The next morning I got to the church early. Al, my best man, showed up at the last second, like he always did. I hustled him off to a corner. "Where did you find those dancers?" I whispered.
"What difference does it make?" Al answered. "In half an hour you're going to be a happily married man. You're never going to see either of them again. Concentrate on Brenda and your future with her."
"I know, but still I'm curious. They must have cost you guys a bundle. Did you go through an agency of some kind?"
"Yeah, it was an agency. It's weird, but they only charged for Leilani. Chartreux was thrown in for free. I didn't even know about her until they came to the back door, and I had made the arrangements."
"A free whore? You've got to be kidding. What did she look like?"
"You saw as much as I did. She wore the mask all the time she was there. No one ever saw her face."
The ceremony went off without a hitch. Brenda was the typical beautiful, radiant bride. We had about thirty guests, mostly our families. After the obligatory smashing of the cake in each other's face, we went to the restrooms to change. Al was in charge of returning my rented tux while Brenda's mom took charge of packing and storing the wedding dress. We endured the rice shower as we dashed to our car and got in. We stopped a couple blocks away to remove the streamers and tin cans tied to the car, then went to a car wash to get rid of the 'Just Married' markings.
We could only get a three-day weekend for our honeymoon. It was the most that our jobs would give us on short notice, so we decided to save the real honeymoon for our fall vacations. We headed off towards Gettysburg and Hershey. We didn't have any hotel reservations. Whatever we could find, we'd take. There wasn't any real plan except to be alone. We had been living together for three months, so the prospect of going to bed together seemed no different from any other night. It was just in a motel rather than at home.
Brenda insisted that I shower first. I didn't argue; it didn't matter to me. When I finished she went into the bathroom taking her suitcase with her. I figured that she probably had bought a new nightgown for that night, so I turned on the late-night news to kill time waiting for her to come to bed. I didn't notice until the closing credits of the newscast that Brenda had been in the bathroom half an hour. Another fifteen minutes passed before I heard the bathroom door open. I was sitting at the table reading a magazine. My jaw dropped to the floor when I looked up.
"Chartreux?" She snarled at me. She looked just like she did the night before, black cat mask, black dress and shoes, black nails and lipstick. As she approached, she clawed the air. "Brenda?" Another snarl louder than the first. The rumble of a stalking lioness came from deep within her throat. I put down the magazine and stood up. She circled me like a big cat cutting its prey out from a herd. Her eyes locked on mine. The rumbling continued. I was amazed at how well she made that sound. Her hands pushed the straps of the dress off her shoulders. It fell to the floor, and she kicked it aside without breaking eye contact with me. I now recognized her luscious body, and the black public hair. She continued stalking me like a fat wildebeest. When I was between her and the bed she pounced knocking me onto the bed. She growled loudly as she clamped her jaws to my neck. I half expected a strong bite. Instead she sucked on my neck. "Brenda, I swear I didn't know it was you last night." That remark earned me a bite on my neck where it joined the shoulder. Her teeth were sharp.
