The Florist

"The door?" She tilted her head for emphasis.

I closed the door at last. Weinotia smiled, removed her cloak and handed it to me. I hung it out of habit, still lost in my disbelief. My fingertip tingled while my other hand clasped the mug handle tighter. Looking back, I was surprised that I had not dropped my ale in shock.

"Have you? Trained?" Though this explanation seemed preposterous, I could not fathom another.

"Oh Kelline, has there ever been a woman Florist?"

"No."

"Do you think I would be the first?" She pinned me with a steady gaze, as though she would wait as long as it took.

"No. Yes. Perhaps?" My face twisted in confusion.

"Hmph, I believe those are all the possible answer choices." Her tongue swiped the inside of her lower lip, and the stud caught the light as it moved. "Should I choose one? Or would you like to choose one for yourself?" That mischievous glint remained unrelenting.

I shook my head and admitted at last, "I don't know. But of all the women I have known, you would have the best chance of training..."

"Thank you, Kelline. That is a very kind and sweet thing to say." She showed me a tiny, enigmatic smile. She held her hand to me and I took it.

"I am the Florist, Weinotia. I have been trained in the style of 'The Seeking Breeze'."

In that moment I was thrown into turmoil. I was happy to see her--overjoyed in fact. But I could not make sense of Weinotia as a Florist. And in my turmoil I became defensive and felt an irrational anger rising.

"But... but--" I stopped, uncertain. The mug came down onto the hall side table with a little more force than I intended.

"But, what, Kelline? But, what?" Her smile faded and her expression grew serious.

"But, it is just not done." My uncertainty deepened even as my voice rose.

"Why? Tradition?"

"Well... yes. All right--tradition. I have never heard of a female Florist."

"Well, you have heard of one now. And it is well past time for one, also!"

I desperately wanted to respond, to give her an unassailable, unimpeachable argument. I knew there had to be one. But, but... none came to my tumbling mind.

"Kelline, would you offer your services to a man?"

After a beat to let her words sink into my numbing brain, I shook my head. It simply was not done.

"Well, you should think about it. I can, however, without reservation." Before I could protest, she continued, "And what about a woman betrothed to another woman? While still rare, it is happening more often, you know? Can you properly tutor and guide her? Do you know what it is to be a woman?"

Although I realized I did not know, could never know, I did not respond.

"I can guide her because I do know what it is to be a woman," she stated.

I rubbed my temples.

"Kelline," she murmured, "Are you all right?" I swore she smirked at me.

Perhaps it was my failure to answer. More likely, it was the blank, shocked look on my face. Whatever it was, Weinotia chuckled.

"You'll get used to the idea. It may take some time, but you will."

I shook my head as I mentally admitted defeat, grinned ruefully and muttered, "Perhaps."

All right, I thought. This conversation cannot be any more odd...

I was proved wrong in the next instant.

"Good. Now, I believe I have something waiting for me. Here."

"Erm, excuse me?"

"I commissioned a glasstern piece." Her voice was that of someone explaining to a child. Once more, her eyes danced.

It took me a few beats and a sigh before I comprehended. "You are enjoying my discomfiture, are you not?"

"Oh, yes. Very much," she giggled openly. "Very, very much." She dissolved into laughter.

"Sit," I waved her into the main room. "I shall be right back." I tried to project a surly countenance, but my smile betrayed me and ruined what would have otherwise been a remarkably effective display. I am sure it would have been....

* * * * * * *

Weinotia eyed the piece with emotion. I, in turn, could not take my eyes from her fingers...

It was obvious, at least to someone trained as a Florist, that she, too, had been trained. The way in which her hands moved as she explored the surface actually affected me. I imagined her touch on my skin and responded. I blushed, even as I could not look away from the scene.

I struggled to find something to discuss. "Weinotia, I was flattered to be requested, but I am curious."

"Yes?" Her gaze left the glasstern and, with a blink, focused on me.

"This piece was not inexpensive. And the training?"

"How?" She looked at me with an even and steady expression. "How could I, who once had to choose between food and your services, manage all this?"

I nodded. "Please, if it is indelicate--"

"Oh, please, Kelline. I'm not so easily offended, remember?"

We shared a smile and she continued. "I acquired a patron--'patroness.' Two, actually."

She returned her attention to the piece. "I especially like this bit of the lump serpents' backs." Fingertips grazed along one line. "There are those who think, as I do," Weinotia doubled back, "that it is well past time for women Florists." Her voice dropped, "And the turn of their heads...." She caressed one serpent's chin and I noticed a sea of small bumps rise on her bare arms. Her thoughts were easily imagined. She grasped the outturned tails. "Excellent grip, though it could be turned about, too..." A glance at her chest revealed that her level of arousal matched my own.

As though reading my mind, she whispered, "Are you as aroused as I?" After a few beats her eyes left the glasstern and bore into mine.

If I had been with any other client I could have covered with a glib reply. I could have said something to control, or at least influence, the situation. But I had neither the desire nor the will to attempt any subterfuge with Weinotia. On the contrary, I wanted to share everything with her. Ignoring the full measure of that self-admission, I nodded. "Perhaps more."

A smile flickered across her lips and my eyes were drawn to them. When she had my attention focused where she wanted, she slowly raised the glasstern to her mouth. The tip of her pink tongue traced the face of one serpent. With another small curve of her lips, she lidded her eyes and closed her lips around the fortunate reptile's head.

I had become enraptured, my gaze captured, my heart pounded as my face colored.

She emitted a tiny moan and took the second head in to join its sibling. Slowly, achingly, I watched her lips slide down to the second curve before the shaft slipped from her. The glasstern left her mouth with a soft kiss that made the most delightful, erotic sound. She traced the tip across her lower lip and circled her stud before raising the heads and kissing them softly. By now I had become fully... engaged.

"My initial inspection leads me to believe that this is a wonderful piece, Kelline."

Speechless, I nodded with an insipid, tiny smile.

Weinotia looked serious, but her eyes glinted and glittered with mischievous joy. "However, I do believe we need to make sure it meets all of its new owner's needs." She crooked and eyebrow and tilted her hear slightly. "Do you agree?"

My expression turned professional and I found my voice at last. "Absolutely. After all, the customer must be fully satisfied."

I felt as though I had regained a bit of my composure and some semblance of control. I also enjoyed her beauty after so long apart.

"Well, if you will not invite me to someplace more comfortable I suppose we could make do here." She sighed, reaching for the edge of her skirt.

I leapt to my feet and offered my hand. "If you would allow me to conduct you to someplace a bit more... private... I think we can make sure your piece meets with your most discerning approval."

"I have missed you, Kelline," she admitted, rising. Her face was luminous.

* * * * * * *

Once we reached the sleeping chamber she turned and reached for her skirt.

"Allow me, please?"

She smiled and held her arms out from her sides. I moved close enough that her smile faded. My hands went behind her head and pulled her into a deep kiss. She wound her arms around me as I stroked down to the small of her back with my left hand, while my right massaged her scalp. I fluttered my tongue against her upper lip and she grinned.

"'Rippling surf?' I adore that one."

My fingers, unhurried and purposeful, undid her buttons as we kissed. Weinotia had not worn an under-tunic and her skin felt heated beneath my touch. I traced along her side and across the lower swell of her left breast. I let that topography guide me across her chest towards her right, but she trapped my hand when she bucked into my body.

"Ooo, that was a particularly effective 'Valley Stream,' Kelline."

"Weinotia, are you going to comment on every technique?" Though intended in a light tone, I heard a tinge of annoyance in my question.

"Oh, Kelline, please. Consider it a part of my education." She blinked innocently. But there, deep in her glistening dark eyes, did I see a wave of impishness?

"Are you going to take this off of me?" she asked, indicating her tunic.

I shook my head and grinned. She raised an eyebrow and grinned back.

"My skirt?"

In answer, I knelt and began unwrapping her. As the fabric parted I caught a trace of her scent. A momentary jolt wafted through me as I realized just how excited she must be.

"I am afraid I may have, seeped, a bit," she admitted. Weinotia bit the tip of her forefinger in a gesture that was both overdone and arousing.

"I certainly hope so," I chided. That earned a giggle from her. I looked up, shared her mirth, and let the garment fall. In an instant, her jovial expression morphed into unbridled desire.

"I believe you will be more comfortable lying back for what I next have in mind." To emphasize my point, I dragged a hard tongue along what was indeed a damp crease in her nearly transparent and immodest covering.

Weinotia hissed at the contact, and nodded. "I quite agree." Her eyes altered again. "That 'Lingualing' made my knees weak." She continued to stand so I applied some pressure to guide her to my bed.

"Should you remove my skirt briefs first?"

I looked up at her and shook my head. "Later."

"Swear it?" She sounded supremely innocent.

My reply was to run my tongue along her cleft once more, and whisper, "I swear."

She sat on the edge of the mattress. I knelt between her thighs so we were face-to-face, and cradled her head with my right hand. Then I met her lips with a languid and intimate kiss. She let me guide her further until she lay across the bed. Her feet remained on the floor. Her tunic fell open, revealing her left breast while covering her right. I nibbled and kissed the middle of her chest. As my mouth moved ever closer to her exposed peak, my hand tunneled beneath the fabric and up her body. I became very direct--my lips reached one rosy tip just as my fingers twisted the other.

"Mmm, yesss." Her free hand tangle in my hair as she held me tight to her skin.

I established a rhythm then found something to occupy my idle hand. With teasing caresses I stroked and tickled Weinotia's flat abdomen. She probably would have laughed, but I knew the pulses her nipples sent through her body altered some of the other stimulation. When her body confirmed my guess I cupped her through the thin lace. She was wet and hot in my palm and I altered the pressure subtly and often.

"Oh, Kelline... that has, to be, the best, 'cupping,' I, have, ever, ooohhhh...."

She trembled beneath me. I slowed a fraction and kept her balanced on the edge for a few beats. She growled in frustration.

"Do not 'throttle' me, you wicked, evil man!" While she managed to keep her voice quiet, the urgency was more than plain.

I reached into her briefs and tested her. She instantly drenched my fingers and I stroked the wetness across her swollen tip. She bucked her hips towards the touch and shuddered. She was, indeed, so close. Too close.

I tightened my lips on her, rolled and pulled with my fingers at her breast, and stroked her pouring spring with the flat of my hand. Just for good measure I pressed gently on her bud with my thumb.

Weinotia exploded beneath me. Her body arched with surprising strength. Her blood beat hard and fast, and I felt it as heat that swelled all the sensitive spots that I played and manipulated. He breathing hitched--gone were the gasps as her diaphragm went rigid and her lungs stopped altogether. Honey pulsed from her, ran down my fingers and her body, and into the bedding below.

I knew that in her state it would be a simple matter to keep her on that precipice and leave her exhausted and thoroughly spent. But I wanted to draw out our lovemaking for the entire evening so I backed away early.

As she settled I murmured, "There you are, Dear Lady."

"Mm, hmm..." she sighed. The tone sounded dreamy--and incredibly erotic.

"Here, let me?" I wrested the glasstern from her limp fingers. "Now we should be able to explore its effectiveness without undo haste."

I moved the serpents to her forehead and traced it along her profile. Lower, where her nose rose from her lovely face, down the curve and to her lips. She smiled, eyes still closed, and the tip of her tongue darted out to slip over one serpent's head.

The smooth tip continued down past her stud to her chin and under her jaw, along her throat and between her collar bones. It took a detour between her breasts and performed its own version of 'Valley Stream' before curling in relentlessly towards her nearest nipple. Weinotia whispered, "Yes."

Just before the serpents prodded her with their heads I gave her a salivating lick. The cool glasstern met her heated, slick tip and she shuddered.

"It feels so good, Kelline," her eyes opened and she looked at me for a beat before watching the piece sliding across her skin. "Smooth and cool. Mmm... I like that."

"Cool for now," I whispered.

She caught my meaning and smiled wickedly.

"I have missed you, Kelline."

It was time to continue the serpents' journey, so lower they went. I followed, of course, to make sure they were having the desired effect. Soon we reached our heavenly destination.

They performed the 'Valley Stream' well enough, I thought. Time to see how suited they are to 'Lingualing.'

The serpents dug into her through the soaked fabric of her skirt briefs. Their tiny heads straddled Weinotia's intimate ridge, caressing from bottom to top, and back again. Her thighs vibrated and she groaned. They repeated the technique several times to make sure there was no mistaking their effectiveness. This was, after all, professional inquiry upon professional inquiry--I had to be sure not only of the piece, but of my ability to wield it.

When Weinotia uttered an oath and grabbed my arm, I had my answers.

"Do not stop, ever!"

I stopped.

"Nooo!"

It took an instant to ease her briefs aside and begin that luscious, twisting plunge--

"Ungh. Oh, yesss, yeesssss." Her sigh brimmed with contented relief. "You are forgiven...!"

Now that the serpents wound their way home the lady seemed well pleased. I felt proud, though truth be told in Weinotia's state that same response could have come from a longbean.

Despite that realization I smiled to myself. This is a good day, indeed!

Weinotia placed a hand on my arm and guided my rhythm and placement to eke out the most pleasure. My head rested on her hip and I enjoyed the specter of her. I wondered--briefly--why this one woman had such an effect on me. But then her pelvis jostled and the skin on her thighs grew waves of tiny bumps, and I lost myself in her once more.

My grip released. I felt confident that Weinotia would keep on without my help. Instead, I wanted her skirt briefs off; my longing to view her nudity grew too great to ignore.

As I made to slip her briefs off she positioned the "Serpents" (I had by then begun to think of them as a third partner) so deeply that only the very ends of their tails remained visible. As the sodden material caressed her legs and she moved her hand out of the way, I saw her twitch and the Serpents disappeared into her folds. When their tails reappeared she grasped them once more and resumed her rhythmic task.

I filed thoughts of that talent away for later, dropped the briefs behind me, and lay next to Weinotia.

Her eyes were lidded, and perspiration glistened on her upper lip and forehead. Her lips were parted and her breathing, labored.

"You look so beautiful," I told her.

"As do you," she smiled. "Now will you please put that mouth of yours to use?"

My hand pushed gently at a bit of hair that fell across her eyes and clung to her face. "What would you suggest?" I kissed her eyelids. "That?" I traced the curve of her ear with my tongue as she turned her head and moaned. "This?" I inquired.

"Yes, please," she sighed. Weinotia faced me and opened her eyes. "But more. And all over."

My smile went to her shoulder and found that her heated skin tasted of salt. I kissed and nibbled along her torso while her arm moved with a fluid, steady rhythm. Her flesh went tight beneath my touch. As I moved further I tickled her navel. Weinotia rewarded me with a delightful sound, a mix of a gasp and giggle. My hands caressed her sides, tracing the contours of her ribs or the curve of her waist into her hip. A glance at her chest revealed the aching flush of two exquisite nipples. This woman had me more excited than anyone else had ever managed, and I adored her for it.

By now I had passed her waist and my delight rose. I could hear the glasstern's liquid ebb and flow as Weinotia pleasured herself. Her breath, while maintaining a cadence, grew louder and more determined. The air near her legs had become a heady, intoxicating mix of her perfumes, both adorned and natural. I especially enjoyed her feminine scent--it fogged my mind and I responded with an involuntary twitch against her leg.

"My, good, ness, Kelline, mmm, did, you, find-oohh," she tensed the slightest bit and her thigh applied a touch more pressure to me. In turn, my hips thrust just a little more into her. It all happened in an instant, but without any thought from me. In the fleeting moment I registered that slip of my self-control.

"You, do, like, this, Kel, line, hmm?"

Rather than answer her directly, I swirled my tongue around her soft, fragrant flesh and reveled in the sensation. Her petals felt hot and pliant under my touch, so alive and luscious. The Serpents and I dueled over her body. We had our plans for her, the three of us.

Weinotia's response--sighs, gasps and semi-unbidden hip movements--could not have been more exciting. I found myself using every technique I had ever been taught to outdo my previous efforts. I wanted her to experience the most gratifying lovemaking she had ever sustained, and I desperately wanted it to be with me.

I placed my lips softly over her mons, then drew them together in a suckling kiss, followed by another. Her hips rose and fell with the rhythm of my lips and her own ministrations. I continued, syncing our rhythm and finding the very top of one Weinotia's folds.

"Mmm, I, have, always, ooohhh, yesss, always, appre, ci, ated, a, there--yess, a, soft, 'doming'..."

That is more than enough "work talk," I thought, determined to put at least a temporary end to it. Leaning forward, I domed her glowing pearl. With enthusiasm!

"Oohhh!" she cried. Her hips came off the bedding as her back arched. One of her hands tugged mercilessly on a swollen nipple even as the other wielded the Snakes. My hands darted beneath her and cradled her taut flesh with passionate digs of my fingers. Her shuddering pelvis was firmly imprisoned between my palms and my mouth. There was nothing to be seen of the lump Serpents. Apparently they had become hostages to Weinotia's physical needs, the same needs I did my best to heighten, accentuate, and fulfill.