Midsummer-Night's Dreaming Ch. 02

She started to pant from his ministrations, but she also felt his hand now tracing unseen lines down her stomach. He paused at her waist, but before she could puzzle out what he was doing she felt the snap as he undid the clasp of her slacks. After a few tugs he had freed up enough room under the waistband to slide his hand down inside while he still sucked her nipples. An intense flush of warmth coursed through her whole body.

He worked his hand lower, and she let her one leg slide off the couch to the floor giving him more room to touch between her legs. His fingers found the lips of her sex, and she groaned out loud. His touch made her realize how wet she had become.

She readjusted her legs a little, and he slid his fingers in a vee down each side of her clitoris. He started a gentle up and down motion, and Anna visualized the little hood sliding up and down the shaft. He dipped his fingers lower and on his upward stroke came back with more lubrication, his fingers now sliding more easily along the fleshy little ridge. Anna sighed, glowing from the wine and Gerhard's attention. Pressing down a little as he pulled his fingers up, he lifted a little on the out stroke. He was gently masturbating her clitoris as if it were a mini penis.

Even as Anna's pace of arousal accelerated, he maintained his maddeningly slow tempo. She felt her orgasm approaching, but this time it came in a long, slow crest. Her muscles tightened, but the wave rolled through, long and slow with no explosive peak. The swell of feeling was deeply satisfying, pure bliss, and she sighed in a backwash of sensations. Gerhard brought out dangerous, dangerous feelings in her every time she was with him.

She pushed those thoughts out of her mind and rolled over to face him. Her loosened slacks didn't quite make the full turn, and her blouse and bra hung slack across her chest. Running her fingers through his hair, she encouraged him down into another kiss.

"How do you keep doing these things to me?" She stared into his eyes.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Whatever 'it' is, I just do what feels like the right thing."

Anna stretched her arms up over her head across his lap, then heaved herself forward. She stood up off the couch and shrugged out of her top as she kicked off her shoes. With a quick tug, she pushed her slacks down and stepped out of them. For the first time she stood unashamedly naked in front of him, backlit by the dim light of the city on, the breeze through the open doors pushing tendrils of her hair around, blowing puffs through her legs.

She gave a little curtsey, then went down on her knees in front of him. Pulling his belt open she smiled up at him. "Your turn now."

It didn't take long before she had Gerhard naked on the couch. Still crouched in front of him, she moved up over his lap until her face was directly above his tumescence. "Now let me show you what I'm really good at."

She leaned forward and slipped her lips over the head of his cock. He groaned in response and leaned farther back with his arms stretched his arms out along the back of the couch. Soft and rubbery at first, his cock stiffened quickly in her mouth as she slowly caressed it with her lips and tongue.

"Slowly," she thought. "Two can play at that game."

His organ was too long and thick to take very far into her mouth, but she used her right hand on the shaft to give him more stimulation, stroking in time with the motions of her mouth. Her mouth watered at the taste and feel of him in her mouth, and she used the saliva to make his whole cock slippery.

He moaned as she moved her mouth up and down — slowly. Soon she had him panting with excitement. Suddenly his legs gave a little jerk, and Anna felt warm cream in her mouth. Delicious warm cream. Gerhard tasted better than anyone she had ever been with. For a moment she wondered if it was because he didn't drink coffee. No bitterness....

There was another spurt, smaller than the first, but it tasted just as good. She lapped it up, then sucking slowly she drew out the rest of his orgasm.

He groaned and relaxed, but still Anna didn't completely let up. She loved to have him in her mouth. Her hands caressed his thighs gently while she kept his warm cock between her lips. Careful not to give him too much stimulation too soon, she gently applied a little suction now and then, delighted to find she could maintain his erection.

Finally, they stood up. After she had taken his hand and helped him to his feet, he embraced her and they kissed deeply until Anna's head started to spin.

Taking his hand again, she moved them away from the open door and led him over to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Facing it, she stepped forward, turned, and braced herself against the thick glass panel with her hands, the city of Chicago spread out below her.

She looked back over her shoulder. "Take me from behind."

He moved behind her, stepping between her legs as she bent forward a little more and arched her back. His cock grazed against her thighs, and she bent her knees to give him better access. There was no urgency in either of their motions. Just sensations. His stiff member slid easily inside of her. He took his time, pumping her full with long, slow strokes. There was no urgency in either of their motions. Just sensations.

"Sensational sensations," she chuckled to herself. No one could see them in the darkened hotel suite, but at that point she wouldn't have cared. She felt like she was hovering in midair while Gerhard's cock made her feel so wonderful. She felt a swell of, what was it?

Suddenly Anna realized she loved this man.

No! That couldn't be. She was a fraud. She tried to tamp the emotion down and put it back in the little box it had been hiding in. Desperate to distract herself from thoughts of love, she stood up and took Gerhard's hand, and led him back to the couch where she bent over, and he entered her again from behind. Then to the kitchenette.... From there to the tables where they had had the displays.... The countertop around the sink in the bathroom.... The lounge chair in his bedroom .... Her bedroom....

When they arrived in her bedroom, Gerhard took command of their lovemaking. He'd taken her from behind again, but after a few strokes, he pulled out and tumbled her onto her bed. He became forceful. Demanding. He moved decisively between her legs, and she opened herself to him willingly. They were both so slick from sex he slid inside at speed.

He wasn't gentle or slow this time, and Anna was on fire with lust. Gerhard pounded into her unmercifully. With each stroke they pushed against each other faster and harder. Higher and higher. Suddenly they cried out together as the apex of their passion overwhelmed them both.

******

It was light outside when Anna awoke, nestled in Gerhard's arms in a muddle of tangled sheets and blankets. Deliberately, she kept her mind blank and just lay there warm and happy.

A few minutes later Gerhard stirred, leaned back, and stretched. She felt the tense muscles of his body press against her before he relaxed again and took her into his arms.

"We keep doing this to each other," he finally said.

With that, all the thoughts Anna had carefully kept out of her head came flooding back. Gerhard's life was 'complicated'. Hers was an impossible fraud. She kicked back the blankets tangled around her feet, and got up.

Gerhard lay there on the bed, looking up at her.

"I'm sorry. I...." She didn't know what to say. She had been totally dishonest with Gerhard, using Puck's magic flowers to make herself beautiful, and now she was trapped. In love with a man who wouldn't love her back once he had found out the truth.

"Maybe we'd better just get going," she finally said awkwardly.

Gerhard sighed. "Yes, I agree. The more we...." He smiled sheepishly. "The longer we wait, the harder it is."

As he got out of bed, Anna reached for a T-shirt to cover herself; but before she had had a chance to slip it over her head, he took her in his arms. "Please. I have to be out of town for the next week, but I would like to meet you one last time to explain. Could I take you to supper a week from Friday? I'll be back by then."

The warmth of his naked body pressed against her. She was uncertain. Could she bear seeing him again, knowing she couldn't have him? She thought of Puck's flowers. There were two left: one for today, and one for a week from Friday. She closed her eyes and said, "Yes," hating herself for the pain she knew she would feel.

** * * * *

They said little on the return flight to New York.

At the baggage claim they gathered their things, but before they turned to go their separate ways Gerhard took her hand, raised it to his lips, and kissed her fingers.

"Thank you for everything this week, Anna Kistner," enunciating her name with a reverence that bordered on embarrassing. "I will be in touch about Friday."

And, with that, he was gone. Anna felt empty, bereft. Her bags lay at her feet, but it took her several minutes to summon the energy to pick them up. It was early afternoon; so, when the cabbie asked "Where to?" she made an instant decision and gave him her office address. To work. She needed to work to get her mind off ... to get her mind off what she couldn't think about.

She delivered the stack of book orders to Bancroft and listened to his perfunctory congratulations. His head was in another project, but she knew he would be impressed once he had had a chance to actually look at the results. Back in her cubicle there was a stack of mail, including proofs for the ad campaign for the new J.F. White thriller. Anna threw herself into the work with a will. That way she didn't have to think about ... other things.

Amanda poked her head into Anna's cubicle at 5pm sharp. "Hi there! So, what was working with Gerhard like?" she stage-whispered. Amanda remembered meeting him on his first visit to A-B-C, and had repeatedly teased Anna about working with him in Chicago.

Anna let herself look buried in work -- not a difficult look to pull off, because she was -- and just said, "Hi, Amanda. Well, we sold a lot of books."

Amanda made a face. "Okay. If there're no hot secrets, you can fill me in on your week later. Right now I'm on my way to meet Jeremy to see if we can't create a few hot secrets of our own." She gave a little giggle and left.

Anna sighed and put her head down on the desk. She didn't want to work. She just wanted to be back in the hotel suite with Gerhard where they could make wild, passionate, love until....

"No." She sat up again and took the next folder off the stack and opened it. "No. Don't think about him," she scolded herself. She had to work and work hard. A week from Friday she would meet Gerhard, and he would explain his complications. Then she would explain what a contemptible fraud she had been. But she still had one of Puck's flowers left. If she couldn't be with him, at least Gerhard would remember her as beautiful.

** * * * *

The calendar finally ticked down to the appointed Friday. Gerhard had called Thursday morning, having arrived from Switzerland the previous evening, and he had arranged to pick her up after work. Immersing herself in her job all week had helped her to forget him and her crazy mad actions in Chicago. Right?

Wrong.

Friday morning arrived, and Anna found herself choking down the last blossom. Thankfully, Amanda had left work early to go away with Jeremy for the weekend, so at least Anna would not have to answer any questions about her last meeting with Gerhard.

She was as nervous as a cat at a dog show. She couldn't sit still. By 4pm, she was running back and forth to the bathroom, checking her hair, her makeup.... There was no way she could think about any of the work she was supposed to be doing.

At 5:00 on the dot, she heard a soft rap on the wall of her cubicle, and Gerhard stuck his head around the door. "Hi. Didn't catch you in the middle of something, did I?"

Anna felt her heart leap into her throat. She shook her head no, and swallowed. "Uh, no," she finally managed. "You're just in time. Let me get my jacket and we can go."

Galvano's Italian Eatery, that's where they went. Anna would later be able to recall the restaurant's name, but not what she had eaten, having hardly noticed her food. At first it was nerve-wracking being with Gerhard again, and yet in no time she'd relaxed into his effortless flow of small talk over supper. She found herself feeling relaxed and enjoying herself, and they lingered over dessert.

Finally, Gerhard put his arms on the table and leaned forward. "Anna, I'd like to show you why my life is complicated. I've wanted to tell you before, but I think you might understand better if I show you." He held out his hand to her. "I'd like to take you to my apartment."

At first she had blinked at his invitation, a little flummoxed after having avoided any and all thoughts of situations in which Gerhard would offer to take her to his home. However, if he was going to take her there to show her how his life was complicated, it did not sound like a blatant attempt at seduction, either. She stood up and took his hand.

They took a taxi, and the West Side building where he lived turned out to be newly renovated and impressive. At the door to his apartment, Gerhard looked at her a little nervously before inserting the key. The door swung open, and Anna heard an excited young voice from inside.

"Daddy! Daddy!" A young boy charged into Gerhard and grabbed him around the legs in a hug. Gerhard bent down and swept the boy up in his arms as they both laughed. Anna caught enough glimpses, as he wriggled around and giggled in Gerhard's embrace, to immediately see the dark-haired-boy's resemblance.

"Now, Hans. There's someone I'd like you to meet." Gerhard turned to Anna. "Anna, this is my son, Hans. Hans, this is Anna."

Hans, still in his father's arms, smiled, and held out his hand. Anna took it, and he shook her hand politely. "Anna, I am very pleased to meet you," he said formally.

Anna smiled back. "Hans. I'm so glad to meet you."

She was distracted from the pleasant moment by the glimpse of another figure in the apartment. A thin, severe-looking blond woman stepped around a leather couch near the door, frowning slightly.

Anna finally realized what she was seeing. Gerhard had a son, and the woman must be Gerhard's wife. Complicated indeed! What could the man have been thinking by bringing her here? She braced herself for a scene.

Gerhard let Hans slide to the floor, and Hans bounded over to the woman. "Aunt 'Reta. Come meet Anna."

"Aunt?" Anna's thoughts had no traction.

"Anna," Gerhard said. "This is my sister, Greta. Greta, Anna."

Greta stepped forward to take Anna's hand, but the woman didn't unbend. She gave Anna's hand a perfunctory shake before retreating.

"Greta takes care of Hans while I'm away," Gerhard explained.

"Sister." He wasn't married then. A few thoughts began to stick together in her head. "His sister." She looked at Greta, but the woman's expression was now only a blank mask as she looked past Anna to Gerhard.

Before Anna Anna could think of something to say, Hans had taken hold of her hand.

"Anna. Come see my bedroom!" He tugged her toward a hallway on the right.

Anna looked to Gerhard for permission, and he shrugged. He looked down, smiling at his son and said, "Okay, but you have to bring her back soon. Your Aunt needs to leave, and we must be polite."

Hans tugged again. "Come on, Anna," he said with excitement.

His room was just down the hall, and it reminded Anna of what she remembered about her younger brother's room when he was a boy. Mostly neat and organized, a jumble of toys lay scattered across the floor in the area near some shelves holding still more toys. Hans took her from place to place in the room showing her a variety of toys, including a well-loved teddy bear handled with special reverence.

Anna noticed an elaborate structure made of wooden blocks in one corner of the room. She pointed and asked, "And what's this supposed to be? Is this a model of Grand Central Station?"

Hans looked scornfully at her. "No, silly. That's Puck's house."

Anna had been bending down to be closer to Hans' level, but at Puck's name, she stood upright. "Puck?" she repeated dumbly.

"Uh huh!" he nodded excitedly. "I builded a nice place for him to stay when he comes to visit."

"Puck?" Her mind was awhirl. Finally, she thought to ask, "Does your father know about Puck?"

Hans put his hands to his mouth and giggled. "No," he said, "it's a secret."

"Oh," she said slowly. "So how often does Puck come to visit you?"

Hans shrugged, a charming echo of his father's expressive gesture. "Not very often, but when he comes we talk about stuff."

Before she could ask what 'stuff' they talked about, Gerhard stuck his head around the door. "Hey, Champ. We need to say goodbye to Aunt Greta."

As Hans dashed back toward the living room, Gerhard took her arm. "You see, I'm not the carefree single guy I appear to be. We'll talk more in a little while about complications."

Anna couldn't help but smile. "Oh, come on. Hans is not a complication. He's a darling." Gerhard couldn't give her a full reply because they had stepped back into the living room, but Anna suspected she saw a tinge of color ... he might have blushed.

Greta stood at the door with her jacket on. She picked up Hans when he dashed up to her. "Oof," she gave a good-natured grunt. "Goodness, you are a big boy. Are you going to come see me run tomorrow?" This was the first time Anna had heard her speak. She had more of an accent than Gerhard. She didn't sound as stern as she looked; at least she didn't sound stern when speaking to Hans.

They made their goodbyes, during which Greta unbent enough to say good night to Anna, but her tone was still forced. Once the door had closed, Hans immediately busied himself by trundling a string of toys and books back and forth between his room and the living room for Anna to inspect and remark over. She sat on the couch with Gerhard, but it was impossible to have a conversation.

At one point Hans stopped and yawned on his way into the living room. Gerhard took hold of his son when he got to the couch. "Hey, little man, are you getting tired? It's your bedtime, you know."

Aw, Daddy," Hans started to protest but another yawn interrupted him. He rubbed his eyes. "But I'm not sleepy yet."

"I know, but it is time to get your pajamas on. Why don't you go put on your Bert and Ernie jammies, and show Anna."

Anna was impressed at how skillfully Gerhard maneuvered his son into bed. Hans had one last demand, however. Anna had to read him a story. Happily she complied, and by the time the big red train had gotten back to the station, Hans' eyes were falling shut for longer periods with each successive blink.

Back in the living room, Gerhard sat down beside her on the couch and sighed. "Here's my confession. I have a somewhat sordid past," he began awkwardly. He scrubbed his hand across his face. "I guess you'd say I used to take advantage of being in a profession where I get to work with glamorous models."

Anna reached over and took his hand. "Hans?" she asked watching him carefully. He wasn't looking at her, and his thoughts seemed distant.

"Hans," he confirmed. "His mother showed up at my studio one day about a year after...." He waved his hand. "Anyway, she handed me Hans, and said he was too much bother. She wanted to get on with her life." He looked in the direction of the bedroom where his son lay sleeping. "I didn't even know he existed until that moment."

Gerhard smiled a little ruefully and said,. "You might have noticed my sister is a little overprotective." He sighed. "I have stayed on the straight and narrow path ever since." After a moment he added, "Except for you. You were my first since Hans was born."