Madam of Maple Court (32 page)

"My God, woman, that was amazing." As she started to sit up, dildos still in place, he pushed her shoulders back down. "Not just yet."

She heard a buzzing and felt the dildo vibrate against her clit. She had cooled a bit while she sucked Linc's cock, but now she soared. "My God," she yelled and orgasm overtook her in a rush. Finally she pushed him away, undipped the nipple clamps, and, wrapped in her towel, almost crawled to the sofa where they lay intertwined.

"You're fabulous," he said. "I thought I'd teach you a few new tricks, but it seems you're as well educated as you can get."

"That's quite a compliment," she said, basking in his approval.

"You must know that you're good at what you do."

That brought her up short. She was a hooker and should be expected to be a good cocksucker. She let out a long breath. It was okay. She knew what she was and what she enjoyed.

Now she understood why a woman would pay for sex. If a man could give the kind of pleasure Linc had just given her, it was worth a lot. And wasn't it wonderful that she could give so much pleasure to a man she cared about. And she did care about Linc.

The day after Christmas was momentous for Pam. Gary had been in Sweden much of the fall and early winter trying to fix a project that was, as he put it, totally fucked up. He returned for a weekend each month, but saw her only sporadically. When they did get together they had dinner, talked at length about his life and hers, and often rented a DVD of a recent movie that he hadn't had the chance to see. Often, because of jet lag and the stress of a bicontinental life, he fell asleep on the sofa before they had a chance to make love. However, with her active life outside of this relationship she was just as glad.

Since Gary's daughters were having dinner with Toni's family, Gary and Pam had enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner together at a local restaurant and, over turkey and stuffing, he'd invited her to spent the day after Christmas with him and his daughters. Knowing how protective he was of them, she'd been blown away and had spent the intervening weeks living with stark terror. What if they didn't like her? What if she proved to be a terrible parent-in-waiting? What if they were monsters, jealous that their father had someone other than their mother in his life?

Presents. Christmas presents. What did she know about buying for little girls? She had no idea what seven-and five-year-old girls might like, and less idea about what they already owned. She wanted to ask Gary, but somehow it was important that whatever she purchased be without their father's help. Clothes? Toys? Computer games? She was bewildered and finally realized that she needed help. Eventually, with sage advice from Marcy and the help of a supplier for Club Fantasy, she thought she'd found a unique present. That afternoon she drove through the neighborhood of houses festooned with colored lights and yards filled with inflatable Santas, elves, and Snoopys. Thanks to a lot of luck, she found a parking spot just half a block from Gary's apartment.

To keep her fears at bay during the drive south, she'd thought over her afternoon with Linc and couldn't help but smile. Her nipples still tingled a little when she thought back to the day before. Not only was it wonderful, but it opened up so many new avenues. It was a wonder that she'd gotten this far without ever playing with toys and erotic massage for herself. Was she misleading Gary about their relationship? He obviously thought there might be more in store for them as a couple, but was that the correct assumption? She had no idea. All she knew was, mistake or not, she really wanted to meet the girls.

At almost exactly two o'clock, she maneuvered into the parking space and lugged a large shopping bag to the front of the two-story building. When Gary opened the door, she asked him to fetch two gigantic boxes from the back seat of her car. He pecked her on the cheek, retrieved the imaginatively gift-wrapped packages, and followed her upstairs. Two lovely, quiet little girls waited in the middle of the living room, dressed in similar sweatshirts and jeans. "These are my daughters," Gary said beaming. "Melissa is seven and Amy is five."

Melissa was the taller of the two, with long, baby-fine, flyaway chestnut hair caught haphazardly in several barrettes. Her eyes were wide and deep brown. Amy was still a very little girl, with long, deep brown braids and the same huge eyes as her sister. Toni must be the straight-haired brunette, she thought, glancing at Gary's blond curls.

Pam had never been more nervous, and she had to set the shopping bag down so that her shaking hands wouldn't be too noticeable. She took a deep breath. "It's nice to meet you, ladies."

The two girls giggled. "We're not ladies yet," Melissa said.

"To me you're very grown-up ladies."

"Daddy never lets us meet any of his friends. Why you?" Melissa asked perceptively.

Pam had thought of answers to such questions for days. Before Gary could answer, she said, "Because he thought we'd get along really well, and I hope we do."

"What's in the boxes?" Amy asked before any more difficult questions could surface.

"Amy!" Gary said. "That's most impolite."

"You never find out anything if you don't ask," the child said.

When Gary frowned, Pam smiled and said, "That's all right. These are for you." She pointed. "Melissa, this is yours, and Amy, this one is for you."

"My name's on the box," the younger girl said. "How did you know our names?"

"Your dad talks about you all the time and I feel as if I know you quite well even though we've never actually met before."

"He does?" Melissa said, eyes wide.

"Of course I do," Gary said. "Say thank you to Ms. DePalma."

"May they call me Pam? Ms. DePalma sounds so grown-up, and for today I want to be a kid again."

The girls looked at their father, and when he nodded, they said in unison, "Thank you, Pam." Then they tore open the boxes and pulled the lids off. Their faces were priceless. Inside each box was a dress designed for a fairy princess, all lace and tulle. With open mouths they lifted the gowns from the boxes and, beneath, each found matching shoes, a tiara covered with rhinestones, and a wand with a sparkling star at the end. "Oh, wow," Melissa said, staring at the dress. "This is for me? It's purple. I like purple best."

"Mine's pink," Amy said, her face glowing with delight and wonder. "That's my favorite color."

"I know. I cheated and asked your dad."

The two girls bounced up and down. "May we try them on? Please, Daddy? Right now?"

"Of course." As the girls dragged the boxes into the bedroom, Gary took Pam in his arms and kissed her thoroughly. "I don't believe what a hit those dresses are. You're amazing. You say you don't know children but you've really hit the jackpot this time."

After the two girls were dressed in their "ball gowns," Pam dug into her pocketbook and found a butterfly clip and several barrettes for Melissa's hair. Together with the tiara, the clips allowed Pam to arrange Melissa's hair into a neat cascade to her shoulders. She wound Amy's braids around her head in a coronet and, with the tiara, she looked quite grown-up. "What's a coronet?" the little girl asked.

"It's another word for a crown."

Amy made a face at her sister. "I've got a crown. You've just got hair."

"I could have a coronet if I wanted to, but I like mine like Alice in Wonderland."

"You both have beautiful hair," Pam said. Finally she used a bit of her lipstick and blush to give the overjoyed girls' princess makeovers a final touch. From the doorway, a slightly astonished Gary watched their every move, beaming.

The three women spent the next hour playing Princess and the Pea, with Pam playing the queen mother who needed to find out whether her prospective daughter-in-law was a real princess. Pam was surprised as how quickly the three of them became comfortable with each other while Gary sat on the sofa taking it all in and occasionally snapping a picture with his digital camera.

When the game finally lagged Pam said, "I brought something else that I thought we might enjoy together."

"What did you bring?" Amy asked.

"Why don't you change into your regular clothes, wash your faces, and then we'll find out?"

While the girls hurried into the bedroom to change back into their jeans and clean up, Pam settled on the sofa beside Gary. "I'm a little chagrined," he said. "I was very nervous about having you meet my girls. I mean, since you've never had any experience with children I was really worried about how you'd get along. I shouldn't have been concerned at all. You're a magician."

Pam picked up one of the wands from the cushion beside her and tapped Gary on the shoulder. "The magic is those wonderful girls of yours. They're charming and delightful. They obviously have two parents who care very deeply about them and haven't let their personal problems affect them. They're very lucky."

"Thanks."

Before they had time for another sentence the girls reappeared, changed and scrubbed. "Mom and Peter smooch on the sofa sometimes," Melissa said, sounding wise beyond her years. "Are you going to be our new stepmother?"

Pam had spent quite a bit of time preparing an answer for that question. "Right now I hope I'm going to be your newest friend, and that's enough for me."

"What's in the bag?" Amy said, oblivious to the undercurrents in the room.

"Let's find out." Pam scrambled to the floor and sat beside the bag. First she pulled out two old men's shirts.

Two small female faces fell. "What's that for?" Amy asked.

"When I was a little girl, my mother and I used to have a lot of fun around Christmastime. I needed a smock like this to keep me clean, and so do you."

"Are we going to get messy?" Amy asked, suddenly gleeful.

"Maybe a little," Pam answered.

She showed Amy how to put the shirt on backward while Gary helped Melissa. "What's in the bag, Daddy?" Amy asked.

"I don't know. I guess we'll all find out together."

Pam pulled two old nylon stockings from the bag and tied one around each girl's waist to control the yards of extra fabric. "In here," she said, pulling out a large bowl, "is cookie dough." She put the bowl on the floor and pulled out a plastic bag filled with cookie cutters and another with jars of sprinkles of all different colors. "And here are some more of your tools." Another bag followed with tubes of frosting in all colors. "My mother would cut out the cookies in all kinds of shapes and then I got to decorate them. She made homemade frosting, but I'm not good at that so I bought every color at the store."

"Can we bake cookies, Daddy?" Amy begged. "Please? We'll only eat a few. I promise I won't spoil my dinner."

Pam had brought enough cookie dough and pans for at least a dozen cookies each, so she, Gary, and the girls made white snowmen with blue eyes and red buttons down their fronts, green Christmas trees with dabs of frosting for ornaments at the tip of each branch, and gingerbread men. "I'm going to make mine all green, like Shrek," Amy cried.

"He'll look just like Shrek," Gary said, carefully decorating a sugar cookie bell with lines of red and green.

Later, when plates of carefully decorated cookies sat all over the counters and just about every other horizontal surface in the apartment, Melissa said, "We can't possibly eat all these. What are we going to do with them?"