Royal Pains

by Magnolia Robbins

  “Wow,” she finally says breathlessly. Zoe has put on some German music from my aunt's collection through the speakers on the roof, and it plays softly in the background. After Penelope takes a seat, I follow suit, unwrapping the food for her. It smells delicious. My mother and Nina would be proud of my culinary abilities. Roasted chicken and vegetables and Zoe had helped me recreate the potato cakes that Penelope had loved so much.

  “You really didn’t have to go through all this trouble,” Penelope says to me as she looks down at the food. I watch as she tastes a bite of the chicken and her eyes roll back into her head. “Okay, I take that back. Go through the trouble whenever you want.”

  As soon as she’s finished taking another bite, she notices the hard cider sitting next to her plate and lets out a laugh. “Apfelwein!” She says, and I smile, impressed she remembered. I raise my drink to her, and we clank our bottles together smiling at one another.

  We get lost in conversation for a while, inadvertently talking mostly about school.

  “Why did you want to be a doctor?” I ask her curiously.

  “My mom was a doctor,” she admits, looking out to the city skyline for a minute. “She used to help run a free clinic in Brooklyn before she passed away. It's what I want to do after school.”

  It takes me a second to catch what she says. At first, I’m not sure how to answer. We share a glance for a moment, and I give her a small smile. “It’s nice you want to follow in her footsteps. A good way to honor her memory.” Penelope returns the smile and takes another drink of her cider.

  “How about you? Why did you want to be a doctor?”

  I think for a moment. It definitely wasn’t as eloquent of an answer as hers. “Is it cliché if I say I want to help people? And I was good at biology in high school, believe it or not.”

  She stifles a laugh while she eats and I nudge her playfully with my foot under the table.

  “Tell me more about where you’re from,” Penelope says when she’s recovered from her amusement. “You don’t really talk about it much.”

  I am honest when I tell her about the small city that I grew up in. She is surprised to learn that it’s quaint and isolated as she’d pictured it to be. The city was actually quite modern. I had most of the same luxuries that were offered in America. Often times, businesses would come from all over and settle there, just because of the lower taxes.

  As we talk, I find myself opening up to her more and more. Suddenly, I feel compelled to tell her what I’d been keeping from her, and everyone else I knew since we met. Just as I’m about to, a song comes on the speakers that seems to catch Penelope’s attention.

  “I recognize this,” she says, and the two of us grow quiet. After I sit for a moment, I realize who it is.

  “Sarah Connor?” Her music was famous throughout Germany. While I was sure there were people that had heard of her before here, it still surprised me that Penelope had.

  I listen for a moment. The song was titled “Wie schön du bist.” A popular German love song. It has been a long time since I have heard it. When I get to my feet, I offer my hand to Penelope, smiling. “Would you dance with me?”

  Our eyes meet, and she blushes deeply but doesn’t protest. Instead, her hand tucks neatly into mine, and I help her to her feet, leading her to a small space away from the table. She takes a moment to ponder the situation before I feel her hands fall gently on my hips. I wrap my arms around her neck, and the two of us begin to sway together.

  It is the first time I’d ever danced with another woman. My body leans close to hers, and I rest my face on her shoulder, letting my nose brush against her cheek. She smells faintly like some sort of flower I couldn’t recognize. Her skin is warm and nice, and I can hear her breathing softly as we move.

  After a long silence, Penelope speaks to me. “What is she saying?”

  My head comes up from her shoulder, and we meet eyes. I listen for a moment, thinking about how the words would translate from German to English. Some of it was hard to explain, but I try my best. “She’s talking about how she sees this person that she loves, with all their imperfections. She sees the unique qualities about them. And she’s asking them if they know how beautiful they are.”

  “Es gibt nichts schöneres als dich.”

  “What did she say then?” Penelope asks me, curiously.

  I feel my face blushing as I think about it. When I finally look up into her eyes, the two of us stare at each other for a long moment. “There’s nothing more beautiful than you.”

  Time seems to stand still after that. Our swaying slows, yet Penelope does not pull away from me. My hands still wrap around her neck, and our eyes still stare deeply into one another’s. She draws her face to mine, placing her lips almost over my own. I hear her take a deep breath in before she pushes into me.

  Her lips are smooth and soft and supple. They slide gently over mine, tickling them. Just barely making contact. I feel her smile after a moment, and she pulls away from me.

  “Es gibt.. schöneres dich,” she tries to repeat it. I let out a breathy laugh.

  “Es gibt nichts schöneres als dich,” I reply.

  When she tries it again, she puts her hand against my cheek, brushing my hair from my face. “Es gibt nichts schöneres als dich.” It is perfect. I sigh hearing it. My mother tongue, coming from the lips of such a beautiful, enchanting woman.

  Her thumb strokes my cheek for a moment before we come together again. Softly. The world fades around me, and there is only her and I. Just the two of us. Our lips moving over one another’s.

  I take Penelope’s hand and pull her to the elevator. The entire ride down, we hold hands, and I can feel my heart racing in my chest. Her thumb strokes the skin of the back of my hand as we wait. As soon as the doors open, we move swiftly towards my suite. The nervous and excited energy I feel builds exponentially as we make our way inside.

  As soon as I shut the door, I turn to her, and she moves her mouth to mine again. We breathe each other in. Our kisses become much more passionate and deliberate. She kisses me deeply until I slowly open my lips and let her taste inside of me. Her tongue dances with my own. We stay together until there is hardly a breath between us. When we leave one another, it is only briefly. Penelope stares into my eyes for a moment before I pull her back to me.

  My hands run down the length of her body, feeling her subtle curves beneath my fingertips. I move slowly and meticulously, working my way down and then back up again until my hands reach her face. Her hands move against me. I gasp softly at her touch. When she reaches the edges of my dress, lingering at my thighs, I feel her fingers graze my skin for a moment. I can hardly stand the adrenaline surging through me.

  Penelope waits for a moment to gauge my reaction before she moves around behind me. Her mouth comes down on the back of my neck, kissing my exposed skin. She carefully begins to unzip the back of my dress, letting her fingers stroke down the length of my back as it is revealed. She rolls the fabric over my shoulders, her lips drawing over every piece of showing skin before she slides it off my body.

  When I turn around to face her, all I want is to kiss her. We do, and I breathe her in, moving my hands down her until my fingers touch the skin of her legs. We look at each other again for a moment, exchanging a silent confirmation of our desires. Slowly, I let my hands draw underneath the fabric and work it over the length of her. As my palms move over her chest, I can feel the small curves of her breasts, naked underneath my hands. It takes my breath away for a moment, knowing I’d just touched her in that way. By the look on her face, she doesn’t seem to mind.

  The fabric hits the floor, and we finally look at one another. Carefully, my fingers draw over her exposed skin, from her collar bone, down to the waistline of her undergarments. “Wunderschön,” I sigh, looking her over.

  We move into my bedroom, taking small kisses from one another as we go. As we stand at the foot of the bed, I carefully remove the final pieces of clothing from my body. She fol
lows suit until there is nothing but flesh between us. I lay down against the soft sheets of the bed, and she comes on top of me.

  The feeling of her soft skin against mine is exquisite. Our mouths run together for a moment before her lips trail down the side of my neck and onto my collarbone. Her fingers move in slow patterns down my body until she reaches my breasts. She takes them in her hands tenderly, stroking them. Penelope’s mouth moves down in between them and then slowly over top of one. I gasp sharply when she licks at it. She moves to the other, taking the same motions. My body writhes in pleasure underneath her.

  When she moves away, and down the center of my body, I feel my heart start to race in my chest. As she passes my belly button, I can barely breathe. Just before Penelope makes it to my middle, she breaks away from me. I lift myself up off the bed a bit to meet eyes with her. As I do, she grazes her fingers down the inside of my thighs, one at a time. My entire body shivers at her touch. Her eyes don’t waver from mine.

  Everything begins to move in slow motion as I watch Penelope’s fingers trail over me. It sends the biggest waves of pleasure I have ever felt in my life through the entire length of my body. Once I've felt as if I couldn't take another stroke, her mouth goes down in between my legs, and I let out a soft moan into the room. I fall back against the sheets, and I close my eyes, letting the sensations wash over me.

  My body quakes when it happens, which is very soon after her mouth comes on top of me. I can feel the heat building as my body fills with pleasure. Every breath I take is a sharp gasp. The feeling lasts for a long time, crashing into me again and again. When it finally subsides, my body relaxes into the sheets, and Penelope rises up, our two bodies coming together once more.

  Chapter 7

  Penelope

  Is this really happening?

  My mouth presses against Astrid’s, letting her taste herself for a moment. She sighs when we meet, her hand running through my hair and around my head. We push together passionately, and I find myself being rolled over onto my back. Her naked flesh still presses against mine. I can feel her everywhere.

  Astrid’s lips linger close. She leans down and whispers softly. “Ich möchte liebe mit dir machen.” When I look at her curiously, her mouth trails to my ear and she tells me that she wants me. My entire body trembles as she moves into my skin. The way she does is so calm and careful. Exploring me like I was as foreign as she was.

  Suddenly I realize, I must be. She’d never been with a woman before, as far as I knew.

  As she navigates down my body slowly, her fingers and mouth working in tandem, I whisper when she touches me in places that I like. We meet eyes, and she seems to enjoy me helping her. It feels as if her motions mimic my own movements on her, minutes earlier. When her hands run over my breasts, I sigh. Those supple lips follow shortly after and I reach to hold her head to my body, running my hands through her beautiful golden locks.

  Before long, Astrid moves down further. Her fingers circle my stomach. Her lips trail down the center of me, over my belly button and down close to my middle. I watch her take pause a moment, her gaze meeting mine.

  “I’ll help you,” I whisper, running my hand over her head again. First, she lets her fingers trail along my legs and around the outside. When she is satisfied, I feel her fingers gently fall over me, stroking softly. My body pushes back against the bed sheets, and my muscles tighten.

  “That’s good,” I encourage her as she works into me. Just as she starts to build a rhythm with her hand, I feel the heat of her breath. I was not prepared for how intense it would be to have her mouth in between my legs. When it happens, I cry out so loudly that she pauses for a moment. “It feels amazing,” I gasp, propping my body up to meet her eyes. Astrid moves back down on me again, and I let the sensations wash over me. Every touch is thought out as she gently caresses me.

  Finally, she finds the spot that sends me into a frenzy. “There,” I breathe, falling back again and holding her head gently in my hands. She works over me until the heat and the pleasure come in soft rolls. It seems to go on forever. When it passes, I stroke Astrid’s head gently until she pulls up from me and joins me back on the bed.

  Our bodies intertwine, so we are touching as much as humanly possible, but still able to look into one another’s eyes. Astrid smiles at me, and I reach out to softly stroke the side of her face with my fingertips. We don’t speak for a long time. Finally, she rolls over and presses her body against mine. I wrap my arm around her tightly.

  “Es gibt nichts schöneres als dich,” I remind myself, whispering in her ear. I can feel her laugh and her hand reach up to gently pat my cheek.

  “Es gibt nichts schöneres als dich,” Astrid repeats, just before I feel her body relax and fall fast asleep.

  There hadn’t been a time in recent memory that I had awakened in such an amazing way. A beautiful woman lay snuggled against me, her warm flesh pressing against my own. I could hear her breathing quietly, still asleep. My fingers trailed over her skin, and I leaned my mouth into the crook of her neck. I feel her stir against me.

  “Good morning,” I whisper, kissing her earlobe and running my hand up the side of her body. I hear her sigh softly before she rolls over to meet eyes with me.

  “Good morning,” Astrid replies, giving a gentle smile that melts me. “Did you sleep well?”

  “I don’t think I’ve slept better in my life,” I admit. I lean down to kiss her. We stay there for a moment before I take her in my arms. In minutes I have her crying out into the room again.

  After we’d both been satisfied, the two of us get dressed. Astrid goes out into the main living space, fetching the cheesecake from the fridge. When she comes back, I laugh.

  “Just when I didn’t think my morning could get any better, we eat cheesecake for breakfast!”

  The two of us sit together chatting away, eating half of the dessert before we stop. Astrid compliments me on multiple occasions about my culinary abilities, but I’m still convinced she’s the master chef in this relationship.

  Wait, were we in a relationship? It sure felt like it. When I look up to her, her eyes are already on mine. We smile at one another, and she takes my hand in hers. Just where it was meant to be.

  .........................

  Astrid and I continue our private romantic engagements all throughout the semester. I spend nearly every evening at the penthouse, and when we aren’t studying, we are passionately engaged in other activities. I’d ask a thousand times to take her out, but she’d insist that we keep our relationship private for the time being, so I oblige. There isn’t any way I would turn that beautiful woman down.

  The semester blows by, and before we know it, there are finals steadily approaching. We find ourselves spending less time with each other and more time intensely focused on passing our classes. Charlotte and Oliver are attached at our hip most days. When we aren’t in class, the four of us are more often than not at the library studying.

  Finals last for four days. When I breeze through them, I scare myself senseless, worrying that I’d gone too fast or I am overly confident. All the while, I worry over Astrid too, but every time I watch her during our tests, she seems to be doing alright.

  The last day before winter vacation, I meet Dr. Lawson at the clinic for my final set of patients. Thanks to Astrid, most of the routine things I’d gotten the hang of. Today, I’d be doing nearly all of the triage by myself, with Dr. Lawson’s supervision. Case history, the physical exam, deciding the next steps. No pressure, I thought to myself as I made my way to the back.

  Dr. Lawson greets me with a smile when I see her.

  “You’re early,” she notes. For once in my life, anyway.

  Clinic is a breeze. We see a total of ten patients up until lunch time, and I handle nearly everything myself. All I can think about in between appointments is how much I owed to Astrid for helping me overcome my anxieties.

  Dr. Lawson meets with me at lunch to discuss my grade. When she shows me the
A on the computer, I can barely believe it.

  “There are a few things you can work on for next semester, but you deserve it,” she says, sitting back in her seat.

  When I reach the medical school building, I spot Astrid standing outside, shielding her eyes from the sun. She wears her slick black coat, her hair up in a bun on her head. The snow falling lightly around her makes her look angelic in a way. A sight for sore eyes. As soon as she sees me, her face lights up.

  “I passed my classes!” She calls to me, a smile spread across her face.

  There is a crowd leaving the building behind her. Before I can think, overwhelmed by the sight of her and the events of the day, I rush to her, my arms wrapping around her body while my mouth draws firmly on hers. In broad daylight, in front of two dozen medical students, I kiss her. Astrid sighs, placing her hand against the side of my cheek and sinking into it. It lasts for a good while before finally, I pull away from her.

  “I knew it!” I hear a familiar voice behind us, and when I turn, Charlotte stands behind us, her hand wrapped in Oliver’s.

  “You knew it?” Oliver scoffs. “I told you something was fishy about them in the library.”

  “Only after I told you they’d been pining after each other since the beginning of school,” Charlotte rolls her eyes at him.

  When I look at Astrid, she is blushing. She takes her hand in mine and squeezes it. I lean over and kiss her softly on her forehead, breathing her in.

  “I couldn’t take it any longer,” I whisper to her before I move away.

  She smiles at me and leans in to plant another small kiss on my lips. It sends a wave of happiness through me from top to bottom. “I know, me either.”

  .........................

  To celebrate our victorious semester and the beginnings of a new chapter in our relationship, Astrid finally lets me take her to my favorite sushi restaurant, Sushi on Main. It was another gem close to the university that I’d gone to hundreds of times over the years.