Dream Lover Read online

  “You didn’t hurt me,” he said quietly with a small smile as he tried not to laugh. She wouldn’t appreciate his laughing at her. And she wouldn’t understand how charming he found her innocence. He refastened his trousers. “But this has gone far enough, much further than it should have, tonight. I didn’t come here planning to seduce you.”

  “What did you plan?”

  He smiled again. “To talk business. But I see that things will never be able to be totally businesslike between us.”

  “Complaining?” she teased.

  “Not in the least, Liebling.” He kissed her forehead, then walked away from her, coming to stand just on the other side of the counter once more. “While this is not the time, Edwina, I’m putting you on notice. I will soon take you to bed and keep you there, for days, weeks, or even months.”

  “Months?” she echoed on a disbelieving whisper. She didn’t trust her legs to hold her, if she would stand, so she spun around on the barstool. “Which is why you just put distance between us,” she answered in a far sharper tone than she wanted to use as she reached under the counter and tossed him a small packet containing a pre-moistened towelette. She kept a few of those on hand for when she was repotting plants on the counter. She had never even imagined a situation like this. She knew from the warmth of her face that she was blushing even more boldly than she had been a few moments before.

  He smiled at her once more as he opened the package and unfolded the small towel. Not even once did his eyes leave her face as he cleansed his hands and wadded up the towel before tossing it in the trash. “Oddly enough, it is. Are you willing, Edwina, to give yourself to me right here, on the floor of your shop? Or perhaps you would rather be standing, with your back against the wall? Would you give yourself to me like this, knowing anyone could walk in on us, as I walked in here a few moments ago? My control is stretched so tightly that I almost wouldn’t care.”

  She almost didn’t care either. A few moments ago, she wouldn’t have resisted him in the least if he had backed her up against the wall or lowered her to the floor. She would have followed him anywhere he led her. That much was painfully obvious to her. Yet, now a small shred of sanity was creeping back into her mind.

  “No,” she answered him quietly as her face grew even warmer. “That would not have been my preference in any sane moment. Of course, sanity has precious little to do with the way that you make me feel when I’m in your arms.”

  “I can think of many more suitable settings for the first time that we come together. It will not be rushed or clandestine, Edwina. Neither of us will have any cause for regret afterwards. It is only a matter of time. There is no doubt as to the eventuality. When we make love, it will be the best thing that ever happened to either of us. You can count on that. Yet, we are mature adults. We can wait until we have both privacy and time enough to fully enjoy one another.”

  She blushed and wanted to deny his statement about the inevitability of their making love, but couldn’t. “Who are you trying to convince? Me or yourself?” she demanded.

  “Perhaps both of us. I know that putting distance between us when all I wanted—still want—is to make love to you, was one of the most difficult actions I’ve ever taken.”

  “What else do you need this evening?”

  “You really don’t want me to answer that. If I did, you’d be blushing again from head to toe,” he said gently. “I’m going to enjoy teaching you to becoming shockproof, my dear. I believe I shall miss those blushes. They are so utterly charming.”

  “Look, let’s just keep try to get back to a businesslike tone, okay?” she offered shortly.

  “No, it’s not okay. However, I can see that I am making you profoundly uncomfortable. So just answer my question. Does your being unmarried mean that you can safely handle that herb?”

  She looked at him for the longest moment while she tried to formulate words to express her dismay with this conversation. When she spoke, it was with measured words. “I don’t have time for this.”

  He looked at her for a long time. She forced herself to meet his gaze, even though the heat on her face told her that she was once more crimson. “Don’t evade. Time is an illusion. It is simply an artificial construct. Answer the question. Is it safe for you to handle this herb?”

  “Time is not an illusion. It’s a dimension in the Physics of Relativity. None of us can live in the ever present now,” she dismissed.

  “On the contrary, none of us ever lives otherwise than in the current moment, regardless of how long we live. One cannot live in more than one moment at a time.”

  “So you don’t plan at all?” she challenged.

  “Of course I do. Businesses run on plans. Yet time is not real, Edwina. It’s a construct used only to relate events to one another. Beyond that it has absolutely no significance.”

  “You are really quite the philosopher, aren’t you?”

  “And you are quite adept at evading questions you don’t want to answer.”

  “I believe that’s my right, especially when the questions coming from a virtual stranger are so impertinent!”

  “We will be many things to one another, but being strangers isn’t one of them. Now is it?”

  “No. It isn’t,” she admitted quietly.

  “Why do you resist this chemistry between us?”

  Edwina shook her head negatively. More than anything else in the world, she wanted a future with this man. She bit her lip as she looked at him. “If you call what just happened between us resisting, then I’d say that we have to redefine some terms.”

  “Is there a special man in your life?”

  “Only in my dreams,” she said with a small smile.

  “Are you planning to take the veil?”

  She shook her head again negatively. “I thought about it until I was about ten years old. However, if I had possessed any real plans in that direction, I’d have been cloistered and life professed by now. But I wasn’t cut out for a life of poverty, chastity and obedience,” she dismissed. “Poverty doesn’t appeal. I like having a sense of ownership of things. And I can’t even imagine a time that I would be humble enough to meekly obey anyone.”

  He smiled in return. “You definitely weren’t created for perpetual chastity. You are a beautiful and responsive woman.”

  “Could we please change the subject?” she asked uncomfortably.

  “Do your pleasure preferences run to those of your own sex?”

  “Not that I’ve ever noticed!”

  “Then what is there to understand about your resistance to the strong chemistry between us?”

  “Again, I didn’t notice that I was particularly resisting. I would have followed you anywhere that you took me, and you know it. The fact we are not on the floor with my legs wrapped around you, both of us lost in a sexual fog of need and pleasure, is entirely due to your strength of will, not mine.”

  “Keep stoking the fires, woman, and you may yet get a good view of the ceiling this evening,” he warned quietly in German. “My control is nearly exhausted.”

  “No. I’m now on guard against you. You won’t blindside me twice,” she answered him in English.

  “Did I blindside you?” he asked lowly, in English. “You really categorize what happened between us as my taking advantage of you?”

  “No. I’m shocked at my behavior. Yet you didn’t take advantage. I should have stopped this at any one of several places, and I failed to do so. The fault is mine, not yours.”

  “I fail to see that there is any fault here at all. Which brings me back to my initial question. Is it safe for you to handle pennyroyal? You are not in a position to risk your life and the life of an innocent in handling this herb?”

  “I don’t stock anything that isn’t safe for me to handle. I am in no hurry at all to meet Saint Peter. And death by exsanguination, which would be how one would die from pennyroyal poisoning, has never particularly appealed to me.”

  “Hmmm… I can think of much
worse ways to die… But that is beside the point. Many people are not aware of the harmful or potentially harmful effects of herbs,” Klaus said quietly, thoughtfully. “I am glad that you are at least aware of what you are doing.”

  “I am usually aware of exactly what I am doing at any given time,” she said.

  “Except when you are in my arms,” Klaus added softly. “Then I make you mindless, don’t I?”

  “You don’t need me to answer that question.”

  “Yes. I do. Edwina, please tell me that you were just in my arms because that was where you wanted to be?”

  She couldn’t contain the blush when she thought about just how much she had wanted, still wanted, to be in his arms. “The last man who tried to force his attentions on me ended up in an untidy heap on a boulevard in Paris—nursing a broken knee,” she said harshly. “I am certainly capable of taking care of myself, Klaus.”

  He looked at her for a long moment. Then he smiled. “I believe I should like to hear that tale sometime.”

  “No. I don’t think so. It’s rather ordinary, actually. Now is there any merchandise that I can get for you tonight, besides the herbs?” she asked, pointedly changing the subject.

  “You seem to know great deal about herbs.”

  She shrugged, grateful for the change in subject. “Herbs have always been a serious interest of mine. That’s why I wrote a book on the subject. Medicinal herbs and herbs used in various cultural and religious rituals have always been a fascination to me.”

  “You fascinate me.”

  She sighed. “Then you have a low fascination factor, indeed,” she said dryly.

  He shook his head negatively. “No. People have to be quite interesting for me to take especial notice of them. You are the singularly most fascinating woman I’ve run across in some time.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “I fear, then, that you have lived an extremely sheltered life.”

  Edwina noted that his eyes momentarily grew hard at that comment. She realized that she had inadvertently given him offense. Not knowing what else to do, she said quietly, “I am sorry. I meant to give no offense.”

  The man nodded negatively. “None taken. When you intend to give offense, Doctor Johnson, you do so ruthlessly.”

  Edwina suspected that he was repaying her in kind, with his comment about ruthlessness, for her comment about his sheltered life. That his comment was accurate was hardly immaterial.

  He continued, seriously, “As for your comment, it was merely the recognition of a truth. You are unusually perceptive. Not many people are truly all that perceptive.”

  “Is there anything else related to the shop with which I can help you this evening?” she said, changing the subject rapidly.

  The last thing, besides her reaction to him, she wanted to discuss was perceptions, or what other needs he might have. They had already covered that subject of his needs in far more detail than she was comfortable discussing with strangers, even strangers that she felt she knew so intimately. Besides that, she preferred to deal in areas that she could both quantify and control. Her perceptions were not one of those areas.

  He laughed, genuinely amused. “Kindly do me the honor of being my dinner companion tomorrow evening.”

  She noted that it wasn’t a question, but rather a command. She was quite tempted to say yes. But she didn’t. “No. Thank you.”

  Turning down his invitation was difficult for her. This man was entirely too tempting. Spending time alone with him would definitely not be a good idea just now. She was entirely too vulnerable where he was concerned. Surely the happenings of a few moments ago were adequate demonstration of that?

  “You have other plans for tomorrow night?”

  “I thought I’d give both my cats a bath.”

  His eyes twinkled with mischief. “That should be interesting,” he allowed. “I’d almost pay to see that.”

  Edwina felt herself respond to his suppressed laughter with a genuine smile. “Almost? I’m deeply disappointed,” she teased.

  “I can tell. Now, what’s the real reason you won’t go out with me, Edwina?”

  “You will quite likely think this is funny. Heaven knows that I’m finding it quite ironic at the moment, given the fact that we’ve already demonstrated that you have the definite ability to reduce me to a quivering lump of sensual jelly. The simple truth is that I do not date strange men. There are entirely too many untrustworthy people in the world, people who appear to be one thing and are actually another thing entirely,” she said matter-of-factly. “Getting a proper introduction and reference is a small measure assuring a safeguard against all sorts of unpleasantries I’d rather not deal with. While we have rather skipped many steps in that process and rushed into a high degree of intimacy, I still don’t know you.”

  She hadn’t thought it was possible, but his smile became even warmer. “You are a decidedly old-fashioned female,” he observed.

  “If that were to be an actionable charge, I’d have to plead guilty,” she replied easily. “I am extremely…conservative. Some would say that I’m an antique.”

  “You are definitely precious,” he replied gently, with affection in his voice. “There aren’t many mature women in this era who are virgins.”

  She felt her blush return in full force.

  “You are a virgin, Edwina. Are you not?” Klaus demanded.

  Again, she didn’t see any reason to deny it. “Yes.”

  He looked at her questioningly. “You are a beautiful, passionate, woman. Why have you never taken a lover?”

  “Perhaps I was waiting for a man I couldn’t intimidate,” she said quietly.

  Klaus smiled. “I see.”

  Another man came into the shop before Klaus could reply further. The door buzzer did not ring. Edwina made a note to look at that. “Herr Baron, the Opera will begin soon,” the man said in rapid German. “If you are to arrive before the curtain goes up, you must come soon.”

  “Danke Schmidt,” Klaus replied, in the same language. “I shall be there in a few moments.”

  She smiled, then spoke to Klaus in rapid German “You will enjoy the production of Don Giovanni. I saw it in dress rehearsal the week before it opened in January. You will regret it profoundly if you are late. The herbs come to twenty dollars and seventy five cents.”

  “You like Opera?” he asked in German.

  “I simply adore Mozart,” she told him in the same language.

  “Come with me, see it in full production,” he offered, still in German. “Surely a dress rehearsal is not the same as a full production. And if you truly love Mozart, this is one Opera that you must experience with full production values. I have a spare ticket that will simply go to waste otherwise. I should very much like to see it used by someone.”

  “Date stand you up?” she teased, in English, although she couldn’t imagine any female alive standing this man up for a date. Edwina knew that she the only way that she would break a date with this man was if there was a death in the family—her own.

  He smiled again, but he spoke in English, “Not precisely. My sister, Karen, decided that she was going to spend her birthday with friends in Geneva. That sounded like more fun to her than spending it at the Opera with her stodgy older brother.”

  She shook her head negatively. “One day, she will regret that. Family is important. Friends come and friends go. But, family is a constant, or as much of a constant as anything is in life.”

  “True,” he agreed quietly. “Yet, I believe that she is concentrating her interest on family, or at least on potential children, as represented by a young man whom she has been seeing. She was more interested in spending her birthday with him than with her stodgy middle-aged brother.”

  “Oh, cut that out! You are not ‘stodgy’.”

  He smiled at her. “Then how would you describe me?”

  Edwina shook her head negatively. “That’s a loaded question.”

  “It certainly is,” he agreed. “Are yo
u going to answer it?”

  “No, I don’t believe I shall. You’re going to be late to the Opera. Are the herbs all I can get for you this evening?”

  “An affirmative answer to my offer would be quite welcome,” he said.

  “That’s not going to happen. I cannot go with you to the Opera.”

  “You certainly are able to accept the spare ticket. Come and enjoy the Opera. There are no strings attached, Fraulein Doctor. I will be on my best behavior. You have my solemn word as a gentleman.”

  She couldn’t help it. She laughed. His expression was so hopeful. Her first inclination was to say yes, leave the work, and go. This man was compelling. But she knew that she couldn’t leave the work. There was just too much to do to take the time right now.

  She sighed. “No. Sorry. I am hardly dressed for the Opera. And there is no time for me to change into suitable clothing, even if I was to be so inclined, without making you profoundly late for the performance.”

  “I can deal with being late.”

  Edwina smiled. “Just go and enjoy the production,” she dismissed reluctantly. “I would no more go to the Opera as the guest of someone whom I didn’t know than I would have dinner with that person. That’s final.”

  “Very well. You shall not be my guest. I will trade you this extra ticket for a year’s supply of pennyroyal. The ticket is yours with no strings, bartered freely. Come and enjoy the music. You are under no obligation to me. You can even get your own transportation if that makes you feel better about it.”

  She smiled softly. The offer was tempting. But she couldn’t take it. “No, thank you. I have seen the production. Besides, I really have too much to do here if I am to be absolutely ready for the opening of my shop tomorrow. Work does come before pleasure.”

  “When one is occupied with one’s true life’s work, work is pleasure.”

  “I would agree with that.”

  “Is this shop your life’s true work?”

  She smiled and shook her head negatively. “Let’s just call it is a working vacation.”