.

the waiter responded.

      "Are you avoiding me?" She said

      "Not in this lifetime." He said

      "May I join you then? She said.

      "I would be honored." Aldo said as he stood and placed his hand on the slight chair to support her weight as he pushed the chair beneath her.

      "American?"

      "Via Italy." Aldo said. "I've been in America for many years....all my life really."

      "You?" He said.

      "Transplanted as well...work for CNN, covering Bosnia, Africa and Croatia. Originally from Baltimore...you know Maryland."

      "Yes nearly five hundred miles from Cleveland, Ohio.""Is that where you are from."

      "No...I have a farm in Springboro, Ohio...three hundred fifty miles from Cleveland."

      "As the crow flies." She smiled a beautiful smile demonstrating the wisdom of parents who had invested in braces producing a mouth full of straight, glistening white teeth.

      The waiter came... "Will you order signore?"

      "Cappuccino...Por favor."

      "Another espresso..." Aldo said.

      "Sony." Aldo said...extending his hand and removing his aviator glasses. "I am Aldo Selleri."

      "Carla Owen." She said taking his hand and holding it for a moment. She noticed the deep tan of his hand and the arm leading to the elbow, which was strong looking.

      "What brings you to Rome Aldo?"

      "I have an ancient piece of religious art which I am donating to the Vatican. I will have an audience with his Holiness Pope Benedict in a couple of days."

      "Must be an extraordinary piece of art...an old world master?"

      "Don't know Carla...it has been in my family for generations, taken to America and handed down all these years. I do not have a family, so I do not want it to get into the hands of the...shall we say...art world...some purveyor who might not share it with the Catholic faithful."

      "Well that is extremely generous of you...but why do you believe that it is Catholic and not Protestant...Baptist...some other form of Christian faith.

      "No, no...it is Catholic...there is a history that comes with this portrait...handed down through generations, you know stories of the miracles of the Blessed Virgin...many centuries ago, I can say no more, but you can take my word as a gentleman...it is Catholic."

      "Very convenient...but as a reporter, I am skeptical...but your response and gratuitous act of generosity is certainly admirable."

      "Another doubting Thomas...let me put my hand into your side...my fingers into your palms..." Aldo laughed touching her beautiful long fingers as he sat next to her.

      "Mr. Selleri...I would say you have designs on me...I suggest that you have no need of the Trevi Fountain for making wishes or foreplay...you sir, may put your hands any place you desire on my body." She looked at Aldo with piercing intelligent green eyes, a more beautiful woman he had never seen, he lifted the Yankee cap from her auburn hair and it fell below her shoulders as he reached over and kissed her ever so gently.

      "Your place or mine?"

      "I live just down the street...small apartment."

      "Shall we?" Aldo said as he gestured to the waiter...he left a ten dollar bill and they walked away toward the Via Condotti and then to the Via del Corso.

      Her apartment was truly small, neat and sensual. It was one of those things, sex that comes right up from nowhere. Heat that just happens. The body ignites a flame and the whole thing goes up. There was a click as she closed the door. Then she came to him in the darkness. Mouth open, kissing him roughly, her tongue exploring his. The back of his hands so gentle and expertly running over the top of her shoulders...sliding the flight jacket to the floor. She was wearing a light slip under a blouse, which Aldo moved over her breast gently and then over her head. There was no bra...her nipples were hard as Aldo bent to tease them with the tip of his tongue.

      Her hands unbuttoned his shirt...moved it over his shoulders and it dropped to the floor...covering hers. She opened his slacks, taking down his shorts. Taking his hardness in her hand, stroking him, then Aldo unbuttoned her jeans and they dropped to the floor and she stepped out of them. She ran his penis against the silk underwear. She backed to the couch and sat down on the edge as she took him in her mouth. Aldo turned and took her legs and placed them on the couch...he mounted her as she sucked him generously.

      Aldo parted the lips on her vagina and slid his tongue over the top of the clitoris...she muscled up against the sensation, the warmth of his tongue as he circled, exploring the walls of the vagina and pressing the flattened tongue against the clitoris...ever widening and more forceful as she heaved against the sensation and the approaching explosion of her climax.

      "That wasn't fair...and you took advantage of me...she said as he turned and kissed her full on the mouth...exchanging the wetness of her pussy with his tongue."

      "All is fair in love and war...you know."

      Now he picked her up from the couch and without speaking he kissed her a deep and provocative kiss. He carried her into the bedroom and placed her on the bed. He opened the foil package he carried for luck... she took the condom from the foil and rolled it down his hardened penis...he took her gently at first, placing his penis only slightly into her throbbing and oozing vagina. She pushed her pelvis against him as he gently rocked above her and within her only slightly. Aldo pushed his penis in and out measuring the sensation as she pushed against him yearning for more...knowing there was more...he felt her come again and again as he teased her and then after the third orgasm he pushed the full length of his fully engorged cock up into her wet vagina and rocked in and out and side ways creating the kind of friction which drove both of their sweaty bodies into a convulsive heap.

      As one, they came as though signaling each other that they had been punished long enough and now deserved the climax.

      Aldo felt her throbbing beneath him. He too continued to come until he felt the colored plastic backing away from his body...he could not move though he felt he must reach down and pull off the condom before it leaked and penetrated her vagina. Only that drove him to roll over and go to the bathroom. When he returned with a warm wash clothe, Carla had rolled over on her stomach...he inserted the wash clothe between her legs and began to message her back... she moaned a long and satisfied grown as he lay down beside her.

      Her moaning stayed in his mind for a long time. By Aldo's count she had come five times in two hours and he had come once, and he wasn't certain that she did not want more.

      Carla lay looking at Aldo... "You make love as though you have dreamed it thousands of times and have done it once."

      "So you are complaining."

      "No, no...I am so completed by a man who innately knows how to fulfill a woman...and I just happened along."

      "It was my lucky day."

      As planned, Aldo knew that once he had come his penis would have no more of it for hours...that was the way of an old cock. Not bad for a sixty-seven year old. He did not know if Carla kept track of her orgasms...but he did know that she did not want him to go to sleep there. She told him that in little more than three hours she had to get up and catch a flight to Bosnia. She kissed him and asked which hotel was he staying and promised to call upon her return in a couple of days.

      As Aldo entered the Hassler Hotel lobby he remembered the tentative plan to meet with Father Tim...he might understand, but Aldo knew he would be unable to tell him of Carla and the night of passion.

      He checked with the night clerk and was told there was a message from Father Dalton and a fax communique. Aldo took the fax and headed for the elevator. He opened the fax and noted that it was from Homer Handmaker. Only one sentence...I regret to inform you that the DHL service, which picked up your portrait was indeed fire bombed...call me at any hour. Handmaker had left his