Helmut picked up the shoe and turned it over in his fingers. The hot pink and yellow floral foam looked entirely too girlish for the woman sitting across from him.
Claire’s towel hid far too much, yet revealed far too much, for his comfort. Seated, she was bare to almost the apex of her sleekly muscled thighs. Just below toned shoulders, the scraggly white terry cloth strained over her rounded breasts and skimmed the slim waistline and curve of her hip.
Her cheeks flushed, damp with exertion and steam, and she looked both invigorated and sated, as if she had spent the past hour making love instead of running on a treadmill.
His cock was already half-aroused, straining against his shorts under the towel in his lap. Helmut drew a steadying breath. He didn’t think about what he was about to do. He swept the towel aside, and knelt in front of Claire.
“May I?” he said, indicating her foot.
Claire’s bright blue eyes glowed luminously against her warm pink cheeks, and her tongue peeked out to discretely lick her lips. Slowly she inclined her head.
Helmut gingerly picked up her bare right foot, noting the pink nail polish and slender toes. The foot looked dainty and pale against his sun-darkened hands. He traced the arch and around the back of her heel. He heard the faint sound of the intake of her breath as she realized that he wasn’t just replacing the shoe.
But she didn’t pull away.
Helmut slid one hand up the back of her calf to the soft spot behind her knee. Gently, he lifted her foot to his mouth and pressed a light kiss to the bone on the inside of her ankle. She exhaled, slowly.
Helmut trailed his lips upward toward her knee. He kissed her again, savoring the salty sweetness of her skin with his tongue. He glanced upwards. Her eyes blazed into his, the pupils dilated and her lips parted in a soft O.
The heavy steam of the room filled his lungs as he inhaled slowly, languidly. Raggedly. The heat slowed each of his movements into a leisurely exploration of her satiny skin. The pace suited him perfectly. He wanted to savor her taste. To savor her.
He kissed the pulsing vein throbbing on the inside of her knee again, and slid his hand up the outside of her thigh to her hip. He hesitated a moment at the edge of her towel. Allowed her a moment to tell him to stop. Hoped like hell she wouldn’t.
Helmut’s cock strained against his shorts, and he felt the pounding of his blood rushing through his veins.
Claire closed her eyes and tilted her head back a tiny notch.
Helmut’s hand slid up and under her towel along her hip until it found the thin band of fabric and elastic. He toyed with that spot, under the jut of her hipbone, and kissed the inside of her thigh. She shivered and relaxed her leg wider.
Helmut closed his eyes, inhaling the musky scent of her arousal mixed with the sweet, tropical scent of her skin. His fingers trembled at the edge of her panties.
Slow. Steady. Don’t rush this. Don’t ruin this.
With both hands, he reached inside her towel up along the sides of her waist, over the supple skin. Kneeling between her legs, he slowly opened the towel. She let it go and raised her hands and then lowered them, as if she didn’t know where to put them.
Helmut smiled at the sight of her purple and black sports bra and sensible white bikini panties. He cupped breasts lightly with his thumbs and lowered his mouth to the confining fabric.
Claire gasped audibly as he closed his mouth over one peak, and the nipple tightened. He kissed and sucked the other breast, teasing the skin around the bottom of the bra band with his fingers.
“Helmut.” Claire threaded her fingers into his sweat-slickened hair. “This is not a good idea.”
“Do you want me to stop?” He waited, her breast heavy in his palm, his thumb poised on one straining nipple. He rubbed the pad over the taut peak lightly.
She drew a ragged breath and arched her back, pressing against his hands. “No, don’t stop.”
Helmut’s lips left her breasts and he forged a trail of hot kisses down her ribcage to her belly button. He pressed his thumbs up and under the taut fabric of her bra and found hot, sensitive skin. She moaned. His cock throbbed in reply, full and impatient. It would have to wait.
He knew how this encounter would end. Or rather, how it would not end for him. He hadn’t walked into the steam room expecting to find himself in this position. He had no condom. It was a cooling thought. Barely.
He bent to kiss her sex through the silky white fabric of her panties. He gently nibbled her clit with his teeth, and she writhed and arched her hips up against his mouth.
He grasped her hips with his fingers and raised them up, and then slid down her panties. The hair between her legs was a deep golden yellow, a few shades darker than her hair. She was definitely a natural blond. He shifted his position to remove the scrap of fabric from her ankles. She parted her legs, willingly allowing him access.
“Please,” she whispered.
Helmut felt the first drops of his own fluids at the tip of his penis, and clamped down hard on the sensation. Ladies first. His thighs quavered as he bent between her legs, and spread her folds with his fingers.
Claire writhed and moaned as he slipped one finger across her wet opening. He slid it inside as he rubbed the swollen bud of her clit with his thumb. She arched and rubbed against him, urging his fingers in further, against the hard bundle of nerves inside.
She was close. Helmut wanted to be inside her, to feel her tighten around his cock, to slide into her folds and to bury his face in the long blond hair. He wanted her to come for him.
He bent his head and took her clit into his mouth, sucking and licking the sensitive bud with his tongue. At the same time, he slid a second finger inside her and worked them, sliding them in and out. He heard her gasp, and moan, and her fingers clutched his hair.
“Helmut.”
His name on her lips was nearly his own undoing as he felt her tighten around his fingers. He felt the rush of her fluids, and sucked her again. She shifted on his fingers, pumping up and down and tightened around him again and again.
When she stilled, he raised his lips and kissed the inside of her thigh. She protested softly as he removed his fingers from her sex, and gently set her hips down on the bench.
“That was...you didn’t...” she began.
Helmut looked into those angelic blue eyes, gazing at him with a rapturous expression. Despite his own painfully throbbing erection, he felt a burst of manly pride.
A clamor of voices in the hallway shocked him into awareness.
“We aren’t alone.” He carefully wrapped her back in her towel, and reluctantly stood up. His cock was hard at attention beneath his shorts, but there was no hope for it. He grabbed for his towel and held it limply in one hand.
“I’ll head out first. Wait a few minutes. Or do you want me to knock when the coast is clear?”
Claire reached for the underwear that had been dropped on the floor and balled them in one fist. She straightened. “I’ll manage.”
Helmut turned toward the door. He recognized the timber of men’s voices. Could be Ben, or some of the other racquetball players, fresh from their showers. Thank God none of them had felt like a steam after the match.
“Helmut?”
He looked over his shoulder. Claire had smoothed her hair back from her face. This time, he could take credit for the flush in her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes. “Yes?”
“Shall we finish this at my place?”
“Absolutely.”
“You’re where?” Helmut practically shouted into the phone. The connection cut out again and his palms went frigid.
“--eoria,” came Kelsie’s voice.
“Peoria? What the hell are you doing in Peoria?” Helmut leaned one balled fist on the kitchen counter in front of him. “I thought Mom said you were spending the week in New York.”
“My phone’s about to die. Can you come get me? Please? I’ll explain when you get here. I’m in the Denny’s on University just off 74.”
“Yeah. I’m on my way.”
Helmut clicked off his cell phone and stared at the faint blue screen. Assuming his baby sister was safe and sound when he got to Peoria, he was going to strangle her.
Helmut buzzed the doorman to his condo building and requested that the valet bring his car up from the underground garage. The drive to Peoria would take him three hours at least. Thankfully it was well past rush hour, or he would be fighting the parking lot that was I-55 as downtown Chicago emptied for the weekend.
Helmut glanced down at the bouquet of exquisite red roses, still wrapped in a generous sheaf of green florist paper. He hunted through the numbers in his cell phone. Nada.
Helmut swore under his breath as he dialed Betty.
“Hello?” She sounded distracted, and Helmut thought he heard the friendly chatter of voices in the background.
“Betty, it’s Helmut. I’m very sorry to call you at home.”
“That’s OK. What do you need?”
“Do you have Claire’s cell phone number? Or a land line?”
He heard the background noise on Betty’s end grow louder and then go silent, as if she’d shut a door.
“Claire? You mean Sheffield?”
“Yes.” Helmut walked to his coat closet and pulled out his old leather jacket.
“I can pull it up on my laptop computer. Darned fancy technology. This is going to take me a few minutes to power up. Are you in the office? Can I call you back?” Helmut heard the rustling of papers.
“I’m at home. Leaving it actually. Call my cell.”
“Sure. What’s going on?”
“I, uh, was supposed to go over, uh, something with her tonight. But I’ve got a family emergency.”
“Did something happen to your mom?” she asked, the pitch of her voice rising. Helmut could picture the concern on her face. Betty had only met his mother once or twice over the years, but the two women got along well.
“No, no. It’s Kelsie.” He heard the faint chime of the laptop powering on.
“Your sister? You’re going to Florida? Do I need to rearrange your schedule for Monday?”
“Calm down, Betty. Kelsie’s fine. She’s just stranded in Peoria. And no, I don’t know how that happened. But I intend to find out in a few hours.”
“Some crazy college stunt, no doubt,” she said. “I found the number. Are you ready?”
Helmut grabbed the first envelope off a stack of mail and hurriedly scribbled down the digits as she read them off. “Thanks, Betty. Again, I’m sorry to interrupt you.”
“I know you are, Helmut. Go take care of your sister, and I’ll see you at the baseball game tomorrow afternoon.”
The Cubs game. He had almost forgotten. He had arranged for his department to use the company box for the Cubs-Cards game. “About that. Any chance that there’s an extra ticket? In case I have company for the weekend.”
Betty chuckled. “I’ll see what I can do. Safe driving.”
Helmut clicked off his phone and headed out the door to the elevator. As he rode down the twenty-three floors to street level, he dialed Claire’s number. It went straight to voice mail. Helmut frowned into the phone as the doorman handed him his car keys.
“Claire, it’s Helmut. I hate to cancel on you like this, but something came up. I will make it up to you as soon as I can.”
He slid behind the driver’s seat of his BMW, slamming the door shut at the same time he clicked off the phone.
The caustic mix of anger, frustration, and fear had faded into weariness by the time he pushed open the glass door of the little restaurant. The monotonous landscape of rural Illinois had droned the fight out of him.
He immediately spotted the familiar petite brunette, sitting in a corner booth with her legs stretched out before her, reading a paperback book. He slid into the opposite end of the booth and signaled for the waitress. And Kelsie pounced.
“You’re here!” She threw her arms around him and buried her head in his chest.
Helmut gave her a squeeze and carefully set her away from him. Her eyes were puffy and red and she exhaled a shuddering breath. Clad in a pair of faded, low-hipped jeans and a gray hoodie with her long hair pulled back into a simple ponytail, she looked far younger than her twenty-one years.
“What happened, kiddo?” he asked.
“We were on our way to Iowa City, to visit some friends—”
“We who?” Helmut demanded.
Kelsie’s cheeks reddened and she twirled the straw in a half-empty soda glass. “It doesn’t matter. I’m never seeing him again.”
“Kelsie.”
She looked back up at him, with the same stubborn set to her chin that she used to have when she’d get in trouble as a kid. “His name is Chris. We’ve been dating for a couple of weeks, and we both have friends at Iowa State, so we decided to take a road trip. I told Mom I was headed up to Laura’s in New York. I knew she’d freak if she found out I was going on a trip with a guy. She treats me like I’m fifteen, or something.”
Helmut raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”
“Anyway, just past Indianapolis, he got a phone call from some other girl. I asked who it was, and he started on some rant about how he’d never agreed to date me exclusively.”
“You got in a fight, so he dropped you on the side of the road?” Beneath the table, Helmut clenched is hands into fists. His sister was impulsive, and as the baby of the family, more than a little spoiled. But she was still his sister. And if this Chris-guy had been standing nearby, Helmut would have decked him.
Her pink cheeks deepened to a bright crimson. “No, he didn’t kick me out. We didn’t talk at all the last hour in the car. When he stopped for gas across the street, I got out and walked away.”
Helmut took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, willing his fists to unclench. Impulsive, spoiled, and willful.
“Can I get you something?” the waitress asked.
“The check,” Kelsie said.
“Coffee. Black,” Helmut said.
“I’ve been sitting here for three and a half hours,” Kelsie said. “Can’t we go?”
“I’ve been up since five this morning, worked all day, and played an hour and a half of racquetball. And I’ve been driving for three and a half hours.” Not to mention Claire and the steam room. “Unless you’re willing to take the wheel, I need caffeine.”
“Oh. Right. Fancy sports car with the fancy stick shift.” She picked up her ponytail with one hand and began twirling the ends around her fingers. “Rob offered to teach me, you know.”
Helmut raised an eyebrow. “To teach you what?”
“To drive a stick, of course. Sometime when he’s home.”