The ride to our unknown destination is a quick one- only about fifteen minutes. Since my mom and I share a car, I don't get to use it too often, therefore I've never gotten to explore the surrounding towns. She usually uses the car to drive to work, and I only drive when I need to pick up groceries or run other errands. Grayson is driving in the opposite direction of town, where I haven't ever explored before. It's not in walking distance of my house, so I'm quite excited to see where he's taking me.

I'm practically shaking in my seat, my knee bouncing up and down in anticipation. Nothing can stop the smile on my face. I'm with a cute boy who says he has a surprise for me. This is the most adventurous thing I've ever done!

"Baby," Grayson chuckles as he places his hand on my knee to stop it from bouncing up and down. "Calm down, we're almost there."

"Sorry," I answer, though I'm not really sorry. "I'm just really excited! Where are we going?" I look at him with wide, excited eyes.

"Not telling," he answered in a taunting tone.

I honestly have no clue where we're going. We drove out of town and now it looks like we're in the next small town over. He weaved in and out of dirt roads until we got here, and if he weren't driving I would have never found it. The amount of turns it took to get here made my head spin, and it almost seems like the town was designed to be hard to find.

After a few more minutes of driving, he pulls into a spot in a parking lot; the ground is covered in small white pebbles, and all around us is a large park. Other families are playing frisbee, eating on picnic benches, and spending time out in the sun. The park is lined by a large forest, my eyes assaulted by a sea of greens and browns as they take in the new environment. It was beautiful with the sun shining down on us, creating a golden glow that gave off an almost ethereal effect. The breeze was light, yet it sent a wonderful scent of wildflowers and freshly cut grass to my nose. The dandelions spread along the grass scattered into a million pieces with the wind, the white pieces floating through the forest, then disappearing out of my sight.

As soon as I get out of the car, Grayson comes around and takes my hand in his. In his other hand, he holds a small wrapped gift box with a pretty bow on top. My face begins to hurt with all of the smiling I'm doing today, but I can't help it.

"Is that for me?" I point to the present in his hand. It has lavender wrapping paper, which I told Grayson was my favorite color.

"Of course. You'll get to open it later." He gives me a jaw dropping smile that can't be described as anything except heart-stopping. Which my heart nearly does.

I tighten my hand in his as we continue walking towards the edge of the parking lot where a large truck sits. "Thank you. You didn't have to get me anything, though." I feel a little bad. He got me something, but I don't have anything for him in return. I wish he had told me so I could have gotten him something special.

"I wanted to. I hope you like it."

"Well of course I'll like it," I reassure him with a smile. "You got it for me, so I'll love it no matter what it is."

He stops walking to face me. He lets go of my hand, and I'm disappointed for only a second before warm tingles spread through my cheek. He cups my face and sets a gentle kiss on my forehead. My eyelids close with the warm feeling passing through me. I sigh in contentment. Just being near him makes me happy.

His lips stay there for a few more seconds before he removes them from my skin and he looks at me with a face I can't read. I don't know what he's thinking. His lips move, and he whispers something which almost sounds like "you're perfect," but I'm not sure.

He takes a deep breath through his nose, releases it through his mouth, then grabs my hand once again. Grayson walks me over to the large truck parked in the corner of the lot, and when we approach I realize it's an ice cream truck. I may have let out a small squeal.

I jump up and down in excitement, then give Grayson the tightest hug I can manage. "I love ice cream!" I probably sound like a 6-year-old with my excitement over dessert, but I can't help it. And I know it's going to taste ten times better because it's from an ice cream truck.

Grayson laughs at me, but it's not a condescending laugh. It's more of an "I think you're adorable" laugh. His free hand presses to the small of my back as he returns my hug. "I thought you'd like it."

We walk over to the truck just as the people before us receive their ice cream. The small child, who looks to be about nine years old, stares at Grayson with eyes as wide as saucers as he notices him. He stands completely still before bowing his head, almost as if Grayson were royalty. It almost makes me laugh at the boy's silliness.

When I look to Grayson to share our amusement, I instead find him staring at the boy with a stone-like facade. Grayson has never looked at me like that before, it's almost as if he's a completely different person- closed off and harsh. The boy's mother turns around after paying for the ice cream, and once she sees the stare down between her son and Grayson, she visibly pales.

"Adam!" The mother quickly grabs her son by his shoulders and pulls him behind her. She acts as a shield, protecting her son from harm- like Grayson would harm a child!

"I-I'm sorry, Al- I mean, sir. He didn't k-know. I'm so s-sorry." The woman keeps apologizing to Grayson, but her apologies completely cease when she looks at me. Her eyes widen much like her son's did moments ago, and she begins shaking and slowly backing up. I look to Grayson, trying to find an explanation for why she is freaking out so much. It's obvious that Grayson has scared her and her son, but why?

Despite her strange words, I can't let her be so scared over nothing. I reach out to her and grab her hand. When I'm touching her, I'm close enough to see the sweat beading on her forehead and the complete fear in her eyes.

"Ma'am, are you alright? He won't hurt you, I promise." I begin to lead her to the closest bench so she can sit down- she honestly looks like she's about to pass out. "Here, let's sit you down. You look a little faint."

We reach the bench and I slowly lower her to a sitting position, her son right next to her. "Can I get you some water?"

She begins to shake her head back and forth, but I refuse to listen to her. "Okay, sit tight. I'm gonna get you some water. I'll be right back."

I walk back over to the ice cream truck, where Grayson stands awestruck. He is looking at me with a glimmer in his eyes. He holds a small smile, but one that is barely noticeable.

"Grumpy," I scold him, "You scared that poor woman. Let's get our ice cream, but I want to get some fluids in her." He looks in the direction of the woman before giving me a short nod of approval.

I order my ice cream- two scoops of cookie dough on a sprinkle cone, while Grayson orders five scoops of all varying flavors in a cup. He also asks for three waters. When I attempt to pull out my wallet to pay, Grayson only raises his eyebrows at me and scoffs. "Like I'm gonna let my girl pay..." he says. I blush.

We walk over to the woman, who looks to have a bit more color on her face. "Here you go. Drink it slowly."

The woman smiles at me gratefully. "Thank you so much. You are very kind."

I smile at her, then turn to the little boy, Adam. "You're pretty!" He comes over to me and gives me a hug, which I return a little hesitantly. Not that I don't love children, but I literally just met these people and they are being so nice to me. Strangers don't normally hug you right away.

I'm pulled back when Grayson tugs on my arm, pulling me away from the boy who once again hides behind his mother. I give Grayson a look, hoping he understands that I want him to be nice to the people that he scared senseless. He gives them a smile which comes out as more of a grimace, then says "goodbye," then he drags me to another empty picnic bench.

I don't bring up the weird encounter, instead, I focus on me and Grayson as I slowly lick my ice cream which is already starting to melt from the hot sun.

"Anyway, when can I open the present?"

He lets out a sigh of relief, glad that we aren't talking about the encounter. I suspect he knows who they are and he doesn't want to talk about it, but I don't want to press it. If Grayson wants to share something, he'll share it in his own time.

"You can open it once you finish your ice cream," he grins, motioning to my cone.

"Crap," I mumble as the chocolate drips out of the cone and onto my hand, making my hand all sticky. I begin speedily licking at the bottom of the cone to prevent more ice cream from melting onto my fingers, to no avail. In a couple more minutes, my entire hand is covered in melted ice cream while most of it has dripped onto the grass below us.

Grayson had predicted that my ice cream experience may end in a mess because he had grabbed ten extra napkins. I place the cone down on one of the napkins and held out my chocolate-covered hand to Grayson. "Help," I pathetically whine while looking at my hand.

Grayson gently reaches for my wrist and instead of wiping my hand off with the napkins, he brings my fingers to his mouth and sucks the leftovers off of my fingers. I don't know what to say, so I just sit there shocked and slightly turned on as he sucks and licks the ice cream off of my fingers one by one, never once losing eye contact with me. I suddenly grow hotter and tighten my thighs together in an attempt to stop the ache forming in between them.

"W-what?" I stutter, not able to form a coherent sentence in this moment because I'm so flustered. Grayson only smirks at me, as if he knows exactly how dirty my thoughts are. He leans forward and whispers to me in a husky voice.

"I can't wait to taste you. The ice cream was sweet, but I bet you're sweeter."

That's it. My heart exploded. I'm dead. Deceased.

My cheeks are burning with heat. I'm shy from his comment, yet I desperately want to experience what he's referring to. The furthest I've gone with a guy was what I did with Grayson- which was just kissing. I really want to experience these new things with Grayson, but I'm not sure I'm ready quite yet for what he's talking about. I haven't know him for long, despite the strong connection we share.

He backs away from me until our foreheads are touching. I close my eyes on instinct, my feelings too strong to resist him. "But not yet. I know you're not ready." He closes the gap between us and presses his lips to mine in a sweet kiss. I kiss him back with all the energy I can muster up. I want to wrap my arms around him, bring him closer, but with my hands still covered in ice cream I can't. I instead settle for pressing my body to his, to which a low rumble spreads from deep in his throat as he pulls me closer and deepens the kiss.

When we finally break apart from one another, I'm breathing heavily and Grayson looks like he wants to dive in for more, yet he restrains himself. Instead, he pours some of the water onto my hand and uses the napkin to clean my hand completely. He throws away our trash, then grabs my hand and begins walking towards the forest.

"Um... Grayson? The car is that way." I point in the opposite direction we're walking in to where his car is parked.

"I know, love. We're not going to my car. Part two of our date is this way."

"There's more?" I grin.

He nods and pulls me along. We walk in comfortable silence until we reach a break in the trees. And what I see is so beautiful, all I can do is stare in awe.