All names, and most of the detail in this story is fictitious. If I've accidentally used your name, my apologies.
Sophia and I tumbled over and under each other in bed. It was a delightful afternoon, but eventually we were tired and hungry, or hungry and tired. I was too bleary-eyed to know which came first.
"Room service?"
"Yes!" Sophia was eager to hear the rest of the story about my Dutch friends and their adventures. We washed up and robed ourselves in the time it took for our order to arrive.
After we were down to desert, the Tiramisu I think it was, I continued with the story. It was doubly hard, aside from being tempted to talk with my mouth full, because Sophia shone so beautifully after our romp and our showers. She reminded me of Dominique way back in the Netherlands.
"Did you know that you are glowing?" I paused to ask her.
"Yes!" We laughed at her uncomplicated forthrightness. "Seriously, at the planning meeting yesterday, Katherine K_______ asked me where I went for a workout. I told her The Oxford, and she thought I meant the health club, not the hotel!"
"Did you tell her who your trainer is?" We laughed again.
"No!" She paused, as if remembering something wonderful from long ago. "Let's get started on the Netherlands, okay?"
=============
At breakfast late that next morning, Dominique and I talked about all kinds of professional things. Anything to keep our minds off of sex, I suppose. We went bicycling for half an hour or so, working up a sweat in the humid, warm air.
En route, we met Frank Jones and Kalee's boss. They were strolling hand in hand, looking very much in tune with each other. They both gave us smug smiles, as if they had enjoyed the evening more than we could imagine. We stopped for a moment and chatted-- Jones pulling me aside to tell me that he thought that based on his interview of last evening, Jereon was on the right track, and that Kalee seemed to be ready for something special today. Perhaps it was just the language barrier that Jereon had to overcome.
It must have been in the high 70's, but being so close to the ocean, and surrounded by canals, perspiration came quickly. Back in Dominique's apartment, we showered - separately - and changed into clothes that at least for a few minutes would be dry.
I was not very meticulous. The inventory in my suitcase was pretty well used up. Dominique, on the other hand, dressed carefully. Something about the combination of her bra and blouse did not work right, so she pulled off the blouse and unclasped the bra. For a moment she stood in front of the mirror topless, looking trim in her slacks. She ran her hands over her breasts.
"Do you think he'll like them?" she grinned, half-concerned, half-knowing the answer.
"He'd be crazy not to. You are in better shape than women half your age." I felt my uninformed hormones eagerly starting to circulate.
"Of course," she murmured reflectively, "but half my age is how old he is." She pulled out a new bra, and then everything fit together the way that she wanted it. I struggled not to say anything.
Then we just sat quietly in her living room, me reading some of my notes from a conference, her reading through her checklist of trance words for her afternoon project, as we sipped orange juice. It looked so thoroughly domestic!
I looked up from papers and noted that Dominique had closed her eyes. She was taking a little nap, and she looked beautiful doing it. Her neatly cut blonde hair framed her relaxed face. It was hard to believe that she was older than I. Again, as in her dreams of last night, her tongue flicked briefly over her lips.
Just when I had begun to wonder if I should wake her, she blinked and stirred.
"Time to go, I think," she said with a smile. "You want to come with me, yes?"
"I wouldn't miss this for anything!" I spoke the simple truth. "You're really wonderful to let me in on this." Ever the researcher, she was offering me a chance that she knew a fellow explorer would rarely share.
Quietly we moved about, each deep in our own thoughts. Locking the door, down the stairs, along the streets, as if we were any other couple, and into the ticket lobby of the four centuries old Hortus Botanicus.
The vast collection of plants was divided into climate zones, indoor and outdoor, but it would all be closing at 4 p.m., we were told. Dominique already knew that, and explained in Dutch that this was the only chance for her American guest to get in. We were waved through, without being charged admission.
"Be sure to be out by 4 o'clock, though!" the attendant called out in fluent English as we entered.
We strolled in a pattern that I did not recognize, passing exiting visitors who had come for the spring flowers. Eventually we bypassed the modern display areas and found ourselves at an old greenhouse.
"Jereon should already have found his way inside by now," Dominique quietly explained, as she slid open the heavy door. A counterbalance on a rusty chain pulled the door shut immediately behind us with an authoritative "thunk!" We heard voices.
"There may be some other visitors here," Dominique noted. "We'll just wander around, and if we see them, look at your watch a few times and they'll realize it's time to go home." She paused. "I have an arrangement with the maintenance people, and no one else will come in here after us." We wandered.
It was quite a surprise, though, to find not an elderly couple of horticulture fanciers, but our waitress from the night before!
Dominique blinked her surprise at me, and then reacted smoothly. Perhaps there had been unexpected contingencies in the past.
"How wonderful to see you here." Introductions all around. Her name was Kalee. "Kalee, we noticed you working in the restaurant... You should join us... if you're here by yourself." I am condensing what she said, but that was the gist of her side of the conversation.
"I'm waiting for Jereon to come back. He brought me here, but for some reason he just remembered something he had to check out, and he went deeper into the aisle back there." Kalee's words seemed a bit distracted, and an idea began to form in my head. Dominique nodded discreetly at me.
"Why don't I go back and look for Jereon. The professor would surely love to learn more about you, and you two can wait right there on that bench. If you wait right there, then everything will be fine." It was a smooth hand-off. Dominique and I knew each other's thoughts so well! And it made sense to Kalee.
As she disappeared into the simulated rain forest, I showed Kalee to the old bench. What Dominique had suggested was the kick-off suggestion for many more from me.
"Isn't it amazing, both of us being from the States and turning up here? I guess that's not much of a connection, but it's amazing what we might find out when we swap stories." Of course, she agreed, and we began to go pleasantly deeper into synchronization with each other.
As I guided her into a trance, I learned that Jereon had encouraged her to come here, that he had shown her how the spring flowers outside, and now the sensuous perfume of those inside, would remind her of beautiful times past.... and of her special place as a woman in Creation.
"You can enjoy those feelings again and again," I assured her. "With me, the scent of flowers always brings up something good. It's hard to remember at times, it's hidden, isn't it.... but with someone who shares their energy with you... you can remember and enjoy."
She licked her lips and her nostrils quivered a bit. She was almost ready to go under, deep into the flowery set-up that Jereon had introduced and that I simply had helped her to recall. She was just beginning to notice how the greenhouse was getting warmer and warmer, and then it only made sense that she now understood why we both would feel more comfortable without our shirts. And then our process was interrupted by a deep groan from back in the tropical forest, or perhaps two groans! Kalee stood up on tiptoes to see where the sound came from.
Her eyes grew very wide, as through a random gap in the jungle branches she saw the trim and energetic Professor Dominique throwing her head back in sheer joy as she very obviously rode a man of great power to a shuddering climax. Only her partner's hands and arms were visible, cupping her breasts, tenderly caressing her arms, and then pulling her head down for kisses.
Kalee turned back to me, amazed and puzzled. What should I say?
"Wow!" I agreed with her unspoken reaction. "In this natural place, it's so easy to feel all the barriers between we fellow humans dropping away. And as you envy her pleasure, it will (not) be hard to feel your way toward the same joy." To myself, I added hope that she would not realize who the strong young man was who bucked out of our sight beneath Dominique.
"Joy like that takes a physical action of some kind, yes?" She nodded coyly at me.
"Deep inside you," I responded, "it's waiting, the feeling is waiting for the right way of opening to it... your subconscious knows what you need... now... you want to think about it more and more....? Perhaps you just want to enjoy the way that your body is already responding to your desire to capture joy like that?"
"No!" Her response startled me. "Here I am, a child of Creation... full of the perfume that surrounds us... sensitive... growing sensitive... I need no longer think... just let myself respond..." she began pulling off her clothing as she recited thoughts that must have grown from Jereon's earlier suggestions... and yet they were her own, too. Perhaps he was more clever than I had realized. He was slower and more methodical than the man from Marin, but by finding Kalee's own mental keys, he would unlock and release the woman within her more certainly than the quick fling that he was supposed to seek.
At that point, it all came to me. Jereon had subconsciously picked up the same natural themes that Dominique was offering him! With his limited experience at seduction, he had simply replicated the subconscious concepts that Dominique had installed in him and applied them to his own plan.
"You must feel a special connection with me... to want to share your deep understanding of nature with someone here..." I worked to step into Jereon's place. I felt no guilt about it, he was needed elsewhere. And I trusted Dominique's promise that he would become a better lover than ever for Kalee-- or whoever else he might choose. "You may begin your inward journey with me... and build on the knowledge we are about to share..." I leaned slightly forward and enjoyed her instinctive move to lean back to receive my kiss.
"As you become aware of your femininity... you will enjoy sensing your body's preparations..." I paced her through the steps, heightening her awareness of her sensitive breasts, the changes taking place now, the sexy wetness, the need to receive me.
Kalee plunged into my embrace, nuzzling her full breasts joyfully against my bared chest. Her lips stayed glued to mine as best as she could, while my hands swept over her. It was time to stop talking and let our senses and the sexual mystery do the work. The heat of her body told me of her readiness.
