She kissed me on the lips. A kiss that was long and passionate, and full of promises of more yet to come. I barely even noticed the times she bumped my tender nose.
I let her be the first to pull back and then I held the towel out for her. She wrapped it around her and tucked it in. Her hand found mine and she pulled me behind her as she left the bath.
I hoped she was heading for the bed, a bed with the covers already pulled back and disheveled, but she continued past the bed to the table. She sat down in a chair and pulled me close to her. Looking down to her upraised face, I smiled. She smiled back and then lifted one of my hands to her lips. She kissed the palm of my hand, the turned the hand slowly over and began unwrapping the bandage on that wrist.
I held still while she carefully exposed the wounds.
“Not bad, no sign of infection,” Gail said and proceed to remove the bandages on my other wrist. “Raise your shirt; I’ll need to check your other injuries.”
I didn’t trust myself to speak but did as she instructed. She gave an approval of my other arm and then pulled the tape and bandages from my chest. Her fingers moved softly across the line of each wound, not putting pressure, just barely touching. The slashes on my chest had already formed small scabs and were well on the way toward healing. The poultice had worked better than I expected. When she finished near my navel, she leaned forward and kissed my belly. “Everything looks good, Jesse.”
My breath caught in my throat. “Healed up enough for anything, Gail.”
She smiled up at me, totally ignoring the bulge in my jeans.
“Just about,” she said standing. “Didn’t you offer me breakfast if we made it through the night?”
“Ah, yes, everything is, ah, everything’s ready. It’ll just take a few minutes.”
“Good.” Gail turned her back to him and bent over her bag. “I’m famished, but that’ll give me time to get dressed.
I watched her oh-so-perfect derrière beneath the short towel for a few seconds and then went to put the biscuits in the oven.
“Breakfast was excellent. Now I feel ready to go out and slay monsters,” Gail said, wiping roughly at her lips with a paper towel.
“Glad you liked it.”
I carried the last of the dishes to the sink and started washing.
“Aren’t you about beat?” Gail asked.
“I could use a little sleep, but tonight won’t be a full moon, so there’s always time for sleep.”
“And you’re going to stay up until bedtime?”
I cast a glance over my shoulder. She was studying me. I smiled and said, “Unless you can think of something better.”
“You’re going to regret saying that.” Gail’s serious tone surprised me.
“Come on, you can take a little double entendre without getting your back up.”
“I’m not irritated, Jesse, just thinking you should get some sleep before tonight.”
I stopped with my hands covered in soap and took a slow turn. “And that would be why?”
“I’ve got a line on another job.”
“What?” I said, shocked. “Where have you had the time?”
“Yesterday, while you were sleeping. I used your tablet to log on and contacted a friend who keeps me posted on anything weird.”
“Seriously? You know someone who keeps you up to date on monster attacks?”
“It’s not that easy, but that’s the outcome.”
I rinsed off my hands, dried them, and walked back to my seat at the table. “Spill, just what is going on?”
“I’m not saying you have to help, but you did ask if I had anything better in mind,” Gail said with a grin.
“That isn’t what I thought you’d come up with. Who’s this guy?”
“His name is Leonard; at least I think that’s his real name. He never uses it.”
“Why, is he a fed?” I interrupted.
Gail choked. “God no! He’s a member of Anonymous.”
“Anonymous? Wait, the hacker society?” I asked.
“Yeah, that one. Anyway, a few years ago, Dad and I did him a large one and ever since he’s maintained a program that searches the news and law sites for anything unusual. That’s what brought me to Chattanooga and then to Huntsville.”
“Well, he certainly did you a big one there,” I said with more sarcasm than I felt. Why was I getting hot about some other guy helping Gail? Was it because I thought that was my territory?
“Geez, Jesse, he’s a friend. I haven’t seen him in more than a year. He emails me when his program hits on something and if I need anything special, he helps arrange it.”
“What kind of special?” I asked, suspicious.
“You know, new identification, the location of someone or something I’m trying to find, that’s why I contacted him yesterday. He’s trying to identify other animal attacks that might be related to the guy that bit me. And now that we have a target, he can get us the identity of the werewolf.”
“Don’t you think we can find him quickly enough?”
“If he’s got any sense he’s not going to be back at that sex shop. He’s going to have to assume we made his bitch and he’ll go into hiding. Leonard can track down his possible locations.”
I started to calm down. Why had I gotten so protective of her in such a short time? “Okay, you’ve got a helper, and he’ll get us the location of our furry friend. What’s that got to do with tonight?”
“There have been a couple of events around Tuscaloosa that seem like they’re in our area. He’s still researching, but he thought I might want to look into it.”
I noticed she used “our area” instead of “her area.” Was that it? Was I actually thinking of partnering up with her on a permanent basis? How crazy was that? I’d barely survived my first three nights with her; what would a year be like? “What about the werewolf who bit you?”
“Leonard is monitoring. If he gets a
