Chapter the Twelfth: Past.

The night's sleep alone and I awoke to a house that seemed empty. Well, of course it was empty but you know what I mean. I pottered around getting my stuff ready for the next day, my first day back in the office for weeks. It was a little after six when the phone rang.

"Hi Danny, it's me - Sara!"

So much for the original idea of a restful evening. She had to see me, there was a certain something that she wanted to show me...

I couldn't guess what it might be (ha!).

Sara still couldn't be persuaded to come to my house and, after the promise of a good meal, I agreed to drive over to her apartment to see her. She firmly told me that I had time to shower and change into something "neat and tidy." This was a formal dinner invitation so I did as I was told and drove over to the address she'd given me.

The condominium she lived in was a good mixture of functionality and elegance, the front security concierge was efficient and earnest in his responsibility and so I waited at the electronic doors in the marble and gold reception area for Sara to buzz me in.

She met me at the door to her apartment in an outfit that looked like she'd spent the entire day getting herself ready to wear. Every inch of her skin shone like alabaster and her makeup was an object lesson in understated elegance. She wore a black crushed velvet cocktail dress that drew out the shine in her hair, which cascaded over her bare shoulders and graced her back almost to her waist.

Her eyes sparkled with welcome and she pulled me into an instant embrace.

"I've missed you so much! I didn't think you were going to call me so I had to ring you."

I defended by reminding her it had been only a few days.

"Well, you're here now and I hope you're hungry. I spent quite some time on our dinner."

"If it's as tasty as you look, I'm in for a treat," I joked. She told me that I should just wait and see. My apologies for my comparitively casual appearance, were dismissed with a wave. She told me, with a coy smile that I shouldn't worry about what I was wearing. Her apartment was a warm, wide expanse of creams and gold. The furniture was soft and well matched and there was a wall full of books.

"It's lovely to have you here, I've only been in this place for a couple of months and I've been wanting to share it with someone." She brought me a G&T at my choice and sat down on the sofa next to me, lifting her silky knee as she twisted to look at me. I complemented her on the gorgeous place. How it was a good match for her beauty.

She blushed perfectly. "I can only just about afford this place but I finally decided it was time to get out of those grotty nurses' quarters at the hospital." She went on to explain how she'd just been recently promoted to her senior position. "More responsibility and little more money... There's not a lot of other stuff for me to spend my time or money on so I set myself up here."

We clinked glasses and drank to ourselves. There was a soft Irish-sounding melody coming from her stereo and she bade me relax as she went to prepare the meal. I sat idly for a few minutes and then went to see if I could help in the kitchen. Soon we had the table laid and I helped her place the accoutrements.

The food was excellent, her main piece was a light dish of fragrant steamed vegetables and delicately cooked fish. We joked through the courses and I learned that she was originally from Ireland and had come here to live about a decade or so before. Her parents had both died before she'd left school and she'd put herself through college and training. There had been a couple or three reasonably long-term relationships but she'd always hoped they'd be more than they actually turned out to be. After a while, it had been easier to just settle into an expectation of long term spinsterhood.

Somehow, I told her, I couldn't imagine her as a spinster.

She'd kept herself fit both physically and mentally. There were several certificates hanging in frames around the dining room that attested to her profession and also several that were for achievements in fields as diverse as Music and Dance and Literature.

"Daddy always wanted me to excel in whatever I did, he was from a country farming family and spent his whole life making sure he knew about the way the world works. I got my fascination for that sort of stuff from him."

It was a real treat to sit through a delicious meal and enjoy conversation with such a witty and pretty partner. I said as much to her and she smiled, toasting us both with the last of her glass of wine. After coffee, we adjourned to the sofa and continued our exploration of each other's stories over a couple of glasses of the brandy I brought along.

"Now you." She indicated that I should tell me about myself. I told her how much less of a renaissance man I was than her. I'd just been lucky in choosing my career path. I hadn't had to study much and the computer field was wide enough that being a 'techie' really amounted to being able to follow logic and dealing with people. There was the fascination with my Aikido training, my family and then the idea that there was not a lot of time for much else. Sara told me off for being unnecessarily modest. She grilled me for details about the work I did and was determined to know about Maggie and the kids. She felt it was important to understand all of me. I told her I still felt kind of guilty about the cheating part, I'd done it a couple of times in the past but lately I was more inclined to stray; especially with her.

"I'm not going to beat myself up about the morals of what I'm doing with you but I think I do need to understand you" She said, suddenly quiet and serious.

I told her about Maggie and I, as youngsters, getting married to move her out of the oppressive household she lived in. Of the years that had been spent trying to learn to live together before I realised that the hopes I had had for a partner did not really match the actuality. Maggie's original shyness had translated into a deep distaste at anything I considered adventurous and she considered kinky. Two beautiful girls and success in my business hadn't gained me any great companionship with my partner. Sex was a rare occurrence and even after all these years, I was still unable to tell if she gained any great pleasure from it.

"Oral sex with Maggie means just talking about it" I said ruefully and we both smiled.

Sara wouldn't believe that I was telling her the truth, "I felt like my pussy was part of you. I don't think I ever came so much or so hard as I did with you.

It just sounds to me like you must be misunderstanding what she wants. There's no way she could fail to enjoy what you can do to her!."

"Maybe, but sometimes I'm convinced she was really more keen on a morning cup of tea than messing about with me. It's no great fun to feel like you're being simply tolerated most of the time."

"Well I'll tell you what, let me show you the rest of my place, and I'll try to show you how tolerant I can be!" She pulled me to my feet and proceeded to show me around the rooms, I carried our glasses and she brought the brandy bottle.

She was very proud of how she'd decorated every part of her home and I complemented her on her style.

The bedroom was large and airy with a sumptuously draped bed that occupied the centre of the space. Standard lamps were placed against the walls to provide a golden uplight and the curtains along the whole windowed wall left the impression of an oriental boudoir. Sara obviously had a taste for the exotic.

The en-suite was warm and large. A corner whirlpool bath sat waiting for us; full of fragrantly oiled water with a few candles placed around the edge.

"And there was I thinking this was an impromptu invitation!" I laughed.

"Oh yeah, sure, a whole day of getting this place ready for you and you imply it was thrown together at the last minute!"

Sara took a sip of her brandy and turned to face me, putting her arm around my neck and pulling us together. She pressed her lips to mine and I felt the sting of the alcohol as she squirted it into my mouth. We swapped tongues for several minutes as the numbing effects of the brandy changed into its warming sweetness.

Finally we parted and she looked radiant.

"Lets agree to something" She rested the end of her nose against mine. "Let's agree that you stop worrying about what your wife might not like." She kissed my top lip, "and I agree to let you fuck me to as many orgasms as I can manage.

Deal?"

I cupped her ass in my hands and kissed her, the dirty way she'd breathed the word 'fuck' caused my throat to constrict. I nuzzled her ear and growled,

"Sounds like a deal to me!" I held her away for a second and decided to tell her.

"Sara" I began, looking her in the eyes "I want you to see something important."

She laughed and said she could see all the important stuff already.

"No, there's more." I decided that I should be more honest with this woman and took her by the shoulders.

She looked puzzled and I went on, a little demonstration was in order...

"Watch the candles..." I said and waved my finger

"What are you going to try to do? hypnotise me?" she joked.

"No need, just watch." She looked sideways at me and then looked at the flames.

I sent out a couple of pulses that extinguished the three candles at the back of the bath. Then another couple that re-lit those and extinguished the front rank.

Sara gasped and stood rigid.

"Wha... ? "

I didn't look at her. Watching the candles flash on and off, I spoke;

"Something happened to me at that crash. Since then I've been able to do things that are like a kind of magic. Lots of things. I can control objects and I can make people feel things too."

She looked me in the eyes, her own eyes showing concern... searching. "So you decided to; to give me this;" she placed her hand on her temple "this wonderful experience, because you have some sort of power?" She looked heartbroken the beauty of the whole evening shrank away as her eyes began to brim, "and not because you love me?"

I grabbed at her elbows holding her still.

"No, you misunderstand me Sara. I did this with you because I wanted you to enjoy me. I did it because I wanted to be able to make you feel as great as you make me feel." I looked into her eyes, "and I did make you feel good, didn't I?"

"Yes," she said guardedly, "but I felt so much love for you, and you seem to be saying that you felt nothing like that for me."

I shook my head and maybe even shook her slightly, "that's not true at all. At first, I admit, there was a really strong physical attraction. But you are so much the woman I always wanted to find that I haven't wanted, or needed, to place any commands on you since almost the very start!"

"How can I know that?" She asked softly "You haven't known me long enough for anything you feel to be real. I certainly can't tell if you are commanding me or not."

"No, that's not it at all. What you don't realise is that, when I concentrate, I can see you. I know every lovely thing about you." I brushed a strand of her hair back off her cheek and smoothed it behind her ear. "And I've fallen so very much in love with you that I can't imagine not being in love with you. I might have the power to command people, and things, it's something that I have been given and I have to use it but you have a much more powerful control over me."

Her eyes still held a look, maybe of disbelief but I could see in them, the possibility of a hope that I was still truthful.

"If you don't believe that I am not in control of you at the moment, I can show you what a command feels like..." I whispered. She looked a bit apprehensive and I let go an impulse that laid my fingers along the insides of her legs from the ankles to her crotch.

Sara gasped again and jerked involuntarily. "Oh Jesus! That's unreal!"

I thought she was going to lose it but she stood there and looked at me closely.

I continued to hold her, "Sara, I've turned you on with my mind touches, but it's been me who wants you so much."

Sara closed her eyes. "In Dublin, I went to a Catholic school. The nuns there, put the fear of God in us. This magic is exactly what they told us was supposed to be the devil's work... But for the life of me I can't think of you as somehow being evil. I haven't felt this happy in my entire life." She blinked her eyes open and went on. "If you have put a spell on me, I guess I wouldn't know. At the moment I can't imagine anything better than letting you do what you do with me best. I want you to make love to me like you did before, I want you to do everything... anything you want to me. I want you to take care of me"

She jumped as I made the candles pop with miniature fireworks that flashed brilliant butterflies of blue, green and red around us, and then giggled with the spectacle

"It's really quite neat isn't it? Just what sort of things can you do?"

I told her to stand still and I'd show her.