Diesel Chronicles Ch. 16

Thursday morning found me awake before Vin. Today is his birthday and I couldn't wait to give him his present.

Quietly slipping out of bed, I went to the closet and got his gift out of my bag.

"What are you doing?" he asks, watching me tip-toe back to bed.

"Nothing."

"Liar," he says, turning on his side and propping the side of his head on his hand. "What's behind your back?"

Crawling back into bed, I lean over and give him a kiss.

"Happy birthday," I say, handing him the box.

Sitting up in bed, he takes it from me. "Gwen, you didn't have to get me anything."

"Oh, in that case, I'll take it back," I jokingly reply, trying to take the box from him.

Not letting go, he says, "I don't think so," and he starts to unwrap it.

Lifting the lid of the small box, he finds a sterling silver Black Onyx swirl ring.

"Gwen, it's beautiful," he says, taking it out.

"I hope it fits. I have a friend who's about your size and I asked him what size he wears, so that's what I bought. If it doesn't fit, I'll take it back and have them resize it."

Sliding it on his ring finger, he comments, "Perfect fit."

"Well, that's not the finger I thought you'd wear it on, but since it fits, I won't complain."

Pulling me to him, he gives me a kiss. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. I wasn't sure what to get you. I haven't seen you wear a ring like this one, so I decided that's what I was going to get. If you have one already, I can take it back and get something else."

"You're not taking anything back. You gave me this ring and this is the one I'm going to wear."

"I've got another present for you, but that comes later."

"Why not give it to me now?"

"I'll tell you something that you told me on the first night we were together - good things come to those who wait."

"God, I can't believe you remembered that."

"Oh, you'd be surprised at some of the things I remember."

"Remind me to never say something that you can throw back at me twenty years down the road."

"Mmmm, twenty years. I like the sound of that."

"Oh, twenty years at least," he says, pulling me to him for a kiss.

Getting out of bed and getting dressed, he says "I'm going to head up to the gym. Want to join me?"

"Sure, just give me a few minutes to get ready."

In less than five minutes, I'm ready to go.

"Damn, that was fast."

"I'm not one of those high-maintenance women. I don't have to put on makeup every time I walk out the door. Well, now that we're together, maybe I should."

"You don't need makeup. You've got a complexion that women would kill for."

"Flattery will get you everywhere," I say, reaching up to quickly kiss him. "Let's go."

He takes my hand and we walk up to the gym where I watch him go through his routine. It's amazing watching him. Vin is a walking contradiction - all of that strength and yet he's so gentle. Before I get too turned on, I tell him that I'll be right back. About 15 minutes later, I make it back to the gym. Vin is almost finished with his workout and I lose myself in thought.

"Gwen?"

Snapping out of it, I answer, "What?"

"Where were you at?"

"Oh, if you only knew."

Taking my hand, he leads me out of the gym and outside.

"Wait, I'm hungry. Let's eat first then go back."

"Cool," he says, leading the way to the dining room, where we enjoy a quiet breakfast.

"So, what now?"

"It's your birthday, so choose."

"How about going back to bed?"

"Tired?" "Not even close," he says, taking my hand and leading me out of the restaurant. We make our way back to the cottage and collapse on the bed, with him lying on top of me.

"Now, care to tell me where you were while I was working out earlier?"

"Some place like this," I say, pulling his shirt off of him.

"Doing what?"

"Something like this," I say, reaching up to lightly kiss his neck.

"With who?"

"Some guy I picked up at the gym."

He started laughing. "What am I going to do with you?"

Looking into his brown eyes, I smile and say, "Anything you'd like."

He pulls me up off of the bed with him. "First I'm going to take a shower, then we'll continue this conversation."

"I think I'll join you, if you don't mind."

"Oh, I don't think that's going to be a problem," he says, pulling me into the bathroom with him.

We undress and step into the shower to bathe. I'm rinsing the shampoo out of my hair when I feel Vin's lips on my breast and his arms go around me, pulling me to him. Then he leans down and kisses me, his hardness pressing against me. He picks me up and slides me onto him, with my back braced against the shower wall and his arms supporting me. Vin starts to move inside of me, bringing me closer and closer to the edge with each thrust. He moves over to the shower seat and sits down with me riding him. My breasts rub against his chest as we move together. It's too much for me and I cum, with him right after.

Getting up, we rinse off and I sit back down to shave my legs. Vin takes the shaving cream and puts some between my legs and shaves me again.

"Enjoying yourself?" I ask.

"Oh yeah."

"Guess what."

"What?" he asks, concentrating on the job at hand.

"You're next."

He looks up at me. "I don't think so."

"Come on Vin. You'll like it."

"Maybe. Now be quiet so I can finish."

A few minutes later, he stands me up and rinses me off, running his hand over me.

"Mmmm, smooth. I like," he says, kissing my neck.

"Ok then, my turn," I say, stepping out of the shower for a fresh razor. "Sit on the seat and I'll do the rest."

Surprisingly, he does very well. Extremely turned on, but he lets me shave him. When I finish, he stands up and rinses off the excess shaving cream. We get out and get dressed, sitting in the swing to watching the people out surfing.

"How about going snorkeling?"

"Sure. All I need to do is to change into my suit and grab my camera."

Vin pulls me up off of the swing and we go into the bedroom to change. A few minutes later, we walk down to the pier, and after getting our snorkeling gear, we join a small group that is waiting to go out to the reef. Vin has donned his baseball cap and glasses, hoping that people won't recognize him. We board the glass-bottom boat and make the short trip out to the reef. People wait their turn to jump off the back of the boat and into the water near the reef. Once in the water, we swim to the reef, watching the sea life below us. I've never seen so many different colored fish. The reef itself is beautiful, with different colored animals living on it. Small fish dart between the plants, seeking shelter from the intruders. The boat is scheduled to stay out for a couple of hours, which gives us plenty of time to tour the reef. We slowly make our way around the reef, with me snapping pictures with the underwater camera I brought.

We decide to head back to the boat before everyone else does. Climbing the ladder, we drop our gear in the large barrel they have on the back of the boat. Vin grabs his hat and glasses before everyone gets on board, and we make our way to the front of the boat, staying out of everyone's way. A few people look our way, trying to figure out if he is who they think he is, but none approach us.

We see a school of dolphin on our way back to the pier, jumping out of the water, twisting and flipping. Everyone grabs their cameras and starts snapping pictures. And me being the tourist, I follow right along with them. A few minutes later, the boat docks and we go to the hut for lunch.

During lunch, I had this feeling that we were being watched, but I brushed it off. Vin was leaning across the table and kissing me, when we hear someone.

"Well, well, well. Look at who we have here."

He pulls back and looks over his shoulder to see who it is. I look up and remind myself to breathe.

Vin stands up and shakes hands with him. "Mr. Johnson, what brings you to paradise?"

"Time off for a much needed vacation. And who do we have here?" he says, looking down at me.

"Dwayne, this is Gwen. Gwen, from the look on your face I can tell you know who this is."

"I'm sorry. Nice to meet you," I say, shaking his hand.

"Gwen, this is my wife, Dany. Dany, this is Gwen."

We shake hands. "Nice to meet you. Would you like to join us?" I ask.

"Thank you, but I think we'll pass. It looks like you two need some privacy," Dwayne (The Rock) says, laughing.

Vin pats him on the back. "No, come on and join us."

Checking with Dany, they agree. Vin moves to sit by me so Dany and Dwayne can sit across from us.

Dwayne asks, "What brings you two to the island?"

"Same thing, vacation." Vin answers. "When did you get here?"

"Today, we just flew in. What about you?"

"We flew in Saturday. Staying in the cottages?"

"The only place to stay as far as I'm concerned."

"I have to agree with that," Dany says. "Don't get me wrong, I love his fans. But enough is enough."

I started laughing. "Luckily I haven't had to deal with many of them."

"Just give it time." she says.

The waiter comes and takes their order.

"So Gwen, where are you from?" Dwayne asks.

"Houston."

He looks at Dany and grins. Then he turns to Vin. "Didn't I see a picture of you in the Houston paper a few months ago?"

Vin puts his arm across the back of my chair and groans. "Yeah."

"Getting careless in your old age?" Dwayne asks, laughing.

"That was my fault. I wanted to surprise him and didn't expect someone to be snapping pictures."

"So, when did you meet?" this from Dany.

"A few months ago in New Orleans. He was stalking me." I answered.

Vin started to laugh. "Yeah, you know me. When I see something I want, nothing is going to get in my way."

To explain, I say, "Really, he was following me and my friends around. After a little while, he finally got up the courage to talk to me."

Dwayne started laughing. "You, scared of a woman?"

Vin laughed. "You should have seen her that night. I can't tell you how many men she put in their place. I wasn't sure if I wanted to get shot down like the others." The waiter arrives with the food and sets it on the table. The conversation jumps around from subject to subject, from what The Rock is currently working on to what Vin's schedule looks like, while me and Dany interject our comments when needed and calm the two of them down when they threaten to get out of control.

When everyone is finished with their meal, we get up to leave. Vin and Dwayne are talking, and I pull Dany aside.

"I want to invite you and Dwayne down here this evening around 6:00 for a surprise birthday party for Vin. We met some people earlier this week and they'll be here, so it's not a huge gathering."

"I'll run it by Dwayne to see what he wants to do."

"I understand."

We walk over to where the guys are talking and say our good-byes. Taking my hand, we walk back to the cottage, and crawl in the hammock.

"Ahhh, heaven. Fat and happy and time for a nap," I comment.

"Sweetheart, there's not an ounce of fat on you, though I haven't figured out why with all of the food you eat."

"Fast metabolism and trying to keep up with an 8 year old niece every other weekend."

"Really?"

"Yeah, my sister, Kay, has a daughter, and we're pretty tight. I get to spoil her rotten and then send her back home."

"What do you two do together?"

"We go to the zoo, ride four-wheelers, go horseback riding, things like that. She's my concert buddy too. We've seen *NSYNC every time they've come to Houston. Her mom said that there was no way she was going to listen to all of those girls screaming for hours at a time, so I get to take her. We have a blast."

"That's cool that you two spend time together."

"Yeah, since I don't have any of my own, she's the next best thing."

"Do you want kids?"

"I did when I was younger, but now, I don't know. What about you?"

"Definitely."

"Boy or girl?"

"It doesn't matter. Probably a girl because I'd be too afraid that a boy would be too much like me when I was younger. And believe me, I wouldn't wish that hell on anyone."

"But a girl could be just as bad. Don't forget, I was a tomboy growing up. I spent all of my free time either in a pasture riding horses or at the barn cleaning up. Some of the things that I did with my group of friends was not something you would expect a girl to do. To them, I was just one of the guys. Which is why I never got into the make-up and frilly dress thing. It's either jeans or shorts for me, and maybe a dress for special occasions."

We lay there for awhile, and I fall asleep for a little while. Vin wakes me up and asks me what I want to do for dinner.

"I don't know, maybe go to the hut for something, then come back here."

"Well, it's 5:30, so we need to get up there before it gets too crowded."

"Alright, I'm going to take a quick shower and get dressed," I say, getting up with Vin following.

We shower and get ready, and head to the hut around 6:15. As soon as we walk up the stairs, a group of people yell "SURPRISE!"

I start laughing and Vin looks down at me. "What in the hell have you gone and done?"

"Thrown a surprise party for you. Happy birthday."

We walk over to where everyone has gathered. The hotel has done a great job on such short notice. There are balloons and streamers in one corner where our tables are, with the cake is in the center of the tables.

"How did you manage this?"

"I have my ways."

Leaning down, he gives me a kiss. "Thank you."

When everyone is seated, the waiter brings the menus and takes our drink orders. A few minutes later, he's back with the drinks and takes our food order. Everyone is sitting around talking when Dwayne and Dany arrive.

"Sorry we're late," he says to me.

"That's ok, we just got here a few minutes ago. Grab a seat and I'll get the waiter back over here to take your order."

Vin makes the introductions for everyone while I get the waiter. Once Dwayne and Dany have ordered, we sit around talking and have a blast. The waiter arrives with our food, and everyone enjoys themselves. Amber asks if we want to go to the club later, and we all agree.

After we finish eating, I say, "Ok birthday boy, make a wish and blow out the candles."

"Gwen," he says with a warning in his voice.

"Don't look at me like that. Just do it."

He stands there for a little bit thinking, then he leans down and blows out the candles. Everyone cheers and claps, and he cuts the cake, serving pieces to everyone except for himself.

"Aren't you going to have a piece?"

"Gwen, I don't eat cake."

"Come on, it's your birthday for heaven's sake. Just one bite?"

"Ok."

I pinch off a small piece from mine and offer it to him. He leans down and I feed it to him.

"Mmmm, not too bad," he says, pinching off another piece.

"Hey, you've got an entire cake. Leave my piece alone."

"Nah, that's enough. How did you manage all of this?"

"Remember when you were working out this morning and I disappeared for a little while? I talked to the manager and told him it was your birthday, and everything took off from there. I even met with the pastry chef to decide what kind of cake to have. I never knew things like that happen."

"See, being famous has some good points, right?"

"Yep."

"You didn't have to do this."

"I know, but I wanted to do something special for you like you did for my birthday."

"Thank you," he says leaning down to kiss me.

Everyone finishes their cake and the waiter boxes up what's left so we can take it back to the cottage before we head to the club. We've decided to go to one at another hotel, so we head out after dropping off the cake.

Arriving at the club, we find some empty tables and pull them together. The waitress takes our drink orders and we head out to the dance floor where we spend most of the night. Vin had wandered over to the DJ to make a request, and when he was coming back, a girl stopped and talked to him. He shook his head and pointed to me, saying something. She got pissed, flipped me off, and stormed out. He started laughing.

When he got back to me, I asked, "What was that all about?"

"She asked me to dance."

"And?"

"I told her no thanks and that I was here with you."

"So she flipped me off?" "Yep."

Dany leans over to me. "Welcome to my world."

We go back out onto the dance floor and finish out the night. On the way back to the cottage, I get a splitting headache, so I take some Advil and turn in for the night.