Chapter 20

I couldn't believe it, but we both fell asleep. Carole said she was standing in the hallway in case Christine got hurt or needed help and realized she hadn't heard a sound in some time. When she stuck her head in to check, we were both sound asleep.

Sammy curled up beside the bed, and Carole eventually went to her own room.

It was hours later when my bladder awakened me. Sammy helped me find the hall bathroom, and I tiptoed back to pick up my clothes and let Christine sleep in peace. Her eyes fluttered open when she heard me bumbling around. "Hey, stranger," she smiled through her hazy eyelids.

"Hey, yourself, right back. Did I hurt you too much?"

She smiled ... really she never stopped smiling after her eyes opened. "I feel better than I've felt in a long, long time, but I can't tell if it's just from the great sex, or if your ... You know ... your ... that ... your ... you ... really does heal."

Her face changed, and she asked, "Are you leaving?"

"Yeah," I said, softly. "My bodyguards are waiting outside, and it's not fair to make them sit out there all night, but I'll come back if you think we need to do this again. It was magnificent. You were amazing, and I loved making love with you. Thank you so much..." I leaned in and kissed her like a lover, not like I was scared to hurt her.

She kissed back, squeezed me in tight hug, and said, "Yesterday I couldn't have done that. I think you really did heal me..." Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates when she realized that Carole was right - my essence could actually heal her sickness. She slid over to make room for me to sit beside her, which I did.

"Could we ... do you want to ... maybe ... you know ... do it ... before you have to leave? I feel so much better, and it probably won't hurt, so you could concentrate more on you and less on trying to be gentle with me..." Christine raised the sheet to reveal her naked body, letting me know I could use it as I wished. Her expression was equal parts vulnerable and interested.

How could I resist such innocent charm?

My departure was delayed while I rocked her world one more time. At the penultimate moment, Christine's eyes shot open, and she said, "I love you ... I love you ... please don't be afraid to push hard. Carole thinks if you finish off inside my cervix, your ... stuff might get trapped in my womb, and my body will absorb more of it, and heal me more..."

That sounded deliciously wicked, and I gently pried my way inside, past her muscular gates. When I came, I was the one that saw starbursts. Christine threw her head back and laughed at the sheer insanity of roughly climaxing when twenty-four hours earlier, she prayed to be able to sit upright long enough to pee.

As we arrived at the cliff together, Christine panted, huffed and puffed, and squeezed me so tightly I nearly lost my breath. "Come back ... someday come back ... because ... come back ... because ... I Love You ... I can't not love you ... I couldn't love you more ... I love you so much..."

Her tears kissed my face as I held her while the last vestiges of her pleasure rolled away. Then I kissed her one last time, and Sammy and I slipped out of her room.

Carole was waiting for me and Sammy when I closed Christine's bedroom door. Her smile matched Christine's but for a very different reason. "I've never, ever seen her so happy, Kevin. Thank you for what you did for her. Even if it – your semen – doesn't work on her, you gave her back her dignity, her self-worth, and hope.

"I can never thank you enough."

"Please let me know how she does..." I said seriously, kissed her, and left.

We flew back to Asheville without difficulty. Sammy and I rested cuddled up together on the big bed in back. He didn't seem to mind anything we did, as long as we did it together, so I decided to stop worrying about what he could or couldn't handle without freaking out.

When my guys were driving us out of the airport and back towards home, I asked them to take us into town and find a good place for us all to eat a huge brunch together.

Who knew that that simple, little decision would change so many things and so many lives?

The guys chose Sunny Point Café, in West Asheville, just off I-240, as much for their welcome to animals, as for the great food. They specialize in "comfort" food that sticks to the ribs and tastes like homemade.

Sammy loved sharing my breakfast, almost as much as he enjoyed sharing a taste of each dish the guards chose. It seemed like every waitress stopped by to pet and love on him, but then they seemed to do that with the other dogs enjoying brunch with their owners. We made a spectacle of ourselves and gorged on anything and everything, leaving a fifty-dollar tip to cover all five of us, and Sammy.

We'd be back, that was for sure.

Since we were out in West Asheville, I decided to take my boy for a walk in town to see how he liked that activity. The guys stayed nearby, but not right on top of us, giving us some room to be by ourselves.

We were walking down Haywood from the café, which was in the six-hundred block, towards a big Baptist Church and the downtown shops, when I heard some ugly yelling and a girl crying behind an abandoned block of stores. Sammy growled, and I kind of jerked my head to get the attention of my detail, and started back to see if we could help. Three big, ugly guys turned from the woman and young children they were harassing and started towards me. I stood my ground, with my hand on the Glock, and let them come. Their apparent leader looked like a drugged out, moron who thought with his toenails and imagined himself tough and powerful.

He was going down hardest, I decided.

When the three idiots left them alone, the woman grabbed her two kids and tried to make her escape. She drew the attention of one of her tormenters, who turned to keep them from leaving.

"Leave her alone, asshole!" I shouted.

He didn't like being called an asshole. "I'm surprised you even know what that means, as stupid and ugly as you are," I baited them away from the woman, and being idiots, they let me manipulate them.

"Who YOU calling asshole, dead man?" their leader tried to look scary, but my guards were right there with me, and suddenly the odds looked less inviting.

"What's the matter coward boy?" I wanted them to make a move on me. "Are you too frightened to stand up to a man? Is the best an ugly, stupid, inbred, like you can do is hurt woman and babies? Does that give you a bone, coward boy? You need to hurt children to get it up, don't you, you little freak?"

Enraged, he charged me. Sammy shocked me senseless when he lunged at the lunatic, but I had him by the leash. What the moron brigade really needed was for me to unleash my bodyguards. They tore those three a new set of orifices that were going to hurt till they died. When the leader broke away from one of my guys, I clipped him across the bridge of the nose with the Glock, and kicked him in the crotch hard enough that he collapsed, puked all over himself, and cried like a baby.