I lie awake while Kayla sleeps, her scent of

forest fur winter

filling my nostrils. I shouldn't like this. I shouldn't have my lips pressed against her bare shoulder where my t-shirt has slipped off her small frame. I shouldn't want this.

But I do.

Sometime in the dim hour before sunrise she awakens and slides out of bed. "I need to go get more supplies," she tells me, shrugging on my jacket.

"I could go."

"No. It's not safe for you yet."

My arms curl around the cold space beside me after she's gone.

* * *

Candi returns a short time later. "Still in bed? Must be nice." She plops down on the mattress, kicking her shoes off and ripping off her top at the same time. Her sudden flesh wakes a feeling deep inside. I reach for her.

She swats my hand away with a slap.

"Unless you magically found some money since last night, this is off-limits." She indicates her pale torso.

With some struggling, she pulls off her pleather pants and settles into Kayla's spot on the bed wearing only her underwear. I would have expected a prostitute to be wearing a thong or a g-string, but instead it's grayish cotton underpants, stained, the elastic loose.

"Mm, nice and warm." She wiggles back until her body fits into the spoon of mine and pulls the hand she slapped around her waist. "No funny business now."

In a matter of seconds her breathing slows and I know she's asleep. She smells like cheap cologne and night air and sex.

I'm afraid to move lest I disturb her. How can she feel safe lying in a bed with some stranger? The longer my hand rests against the flat plain of her stomach, the more I think about what lies to the north and south of that plain. My palm sweats, itching to travel. The longer I force my hand to stay there, the harder I get. In the darkness I can't tell if my vision is blacking out, but there's a familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach

Nausea?

I rip myself away from her. I curl up on the edge of the mattress, hugging myself violently. My ragged fingernails dig into my arms. It's a good long while before the hot trembling turns to cold shivering.

When the cold gets to me, I yank the blanket away from Candi and wrap myself up.

"Hey!" she squawks. "Hello? I'm practically naked here?"

I don't respond to her. The blanket is between my teeth.

"Dan." She pulls at the blanket. "Dan. Come on. It's colder than a witch's tit in here."

The comparison doesn't exactly help. I start trembling again.

This time when she speaks her voice is soft. "Dan." Her hand slides under the blanket and she inserts herself. Her naked form against my back. I can feel the soft lumps of her breasts through the material of my sweatshirt.

It's when she reaches around me that I tense up.

"What?" she demands. "Oh, I get it. You're a virgin."

I say nothing.

"Whoa-ho!" she crows. "I haven't met a virgin since I was a virgin!"

My fingers grip the blanket, more determined than ever not to let her have an inch.

"Oh, come on. Don't be so sensitive." She tries to snuggle back under the blanket but we end up wrestling for it. She yanks at it until I'm no longer facing the wall but the ceiling and her topless glory. I look away. "What is your problem?" she says.

"Nothing."

"Yeah, right." She glares at me, but when she figures out I'm not giving up, she changes tack. "Come on, Danny. I'll freeze if I don't have a teeny tiny bit of that blanket. You don't want me to freeze, do you?" She puffs out her lower lip.

I parcel out half of the blanket and she climbs under. "You're so sweet," she coos, pinching my cheek. I flick her hand away. "So kind of you to share MY blanket."

"Sorry," I grumble.

Only a few moments later, I feel Candi's hands slide around my waist. I try to ignore it, but she keeps going. I push her hand away and try to move so she's not touching me.

"Stop being so cold, Danny," she whispers. "Your stubbornness is turning me on." Her hands return and her body presses against my back again.

I don't really need the blanket right now.

"Just loosen up." Her breath blows in my ear.

Then she's kissing me, her lips warm and moist on my neck. She traveling up along my jaw line then finally gets to my mouth. By that time I'm kissing her back.

She slides on top of me. It feels nice to kiss a girl. I've never done it before. I let myself go until Candi comes up for air. "Now that's more like it," she purrs. Then she hooks her fingers into the waistband of my jeans.

I shove her away. She lands at the end of the mattress. "Don't do that," I tell her.

It was instinctive. My heart is hammering away and my fingers dig into the fabric beneath me. What was I thinking? What if I had lost control... blacked out? I have no idea what would happen if I had sex. All I know is I've spent nights in hotels with men that I don't remember, except for the blood bath after.

"What's your problem," she snaps. "Are you gay?"

"Just because I'm the first guy you've ever met who doesn't want to fuck you right away doesn't make me gay."

Candi crosses her arms and puts on her pouty face. "Don't you find me a little bit attractive? A teensy weensy little bit?"

"Well, sure," I say uncomfortably.

"So what's the problem?"

"Look, I... I just don't think it's a good idea." In fact, I think it's a really bad idea.

"Why?"

I go over in my head the reasons that I can't tell her: I'm a werewolf, I might kill you, you're a prostitute, you might have an STD, you might get pregnant... actually...

"You might get pregnant," I say.

She laughs. "Yeah, right. I take precautions."

"Like what?"

"Well, I have some condoms if you're really worried. I also know where the Planned Parenthood is and they've given me the morning after pill a bunch of times before."

"That sounds safe."

"And, I mean, even if I did get pregnant, so what? You're kinda cute. Our baby would come out cute. We could get some money from welfare. Lots of the other girls have babies."

"What other girls?"

"You think I'm the only girl working a corner? Have you lived in a cave your entire life?"

I don't say anything.

Candi pulls the blanket around herself and curls up in it, facing away from me. Now I'm the one in the cold. That's fine. I need to cool off.

"You know," Candi says, "it kind of hurts my feelings that you don't want to have babies with me." She giggles. "It is SO obvious you're a virgin."

My face burns. I turn so my back is to Candi's back.

I am anything but tired.