The Pet Shop (14 page)

‘And when you were done peeing, when you were back in the jeep, I would have had to fuck you while you stood holding on to the roll bar. I would have had to shove my way into all that slickness and let your pussy grip me and grind me until I made you even more slippery.’

With a little whimper, she leant forward and began licking his heavy bulge through the jeans.

His breath caught in his throat, and he let out a deep groan, curling his fingers in her hair. ‘Jesus, woman, I want you all over me. I want you so bad. I’ve wanted you since the moment I first saw you in your silly pink shoes.’ He fumbled with the buckle of his belt and then practically ripped the fly out of his jeans, shoving them down just far enough to release his cock, which practically jumped spring-loaded into her waiting mouth. But she lingered only long enough to give him a cursory lick, before she squatted over him. His big hands grasped her hips and guided her down onto his anxious penis, and he eased out a trembling sigh as she swallowed him into her cunt.

There was invisible household help who had cooked delicious food – lovely, messy, spicy Mexican food for him to feed her – followed by dark chocolate mousse with home-grown raspberries which she happily ate off his chest. There was a bathtub big enough for a pool party and delicious natural-scented bubbles rubbed and massaged all over her. There were thick towels the colour of the trees that grew outside Vincent’s window. After he had lotioned every inch of her body, she followed him into the bedroom and sat quietly on the Navajo rug by the side of the bed, watching as he pulled back the duvet and slipped out of his dark terry robe. Once he was settled in and he’d turned off the lights, she waited, holding her breath.

At last she heard him sigh. ‘Well?’

Silence.

‘I haven’t had to spank you or take away your dessert privileges, and you’ve made me come very effectively ... several times. So I’d say you’ve been a good Pet.’ She heard him pat the mattress. ‘Come on. Up you come.’ When she sprang onto the bed next to him, he was holding back the covers. Then he settled her into a spoon position, cradled tightly against the curve of his warm body. ‘Sleep well, Stel. We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow.’

‘S
HE’S BEEN SENT WHERE
?’ O’Kelly catapulted upright in her bed, her grip on the phone suddenly white knuckled.

‘To Oregon, the Northwest Coast, you know. To be with–’

‘To be with Vincent Evanston, yes, I didn’t miss that fact, believe me I didn’t.’

‘Didn’t think you would,’ the Boss replied.

O’Kelly sat on the edge of her bed and grabbed for her robe.

Before she had a chance to respond, the Boss continued. ‘Vincent made it very clear to the Pet Shop that he wanted Stella this weekend, and that he wouldn’t take no for an answer.’

‘Damn it! This could ruin everything.’ She jerked the sash tight around her waist and scrubbed a hand through her hair. ‘Didn’t you try to stop him? Didn’t you think it important enough to let me know?’

‘I am letting you know. Right now.’ The frustration in the Boss’s voice was unusual. It got O’Kelly’s full attention. ‘I wasn’t trying to keep it from you. By the time I found out it was already a done deal. I’ve just been scrambling to sort out what’s going on. I didn’t expect Vincent to go behind our backs and take matters into his own hands. He’s never bothered before. He’s never cared one way or another as long as the Pet Shop runs smoothly.’

‘I can’t believe this is happening. Jesus, I can’t believe this is happening.’ Then it suddenly occurred to her. She didn’t know why she didn’t think of it before. ‘Were you and Vincent in cahoots sending Tino to Stella that first time?’

‘O’Kelly, I–’

‘Just answer my question. Were you?’

The heavy silence on the other end of the phone was answer enough, but she waited for it; she wanted to hear the words. She wanted him to confess. At last he spoke over a sigh that sounded almost painful. ‘When I told Vincent about Stella, that we thought she was the person we’d been looking for, he insisted that Tino be sent to her. He wanted to see firsthand our choice for your replacement. He thought it would be the perfect test. I tried to talk him out of it, I did. But in the end I had no say in the matter.’

‘And you couldn’t be arsed to tell me, even though I supposedly run the Pet Shop.’

‘I was sworn to secrecy.’

‘Bullshit!’ she exploded. ‘You fucked the man! Twice.’ She fought back angry tears, thankful he couldn’t see her. She wiped her eyes fiercely with the back of her hand. ‘Then the two of you pass secrets behind my back that affect my life and my career like I’m some damn pawn in your kinky little game.’

‘Jesus, O’Kelly, I fucked a lot of people and didn’t report back, and so did you. What are you, jealous?’

‘You bastard! I don’t care if you fuck each other’s brains out from here to China and back every night.’ She sprang up from the bed feeling like her chest would burst, fighting back the urge to hit something. ‘But that you two went behind my back to send Tino to poor unsuspecting Stella.’ She stabbed her index finger in the air for emphasis. ‘That you two fucking went behind my back like I’m nothing more than one of the paid Pets,
that
I do care about.’

‘O’Kelly, I–’

She hung up on him. Just like that, she cut him off, completely un-business-like, completely unprofessional. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she buried her face in her hands and sobbed like some bloody teenager. Keeping things from her. Hadn’t that been the reason she’d left him back in uni? How could she ever trust a man who kept secrets from her? Hadn’t she taken this position against her better judgment? She was an intelligent woman. She should have known, but she let him get to her, just like she always did. And here she was again right back where she’d been in uni, being kept in the dark. Well, it was enough. Damn it, it was enough!

She was busy packing when the Boss rang the doorbell. She knew it was him. Who else could it be in the middle of the night? She knew if she didn’t let him in, he wouldn’t go away until he’d woken all the neighbours. She threw open the door then turned back to her bedroom and the packing, leaving him to close it, but not before she felt his gaze take in the thin silk robe she had pulled on when he called. She found herself wishing for the protective barrier of her power suit.

He closed the door and followed her down the hall, then just stood silently in the doorway watching her fold her underwear and place it in the bag.

At last he spoke into the stretched silence. ‘Where are you going?’

‘On holiday. I’ve earned it,’ she replied, relieved that she’d had time to calm herself and regain a modicum of control before he showed up. ‘Then after that. Well, I don’t know after that.’

‘Annie, I’m sorry.’

Her modicum of control crumbled, and the room fractured through a mist of threatening tears. Did he have to call her that now?
It wasn’t fair him trying to defuse her anger by being sweet. He’d taken to calling her O’Kelly when she started working for Strigida. He’d done it because he was angry at her for setting the hands-off rule for their working relationship. She had retaliated by calling him “the Boss” and “sir”. It had hurt at first, but it had become safe, and now he was ripping all of that away. She squared her shoulders and kept packing, kept her back to him hoping he wouldn’t notice how she was shaking. ‘I can’t trust you, Alan. That’s the truth of it. I couldn’t trust you back in uni, and I can’t trust you now. Nothing has really changed, has it?’

‘Wait a minute, I’ll admit I made a stupid mistake not telling you why I sent Tino to Stella, but what the hell does uni have to do with any of this?’ He was across the floor in a heartbeat, taking her shoulders in a firm grip and forcing her to face him, oblivious to the pair of socks tightly clenched in her hand. ‘What the hell do you mean you couldn’t trust me in uni?’

She jerked away from him with such force that she nearly fell backward onto the bed. ‘Oh please, don’t play innocent with me, Alan. When were you planning to tell me you were going back to the States? When were you planning to tell me about the job Vincent had offered you? Were you just going to casually call me from the airport in Portland when you got there? And all the while here’s me thinking we’d be off to Manchester together like we’d planned.’

He blinked and sucked a harsh breath between his teeth. ‘What the ...? Is that what this is all about? You never gave me a chance to tell you anything, in case you’ve forgotten.
You
were the one calling
me
from the airport in Cape Town, South fucking Africa! You just left, no explanation. No nothing, so don’t go putting all this on me.’

She wiped angrily at her eyes. ‘What difference did it make who called who from what airport? If our relationship didn’t matter any more than that, what difference did it make?’

‘Didn’t matter? Jesus, Annie, how can you even say that? I didn’t tell you about the plan to go to work with Vincent because there was no plan. He’d just asked me. I was thinking about it, but I had no intention of going anywhere without you, and Vincent knew that. You were an asset he’d have put to good use. Vincent may be a reclusive naturalist, but he’s still his father’s son where business is concerned. And it would have been good, Annie. It would have been really good whether we’d gone to the States or not. But you took the choice out of my hands, didn’t you? And I didn’t know why. You didn’t even have the decency to tell me why.’ He caught his breath in a heavy gulp and added, ‘How did you know? About Vincent’s job offer?’

She suddenly felt lightheaded, and the room didn’t seem real. Her voice felt like it came from a long way away. ‘He called when you were out.’

He took a step closer to her. ‘And you didn’t think it might be a good idea to discuss it with me, to ask me about it?’

She shrugged helplessly. ‘He talked like it was a done deal. He talked like it was the plan all along.’

‘Well fuck, Annie! It probably was
his
plan all along. He’s Vincent Evanston, for chrissake.’ There was an uncomfortable silence. She didn’t know what to say. She just stood next to the bed with a pair of stupid socks gripped in one hand as the reality she thought she knew disintegrated. It was the hard accusation in his eyes that held her, riveted her to the shred of reality that was the two of them arguing in her bedroom.

‘I never kept anything from you, Annie. You just never trusted me enough to ask.’

In the struggle to hold it all together, to give herself space to think, she turned back to her packing.

He continued. ‘I never imagined Vincent would make an appearance to Stella. I can’t even remember the last time I saw the man. Tino, yes, but not Vincent. I know you tried to warn me about his feelings for her, but I just couldn’t believe it. Not Vincent, not the man I knew. His fortress was unassailable. I didn’t see it coming, none of it. He’s never taken a Pet, you know he hasn’t, not in the history of the Pet Shop. Annie, I never planned any of this, and I never meant to deceive you. Annie, damn it! Will you listen to me?’

With a sweep of his arm, he shoved the suitcase off the bed onto the floor, sending clothing cascading everywhere.

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing? You can’t just waltz in here and–’

Before she could turn on him, he moved in close behind her and pulled her against him, holding her to his body, arms folded tightly over her ribs just below her breasts. ‘I apologise for keeping the plan to send Tino to Stella from you. I was wrong. It was a stupid mistake.’ His breath came hot and fast against her nape. ‘But I won’t apologise for something I never did, something you’ve held against me all these years.’ The brush of his lips against her ear caused a wave of gooseflesh down over her breasts. He tightened his embrace, and she became aware of his cock pressing through his trousers against her bottom.

‘I never meant to hurt you. That would be the last thing I’d ever want to do. But you haven’t made it easy with all your damn rules. Still, I’ve kept them, Annie. I have, for you. But I never wanted them. And now, I’m breaking them, and I won’t apologise for that either.’ His hand shifted enough to cup her breasts and rake a thumb across her erect nipples pressing against the silk robe.

The sound that escaped her throat was wounded, needy. She tried to wriggle away, but he held her tight. His fingers worried the half knot at the belt of her robe loose, and he slid his hands inside to caress exposed belly and breast. Suddenly she couldn’t get enough breath into her lungs. The groan that vibrated against her neck sounded anguished as he pulled her closer, forcing his hips forward until the growing bulge at his groin pressed tight against her arse. His caressing of her breasts was tentative at first, as though he were afraid of another escape attempt, but when she pressed into his hand, his fondlings became greedy, possessive.

It was accidental, she told herself, her shifting into his hand. She had no intention of moving, no intention of giving in to him, and yet ...

His mouth laved and nipped and suckled over her neck and onto an advancing trail of bare shoulder as he pushed the robe away with his nuzzling. His other hand trailed a ticklish path over her ribs past her navel until it moved to cup her bare mons. When he slipped fingers down to stroke her clit and press in between her labia, a little sob of a sigh escaped both of their throats. She couldn’t believe her own wetness in spite of her anger, in spite of her stress.

The hand that had been cupping her breasts moved behind to grope her buttocks lightly before slipping in between her thighs. In the soundtrack of heavy breathing, she heard the zip of his fly and the slide of fabric as he manoeuvred his penis free. Impatiently, he shoved aside the back of her robe until she felt the anxious weight of him pressing between her arse cheeks. Then he took his cock in his hand and forced it downward over her perineum, to where her labia flared swollen and slick.

Instinct took over. She bent forward against the brace of his other hand pressed low on her belly and forced her hips back, easing his path. And he was there, right at the entrance of her pussy, pressed up ready, as though he were leaving the decision to her. But as extra incentive, his middle and index fingers slid tightly up and down each side of her clit in a tetchy wet pinch of friction that made her hump and shift, made her cunt-hole grip and pout. And when she was pouting open and aching, he pushed into her, offering up a trembling sigh against her ear.

‘Annie, I’ve wanted this for so long.’ His words were clipped, caught tight amid his struggle to breath. His hips undulated in little circles as though he were sneaking around, as though he were still afraid she would push him away if she found out what he was up to.

And in truth, she was afraid of that too. There were so many reasons not to fuck the man she worked with, not to fuck the man who broke her heart all those years ago back in uni, the man who was so damned oblivious he didn’t even know it. And yet, hadn’t he just taken all those reasons away from her in just a few rushed sentences? All these years it would have taken only that much and nothing more.

Her own movements mirrored his, moving just enough to get the right friction in the right place, shifting just enough that his cock raked her exactly where she needed it. She slid one hand down to press his fingers tighter against her clit, making certain he knew she didn’t want him to stop. She lifted one knee onto the bed, feeling like one of the Pets exposing herself, making her lewd gaping pussy more easily available for him to ride.

He pushed up tight into the space she had made, suddenly so enthusiastic in his efforts that he nearly shoved her forward onto the bed. A hand moved up her ribs to steady her then up to pinch and stroke and tug at her breasts.

She was trembling all over with orgasm long before she wanted to be, completely taken by surprise like a teenager with no control.

‘That’s what I want,’ he whispered breathlessly against her nape. ‘I want to make you come, Annie. I want to make you come again and again.’ Then he shoved into her hard and allowed himself to come like he’d been holding it for days.