Rachel and Amanda had agreed to get together at about the midpoint of Rachel's practice sessions. There was an unspoken understanding that this would be a good time for either of them to back out of their June nineteenth date...

"So, how are your hunts going?" Amanda said this over dinner in a deliberately casual manner, not wanting to pry for details.

"The score at half-time is hunters three and a half, Rachel one half." A half-smile, a slight shrug.

Amanda seemed both puzzled and displeased with that answer. "I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, but there won't be any 'half' wins in our hunt."

"I realize that," Rachel said. "No split decision. Winner take all."

"Well, you've got four more practices to go." Amanda did her best to be encouraging. She did not, however, go on to remind Rachel that, if she did not feel she had a chance, the hunt could be canceled.

Neither woman wanted to be the first to ask if the other wanted to drop out.

The subject was dropped.

Later, in bed, their third pair of mutual orgasms having been achieved, Amanda took Rachel atop of her, wrapped her arms and legs about the smaller woman, and asked, "Do you like this? Do you like being wrapped up in me?"

Rachel pressed her check against Amanda's. "Yes."

"Wouldn't you like me touching you all over at the same time? Covering almost every inch of your body?"

"Yes."

"Wouldn't you like to be surrounded by me? Encased in me?"

"Yes, oh, yes."

"Me between you and the rest of the universe? Almost nothing touching you except through me?"

"Yes." Rachel stroked Amanda's shoulder.

"I'd like that too, Rachel. I'd like to be always with you, always surrounding you. One way or the other. One way or the other."

Rachel kissed Amanda fully and passionately with an open mouth on the lips, engaging in a tongue wrestling match, the only kind of fight she had any confidence of winning against Amanda.

Hours later, thoroughly satisfied, the lovers prepared to drift off to sleep in each other's arms.

"Who was Vicky?" Rachel asked idly, running a finger around Amanda's left nipple.

"Oh, you mean the wannabe who tried to steal my quarry from me? Vicky the Barbarian. She thought the hunt was some kind of costume party." Amanda went on to tell the story pretty much as Rachel had heard it from Steve, ending with. "Nobody for you to be jealous of, even if she weren't dead. She wasn't my type, and I guess I wasn't hers either. I thought she had a crush on me until I saw her coming at me with a sword big enough to slice a horse in half. I didn't want to kill her, though. I gave her to the other hunters to do with as they pleased. It pleased them to roast her alive."

Wouldn't kill Vicky, but she'd kill me quickly enough, Rachel thought.