I Unintentionally Became Her Kitten

Chapter 29: Boundaries Broken

Alisha left shortly after, Matteo reclaiming his role in accompanying her while Tye stayed at the house with me.

My head felt a great deal better, especially after I drank another glass of water and took a cool shower. Afterwards, I sat on the couch with a towel over my shoulders to catch any rogue dripping. I was back to feeling a little lost without Alisha here.

That wasn’t good. I needed to have some independence from her. She couldn’t be my only source of happiness, otherwise our relationship would devolve and things would go poorly.

I needed to stay active when she wasn’t around, and not put so much pressure on her to be my happiness.

I got up and began paging through the Japanese baking book and stopped on the checkerboard sable recipe.

Today would be the day. It wasn’t a difficult recipe… not really. And the process and ingredients were incredibly similar to vanilla shortbread cookies so the eight dozen cookies this recipe made wouldn’t need to all be eaten today. I could freeze the dough logs and slice and bake as needed.

The only catch was the lack of chocolate in Alisha's house. The recipe called for both bar chocolate and very specifically Dutch processed cocoa. So in order to do this today I would need to brave the store again.

I stepped down the stairs, finding Tye sitting on the bottom few in the sunlight from the front window.

I went carefully, and he looked up from a very long text message on his phone, though I could only tell that it was a long message. The text was too small for me to read at a distance.

“Is it possible for you to take me to the store?” I asked.

He nodded and stood. “It'll be no problem, I'll get the car.”

“Thank you,” I told him.

I met him outside the front door, reaching around to turn the lock on the inside before the door fully shut.

The Mercai, as Alisha had called it, was a very sleek looking car. It was sporty but too professional to be considered anything like a muscle car. Part of the wealthy sparkle it had came from how pristine it was kept, both on the inside and out.

I got in the back, smoothing my skirt out under me so it didn't get wrinkled.

The drive was very much like every other time I had done this. It started with the trees and greenery passing by the window for several minutes, then the occasional building once Tye turned onto another street. I had a suspicion Alisha owned the land up until that point. There was only woods between that intersection and her house and no turn off for someone to even turn around. That was probably how she got notice the police were coming so many minutes before they actually arrived, if there was a camera watching the turn off the public road.

Tye brought me to a store somewhere toward the deeper parts of the city, where the streets were all lined with businesses and the side streets were lined with small apartment buildings. I appreciated his attentiveness, avoiding the store that I had the panic attack in. He probably didn't need to, but I wasn't sure if Sophia had told my parents which store she had been in when we ran into each other. She probably wouldn't at this point, now that they had revealed they were on the hunt for me.

Tye also accompanied me as I perused the baking aisle, feeling a little out of my element. He wasn't glaring menacingly at everybody that walked by, and kept back a few paces but our strange dynamic probably drew attention anyway.

It didn't take long to select the two items and I hesitated. It felt like a waste to drive all the way out here for just this. Tye did say he appreciated being able to stretch his legs but it still felt unnecessary.

In any case, Tye paid for the items with a card I was sure linked back to Alisha. It was the same card he used to put gas in the car so I could only assume it was a ‘company card.’ 

It was a very normal trip to the store and we started the way back with almost no discussion. I thanked him for his help but that was pretty much it.

He drove me back and I was gradually learning to relax in Alisha’s vehicles. They were unusually quiet and very comfortable, if you let them be comfortable, and Tye never put any music on. It was also curious that he drove kind of like a grandma. He came to a complete stop at every stop sign, and stopped before turning right on red, and there was never a time I glanced up to see the speedometer higher than fifty-five, even when there was a line of cars behind us. It was extraordinarily by the DMV’s handbook.

I leaned against the door handle and gazed out the window, fully letting my brain turn off for once and simply watched the landscape slide by.

And then Tye slowed down as he made the turn off the public road. I looked up to see nothing out of the ordinary but the car came to a gradual stop.

“Is something wrong?” I asked. There was already an unpleasant tightness in my chest. 

“Someone passed through here,” he said. 

I shifted to look out the front windshield but saw no sign of anyone or anything.

He pointed off to the side and I followed to somewhere high in one of the trees. A small red light was flashing on and off.

“They’re linked to transponders so if one of Alisha’s cars or one of her driver’s cars goes through, they don’t trigger.”

“But if someone without a transponder does…” I followed.

He nodded, looking grave. “I’m gonna call Sara and see what’s up. If anyone comes up on us, put your head down, okay?”

I nodded and settled back in the seat.

My understanding was that not many people drove through this area, much less knew Alisha lived here. The only people I’d ever seen in her house were one of three guards who Alisha treated very well, if always professionally. The only other person was Sophia, but Sophia wasn’t the kind of person to share that kind of information with someone, if she could even remember the route here. I’d never given her the address so…

Tye pulled up his phone and dialed a number, waiting with a distinct frown as the line rang.

The voice that answered sounded half-asleep but I couldn’t make out much else.

“One of the roadway sensors got triggered,” Tye explained. “And we weren’t expecting anybody.”

There was a response that sounded like, “I’ll take a look.”

Tye waited.

I shifted nervously on the seat, trying to go back to comfortable indifference but that was hard when someone was investigating a security threat.

“It looks like a sedan passed through,” I heard Sara say. “Kind of a burnt orange color.”

“That sounds like my parent’s car,” I said and leaned toward the front seat again.

“Your parents?” Tye asked.

I nodded. “Uhm….” I scratched my brain to remember more details. “Plates starting with… DFC,” I managed.

“That matches,” Sara confirmed.

My heart sank. How did my parents find me here? Unless they followed Sophia, but I felt like Tye would’ve noticed that. It sounded like the kind of thing he would be alert for.

“Thanks Sara,” Tye said. “Do you know if they reached the house?”

“Yes, they’re still there now.”

“Alright, thanks.” Tye hung up and sighed heavily, looking back at me. “Your parents are more persistent than the god-damn police,” he commented.

I swallowed and stared at my feet. “I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head. “It’s not your fault.”

I felt the car start to pull forward. My heart started to beat faster, I could feel my pulse strumming in my chest already. “Are we gonna go to them?” I asked anxiously.

“I’m gonna chase them off. This is private property and is marked as such so they can’t be here, legally speaking.” I saw him glance in the mirror at me. “They won’t be able to see you if you stay in the car. The windows back there are tinted to the legal limit.”

I knew this but it still felt against my nature to go towards them. At the same time, if we didn’t go now, they might have the impression they could come back without consequences. Tye could be very scary even without drawing a weapon. 

The several minutes we drove were nerve wracking. If my parents did spot me, I’d be miserable even if they didn’t get the chance to say anything. For now, I had to just keep myself together. I could deal with the emotional fall out later. And it wasn’t like they could force me to do anything. I was a legal adult and fully separate from their household.

Still it was hard to keep calm as Tye pulled into the large driveway. I shrank away from the windows even if I knew it was practically impossible to see through them from the outside.

The burnt orange colored sedan was idling there. My father wasn’t in the driver’s seat, he was already standing at the door, looking very displeased about being left to wait.

He looked up as the Mercai came around the bend and did his best to wipe the scowl off his face, but I knew the subtle details that showed what he tried to bury.

“Wait here, and don’t come out for any reason, okay?” Tye instructed quietly as he put the car in park.

I nodded, my tongue glued to the roof of my mouth while my stomach was doing uncomfortable things.

Tye gave me one last glance before undoing his seat belt and opening his door.

He had parked at an angle so my father, or my mother who was now also glaring at us from the passenger seat of their car, couldn’t see inside to any degree.

Tye didn’t look as he smacked the door shut, making the entire coupe shake a little.

There was a prowling manner to his gait as he approached and crossed his arms.

“Can I help you with something?” He asked. His eyes never left the two of them.

“Yeah, uh, I’m looking for my child?” my father said. He was sizing Tye up, notably looking him up and down.

Which made me worry more since my parents did own firearms and I wasn’t sure Tye carried. From a security standpoint, I would expect it but I couldn’t be sure if he would bother when we were just going to the store.

“I don’t know who your kid is,” Tye stated with a shake of his head.

“[XXXXXX] Bauer.”

I flinched, and swallowed down a rush of bile. Tye didn’t even blink.

“No one here by that name,” he said calmly. “Listen, you’re on private property marked with no-trespassing signs so I need you to leave. If you come back like this again, it’ll be trespassing.”

My father stared, then glanced back at the doorway. Unlike the upper windows, the door and the lower-level windows weren’t tinted so he could see right inside at the incredibly clean space. “I heard she goes by Kit, now,” he said.

Tye let him hang onto the hope he’d get an answer.

“Are you seriously bull-shittin me right now?” My father demanded suddenly, his fake-calm demeanor getting replaced by very real anger. He took a step away from the glass door, toward Tye, with a brace of muscles I recognized as open hostility.

But Tye stood fast, didn’t so much as shift away, which was saying something since my father was not a small man.

I couldn’t see the expression on Tye’s face or what the subtle change in his posture was exactly but it made my father stop and second guess himself.

And then he took a look at the car, even squinted at it before frustratedly turning away, spitting onto the driveway as he went along to the burnt-orange sedan.

Tye didn’t move until the vehicle had fully turned around and started back down the driveway.

And then he finally walked back to the car, never taking his eyes off them until they rounded the bend and disappeared behind the trees.

I released a breath, feeling the all-too-familiar pulsating in my neck. My hands were trembling again, not as bad as they were with the police but still present and annoyingly obvious.

Tye opened my door, and waited patiently as I  dragged my weight out of the car. I anxiously looked where my parents had disappeared, and hoped they wouldn’t be stupid enough to try coming back.

“You okay, miss?” Tye asked.

My world was foggy, the sunlight blurring as it came between trees. My chest was still tight, and my pulse still tangible without needing to be seeked out.

“I’m so sorry,” I said shakily. “I can’t believe they would actually come here and– and be such asswipes. I mean, I know they’re persistent and they’ve got a grossly overestimated sense of self-importance and don’t seem to understand other people are people too and– and–”

“Are you okay?” he repeated.

“Y-yeah, I just… I can’t believe they’d come here and I know Alisha can’t have random people coming here, it’s a massive security threat and then there’s the whole– now they know where this is and will probably be coming back but–”

Tye put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay,” he reassured. 

I met his eyes finally. There was no trace of anger in his expression. Only concern.

“If we couldn’t handle things like this, Alisha wouldn’t have let your sister come here, much less suggested it.”

I hesitated. “She foresaw something like this?” I asked.

“I’m sure she knew it was in the realm of possibility,” he explained. “It’s not ideal, no. But we don’t have to do anything to deal with them. They’ve been told to leave the property and not come back. If they try to without our invitation, they are legally trespassing and we can stick the police on them.”

“Would Alisha like to stick the police on them?” I asked cautiously.

“One of the many things that makes Alisha so good at what she does is her willingness to let legal things be legal things. Her father had a lot of trouble keeping the police away because he was so underhanded, it created a pattern the police could reasonably make an argument for a RICO investigation with. Alisha doesn't do that, she’s very careful about what things can look like so it’s not just a superficial blind she protects with bribery and violence. So for your parents, she will report them for trespassing and let them handle it.”

I nodded, slowly. I felt like I understood, even if I didn’t know what a RICO investigation was or why it was significant. Alisha would have my parents arrested rather than engage with them herself. It sounded like a better option. Even if it was in self-defense, if Tye had ended up harming my father, they’d have reason to search the house or at least the cameras for evidence.

Did that mean he would’ve taken my father’s punch should it have come to that? I was sure it mattered greatly how far the situation escalated.

I snapped out of it and realized I was still standing with a gradually melting chocolate bar in hand. I was still trembling, though it was less so now.

“I should get inside,” I realized and glanced back down the road. There was no trace of my parents having been here at all which almost made this whole ordeal feel like a bad dream.

Tye walked me to the door and unlocked and opened it for me.

I thanked him as I went and dropped my grocery-spoils in the kitchen before going upstairs where the glass was tinted and I had full privacy.

And then I collapsed on the bed, curling up in an attempt to keep myself a little more secure, even if it didn't help that much.

Alisha came up the stairs, footsteps audible and I picked my head up from where I'd been burying it in the pillows.

“Hello, Kitten,” she said softly.

Her fingers trailed along the foot of the bed as she passed on her way to the closet.

I waited for her to get settled. I didn't want to burden her with bad news as soon as she got home but it was also important that she knew what happened. This was her house, her only bit of privacy and security in a hostile work environment.

She came back around, now shoeless and climbed onto the bed next to me.

“I heard your parents came,” she said. “Are you doing okay?”

I nodded. It was a little bit of a lie. I felt like the one place I was safe had been trampled on. Tye said there was no way for them to do anything here. They had no power, but it certainly felt like they could punch me in the emotional guts as much as they wanted.

I rolled onto my stomach, hoping to hide my expression from her.

“It's okay, Kitten. I won't let them touch you.” Her hand ran along my back soothingly. “Only I'm allowed to do that.”

I nodded. “You should touch me.” I didn't mean it to sound sexual, I just wanted physical reassurance.

Her hand passed over my back again before she moved to straddle my thighs and pushed my shirt up.

Her hands ran down my back again. It felt nice, the same way it did when she pet me. She explored my back, fingers sliding across like ships on a sea of skin. They stopped toward my spine and started to make some little circles, gently working into the muscles.

“Mm,” I mumbled agreeably. It felt nice and the flow of oxytocin from her touch helped soothe the hurt.

“It feels like you have some knots,” she observed. Her circles moved first up then down my back on both sides of my spine. I could feel myself relaxing more and slid my arms out so my chest was fully flush against the mattress so I wasn't flexing my back even as she was trying to work out the tension.

“If this gets to be too much just tell me to stop.” She shuffled on my thighs and then put both hands on my back and pushed. It was light at first and then gradually she increased the force until I couldn't really breathe.

There was a little pain building and then a distinct pop.

The vertebrae under her hands shifted and even though I would think that kind of pressure would shift it out of place, it felt better.

I could finally breathe again as she lifted her weight away.

“Too much?” She asked.

I shook my head as best as I could when it was directly on the mattress.

“Good,” she said and moved her hands down an inch or so and repeated the process. This time there was no pop and no satisfying shift of my spine realigning. 

She moved down again and did another repeat, the pop louder this time and the resulting relief more pronounced. But so was the discomfort of having something move in a not entirely natural way.

She moved back up my spine and did between my shoulder blades, not having any luck there.

I closed my eyes as she started rubbing little circles again, traveling along my back to find the hidden spots that needed her attention. She leaned forward. “This might be a little painful, Kitten,” she said.

I nodded. The little shot of adrenaline did not make me afraid. Combined with the flooding of cuddly hormones, it made me flush a little. I trusted her not to actually hurt me.

A single finger ran down my back, along the side of my spine, raising my hairs as it did so with an electric feeling I was sure wouldn't be helping me relax.

Her finger stopped at one of those places she had been rubbing at earlier. A few other fingers laid down on my skin and pushed. It wasn't like the pushing she had been doing on my spine. This was much more pinpoint and dug directly into a bundle of muscle I could then feel.

I tried to keep breathing but pressure started to morph into pain, the same kind of pain when I stretched too intensely.

My fingers curled on the pillow above me. Her other hand joined the first and twisted that bundle of tension around.

“Nn,” I grunted as it hurt but it hurt so good.

She released and a flood of relief filled the void where pain had been.

I took a few breaths as her finger trailed down again, looking for the next target.

I felt hot again while the cold tingling danced under her finger tip.

She started to press again. “I know it hurts,” she said softly. “But pain comes with working things out.”

There was the twist and my bracing against it as it triggered my sense of pain. It was hard to breathe as she held it in that twisted state for several seconds before releasing, leaving me to suck in a breath of relief.

She repeated the process several more times, running her finger down to select a spot of tension and then reaching through my skin to force it out of its confused tangle.

Every one hurt and some hurt a great deal, enough to make me grind my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut to get through the pain. My limited breathing was not making it any easier, instead making me feel a little lightheaded and both hot and cold at the same time.

She finished with one that she pressed up under my shoulder blade to get at, digging deep to push and then pull at the muscle until it straightened itself out.

That one hurt the most as I felt it literally unclench against its will before she released it. It stayed relaxed as she lifted her hands away and I could breathe again.

I mumbled against the mattress.

“What was that, Kitten?” she asked and pulled my shirt back down over my back.

I picked my head up, finding it surprisingly difficult with how relaxed I'd been forced to become.

“Would you like me to try massaging you?” I repeated. Of all the things I was supposed to be doing, being her emotional support was top of my list and instead she'd turned into my emotional support.

“Maybe another night,” she said. Her hand smoothed my hair back as I struggled to get to my knees. I felt incredibly heavy. “I wouldn't mind having some fun with you tonight though. If it's something you're up for. I know stress does not agree with pleasure.”

I nodded my head vigorously. “I would do anything for you right now,” I told her and rolled over to try and give her a kiss.

She put a finger to my lips. “Let me use the bathroom first,” she said and pushed me back a couple inches.

I was left still ready and posed to start making out as she pulled away and walked into the bathroom.

I watched as she slowly shut the door behind her and then until the latch clicked and the glass frosted. She was still there, I knew. It was just a pane of glass and I could still see her blurry image.

Note: Yes, I am back and I am very cold. It is below zero where I am, but hopefully the next chapter will be satisfyingly spicy. I did manage to crop it nice and close because it is a longer erotic scene, but there is important char dev within it but I will write a quick TLDR at the bottom so if that's not your thing, you don't need to read it.

Enjoy~