The Pet Shop (19 page)

They both smiled and nodded.

Before she could respond, the Boss spoke. ‘You would continue on at Strigida, as Anne has, in the guise of my executive secretary, but all of your responsibilities would be at the Pet Shop. If you take us up on our offer, your salary will be double what it is now at Strigida with a very hefty benefits package, not the least of which includes unlimited access to any of the keeper-trained Pets.’

Stella’s salary at Strigida was substantial. The thought of doubling it left her breathless. As for access to the Pets, well, there was only one Pet she wanted access to, and she wasn’t quite sure why the thought of being able to have Tino at her command whenever she wanted him didn’t quite feel right.

Stella suddenly forgot about how hungry she was. ‘So all of this has been a test? And offering me Tino in the beginning?’

‘Tino was available,’ the Boss said. ‘And we figured if you would accept our gift, and if you could handle Tino, then you were definitely the right choice for the position. And all of your interaction with the Pet Shop so far has done nothing but confirm you as our choice.’

Silence stretched between them. Outside in the garden an owl trilled. The Boss’s cup clinked as he sat it back on the saucer. ‘Well? What do you think?’

Stella remembered to breathe. ‘Just because I can be a Pet doesn’t mean I can run the Pet Shop.’

‘Of course not, hon,’ Anne said. ‘It was other skills, skills you’ve demonstrated at Strigida that convinced us you could run the Pet Shop. The fact that you have Pet experience, and can handle tough Pets so well, that means you’ll understand the inner workings of what makes the Pet Shop such a special place in a way I’ve never been able to. And frankly, your lack of family who might cause a conflict of interest, along with your noted reputation among your previous employers for being a workaholic were factors in our choice as well.’

‘As for taking the reins of the Pet Shop,’ the Boss said, ‘of course we’ll see to your training. You’ll be working with the best people, and we’ll make sure that you’re not left on your own until you’re ready.’

‘I’m flattered that you’re considering me.’ Stella wasn’t sure that she actually was flattered, but her default was always polite business mode. She took a deep breath, wiped suddenly sweaty palms on her trousers and continued. ‘This is too much for me to take in right now. I didn’t expect this, and I need to think about it.’

‘Of course, of course.’ The Boss offered a reassuring smile. ‘We didn’t expect an answer tonight. We know it’s a big decision, and an important one.’

Anne leant so far forward that her arse was nearly off the sofa. ‘What we need to know is that you’re considering it, Stel.’ Suddenly she sounded like Stella’s friend again. She reached out, took Stella’s hand and squeezed. ‘We need to know that it’s a position you could see yourself in.’

Stella nodded, suddenly finding it difficult to speak. ‘It is. Of course, but–’

‘But you’re exhausted, hungry, and you need some space to think.’ The Boss spoke as though he’d read her mind. ‘We understand completely. When you get home, you’ll find a new password in your email. It’ll allow you access to areas of the Pet Shop website that will answer some of your questions and perhaps help you with your decision. Then we’d like to bring you back here tomorrow afternoon to show you around the place, give you a feel for it – from a non-Pet perspective, of course – and answer any questions you may have. There’ll be dinner and a chance to meet a few of the more senior handlers.’ He made a gesture around the conservatory. ‘A room’s been prepared for you here in the cottage for the night if you’d like, and a limo will take you back to London in the morning.’ He held her gaze. ‘I’m sorry to say Tino won’t be here to share your bed. He’s been called away to other responsibilities.’ She didn’t miss the visible tension in Anne’s shoulders at the mention of Tino sharing her bed. ‘So if you prefer to go home, there’s a limo waiting to take you back. Of course you won’t be expected in the office tomorrow. After all, it’s our fault that you’re getting home late, and you’ll be expected here later in the day.’

Feeling strangely disconnected, Stella chose the latter.

‘I don’t like her connection to Tino and Vincent. We could lose her if she finds out Vincent’s involvement.’ Anne spoke as the limo pulled away taking Stella back to London. ‘God, I told you from the beginning we shouldn’t have sent her Tino.’

‘And I told you, I had no more choice in sending her Tino than you did. The decision wasn’t mine to make.’

‘Lots of decisions don’t seem to be yours to make any more, or mine, and that’s a part of what bothers me.’

‘Annie, darling, Vincent wants Stella to take over the Pet Shop too, remember? That’s why he sent her Tino.’

‘He did want her to take over the Pet Shop.’ Anne shivered and pulled the light cardigan she wore tight around her to ward off a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. ‘But that was before he started wanting her for other things, and those other things have nothing whatsoever to do with business, we both know that. Whatever the relationship is between the two of them, it’s a complication that frightens me, Alan, a complication that could ruin all our plans.’

He slipped an arm around her and caressed the nape of her neck. ‘Are you so anxious to get away from me, Annie?’

She shrugged free of him. ‘Don’t do this, Alan. Don’t make me the villain. This has always been the plan. It’s a part of why I wanted to keep our relationship on a business level.’ She turned on her heels and headed back toward the big house, but he caught her by the arm.

‘Things change, Annie. Plans change.’ He pulled her close and kissed her. When he released her, he offered a tight smile. ‘Don’t worry about Vincent. I’ll talk to him. I’m sure he doesn’t want Stella to know about his involvement in our plan any more than you do.’

‘Oh I’m sure he doesn’t want her to know either. In fact he probably wants her to know even less than I do. I’m just not sure his reasons are still the same as ours. In fact, every time the two of them are together, I’m less and less sure, especially when I see how little control we actually have over the situation.’

As Alan led her upstairs to the suite they would share for the night, Anne found herself wondering about his reasons as well. As he undressed her and explored her, as that familiar feeling of euphoria, the feeling she only had when she was with him, expanded in her chest and filled every cell in her body, for a brief second, just before he entered her, just before he filled her until she was too full to think of anything but him, she doubted her own reasons.

S
TELLA WOULD HAVE NOTICED
him standing there if she hadn’t still been ruminating over the Boss and Anne’s proposal to run the Pet Shop as she climbed the stairs to her flat. She had just dug the keys out of her pocket when she stopped short and uttered a little cry.

Standing by her door with his arms folded tightly across his chest was Vincent. He was dressed in jeans and a light cotton shirt. In spite of the fact that he was well scrubbed, the stubble was gone from his chin and his hair was almost manageable, he breathed as though he had been running a marathon. His gaze was hard. His mouth set in a tight line. ‘What took you so long?’

‘The driver took the scenic route.’ Actually, she didn’t know what route the driver took because the windows of the limo had been especially darkened to prevent VIP Pets from seeing where they were. She tried to smile, but she could feel her lips twitch at one corner.

She fumbled with the keys then dropped them, but he caught them before they hit the floor and handed them back to her, moving close behind her like an impatient shadow waiting as she struggled with the lock. He was close enough that she could feel the body heat radiating off him.

‘I wasn’t expecting you,’ she breathed. She was furious at herself that she was nervous; even more furious that it was so totally obvious.

He placed his hand over hers and steadied her. The key slid home and the door opened. ‘Tino didn’t get nearly enough of you this weekend,’ he whispered against her ear.

‘Tino’s not here.’ She shrugged him off and went inside with him right behind her.

She barely managed to shut the door before he pinned her against it and kissed her hard, his tongue slipping between her lips and making itself at home like it owned the place. And her tongue was a willing welcome party. He didn’t bother to pull away as he spoke, just pressed his words into her mouth with little nips and darts. ‘Do you have a problem with that?’

‘What?’ she replied, nibbling at his lip. ‘That Tino takes the punishment and you get the rewards?’ She lowered her hands to his denim-covered arse cheeks and gave them a hard knead, hard enough to make him suck a pained breath. ‘Why should I have a problem with that?’

He let out a low, wicked chuckle and rubbed against her until she could feel the press of his heavy penis through the tight stretch of his jeans. ‘I promise I’ll share with him, 50-50 just like I shared his sore ass.’ He reached to pull her T-shirt off over her head but she slapped his hands away and sidestepped.

‘I’m not your Pet tonight, Vincent. I take my own clothes off.’ She wrestled the shirt off but as he reached for her breasts, she shrugged away and nodded for him to take his off too.

With hands that were suddenly awkward, he fumbled at the buttons. He cursed under his breath then finally gave up and yanked the shirt over his head.

‘And the jeans, take them off too.’ She was already stepping out of her standard Pet Shop-issue trousers. ‘I want you naked and gagging for it just like Tino.’

‘I promise you,’ he said shoving his jeans and boxers down to his ankles in one swift move, nearly tripping himself in his efforts to step out of them, ‘Tino couldn’t possibly want you more than I do right now.’ He reached for her again, but she stepped back, and he cursed out loud.

‘When you come to me in my home and you share my bed then you stay until I say you can leave. Are we clear?’

‘Crystal. You’ll have to chase me out with a broom.’ He set her on fire standing there naked, head unbowed, cock thrust in front of him at full attention, large hands clenched at his side. And his arse, she thought, his lovely arse was still aching from Tino’s spanking. He was shockingly unlike Tino, couldn’t be less like Tino if he tried. She wondered if he did try, but she wondered only for the briefest of seconds before she launched herself at him mouth first.

He cupped her arse and lifted her onto him as though she weighed nothing. There was no fumbling, no shifting for position. His cock knew the way, and her pussy yielded to his press with slippery eagerness.

He manoeuvred until her back was against the slightly rough press of the wall, then he thrust hard, raking upward against her pubis and over her distended clit until she gasped. ‘Tino left me with the taste of you on my tongue,’ he said. ‘And my whole body smelt of your sex. I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t go back home without more of you.’ Then he stopped talking, and if she closed her eyes and listened to the way he grunted, the way he growled, the way he caught his breath, Tino and Vincent were the same, both there, both pounding her cunt relentlessly, and Vincent was no less of an animal than Tino.

She grabbed him by the hair and pulled his mouth to hers biting and tonguing her way closer to his breath. Her body thrust to meet his with pounding and scraping of flesh, and in the press her clit felt nearly as big as his cock and as desperate to come. The wall abraded her shoulders and her coccyx. She locked her heels around his waist and squeezed to get still closer to the imminent explosion. And when it happened he jerked and clawed at her hips. She banged her head on the wall as heat seared through her, flashing white-hot and shimmering then collapsing in on itself to ever-more gentle tremors around his jerking cock.

As he pulled away and settled her on her feet, leaving her at the peril of her wobbly legs, she cupped a hand against her vulva and pressed until her palm was drenched in their combined juices, then, holding his gaze, she wiped it up over her belly and onto her aching breasts.

He half growled as he inhaled their blended scent, nostrils flared, lips parted, taking the smell of them into the back of his throat like she’d seen cats do. Then he slid his hand between her legs and followed suit until his chest and belly glistened with a sheen of their heat.

With a series of nips and kisses and playful shoves more Pet-like than she’d actually intended, she pushed him onto the couch and forced his legs apart. Then she straddled one leg at a time, pressing her labia wide, undulating, grinding, rubbing her wet cunt up and down the length of each thigh, delighting in the way his cock already squirmed and jerked in response to her marking him.

And suddenly she was as anxious to taste as she was to mark. She knelt between his spread legs and took in his scent, licked her way up the inside of his thigh until she could flick the tip of her tongue over the pliant skin cupping his balls. Then she worked her way up below his penis to the place that smelt yeasty and urgent.

He ground against her and curled his fingers in her hair. ‘Thought you weren’t my Pet tonight.’ He forced the words up through his tight chest.

She rubbed her face against his balls, feeling his tentative gasp of protectiveness. ‘Not all animals are Pets.’ She worked her way beneath his balls teasing and tonguing back toward the grip of his anus. He lifted his feet onto the coffee table on either side of her and pressed up, sucking air at the extra pressure on his sore bottom as she moved her hands beneath to cup him and spread him until he was completely exposed to her. His back-hole clenched and relaxed as she pressed a tentative finger to it then he released a low belly grunt as she pushed at it with the tensed tip of her tongue. ‘Jesus, Stel, that feels good.’

‘Do you like being fucked in there?’ she asked, spitting on her fingers and easing one into his grudging tightness.

‘I do,’ he breathed. ‘Does that bother you?’

‘It intrigues me, turns me on, actually.’

‘What about you?’ he asked. ‘Do you like being fucked back there?’

‘Never actually been.’ She was surprised to feel the heat of a blush.

He pulled away, and there was a tangle of arms and legs and something bony hitting the edge of the coffee table before he settled onto the sofa with her on top of him. Then he ran a hand around to caress her back-hole. ‘Would you like to?’

Her stomach did a nervous flip-flop. ‘You’re so big. Do you think we could?’

He held her gaze with a look that was slightly frightening, but mostly sexy. Then it softened to something almost tender. ‘We can stop whenever you want. Just say the word.’ He offered her his delicious smile. ‘After all, as you reminded me, you’re not my Pet at the moment.’

She led him into the bedroom. Better that she was in the place she felt most comfortable for the first time, he said. He asked for her vibrator, which he laid on the nightstand where he could reach it, along with a bottle of lube then he settled into a spoon position and lifted her upper thigh so that her leg was bent at the knee and her foot rested on the mattress giving him easy access. When he had her positioned like he wanted her, he reached down over her belly, slipped his fingers into her cunt, and began to stroke. ‘We’ll use your own juices at first,’ he chuckled softly, ‘and mine, of course, but when I push into you, I want you as slippery as possible, so we’ll use lots of lube. OK, Stel?’

She nodded, already feeling the swell of his cock pressing against her bottom. ‘And the vibrator?’ her voice sounded breathless, a little more frightened than she wanted it to be.

He kissed her ear. ‘I’ve only got one cock. What else are we going to fill your pussy with?’

For a time he caressed and fondled, stroking her heavy breasts, giving her clit an occasional tweak, kissing and nuzzling her neck. When she had relaxed into his cuddling, he probed her pussy until his fingers were slick with their juices, then he easily slid a middle finger into her anus. She tensed and caught her breath and felt her pussy gush in response to the invasion.

‘All right?’ he asked, stroking a nipple in reassurance with his other hand.

She nodded and pressed back against him.

By the time he inserted the second finger and had begun to scissor and thrust, she was feeling uncomfortably full and yet desperately wanting more. By the time he had reached for the lube and hinted at a third finger, both of his hands were engaged in the back door business. ‘Stel, sweetheart,’ his voice was tight with arousal, and though she couldn’t see his cock, she could feel the press of it against her arse cheek when he moved just right. ‘Play with your pussy for me. I want you right at the edge when I push into you. That’s it,’ he sighed as she slid two fingers into her gape and began to thumb her hard clit. ‘That’s my girl.’

He needn’t have worried about her level of arousal, the very thought of what he was doing, what he was about to do, the tight full feeling in her anus, the forward press against the back wall of her vagina had her well buzzing with arousal slightly tinged in fear.

‘Now relax, sweetheart, just relax and let me ease my cock in slowly.’ His voice was barely more than a tight whisper against the back of her shoulders. Then she felt his warm breath on her bottom and she knew he was looking at her lewdly gaping backside, positioning himself just right to fill her. That in itself was almost enough to make her come. She felt one large hand holding her buttocks apart then she felt the press of the slick head of his penis against her worried pucker. ‘You’re nice and dilated. Are you ready for me, sweetheart?’

She whimpered and nodded, fingers resting tight against her clit, suddenly forgetting the task at hand as she concentrated on the slight shifting of his hips that pushed him forward forcing her open with a slow, but relentless press.

‘That’s it, that’s my Stel. You’re doing so well, your hole is so ready for me, and I need to fuck you there so badly.’

She felt as though her pelvic girdle were being pried apart from the bottom up, and yet the more intense the pressure and the push in her anus the more her pussy gushed against her fingers, the more the buzz of arousal was amplified.

She moaned and gasped against the insistent invasion of her impaler. ‘I want you to fuck me back there, Vincent. I want you to fill me full.’ Then she took a deep breath and shoved back onto his cock as hard as she could. The sound from her throat was animal, pain and pleasure splitting her apart.

It was Vincent holding her hips kissing her shoulder that brought her back. ‘Sh! Stel, Sh. I’m in now. I’m in. Relax, that’s my girl, just relax, and get used to it.’ Then he reached for the vibrator, first pressing with gentle strokes on a low setting just at the parting of her labia and up almost to the base of her clit. Then he turned up the setting and pushed in deeper until she could feel the press of it on the thin wall that separated the fair-sized vibrator from the large cock up her arse.

She hadn’t realised it, but he had let her initiate the thrusting, and she wasn’t quite certain when she overcame the fear of being split in two and began to slowly move against him, but thrusting she was, and he was thrusting too, gently at first, but building in depth and momentum until he felt confident she could accommodate him.

His timing was exquisite, his coordination perfect as he manoeuvred the vibrator to rake deliciously against her g-spot in perfect rhythm to his thrust in her arse. At first she had lain very still, moving nothing but her hips and that only marginally, but as Vincent turned up the vibrator and as she grew used to the delicious, uncomfortable fullness, thrusting became writhing, and writhing became squirming and wallowing over the bed.

‘I can’t hold back much longer, Stel,’ he gasped. ‘I have to come.’ And as though her own orgasm were voice activated by him, she came in a tidal wave that crashed and pounded inside her until she was certain she would break apart, barely aware at the back of her mind of the warm spurt of Vincent’s semen up into her nether-hole.

Later in the bath, she let him clean her gently with a terry washcloth. ‘Hopefully you won’t be too sore tomorrow.’ He smiled up at her. ‘I could barely walk after my first time.’ He held her gaze. ‘But then you know I like it rough sometimes.’ She thought she saw a tinge of a blush crawl up his cheek.

‘Then do I need to learn to be rough?’

He laughed softly. ‘After the way you put Tino in his place this past weekend, I think you already know how to be rough when it suits you.’ He soaped her breasts, bringing her nipples to white foamy peaks.

‘Do you like it better with men?’ she asked.

‘Not better, no. But I like it well enough,’ he shrugged. ‘Or Tino does at least. Vincent’s never really been with a man.’