Page 34 of Love Bites

“She’s told…you stories,” Opa stated as he tried, and failed, to fully catch his breath. I glanced at his nurse who smiled sadly down at us. That smile was one of a person who knew his charge had little time left on this planet. I would discuss palliative care with Boris, and the doctors, as soon as this was settled. “Do not…look at me…like I’m dead. Say…what you want…boy.”

Mother made a choked little sound but to her credit sat her seat like a duchess.

“Very well, Boris, may we have a moment in private please?” I asked.

The nurse moved to the far corner of the room taking his book with him. His soft-soled shoes made short squeaks on the Italian marble floor tiles.

“You have treated Capucine Aubert badly.” His eyes narrowed. “My proof, before you ask, is her word. Something that I have learned is honorable, unlike yours.” He labored to inhale and exhale but waved me on with a shaky, age-spottedhand. “I plan to give her that pilfered recipe back as well as make monetary reparations to her.”

That got his goat. His eyes flared. “Over my…dead body,” he gasped.

It was on the tip of my tongue but I refused to stoop to his level. “The decision has been made. I’m CEO now. I own majority shares of Brauning Chocolates. I’m sure once the board is filled in this unsavory mess they will rush to settle this out of the public eye. We will make monetary compensation to her in the amount of what we have made in sales on that stolen recipe.” A sum that would be in the double-digit millions, according to a hasty sum our bookkeeping department had emailed me overnight. Capucine and Haider would never have money woes again. She could retire in France with no cares. It was the least I could do for the lady. “Then we will add another two-point-eight million for damages, pain and suffering, and whatever else our legal department deems fitting. I have removed Harmony Chocolates from the boutique plans. I will be investing in it in a private manner while shopping for an alternate shop to fulfill the four stores in each state plan. I would like to think that you are agreeable to this but I’m sure you are not. You’re agreeable to very little.”

“She…cow,” he barked then fell into a coughing fit that brought up bloody spittle. Boris rushed over. Mother and I sat in our seats, her nails biting into my forearm, as Opa battled to find enough air to respond.

“He needs rest,” Boris told us.

“I can rest…when I am dead,” Opa snapped, his lips tight and dry. “Tell that…woman…that I took from her…the thing that she… loved the most. It was not…me.”

I nodded once. Boris took over, wheeling Opafrom the solarium. Mother’s head came to rest on my shoulder. She began crying silently. I looped an arm around her quakingshoulders. Tears flowed from my eyes as well. The man may have been a bastard. No may, hewasa bastard and deserved to be fed through a wringer for the wrongs he had caused so many, not just Capucine but my grandmother, my mother, and even myself to some degree. It seemed though that God had his own plans for Bernhard Brauning. I feared I would have to call Haider this evening and tell him I might be staying in Germany longer than I had originally planned.

MY STAY LASTEDfor five weeks. In that time Mother and I visited Opa in his bedroom daily but were never graced with another word from him. A sad situation but if he wished to leave this realm so miserably there was nothing we could do but try to be the better people. We said goodbye to Opa, mother and I, and then laid him to rest beside his wife in the family mausoleum. The funeral was attended by many people, mostly business associates, friends of my mother’s, and one special chocolatier from Caldwell Crossing. If I doubted that I loved Haider Gray his showing up to hold my hand graveside erased any uncertainty I may have had.

Perhaps the ending of one storyisthe beginning of a new one. One with far more joy, less trauma, and a plethora of kisses amid trays of apricot berlingots.

IS THERE ANYTHINGmore glorious to wake up to then a soft summer sunrise with a firm German candymaker tight to your back?

No. There is not. The sound of robins in the yard and the soft lapping of Harmony Lake was still so new to me that I found sleeping tricky. Also, the cats chattering at the robins in the yard made sleep close to impossible. Not that missing sleep was a big problem. I was happy to be sleepy later in the day if I could come awake in Phillip’s arms.

“Guten Morgen, Liebling,” he said beside my ear, his hold on me tightening, that strong arm around my middle tugging me into his chest. The hairs on his belly were warm and crisp, his cock was hot and hard as it slid sensually up and down between my ass cheeks. His fingers found the blue beaded bracelet on my right wrist. I smiled as he fingered it gently then released it to locate my stiff dick.

“Mm, your voice turns me on,” I sighed, rocking my hips, working to get a sweet tingle from his prick gliding up and down as well as his fist working my cock. “I adore waking up with you,” I purred as he dropped a series of tiny kisses along my bare shoulder.

“I love you,” he whispered as we began to move in beautiful syncopation.

“I love you too,” I confessed, my body responding to him as it never had any other man.

He knew how to touch me in ways that sent me soaring. We’d fallen into bed last night after he had arrived back after finalizing his grandfather’s estate. Or what he could wrap up in a few short weeks. He’d be racking up miles for several months as the vast personal fortune was divided legally between himself and his mother. Luisa got the mansion and was probably going to sell it quickly. Phillip was still in control of the business, and that meant he would be jetting to and from Europe a lot. That part sucked. This part though? This part where we were loving each other with gentle words, soft caresses, and tender kisses? This part would make up for the separations to come.

He ran his thumb over the tip of my cock, gathering pre-cum to ease the slip and slide of this glorious dawn hand job. It was perfect. Last night we’d hit the bed in this rental home on the western side of Harmony Lake like two oversexed jackrabbits. He’d just returned and was feeling all the emotions. I’d welcomed him back with open arms, taking him into my heart and body fully. His lovemaking had been driven, as if he were working out a plethora of emotions in every thrust. Which was no surprise given how things had gone with his grandfather. Losing someone who has been such a large presence in your life is never easy. Dealing with the normal grief then compounding it with the realization that the person who recently passed was less than ideal was doubly tough. So when he came to me in need I took him in in all ways.

“I cannot believe I am this close,” he panted, his cock pressed tight to me, his hips now pumping madly. “You are everything good and sweet.”

Oh the things that man said. They could melt chocolate without the use of a flame. I ate up every damn endearment too, just like a kid being offered a tub of licorice.

“Don’t stop,” I gasped, reaching back to find his thigh. My balls drew up as he sucked a mark onto my neck. Hot words in German flowed over me as I blew apart, coating his hand and fingers with cum. He growled low and deep. The warm rush of his spunk hitting my lower back brought another pulse of cum into his palm. We laid there for a long time, his cock growing soft amid the mess on my ass. Eventually he peeled himself from my backside, but only after dropping a few dozen kisses along my arm and cheek. “Rest, here, I will be right back.”

I mumbled sleepily, my gaze resting on the cats sitting in front of the large sliding glass door leading to a cozy second story patio. They looked like Russian nesting dolls with the two bigger tuxies, Bo and Luke, followed by the petite calico princess Daisy. Seeing them here in this luxury A-frame cabin Phillip had rented for the summer made me feel as if I could call this place home while he was in the states. It was so beautiful inside and out, the cats loved the space, and the lakeside view was perfect for taking paddleboat rides or inviting friends over for a holiday picnic followed by fireworks over the lake.

I heard Phillip returning from the small bath attached to the lone bedroom in the cabin. Tucked up here in a pointed loft the tiny toilet, sink, and clawfoot tub space was just a few steps away. All open and done in honeyed wood with white, tan, and hunter green accents. I loved it here and already loathed returning to my place above the shop when Phillip had to return to Germany in a few weeks.

“Your brow is puckered,” my lover told me as he padded to my side of the bed with a washcloth in his hand. He gently cleaned his spend from my back.

“I was thinking of you leaving,” I confessed, taking the warm damp cloth from him to wash my tacky dick.

He plucked the cloth from my hand, dropped it to the floor, and pulled me into his arms. I rose willingly, the sheets tangled around me, and climbed into his lap, my cheek coming to rest on his shoulder. His furry chest felt grand as it warmed my sparsely haired tummy. His skin smelled of warm sandalwood and Phillip.

“Let’s not think of that right now,” he whispered, sliding his hands into the sheet to cup my bare ass cheeks. He turned his head just enough to bury his nose into my curls. I sighed aloud, linking my legs around his waist, locking him tightly into my embrace. He was going nowhere without taking me with him. “Let’s instead think about breakfast.”

---