The Florist

After another while--perhaps a half bell or more--I sat back. My need had peaked.

"Herlesh, please lie back."

"Mmm," she murmured. Herlesh did roll onto her back, but it seemed to occur in slow motion.

I positioned myself between her legs and bent to trail kisses along her abdomen, working my way toward the cauldron between her thighs. When I tasted her again with a long swipe of my broad tongue she arched and cried out in surprise.

I knelt and loomed over her. Her expression reminded me of a prey animal about to be taken. In the next few instants her face went from trepidation to realization, acceptance to flaming desire. She knew.

My tip was against her, pulsing and insistent. She stared into my eyes, nodded once and commanded, "Now--please!"

I pulled her into my lap as I drove into her. Herlesh's eyes bore into mine with a palpable heat. Her mouth was parted in a half-smile and a half-moan. As she settled I felt myself reach the end of her. Her head lolled back and she shuddered, grasping my shoulders for support. Her weight settled and I impaled her.

After a few beats to let her grow accustomed to me, my hands began to slowly guide her hips. She had begun a tentative rocking back-and-forth, but I wanted more for her pleasure and experience. I began pressuring her in a swirling circular motion.

As Herlesh followed my lead her eyes flew open and she tilted her head to my forehead.

"Oh, Kelline!" she gasped as she realized she could stir her insides with my tip. "Oh, you wonderful man." She kissed me as she experimented with motion and pressures. When she found the angle that ground her mound into me and stroked me along the back of her dripping heat, her body tensed.

"Unh, oh!"

My arms wrapped around her lower back and I pressed down on her, catching the swell of her hips and pinning her against me. I could feel her power as she kept a hard, deliberate stirring. In a burst the spasms and gasps of a woman in the height of fulfillment began.

"Yes, Herlesh, let the feeling wash over you and carry you away."

"Oh... oh!" She grabbed the back of my head and kissed me hard. Her breath pulsed from her nostrils and from between her lips. Her nipples hardened until the dug delicious furrows into my chest. Her sex massaged me in that unmistakable rhythm, and the flow of her arousal coated our joining. Her legs locked behind me and squeezed my middle.

I thrust upward to meet her and felt the tingling start. But I wanted to hold out just a little longer...

Too late, I realized that there was no holding out for me. I lifted us off the bed as I strove to reach deeper.

"Ung, ooh, mmm... yes!" she cried. She arched backward and pulled my face to her breasts. I caught a flushed tip between my lips and bore down on it as we climaxed together. One of my hands had reached lower for better purchase, and my finger dallied between the cleft of her bottom. Even there she felt slick and smooth. I tickled, and felt the squeeze of her on my jetting manhood intensify. Another larger wave of Herlesh's essence flowed from her to cover my hips and the bedclothes.

I held her, turning my head to listen to the beating within her chest. Her racing heart began to slow, and her breathing returned to a semblance of normalcy. All the while her arms cradled my head to her body.

We collapsed, and I slipped from her. I lay back and pulled her to my side, where she lay her head on my shoulder and molded herself to me. I enjoyed her warmth, and told her as much.

"Thank you, Kelline," she whispered.

"You, dear Herlesh, are most welcome." I chuckled and kissed the top of her head.

She drew back and looked into my face, capturing my full attention. "No, I mean thank you. You could have refused me--"

"No, I couldn't," I interrupted.

"Yes, you could have. But instead you made me feel welcome. And beautiful."

"You are truly welcome, Herlesh. Just as you are truly beautiful."

She smiled and lay her head on me once more. "And, you made me feel a few other things as well." I could hear the smile in her voice and laughed.

"And you, also!" I replied. We shared the mirth before falling back into the comfort of our embrace.

"Kelline?"

"Hmm?

"There are a few other things I would like to experience..."

My grin could be heard in my reply. "Really? Such as...?"

"Do I have to say them?"

"How else will I know?"

"Well," she began, the shy woman once more. "I could, uh, show you?"

That is how we came to lie next to one another as our mouths explored and pleasured. I made sure Herlesh was fulfilled--more than once--while through some minor miracle I managed to last. When she complained that I had not achieved my joyful instant I repositioned her next to the bed. She knelt on the floor and, at my guidance, draped her upper body face down across the mattress.

I got behind her and nudged her legs apart. She felt my tip, slick and wanton, at her vestibule and eased back towards me. My hands grasped her hips and I drove into her slowly, inexorably, until we both felt me reach the end of her. Herlesh shuddered. Later she told me she reveled in the feeling of being placed on a spit of exquisite pleasure.

We rutted then. Words became useless; instead the sounds we made were guttural, animalistic, frenzied, and utterly sexual. Her breasts dragged back and forth across the bedclothes. I imagined sparks of electric fire pulsing throughout her sensitized body. When she peaked her body jerked and convulsed, teetering me on the precipice.

My training served me well for a few more beats. I maintained my rhythm and thrust Herlesh through her orgasm before mine rose up to block out everything else.

I pushed as deeply as I could reach for as long as I could manage. I think she might have noticed my end swelling inside her as she gripped me. I felt her hand between her legs as she helped herself. It seemed she had come to grips with her ability to self-pleasure.

"I'm... ugh--" I warned her.

"Now, Kell--oh!"

As the first pulse of my heat boiled within her, Herlesh's physicality took over her mind. She juddered and shook, actually biting down hard on one of my pillows as she screamed. Her womanhood gripped me in a despicable and relentless mauling that I still cherish. I clung to her hips and thrust into her until we both achieved our resolution.

We lay down once more; this time Herlesh lay on her side and I fitted myself behind her. The contact was sweet and tender. We lay for perhaps a quarter bell, talking and caressing as lovers do.

I was nestled between the toned spheres of her backside and, after a time, I felt myself start to respond. She felt it, also.

"What, again? The oatwort lives up to its legend."

"Herlesh, maybe I am the one living up to the legend," I teased.

"Remember you are talking to a healer? One familiar with medicinal herbs."

I bit her gently between where her neck and shoulder met, and she laughed. She took my hand and placed it on her breast while her bottom swayed against me. The oatwort was indeed working its magic. So was her body on me.

My hips moved back and forth in short strokes that ran my length along her cleft. After a time I drew back and slid myself between her thighs. She coated the top of my shaft with her nectar as I slipped repeatedly past the apex of her firm legs.

We murmured to one another, soft cooings of encouragement and delight. When she wanted more, her hips tilted and I entered her. With lingering thrusts I deepened the penetration until she took my full length. We made love again, gently and without haste. I reached lower and let my fingers toy with her slick and sensitized womanhood as she moved me in and out of her warm body.

I felt her passion building to a peak, and mine was close behind. My fingertips grew more insistent because I wanted us to achieve our instants together. She began to tighten and her inner heat rose. Herlesh became even wetter and I felt her flowing on my manhood and my busy hand. I worried that I might not be able to wait...

"Oh, Kelline... I... mmm--"

"Now?" I asked with intense hope. I pinched her nipple and her swollen bud as she thrust back to fill herself with me.

"Ung! Oh!" Her body quaked and her grip on me squeezed as I coated her dripping walls with heat of my own. She gasped as I moaned. Her rhythm neatly matched mine as she drew every droplet from my throbbing, pulsing erection. With a monstrous final shudder she yanked my hand from between her legs and gripped the hand at her chest to stop my manipulations.

"No more--no more," she gasped, panting through the perspiration-matted hair clinging to her face. She turned to me, eyes seething, wrapped one arm around my neck and pulled me to her lips. We lay, kissing, for several minutes and I slipped from her. Our heart slowed and our bodies cooled.

We slept for a couple of bells. I woke her gently with my lips and spent another bell taking her to the edge and backing away. When at last I tumbled her over she squeezed my head between her thighs until my ears rang, and she dug her nails into my scalp until she drew blood. My wounds actually made me proud.

We bathed in the morning and I managed a nice meal. I cleared the table and sat while we finished our beverages.

"Thank you, Kelline."

"You are most welcome, Herlesh. And thank you."

"Me? For what exactly?" She watched me over the cup's rim as she sipped.

"For two things. One, for bringing me back. You were right, I play an important function and, when I am of a mind, I feel that I am good at it."

"Indeed," she replied will an astonishing mimicry of a dreamy and love-struck girl. We descended into a fit of jocularity.

"And, two?"

"Please hear me out." She nodded, but her eyes seemed a bit guarded. "When I came back here I resented it." I took a deep breath. "I resented you."

"You--"

I held up a hand and she, remembering her promise, quieted. "I resented you as a spoiled child resent his mother's call to the evening meal. The fun ends and the innocent are blamed. I am sorry."

"But--"

I held up my hand again. She fell silent, but with a tiny smile this time.

"Being with you has wiped away any of that. In you I feel a wise and complex soul, someone with whom I have common traits. I would call you a kindred spirit and could do so without reservation. You are also a wonderful, kind and giving lover. If you have half this much compassion with your patients, it is no wonder they sing your praises."

Herlesh colored at my words, especially my compliments to her as a physical partner. And when I mentioned her wards I saw her eyes brim.

"You rascally fiend, teasing an aged woman." She brushed at her right eye with the back of a finger. "I am glad you are back here, where you belong."

"I--"

Now it was her turn to silence me, and she used the same gesture of her hand.

"I am sorry you were not able to escape--as I have wanted to myself. And I felt a bit of jealousy when I thought you might actually get away. Sorry," she admitted, her eyes flicking at the table for a beat or two. "And... I am glad you have some time at Gatekey. I looked at your glasstern work and you do have talent. I especially adore the one on your mantle. Did I notice finger marks in the piece?"

I held my two salved fingers up for her to see and we shared a grin.

"I thought so. For what it is worth, I'm glad you saved that one."

"So am I," I murmured.

That earned me a quick look. "Hmm, interesting, Kelline."

"What?" I attempted to cover with an innocent expression.

"What, indeed. You should remember that I understand your conflict. Perhaps I understand it better than you do."

I kept quiet. She watched me for a few beats before the dawn of a smile curled her lips.

"Who was she?"

"What?" This time I tried to look shocked.

"What? Again, 'what'?" She huffed and gazed at the object. It caught the tiniest flare of light and glistened.

"Or, maybe, I should ask, 'Who is she?'"

Still, I kept silent.

"Oh, goddess, put an old woman out of her misery, you heartless imp!" She did her best to sound angry and exasperated, but the effect was ruined in the very next instant when she grinned.

I laughed and briefly explained Weinotia, unnamed and in the broadest of terms to maintain my professionalism, of course. Herlesh listened and smiled through my story.

"She was different, proud, vulnerable, a challenge. But..." I fumbled.

"Yes, 'but,' nothing." She turned serious. "Take care, Kelline. You know as well as I that we lack the privileges of the average person. We have demands that come before our desires."

She leaned forward and took my hands. "This night was a treasure for me. You made it everything I could have hoped for, and much more. But now it is time for me to resume my role and be who I must." Herlesh kissed my hands. "Thank you."

She continued, "But you need to do the same. Leave your glasstern woman in your past and rededicate yourself. If you do not, if your feelings are set free, I fear there lurks only pain in your future. And is that not what drove you out to all those long moons ago?"

It would have done no good to argue, or to explain, or to do anything but agree. So I agreed.

And Herlesh, I think, nearly believed me.

Chapter 5--Weinotia

After my time with Herlesh, I traveled back to Gatekey. There was a strange order awaiting me there.

Horlam, the lead artisan from the gathering when my two worlds collided all those moons ago, boomed, "Dalian, there you are. You have a request, and a bit of a mysterious one at that."

"Hmm, let me settle my things--"

"Not necessary. This will only take a moment. A patron..." he looked about conspiratorially and, I thought, with an overly dramatic flourish, "... one who refused to leave a name, has commissioned a piece and asked for you, and no one else, to craft it. Had the specifications delivered by messenger pouch, too, to keep their identity private, I suppose."

"Oh? What sort of piece?"

"I do not know. No one knows." He gave an exasperated snort. "Excepting the patron, of course. Here." He handed me the pouch. "All you need to know, I am told, lies within. Now, as much as my curiosity demands I stay, propriety compels me to be going." He stood his ground.

"Why? It is a small foundry. As soon as it begins to take shape, everyone will know what it is."

"Actually, no. Dactyon has arranged for you to work alone in the training room with the small kiln and oven. It is all fiendishly private," Horlam harrumphed.

"I see. Very well, then, off with you!" I waved a hand past him and down the hallway then grinned.

Horlam's expression sagged from mild hope to resignation, and his brow furrowed. "Heartless imp," he muttered as he turned.

I trudged to my chamber and opened the commission. As I studied the request my face reddened.

* * * * * * *

The instructions were most specific. The size and shape had been carefully dimensioned and spelled out to the finest detail. It took me a full two days to craft. If I glossed over the item's purpose, I had to admit that it certainly had a wonderful look about it.

The glasstern object measured just over a hand-span in length. Two lump serpents twined around one another, their heads turned out and away just so. The bumps along their spines provided tactile undulations. Their thick tails flared and coiled over each other to allow for a handhold, or could be turned about and inserted for a wider area of excitation.

As could be guessed from the description it was, indeed, a woman's intimate delighter! Hence my embarrassment, at least if I paid it too much mind. My simplistic solution to an incongruous problem--a Florist, whose stock in trade was physical intimacy and still became embarrassed over an intimate object--was to simply stop thinking so much. Perhaps, I posited to myself, my embarrassment arose from being commissioned specifically by someone I did not know for something so personal? I remained uncertain.

But, with what I believe was a fairly objective view, I still felt it was one of my better works.

* * * * * * *

The last condition of the commission was the most puzzling to me. I was to take the piece to Tsibili and await the patron's further instructions. At first I puzzled over who would know I was a Florist and a glasstern artisan, but owing to the notoriety of my case I had to admit that would not narrow the field very much. Still, why have me craft the piece in Gatekey and deliver it to Tsibili?

The mystery confounded and fascinated me. I strove to come up with some explanation, some logic to the situation. When I could not my mind tied itself into knots.

What I finally settle upon was the patron had to be a betrothed who wanted his woman to gain expertise with the, er, object before they joined.

How wrong I was. Yet, at the same time, closer than I thought...

* * * * * * *

There were two appointments the next half-moon at Tsibili, but neither one mentioned anything about a glasstern commission. The first was a fetching and curvy girl just past twenty-one fourteens who began our time together so coy and, later, practically did me an injury. The second was a mature woman who sought to explore her phases of excitement. Together we were able to reawaken the highly excitable nubile she used to be.

But my confusion over the commissioned piece grew, and there were only a few all-bells until I was to return to Gatekey. I pondered the mystery as I peered into the bottom of my gourd ale--which I promptly spilt on myself when a loud knocking startled me.

I mopped at the front of my tunic as I made for the door. Just before I touched the handle the knocking came again, boisterous and insistent. First the door swung open. Then so did my mouth.

"Hello, Kelline."

Her face, so fresh in my memory even after several moons, looked smooth and lovely. The knotted brow was no more; instead she appeared cheerful, confident, and relaxed. Even more amazing to me, she appeared open and... self-assured? Yes. This was not the suspicious and cynical young woman I once knew.

"Well, are you going to invite in inside, or not?"

I pivoted numbly and gave her room. As she passed, she lightly touched my chin. My mouth closed. Her lips brushed mine then parted slightly as her tongue teased me, leaving my skin afire. I realized only much later that if I had not borne such a shocked mind I would have wondered--should have wondered--was that technique mere luck?

She pulled away, dark eyes sparkling like a rippling stream. I stared, soundless. She murmured, "It is nice to render someone speechless, on occasion." Mischief danced in her smooth face.

When I admitted, "I missed you, Weinotia," her expression faltered for a beat or two.

"Why, Kelline, I believe you." She smiled at me and my heart skipped. "But why? I behaved as a self-center child. Worse."

I could not stop the grin from spreading. "You were lovely."

"Not at first," she corrected. "At first I was callous and--"

I touched her lips with a fingertip and whispered, "You... were, lovely."

She grasped my wrist and slipped my finger into her mouth. Her tongue swirled and traced my skin and I felt a sublime electric tingle quiver through my body right down to my toes. I gasped.

"That, but that is a Florist technique!"

Her eyes grew round and she asked, "Is it, really?" Her expression reeked of innocence. "Hmm, just a lucky talent, I reckon."

"No, it cannot be a 'lucky talent.' You-- No, that cannot be possible...."

"Why, Kelline, what could you possibly be thinking? And, er, should you close the door?"

"What?" My mind chased a myriad of thoughts and forgot to control my arms and legs.