“Then get your butt in here before I change my mind.”
I downed the rest of my bourbon and shucked off my clothes as fast as I could without tearing anything, staples included. It took a few seconds to rip off my bandages and they took quite a bit of hair with them. A minute later, I pushed back the curtain enough to step into the floor-level tiled shower at the opposite end from the showerhead.
Gail had been rinsing her hair, but she turned to me immediately. The shower wasn’t big enough for there to be much distance between us and when I inhaled deeply my chest hair rubbed across her nipples. They were pointing at me.
“Why now, Gail?” I asked. “I thought you wanted to wait until the hunt was over.”
She smiled and stepped closer, bringing those lovely nipples into direct contact with my skin. “A girl can change her mind, can’t she?”
“Of course,” I agreed. “But you didn’t change your mind because of Marta, did you?”
Her smile wavered a millimeter. Her hands went around me and clasped my cheeks. She pulled me against her and I was suddenly less concerned about her motives.
“I’m not saying that vixen has anything to do with my decisions.” She shifted her hips a little to the left and then back to the right. She looked down for a moment and then met my gaze.
“Well, well, I guess something came up.”
I forgot about her reasons for changing her mind and pulled her tightly to me. I lowered my mouth to hers and we kissed hungrily. She pushed me against the back wall of the shower and raised her hands to my shoulders. I slid my hands down to her buttocks and lifted her as I turned to press her against the side wall. She gasped softly into my mouth as I lowered her onto me.
The first time didn’t take long for either of us. The second time began almost immediately and moved to the bed when the shower water turned cold.
It had been a long day and sunrise was coming far too soon. I was sitting in bed, relaxing after a strenuous bout of love play. My back rested against the headboard and Gail lay stretched out beside me, her head resting on my right thigh. The fingers of her right hand toyed with my pubic hair. I’d been meaning to manscape the region, but hadn’t gotten around to it. Not that I’m metrosexual or anything, but Gail’s level of trimming had surprised me and I thought I should put a little more effort into my personal grooming.
I lightly massaged her nape with my right hand while I studied the bracelets. I still hadn’t mentioned the vision the specter had shared with me to Gail. In my defense, we’d hardly had a moment to chat except when we were with the Morenos and I hadn’t been about to bring it up in front of them.
“Okay, maybe they aren’t the spirit’s focus, but they are pretty nice bracelets,” I said. “It’s a shame we have to give them back to the University.”
“Yes, they’re pretty, and probably valuable, but that’s why we have to give them back,” Gail answered without shifting position.
I thought about the werewolf in my vision. It had been an extreme version of the ones I’d encountered so far, but as soon as they latched these bracelets on it, it had become human again. Was that what the spirit had wanted me to see? That it was guarding something that could subdue weres? I couldn’t see why it would kill people over it. It wasn’t as if the bracelets changed someone into a werewolf.
I unhitched the thin chain’s center clasp and the equal lengths separated. Combined the two pieces couldn’t have been more than ten inches long. I set one of the bracelets on my lap and took Gail’s right hand away from my pubic hair.
“Hey, I was enjoying that,” she protested.
“You can’t be ready to go again. I want to see what they look like on you.”
I slid the silver band over her hand and past her wrist. It was way too loose to stay on her wrist, so I slid the bracelet up to her forearms.
“I guess they’re armbands and not really bracelets,” Gail said as she pulled her arm down to study the metal.
I picked up the second band and slipped it over her left hand. It slid up her arm as easily as the other one had. Gail twisted around, but her left arm was trapped behind her by my body and she couldn’t see that one.
“I wonder if Javier had it right,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Gail asked.
“About them being some sort of bondage gear.”
“Hah, that’s ridiculous. Silver isn’t nearly strong enough to hold anyone,” Gail said.
“Oh?” I said and caught her right wrist in my hand. Before she could protest, I pulled her arm behind her.
Gail turned her head to face me as I fiddled with the chain’s clasp. “I thought you knew too much about that bondage gear we bought. You’re into that sort of thing?”
I shrugged. “Not really, I Googled most of that the night before we bought it.”
My thumbnail had a little trouble with opening the clasp enough to connect the chain back together, but Gail was surprising cooperative, and she held perfectly still while I fiddled with the clasp. I thought I felt a tingle as the chain finally connected.
“What happened? What did you do?” Gail asked. Her voice was high and stressed.
“I don’t know. Did you feel anything?”
She rolled over to face me fully. “The armbands tightened. They’re no longer loose.”
“What?”
She thrashed about violently.
“Whoa, hold on, I’ll take them off,” I said, but Gail kept thrashing from side to side. Her muscles bulged as she strained against the chain.
“I can’t break the chain. Get it off me damnit! Hurry!”
“I will if you’ll just hold still for a
