Arrive at your house

The ride home was more of a blur than a scenic tour that it could have been and they talked about his flight over. Forty minutes later they were pulling into a neighborhood depressed back from the city bustle. As she pulled up the inclined drive, it leveled out onto the cobbled stone landing and she opened the doors.

“This is the hard part.” She ducked out of the car in a bob and weave motion that Doe was too intimidated by to attempt a mocking of. To his dismay, she had been ready with the video camera on her phone as he plunged out the door, getting caught on the floorboard and barely landing on all fours. “Rawrrrrrrrr,” she growled being cute, “did not know the bear had come to play with the kitty. Bears can walk on just their back feet, you know. You don’t have to appear on the prowl.”

Doe looked up in time to see the camera’s lens trained towards him. A shock of embarrassment flushed his skin but then she brushed at his sleeve as though it were dirty from a fall and kissed him on the cheek. “Are you hungry? I am starving.” Doe was starving as well. He had been hungry coming off the plane hours ago but John had proved a well-placed distraction by feeding his other hungers. He was both hungry and starving still.

They stepped through the French doors of deep mahogany and into the foyer. John kicked off her shoes under a bench and signaled for him to do the same. It caught her attention to hear his feet padding down the hall behind her. She had missed those subtle signs of other life. So had the dogs. Beauregarde’s frantic warning was coming from the back door. Doe paused, watching the black lab trying desperately to rescue a mutual love of theirs. John sighed, “We may as well get this over with. He won’t bite…” she opened the door, “…hard.”

Beau’s claws slipped and slid him across the wood floor path to his new enemy. Stopping just out of arm’s reach, he sniffed and snorted the air with wild eyes. Then, he took off around the corner of the couch and was heard heading back to Doe with only a moment's pause. His rope was hanging in his teeth and his tail was wagging. Doe grabbed the other end and was nearly pulled over save the wood floor taunting the pooch.

John smiled to herself, happy to see her dear friend with a dog again. She was happy to see her pup with a man on the other end of his rope. “The initiation process has begun. Better settle in because this takes about 20 minutes before he will consider setting you free. Sorry, his rules, not mine. And he is kind of the man of the house right now. I’ll be right back.” With that, John climbed up the stairs.

Doe was briefly distracted as he watched her ass and legs tense with each step up. “Damn…” he muttered.

WHACK! “DAMN!” Doe yelped as Beau wrapped the thick rope’s knotted end around his leg. As if the dog had understood him… he thought. “Ok, buddy. I’ll be a good boy if you will.” He heard a chuckle from upstairs and wondered if she had heard either of his lower volume comments.