TLC Pt. 03

I miss your touch so much. I love you absolutely and, while I can love you at a distance, I also desire you absolutely and need you close in order to be truly happy. Just the pressure of your fingers around mine as we walk to the tube or the softness of your lips as you steal a kiss. Not that you could really steal that which I would so willingly give. Naturally, all the other ways you've found to touch me are at least as pleasurable as these examples, many even more so, but I can't think of a polite way of telling you how much I miss those.

I am doubly blessed. Not only have I finally found you, my Miss Right, but you make me feel that I'm your Mr. Right too. I may be just a loved up fool but at least I'm your loved up fool.

Love always and all ways, my luscious darling. X X X

_____________________________________________________________

He's never managed to say the L word to Sabine. She even teases him about it – the things he doesn't say. Well, there it is in black and white. It's something of a relief to get it out there. Somehow this way is easier than just saying it. When she's around, the sheer physicality of their relationship kind of takes over. Maybe after this letter, it'll be easier to say it face to face. Maybe.

Now, how to get the letter to her? One of the advantages of working for a national newspaper is that Daniel's office is never closed. It's the work of a couple of minutes to call the night desk and order a courier pick-up from Poland Street, overnight to the Holiday Inn, Manchester. He'll have to square it with his boss in the morning and offer to pay for it but odds are he'll get away with it and Sabine will wake up to a surprise package.

He prints off the letter, seals it into a manila envelope – Typed love letter in a brown envelope: some kind of romantic he turned out to be – and waits in his dressing gown for the doorbell.

A brief wait, a dash down the stairs, a signature and the letter is winging its way across Britain while Daniel returns to his bed and, this time, gets straight to sleep.

An empty wine bottle, two empty glasses, two tipsy models, one naked. Yes, naked. Sabine's towel slipped ages ago and she ignored it. She's sat cross legged on the bed laughing as Karen struggles with the middle one of the three zips she can see on her jeans. Karen definitely had the lion's share of the wine and, if her wobbling is any indication, it's gone straight to her legs. Having successfully opened the zip, she falls backward onto her own bed with jeans at half mast, giggling as only a drunk teenager can. A few wriggles and kicks and the jeans are history. When Karen stands up again, Sabine sees the tell tale signs of moisture on her underwear.

"Your panties are wet."

Karen looks down. Yes, it's true.

"That's your fault. Show-off! Now I'm gonna go to the bathroom and have a nice private orgasm."

"I cannot watch you?"

"No!" Karen's refusal doesn't sound too convincing. Sabine persists.

"You are a model. You are supposed to be looked at. Yah?"

"Ok. You can look, but don't touch." Karen peels her panties down her legs, shimmying them the last foot or so and kicking them into Sabine's lap. She strikes the classic pose, one knee slightly ahead of the other, one hip cocked and her chin raised in an expression of haughty indifference. It would have been more impressive if she hadn't burst out laughing.

Karen has pubes but they're very neatly trimmed and her lips show clearly beneath the chestnut brown curls. The sheen of moisture on her more intimate skin is good to see.

Sabine picks up the damp, still warm panties and sniffs them. "It smells as good as it looks." She makes eye contact with Karen while stretching the gusset between her hands. Without taking her eyes off Karen's, she raises the white cotton to her lips and runs her tongue in one long lick over it. "Mmm."

Karen looks a little spooked again but instead of running for the door, she whispers what she really wants. "Lick me, Sabine. Please."

Sabine pats the bed beside her, beckoning Karen over. She tries to kiss her but Karen turns her face away.

"No. Just make me come. I need to come." Karen lies back, easing reluctant thighs apart, waiting.

And that's how she found herself with Sabine's head between her legs instead of the shower head. God it felt good, just as long as she didn't think about who was giving her so much pleasure, just as long as she ignored the fact it was another girl. Alcohol, in the quantities in her bloodstream, made it easy to not think. After a few minutes of delicious oral stimulation, Sabine stopped abruptly.

"You should call Daniel."

"What? Who?"

"Daniel. My boyfriend. You will call him so he can hear you come. Yah?"

"What? No way!"

"So. Then I must stop. I will not cheat on him."

"You can't stop now. Not now! Oh God! This is just too kinky. Gimme the phone then. Just don't stop doing what you're doing."

Sabine hits the button to redial the last number and hands the phone to Karen then dips her tongue back onto another button altogether.

"Hello?" Daniel is woken by the telephone. He answers it while rubbing sleep from his eyes to try and focus on the alarm clock. It's nearly one in the morning.

"Uh, Hi. It's Karen..." She squeals as Sabine finds the sweet spot.

"Karen?" Does he know a Karen?

"Sabine made me call you."

That Karen!

"What's up Karen?" He's waking up very quickly now. Something about this girl's voice – is she upset or what?

"Sabine's tongue is up. She won't let... me come unless... you listen." She's having difficulty speaking with a tongue burrowing into her hole.

"I'm listening." Daniel's cock is starting to pay attention too.

"Are you really as big as she says?...Ooh, you filthy bitch! That's my bum! She just licked my bum!"

"She does that. Relax and enjoy it. How big did Sabine say I am?"

"She said...ooh, just there. Oh yes!...She said it reaches her belly button."

"Easily. It's really hard now too."

"Are you wanking it?"

"My girlfriend's licking your pussy. Of course I'm fuckin' wanking."

"Are you near?"

"No. Are you?"

"Yes...Ooh, oh God..."

The squeals of delight Daniel can here are probably Karen's climax. The phone seems to have been dropped. Eventually, when the squealing has stopped, someone picks it up.

"Sweet dreams Liebling. Ksse." Sabine hangs up on him.

Fuck!

Daniel lay in the dark, pumping his hard-on and reliving the last few minutes. Was Sabine going to bring another girl home to play? God he hoped so. Fantasies about sharing Karen with Sabine got him off in next to no time. The fact his girlfriend had only been gone a day and was sleeping with another girl already didn't bother him. She'd shared like a good girl should and that made it cool in his book.

He slept really well and woke up with wood you could have stood a batsman in front of.

Despite clearly enjoying her first girl on girl orgasm, Karen resisted any other physical intimacy with Sabine. She didn't want to cuddle, kiss or share a bed. Sabine gave her space. They had the room for another night. Perhaps by then Karen would have loosened up a bit. For now it was enough that she'd managed to give Daniel such a sexy surprise. Sweet dreams accompanied peaceful sleep too quickly ended by their alarm call.

In the depths of a sack, in the echoing darkness of an articulated lorry, surrounded by many who travel with secret, urgent and serious purpose to destinations diverse, Daniel's letter races through the small hours bearing what he does not say to one he cannot be with.

Chapter 12 – Heart to hearts.

Karen and Sabine don't discuss the antics of the night before. There's a palpable tension between them. Sabine ignores it. She understands Karen is in uncharted territory. It takes time to adjust one's point of view. They meet up with the others in the foyer, breakfast on coffee and cigarettes and leave the hotel, passing a courier in the revolving door.

Sabine's day is possibly even more tedious than yesterday was. She really doesn't like the photographer. Its no fun having a man she dislikes pointing a camera at her underwear all day. The Afternoon is a little better, nightwear being less revealing. They finish work at 6PM with only the swimwear to do in the morning. Sabine skips dinner with the girls and goes straight back to the hotel.

Karen does go with the crowd. She's not at all sure she wants to be alone with Sabine. Parts of last night had been great. There was no denying that. And she's caught herself looking at Sabine's body in the changing room several times. But being taken advantage of – that's the little lie she's currently telling herself – being taken advantage of, after too much wine, was one thing. Going back to the room now would be inviting more of the same. She hadn't really done anything anyway. That was another straw to clutch at – passivity. It had just happened.

But in wine is truth. Last night the truth was she'd asked Sabine to go down on her. Tonight's truth, after a couple of glasses, was she may not be ready to go further but she really wanted to stay where she'd got to awhile longer.

Daniel arrives in Southside just as Sabine is arriving in the hotel. He's sitting at the bar with his first beer of the evening, contemplating what he fancies for dinner tonight while Sabine carefully tears open the envelope the receptionist has just handed her.

He's reading the specials board while she's reading the letter. He's just decided on Penne al pesto with shredded chicken when his phone buzzes in his pocket.

"Hi Liebchen. How was your day? Boring again."

" Ich liebe dich." Sabine's voice is thick with emotion.

"I know you love dick."

"Nein! Ich liebe dich. I love you!"

"I bet you say that to all the boys. You got my letter then?"

"Yah. I have your letter. It is beautiful. I knew these things you would not say. But still you will not say the words I think?"

"Which words do you want me to say?"

"You just tease me."

"But you just told me you already know. If you know, I don't need to say anything, do I?"

"You are crazy. You feel this, you write this but you will not say this. So. I think you are still too shy." Sabine makes a pitiful attempt at reverse psychology.

"Too shy to say I love you?" Being obtuse has only so much mileage in it.

"Yah!...Hey!...Niemand auf der ganzen Welt...You try to drive me crazy. Yah?"

"All I said is I love you."

"Say it again."

"I love you." Daniel hears her sniffling. Women!

"Where are you now?"

"Southside. I was about to have dinner. If you need a witness later, Gail's heard the whole conversation." Gail hasn't even made pretence of trying to ignore them. She's leaning on the bar in front of him, hanging on every word.

"Has she shown you her tattoo?" Sabine still sounds a little sniffly but her voice is steady.

"No. Hang on. Gail, Sabine says I should see your tattoo."

Gail stands up straight, grinning at him as she pulls the elastic waistband of her trousers down her right hip. There, just below her bikini line is a little red devil, complete with pitchfork strategically aimed at a tuft of flame coloured curls.

"I thought the red hair was fake." Daniel says.

"It is." Gail releases the elastic, freeing Daniel's eyes to return to their normal, horizontal setting. "The little guy's called 'Hot Stuff'"

"Sabine you should be proud of me. I'm not blushing." There was a time, not so long ago when he would have lost the power of speech in this situation.

"I have always been proud of you, my heroic boyfriend. You are very hungry. Yah?"

"Not really. Why?"

"We should be alone together to 'make love and babies'. Yah?"

"Fifteen minutes. I'll call you back. Kisses." Daniel hangs up, pays for his beer and leaves in so precipitous a fashion one might think he's on a promise.

Gail laughed at Daniel's unseemly hasty exit. Sabine may have made a man of him but she still wore the trousers.

Karen was drinking white wine with Sabine's co-workers, Jules and Teresia. They hadn't been surprised when Sabine didn't come out after work. They knew both her and Daniel from way back when they could make him change colour just by brushing against him when the bar was crowded. With a little gentle goading, Jules was prevailed upon to fill Karen in on all the gossip.

"Sounds like he was in the wrong bar if he was so shy around pretty girls." Karen observed.

"Oh, Ernesto employs pretty boys too, to keep the office girl posses coming back. When Sabine started work there, Dan stuttered, stammered, blushed and hesitated for days until he finally found the balls to suggest they go for a coffee."

"Coffee?"

"Yeah. Daylight dating. Sweet isn't it." Jules drips sarcasm.

"So how long did that go on for?"

"Until he got his face in the papers."

"Go on."

"Well, he got his hands burned saving some young copper in that riot in Brixton a few months back. Had –" Jules is interrupted by Karen.

"That was Sabine's boyfriend? I read all about that. He deserved a medal. Sorry. You were saying?"

"His hands were bandaged up for weeks."

"Eight weeks." Teresia offers.

"Thanks T. Eight weeks in bandages. The first night he showed up, Sabine had to hold his glass for him to drink from. By the end of the night, she was going home with him having appointed herself as his personal nursemaid."

"No!"

"Yes. The next morning, she told all us girls his big secret. And believe me Honey, I mean big!"

"Yeah. Sabine told me too. Last night." Karen repeated the hand gestures Sabine had used to demonstrate what big meant in her book. "D'you think she's exaggerating?"

"No Honey. Some days she comes to work, she can hardly stand straight."

"Most days." Amends Teresia.

"She's getting regular servicing all right. Lucky bitch." Jules sums it up.

There's brief laughter all around the table. Even the girls who don't know Sabine at all have got interested in the story and put their own conversations aside to listen.

"He didn't sound shy on the phone last night." Karen offers. Realizing that she doesn't want to explain why she was talking to him, she quickly adds a little fib to cover her own ass. "He called her. Sabine asked me to keep him company while she nipped to the loo."

Teresia and Jules share a quizzical look.

"What?" Karen, freshly full of guilty feelings, gets a little paranoid.

"It's just – They always used go to the bathroom together." T says.

"Dan's hands were wrapped up. Sabine had to do everything for him." Jules paints a clearer picture. "Honey. A couple of weeks before the bandages came off, some of us went clubbing. Dan needed the men's room so Sabine, without so much as a by your leave, leads him straight in there, stands him by a urinal, pulls his dick out and points it in the right direction so he doesn't piss on his shoes. There were at least a half a dozen other men in there but I guess she didn't notice."

"And that's why he's not shy any more?" Karen doesn't want to linger anywhere near the subject of her conversation with Daniel.

"Well its certainly part of the reason but Sabine had him house trained in their first week. Maybe she gave him a self-confidence transfusion. She certainly has plenty to spare."

"She does seem very confident about herself." Karen agrees, remembering the sight of Sabine finger fucking herself in front of a comparative stranger. The recollection stirs something deep inside her that she backs away from.

"Pushy is the word you're looking for." Jules smiles at Karen. She's not being nasty really. "When they first hooked up, a couple of days after Sabine started looking after him, someone suggested it was like feeding Christians to lions. Some of us thought Dan might be a born again Christian as he was so shy about contact with girls but definitely wasn't gay. He never seemed bothered by Ernesto's pretty boys, and he did like to watch girls. Hell, he couldn't take his eyes off Sabine when she first arrived. So, yeah, feeding Christians to lions. Ernesto reminded us that Daniel survived being thrown into the lion's den. Well our Daniel has certainly survived."

Karen glances at her watch. It's gone ten o'clock. "So d'you think they've had enough time to chat? Only, if I stay here, I'll drink more and if I drink more I'll be hung over tomorrow."

"There's a way to find out." Teresia takes out her mobile phone and calls Sabine. It's engaged. "Sorry Karen, she's still on the phone. I guess you're stuck with us after all." T dials a second number.

"Who you calling now?" Jules asks

"Gail. She's covering Sabine's shifts...Hi Ernie, its T. Is Gail busy? I need a word...Thanks...Hi Gail. Has Sabine's pet been in tonight?...yes?...Oh wow! This is news! Go on... You didn't show him? Oh you tart...Yeah, right...And that was about when? Thanks girl friend. Later."

"So?"

"So Dan was in about six. Got a call from Sabine and was last seen running for a taxi at six thirty."

"And?"

"And Gail flashed him."

"Not that bloody tattoo again?"

"Yeah."

"I've told her she should post a picture of it on the internet. Then the whole world can see her minge at once, instead of one at a time." Jules is bitchy.

Teresia explains to everyone else. "This girl we work with - Gail - got an intimate tattoo a few weeks ago and has been showing anyone who'll look ever since."

"So he went home at half six and her phone's still engaged? That's over three hours. What the fuck are they talking about for three hours? They haven't been apart long enough to have that much news."

Karen has a good idea what might take them three hours but she can't own up to knowing that.

Teresia still has more gossip. "He said the magic words too. With Gail right there as a witness."

"The magic words?" Karen's lost.

"'I love you' the three magic words to improve a guy's sex life. Is this a first?" Jules asks T.

"Gail said it sounded like the first time. He said something about a letter too. Dunno what that's about."

"That's it then." Jules looks Karen right in the eye. "Karen, your mission, should you wish to accept it is to go to your hotel, interrupt whatever's going on – three hours is long enough to respect anyone's privacy – and find out about this letter. Report back tomorrow at 8AM for breakfast and debriefing."

"I can't spy on my roommate. You're her friends. Surely she'll talk to you anyway?"

"You're right. All three of us'll go. Drink up." Jules quaffs the last of her wine, gesturing for T and Karen to follow suit.

The three of them left the bar shortly thereafter, heading for the Holiday Inn in search of gossip, an early night and gossip in alphabetical order.

"Hi Liebchen. I love you. Bored of hearing it yet?"

"Ich liebe dich."

"You've gotta stop saying that in German. Its such an obvious double entendre that its hard not to laugh and you're being serious so I really shouldn't laugh at you."

"You can laugh at me. I think it is ok to laugh at someone you love. Yah?"

"Ok Liebchen. I'll laugh at you, love you, be excited, delighted, amused, confused and used by you even though I know that you're only with me because you're saving so much money on rent and tube fares."

"This is not the only reason. Du bist auch gut bestckt sein alles."

"Du bist ..."

"Du...bist...auch...gut...bestckt...sein...alles. You are also hung like a horse."

"You... If that's all that matters to you, just wait until you get back. I'm gonna pound you with it until your pelvis breaks."

"You promise this. Yah?" Sabine is laughing at him.

"Yes, yes, yes. I promise. As hard as you like, as often as you like." He's laughing too.

"Ich liebe dich."

"I love you too. I wrote you a poem."

"I did not know you made poems."

"Not for many years, since I was a teenager, full of hormones and ideals."