Karen at the crossroads Pt. 02

The next instalment

Karen busied herself about the kitchen. First she made the ricotta gnocchi, mixing the ricotta, flour, eggs, parmesan cheese and a little mozzarella together in a bowl, seasoned with salt and pepper. She combined it, made it into a ball, wrapped in kitchen plastic and put it in the fridge. She thought about making the puttanesca sauce and decided to wait until she'd rolled out the gnocchi and cut it into pieces. Instead she reached for her iPhone and searched for Talking Heads on the music app and selected Little Creatures. Karen has been 17 when the album was released and while her passion in music was classical she sometimes craved the demotic energy of rock; besides the was attracted to the intelligence of David Byrne and, when a girl and young woman, she rather fancied him too.

She swayed her hips to the rhythm and did a few star turns of the kitchen. No one was watching, she felt free and unconstrained. The Heads' critique of consumer America was as pointed as ever, but it was when the album hit its penultimate song, Road to Nowhere, Karen was brought up, well, sharpish.

We're on a road to nowhere

Come on inside

Taking that ride to nowhere

We'll take that ride

I'm feeling okay this morning

And you know

We're on the road to paradise

Here we go, here we go

Am I on a road to nowhere? Karen wondered. Her thoughts turned to the previous night and her encounter with Allegra and the prospect of her dinner with Erika tonight. Erika is the woman she'd refused to take money from, someone for whom she had feelings and stirrings within that she could not put into coherent words. Maybe I'm on the road to Paradise and just haven't realised it yet, she wondered.

She wandering in to the large sitting and dining room and tidied it up. She puffed up the cushions on the chairs and sofa, straightened the magazines on the table in front of the sofa, and returned a dildo and a tube of super glide lube to the drawer under the table. I'd never have left something like this laying about a year ago, she unbraided herself, and then she consider that a year ago she hadn't owned that eight inches of silicone pleasure. She felt herself blush. Her tidying became more furious as she straightened, banged and pushed the room into the shape she wanted. Next, her bedroom needed the bed being made. Fresh lightly-starched linen sheets, she thought, and immediately went to the linen cupboard for a pair. Erika will like these, she though. So nice the feeling of fresh linen on one's skin. In the bathroom she laid out a fresh set of towels and cleaned up from her morning bath.

*

Later that afternoon Karen began the preparation for the meal. She retrieved the ball of unformed gnocchi from the fridge. She cut it in half and placed one portion on a heavily flour-dusted surface and began to roll it into a thin snake, a little bit larger than the diameter of her index finger. Once she had achieved the desired thickness she used a pastry cutter to cut the snake into inch and a half long pieces. She placed them on a lightly dusted tray and covered with a tea towel. The remaining lump of gnocchi she prepared in the usual way, placed in a bag, and put it in the freezer for another meal. She tidied up and then set about to make the puttanesca sauce. She had a recipe she liked for this, and it consisted of anchovies, garlic, chilli, which you fry in four tablespoons of olive oil until the garlic slightly browns. To this she added a tin of tomatoes, two tablespoons of capers and 20 pitted black olives, and brought the combined sauce to a boil, simmering it for 15 minutes. All was done, she'd trow together a green salad later, and it was 5 pm.

Karen had bathed in the morning so she didn't really need to wash again but she decided on a short shower. She stripped and put her shower cap on, ran the water, and stepped into the shower. She loved the feeling of the water on her shoulders and breasts. She had some highly fragrant soaps from the provencal soap maker, Fragonard. It was their orange blossom soap and she used it everywhere. She got out of the shower and dried herself, and then naked returned to her bedroom to dress. First she chose her underwear. For her bra she selected a black, non-wired La Perla item called Exotique. It was made with see-through Leavers lace. It held her breasts but didn't corral them, or cut into her skin. For panties she chose La Perla's Zephyr thong. She was far too old to wear it but hang it, she thought, I love it. It was in black lycra and embroidered tulle cantered on and about her mound. She was tempted to open the door dressed in just her lingerie, but decided to wear a full length black Sonya Reikal clingy dress; it accentuated her curves. She'd wait until later to put it on so she grabbed a lightweight gown to wear.

It wasn't quite 6 PM and, guiltily, Karen was considering her first drink for the evening. She's finished tidying up, her apartment looked immaculate. The dining table was set, a pair of candles waiting to be lit. She felt the need to collect herself. So many thoughts about Erika. She's never been in a relationship with a woman. Was that now in prospect? What would that mean for the way she lived her life. There were a lot of rich women out there who appreciated her services, and she found the activity (it wasn't really work) quite rewarding. Would that have to go? Probably, she thought. She was conflicted.

She padded over to the fridge and took out the open bottle of chardonnay, of no particular distinction, and poured herself a glass. With her iPhone she selected some of the solo piano work by Poppy Ackroyd and routed it through her Sonos speakers. She cut the volume, sat down and took a generous sip of the chilled, too chilled she thought, white wine. She sat there in deep rumination, Ackroyd's music helping to settle her, but not resolving much. You can't when you play one woman tennis. Soon it was 7 PM and Erika would be here. Karen went into her bedroom to complete her dressing. The Reikal looked great her, a clingy dress that came to just above her ankles. She'd decided she wouldn't wear any shoes. She brushed her hair and applied minimal makeup, just eyes, and lips.

*

She was in the kitchen preparing the green salad when Erika rang the doorbell. Heart all a flutter Karen removed her apron and moved quickly to open the door. There was Erika as attractive as ever, though showing visible signs of a hard day of travel and meetings. They smiled at each other, Karen asked her in and when she closed the door they fell into each other's arms and kissed for the longest time. Holding Erika feels to good, so right, Karen thought. Their welcome to each other over, Karen stepped back and asked

"Would you like a drink? Freshen up?"

"Could I have shower and a drink, but in that order?" Erica asked.

"Of course, of course," Karen said as she fussed about Erika, taking her suitcase into her bedroom and then giving her some towels and a gown to wear after.

"The bathroom is through there, everything you need, I think, if not call," she said as she kissed Erika again.

"You are a lifesaver," she said between kisses.

They hugged.

Karen returned to the kitchen to finish the salad preparation. She bought a selection of green and red salad leaves, they were sitting in the water-filled spinner waiting to be spun. She made the dressing. In a very shallow, almost flat, bowl she poured three measure of olive oil and one measure of her special vinegar, to which she added a sprinkling of salt and three or four turns of here pepper grinder. The oil and vinegar stayed separated, a big red formless blob of vinegar in a golden puddle of oil. She dried the salad leaves, then spun then repeatedly until all, well, virtually, all, the water had been removed. She then upended the basket with the leaves into the dish and with her salad servers lightly tossed the leaves in the oil and vinegar. Done.

She went to see how Erika was getting one. She was out of the shower and removing her hair from a shower cap when Karen knocked and entered. She was still dripping water. Karen noticed her nipples stiffen. Erika had lovely breasts.

"Dinner won't be long. Did you bring any wine?"

"Oh fuck! I completely forgot. Sorry."

"No problem, my dear. I'll go and remove a cork from something splendid. I'm glad to see you are keeping trim," Karen smiled and winked.

Erica patted her tummy.

"Hard as rock."

"Mnmmm...we'll see...15 minutes?"

"That's fine. I really needed that shower."

"I'll just get you a little something." Karen said as she was walking out. She returned with a glass of the chardonnay.

"Something for you."

"Oh yes, I need some of that."

*

"I love this sauce," said Erika. "What is it?"

"Puttanesca," said Karen with a smile. "Whore's pasta, except I use gnocchi."

"Which are sensational," gadded Erika. "Whore's," she said with a grin.

"It's a delicious sauce in its own right, but I thought the name was amusing, given the circumstances."

"I don't like to think of you are a whore, lover."

"We once had a fight about that, that ended, rather well I remember," said Karen, smiling at Erika. "I've been thinking about it quite a lot about my situation," she continued. "I can't deny I profit from sleeping with women, can I."

"You never asked me for money and you returned to me what if offered on out first date."

"I never ask anyone for money, but you are the only only one I've ever given back what they offered."

"Not enough?" Erika teased.

Karen blushed. "No not that. Your were, are, too special."

Erika got up and moved beside Karen. She put her arms around her and hugged her tightly. A tear slid down Karen's cheek.

"I'm going to get silly and all emotional. Now let's refill our glasses with this rather muscular Gigondas."

Erika returned to her seat and sipped the wine. it was delicious, she thought, then, looking at Karen she inquired:

"What's wrong. Is it me?"

"No, no, it's not you. Your are wonderful. All a woman could want. I am in a dilemma, my love. I want you, i want you badly but I'm not sure I want to give up my job."

Erika hadn't risen as high as she had in the organisation she worked for if she wasn't someone who measured her words carefully. She looked at her lover across the table and knew this was not the time to make demands, this was the time mollify and to gain some time, because Erika, committed to Karen as she was, was not entirely sure she wanted to live with a woman, perhaps marry her, if on one or two nights a week her lover slept with other women. Never say never, of course, she thought.

"I don't think either of us needs to make any decisions about this now, and probably not for a little while, darling. My move to the city will take time. We need to spend more time together, for you to understand me better and for me to understand your needs. Let's not rush decisions we don't need to make now. Let's just enjoy the moment."

Calm returned to the dinner and the two women regained their poise. Conversation returned to their shared love of music and art. The city offered a plenitude of opportunities for music and challenging art and they were both excited at the prospect of enjoying those shows together. Throughout the conversation there was much laughter and suggestive asides. Karen drew Erika into her world regaling her with stories, erotic and funny, of her brief encounters with powerful women.

Erika could see how my pleasure Karen derived from these meetings, not all of which ended in a torrid coupling in the city's plushest down town hotels. She also appreciated the human skills Karen possessed. Her tact, her kindness, her humour. And, she couldn't help thinking as Karen related a particularly ribald story of a client and a cucumber, that her sex life with this woman would not be dull, not that she wished to add cucumbers to her repertoire of autoerotic pleasures.

They were sitting on the sofa, stroking each other's hair, and Karen beamed at her, and leaned forward to kiss her.

"I'm not certain I want to continue once we are together," she said. "But I have to find out. I don't want to resent you."

"And I don't want you to resent me either."

They shuffled closer together and devoured each other's mouth. There was something furious in their kiss which they would carry into the bedroom.

*

They had hurriedly showered and took more time drying each other.They took their shower caps off and their hair tumbled out; they stood facing each other. Soon they were kissing again, standing pressed together, massaging their mound, kissing and moaning into each other's mouth. They held this embrace forever, not wanting it to end, as if that might end everything. This was, of course, foolish, but their evening conversation had touched upon the permanence, not of their association, but of their relationship. They were, as Allegra said last night in a different context, moving grado in grado (step by step) into permanence.

Karen led Erica to the bed and had her sit on its edge. Looking her in the eye, she said, smiling:

"I want to blast you into space..."

"mmm...I can't wait," said Erica as she lent back, a pillow place helpfully in the small of her back and one for her head so she could see her lover's ministrations.

Karen knelt before her, her hand on Erik's knees, lightly stroking her thighs. She then took Erica's left leg and, moving back a little, raised her foot to her lips. Erica smiled. She had introduced Karen to the pleasures of the feet and watched as Karen kissed her toes, felt as she licked her instep, that made her ticklish and her foot jerked, Karen looked up and they smiled at each other and Karen licked Erica's toes. Her lover relaxed in to the sensuousness of the feeling. Then Karen took Erica's big toe in her mouth; Erica's heart rate increased. She let a nearly inaudible moan escape her mouth. Karen sucked and licked all her toes individually to Erica's mounting pleasure. She then took her right foot and and lavished the same detailed attention to it as she had to the left foot, which, by the way, was hooked over Karen's left shoulder. Then Karen started her slow, painstaking progress towards Erika's smouldering centre. Kissing her calves, dragging her bottom lip over her knee and, when her head was just passed Erica's knees and and bent naturally over Karen's shoulders, she looked up at her and said:

"How does this feel, lover?"

Erika, her eyes beginning to glaze, blew her a kiss.

Karen returned to the inside of Erika's thighs. It wasn't going to work with Erika's legs bent over her shoulders, so she disengaged them, parted them, and returned Erika's feet to terra firma. She blew softly on her inside thigh, applied butterfly kisses to them and soft real ones as well. She could smell Erik's arousal and see it too, glistening on her fully engorged vulva, the folds terminating at her hood, out of which she could see Erica's clitoris protrude ever so slightly. She locked her lover's gaze and moving forward blew softly on her weeping vulva. Erica jerked.

"Shhhhhh," Karen said, placing the palms of her hands on Erick's thighs to steady her.

Then with her nose she nuzzled Erica's full lips. They parted and with the flat of her tongue she licked her and kissed her hood.

"Oh," Erica said.

Karen then proceeded to push Erica's legs up and back towards her and asked her to hold them. Karen's peritoneum is very sensitive and she knows Erika's would be as well. She kissed and licked her there to Erika's evident delight. Karen's tongue was wayward. One moment she was rimming Erica's puckered hole, the next it was testing the opening of her cunt. She loved to suck Erica's lips taking their uneven folds into her mouth and running her tongue all over them. And, of course, she didn't forget Erica's upright clit. This she took gently in her teeth--Eric was quite large--and ran her tongue over its surface. At this Erica bucked and groaned but Karen was practiced and once she had latched on only pleading would make her surrender her prize, unless she decided there was some other pleasure to dispense. Erika was climaxing, not coming hard, but one that produced soft groans and moans. Karen turned her lover on her side and lay behind her, cupping her breasts and cuddling her--two spoons in a drawer.

"Thank you," said Erika, "I so needed that."

Karen squeezed her and kissed her head. She dragged a sheet up over them and they lay together in knowing silence, hands remarkably restrained, just feeling the warmth of each other's body.

*

They woke from their slumbers later that evening. Erika turned over and kissed Karen awake. The latter was a little bleary.

"I think you've been working to hard, darling," Erica said.

Karen, took a deep breath as she woke herself up.

"Hello, you," she said, smiling.

Erika lent forward and kissed her lightly on the mouth. As she did that she cupped Karen's right breast and rubbed her nipple with her thumb.

"Mmmmm, what are doing?" asked Karen smiling dreamily.

"Making love to my lover," said Erika. 'So just enjoy it."

"Yes, ma'am."

Erika pushed Karen on to her back. She straddled her, sitting on the other woman's mound. That elicited a groan of pleasure and Erika heightened the feeling by moving her hips. This wasn't a prelude to tribbing. She lent down, cupping both breasts now and sucked Karen's nipples until they were bullet hard. She them pulled them with thumb and forefinger, stretching her tits. She knew Karen liked this...a lot. All the while she maintained eye contact with her; they felt incredibly close both with a Mona Lisa smile. Erika bent down and kissed Karen, releasing her nipples and holding her face. She broke the kiss and, one knee at a time, mad her way down to Karen's legs.

"You may not want me to sit on your legs, lover."

Karen obliged and spread her legs, exposing her fully engorged vulva in way her mother would have described as quiet unladylike.

"I think she's ready for me," said Erika, who bent forward and lightly kissed the other woman's vulva and mound. "Mmmm you are so wet, Karen, like a girl on her first date."

Karen smiled.

"Well, what are you waiting for? My invitations don't come better than this."

Erica reached over for her bad and took out her black feeldoe. Karen's eyes lit up. Erika, who had introduced Karen to the pleasures of her girlcock on the their first meeting, was an even more devoted disciple of Pilates than her lover (if that were possible). She inserted the anchor into her quim in single move, and some minor manipulation getting its internal positioning correct and ensuring that the clit tickler for her was where it needed to be. She looked at Karen and stroked her eight inch shaft.

"I think you'll need a pillow in the small of your back, lover."

Karen agreed and placed on there. The entertainment was about to begin. For the preliminaries Erika wanted Karen on her back missionary-style. Karen lifted her hips and Erika began to tease the entrance of her quim with the bob of her girlcock. Karen registered her enjoyment immediately.

"Oh, hmmmm, Erika..."

She was incoherent but we often are in such circumstances, aren't we? Erika kept teasing the opening and began to push her girlcock in. Karen, whose vaginal muscles are second only to Erika, allowed her in, with the groan and a gasp. She looked at Erica, smiling encouragingly. Karen looked at her beautiful lover, her breasts firmer than Karen's, gently vibrating, nipples hard, sitting on her ribcage that resolved in a toned flat tummy. I am so lucky to have this woman, she thought to herself. Erica pushed further in and adjusted herself to the role of missionary. She was on her elbows, pilates plank style, her tits resting on Karen's, her head above, her eyes looking at Karen. She was slowly fucking her...in and out...in and out...Karen held her gaze succumbing, irregularly, to passion's throes and arching her back. She then cupped her own tits and rubbed nipples together. Erika liked that. She kisses Karen hungrily. Erica continued her fucking, the action have a beneficial effect on her as well. The girlcock was bumping her G-spot, and making contact with her clit. She could feel the stirrings of her own orgasm gaining in intensity. Karen was near that state of delirium where the outside world vanishes and all that is important is building mightily within her loins. She was moving her hips in sympathy with Erika's thrusts. And as she willed the ends she tried to provide the means. She now had her legs around Erika's bum and was pulling her, willing her, to drive her girlcock further in her cunt. And she was getting noisy.