Forbidden – Chapter 2
Elsa stood next to Georg as he bid farewell to the last of the guests as they left the villa. Indeed the party had been a great success, Elsa thought. Firstly, being introduced to all of Georg's friends and associates, but secondly, and most importantly, getting rid of the young governess once and for all.
Elsa smiled to herself as she thought back to the conversation she'd had with the young woman in her room only hours before. Fraulein Maria had seemed surprised when Elsa had confronted her with the fact she was in love with Georg, but she wasn't sure whether the young governess was more surprised to discover that she was in love with the handsome Captain herself, or that Elsa had observed it too.
Of course it was quite obvious how the young woman felt about Georg – the way she gazed at him across a room, or the way her face lit up as she spoke to him. But what was more disturbing was the way Elsa had seen Georg gaze at Fraulein Maria in return. The way they smiled at each other after the puppet show like there was no one else in the world apart from them, and then later that evening when Georg sang Edelweiss, it was clear he was singing it to Fraulein Maria and not her. Then over the past few weeks Elsa had noticed that Georg had been particularly distracted when he was with her, his eyes instead following Fraulein Maria every time she entered or moved about a room. But the final insult was walking out onto the patio during the party to see Georg dancing with Fraulein Maria, twirling and spinning around, holding each other close. For an instant, Elsa though Georg was about to kiss the young woman until Fraulein Maria backed away blushing. At that moment, Elsa knew she was in trouble: Georg was slipping from her grasp and she knew she had to do everything it took to get him back.
After her confrontation with Fraulein Maria, Elsa felt elated to be finally rid of the young governess, knowing that the young woman planned to immediately return to the Abbey that very evening. Sipping her champagne with Max in celebration before Georg swept her into a grand waltz, Elsa was sure everything was back on track. Now the only thing she needed to do was get Georg to make their relationship official – and that meant a large diamond on her finger and a big society wedding.
As the last of the guests left, Georg closed the front door. Elsa took his arm and inclined her head towards his study. "A nightcap darling? You know, to celebrate the success of the evening."
Georg paused and glanced at the grandfather clock in the hallway: midnight. He seemed rather hesitant as he ran his hand through his hair. "Elsa, it's getting late…"
Elsa didn't want to take no for an answer. "Please darling?"
Georg sighed and reluctantly agreed before escorting Elsa down the hallway to his study. Upon entering the room, he strode over to the buffet and poured a sherry for Elsa and a glass of scotch for himself.
Elsa raised her glass. "A toast to us?" Georg gave her an awkward smile but raised his glass too before downing the golden liquid. Elsa did the same with her drink and placed her glass down on the table before sauntering over to Georg. She placed one hand on his cheek and purred into his ear. "Now for the real celebration?"
Before he could answer, she turned his face towards hers and placed a long and sensual kiss on his lips. It took Georg a moment to respond but finally he began kissing her back. Elsa laced her fingers through Georg's thick, dark hair and pressed her body up against his as she deepened the kiss. She placed her other hand on his chest before slowly she started to tug at the material of his tuxedo jacket, trying to remove it.
At once Georg pulled away. "Elsa, what are you doing?" he asked with a sigh, knowing full well her intention.
"What do you think I'm doing, darling?" Elsa replied, her voice low and thick with lust. "Don't you think it's time to take our relationship to the next level? I've been waiting so patiently for you – all those months we were in Vienna together, and even the month I've been here, but now tonight, I need you…" She pressed her lips against his once more, kissing him fiercely and passionately.
"Elsa… Elsa… wait," Georg tried to say in between kisses but the more he tried to resist her, the more she kissed him. Finally Georg placed both hands on her shoulders and pushed her away. "Elsa! Please stop!"
Elsa stepped back, both surprised and confused. "Georg, you don't want to? I thought… tonight, the party. You threw it for me, you danced with me…. We've been seeing each other for the best part of a year, I thought… I thought you would want to be with me, I thought you cared about me…" Elsa's eyes glistened.
Georg quickly took her hands. "Elsa, you know I care. But you caught me off guard. It's been a long day and evening and I'm tired. Besides, we spoke about this once before in Vienna if I recall correctly." Elsa cast her eyes downwards and nodded faintly. "I told you then that I wasn't ready, and perhaps this isn't the right time now either."
Elsa looked up at him, embarrassed. "I'm sorry Georg, I didn't realise you still felt that way. I thought…" she sighed. "No, it doesn't matter what I thought. I'm sorry I…"
"No, Elsa. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you or make things between us awkward in any way. Perhaps we can speak more about our future tomorrow?"
Elsa nodded then kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Of course darling. Please just forget any of this happened tonight." Without speaking another word, Elsa quietly left Georg's study.
As the door closed, Georg let out a sigh of relief. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before going and pouring himself another drink. He downed the hard liquor in one gulp then sank down onto the sofa in the corner of the room. He had been a fool not to consider the possibility of Elsa propositioning him that night. Of course she wanted more from him, and if circumstances were different, he might have agreed. But circumstances were not different and things had changed between them: he was no long the man she fell in love with in Vienna, and he now loved someone else.
Over the past two weeks since their interlude in his study, Georg had been enjoying a secret relationship with Maria. Meeting every night in his suite at midnight, they'd make wild and passionate love to each other. He found Maria thrilling – her passion and her desire, her enthusiasm and her nerve to try new and exciting things in bed, things that he'd almost never dreamed were possible, things that exhilarated him to the core. She had no inhibitions: something that was incredibly rare for a woman, and she pushed him to the limits of his own desire. The forbidden nature of their relationship made their lovemaking more intense, more erotic than he'd ever experienced before. Yet there was something innocent about the way she made her requests of him, and the way her big blue eyes widened with awe and curiosity when he made requests from her. She was utterly fascinating – a passionate, sexual woman yet soft and sensual.
But it was not just about the sex, which in itself was completely mind-blowing; no, there was something else about Maria that he was drawn to. They would spend hours talking and getting to know each other better. She was interesting, intriguing and captivating, and her direct and honest manner challenged him in a way no one ever had before. Not to mention the way she loved his children like they were her own and would do practically anything for them. Georg knew he'd fallen hard for Maria – he was deeply and madly in love with her. He found himself craving to be in Maria's company more and more which was becoming difficult to hide, especially when they were around the children or out in public. Their agreed rules about their forbidden relationship meant that they avoided all unnecessary contact between them during the day, lest to reduce any suspicions about the true nature of their relationship. But each night when they were finally alone, locked away in the privacy of his suite, hungry passions would be unleashed and it seemed like nothing in the world would keep them apart.
However in reality, there was one person who was keeping them apart: Elsa. It had been difficult enough keeping up the charade of a relationship with Elsa over the past two weeks when all he wanted to do was break it off with her. With Elsa madly involved in all the party preparations, it had been easy to avoid her deliberately putting space between them, yet he hadn't called an end to their relationship. The situation of the already-planned party had made things incredibly problematic. Too many questions would have been asked if he'd cancelled it without explanation. But if it weren't for the party, he could have ended things with Elsa much sooner and avoided all the deception. He'd felt guilty about leading her along for as long as he had, so now that the party was over Georg was determined that he'd end things with Elsa as soon as possible. But Elsa making advances towards him that night made the situation rather delicate. He did care about her so Georg knew he'd have to let Elsa down gently in the morning then take the appropriate amount of time before announcing his relationship with Maria to the world.
As all these thoughts were going through Georg's head, he glanced up at the time: 12.30. He jumped up. He knew Maria would be waiting for him.
Resisting the urge to take the stairs two at a time, Georg walked slowly upstairs then down the long corridors to the master suite. He fished a small key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. The room was dark as he entered, illuminated only by the light from the small lamp in the corner of the room. The suite seemed deserted and for a moment he wondering where Maria was. She hadn't attended the dinner that evening much to the displeasure of Max who had insisted that Maria was going to be his dinner partner and Georg hoped nothing had happened to her.
Georg still had his hand on the doorknob as he closed the door and was about to lock it when he felt a hand placed on his shoulder. Lock forgotten, he jumped and spun around to see Maria behind him silhouetted in the dim light.
"Maria, you gave me a fright!"
"Sorry," she apologised. "I thought for a moment you weren't coming. You're late."
"I know. I was uh… distracted." For some reason Georg felt it was inappropriate to tell Maria about Elsa's advances. Maria already knew his plans to break off his relationship with Elsa first thing in the morning so there was almost no point in telling her about his exchange with Elsa in his study.
He decided to change the topic. "You didn't come to dinner," he stated matter-of-factly.
Maria shrugged. "Did you really expect me to come?"
"No," Georg replied honestly. "You know the rules."
She laughed. "Yes the rules. Try to minimize all contact between us in public to avoid suspicion. Funny thing though, Captain, I didn't see you following the rules tonight." Georg merely raised his eyebrows and looked at her innocently, like he didn't know what she was talking about. "You know, asking me to dance?" she clarified.
Georg chuckled. "Oh. That. Yes, well, you did look completely irresistible, I just couldn't walk away without asking you to dance." At that he pulled her into his arms into a waltz position and began to twirl her around the room.
"It was wonderful, wasn't it?" Maria laid her head on his shoulder as they moved about the room to the beat of the imaginary music. "Except for the obvious."
"And what was that?"
"The children saw us together."
"Ah…"
"Brigitta notices everything."
"I'm sure she wouldn't suspect a thing about us."
"And the Baroness. She saw too."
"Leave Elsa to me. I'll speak to her in the morning."
Maria stopped moving and looked up at Georg. "You don't think she knows anything about us, do you?"
"No, I don't." Georg scrutinized Maria as he noticed she immediately looked down and bit her lip. "Why do you ask? Did she say something to you?"
Maria flicked her eyes up, wondering whether she should tell Georg about the conversation she'd had with the Baroness that evening. The Baroness had guessed about her feelings for Georg, but Maria was sure that the Baroness didn't know the extent of their affair. But the Baroness thought Maria was returning to the Abbey that night and so was unlikely to have confronted Georg about his feelings for her. No, Maria reasoned, there was no point saying anything about her talk with the Baroness to Georg until the following day when it would be revealed that she hadn't gone back to Abbey as she'd claimed she was going to do.
Maria quickly shook her head. "No, of course not. Silly of me to wonder. No one suspects about us. I know we've been careful."
"Yes, we have," replied Georg as he pulled her close to him and they began to waltz again.
"You looked very handsome tonight," Maria commented, reaching up to touch the lapel of his shirt before lightly fingering his Maria Theresa Cross.
"And you looked beautiful too," he replied. Georg buried his face into her golden hair and placed a light kiss on the top of her head. "You're a lovely dancer, you know," he remarked as they danced. Maria smiled against his chest. "I really wanted to kiss you out on the dance floor tonight."
"I know you did," she whispered as they continued to move together. "I wanted to you to kiss me too."
"Why did you pull away then?" Georg stopped moving and looked down into her eyes.
Maria smiled. "One main reason. If you'd started kissing me, then I wouldn't have wanted you to stop kissing me."
"Well that certainly would have given our relationship away, wouldn't it?" Georg chuckled. He spun her away from him and then back again. As he caught her in his arms, he pulled her into the same embrace from the end of the Laendler which they'd danced together only hours earlier. "Will you kiss me now?" he asked with a half-smile.
"Yes, but only if you promise to not stop kissing me."
"I can do that," Georg smirked as his lips met hers. Even though he'd kissed her probably close to a thousand times over the past two weeks, he was always amazed how soft and sensual her lips were. How sweet she tasted as he gently explored her mouth with his tongue, and how with just one kiss, his desire for her ignited and began to burn like a fire that went on for eternity.
Their kisses deepened and intensified, and quickly their breathing became rapid and heavy. Then within the span of around ten seconds, they began to rip each other's clothes off – fingers fumbling with buttons, jackets, shirts, dresses, and trousers as they stumbled towards the bed.
XxXxXxXx
Elsa paced around her room, agitated. She didn't know what had gone wrong that night. She had everything on her side: the beauty, the charm, the sophistication, the wealth, the dress – and even getting rid of the competition by sending Fraulein Maria back to the Abbey.
And yet Georg still didn't want her.
But Elsa knew what she wanted and that was Georg, and she was a lady who usually got what she wanted. And tonight, she was not going to take no for an answer.
She quickly slipped out of her ball gown and dressed in a revealing, lacy, little piece of lingerie - something she'd brought with her from Vienna for a special occasion with Georg. Dressed in this she knew that Georg could not, and would not resist her. She wrapped the matching robe around her figure, for she did not wish to be caught out in the hallway wearing something so scandalous. Besides, it would give Georg something else to remove, and the thought of Georg undressing her sent shivers down her spine.
She loosened some of her tight ringlets from the top of her head, spiraling them down onto her shoulders in a cascade of curls. Looking at herself one last time in the mirror, Elsa knew she looked alluring and irresistible. She opened her door then made her way towards the master suite.