PLEASE NOTE: I do not give permission for any reproduction, re-imagination, or re-adaptation of this story in any way, shape, or form.
September 21st, 1943; Tuesday (1:18 PM – The Saint James)
A chilled September drizzle cooled the city to a refreshing sixty five degrees. Small puddles formed from the dripping rainwater from the railing on Krista's balcony. Cross legged, she sat in the open doorway with her Führer signed, Parteiadler embellished notebook in her lap as she hummed the tune of 'Still of the Night' by Whitesnake. The playful taunt of the nipping breeze flipped up the corners of the notebook, and Krista pressed her thumb to the pages to hold them still while the breeze passed.
Gravity pulled a raindrop free from the canopy overhead shielding her from the descent of the whispering mist-like precipitation. A sigh escaped her slightly parted lips. While it was a mildly irritating minor inconvenience, it still wasn't enough of a hindrance to force her to move fully inside the warmth of her room.
A waxy red colored pencil glided over the smooth notebook paper and deposited pigment in the spaces within Krista's hastily drawn lines of black ink. She swapped the pencil in her right hand for the black one in her left, and continued to shade away until the sketch slowly became cohesive.
The vivid warm tones around the bust line faded to black toward the waist of her sketched bodysuit. A drawing in reference to the reverse side revealed a simulated silken ribbon drawn in a crisscross pattern like a cinched corset down the back.
Smoke from her neglected cigarette curled up into the air unhurriedly and floated into her nose. She closed her forefinger and thumb around the filtered end and brought it to her lips, taking three consecutive drags before exhaling. The cloud of secondhand smoke dispersed through the bars of the balcony railing, vanishing and becoming one with the cool wash of rain.
"Why are you sitting in the rain?" she heard Hans ask amusedly from behind her. Zoned out from the tangible world she sat in, she hadn't heard her door open and close.
"What are you working on?" he asked curiously, tilting his head and looking over her shoulder at her work.
She ground the cherry of her cigarette off in the ashtray, and closed her notebook gently. "It's not finished yet." Her feet found the solid surface beneath her, and she held the notebook to her chest.
He shook his head. "That doesn't bother me."
She moved the thin attached ribbon book mark and stood at his side. "I added some lacing on the back, because it looked too plain without it," she mentioned, allowing him to grasp the book in his hands to get a closer look.
He traced over the curved lines with his eyes, adjusting the angle of the book as he went.
"What do you think?" Krista asked hesitantly, shifting her weight on her feet.
Silently, he continued to study the drawing and she could almost see the wheels turning in his head. "This would be incredible on you," he finally said, looking over it one last time before shutting the book.
Kneeling to the ground, Krista scooped up her drawing utensils and held them in a bundle in her hand. "Thank you," she said with a sweet smile. "I wanted to design something red. I usually like blue or black."
"Red is my favorite color on you," he said, pressing the pad of his thumb to her plush bottom lip. "It brings out your eyes… Which is why I will never tire of how you look with red lips." Hans brushed his thumb away, and replaced it with a tender press of his lips.
She hummed into his lips and brought his body to hers by the lapels of his leather jacket. "Can you just stay here and kiss me for a few hours?" she asked in artificial innocence before the tip of her tongue flicked at his lip.
"A few hours is enough for you?" He smirked as her arms slipped around his neck, encircling him.
"God no," she laughed breathily. "But I'll take whatever I can get."
He pulled back from her suddenly, and looked as if he were exploring her face for something.
Slightly confused, she drew her brows together. "What?"
"I have an idea," he said simply, as she dropped her arms back down to her sides, taking care to not poke Hans or herself with the sharpened points of the pencils. "I would love to take some photos this afternoon," he said excitedly, placing a peck on her lips before turning from the balcony.
That previously loved Rolleiflex had been slung around his body by its thin leather strap since he got it. He dared not leave the house without it. The opportunity to trap a priceless memory within a still frame could arise at any time without warning.
Every time she saw him, he was running a fresh roll of film through it. In a cardboard box on his coffee table were already five rolls of exposed 120 format film awaiting processing and developing. Seeing him borderline ecstatic about something as simple as capturing memorable moments in photographs warmed her through.
"It's raining though…"
"You love the rain," he pointed out. "I think it will make for an interesting effect."
Krista couldn't agree more; he was absolutely right. The city below was slickened with rejuvenating rain, every surface glistening and saturated. Abstract and photogenic reflections would be abound. "I agree," she said as she crossed the room, brushing past him in her pursuit to the bathroom.
After discarding his visor cap, he tailed her and filed into the bathroom behind her. Five delicate fingers came to rest on her hip for a moment as he watched her scoop up a golden tube of some sort of cosmetic from the indentation in the ceramic sink intended for soap.
Her green eyes were alight with contentment as she watched his arm slink around her middle in the mirror. With a slight head tilt, her princess-like locks tumbled away from her neck, and his fingertips helped it over to her other shoulder and out of his way. "How much trouble would you get in if you let me drive your car?" She smirked crookedly, unscrewing the lid to the lip stain and withdrawing the applicator before gliding it over her bottom lip.
"Hmmm…" he hummed into the skin on the back of her neck before his lips grazed it softly. "As much as I would thoroughly enjoy that, I would certainly be reprimanded."
Krista jokingly pouted before tracing the tip of the applicator along the outer border of her top lip and along her cupid's bow. "I can drive on a dirt trail better than most people can drive on the road," she boasted, dabbing additional product on her lips before rolling them together to distribute it. "Come on. I know it's supercharged."
He nodded, taking a step back from her. "Which is precisely why I'm not going to let you drive it," he teased, dropping a kiss to her shoulder before moving to lean against the door frame.
"I can't help that I have a heavy foot," she said with a shrug, replacing her lip stain on the sink and turning to him. "I like to drive fast." She leaned back against the sink and crossed her arms playfully.
He mirrored her crossed arms, and gazed at her dreamily. "We are one in the same, my love ," he admitted with a grin.
Liking to drive fast wasn't necessarily the most accurate of descriptions. She lived for the speed. She became one with the car the second the key stuck into the ignition. High octane fuel mixed with air inside the engine, eight cylinders of American Muscle firing aggressively. Those cold starts would always give her goosebumps.
As the engine would idle down, the exhaust tone evened out to a dull, throaty chop. Adrenaline coursed through her veins like a rushing river the second her right hand met the gearshift, and she eased into first gear. It was the technical, two-footed dance between clutch and throttle, and the sensation of the biting point beneath her foot that would never make her lose excitement. She could feel what the car wanted and when it wanted it, and who was she to deny it? The horses just wanted to run, and the exhaust wanted to scream.
4:18 PM (Parc du Champ de Mars)
Krista slid over to the driver's seat and leaned out the opened window. "The rain's not lightening up," she pointed out, watching as Hans struggled against Mother Nature to load a second roll of film into the camera.
"I know," he said sadly, finally closing the cover, and advancing the film.
Krista leaned back into the seat, drawing her legs to rest on the door with her ankles crossed and extended into the elements. Hans appeared in her periphery, the Rolleiflex held at waist level as he peered down into the viewfinder. She gazed out the chrome framed windshield dreamily as the shutter clicked. "Beautiful." He said before opening the door.
Krista brought her legs into her body and unfurled them to stand up on the roadway. "Where to?" She asked him curiously as he tucked the camera into his jacket to shield it from the rain.
"Follow me. I have an idea," he said, seizing her hand and breaking into brisk jog, all but dragging her behind him.
He handed his camera off to the first German officer he laid eyes on, and he led her behind him until they were centered before the Eiffel Tower. It was so cheesy, but she loved it. "I love you, Krista," he whispered happily against her lips.
The playful giggle that she let slip when he drew her left leg around his waist surprised her. "I love you too," she replied with a smile before he planted a hand on her lower back and dipping her backward. Their lips fell together, and time seemed to not exist. She cared not that small prisms of water fell from above, drenching the two of them in its wake. She cared not about the passersby staring and silently judging.
Their mouths moved in tandem smoothly as the shutter snapped, even when they straightened and he placed his visor cap atop her head. He pulled back slightly, taking both of her hands in his and simply looked at her. "God, what did I do to deserve you?" he asked her whimsically, drifting away into the oceans of emerald he gazed into.
"I don't know that I will ever really be able to answer that," she said, replacing his visor cap in its respectful place on his head. She glanced to her left as the officer approached, camera in hand.
"Danke," Hans thanked as he took the camera and looped the strap around his neck.
The other officer nodded curtly, offering a salute before heading back on his way. "I can't wait to see those."
He pulled her into his side, and dropped a kiss to the top of her very damp head. "Neither can I," he agreed.
They soon slipped into the car, the heavy doors slamming closed with a satisfying 'click'. Hans placed his visor cap in her lap before rolling the window up with the crank on the door. She turned it in her lap, and looked down at the Totenkopf and eagle clutching a swastika within a wreath. This was the man she'd fallen in love with. A man devoted to his career and country, which in a way, was not much unlike herself.
She twisted her sapphire Cartier ring on her middle finger with her thumb absentmindedly as her gaze landed on him. "What?" he finally asked with a breathy laugh as his fingers closed around the key and turned it, forcing air to mix with fuel and combust.
She lost herself in the hazel surrounding his pupils for a moment before shaking her head, her train of thought misplaced in the abyss. "Nothing," she murmured with a softened smile.
Krista shifted and scooted closer to Hans as he drove, the tires humming against the rain drenched streets. Her head fell to his shoulder, her hand to his thigh. She slowly trailed her fingertips along his leg, grinning to herself as she did so, awaiting a reaction. When nothing came of the subtle gesture, she moved her attention to his belt. Her fingers danced along the leather until the met the cold metal of the buckle.
"What are you doing?" he asked with a smirk gracing his lips, as his eyes floated to his lap.
That was what she was hoping for. "Just drive," she purred, tracing the tip of her tongue along the shell of his ear.
He kept one hand gripped onto the steering wheel, while the other offered assistance in the unfastening of his belt. His eyes swept downward again, landing on her hand working his zipper open. "Someone's going to see you," he tried breathlessly as heat of anticipation radiated from her hand between his legs.
"I don't think anyone's paying attention." Her lips left behind a trail of wet kisses down his neck as her palm met his arousal. "Just drive," she said, gingerly pulling him from his boxers.
His eyes closed for a moment, a pleasured hum dripping from his lips as she took him into her hand. "Yes, Mistress," he murmured with an elated grin.
"Ooh, Mistress…" she cooed. "I like it."
The sultry tone in her voice sent electrifying tingles to his extremities. "You'll always be my mistress," he said in lustful German, slowing the car to a stop at an intersection and downshifting.
"I like the sound of that," she replied, shifting again turn herself forward toward the windshield.
The car rolled forward, his eyes falling to her hand again. The golden sapphire ring on her finger was icy against his member and the sensation of the metal moving over his sensitized skin was welcomed. "Do you?"
She nodded, turning to him to catch his eyes. "I like how 'Standartenführer Landa's Mistress' sounds… Don't you?"
"More than you'll ever know." Hans flicked his eyes briefly to her lips but resisted the urge to bring their faces together.
The only route he knew with enough cover to completely conceal her degenerate act was the one leading out of the city and to home.
Traveling east toward the outskirts of Paris, the atmosphere grew darker as lines of trees began to approach. Hans gripped at the steering wheel like it would fall to pieces if he let go, and let the satisfied moans and gasping breaths fill the car without restraint.
"Are you taking me home with you?" she asked, ignoring his whine of dissatisfaction when her hand left his aching cock unattended. She tucked her fingers into the neck of his tunic and dotted a trail of barely-there kisses to his neck and up to his pulse point. She could feel his heart racing beneath the delicate caress of her lips, and it only catalyzed her desire.
"Yes… But I don't think I will make it that far," he confessed, his eyelids sinking closed when she ducked her head away from his view and into his lap. Her name caught in his throat as the wetness of her tongue teased the swollen head of his cock, swirling slowly and tauntingly. He definitely wasn't going to make it home at this rate.
Krista twisted her hand along his length as she stroked him, her lips finally closing around him. Her head bobbed slowly up and down his shaft, curses and obscenities being pulled from his lips unwillingly.
He moved his hand from the knob of the gearshift, and rested it on the back of her head to guide her where he wanted her. "I don't care what you do… But please don't stop."
The cover of trees surrounding them grew thicker as they continued east, and Hans was yanked rudely from the cloud of euphoria he was floating along on by the time displayed on the dashboard's clock.
How could he have let his surely to be redundant meeting with Kaltenbrunner slip his mind? He had even been so unwise as to bring Krista with. He was probably already waiting there for Hans with a line of condescending glares and words prepped and to the ready.
It was much too late to turn back around and head back west; he was merely ten minutes from home. "Please don't stop, Krista," he groaned, paying little attention to the transmission's screaming pleas for advancement to the next gear. He pressed his hips upward, thrusting shallowly into her mouth while his fingers tangled and twisted into her hair.
Suppressing the moan resulting from the sweet pain on her scalp was useless. He loved to hear her anyway.
Krista listened to him murmur 'yes' over and over like a prayer as the car slowed around a curve, and she felt her own arousal intensifying. She hummed teasingly against his length when his thrusts became deeper and more urgent.
His right hand found its way out of her hair and back to the steering wheel while his left took hold of his cock. She worked the suction of her mouth with the pumping of his hand and his breathing transformed from relatively even to shaky and irregular. She closed her lips around his head and pressed her tongue flat against it as desperate moans surrounded her. "Stay right there," he ordered breathlessly, continuing to stroke his entire length until he released into her mouth. His cock pulsated beneath his firm grasp, his entire body shuddering as she pulled him from her between her lips. He jolted when the firmness of her pursed lips pressed to his over sensitized member, his hand finding the back of her head again. "My god," he breathed, letting his head fall back against the headrest.
He wiped the cool sweat from his eyebrow as he gripped the shifter, grinding through the gears until he found the correct one. The car slowed to an easy coast as cobblestone turned to muddy gravel. Hans tucked himself back into the confines of his pants, and fastened his belt with her help. "You're a filthy… filthy girl," he said, a smirk still twisting his face. "Give me a kiss."
Her tongue darted out to lick at her swollen lips before she rolled them together and planted a hand to the side of Hans's face. She gently forced his face to hers, her thumb brushing over his cheek as her lips sought out his. She slipped her hand from his cheek, and she took care in straightening his disheveled uniform.
Narrowing and winding was the trail before them, puddles of standing water appearing around the edges. His right hand was flat against her thigh, his fingertips curled around and pressing to its underside. They rounded the final hairpin curve leading to Hans's property, and much to her dismay, they had been beaten there. Krista's heart began to beat nervously as she peered through the rain dotted windshield and between the methodic swiping of the wipers.
'SS 40179' was stamped in black on a thin white license plate riveted to the rear bumper. She recognized that plate number. "What the hell?" she said under her breath.
Hans slipped his hand from her thigh and downshifted, eventually bringing the car to a halt and engaging the parking brake. "Stay in the car," he said, turning the key to kill the engine and reaching for his visor cap.
She watched through the window after Hans slammed the driver's side door closed and shook her head slowly to herself when the intimidating six foot four figure of Ernst Kaltenbrunner stepped out of his own car. She slid to the driver's seat and sank down, watching silently.
Kaltenbrunner threw his hands up before briskly crossing the property to Hans's car. "Get out," he said, flinging the door open with a snarl.
Krista complied, peeling herself from the leather and dropping her feet to the soggy ground.
"The woman of the hour," he said, snatching her arm and dragging her to the front of the car. "Just who I was hoping to run into."
"Don't hurt her," Hans warned, crossing his arms and leaning into the fender of his car to hold an observant stance.
"Oh, I wouldn't dare," Kaltenbrunner said sarcastically, finally releasing her arm.
"What did I do this time?" Krista asked, focusing on Kaltenbrunner's frigid gaze.
"You've been cutting corners this whole time."
"How?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
"The names you gave me? Rubbish. Nothing turned up. Here's what I think: I think that you wrote down the first two names that came to mind because you had no interest in answering to me."
Was it that obvious? "Obergruppenführer Kaltenbrunner… I value my relationships with the ones that I love. Never once did it cross my mind to feed you false information. You asked for dancers that I recalled parting ways with Red's. That's exactly what I gave you," she snapped.
Kaltenbrunner quieted, realigning his thoughts once he'd been bested by her. He turned to Hans, who appeared thoroughly unentertained. "I've told you that she was going to ruin you. And now that I know of her unwillingness to cooperate with me, I see no benefit in you keeping her around. The amount of disrespect you allow her to get away with is deplorable."
That was the final straw. "Leave Hans out of this," Krista spoke out. "If you came here to go in on me, do it to my face."
He snapped his head to Krista, and approached her slowly. "Do you want to make this about you? Fine." He pressed her back into the body of the car, the metal curves digging into her back. "But I'll drag all of your dirty little secrets from that whore house of a club to the daylight."
"Ernst, don't," Hans tried, shaking his head when he was ignored. 'Ignorance is bliss' was his policy typically when it came to Red's. Their unspoken agreement of keeping their occupations out of their relationship was working far too well for Kaltenbrunner to collapse it.
"I'm not the one with secrets in that club," she said in a voice above a whisper, again taking the upper hand.
"How do you live with yourself when you're sleeping with a man like Hans Landa?" he continued, shifting to another subject.
'What a fuckin' dickhead,' she thought to herself. Her mouth fell agape, her bottom jaw damn near dropping to the ground. "Excuse me?"
Hans straightened, seething at the mention of unwarranted mention of his name.
"Do you consider yourself an American patriot?" He asked in a snarky but sing-song like tone.
She laughed breathily to herself. She failed to see where he was going. "Until the day I die."
"If you're going to stand behind him no matter what the outcome may be, you better know who you're defending."
"Oh god… Spare me," she replied snarkily, brushing his hand away from her shoulder forcefully.
"What about the cause that he is a part of? Hm? How do you feel about that?" He pressed, finally taking a step back from her.
"It's disgusting," she said honestly.
Hans's eyes fell to the ground at her words. Krista has every single right to hate him for acting on the high command's orders. She couldn't be to blame for any underlying hatred.
"So you're perfectly aware of what he is doing in this country?"
"Yes," she answered hesitantly, her eyes flashing to Hans for a second.
"My point is making itself."
"The only point you're making is that I can see who he is and not what his career has made him. He doesn't involve me in his work, and that's how he wants it."
"You're getting in my way!" Kaltenbrunner seized the collar of her top and pushed her back into the car.
"You agreed to back off of me," she reminded him, unwaveringly holding his eyes.
"You let yourself get complacent. You're not freed from me." He turned to Hans who still looked displeased with the current situation. "You're not going to intervene?"
Hans shook his head simply. "I think she's got it under control."
"What do you want?" she asked through gritted teeth.
He leaned close to her face, and lowered his voice so only she could hear. "I want the truth." his face reddening like he'd been sunburned.
Krista shook her head and shrugged. "I'm sorry… The details you want, I don't have. I've given you what I know already. I don't know what else I can say," she said cheekily with a shrug.
"Seeing you out of Europe would be a close second."
Krista grabbed hold of his wrist digging her fingertips between the tendons there and wrenched her clothing from his grasp. "Good luck," she said with a defiant smirk as if she had nothing to fear.
She seemed to have ruffled his feathers and he sneered, turning back to Hans, an aggressive index finger extended in his direction. "I hope you enjoy this post while it lasts. Himmler didn't agree to taking you from Paris as early as I wanted, so you've been blessed with three more months."
"Understood," Hans said, finally uncrossing his arms. "But for those three months, I don't want you harassing Krista."
"We'll see about that." He tugged the key to his car from his pocket and closed his hand around it. "I'll be back, Krista."
"I'm not hard to find," she retorted, watching Kaltenbrunner unblinkingly while he strode to his car.
The tension was crushing as the black Mercedes disappeared down the winding trail. It felt like an eternity before Hans spoke. "How long have you been answering to him?"
"Since July," she said, listening as leaves crunched beneath Hans's feet in his approach to her.
He shook his head in slight disappointment. "You've been answering to him for three months? Jesus, Krista… what else are you hiding from me?"
She was taken aback and stunned. "I apologized already for not telling you about it."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he asked, his voice rising.
"Because he told me that if I said anything to you, he was going to make sure that I never saw you or Jonas again."
He shook his head. "You believed him?"
"Of course I did! I know what he's capable of doing."
"I thought you trusted me," he said almost as if he'd been betrayed.
"I do trust you. But…"
"But what?"
"I don't think you can get me out of this…" She let her eyes latch to his. "I have a picture of him with one of Red's bottle girls. And he knows that I have it. He agreed to let me out from under his thumb if I burned it. But I haven't had the chance."
He scrubbed his hands down his face, with an exasperated sigh. "Where did you get it?"
"I got it from Red," she said defensively.
"You should really be more careful. You're playing with fire," he said distantly.
"I'm painfully aware of that! I don't want to be a part of it!" she cried, shaking her head agitatedly. She shouldn't be raising her voice to him, but she was far beyond the point of no return, and the details slowed from her mouth like an opened valve. "His wife came to me, and told me that she thought he was having an affair. And I told her that I didn't know anything… I lied to her… I lied to Kaltenbrunner's wife's face." She took a breath and willed herself to calm down. "I know you're pissed at me, but all I was trying to do was get him to leave us alone and let you actually be happy."
He sighed again. "This is going to be a mess for me," he told her before turning on his heel and walking to the porch without even giving her half a chance to formulate an apology.
A strong, confident wind rushed through the trees, rousing them into a vortex of dance. Lightning waltzed across the sky, the blinding flash barely visible by the cover of the towering trees. She couldn't wrap her head around the fact that not forty minutes earlier she was soaking in his pleasured moans and labored breathing. As she leaned back against the car, she closed her eyes and turned her face to the sky. Cool rain fell upon her features, dripping from the leaves high above. She prayed to the heavens that it could wash away her newest regret and she could start fresh and anew, but the mistake had already been made, the damage already done.
Author's Note: A quick thank you to the readers out there enjoying this story! I appreciate all of your input, and I love seeing this being enjoyed!
I've been working my ass off on this, and I'm hoping to have it wrapped up this year. It's been three years in the making, and has gone through more than one storyline change, but it's finally on the road to being complete.
Thank you so much for your continued support and continuing to read! If you enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to drop a vote!