Dream Lover

by Cassie Walder

  “No. There were four of us—three sisters and myself.”

  “And you were the eldest, so you had the duty to protect them.”

  He nodded. “Yes, I am the eldest.”

  “Your sisters are all in their thirties, then?”

  “More signs of interest in me. I’m forty-one years old, Edwina. Do you care to know anything else about me?”

  She felt her face grow warm again. “What do you want to tell me?”

  “I think if I told you everything that I wished to tell you, I fear that you would run away from me like a frightened rabbit.”

  “I’m rather enjoying the evening. I should hate for it to end one moment before it must. So, if some statement would spoil the rather mellow tenor of the evening, please don’t say it.”

  “Very well. We will need to have that conversation sooner or later.”

  “If it is to be unpleasant, then the later, the better.”

  He smiled. “When you have something to tell me about the garden, Edwina, call me or send me a sketch of the design by fax. However, should you ever desire simply to speak with me, then please call. I will leave word that you are to be put through immediately.”

  As Edwina saw Beth coming over, she decided to wait to reply. Beth cleared away the soup plates and advised them, “The salmon will be out in two minutes.”

  “Thanks, Beth,” Edwina told her friend.

  When Beth had retreated, Edwina looked at Klaus and warned, “Putting this much money into the house, you have to know that you will be pricing it well over the market.”

  “I plan to live there for several more years. For the immediate future, I plan on staying in America.”

  “If you married an American citizen, you could remain here indefinitely,” she offered in German after a brief silence. She didn’t want to think that Klaus was pursuing her for the sake of easing an immigration problem. But it wouldn’t be the first time that something like that happened to an American woman.

  Klaus just looked at her in disbelief as Beth set their dinner plates before them.

  The salmon looked wonderful. It was Beth’s recipe. The baked fish was encrusted with a combination of crushed macadamia nuts and several herbs from Edwina’s own greenhouse. It was served with fresh asparagus spears and a wild rice pilaf with almond slivers.

  “Thank you, Beth. It looks wonderful,” Edwina told her.

  Klaus took a bite of his fish. He nodded. “It is wonderful,” he told Beth.

  The restaurateur smiled and walked away.

  “Edwina,” he asked lowly in a tone of disbelief, “Is a Green Card the reason you think I am pursuing you?”

  “The thought had crossed my mind.”

  “As long as all it did was cross your mind. I would hate for an erroneous notion like that to take up residence in that lovely head of yours. I have absolutely no problems with Immigration and Naturalization. Nor do I anticipate having any.”

  “Why are you chasing me, Klaus? There is no doubt in my mind that you have decided to pursue me for more than my professional capabilities as a garden designer.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I always thought I had such a way with women,” he said mostly to himself.

  “It’s the combination of your handsome face, healthy bank account, and the air of European nobility. You must be used to mercenary women falling at your feet.”

  He looked at her for a long time before speaking. “In my younger days, that was true enough. Few of the women could hold my attention for long. I am a difficult man, my dear.”

  “In your younger days…You are hardly ancient, Klaus. You are no child, but you are not Methuselah, either.”

  He was quiet for a long time. “There are days I feel every moment of my age,” he said quietly, breaking the silence between them. Then he smiled broadly. “You are also not a child. There must have been men who have chased you at one time or other. Have you never been tempted to let one of them catch you?”

  “There haven’t been that many men who’ve ever seriously tried to catch me. Besides, I’ve always been a rather swift runner.”

  “You aren’t running all that swiftly now,” he challenged.

  “I’m thirty five, Klaus. At this age, a woman thinks seriously from time to time of marrying and raising children, if she meets the right man.”

  “Am I the right man?”

  “I don’t know. Time, I suppose, will tell.”

  “I shall work on that reference from someone you know and trust.”

  She smiled at him. “Do that.”

  “May I call you?”

  “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t,” she admitted before she took another bite of the salmon.

  “I shall remember this restaurant. The food and service is marvelous.”

  “Wait until you see their desserts. They make them all in-house.”

  “What’s their specialty?”

  “Anything chocolate.”

  Klaus smiled. “Of course.”

  “How are you difficult?” Edwina asked him, going back to his previous statement.

  “There are those among my employees who would reply to that with the question ‘How is he not difficult?’”

  “I once interviewed with your corporation.”

  “So, I am aware. Why didn’t you accept the offer that was made to you? Was the money insufficient? Are the benefits not to your liking?”

  “I couldn’t get a written guarantee that I could do the work I wanted to do. I strongly feel that my life is too short to be pigeonholed into work in which I have no interest. But, then again, that is another way in which I am, myself, difficult.”

  He sighed. “There is a job for you at the corporation in our research department doing the work you want to do whenever you want it. All you have to do is tell me that you want it. Human Resources was instructed to make you the offer of underwriting your personal research. I am profoundly disappointed that they failed to do so.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ve read your dissertations. I’ve read your publications. You would be a valuable addition to any research team. I have to admit I was more than merely surprised when you opened the shop instead of continuing to do your research.”

  She only smiled at him.

  Klaus returned the smile. “Ah. You didn’t abandon the work. You are still doing your research. Are you working alone?”

  “If I were working, it would be alone.”

  “Still working on maximizing the therapeutic yield of narcotics through manipulating the genetic code?”

  She shrugged. “I haven’t confirmed that I am working on any research.”

  “I understand. However, what I don’t understand is why someone would walk away from a well-equipped, well-funded, well-staffed lab in order to undertake research on her own.”

  “I’d say a researcher might have left and knocked the dust off her feet because the people managing of that lab were categorically stupid and short sighted.”

  “That doesn’t explain why that same brilliant scientist wouldn’t have gone to work for another company.”

  “The scientist may be barred by her previous contract from continuing that work with any other company for a period of time.”

  “That would do it. Aren’t you afraid they’ll finish your work?”

  “The researchers remaining with my former company are competent lab technicians, but not terribly imaginative. I doubt that any of them will have the insight necessary to carry on the work I left behind. It requires several intuitive leaps which are somewhat beyond them.”

  He smiled. “Did you sabotage your records there, by any chance?”

  “No. I didn’t sabotage anything. That would be unethical. It’s just that I tend to keep my personal research notes in a rather intense code that few people, or few computers, have ever been able to decipher.”

  “I see,” he said with a smile.

  “The research is pretty well dead in the water, there.”

  �
��What are you working on, if not the previous project?”

  “I haven’t confirmed that I’m working on anything.”

  “A scientist working by herself has to be difficult, slow, and expensive.”

  “It would be, if one opted to pursue that avenue.”

  “Would it go faster with a couple of assistants and a research grant?”

  She shrugged. “Probably. But I’m sure that any scientist would be handling this fine on her own. And I’m equally sure that this scientist would rather keep things under wraps until she had publishable results.”

  “You won’t accept a grant? I have grant research monies going unclaimed. You might as well have them.”

  She shook her head negatively. “I will keep the offer in mind if I’m ever in the situation where I need research monies, thank you.”

  “You are independent, aren’t you?” he replied, his voice puzzled.

  Clearly, she thought, he had never had anyone turn down money from him.

  “I had thought that we had settled that matter of my independence earlier this evening.”

  He smiled. “You do your research in your apartment greenhouse?”

  “You are certainly interested in this mythical research,” she observed quietly.

  “I am.”

  “The ostensible reason for this dinner was to discuss your garden. Or is the garden merely another hypothetical matter?”

  “No. It’s real enough. But the garden was only an excuse.”

  She felt her face grow warm again. “Klaus…”

  “Do you know how rare it is to find a grown woman who can still blush in this day and age?” Klaus asked lowly.

  “It’s just another way in which I am out of touch with the modern world. Besides, with my coloring, I’m apt to blush boldly until I’m ninety. Red heads often do.”

  Klaus smiled at her. “You’ll still be beautiful when you are ninety.”

  She returned the smile. “I suspect that I will be a good deal like my grandmother. Heaven help the world.”

  “I hear affection in your voice. You are fond of your grandmother.”

  “Grandmother is… well… you’d have to know her. She is extraordinary.”

  “If she is anything like her granddaughter, I’d have to agree with that assessment.”

  They spoke about his garden for most of the rest of the evening.

  Of course, she picked up the bill for dinner. It was astronomical. But then again, they weren’t cheap wines that they had been drinking. Edwina added a fifteen percent tip to the credit card slip. The thought was sobering that the tip was more than she normally spent on groceries in a week. But this was business.

  Then he walked her back to the shop. She’d had more to drink this evening than she was used to, so she was feeling a little giddy. She wasn’t falling down drunk. But she was definitely on the happy side of the spectrum.

  “Thank you for the lovely meal,” Klaus said quietly.

  “Thank you for the opportunity to design your garden.”

  He smiled at her. “Are you going to invite me in, Edwina?”

  “No. I don’t know you well enough to be alone with you, especially when I’ve been drinking.”

  “Not quite as iron-willed as you pretend to be?”

  “I don’t pretend anything. I’m simply following good advice and avoiding occasions of sin.”

  “There’s another old-fashioned Catholic term.”

  “I’m a rather old-fashioned Catholic lady, in case you haven’t figured that one out.”

  “So, I’m an occasion of sin for you? I’d rather be an occasion of grace.”

  “Perhaps, you might yet be. Perhaps we both might be an occasion of grace for one another. Goodnight, Klaus. Thank you for a lovely evening.”

  “Dream of me, Edwina.”

  “Is that an order?” she demanded.

  “A request,” he said quietly as he stepped closer and touched her face. “A humble request.”

  “I doubt that you’ve ever been humble in your whole life.”

  “I have never been in any danger of being truthfully accused of such,” he admitted dryly. “I’m a bit on the proud and overbearing side.”

  Edwina giggled. “No,” she protested falsely. “I never would have noticed.”

  “Neither have I ever been truthfully accused of missing opportunities,” he said lowly, his voice thick with passion. “And I’m not about to miss this one.” Then he kissed her.

  Just as the night before, he was devouring her. She was letting him. Letting him? Aiding and abetting him, was more like it. Returning passion for passion was more accurate.

  There was more than need here. There was tenderness. There was love. Even in her befuddled state, she was aware of this. Whatever else was going on, there was love growing between the two of them. She cared for this man. And she knew that he cared for her.

  “Enough,” she reluctantly said as she found the strength to step back from him, even though that was the last thing she wanted to do. “No more, Klaus. Please. I’m at the edge of my control.”

  He smiled at her. “Control has its place Edwina, my dearest, but that place is not when you are in my arms,” he said. “After we’ve been wed for fifty years, I will still want you as I do now.”

  She looked at him for a long moment. “Did you just say what I thought you said?” she asked, her voice shaking.

  “I did. Marry me, Edwina. We’ll fly to Reno tonight. I have a house on the lake there. It’s beautiful. You will enjoy it.”

  She sighed. It wasn’t a question. He actually expected her to fly half way across the country to marry him in a civil ceremony tonight. She smiled. “We’ll talk about it sometime when my head isn’t spinning from a combination of wine and your kiss. It’s definitely a heady combination.”

  “But, you won’t marry me tonight?”

  “No, Klaus. When I marry, if I marry, I intend to do that in Church with my family and friends around me. I plan on only marrying once in my life. We have so much that we need to learn about one another before we even contemplate marriage.”

  “Like what?”

  “Are you Catholic?”

  “I am. My family has always been Catholic back all the way to the sixth century.”

  “That’s good. At least, we both have reasonably the same expectations about marriage.”

  “Very well. We’ll arrange a Church wedding.”

  “I didn’t say that I’d marry you.”

  “Won’t you?”

  “Probably.”

  He smiled. “Walk with me, Edwina. I don’t want you to go from me, yet.”

  “It’s a little chilly to be taking the air, Klaus.”

  “Then come for a drive with me. The car will be warm.”

  “Are you driving?”

  “Schmidt drives. We can sit behind the privacy glass and talk.”

  “Talk?”

  “Or make love.”

  “Aren’t we a little old to be making love in a car?” she teased.

  “Ever tried it?”

  She looked over her eyeglasses at him.

  “You don’t intimidate me.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Come for a drive with me. It would be a new experience for you.”

  Edwina couldn’t help but laugh. “You are a new experience for me. I wouldn’t want to be overwhelmed by too many new experiences all at once.”

  “I take it, then, that this is goodnight?”

  “Yes. Goodnight, Klaus.”

  He kissed her forehead and took the keys out of her hand. He unlocked the door and turned on the lights, before handing her back the keys. “The question of matrimony is still on the table. I will wait for your answer. Dream of me.”

  “That goes without saying. Good night, Klaus.”

  “Go on in,” he urged quietly. “Otherwise, I will kiss you again.”

  “That’s supposed to be a disincentive?” she challenged.

  “Unless yo
u want me to carry you up the stairs and to lay you down on your own bed, strip both of us of all our clothes, and make love with you until dawn, you had better put that door between us, now. My self-control is not quite as firm as I would like it to be where you are concerned. And I can think of nothing I would like more than to be naked with you in your bed, unless it would be to be naked with you in my bed.”

  “You can’t stay with me until dawn. I have entirely too many windows, Klaus, for it to be safe for you to ever be present in my apartment at dawn. Goodnight,” she told him, her face crimson, stepping backwards over the threshold to the shop.

  Chapter Four

  The air of sudden, menacing, stillness that surrounded him was remarkable. “What did you say?” he demanded in a soft, but firm, voice as he followed her into the shop and closed the door firmly behind them.

  He walked over to her and stood toe to toe with her.

  ‘Formidable’ was one word that was accurate for the man standing before her. ‘Intimidating’ was another good word. Yet she wasn’t going to back down. This was too important.

  “If you project that attitude, Klaus, I’ll be forced to put on my ice maiden persona. Neither of us would enjoy that,” she warned quietly. “So, change the attitude, right now. You aren’t impressing me, intimidating me, or frightening me.”

  She watched him with interest, as the threatening persona seemed to melt away, leaving only the charming man whom she had begun to come to know.

  “This conversation is not going to be short,” he said as he removed his overcoat and put the garment down on the counter.

  Out of well-honed habits of neatness, she picked up his coat and hung it on the coat rack. Then she removed her own coat and hung it beside his.

  “Just tell me why you made that comment about the windows,” Klaus said softly as she turned to face him once more.

  “Do you actually believe I would recklessly endanger someone for whom I cared?”

  “No, recklessness is one quality no one would ever attribute to you, “ he said quietly. “Suppose you tell me what you believe you know of my condition?”

  “Do you think that I lack eyes, Klaus? It is true that I am not trained in medicine. However, I am a trained observer who is said to possess a good mind.”

  His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. “Figured it out all by yourself, did you?” he offered harshly.