The Winemaker's Dinner: Dessert (The Winemaker's Feast)

by Rusilko, Dr. Ivan

  He sat up, forcing Irena up along with him, though she remained wrapped around him. Pulling her lips from his neck, he looked into her eyes, finally confident that the decision he was about to make was the right one.

  “Irena, you will always be a part of me, but this isn’t working.”

  “Really?” She pressed herself against his firm cock. “I think it’s working just fine.”

  “It’s not you, Irena. Please understand that.”

  “It’s her…” Her voice was soft, but not at all surprised.

  He looked at her for the first time in his entire life as a friend and nodded.

  “Then run to her. She’s a lucky girl.”

  Ivan blinked back at her, shocked by her selfless response. She released him and slipped off his lap.

  “Don’t get lost in the details, Ivan. You always get lost in planning your life, instead of living your life.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Don’t plan to love, Ivan. Go do it. Live! Doesn’t matter if it’s what you expected or the way you had it all worked out.” She suddenly seemed like a gloriously wise, beautiful—albeit nearly naked—oracle. “You plan too much. You’re so careful.”

  Ivan held her face and studied her one last time. He was thankful she’d been the one to shape his heart and was now the one to reveal the missing piece that would make him whole again. He pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. “I don’t know how to tell you how thankful I am for you. Thank you so much, Irena.”

  He shot out of the bed, grabbed his clothes, and then remembered to ask, “Will you be okay getting home?”

  “Of course,” she assured him, making a “run along” motion with her hands.

  So he did. He ran toward the girl who had that one thing no one else had. Out the door he went—his dick still rock hard from a night of close encounters—down the stairs, and out the lobby doors.

  Moments later he crested the adjacent lobby entrance, but didn’t waste time signing documents or checking in. However, when he bolted past the half-asleep security guard, he forfeited the luxury of an elevator and instead ran up the twelve floors, but he hardly noticed. His heart was driving a body that was fueled by a dream. Adrenaline was just a word. Passion was his fuel.

  Bursting through the stairwell door, he finally came face to face with 1218. The last time he’d stood here he’d been a coward, too proud to understand his role in the devastation—too busy working his plan and following his rules to see how wrong he’d been. This time he was here to throw himself at the feet of the woman who held his heart and his happiness, who soothed his soul and made his spirit dance. He would beg for forgiveness.

  Inhaling deeply then blowing it all out in one cleansing breath, he swallowed his pride and hesitation and knocked with everything he had.

  Boom. Boom. Boom. The two o’clock in the morning barrage most likely woke half of the residents on the floor, but he didn’t care. He had one thing on his mind. To make them right. He listened until he could hear her shuffling to the door.

  “Ivan, what do you need?”

  Fear jolted him as he realized she wouldn’t even open the door, but he would plead his case. He pressed his hands flat against the metal and leaned his cheek against the cold barrier that kept him from her. “Jaden, I need to talk you.”

  “It’s late. Can we talk some other time? I’m changed and ready for bed.”

  Dropping his head, he willed himself not to panic, not to lose it. He closed his eyes, pressed his forehead against the door, and offered a deal. “If I can guess what you’re wearing will you open the door?”

  She sighed, but after a moment she agreed.

  “Hair in a ponytail, no makeup, mismatched socks, some sort of ridiculous T-shirt with an anime cat or some god-awful pattern on it, and a pair of black yoga pants you only threw on to cover up the thong you were sleeping in.”

  Another extended pause finally ended with the sound of a bolt unlocking and the doorknob turning. He had guessed correctly. The door creaked open and a goddess with a messy ponytail appeared. She was perfection. Sure enough she wore one blue and one yellow sock, black pants, and a bad green T-shirt that hung two sizes too big on her small frame. He also noticed that her eyes were puffy and her skin blotchy and red. Either she’d gone two rounds with Evander Holyfield, or she’d been crying.

  Clearly trying to hide her appearance, she reached up and pulled out her hair tie, freeing all that gorgeous dark hair to fall around her face and shoulders. She avoided eye contact, which nearly brought him to his knees. His breath hitched at the thought of being turned away and never again calling her his one and only.

  “Baby girl,” he breathed.

  She looked up, but what he saw in her face and in her green eyes leveled him. He dropped his head reverently and spoke from his heart.

  “I’m so sorry. Sorry for what happened to us. It wasn’t your fault, it was mine.” He watched as she readjusted her feet. “I did this.”

  “Ivan, I—”

  “We didn’t need a storybook engagement,” he continued. “I just thought we did. We didn’t need an Italian serenade. I just thought we did. I couldn’t have been more wrong. What we needed was just each other, and I couldn’t see that. My being gone, my being busy, all the focus on my business, no matter how well-intended it may have been…I thought I was building a life for us, but that was me pulling the trigger on what we could have been. Not you.”

  He dared raise his head to look at her for a moment, still scared he might have lost his miracle forever. She remained standing there, so he kept going.

  “And I’m sorry for letting you shoulder the weight of a tragedy I created. I’m sorry I shut you out instead of listening. I’m sorry I was so afraid. But I know now that you are the reason God put me on this earth. You’re the drive behind my next breath and the force between each beat of my heart. You make me smile in a way that defies anatomy. The touch of your skin, the taste of you on my lips, the way you look at me and I can see the man I want to be reflected in your eyes—Jesus, Jaden, even your smell overwhelms me. But more important than any of that, you loved me more than I could understand, without reservation and despite the flaws I was too blind to see, and that’s what excites me the most about you. Love without reason is true love, and that’s what we have.”

  He met her eyes as he made his final plea. “I’ll go wherever, do whatever, and be whoever you need to remind you how we once were and where we were going. I’m terrified to think of a life where I don’t wake up next to you, more in love in the morning than when we went to sleep the night before. I caused this, and I want to fix it. I need to fix it. I am sorry.”

  He watched as life returned to the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. It was her again, not just a woman standing before him. She seemed confused and looking for the right words, but finally she just smiled, and her eyes filled with tears.

  “I’m sorry too,” she said.

  He nodded and cursed quietly as his own vision blurred. He felt a single tear slip down his cheek. Then the magnetic force of the passion in the moment drew him into her arms and their bodies crushed together, their hearts beating frantically against each other’s chests. That one thing engulfed him as he buried his face in her neck and breathed her in as if it were the first time.

  “I love you, Jaden.”

  “I love you, Ivan.”

  He took back what he so desperately needed, the lips of the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He tasted true destiny, and it coursed through his veins, forging their bond forever.

  The moment overtook Ivan’s body, and he grew hard and pressed against her stomach. Though her eyes were still glassy with tears, they also brewed with another emotion, one more powerful than any they’d ever known: true love’s lust.

  Chapter 32

  “A Song for You”

  WITHOUT THOUGHT, WITHOUT INHIBITION, WITHOUT BOUNDARIES, Ivan scooped up Jaden and lifted her to his chest. Then he carried her ac
ross the threshold toward a better tomorrow. His way lit by the far-off, orangey glow from the marina towers, he carried her to her bedroom to claim her once again as his own.

  As he walked, she tasted his neck and ran the tip of her nose along his jawline, nuzzling into his beard. When he reached the bed, he gently placed her on top of the down comforter and guided her head to the pillow, cradling her in his hand. Though he couldn’t see her in the darkness, the feeling between them was palpable. He knew that the smile he could feel on his own face covered hers as well.

  He placed himself on top of her, straddling one of her legs as the other fell open to the side. The scent of her perfume confirmed once again that this was right, and she was it. He traced the side of her temple down to her lips, stopping only to let her kiss his fingertips before he continued down, trailing along a neck that cried to be kissed. Lowering his face to her throat, he devoured her and felt her body tremble in delight.

  She began to rock under his weight, grinding into him as her hands played along his spine and worked through his hair. He drew his hand along her shoulder and across her breast, then past her stomach. Finally he slipped it around behind her to grab her ass, pulling her up high and grinding her against him.

  She brought her hands to his chest and unbuttoned his shirt as he continued to taste her neck. Ivan paused to remove his shirt as she did the same, then returning to his spot between her legs and against her now-naked chest, relishing the warmth her body provided. Her excitement fueled a fire that was already burning bright.

  Sliding her hand around his neck, she gripped it in one hand and grabbed his ass with the other, forcing his concealed cock against her need.

  With the sexiest of voices, she brought her lips to his ear and whispered, “I am yours tonight and for the rest of my life. I want you inside me.”

  The sound of her voice was enough to fragment him completely, and the message it carried was all he needed. Tucking his hands under her waistband he worked her pants and thong down the length of her legs to the floor.

  Bringing his fingers to his mouth, he licked them before they found their way to her already wet pussy. He slid his middle finger in, exploring her gently at first but increasing his speed and depth with each moan she let escape from her body. Higher and higher he worked her until he thought she could take no more, and then he slid a second finger in, releasing her into a much-needed orgasm and him from a prison of emptiness and regret. He had found the arms of his true passion.

  He removed his fingers as she elegantly transitioned herself from the submissive position to the dominant, forcing him onto his back. She reached down to unzip his pants, and he caught a glimpse of his personal beauty queen in the window light. He still could scarcely believe it. She is it, rang in his ears.

  She worked his pants down, over his thighs, calves, and feet before tossing them to the floor. Then she settled over him and pressed his erect cock flush against his stomach. Ivan felt the wetness he’d created cover his dick as she worked against him, parting herself to allow her clit to slide up and down his shaft. Her nipples raked across his chest, causing him to stiffen more and more.

  He reached up and held her face with both hands. He rubbed his thumbs along her cheeks and nuzzled his nose against hers, their lips only a breath out of reach.

  “I wanted to know what love could be, and I found the answer in you. You’re everything to me.”

  “Oh, baby,” she whispered back in the darkness before she ghosted a tender kiss over his lips.

  Then she gripped his cock and repositioned it between them, surrendering the power of choice and discretion to make the final move, the final physical manifestation of their immortal love, to him.

  Ivan lay paralyzed at the gift she had given him—an opportunity to recommit to their life together as one united soul. Just him and just her.

  With a newfound understanding of what life is really about, he committed himself to his love with a single upward thrust. It extracted a burst of sensations that couldn’t be explained in any lyrics or any poetic words. It was the most perfect love story ever written.

  He writhed in pleasure at the feel of Jaden surrounding every inch of him, and her body contorted as well. They both seemed desperate to capture the full potential for sensual bliss. As their bodies rocked back and forth, they became lost in a place no one else could ever find. Forcing his hips high, Ivan pressed his hand against her ass to maximize their connection as Jaden rocked into him more fully and deeply. He sensed her coming close to the edge, but she forced her legs down and pressed her hands against his chest, stopping his motions completely.

  “Not yet, baby,” she said through ragged breath. “Stay right there. Stay with me. I want to come together.”

  He trembled from the inside out and began to give her what she wanted. Without withdrawing, he turned her over on her back and brought both hands behind her to secure her body in place. Back and forth, he penetrated her, working himself up to an instant where they’d share that exclusive moment in love’s long road.

  The feel of her beneath him, breathing, moaning, twisting, and turning coaxed his spine to loosen and his toes to curl. He was so close. But he didn’t need to tell her that…she already knew. Lowering her ass to the bed she made sure to give him what she knew he needed to release.

  As his strokes blended chords into a song only they knew, the sweet melodies only she could play sang loud and clear between them—the most intense collaboration he’d ever known. With one final thrust he found not just a sexual nirvana, but a heaven where they existed as one. He came hard and full inside her as she rocked herself around him in a shattering, brilliant orgasmic burst of emotion and power.

  Seconds felt like hours as their bodies subsided from the landslide of erotic pleasure. Ivan rolled onto his back and brought Jaden with him. She snuggled into his chest and let her legs twist and tangle comfortably with his as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He held her hand over his heart, and they lay in the dark, reminiscing about fountains, limos, balconies, mini golf, sea turtles, vineyards, teddy bears, and motorcycles. They recalled Thanksgiving, guns, cabins, airports, mountains, kitchen counters, showers, doctor’s consults, and Mollydooker. Then they talked of Betty, chateaus, dinners, parties, beaches, jewelry, flowers, ridiculously oversized costume hearts, and the moment their eyes met for the first time: one magical night in Sarasota.

  As the sun began to creep up, it cast rays of illumination over every entangled inch of their bodies. And with the morning light, something else in the room came into view: Jaden’s bags, packed and standing against the wall.

  “Going somewhere?” Ivan asked.

  “Supposed to be.”

  “But—”

  “Looks like I have a plan B,” she said with a giggle. She turned her face into his chest and laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” he said nervously.

  “Nothing. There’s nothing funny about any of this,” she said, laughing even harder. “I have a plan B!”

  He wondered if she might have gone a little crazy but couldn’t help laughing along with her. They rode out the fits of giggles and nestled back into their sweet embrace. After a few minutes of contented silence, she spoke.

  “I’m not running away any more.” She twisted in his arms and put both her hands flat on his chest, then rested her chin on them.

  His eyes cut over to the pile of luggage in the corner that said otherwise. She followed his gaze and assessed the implications.

  “I mean, I guess technically I am. Running away, that is. From my job, probably. From a career I’d have to be an idiot to walk away from, but that I find I don’t want, yes. From you, however? No, never again.”

  Ivan tried not to smile so big, but he couldn’t help it. “So should we just carry those bags to my place? You know it’s right next door.”

  “Wait—what?”

  “A few months ago I moved to the next building over,” he said with a laugh.

  Jade
n just shook her head, eyes wide. “Well then, for now I guess we should,” she said with a giggle. “You don’t mind having a roommate, do you?”

  He breathed a sigh of relief as a tiny flicker of fear he hadn’t realized he was holding on to was finally snuffed out. She’d chosen him. No second guessing. No hindsight. She chose him.

  “No, definitely not,” he said as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

  She sighed contentedly and turned, pressing her backside against him. He began working his hands across her side and along her torso to his favorite spot on her entire body. He parted her hair with the intention of kissing, but found something he hadn’t expected and never would have imagined.

  She tucked her chin and shifted in front of him, offering a better view. Across the back of her neck, just below her hairline, he found a row of tiny letters—a permanent reminder of what it meant to live in the moment.

  Smile

  Stopping his pressured finger strokes, he thought for a second. “Because it happened?” he breathed into her ear.

  Turning to meet his eyes, she responded with words only one who had lived her life could offer. “Because you happened.”

  Acknowledgments

  What is Destiny?

  Is it a doctrine formulated by aristocrats and philosophers arguing that there is some unseen driving force predicting the outcomes of every minuscule and life altering moment in one’s life? Or is it the artistry illustrated by those under-qualified and over-eager to give their future meaning and their ambitions hope?

  Is it a declaration by those who refuse to accept that we are alone in this universe, spinning randomly though a matrix of accidental coincidences? Or is it the assumption made by those who concede that there is a divine plan or pre-ordained path for each human being, regardless of their current station?

  I think destiny is a bit of a tease…