Karin chuckled. "And you don't seem to be fighting at the moment!"

"Not at all," I said to Karin. "But soon!" I hissed in her direction. She raised her eyebrows innocently, let go of my breast for a second, and waited.

"The reason I'm calling...," Karin continued harmlessly. At the same moment, she took my other nipple in her mouth and began to suck it. I moaned out loud.

Karin asked, "You're doing well, aren't you?" She knew precisely how I was. She was obviously getting heathenish enjoyment out of this.

"You two are just the same," I squeaked between gritted teeth.

Karin chuckled again. "I wanted to ask you if we can meet at the pub this evening." She was clearly repressing a giggle. "You can bring her along. When you're both dressed."

"Karin!"

Karin acted entirely innocent. "Well, you always got undressed for it before. Don't you do that anymore?"

"Stop it!" I said, directed at both of them. Her hand glided between my legs. I couldn't take it anymore. "We'll come to the pub." All I could do was agree. I was completely gone.

"At eight," Karin specified. She laughed. "And have fun in the mean time!" She hung up.

I let the receiver fall and collapsed onto the bed. She pulled her hand away and laughed. She laughed freely and high-spiritedly, as though she'd just learned it was a snow day from school.

"That was mean!" I fumed.

"Yes, that's true." She was still laughing, but she tried to control herself. "But it was so much fun!"

"For you!" I scolded. "For both of you!"

"She noticed?" she asked, smiling to herself.

"Of course!" I snarled. "She knows me well enough from before."

"Oh, yes," she remarked smoothly. "I'm convinced she can interpret all of your noises." She raised her hands in front of her face to protect herself from the pillow I threw at her.

I turned my back to her. I felt her crawling carefully up behind me. She wrapped her arms around me. "Please don't be mad at me," she whispered in my ear. "You looked so seductively busy."

"You've got a thing for that, eh? Driving me insane while I'm talking on the phone." I scolded her like a naughty pet.

"I only just discovered it with you. And you do it really well!" She laughed teasingly.

"And what do I get out of it?" I tried to sound annoyed, but I had really already forgiven her.

She leaned against me. "I hope a lot." If ever a voice could be called seductive, it was hers. Her hands began to wander over my body. A short time later, I had to admit she was right. I seemed to get a lot out of it.

As evening approached, I realized that she still knew nothing of Karin's invitation. And I had simply accepted. Understandable under the circ.u.mstances, but we weren't in Paris anymore. I didn't know if I could convince her to come along.

We were lying together in bed, occupied with nothing other than rest and recuperation. I turned to her and caressed her cheek. She turned her pretty face toward me. I could barely look at her. She knocked me out every time. She smiled. I ran my fingers through her hair.

"You're so beautiful," I remarked for the I-don't-know-how-manyth time since I'd met her.

"That doesn't help, either," she replied. She wasn't exactly sad, just realistic. She laughed. "And it's a fault that age will remove."

I felt my tenderness for her well up inside. "You'll still be beautiful when you're eighty."

She raised her eyebrows. "If I live that long, we can test your prediction," she joked.

I played with her hair some more. "Do you have any plans for this evening?" I asked harmlessly.

She looked at me with astonishment. "What made you think of that?"

"It could happen." I shrugged my shoulders.

"You mean: appointments?" She looked annoyed. Her face closed itself. I always got off on the wrong foot!

"No," I corrected quickly. "I actually hadn't a.s.sumed that. It's about something else." She still looked closed.

I sighed. "Karin asked me earlier if we could meet her down at the pub this evening." The diplomatic route was not in my cards! I would be d.a.m.ned to directness my whole life.

"We?" She'd picked out the deciding factor right away.

"Yes," I replied, as though it were completely self-explanatory. "And I said yes." She started to shake her head. I followed quickly, "You're not exactly innocent in this. At that point in time, I was unable to think at all."

She remembered and had to smile. That was something! "Still..." She was cautious. Her expression became serious again.

Her thoughts were the same as the last time I'd asked her out to dinner; that I could imagine. And they weren't exactly unfounded, as I'd seen for myself. "You won't meet anyone you know at this pub," I explained rea.s.suringly.

"How do you know that for sure?" she countered defensively.

I laughed. "The people there can barely afford their pizza." Dammit, what had I been thinking? Nothing, that was the problem. And the expected reaction came right away.

"You mean the women there can't afford me?" I wasn't about to convince her to go this way!

"Pardon me, please," I pleaded softly. "I wasn't thinking again. I didn't mean it that way."

She wasn't quite ready to be calmed. "You're probably right," she snapped harshly.

I pushed myself closer to her and touched her cheek. She just let it happen. She didn't seem to feel anything at all. "Please. Let's not have this discussion now. I know I made a mistake. But I don't want to ruin the evening that way."

She refused to soften. Her face remained motionless. I just bent over and kissed her softly on the lips, that were so cool and reserved. "Can't you forgive me one more time?" I whispered against her mouth. "I'll behave myself better. I promise."

The corners of her mouth twitched a little. "But only this once." I had her - thank G.o.d!

I hugged her and rolled around the bed with her. Now she lay on top of me. I kneaded her b.u.t.t cheeks. I would have liked most to pull all of her inside me. "Will you come?" I asked casually.

"No."

I squeezed her bottom tighter and pressed her against me. "Really?" I asked again.

"No." She persisted.

I let one leg slide between hers and lifted it gently. At the same time, I pressed her more tightly against me and began to move beneath her.

"You'll regret it," I warned.

"I already do," she said. When I reached a hand between her legs from behind, she moaned. It almost sounded like she was enjoying it against her will.

"Please, say yes," I begged her. "Karin will be very disappointed if you don't come."

"You just want to show me off," she countered laboriously. Her hips had begun to follow my movements.

"Yes, there's some truth to that," I admitted. "I also want to show you off. I don't know a single other woman who can match you."

"In what area?" she asked mistrustfully. Her voice already sounded very forced.

"All of them." I lay still. "I don't want to force you into anything," I explained softly. "I want you to do it willingly."

She lay still as well. Her breathing was still rather heavy. "Willingly," she repeated, as though she had to think about what that word meant. I waited. She changed the word a little. "Of my own free will," she said now. I caressed her back. She relaxed on top of me. "That must be nice," she philosophized, completely absorbed in the thought. "To do something of your own free will."

She almost made me cry with the thoughts she spoke aloud. Finally, she decided. "I think I'll do it. Of my own free will," she continued with special emphasis.

I pulled her head down to me and kissed her. "I'm so glad."

Chapter 26.

Karin came through the saloon doors into the pub. She saw me and came over to our table. Before she even greeted me, she looked my companion over. "So this is she." Karin gave me a reproachful look. "Why have you been hiding her?"

I looked back questioningly. What did she mean? "Venus would die of jealousy," she added. If I hadn't known Karin so well, I would've a.s.sumed she was only flirting. But I knew, if she'd ever meant anything seriously in her life, this was it. "You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." It was a genuine compliment.

I saw a defensive motion next to me. Karin saw it as well and sat down. She reached for the hand that lay next to mine on the table. As she had done back in the bistro, her first reaction was to pull away. Karin wouldn't let her. "No, no," she insisted gently. "We're among family here." She glanced around wildly. "And anyone else can just dare say something against it!" She grew more serious. "I'm glad you're feeling better. After what Aunt Hildegard hinted at - she couldn't tell me any details, of course, because of doctor-patient confidentiality - I was afraid there might be long-term effects." She indicated the small scar on her pretty face, the one that refused to be hidden by her makeup. "Is that all?"

My companion swallowed. "Yes," she said. She let Karin hold her hand now.

"Aunt Hildegard?" I asked, completely shocked. "The doctor is your aunt?"

"Well, sort of; I call her my aunt. We used to live in the same building when I was a kid. She was the loony, the work-a-holic that no one quite knew what to do with. Not married and so forth. She was always too engaged in her profession. For awhile, she treated prost.i.tutes almost exclusively, usually at no cost."

At the word prost.i.tute, she twitched next to me. Then she spat quietly, "That's why you sent her to me."

Karin was wholly unaffected. "No, that's not why. I wouldn't have known of anyone else. Because of Aunt Hildegard, I almost became a doctor myself. But I thought it was impossible to make a living that way, because I had her as a role model." She laughed. "What a mistake!"

Next to me, a beautiful face still stared blankly ahead.

Karin took the hand she'd been holding all along in both hands now. "I know what you are," she said. "And it's completely irrelevant to me. Couldn't you just perhaps forget about it for the evening?" Karin's facial expression changed. "Something else here is much worse," she a.s.serted jokingly.

"What?" I asked, although I already had a good idea what it was.

"You're her girlfriend." She looked at her and pointed her thumb at me. "And that wouldn't be the case if I'd met you first!"

"Karin!" I snapped in warning.

"Keep a close eye on her." Karin's eyes twinkled. "You know I'm not monogamous."

"Only too well," I sighed theatrically.

Karin leaned over and gave me a friendly kiss.

The object of our playful compet.i.tion had backed away from me somewhat and looked back and forth at the two of us as if she were watching a tennis match. "May I have some say in this as well?" she asked, rather indignant.

"No!" we forbade her simultaneously, as though from one mouth.

She blushed slightly, took her hand decisively away from Karin, and stood up. "I'll come back when the duel is over," she told us. "In the meantime, I'm going to powder my nose." She took a few steps, then turned back toward us. "I'll take the winner." She seemed satisfied again, so she granted us a charming smile before going.

"My G.o.d," whistled Karin. "She's a knock-out. How do you stand it?"

"Not at all." I blotted my forehead. I was sure I looked like a wet poodle.

Karin looked at me sympathetically. "Are you two still having the same problems?"

"I don't know." I really couldn't answer that at the moment. "I don't think she's going to go back to work for awhile." At least that's how it had sounded earlier that afternoon.

"For awhile?" Karin raised her eyebrows a little. I liked how the gesture suited her also, but it was something entirely different.

"We haven't discussed it."

"Mm-hmm," Karin resumed. "You don't want to tell me anything about the reasons." She knew me better than I knew myself.

"I can't," I protested. "It's her business."

Karin nodded knowingly. "So you have found out a thing or two."

"I think so," I had to admit. I was surprised myself at the sudden realization. Karin said nothing and just looked at me. "I love her so much!" It broke out of me. With a desperate look in my eyes, I added, "I can't live without her any longer!"

Karin smiled. "I can well understand that." She took my hand. "She's a wonderful woman." She shook her head. "I can hardly believe she..."

"That she's a wh.o.r.e?" I followed bitterly.

"Yes." Karin shook her head. "I've never met a woman who looks less like that than she does."

"That's for sure," I confirmed with a sigh. "But that doesn't change the facts."

"Maybe it does." Karin expressed her doubts in her usual, logical manner. "If her innermost being disagrees so strongly with external things, like her profession, then she'll have to make a choice one day."

There was something to that. "And if not?" This possibility existed too, after all.