Driving Gail home from her yoga class�Prentice's car was still not fixed, and Gail had asked Laura again for a ride�Laura tried to control the undercurrent of her desire for the girl, who was so exasperating that it was hard not to discard her completely.� On the other hand, who could resist a good challenge?� And there remained something wildly fetching about Gail, despite her apparent reluctance to return Laura's attentions.

"So . . . how come you let me kiss you in The Casbah last time?" Laura asked her.

Gail shrugged and gave her a you-expect-me-to-know-the-answer-to-everything? look.� "You wanted to."

"You didn't?"

Gail pursed her enchanting lips.� "I really didn't care.� I wanted to please you."

"You know what would really please me."

"I'm not ready for that yet."

"Long wait," Laura said, with a trace�only a trace�of bitterness.

Gail crinkled her nose.� "You're married.� You must get enough.� Anyway, what if she knew you're flirting with me?"

"She would kill me.� But she doesn't know.� She won't know."

"Cheating makes it more exciting, doesn't it."

"Don't be nasty."� Laura gave her a tight smile.� She pulled up in front of Gail's apartment house in the Mission.

"Want to come up?" Gail asked brightly.

Laura sighed wearily, not knowing if she could go through that again.� "Maybe not."

"Oh, come on!� It won't hurt you.� Maybe you can meet Prentice, or Emily.� I'll make us a cup of tea."

"I'd rather have a drink."

"We don't have any alcohol."� Gail frowned.� "Or, maybe we do.� Prentice and his buddies drink, now and then.� I think mostly beer."

Laura was already driving around the block, looking for a plausible parking space.� I should know better, she told herself.� It gives me the cobbeywobbles, she heard Gail saying.� I'm not ready for that yet.� On the other hand, she was very disappointed in herself for being so single-minded about sex.� Just because I want to fuck her doesn't mean I can't be friendly and civilized, she admonished herself.� There's more to life than fucking, I guess.� Just wish she weren't so cute.�

Usually Laura did not go for 'cute,' but Gail was an exception.� On the surface she was indeed cute; adorable, in fact.� She had a tight little boyish body, slim hips, darling butt; sometimes she wore her cascades of blond curly hair in big side-saddle pigtails that made her look about thirteen.� Laura, who had steered clear of the underage nymphet sirens for a while, was nevertheless wildly susceptible to the schoolgirl look.� She could not help remembering how the two schoolgirl cheerleaders, Joy and Carmela, had seduced her into the most hair-raising orgies.

Or 'orghees,' as Jane, another underage firecracker in her past, had called them.

She found a legal parking place about two blocks from Gail's apartment house.� They traipsed back together.� Upstairs, no one was home, as before. Gail went into the kitchen and reappeared holding a half-empty bottle of vodka.

"Guess what?� You're in luck, you old alky.� Prentice must've left this.� You like vodka?"

"Better than mother's milk," Laura smiled.� "Just drop a couple of ice cubes in it."

Gail returned with Laura's drink, handing it to her with distaste, as if it were some sort of poison that only people over thirty drank.

"You don't have to look so disapproving," Laura told her, taking a gulp.� "Why don't you join me?"

"Euuchh!� Put that stuff inside my body?"

I can think of a few things attached to me that I'd like to put inside your pretty little body, Laura thought.� She could feel the familiar stirrings in her groin; partly the liquor, party Gail's completely ingenuous but alluring presence.� She again wore the loose-fitting basketball jersey with the huge crimson number 43 on the back.� You could see almost nothing of her slim little body under it.� But I can dream, can't I? Laura thought.

"Won't hurt you," Laura told her.� "Not one drink.� Maybe it'll make you want to share another kiss with me in the Casbah."

"You can't get that out of your dirty old mind, can you," Gail snapped, grinning.

She abruptly took Laura's glass out of her hand and put it on the nearby table.� Then she took Laura's hand and pulled her almost roughly down the hall, to the room in the back, the famous Casbah.� She pulled Laura inside and pointedly took the red necktie from its hook and hung it on the outside doorknob before closing the door behind them.

"My my . . . here we are," Laura said, looking around.� "Kind of dark in here.� Shouldn't we turn on the light?"

"I thought you wanted to kiss me.� You smell like vodka.� Yuck."

"Vodka doesn't smell."

"Want to bet?"

"Turn on the light so I can see you to kiss you."

Without answering, Gail suddenly pulled the basketball jersey up over her head and threw it carelessly to the side.� She wore a black bra; not a fancy, filigreed one, but a simple black bra.� It was dim in the room, but Laura could still see her wonderful, gleaming dark skin, lots of it.� Gail bent both hands behind her back to open the clasp, but Laura pulled her close.

"Let me do that."

"Why?"

"I like your body.� I want to kiss you."

Gail's eyes, in the semi-darkness, were now large and pulsing with meaning.� She was giving in and wanted Laura to know what a big moment it was for her.� "No, you want to fuck me," she whispered.

"That too," Laura said, before drinking her mouth in a voracious kiss that lasted a good two minutes.

Gail kissed back, though tentatively.� She opened her mouth to Laura's tongue but did not stick her own tongue into Laura's.� Nevertheless, she was breathing harder by the time their mouths came apart.� Laura kissed her smooth neck and her ear while unfastening her bra clasp behind her back.� She could taste the residue of sweat on Gail's body left by her earlier yoga exertions.

"You taste good," she murmured.� "Like yoga sweat."

"You're sick," Gail giggled softly.� "Liking the taste of vodka and sweat."

"I like the taste of you."

Laura kissed her shoulders and her throat, peeling the bra straps off her body, sliding them down her arms.� Gail's naked upper body was supple and smooth, though still a little sticky in spots from the dried sweat.� It reminded Laura a little of the taste of Ashley's body, days earlier, though there was really no comparison, save that both were small and fairly lean, Ashley a little fleshier than Gail, and much darker.� Gail was not light complexioned, but not coal black either, like darling Ashley.

Laura filled both hands with Gail's small, firm breasts.� She rubbed them and squeezed them and lightly pinched Gail's large black areolas in her fingers and thumbs.� She cradled one small breast in her palm and dropped her mouth to it.� The light in the room was coming in only through the draped window, but their eyes were now growing used to the dimness, and Gail watched intently as Laura drew almost her whole small breast into her mouth.