California Zephyr Ch. 02

"This time, you can relax. I'll do all the work," she murmured, as she indicated to him that he should lay down.

She knelt over him, letting her hair brush over his body, and then she knelt over him. His hard staff went easily into her, and she felt the thrill of being able to position it in just the right spot, moving around him at just the right pace.

His hands rested at her waist; she could see that he was enjoying being able to look her over, that he was enjoying her enjoyment. She laughed out loud from the sheer pleasure. Fred grinned, and told her to do it again, that he loved being inside her laughter.

As instinct began to control her movements, he slid his hands up her side, caressing, cupping, gently squeezing her breasts. He asked for her rosebuds, and instead of it sounding corny, it was perfect. She leaned down for his kisses on their tips.

As his tongue swirled over them, and as her circling muscles stroked her captive, she began to envision a huge ring, surrounding them, floating in a warm sea. The ring was closing in on them, but that felt good, not frightening.

She blacked out for a moment at the climax, but Fred's strong arms kept her upright. She came back as she realized that he was now driving deep into her, and then, with a near groan, he flooded her with the pure whiteness that, as he pointed out after, was truly made for her.

"Perhaps this ring IS magic," they both said in unison afterward, and then they laughed in intimate enjoyment one more time. He slipped out quickly as she pulled herself away. Karen thought of her brother coming home soon, and this time she did not try to hold Fred longer.

She no longer felt a burning need for revenge, but she did have one last thought, and it seemed to close that chapter. She hoped that Karilee would feel horny tonight, and try to get Fred's interest up.

Then she wondered whether the ring MIGHT be magic, and whether it would work long-distance. She evened the score by visualizing Fred enjoying himself with Karilee sometime off in the future. She did not want to think of herself as ruining his life, or maybe even Karilee's. ---

Karen did not try to follow up on this too-special day. She went about her remaining business in Galesburg in the days that followed. Fred called that next morning, ostensibly on business, and they chatted about school days for awhile. The ring question kept popping back up in her mind, but it seemed so silly an idea. ---

Her brother took her down to the Burlington station. The train was a few minutes late because of signal trouble, the agent told them. A snow storm was starting to develop.

Finally, just after 6 p.m., locomotive headlights stabbed through the fat white flakes now coming down, and Amtrak Train 5, the westbound California Zephyr slid to a halt.

"Car 0535?" the conductor looked at her ticket. "The sleepers are down that way." She and her brother grabbed her luggage, now heavy with family souvenirs and heirlooms, and hurried down the platform. She handed the bags to the car attendant, kissed her brother goodbye, and headed up the steps to the upper floor of the Superliner.

The car attendant showed her Deluxe Bedroom #E. It would cost her credit card statement dearly, Karen thought, but it was all that had been available. The train began to move.

As she packed her things into the various nooks and crannies of the room, she paused for a moment to look outside. Galesburg was starting to fade into the snow, but there was one more crossing left.

A car was pulled to the side of the road, and a man in a parka was standing in the snow next to it. Fred's face was lit in the flash of the red crossing signal, as he watched the train pass. He squinted in the flying snow, trying to look into the windows, but the train was moving too quickly, and Karen's room was too high above him. She tried visualizing an intimate, farewell embrace with him.

oo0000oo

[To be continued. Karen will try to resolve the ambiguities surrounding the ring on her homeward trip on the California Zephyr, conducting interesting experiments, in which the narrator found himself deeply involved.]