Pets: Bach's Story Read Online Free Page A

if she did get outside, he didn’t want to risk it. She was scared enough of him as it was. He didn’t even want to think how far back on the Trust Meter it would push him to have to chase her down on the lawn.
    Struggling to jump high enough to unlock the window latch, she must not have realized how close he was until he grabbed her. Little, slender, and frail though she might appear, she still fought him like fury: bucking, kicking, twisting, screaming and tossing her head wildly. As he pulled her close to his body and sat down with her on the floor, she latched onto his hand with both of hers and sank her teeth into his thumb.
    He’d already read the section on biting. Pretend it doesn’t hurt and you won’t create a habitual biter, the book had said. The pain shot out through his thumb and he grit his teeth, trying hard to make no sound. Blood trickled down his hand as her sharp teeth broke his skin.
    Pretend it doesn’t hurt, like hell, he thought and barely resisted the urge to thump her on the nose.
    With two gasped out whimpers, she abruptly gave up on biting and went back to fighting his hold, and Bach almost sighed with relief. He looked at his bloody thumb, then simply wrapped her in both arms and held her in his lap until she struggled herself into exhaustion.
    He crooned to her non-stop. “You’re all right, Pani. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.
    Settle down, Pani.”
    Eventually, she slumped into his embrace as limp as a wet rag.
    “There’s a good girl,” he murmured. He tentatively stroked her mess of a braided mane, and she cringed from his touch, turning her face away. But that was as much as she moved and he viewed it as an encouraging sign. Maybe she was coming to accept him.
    He held her for a good twenty minutes, constantly murmuring platitudes in her ear while caressing every part of her body from her face to her toes so she’d grow accustomed to his touch.
    Those pert little breasts of hers, with their rosy red tips, were just like a real woman’s breasts cupped in his hands. Her body tensed abruptly when he did that, but though her nipples stiffened when the pads of his thumbs rasped the tips, she still didn’t move.
    He stroked her shoulders and down her arms to her fingertips. Her waist was a trim as a doll’s, and she felt very warm between her thighs. Her breathing quickened and she made a soft whimpering sound when he cupped the mound of her femininity. It was easy to see why they were so popular for recreation, although it was a little repulsive trying to imagine fitting himself inside her small body.
    “There, you see. I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, sliding his hands down her legs to her tiny feet. Five toes, he noticed. How odd.
    She was trembling, staring straight ahead at nothing at all.
    That was enough socializing for now, he decided.
    Bach picked her up and carried her down the hall, past the kitchen, up the stairs to the second floor and past the master bedroom. While one day he did hope she’d be tame enough to sleep in his bed with him, he doubted if either one of them was up for that kind of battle tonight.
    So he carried her down the hall to the smallest of the three upstairs bedrooms.
    When his daughters were very young, this had been their nursery. It was within hearing range of the master bedroom and easily accessible in the middle of the night. The windows were also higher than in the living room, so there would be no jumping to reach the latches.
    He’d spent the entire weekend getting this room ready for Pani. He’d bought a crib and all the necessities the book had claimed were needed in order to be a proper care provider for a helpless human animal. There were blankets, clothes, and a basket-full of toys (brightly colored, multi-textured, and even some electrical gadgets designed to keep an intellectual pet mentally stimulated for hours) nestled up to the wall between the diaper hamper and crib.
    He set Pani down in her new bed, and she