Delilah Devlin

I sped down the steps, my backpack bouncing wildly against me, spotted my gate, and slowed. I rechecked the rail timetable for the hundredth time—“22.20, ” it read. Not trusting my own Timex, I glanced up at the large overhead clock next to the gate number. If I calculated the time correctly, the train should be rolling in right about now.

“Damn, I just made it.”

Already warm from too much cognac sipped at a tavern not far from the station, the sprint from the taxi stand had me wishing for good old air-conditioned air—a rare commodity in Strasburg. Instead, I fanned myself with the travel guide and peered down the tracks into the darkness stretching beyond the covered platform.

“You’re American, ” came a crisp, nearly accentless voice from behind me.

“What gave it away? The dreadlocks or the Nikes? ” I grumbled without looking back.

“The guidebook, actually. You’re always so worried about time when you’re on vacation—one might think you’re German.”

The amusement underlying her tone made me feel a little embarrassed for my rudeness, so I drew a deep breath, plastered on a smile, and turned.

I had to raise my gaze. The woman was taller than my own five feet four inches. Her angular shoulders, straight, boyish figure and chin-length hair were made more feminine by large, luminous blue eyes.

About my age, mid-twenties, she looked a world removed from mine—blonde hair, cream-colored skin, poised and polished like a shiny new doll. My clothing was rumpled and too casual for anyone from around here, except the teenagers.

I lifted my chin. “And how’d you know I’m on vacation? ”

She shook her head, which sent her wispy hair shivering around her cheeks. “I’m not saying anything else, or you’ll think I’m pretending to be a psychic.” This time the slight accent sounded like a soft lisp. Nice…

The sound seemed to tickle down my spine.

“Your English is very good.”

She wrinkled her short, straight nose. “But not so good you didn’t think I might be American myself.”

My snort wasn’t very elegant. “That’s ’cause you speak it too well.”

She nodded toward my book, her expression friendly. “Do you need help with your schedule? ”

“I just need to know if the train I hear comin’ down the tracks is the Orient Express.”

“It is. Are you going to Vienna? ”

“If that’s Wien on the map, then yeah.”

“Not to worry, you’re in the right place and that’s our train. Are you in a sleeper car for the night? ”

“I paid for a couchette.”

Again, her nose wrinkled—an affectation that made her seem younger. “You do know you’ll be sleeping with five other people.”

“I’m carrying a backpack, ” I said, my tone dead-panned. “You know this isn’t a luxury vacation for me.”

“I’ve reserved a sleeper car. It’s about eighty Euros extra, and I only have to share it with one other person…” Her voice trailed off, but a question glinted in her pale-blue eyes.

Realizing I’d just had a longer conversation with this woman than I’d had with anyone since I’d set down in Paris a week ago, I felt reluctant to dismiss her suggestion. “You said you reserved yours…”

“If no one else has reserved the space, just sit in the car with me and you can pay the attendant when he comes.”

“I’m Nicole, by the way, ” I said, adjusting my pack on one shoulder to hold out my hand.

Her firm grip surprised me. “Annegret.”

She continued to hold my hand, and I fought my natural inclination to pull away first, not understanding if this was just one of the many European customs I didn’t get.

When her thumb caressed my palm, my breath caught. Again, an unspoken question lay in the intensity of her intelligent gaze.

“Annegret…” I began, but the train finally arrived, pulling to a halt next to our concrete platform.

She released me, picked up the small overnight bag at her feet, and walked to the doors sliding open on the car marked “1.”

First class. The cut of her thin wool suit—a short, body-hugging jacket, a slim skirt that reached mid-thigh—snuggled close to her lithe figure. Definitely first class. My eyes trailed down her body, past the swell of her small bottom to her nude legs, and then snagged on the clunky leather and cork sandals she wore.

“Strictly for comfort. Like your Nikes, ” she said, catching my startled glance and sounding just a bit breathless, perhaps even anxious. “Coming? ”

Maybe I’d read more into that little caress than I should have. Or maybe she worried that she’d really offended me this time.

Fact was, I wasn’t so much shocked as secretly thrilled. Annegret with her straight blonde hair and tall lean body was an attractive woman, and while I’d never had a sexual encounter with a woman before, it wasn’t like I hadn’t ever entertained the thought.

However, back in my own neighborhood, the opportunity had never presented itself, and frankly, there was no way in hell I’d let word get around that I swung like a pendulum. Here, I could take a chance. After all, I’d come to Europe seeking adventure and an expansion of my narrow horizons.

I followed her up the steps into the sleeper car, trailing behind her down the narrow corridor as she checked the numbers on the doors until she came to hers. She glanced over her shoulder, excitement shimmering in her eyes, and entered the tiny cabin.

Two red upholstered chairs sat side-by-side under a window. A wall with seams running down its length must be where the fold-down beds lay hidden.

“Stow your pack in the bin over the door, ” she said, as she chose another compartment.

We took our seats. My gaze roamed the narrow room, taking in the amenities—the sink, the linens and towels stacked in a cupboard. All the while, I felt her glance burning over my skin as the sensual tension escalated in the room.

The attendant arrived just as the train lurched out of the station. Annegret presented her ticket; I gave him my flexi-pass and enough Euros to secure the berth. After arranging for snacks and tea in the morning, I sat while Annegret pulled down the shade over the window and at the door, and turned the lock to assure our privacy.

All the while she moved about in silence, I felt my palms sweat and my heartbeat thud against my chest. Was this really what I thought this was all about?

When she turned back, she smoothed her palms down the side of her skirt and cleared her throat. “You don’t have to do anything, Nicole. We can just talk.”

“Tell you the truth, I’m not a hundred percent sure what you want from me.”

“What I want? ” She licked her lips nervously, and then sat on the edge of her chair, leaning toward me. “I think you know.”

“This is kind of quick for me.”

“Sometimes, you see someone…and you just know.”

“What about me made you think…that? ” I said, knowing—coward that I was—that I was talking in circles around a very delicate question. An uncomfortable one, if my intuition wasn’t right.

“I wasn’t certain whether you would go for a girl, but I was attracted. Immediately.” Annegret lifted her shoulders, a hint of hopeful vulnerability stealing across her face. “Since we aren’t likely to see one another ever again, I thought I’d take a chance.”

I swallowed, understanding exactly what she felt. Maybe it was the cognac lowering my reserve. Maybe I’d had a secret itch to be with a woman and thought I’d never have the opportunity, but she looked like the kind of person who wouldn’t mind me fumbling all over her body while I learned a thing or two.

This trip was all about adventure…and seeing things I’d never see back home. A white girl’s clit, up close and personal, well, I thought I might want me some of that if the melting heat of my pussy was any indication.

She reached across the space between us and placed her hand on my knee.

Even through the denim, my skin burned.

“I would like to make love to you. Are you shocked? ”

Without replying, I lifted her hand from my knee, watching as her fingers curled. A glance at her face, and I saw her features tighten. She thought I was rejecting her.

With my free hand, I pulled out the hem of my T-shirt and slid her hand beneath it, pushing it up toward my breast.

Her lips parted, her fingers splayed wide to cup my large breast, then curved over the top edge of the bra to drag it down.

As her hand reached inside to caress me, I couldn’t help an excited little shiver. “No one’s gonna come barging in on us? ” I asked, my voice tightening up.

“We’re alone, ” she said, her accent growing thicker. “No one will interrupt us.”

“That bed gonna be big enough for both of us? ”

A fingernail scraped the tip of my breast. “My ass is slender, and since I’ll be on top of you, we’ll fit.”

She pulled her hand free, grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head, then reached from my bra and flicked the front clasp open, smiling as my breasts sprang free.

She’d accomplished it all so quickly, I sat blinking stupidly.

“I love the color of your nipples…brown and purple, ” she said, tracing around them with her forefingers, then looking up to catch my gaze, perhaps to gauge my comfort.

I gave her a short nod.

She clasped my nipples between her thumbs and forefingers to tug gently until they peaked.

Feeling awkward and off kilter, I summoned my courage. “Maybe we should get ready for bed, ” I said, my voice roughening as my arousal spiked.

“Mmmm…” Her gaze didn’t lift from the nipples she tweaked. “Maybe we should. I’d like to see all of you.”

We both rose and began to undress. I watched as she draped her jacket and blouse carefully over the back of her chair. The lace-edged camisole went next. She was braless beneath it. The points of her small round breasts were engorged and tilted slightly upward. Like they were meant to be sipped standing.

The cognac made me brave, gave me an excuse to act without thinking. Before I even got to my jeans, I leaned down and latched onto one of her little pink nipples, suckling hard, curving my hand around her breast to squeeze it as I drew on it like a straw.

“Let me see, ” she groaned, pushing back my head just enough so my locs didn’t impede her view.

With her watching, her breaths deepening, I felt powerful, sensual, knowing how my full, dark lips must look against her pale breast. I pushed them out a little, exaggerating the pucker as I mouthed her soft, velvety nipple.

“Our clothes? ” she reminded me breathlessly. “I want to see all of you.”

So did I. The taste of her skin, the smell of her light perfume and lighter musk was beginning to do nasty things to my cunt.

I let go and straightened, not daring to look her way again, until I’d toed off my shoes and pushed my jeans and panties to the floor. When I finally looked up, she stood close, her gaze traveling down my body.

“Did you wax it? ” she asked, sounding breathless, her gaze glued to my naked pussy.

“I like it smooth, ” I whispered.

Her pale wispy bush didn’t do a thing to hide her pinkening labia.

My tongue swept out to lick my dry mouth.

Annegret turned to the wall and maneuvered the bed down from the hidden cubby. Smaller than a twin mattress, still, I thought we’d have room. Images of us clit-diving had me almost smiling.

“The linens, ” she murmured.

I gathered them and we made the bed, all the while looking each other over. Once when she bent to tuck a sheet beneath the mattress, I got a glimpse of her pussy from behind and was tempted to slip my fingers inside to fuck her, but I was afraid I’d move too fast. Appear like an eager puppy begging for a meal or scratch.

“Lie down, ” she said, and reached for the switch to dim the lights.

I didn’t feel comfortable lying with my feet toward the door. I didn’t quite trust the attendants wouldn’t enter, so I faced the window and lowered myself, making room for her between my legs.

When she climbed over me and her knees scraped softly along my inner thighs, I gasped, but opened wider beneath her. When the soft, curling hair on her mons brushed my smooth cunt, I planted my feet in the mattress and tilted my hips up to rub my pubic bone hard against hers.

She came over me, resting on one elbow, her tight nipples dragging over the tops of my breasts.

I’d never felt anything like it, surrounded by her sweet scent, blanketed by her soft skin…Added to the gentle vibrations coming from the speeding train, and my whole body hummed with pleasure.

Her fingers cupped my cheek; a thumb rubbed my lower lip, then the upper. “You know, you can touch me too, ” she said with a small smile.

Her invitation unlocked me from my small moment of indecision. I lifted my arms and brought them around her, smoothing my hands down her back to cup the globes of her small ass, pressing my fingers into softness.

I glided my fingers down her cleft, touched her little asshole, making her gasp and grind her pubic bone against mine.

Feeling a little more confident that her body might react the same as mine, I reached lower, sliding between her moist folds to rim her opening. “I’ve had this image in my mind…, ” I whispered.

“Of what, Nicole? ” she said, bending down to slide her lips along my cheek.

“Me, eating you out.”

Soft laughter gusted against my ear. “I like where your mind is going. Do you want to try it? ”

“Please. But I want to do it from behind you.”

“Then I won’t be able to touch you, ” she said, raising her head to give me a pout.

“Plenty of time for that, huh? We don’t get to Vienna until eight.”

Her eyes glittered with excitement. Her cheeks flushed. “All right, then.”

After a few breathless, laughing moments, we repositioned ourselves. This time I didn’t even mind my ass pointed right at the door, because her ass raised high in front of me as she fell forward on her hands.

“Put your face on the mattress, ” I said, wanting her pussy tilted at my mouth.

Her pussy, already glistening and slick, lifted higher.

So, this is what it looked like, when a guy knelt behind me. Other than the colors—creamy, pink outer lips, the thinner inner lips a deep rose, there wasn’t much difference between hers and mine. I parted her with my thumbs, bent close to breathe in the rich scent of her arousal and stuck out my tongue for a taste.

My first hesitant touch had her entrance convulsing—opening, then closing, her thighs tensing.

I dove in for more, licking from the bottom of her slit upward, past her cunt to the sensitive perineum, then stroking over her asshole.

I didn’t know why I did that last bit, had never been comfortable with a man exploring me there, and was glad she faced away because I don’t think I would have tried it with her watching me.

Annegret moaned and pulsed her bottom up and down, encouraging me to continue.

My hunger growing stronger, I rolled my tongue at the bottom of her slit, feeling my way. Finding the hard knot of her clit, I rubbed over it again and again.

Her bottom trembled, and she widened her knees on the narrow bed.

When her entrance clasped wetly, I drew away to watch as I thrust two fingers inside her. She swallowed them easily, scooting back a little to take them and rotating to screw me deeper.

Three fingers seemed to stretch her silken walls, and cream seeped around me, easing me inside. I pumped my hand into her, slowly at first, rotating my fingers to scrape my knuckles against her passage, then stroking faster as her moans deepened.

“Nicole! ” she rasped. “I have to see, please.”

Suddenly, I realized I was the one in charge and loving it. I withdrew my fingers, lapped her once with my tongue and helped her turn to lie on her back.

I came over her, my lips latching on to a quivering tit and my fingers searching between her legs again for her entrance. I slid inside, toggled her clit with my thumb and started to move as though I was fucking her, pulsing up and down, dragging her breast with me, moving my hand in and out in rhythm with my body.

With my pussy high and open, the cool air of the cabin sweeping over my moist, heated flesh, soon it wasn’t enough.

Without asking, without looking for her approval, I turned and climbed backward, inching my knees toward her head.

Her hands guided me higher, helping me to place them on either side of her shoulders. When her lips lifted to my cunt, I gave a little growl and lowered myself onto her face.

Her arms wrapped around my hips, her hands found my fleshy ass and massaged my cheeks as I dipped against her mouth.

Her lips closed around my clit, latching firmly, and she sucked and tongued me until I was the one trembling.

Arching over her, I slipped my hands beneath her ass, bringing one between her legs. I slid my fingers inside her and rolled my mouth between her folds until my lips found the little pea-sized kernel. I fucked her with my fingers I suckled her clit until her hips jerked upward.

Together, we moaned and ground our sexes against each other’s mouths. The tendril of arousal curling around my womb tightened. I pumped my hips up and down, forcing her to follow with her lips.

When my release washed over me, I thrust my fingers hard inside her and teethed her clit until I felt her helpless little jerks become more frantic.

Her mouth broke from my clit and a thin wail echoed in the tiny room.

For long moments afterward, I kissed her pussy, her inner thighs, wet my cheeks and chin in the well of her femininity.

Annegret stroked my cunt with her tongue and fingers, drinking my release, until at last, she drew a deep breath and hugged my hips. “And I thought I would be on top, little virgin.”

My short, breathless laughter shook us both. I rolled off her, lying on my side snuggled close to her warm body. I glided a hand over her soft belly and combed my fingers through her thatch.

Annegret sat up and gave me a caress that stroked along my shoulders and back. “I have Schnapps. Would you like a drink? We’ll make a toast.”

As she climbed off the mattress, I collapsed face first on the bed, completely undone, but feeling that warm, enervating afterglow. I turned my head and watched her bend over to reach into the cupboard where she’d stowed her bag. “Was I okay? ”

I winced, wishing I could take it back. I sounded like I had after the first time I’d screwed a boy, but I felt every bit as unsure. This was new territory for me.

Annegret lifted a bottle from her back, unscrewed the top and held it high. “I’m ready to celebrate, aren’t I? ” She held out the bottle to me, and sat on the edge of the bed. “If you hadn’t been everything I dreamed, I’d probably be dressing now, and wondering how long I’d have to hide in the bathroom down the hall until you fell asleep.”

Her expression, happy and flirting, was so much easier to read than a man’s. I took a long swallow from the bottle, wrinkled my nose and handed it back.

“Too sweet? ” she said, laughing.

“Yeah, but it is warming me all the way to my toes.”

Her eyebrows rose. “I thought that was supposed to be my job.”

“Well, if you’d like to give it another try…”

Her wide smile drew my mouth into a grin. She bent and kissed me. “I think I’ve never enjoyed a business trip quite so much.”

I tugged her hair, bringing her closer. “And I never saw this one listed in the travel brochures. But I think I like it.”

Her glance slid away, and her head tilted. “You know…I have this room reserved at a little hotel, not far from the Opera House…”

“Hmmm…That’s right on my itinerary, ” I murmured, knowing where this was headed.

“I’ll show you the sights after I finish with my business.”

“I’m seeing them just fine, ” I drawled, and reached to cup her breast, playing with her nipple until it lengthened.

Maybe this wasn’t exactly how I thought I’d spend my week in Austria, but then again, I’d packed light, wanting to be free to linger where I chose.

I chose Annegret.