My pulse was pounding in my temples when she let go of my hair and pulled away. Before I could complain, she pushed me back against the mattress and straddled me. She slipped down onto me and began to move. I raised my hands to her breasts, but after a minute, she interlaced her fingers into mine and pressed my hands back against the pillow to either side of my head. Her long hair fanned out to cocoon our faces as she lowered her mouth to mine. She moved against me, grinding down on my pelvis, pressing my hips into the mattress with increasing power and speed until we both found release.
She lay atop me, panting into my ear until our breathing slowed. She rose on one elbow and stared into my eyes. I waited, expecting some comment. When we’d been lovers in high school, she had critiqued many of my performances, telling me what she liked and what she hadn’t. I had been a studious student and had always tried for an A. This time didn’t disappoint.
“That was nice, very nice. Although I think the second time showed more improvement in skill and talent, but this was very nice too. You’ve had a lot of practice since joining the Army.”
“What can I say, I’ve been well schooled,” I said with a sly grin.
Gail began a smile that morphed into a slight frown. “Yes, Marta. That old hag probably has had a lot of experience to teach an impressionable boy-toy like you. I wonder how many boys she’s trained over the years.”
I tiss-tissed. “Gail, I’m surprised at you. Marta’s not an old hag.”
Her smile returned and she kissed me tenderly. “You’re right and I’m being bitchy, but when I think of that kissed she planted on you back in the storeroom, I want to deck her.”
I placed my hands on either side of her face and stared into her eyes. “Gail, you know that I’m with you. Marta was my past and you’re my future.”
“Yes, but once I was your past and you were with Marta,” Gail said with a little pout.
I suspected she was toying with me.
“Are you actually jealous?” I asked.
“Jealous, no, of course not. As long as that whore keeps her hands off of you.”
“Gail, I’m shocked—”
She hushed me by lowering her mouth back to mine and kissing me deeply. Her hips shifted against mine and I found myself rising to the occasion once more. She wiggled and I slipped out of her. She broke the kiss and rolled off me. She caught sight of the nightstand clock and said, “Make coffee, it’s getting late and we have things to do before noon.”
I watched her beautiful posterior disappear into the bathroom until the closing door interrupted my view. I shouldn’t have been surprised at her rapid departure. Gail had never been the cuddling type.
Only mildly disappointed, I rolled out of bed and went to start the coffee.
An hour later, we were both dressed, coffeed, and well fed, thanks to the nearby Waffle House. I had to be a cliché and order the steak and eggs. The sex hadn’t been excessively strenuous, but I was still healing. Gail had decided the cuts left by the first werewolf were healing well. She smeared another thin layer of her poultice across each of my wounds. The poultice was amazing. My chest wounds, except for the deepest one, looked like the staples could be removed. I mentioned it, but Gail wanted to give it another day.
She’d then redressed my wounds almost tenderly. I was beginning to fall for her all over again. Maybe that was what first drew me to Marta; she had stitched up several wounds for me in the ‘stan. Nah, I think it was first and foremost her willing and wild abandon at sex and maybe then, it was the tender care.
It was shortly after eleven in the morning when we left the restaurant. I Googled local cemeteries at Gail’s request and then guided her to a secluded one.
“Tell me again why we’re going to a cemetery,” I said as we motored past the gates of an old, but well-maintained graveyard.
“Exorcisms are more reliable when they’re done on holy ground. I don’t know any of the local pastors and I don’t want to have to convince one of them to let me use their sanctuary.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “It might be a learning experience for me to see you convince some priest that you had to perform an exorcism on these bracelets.”
I tried to keep the grin off my face, but sometimes I try too hard to be funny.
Gail rewarded my weak attempt with a slight upturning of the right side of her mouth, but she didn’t laugh.
Women just don’t appreciate my humor.
“Does it matter where in the cemetery you perform the rite?” I asked when I was sure I wasn’t receiving any mirth from my partner.
“No, not really. It’d be nice to be out of sight of the main gate and any people that might be present. It won’t take long. There isn’t a real rite for objects, but the abbreviated exorcism still takes a few minutes to recite and a few minutes to set up.”
“And why noon?”
“Exactly noon isn’t as important as trying to be in full sun as close to noon as possible. Evil has trouble with the bright light of day, so the brighter, the better. If the exorcist’s faith is strong enough, it doesn’t matter.”
I thought that one over while Gail maneuvered down the small road that ran through the old cemetery. The road wasn’t overgrown
