The Winemaker's Dinner: Entrée (4 page)

“That wasn’t a request, it was an expletive.” She pushed herself up off the sofa.

He stood with her and reluctantly slipped himself free from her body. Running his hands across her smooth stomach, he nuzzled his nose in her hair. “Ay, ay, ay…”

She snickered as she headed for the bathroom. As he heard the shower turn on, Ivan found himself dazed and alone in the middle of the living room, and nearly in a sexual coma. He closed his eyes and smiled a very satisfied smile.

“Into the Mystic”

D
AMP
A
ND
R
EFRESHED
, Jaden emerged from the bathroom wearing a white terrycloth robe with the hotel’s logo embroidered in gold script on the lapel and a pair of matching white slippers. Classic rock streamed from the docking station where Ivan had plugged in his iPhone, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Wandering from the bedroom to the living room, she detected a faint trace of cigar smoke and noticed that the balcony door was ajar. There, leaning against the rail, his muscular physique illuminated by the setting sun, was Ivan. A cigar dangled from his mouth and his hand held a glass of wine. A simple white towel was the only thing he wore, and he appeared to be deep in thought. Bare feet, bare skin, and flowing brown hair that just reached the top of the tattoo inked across his back. The sight was almost perfect.
If only he’d lose the towel
, she thought. This man, a man she trusted implicitly and loved with every fiber of her being, a man who loved her back just as much, was a miracle. Finding what they now shared had been a once in a lifetime chance…and they’d been lucky to find it at all.

She watched him stand in silence, enjoying the fading blues, reds, and purples that painted the warm California sky. He pulled deep on his cigar, occasionally blowing a smoke ring. She could watch him for hours and be completely content, but she couldn’t bear to waste a second of their precious time together, so Jaden cleared her throat and alerted him to her presence. When he turned and stared at her, his eyes full of love, she could tell he’d been thinking something along the same lines as she had only seconds before. As their gazes locked, she knew this was for real. Despite the distance—the thing Ivan had feared the most—they were making it work. And someday, when the time was right, they’d be able to close that distance between them.

“How ya doing?” he asked as she started toward him.

“Much better now.” Jaden positioned herself on his lap as he slid into one of the chairs. “I think we both needed that. This distance thing is a bitch!”

“I think you’re right.” An impish grin curled the corner of his mouth, and his hand drifted across her thigh. He hugged her. “I do miss the feel of your skin.”

After a pause in the music, “Into the Mystic” began to play, and Jaden hugged Ivan’s arm as she sank into the warmth of his body. The sun set through the trees over an unseen horizon, and he stroked her leg. With each silent caress, she felt their love deepen.

When the last vestiges of the sun disappeared, Ivan cleared his throat. “Is everything okay at work?” he asked. “I hear you have a playmate coming to the kitchen.”

“Are you
trying
to spoil this moment? Don’t even get me started!” She kept her voice lighthearted, but inside she burned all over again. “The only reason Kevin hired Ken is to appeal to the young, female demographic. It’s not as if he can actually cook!”

“Ken? I thought his name was Damian.”

“Ken, as in Ken doll,” she replied. “I think Kevin believes we’ll reach a whole new viewership of teenage girls and desperate housewives.”

“Well, aren’t you the one attracting all the guys for a quick wank here and there? Doesn’t that creep you out?”

She slapped him on the shoulder. “I do think there are a few people who watch the show for the
cooking
,” she teased. “But not at all. That’s what I have Adam for. He keeps the weirdos at bay.”

“I find it funny that the girl every guy on the planet wants to sleep with loves to get downright dirty and nasty with
me
.” Ivan slid his hand up her thigh and tickled her stomach. She giggled into his shoulder. “I feel like that geeky kid in high school who somehow managed to score a gorgeous girlfriend.”

“Something tells me you were never the geeky kid, and you had your pick of girls.”

He said nothing and just hugged her more tightly, leading Jaden to assume her suspicions were correct.

After a few moments he spoke again. “So are you happy with everything so far? With us, I mean. The distance, this lifestyle?”

“The only thing I would change is the distance,” Jaden replied, puzzled by this new line of questioning. “Not being able to hold you, or smell you, or feel you every day is like a living hell. But I’m willing to bear it if that’s what makes our lives possible right now. Saying goodbye to you at the airport almost breaks my heart, but knowing I’ll see you again in two weeks keeps me going.”

Ivan removed his hand from her stomach to pour her a glass of wine.

“How about you?” she asked, accepting her drink. “Are you okay with all of this? I know this whole long-distance thing was hard for you to accept.” She took a sip and stared into his eyes. Only months ago she’d thought their relationship was over for good, but looking at him now, in the dim light of the moon, that felt like a lifetime ago.

“Everything is right as rain now, baby girl. That isn’t what worries me, though. Love can withstand a lot of things for a little while. It’s five or six months down the road when the distance becomes more of an obstacle that I’m worried about. When we get caught up in our careers and have to fight to find the time to spend together. When these weekend rendezvous turn into once-a-month meetups—that’s when love will feel the true test of distance.”

He took a long pull from his cigar and blew out a puff of smoke before he continued. “But right in this moment, I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that you are the destiny I’d risk everything for.”

“You’re a destiny I was born to fulfill,” Jaden countered. “I love you, Ivan.”

She leaned in to meet him and found what assurance she needed as their lips met in a kiss under the night sky. The heady scent of cigars and the sweet wine on her lips mingled to form a perfect union.

“Ohh! I almost forgot!” she burst out, pulling away from Ivan’s kiss. “What is the red fabric on BoBo’s ears? I know the other fabrics are…ummm…the clothes we mutually ruined.”

He laughed. “Very good. I didn’t know if you’d recognize my suits. Impressive! But mutually?”

“Okay, maybe seventy-five/twenty-five my doing?”

“That sounds about right. You can’t place the red silk, huh?”

“No, I can’t.”

“Really?”

“No!”

“Besides a very sad man, what else did you leave behind in Sarasota?”

She thought for a moment about that hotel room after the Winemaker’s Dinner. “Oh, you pervert!” she shouted. “My panties!”

“Bingo, baby!” Ivan announced in a terrible Austin Powers voice as he tickled her sides. “I am a man, after all.”

“Ah, I love that bear even more now!” Jaden laughed, defending herself from his fingers. “Why is his name BoBo?”

“It was the name of my favorite childhood stuffed animal, so I felt it was fitting. I slept with that BoBo every night and cherished him, so I hope this BoBo will provide the same comfort for you when we’re apart.”

“Ahh…so sweet. Thank you,” she said with a giggle. “But what about something for you?”

“I still have what’s left of your panties for that.” He gave her a creepy waggle of his eyebrows.

“Way to ruin a beautiful moment, Romeo.”

“You laughed, so mission accomplished!”

After a good laugh, Jaden settled back in the chair with Ivan.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

“I could eat.”

“What are you in the mood for? And don’t ask for a repeat performance just yet—but you can bet your sweet ass I’m not finished with you.”

“You choose,” Jaden replied.

“I’d hoped you’d say that, because I made reservations.”

“So I just played right into your little plan, didn’t I?”

“Yes, ma’am!” He nudged Jaden out of his lap and stood. “Now go put on a pretty dress, and be ready to go in ten minutes.”

“You forgot one teeny little thing.”

“I don’t forget anything,” Ivan said with a smug look on his face.

“I don’t have a bag, much less a pretty dress.”

“You
do
have a bag.”

“No, I don’t, I didn’t—wait. You packed a bag for me?”

“It’s in the closet in the bedroom.”

“Amazing!” Jaden yelled as she raced toward the bedroom. She tossed the robe on the bed, grabbed the bag, and hurried into the bathroom to get ready.

“Baby, I Love Your Way”

I
VAN
Z
IPPED
U
P
H
IS
P
ANTS
, buttoned the last two buttons of his fitted white dress shirt, and cinched his tie around his neck. He attached a pair of turquoise links to his French cuffs and spritzed on a little Blue before he slipped into his loafers. After a final check to be sure his hair flowed properly down his collar, he headed for the living room. There he found a girl draped in the aura of a beauty queen wearing an all-too-perfect black and white ensemble that hugged her hips and didn’t let go.

“Why was I not surprised to find a skirt that barely covers my ass in that little bag of tricks you packed?” Jaden asked with a raised eyebrow.

“What? That’s your size, isn’t it?”

“When I was in grade school!” she shot back. But then she gave him a sensual smile as she worked the fabrics that clung to her curves as if they were painted on.

He felt his breath catch. “If it were up to me, you’d wear that size all the time. God damn, you are delicious.”

“How delicious?” she replied. She leaned in for a kiss and pressed her body against him.

“Can’t you feel me?” he said, hinting at the erotic beast begging to be released. But reservations needed to be kept, he reminded himself. However, this didn’t stop said beast from grinding its erect dick into her pussy, held firmly in place by his grip on her ass cheeks.

Jaden reached behind and detached his claws. “Didn’t you say something about a reservation? We’d better get this show on the road!”

They rode the elevator to the lobby, and as they stepped out into the LA night, Ivan flagged a cab waiting close by. “Nine oh three North La Cienega Boulevard, please.”

“Okay, you got it,” the driver responded, giving them a look through the rearview mirror.

“Can you at least give me a clue?” Jaden asked.

“Absolutely not,” Ivan replied. “Just relax.”

Appearing to give in, she sank back in the seat. Ivan stroked her thigh, sneaking an occasional pinky under her dress and watching as LA passed by in a blur.

As the cab came to a stop less than a mile down the road in West Hollywood, Ivan appraised the crowd packing the restaurant’s door. Lines were something they were no longer accustomed to standing in. “Thanks, boss,” he called as he tossed the driver the fare.

Not wanting his girl, or his ego, to wait a second in the line, Ivan strolled to the front of the crowd to find a petite hostess with fire in her eyes and what seemed to be more piss than vinegar flowing through her veins.

“Hello, darling,” he said in a playful way. “Reservations for two at eight-thirty. Rusilko.”

“Yes, I see, but it’s eight-forty-five now. Sorry. There will be a forty-five-minute wait.”

Leaning a bit closer to the blonde blocking their entrance to fine dining and good vibrations, Ivan smiled his most charming smile. “You sure you don’t want to check your clock again?”

Glancing back from some Hollywood friend of a friend who was bargaining and dropping likely fictionalized names, she gave him a withering look. “It’s eight-forty-five. Sorry.”

Ivan could feel the heat rising within him, but then he felt Jaden’s hand on his arm. She slithered into the intense stare-down he’d started with the hostess.

“Baby, I really didn’t want to eat here anyway. If their food is anything like their customer service…” She trailed off meaningfully. “Let me take you some place real, not manufactured.”

He tilted his head to look in amazement at the woman who could melt his cares away and soothe his ego with a single word. “You’re the boss.” Without another thought, they made their way back to the plethora of yellow and black taxis waiting like bumblebees at the road side.

Dismissing his plans for a night of raw fish, saki-driven conversation, and an extremely long tab, he let his love lead the way as only she could. She slid into the car and spoke softly to the cab driver.