~*~Singer & The Soldier~*~ By: Ree

HI: I've been invited to post my current story on here and will attempt to do so once I learn how...LOL...Nice to see yet another site dedicated to our adorable guys and to have a place with familar names and without the restrictive rules of the OF...thanks for the invite Lady....REE

THE SINGER AND THE SOLDIER

PROLOGUE…REMINISCING

He wasn’t really sure why he had come, just that the impulse had been too strong to ignore and before he fully thought out the reasons he was on the way.

She wouldn’t be there of course, couldn’t, not now, not after the devastating news they had finally received from the authorities in Colombia. It was difficult to accept…no, make that nearly impossible. Without anything more than some grainy photos and the chipped container, it didn’t seem real.

He had tried to work through the pain and despair, the finality of it, but still there was something missing, some final fact that would make it clear, real…something that would make it possible to grieve and get on with what remained of his shattered life. And get on with it he must, and quickly…there were decisions to make, responsibilities that he had been unaware of that must be assumed in the most logical manner…he had five days to sort out his emotions and be ready for the arrival of the child he hadn’t been aware even existed.

A child!!...he was a father!!

He had no doubts that the child was his…in spite of the fact that he and Izzy had fallen into each others arms within hours of meeting, he was firm in his belief that she seldom gave herself to anyone…in fact because of their unique attraction to each other, her inexperience in receiving pleasure through shared intimacy and his incredulous, out of character, loss of control, he was positive that there had been no other man in her life…at least not in her bed. They had been together every possible moment while she was on leave, learning about each other, enjoying the camaraderie, the likes and dislikes, even the disagreements…and of course, their passion. She had been inexperienced when it came to receiving pleasure, an all too common result of lovers who had little care for their partners, seeking only the completion of release for themselves…but oh so eager….after that first night, they were insatiable, newly discovered lovers who could hardly wait for the next time, the next adventure of exploration, of exciting sensations like nothing either had experienced before. Such disregard was something that made him seethe with anger at her few admitted previous partners…such a selfish act and so unnecessary with a woman as sensuous and willing to explore, to learn, to give without restraint.

And now, gone forever.

**

The trip had been invigorating, the views spectacular, as always when he approached the wilderness at this time of year, the colors of the fall leaves leaving him in awe of Nature and the bounty She offered….but somehow this time he had trouble enjoying the glimpses he saw as he sped along the route.

He wondered if she had thought of him, even briefly, during her ordeal…and felt guilty about his carefree existence, touring, living each day to the fullest possible without her, thinking of her often when something tweaked his memory or when his current relationships left so much more to be desired. Why hadn’t he known?...why hadn’t his gut told him that something was wrong? Why hadn’t he admitted to himself, to her, how much she meant to him while there was still time? Of all the decisions he had made in his life, the one that separated them so he could concentrate only on his burgeoning career had been the worst, the one with life changing repercussions.

They had been good as a couple during the short time that they were ‘together’ even though it had often developed into some kind of a disagreement solved by a physical and mental bonding that was incomparable to anything he had ever experienced before…or after.

At least being with her he had felt alive, his senses stimulated, ready to laugh or play, to love …or disagree. Not like the bland day to day dullness that he knew now. Even the joy of pursuing his chosen vocation, of performing, had become less joyful, tainted by her absence…and it was his fault.

He stopped at the turn-off to the narrow dirt road that wandered under arched boughs further into the wild. The Chute was close, only a 20 minute fast walk from this point, the cottage even closer.

He put the bike on the rack and swung his long legs over to stand and stretch, reached in the pannier for a bottle of water and removed his helmet to guzzle most of the drink before recapping it and replacing it in the open pocket.

He wandered along the path past the cottage, not yet ready to re-visit the scene of their first encounter, today not particularly interested in the flora around him, putting in time while he tried to get his emotions and thoughts under control.

He shook his head and grimaced…nothing since then had even come close…and he doubted it ever would. Was the time with Izzy to be his one life memory of joys beyond compare? Gott knew the day to day existence and occasional, routine coupling with Alicia was anything but memorable.

Overhead the sky was crisp and clear, not a cloud in sight, though he knew from experience that it could change in a heart beat…like it had that day…one moment clear and a hazy blue, the next with streaked grey clouds scudding across almost close enough to touch.

It had poured rain, crashed with thunder and slashed streaks of lightening, not a good environment for a person straddling a heavy metal ride with no protection from the elements. That time too had been a trip taken on impulse. He remembered it so clearly…….

CHAPTER ONE…CAUGHT NAPPING

************Toronto, 2005************

Sam erupted in a full rant and Urs just let him go on until he ran out of breath, patiently watching the manager’s red face and mentally timing the space between breaths….Sam would have to slow down and breathe soon or pass out, either of which would give him the opportunity of speaking calmly and letting the irate manager know that he had not been swayed from his plans.

Finally Sam gulped in a lungful of air and Urs saw his chance.

“There’s nothing in the contract that says I will be treated like a child…or I wouldn’t have signed it. You know I’ve been riding for 20 years without a major mishap. I’m not some irresponsible teen out for a joyride…Sam, I need to get away from everyone and everything for a few days, clear my head, breathe some fresh air. You know me, I’ll be back on time, ready to give 150%.”

He turned and merely waved a hand without looking back when he heard the rant begin again, smiling a bit as he passed David who gave him a discrete thumbs up.

He waited until the first emergency pullout to check the map, though he had already checked the route….it wouldn’t have looked good if Sam saw him being unsure of where he was going.

It was a fairly direct route to the area he thought might prove interesting, Bancroft, a small old mining town with defunct mines all around it, a winding drive along numerous lakes and a Provincial Park at an old sight called Egan’s Chute, where several waterfalls had proved valuable sites of mineral deposits in the past.

He wound through the city, frustrated with all the Toronto traffic until he saw the sign for Highway 401 and took the on ramp, speeding up to enter traffic and heading east.

It was thrilling to be away from all the responsibilities of the tour, to feel the wind on his body and smell the exhaust of the powerful rental machine vibrating under his legs.

The schedule had been hard on him, sapping his energy, nearly taking away the joy he found in performing…this few days off had been the goal he kept in sight over the past hectic weeks, the only thing really that kept him going. Somehow it didn’t seem to bother the others. Carlos and Sebastien relaxed by clubbing when they had the chance…not his thing…David lost himself in the latest video game or in working on his web-page…again not something that appealed to him. No, this was what he needed before the pace picked up for the tour starting in a few months…Freedom, trees, fresh air, solitude.

An hour later he exited the freeway onto a secondary road, Hwy 28/135, and headed almost directly north, taking the bypass around Peterborough, through the edge of the village of Lakefield where if memory served him, the English Royal family tended to send their sons to school, past the hamlet of Young’s Point, another smallish one that he missed the name of, then Woodview and Apsley, now just on Highway 28 since 135 seemed to have ended abruptly.

Again and again he passed lakes, some with signs to announce the name, more often looking like virgin land with deadheads and water-lilies, reeds lining the edges so there appeared to be no beach areas…small, crystal clear or larger and dark with the sky reflecting off the black water, a phenomenon created by the thick bottom of rotted trees and rock, dotted with little islands, sometimes only large enough for a couple of huge boulders and a lone tree or two poking a scraggly pole out of a crack in the rock face.

Here the trees had felt the first tinges of frost and the riot of color was astounding, everything from brilliant reds to copper and yellow, sunset oranges, some falling in a cascade of hues to pile on the ground. Late blooms of wild flowers were abundant, burst milkweed scattered seed pods in the wind and the tall grasses bent under the weight of ripe seeds as they dried and turned a warm coppery brown, while overhead Vee formations of wild geese honked their way south to their wintering grounds. The farms he passed were busily bringing in the last hay or crops of the season, tilling the land to plant a winter crop of rye, or cutting fallen trees into cords of firewood, stacked neatly for purchase or private use, adding a scent like no other to the air. For a Nature Lover it was Heaven.

This area was uniquely rural, Ontario dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, the landscape dotted with old brick farmhouses that had been kept basically as they had been a hundred years before but modernized with hydro, added decks and larger, more modern, aluminum sheds and barns to house the massive equipment needed for successful farming in the present day. Still the owners had kept the mature trees, the essence of the buildings with the wide porches, gingerbread trim and kitchen gardens outside the back doors, the shrubbery that would undoubtedly bear masses of blossoms in the spring.

He sped along easily, the roadway well maintained as it cut through blasted masses of rock that shone with a red or bluish luster in the sunlight.

The trees thickened and changed slightly to a mixed forest as he entered what he knew from his research was known as the Canadian Shield, the long escarpment of glacial deposit that ran through Ontario all the way to Niagara Falls, left from the retreat of the ice fields during the last Ice Age and part of the reason that the area was so rich in mineral deposits.

Now there was a mix, deciduous and coniferous trees, the paper birches lending a slash of white in the mix with the glaringly white, peeling bark, the land dotted with larger and larger mounds of rock, again multicolored from the varied mineral deposits, bright reds, silvery greys flecked with shimmering mica, splashes of white and a dull grey that appeared almost blue or green depending on the play of light.

Bancroft loomed ahead of him and he slowed, enjoying the sights of the small town, the hub that serviced the local area. The houses here were large, on well maintained lots that undulated with well trimmed grass, edged with rock from the local area around the lush gardens, again the structures featuring wide wrap-around verandas, painted white trim on the pastel wooden two storey buildings showing a pride of ownership.

It was a pretty town with a meandering {clean} river breached in several places by sturdy stone bridges, free parking, something that made him smile after the scramble for parking in Toronto and an area High School, very modern looking, just opposite the warehouse type building that housed the detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police. He slowed as he crossed the bridge, reading the shop names and chuckling at the humor used on some of them… a gem and consignment shop dubbed the ‘Mad Hat’ and a café next door simply called ‘The Place Next Door’.

He stopped at an intersection for a red light and while he waited read the sign about an annual event that he had missed…. Gemboree, the annual early August gathering of lapidarists, geologists and amateur collectors who came yearly to compare, buy, trade or indulge in rockhounding. To his left was a long main street with the usual touristy shops, restaurants, gas station, supermarket and on the side street that wound uphill slightly, more shops…antiques, chiropractor, more of the pretty houses, some that looked like possibly the local government offices.

Once through the town he sped up again, watching carefully for the turnoff to Egan’s Chute. Soon he was on the gravel road leading into the woods, the trail winding around the massive boulders, the land rising slightly, the forest thicker and virgin here.

Just before the end of the trail there was a narrow driveway leading off to the right and a small cottage barely visible through the sheltering trees, with a beat up old red pickup parked near the weathered building. Someone was working on the engine, the only part of the mechanic visible, a denim overall clad round bottom and legs with feet shod in scuffed hiking boots, a teenager judging by the body size.

He wasn’t in a sociable mood so merely unsnapped his small day pack from the bike, shouldered it and headed out along the marked footpath to the Chute.

The twenty minute walk through the forest took him nearly two hours since he found so much to stop and investigate along the way.

There were plants that he had never seen before, vigorously growing under the canopy of trees, twining along the ground and up the withered branches of snags that had been left in a natural state of decay. He spotted animal trails, well used in this protected environment: deer, rabbits, either wolves or fox, he wasn’t sure of the size of either in this country, something that was very obviously bear judging by the slash marks on the trees where the creature had marked his territory. His mobile came in handy for taking pictures of a few things that he would ask David to download onto his computer, the tricky parts of computer use still a mystery to him.

And everywhere a variety of rock and stone, some bearing the marks of collectors’ hammers, some discarded as merely pretty and of little value. He pocketed a few of the pretty ones, not concerned about the rarity or market price, just a memento to add to the small collection he had in a velvet pouch in his luggage, collected from the various places they had gone on this prelude to the world tour and carefully labeled with permanent marker in tiny lettering.

He smiled as he thought about the others…they were all so different and yet the same…each had little stashes of things they had amassed on their trips. Carlos, who drank nothing stronger than Diet Coke, had a thick bundle of swizzle sticks from the clubs he had visited, Seb, an envelope of coasters with the club logos emblazoned on them and of course an ever expanding collection of hats… David snatched the pens from each suite when they booked in to their hotels…and he, Urs, collected small rocks.

The view from the top of the Chute was worth the clamber up the last few metres of the trail when he finally reached his goal, with every step on the way feeling the tension of the past weeks sliding off of his weary body and leaving him feeling refreshed.

The falls were wide, not particularly high but frothy and loud, churning over the colorful rocks and arching into space to cascade down into the basin below and bubble on it’s merry way over the natural watercourse to replenish the nearby lakes.

There was little evidence of the mining now since the majority of it had been done further along and now that it was declared a Park, the land had been allowed to heal itself, returning to the pristine beauty of before the mining industry had marred the landscape.

He found a comfortable seat on one of the sloping, smooth rocks and spread out his lunch, using his day-pack for a back rest and watching the birds on their forays, swooping into the foam of the cascade for a nourishing drink or bath, holding impromptu concerts from the safety of the spreading branches of the tree lined banks…it was peaceful and he leaned back on his makeshift pillow, resting his helmet head of curls and closing his eyes, succumbing to the tranquility that he had been craving.

It was the first crash of thunder that jolted him awake.

It had been raining for some time he found, since he was already drenched, his hair plastered to his face and neck, the cool rain seeping under the high neck of his leather jacket and running down his back and chest when he sat up, a bit disoriented.

This time the crash of thunder was accompanied by a slash of lightening that split a nearby tree in a burst of flame, the debris spraying in all directions, so close that he instinctively ducked.

Quickly he gathered his few possessions and scrambled down the trail, his one thought to reach the bike and wheel it into some form of protection.

How had this happened so suddenly? The sky was black as if it were night, the rain coming down so hard it was impossible to see more than a few feet ahead and spraying almost sideways due to a vicious wind that swirled in what seemed all directions at once, tossing the branches of the trees, breaking off the weaker ones and flinging them like missiles, across the trail, into the river…. Nature throwing a major tizzy.

The trip back to the bike was over fast, his long legs flashing as he raced over the trail, narrowly escaping being laid out several times by airborne debris, twice losing his footing on the slick, muddy surface and sprawling inelegantly, rolling to his feet again and continuing.

He hooked his day-pack over the roll bar and pushed the bike off the stand, wheeling it down the gravel path towards the cottage, intending to ask for shelter, if not for himself at least somewhere to stow the bike out of harms way until the storm was over.

There was a lean-to against the end of the cottage, the red truck now squatting safely under the roof and he wheeled the bike in beside it, put it up on the stand and jogged around to the front of the cottage again, taking the steps two at a time and raising his hand to knock on the door.

Before he could knock, it opened and the mechanic stood in the doorway, one hand on the frame, the other on the door, glaring at him from a suntanned face that likely would have been quite pretty if it hadn’t been marred with a scowl.

“Stay on the plastic…and take your clothes off!” She said indicating a sheet of blue tarpaulin that was spread just inside the door.

**

CHAPTER TWO…MEETING IZZY

“Excuse me?” he managed as he stepped inside and received a nudge in his side that made him move further so she could shut the door.

“Your clothes…take them off!...you’re wet and muddy and I don’t feel like cleaning up after you.”

She moved further into the room and ignored him while he slowly caught his breath and began removing his dripping outer garments, starting with very muddy boots.

The cottage was small, merely one large room that seemed to encompass everything, a fireplace on one long wall with several chairs parked in front of the welcome blaze, a counter with a pump and sink under a deep window on the back wall, a wooden table and several chairs in the centre of the room and a wooden ladder along the side opposite the fireplace, that lead to what was presumably a loft bedroom up above the kitchen area.

“Do you always move in slow motion? TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF!!”

When he was down to a sodden tee shirt and wet shorts that hid very little, he hesitated and she turned from where she had poured two mugs of coffee at the fireplace from a steaming old blue enamel pot, set the mugs on a small table and pulled a thick wool throw off the back of one of the chairs, moving with the ease of habit in the darkened room.

“Don’t flatter yourself…I doubt you have anything under those wet clothes that I haven’t seen before,” she said handing him the throw and scooping up the jacket, boots and leather pants that he had dropped to the plastic.

Once again she ignored him, moving to a wooden rack at the side of the fireplace and spreading out his dripping garments to dry, setting his boots on the hearth nearer to the fire. When she turned back he had divested himself of the rest of his gear and wrapped the throw around his hips, tucked the end in and was collecting the remaining items to place them on the rack as well.

Her immediate reaction, though she hid it well, was that he was a feast for the eyes, even with that long, wet hair plastered to his skull and neck. He was a long, lean man and hairy, not just on his head but with a mat of dark growth on his sculpted, ‘six-pack’chest that veed below the tightly wrapped throw around narrow hips, long, strong arms corded with muscle with more dark hair stuck wetly to the skin below his elbows, muscular legs that peeked out from under the edge of the throw, liberally coated with more of the dark body hair…an obvious sign of a generous level of testosterone. Very nice, she thought as she turned her gaze away and tried not to smile.

She tossed him a towel for his hair and motioned to the mug of coffee.

“No cream or sugar so if you can’t stand it black you’re out of luck. Don’t you tourists ever remember to watch the weather?”

“Sorry…I fell asleep…thank you for taking me in.”

She shrugged.

“At least you had enough sense not to try and ride in this.”

His very obviously reluctant hostess flung herself into one of the chairs and raised her coffee mug to her lips to take a long pull.

She was annoyed, he could see that, almost feel it, but was resigned to having her space intruded upon, her expressive oval face showing disapproval that she didn’t try to hide. She was still dressed in the baggy overalls he had seen the backside of on his arrival but barefoot and without the blue plaid jacket he now remembered her wearing as she worked on the truck.

“Did you get it fixed?” He asked, sipping at his coffee and watching her from the safety of the other chair and behind his mug.

She was definitely not a teen but younger than he had first guessed, he now saw likely not over 30, tanned, which indicated a life spent outdoors a great deal of the time, her hands weathered but clean as if recently scrubbed, even her well trimmed nails, and her hair cut short in a curly cap of ash brown that was just a little damp…so he wasn’t the only one to have been caught in the storm.

“It wasn’t broken…just old and I try to keep it tuned…it’s not much use to me if it isn’t reliable.”

She shifted her gaze to him and grimaced, noting the small cut on his extended leg.

“Branch hit you?”

Urs looked down, only now remembering the branch that had torn his leather pants and made him wince as it gouged into his calf.

“It’s nothing… thank you for taking me in…I really just wanted to get the bike under shelter…my name is Urs, Urs Buhler … I do appreciate your help.”

She sighed and rose from the chair, going into the kitchen area and pulling a small leather bag off one of the open shelves.

“Isabella Santores…Izzy…well I couldn’t really let you stand out in the rain and catch a cold, now could I? Pull that stool over and put your foot up on it while I look at your leg.”

Urs bristled at her attitude and instinctively tucked his legs back under the edge of the chair.

“I’ll be fine…when I get back to the hotel I’ll see our medic about it.”

She hooked the stool with one bare foot and skidded it across the floor to bump into his legs, frowning as she approached with determination, drawing on thin latex gloves that she had pulled from a pocket of the bag.

“Don’t be an even bigger fool than you already have been…I’m trained….and I promise to be gentle….Now, PUT YOUR FOOT UP ON THE STOOL!”

There was something about the quiet but determined way she spoke that had him raise his leg to the stool before he was even conscious of his action and she knelt beside him, pushing the throw up to his thigh, causing a reflex motion from him of covering his groin with his large hands. She smiled but said nothing, taking a disinfectant swab from her leather bag to clean the area around the still slightly bleeding cut.

“My guess is if I suggest a stitch you’ll run wailing into the storm, never to be seen again…so I’ll just butterfly it,” she commented, glancing up at his face and grinning when she saw him pale at the mention of stitches.

‘I was right…she’s quite pretty when she smiles…but I’m still not getting stitches!’

Quickly and efficiently, using a small razor from the bag, she cleaned the area around the wound of his dark body hair, put an antiseptic ointment on the wound, covered it with a gauze dressing and stretched a precut piece of tape across the gaping wound with enough force to squeeze the edges together. She added another piece of tape to hold the butterfly in place and patted his bare thigh as she rose to strip the gloves from her hands.

“There, now that wasn’t too bad was it…you’ve been a very good boy but I seem to be fresh out of lollipops…Sorry.”

She bustled about the cottage, putting her first aid kit away, lighting a couple of lanterns now to push back the darkness that was fast turning the late afternoon into the dark of night. Outside, the storm raged, the wind howling like some voracious demon, the rain steadily beating against the metal roof of the building in an almost soothing cacophony of sound and Urs found himself relaxing in this snug haven as he gazed around at the interior he could now see better.

The bookcase on the far wall was too much in the dark to read the many titles, crammed almost to over flowing with pocketbooks, magazines, thick, heavy tomes that gave the appearance of reference volumes and one small wire rack of CD’s next to a portable player.

Beside the door was a boot rack below a board with nails affixed for hanging outside gear, now holding only a couple of shabby backpacks, some muddy Wellingtons and a bright yellow rain slicker. Next to it an old weathered nail barrel was crammed full of fishing poles and a heavy canvas military type bag leaned against the wall.

The whole place seemed decorated not so much for beauty as efficiency, but managed to achieve a comfortable, lived in look never the less.

The wooden table was spread with an oilcloth covering in a muted yellow and green pattern, the top cluttered with various small piles of rocks, sorted into some unknown semblance of order, light glancing off the shards of natural gemstones and minerals that she had collected from the old mine sites, a few tools neatly spread on a soft leather mat.

“You collect rocks too? I picked up some on my way up the path…before I reached the Chute and fell asleep.”

She glanced at him again and waved a hand at the table.

“It’s kind of a hobby…I like to make jewelry out of some of the pretty ones…this is my brother’s cottage and I love this area for the rock-hounding and the solitude…I’m on leave at the moment and he’s away on assignment so I thought I’d be alone.” She looked at him again and half smiled.

“Sorry…that sounded really rude…you couldn’t have known how quickly the fall storms come up around here…actually I’ve been here a week and had almost had enough of my own company.”

She pointed towards the ladder leading to the loft.

“Cody usually leaves a few of his things here…if you can manage the ladder you’re welcome to look for something to wear until your things dry. This storm won’t let up much until tomorrow morning sometime so you might as well try to get comfortable. I’m going to see about making us some dinner.”

Climbing the ladder with a throw wrapped around his loins was not quite as simple as it sounded, Urs found when he was part way up and got his foot tangled in the bottom edge, stepped the wrong way and was suddenly totally exposed, the throw cascading to the floor a few steps below while he scurried as fast as possible up the remaining steps.

‘Mein gott…I hope she wasn’t looking,’ he thought, his face beet red when he reached the comparative safety of the loft and self- consciously dropped his hands to cover his groin.

In the kitchen area, Izzy grinned as she studiously turned away from the vision of a very well endowed, naked man clambering up the ladder in a panic. ‘He really is a big boy!...and so shy…how refreshing…easy girl…no lusting after the pretty civilian…you don’t need that kind of complication in your life….but there’s just something about him….’

In the reflected light from the lamps below he studied the small space.

Just as below, the small loft had been done for comfort: An extra long bed under a small window that looked out on the dark, rain swept world, the mattress thick and covered with a soft, poofy duvet that promised warmth and a scattering of plump pillows to dream on. There was a small stand on each side of the bed, squat lamps on each for reading and against the peak wall, next to the stone chimney, shelving had been built to hold supplies, now occupied with neatly folded small sized jeans and tees, some colorful lingerie in a couple of un-lidded shoe boxes and larger clothing on one shelf that Urs assumed belonged to the absent Cody.

Cody, it appeared, was a very large man, muscular and easily as tall as David he thought judging by the length of the jeans he found folded neatly on the shelf, even the Black Sabbath tee shirt he chose was baggy on his toned chest. He tucked the shirt in, found a belt and cinched the jeans in around his narrow waist and hips, rolled the pant legs up and went back downstairs.

He knew…the minute she looked at him and smiled, he knew she had seen him en flagrante and he felt his face heat up as his cheeks flushed.

She only made matters worse by chuckling.

“Calm down…I’ve seen it all before…well actually, maybe not quite as fine a specimen but….” and she couldn’t finish her comment without laughing at the mortified look on his face.

‘What a lovely laugh she has…it lights up her whole face…and what’s the matter with me…I’ve known the woman casually for 10 minutes and already I’m glad these pants are baggy…reacting like this is some kind of record for me, Cool Urs, the King of Control.’

Suddenly she stopped laughing and it was almost as if a light bulb had gone on over her head, the belated recognition of her uninvited guest evident on her face.

Izzy went across the room to a battered backpack that was leaning against the wall and dug out her I.Pod, did a fast search through the menu and clicked it on speaker, filling the cottage with the lovely strains of Io Ti Amero done by Il Divo.

“That’s you isn’t it? I thought you looked familiar…how cool… both my brother and I like your music and the med- techs listen to your CD all the time. This track is one of my favorites…though I wish I could hear the counterpoint better…that’s you singing the chant …one of the techs that goes on your web site told me.”

“Guilty,” Urs said, thinking that now maybe he would be treated with a bit more respect.

Wrong!!

“What in hell is a singer doing out here in the boonies? …and on a motorcycle?...I thought you guys would be too busy partying with all your groupies and being driven in chauffeured limos to slog around in the bush?”

He bristled again.

“You really have a low opinion of people in my profession don’t you? Or is it just that you don’t like people in general?” He was annoyed and there was a bit more snap to his words than he had wanted.

Strangely, she laughed, seeming not at all offended by his reaction to her comments.

“Well there is some spunk under that gentlemanly façade. NO, I do like people…in fact I deal with some of the dregs of the earth and the traumatized for so much of my professional life that I’ve nearly forgotten how to act around normal people…I am sorry…come and set the table and we’ll have something to eat…nothing fancy since I wasn’t expecting company…and to be completely truthful, I’m a terrible cook. Is it yours?”

He was confused by the abrupt subject change and just stared at her with his brow furrowed.

“The Harley…is it yours?”

He chuckled. “No, it’s a rental…I have a couple back in the UK, in storage unfortunately…and one, a Triumph that I’m working on back in Willisau…home, in Switzerland…I just find riding a bike really free and invigorating so I rent one now and then when we are traveling.”

“Cody has a nice old Indian, a ‘46 I think, that he keeps in Toronto….he takes me out on it sometimes so I know what you mean…I think if I ever retire I’ll get one and just tour around Europe…there’s so many places I’ve only seen from the air and would love to explore.”

She opened a wooden bread box and took out what looked like a homemade loaf of rustic whole wheat bread, placing it on the counter and reaching for a knife from the magnetic rack on the wall began to slice thick chunks.

“You could help if you like…there’s a boneless beef roast in the icebox, already cooked and needing slicing…and a tub of marg…and anything else that would suit us on roast beef sandwiches.”

Urs looked at the old fashioned green enamel appliance, marveling at the ingenuity that had converted it into an electric appliance but with a compartment at the top that still had space for the block of ice that kept the perishables cold.

“I’ve never seen one of these before,” he said as he rummaged in the lower compartment.

She laughed and glanced at him as he loaded himself down with onion, tomato, lettuce and the fore-mentioned roast.

“You won’t likely again either…my brother is very gifted when it comes to converting old stuff into something versatile…and it’s needed here since we often suffer from blackouts…we keep a block of ice frozen in the top for times like this when the Hydro goes out.”

“Hydro…you mean the electricity?”

She chuckled at his unfamiliarity of the local slang.

“Yes…for years the only supplier of electricity was Ontario Hydro and the nick name stuck.”

She unwrapped the roast and handed him one of the ribs to nibble on, beginning to slice the perfectly done beef for the sandwiches.

He took a tentative taste and groaned at the taste…it was perfect, seared on the outside and succulent, tender, with just the right amount of spices.

“I thought you said you couldn’t cook? This is wonderful!”

“I can’t, but any fool can do a roast on the BBQ…nice and slow…just season it, sear it, turn off one side and close the lid for a couple of hours…I pretty well survive on soup and sandwiches when I’m alone.”

He finished one more rib from the prime rib roast before she began to whinge, complaining that he wasn’t helping, but nicely and with a grin. She put him to work opening a carton of soup and putting it on the propane stove to heat while she sliced and stacked, creating sandwiches from what he had brought out of the frig/icebox, adding a few extras that he missed in his search.

Urs set the table and together they carried the food to the table, enough to feed a small army he thought…but that was before they tucked in to it.

CHAPTER THREE…DID I SAY THAT?

Dinner might not have been fancy but it was wholesome and filling…and demolished though there were just the two of them: a good, though store bought, squash soup and thick sandwiches of thinly sliced roast beef with raw onion, lettuce, fresh slices of tomato and a nice sharp Oka cheese from Quebec, bonded together with a horseradish mustard with just the right amount of zip. Some homemade, crisp, baby dill pickles on the side added a tang and cleansed the pallet between bites and soon they both were full.

“You look like a dessert kind of guy…I would guess that you work out since there isn’t an ounce of fat on you, so you can likely eat all the sweets you want…Sorry…I just have some fruit…oh, and a package of Nice cookies…will that do?”

Urs smiled and nodded.

“You’re very observant…just what is it that you do when you’re dealing with those ‘dregs’ as you call them?” he asked as she rose and went in the kitchen area for a plastic bowl of fruit and an unopened box of cookies. She set them on the table and fetched the refilled coffee pot before answering.

“Actualy I’m with the Canadian Forces, on permanent attachment to the UN Peacekeeping Force. Right now I’m recovering from a bad bout of Dengue fever and they won’t let me go on assignment until sometime in December so I came up here to do some rockhounding before the weather turns.”

“That must be interesting work,” Urs said with genuine interest, still a bit surprised that she hadn’t made a fuss when she realized that he was semi-famous.

He watched her across the table, wondering now if the slight flush on her cheeks now and then was caused by the illness she was recovering from. Observant by nature himself, he had noticed that she seemed to fluctuate between being overly warm at times to chilled, taking her overalls off during the meal to reveal jeans and a snug khaki tee shirt, later putting on her plaid jacket again and shivering a bit in the warm cottage.

“Sometimes it’s interesting…mostly it’s frustrating…there’s a lot of hurry up and wait involved and since I’ve never been known for my patience I find that difficult. I think you must have to deal with some of the same problems in your work so I’m sure you understand….just like you, a total commitment is needed or the work would be impossible.”

She rose and waved at the chairs by the fireplace, her hands shaking a bit as she picked up her coffee mug and moved nearer the fire. Urs joined her, politely not commenting on the tremors he had seen….another part of her recovery?

The music coming from the I.Pod speakers changed to another track now, this time Puccini, the elegant strains wafting gently through the building, soothing, giving them both a brief respite from conversation for a moment, somehow the classical strains not out of place in this rustic setting.

‘She’s so relaxed now…that first few minutes, was that just a façade, a wall she puts up to keep people from invading her safety zone?…Mein gott do I know that feeling…those times when I have to be Cool and Mysterious Urs from Switzerland, the man of mystery that management agreed was to be my personae…I wonder if I hadn’t had long hair and liked bikes and leathers would they have slotted me in to this public personality or would one of the others have been chosen…Nein…it would have been me…I can’t imagine David with his huge grin and that laugh ever being cast as mysterious…so little nurse, I do understand how you need to keep people at arms length…it comes naturally for me since I’ve always been private about my personal space. I think that’s why people find me difficult to really get to know…but this woman doesn’t seem to have a problem…I wonder why?’

He took the chance on watching her as she listened to the music, warmed by the fireplace, leaning on the high back of her chair with her eyes closed.

She was small boned, almost tiny but definitely not thin, her body toned as if she worked out often, her movements, he remembered from seeing her moving about the cottage, fluid and graceful, a person who knew her own body well and knew she could rely on it. There was a smattering of freckles just across the bridge of her nose and under her eyes, making her look youthful, her face unlined, smooth and free of makeup…she just didn’t need it. As he watched she sighed and leaned forward, opening her eyes and smiling at him, the green vibrant and glinting from the reflection of the fire.

“Tell me about your touring…do you actually get to see some of the places you visit or is your time all work?”

Urs had looked away, not wanting to be caught staring but now glanced at her.

‘She does understand…maybe we aren’t as different as I first thought.’


He talked quietly about the work so far, the busy schedule that left little time for sightseeing, the constant waking up in hotels and having to check to remember exactly which city they were now in, the tight time tables for sleeping, eating, public appearances to promote the concerts soon to come, the interviews with the repetitious questions, rehearsals, always being ‘ON’ when in public….and the invasion of privacy and separation from friends and family. Once he had started he found himself rambling, telling her how much he missed his friends and mostly his family, even touching briefly on the failed relationship with his long time girlfriend.

He stopped talking suddenly, surprised at himself for opening up like he just had and to a complete stranger…but there was something about her, about the direct way she had of meeting his eyes, of really listening, of seeming to intuitively understand what he said and more importantly what he left out.

He laughed a bit self-consciously.

“You have a great bed-side manner…I’ve spilled more to you in the last 20 minutes than I do to my closest friends. Your patients must adore you.”

She smiled and offered him a coffee refill.

“By the time I’m allowed to treat them they’re so traumatized and happy to see a friendly face that I have to be very firm and business like or dissolve in a puddle…and then I wouldn’t be any good to any one.” She sat back down, shrugging out of her jacket again and wiping a tissue across her shiny face.

“Officially I’m with the medical corps but in reality, unofficially, I’m a hostage negotiator and of necessity that involves some medical care…many of the hostage takers like to have female negotiators since we appear less threatening to them….my team goes in to camps, usually after a long negotiation and administers to the people being kept hostage, as well as often to the rebels who are holding them as part of the deal. It’s appalling, the conditions and the treatment and the only way to get through it and keep sane is to disassociate from the hostages as people…we all have methods of coping after the fact…some get drunk for a week, some cry for days, some work out until they collapse…and then we sign on and go do it again.”

Urs watched the emotions play across her face. Unguarded, her veneer of hostility and anger dropped momentarily, she was quite pretty, her bright green eyes sparkling with tears she allowed to pool for a very brief moment.

“And how about you, Izzy?...how do you cope?”

She drew in a breath and he could almost see her steel herself, closing the door again to her feelings.

“I cope! I’m team leader, I have to cope!”

She rose and began to clear the table, rattling the dishes as she took them to the sink, put a pot of water on the stove to heat, jumping a little when the lights flickered and then came on.

“Not bad…the electricity was only knocked out for 6 hours this time. Would you turn off the other lanterns please? We need to save the fuel in case it goes out again.”

Urs chose to ignore how upset she had been for a moment and complied, moving about the cottage, turning off the Coleman lanterns.

The leather mat with the assortment of rock samples lay on the end of the table still, pushed to one end while they had occupied the other end for their meal and he paused to look at them in the enhanced light.

There was a mix of different stones, different sizes and colors, shapes, all rough, with small to medium sized crystals caught in the host stones, the light now flashing in a rainbow of colors… fascinating!

He wanted to handle them but respected the fact that they were not his and slid his hands in his pockets.

“You can’t hurt them…go ahead,” he heard from directly beside him, quietly, her voice different now, gentler.

He reached out and stroked a finger across a hand sized chunk of some kind of gray stone that had been excised from a rock wall, one side embedded with hundreds of peanut sized shards of purple crystal thrusting up in a solid cluster…Amethyst Quartz…this one he knew…it was beautiful, the color deep purple with shafts of red shining in the light from the overhead bulb. Next to it lay some smaller pieces, these paler but no less lovely and a piece of grey/white stone with what looked like a chunk of poultry fat clinging in a rounded mass to the surface.

“What is that? It doesn’t look like a rock…” he asked as he caressed a long finger over the yellow blob, surprised that it was indeed a hard surface.

She laughed and reached out to take it in her hand.

“Grossular Smithsonite…it’s called Turkey Fat…for obvious reasons…there’s a fairly large deposit of it not far from here. It isn’t particularly valuable but I like it because it’s unusual. This whole area of the Canadian Shield is rich in mineral deposits…not enough for the large conglomerates to mine full time, but enough that when they started temporary mining operations years ago, back in the 40’s, it put the smaller miners out of business. Now mostly it’s just people like myself who come here to collect, though there are a couple of big mines, like the Princess Sodalite…some of the old mine sites are rich with various gemstones, others are found on local farms that the owners open either for a small fee or free.”

She ran her fingers over a walnut sized white and blue rock, smooth and oval with deeper bluish purple striations running in a zig-zag pattern throughout.

“This is one of my favorites….Sodalite…the only place in the world it’s found easily is in this area. The pink tends to fade when exposed to light for only a few minutes but the blue…it’s a little harder to find but so lovely and it doesn’t fade.”

She handed it to Urs and he grinned, handed it back and went to his drying jacket, rummaged in the pocket and came back with the smaller version that he had found on his trek up the path to the Chute.

“Is that what this is? I found it on the way up to the Chute.”

She laughed and took the stone from him.

“Well done…you have a good eye…yes, it’s Pink Sodalite…a nice one, well formed…the Pink will fade but the blue striations will last…it would make a lovely pendant for your girlfriend, only light polishing needed, just a delicate silver chain and a fine silver cage to hold it.”

Urs shook his head.

“No girlfriend at the moment so I guess I’ll just keep it…somehow I can’t picture making jewelry for myself out of it…and pink isn’t my color anyway.”

She laughed and nodded, apparently agreeing.

“No I can’t see you wearing it…you look more like a Ruby or Tourmaline kind of guy, something like a big cab on those long fingers would look stunning….no rubies around here but there are some rather nice Garnets and look at this one…Chrome Tourmaline.”

She rummaged through the stones and handed him a rough piece of rock with a brilliant green crystal up-thrusting from the surface.

“Are all of these local? I expected to find some bits and pieces but nothing like this variety.”

“So you like collecting rocks too?” she said with a smile as she stepped back to the stove and removed the bubbling pot of dishwater.

“Well I’m really just an amateur…I studied some in school and I do collect but only to mark them with where I found them…sort of like a memento of my travels…I like them though…I find it fascinating… all the differences, the colors that the different minerals turn the crystals.”

He moved over to the sink area and automatically began drying the dishes that she passed him after washing them, just as if they had worked together before. He watched the way she worked, using both hands efficiently, her lithe body twisting to reach, bunching and releasing muscles that he could see through the thin tee shirt.

Again he was happy to have far too loose clothing on as his body reacted to the natural sensuality of hers, something it seldom did with strangers…at least not since he had learned a bit of control after some rather embarrassing incidents in his teens.

‘What is it about this woman that awakened me? Why do I feel like touching her, like taking that pouty lower lip between my teeth and nibbling gently…and that long slender neck…it was made for kissing, for sucking on to leave a mark, a brand that this woman shared pleasure with me. Maybe I better go outside and cool off before she notices.’

She finished, cleaned the sink and dried her hands, glancing at him and smiling as he hung the towel on a hook to dry.

“You’re a comfortable man to have around…not at all what I expected when I recognized you. So why don’t you have a girlfriend? I would have thought you’d have lots of women panting over you.”

He was amused rather than upset over her blunt way of speaking and smiled.

“I guess there are a few…but they’re interested in the Divo, the person who goes on stage and sings for them, not Urs, the man with needs and feelings…not me as a person…and I don’t need any more superficial relationships in my life…they never last. It would take a very special woman to put up with my life style.”

She moved back to the table and sat leaning comfortably on the cluttered top and idly playing with some of the rock specimens.

“We are more alike than different…I have no time nor inclination for a relationship either…my work takes me away so much of the time and takes so much out of me that there really is little left to give when I return…it would take a very unique man to be able to cope with what I do and what I become when I’ve been working.”

They were silent for a moment, both a little embarrassed at having opened up a bit and revealing more of themselves than they really wanted.

“So, Urs, the man…how long will your freedom last? I have to head back to Toronto tomorrow, late in the day but you’re welcome to stay here…Cody wouldn’t mind.”

He grinned then sighed.

“I’d love to stay, maybe get some rock-hounding in if you had time to show me where to look, but we have an early morning interview the next day so I have to be back…need my beauty sleep…it wouldn’t do to have shadowed eyes…our manager would have a fit.”

He looked up as she stood and felt his pulse quicken.

The jacket was gone again and there was something wild and sensual about her now, her hair curling and tousled, both hands thrust in the back pockets of her jeans causing her generous chest to look even more swollen, the tiny nubs poking at the front of her shirt and making him very aware that she wore no bra.

‘She would fit so nicely against me, just under my chin…Scheisse…I haven’t felt hard for a woman so fast ever before…not since I was a teen and had no control….Looli!!! what a juvenile way to repay her for taking me in out of the storm…’

Izzy walked over to stand beside him and he scooched down in the chair a bit, hoping she wouldn’t notice his arousal in the baggy jeans.

Without being aware that he was speaking, his mouth opened and words poured out.

“There’s no Television and all the magazines are old…how do you feel about a night of hot, sweaty sex between two loners, no strings attached?”

He delivered his question with a small half smile, his eyes hooded until he was aware of what he had said and they shut briefly as he stopped breathing.

**

CHAPTER FOUR…AWAKENING

‘I can’t believe I said that out loud…any second now she’s going to come out of the shock she’s in and slap my face…and I deserve it.’

He waited, smiling tentatively, holding his breath and prepared for the worst…and she leaned toward his face and kissed him, gently.

“We do tend to think alike…but are you any good?” she asked softly when she withdrew her lips from his, with her sparkling eyes only inches from him.

“Never had any complaints…” he said softly when he got control of his mouth again.

“I have to warn you that I’m not very experienced…I’ve found most men to be very unconcerned about whether his partner achieves completion or not…and much too fast for me….but I won’t be as polite as your other partners if you aren’t as good as I think you might be.”

There was no hesitation now as he drew in a breath in relief and leaned into the parted lips she offered once more, letting her set the pace.

Urs smiled and let himself relax into her gentle kiss, running his hands slowly up her torso and lifting her onto his lap to wrap her legs around him. His mouth teased, tasting her lips, sucking gently on her tongue, exploring inside the velvety cave in thrusting motions that made her moan.

There were no thoughts of guilt, no awkward moments, no feelings of unfamiliarity or hesitation as they explored, indulging in an experience that had been inevitable right from the first moment their eyes met…this was Right, Fated to happen, a gentle completion of two soulmates that instinctively needed to become one…

**

Slowly they became aware of the world outside their small cocoon of ebbing sensations…the rain still beating steadily on the roof, the lights in the cottage flickering as if undecided whether or not to go dark again, their slippery, sweat slicked, naked bodies still twined.

Urs raised his head from the curve of her neck and kissed her cheek.

“You’re so little…I’ll squash you,” he said softly, beginning to raise himself on his bent arms.

She merely smiled and turned her head to capture his mouth gently, quite content to remain right where she was.

Her legs fell limply around his hips and he lifted her off the table top easily to hold against his chest as he eased back into the chair, taking her pliant form with him, nestling his face in the curve of her neck again and listening to her breathing calm while he stroked her slick back with gentle hands and let his own body return more or less to normal.

She shuddered, a long deep breath, her chest pushing into his and wound her fingers in his hair, easing her other arm under his to clasp him around the muscular back.

“Do….you…do…encores?”

He chuckled against her neck, making her shiver.

“I was hoping you would ask….” he whispered. “Upstairs….I’ll tend to the fire…” He stood her on her feet, taking the opportunity to suckle her breasts gently since they were right at the perfect level, then rising to his feet and leaning down to kiss her tenderly, he went to the fireplace to bank and screen the flames, turned out the lights and gathered their discarded clothes into a bundle.

She was up the ladder in a flash, pausing at the top to look down as he set the place in order, a little stunned at what they had just done, her sense quickening once more as she watch his sculpted naked body moving about gracefully.

‘No one who knows me would ever believe I could let go like that…what power does this man have over me? I wanted him even when he was standing in the door, backlit by the storm…this has NEVER happened to me before…I wonder if he knows that no one has ever made me feel the way he did? He’s so careful to see that I have as much pleasure from making love as he does…why can’t more men be like him? Well, girl thank goodness they aren’t …if this is what happens with a caring partner I’d never get out of bed!!’

She was waiting, sitting on the side of the bed in the loft when he came off the top of the ladder and placed the bundle of clothing on the bench at the foot. One dim light was on, shaded with a red scarf which gave the room a rusty glow and made her skin shimmer, the rain beat a tattoo on the metal roof, the wind sighed through the eaves and her eyes watched him advance on her with an eagerness that he didn’t remember seeing in a partner for a long time, if ever.

He stood in front of her and her hands came out to touch him, increasing the urgency he already felt zinging through his blood, engorging his thick shaft.

“I felt your pleasure,” he said softly, in awe at the response she had shown to him, caressing her cheek with his long fingers as she looked up and smiled.

“Never before,” she said and her eyes glinted with tears that she didn’t want him to see but couldn’t stop.

“NEVER?”

“I wanted to, began to feel the desire but no-one ever took the time to make me really feel it…so no, not with a partner and not like that…pale imitations at the most….Thank you!!”

He leaned down to capture her mouth, resting his large hands on the soft skin of her breasts and kneading gently.

“Your body fits perfectly with mine…you were made to be treasured, given joy…and you share so beautifully….just touching you makes my blood sing…..and the taste of you, your little hands on me….oh, my Isabella…I want more…”

He pressed her back onto the soft bed, rolling to bring her on top of his body. The slow, tender journey of exploration began again.

**

The little lamp was still giving the loft a rosy glow when Urs woke with her nestled in his arms, her breath a soft caress against his chest as she slept.

‘Why can’t it always be like this?...why are there always veiled hints at needing commitment, comparisons to other women I may or may not have been with…and little thought of how I feel…as if the man just needs release, nothing more subtle, more fulfilling…she gave me as much or more than I gave her, without restraint, wanting only to please and sharing like no woman ever has with me before….and I don’t even really know this woman, yet physically, we are so perfect together….now I’m the one who yearns for a commitment, for some sign that this won’t end today…I want to get to know her, the complex person I think she is, all the little things that make her who she is…but she was very clear about that, even before I let it slip out how much I wanted to make love with her….Just treasure whatever she’s able to give you, whatever she will allow you to give her…it will have to be enough.’

Her hair was an unruly cap of curls from the dampness of their exertions, just, he assumed, as his was. He brushed it gently off her brow and traced a finger down her cheek, marveling at the dark sweep of her long lashes, the petite nose above curved lips, the lower full and marked lightly where he had nibbled just a bit too hard. He remembered her moan and how her tongue had flicked across his as he soothed the tiny spot, hot and wet, tasting of salt and the mingled tang of their loving…his body remembered too and he almost glanced down in amazement as he felt the blood pool, heat, and his body begin to throb with longing.

‘What is she doing to me? Is it some secret spell, known only to those in the medical profession? I’ve always had a healthy libido but never quite this healthy…’


It was warm in the loft from the residual heat of the fireplace emanating through the stone chimney that swept upwards on the end wall to the roof. He carefully slid the sheet that covered them down over her shoulders to her hips, feasting his hungry eyes on her sculpted form….She had a round, fading red scar on her shoulder that he ached to kiss, another darker, newer, pink one above her right breast that showed as a thin line about 7 inches long, the end disappearing in the scattering of tiny freckles below her neck…what had happened to her to cause these old wounds?

He touched the pink nub and smiled when it engorged, raising to meet his finger…sternly he cautioned his eager mouth to do no more than salivate, licking his lips eagerly as he remembered last night.

‘Mein gott she tastes so sweet!! …and she was so thrilled, so out of control when I feasted on her, when I stroked her clit with my tongue and entered into the heat of her to suck the juices…no need for KY with this woman…she was so wet…wet and tight, sheathing me like a velvet glove…Gott…I want her again…Greedy, that’s what you are Buhler..’

Very carefully he eased out of the bed and made his way down the ladder, not bothering to dress, ready to brave the elements and relieve his near bursting bladder but not eager for the long trek to the small outhouse behind the cottage, the only bathroom available. He opened the door and gingerly stepped outside into the dark night, surprised that the gentle rain that now fell almost straight down was warm, refreshing.

He strode to the end of the small porch and mingled his body fluids with the rain in a steady stream, enjoying the feeling of the rain washing over him, rinsing off the dried sweat, though getting his hair wet was a bit uncomfortable as it dripped coolly on his shoulders and back.

Finished, he rubbed his hands over his exposed skin, washing off the sweaty results of their love-making, smiling as he remembered the feeling of her mouth as it teased, soothed, excited…and laughing outright when 2 warm arms slid around him from the back and gentle kisses began a trail down his spine.

“I tried not to wake you,” he said as he clasped her hands tight to his stomach, stopping the massage that was doing such wonderful things to his heart rate.

“I missed you against me…the storm is almost over,” she said as he turned to face her, molding her against his body and watching her up-turned face as she looked at him and smiled with sleepy eyes.

“What have you done to me?” he asked in wonder, just above a whisper, gently trailing his long fingers down her face, following the raindrops that ran in tracks across her chest to pool briefly in her innie.

“I want you again.”

She shivered and smiled, inching closer, her hands sliding down his back to cup his taut butt.

“I can’t always be, but I’m here for you now, Urs…”

They embraced hungrily, standing naked in the warm rain until the heat from their bodies made it seem cool and they scurried inside the still warm cottage, grabbing oversized towels and rubbing each other vigorously to dry off, inflaming desires that were just barely contained. The throw he had wrapped in on arrival made an adequate nest on the floor in front of the embers of the fire…there was no time to go back up the ladder as the give and take of joy consumed them once more.

**

Izzy woke first just as the dawn was breaking and beginning to dry up the wet world outside their haven, not really sure how they had managed to get back up into the loft. She had a dim memory of suffering from a chill, one of the Dengue Fever side effects and being over Urs’ shoulder in a fireman carry…and laughing…he must have carried her up the ladder!

The rain had stopped and through the tiny window she could see the last remaining clouds and stars scudding away, abandoning the sky to the rosy glow of a new day.

She breathed in the scent of the man laying so close to her…fresh, clean, an undercurrent of lovemaking aroma that made her smile with memories that she would treasure.

‘No strings, that’s what he said…how he had blushed when the words slipped out…he hadn’t planned to say it, those thoughts he had…and that I had too…if only it could always be like this…but it’s impossible and we both know it…I’ll get well enough to go back to work and he’ll move on, touring, delighting the world with his beautiful voice…and he’ll find someone who can be there for him, not just now and then but often…and we both know that nothing can come of this longing we have for each other…is it just a physical thing? I hardly know him…not even 24 hours and yet I’d follow him to Hell if he asked…but he won’t…oh how I would love to know that he was there for me when I return from some G0d-forsaken location, his arms open to shelter me, to protect me and make me feel safe…and loved…if only there was time to get to know each other, to find out all the little things that make us the people we are, not just the incredible sex…and it was incredible…he made pleasing me seem so simple, so right…why can’t more men be self-less like that, thinking about their partner instead of just getting satisfaction for themselves? You are a unique man, Urs Buhler, a man I could love….if only…..’

She slid from the bed before her thoughts could overwhelm her and sorted out the bundle of clothing, taking her few pieces and going down the ladder to wash in the icy water from the well, brush her teeth, then dress before the now cold fireplace.

Efficiently, from long habit, she cleaned the ashes out of the fireplace into a metal bucket and took them outside to the rubbish heap, carefully checking the wind direction before tipping them onto the pile. She left the bucket upside down on the porch and returned, setting kindling and tinder on the grate but not lighting it since they would likely leave right after breakfast.

She took the coffee pot to the kitchen area and cleaned it, drying the outside and dropping in some crushed eggshell, coffee grounds, salt and filling it with water before placing it on the gas burner to brew.

‘At least I can make a good breakfast…and he needs it after all the energy he used up last night…I had no idea how strong he is…and how much stamina he has…’

She used up the last remaining eggs to make fluffy pancakes, throwing in the last handful of blueberries, cleaned out the fridge and cooked up the last of the bacon, sausages and ham and sliced fresh fruit into two bowls. The aroma of the pancakes must have roused Urs for she heard sounds of movement from the loft and shortly after, his feet, then legs appeared, coming down the ladder.

He smiled as he approached her, running his hands through his messy hair and across the stubble on his face, then wrapping her in his long arms for a good morning snuggle.

“Guten Morgen, Liebe.”

“Guten Morgen, Hausfreund,” she answered and offered her lips for a kiss.

He grinned and kissed her lightly.

“Do you speak German or is that the extent of your vocabulary?”

“I speak a few languages…it’s kind of a prerequisite in my line of work.”

“Let me guess…English of course, French too since you’re Canadian…and I would think Spanish…anything else?”

“German, Dari and Pushtu and some Urdu…now get out of my kitchen before the pancakes burn.”

She gave him a little push and he laughed, heading for the door and saying he was desperate to brush his teeth, his toothbrush was in his saddle bags.

“I’ll put some water on to heat so you can wash up,” she said, chiding herself silently for spoiling him with hot water but also thinking that he deserved a little spoiling.

He came back carrying a part bottle of water from his saddle bag just as the platter of food was being put on the table. She shooed him to the sink for a quick wash first, covering the food with a large lid so it wouldn’t get cold.

Urs was ravenous…and whatever she had made smelled heavenly so he hurried, coming to the table while still drying and dropping the wet towel over the back of his chair.

“I hope you don’t mind…we never have maple syrup since both Cody and I prefer Cloudberry syrup from Labrador.” She frowned as she removed the lid, a bit worried that her efforts would be found lacking.

“You lied to me…you said you were a terrible cook and these look and smell wonderful….thank you, Izzy.”

“Try them first…they may be heavy as lead.”

They ate, {he declared that he loved the Cloudberry Syrup too and the pancakes were light as air}far too much but then she was trying to use everything up since they would be leaving later today and they both decided that wasting was a sin.

Today there was no hostility in her attitude, as if what they had shared during the evening and long night had broken down her barriers and she was content to just be herself, without the antagonistic wall that she used to keep people out. He wondered if it would last, if when they returned to the crowded world she would feel it necessary to protect herself again.

“You said you have to return to Toronto this afternoon… for your work?”

She shook her head.

“I have an appointment with a specialist in Tropical diseases in the morning at Camp Borden…just to see how well I’m recovering from the Dengue….and I need to drop the stones off at the shop so Trudi has something to work on.”

“I’d like to see you again…we’re in Toronto until day after tomorrow then on to New York.”

Izzy smiled, her face lighting up with pleasure at his news.

“Me too…I have to give a presentation to the Committee at the UN next Monday…a wrap up of the last assignment. Urs, I thought you said no strings?”

He shrugged, knowing he couldn’t push her and yet unwilling to have her vanish from his life.

“And I meant it…I know about you having to go away so often…and I’m all over the place…but what can it hurt to spend some time together when we can? If you don’t want to see me after today, I can accept that…but it might be fun to get to know each other better.”

Izzy studied him, not fooled for a second by his lowered eyes and the attention he was paying to pouring them each another coffee.

“Urs, what I want more than anything is for neither of us to get hurt…what we shared last night was incredible, the first time I’ve ever been given pleasure like that…and if that is all we ever have I can live on that memory… I do want more, but only if we can agree that when it’s time to part it will be as friends, nothing more.”

He met her eyes, unsmiling and he hoped, appearing truthful, when he nodded and agreed.

‘No problem…it’s far too soon to have any feelings between us other than lust…and curiosity…I can do this…and somehow it’s refreshing to meet a woman who doesn’t want ‘forever after’ just because we made love….wonderful , incredible, mindblowing love…calm down, fool, or you’ll be wanting more already…’

‘OMG…his face is so easy to read…it would only take a look and we’d be locked in each others arms again…what is this man doing to me?...I’ve always been such a control freak, but with him I just melt when he looks at me….you’re going to get hurt, Girl…’

“We better get going if we want to do some searching today…I thought we might go a few K to the York River Skarn or Cancrinite Hill…we might find some nice Blue Sodalite that you could make into a ring for yourself…it’s always kind of cool to be able to say you found it yourself when someone notices the nice gemstone.”

She chuckled at the way his eyes lit up and rose from the table to clean up. Urs immediately helped, carting dishes to the sink, filling the kettle with water and putting it on to boil while she got rid of the tiny amount of food left over.

“Urs, if you like we could put the bike in the back of Flossie and you could ride in to Toronto with me…it wouldn’t be any trouble dropping you off at your Hotel.”

He smiled and she felt her bones melt even before he came over and cupped her face in his hands.

“I’d like that wery much, Isabella…such a pretty name…perfect for such a beautiful woman.” He lowered his mouth to her lips, hesitating at the last second to judge her reaction and sighing with delight when she raised on her toes and stroked her tongue over his lower lip.

The gentle kiss deepened until they had to clutch at each other to remain standing on legs that had gone weak. Izzy drew away first, resting her head on his chest as she struggled to control her shuddering breath.

“I’d like there to be something more for us to remember than just endless sex, wonderful though that may seem at the moment…so we need to back off a bit…do you want to wash or dry?”

Urs sighed and then laughed lightly.

“Danke Gott one of us is an adult…I’m best at drying…it was always my job at home.”

**

CHAPTER FIVE…ROCK-HUNTING

They did the dishes, wiped down the table and stove, made some sandwiches and then packed up the remaining fruit along with water bottles for their jaunt out to the quarries, talking about their families.

She was fascinated by his tales of his large family, especially of his sisters and brother…he made light of their closeness, complaining mildly about the trials of having 3 sisters but obviously loving them all dearly.

“I always wished that I had a sister,” she said. “Cody is 10 years older and from a different mother…she died of cancer when he was 6 and Papa married again when he had just turned 9, then they had me just a little over a year later. Papa was in the military too so I guess it was natural for both of us to drift into it. Our parents died within a month of each other 2 years ago while we were both on assignment, Cody in, who knows where and I was in Afghanistan.”

“Is Cody attached to the UN too?”

“No…he’s JTF2…Special Forces…even more secret and hush-hush. He’s always ragging on me to put in for a transfer…thinks I take too many chances.”

“Ragging?”

She laughed as she put on her hiking boots and motioned to a pair she had set beside his bike boots with some thick extra socks.

“Nagging, bossing…picking at me, trying to get me to do things his way…he never learns that it only makes me dig in my heels…I hate being bossed around.”

Urs looked up at her, his chest thumping as he thought about her being in danger. He tried to hide what he felt, trying on one boot then taking it off to add the extra socks.

“Is that how you got those scars on your chest and shoulder…from jobs you were on?”

She shrugged and nodded.

“There’s a couple more that I guess you were too pre-occupied to see…now you aren’t going to start on me are you?”

“Mein gott, NO!!!…I know better…”

She grinned, standing to shoulder the backpack and head for the door.

“Good…I like a man who knows his place…c’mon we’re wasting daylight.”

They had a perfect day for it, not too warm, the rain drying up now and a very light breeze stirring the grass and colorful trees.

She eased the truck out from under the shelter and he hopped into the passenger seat.

The vehicle was old but purred like a newer, well tuned model, meticulously clean inside, only the outer shell showing the wear and age. The seat had been re-placed with newer, better, cushioned bucket seats with head rests, the space behind the seats filled with rolled up leather tool kits and pouches, a couple of hard hats and thick safety glasses, a folded pop-up tent and rolled sleeping bag, some emergency rations and a small portable stove, …everything for camping out if the mood struck.

She was a good driver, taking it easy as they rolled along the main road and acting as guide, pointing out the various farms where good sized stones had been found and the entrances to closed mines.

“We don’t have time today or I would take you to Quadeville …there’s a quarry outside of it with a whole wall, 15 meters high, of Rose Quartz. It’s too fragile to mine but just the sight of it is awesome and the area produces a variety of other stones as well.”

“How did you get interested in collecting?”

She smiled.

“Like you, when I was in school I studied some in Geology class and found it fascinating…we used to come up to this area on holidays in the summer and Mom and I dabbled, nothing serious. Then one birthday I got a rock tumbler as a gift and better tools than the junk I had been using and that was it…I was hooked. I have a bunch of books on gems on that shelving in the cottage that I use for reference and I found it a refreshing change when I was studying medicine to study minerals instead for a while…actually the two disciplines are not that far apart…there’s a great deal of belief in the healing powers of various gem stones, going back to ancient times.”

“How about that Sodalite we found?”

“Promotes harmony, strengthens courage and communication…”

“And the Tourmaline?”

“It depends on the color…Black is supposed to increase energy and stamina…you definitely don’t need to wear a black Tourmaline!” She paused and chanced a quick glance at him with a grin. “Blue improves communication and Green renews creativity and develops feelings of love and compassion.”

He laughed and moved his arm to the back of the seat, his fingers just lightly touching her neck.

“Any others I should stay away from?”

She grinned.

“Jasper…it increases endurance…if you had any more endurance it would kill your partner.”

He laughed again then sobered and his fingers massaged the back of her neck.

“Actually I was more surprised than you would believe when those words popped out of my mouth…I’m not usually quite this…randy…there’s just something about you that…stimulates me…maybe there’s a fault line under the cottage, chock full of Jasper….maybe I should carry around a few large chunks of it…just in case.”

She laughed at that so hard it nearly became necessary to pull the truck over but got back in control and freed one hand to wipe the tears away that laughing so hard had caused.

“Well I’ve been going to that cottage for years and never reacted the way I did with you….if you hadn’t asked, I wonder if I would have? I’m not sure how much of the belief I actually accept…but it can’t hurt to wear the stones…just in case…and anyway they’re pretty.”

“I’ll have to get some books and study up…you’re much better informed than I am, so I need to catch up a bit.”

“No problem, Swiss…I hate going out alone, besides the fact that it isn’t advisable…now that I’ve found a willing partner I may constantly be urging you to go with me.”

Urs felt a frisson of pleasure at the thought. ‘That means she hopes we will at the very least, be friends…YES!!’

“I’d like that…wery much!!”

She smiled at his slip, aware already that when his emotions were involved his superb command of English warped slightly.


“That’s the Princess Mines, out-of-bounds to rock-hounds, but across the road is Cancrinite Hill…we’ll go there on the return trip…I know one of the managers and have a pass…it’s the best area for Blue Sodalite as well as Nepheline and Bronze Corundum…the girls in the shop have asked if I could try to find some for a piece Trudi designed.”

“So do you sell to a local shop?”

“Not really…”

She stopped talking and geared down, tapping the brakes to bring them to a slow, rolling stop in the middle of the road and Urs immediately saw why…just ahead a doe and a spindly legged fawn stood on the grassy verge, staring transfixed at the vehicle, about to dash across the road.

They waited quietly, Izzy glancing every few seconds in the rear view mirror in case another vehicle approached. The doe took one timid step, then another, followed by the fawn, then they stepped delicately across the tarred surface and slowly vanished into the shelter of the woods on the other side.

In the truck, the two awed humans shared soft smiles without speaking, then Izzy engaged the gears once more and they continued.

**

The quarry was less than impressive when they pulled into a messy, rock-strewn area and parked, only two other, equally shabby vehicles in the area.

Basically the area they were allowed in was a big open pit, carved over the years into the earth with outer walls rising to the encroaching forest 20 feet above, the floor liberally cluttered with discarded boulders or small slides that mining on the lower levels had caused.

Izzy pointed out the slides, impressing on Urs the need for caution since it was possible at any time for the upper walls to give way without much warning. For that reason they would not work side by side, one person always at a distant site to attempt to rescue the other if the walls came down and entombed him.

“Every year there’s a few deaths among the hounds who think that they are invincible, that things like that only happen to others… some fools don’t even wear hard hats…we WILL…some lose an eye from shards that fly off in unexpected directions and have access to eyes without safety glasses…which we WILL wear. OH and Urs…how do you feel about snakes?”

“Not squeamish but respectful…I prefer to avoid them.”

“Good…it likely won’t be hot enough out today for any to be sunbathing but we have the Massassauga rattler around here, poisonous but not deadly unless you get several bites…just check out where you’re going, the top of rocks etc.”

They delved into the back seat of the truck and she outfitted him: hard hat, safety glasses, heavy leather gloves, fabric softener sheets which she rubbed over all his exposed skin, claiming it was an excellent bug repellant and a rolled up kit containing tools and small leather pouches. They each took two water bottles in a small day pack and headed into the quarry.

The occupants of the other vehicles were nowhere to be seen at first.

Izzy explained that mostly the first open area was where the amateurs mined.

“If we follow the path around that small slide there’s another large pit that kind of zig-zags further into the forest…it hasn’t been mined out yet.”

They passed a man and woman busily chipping away at the wall of the next pit, not stopping to chat, since that wasn’t done unless the miners invited inspection of their site. Izzy took a jog into a narrow opening and sighed with relief…there was no one in the spot she had set her heart on mining today.

She picked a likely spot for Urs and instructed him in how to use the rock hammer and chisel, told him to work carefully, always aware of the area around him, especially above, to examine each shard that broke off, in particular the ones that came easily since that could indicate a fault caused by hidden gem-stones.

“You’ll likely find half a ton with nothing before you find a ‘keeper’,” she said with a sigh. “Just call out to me if you find anything interesting.

Izzy moved about 20 feet away and unrolled her tools while Urs lowered his safety glasses over his eyes and began.

He worked systematically, with logical Swiss precision, piling the shards that held nothing of interest to one side in a growing mass, each time he wielded his hammer expecting the next piece to reveal something amazing. It wasn’t long until he found a deeply embedded shard of some pure white host with tiny crystals clustered at intervals in it, multi colored and with a ragged vein of something that ran through it and disappeared in the wall he was working on.

He backed off a few feet and examined it in the bright morning sunshine, wiping the sweat from his brow when he raised his glasses for a better look.

‘What an incredible feeling!! I’ve no idea what this is or if it has any value but it’s beautiful…and I mined it, alone, every tap done by my hands!! What a rush!!!...Mein gott, will she understand how I feel if I share this with her or just think I’m another star struck ‘virgin’?’

“Izzy,” he called out, trying for nonchalance and failing…the quiver in his voice and the sparkle of his eyes giving away his excitement.

“Find something?” she answered, placing her hammer on a flat rock with a small pile of specimens and rising to stretch cramped muscles and come over to him.

“Just this…it might not be much, but it’s nice looking,” he said, handing the chunk to her and trying to appear unconcerned.

She smiled, reading his excitement, his mobile face like an open book….she examined the fist sized chunk of host stone from all angles, letting her breath out in almost a whistle.

“Lovely!...it’s Minium Corundum with Spinel shards…lots of colors so there must be a mix of minerals in the host…and see here where it broke off the main vein…if you can follow it you might get some that are big enough for cabs…this one, if it were mine, I would keep rough, as a specimen stone, maybe in a display box so it doesn’t collect dust and light can play off of the crystals…it’s really quite beautiful, Urs….well done!”

He heaved a sigh of relief at her understanding, ignoring the praise…after all he had just been the instrument of freeing this beauty from the vise it had been in for thousands of years…Gott had created it and he would keep it just as it was, out of awe and respect…and a little smidgeon of pride.



Izzy watched him put the stone in a leather wrap and place it carefully into his day pack then observed for a few minutes while he worked on following the vein. He was a natural at it, patient, intelligent, intent and she left him, returning to the area she had been working on.

**

She sat back on her heels and turned to watch Urs. He was working diligently a dozen yards away, carefully chipping away at an exposed vein of feldspar, examining each chunk that broke off before setting it carefully to one side. His face was streaked with sweat and dust from the quarry, a couple of tiny scratches on his arms were already scabbed over and his shaggy, day and a half beard was obviously itchy judging from the way he ran the back of his gloved hand over his chin, rubbing vigorously.

At least he had left his hard hat on…not like Cody who IF she could get him to accompany her, had to be watched every minute or he would discard it as something ‘only sissies wear’.

The vein he had been following after his first find had played out before giving up any cab sized stones and he went on to follow a smaller vein that angled off, yielding a number of miniscule chips and a few rather nice pieces of Nepheline mix. At least he had proven to her, and himself, that he didn’t give in to defeat, not easily.

She went back to her perusal of the mound she was working on, finding some quite nice but small Flourite, possibly enough to take to the shop to be set in a bracelet.

“Izzy…I think I found something…”

She stood and stretched, walking carefully on the strewn floor of the quarry and then crouching at his side.

“I don’t know what it is but it’s pretty…can we get it out without damaging it?” He fairly vibrated with eagerness as he rested his gloved finger on a lump of rusty red feldspar with a fat greenish epidote and a translucent deep red spinel mix raised from the surface.

“Very nice, Urs…it’s spinel in feldspar with epidote or microcline…move your head to a different angle and you’ll see the color play…it’s prized for the way the color dances in the light…see, this one has a gold play…that red/gold Spinel would make a lovely cabochon to set in a ring…you can excise it fairly easily but you have to go slow and soft…go out about 3 inches with the chisel…see where the natural cleavage is…that’s right…now just tap your mallet…move up a half an inch and do it again…what you’re doing is trying to get it to release naturally so it doesn’t damage….there see…it moved a fraction…keep at it and I’ll catch for you….”

She had to bite her lip to hold in her fervent prayer that he would be successful. His face gave away the thrill he was feeling, the anxiety that he was doing it right, the pleasure that she was allowing him to do it HIMSELF, not even offering to do it for him.

A dozen more tiny taps and the tension sweat was pouring off his face. She moved one hand away from under the rock to wipe his brow so he could see but was sure that he didn’t even notice, so intent was his gaze on the prize he was trying so hard to get.

One more tap and the rock separated from the host, popping out in two pieces and into Izzy’s waiting hands. She gave it to Urs immediately, letting him savor the moment.

“It’s beautiful….don’t you think it’s beautiful?” he said as he looked at her in wonder.

‘How many men do I know that would be so thrilled over a rough chunk of pretty rock?... Zero, that’s how many…look at him…it’s probably worth a couple of hundred dollars, polished, maybe a thousand or so properly set but to him it’s priceless because HE mined it….I’m so happy to have witnessed this moment with you Urs Buhler…and I know just what you are feeling.’

“Yes, I think it is beautiful…and a lovely find, especially on your first trip out…if you have time in Toronto you can view it under the scope in my workshop and actually see the inclusions…and later if you like, I can polish and set it for you….”

He smiled at her, closing his large hand protectively around the chunks of rock that the stones were embedded in.

“I think I’d just like to enjoy it like this for a while…”

She smiled and went back to chipping the Flourite spheres out of the rock wall, her throat constricted with memories of the feelings she had, just like his, each and every time she found some treasure.

**

CHAPTER SIX…RETURN TO REALITY

Urs stomach was grumbling with hunger pangs when they stopped for lunch but he was reluctant to leave the spot he had been working on.

“It’s been there waiting for you since the last Ice Age, Buhler, it will keep. Bring your tools and loot bag and come back to Flossie so we can re-charge our batteries.”

She didn’t leave him much choice, scooping up his rock hammer and walking away to look back over her shoulder and grin.

“Virgins!!!...they’re always so gung-ho!!”

He laughed and gathered his finds, slipping them into the leather bags she had provided and rolling his tools in a soft sheet of leather before tying the bundle and jogging after her.

PB and J or the last of the roast beef had never tasted so good as out here, sitting on the tailgate of the battered truck, dirty, sore from crouching so long, stinging from the few mosquitoes that had evaded the bug goop from the softener sheets and lunched on their skin, but most of all happy.

Izzy told him about some of the stones she had found on other treks, about once even visiting a mine site of Lapis Lazuli in Afghanistan and nearly being shot by the man who had decided she was a poacher.

“He lost it completely and would have shot me and my driver but when I started to speak to him in Pushtu he calmed down and I explained who we were…fortunately he was a family man with a sick child and when I told him we were on the way to the clinic in his village, with the double duty of negotiating for hostages that had been brought down from the hills…then he let me scrabble though the slag and take a piece of stone. I still have the pendant and it brings back the memories each time I wear it.”

“And the child…what happened when you reached the village?”

She smiled, remembering.

“Actually I was quite surprised…girls are not that treasured in his country, but his child was a 7 year old daughter that he seemed to love dearly…she had picked up an infection from unhealthy sanitation and it was easily taken care of…then we were the darlings of the village and they released the hostages to us without much negotiation…a few perks from the government and one of our jeeps…and the company the engineers worked for dug them a new, clean well…it was one of our better negotiations but then we were dealing with desperate villagers, not the Taliban.”

Urs stared at her for a moment, not sure if he should ask the question that was bursting to get out of him.

“Urs Buhler, if we are going to be friends you have to accept that you can ask me anything. I may snap at you sometimes or refuse to agree, but we should be able to talk about anything! And I never stay angry long.”

He laughed, once again caught out by his expressive face and her intuition.

“Do you ever get scared? I mean you go into some places that are really dangerous and situations that are probably very volatile…don’t you get frightened?”

She smiled.

“Always! The minute you become complacent you begin making mistakes …you lose that edge and the sense you have of walking on a knife blade, carefully…and then you become dead or worse…a hostage yourself. But somehow the adrenal rush is worth it and it keeps us sharp….coming down after is not as pleasant though…I always want to sleep for 24 hours afterwards but it isn’t possible until we are actually on the plane and in the air…things can change in a heart beat with these people…they don’t think logically, not like your countrymen.”

She laughed as she tried to lighten the mood and slipped off the tailgate to brush crumbs from her dirty clothing, slipping a fall apple into her pocket for later.

“So, partner, what do you say to another 2 hours here then we’ll pack up and go to Cancrinite Hill for a couple of hours…then we’ll go and load Flossie for the return to TO and if you don’t mind café cooking we can have dinner in town before we head out.”

“Like this?” he said indicating their soiled clothing and fully aware of the limited facilities for showering at the cottage. “You aren’t going to suggest bathing in that icy cold river are you?”

She grinned, deciding to surprise him with one little additional detail.

“Don’t panic…clean and tidy customers are the exception in the Chute Café…it’s where all the hounds go to recharge.”

**

There really wasn’t much to pack up but it took them nearly an hour since Izzy insisted that they clean their tools and boots first. She jury rigged a ramp for the bike onto the back of the truck with a couple of wide planks, Urs muscled it up the planks into the truck and they tied it down firmly, added the bag with laundry of sheets and towels from the bedroom and Izzy’s clothing from her week long stay, taped up the hole in Urs’ leather pants with a piece of duct tape on the inside and spent a while sorting rock samples into leather pouches or onto leather sheets, then into a couple of small packs for the trip.

He was amazed at the amount of specimens he had collected, sorted through them for his favorites and gave the rest to Izzy to take in to the shop…space and weight were a limited commodity when he was traveling so much. His first find he kept and she smiled as she saw the way he wrapped it carefully and separated it from the others.

“I’ll have the hotel wash Cody’s clothes and give them to you tomorrow…I really don’t want to change into my leathers when I’m so dirty…BTW thanks for wiping down the leather pants…I did managed to collect a lot of mud on them trying to get here …Mein gott…I wonder if the doorman will let me into the Hotel like this?” He laughed as he thought of it and Izzy told him not to worry.


Urs paused as he was entering the truck to leave the cottage, suddenly loath to end what had been a wonderful time away from the city and the routines that awaited him. He chuckled and got in, slamming the door and glancing at Izzy as she smiled at him from the driver’s seat.

“I know…I always feel just the same when I have to go back to ‘civilization’. But we can come back.”

“I’m counting on it,” he said softly as they eased down the lane towards town.

**

The Chute Café was a long low building just on the edge of town, with a double wide trailer attached to the back of the building and a large sign on the roof that made Urs laugh ….SHOWERS…

“You could have told me, you evil woman!!...I don’t care what it costs, I’m showering before we eat!!”

He was out of the truck, grinning like a fool as he delved into his bags in the back, collecting his leathers and boots and accepting the shampoo, conditioner and soap that Izzy passed him with a grin.

“We have no towels…but I don’t care…” he began but she just smiled and said… ‘Provided!’

They went in and paid for the use of the cubicles in the trailer, collecting a plastic bag for their dirty clothing and parting to enter the cubicles next to each other.

Urs didn’t remember ever enjoying a shower as much…well, not alone anyway. The mud and streaks of clay sluiced off of him as he just enjoyed the hot water at first, then lathered his hair, twice, applied conditioner and then scrubbed at his lean body until his skin glowed….it felt wonderful!! He could hear Izzy next door, humming, he thought something from Phantom, almost risked joining her but thought better of it, with difficulty, especially when his cubicle door cracked open and her wet arm came in groping for the containers of shampoo and conditioner. He laughed and kissed her fingers, then relinquished the bottles and continued rinsing off. He was almost finished drying when he heard the door of her cubicle open again and then a tap on his.

“I’m going in to get us a table…we only have one plastic bag, pass your dirty clothes out so they can go in the bag.”

He opened the door a crack and saw her standing with the bag open, grinning at him, fully dressed in snug jeans and an even snugger tee and with her damp hair starting to curl already.

“Yum!! You clean up really nice, Herr Buhler!”

He dropped the clothing in the bag and was about to close the door again when she reached in to grasp his neck in one strong hand and pull his head down for the kiss she was standing on tip toes to deliver.

It was too tempting and he reached for her but she was gone with a laugh just as the couple they had seen at the quarry entered the hall…he shut the door and dressed, grinning at the way she had teased, his lower lip still stinging from her nibbling teeth.

Hounds, it seemed were a boisterous lot when they were no longer chipping at stone. The diner was noisy, people calling out to old friends, laughing, some passing around finds but of course not divulging the location.

The food was a secondary concern to the socializing, but wholesome and filling, especially the homemade pies which seemed to be the main dessert…Urs had two pieces rather than trying to decide on one…a slice of Apple, liberally seasoned with cinnamon and another called Bumbleberry which appeared to have a mix of many different kinds of berries. The ice cream that was heaped generously on the side was homemade as well and had there been room he would have opted for thirds of that.

He was groaning with repletion when they sat quietly enjoying a second coffee and talking about the plans for the next day.

“Will you come to the concert…it’s a small venue, they tell me and not a long program…and will you go for dinner with us after? I know you have to go to the Base early in the day but if you’re coming back in time I’d love to see you tomorrow.”

Izzy smiled at him.

“I should be back in the city early, around 2 or so…Borden isn’t that far and it won’t take long to see the specialist….Urs, I have some things to do tonight, see Trudi and deliver the stones, pay some bills and I have a 5 a.m. call for pick up at 6…but I’d love to go to the concert and I’ll join you for dinner on one condition…I’d like to show you my condo so I’ll need you to take me home… and you could stay for breakfast.”

He shifted to a more comfortable position on the bench seat, just the thought of spending another night with her making his body awaken and reached across the table to take her hand, stroking his thumb softly over the back of hers.

“I’d like that…it’s going to seem lonely in my suite tonight…even sharing the room with Seb won’t be enough…when we get a little better known I’m hoping for my own room, but for now, we share.”

So softly he almost didn’t hear it, she leaned forward and whispered….

“Tomorrow…you’re worth waiting for…”

**

The three hour trip into the city was over far too quickly, though it was dark by the time they wound through the streets and stopped in front of Urs’ hotel. He had spent the time trying to get a decent radio station on the truck stereo, giving up until they reached the main freeway and singing for her, rock songs that he kept the beat to by using both hands on the dashboard, a rousing version of an aria by Donizetti and a duet with her of an oldie from Sha-Na-Na {the Lion Sleeps Tonite} that had them both laughing hysterically as they pulled into the driveway of the hotel.

The doorman looked in dismay at the truck which parked in the unloading zone of the elegant edifice, minus the bike which they had dropped off at the rental agency. It did seem out of place among the limos and high end vehicles pulling up and the drivers handing over keys to the valets to be parked.

Urs grinned at her, trying not to laugh at the discomfort he could see on the poor man’s face.

“I wonder what he would have done if we hadn’t showered…or if we asked to have the truck parked?”

“We’ll never know…Flossie tends to be temperamental when anyone else tries to drive her. Urs, I’m so glad it rained.”

“Me too…You’ve brought a sense of contentment into my life, my Little Bella….I’m looking forward to the next few days when we can be together.”

He reached out to brush his hand over her hair and she turned her head to rest her cheek against his palm.

“I can’t be anything except myself when I’m with you, Urs…all my walls crumble…I don’t understand this power you have over me…but I like it.”

He leaned in to offer his lips and she met him half way, a sweet, gentle kiss, full of promise and tenderness.

They both sighed when it ended then laughed at how similar their reactions were.

“Sweet dreams, Isabella…I know who I will dream of.”

He exited the truck, reaching in the back for his gear and waving as she smiled, engaged the gears and eased out of the circular drive and into traffic.

Urs nodded at the doorman as he passed, smiling at the relief on the man’s face and accepting the quiet, ‘Good Evening, Sir’ with a ‘Yes it is, isn’t it’. He looked up at the Hotel, all shining glass, modern, hot showers and meals on demand, every elegant quasi necessity that a person could desire, mentally compared it to the cottage and wished they were still there.

**

CHAPTER SEVEN…BACK TO WORK

The guys were all in Seb and Urs’ suite watching a movie and snacking on some appetizers that had been sent up by Room Service when he opened the door and dropped his pack beside the closet.

David paused the movie and watched Urs as he unzipped his jacket and hung it up, poking Seb in the side and nodding his head to the Swiss man.

“”Bonjour, mon ami…who is she? You look like a man who has been thoroughly loved.”

Urs scowled at him and came in the lounge to throw himself in a vacant chair, secretly pleased but willing to let his friends wonder for a while…he smirked, just a bit, as he thought how long it had been since he had such a delicious secret to keep from them…. actually this was probably the best ever!

“You met someone, didn’t you?” David persisted, grinning at his friend and staring even though Urs rested his head on the back of the chair and closed his eyes, pretending to ignore the question being aimed at him.

“A female hermit, living in the deepest woods, surviving on fresh bear meat and beetles,” David said and earned himself a raised Swiss head and glare. “No, I guess not,” he said, laughing in the way only David could, with his entire body convulsing.

Even Urs was not immune to a Daivd laugh-fest and dropped his head back on the chair with a roar of laughter.

“Non, Non!! She is a female Tarzan and took him up into the trees he loves to sing to, to ‘ave her way with him…” Seb said when he could stop laughing along with David. “He only escaped when he found the main vine and swung away from her to get to ‘zee motorbike…tell us about your escape, mon ami…”

“A farmer’s daughter, perhaps?” Carlos contributed with his famous eyebrow wiggle, pleased with his guess until Urs sighed and sat up.

“Yes, I met someone, no she’s not a farmer’s daughter, or a hermit, or a Lady Tarzan…she is beautiful and different and makes me feel alive…and what did you guys do with your time off?”

“Clubbing,” Carlos and Seb said simultaneously, laughing at each other but David wasn’t ready to drop the interrogation.

“Worked on videos…so tell us about her…how did you meet?..what did you do when it rained?...and after it stopped?...when do we meet her and more importantly are you going to see her again?...DETAILS…we need DETAILS!!!”

Urs grinned and rose from his seat, beginning to loosen his leathers.

“In the rain, dinner and…went rock hunting in the morning, after the concert tomorrow and YES, very definitely YES!!”

He disappeared into the room he shared with Seb, shutting the door firmly and ending the questions.

David looked around at the other singers and grinned.

“More than a kiss on the cheek I think.”

“The Swiss is a contented man…all that tension is gone…and he told us more than he would have any other time…we must meet this woman,” Sebastien said with determination, like the other three feeling a bit protective about their friend. One thing they had all learned since starting this adventure as Il Divo, there were a lot of predatory women out there who would love to be attached to a rising star.

“He’s happy, that’s the important thing…the stress is gone, there’s a bounce in his step again and he was having trouble not smiling that big dimpled grin…we have to meet her,” David said as he clicked the movie back on again.

A few minutes later Urs returned, now wearing only sweat pants and they shared the snacks with him, watching the rest of Harrison Ford’s Clear and Present Danger, cheering when, as always, Ford was triumphant…a bit the worse for the wear but besting the drug kingpin in the end and testifying against the corrupt government officials.

David asked if he had found rocks for his collection and Urs shared what he had found with them, proudly unrolling the soft leather wrapping and displaying the assortment of stones and explaining what they were.

“How do you know all of this? You always show us ‘the red one’ or ‘the one with blue streaks’ or ‘ the shiny one’…this is a new thing, NO?” Carlos asked but Urs merely smiled and rolled the specimens up in the leather again, discussion closed!!

He took the bundle with him as he went back to the bedroom, pausing at the door to smile at them, his arm raised to hold the door frame and his sweat pants sliding down his lean hips a fraction…and David saw the love bite on his side, just below his waist.

“You sly dog!...you scored!...WITH SOMEONE YOU JUST MET! Unbelievable! …what ever happened to our Herr “ I like to get to know a lady first’...?”

“He met someone very special…have good dreams, my friends…I know I will.” He ducked as cushions and an assortment of objects flew at him and escaped laughing to his happy dreams of a cottage in the woods.

**

Izzy eased the old truck down the alley behind the shop and into her reserved parking space, sitting quietly listening to the motor cooling for a few moments before slipping out of the cab and beginning to unload.

She unlocked the heavy black iron gate and set her bags beside the metal door: laundry, extra clothing, specimen bags, small duffle with toiletries, I.Pod, books, then checked the truck for anything that could lure someone into breaking in.

Satisfied, she locked the gate then unlocked the metal door and transferred everything inside, loaded herself with all of it and staggered up the stairs to the second floor apartment.

It smelled a little stale when she entered so in spite of the cool weather she opened some windows to air the place out, taping on the intercom as she divested herself of her comfy old plaid jacket and waiting for Trudi to answer.

“You’re back…come on down…don’t worry, we’re closed.”

“Great, then I don’t have to change…Coffee on?”

“Pouring yours right now!!”

She laughed and picked up the leather bag of stones for the shop, going out through the front door and down the stairs to the elegant black glass door into the shop.

Trudi buzzed her in and came through the darkened shop to dispense her usual smiling hug and relieve her of the bundle of stones. Pretty, elegant and tall, with café au lait skin tones and black hair done in a sleek, tight roll, her voice that of a cultured woman who just happened to have been born in Jamaica, she was still dressed in her ‘work clothes’ of black silk, a slender column that skimmed her figure, set off perfectly with a platinum chained pendant of garnets, matching her ear rings and would have looked ready for business if she still had her black stiletto heeled shoes on… they always came off the minute the store closed for the day.

“Oh, a heavy parcel…Girl you were busy!...I thought you were supposed to be resting?”

Izzy laughed and walked with her back into the work room, letting the heavy black drapery fall back into place to cut off the bright lights of the work area.

“I did rest…there’s nothing like sitting around in a quarry, listening to the birds, watching the odd rabbit and playing with God’s ultimate creations…I got you some nice stones…enough Fluorite for a couple of bracelets, some really nice Chrome Tourmaline, a good chunk of Epidote that you can use for bookends….lots of other stuff….and I met someone very special.”

Trudi had been unrolling some of the leather wraps and sat down suddenly on one of the stools, her chocolate brown eyes now centered on her friend.

“In the bush? You met someone? Someone very special? Alright who are you and what have you done with my cool, unapproachable friend?”

Izzy had the grace to blush slightly as she picked up the coffee that had been poured for her, then she sat down on the next stool at the worktable and smiled at Trudi.

“You may not be so far off the mark, Tru…I don’t feel like me…I didn’t react like me! One look and I couldn’t wait to get him into bed…4 hours and…oh Tru he’s amazing!...I’ve never felt so alive!”

The stones were forgotten as the two women talked about the man who had broken through the walls of resistance that Izzy had kept around her feelings for far too long.

Trudi listened, quietly praying that this new happiness she could nearly feel emanating from her friend would last…and that she wouldn’t get hurt.

**

For maybe the twentieth time he peeked through the curtains to see if she had arrived, not answering when David teased him about his ‘mystery woman’.

YES!! The lights in the auditorium were still glaring and he saw her coming down the aisle, checking the row numbers and smiling when she realized that she would be sitting in one of the first rows.

She looked taller…and of course she was, he realized, since she was wearing high heels, strappy little black things with an opening that showed off her tiny pink toes encased in sheer stockings. Her dress was simple, a black clingy wrap-around affair that crossed over at the bust, leaving an intriguing amount of cleavage exposed, her long, healing scar blurred by a scrap of black lace at the top of her camisole, short sleeves, like fluffy little caps, that revealed her toned, tanned arms, dainty diamond studs that matched the thin bracelet on her wrist and the glittering belt around her slender waist…classic, elegant and beautiful.

A black cape was over her arm and she draped it over her seat before sitting, dropping her small black beaded purse in her lap and looking around the venue with interest. The scattering of people were chatting with friends while up on the stage all that was in evidence at the moment was the seating for the orchestra and the polished grand piano.

Almost immediately an usher approached and leaned close to whisper to her, just as Urs had requested.

“Excuse me, Ma’am…if you remain in your seat after the performance I’ll come back and escort you back stage to join Mr. Buhler.”

She nodded and thanked him, smiling at the whispered message.

‘I suppose they do have to be discrete…it wouldn’t do for their squeaky clean image to have the other audience members hear that I was going to meet him…the few minutes I spent on the Internet certainly explained what fervent fans they have and how the guys protect their privacy, especially Urs.’

Behind the curtain Urs sighed with relief and his grin didn’t go un-noticed by his tall American friend.

“Which one is she?” he asked, leaning his chin on Urs’ shoulder and peeking out the same crack in the curtain.

Urs let the curtain fall back into place and remained silent, not yet willing to share this new adventure…anyway they wouldn’t believe him if he did tell them what had happened.

Mr. Calm and Collected just did not fall into bed with a woman only hours after meeting her…it wasn’t his style and they all knew it, had teased him mercilessly many times before when the extent of his intimacy with a new acquaintance had been, at the most, a kiss on the cheek or a handshake, regardless of the willing signals he received from his date.

Sebastien peeked out and nodded with the self assurance of his suave, French experience.

“The tall blonde in the red dress…”

“No, mi amigo…the one in the front row…in white…with the muy gigantico Carambas!! Look at our young tenor…his hands are cupped, eager to reach out and touch…”

“My hands are wery eager to take you all by the throats,” Urs said with a laugh and took a few steps away to assume his place as the members of the orchestra passed them with smiles and whispered words to take their seats on stage.

There was no opening act tonight in this intimate venue, just the 4 singers doing what they did so well for the several thousand people eagerly awaiting. The orchestra started to thunderous applause, not so much for their efforts as the appreciation that at last the concert was about to start.

The overture swelled and back stage the singers calmed themselves, readying for their entrance, drawing in last deep breaths and dropping chins to open their throats…at the precise moment of their cue they strode on stage, smiling, meeting the gazes so raptly intent on them and took their places to begin Regressa a Mi.

‘OMG he looks so elegant!! But I do think I like the curls better…what a lovely chiseled face he has without the stubble, all those planes and angles…and that smile…will he look to see if I’m here? Yes!!!...no, don’t wave…be cool…well it is alright to smile…OMG he winked at me…both eyes at once, how precious!!’

“Ursy blinky winked at you!!! You are so lucky!!” the woman next to her said almost hysterically as she clutched at Izzy’s arm.

“I think he just aimed at this section,” she said in a whisper, not wanting to draw attention to herself.

Urs had looked away and was still smiling lightly as he scanned the audience and waited for his lines. When it was time he deliberately turned his head and made eye contact with her, his voice crossing the short distance to caress her, to vibrate right through her body into her very soul and her breath caught as he seemed to be singing just for her.

“Extrano l’amor que se fue
Extrano la dicha tambien
Quiero que vengas a mi y me vuelves a querer.... «



Ever the professional, Urs slipped back into performance mode and did his job, unable to hide the little glow of pleasure on his expressive face at the reaction he had seen in Izzy’s eyes and body.

She slowly became aware that one hand was clutched to her chest as if trying to keep her thudding heart inside her body, the other, shaking noticeably, had grasped the arm of the seat in a white knuckled grip that threatened to crumble the polished wood.

‘What in hell is happening here? Where’s my stoic, icy reputation when I need it? This man has an effect on me just with a glance that I don’t seem to be able to control…you’re going to get hurt Girl!! I should leave, go back to my safety zone working with the gemstones I collected, get ready to go to New York…I definitely SHOULDN’T be going out for dinner with him and his friends!!...but oh how I want to!!...what are you doing to me you Swiss Svengali?’

The next track ended and once more Urs was in front of her, daring a quick glance and smile…and she was toast!!

All too soon the hour went by and the concert was over, including 2 encores that the singers graciously performed. Izzy kept her seat, more in amazement than anything else when the audience swarmed to the stage for handshakes and to present gifts at the end…she watched how Urs made eye contact with each person as he took their hand for a quick clasp or accepted the small gift bags, the flowers, a couple of teddy bears, or glanced into their eyes with a soft word and smile as he signed the offered CD covers or programs.

Then they were gone with waves and grins and the audience buzzed with the overflowing excitement as the ushers and security gently urged them to exit.

The same security guard/usher came for her when the crowd had thinned and escorted her down the side of the stage, between stacks of speakers and cables that were being quickly dismantled and rolled, beyond the dark curtains and into the hall that ran the length of the building behind the stage.

He paused at a door with a paper sign that said Il Divo taped crookedly on the wood and rapped on it, receiving a deep voiced answer moments before it was flung open to reveal a room full of gorgeous men, more or less changed into their street clothes.

Urs had changed into a red Harley tee shirt and form fitting Italian blue jeans, was still in bare feet and the thin sheen of some kind of shiny cream could be seen along the edge of his jaw where he had hastily removed his stage makeup. His eyes lit up at the sight of Izzy and she felt her heart do a flip-flop as he stretched his hand out to her and grinned.

“I wasn’t sure you would actually come…and I’m glad you did,” he said as he took her hand and drew her into the circle of his arm to introduce her to the guys.

David was struggling with a stuck zipper and kept his back to her for a moment then turned when he was successful and smiled down at her from his well over six foot height of boyish American charm.

“David Miller, another tenor…meet Isabella Santores…we met in the middle of a thunderstorm.”

“I believe I heard you sing once before…on Broadway, in West Side Story…I was on leave and my brother’s date bailed so I went with him. You have a beautiful stage presence.”

“Where did you find this lady, Urs? She obviously has impeccable taste in tenors,” David answered with a slight blush and a teasing glance at Urs.

He ignored David and motioned to Carlos who had finished dressing and was adjusting his curl as he came closer.

“Santores? Do you have Spanish ancestry, Senora?” he said leaning in to kiss her cheek.

She smiled.

“Somewhere way back I believe…perhaps a great grandparent. It’s a pleasure to meet you Senor Marin…I’ve been to Spain many times…actually studied Spanish in Barcelona for 6 months. It’s a lovely city.”

“Ah…so you speak Spanish then…”

“My turn,” Sebastien said as he nudged Carlos aside and took Izzy by the shoulders to kiss her cheeks, outdoing the Spaniard by kissing both sides while Urs frowned at him.

“And do you also have pleasant memories of Paris, my home town?”

“Yes actually…I travel a lot with my work…tell me, do you guys always come on so strong?…it could be a little overwhelming to some people. You don’t have to be ‘ON’ for me, you know.”

Urs smirked…obviously Izzy was not one of those people. She seemed unaffected by the exuberance of the guys, except for the way she had moved slightly closer to his side.

“Izzy, we’re all starving…it’s never a good idea to eat much before a performance so we had a very light meal after sound check …the Hotel has laid on a room service meal for us if you don’t mind joining us in the suite.”

“I’d like that…I had forgotten how uncomfortable high heels can be and if you let me kick my shoes off, I’m all yours.”

They made their way out of the venue to the waiting limo, waving at Sam as he stood talking to the band leader, Garry.

They all were much more at ease now, not feeling the pressure to impress this blunt lady who had already made her choice…not that they would have done much anyway since Sebastien was the only other member who was un-attached. The conversation flowed, chatting about the early morning interview, Urs curious about how her medical appointment went but not willing to discuss it in front of the others…each of the guys had a funny anecdote to relate about their travels to date and Izzy sympathized with them, especially about how disorienting it is to wake in a strange place nearly daily and be unsure exactly where you were.

“What kind of work do you do, ‘Bella?” Carlos asked.

“I’m in the military,” she said briefly.

“Que? You do not look like a soldier.”

“Oh? And just what is a ‘soldier’ supposed to look like…tough, dressed in combat gear with a heavy missile launcher over one shoulder and grenades hanging from the belt?”

Carlos had the grace to blush furiously as he shook his head.

“Well…like…like a man.”

Izzy laughed.

“For shame, Senor Marin!!! You don’t look like a chauvinist!”

The others all laughed and so did Carlos, though self consciously, when David explained what a chauvinist was.

**

CHAPTER EIGHT….DINNER AND DISCUSSION

They had opted for Urs and Seb’s suite since it was always the tidiest, Urs’ natural neatness forcing Sebastien to keep his things picked up or suffer the silent but deadly scorn of the Swiss policing the area.

Seb phoned Room Service to let them know that they were back and they settled in with drinks to relax and wait for the delivery of dinner.

Urs invited Izzy to the balcony for a view of Toronto…and some privacy…and she followed him, both leaving their drinks, white wine for her and a beer for him, on the coffee table.

It was chilly so of course he had an excuse to wrap his arms around her from behind, enjoying the warmth of her body as it pressed against him and nuzzling her neck as she leaned back.

“How did your appointment go?”

“Fine…he says I’m progressing nicely and that the shakes and fever should get less frequent gradually…I missed you today…how was your interview?”

“The usual inane questions…it was David’s turn today to explain how we were chosen…I missed you too…I thought about you so many times…”

She turned in his arms and wound her arms up his back, her hands curving over his shoulders.

“Tonight…the concert…I had no idea…it’s so different seeing you performing live…your voice vibrated right through my body…and when you looked at me and winked…I felt like you had kissed me, right there in front of all those people.”

“You look lovely, Little Bella…I tried not to look at you too often…without a lot of success actually…and it’s a good thing my suit coat is long…but next concert you come to I have to remember to wear wery tight shorts!!”

“Urs…can they see us?”

“I don’t care…” he murmured, lowering his head to take her lips gently, losing it completely when she pressed against him and opened her mouth to invite him inside. He broke away while they were still able to stop, holding her with his face buried in the curve of her neck, letting her rubbery legs regain their strength while his body calmed.

“Hungry?” he murmured against her neck.

“Oh yes…and I’d like to eat too.”

He laughed and straightened up, kissing her on the brow and leading her back towards the balcony doors.

“First we need to build up some stamina…but I think we will leave early.”

Their timing was impeccable since the food was delivered just as they rejoined the others.

For a while the conversation centered around the feast laid out before them on the dining area table, but as appetites were assuaged the conversation veered to the new member in their midst and Izzy found herself the center of a number of questions.

“So, which branch of the military are you in, Isabella?” Carlos asked and she put her fork down to answer, wondering what Urs reaction would be when she revealed the whole truth.

“”I’m Army, Medical Corp actually but attached to the UN Peacekeeping force, an unofficial quasi-secret branch.”

“So you’re a nurse…how cool…what rank is that…like in the US do you enter as a Lieutenant?” David asked.

“Actually, I’m a doctor…a Major.”

Urs looked at her in surprise… “I assumed you were a nurse, too,” he said with raised brows.

She had the grace to blush since she knew that had been his assumption.

“Sorry…sometimes people get intimidated when they learn I’m a doctor….I didn’t want to scare you off.”

He grinned and murmured “Fat chance of that!” and she sighed with relief.

“You don’t look old enough to have qualified…you hide your years well, ‘miga.”

“Not really, Carlos…my age is sometimes a disadvantage in the field…I’m only 30, just turned last May…but I was an early admission to University and Medical School and finished my Residency at 23…I’ve been a doctor for 7 years, all of it in the Army.”

“A child prodigy!!” David exclaimed and again she flushed.

Urs saw that she was uncomfortable and changed the subject.

“How big is the team that goes on these assignments?”

“There are usually 5 of us, 6 including me…a civilian negotiator from the local government, Sally, a Lieutenant who is my nursing assistant, 2 med tech Sergeants and a Corporal who is our driver. I work closely with the civilian but if things go sour the decisions are mine as the ranking UN official ….. also the blame.”

“That must sometimes be dangerous,” Seb said, paling a bit under the tan he still had from his week in Indonesia on holiday.

Izzy shrugged.

“Part of the package…” she said and Urs took her hand under the table for a quick squeeze.

**

Sebastien poured more wine for them after the meal had been removed to the foyer, everyone deciding that it had been marvelous but enough was enough. They were all camped out in various poses of relaxation in the roomy lounge, David sprawled on a sofa with his legs over the arm, Carlos stretched out with his legs extended and head on the back of one of the chairs, Seb moving to one of the dining room chairs to sit backwards on it with his arms resting on the curved back holding his wine glass and Urs sitting on the floor with his back against the chair where Izzy had curled up with her feet tucked under her bottom.

“When you do these hostage things do you ever hear of or see the French woman who was taken by the rebels in Columbia?” Seb asked and she nodded.

“I’ve never seen her but I have heard of her…Isabelle Betancourt…I think they’ve had her for about 2 or maybe 3 years now…F.A.R.C. has hundreds of hostages… something like 400 or 500…some foreigners, some police men from Columbia, some political prisoners like Madame Betancourt…they move them nearly constantly so it’s very difficult for the Columbian army to get a fix on where they are…that and the jungle is so dense down there. We have managed to negotiate the release of a few, mostly Americans that the companies they worked for paid hefty ransoms in order to gain their release. The leaders of the rebels were very well organized and used to keep a tight rein on their troops…but I’ve heard through some informants that there are some health problems that could mean a change of leadership…what that will mean for the hostages …or the negotiators… is anybodies guess. Lately it’s been a little dicey getting in and out safely.”

“Dicey? What means this ‘dicey’?” Carlos asked, raising his head to look at her.

“Uncertain…dangerous…we’re never sure until we are actually in the plane that they will keep their word and let us go…and we sometimes spend weeks waiting to be taken in to the camps.”

“Then you should refuse to go…it is not a good thing for a woman to be in danger!”

“I can’t refuse, Carlito…I’m a soldier…I go where I’m sent.”

Urs could feel the tension increase in her voice as she defended her profession.

“Isabella is trained for this Carlos…it’s not like some little housewife who doesn’t know what to do…and what about the hostages?…we can’t just forget about them ….they deserve all the help that can be given.” He reached back and took Izzy’s hand squeezing it and letting her know that he did understand…perhaps didn’t approve of some one he cared about being in that position but he did understand.

“Well I think it’s great,” David said, earning a scowl from Carlos. “I wondered if anyone was doing anything to get those people out and now I know…I really think negotiating is preferred over going in with guns blazing.”

“You watch too many action movies,” Urs said with a laugh but Izzy shook her head.

“Not really…sometimes it happens…most of the countries involved have Special Forces that work with UN forces at times and try very hard to use subterfuge or negotiation but if that fails…a raid is sometimes the last resort. But it’s all very secret and not talked about much.”

“Sort of like the Raid on Entebbe,” David said with a smile.

“Well maybe not quite that grand, but sort of…and no acclaim for those involved.”

Urs changed the subject to one he knew the inquisitive Spaniard would wax eloquent about, asking if Carlos had heard from his long time girlfriend lately about the audition she had gone back to Madrid for.

For a while they chatted back and forth about Felicia, about the new role she was doing and about the album she wanted to record when her contract finished.

Izzy relaxed again, the spotlight no longer on her and she lay her hand on Urs hair, playing with the curls that had formed from the quick shower he took after the concert.

They had progressed to talking about the tour coming up, starting in January, discussing the venues and the cities they would be visiting in the depths of winter. Izzy excused herself for a bathroom break, leaving her shoes under the chair and going through Urs and Seb’s bedroom to use the facilities.

Izzy was coming back from the washroom when she spotted Urs leaning against the bedroom wall, his arms folded across his chest.

“What’s this?...a line up?” she asked, stopping and smiling lightly at him.

“There isn’t much privacy in there…and I wanted to ask if you would let me take you safely home now? We haven’t really had any time to ourselves tonight…did you have a good time though?”

He unfolded himself off the wall and reached out to brush her hair off her brow, the soft caress of his fingertips making her blood zing through her body.

“I had a wonderful time…my face aches from laughing so much…you have very nice friends, Urs. Do you have anything on your plate for tomorrow?”

“Just the trip to New York…I think our flight leaves around 4 in the afternoon.”

“Then, yes, you may see me safely home…but only if you stay for breakfast.”

Even in the dim light of the room she could see the dazzling smile as his face lit up, eyes crinkled and those lovely dimples appeared in his cheeks. He leaned down, almost touching her mouth with his lips.

“I was hoping you would offer again….breakfast that is.”

She started to laugh but the sound was lost as he kissed her, just a gentle brush of lips against lips, then, when his tongue softly stroked across the plump surface and she opened to coax him inside, their bodies fused from mouth to toes, hands twined in hair, moans were smothered by hungry mouths and the passion they had known at the cottage surged through them once more.

“What is this power you have over me? The gentlest touch of your hands and I want you, my body turns to flame, I can’t think, only feel,” she whispered, her body shivering with need.

He pressed his mouth against her neck, the sound of his voice sending vibrations throughout her.

“Me too…no woman has ever stirred me like you do, my Isabella.”

They could hear approaching footsteps and broke apart, adjusting clothing and smoothing down tousled hair…just in time as Seb came in the room…it was after all, the room he shared with Urs.

“Izzy, I’ll take you home in just a couple of minutes if you can force yourself to put your shoes back on,” he said with a chuckle as Seb tried to appear nonchalant about interrupting them, clicked the bedside light on and pretended to search for something in the night stand drawer.

Izzy scurried back into the Lounge and Urs grabbed his sound check bag, stuffing in his shaving kit and a change of clothing.

“Merde…Urs, je suis desole…I didn’t think…too much wine and I had to…you know…what are you doing?”

Urs didn’t really answer since it was kind of obvious. He merely smiled and zipped the bag closed.

“I’ll see you before noon tomorrow, Seb.”…and he left the room while Seb grinned and did the pumping motion of victory as he ambled into the Loo.

**

They didn’t really have all that far to go but in deference to Izzy’s feet and their raging hormones they took a cab. It seemed to take forever, she thought, not helped any by the way Urs raised her hand to his lips and gently kissed her fingers, one after the other then, on the return trip, took each one into his mouth to suck and stroke with his velvet, warm tongue…it was very nearly her undoing. He chuckled quietly, at first enjoying the tormenting, then shifting his suddenly far too tight jeans to a more comfortable position when she retaliated by running her fingernails lightly up his inside seam, not quite reaching the goal that so badly wanted to feel her touch.

They called a truce with knowing smiles, simply holding hands for the rest of the short ride.

Urs had been expecting a residential area but instead she gave the driver an address on Queen Street, strictly a business district of trendy shops and restaurants. They pulled up in front of a small jewelers, a shiny silver and black wall with a huge window, empty now except for stands covered in lustrous silver satin and black velvet that housed only a black vase with 5 arching Strelitzia and a metal carving declaring it was named BELLA.

The entire front, including the second black door with the silver call button was securely behind black metal gates which she opened and then keyed in the code for the door, locking the gate behind her as they entered.

Lights came on in the stairwell as they began to climb up to the second floor, illuminating some large photographs of natural stone and jewelry on the cream painted walls.

“Tomorrow, if there’s time, I’ll show you the shop and work rooms…Cody and I own this building together, but I tend to use it more than he does…it’s not huge but big enough…and much bigger than the little shoe box that was all we could afford in New York…you should see how tiny that one is.”

He almost missed his chance to answer, his gaze intent on the sway of her hips in front of him and the wonderful things the view was doing to his nether regions.

“I’d like to…we’ll be free all weekend…and I know you are until Monday.”

They came very near to tumbling down the stairs as she turned and suddenly was in his arms, because of the high step she was on, at a perfect level to take his mouth in a blistering kiss that left him gasping against the stairwell wall with Izzy pressed tightly to his body.

Somehow they made it up the rest of the stairs and into the apartment, though it wasn’t until morning that Urs had any sort of impression of the place other than the giant custom made bed. A trail of clothing spoke of their haste, his small carryon bag was still on the stairs, only the starlight and moonlight coming in through the skylight and the tall windows illuminated the lovers as they became one, nestled, calming slightly, then indulged in their new found passion again, slowly and more thoroughly now that the urgency had abated somewhat…much later the feeling of awe and completion soothed them and they lay with sweaty bodies inter-twined, content, as they slept.

**

CHAPTER NINE

Urs woke feeling happy and nearly laughed out loud with the joy of it. It was the first time since…he couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had greeted the early morning feeling so alive, yet so at peace with the world.

He could feel her warm breath against his chest, her silky arm across his body and her breasts squished against his side…what a glorious sensation to feel as he was waking. He angled his head to look down at her, still asleep, her hair mussed, those long dark lashes fanned out across the freckles under her eyes, totally relaxed, almost childlike in innocence.

She had been anything but childlike last night, voracious and lusty was more apt, especially the first time, initiating loving, eager to please him, wild with desire when she did and heard his moans, felt his reaction.

He gently disengaged himself and slid out of the bed, padding barefoot into the bathroom to attend to some rather pressing needs. When he came back she was waking, had rolled onto her back and was stretching as she sat up, the sheet pooling around her hips.

“Good morning…I thought maybe you had found the gym.”

Urs came to the side of the bed and leaned over her, nuzzling her neck, especially that lovely soft spot just below her ear.

“I may never have to work out again if we keep this up. You are incredible!!…insatiable but incredible!!”

She wound her arms around his neck and tugged gently on his hair.

“It’s your fault…you woke something in me, something that stirs every time I touch you or look into those beautiful eyes…Urs…” she feathered light kisses over his chest, nipping at his flat male nipples until they engorged. “I think I’m a morning person…”

“Good…me too,” he said with a sultry grin, taking one of her hands from his hair to run down his body and laughing when she sighed with pleasure. “I checked out the shower…it’s big enough for two…”

He leaned back taking her hands and tugging to help her out of the bed.

“Another first…do you realize that there’s never been a man with me in this bed before, never mind helping me shower? Are you sure? I mean, is it possible?…”

Urs gently kissed her silent, then laughed as she sighed again.

“Trust me…”

They nearly ran out of hot water and exited the cubicle laughing to dry off with the large towels on the vanity. Izzy snuck part way down the stairs to retrieve Urs’ carryon bag with the shaving kit and then sat wrapped in a towel watching him shave…to avoid temptation he too wore a towel, his wrapped around his hips.

“Will you leave your hair curly today? I like it that way, so wild and free…I mean it’s nice on stage, but curly is my favorite.”

“Sam will have a fit but my lazy streak is easily persuaded. What time is your flight today? It would be great if we were on the same one.”

She smiled, realizing that he didn’t understand the military system yet.

“Because we travel armed I’m on a military flight out of Camp Borden with the team. I’ve arranged for the heli to pick me up, at your hotel actually, at 2. I’ll give you my number so you can call me when you get in if you like.”

He rinsed the extra lather off his smooth face and turned to smile at her.

“I like…and I’ll give you mine…and my e.mail…Izzy I really don’t want to lose contact with you…what we have together is too special to risk losing.”

A look of sadness came over her face as she watched him coming closer, the fresh, clean scent of him enveloping her as he stopped in front and reached out to caress her face.

“Urs…don’t get too attached to me, to being with me…I never know where I’m going to be or for how long…this brief time is just to re-charge and then I’ll be off again…I can’t make any promises or commitments…no matter how much I would like to.”

He smiled gently as he answered.

“…and I’m not asking for any…you’ve been very clear about what you can give me, right from the start….it doesn’t mean we never have to see each other again, to lose contact completely. Let’s not think too much about the future…with our hectic lifestyles all we can do is live now, enjoy what we have NOW and reach out to touch each other’s lives whenever possible…for the moment, that has to be enough.”

They went back to the bedroom and worked together to strip the bed and put on fresh linens. Izzy fed the sheets into the washer hidden behind a door in the bathroom and joined him, teasing as he dressed quickly in his casual uniform of Harley tee shirt and jeans.

“Why the hurry? Afraid I’ll attack that gorgeous body again?”

He grinned as he did up the buttons on his jeans, patting the front when he finished.

“There…safe from predatory soldiers…for a while…Woman, you need to feed me to keep up my energy.”

She laughed and finished dressing in a similar outfit…jeans and a pale green tee with a heart over the left breast.

“There won’t be much in the apartment….we may have to go down the street to the café…at least I can make coffee.”

Only now was Urs aware of the sleek, modern lines of the furnishings in the bedroom. The pieces were all smooth lines, not a sharp corner anywhere, formed of a highly polished black wood, most of the usual furniture hidden behind stainless steel or white painted tall doors. A long black lounger stood in front of the windows that looked down on the street below, the austere length draped with a bright blue throw and several silver colored pillows under a lamp with three metal poles that swept in a huge arc from the stainless base and over one end where a silvery free form table stood, a silver bowl with clumps of blue and white stone as a centerpiece, a perfect spot for a coffee or glass of wine while reading.



The floor was glossy polished concrete, looking almost like dark blue liquid in luster, the expanse broken by a thick blue and green toned Persian rug and the only other adornment to the room was a small display of colorful natural gemstone specimens on floating shelves on the dead white wall and an artful collage of family photos, all framed in thick black wood.

He looked at the photos and centered on one, a photo of a woman in a sleek black gown and a man in a military dress uniform.

“Are these your parents?”

Izzy paused on her way to the door and joined him.

“Yes…that was the last regimental ball they attended…Mama took sick shortly after and died within a week…Papa lasted a month …I’ve always thought he died of a broken heart.”

Urs put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her in sympathy at the pain he could hear in her voice.

“You look like your mother…the same smile and beautiful eyes.”

“Thank you, Urs. How do you always know just the right thing to say?”

He smiled and hugged her as they left the room in search of coffee.

The main portion of the apartment, though small was similar in style…uncluttered, done in clean black, white, silver and a few blue accents, the sofa long and black leather, an entertainment unit with a large stereo and massive speakers, bookcase stuffed to over flowing, exercise equipment tucked tidily into a tall cabinet on one wall, ready to be pulled out on the bare, water-like concrete floor when the urge struck to work out…not a room that was lived in except on a temporary basis, but with all the necessities when the occupants did return.

The galley kitchen yielded a French Press and coffee and they quickly made a pot, snuggling and discussing their free time before they had to leave to catch their flights while they waited for it to steep.

“The security timer will be off soon so I can show you the shop and the work-rooms after we have breakfast. Trudi won’t be in to open the store until 9:30 so we won’t be disturbed.”

“Is it yours or do you just supply them with the gems?”

“It’s mine and Trudi manages it for me…she’s a fine craftsperson, does some amazing delicate work…the store is my hedge for retirement…everyone in my branch burns out eventually so then I can indulge myself in my main passion…medicine will always be a part of my life but I can’t see myself in private practice….maybe volunteer work or teaching.”

“This report you have to do on Monday…is it a closed session or public? I’d love to hear it and understand more about what you actually do. And I’ve always wanted to visit the UN building, just never got around to it.”

“Freedom of Information requires that it’s public, though it isn’t on the agenda so not many know about it and will attend…we’ll show a video of the negotiations, edited of course since in actuality it took two weeks…it isn’t pretty, Urs…in fact some of it is outright sickening to watch…it always amazes me how humans can treat each other so cruelly….but I can get you a pass if you like so you don’t have to sit in the Upper Gallery.”

They had their coffee and slipped on jackets against the early morning autumn chill, going downstairs and out onto the street for the immediate need…breakfast.

They hadn’t gone far when Urs spotted an older man sitting on the street, a dog curled up at his feet and a hand made cigarette sending a thin column of smoke up into the air. He was dressed in ragged, dirty clothing, his hair unkempt and wore a sign around his neck on a piece of string.

‘Please…Money for food…every little bit helps!’

Automatically Urs hand dipped into his pocket, coming out with a handful of the loonies and toonies he always seemed to collect buckets of when in Canada. He took a step towards the man but felt Izzy place a firm hand on his arm to pull him back.

“Urs…NO!!”

He looked at her in surprise, unsure why she was so adamant.

“It’s only a bit of change…don’t be so cold, Izzy.”

She glared and dropped her grip on his arm, stomping off down the street and leaving him to complete his act of generosity and jog to catch up with her.

He took her shoulder and spun her around, angry at her attitude and not caring if the few passers-by overheard them.

“Just what is your problem? The poor guy just needs a hand so he can get a meal.”

Izzy glared at him, her hands in her pockets and shoulders hunched up to her ears in anger.

“Maybe he should have thought of that before he bought his Turkish tobacco…or paid the insurance on the nice, re-furbished MG-TD he has parked around the corner on John Street…or had the air conditioning upgraded on the condo he owns at HarborFront …you’re so naïve, Urs…the man makes as much stemming as you do working your arse off….he’s a permanent fixture here, makes his living off the tourists….and I don’t appreciate being accused of being cold!”

“Well, how was I supposed to know?” he shot back, angry at himself, at the mistake he had made and at her for seeing him get duped.

She grimaced and walked on. After a half second he followed, both hunched in on themselves as if cold, not touching or talking.

A few steps before the café Izzy reached a tentative hand out to touch his arm.

“Truce? I can’t stand the thought that we’re fighting over something so petty.”

He turned his head and slowly smiled, covering her hand on his arm with his opposite one and squeezing.

“Me neither…actually I’m afraid if we got physical you could take me.”

She laughed and they went inside, smiling.

**

CHAPTER 9 Part 2
They disagreed about breakfast but compromised, Izzy shading her eyes so she didn’t have to be ‘grossed out’ by Urs’ Sunnyside up eggs ‘looking ‘ at her…he flipped them over onto a piece of toast and she smiled and thanked him, letting him steal a piece of bacon off her plate without impaling his hand…much…at least she didn’t draw blood, and kissed the dark red marks all better. She shook her head in dismay over the three heaping spoons of sugar that went in his coffee and sipped on hers, black, no sugar, making only one comment about hardening arteries and risk of diabetes.

“This is nothing…you should see me when I have a Toblerone nearby.”

“That’s entirely different…everyone knows that chocolate is a major food group all it’s own and a necessity to life on this planet.”

“At last!! …something we can agree on!!”

She smirked and made a promise to herself to buy a case of the mentioned chocolate if it made him this happy….she would even help him eat it!!

“So, Little Bella, what are we going to do for fun in the Big Apple?”

Izzy looked up at him through her long lashes, smiling as she replaced her coffee cup.

“Besides that, wench!! Although that is an excellent idea and should take up a lot of our time…” he leaned over the table and lowered his voice. “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you…I love how you respond to me, the softness of your skin, the play of your muscles as you move with me, those things you do to me with your sweet mouth….”

Her hand over his lips silenced him before things got out of control and he grasped it, kissing the palm, making her shiver and the elderly woman at the next table sigh.

They left soon after with only one pause as Urs leaned down to kiss the cheek of the elderly woman and blinky wink at her, needing to share the consuming joy he felt at the moment.

Izzy snuck a peek through the glass of the window as they passed and smiled at the way the older woman was lost in memories, her hand tenderly against the cheek he had kissed, perhaps day-dreaming of a long ago love.

**
He lay on his side on the bed, propping his head up on one bent arm and watching as she took her uniform off of the closet shelf and began to get dressed.

Izzy looked at him and laughed.

“I feel like there should be music, maybe a slippery pole and I should be dancing… haven’t you ever seen a woman getting dressed before?” she said with a grin as she stepped into her fatigue pants, smoothing down the flaps of the many pockets and adjusting the velcro tabs around the ankles.

“There’s just something about a woman in a uniform…I’m finding it a real turn on,” he said with a wicked grin.

She reached in for her tunic, making her dog-tags jingle and slipped it on over her olive drab tee shirt, shrugging her shoulders to ease it into place with the shoulder boards of rank and insignia positioned perfectly, doing up the buttons almost to the neck and the cuffs on the long sleeves, brushing her hands over the stripes on the sleeves, gold, red, thin gold, then red and another gold.

Next came the wide leather belt which she cinched around her slim waist.

“What do the stripes mean?”

She grinned at his sparkling eyes, amused at the interest he was showing.

“The red is to signify that I’m in a medical branch and the gold stripes are for rank. And before you ask, no I’m not wearing my sidearm…it isn’t required for medical teams except in the field and then only for guards and officers. It will go in my duffle…that’s why I take military flights since the commercial airlines are a bit sticky about firearms.”

She slid her small feet into heavy boots, steel toed he thought by the weight of them, laced them up and keyed in the combination in a locked part of the closet to retrieve a holster with her sidearm, dropping it into her duffle and pulling the cords to seal it closed.

A bright blue beret appeared last and she folded it quickly slipping it under the shoulder board on the left.

“Ta-Da!!” she said with a drum roll and open armed stance.

“Instant soldier!!”

He eased off the bed and inspected her while she stood at attention as if on parade, then they both laughed as he nibbled on her neck and she giggled very unprofessionally.

“How come no ribbons or medals? All I see is your name tag and the cadeuses and even I know what that means.”

“We only wear our ribbons and medals for formal affairs…I’ll have to wear some of them at the UN but not all since I’ll be in service dress…it’s really complicated, something that most civilians are lucky not to have to deal with.”

There was something very sensual about this lovely woman garbed in fatigues…suddenly Urs knew just why so many women were intrigued by men in uniform…the implied action and danger, the loyalty, service to country, all the things that the uniform implied was very erotic…in fact if there had been time he would have loved to explore once more what the camouflage outfit so successfully hid.

Urs carted her duffle, much to her verbal protest, down the stairs and into the store so he could have a look around. Izzy followed, locking the apartment behind them and joining him as he gazed around at the displays that a tall, dark skinned woman was placing on the velvet risers in the window.

“Trudi, this is the friend I mentioned yesterday, Urs Buhler. I just want to show him around the shop and work-rooms before we head out.”

The woman smiled and held her hand out to Urs.

“I figured that when I heard you coming down the stairs and then a gorgeous man came in the shop…pleased to meet you, Mr. Buhler…and yes I know who you are…Izzy told me yesterday when she dropped the stones off that she had met you up North…we often play your music here in the shop…the customers like it too.”

He flushed slightly at the compliment as he shook her elegant hand, doing a quick assessment at the stylish way she was dressed, under-stated elegance that suited her long, lean body and lustrous black hair done in a loose roll at the back of a shapely head.

“I’m intrigued by the unique pieces you make…it really concentrates on the beauty of the gem, rather than the setting.”

Trudi smiled.

“Not only gorgeous and talented but silver tongued as well…and a good eye. That’s what we try to do…come, I’ll show you around before the tourists start to come in.”

Izzy disappeared behind a screen that sheltered the entrance to the workshop while Trudi led Urs from one display to the other, identifying the gems, inordinately pleased that she could see the appreciation on this handsome man’s face as he looked at the work she had designed and often created.

Most of the jewelry had been assembled from unpolished stones and set in gold or silver, some he assumed in platinum, each displayed alone or in a set with matching ear rings or bracelet. No prices were visible and he didn’t want to embarrass Trudi or Izzy by asking, though he was curious.

“All our gemstones come from various parts of Ontario,” Trudi said with pride. “We have another small shop in New York which features stones from around the world, a rather high end place for those who mistakenly think that locally found stones have less worth…this shop is our favorite though and the clientele seem to like the fact that it’s all local finds, done to rival those from far flung places.”


She fingered a lovely deep blue Tourmaline pendant, the stone natural, a bit of the host still showing, the entire nugget wrapped lightly in a thin silver wire cage and dependant from a silver chain of oblong hair-like links. The light from over head played off the stone, sending a rainbow of colors across the cream walls.

“I found a really nice red/gold Spinel, I think she said it was an Epidote, up near the cottage…Izzy says it would make a great man’s ring.”

“You should let her make it for you…she does some stunning work, better than mine but doesn’t have time to do it often…and judging by the uniform, she’s off to New York again…they do keep her busy, even when she’s supposed to be off on sick leave.”

She was about to reply but the shop door opened and 3 women entered, ohhhing and ahhing over the displays. Trudi put on her professional mask, excused herself and went to greet them…Urs escaped into the work-room to join Izzy.

This area was a wonder for his precise, logical mind to absorb, everything organized into niches, no clutter, all the tools at hand or neatly held by clips against peg boards on the walls, the larger pieces in cubbys on shelving and several areas with machines for tumbling and tables with delicate saws for precision cutting. Powerful round magnifiers on swing arms were at most of the work-stations, with extra lights that could be focused in a narrow beam on the small pieces and miniscule vises with padding on the teeth for holding the stones or settings without doing damage.

Two elderly men and a very young woman were intently bent over scopes, working on pieces while Izzy was bent over a drawing board sketching something. He walked up behind her, passing several tables with small velvet lined bins holding specimens and leaned over her shoulder to watch what she was doing.

The drawing didn’t make a great deal of sense to him at first, seeming to be all angles…or a stone done three dimensionally he thought…perhaps showing inclusions or where she thought a stone should be cut…YES! that was it…the second drawing showed two stones, one slightly larger than the other which would fit back together to form the original she had drawn.

“Fascinating!” he murmured and she gazed up at him with a smile.

“Did you bring your Epidote so you can see it under the scope?”

He patted the bulge in his jacket pocket, then the other pocket and grinned sheepishly.

“I also brought the specimen stone…I’d like to see it a little more clearly if that’s alright.”

“Of course…come over here.”

She led him to an empty station and set up the light and scope, shook out a piece of black velvet on the turntable and held her hand out for the specimen stone, placing it gently on the very slowly turning pedestal. Urs leaned into the scope and gasped at the first sight of the stone magnified a hundred times, each shard of Spinel looking about the size of his thumb. The light played off the crystals, sending shafts of light glinting around the area, nearly hurting his eyes with brilliance, even the host shining and beautiful as it moved with the slow circuit, revealing hidden shards just barely seen in the depths…it turned further and he could see under the white surface a large dark area that glinted blue lights back at him, this one a substantial size and behind him he heard Izzy speaking softly.

“I think there’s a good sized cab inside, blue would be my guess.”

He could have watched the slow movement for hours, seeing something new and exciting with each quarter turn but Izzy replaced the stone with the Epidote and once again he was amazed.

This time he craved a ring from the fire he saw before him, the red flashing gold when it moved in the light…he could picture it shimmering as he played the Malmsteen he wanted to get with his first major dividend cheque from Sony, the color reminding him of the day he had spent mining in the quarry with this amazing woman.

“Will you make me a ring out of the cab in this one? …and I could keep the rest for a specimen.”

“You’re sure? I’d be happy to do it Urs, but you have to be sure before I cut it.”

He straightened and took the stone off the velvet, looking at it once more then handing it to her.

“I’m sure…I want something tangible as a memento of our first ‘hounding’…this would be perfect.”

She smiled at him and nodded.

“Then it would be an honor for me to be trusted with it…I know just what to do for a setting…something strong yet delicate and elegant to suit those long fingers….I can just picture the gold and red flashing as you play guitar or hold the mic. Let me get your size.”

Because of the large size of the gem he opted for the middle finger of his right hand and she measured it with a silver loop, twice just to be sure, recorded the size and placed the stone in a velvet lined tray, then carefully in a small safe under her personal workstation.

While she was busy Urs peeked out into the shop and saw that Trudi was alone, slipped out and asked for a favor, coming back into the workroom just as Izzy began to tidy up her drawings and place Post-It notes on them.

“If we’re going to have lunch with the guys we need to get going, Urs.”

Reluctantly, they waved good bye to the artisans who were still working diligently, seeming lost in their own worlds of crystals, cleavages, molten silver and drawings as they absently returned the gesture, quietly waved at Trudi who was busy with customers again, retrieved Izzy’s duffle and, after she donned her blue UN beret, stepped out on to Queen Street to flag down a cab.

“I could have stayed in the work room all day,” he said in a bemused tone as they waited while cab after cab sped on by, their roof lights off showing that they were on a call.. “There’s so much to see, to learn…it’s fascinating…and I want to go back searching again…are there places in Switzerland that we could do this?”

Izzy smiled at his enthusiasm and shook her head.

“I’m afraid not…there are a few caves where you can SEE different things…stalactites and stalagmites and some places where you can find rather unusual agate, maybe some chalcopyrite but nothing like this part of the Canadian shield….your Alps deflected the encroaching glaciers a certain amount so there wasn’t the immense pressure on the land or the deposit of so many minerals that are needed to create the different gemstones…and Switzerland is heavily into protecting the environment…most of the caves are ‘Look Only’ sites…I’ve heard of some nice but small garnets being found in the creeks during the fall when the water is low…so I’m afraid you’ll have to do some traveling if you want to mine again.”

“With all the air miles we’ll get during the tour that should mean a lot of free flights…”

“Ah…there’s that practical Swiss side of your personality again,” she teased and he smiled down at her laughing face.

“I’ve been so close to having moths in my pockets so many times…it’s hard to get used to having money that isn’t already spoken for…but really I don’t think I’ll ever develop a longing for luxury…if it happens that’s fine but I really am very happy with a simpler life.”

“Me too…good food, fresh air, good company and music…what more could you need?”

“When I go home for Christmas I’m going to talk to a cousin who happens to be in real estate…now that I can see how successful this is going to be, I really want to buy a home base…but there’s no hurry…it has to be perfect.”

“And what would you consider perfect, Urs?” she asked quietly while he was in the mood to open up.

“Trees…and land…a house with lots of room to spread out but close enough to make a short run into a major center when I felt the need for culture or shopping…or for work. Actually I’d like to have a garden too.”

“Keep that thought Urs…and don’t give in to second best…when your aim for perfection is so pure and attainable, second best is never enough.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her closer.

“I’ll try to remember…sometimes it’s easier to just give in.”

She began to reply but a cab pulled up in front of them and they gratefully hustled to grab it before the driver changed his mind

Urs gave the name of the hotel and they settled into the back seat, snuggling in the semi-privacy.

“Urs…when I’m in uniform and in public we have to be very discrete…no kissing or holding hands, no hugs…it’s very much against regs…regulations, my civilian friend,” she said with a smile to soften the admonition.

“Does that mean I can’t kiss you good bye? I’m not happy about that, my Isabella.”

“We’ll find some privacy before I have to board. It’s kind of like when your fans are around…you would expect me to be very circumspect then…well, the Army expects it of me when I’m in uniform.”

She had donned the bright blue UN beret before they went outside and he admired the way it swept to one side, framing her oval face and illuminating her green eyes. Somehow the uniform suited her, framing her voluptuous body, hinting at what lay beneath the coarse fabric but revealing nothing. He had noticed how she had changed subtly once she was wearing it, her stride lengthening, her stance more erect than before, more military, even when standing still assuming the ‘at ease’ posture with feet slightly spread apart, hands behind the back, something she did from habit rather than conscious thought. There seemed to be something about dropping the dog tags on the metal chain around her neck that threw a switch activating her other personae instantly. At least she hadn’t put up the defensive walls that had been so evident when they first met.

He sighed and took her hand in his…there was so much he had to learn…but one thing he knew…she was worth the effort.

**

CHAPTER TEN…OFF TO NY

Urs called David as they neared the hotel and learned that they were coming down in the elevator…his timing was, as always, impeccable.

They left her safely locked duffle with the concierge who promised to keep it secure until quarter to 2, then have it taken to the heliport on the roof and guarded until she came for it. They strode across the lobby toward the elevators, arriving near the doors just as the guys exited.

“Merde!! Today you look like a real soldier, Cherie. And the blue beret…that is for the United Nations is it not?” Seb said as he approached, somehow intuiting that he wouldn’t be allowed to kiss her cheeks in his typical French way.

“Yes it is…how do you know that, Frenchie?”

“I do some work now and then for AMTM and they often have UN visitors,” he answered.

Carlos stuffed his hands in his pockets, seeming intimidated by the uniform until Izzy held her hand out to him.

“What’s this then?…no eyebrow wiggle or flirting this morning? It’s just my alter ego, Carlito…sort of like when Wonder Woman changes back and forth.”

He shook her hand and smiled sheepishly.

David of course had them all laughing when he claimed that he had come prepared and was wearing his Superman shorts for the occasion.

They had a nice, quiet, reserved table set a bit apart from the other diners and settled in for lunch, Urs and Izzy occupying the bench seat at the back by tacit agreement though Seb had tried to slide in beside her until Urs glared at him, then grinned when he realized that his friend was trying to wind him up.

Menus came and went, glasses of water appeared and a mixed bread basket with round balls of butter in a separate bowl of ice chips and they quickly placed orders. Urs kept an eye on the time, out of habit more than anything since they had plenty of time for both flights.

“Isabella is getting me a pass to attend her briefing at the UN on Monday and maybe even a tour of the building,” he announced as he passed the bread around the table, not prepared for the reaction that followed.

“Moi aussi!!”

“Carlito tambien!”

“Hey what about Superman?”

When she had stopped laughing Izzy nodded and agreed to provide them all with passes but warned them that the briefing would be either boring or disturbing, and that she would have to have them all vetted for security reasons…also she wasn’t sure if the video would be viewed or not.

“We were too late for one of the hostages and the other man was in pretty bad shape…but he may be at the briefing…I heard he’s out of hospital now.”

“Where was this, Liebe?” Urs said, not even aware that he had called her Love in front of the guys. David noticed and kicked Carlos under the table, getting a smirk and eyebrow wiggle in return.

“Colombia…they were being held by the rebels, F.A.R.C…they were engineers for an American company…the company was willing to pay the ransom but the government dragged it’s heels on the prisoner exchange…we finally added some medical supplies to the pot and most of the rebels agreed…it was still dicey right up until the last minute whether they would actually let us leave.”

“Where are you staying, Bella? Does the UN have quarters for you?”

“No, Carlos…my brother and I work out of New York so often that we bought a small apartment…it’s only one very small bedroom but we never seem to get leave at the same time so it isn’t a problem. And you lot are in one of the posh hotels I would guess…?”

“Fortunately near enough to do some serious shopping,” Seb said with his eyes lighting up at the thought.

“I’m going to touch base with some old friends from my West Side Story and La Boheme days,” David said, thinking about how he wished his long time girlfriend had been able to join him. “What about you two?”

Urs looked at Izzy, only now realizing that they hadn’t made any plans for the 3 days until Monday.

“How do you feel about heights?” she asked with a sly smile.

He pretended to be hurt, grasping his chest and moaning.

“You could ask a Swiss that question? Heights don’t bother me of course…” he now noticed the glint in her eyes and narrowed his as he responded further. “Why? You look like you have something devious in mind.”

“Trust me, you’ll love it…not every one gets to do this.”

No matter how he coaxed, even tickling her lightly until he thought about the Army rules when in public, she wouldn’t divulge what she had planned.

**
Ever punctual, Urs left his credit card with David for their lunch and escorted Izzy to the elevator for the ride up to the heliport with plenty of time to spare. She understood why when he pulled her into an alcove under the short flight of stairs leading to the roof entrance and trapped her between his hands resting on the cement wall, leaning his body against her and smiling as he lowered his mouth to caress her face with butterfly kisses.

“Our flight gets in around 7…can I come to you, be with you tonight? I hate to waste the few days we have left.”

“Stay with me, Urs…my place isn’t fancy or nearly as large as your suite at the hotel would be but we could be together…I promise to get you up in plenty of time for your interview tomorrow…and you know I can’t cook but there are great restaurants in the area and lovely markets for fruit…Please!!”

His mouth zeroed in on her lips in a kiss that left her reeling.

“I’ll take that as a YES!” she said when she could speak again.

“I would stay in a cardboard box in the Park with you…”

She moved him back a few inches and fished in a pocket of her fatigues, withdrew a black business card with silver lettering and handed it to him.

“My cell phone number…call me when your flight gets in and I’ll give you the address….”

Through the thick walls they could hear the whump- whump- whump of an approaching helicopter and she stood tall to kiss him one last time, savoring the taste and texture of his mouth, pleased at the reaction their embrace had on his body…and on hers though it wasn’t nearly as obvious.

He helped straighten her uniform and beret and they went as far as the door hand in hand, sharing one more quick kiss before exiting, circumspectly not touching .

The big military heli was nearly on the pad when they looked across the roof, a man in a flight suit, ear muffs and helmet, raised a hand to Izzy and she smiled a bit at Urs then jogged across to where the porter was hefting her duffle up into the open door. One foot on the small step and she vaulted into the cabin, turned and waved, then accepted the offered earmuffs as a baffle against the noise and seated herself, strapping the belt securely across her chest and hips. And then the chopper rose straight up, slid sideways and sped away over the city.

**

“Did you get her to tell you?” David asked when he rejoined the others just as they were leaving the restaurant.

“No…she’s very stubborn,” Urs replied with a grin that showed he considered stubbornness an attribute…at least in Izzy.

“I could have made her talk…there are ways…” Seb said with a smirk.

Urs studied him for a moment then shook his head.

“I doubt you’ve ever dealt with a woman like Izzy….the more you nag her the more she digs her heels in…I can wait…it will give me something to look forward to.”

“How did you meet this lovely lady, Amigo? She definitely isn’t your usual type.”

Urs shot Carlos a glance and scowl as they headed for the elevators.

“I don’t have a ‘type’!!”

All three of the men laughed and David threw a weak punch at Urs’ shoulder.

“Of course you do…tall, a bit older and settled, intelligent…well Izzy is that at least…very feminine…that too, oddly enough….and you met how?”

They weren’t going to drop the subject so Urs fed them a tiny bit of information.

“A really bad thunder and lightening storm came up so I asked for shelter at her cottage….the first thing she said to me was ‘Don’t just stand there…TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF!’”

“She said what?”

“Madre de Dios!!!”

“AND?....don’t stop now!!!”

“And the next day we went rock hunting, then we came back to the city….AND that’s all you need to know!!”

He veered off to the gift shop to browse through the magazines, effectively ending the questioning, grinning as he thought about all that he hadn’t said.

‘I can’t believe I’ve only known her a couple of days…we’ve packed so much into these few hours we’ve been together…so much pleasure, sharing, fun…I feel like I’ve known her forever.’

He let his mind wander, thinking about the mining at the quarry, the way she had fully understood how he felt, the calm acceptance he felt in her presence, the zing he got throughout his body when they touched, skin to skin…and suddenly realized that the article he was pretending to browse through was ‘Breast- feeding Your Newborn’.

He replaced the magazine quickly, as if his fingers had burned, looking around to see if anyone had noticed and selected a Motorcycle magazine, immediately taking it to the cashier to pay for it.

With only half an hour before they would be picked up for the trip to Pearson International he raced up the stairs to his suite, two at a time, to pack for the next adventure with his Isabella…in New York.

**

CHAPTER ELEVEN…TRIBECA/NY

Tribeca was as vibrant as always she found as she rolled the window of the cab down and reveled in the sights, sounds and smells of this unique area of New York. It was early evening now, dinner time for the working stiffs who would have arrived home, showered and headed out to one of the many Trattorias for good, wholesome pasta to replenish the energy their manual work had consumed during the day.

Every little park had it’s share of artisans… jewelers, artists in oils, acrylics, pastels, some fashioning things out of thin wire, others with hats, shirts, table cloths they had hand made…and of course the illegal’s, the knock offs, pirated CD’s and Vids, all watching for the foot patrol who would be honor bound to chase them off or if they resisted, to issue a fine.

The cabbie pulled up in front of her brownstone and she exited, collected her duffle and waved at Tonio across the street…Tonio who noticed everything on his street and had the best fresh fruit and vegetables in Tribeca.

The gate to the basement apartment squeaked, as always and also as she always did, she reminded herself to oil it, laughing a bit since it was a foregone conclusion that she would forget…again!!! Actually it was kind of like having a guard dog who barked…the shrill squeak always warned her if someone was coming to her door.

She noticed that Tonio had kept his word and watered the miniature pine growing in a heavy concrete planter beside the door. The lush green growth was at least 4 inches taller than before, she thought…perhaps he had added some of his Mama’s special fertilizer to the water…. she would have to ask.

There was no clutter of mail inside when she opened the door, just the smooth, dust free floor which meant that Cody had been here sometime recently and cleaned. BONUS!! That meant she wouldn’t have to do much before Urs arrived…except grocery shop of course….and shower.

The apartment was small, just as she had warned him, the lounge barely large enough for the sofa and bookcase, again over flowing, and the small round dining table under the rather large window that was at shoulder height and had a great view of legs and feet going by on the sidewalk…the best part of the place, and the one that had decided them when they were hunting, was the walk-out onto a miniscule back patio, completely enclosed with an 8 foot high brick wall liberally entwined with ivy and some other seasonal flowering vines, a hammock which depended from hooks embedded in the bricks in one corner, a small gas BBQ, several padded chairs with small tables and a retractable roof that Cody had asked some friends in the Engineers to install so the area would be protected in bad weather.

She opened the sliding glass patio doors to air the space out and took her duffle through into the larger area, the bedroom, the space where they stored most of their gear on their infrequent stop-overs. Just as she expected there was a note from Cody on the dresser and she dumped her duffle on the bed to sit and read it.

HI Freckles:

Was here for 72 on my way to …..{can’t tell you, sorry}…You may however notice that my tropical gear is missing. Hope you’re getting over the fevers and chills…I can just imagine how you are chomping at the bit, eager to get going again!!

I managed to get out of the last assignment without any holes in my skin…what a relief to be out of there…I did manage to score you something pretty though…it’s in the top drawer.

How was your time at the cottage? Did you get bored being alone and did you find anything worthwhile? You really need to change your habits and take up drinking, Freckles…it passes the time and if you do it enough nothing matters anymore…I know, I can hear you going tsk tsk…you know I’m only joking…I still only have 1 or 2 and then fake being drunk to keep the guys off my case…that time when you dried me out and beat on me cured me of ever being a sot again…I can’t believe how I used to treat you and everyone else when I was drinking heavy.

I love you, Little Sister, I hope you know that….isn’t it time you found yourself a nice man and quit this running around except after a bunch of rotten kids? I’m itching to be an uncle you know.

I’ll be back whenever…you know how it goes…hope we can actually get together soon.

Cody

She read it again, smiling at what he didn’t say, from habit reading between the lines. She sighed and went to the dresser, opening the small drawer at the top and taking out a cloth wrapped bundle about the size of a peach….unwrapped, it was a piece of host stone with a large Lapis Lazuli embedded in it, a lovely specimen, made all the more precious since she knew he had hidden it in his belongings to bring back to her….so he had been in Afghanistan …and survived unscathed.

“You damned fool, Cody…you take too many chances!” she murmured affectionately, placing the stone on top of the dresser and starting to empty her duffle.

** “Hey Doc!” a young voice greeted her when she was closing the apartment door. Looking up the steps she saw Dante slouching against the fence and grinning at her, his shiny black jacket with the gold lettering proclaiming him a Trump, the gang in power in this area.

“Hey! Didn’t take you long to notice I was home.”

The young man, a boy really with only fuzz on his unlined face, shrugged and pushed himself off the fence, reaching out to take the cloth carrier she held.

“It’s my job…the word came to me that someone was in your apartment, then Jocko sent word who it was and I thought I’d check in with you.”

Over the five years that she and Cody had owned the apartment they had formed a loose relationship with the local gang of teens, offering free medical advice so long as it was legal, in return for the boys keeping an eye on their property…not once had they been broken in to though once someone had tried and been ‘asked’ to desist.

“Everyone healthy?” she asked as they crossed the street to the fruit and vegetable store.

“You bet…even Flik…those sores he had are gone…that cream worked great…and before you ask, none of our ladies is breeding….I warned them all…anyone does it without a rubber has to answer to me!”

“You’re a good leader, Dante…I’m proud of you…and I know Cody is too.” She glanced at the boy and noticed the flush of pride…her brother was a hero to these young boys ever since he had been wounded and spent his time here recovering.

Dante vanished like smoke while she was browsing through the stacks of fruit, his relationship with the storekeeper not quite as friendly as the one with Izzy.

“How long you stay this time, Piccolo Dottore?” Tonio asked, taking an apple from her hand and replacing it with what he considered a better one.

“I don’t know, Tonio…maybe only a week or so…I’m actually on leave but I may have to do some traveling…6 apples, please…and some of those nice blood oranges.”

“My Rosa is make the juice…pineapple…you like?”

“Yes please…and do you have some of that nice goat cheese you had last time I was home?”

The cloth carrier was full and a second one, borrowed, was being filled with salad greens when her cell phone rang and she eagerly flipped it open to answer.

“Hi, pretty lady!! We just got in…I’m waiting for my luggage….I already miss you.”

She giggled and heard him chuckle.

“It’s only been a couple of hours…did you have a nice flight?”

“Fast…we just got up to cruising and the light went on that we were landing….oops, hang on….”

She could hear grunting as if he exerted himself then he was back.

“Two of my cases came off together…don’t panic…I remember you said your place is small…I’ll have Seb take my suits to the Hotel and just bring me a change at the studio….so where are you?…I can hear people talking…in Italian, I think.”

“At the grocers across from my building…1137 Duane Street, Tribeca…write it down…it’s between Broadway and Lafayette…the basement suite.”

“I don’t know how long it will take…I’ve one more piece to collect and then the cab ride.”

“No problem…I’ll be waiting for you…I’m going home in a minute, unless Tonio sells me half of his merchandise…he has this mission to feed me, thinks I’m too skinny…I’ll have a shower and be waiting for you…”

“NO!! Wait for me…we’ll save water and shower together.”

“Urs, my shower is very small…”

“Even better…wait for me!!”

She laughed and promised, made him repeat the address and signed off, smiling and a bit embarrassed when she looked up and saw Tonio watching her with a knowing smile on his face.

“Finally, you have the lover!! I am happy…my Rosa will be happy!!”

He went to the back room, babbling a stream of Italian to his wife that was much too fast for Izzy to catch, then came back with a jug of fresh juice, a large container of fresh strawberries, fat juicy ones, and a bottle of homemade chocolate sauce.

“We already have 9 little ones…we do not need this…you and your Amante enjoy!!”

Nothing she could say dissuaded him so she paid for her purchases and took the two bags, starting back across the street. Within two steps a young boy wearing the shiny black jacket of the Trumps had relieved her of her parcels with a grin, carried them to her door, waiting until she entered and then raced off with a cheerful wave.

**

Izzy really wanted a shower but smiled as she remembered Urs’ request, delivered in that pleading , little boy tone of voice that she couldn’t resist. She got ready for his arrival, setting out clean towels, putting away the variety of groceries she had purchased, only rinsing the fruit since she knew how careful Tonio and Rosa were to make sure that all their produce was organically grown and was washed before their treasured customers ever saw any of it.

Of necessity the place was already neat, there not being any space to leave clutter but she puttered, straightening a few pillows on the small sofa, lighting candles in the bedroom on the brick mantle that jutted above what was at one time a working fireplace, checking the closet to make sure there were hangers available for his clothing and a space on the shelf for his luggage. She pulled out the drawer in the high-boy dresser…empty, since neither she nor Cody ever left a lot of clothes in the apartment.

Still with time to kill she wandered out onto the patio and lay back in the hammock, swinging a bit with one leg hanging over the edge and thinking about the gorgeous man who would soon be arriving.

And he was gorgeous…a man so beautifully perfect both inside and out that she felt a tingle just thinking about him. If ever there had been a man who could tempt her away from the life she had chosen for herself Urs Buhler would have been it…but of course that was not to be. He, too, had chosen a life that left no room for long term relationships, for the normal bonding of man and woman that would lead into eternity, to family and…oops…what was this?

‘Thinking about family again you silly *****? And your biological clock hasn’t even begun to tick yet!!! But I can picture it…he would be an amazing father, I just feel it… and the children we could produce would be incredible…talented, smart, beautiful…I would have to give up the UN work, maybe establish a private practice…and of course we would have to work out how to cope with the separations for his work…I would never ask him to give up his music…it’s so much a part of who he is…’

She sat up abruptly, nearly flipping herself out of the hammock and frowning as she tried to stop the train of thought her naughty mind had started on.

‘As if things would ever come to that with us…he’s made it clear, just as I did, that this is only for NOW, for the limited time we can be together…he even offered protection right from the first and seemed relieved to learn it wasn’t needed…What’s the matter with you, Girl? It isn’t like you to day dream about what could be? But then I’ve never met anyone like him…and certainly never felt so strongly for a man, not the way I do for Urs…he makes me feel so…so…female, so loved…..OMG…I’m going to get hurt but I can’t help myself!!!’

She was back in the Lounge sorting through their meager supply of CD’s when she became aware of raised voices outside and put the stack down to scurry to the door.

Leaning against her door and almost falling into the apartment when she flung it open were two of the older Trump boys, glaring aggressively at Urs who had put his bags down and looked ready to bang heads together.

“What’s going on here?” she said, having to repeat her query a bit louder when she couldn’t be heard over the argument going on.

“…never has men coming here, except the Lieutenant…bugger off, buster or we’ll have to help you leave!!”

“I’m trying to be patient with you boys but I’m tired and cross and this isn’t helping…now GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!”

Finally they heard her and the boys answered, not for a moment taking their eyes off of Urs who stood with muscles tensed and hands curled into fists, balanced for battle on the balls of his feet, glaring at Izzy now with a thunderous glint in his eyes.

“This dude thinks he can get in your apartment, Doc…”

“This dude is MY dude, Chickie…and you had best move out of the way…My fault…I should have told Dante someone was coming… How are your grades this semester?”

“B plus right across the board, Doc…looks like I’ll get that scholarship you recommended me for.”

The other boy tried to slink away without being questioned but it was futile.

“I’m very proud of what you’ve accomplished, Chickie…and you can do it too, Putzie…I have faith in you and so does Cody.”

The boy turned and smiled sheepishly at her, shrugging his shoulders.

“It’s just I’m so tired after work that I don’t get my homework done…but I’ll try harder, Doc. I promise.”

The boys grabbed Urs bags and set them just inside the door, apologizing quietly for the misunderstanding and sloping off, leaving him facing Izzy who had the nerve to laugh lightly at his ebbing anger.

“Sorry…they kind of keep an eye on me and on the place when neither of us are here….basically they’re good boys…just a little over zealous.”

He grinned, the tension eased from his face, his hands unclenched and he took a step closer to lay his arms over her shoulders.

“They just about became bruised good boys…I didn’t understand what was going on….the storekeeper across the street looked ready to defend your honor or mine too.”

She glanced across at Tonio who was trying to hide a heavy aluminum baseball bat behind his stout body. She smiled and waved at him, slipping her free arm around Urs’ waist and urging him into the apartment.

“Inside…hurry…I’m aching to kiss you!!”

They stepped in and even before the door was locked had molded their bodies together, sighing as their mouths met and fused in a deep, lingering kiss.

“How am I ever going to leave you? It’s only been a few hours and already I was aching with the need to see your face.”

“We’ll face that moment when we have to Urs…bring your bags…I made room for you in the bedroom.”

“So tell me about your young gate-keepers,” he said as he followed her into the bedroom, idly glancing about the tiny apartment on the way. She was right, it was very small but decorated in a minimalist style that was pleasing to the eye and spoke of comfort rather than structure. He could see a patio through the glass doors at one end of the open concept room and made a mental note to inspect it later, moving into the bedroom and placing his bags on the bench at the foot of another one of those custom made long beds.

“The boys? Cody met them when he was looking for a place for us…they own this territory…at least their ‘Gang’ does and he became their hero when he helped one of the mothers out of a jam…some boys from another gang had invaded and surrounded her when she was out for groceries with her youngest in a stroller. Cody chased them off and warned them not to come back and then when we bought the place found that the boys thought he was some kind of god. We both encourage them to go to school and to rule with kindness rather than force…I provide medical assistance now and then and a friend of mine runs a clinic for the area when I’m not here…in the 5 years we’ve been in the apartment the gang has changed a lot…most of the boys finish high school, some go on to other careers and take over helping out when they become successful…it’s been a win-win situation.”

He finished unpacking and slipped his bags one inside the other then up onto the shelf, turning as he shut the closet door and smiling at her where she lounged against the bathroom doorframe.

“So you aren’t nearly as tough as you like people to think….of course I already knew that….come here, my Little Bella…my arms feel very empty.”

She grinned and moved towards him, slowly stripping off her pale blue tee shirt to reveal a very unmilitary blue lace bra.

“There was some mention of a shower, my Swiss lover…and you have too many clothes on,” she said as she pulled at the bottom of his red Harley shirt and inched it up over his sculpted chest.



“You’re always trying to get my clothes off,’ he said with a laugh, but he didn’t resist as she pushed the shirt up, following with her mouth trailing kisses across his twitching muscles, nipping at the hair on his chest and tugging lightly. His arms went up and he bent forward to let her pull the shirt off over his head, lowering both hands to her shoulders to caress her and letting his face nestle in the curve of her neck as his hands roamed to her back, searching for the closure of her bra.

He sighed when the garment was unhooked and slipped from her shoulders to disappear between them, bending his long legs so his mouth could taste the tender skin of her chest.

They played their favorite game of ‘Explorer’, in the process removing the remaining clothing to reveal all sorts of hidden surprises until Urs held her back from his chest to survey his conquered prize, feasting his eyes on her curves and laughing when she tried in vain to cover herself.

“Don’t…I like to look at you…you are so beautiful.”

“I feel fat…there isn’t an ounce of fat on you, not anywhere…your body is so solid and toned, every muscle visible…..it makes me feel like I should go on a diet.”

He trailed his hands down her arms and slipped them onto her torso, stroking her sides, down the curves of her hips and around to her back to cup her bottom.

“Don’t even think about it…. you’re perfect…soft and smooth in all the right places, curved just right to fit against me … your skin is like velvet…especially here…” He bent his head to kiss her below her full breasts, parting his lips to let his tongue lick a trail back up until he reached her mouth and devouring her with a kiss so deep and passionate that her legs went rubbery and she clung to him for support.

“Shower time, Liebe,” he murmured and took her hand to lead her into the cupboard sized bathroom.

It was a tight squeeze in the shower, just as she had warned, but they didn’t care, using only enough space for one person anyway as passion took them and they made love under the gentle spray of the hot, then warm water. A few bumped elbows later they actually got around to bathing, then exited to dry off and lay on the big bed to snuggle and talk until hunger drove them from their cozy cocoon to seek clothing again.

**

CHAPTER TWELVE…Pietro’s

They strolled down the street, indulging in the freedom of being able to hold hands…no fans around to see them and Izzy out of uniform.

They had decided on Italian because of the neighborhood and Izzy suggested a small bistro that she often went to when in NY. The street lights had come on now and the sidewalk looked cleaner, the refuse that was so inherent in a large city not quite as noticeable.

The area showed a certain pride of residence with well kept front stoops on the brownstones, fading flower boxes that the winter chill hadn’t yet browned, bicycles chained to the wrought iron railings around entrances to the many basement suites.

People hurried along the sidewalk, returning home from their day jobs, some ambling along as Urs and Izzy were, going out for dinner or the evening entertainment, the odd young boy or girl wearing the distinctive Trump jacket who waved and smiled as they passed. A lone ice cream truck trolled slowly down the avenue, one of the operator’s last trips of the summer and fall before putting it into storage for the cold months.

“When will Cody be back from where-ever he is?”

She shrugged.

“I never know until he’s on the way…I meant to check on Facebook and see if he’s somewhere that he can update his page…but I kind of got distracted waiting for you. He left me a note but couldn’t say much.”

She glanced up at him and grinned.

“You worried that big brother will catch you in my bed and pound on you?”

He chuckled and squeezed her hand.

“Actually it hadn’t occurred to me…though I have seen how big his clothes are and he is armed…should I be worried?”

She inspected him thoroughly, trying not to smile.

“Well…he is rather protective, like a good big brother should be…but I think he would like you…Cody isn’t your typical big, macho man…he’s quiet and thoughtful, far too intelligent to be considered a big dumb jock though that’s what most people think when they first meet him….I think after another tour or two he’s going to take advantage of his degrees and switch to counseling…he really likes young people…he’d make a good counselor, maybe here or in some other large city…one thing he isn’t is a country boy…he hates the woods and hiking, rock-hounding, skiing…all the things I enjoy…I’d like to see him with a good woman and about 6 kids.”

“Six!! How about you…don’t you ever yearn for a family?”
She was surprised that he would mention it coming so
soon after her musing about what a good father he would be.

“Uh…do I hear a nervous quiver in your voice, Herr Buhler? Has coming from a large family cured you of wanting one of your own?”

He laughed and chose to ignore the way she hadn’t answered, instead fed him back his own question.

“No quiver, just curiosity…I’d like to have a good solid relationship and a family, maybe even a large one…but right now there’s not enough of me to go around…this touring will take a lot out of me and it wouldn’t be fair to a family to be away so much.”

“Nonsense…people in the military do it and do it well all the time…it’s a question of keeping the relationship fresh and interesting, of keeping in touch via letters or the Internet…and treasuring the time you can be together….”

She glanced at him and noticed the clenching of his jaw, the lines that appeared on his forehead, suddenly became aware of how his hand had tightened around hers.

‘Aha!!...touchy subject, one he’s spent some time worrying about and doesn’t like the answers he came up with…Dear Urs!!...it’s all a matter of how important a relationship is to you and how much you are willing to compromise to have it flourish…we could do it, you and I…we’re both stubborn as the proverbial mules, and…AND I have to stop thinking about it…it’s never going to happen for us!!’

“That’s it…the place with the red and white awning just down the street…MMMMMMMMMMMMMh! I can almost taste the Garlic bread from here…you have to promise to eat some too or my mouth will be out of bounds later…I do love my garlic bread, especially the way Pietro makes it.”

**

They had nearly finished a huge meal of pasta, sharing a platter of appetizers then also sharing an enormous bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese and two orders of Garlic Bread, ‘extra garlic, Please!!’ The side salad of fresh vegetables drizzled with Balsamic vinegar, Basil leaves, freshly grated Parmigiana cheese and EVOO received a fair amount of attention and there wasn’t much left when Urs sat back with a groan and grinned at Izzy.

“You amaze me!! Someone who loves to eat like you do should weigh about 300 pounds…and should be an excellent cook and yet there you are…a virgin in the kitchen and with a perfect body. How do you do it?”

She grinned and wiped her mouth with the cloth napkin that she had just removed from her lap.

“It takes a lot of energy to keep up with all the things I like to do…especially lately…you’ll understand after Saturday.”

He smiled and sat forward eagerly, mistakenly thinking maybe now she would tell him what was planned.

WRONG!!

“Forget it Swiss!!...just wait until Saturday and you’ll find out.”

He leered at her, raising his hands slightly and wiggling his fingers.

“I have ways to get you to talk, Major Liebling…”

She shuddered but grinned and he knew it was useless…how could he torture someone who was so looking forward to whatever he planned to inflict on her?

“What time do you have to be at the studio tomorrow?” she asked with an abrupt subject change, making him wonder if she had been about to weaken…no matter…he loved surprises.

“It’s a morning show so we have to be there at 5:30, time enough to change and do the makeup thing, sound check and so forth…they always run the questions by us too, even though they’re always the same…this time it’s Seb’s turn to answer…if his English holds up…I’m the only one fluent in French and English so I’ll have to pay attention in case he needs rescuing.”

“I’ll go by the shop while you do your thing and swing by after if you like…unless you want to spend some time with your friends.”

“Nein…come to the studio and we’ll all go for breakfast after…I’ll leave a pass at the stage door for you….then I’m all yours for the rest of the week-end.”

She smiled.

“You may live to regret that decision, my Swiss…but it makes me very happy.”

Pietro came by the table offering dessert and hinting for an introduction to Urs. In all the years he had known the pretty doctor he had only ever seen her with a few female friends and her brother, the big soldier that he had first thought was a boyfriend.
It hadn’t taken long to discern the truth of that relationship, the comfortable, teasing way they had of dealing with each other evidence of a closeness that fairly screamed ‘FAMILY’…and of course, nosey person that he was, he hinted until he got the answer…just like tonight.

“Pietro, this is my friend, Urs Buhler, a man after your own tastes…he’s an Opera singer, a Heldentenor.”

She was ignored for the next few minutes as the two men talked Opera, deciding that they favored many of the same singers and roles…Pietro finally realized that he was monopolizing the doctor’s date and apologized after making Urs promise to come back any Thursday he was in town and join him serenading the patrons.

They took the long way home, trying to walk off some of the sumptuous meal and to make room for the generous portions of Tiramisu that Pietro had gifted them with for later.

“Urs did you want to go out…dancing or clubbing or…?”

He slipped his arm around her shoulder and leaned over to kiss the side of her head lightly.

“What I want is to spend some quiet time with you…I rarely dance and the club scene isn’t my thing…maybe we could just curl up in that hammock I saw on the patio and talk…and I could test your garlic breath?”

She snuggled against his side and sighed with pleasure.

“Works for me…and I do have a very large bottle of mouthwash…just in case….”

**
His infallible internal clock woke Urs just before the alarm went off and he lay basking in the warmth from Izzy’s body for a few minutes letting his mind replay the evening they had enjoyed.

They had cocooned in the hammock, wrapped in the thick wool blanket from Ecuador that she had pulled out of a closet, warm, comfy, taking up one space, entwined with no top, no bottom, just a body with two heads that nestled in hollows and murmured softly as they talked, kissed, shared the quiet of the city noise wafting in to them or merely existed, separate but together.

For a while they napped then woke to continue their conversation as if there had been no pause…it was the most intimate, exquisite moment that Urs ever remembered sharing with another being.

At last the sharp chill of autumn drove them inside to fumble with cold hands and gasped pleas for haste as they stripped each other and dove under the thick duvet into the security of the big bed, spooned for warmth until the goosebumps vanished, replaced with smooth, warmed skin that welcomed the tender touch of wandering hands.

Almost as if by accident they made love, sweetly, gently, savoring each moment, each sensation, each gasp and quiver until there was no holding back and they were swept away in spasms of pleasure as new as each day’s dawning, as old as the spinning of the earth in the vast universe.

Urs watched her sleeping now, her breath stirring a curl that had fallen across her sweet face and his heart ached with the thought that he had promised ‘no strings’.

‘How can I give this up? How can I survive leaving her when we have to go on with our schedule or she has to go off to some dangerous corner of the world? Why have you done this to me now, Gott, now when I can’t offer her any more than a few nights, a few days, a few hours of the joy we could have together? It isn’t fair!!’

As if she felt his distress Izzy stirred in his arms, the hand on his chest twitched, fingers curling against his muscles and stroking gently, smoothing down the curly hairs and trailing upward until she touched the stubble on his neck.

“Shhh, Love…I’m here,” she whispered, her eyes still closed but her body tighter to his and he leaned into her, sliding his leg over hers to draw her closer still, skin to skin from neck to toes.

The alarm on her bedside clock began buzzing, an abrasive, intrusive sound in the intimate quiet of the room…he leaned harder on her as he rolled on top and reached out to slap the offending little machine that now blinked silently at him, informing him that it was time to get mobile and begin the duties of the day.

“Good morning.”

Her voice was muffled, coming from the region of just below his neck and he braced his upper body on his arms so he could look down into sleepy green eyes that smiled at him.

“Damned clock!! And it was such a beautiful moment!!”

She chuckled and leaned up to kiss his neck, wiggling higher under him and creating some interesting friction.

“Woman, do you want to be responsible for me being late…for the first time ever?”

“Afraid of Sam getting on your case if you are?” she teased with a sleepy grin.

“No…I just can’t stand the thought of how the guys will want to know why…and won’t give up asking.”

He dropped his body onto hers and sought her mouth, delving into the softness of hers, breaking away after a few minutes with a moan and a mighty thrust up and away from her to roll onto the edge of the bed.

“Go back to sleep, Liebe…I’m going to have a quick shower…and try not to think about you.”

She rolled the other way and reached for her discarded tee shirt and jeans.

“Don’t be silly…we’ll suffer together…you shower…I’ll make coffee.”

He paused in the bathroom doorway and smiled back at her.

“Do you always wake up in such a good mood?”

“Always…even more so the past few days…now get in that room and I would suggest locking the door…you have no idea what seeing you silhouetted in that light is doing to my good intentions!!”

Urs laughed and closed the door behind him…but didn’t lock it…after all what could it hurt to be late once?

**

He was unbuttoning and still smiling when he raced down the endless hallway of the studio to the dressing room, his ID tag on the long cord bouncing against his chest as he did everything he could to make changing easier…everything that could be done in public that is.

Alicia, the bottle blonde assistant to Sam, was waiting at the doorway and glanced pointedly at her watch as she saw him arriving.

“Hustle, Ursy…the others are done so makeup is all yours.”

He grimaced…he hated the way she called him ‘Ursy’ as if he was a little boy….the fans often called him that but it was different somehow, done with affection not the denigrating way that Alicia delivered the sobriquet.

“This time stay out!!” he growled as he passed her and firmly shut the door behind him, referring to the time not too long ago when she had wandered into the dressing room while he was changing and had the nerve to park in one of the easy chairs and watch…no make that leer, while he tried in vain to keep the naughty parts covered.

She was without a doubt a very pretty woman and very talented…without her assistance Sam would have been snowed under with work but somehow Alicia managed to keep things flowing smoothly. He regretted the loss of judgement several months ago when he had been lonely and full of self pity … the night when he and Alicia had…well he wouldn’t be repeating that experience again. It had taken weeks for her to understand that he wasn’t interested in a long term relationship, weeks of avoiding her as much as possible, of tears and recriminations when she finally cornered him. She had offered to change, to give up her constant shopping and clubbing, to take up outdoor interests, to try to overcome her dislike of motorcycles, to learn how to ski…anything, in a desperate bid to have him develop a lasting interest in her.

Now their relationship was stilted but at least no longer adversarial.

Seb was still in the dressing room, talking on the phone to his latest girlfriend and motioned to Urs’ suit and shirt hanging on the rack at the side of the room.

With something approaching the speed of light he changed and buzzed for the makeup girl to come and do his stage makeup, something he hated but was accustomed to…the harsh lights on stage washed out the color of everyone’s skin and only the adept skills of the makeup artists made them look like anything other than the walking dead.

David and Carlos came in just as she finished with Urs, even his curly locks co-operating today and straightening on the top quite easily, leaving a little flip at the ends that he tucked back behind his ears.

“So…are you going to tell us how your re-union was?”

Urs just looked up at his tall friend and smiled.

“Nein.”

David shook his head, laughing and Carlos groaned.

“I win…I bet Carlos that you wouldn’t say much…alright at least tell me if you know what the surprise thing is…you know, the one about heights.”

“She wouldn’t tell me.”

Sam stuck his head in the door, counted bodies and left with a sigh of relief.

Alicia also appeared, her eyes going immediately to Urs and narrowing in disappointment when she saw him fully ready…. she called out “Green Room…5 minutes” shut the door, just a little harder than necessary.

“You should have flashed her, Urs…it would have made her day,” David said with a chortle and moved just far enough away that Urs couldn’t punch his shoulder.

“Not a chance…she’s too clingy…and nags…I can’t stand a woman who nags.”

“And I guess that means that the Major doesn’t nag?”

He got a dreamy look on his face as he smiled and stood to go with them to the Green room.

“She makes me feel …alive!” he said then seemed to realize that he had let too much personal information out, squared his shoulders and scowled at David.

“Leave it alone, Stretch!” he said as he left the room and hurried down the hall.

David followed quietly, knowing when he had gone just a tad too far but smiling since he realized that at last his friend had found someone who made him happy.

**