A Homecoming Pt. 01

"He must have been drunk, but Christine was stone-cold sober. She said, Yes! I was sure then and am now that Christine agreed to marry the Hotel Diana. It had become her creation, her life, not something she would leave at the mercy of Gerd. Gerd's primary interest is his hunt and hunting-companions. Even more serious for Christine's care about the hotel is that Gerd is an alcoholic, and a compulsive gambler."

Erika rolled closer to him on the bed and reached out for his hand. Ben still was not sure how to read Erika's behaviour. Was she just continuing in the half-innocent way they had behaved as youngsters? Or was Erika flirting and, perhaps, propositioning him? Smiling up at Ben, she said: -

"You see, Ben, what has become of your two girl-friends from long ago: Two, by their own doing, somewhat neglected and frustrated wives. But now, I better go before I get into some mischief."

Erika sat up to put on her shoes. Standing in front of Ben, she hesitated a moment. As Ben reached for her, she bent down to kiss him, lovingly. There was more than just a teasing of her tongue. Ben embraced her, and when Erika raised her head from the kiss, Ben pressed his face onto her breasts. Erika held still, stroking caressingly over his head as she whispered: -

"It's wonderful that we meet again. We will not spoil it this time, will we, Ben?"

CHAPTER 4

In going down for dinner, Ben passed the reception. Christine, behind her desk, gave him a broad smile and waved him in. She asked: -

"Have you forgiven Erika for having been so beastly?"

With a peal of laughter, she added: -

"If you have, I'll have to forgive her too."

Then, getting down to business, she told Ben about the hotel's breakfast- and dining-arrangements and asked him, if he would eat tonight, only tonight, at Gerd's table. Gerd was keen to meet him again. He remembered him well from their shared childhood.

Ben was happy to agree. So, Christine took him to the dining room, introduced Gerd and Ben, and returned to the reception. The table, near the entrance to the kitchen, needed to be additionally set for him joining Gerd. It made Ben wonder if Christine and her husband ever shared this table? And after what Erika had told him about their marriage, did they share a bed?

Gerd had greeted him warmly. He seemed quite pleased to meet him again, even though Ben had really been no more than a school mate of his sister. Gerd was of medium height, well-built, but beginning to put on weight. His outdoor life in the army as a platoon commander had given him a permanent tan, but it lacked the glow of health. His eyes were veined and, somehow, seemed to find it difficult to focus. Although Gerd was only in his late thirties, he was visibly aging and not aging well.

Over their meal, Ben managed to get a conversation going. They had not really shared a past and Ben was not interested in establishing a present relationship with Gerd. Ben, therefore, directed their talk onto what he had learned were Gerd's interests. In telling him about Christine's marriage, Erika had disparagingly talked about Gerd's hunting and hunting companions. And indeed, when Ben's showed an interest in hunting, it removed for Gerd any awkwardness in their communication. As Ben was the listener, it was pretty one-way.

As an opener, Gerd asked Ben about the Australian hunting situation. He and a close friend had made enquiries about a shooting holiday in Australia. The Northern Territory attracted them with the no-limits hunting of buffaloes. What held them back was that they had read that the crocodile was now protected from commercial hunting. Quite stirred up, taking a deep draught of beer, Gerd declared: -

"Bloody Greens, in Australia too! Here, they are now telling us not only when but what we are allowed to shoot on our own hunting grounds."

The intolerable injustice of such interference by political trouble-makers kept Gerd agitated for most of the meal.

After they retired to the Lounge, Gerd told Ben over coffee and brandy that his hunting grounds had been in the family for three generations. As Ben was an ex-local and knew the surroundings, Gerd gave him a detailed account of the locality and extent of his shoot and all its huntable wildlife. While Ben sipped his brandy Gerd, with the landlord's privilege of the bottle on the table, had repeatedly refilled his balloon. Now he put his hand on Ben's arm, leaned in, and confidentially whispered: -

"As a visitor here, I can let you into a secret. I have plans: I'll turn my shoot into a great business! I have a hunting-cabin ... wanted to rebuild it into a lodge for the hunting season for paying guest-hunters. I could not get a license from the council; bloody Greens again! But now ... I've outsmarted the bastards. Got a license for a bistro, will expand it into a ski-lodge! ... Didn't tell the fuckwits it will be a year-round business. ... Then I'll sell this bloody hotel!"

Gerd rambled on for quite a while longer as if replying to Ben's non-existing doubts and unasked questions. Finally, they parted to go to bed; Gerd was quite drunk.

Before falling asleep, Ben wrestled with his conscience. Should he tell Christine or Erika in what he had learned of Gerd's plans? Did Christine know? If not, his telling her would make him immediately a participant in their life and circumstances. This would be beyond what the three of them shared. Ben believed that it could interfere with the magic of their brief reunion. This he did not want to risk.

The next day Ben walked for two hours or so through the much-changed town of his youth. He looked at the people he passed without recognising any of the faces for sure.

Much of the afternoon Ben spent with his father. Long retired, he lived with Helen, his second wife, in a small but comfortable council flat. Both were hugely excited and more than just pleased to welcome him, but for Ben, it was no homecoming. There was the unfamiliar flat, the different furniture. For Helen, meeting Ben was obviously not easy: She had replaced his mother on his father's side.

His father, in turn, clearly struggled to recognise in Ben, the son that had left twenty years ago.

In talking with Ben, his father no longer spoke in the local dialect everybody used in informal contact. Instead, he laboured with the formal language, spoken by persons of rank and education. Ben's father was an intelligent, extremely well-read man. He had always felt that his lack of formal education was a profoundly personal shortcoming. He envied the formally educated and had an unreserved admiration and respect for academic and intellectual achievement.

And now, Ben, his son who had left twenty years ago as a tradesman, had returned as a highly educated university-teacher. Ben's success, of course, filled his father with pride. It also burdened him with a strong sense of estrangement from a son he thought he knew.

Ben was aware of the problem. He tried to speak in the local dialect. He was, however, after twenty years as a formal-language speaker in both German and English no longer word-perfect. Ben avoided, as much as was possible, to talk about his professional life. Instead, he questioned father and Helen about old friends, relatives and the local changes and news. This eased the tension somewhat, and before Ben left, he invited them for a night out and dinner. He promised to ring, once he had made the booking.

On returning to the hotel, Christine waved him again into her office. It was becoming a pattern for Ben, a welcome one. Over two quickly prepared espressos, Ben told Christine about his day and how strange and no longer like home everything felt. Then he corrected himself: -

"Except for the Hotel Diana and you and Erika, of course."

As he said it, he realised it was the truth. Christine smiled; it pleased her that Ben felt that way. Then she asked: -

"Enjoyed your dinner with Gerd last night? How did you two get on?"

"Oh, very well. You know I only knew him as the little brother of Linda."

Ben paused, then grinning at Christine, he added: -

"Never cared for him as much as I did for Erika's cheeky kid-sister."

"What did you talk about? He didn't invite you to come to the Café Wien with him to play billiards and meet his card-playing friends, did he?"

"No, he didn't. But he told me a lot about hunting, his hunting-grounds and the problems hunters have nowadays. He seems very committed, almost obsessed with hunting."

Christine shrugged her shoulder and said: -

"Well, it's a family tradition ... or its curse! Gerd's great-grand-father even named his hotel, in 1880, after Diana, the goddess of the hunt! When he sold the family's farm but not the forest to become a hotelier in the spa, the Diana was meant to finance this hunting-indulgence. It has done so since!"

Suppressing her welling up anger, Christine asked Ben if he would like coming along for a day's visit to Salzburg. She needed to drive there tomorrow, taking care of business matters. It meant, unfortunately, that she could, therefore, not be his guide. Then, smiling sweetly, Christine added:-

"I could, perhaps, talk Erika into coming along."

Ben, more than happily accepted the invitation. He had planned to get in touch with his sister. He wondered anyway, whether he should. Would they not just renew the old hostilities?

To spend the day with Erika and Christine had a much stronger appeal.

CHAPTER 5

They got into Christine's small Audi. Erika sat next to her in the front, Ben had the back-bench to himself. Christine drove smoothly and fast.

Ben, if he wanted to converse with the women without shouting, had to stretch his head forward between the seats. Very quickly, Erika's cheek moved close to his, and her hair tickled his neck. Ben held still, only reluctantly pulling back from Erika's tempting nearness whenever a break in their conversation made him sit back.

Whenever they talked again, on bending forward Ben's and Erika's cheeks touched. Ben's left hand, as if searching for a hold, had found its way across the backrest of her seat. As his fingers caressed her shoulder, Erika turned her head to breathily kiss the corner of Ben's mouth. And her hand drew his from her shoulder down to a breast.

By the time they pulled into the parking-station in Salzburg, their play of furtive touching had advanced. Ben's fingers had slipped into the loose opening of her blouse. With Erika stretching-up in her seat, his fingertips could just caress the perky nipple of one of Erika's eagerly pressed forward boob. Her mouth, half-opening in a silent, approving gasp, had found his a few times, and her hot breath - as she talked to him alone - blew in his ear. Erika seemed oblivious to Christine's closeness in the driver's seat. Or perhaps not. Occasionally, the sisters glanced at each other and smiled.

As they got out of the car, collected their bags, and Christine pressed the button locking the Audi, she grinned at Ben and said: -

"You think I'll be the watcher again like last time? And be a good little girl, and not tell?"

She turned to Erika and slapped her on the bottom: -

"What will you give me this time for not telling? Or ...?"

Christine paused; grinned broadly and winked at Ben: -

"Perhaps, she'd be willing to share now? This time I'd be old enough!"

Both of them broke into loud laughter. Linking arms, looking mischievously back at Ben, they strolled away.

They had agreed to meet for lunch. Christine was busy for most of the day, ordering and arranging deliveries for the hotel business. Erika had come along for some personal shopping.

During lunch, after some humming and hawing, Erika asked Ben whether he would like to play husband and come shopping with her this afternoon. She needed to buy a dress for the coming carnival season. Putting on a rueful expression, Erika complained that Heinz never took her shopping or told her if he really liked what she had bought to wear. Did it turn on the male in him? The sisters shared in a conspiratorial giggle. They had jointly decided to draft him as the judge on Erika's carnival allure?

After lunch, Ben did accompany Erika on her so intimate endeavour. As they strolled through the main shopping streets and looked at the displays in the windows, none of them seemed to attract Erika's interest. Ben had a suspicion that Erika had found where she wanted to go already in the morning.

They decided on a break in their so far unsuccessful exploration in a café. There, Erika completed what she had begun to tell him about her life during her visit to Ben's room.

Regarding the state of her marriage, Erika was pitiless blunt, neither blaming her husband nor seeing herself as a victim. Her husband Heinz, Erika said, has always been a man's man, mature, a champion in his male circle. She was only nineteen, and it had attracted her. He fell in love with her innocence and had always treated her gently. They were in love, but in the years that followed, Heinz had less and less time for her. At fault, if you can call it, were his skills and achievements. His successes and expertise in mountain- and avalanche-rescues brought Heinz an international reputation and a rapid promotion in the police-service. With it came an ever-increasing demand on his time. Five years ago, he also started to train dogs for avalanche-rescue work, which he entered in international competitions Erika shrugged her shoulders: -

"So, we are now rarely really together. Heinz is frequently away at training functions, at meetings in Switzerland, Slovenia, Italy, or at police headquarter. When he is home, it is for a brief rest. Nowadays, he always brings with him one or two of his favourite avalanche-dogs for further training. There is just no longer time for being lovers, but we are still friends. Now, with our son - he is eighteen - in boarding-school, I spend most of my time with Christine working in the hotel."

Erika reached across the table for Ben's hand. She lowered her eyes and said: -

"Well, now you know what has become of us: Two married sisters ...".

Erika hesitated before adding: -

"And we are both more than a little neglected by our partners!"

She gathered her bag. There was a gleam in her eye as she smiled at Ben: -

"Let's go. I'll need at least an hour to choose my dress, and whatever else will go with it."

As he suspected, Erika had known all along where to go. The fashion-house had, behind large display-windows, a front-part with racks of dresses. Erika selected, held the garment against her body and swayed and paraded it before Ben's admiring eyes, asking for his judgement. He more than approved her choices. Erika obviously planned not to look like a shy little housewife at the coming balls. For a moment, he wondered if Heinz would find the time to take her.

Eventually, having selected three, Erika, Ben and the sales-lady went to the privacy at the back of the salon. Ben was invited, by the now smiling assistant, to sit down, facing the curtain of the try-on cubicle. After periods of whispering behind it, the curtain would open, and Erika put herself on provocative display. She swayed and turned in the figure-displaying dresses before her admiring husband! Erika hugely enjoyed their deception. Cunningly, she had left the sexiest dress for last.

It was a truly sensational 'little' black one. It clung, second-skin-like to Erika's body, revealing and highlighting every svelte contour of her thighs, hips, belly and pubes. Even seen from the front, Ben was sure that Erika was braless. As she turned, Ben asked her to stop. Swaying on her high heels, Erika did. She smiled down on him over her shoulder. The dress had one string around her neck and one across. Erika's back gleamed naked down to the beginning of the cleft and roundness of her ass.

He was sure now of his choice, but the show was not over yet. After some more whispering behind the curtain, the sales-woman left. On returning, she not only carried some parcels. In passing Ben, she gave him a confidential smile and said: -

"There is more, your wife wants you to help her choose."

In what followed, each time the curtain opened, Erika stood there, her arms lifted, and slowly turning, twice, three times. She looked down on him, her lips moist, eyes gleaming and, he thought, her cheeks reddening in barely contained arousal.

Erika was showing herself off in the sheerest of underwear. As with the dresses, she left the most sensually suggestive, the little that was all in lacy-black, for last. And Ben, now in unease in his chair and pants, asked Erika to turn slowly twice more before he delivered his judgement: Yes, it had to be this one.

Later, however, when it came to packing-up the dress, Erika demonstrated to the sales-woman her wifely say. Overruling Ben on the dress, she purchased the least revealing she had tried on.

Erika, in high spirits, almost skipped out of the salon on his arm. Outside on the street, she pulled Ben down for a long, now unwifely kiss. Then, her voice hoarse with excitement, she said: -

"God, that was fun! Sorry about the dress. The black number ... God, I loved it as much as you ... I could never wear with Heinz ... or going out in Gastein. ... Pity, you and I won't be going out together anywhere else. I would love to wear it with you ... just for you!"

It was dusk when they rejoined Christine, as agreed, in a Café next to the car-park-tower. While they had coffee and cake, Christine looked into Erika's bags. She restrained herself examined the lacy thong and bra out of sight, under the table.

Christine chuckled, commenting that Ben was, as "almost" once before, a beneficial influence on her sister: -

"Erika is turning naughty, and now as a respectable married woman!"

Grinning at her, and glancing sideways at Ben, she pouted: -

"And you bought nothing interesting for little Christl? Am I just a boring married woman now, that has to miss out?"

The sisters burst out in pealing laughter while Erika's fingers dug into Ben's thigh. She had been caressing it all along and reached almost his, by now, quite painful erection.

When Christine unlocked the car, Erika put her bags on the front seat and said: -

"I'll join Ben in the back. You won't need me to keep you awake, will you?"

Christine laughed: -

"There will be a greater danger. With you two in the back, how will I keep my eyes on the road?"

When the Audi pulled out of the park-house, night had fallen. Sitting close together, Erika's hand gripped his thigh. She had turned her face to him and whispered: -

"We must not distract poor Christine too much. How will we manage that?"

Ben found her lips and their tongues met for a brief, but saying all entwine. Erika's hand had already moved up to feel Ben's bulging cock straining in his trousers. He asked, also in a whisper: -

"Just a few little kisses won't distract her too much if we keep everything else out of her sight. It's a pity I can't make love to your lovely breasts."

Erika giggled, then she gave him a long, lingering kiss. It was almost like a censored Hollywood-kiss. But her left hand stayed over his bulge while her right hand moved her skirt up her thighs. Then she whispered: -

"It's going to be exciting! ... Hot little kisses and sexy, dirty whispering on top and ...a bit of groping, out of sight. What I'm feeling there tells me ... how much you want to touch me too."

"I always have. I've never forgotten your shy kisses ... the feel and touch of your lovely girl-tits."

"God, Ben, I burned, wanted you! ... Said nothing. ... Could hardly wait for the next time, hoping you would dare to do something forbidden."

"I was scared to do more. But God, I wanted to! See your tits, touch your pussy! Make love to you! You were so beautiful, even then. I just could not believe that you wanted me."