Chapter 40

Downstairs, we sat in the living room with Kostas and Maria when Annie nudged me and inclined her head towards him.

I nodded acknowledgement and turned to him.

“Kostas, can I ask you something?”

“Of course, David what is it?”

“I think, after all that’s happened in my life in this last year and a half, I may be in need of some sort of counselling.”

“I don’t think that at all, David,” he replied, eliciting a look of puzzlement from me, “I think that’s a given. I’m amazed that you’re still able to stand upright with all the strain you’re under. Would you like me to recommend someone?”

“Well, I thought that, with me only having a few more weeks here, it might not be worth starting and then having to break off and find someone else in the UK,” I said, “I was wondering if you would do it for a few weeks just until I leave. Not necessarily therapy, but just someone to talk to, one on one about how I’m doing, what’s troubling me, that sort of thing.”

“As a doctor, because of our relationship, it would probably be a breach of ethics,” he said, then noticed my look of disappointment, “but, as a friend, how about we go out for a meal a couple of times a week and we can discuss anything that’s bothering you?”

I smiled at him.

“Thanks,” I said, “that would be great.”

“It may be a bit difficult to arrange it regularly, so how about we just talk whenever we can. You tell me how you’re feeling about things and we’ll talk about how it affects you and maybe guide you along some paths that might help?”

“That would be terrific,” I said, “thank you, Kostas.”

“No need,” he said, “even if I didn’t want to help you as much as I can, Maria would castrate me if I said no.”

“No I wouldn’t,” she said, “I’d cut off something I didn’t have a use for.”

We all laughed, which relieved some of the tension I was feeling. We talked about ‘normal’ things after that. Annie shared some stories about growing up in Germany and I threw in some of the things I’d done on my way through the English education system. We ate cold cuts and Salad, because of the unusually hot day and around ten Annie left, after I arranged that we’d go out for dinner the following night.

“I’m surprised she didn’t stay the night,” Maria said as I walked back in after seeing her to her car.

“I don’t think that would be right,” I said.

“Why not?” Maria asked, “She’s interested, you’re interested. You’re not going to fall in love with each other, you’re just two people indulging in a little light exercise.”

“It’s just too soon,” I said.

“When won’t it be David?” she asked, “Look, you’re not going to upset me if Annie stays over, she’s a lovely girl and she obviously likes you. She’s trying to take care of you. It was her who pushed you into asking Kostas tonight, wasn’t it?”

I nodded in affirmation.

“She goes home to Germany on Sunday, right?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Then invite her to stay over for a couple of nights before then,” she said.

“Are you sure?”

“I’ll make the invitation myself if you don’t,” she said.

“All right,” I said, “but I’m not making any promises beyond asking her.”

“Believe me David, you won’t have to,” she said.

“Then I’ll ask,” I said.

Fortunately, the next day at the studio was a short one and I was home by six. After I said hello to Maria I was straight upstairs and in the shower.

I heard the door buzzer while I was washing my hair. Finished rinsing off and walked out into my bedroom, towelling my hair dry.

“Very nice,” a lightly accented feminine voice said, “but I’ve always liked my presents gift-wrapped.”

“Annie,” I said, blushing furiously, “I, I, I.”

“You thought you’d dress up to welcome me?” she teased.

“I just wasn’t expecting to see you up here,” I managed to get out.

She raked her eyes up and down my body, finally focusing on my groin.

“Yes,” she said, “I can see that.”

She crooked a finger and beckoned me towards her. Wondering what exactly she had in mind I walked across the room and stopped about two feet from her.

“Closer,” she said quietly.

I took a half step further and, suddenly, I was caught in a warm moist place and parts of me were showing more than a passing interest.

She suckled on me, swirling her tongue around me end and softly massaging my scrotum for about half a minute then disengaged her mouth with a soft wet plop.

“That’s better,” she said, looking at the results of her handiwork, “but now, I feel overdressed.”

I took a step back, held my hands out to her and, when she took them in hers, pulled her to her feet.

She was wearing a pale, yellow cotton print dress, from the way her nipples were poking out in front, without a bra.

I bent slightly, took the hem of the dress in my hands and started to lift it over her head. I had the dress up to about the level of the underside of her breasts when I was suddenly aware that a bra was not the only item of underwear she wasn’t wearing.

When I gave her my quizzical look she gestured with a jerk of her head to the floor at the side of the bed.

“The first time I saw you I wondered what my underwear would look like on your bedroom carpet,” she said.

The pair that were there were almost the identical shade as the burgundy carpet.

“Now I know.”

She took my hand and I led her to the bed, pulled back the duvet and she lowered herself onto it.

I looked down at her naked body, taking in the blonde hair, bright blue eyes and began reciting one of my favourite poems, saying a silent thank you to my English teacher, Mr Tomlinson for introducing it to me.

“Had we but world enough and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk and pass our long love’s day.

Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side

Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the flood,

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.

My vegetable love should grow

Vaster than empires and more slow.

An hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;

Two hundred to adore each breast,

But thirty thousand to the rest;

An age at least to every part,

And the last age should show your heart.

For, lady, you deserve this state,

Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear

Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.

Thy beauty shall no more be found;

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound

My echoing song; then worms shall try

That long-preserved virginity,

And your quaint honour turn to dust,

And into ashes all my lust;

The grave’s a fine and private place,

But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on thy skin like morning dew,

And while thy willing soul transpires

At every pore with instant fires,

Now let us sport us while we may,

And now, like amorous birds of prey,

Rather at once our time devour

Than languish in his slow-chapped power.

Let us roll all our strength and all

Our sweetness up into one ball,

And tear our pleasures with rough strife

Through the iron gates of life:

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.”

“What is that?” she asked.

“To his coy mistress, by Andrew Marvell,” I explained.

“It is beautiful and a little bit sexy I think,” she said, “is that what I am now, your coy mistress? And what is this word, coy?”

I thought for a moment.

“Schüchtern,” I replied.

“You think I am shy, lying here naked, open to you?”

“No,” I said, “anything but.”

“So do you see anything that you fancy?”

I looked.

“All of it,” I said.

“Well, we only have until Saturday evening, so we’d better get busy.”

“Saturday evening?”

“I brought enough clothes until then,” she said, her English grammar slipping slightly, “but I have to be back at Oma’s on Saturday evening to pack for my trip home. Until then this.”

She indicated her body with her hands.

“This is all yours and I hope that,” she indicated my painfully erect tool, “will be all mine.”

“For as long as it lasts,” I said.

“Good, neither of us is expecting anything forever,” she said, “so let’s enjoy what time we have while we have it.”

“Then what do you suggest we do for enjoyment?” I asked.

“Well I think I remember that I was giving you a blowjob,” she said, “and if you feel like reciprocating I’d be obliged.”

“Ah,” I said, “Neun-und-Sechtsig.”

We spent the next ten minutes or so exploring one another’s nether regions with our tongues and lips. A pastime that resulted in three orgasms, Annie got two of them, and a bit of a shock when I kissed her deeply immediately after mine.

“Nobody ever did that before,” she said.

“Well I think if I can expect you to take my spend in your mouth and swallow it, the least I can do is kiss you afterwards, and it’s not like it tasted bad or anything.”

“You are an unusual young man,” she said, “but in a good way.”

“And you are a very beautiful young woman, and that is most definitely in a good way.

We continued kissing for a couple of minutes and then I slowly began to kiss my way down her body, starting just below her left ear, which for some reason made her shudder, then working down via her jawline and throat until eventually my lips closed around her right nipple.

I heard her sharp intake of breath as I sucked the hard little nubbin in and began to massage it with my tongue.

She moaned deeply as I disengaged and switched to the other breast.

“Finger me,” she whispered.

I inserted the middle finger of my right hand into her vagina, crooked it and found the little rough patch at the top. That elicited a squirm and a small squeal.

After a couple of minutes of that the squeal became a scream as her muscles contracted and I found it impossible to remove my finger until she subsided.

“Lieber Gott,” she breathed once she was compos mentis enough to talk, “where did you learn to do that. Please, David, I want you inside me. Fuck me please. Take me, hard and fast.”

What was I to do, can’t refuse a reasonable request from a lady.

Afterwards, we lay cuddled together in the aftermath, breathing heavily as we recovered.

“Now I’m sorry I have to leave on the weekend.”

“But at least you don’t have to leave until the weekend.”

“No, I can take you to work in the mornings and pick you up in the evenings and we can spend all our time in between in bed, making love.”

“We do need to eat,” I said.

“Okay, we’ll have meal breaks too.”

I laughed.

For the rest of the week we spent every moment that I wasn’t working together, whether awake or asleep. We ate breakfast together and she took me into the studio, she was there waiting for me when I finished. We ate at home, we ate out, we went dancing and ice skating, we acted like two young people in love, both of us deliberately ignoring the fact that in a few days we would be parting.