KISS THE WITCH by Dana Donovan

sabotaged the
ceremony, well…. I could not have that.
    Pressing on, I leaned in and kissed Ursula
on the east point of the circle. Continuing south, west and north,
I marked the points accordingly, asked the mothers to hear our plea
and kissed each one as before. By the time I drew the eye,
utilizing Ursula’s belly button as the centerpiece, I was getting
used to the idea of kissing her body. What’s more, the taste of
olive oil on my lips only made me want to continue kissing her. I
guess I was getting into it. A bit later, I am afraid I got into it
a little too much.
    I stood. Ursula responded by splaying her
arms, presenting the classic frisk stance Lilith assumed earlier.
And just as she had done with Lilith, I began her whole-body splash
by spreading my oiled thumbs along her forehead, across her cheeks,
chin, and down her nose.
    I do not remember dressing her neck and
shoulders. But I remember she did not flinch when my hands cascaded
down her breasts, my fingers rippling over her nipples. I feathered
my touch along her sides and returned to her breasts for more
thorough coverage. And there I lingered, perhaps too long. I
pressed my hands against her and moved them in slow swirling
motions counter to each other, lifting, squeezing in synch to the
rhythm of her shallow breathing. She rocked her head back gently. I
gathered her nipples between my oily index fingers and thumbs
pinched them. She held her breath and gasped when they slipped from
my grasp. I looked at her face, searched her ebony eyes in primal
curiosity. They never blinked. Behind me, Lilith cleared her
throat. I recoiled sharply and my hands fell away as if by some
invisible force. Still, Ursula’s gaze remained unchanged, fixed on
a forward light as distant as a star.
    I knelt before her and began on her legs. I
slid my hands up the inside of her thighs, my thumbs brushing her
lightly on a place I did not mean to touch. She smiled faintly.
    Embarrassed? Maybe, but not as much as
me.
    “ I’m sorry,” I told her.
“That was an accident.”
    She replied, “Aye, methinks you missed
it.”
    “ What?”
    Lilith said, “You have to anoint her entire
body, Tony. You cannot skip anything. It’s the trust factor,
remember?”
    “ And you’re okay with
that?”
    “ Of course.”
    I looked up at Ursula. “It’s okay?”
    She adjusted her stance wider. “I know thee
well and trust thee, Master Tony.”
    I re-oiled my hands, palmed her gently and
worked my fingers through her felted patch. It did not take long,
and perhaps no one should have been surprised, but something
natural began to stir both inside and outside me. I finished her
legs, and when she turned to let me do her back, I stood.
    That is when Lilith noticed it.
    “ What are you doing,
Tony?”
    I was not there yet, but my frightened
turtle was definitely losing his shyness. “Lilith,” I said. “I’m
sorry, but what do you expect?”
    “ I expect you to stop
it.”
    “ You want him to stop?”
said Ursula, looking back over her shoulder.
    “ No, honey, you just turn
around and let him finish what he’s doing.
    By then, I had gotten a handle on my
involuntary reflexes, mostly by thinking of the hell Lilith might
put me through if I did not.
    Having dodged that bullet, I proceeded to
apply the final touch (so to speak) to Ursula’s anointment ritual.
I tipped the bottle into my hand, allowing the overflow to spill
out and roll down her back. The beads skittered down her spine in
nervous procession, riding the swell below the small of her back
and disappearing single file between her cheeks. I saw her butt
muscles tighten at that, and the thought of doing it again caused
me to hesitate.
    Lilith said, “We’re running out of
candlelight, Tony.”
    I knew we were not. “Are we?”
    “ If you don’t move it
along.”
    “ Yes, of course.” I set
the bottle down, rubbed my palms together and proceeded in brisk
fashion to complete Ursula’s session. A few broad sweeps down