Oh, fuck! That was it-I jerked up hard against her fur-covered flesh, grunting as I thrust my cum into her, waves of hot, white fluid pulsing deep into her body. She mewed softly, and I felt the quivering of her muscles around me and I moaned louder as she came again around my cock, milking my shaft with her cunt.
When I slid out of her, she mewed again, a forlorn sound, and she turned around, nuzzling her head against my belly and chest, rubbing her velvety ears against me. Breathless, I collapsed back onto the bed and she followed, crawling up me and settling against my side, her furry thigh over mine, her whiskers tickling my cheek.
I stared up at the ceiling and listened to her purring, soft now, a low, contented sound. I waited until I was sure she was asleep before I tried slipping out from beneath her. She sighed and moved around on the bed a little, adjusting herself to my absence, but she stayed asleep. I could barely make out her outline on the bed now, but I knew what I’d seen, what I’d experienced. I grabbed my clothes, tugging them on as I headed out the door.
* * * *
I sat staring into the glowing square of the computer at the figure on the screen. I had typed one word into the library computer’s search engine: “Bast,” and had come up with 2,940,000 results. It wasn’t long before I found what I was looking for though. I clicked over to “images” and there it was-the little statue of the cat Katie wore around her neck.
It was the only explanation I could imagine.
The page read: “Bast is the daughter of Ra, and she is the intrinsic, instinctive rage of the sun-god. Bast is his instrument of vengeance. She is the cat-goddess of the Egyptian civilization who destroys vermin, but yet, she is approachable, if you are fearless, and she can be stroked.”
I sat there lost in my own thoughts for a long time. Too long. Students came and went. The librarian came over the speaker to tell patrons the library was closing in ten minutes. I didn’t think about Katie, alone in the apartment. Not until I pulled into our parking lot and shut off the engine. Sliding my keys into my pocket, I found the baseball cards I’d slipped in there. They were where Katie had remembered, but they were too high up on a shelf for her to reach, far in the back, in an unlabeled box. The pawn shop had confirmed their worth, all right. I was effectively carrying around $200,000 in my pocket.
I got out of the car, frowning at the house. It was quiet for a Friday night. That’s when I heard Cujo barking frantically upstairs.
When I rounded the corner, I saw Sassy sitting on our front steps, licking her paw and washing her ear. That was my first hint, and it jolted my numbed and overloaded senses awake again. I bolted to the top of the stairs to find the door wide open.
“Katie!”
I heard her crying. Oh, thank god. I closed my eyes for a moment. She’s alive.
I ran back to the bedroom, flipping on the overhead light. She was crouched on the bed, and I had a moment of deja-vu, remembering Sassy sitting on the step, washing herself. Katie looked almost the same, except that her black fur was matted in blood.
“Oh my god,” I breathed, seeing blood all over the covers. I looked her over to find where it was coming from. “Where are you hurt?”
“It’s not me,” she croaked, pointing to the other side of the bed.
When I peered over the side, I somehow already knew what I was going to find. It was Malcolm, his sightless eyes peering up at me, throat slit from ear to ear.
“What did you do?” I whispered, covering my mouth with my hand.
“I killed some vermin.” Those words jerked my head toward her, remembering what I’d found on the Internet, and I saw her green eyes flashing.
Katie’s eyes are blue.
I looked at the cat statue hanging around her neck for a moment, and then I looked into her eyes, wide with fear now.
I knew what I had to do.
“I love you, Katie.” I knelt next to her by the bed, taking her hand and turning it over, kissing a bare place on her palm where it wasn’t stained with blood. It was true, had always been true. Being with her was all I wanted to do, for the rest of my life. I’d been waiting patiently for months for something, not really knowing what it was I was waiting for, but now I knew. This Katie was the one I’d fallen in love with, the one I’d somehow known existed all along-buried, repressed, trapped, dormant. I didn’t believe in fate, exactly, but some part of me knew that none of this was an accident.
“I worship you,” I whispered, and that was true too. She’d brought me to my knees time and again, but I’d never given up hope for her, for us. “You’ve been my goddess since the day I met you.”
She gave me a small, trembling smile, the same smile I’d fallen in love with.
“Come on.” I stood and held out my hand. I knew I would do anything for her, even this, and was about to spend the rest of my life proving it. “We need to get you cleaned up.”
She cocked her head at me. “Where are we going?”
“Italy.” I pulled her up and headed toward the shower. “You’ll love it there.”
The Dirty Show
“Hey girl, this is crazy, and I know we just met, but…”
Janie blinked in surprise at the guy who took the stool beside her at the bar, instinctively backing away a little as he leaned closer. He was young, barely old enough to gain entry into the club, and while she was just ten years past that, this clear attempt to pick her up amused her greatly.
“Excuse me?” She crossed one leg over the other, letting her already-too-short skirt ride up her thigh, revealing the lace top of her thigh high stocking, enjoying his reaction. His gaze skipped from her hemline to the v-neck of her blouse, revealing far more cleavage than she was used to showing.
“Sorry, it was a just bad pickup line!” He had to yell to be heard, leaning in even closer, and Janie could smell beer on his breath. “Whatcha drinkin’? I’m buying!”
“Shot of Patron!” Janie yelled in reply and lifted her glass, tilting back the honey colored liquid at the bottom.
“Two shots of Patron!” The guy called to the bartender. She was a leggy redhead who raised her eyebrows as she poured the shots but she took the guy’s money and slid the drinks in front of them, moving on to the other patrons crowding the bar.
“What should we drink to?” Janie lifted her glass, enjoying the way he turned toward her on the stool so his knee brushed her thigh. He was tall, and the jeans and cowboy boots alone made her belly quiver. The silver buckle and the hat were just cherries on the cake.
“All I know is that we need to get hammered.” He clinked his glass to hers, grinning, still yelling to be heard. “Because I wanna nail you!”
“The first pickup line wasn’t bad enough?” Janie smirked, raising one eyebrow and glancing pointedly down at his crotch. “I don’t know, are you sure you brought enough wood?”
Her timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Tequila erupted from his mouth in a fine spray all over the bar and he choked behind his black shirt sleeve, eyes watering, but he came up laughing.
“I’m pretty sure you’d be happy with the timber, ma’am,” he replied, still grinning.
“Excuse me, is this seat taken?”
She felt a presence, glancing over her shoulder at the dark, curly hair appearing behind her as he slid onto the stool on her other side.
“I’m Josh,” he said, holding out his hand.
Janie took it, smiling. “Janie.”
“Oh, she’s a tougher nut to crack than that, pal, believe me!” the cowboy remarked, using one of the napkins sitting under a bowl of peanuts to wipe up the tequila he’d spit all over the bar.
“Is that so?” Josh smiled. “I guess we’ll have to see about that. Hey, cowboy, can I borrow your hat?”
The cowboy frowned, but he took it off and handed it over, smoothing back his sandy hair.