Page 50 of Petting Penelope
The next two days passed in relative bliss, their hours filled with fucking, good food, and time spent together. Learning each other anew.
It was heaven.
But the day before they were to leave, Penelope felt herself draw back from the joy they were experiencing, and no amount of coaxing from Rachel could get her to reveal how she truly felt.
Partly because how she truly felt scared the shit out of Penny, and she couldn’t tell whether it was a true fear, or just her trauma sparking in her brain. That happened sometimes, and it was truly frightening that she couldn’t tell how much of her emotions was her, and how much was her trauma.
“I have my weekly video call this morning,” she said. “I think I need to chat through some things with the girls, and then I promise you I’ll make more sense.”
“Okay,” said Rachel. “I trust you.”
It was that trust that had Penelope spiraling, and when their call started, she intended on going straight in with her dilemma. Unfortunately, they got sidetracked. By the hucow thing.
“You dressed up as a hucow?” Mina was clearly delighted that she’d managed to convert another of her friends. “Did you do the auction? And the barn? And…”
“It was more of a pet play kind of thing,” said Penny, and then added. “Well, and some breeding kink.”
“Tell me more,” said Amanda, grinning. “You sly thing, Pen; we had no idea you had a breeding kink!”
“It’s been a fairly new development,” she mumbled, but her friends were so excited for her that she almost forgot to be scared.
“And how is Miss Rachel?” asked Layne.
“She’s kind of my girlfriend.”
There was a long pause, in which the other women just stared at her. “I know, I know. I said I didn’t want to date again, but…”
“I mean, you were kind of half dating Miss Rachel already—maybe not the sex part, but scening exclusively, talking about each other a lot. Going on holiday together…” Mina looked at her pointedly. “I guess we didn’t think you’d catch on so fast.”
“Sex helped,” said Penelope bluntly and then her cheeks flared as all four of them started shooting questions at her at once. “Look, it’s not that. All of that is amazing, but we’re here at Rawhide Ranch. This isn’t the real world.”
The others sobered, all except Mina. “Yeah, but look at me. I’m living my best hucow dreams with Patrick away from the Ranch. You’ve all seen how it’s worked at home as well as on holiday.”
That was true, and the other murmurs of agreement had Penny reassessing the situation. “So you think that this could work at home too?”
“Definitely,” said Layne. “Take it slow when you get back home. Date, get to know each other in a different setting, don’t go all U-Haul lesbian on us.”
That made Penelope laugh.
“It doesn’t have to be like it was with Cristina,” said Vicky gently. “For one, you have us, and we’d intervene pretty fucking quick. But you also have the club in London. You have Moira and Elisabeth and a whole group of people who’d fight the fucking world for you. You’re not doing this on your own anymore.”
“Having a community is vital,” said Amanda. “It stops you becoming isolated, and that’s when people are most vulnerable. We’ve got you.”
It was true. Her life was so so different from when she’d been with Cristina. It had changed for the better, bringing her independence and freedom, and a knowledge of herself that she hadn’t had before.
She had that now, and armed with it, she could face anything.
“Thanks, girls,” Penelope said.
“Any time,” said Mina. “Now tell us about the breeding kink!”
When she rang off the call, she called through to the lounge where Rachel had sat, watching yet another archived episode of NXT. “Rachel?”
It wasn’t until the girls had asked after “Miss Rachel” that she’d realized that she’d kind of stopped calling Rachel that. Their relationship felt different now. Itwasdifferent now.
“Hey there; all okay?”
She nodded. “Come sit with me?”
