Cat and Mouse

on my ankle weighed a ton and felt as hot as a poker from a fire. I wanted to take it off and never put the weapon on again.
    I knew I wouldn’t, though. Thomas Pierce was still out there somewhere, and Mr. Smith, and all the rest of them. For some reason I felt it was my responsibility to make them all go away, to make things a little safer for everyone.
    “Earth to Daddy,” Jannie said. She had a small frown on her face. “See? You went away again. You were with Mr. Smith, weren’t you?”

Chapter 120

    C HRISTINE can save you. If anyone can, if it’s possible for you to be salvaged at this point in your life.
    I got to her place around six-thirty that night. I’d told her I would pick her up out in Mitchellville. My side was hurting again, and I definitely felt like damaged goods, but I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.
    She came to the front door in a bright tangerine sundress and heeled espadrilles. She looked slightly beyond great. She wore a bar pin with tiny silver bells. She
did
have bells on.
    “Bells.” I smiled.
    “You bet. You thought I was kidding.”
    I took her in my arms right there on the red-brick front stoop, with blooming red and white impatiens and climbing roses all around us. I hugged Christine tightly against my chest and we started to kiss.
    I was lost in her sweet, soft mouth, in her arms. My hands flew up to her face, lightly tracing her cheekbones, her nose, her eyelids.
    The shock of intimacy was rare and overwhelming. So good, so fine, and missing for such a long time.
    I opened my eyes and saw that she was looking at me. She had the most expressive eyes I’d ever seen. “I love the way you hold me, Alex,” she whispered, but her eyes said much more. “I love your touch.”
    We backed into the house, kissing again.
    “Do we have time?” She laughed.
    “Shhh. Only a crazy person wouldn’t. We’re not crazy.”
    “Of course we are.”
    The bright tangerine sundress fell away to the floor. I liked the feel of shantung, but Christine’s bare skin felt even better. She was wearing Shalimar and I liked that, too. I had the feeling that I had been here before with her, maybe in a dream. It was as if I had been imagining this moment for a long time and now it was here.
    She helped me with her white-lace demibra. We slid down the matching panties, two pairs of hands working together. Then we were naked, except for the fine rope necklace with a fire opal around her neck. I remembered a poem, something magical about the nakedness of lovers, but with just a touch of jewelry to set it off. Baudelaire? I bit gently into her shoulder. She bit back.
    I was so hard it hurt, but the pain was exquisite, the pain had its own raw power. I loved this woman completely, and I was also turned on by her, every inch of her being.
    “You know,” I whispered, “you’re driving me a little crazy.”
    “Oh. Just a little?”
    I let my lips trail down along her breasts, her stomach. She was lightly scented with perfume. I kissed between her legs and she began to gently call my name, then not so gently. I entered Christine as we stood against the cream living room wall, as we seemed to push our bodies
into
the wall.
    “I love you,” I whispered.
    “I love you, Alex.”
    She was strong and gentle and graceful, all at the same time. We danced, but not in the metaphorical sense. We really
danced
.
    I loved the sound of her voice, the softest cry, the song she sang when she was with me like this.
    Then I was singing, too. I had found my voice again, for the first time in many years. I don’t know how long we were like that. Time wasn’t part of this. Something in it was eternal, and something was so very real and right now in the present.
    Christine and I were soaking wet. Even the wall behind me was slippery and wet. The wild ride at the beginning, the rocking and rolling, had transformed itself into a slower rhythm that was even stronger. I knew that no life was right without this kind of passion.
    I was barely moving inside her. She tightened around me and I thought I could feel the edges of her. I surged deeper and Christine seemed to swell around me. We began to move into each other, trying to get closer. We shuddered, and got closer still.
    Christine climaxed, and then the two of us came together. We danced and we sang. I felt myself melting into Christine and we were both whispering
yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes
. No one could touch us here, not Thomas Pierce, no one.
    “Hey,