Rendezvous with Hymera (6 page)

“I’m not exactly any other woman,” she answered with a feline smile. “Or haven’t you noticed?”

“I’ve noticed that the very first time I saw you in the school hall.”

“Is that why you used to stare at me like you were looking at a ghost?” she teased.

“Among other things, yes.”

They smiled at each other, lost in the reverie of those days of infatuation and adolescent innocence.

Clara sprang up.

“I’ll go see if your shoes have dried a bit. The sooner you leave, the sooner you’ll return,” she
rationalized then let out a string of curses spiced with a creativity way beyond any limits of licentiousness.

Colin only raised his eyebrows when he saw her standing in front of the door, with half a door handle in
her hand, whilst the other half fell with a thud on the opposite side of the door. The luck was that in Clara’s hand was the half of the handle that operated the mechanism from inside, allowing her to open the door. She recovered the other piece and put both on the coffee table, muttering:

“Until you get
back, I’ll take care of this.”

His already arched eyebrows went up another notch.

“You can also fix door handles?” he asked with a touch of wonder and amusement.

“Basically, I can do just about anything needed in a house, from painting to building furniture. My
father taught me to work with screwdrivers, wrenches, flex, drilling, welding, and so on,” she said, pride transpiring through her voice. “You’ve no idea what stuff I can improvise,” she added, smiling and winking at him. “I’ll be right back. Let me get your shoes.”

The shoes were, indeed, dry. One of them was between Tony’s huge paws, and he was lovingly
chewing it. The other one, or, better yet, what was left of it, was lying discarded, probably no longer being of interest to the quadruped offender.

Clara stuck her hands in her own hair and yanked mercilessly.

“You bad, bad dog! You hairy destructive beast!” she yelled exasperated, standing in the doorway.

Tony slowly raised his head, with the shoe in his mouth and, sensing trouble, he stopped shaking his
tail and began a tactical withdrawal, giving up the capture covered with teeth marks, canine saliva and hair.

With blood in her eye, his mistress advanced on the battlefield, to recover the remains of leather
- which probably had cost a fortune - followed by Colin’s roars of laughter.

“Don’t get so pissed off,
honey,” he said grinning. “I’ve got another few pairs at home.”

This simple remark, banal in its
appearance, later marked in Clara’s mind the moment in which she undoubtedly fell in love with him. With the man who can treat with humor and affection a situation in which a pair of obscenely expensive shoes were destroyed by the tireless jaws of her dog. Of course, the fact that he had the body of a god, the face of a naughty angel and he kissed like a triple X movie star also weighed heavily in his favor.

A little shaken by the magnitude of this revelation, she turned and faced him, with the chewed shoes in
her hand.

“I’m really sorry about this. I totally forgot what a pain in the ass tha
t fucking dog can sometimes be. Every time he chewed on something he wasn’t supposed to, I threatened to castrate him.”

She indicated
his shoes.

”These are number a hundred or so of all the things he ruined. I’ve been trying for years to
educate him, but he always relapses. I’ll pay for them.”

“Don’t insult me, please,” he replied, taking the shoes from her. “If you wanna repay m
e, leave the poor creature to keep his balls,” he added, laughing. “I’ll walk wearing these to my car, but I’ll drive in my socks.”

So saying, he put on the fringed shoes, kissed her and hobbled to the door.

“I’ll come back as fast as I can. Miss me.”

He walked out, winking, while she was stupidly staring at him.

***

Colin drove to his apartment, watching the road and thinking about Clara. Once arrived, he unlocked
the door, finding Morris perched on the bar, licking an empty plate, with his whiskers and paws smeared with incriminatory traces of chocolate.

“If you’ve eaten again all my cookies, I’ll put a red ribbon around y
our neck and tie a bell by that fluffy tuft you call a tail,” Colin threatened with his index.

Morris gazed at him contemptuously, descended majestically and, colla
psing on the floor; he raised a paw in the air and began to wash it.

Colin sighed deeply.

“You’ll embarrass the hell out of me,” he said to the giant golden fur mass, which was watching him with yellowish-green eyes and with the ever-frowning expression specific to Persian cats.

After he took a quick shower, he changed into a t-shirt, sport pants and sneakers. He liked sport outfits, not
just because he was an athletic guy, but also because he felt comfortable. Suits with starched shirts and ties were not his style, though, if necessary, he could wear them with elegance and prestige.

He grabbed Morris under one arm, receiving a growl as a sign of protest, and he locked the apartment.

Then, getting into the car, he deposited his furry burden on the passenger seat, where the cat immediately began to sharpen his claws.

“Don’t!” said Colin firmly, giving him a light smack on each paw. “You’ve destroyed three chair
covers so far! This one I like, so stick your claws into the sheath and sit quietly.”

Morris turned his back on him, angrily moving his tail even after he curled on the seat, getting ready for
the way.

A dense darkness had fallen outside when Colin reached the cottages. At the top floor of Rose’s cottage, a
single shy light could be seen, but he gladly noticed that his darling Clara had left all the lights on for him.

Again taking the cat under one arm like a sack of potatoes – a position that drastically undermined the
cat’s aristocratic dignity – he walked to the third cottage. Entering without knocking, he found a lethargic Tony, lying on the couch with his paws in the air and tongue seeping on one side.

Still, the furry quadruped got into alert mode as soon as the door had opened, cautiously coming to inspect
the newcomers. Colin put down the cat, who was frowning at Tony, not at all frightened by a dog that was a few times his size. When Tony tried a good-humored sniff as a sign of greeting, Morris, with lightning speed, applied a claw over his nose, therefore sending the dog whimpering behind the couch.

After showing him, beyond any doubt, who the boss was, the cat jumped, with amazing agility for one of
his caliber, on the couch, nose twitching, probably getting ready to mark the new territory.

“I can see you’re getting along just fine... I’ll leave you to get acquainted,” said Colin, smiling
indulgently.

At that moment, C
lara’s voice came from upstairs:

“I’m here! Come on up!”

He found her seated at the desk, with the laptop in front of her, working the keyboard faster than his eyes could follow, while Leonard Cohen’s rough sexy voice caressed their hearing with the sublime rhythm of the song
Dance Me to the End of Love
.

Clara wore a black silk robe that reached the middle of her thighs and a pair of glasses on the top of her
nose. She was irresistible, adorable and attractive in the diffused light coming from the laptop’s monitor and a single candle, sitting in an elegant, antique-looking candlestick, which flickered lazily, spreading a vague aroma of vanilla.

Without a word, she took off her glasses and rose, half closing the laptop’s cover. Now, from the small
portable speakers placed strategically on the desk’s corners, Glenn Medeiros’
Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You
built and completed the romantic atmosphere.

Clara stood in front of him, the candle’s flame sparkling in her gaze.

It was a night which, unconsciously, they had both been expecting for a lifetime, a night of love and desire, the beginning of a world in which their dreams were about to finally become sweet, tangible reality.

Colin watched her with an almost incandescent intensity, then he reached out with his hand, holding a red
rose, barely blossomed. He used the flower like an extension of the index finger, stroking Clara’s cheek with the fragrant petals, slowly tracing the line of her cheekbones, then her damp and beautifully shaped lips.

Following with his eyes the smooth movement of the petals on a skin softer than silk, he descended on the
line of her chin and paused at the low neckline of the robe, where the rose’s deep red contrasted with the glossy black.

Placing the flower on the desk, Colin gently untied the robe’s belt, slipping his hands on her shoulders,
and the delicate fabric glided on the floor.

They stood a moment mesmerized, each paying to the other a tacit tribute. She – a nude Aphrodite, a
harmonious ensemble of curves, beauty, grace and sensuality. He – a tall, handsome Ares, emanating power and sensuality, his dark eyes charged with desire and emotion.

Consumed by the smoldering passion that had burned in both their mi
nds over time, they frantically kissed and embraced, exploring, discovering each other, in a symphony of sensations and feelings.

After removing with trembling fingers the barrier of his clothes, Clara stopped for a moment to look at her
lover, so beautiful and attractive in his nakedness, with skin that seemed to have the fluid color of caramel in the candle light. Each shape, each contour was superbly sculpted, beginning with his smooth chest, the strong and broad shoulders, the arms with subtle lines created by muscles and veins.

Those arms encompassed her now and, lost in a rainbow of euphoria, she abandoned herself to the expert
caresses of his hands.

Colin laid her on the massive bed, covering her with kisses, then with his hot, hard body.

United by the supreme intimacy of the bond only two people can have, they abandoned themselves to the desire that consumed them, until the reality seemed to fall apart, and they remained the only entities in a universe created from all levels and expressions of love.

***

Clara awoke with her eyelashes insistently tickled by a ray of light and with a smile lingering on her lips, lost in a reverie of the past night. She shuddered with pleasure thinking of her lover, of his sensual lips and skilled caresses, thinking of all the whispers, promises and gasps, which had interlaced with the sounds of the night, the forest, and the lake.

The candle had extinguished and so had the laptop, whose power had run out long before their mutual desire
was temporarily satisfied.

I need you so much... I love you!
He had whispered, while she sat nestled against his chest, tracing with her finger the cavity that separated his torso in two halves, perfectly defined and wonderfully outlined.

I love you too,
she had replied, embracing him tighter
. Maybe it’s crazy, but I think I’ve loved you from the moment I first caught sight of you staring at me, so direct and daring, like you could see right into my soul
.

Colin was charming in every way – a quality that he was aware of and a
rtistically exploited – bright, intelligent, educated and well mannered, bold and confident. Above all, however, his most striking feature were his eyes, so expressive and captivating, spiced with a slight dose of naughty, insinuating amusement, eyes that invited, even challenged a woman to discover their secrets.

Do you remember what you told me when I asked you why you were staring at me like that
? she had asked him with a sly smile.

I told you to listen one of Kylie Minogue’s songs, ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ or ‘Love at First Sight’,
any of them would have been fit
, he had replied, tenderly caressing her back.
The most original come-on I have ever received,
she’d teased him.
That’s me, Mr. Originality
.

Then he had covered her mouth with his and the conversation had ceased, leaving room only for the erotic
language of their bodies.

Late, in the deepest hours of the night, they had slightly slipped into the nets of sleep, extending in a world
of dreams, a newly discovered magic of reality.

Now, Clara was looking adoringly at her lover, who was sleeping beside her, on his belly, head hidden
under the pillow, probably to escape from the same irritating sunlight that had managed to slide through the old shutters.

Gently sneaking out of bed, she recovered her robe from the floor and, thinking of a delicious breakfast,
she got out silently, dressing and blowing an invisible kiss to Colin.