Clearly Paul had expected this, for he had held on to me and caught me before I fell. I tried again, and this time it worked, I moved!
Ahead was easy, it went quite fast. I tried the brake about halfway, and it worked, I went slower but didn't fall. Now I had reached the end of the street and tried to turn, fortunately the street was quite broad, and I managed to turn the thing without falling. Back I went nice and fast, but then I saw Paul standing in front of the house already and I had to brake until I stopped.
I used the one pedal to brake, and tried to set my foot on the ground but that was not easy. I nearly fell, but Paul caught me, and I managed on the second try. I wanted to go again, and this time it went fabulously, the corner went better, and I tried making corners on the long stretch, which made it easier quickly. This was fun!
Now, Paul took his own bicycle, and we decided to go for a tiny tour, with as few corners and traffic as could be managed. There was not much traffic in our neighbourhood, and the roads were reasonable, of course they would be in summer. So I managed pretty well, and soon we were riding pretty fast.
This was a great improvement on walking, as long as the roads were smooth, it would get me to work in an instant. Though some folks would find it indecent, I couldn't care less. I didn't like horses, and this was a way to move fast without trusting one's life to such a big, strong animal.
I did soon tire from the unfamiliar movement, so we soon turned and went back. We didn't talk much, I wanted to concentrate on the road and on traffic, but I think Paul could see me enjoy myself.
Soon we were back in front of the house, and I managed to stop and put my foot on the ground elegantly. I got off as well, and together we pushed the
bicycles back into the shed, locked both doors behind us, and went in through the workshop.
I was flushed by the exercise and the excitement, and Paul said: 'I suppose you had a good time, you look like you did.' I replied: 'It was fabulous!
Remember, I'm a city girl, I've never learned to ride a horse, and this goes pretty fast without having to trust such a large beast.
I would never have thought that possible, I can see you made them yourself, but where did you get the idea? ' He really liked to see me this enthusiastic, I could tell, and he said: 'I saw it demonstrated once, and I memorised how it was made, and decided to build one. Don't know why I built the second one, perhaps because it is more fun to do it together.'
Was there something he couldn't make with his hands? Suddenly I remembered the necklace, and I told him: 'I have another set of compliments for you, let's sit down a few moments and I'll tell you.' There was only one chair in the workshop, and he took it and offered me his lap.
So I sat on his knees as I sat on the bike, very indecently, and I before I told him anything I first put my hands in his hair and kissed him lovingly. I think that turned him on, for he got really flushed suddenly, which was what I intended of course.
Then I started the story of the little horses on my work site, with my hands on his bare chest beneath his shirt, and my legs spread over his crotch.
I told him: 'I decided to wear your necklace to work this morning, and every man I met asked me if
I knew those horses really seemed to move. Then they told me the copper colour matched my hair perfectly, and that silver or gold would not be too precious to use for such excellent artistry.
Only the contractor of the frame thought that making it out of copper was a good investment of your craftsmanship, the rest clearly thought it a waste of your effort, and he was the only one to know straight away the maker was a crafts master rather than a famous artist.
He is coming over to check out your 'serious' work, it might get you a few commissions. With Lukas here, you can get a lot more work done. Are you planning to make more jewellery? Everyone thought you should.'
Paul was clearly tickled by these compliments, but my ministrations were also distracting him a lot. He kissed me, and let his hands disappear under my blouse, stroking my breasts softly. He said: 'And these were the same men
you work with every day?' 'Yes, imagine them suddenly giving me compliments, just because of your necklace, ' I said.
'If they had any idea what you really look like, they wouldn't have been able to work at all with you on the site, ' he said. I laughed and agreed: 'I know, that is why I hide myself so well. At least you loved me for my mind first, and discovered my body only later.'
He wrapped me in his arms, held me tightly, and feelingly said: 'When I saw how beautiful you really are, I wanted to run and hide. How could a goddess ever love an ordinary guy like me?' I retorted: 'Yes, such an ordinary guy, makes jewellery that people mistake for priceless art, builds bicycles from memory, and has enough magic power to light a city.'
He ignored my teasing and asked huskily: 'May I take you to my bedroom and let the goddess out?' I replied, hopefully just as huskily: 'I thought you'd never ask.'
We practically ran up the stairs and stormed into the bedroom, but when we were there he stopped in his tracks and held me close. Then he stroked my hair and slowly started removing pin after pin until it revealed itself in all its copper coloured splendour
Now he wanted to brush it, and as I did have a brush in his bedroom, he caressed my head and hair with it until my scalp tingled and my hair outshone newly minted copper. Then he ran his hands through it, kissing me with increasing fervour, until he slowed down again and started on my blouse.
I buttoned his down as he did mine, and as one, we opened the other's blouse and touched what lay hid inside. I felt him shiver with passion, and felt truly awed that this talented man, with so many gifts and such incredible power, would think of me as a goddess. I pressed myself against him, wanting to smell him, to taste him.
He was behind one article of clothing, for I wore one of those fashionable corsets that didn't choke a girl into a shape she didn't have, but only held her bosom together in a cleavage worth dying for. As I bent over his chest, he released the little hooks holding it together, and it fluttered to the ground, releasing my heavy breasts against his chest.
His hands found them as he slowly stroked my whole upper body, and he gave them the attention they wanted. We kissed again, and started on skirts and pants, buttons loosened I started with his pants, and soon they revealed
an erect penis, ready for some action. I took it in my mouth as far as I could, and felt him quiver, and whilst I removed his pants further, I kept slowly moving my mouth over it, each movement causing another shudder in him.
Soon, it was too much for him, and he started on my skirts, the same downward movement, with him sinking to his knees, baring my buttocks, my legs, and of course that patch of hair covering my most intimate part.
He removed the skirt first, then stopped on his way up to fondle the hairs, copper as well, to feel the soft flesh beneath, to open it a little and take a little taste, a few licks, a little suction. Now it was my turn to shiver in anticipation.
Standing again, he took his time to admire his goddess, my wealth of curves, my cream coloured skin, the little freckles here and there. He touched it all with his hands, with his mouth, and then he lifted me up and sat on the bed, placing me on his lap as I had sat in his workshop, but without the clothes separating us, straight on his erect penis.
I felt it slide in me in one smooth move, I didn't even wonder how he managed that, for my nerves thrilled right through me, causing me to cry out in surprised pleasure. I rested my knees on the edge of the bed, so he could thrust himself in me without having to move my entire body, and I moved along with him in a continuing wave of rising feelings. I was so stimulated that I soon had a high, which made his movement even better, riding that high down and up again.
Now he became positively energetic, moving on to the bed entirely and turning both of us around until he was on top of me. All the tenderness was gone now, overcome by his primeval lust, and he rode me firmly, sending shocks of pure bliss through me.
He
lasted pretty long, I suppose that all-consuming mind merge had given him some exercise in dealing with extreme lust, and his furious efforts had their effect on me, for the bliss rose to an ever higher point until it could go no further, and a violent release followed. This stimulated him immensely, and his climax followed immediately.
Now he collapsed on me for the first time ever, and I relished his weight on me, I could hear him breathe hard for the first time ever after making love.
Asking him to stay on top of me for a while by locking him in a tight embrace, I thoroughly enjoyed his sweaty torso, his heavy breathing, and his enticing smell.
To be honest, I could have gone another round, but then I hadn't done the
primeval work. And being close was also very satisfying, so after he got off me, we snuggled up to each other and crept under the blankets until we heard Lukas come in. Then we shared a last kiss and dressed again, I put on an easy house-dress, and took my work clothes upstairs.
Chapter 26
I put my good clothes away neatly, then went downstairs. My stomach reminded me we had skipped lunch, and I guessed Paul must be hungry too.
Lukas might have lunched with the Nomes'. I heard no sounds from the workshop, so I went into the house, and found the guys around the table, set for lunch with fresh bread that Lukas had picked up, and several kinds of cheese and salads.
Coffee was on its way, I could smell that, and they were waiting for me, so I quickly washed my hands and sat down at the laden table.
We had a feast, Lukas had indeed lunched with the Nomes', but with his active life-style he could eat lunch twice. 'Did you enjoy yourself in the park?' I asked Lukas. He practically glowed, and replied: 'I ran over and left my shoes and clothes under a solitary tree, then ran all around the park at top speed, until I was totally out of breath.
Then I jumped in the nearest lake and swam across it a few times, let myself dry in the sun, ran to fetch my clothes, and surprised George and Ilsa and the rest.
We did want to know about Jonas and the photographs after all, and whether the faeries had anything to tell Frances.'
Paul and I looked at each other in shock, we had totally forgotten about those poor faeries! Lukas noticed, and observed: 'I didn't forget about the faeries.
At first, George and Frances were stunned I was up and about, but when I explained, Frances merely nodded and George leered at me knowingly. He's very good looking and very nice, and he loves like me, I think I may put him through his paces soon, see if he's still got it. Would that be very bad, after his wife and his daughter?'
His guileless look was absolutely ravishing, I said: 'Just look at him like that, and he'll abduct you to his favourite trysting place. Then the responsibility will be his, not yours.'
I knew the boys would stare at me for saying that, but somehow I had accepted things how they were, and George was a very attractive man with a
really large heart. If anyone deserved his share of Lukas' love it must be him, and it was a lot safer than dallying with young boys or girls from the rave-scene, who'd think the devil was finally come for them if they ever found his horns or hoofs.
'Anyway,' Lukas now said,' they examined one of Jonas' photographs that he hadn't sold yet, and it did indeed contain the soul of the dryad belonging to that tree. Destroying the photograph would of course release the soul, but that would ruin Jonas, he'd already sold quite a few.
So George and Frances went to his home with him, searching his neighbourhood for soulless dryads, and found several in an alley, hoarding garbage in trash cans and empty boxes. They sat there for an hour with Frances holding the plate, and one faerie approached her, but it couldn't get its soul back without a bit of help.
They had counted on this, so they sprinkled several herbs that are known for their magical properties on the plate, and a combination of sage and thyme did the trick: the soul came loose from the plate and joined the faerie, which woke up and didn't remember a thing.
It knew Frances and trusted her, so she was able to convince it to return to its tree with them. Jonas produced several other photographs, and they managed to free all the faeries in that alley, all the ones that Jonas still had the photographs of at home.
He is composing a list of the photographs he has sold and where they are now. George and Frances want you to know that they will sort out the ones in galleries and private homes, free the faeries then return the photographs to their owner, but they ask if we can get the ones from the factory.
It seems the owner is using them to get magical power and he will not lend them out to let the souls escape, it's the souls he's after and he's not going to let them go without a fight. They gave me a supply of sage and thyme, mixed in the right proportions.'
That would save us a lot of work, though of course we'd still have the most dangerous job to do, but since Paul was the guardian of this quarter, he should be a match for any magician with no power of his own.
Paul observed: 'When this is over, we must think of a way to arm faeries against photographing, there must be a way to prevent them from being sucked up by cameras, or they'll disappear off the face of the world within a decade. People like to photograph trees and streams.'
He didn't mention anything about storming the factory, though that must have been on his mind. I guessed he was planning to go by himself, exclude us on the grounds that we were too inexperienced, not telling us about it because he knew we wouldn't accept that.
I didn't plan to confront him, I'd talk to Lukas about it and we'd let him know together we'd go a a group.
Paul might have the most power and experience, he couldn't see through this guy's magic, and I could. Lukas knew his way around in the factory, and he was probably the best fighter of the three of us. Together, we had everything we needed to get in, take the photographs and get out again. We would also need to free the faeries immediately, just outside the walls, which made our task a lot more difficult still, for they might be too scared to return with us and too weak to return to their trees by themselves once they got their souls back.
We ate well, had our coffee, then cleared up the mess. I told Lukas about Paul's bicycles and he wanted to try one as well, though Paul said it would probably be a bit more difficult for him to ride one since he didn't have feet.
But first, Paul wanted to put in a few hours of work on his projects, and Lukas decided to join him. I kept Lukas back with an excuse, telling him I needed his help for a few minutes to plan a trip to pick up groceries.
Which was true, but first I wanted to warn him Paul was probably planning to go after the faerie-souls by himself. As soon as Paul had left I said: 'You do realize, Lukas, that Paul is probably planning to go after those photographs by himself?'
I saw realization dawn on him, and he replied: 'That ain't going to happen. I'll talk to him about it. This is exactly what we decided was not going to happen anymore when we realized how young he really is, I am certain I'm a much better fighter than he is, and I can become practically invisible. And you can see through anything, even through the weird kind of magic this guy uses.
Don't worry, I'll make sure he won't do anything without us.'
Suddenly I realized how he had grown in the last few days, the impulsive youngster seemed to have developed a certain seriousness, a sense of responsibility. Was this due to his talent awakening? Then I remembered Paul telling me Lukas wasn't impulsive at all, except maybe in the matter of loving.
I decided to ask: 'Lukas, you seem different somehow, how come?' He looked
at me intently, took my hands in his, and replied: 'I am, I am different. Would it be very pretentious to say I've come into my own? I've always picked up people's emotions to a certain extent, do you remember how it bothered me to witness Paul repressing his feelings towards you, when both of you so clearly loved each other?' I nodded, remembering very well.
He continued: 'It was clear to me your love was mutual, but both of you only had the certainty of his own love, and a lo
t of doubt about the other's.
Especially Paul's seeming denial of his love for you made me uncomfortable.
But now I feel much clearer, I felt Ilsa's hurt, and was able to address it so I could really help her. Melissa, through my talent she was cured of melancholia, instead of suffering from it for years to come, maybe for the rest of her life. I can help other people as well.
Paul needs healing too, and I know how it will come about, only he will not like it at first. I've arranged for Ilsa to come and visit.'
'You're right he won't like that. Are you sure it will not do more harm than good?' I asked seriously. 'Believe me, I know,' he replied, 'it will do something for him, I'm not entirely sure what is still wrong with him, he seems fine now, but my talent tells me he needs to show her his house, his craft, his life with you.'
He was so determined, I had to believe him, and I asked him: 'You seem so serious all of a sudden, Lukas, you've not lost your silliness, have you?' He laughed at my fear of him losing his silliness and said: 'No, I'm as silly as ever.'
Then his face lost the laugh again. 'Okay, I'm a bit serious now because I want to ask you for something and I'm afraid you'll not be able to give it to me anymore,' he confessed, 'I can help others with their feelings, but now I'm in the dark where my own self is concerned.'
His sweet face just tugged at my heart looking so serious and uncertain, that was just not my cheeky self-assured goat-man.
I embraced him passionately and whispered in his ear: 'You can ask anything, my love, how can you not know that?' He held me very tightly, and asked in a whisper: 'Will you make love to me?' Surprised at his uncertainty about that, I said: 'Sure, why wouldn't I? Now?' Relieved, he laughed, and told me: 'Not necessarily, no. Maybe tonight?'
'Of course I will, silly, can't you feel my love for you? I asked him. He replied: 'Honestly, no, I can't. I haven't felt your love since yesterday, I
thought you were disgusted by my, well, telling about Frances, Ilsa, you know.'
I told him: 'As if you could have done anything else. But it's not true, you must have felt my love this afternoon, when you held my hand and Paul dropped the shield. I felt yours clearly. Wait a sec, the shield, Lukas, that's it.
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