Klaus entered the bedroom from the attached bathroom. At the sound of the door opening, she turned to look at him.
He wore only a silk brocade dressing gown. “I wasn’t certain that you would still be here,” he said from the doorway.
“I wasn’t either,” she admitted quietly.
Klaus crossed the room to her. “I’m glad you stayed. Have you made a decision, Edwina?”
She drank from her glass of champagne.
He took the glass from her hand and drained the last quarter of the glass from the same place that she had drunk. Then he put the glass down on the bed table. “We don’t need intoxicants, you and I. Or are you screwing up your courage?”
She smiled at him. “No, we don’t need intoxicants. You’re quite intoxicating enough. And I don’t need to screw up my courage. There’s nothing to be courageous about. I’ve made my decision. I want all the time with you that I can have, regardless of the costs.”
He laughed. “You are so beautiful.” He removed the hairpins, dropping them one by one onto the floor. Then he raked his fingers through her hair. “I’ve dreamed of seeing you like this, Edwina, in the firelight, with your hair down, dressed in silk and lace, in this room, loving me.”
She reached out and slipped her hand between the fabric and his chest, touching him lightly. “I’m not a dream. I’m real. Don’t I feel real to you?”
He shuddered under her touch. “Edwina, if you were any more real, I don’t think I could stand it.”
She laughed softly. “And, just for the record I do love you, more than I ever thought I could love anyone. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have stood before the priest and made those vows to you and I wouldn’t be here now. I love you so much it scares me.”
“You aren’t the only one who is scared, sweetheart.” He pulled her into his arms. Her fingers laced through his hair as his mouth covered hers. She returned his passion with her own. She was on fire for him. Behind her closed eyes, colors swirled wildly. She was hot, then cold, then hot again. Overwhelming desire became simple necessity, much as it always had between them.
Her trembling fingers moved towards the robe belt. She untied it and pushed the heavy robe away from his shoulders, down his arms, until it was a puddle of cloth around his feet. He wore nothing else under the robe.
Klaus lifted his mouth from hers. He spoke in German, his voice thick with passion. “This is your last chance to walk away from me. If you give yourself to me as I wish you to tonight, I will keep you. I keep and care for what is mine. This is forever. I need you to be certain that you want to be mine forever, Edwina. Once the transition is made, there is no undoing it.”
She pressed her silk covered body against his naked form. “I know what I want, Klaus. And an eternity isn’t nearly long enough to love you.”
Klaus pushed the negligee from her shoulders. It joined his dressing gown on the floor.
She took him by the hand and walked to his large canopied bed. He pulled the quilted bed-curtains closed behind them. Inside, it was completely dark. The silk sheets were smooth and light against her skin.
“I can’t see you, Klaus,” she complained.
“Don’t see. Close your eyes. Keep them closed. Just feel, sweetheart,” he advised softly as he caressed her breasts. “I need you to want me. The transition will be less painful if you are aroused fully and lost in pleasure.”
“I am!”
But he wasn’t satisfied with that. He set about to arouse her even more through the use of his hands and mouth. Nothing mattered to her except his erotic touches and the ministrations of his mouth on her breasts, on her belly, on her thighs, in the soft, hot, folds of her labia.
She heard her own voice moan his name, “Klaus. Klaus. Please, I need…”
And she heard him answer hoarsely, “Not until you want me the way I want you. I don’t want to ever hurt you, Edwina.”
His touches and kisses were incendiary. Each nerve in her body felt as though it was on sensory overload. She wanted to scream with the utter pleasure he was giving her. And then suddenly she did call out his name as the tension he had been building in her released. In spite of that, he continued arousing her, building on the climax, urging her towards another even more shattering release.
The sound of the phone ringing snapped her into wakefulness. Yet the dream lingered. Or was it merely a dream? It was too real to have been a simple dream. But this particular type of dream was always too real.
The phone was insistent. She moved and her head let her know that she’d overindulged in wine the night before. The clock said eight fifteen a.m..
She gingerly picked up the receiver and put it to her ear. On the other end was her grandmother. “Good morning, Edwina Elizabeth.”
“Good morning, Grandmother,” she said with a yawn as she tried to clear the dream away from her mind. Yet the images lingered.
“You sound sleepy, child. Did I wake you?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I am sorry, my dear child! You are normally up long before now.”
“I was out quite late last night.”
“Out with some handsome gentleman?” the old woman asked hopefully.
“As a matter of fact, I was.”
“That is good news! When am I to meet this gentleman friend of yours?”
“I don’t know, Grandmother.”
“I see,” her grandmother replied in a disapproving voice. “Edwina, you are past the age when you can afford to engage in relationships which fail to have marriage as their primary goal. You are far too old to be taking casual lovers.”
Edwina closed her eyes and sighed. “Thank you. I am well aware of my advanced age. For your information, I am not in the habit of taking lovers, casual or otherwise. If I were in such a habit, I certainly would not have spent the night in a lonely bed. The gentleman would have been more than willing to stay if I had permitted such a thing. But I sent him home.”
“There is no need to use that tone with me, young woman!” her grandmother warned quietly.
Edwina laughed. “One moment, you are telling me that I’m getting old, and the next you’re calling me young. I really just can’t win with you, can I, Grandmother?”
“Tell me about this man you are seeing.”
“I don’t think so, Grandmother. It’s too new. Let me figure him out before I subject him to the scrutiny of the family.”
“You are more than slightly fond of him? I hear it in your voice.”
“Perhaps. I think I will probably marry him.”
Edwina could hear the smile in her grandmother’s voice. “You bring him around to meet me. Luncheon today, after Mass. I want to meet this man who has gotten beyond my granddaughter’s formidable defenses.”
“I can make no promises, Grandmother. Klaus and I had made no plans for today. He has an extra full schedule for today. I don’t expect to see him. We do not live in one another’s pockets.”
“Klaus? He’s German? What’s his last name?”
“Von Bruner.”
“One of my great-grandmother’s sisters married into the von Bruner family from Bavaria. It’s a good Catholic family, a family of minor nobility—a Baron I believe. This man, Klaus, he isn’t divorced is he?”
“He’s a bachelor.”
“How old?”
“Forty-one.”
“That’s a good age for a man to marry. At least, he’s dry behind the ears and you would be his mid-life crisis. All in all, that’s a pretty good combination.”
Edwina laughed. “You do have original ways of thinking about things.”
“Be here and bring him. I want to see this man,” the old lady commanded. Then she said, “Goodbye, Edwina. I expect you and your gentleman for luncheon.”
The next sound she heard was the click of the receiver.
Catherine, the shade, faded in. “I’m surprised at you, Edwina. That was quite a dream. Don’t trust him. Klaus von Bruner will destroy you. He’ll use and discard you, the
same way that he has all the other women in his life. And there have been many women in his life, for a long, long, time. He steals their souls from them then either leaves them or drives them to suicide. There are rumors whispered that he actually murdered a couple of women while in passion. But no one has been able to turn up the bodies.”
“Oh, go away, Catherine,” Edwina snapped wearily.
“Remember my warning. I’m going way out of my way here to be nice to you about this.” Then the shade began to fade away. “I don’t even want to think about the number of rules that I’m breaking by giving you a warning about the creature.”
Edwina picked up her dream journal and quickly recorded the dream. She drew a quick ink sketch of the room from two different perspectives. Only after she did this, was she ready to call Klaus with the lunch invitation.
She wasn’t at all certain that she wanted to talk to Klaus, not given the intensity of the dream she had just had about him. But knowing that inviting Klaus was a direct order from her grandmother and if she didn’t invite him her grandmother would, Edwina dialed Klaus’s phone number.
A very formal sounding male voice answered the phone.
“Edwina Johnson calling for Herr von Bruner.”
“One moment, please, Fraulein Doctor Johnson. I shall transfer the call immediately,” the man replied then he put her on hold.
“Edwina,” Klaus said gently. “Good morning. You are calling early.”
“My grandmother just called. She wishes to meet you. We’ve been invited there for luncheon.”
“I take it this is rather a command performance?” he asked dryly.
Edwina sighed. “Something of that nature. Trust me, my grandmother is the original formidable lady.”
“Then she is something like her granddaughter. I sincerely regret that I am unable to comply with the request.”
“I told Grandmother that you would not be able to attend. You aren’t obligated in the least, Klaus,” Edwina said gently. “I really just wanted to hear your voice this morning.”
“I’m honored that your grandmother has invited me. The fact that I’ve been invited says that you are taking my proposal seriously enough to talk with her about it. I only regret that I am unable to fulfill the obligation.”
“I need to get ready for Church,” Edwina said, changing the subject. “Mass is in two hours.”
“You know, you always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Change the subject whenever it grows uncomfortable for you.”
Edwina sighed. “Perhaps I do. However, I do need to get ready for Mass.”
“Pray for me.”
“Of course. Do you go to Mass regularly, Klaus?”
“The Cardinal was kind enough, because of my condition, to allow me a small chapel in my home. My chaplain says Mass for me and my household staff, daily.”
“You have your own chaplain,” she echoed.
“Actually, he’s chaplain to the corporation and chairs our bio-ethics committee. He’s a Religious, not a diocesan priest. Providing the sacraments to me is the least of the many items in his job description.”
“I still can’t get over the fact that you have your own chaplain.”
“It is necessary. I’d be guaranteed to be able to hear Mass only twice a year—Christmas Eve and Easter Vigil otherwise.”
“That makes sense,” she said with a yawn.
“You are not a morning person, I take it?” he asked carefully.
“Normally, I am. But I don’t normally stay up until the wee hours of the morning. Well, I’ll let you go.”
“Did you dream of me, Edwina?”
“I choose not to answer that on the grounds that my answer would only serve to inflate your already far too highly bloated ego.”
He laughed in genuine amusement. “You wound me.”
“If you were serious in that complaint, I would apologize.”
“I believe that you would at that.”
“Goodbye, Klaus.”
“Call me anytime. Regardless of what I’m doing, I will always take time for you.”
“That’s a broad promise.”
“It’s nothing more than the truth,” he protested.
“Klaus, I don’t know what to make of you.”
“That’s a start. At least you aren’t dismissing me out of hand.”
“No woman in her right mind would dismiss you out of hand.”
Klaus laughed. “And this description applies to you, how?” he teased in what she knew was a payback for her earlier comments.
Edwina laughed then regretted it. Her head was pounding. “How much did we drink last night?”
“Hung over?” he asked tenderly.
“Just a little headache.”
“May I come by this evening?”
“I’ll meet you for dinner. Name the restaurant and the time.”
“I won’t be free until eight. I’ll meet you at your shop about nine. Then we’ll go somewhere for dinner.”
“Klaus, you’re going to have a full day. You don’t need…” she began.
“On the contrary, I do need to spend the evening with you,” he said smoothly, cutting her off. “And if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit the same thing about me.”
“Klaus,” she began again.
“Do I confuse you, Edwina?”
“I wouldn’t say ‘confuse’ exactly. More like baffle.”
“What baffles you about me?”
“Do you have a fireplace in your bedroom?” she asked suddenly.
His answer was silence for a long moment. “Yes,” he answered quietly. “Why do you ask?”
“Bedrooms say a lot about us.”
“And what does your bedroom say about you?” Klaus asked, turning the question back on her. “You didn’t let me in there last night.”
“It’s fairly monastic.”
“You sleep on a pile of straw covered with a blanket?” he teased.
“Not hardly. But my bedroom furniture can charitably be called utilitarian. I’ve put my money into the nursery, greenhouses, the shop, and those rooms of my apartment that are likely to see guests. As long as I have a place to sleep and somewhere to work, I’m happy.”
“Why did you really ask me about my bedroom?”
“I’ve been trying to imagine what sort of room you would choose to sleep in,” she said quietly.
“So, tell me what you’ve imagined.”
“Why not?” she asked quietly. She needed to know if the dream was just her imagination or something more. It was the prospect of something more that really frightened her. She didn’t like her prophetic dreams. “You strike me as the type to have luxuriously thick carpet, probably in some high energy color like red.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Very accurate. The carpet in my bedroom is being replaced next week. The new carpet is red. The current carpet is white. I hate it. Go on. What else do you imagine?”
“The fireplace would be substantial, probably with a mantle of white or gray stone with a substantial hearth in gray stone.”
“It’s light gray stone with a darker stone hearth.”
“The furnishings are heavy, dark wood, antique. The bed probably has a canopy and bed curtains quilted and heavy enough so that when they are pulled that a person can be in bed with no knowledge of whether it is day or night.”
“My bed is antique mahogany. A canopied four-poster with quilted bed-curtains. Tell me what else you’ve imagined,” Klaus demanded.
“There are built in book cases loaded with well read volumes in several languages. Comfortable wing chairs, covered in supple russet leather, with matching ottomans. An oil painting over the mantle, a seascape in a storm. You strike me as the type who would like storms. A computer and telecommunications devices are the only modern accommodations in the room. You wouldn’t be without them because you are like me in that you have flashes of insight in the night and need to put those down before you forget them. T
here are no windows in the room. Yet you’d have a security monitor that let you see what was going on outside as well as in other parts of the house. There’s a bathroom immediately attached to the bedroom. It’s sybaritic in its luxury—lots of marble, gold taps, etc—yet profoundly tasteful in its execution, like it’s owner.”
He was quiet for a long moment. “You have an amazingly good imagination. Or have you had me investigated?”
“Like I’ve had time to have you investigated, even if I had the spare money,” she dismissed. “My life does not revolve around you, Herr Doctor von Bruner.”
“It will,” he said with confidence. “Just as mine already revolves around you.”
“Klaus…” she said lowly, stunned at this statement from him.
“How did you know these things?” he asked, changing the subject.
“I didn’t know. Like I said, it was idle imagination,” she replied in a weaker voice than she wanted to use.
“Imagination, maybe, but that’s not the whole story. Tell me the full truth.”
She sighed. Whatever had possessed her to bring up the matter in the first place? But now that she had, it was time to see what kind of reaction this would get. “No. It’s not the whole story. I had a dream.”
“You dreamt about my bedroom?” he asked in disbelief.
“Not precisely.”
He laughed softly. “Ah, the bedroom was a backdrop, then. The dream was about us.”
“Yes.”
“Was it a good dream?” he asked smoothly.
“I was awakened by the telephone before it played itself out fully.”
“Was it a good dream?”
“It was profoundly sensual.”
“It doesn’t have to stay a dream. Anything you can dream, I can make real.”
“We don’t know each other well enough yet for me to make an eternal commitment to you.”
He was quiet for a moment. “We will, Edwina. We will.”
“We’ll see, Klaus. Now, I have to get ready for Sunday Mass. Then I’ll be going out to my grandmother’s for lunch.”
“Have a good time.”
“She isn’t going to be happy about my coming out there alone.”
“I’m sorry, Edwina. I simply can not come to lunch with you.”
Dream Lover Page 11