“Do you have a boyfriend?” His eyes were locked on my face. The intensity of his gaze showing that this wasn’t a casual question.
I shook my head and felt a zing of pleasure shoot through my heart. I’d had a few boyfriends over the years, but nothing serious had evolved. And, right at this moment, I couldn’t be happier to be available.
I turned the question back on him. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Why not?” I found it hard to believe.
“I met someone special a long time ago and no one I’ve met since compares to her.”
From the way he was looking into my eyes it was clear whom he referred to, but I was stunned. Does he mean me? No, it was impossible. My heart soared with joy anyway. Our gazes locked on each other and worlds of meaning passed between us. It was as if we were standing frozen in time, in our own dimension, as the festivities went on around us.
Dana broke the trance. “Hey, Arianna, do you want another beer?”
I tore my eyes away from Lars to see that the waitress stood by our table taking orders. I looked down at the glass clutched in my hand. Somehow it was empty again. Was that the third one I’d had? Each of the German Maβ was roughly equivalent to three regular beers. How much time had gone by, and how was I still standing upright? And why the hell would Lars be interested in me now, after seeing me for five minutes, when he’d done nothing back then?
He unwrapped his arm from around my waist and took my hand. “Come on, let me show you more of the festival. We can go out for a little while and come back.”
It was the gentle look in his eyes and his eager tone, rather than my curiosity about the other attractions, that made me nod my head.
Chapter Three
I glanced at Dana. “Lars and I are going to walk around outside for a little bit. You want to come with us?” I invited her even though I didn’t want to. It wouldn’t be right to abandon my friend.
A knowing look swept over her expression. “No, I’ll stay here. I just ordered another beer. You guys go ahead.”
“She’ll be fine here with my friends,” Lars said. He lifted me from the bench and set me on the ground. His breath against my ear and his deep rumble stirred a primal instinct within me and my gut quivered with pleasure. “I’ll make sure my friends look after her. Hold on.”
“Okay.”
It took a few minutes to make our way out. We stepped outside to see a horde of people crowded around the door waiting to gain entry.
I tugged on Lars’s hand. “Wait a minute. How are we going to get back in?” Dana would kill me if I didn’t come back for her.
“Don’t worry. One of my friends is working the door at the other entrance.”
I relaxed and allowed him to pull me along beside him. Oktoberfest was unlike any other festival I’d ever been to. Every couple of steps a different language or accent could be heard. It was amazing how, within a few feet, I heard people speaking Italian, German and French. Amid that there was also English, but it was laced with accents, like British, Indian or Irish. It was as though Oktoberfest was the place where all the countries had been squashed together into one cosmic meeting point.
Aside from beer tents, there were booths along the side of the thoroughfare selling crafts. Then we turned down a section with carnival rides.
Lars must have seen me staring because he stopped in front of a ride that reminded me of one I’d ridden back home when I was a kid. People sat in pairs strapped into seats enclosed in wire cages. Not only did the cages themselves spin around, but they were attached to a belt on the oblong oval frame. As the long oval rotated like the blade of a giant fan, the belt ran the spinning cages around its perimeter creating three sources of spinning motion all at the same time.
“You want to try it?” Lars asked.
“No way.” I took a step back. “I rode that thing once back home and that was enough to last my entire lifetime.”
He laughed. “When we were younger, a couple of my friends made the mistake of getting on after drinking. One of them made it off of the ride before he was sick. The other wasn’t so lucky.”
“Ew! Gross!” Another good reason not to get on something like that. With all that whirling and spinning, there must have been a vomit shower.
Lars resumed walking again, holding on tight to me so we didn’t get separated in the crowd. He paused in front of a snack vendor and the sweet, rich smell of something yummy wafted to my nose. I wasn’t able to identify the lumpy golden brown treats behind the glass partition though, and of course I couldn’t read the signs.
“Are you hungry?”
“Yes.” My stomach squealed in agreement, reminding me that it had been hours since I’d eaten the scrumptious roast chicken and potatoes in the tent. The food here was surprisingly good. Dana had ordered some kind of bratwursts or other that had come with sauerkraut and they had been totally tasty as well. The hearty Bavarian fare definitely suited me.
After a brief exchange in German with the vendor, Lars handed me a small warm paper cone. He opened the top, pulled a misshapen brown ball from it and lifted it to my mouth. I parted my lips and he popped it in, the tips of his fingers lingered on my mouth making me blush. Whatever it was, it was sweet and crunchy. “Mm.” I reached into the bag for more. “What are they?”
“Gebrannte Mandeln...roasted...candy nuts.” His sandy blond eyebrows scrunched together in thought for a second. Then he snapped his fingers and said, “No. Almonds. They’re coated in sugar and spices and some other things. Do you like them?” He snagged a few from the paper cone and popped them into his mouth.
“Love them.”
He glanced at the next booth over. “How about currywurst? Have you tried that?”
I shook my head and glanced skeptically over at the booth. “What is it?” I was suspicious when it came to food I couldn’t immediately categorize. Simple food with recognizable ingredients was more my thing. Something sweet, like the coated almonds, was easy to take a chance on. But I was wary when it came to other stuff.
“You’ll like it. Here, come.”
He pulled me into the short line, and a few minutes later we were standing off to the side with a small steaming paper plate. The currywurst looked like a chopped up hot dog with barbecue sauce ladled over it and some kind of mustard-colored powder sprinkled on it. Ew. I took a cautious sniff. The odor was pleasant enough. Like before, Lars speared a piece with the plastic fork and lifted it to my mouth to feed me.
His blue eyes were plastered on my face and I felt self-conscious about chickening out, so I closed my eyes and opened my mouth. If this tastes nasty I can always spit it out—there’s a garbage can nearby. But the spicy flavor of the curry sauce combined with the rich, meaty taste of the sausage combined to make an entirely new flavor, not the gross hot dog and barbecue sauce combo I thought it would be. I opened my eyes.
Lars was grinning at me. I smiled back, still chewing, and nodded my approval. “That is really good.”
“I told you.”
We ate as we continued our stroll through the fairgrounds, and had fun pointing out people who’d drank too much and were now stumbling home. A group of men sang as they walked, towing their worse-for-wear friend along. Others, both men and women, had glazed eyes. I wondered if they would remember what they’d been doing when they woke up in the morning. But none of it seemed out of place—it was one big happy atmosphere of celebration.
Lars stopped us again, this time at a hat vendor. There were all kinds of hats. Some were traditional Bavarian ones like Lars’s. They came in green, gray, and brown with all different kinds of trim and decorations on them. Other, less expensive hats were on the comical side and shaped like kegs or mugs. One had beer holders with straws so the wearer could drink as they walked.
“You can’t leave without a souvenir,” Lars said.
I looked up from the stand of felt A-shaped hats I was examining.
He shoved some money and a receipt in
to his pocket and then presented a hat to me that looked like a full beer mug, complete with froth, and placed it on my head. I held still as he tugged the brim into position and arranged my hair, pulling the light-brown locks forward over my shoulders. He trailed his fingertips down the length of the last cluster of strands, making the base of my scalp tingle. We stood so close I could detect the mild scent of beer on his breath.
The boots I wore had a decent heel on them, but I still had to tilt my head back to meet his gaze. “How does it look?”
“Perfect.”
Our eyes locked, and it was as if time sucked us backward to that day so long ago when we’d said goodbye. It overpowered the world around us, forcing it into the background. All that existed was the two of us. As the longing in his gaze registered, my breath caught. Does he feel the same way I do? I got my answer when his lips pressed down on mine, and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tight.
Chapter Four
I had the strange, fleeting thought that I was in heaven. He moved his lips slowly on mine, as though savoring every second. The sensual contact, especially when our tongues met and mated, awakened a place deep within me that stretched with pleasure. The onslaught of sensations made me curl my fingers into the fabric of his jacket, and a deep moan of pleasure rose in my throat. It was low and guttural, a sound I never knew I could make...
He eased his head back. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”
“I wanted you to do that, too.” Then I blinked as his words registered. “Wait a minute. You have?”
He grinned and touched the strands of hair near my cheek. “Yes, it’s was just...”
“What?”
He sighed and glanced away from me for a second before answering. “Your brother. He made me promise I wouldn’t try anything with you.”
“He did what?”
“He made me promise—”
“Nevermind. I heard you. And you listened to him?” I pulled away from him, anger driving away all other feelings.
He looked surprised. “Well, yes, he was my friend.”
“So? What kind of friend does that? Why would you even listen to him?” I paced away from the booth. My voice had risen and people were glancing at us. I had been denied love because of some stupid fricking guy code? How moronic!
And then my feet slipped out from under me, and I sprawled onto the ground.
Smooth, Arianna. Really smooth. The embarrassment of it reduced my anger to irritation.
Lars kneeled beside me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I don’t know how the heck I did that...” I glanced down at my boots. Three fourths of the sole of the right one had become detached. The thick two-inch heel now dangled uselessly from the flap of leather. “Shit! I loved these boots.”
“Did you twist your ankle?”
I frowned. “I don’t think so. Nothing is hurting, anyway.” Crap. Now I was going to have to go back to the hotel and change shoes.
“We’d better make sure.” He began to remove my boot.
“Hold on,” I said. “I’m sure it’s fine. Let me see if I can walk on it.”
“Okay.” He set his hands on my waist and then stopped, sat back on his heels, and gazed at me.
“What?”
“I just want you to understand, Arianna, that I was young and in a foreign country. I was trying to fit in.”
I huffed out a breath, understanding but not caring.
“I know now that I shouldn’t have listened to your brother. I’ve never been able to forget you.” He said the words softly, and they were like a caress that crossed the space between us.
A ridiculous smile spread across my face, and a full-body flush swept over me making the cool September air feel like a summer breeze. “I’ve never been able to forget you either.”
He smiled and leaned in to kiss me briefly, then rose and pulled me up next to him. “Besides, I’ve never seen anyone succeed in looking mad wearing a hat like that.”
I smacked him on the shoulder in reply and we both laughed. Just like that, the tension dissolved. “That’s nothing. I’m still going to kill my brother when I get home,” I said.
Lars chuckled.
I set my foot down and tried to stand on it, but it was extremely awkward. “The problem now is, how do I get to the hotel to change my shoes without having to walk barefoot?”
“Where is your hotel?”
I glanced at the surroundings. Fortunately, we’d somehow made our way to the entrance Dana and I had come through earlier. “It’s just out and around the corner.”
“I’ll carry you,” he said. “Better not to walk on it until we know more, especially with the way your shoe is. It might make it worse.” He turned to present his back to me, and motioned with one of his hands for me to hop on.
“Okay. Thanks.” I climbed on. His form was thick and strong and, with the way he strode easily forward, I doubted he felt my weight. It was silly, but clutching on to the back of someone so powerful made me feel girly and dainty. Plus, it was wonderful to clutch my arms around his broad chest and rest my cheek against the side of his neck where I could inhale his scent. His forearms were wrapped beneath my knees, and the movement of his hips between my thighs as he walked had my mind circling in a new, more intimate, direction.
“Are you still in school?” I asked, trying to focus.
“No, I’m finishing training to be a mechanic at Lufthansa.”
“An airplane mechanic?”
“Yes.”
“That’s cool,” I said. “So you’ll be working here at the airport in Munich?”
He glanced back at me. “I could. It’s a large company, though. I’ve actually been looking at positions in Los Angeles.” He squeezed my calf.
I couldn’t stop my mind from processing the millions of possibilities for us if he moved to LA. Then I scolded myself for getting so irrationally excited over something that wasn’t even a thing. A short while later, we entered the hotel room Dana and I shared. Clothes were scattered on most of the available surfaces, which was embarrassing, but thankfully, there was no underwear lying around.
Lars lowered himself at the edge of my bed until my butt touched the mattress. I let go and slipped out of my jacket while he turned and unzipped my boot. He glanced at my damaged boot before setting it on the ground beside him. “That’s easy to fix.”
“It is?”
“Any shoe repair shop should be able to do it.” He pulled my rainbow striped sock off and inspected my ankle. “It doesn’t look swollen. Does anything hurt?” He pressed his fingers into different spots and rotated my foot, looking up at me inquiringly.
I shook my head at each movement. “How do you know so much about ankles?”
“I’ve played football—I mean soccer—since I could walk. Ankle injuries are pretty common.”
It was surreal to be here with him now, alone in a hotel room. He stripped off my other boot then pulled his hat from his head, set it on the edge of the bed, and shrugged out of his coat. Beneath he wore a white shirt and the traditional suspenders that held up his lederhosen. Across his chest, an embellished crosspiece held the suspenders parallel to each other.
He sat next to me and took my hand. “I can’t believe we ran into each other at Wiesn. It’s really lucky...I’m really lucky.” The look in his eyes made me feel like a treasure. His blond hair glinted in the light, mussed from being under a hat, but still sexy.
“Wiesn?”
“It’s what we call Oktoberfest here.” He touched his fingers to the brim of my hat. I’d totally forgotten I still had it on. “It looks good on you.”
I laughed. “Yeah? Having a giant beer on my head looks good?” I tugged it off self-consciously.
“You make it look good.” He cupped my cheek in his hand, and time stood still again.
I didn’t wait for him to lean in. I did it myself, and we picked up where we’d left off at the fairgrounds. Together we reclined onto the bed, our hands roving a
cross each other’s bodies. The slow, intense way his mouth moved over mine had me smoldering within minutes. I snuggled closer and closer to him until, finally, I pushed him onto his back and lay on top of him. My body exploded with lust when I felt the hard ridge of erection pressing into my hips. I writhed against him instinctively and it felt wonderful.
“Wait,” he gasped. He pushed gently on my shoulders. “Wait.”
“Why?” This was what I wanted. There were no doubts in my mind. Being with him now was a dream come true.
“Because...” His eyes shifted to the side and he sighed. He ran a hand through his hair with frustration.
That’s when it registered. “Oh my god! Seriously? Because of my brother again?” I pulled back, but he wouldn’t let me go.
“Arianna. Stay. It’s just...you’re special. I want to do the right thing.”
I glared at him. “Yeah. You both decided what was right for me then. And, guess what? You were wrong!” Rejection and disappointment speared through me along with the anger.
Lars caught my face between his hands. “Don’t you see? I don’t want to be wrong. I don’t want to hurt you.”
I was immediately lost in his gaze. I could see that he really cared about me. The knowledge warmed my heart. “Then let me decide what’s right for me this time.” I pulled one of his hands to my lips and kissed his palm, trying not to plead. “Even if we never see each other again, I’m absolutely sure that we shouldn’t let the magic get away again.”
His brows drew together in concern. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’m sure.”
“Good. Because, Arianna, there’s nothing I’ve ever wanted more.”
A brilliant smile lit my face. “Me, too.” I trailed kisses down his cheek to the thick cords of his neck and, before I could stop myself, I nipped his skin with my teeth. His answering moan made me feel mad with power. His fingers slid beneath the waist of my jeans, and he stroked the bare flesh of my ass cheek and fingered my thong.
“You are even more beautiful than I remember, Arianna.”
My Oktoberfest Escapade Page 2
