He could sense her confusion. He walked over to her and sat her on the bed. He took her face in his hands and lowered his face and kissed her.
They sank back into the bed, into the soft comforter. Thomas unbuttoned her blouse and guided it gently off her shoulders.
He got up and lit two candles on the nightstand and then rejoined her on the bed. She was trembling a little.
“Hey,” he said, “is this your…”
“No, it’s not,” she said laughing. “I wasn’t that much of a geek! I had a few boyfriends in my time.”
He took off her slacks and let her lay there with her bra and panties on. He lay next to her then and they were both quiet.
“What was it like,” he asked, “living in New York? I always wondered about you over there, thinking you were living this exciting life in the Big Apple.”
Alex told him stories about her father and his apartment building and they both laughed until they cried. She talked about walking to school in the crowded streets, and about her best friends and what they did for fun in a city of eight million people.
“A lot of New York City kids are more sheltered than you’d think,” she said. “All a lot of us knew was the city.”
He stroked her hair as she spoke, and then made a path across her body with his fingers. He told her stories about surfing, about the “cool” California kids and how he always wondered if he fit in.
He kissed again when it got quiet, this time with an urgency that surprised her. Very slowly he moved down and began to kiss her body, starting at her toes and moving slowly to her knees and then up to her thighs and then her groin. She cried out, lost now in her own desire, both of her hands grasping his head, pushing him further into her sweet wetness.
Before he lost her in the moment, he stood up and quickly took off his pants, and then he slowly lowered himself on top of her, being careful to be gentle, wanting her to know that his gentleness was his way of telling her that in this moment, she was the only person in his universe, that he wanted nothing more than to stay with, for a day, for a week---long enough to have her completely, not just to be inside of her, but to have her in a way he’d never had anyone before.
His fingers reached into her hair, and he grabbed handfuls of it and held them with his fists. He slowly pushed inside of her by pulling her panties aside. He moved with her, faster and with deliberate intention, being sure she was with him, that their movements were synced, that her moaning matched his in regular rhythm.
There was an urgency to his strokes as he moved inside of her, a feeling that he wanted to devour her completely. She joined his intensity, pushing against him, not wanting the moment to end. She raised her buttocks to meet his strokes and they both cried out then, releasing their uncertainty.
They both laid there for a while, but Thom wasn’t finished. He kissed her beautiful breasts and moved his hands gently up and down her legs, letting his fingers glide across her stomach, teasing her and hoping she wanted more.
“Let’s stay in bed all day tomorrow,” he said. “What I would give to stay here all day with you.”
She kissed him with so much enthusiasm then that it was clear to him that he’d said something that made her heart sing a little.
She straddled his stomach on the bed and looked down into his eyes. “I’m not sure this is the right thing to do,” she said. “But for the first time in my life, I don’t really care.”
She touched his groin and stroked him, waiting for him to get hard again. And then she mounted him, moving up and down, holding her hair back with one hand, staring into his green eyes.
“I really like you Thomas,” she said.
He stared back at her thinking of a way they could stay in Paris forever.
*****
The day was a flurry of activity when they woke up late in Thom’s bed and realized their plane left for Chile in less than two hours.
Neither one of them had the next-day-regrets, but instead, they couldn’t wait to see one another again when they separated to pack.
On the way to the airport, he took her hand, and Alex couldn’t help think of how safe she felt when she was with him. He’d guided her around Paris like an expert, making sure they crossed the streets safely and that her glass was refilled at dinner and that she was well-fed and well-rested all week. He was a gentleman through and through and she was always happy when she was in his presence.
The flight to Chile was mostly business. They were flying back across the Atlantic to South America to visit the wineries near Santiago and Thomas spent most of the time on the phone. Alex slept for a while and then handled some paperwork for Thomas.
An hour before they landed, she caught Thomas staring at her over a folder.
He turned on the “do not disturb” button on his seat and walked over to her.
“I can’t stay away from you,” he said. “It’s been more than twelve hours since I’ve run my fingers through your hair.”
He went to kiss her, and it was a bit awkward in the light of day, but they both seemed to surrender to something bigger than themselves.
He laid her down gently on the bench seat. He took off her yellow sundress and put it down carefully, and he stood there admiring her stunning beauty.
She had the perfect body---full breasts, a small waist and supple, soft skin. He stared down at her in amazement, as if he were keeping the biggest secret in the world.
“My god, you are beautiful,” he said.
She said nothing. She seemed shy, suddenly a more vulnerable version of herself than she’d been the night before.
He laid down next to her and massaged her shoulders as he kissed her, moving his hands to her lacy bra and pushing the straps over her shoulders. She shuddered a bit when he cupped her breasts, seeming to get lost in the moment.
He slowly slid her panties down her legs, and then brought his hands back to her stomach where he touched her gently, his fingers lingering just below her breasts.
Thom was a privileged son and a bit jaded by life, but he was a good lover. His mother was a kind and sensitive woman and Thom had inherited these traits from her. For all of his California rich kid sensibilities, he knew how to please a woman.
Alex began to unbutton his shirt, and he took off his slacks and his jeans himself, not able to be patient. She caught a glimpse of his naked body and she felt herself wanting him in a way she’d never wanted anyone before.
When he entered her, he did it slowly and gently, not wanting to rush the moment. They moved in unison together, breathing deeply, gazing into one another’s eyes, reaching their climax at the same moment, releasing their own fears and loneliness in one final sigh of pleasure.
They lay in bed for a while, neither one of them wanting to move. It felt so right, so peaceful in the sky, but it didn’t take Alex long to feel a pang of guilt.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, feeling her muscles tense.
“Have you heard the Country Western words, ‘How could something that feels so right be so wrong?”
He laughed.
“Yes, this is high drama, or at least it would be to our families. But we’ll worry about that when the time comes.”
They freshened up in the luxurious bathroom, ready to do business in Santiago.
Alex put her hair up in a bun and put on a business suit. She sat with her head on his shoulders as he read over a file before they landed. She wondered why she felt so safe and comfortable with him. Is it because she knew him already? She hadn’t spent much time with him over the years. He was always traipsing between one parent’s house and the next like she was.
What would become of this, she wondered?
Her grandfather’s words echoed through her head as they landed.
“Remember to always stay true to who you are,” he’d said.
*****
Santiago was surprising. It was cosmopolitan and energetic—not what Alex had expected from South America. She remembered her old dreams of Peru.
They worked hard during the day, taking long day trips to the wineries Thomas worked with, and then spent the nights strolling the neighborhoods, each one with its own unique flavor. The city boasted grand architecture that they pointed out to one another and they spent several evenings in a flight of sidewalk eateries, cafes and beer halls, dancing, staying out too late, and reveling in this little magic world they’d found.
They took a day off and had an afternoon picnic in a gorgeous hillside park, parked on a blanket and staring up at the warm blue sky.
He pointed out cloud shapes to her, and they watched as flights of birds made their way north in the fall sky.
“We’re leaving tomorrow,” he said, taking her hand and suddenly getting serious.
“I know. I feel like I’m leaving my first boyfriend behind at camp,” she said, already lamenting the next stop on their trip. Northern California was too close to home. Thom Sr. was supposed to meet them in their offices in Napa and they’d have to pretend they were nothing more than business associates.
“Alex, I can’t pretend I don’t have feelings for you. I’ve never been any good at hiding my feelings, not even in front of my dad. He’ll see through me. He has like…laser eyes.”
“Maybe this was just a Paris fling,” she said. “Two attractive people are stuck together on a private plane, landing in some of the most beautiful spots in the world. It’s text book. It had to happen.”
He shot up suddenly and turned to look at her.
“I can’t believe you just said that. I was under the impression that the feeling was mutual here… that we were on the same page, Alex.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, sitting up so she could see him better. “Look, Thomas. I spent my whole life wanting to live somewhere else when I grew up. I thought teaching would be a good way to remove myself from the city, but I find I’m liking business. I never considered it for myself and I always shunned the thought when my mother brought it up, but I like it. I want to stay with the company for a while and see what happens next.”
He was angry. He started gathering up their things, letting her know he was ready to head back to the hotel.
“Hey, wait a minute. I’m being honest with you, Thomas,” Alex said, suddenly feeling as if she’d broken something. “It wasn’t a commentary about us. You know I care for you so much. I’m just worried about that’s going to happen when we get to California. I’m scared.”
He said nothing and she stood up so that she could look in his eyes. He looked like a little boy who’d just had his heart broken and she realized her talent for being impulsive had disrupted another moment in her life.
“Hey,” she said, grabbing his arm. “Let’s not talk about this tonight, okay? Let’s not spoil our last night in Chile.”
He softened then, and grabbed her hand to take her back to the hotel. They’d signed up for a tango lesson at a bar across the street and they decided they still wanted to do it.
“The last Tango in Chile,” she said as they walked along. “Wasn’t that a movie?”
He laughed, but she always made him laugh. Her quick wit, her absolute inability to understand how beautiful she was, and her marvelous brain were the three things he loved most about her.
They were both horrible at the tango. As the lesson wore on, they both gave up and instead watched the other beautiful couples do their thing on the dance floor. They sipped exotic drinks and met some other Americans at the bar, laughing and drinking the night away.
At 3:00 in the morning they made it back to their hotel. They’d only gotten one room when they’d checked in and they crawled in to bed together, naked and drunk and not at all sure how they’d navigate the next morning.
“You are one special lady,” he told her as they snuggled in one another’s arms.
*****
Their first night back in California was a far cry for their night of tango in Santiago. They’d driven to Thom’s house in Napa, had taken separate rooms and slept late in the morning.
When Alex awoke, she walked downstairs to the kitchen where she saw Thom making coffee. Alex hadn’t noticed how glamorous the house was when she’d arrived the night before and it was the first time she’d thought about how different their lives were.
She’d been living in a small house on Quackenbush Avenue in Brooklyn with a father who thought splurging at a restaurant once a month was a big deal. Her mother had helped with her college tuition, but her father was a proud man and he diligently saved for his half through the years.
She realized that her parents were two different people and never would have been happy together. She was only 18 when her mother had married her father, having gotten pregnant when their relationship had just begun to bud.
By the time she was twenty, she realized she wanted more out of life. She fell in love with a young, ambitious Thomas Cooke, whom she’d worked for as a secretary at his fledgling wine distribution company.
“Wine is going to be very big one day,” he’d said and his hunches had been right.
But looking around Thom Jr.’s house in Napa, Alex realized how much she’d missed out on having stayed in New York with her father. Despite living in a big city, she’d led a provincial life, and although she’d never wanted for anything, she’d always thought of life as somewhat limited.