Brrrrb. Brrrrrb.

Sal picked up the wall phone on the second ring and tucked it under her chin.

"Hello." Her hands were covered in flour and a stray lock of hair got pushed back with her wrist.

"I know what you did last summer." The heavily disguised voice announced through the earpiece.

"Josh! Hi how are you? Where are you?" Her pleasure at hearing his voice was evident in the immediate flush to her cheeks and breathlessness he always caused.

"Hi-ya Sal; I'm downtown and around for a few days; Just wondered if you fancied a meet sometime over the next day or two. I still know what you did last summer though." He laughed in his easy manner; oblivious of the effect he had on her.

"Well you should, it was your fault and you were there, you bastard!" She laughed a little nervously and felt a thrill travel the length of her spine in a shiver as the memory flooded back.

"I'd love to see you; Tomorrow?" She suddenly knew a desperation that he would say yes.

"I'll pick you up at seven. Keep it moist until then babe." He dropped the receiver and the line went dead with a brrrrrr.

Sal replaced the handset and returned to pressing out the ginger bread men and placing them on a baking tray. Her concentration was shattered after the call, but somehow, she managed to bake the cookies for her charges at Kindergarten where she taught the four to five year olds.

Later that same night, she trawled through her wardrobe, tossing clothing over the bed in dismissive piles. After almost emptying the cupboard and rejecting everything, she sat back on her haunches and sighed. A long overdue shopping trip was going to have to ensue if she was to make the impression she hoped to. Since his call earlier in the evening, she had flitted and flapped, unable to settle on anything. She blamed his not saying where they would go for her inability to do very much constructively, but in truth, her heart was fluttering in her chest and it was likely she would wear out the batteries in her vibe tonight, but before she could relax with her pacifier, she had to think of what to wear.

If they were going out to dinner, then she could wear a simple black cocktail dress with a matching shoe and bag set. It could be a downtown joint, in which case jeans and a shirt would be ideal. It occurred to her that she could call him, but then she remembered that he wasn't at home, he was in town and staying at any one of the hundreds of hotels. She got as far as dialling the number recall on her phone, but the only information it gave was number withheld.

"Shit!" She spat the word out like it was a particularly unsavoury chewing gum. "Shit! Shit! Shit and damn that man." She at last, settled on a black cocktail dress, cut to the knee with a little lace trimming around the hem. Critically, she held up a pair of silver sling backs and matched them to a small purse.

She knew the dress fitted and accentuated her hourglass figure. The neckline was loose enough to hint at her beasts and show enough cleavage to attract a man's attention.

"Let's face it girl, she muttered to herself, you need a man and all's fair blah blah."

It had been eight years since Sal graduated from College. Eight years in her apartment and eight years looking for a man to rock her boat sufficiently to become something of a partner. She had had lovers, temporary boyfriends, but none seriously. These guys had varying sized egos and equipment; it seemed the larger the dick, the bigger the ego, the more of a pain in the ass, a proven equation. Sal had even dated guys of other races, but only one guy had lit her fuse and he had called this evening to make a date. Some of her conquests had managed to make her come, managed even, to get her to orgasm, those that could be bothered, but Josh had knocked her right off her feet. They had fucked like wild animals last summer and her body had responded in a way she hadn't known was possible. What they had done could not be called making love, it was far too intense for that. It had in truth, been rutting, in the purest sense; fucking themselves to a standstill. They hadn't even really messed around with foreplay or the niceties of sex, it had just been groin-to-groin screwing in every conceivable position, all the way, like his cock was an umbilical chord; that suited her desperate need at the time.

Afterwards though, when the holiday was over, he had left her behind, she had been devastated, the overwhelming sexual charge was replaced by a feeling of bereavement. She had thought that this was it, her life partner had arrived, never to leave; she couldn't understand why it hadn't been the same for him.

Time to worry about the hair and of course the make-up if she was to make the impression she hoped to. I rummage though her bag of collected hues and colours left her wanting, but it would have to do.

Sal showered and flopped into bed, her thoughts crowding one on another and preventing sleep, until her fingers found her sex and then the buzz of her vibe did the rest. She slept with her drying hair in rollers.

¬¬¬¬ Josh put down the phone and lay back against the headboard of hotel bed. His room was like any other of the millions of hotel rooms, comfortable enough, clean, but lacking soul. He clicked off the TV with the remote, the sound had been down anyway and he had no interest in the soap running on channel 10.

His laptop running on the top of a sideboard announced that he had mail with a chirrup. It was nothing important and was quickly read then deleted. He checked his web site and answered a few enquiries about his newly launched software package. When would it be on the market, was it upgradeable, what did it do. Those kinds of enquiries all easily answered and killed.

He thought about Sal and wondered if she had changed in anyway. His mind's eye recalled her body and, with difficulty, her face. He recalled the small brown moles on her right shoulder and the downy skin of her flattish stomach. Her smell would always be with him he thought and the way her body reacted to his touch was indelibly etched into his memory, but better yet was the memory of how she would come in a gushing torrent screaming the place down while her sex ejaculated it's golden stream.

They first met when he had been taking an enforced break. Two weeks by the sea, rest and recuperation from overworking and stress. Getting his baby over the final hurdle of marketing and completion had taken almost two years of incredibly hard work, after which, he was completely burned out. The soft ware package to revolutionise the accounting industry had nearly done for him, the money didn't seem worth the chunks of his life he had invested into it. Now it was out there against the opposition, the users who bought the licence didn't seem to have the intelligence or aptitude to really make the programme sing as he had designed it to do. It left him feeling somewhat deflated or disappointed in the end result, but knowing fundamentally, that it was the customer who failed to grasp the nuances of his work; Their loss.

During the latter stages of completion, Josh had become quite ill, his Doctor referred him on to a psychiatric consultant who had warned him; vacation for a couple of weeks or a permanent rest from a complete breakdown; his choice.

He had collided into Sal on the second or third day of his enforced break, literally knocking her off her feet as he blundered around a street corner. Her touch as she took his proffered hand to help her up, was electric and he instantly knew that he wanted to know her, body and soul.

Their first date had been okay, McDonalds and a drive in movie, and then they sat and watched the moon slide across the water of the bay, talking about their lives and introducing each other. She had a self depreciating manner of telling her life history, it was infectious. Josh found himself playing down his accomplishments in sympathetic accordance.

He had taken her home to her rented apartment, drank the coffee and then, by mutual agreement, screwed both their brains out with little or no preamble. He remembered wondering how it hadn't happened on the street corner or the drive through movie. The attraction and sexual chemistry between them was undeniable, neither of them denied the other. Thank God she had been taking the pill, because he would have knocked her up several times over, during the rest of their inseparable holiday.

Josh fell to sleeping, but had his hands tucked into his groin as he curled in a foetal position and dreamt of her. The sheets in the morning told of his restlessness and a familiar stain reported the rest.

Her day at Kindergarten dragged. Perhaps the kids picked up on her jittery inability to concentrate, or they sensed something in the wind, but even the normally quiet kids joined in the riot and cacophony of noise. It passed over her and she didn't really notice until Anne from the next classroom popped her head in and asked if she could keep the noise down a bit.

"Sorry." She said distractedly. "I'll just kill them and have them for dinner."

"Ha ha! See you at lunch." Anne was just removing her head and shutting the door when she stopped and asked Sal.

"You okay?"

"Hmm? Oh! Yeah, I'm fine." She waved in a shooing motion and Anne pulled the glass door to with a frown on her face.

The frown turned to total absorption when Sal told her about Josh and their holiday romance of last year. A little jealousy was also in evidence and when Sal brushed over the sexual episodes, more than a little flush crept into Anne's features.

Anne had a husband, or rather, her husband owned Anne. Her devotion was misplaced, because he used her as a doormat. Sal and she had had several heart to heart conversations during their meal breaks; it was always Anne who ended up crying in misery. The irony wasn't lost on Sal, she was the one without a man, but it was Anne who was the more miserable of the two friends.

"So what you gonna wear?" The question was an abrupt change of direction in the flow of conversation.

Sal described the cocktail dress she had planned on, but her very description and her lack of enthusiasm told her she would be out shopping on her way home; the cocktail dress was confined to the wardrobe until further notice. Anne offered to help her with the retail assault, but she wouldn't be able to stay out long.

"Trevor will want his dinner and he gets grumpy if I'm late." It was apparent that Anne dearly wanted to go with Sal to hit the shops by the animated way she used her hands to enforce her words.

"Screw that! No man is going to own me. I ain't a feminist, but I am a person in my own right, not an extension of Mister Partner." Her vehemence spat the words out. Sal's recollection of how her father had ruled her mother sprang to the forefront of her mind

"Your man, Trevor, needs to get a job and start looking out for himself a bit. One day Anne, you are going to wake up and it will be the last day of your marriage." She continued.

"I guess." The shrug of her shoulders indicated her acceptance of her lot, at least for now.

After school, they hit the town and walked the Mall, stopping in several shops until they settled on a small independent store that sold exclusives. Anne suggested an off the shoulder printed chiffon that looked like oil on water, but Sal chose a plain, dusty pink silk A line dress, with a square cut dropped neck. It cost a small fortune, but when she tried it on and looked appraisingly in the mirror of the changing cubicle, decided it was worth every penny.

They coffee'd at one of the many new outlets that littered the mall, then went their separately ways to their respective homes. Anne, hurrying to prepare her husband's dinner, hurrying because she was likely to be late, Trevor hated her being late; Sal, to pretty herself up and create a vision. She had every intention of knocking Josh off of his feet. Both of them hurried to satisfy the hungers of a man, but in very different ways.

She was ready by six thirty and spent the nervous minutes waiting by preening and touching up her make up. Her heart was fluttering in her breast and it felt like the butterflies in her stomach had hobnail boots on.

He was fashionably late; Ten minutes past seven; blaming the delay on traffic and the scarcity of a decent cab. Sal made him wait for a little while longer, ostensibly just finishing up, but in reality, sitting on her bed and shaking from head to toe in nervous anticipation of her evening ahead.

She had melted when the door chime announced his visit and then, almost jumped into his arms when she opened the door. He looked tanned and totally at ease. A complete contrast to what she was going through.

"Where do you want to eat?" His laconic question filtered into the bedroom. It got her moving and she joined him in the living room.

"I'm easy."

"Well, looking like that, I guess we should find some class." His compliment struck a chord in her privately egotistic home. They left her apartment arm in arm, down the quasi-ornate stair well to the street.

He hailed a cab and they ended up at an Italian restaurant that had been recommended by the driver. Luigi's was far better then the name or the outside appearance suggested. After a very good meal and a couple of hours later, they emerged with handshakes and cheek kisses from Luigi, on to a damp pavement and cool air.

Conversation during dinner had flitted from subject to subject and had, for the most part, remained light. Until he mentioned the summer holiday and then, the whole evening became a prelude to the sex they knew was inevitable, the mood of the evening changed at that point, recharging the sexual energy passing between them.

"Shall we walk for a little while?" He asked and offered his arm like an old fashion gentleman might have to a crinoline dressed lady.

"Sal..." He started, but then stopped.

"Spit it out Josh. What's on your mind?"

"When I first met you, I was knocked out by the way we fit together. It was like we knew each other for ever and the um... well you know, was out of this world. But, when the holiday was over and I had to finish getting my project out, I thought I would never see you again. I kinda thought that you would look at it as a holiday romance and nothing else. I couldn't get you out of my mind for a long time." He had stopped walking and turned to face her, see what her reaction would be.

She looked up into his eyes and smiled, then kissed his lips gently.

"You were more than a holiday romance and you know it." She breathed between his lips. "Shall we go home?"

"I like the sound of that." He stressed the word like.

"What?"

"I like the sound of that word when associated with you; Home, It has a ring to it." Her already fluttering pulse quickened.

They caught a cab and arrived at her door some twenty minutes later.

"Drink?" She called from the sanctuary of her bedroom.

"I'm okay." His disembodied voice filtered through the door.

Sal undressed quickly, carefully hanging the new dress on its hanger and throwing a robe over her semi-nakedness. Josh had obviously found the hi-fi, music; she could hear something soft playing.

He was sitting, relaxed and at ease on the cream leather settee when she came back into the room. Her mouth was dry and she was still shivering a little from nerves. Sal fixed herself a watered Scotch and offered one to Josh. Then, she at last sat down opposite him and studied his face for the millionth time that night.

Sal..." He started "There is something you should know about me."

"You're married!" Fucking typical she thought in a nano-second, I meet the guy of my dreams and some bitch has already got her claws into him. It didn't occur to her that she might be considered the bitch in the triangle.

"Ha! No Sal. It's a bit weird, well a lot weird really, but you should know before this goes very much further." He looked at her, spitting her eyes with an intensity that made her feel like she might if impaled on a spike.

"You're gay then, or bi-sexual or a woman. Come on Josh, spit it out." She felt a dread at the suspense and wasn't at all sure she really wanted to know, especially if it meant they would not go any further than there were at tonight.

"No baby, it's nothing that normal, it's... well kinda difficult to explain really, but I um..."

"For Pete's sake, will you just come out and say it. That is of course if it isn't you're a monk and sworn to celibacy or have had it cut off." She laughed nervously, trying to lighten to mood and alleviate the tension his difficulty to articulate was creating.

"I change a bit." His statement couldn't have been any vaguer.

"So you cross dress? Is that it?" Sal was getting a little alarmed at what her imagination was offering as possible answers.

"I... I mean... I change physically... sort of when the moon is full; that kinda thing." He glanced at her to see if she would cringe or run screaming.

"Ha ha ha! So you're a fucking werewolf are you then?" The laugh carried no mirth.

"Well... yes as a matter of fact..." Dread flooded him and he wanted to cry suddenly. It wasn't his fault that the slaver girl had ravaged him, all those years ago. It wasn't like she looked strange or anything, just a black girl who was offering to screw his head off. Fuck it; he hadn't even felt the bite at first until she started to suck him dry. He had a choice, drink from her or die. At the time, he was still inside her and pinned under her hips with little strength left. It hadn't really mattered very much until he had met Sal, but now he wanted to be like any other man with a normal relationship and a life.

"... As a matter of fact, that is exactly what I am; A werewolf. I have never told anyone before Sal and if you want me to leave, well, I will understand and never come anywhere near you again."

"You're serious aren't you... ?" She knew the answer from the angle of his shoulders and the way he was studying his feet to avoid looking at her.

"... So, why me Josh? Why are you telling me?"

"I have never wanted to get near to anyone before Sal. But, then I met you and something clicked inside, like a light being turned on for the first time. Don't get me wrong, I have had several lovers before you, but none I wanted to really get to know, none I wanted to be more than casual lovers with. Until you, there has been nobody I wanted to watch grow old and grieve for when they die." He sat bonelessly in a settee opposite her like a condemned man, waiting for the Priest to offer prayers for his sole as her made his way to the gallows.

"What do you mean, watch them grow old?" Sal was some way off of getting a handle on what Josh was trying in his fractured way, to tell her.

"I was born in eighteen ninety two Sal. My parents had a sugar plantation on Jamaica island."

"That means you're..." Her mental arithmetic wasn't up to the sum.

"I'm a hundred and sixteen, give or take a month or two. A young black girl turned me from the slave workers on the plantation. She turned me and then disappeared soon afterwards. No one knew where she went, but her family didn't seem to mind that she had gone. She bit me and then gave me the option of either drinking from her or dying right there and then. Ever since, I have had to move around, never staying in one place more than a few years. I have seen most of the world, been in the wars and seen the worst that man can do. By comparison, what I am is nothing. I am considered a horror, but what this world has to offer is pure evil; by comparison, I'm a minor offence." He picked up his forgotten scotch and hid behind the sanctuary of the glass.

"Well..." Sal puffed out her cheeks while she struggled to sort through the jumble of thoughts.

"... So does this mean you will rip me apart and eat me?" She knew it was a stupid question and regretted asking it immediately.

"I would never hurt you Sal. I could never hurt you, you see, after last summer and meeting you; I couldn't get you out of my head. I found myself wondering what you were doing and I must have dialled your number a hundred times, but I didn't know what you would say when I told you, Oh, by the way Sal, I grow four legs and a full coat of fur during the full moon and eat live food, but don't let it worry you. But, you wouldn't get out of my head. Sal, God help me, I love you and have, ever since we first met when I knocked you on your ass. You cannot know what it took to come here."

"Every guy I've dated seems to have a problem or carry a shit load of baggage, but this one takes the prize." She said dryly. "It's going to take me a while to get a handle on it Josh. I need some thinking time here." Her thoughts jumbled and swirled in a maelstrom that had no hope of order.

"Do you want me to leave?" He rose from the settee, placing his half drunk scotch on the table between them.

"I want you to take me to bed Josh. I want you to fuck me until I pass out. The rest... I can think about later..." She lifted her eyes to search his face.

"... But I swear, you bite me and I will haunt you forever and I make a bad enemy, believe me."

He laughed and felt the tension slide off of his shoulders. At last, he could relax for the time being, but knew that he would be facing an inquisition some time soon, if she didn't throw him out. Josh reached down, taking her hand that she had lifted for him to pull her up by, then, he circled her waist and took her off her feet in an easy, fluid motion and carried her into the bedroom. Her Chanel No 5 perfume faintly caressed his sinuses, she steadied her self with an arm draped around his neck.

"I really trust you Josh; don't hurt me." She whispered to him as he pushed the door with his foot.

Josh gently placed her, standing, on a sheepskin rug she had on the floor, at the bottom of the bed. Then, with consummate care, he slid the robe from her shoulders, allowing it to fall from her arms by her side. He placed in as neatly as possible on the back of a chair she used to sit on at her dresser. With a dextrous twist of one hand, he undid the clasp of her bra as he faced her and looked into the bottomless liquid pools of her eyes. With much care, he slipped the straps off her freckled shoulders and that too, was allowed to fall from her still arms and placed on top of the robe. She was almost naked now, with only her lacy panties and her dignity covering her. Sal shivered a little and he noticed a slight nervous tic at the corner of her mouth.

He took her chin in his hands that seemed huge by comparison to her smallness; he lifted her face to meet his lips. His kiss was almost chaste in its touch on her forehead. Sal made to move into him, but without words and just a little pressure, he made her stand exactly as she was.

He kissed her nose and felt it wrinkle as it does when she laughed. Then his lips and the tip of his tongue brushed her glossed mouth before passing to her chin. He bent his knees a little and kissed her throat, noticing the sudden stiffness in her as she realised what he was capable of. But, he didn't tarry and continued the travels of his lips and exploration. His mouth traced her chest bone and passed between her breasts. Her heart bounced against her ribs, he was gratified by the steady thump.

Bending now, almost into a kneeling position, Josh kissed her body just above her belly button and flicked his tongue out to taste her. His thumbs hooked into the elasticated waistband of her panties and pulled them over her hips at the same rate that his tongue and lips gradually travelled to her sex.

He stopped at her pubic line and lifted one foot so that she could step out of the panties, then he lifted her other foot and placed the garment with the bra and robe. Josh sat back on his heels and looked her perfection. She had taken to shaving most of her hair away, leaving just a line of black, short fuzz to point to her stomach or her secret places, depending on which way you were going.