Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
“Are you out of whiskey?” Vincent asks.
“For the night, yes.” Nathan’s voice is rich with darkness. I feel like something is bothering him, and I feel like he would share whatever it is if it were just him and I and not Vincent. But it is what it is. Nathan suddenly eyes me from across the table and I am wondering even more now than before, what it is he’s thinking.
“What?” I finally say.
“Do you like the wine?”
“Yes but…” I place my hand on Vincent’s. “I like the wine you had the other night better. What was it called?”
“I think it was called Scarlivet Baith.”
“That’s it,” I point. “That’s the one. I like that one.”
“I’ll have to make a note of it,” Vincent winks at me.
I laugh. “Thanks. This is good too,” I say. I sip the wine. It’s fruity and lush. Vincent starts talking about the wine and where it’s from. He knows as much about wine as he does about flowers. I can see Nathan off in the distance rolling his eyes.
I try and not laugh as Vincent goes off on some tangent about where the wine is grown – what piedmont and the type of weather.
“Not too crisp and not too humid – the air quality has to be just right – you’d be amazed with how much that can affect wine,” Vincent says. “High humidity can cause wine disease…”
Nathan giggles. “Wine disease,” he mutters. Then Vincent gives him the death stare.
“Well yes – weather affects everything – ever single thing but grapes especially are very vulnerable, if not given the proper care, they easily rot. It’s called noble rot.”
“How did you learn so much about wine?” I ask. I’m trying to keep the mood light, but I can already feel a fight breaking out.
“I studied,” Vincent said. “That’s what you do whenever you want to learn about anything. You study it – like I’ve studied your every feature.”
“Which is easy to do today,” Nathan snorts.
“Yes,” I say, stretching out my long legs and they feast their eyes upon them. Nathan is also looking at my feet. “I have made that quite easy for you, haven’t I?”
“You have.” Vincent picks up my left foot and starts to give it a massage like he did that night in the garden. I am reminded of that amazing, wonderful, blissful night we had together. He is massaging my feet perfectly. I think that night and the night I had with Nathan playing the piano are two of the most fabulous nights I’ve ever had. I wouldn’t trade them in for anything in the world.
“Any way, I started studying wine a few years ago,” Vincent says as Nathan sits remarkably still, his finger on the side of his face as he looks over at us. I can tell he’s conjuring up some master plan as to how to compete with the foot massage and wine lesson I’m being given.
“Sun exposure, soil type, all these things go into growing the perfect grape – you can’t possibly get a perfect bottle of wine without growing the perfect grape.”
“And so many grapes – I’ve always wanted to go to a vineyard,” I say.
“We could do this,” Vincent says.
“We should all go,” Nathan says.
“Nathan, do you know anything about whiskey – how it’s made?” Vincent asks. “You should, it could make your taste for it that much more exotic.”
“I’ll look into it tomorrow.” Nathan’s voice is lackluster, he’s just teasing Vincent.
“And topography,” Vincent suddenly says.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, well it’s the arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area – like for example, the surroundings here. Topography is simply the environment; it’s a fancy word for it. The earth, the soil, the valleys, all of that, makes up topography.”
Vincent attempts to steal my foot from Nathan, but Nathan is grouchy and at first he squeezes my foot too hard… but then I think he remembers that it’s a foot and it’s tender, and he calms down and starts to do it just right.
“Are you ticklish?” Nathan wonders aloud.
“No…” I say, “Your fingers feel good,” I say. And he starts to massage my calves too. I suddenly crave his fingers all over my body.
“Would you like a full body massage?” Nathan offers. Oh wow, I think he wins this round. I didn’t see that coming.
I nod and get down on my knees and spread out on the blanket that we had sex on earlier and he gets on top of me, so his knees are on either side of me, and goes to town on my backside, his fingers pressing into some tender spots. I suppose even a queen can have stress. He is finding all of those spots and begins a marvelous massage as Vincent continues with my feet.
“Oh…” I moan my pleased reaction. “This…feels…so good…” I say. “So good.”