Page 4 of Becoming His Pet

Chapter Two

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“Shit!” Elenora dropped the long-stemmed rose and shoved her thumb into her mouth, sucking on the injured finger.

“Poke yourself again?” Antonio, her boss and owner of the flower shop, chuckled from behind the counter where he scanned the newspaper.

“I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” She frowned at him.

He laughed. “It will take more than a fucking flower to take you down.” He shook a finger in the air and kept his eyes glued to the paper.

He wasn’t wrong. She was made of stronger stuff than that.

Shaking off the sting from the thorn, she went back to trimming the stems and getting the arrangements ready for pickup. She’d always liked flowers. Twiddling away in the garden when she was old enough had been more fun than hanging with friends at the mall. If she’d had a lot of friends growing up, she was sure she’d still find that fact to be true.

“Don’t spend too much time on that one,” Antonio called over to her when the phone started ringing. “Just wrap a big ribbon around it and be done.”

She looked over the roses at him while he picked up the phone. Just throw it together? Fuck, no. If she was going to do a job, she was going to do it right. It would be the perfect arrangement.

Her father didn’t raise a slacker.

The bell over the front door dinged, drawing her attention to the entry. Two men walked in carrying a floral box each. She’d seen them before. Antonio had introduced them as his cousins, but he looked too nervous to have been telling the truth. But she’d only been working with Antonio for a few months and didn’t ask too many questions. She’d been lucky to score the job. Getting too close to him, badgering him with her questions would have made things more dangerous than she could handle yet.

She needed to bide her time. Work smart, not fast. She’d get the confirmation she needed, and then she’d act. But not before she was completely certain. Once she had no doubts, she’d do what she needed to do. She’d take care of it, and then maybe she’d get some peace. Just maybe.

“Nora! I’m going to the back for a few minutes. Watch the door, okay?” Antonio called out to her.

“Sure thing.” She smiled, wiped her hands on her apron, and headed toward the counter. The two men, Teo and Anthony turned away from her when she got close enough to say hello. Taking their rudeness as a sign to stay away, she didn’t comment. They’d never been chatty when they came into the shop. She had a good idea what they were doing there, and she found herself feeling more and more comfortable with staying outside their line of vision.

Antonio gestured for his cousins to follow him, and they rounded the counter to head into the back.

Teo stopped and turned back to her, his fat finger pointed right at her. “Don’t leave the counter. For any reason.” The threat in his tone was real, but it confused her more than scared her. Where else would she be?

“Okay. Got it. Stay at the counter.” She smiled wider, hoping the whole ‘kill them with kindness’ thing her father talked about actually worked—in the literal sense.

He disappeared into the back room, and she plopped down on Antonio’s stool. The paper was opened to the movie listing, so she checked out what was playing. Not that she would go. Not that she had time or money to spend at the movies just messing around. But knowing what she was missing out on, sometimes worked well enough to keep her nose to the grindstone so one day she could have time and money to waste. Responsibility first, then playtime.

Knocking on the door interrupted her reading. She looked up and saw a guy standing outside the door waving at her. Looking at the door to the back room then back at the customer, she tapped her fingers on the counter. Teo didn’t look like he had been fucking around when he told her to stay at the counter. If the door was locked, it was because they’d locked it when they came in.

She wasn’t entirely naive. She knew the brothers weren’t exactly Antonio’s biological cousins, and she had a pretty good idea why they brought those boxes in every time they stopped by. But she had enough sense to keep her mouth shut. She didn’t stick her nose in where it could get chopped off.

The knocking continued. Not wanting the brothers to hear the racket, she hopped off the stool and went to the door.

“Can I help you?” she asked, only opening the door enough to peer through.

The guy wasn’t a guy at all. She couldn’t call him a guy, not when he looked so damn masculine. No, he was all man. From his neatly cut hair, to the square jaw covered in a five o’clock shadow, he looked like something stepping out of one of her fantasies.

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