Midsummer-Night's Dreaming Ch. 03

"I'm afraid so." Dash nodded, but then flopped back against the pillow. "At least that's how he introduced himself to me the other day."

Now Jennifer lay back flat on the bed and looked at the ceiling. "I sort of remember seeing a little man standing on the bookcase, and I felt... saw... I don't know. There was some kind of sparkly stuff, then all of a sudden all I could think of was having a man. I've never felt like that before." She paused a moment. "I think I remember him saying your name."

"I wish I could tell you this all makes sense, but I have no idea what's going on. This little guy walks in out of the blue the other night, says he's Puck, and wants me to help him."

"Help him?" she asked. "What could you do to help a fairy?"

Dash turned his head towards her and smiled a little sheepishly. "I sort of missed that part. I was not exactly in the best of shape that night." He sighed and put his arm behind his head. "He called me a 'drunken sot,' puffed something in my face, and suddenly anything with alcohol in it smells worse than the bottom of a cesspit."

Talking about that night made Dash remember the other part of the conversation. "I sort of remember telling him I'd help him if he'd fix me up with a fairy nymph or something." He frowned. "He went off on quite a diatribe about how that would be a fate worse than death for a mortal - or something like that." He turned to look at her again. "Maybe he got the idea I needed a woman and corralled you into it. I'm sorry."

She waved him off. "Magic or not, I was ripe for a fall. Miles is a good man, and I don't want to cheat on my husband, but..."

"But here you are."

"No, I'm not here. This never happened. Right?" She looked at him intently.

Evidently Jennifer was having second thoughts. Dash sighed to himself and said, "I can live with that. I guess." He paused. "If I have to."

"You have to. This will never happen again."

She relaxed back against the pillow, and Dash tried to keep his eyes on the ceiling to avoid embarrassing her any more. However his peripheral vision strained to trace the curves of her well-toned figure. He was very aware of the heat radiating from her body next to his.

Suddenly he felt a stealthy movement, and her fingers grazed against the side of his hip. He turned towards her and saw she was looking at him intently. "This will never happen again, will it?" she said.

"No," he said hating himself for promising not to do something he most assuredly wanted to do again.

"Good," she said. "Then since there will just be this once..." Her fingers trailed down the side of his hip and came back up to trace the edges of his pelvic bone. "Maybe it wouldn't matter if it went on a little longer."

Her finger circled back across his lower stomach coming close to his public hair. Suddenly she rose up, leaned over, and sucked his now limp cock into her mouth. She swirled it with her tongue then released it to move up to his face. "Kiss me a little before we have to stop, will you?"

He tasted a hint of their combined juices on her lips, and her tongue probed between his teeth. She insistently sucked at his lips while their tongues tangled teasing as much sensation out of the kiss as possible.

She backed off and smiled. "The best of never, huh?"

Dash pulled her back into a kiss that seemed to go on forever. When she relaxed back against the pillow after they broke apart, Dash traced the lines of her face with his finger. When he got to the tip of her nose, she reached up with her tongue to touch it. He had meant to run his finger completely around her lips, but after he'd traced her upper lip, she captured his finger with her mouth. That led to another prolonged kiss, but this time they both stroked each other's bodies while they kissed.

Jennifer's tight, firm breasts fascinated Dash. He stroked he flesh gently avoiding the sensitive nipples. Already they stood up begging for attention, but he rubbed the pads of his fingers gently across the under sides. She laid back and hummed her approval when he started paying attention to her chest, but as he systematically avoided the turgid, sensitive tips, she started to whimper. Dash, however, continued to tease - on and on, gently, firmly, but never satisfying her straining nipples. Finally she broke the kiss. "Come on, damn it! Touch me. I can't stand it."

He smiled to himself. Leaning forward he sucked one nipple into his mouth while he reached with his hand for her other breast. He pinched her one nipple lightly with his fingers while he squeezed the other gently with his teeth.

The results were unexpected. Her legs jerked, and she cried out. "Unh! Nuh!" She gasped for air, and her legs spasmed again. She wet rigid for a moment, then she exhaled heavily and relaxed into the bed. "I don't believe it," she finally said when she had recovered her breath. "You made me cum just by touching my nipples. Where did you learn that?"

Not with Marcy, Dash thought to himself. Out loud he said, "I just sort of made it up as I went. I tried to play off the signals you were sending."

She rubbed her eyes with her hands then turned towards him. "So what kind of signals are you sending?" She smiled and reached down to his belly. Her smile broadened when she found his revived cock. She gripped his member, and leaned over to give him a kiss on his mouth. "I'm so glad to see you are back in the party."

"Never left," he said. "You kept me in the game."

She laughed, dipped her head, and took him into her warm mouth. He felt her tongue flicking back and forth across his frenum. "Oh, my," he said.

She looked up. "I don't get to do this much. It's fun."

"You do it well," he returned. "REALLY well." He couldn't bear the thought that this would be their only time. He gave a mental sigh and tried to remember every wiggle and waggle of her tongue on his cock. Since he had just had an orgasm, he was able to relax and just enjoy the sensations as they came.

Her back was within reach, so he started stroking her body down to her waist. She shifted around a little, and he could reach her butt. His fingers explored both the hillocks and the valley, and she shifted again to give him more room down in the valley.

He had an idea, and tugged on her leg. "Get on top of me so I can do you too."

She took her mouth off him for a moment and looked back. "This will be another first."

In a moment she had settled in place. Dash smushed a pillow up behind his head to support himself at a comfortable angle. She flinched at the first touch of his tongue, but she sank back down and let him slide his tongue up and down her slit. Her clitoris was not particularly prominent, and he had to probe a bit before he found it. He fished one hand up near his face and used two fingers two gently separate her outer lips so his tongue had better access.

They settled into an easy 69 for a time, but Dash noticed after a few minutes Jennifer started to press harder into his tongue. He decided the time was right, and he went to work vibrating his tongue back and forth across her little bud. She gasped and reared up off his cock. Dash paused then lashed out with his tongue again bringing another exclamation from her. Another pause, and a third time. A fourth. She shrieked out her release and her legs clamped tightly around his head.

After a time, she relaxed, and Dash made his move. Her head lay on his cock, but that was not enough. No, he was fully aroused now, and he wanted more. Gently he rolled her off from on top and slid free. He reversed himself on the bed and nuzzled up for a kiss. Jennifer looked at him a bit dazed, but then she put her arms around him and kissed back. Dash eased himself between her legs and easily found her opening with the end of his cock. She was soaking wet, and he entered her effortlessly.

"Mmm," she moaned against mouth, then she pulled back a little to say, "I like that idea."

"I thought you might," he responded and took a stroke. She pushed back against him. He buried his cock in her to the hilt, but instead of starting immediately to fuck her, he held himself there and kissed her.

She squeezed at him with the muscles of her vagina and gave an impatient little push with her hips. "Oh, god. Don't tease. Not now," she gasped. "I need you to do me hard. Just a little more..."

Her sentence trailed off into unintelligible gasps of joy as Dash suddenly started to stroke rapidly driving his cock in and out of her slick chamber. Not only had Jennifer fully revived his erection, he could feel the delightful rising tension in his own loins that meant another orgasm was coming. He increased his tempo, and she matched him stroke for stroke. In a moment they were both gasping together. Dash admired the lovely woman he was fucking and watched as a deep red flush spread from her face down across the chest. The upwelling explosion of his orgasm forced him to cry out loud. He felt Jennifer's pussy clasping and tugging at his cock as he went over the top. She joined him wailing out her release.

They stayed there side by side - not moving - sated. Dash, while not asleep, lay there deep in reverie. He had not been with a woman since Marcy, and now Jennifer had reminded him how much he had missed the physical intimacy of a relationship. For the first time in the months since Marcy had left with little Isabel he felt like he was alive again.

Jennifer stirred beside him. She seemed embarrassed now that her lusts were satisfied, and she got up and dressed quickly. Dash sighed and rolled of the bed to find his clothes. She didn't look at him while she put on her clothes, but he watched as she quickly covered her fine looking body. He sighed to himself again.

Finally Jennifer turned to him. "Mr. Ressel, uh, Dash, I..." She looked down shyly until he had finished pulling up his pants before she went on. "I really want to thank you for this afternoon. I mean it. I really enjoyed it. However..."

"Yeah," Dash said. "It can never happen again. You made that clear. But, holy smoke, if you ever get that kind of an urge again..."

She smiled. "I know where to find you," she finished. "She smiled and leaned forward and kissed him chastely on the cheek. "Thanks again for a really wonderful afternoon." Without even a backward glance, she turned and showed herself out.

After Jennifer had left, Dash stood in his bedroom and stared out at the cabin door which she had closed decisively behind her. Finally he roused himself and pulled on his shirt. "Well, this was a memorable day," he muttered to himself. He went back to the kitchen and finished putting away the three cans of soup still sitting on the counter. Whisking the three plastic sacks into a ball he tossed them over his shoulder at the wastebasket. Score! He raised his arms in triumph.

Okay, now what? He saw his laptop open on the table beside his writing chair. Well, there was that prospectus he had to get in the mail by the end of the week... He plopped down in the chair and retrieved the computer. Hunting up his "Current Projects" folder, he noticed the folder labeled "Deadman's Float" and paused. That was a screenplay he had abandoned some time ago, but now he had a sudden thought. Instead of the intruder murdering the hero's girl friend, what if the girl friend killed the intruder. Then the hero could get involved in the coverup... The plot threads of the idea spun out in his mind and he opened the folder.

There was a knock at the door. Dash looked around and realized it was evening. He'd been writing all afternoon. "Huh, first time that had happened in a long time," he thought. Before he could finish the sentence he had been working on, the knock came again. "All right. Hold on," he called. He felt a flush of anticipation. Could Jennifer have changed her mind already?

With that thought he got out of the chair quickly. He pulled open the door, but there was no one there - then he looked down. Oh, shit. Puck. "What do you want?" he said.

The little man gave a happy laugh and skipped through the door into Dash's living room. "I thought you would be happy to see me," he said. He took off the little green hat he wore and swept it across his body as he bowed deeply. "Now that little Puck has fixed your problems, you can fix mine."

"Maybe I liked my problems." Dash went back to his chair and sat down.

Puck looked at him slyly. "So your time with Mrs. Westfall was not satisfactory?"

"Uh," was all he could manage because he was caught with conflicting emotions. He wanted to berate the fairy for interfering in his life, but at the same time he wanted to kiss the ground at his feet for giving him the most memorable sex he had had in years. Finally Dash just settled on the last part of Puck's statement. "You want help? With your fairy powers, what kind of help can you get from me?"

"Ah, fairy powers are wondrous indeed, but for this task I need your powers of the pen."

"Pesh..." Dash waved dismissively. "My powers of the pen are not so hot lately. I haven't sold anything in quite a while. My agent is threatening to drop me..." His protest petered out when Puck hopped up to the arm of the chair and stood there shaking his head. "What do you mean, no?" Dash asked.

"So," Puck looked at him smugly, "what have you been doing all afternoon?"

"I, ah..." and Dash realized he did not remember a thing about the afternoon because he had fallen so deeply into the story, the words had flowed in a river. "So you think you've fixed my writing, huh? Well even if you have, why should I write for you? Do you pay standard rates?"

"With the help I have already given you - and don't roll your eyes at me, Mr Ressel," scolded Puck, "you should be more than will to help. But I will give you one more reason. Your little valley here is under a grievous threat."

"You mean the outfit that wants to do that fracking thing upstream in the valley? I've heard about that."

"Exactly so." The little fairy bounced down to a seated position on the arm of Dash's chair.

"Well, that's not that bad, is it?" Dash asked. He'd heard that new restrictions had helped limit the damage done in other places. There would be some water pollution at first, but the EPA would make sure no permanent harm was done.

"Ah, but they will be, as you might say, 'fucking with the fracking' right in the middle of one of the major waypoints to the world of Fairie."

Dash frowned. "You said something about that before. Something about down in the depths?"

"You were listening!" Puck exclaimed. "Yes, there are exactly twelve waypoints to Fairie equally spaced around this globe."

"Twelve equally spaced?" The statement triggered something down in the depths of Dash's memory. At one time he had written several articles about topics in recreational mathematics. "Like the faces of a dodecahedron? Twelve faces, each a regular, five-sided pentagon?" Another thought intruded. "Connect the vertices of a pentagon and you have a pentacle, and all that witchcraft stuff."

Puck studied him for a moment. "Perhaps you are not as thick as I thought." He nodded. "Well then, most of the waypoints are over water - eight to be exact. One of the points that opens onto land does so precisely at the south pole."

"Not terribly useful?" Dash offered somewhat sarcastically.

"More inconvenient than anything, Your valley has the only waypoint on this continent."

"Huh," Dash said skeptically. "I've never seen any comings and goings of strange creatures - present company excluded, of course."

"Most of Fairie do not have access to your world, and it is a good thing too. The little fairy sprites, like me," Puck gave a little bow, "come and go as we please. We are the communicators with your world."

"Where you cause as much trouble as possible."

Puck glowered at him. "It is not trouble we seek, just entertainment." A sly smile traced across his face. "I will admit, however, we are entertained by things somewhat differently than humans."

"I'll bet."

Paying no attention, Puck continued. "Now nymphs, huldra, mermaids, sirens - these all dwell in the next lower level. They can appear in your world when there is need, but usually they cannot stray far from a waypoint." He paused a moment then went on in a hushed tone. "The deeper you go into Fairie, the less access there is to your world, and you should be glad. Even residents of the other levels of Fairie do not have dealings with the Deep Ones."

"Okay," Dash said. "We've got a gateway, uh, a waypoint right here in River City. What has that got to do with fracking?" Puck looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Okay, forget the pop culture reference," Dash said. "What is the problem?"

"A man named Seth Hawk is leading a project which has obtained the right to drill for gas in the valley - by fracking." The fairy said the word with obvious distaste.

"So? Other than the mess you might get on your shoes as you come and go, what's the problem?"

"The problem is, my dear Mr. Ressel, I fear the fracking process applied at the waypoint will open the way to your world for much of what should stay in Fairie."

Dash took a moment to think about this. The little fairy certainly seemed serious, but this was Puck, the trickster. Most likely he was setting him up to be the butt of some colossal joke. What was Puck's punch line? "Bogeymen and things that go bump in the dark?" he asked.

The fairy frowned and got to his feet and began to pace the arm of his chair. "You are not taking this seriously, but you should. You must."

"Yeah, okay. It's serious," Dash said unconvinced, but he wanted to move the conversation along. "What do you want me to do, and why should I do it?"

Puck looked at him skeptically. "I wish you to lend your skills as a writer to help sway opinion against Hawk's project. Now that I've been able to spend more time in your world, I've found that you must make the dirt expand to get anything done."

The last phrase blew right past Dash. Dirt? Like the ground expand? Then it hit him. "Oh, you mean you have to get a ground swell of public opinion on your side to stop the project."

"That's what I said."

Puck's eyes were menacing, and Dash reminded himself he was dealing with a creature who had the power to make booze smell like cat shit and turn a neighbor woman into a nymphomaniac. Who knew what else he might be able to do? That triggered off another thought. "Why couldn't you just magic him out of the picture?"

With a sigh Puck sat back down on the arm of the chair. "In the old days that would have done it, right enough. Now, however, we are dealing with Hawk Enterprises, Incorporated, and I do not know how to enspell an organization of that size." He sighed in frustration.

"So you think if I write letters to the EPA, Sierra Club, and those kind of groups I can get his project stopped?" He gave a little snort. "You are surely overestimating my powers of persuasion. What you need is a good lawyer to file writs, and habeas corpuses, and all that legal stuff." The memory of what Marcy's lawyer had done to him in their divorce settlement still rankled.

"Ah! See, this is why you must help me." Puck bounced back to his feet. "A Lawyer. Yes, that is what we need on our team."

"Wait a minute," Dash said. "What team? I haven't agreed to any of this. I have to work for a living. I have to write stuff I can sell for money. I can't afford to do this!"

"And how much have you sold lately?"

Somewhere between jack and shit was the answer, but Dash was too proud to admit it. "I still have some money coming in from stuff I've done before." Half of it anyway. Marcy got the other half. "My agent has had trouble getting people to read my latest stuff."

"This would be the Sam Brownsworth who has recently taken on eight new clients?" Puck looked smug.

"Yeah, he's been shopping my screenplays to... Wait. Did you say eight new clients?" This was news to Dash. Maybe Brownie hadn't been working as hard for him as he had claimed. Then another thought occurred to him. "How do you know this stuff anyway?"