The Witch's Want Ch. 06

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They locked up the house and went into town a little later so that he could get a few more clothes and then he took her to a restaurant for brunch. After that, they rode out of town, headed off to pick up Bart's truck and a few other belongings.

Farah pulled herself closer to his back and considered her question.

"Will I have a chance to meet your mother?" she asked.

He nodded, "Sure."

Farah thought about it for a little while. She supposed that this would be a good test. She was carrying part of the lock of the faith, and as far as she was aware, the icon lent some sort of protection to the bearer – or in this case – the bearers.

She thought about that as they drove past her bookshop without noticing the two people who stood out front, feeling very confused about what had driven them here.

Farah thought it all over and smiled to herself, deciding not to let her nervousness get to her. She thought about the lock and hoped that it was at least a little effective against a man's mother.

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They hung around for the morning, wondering why the place didn't open and discussing things such as the inexplicable way that they'd both felt themselves drawn here. Nothing made much sense to them, but they found after a while that they enjoyed each other's company. As the morning went on, they got a few looks from folks passing by either on foot or in vehicles. It made them feel a little self-conscious.

"This is stupid," Savannah announced, "I'm long past hungry, the looks that we're getting are creeping me out big time, and I've got to pee something awful."

"Roger that," Hunter said, "on all four counts." She looked over at him as he sat on the step from where she'd been standing and he admired her olive skin, though the mirror sunglasses were beginning to get to him a little. He watched her eyebrows raise.

"All four?" She ran through the list and came up with only three.

He nodded, "You forgot about the first one. This is stupid. You wanna get a burger or a pizza or something?"

"Sure," she said, "But I've gotta pee first. I can't even think straight anymore."

He grunted, "I'm with you on that." He thought about heading back to the bistro to use the washroom there. He didn't want to and Savannah could see it plainly on his face.

"Look, " she said, "you don't want to go there because that'll take you to where you'll have to evade Miss Dairydale and her hopeful doe-eyes. It'll need a lot of talking on your part, and then you'll have to watch her disappointment, and they don't serve either of the things that you said, so that's out. Besides. I'm not sure that I can make it that far. Come on."

She began to walk around to the back of the store. "Where you going?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses, "To the bathroom. You coming or not?"

"Is there an outhouse back there or something?" he asked as he fell into step with her.

Savannah smirked, "No, dummy, they've got a wall. That's all you need, right?"

He nodded and as they came around to the back of the building, she pointed, "There. That one. There are no windows on any of the buildings around here that face this way."

He wanted to ask her, but he figured that she knew her own business, so he walked up, unzipped his fly and began.

His attention was drawn by Savannah as she walked up to stand beside him, about three feet away. She undid the button on her jeans, pulled them down a little and astounded him.

"What the hell?" he said.

"Don't you ruin my concentration here," she warned him, "I like you, Hunter, but so help me, if you can't stay focused on what you're doing and you turn toward me, well I'll break your nose if you get me wet here."

"Don't worry," he said, "I just wasn't ready for that. I've never seen a girl pee standing up, that's all."

He saw that she'd pulled her thong aside and held a tissue in that hand. She was directing her stream with the other. Hunter smiled to himself. He was amazed.

The look that he got of her legs and her flanks told him quite a bit. She wasn't as bony as he'd first thought, and damn, he liked the musculature that he could see. He turned back to what he'd been doing after a second, not wanting to annoy her.

"Yeah well," she began, "it's only uncommon here for the most part. There are a lot of places in the world where women pee standing if they can. A lot depends on what's all over the ground. In some places, it's land mines. Here, it's poison ivy."

He looked around. The small yard showed signs of having been mowed recently, but it was obvious that it never received much of any other sort of care, and the shade from the large trees all around gave the place enough shade for other plants. There was poison ivy everywhere.

He heard the hiss from her slow to a stop and she turned a little as she wiped. It hadn't been a conscious thing, it was just what she'd done. "Don't you dare shake that while I'm here," she said, "Here. Find a dry spot on this, and we'll trash it in the can around front."

He stared at the tissue for a second.

"Honest to God, Hunter," she said with a bit of exasperation, "I didn't exactly soak it."

He shrugged and took the tissue from her carefully. While he used it, she pulled her pants back up. He felt a little silly carrying the tissue. "Not shy, are you?" he smiled at her.

"Actually, I am," she said, "I'd never do that if I wasn't busting to pee. I'm not all that shy about my body, since it's the only one that I've got, and it's not too bad, I guess, but it's not like I like to flash people or anything. I'm just comfortable with who I am. Trouble is, a lot of the time, in this culture, folks read a lot of stupid things into everything. In a lot of places, you go where you can if there's no facilties. Here, well what we just did would likely get us a ticket or something."

They came around the front and he tossed the tissue into the little container on the corner.

"Now if we could just figure out where to go to eat," she said, "and now I've got to wash my hands .Wait a second,..."

Hunter watched as she swung her pack from her shoulder for a minute. By the time that she had it back on only seconds later, he was grinning as she tore open a little foil hand wipe packet. "We each only get to use half," she smiled.

Hunter laughed, "Jesus, I'll bet you were a Boy Scout too."

It made her chuckle, "Uh, no. I wanted to be, though. They just weren't taking girls in my town back then, so I had to wait a little to do the next best thing about six years later. Actually," she laughed, "I liked that a whole lot better."

She pointed, "There. I see a sign for a pizza place. God, I hope it's open."

They looked at the store where they'd spent the morning, each one feeling a little reluctant to leave. "Come on, Savannah," Hunter said, "we've been here all day, so far. If they open up while we're gone, I'm sure that they'll stay open at least long enough for us to eat."

She nodded and they walked away up the street together.

The pizza joint was full of high school students on their lunch break, but they did get their order in and sat at a table in the middle of a pack of loud and boisterous kids as they waited.

Savannah placed her pack on the floor next to the table. As was normal for a lot of young people trapped in suddenly almost-adult bodies, there were the usual idiots and a boy pushed a girl a little playfully into Savannah, who almost spilled her can of soda, but managed a quick save. The place turned silent instantly.

She set the can down slowly and turned her head. "I'm very sorry," the girl said, with a lot of embarrassment.

"That's ok, Honey," Savannah said, "Not your fault." She looked over at the boy, understanding everything, but wanting to make a point.

"You," she pointed, "Come here."

He hesitated, looking around for support, hoping to God that somebody would make a smart remark, but no one did.

"What's your problem, kid? You all noise and no juice? You can't be afraid of me, can you? I just want to talk to you – or can you still hear your Momma's voice in your ear? Nervous about talking to a stranger?"

He looked nervously at Hunter. It made Savannah smile. "What are you looking at him for? I'm the one who almost had to wear my drink. Come here."

He shook his head, trying desperately to come up with a line.

She stood up and walked over to him very slowly, stopping well inside his comfort zone. She took off her sunglasses and bored into his eyes with her own for three long seconds.

"You'd better decide which side of the fence you're on," she said, "and grow some manners in public places real soon. If you're eighteen and older, you'd better learn to apologize before somebody rips your head off one day. If you're younger than that, well then you just need a spanking, don't you? An adult faces up to things. A kid just acts like the asshole that he'll grow up to be one day. They're not the same thing."

He looked down, not being able to hold her gaze. "I'm - I'm real sorry , Ma'am."

"Much better, Scooter, and it's alright. No harm done. Just think about where you are, and shoving girls around, even as a joke is a bad idea."

The place remained a lot quieter as she went back to their table and sat down, apologizing to Hunter, who only smiled. "So where did you say that you went instead of joining the Boy Scouts?"

Savannah shrugged as she folded her sunglasses and put them into a breast pocket of her jacket, "I joined the Marines, Hunter. Did a tour in Iraq and another one in the American Embassy in Zurich, filing my nails mostly, and wondering why I'd bothered. Then I met my puke ex-husband, and three years later, here I am."

She looked up and Hunter was lost in her light blue eyes, completely taken by the contrast with her dark olive skin. They sat looking at each other for half a minute.

"Hey," she said, "Hunter, you ok?" She smirked, "Come on, we haven't even eaten yet, so I can't have anything even stuck to my teeth yet."

He smiled a little shyly. She thought that she could get used to seeing that on his face now and then. "I'm ok," he said, "I'm just not used to falling in love, that's all."

She chuckled, "That's about the sweetest thing that anyone's ever said to me. It's my eyes, isn't it?"

He shook his head slowly, "No, though they have a little to do with it, I guess. You're beautiful. I guess that seeing your eyes just finished me. I'm really glad that I was sitting down right there."

He wanted to change the subject and glanced away. "So besides the two of us feeling like we need to be here for some reason, in front of that store, what the hell are we going to do if and when we find that it's open? I have no idea, to tell you the truth, and it's been bothering me."

He looked back at her when he heard no reply.

"Take off your jacket, Hunter," she said, looking at something just inside the open cuff of his denim jacket, "and hang it from the back of your chair."

"Huh?"

"Come on," she smiled, "I will if you will."

He shrugged and stood up. He took his jacket off and laid it across the empty seat next to them and sat down again. Savannah smiled as she saw his T-shirt. Her eyes drifted quickly over his tattoos, not staying on any one for longer than a sliver of time. She heard one of the high school brats whisper, "Oh my God!" under her breath, but it wasn't until the girl's friend added a "Holy shit!" to it that she grinned.

"I think that I know how you feel, Hunter," she nodded. What she'd really been after here was a reality check. She knew how easily teenage girls might react and not hold their thoughts in. She'd even been prepared to hear the over-the-top sort of comments that she'd heard. She just wanted to make certain that she was seeing things correctly, and if nothing else, these young women were good for that.

Hunter began again, "I can't help feeling stupid for the way that we're stuck here waiting for a store to open up. I didn't see a thing in the window that I'd even be interested in. Well, maybe one or two of the books, but – "

"I meant about falling in love," she smiled as she stood up. A few seconds later, her jacket was lying across his. She turned around to see the stares on the faces of the kids. "That's about it, guys," she grinned feeling a little stupid.

When nobody moved after a second, Savannah tilted her head, and her expression became a lot less friendly. The pack of kids suddenly remembered where they'd been in their conversations.

In that instant, Hunter knew that he was in the presence of someone that he'd always known had existed. He'd just never seen one.

When she turned to look at Hunter again, she laughed out loud for the way that he sat there with his chin on his hand.

"What now? she asked, "Did I forget to zip up or something?"

He shook his head as his eyes went to hers, "No, you're fine. I just feel like a puddle now, that's all."

She looked behind him and saw that their pizza was on its way. "Well you just hold that lovely thought for about twelve more minutes."

"Why?" his voice sounded a little dreamy and she realized that he was joking – at least a little bit.

"You just keep sitting there mooning like that, and I'll eat the whole damn thing myself, since I'm about that hungry. So, what's your story, Hunter?"

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The wind blew across the desert, kicking up sand devils in the dust which swirled and chased each other to peter out where the rocks of the old mountain began their rise to the worn summit. Inside a chamber in some ruins near the top, a trio of spectres sat. They looked at each other and smiled.

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He smirked, "My story?" She watched him shrug. "I don't have one, or, ... not much of one, anyway. I joined the federal service at twenty-one, and was out by twenty-six. I tried to set up my own security company, but I've about run out of money, so soon," he sighed, "I guess I'll be about back where I started, working physical jobs, manual labor, whatever I can get."

"Well," she looked at him curiously, "what branch of the service were you in?"

He grinned, "I can't tell you. It's a secret."

She laughed for a moment. "Ooh, I guess I'll have to guess then." She looked at him and tilted her head a little. He liked her even more like this, when she was feeling a little playful.

"Is the job a secret, or, ... is there a secret involved? Will you have to kill me if you tell me?" She chuckled, "I sure hope not, 'cause I can tell you, that'll be a bitch to do, and it would just ruin our fine friendship, since I'd take that personally."

She sat back munching on a slice of pizza, looking at him as he ate. The Stetson lay on top of her jacket now, and she admired his slightly long hair for a moment. It looked like silk to her, pushed back as it was behind his ears. Her eyes went to the blonde stubble on his cheek and she wondered for a second about how it would taste to lick it and feel the prickle of those whiskers against her tongue. Pulling back her view further, she took in those arms and that chest. She'd already checked out those legs and his fine ass. He was a runner, but not for that purpose.

She smirked as the notion of a secret agent went out of the window. Too noticeable, she thought. Way too obvious. A guy like him walking into a room just drew the eyes of any woman, just as long as she had enough of a pulse to appreciate what she was looking at, and with his looks, it was impossible to hide in a crowd.

"I know," she said with her mouth full, covering her mouth with her hand, "You were a Secret Service agent."

She nodded in decision. "You tried to fit in, but you just couldn't in any of the Field Office assignments that they handed you. But you kept ending up with shit assignments, guarding people who couldn't get that somebody just might want to off them and never took you seriously, so they just treated you as though you were a servant. When you couldn't stand that anymore, you switched to the tactical side. That suited you better, but it was always about waiting and watching, always prepared to act, but since you all did your job so well, nothing much ever happened. Not much adrenaline to be had there, and the service intruded on your personal life six ways from Sunday anyway, so you quit."

His jaw dropped and he stared. She hadn't been right on the money, but she'd been so disturbingly close that it was beyond uncomfortable. "How the hell could you know ..."

Savannah reached for another slice and sat back quite comfortably now, thoroughly pleased with herself." I just knew it after a little thought," she said, because I," she paused for dramatic effect, "am intuitive."

"Intuitive, huh?" He smiled a little doubtfully, though he'd give her the points for this.

"Uh-huh," she nodded, "when I was little, I surprised my dad with something that I just knew and he asked me how I could have known that. I just told him, 'I am a girl, and I know everything.'"

She laughed a little, "There's not a lot of truth to that, and believe me, there have been enough times that thinking like that only got me burned tail feathers, but it sure sounded cool."

He picked up another piece of pizza, but he stopped it on its way to his mouth for a moment. "Oh yeah? Well what am I thinking right now?"

She took a sip of her soda and rolled her pretty eyes, "Oh, give me a hard one, Hunter. You're thinking that you'd love to bang my pretty ass as hard as you can for as long as we can do it, until neither one of us can even stand up anymore. You've never wanted it before, but right now, you'd love to feel my nails ripping up your back while I howl your name into your ear."

He looked at her as she smiled confidently back at him.

"That's uh, that's not what I was thinking," he grinned a little.

And there it was, she thought, that shy look with that soft little smile that tilted a little crookedly along his face. God, she was melting and she knew it.

"That would be a wish," he said, "somewhere on the order of becoming my fondest dream. What I was thinking was that you must have been quite a handful as a kid, as precocious as you must have been, and far too sweet for a father to be able to resist the urge to hug you in forgiveness if you only looked just a tiny bit sorrowful and contrite, after you did something that really merited you getting your ass paddled over."

"So that wasn't what you were thinking?" she asked, looking every bit as sorrowful as he'd said.

"No," he smiled, "though the thought is about the nicest one that I can imagine now."

"Oh," she said, looking a little distracted as though she was wondering how she could have gotten that wrong. "I guess that must have been what I was thinking then."

"You're right about the nails thing," he chuckled, "I've never even liked that before. Now? I don't know. I think the idea is gaining a little ground."

"Aw, that's too bad," she pouted a little, "I cut off all of my nails last week after splitting one. I'd have really liked doing that."

She sighed as she finished her piece of pizza and set her plate aside. "I'm getting pissed off at this feeling that I've had these last days. Something's pulling me to that place and it's getting more than a little in my way of thinking. I usually get these naughty thoughts a hell of a lot quicker with the right guy. I almost never act on them, but I like having them when they come to me." She sipped her drink and licked her lips as she sat forward again.

"Right now, I'd much rather close my eyes and think about listening to your hips slapping against my ass. The real thing would be so much better, but, ..." she sighed, looking around a little sadly, "We're both on foot here with no place to go, and I know that we both feel pulled to that stupid store and we don't know why. I'd love to just forget about it for a little while. Besides, I'd about kill for a hot bath right now, and my dirty little thoughts would just about make me lower my price."