Page 66 of The Spark Between Us

Chapter Twenty-Four

Braden

The loftabove the tasting room was basically a single room with a slanted ceiling, stone walls, and a king-sized bed. I hadn’t slept at the vineyard since Ellie and I were together, and even then, we only made it out there a couple of times. So the loft had sat unused.

I’d had the forethought to have Janet, who ran the tasting room, give the place a quick cleaning before we arrived. So the sheets were clean, pillows fluffed, and windows cracked to let in the yellow afternoon sun.

Now the sun had long since set, and we sat cross-legged on the bed with four open bottles of wine and shot glasses for tasting. We also had a viciously competitive game of Chutes and Ladders underway.

Sarah wasn’t kidding about liking to win. And although she inherently understood that the game involved no skill whatsoever, it frustrated the hell out of her that she couldn’t use her mental fortitude to change the outcome of a spin of the wheel.

“You can’t stand that you can’t come up with some kind of theory of the universe that explains why you just fell down a chute.” I taunted her only because I was finally in the lead for the first time.

“It’s called gravity and bad luck. That’s the theory.” Her sulking amused me to no end.

“Speaking of theories, tell me about friction stir welding. You changed the subject at dinner.”

“I seem to recall that you kissed me senseless. There was going to be no physics lesson after that.”

“So tell me now. How does it work?”

Sarah looked up at the ceiling, something I noticed she did when she wanted to think something through. She never spoke until she knew exactly what she intended to say. Finally, she nodded. “Okay, imagine two blocks of metal sitting next to each other—copper or aluminum—hard metals. Then imagine a small vibrating needle moving in the space between them. It moves so fast that the friction stirs up the atoms in both pieces of metal, gets them moving until they start exchanging materials with each other. And with enough friction, they start to meld into one.”

I nodded, my eyes fixed on her face, willing her not to look down at the tent in my boxers. But there was no putting one over on her. “Does physics get you hot, fireman?”

“Maybe it’s all the talk about vibrating needles. I couldn’t help thinking the whole friction thing was a metaphor for the things you want me to do to you.” I leaned forward and raked my lips along her neck until they were right below her ear. “And you know how sexy I find your brain.”

Her voice dropped to a sultry whisper. “Well then, I should probably tell you about our powerful lasers. They work to get the atoms moving even faster.”

A second later, I had her on her back, my face inches from her, my hard cock leaving no question about where this was headed. “I want to hear more...”

“The lasers are powerful, we’re using them on metals we’ve never been able to fuse before, and stronger, lighter rockets will be shot into space as a result. The end,” she blurted quickly, wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling my face to hers. “Kiss me...then make love to me,” she begged.

It was different this time—not the quick wild frenzy of two people who couldn’t get enough—we were slower, more luxurious. This was love making.

It felt real.

And instead of scaring the shit out of me, I let it have me.

I slowly walked myself one step away from the fears that had defined my relationship to other people since the day my dad left us. Slowly. It would take a while. But I knew I wanted to be with her more than I wanted to protect myself.

I wanted her even if it hurt me later.

* * *

We still hadn’t goneto sleep and given that it was four in the morning, we probably wouldn’t, which suited me just fine. Staying up all night giving Sarah orgasms was followed by long conversations about why I should be baking my own dog biscuits and how she planned to train Bella to retrieve the newspaper every morning.

If anything, letting Bella roam the vineyards while we were at dinner did not bode well for future training. My dog was a free spirit.

“So tell me more about your ex,” Sarah said, rolling onto her side to face me and hooking a leg over my hip.

I couldn’t have heard her right. There was no way that after what had just happened between us, she was asking about my former fiancée.

“Sorry?” I tucked a fallen strand of hair behind her ear, readying myself to hear what she’d really asked me.

“Ellie. What was she like?”

“You want to talk about her now?”

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