yes?”

His hands grasped my shoulders and the familiar taste of his lips entered my mouth. There was a fierceness there now that I hadn’t noticed before. I could sense a longing there that extended beyond just a kiss, beyond just a one night stand. There was almost a trembling of the soul in that kiss.

His tongue entered my mouth slowly. I caught it with my own and for a while our tongues wrestled back and forth. I put my lips around his and sucked. He pulled back and it made a popping noise. I opened my eyes and he was staring at me with a ravenous look in his eyes.

He went for my neck and I lost all control. His lips brought a charge of electricity to my neck each time he kissed, each time he sucked, each time he gently caressed me with his lips. I moaned and he smiled. He enjoyed my pleasure.

I no longer cared what this was. Rebound sex, healing, a one night stand, I didn’t care about the label any longer. I only cared about him. I only cared about sharing myself with him and connecting with him. Labels didn’t matter because it was just him and I and we weren’t saying a word.

He kept his hands busy. They had managed to sneak under my shirt in the back and were now inches away from my bra. With most boys I would wait patiently as they fiddled with the snaps, struggling to undo them, but Aiden unhinged me so quickly I didn’t even notice until his hands were on my soft naked breasts. I was so surprised that I let out a little gasp and Aiden moaned in reply. I had to remind myself that Aiden was a
man
not a boy
.

He lifted my shirt over my head and stared at my breasts. He cupped them in his large hands and a grin spread across his face.

“Beautiful.” He said.

With one hand on my back he pulled my breasts to his mouth. While gently massaging one nipple with his free hand he did circles around my other nipple with his tongue. His hand was rough and firm. His tongue was soft and wet. The mismatched sensations sent spiraling blasts of hot and cold through my body. I had never been so turned on. I ran my hands through his long hair and arched my neck back with closed eyes and moaned in appreciation. Every so often I would look down as he switched hands to watch the look of enjoyment on his face. I wanted to please him with every part of me and he knew it.

Suddenly, he picked me up and carried me like a princess being escorted to her castle. I kissed his neck and rubbed his chest with my hands through the openings in his button-up as he carried me up the stairs. My heart clutched with anticipation as we moved closer to his bedroom.
This was it.