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I love autumn; love the way the leaves turn, the wind blows, fat drops of rain fall from the sky. I enjoy the chance to fire up my wood-burning stove, and hunker down in front of it during the cold, dark evenings. I like to walk during the evenings, too, with my faithful border collie, Biscuit, at my side. Sometimes the drama of an autumn evening - wind howling around us, spinning up a whirlwind of fallen leaves - lends the feeling that it is us versus nature.

Hallowe'en is one of the times of the year I traditionally love more than any other. Before my wife died, she and I would always make a huge effort, and our house became well known in our village as a must-go destination for all the kids out trick-or-treating. After she passed, though, I couldn't quite manage to bring myself to keep up the tradition; I tried that first year, in honour of her memory, but my heart really wasn't in it any more. After a couple of years I stopped making the effort altogether, and shut up shop for the night, refusing to even answer the door. It became a theme in my wider life, too - at only 26, I was starting to become a bit of a recluse. Where once I had been active in village life, I now kept myself to myself, and spoke only when spoken to.

It was Biscuit who pulled me out of it, who turned the trend around. One wild December night, while storms ravaged our little pocket of England, I came across him cowering by the side of the road, fur matted with rain and mud. I was out in my car, and as the headlights passed over him I initially thought it was a badger lying by the roadside, injured or dead. I'd always cared a lot for wildlife, and so, though I really had no desire to get soaked and then have to disturb Ally, the village vet, I knew I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I'd driven on by.

Even from a few metres away I could tell what I'd found wasn't a badger after all. As I approached there were no signs of life, but as I reached down to turn over the body, a faint whimpering came up. An eye opened, and the dog's head turned slowly to face me. It was soaked through with mud, fur blackened. It shivered and whimpered, and begged me with its eyes to help. I tried to encourage it to stand, but to no avail - it was either too weak or too hurt to stand for itself. Cursing, I ran back to the car and opened the boot, pulling out a picnic blanket which, by force of habit was always there. I ran back to the dog and with no inconsiderable effort managed to wrap it in the blanket and carry it back to the car, lying it down across the back seat.

Once I was safely back into the car myself, I assessed the situation. I was soaked to the skin and freezing, though certainly no worse off than the dog. It needed a vet, that much was certain, and so with some sense of reluctance I pulled out my mobile phone and scrolled down to find Ally's number.

As I sat there with my thumb hovering over the call button, I had a sudden flashback to the summer three years before, when Emily was still alive and the world seemed full of sunshine. We'd not been married long, and had received our contact sheets back from the wedding photographer. Ally was Em's best friend, and the three of us sat out in the cottage's garden under the shade of a tree, drinking wine and roaring with laughter as we went through the photos, taking the piss out of ourselves and everyone else. I remember it so vividly, because it was only the next day that Em collapsed suddenly, and only a day after that when the damning prognosis was delivered; she was dead inside three months, and I'd only spoken to Ally a handful of times since. To be honest, I'd shut her out of my life because she reminded me so much of Em. I couldn't imagine how my phone call would go down, but looking back at the bundle of shivering fur in the back seat I realised I had no choice.

"Zack. It's you. Uh... hi."

She'd picked up after six rings (I always count). Could've meant anything - she might have been a long way away from her phone, or busy, or she could have been deciding whether or not she wanted to answer my call.

"Hi, Ally. Um, look, I'm really sorry to call you out of the blue like this, but I've found a dog hurt by the side of the road. He's wet and he's freezing. Can you do anything?"

"Oh God! Yes, of course. Meet me at the surgery, I'll be there as soon as I can."

Five minutes later I was pulling up outside Ally's surgery, just as she came round the corner. I hauled the dog in its blanket out of the car and carried him to the door, whispering 'thanks' to Ally as she held the door open for me.

Inside I stood helplessly by, watching as she ran through he checks, gently stroking the dog's head, flinching when it whimpered, sensing its pain as it shivered. It was immediately clear that something was very wrong. When she was done, Ally sighed and stepped back, bracing herself against the table which ran along the wall. She looked weary, and not just because of the lateness of the day.

"It's not good," she said, sounding resigned. "I can't be certain of all the details until I take an x-ray, but his left rear leg is badly broken, and possibly his spine is too. Some coward's hit him and then buggered off."

"Can you help him?"

She shrugged.

"It'll be expensive, and I can't guarantee he'll live anyway, given how cold he is, and how much blood he's lost. I'd have to get Gary in and do the operation tonight, otherwise I really don't think he stands a chance. I'm not sure we could convince any of the charities to fund it, so unless he's chipped and we can trace the owner, he's not looking in very good shape."

She walked over to the wall to take down a hand-held device, I presumed to scan for a microchip. I felt utterly deflated as I watched her go, but already I knew what I would do. Money hadn't been too tight since Em had passed, and she would have wanted me to spend some of her life insurance on something like this. Even before Ally passed the scanner over the back of the dog's neck I guessed that the result would be negative, and sure enough she found nothing.

"Well, that's that, then," she said. "I'll have to get Gary out here to help with disposing of him anyway, but there's really nothing I can do for him. Sorry, Zack."

"No. Don't. No, I'm not going to let it happen. Spend what you need to. Do what you need to. I can afford it. You know Em wouldn't have let him die."

She stared at me, her expression full of pity. Tears formed in her eyes, and when she blinked they raced down her cheeks and dripped onto the floor.

"You're right. She wouldn't," she said in a hoarse whisper. "Can you stay? We might need your help."

I nodded. After all, what better did I have to do?

---

They operated for three hours on the dog, pinning back together three fractures in his leg. His spine had escaped serious injury, though there seemed to be a great deal of swelling. Finally, at ten to four in the morning, with the rain still hammering down outside, we left him to sleep off the anaesthetic, and went on our way.

As we were leaving, Ally stopped me.

"I miss you, Zack. We all do. It's Lucy's fifth birthday this Saturday. We're having a little party. Please say you'll come."

I hesitated, not quite sure I was ready to abandon my comfortable solitude. Ally didn't wait for a response.

"I'm telling her you're coming, Zack," she shouted over her shoulder as she unlocked her car. "You wouldn't want to disappoint her, would you?"

---

Truth was, I hardly knew Ally's daughter, Lucy. There was no way I was going to be missed if I didn't go, but as the weekend approached I realised that - quite to my surprise - I was planning to go to the party. I'd know plenty of people there - all our friends who had started their happy families would be there with their kids, doing what Em and I should have done. To some extent I hated them all for the happiness they had, but far outweighing that was the feeling that I really wanted to see some of these people again, to see what they were up to these days. Many I hadn't spoken a word to since Em's funeral.

Something else kept drawing me back to the real world, too: the dog. Somehow he survived the night, and when I went in to the practice the next day to see how he was doing, I was in for the surprise of my life. One of the nurses had bathed him and combed his fur, and on the cage was written the name 'Biscuit', and beneath that, next to the word Owner, it said 'McNaught'. He was awake when approached the cage, and though I could only put a finger through the bar to scratch behind his ear, the look of utter adoration he gave me in that moment melted my heart. It was clear that, as long as he pulled through, I had gained a dog.

---

Days passed, and Biscuit grew stronger.

I re-joined the world of the living, too. I enjoyed Lucy's party. I spoke to people, people who really cared about me, who all expressed a wish to see me back amongst them, and I found myself easily agreeing. I wanted their company for the first time in three years, and found that no matter how I had ignored them, they still wanted to know me.

---

Weeks passed, and Biscuit grew stronger still.

Five weeks after the accident he had the pins out, and though he still limped awfully, he could walk.  He came home with me that week, and though he was restricted to walks to the bottom of the garden and back, he was beginning to look more like a real dog. And what a dog he was! A beautiful brown and white border collie, with the bluest eyes you've ever seen, and an attachment to me which bordered on obsessive.

His rehabilitation mirrored my own - physical on his part but emotional and social on mine. I became a member of society once more. It wasn't an overnight change, but slowly and surely I began to reclaim a little of the life I had with Em, before everything changed. My work as a freelance designer began to pick up, too, as a result of being more open and willing to look for work. I had coasted along, making enough to survive without thriving for far too long. Old customers kept me ticking over, but with the renewed energy in my life I began to improve my work for them, and as a by-product find new customers.

All of this, I put down to Biscuit. He had an unconditional love for me, all spawned from the simple act of pulling over and saving him. It lifted me each morning, usually the time I suffered my worst depression. I had no time to think of myself - my primary goal in the morning was to take him for a walk, and once I'd been around the village, experienced its sleepy beauty, I found that my demons had been chased away for another day.

---

Fast forward nine months and you would find me walking Biscuit down one of the many little tracks which criss-cross back and forth through the village. These were the playground of my youth, so varied in nature that each had a personality, and it was only when I reached adulthood that I fully realised how each met the other; before that, I simply followed known routes and left it at that. Some ran between houses, high, crumbling red brick garden walls topped with creeping roses and clematis making them tunnel-like, fragrant in the summer and Dickensian in the winter. Others ran along the borders of fields, and there were plenty of those. Yet more crossed the greens (church green and village green, we called them - doubtless the Ordnance Survey would disagree) and the really important ones ran past my house and those of my friends.

It was these paths I still walked, though now an adult, and accompanied by Biscuit wherever I went. I often followed the track past the back of my parents' house; if they were in I would stop for a cup of tea and cringe while my mother tried to tactfully avoid the subject of Emily, and if not I would pause just a moment and look at the house. Really look. There were times I would quite happily have stayed there forever, but not now. It made me feel claustrophobic.

This particular evening I had already passed my parents' house, finding it empty and dark except for the landing light which my father always put on a timer. But there was no kitchen light, which meant either no-one was at home, or they were both asleep. I strolled on, content to let Biscuit stop where he pleased, or run on when he wanted to. It was almost dark, the day's light dimmed not only by the setting of the sun, but also by a thick blanket of fog which shrouded all and muffled sounds.

So it was that I was taken by surprise by a young girl of eight or nine who shot past me from behind on a bike of such yellowness that it glowed like a beacon in the falling night. She shouted 'hi!' over her shoulder and giggled, and left me behind, rather perplexed for I had no idea who she was. The village was small enough that I recognised most of the kids, which meant either that she was new, or that she was visiting a friend or relative who lived locally. Probably the latter, I mused, as I had heard nothing of a new arrival.

A minute later I came across her again. Biscuit, being Biscuit, had forced her to stop and stroke his head, using the age-old ruse of looking damned cute and sitting by the side of the path. I had wondered why he hadn't come back to me, but now it was obvious.

"Hello," I said as I came up to the pair of them. "Looks like he's found a new friend."

The girl grinned at me.

"Hi, I'm Sophie. I just moved in with my mum. Do you know which way Cantor Street is?"

So, I was wrong; they'd slipped in under my radar.

"Hi Sophie. I'm Zack, and this is Biscuit. It's nice to meet you. Cantor Street is at the end of this path, if you just keep going."

"Oh, right. Thanks!" she said, and with that she was off. Adults always seem to feel the need to extend these conversations with formalities, but kids are wonderfully uninhibited by such societal norms. It was quite refreshing.

As I watched Sophie pedal away from me I realised that I was smiling, something to which I'd become largely unaccustomed. And, I thought to myself, she really was rather a cute-looking kid. Quite pretty, really. In a few years she would be breaking all the village boys' hearts. Biscuit wagged his tail and watched her leave, then looked up at me questioningly.

"I know, boy, I know," I said, as much to myself as to him. "There's something about her, isn't there?"

---

A couple of weeks later and the village was winding up to Hallowe'en. Jack-o'-lanterns - intricately carved in what amounted to an un-judged competition - appeared throughout the village in the front gardens of all those who cared for the tradition. Posters went up, too, asking for volunteers to take the kids around an organised trick-or-treat route; ever since a kid had narrowly escaped abduction a few years before, the parish council had deemed it necessary that all kids were accompanied, and what had started out as mere chaperoning had developed into something altogether more significant.

As I stood reading one of the posters I was approached from behind, and a booming voice filled the air.

"Zack! Thinking of helping out? Brilliant! I'll put your name down."

Everyone in the village knew Mark Allen, and most had, at some point or other, been lured into doing something for him. Every village has one of these people - they're the one involved with everything, the cornerstone of village life, the organiser. It would be unfair to suggest that anyone hated Mark - after all, he was a very likeable chap - but he was certainly avoided by many in the weeks leading up to an event. I, though, had been careless, and there really was very little chance of getting out of it.

But, lo! What was that, brain? Did a bolt of inspiration strike?

"I'd love to, Mark," I replied, turning to face him with what I hope was a warm smile, rather than a smug one. "Unfortunately, I think my CRB check has run out, and there won't be time to get it renewed before the night."

"Hmm," he replied, looking a little less crestfallen than I had expected. "Well, fortunately that's not a problem. In fact, I checked my database last night and it's not up for renewal for a few months. You should be fine to help out. And of course this lad," he went on, bending down to scratch Biscuit between the ears, "will be a perfect guard dog, won't you boy?

"So, what time slots would you prefer?"

---

I ended up helping out in a bigger way than I had envisaged. I was on the route planning team, and the safety team, and of course I was roped into doing some designs for badges that all the kids could wear, as well as placards for the adults to carry around so that their troops could always find them. It became akin to a well-planned military exercise, and took up far more of my time than I would have liked. But it was rewarding, too, and it brought one unexpected bonus.

I was assigned a few streets to go door-to-door, checking for both children and locations willing to participate. One of them was Cantor Street, and almost as soon as I stepped onto the road my mind went to Sophie and our brief meeting some time before. I'd seen her out and about on her bike since then, but never close enough to say hello. Here, though, was a clear reminder of her presence: the 'Sold' sign still stood outside No. 14. I decided that it was a sign in more ways than one - I would start there, and then see how the rest of the street went.

The woman who answered the door was in her mid-thirties and looked vaguely familiar, a fact which I at first put down to Sophie bearing a resemblance to her mother.

"Oh. It's you, Mr McNaught," she said, looking flustered.

"Er, yes. Did someone tell you I was coming?" I was slightly derailed by her tone.

"You... you don't remember me, do you?"

Oh God. Some distant acquaintance whose face I'd forgotten. But then, surely if she had known me in the past, she would have known my first name.

"Uh, no, I'm sorry. My mind doesn't work quite as well as it used to."

She put her hear slightly on one side, a look of sympathy on her face.

"No, I expect it doesn't, given what you've been through. I'm Allison. I work in the oncology ward at the Royal Freestone."

It hit me like an express train. Memories flooded so fast into the forefront of my mind that I stumbled backwards slightly, and had to catch myself on the frame of her porch. I did remember Allison, of course I did. She was the nurse who came and found me when she realised that Emily was close to the end. I'd been taking a break from her bedside while she slept, taking some fresh air. Allison had run up to me frantically, begging me to come. By the time I got to Em's bedside she was already surrounded by doctors and nurses. I'd pushed my way through the scrum in time for Em to open her eyes, smile up at me weakly, and die.

"I think you'd better come in," she said, practically dragging me by the arm.

She sat me down in the living room, then told me she'd be right back and disappeared upstairs for a moment. When she came back she looked a little calmer, but still flustered.

"I'd offer you tea, but I think something stronger would probably be more suitable."

"No, no, tea would be fine, thank you."

As she went into the kitchen to turn on the kettle, I glanced around the room. Boxes still sat all over the place, remnants of the recent move, but other than that it was a fairly standard room. Pictures of Allison and Sophie were dotted about the place, but, I realised, none of any man. It looked like it was just the two of them.

"Sorry about the mess," she said as she returned. "I suppose you know we've just moved in. I know what these villages are like - everyone knows everything as soon as it happens."

"Actually, I didn't hear anything about it for once!" I exclaimed, bringing a little levity into the room. "Until I bumped into Sophie that is."

She gave me a questioning, concerned look.

"She made friends with my dog a few weeks ago," I explained, and relief flooded Allison's face.

"Oh, you're the one with the sheepdog? You know, she hasn't stopped bugging me about getting a dog since then!"

"Well, she's always welcome to come and take Biscuit for a walk, whenever she wants."

"You know, I think she might take you up on that," Allison replied, laughing.

At that moment Sophie walked into the room in patterned white cotton pyjamas, her hair wet from the bath, and plonked herself down on the chair to my right, apparently unconcerned to find me there.

"Take him up on what?" she asked.

"Mr McNaught was offering to let you take his dog out for a walk, Sophie."

I waved a little 'hello' at her, and she gave me a megawatt grin.

"When? Can I do it tomorrow?"

I stalled for time, not sure what her mum really thought, but when I looked at her she shrugged and gave me a look which said 'your call'. Just seeing Sophie again made me want to see more of her, like a favourite niece, and so I said,

"If you want. It's a Saturday, so I'll be around all morning and you won't be going to school. Reckon you can get to mine for seven?"

"Seven in the morning?!" Sophie replied, the shock clearly displayed on her face.

"Yep. That's when he has his first walk."

"Um, OK," she replied, her enthusiasm dampened somewhat, but not wholly diminished. I glanced over at her mother, who was trying not to laugh.

"Soph," she said, now back in parent mode, "I want you to go up and do some reading before bedtime. Mr McNaught and I need to chat."

I could see Sophie beginning to object, but a sharp look from her mother cut her off, and only grumbling very slightly she left us.

"So, Zack," Allison said when she was gone, using my first name for the first time. "How have you been?"

---

When I left half an hour later, I was utterly drained. There had been tears, and an equal amount of laughter, and not a little therapy. Allison was utterly dedicated to caring for others, and that attitude pervaded our conversation. She wanted to know everything about how I had been since Em died, and she remembered everything about us, down to the finest detail. She was so open, and so caring with me, that I opened up fully to her, and told her things I had told no-one else, and she listened and genuinely cared.

I forgot about the rest of my task, deciding that if anyone else wanted to take part in the festivities they could damn well make that decision on their own rather than needing me to bother them about it. I walked home through the darkness, missing having Biscuit with me, but only for companionship, not the safety he provided. I'd left him at home, figuring that taking him up to people's houses would be problematic, and I'd been away longer than I had intended. As I remembered him, I also recalled my promise to Sophie. If she made it in time she would be at my house at seven in the morning, ready to take Biscuit for a walk.

The vision of Sophie in her cotton pyjamas came unbidden to my mind. I recalled with stark clarity the soft swell of her bottom beneath the clingy fabric as she had walked out of the room, and long-dormant desire flickered in my mind. She reminded me of someone, I was sure, and it wasn't just her mother. Someone from my youth, some unrequited desire, no doubt. I felt a little light-headed; I was turned on by the sight, and the more I thought about it, the more aroused I became, until I became obsessed by it. It was all I could think about as I tramped through the darkness on autopilot, my feet guiding me home even though my mind was elsewhere.

As I lay in the darkness of my room unable to sleep, I masturbated to disturbing fantasies of Sophie's young body.

---

I was groggy as I woke. Through blurry eyes I interrogated my watch, and found that, for once, Biscuit had opted not to wake me, and instead had let me sleep until a quarter to seven.

Shit! Fifteen minutes!

I leapt out of bed, tripping over Biscuit where he lay by the door, and stumbled into the shower. For once I was in and out in five minutes, and threw on some clothes just in time to hear Sophie's knock at the door. Biscuit heard it too and raced downstairs, waiting with a wagging tail for me to catch up. With my heart unexpectedly thumping in my chest, I opened the door.

"Hi," she said, brightly, though the bags under her eyes hinted that she, too, was not long awake.

"Morning," I said, trying to appear friendly but not overly so. I was highly conscious of trying not to project my thoughts. "You want to come in for a moment before we go? I need to grab a drink."

I led her through to the back of the house, where my desk was set up to take advantage of the light. I've always liked having plenty of natural light around me while I work, even when it's on the computer. As I stepped into the adjoining kitchen, Sophie gravitated towards my Mac, and its big shiny screen.

"It's really big," she breathed as I joined her, a glass of orange juice in my hand.

"Here, have a play," I said, flicking the mouse to wake the computer. "Actually, “I continued, "have a look at this."

She stood back as I reached under the table and swung out - on a special arrangement - my large graphics tab.

"You can use this to draw with," I said, and when she looked up at me with a confused expression on her face, I reached down and grabbed the pen. Flicking open a blank page, I started sketching - silly little doodles, really, but Sophie loved it, amazed that what I was doing on the tablet was immediately appearing on the screen.

"Can I have a go?" she asked excitedly, and when I agreed she hopped up into my chair and grabbed the pen, and went to work.

I watched her for a moment, marvelling at how cute she looked with the tip of her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. When she asked me how to change the pen colour, I didn't even think as I leant over her and took her hand in mine, directing her.

Suddenly I was very aware of our proximity, with her back pressed lightly into my chest. I felt her take a deep breath in, and hold it for a moment before slowly letting it out. In the reflection on the screen I saw her eyes drift blissfully shut, and while they were closed I tilted my head forward and inhaled her fragrance, a mix of strawberry scented shampoo and freshly laundered clothes, and beneath it something indescribably 'girl'.

The moment was broken by Biscuit, who came and placed his head in Sophie's lap, distracting her from the screen. While she turned her attention to him, fussing over him as if he were the finest dog in all the kingdom, I drained my juice and hoped the half hardness in my jeans wasn't too visible.

---

The only other souls awake were other dog walkers and the milkman. I gave my usual greetings to those we passed, and some even appeared to know Sophie, especially her teacher at the local primary, who had been my teacher twenty years before and had never seemed to age. I knew, of course, that she was in fact due for retirement, but it was an unfathomable thing to imagine. We got a few strange looks as we went, but the reality was that any gossip likely to come out of people seeing us together would be along the lines of a potential relationship with her mother, nothing more sinister than that.

We walked for some time, Sophie never tiring of throwing Biscuit's sodden tennis ball for him to chase, though she wasn't so keen to be involved when I had to clear up after him. I didn't mind, though - it was great just spending time with her. She was a bright kid and had an infectious level of enthusiasm about everything. She was obsessed with nature and its cycles, explaining things to me about the turning of the leaves in autumn which I had no idea about. She correctly identified breeds of cows in the fields, too; her eyes flew wide and she covered her mouth with both hands when we passed Mason, a local shire horse, who was out in his field and clearly in a state of some arousal. Sophie dissolved into fits of giggles as we walked on, then gave me a conspiratorial grin and theatrical wink. It was a thoroughly childish thing to do, but at the same time a huge turn-on.

By the time or circuit took us past my parents' back garden morning was in full swing, then sun was well risen and people were out and about. I waved to my mother on the way to drop Sophie at her house, and indicated through a complex pantomime that I would come back and speak to her soon.

---

"Your Dad told me about Allison," she said when I returned and we were sitting in the kitchen with a cup of tea. "I didn't realise it was her, either, though I remember her from the hospital. Perhaps more than you do."

For the first time in years, my mother was openly talking about Em's death, all prompted by seeing me with Sophie.

"It's a nice thing you're doing," she went on, "taking Sophie out for walks like that. Allison's a single mum. No doubt she'll appreciate a break every now and then. Nine year old girls can be lovely, but they can be a handful, too."

I shrugged. Sophie had been a delight, though clearly she couldn't always be that way.

"I don't suppose there's anything going on..." my mother said, leaving it hanging. I looked up sharply, and only then realised that she was referring to Allison, not Sophie.

"Mum, I haven't see Allison for years, and even then I hardly knew her. I've met her twice - once last night and once this morning. There's nothing going on between us, and nor will there be."

She smiled faintly at me.

"Well, just be careful. You know how tongues wag in this place. And another thing, don't you think Sophie looks like her aunt?"

"Her aunt?"

"Oh yes, didn't you know," mum replied, a look of salacious delight on her face, "you went to school with Allison's younger sister, Madeleine. You used to have rather a crush on her, if I remember correctly."

---

As I walked back to my house, I reflected on what my mum had said. Tongues would definitely be wagging, but that was fine for my purposes. Whatever happened between Sophie and I - and to my shock I discovered that I felt a growing desire for something to happen - it would be masked by endless speculation about Allison and I.

And the other revelation - that Sophie was the niece of an old crush - seemed to me to be fitting, almost poetic. It made sense, if nothing else. God, I really had loved Madeleine, hadn't I? I went up into the loft and dug out some old boxes. In amongst bits and pieces which reminded me painfully of Em, I found a box of mementos from my school days and there, exactly where I thought I would find it, was a school photo. I would have been about ten when it was taken. I scanned the faces and found one which was hauntingly familiar; there, staring out of the photo at me was Sophie. Except, of course, that it wasn't Sophie, it was her aunt, her mother's little sister.

I dragged the box down from the loft and spent the evening in warm nostalgia.

---

"Right, everyone, listen up!"

Mark Allen was holding court. The low hum of chatter which had filled the village hall died out as one by one we turned our attention to him; there was a direct correlation between the length of time it took for individual conversations to die out and how important each person thought themselves to be. It annoyed the hell out of me, actually - although I didn't always like Mark that much, we had all agreed to help him out, and as such we ought to submit to his authority. It didn't seem to faze him in the slightest, however. When the room was finally silent, he continued.

"Great, thanks. Now, we have quite a lot to get done tonight, and not a lot of time to do it in. I've organised groups of children to be assigned to each of you, and drawn up a route map for you to follow. I'll need you to walk round to your various pick up points and collect your children from your houses. After that, the timings are up to you. All I would ask if that you don't linger too long in one spot, especially if there's another group present. We don't want children getting mixed up and lost, do we? None of you should have more than six kids in your group, and most will have no more than four.

"Oh, and one last thing. I'm really sorry about this, but because this is sort of official parish council business, I'll need you wear one of these," he said, holding up a hi-vis vest. "I know, I know, it's not the most fashionable thing to wear, but it'll make sure you're visible to your kids and any cars. At least I managed to persuade the council that they would ruin the kids' costumes. If you'd like to come up one at a time, I'll give you your group details, a vest and a placard to carry."

So we did, forming an orderly queue in the best British traditions. The placards were rather smart, even if I do say so myself - my bat designs had been printed up on thick plastic card and fixed to the top of long wooden poles, and someone had gone to the effort of drilling out the bats' eyes and poking through some red LEDs, so the overall effect was rather professional. Even the safety vest wasn't that bad, even if according to the logo on the back we were working for the Highways Agency for the night. All in all, there were eleven groups, which meant rather a lot of kids would be wandering around the village tonight. As I reached the front of the queue, Mark gave me a warm smile, and reached down to pat Biscuit, who had been given special dispensation to join me in the hall, rather than being tied up outside.

"Zack, thanks so much for volunteering. I know how fun you and Emily used to have with Hallowe'en. Oh, one thing before you go: do you think this might fit Biscuit?"

From behind the table, Mark took out a plastic bag and handed it to me. I peered inside, and couldn't help laughing. I turned the bag out on to the table, and there lay a collie sized T-Rex costume, more comic than scary, but perfect for Biscuit.

"Thanks, Mark, that's really kind of you," I said, picking it up and turning it over.

"No problem, Zack. Just my way of saying thanks for helping out when you could so easily have said no."

---

Before I did anything else I got Biscuit into his costume. He looked hilarious, although it appeared to confuse him somewhat. Then, at last, I took out the piece of paper which held the names and addresses of the children I would be picking up. It was a good thing I'd stepped away from the rest of the group, because I let out an involuntary cry of 'yes!' when I saw the list - there were only three names on it, all kids from Cantor St, and there at the bottom was Sophie's name. A chance to spend even more time with her, even if there would be a couple of other kids in tow. With a smile on my face I hoisted my placard and headed out into the cold, moonlit night.

---

The costume was, apparently, a pixie, though it could have been a fairy or any one of a number of other mythical creatures. I hardly cared, though, because the effect was heart-rendingly cute, and actually rather sexy. Satiny white tights encased her slender legs, making them seem longer than they were, wrapping tightly around her thighs until they disappeared beneath the ragged hem of a very short layered skirt in some gauzy green material. On top was more of the same gauze, running in diagonal stripes across her torso, fitted snugly to every dip and rise in her physique. A tiara sat upon her hair, which had been piled up on her head, and in her hand she held the most diamanté-encrusted wand I'd ever seen. She beamed at me, basking in the look of awe on my face.

 "Oh, hi, Zack," Allison said, running down the stairs to see who Sophie had answered the door to. "So, you're her chaperone for the night, are you? Isn't that lucky?"

The way she said it, and the slight smile on her face told me that she thought it nothing whatsoever to do with chance. I wanted to protest that it really was none of my doing, but managed to stop myself. It would only raise suspicion where there was in fact none. Allison was surely just referring to the fact that it was good for Sophie to know the person who would be looking after her for the evening.

"Can you come in for a cuppa, or do you need to get going?" Allison asked.

"Sorry, as nice as that sounds I have two others to pick up, Jack and Sam from up at number fourteen."

"Well, rather you than me on a night like this. I've told Sophie to put a coat on but she says it'll ruin her costume. Silly sausage."

At that, Sophie turned her head and stuck out her tongue at her mum, who responded in kind.

"Actually, Zack," Allison went on, "I don't s'pose you mind taking her coat with you, do you? Then she can have it if she needs it."

"Nope, don't mind at all."

"Thanks. Oh, by the way, nice dinosaur you have there."

---

The Farley boys, Jack and Sam, were a nice pair of lads who played for the village football side. They looked almost like twins, but in fact there was fourteen months between them, with Jack the eldest at eleven. He was probably a little old to be coming with us, but the service was advertised to anyone under the age of twelve, so he qualified. They'd dressed up as zombies, a theme which seemed particularly prevalent this year. They greeted Sophie with a familiarity which suggested that they played together from time to time.

The village was alive. Groups of boys and girls trailed round behind their leaders, with the crazed glowing bat eyes leading the way. We started to play tricks on the other groups, too - Sophie and I would distract them while two boys crept up and zombied the lot. It was great fun, and for the first time in three years I was enjoying Hallowe'en. Once or twice I thought to myself that Emily would have loved it, too, but the thought was melancholy, no worse. I hoped that wherever she was, she was looking down at us and smiling.

About half an hour in, Sophie asked for her jacket. Once she had slipped it on she took hold of my hand. it was a completely natural thing to do - an adult holding the hand of a child in his care - but it sent a shiver down my spine. Her delicate little hand felt so tiny against my adult paw, and yet it fitted just right. She smiled up at me contentedly, and held on tight. We held hands for the rest of the evening, and no-one passed comment.

---

The phone call came just after I had dropped Jack and Sam back at their house, and was on the way to Sophie's. My phone buzzed frantically in my pocket, and I was surprised to find it was Allison calling.

"Hi,' I answered. "We're just down the road, be with you in a minute."

"OK, great," she said, sounding flustered.

The front door was already open when we approached.

"Zack, I'm so glad you got back now," she said, ushering us in. I noticed straight away that she was wearing her nurses' uniform. "I've had a call from the hospital. They need me there in an emergency. I'm trying to sort out someone to look after Sophie for a while, but I'm not sure how long it will take. I've tried most of my usual contacts and they're all busy."

"How long do you think you'll be?" I asked, sensing a chance to spend more time alone with Sophie.

"Uh, I'm not sure. It'll be eight hours at least, I imagine. I can't see it being any less than that."

"Well, do you want me to take her?"

She stopped rushing around and looked at me. I tried to look back at her with an open and honest expression, though deep down in the darkest corners of my soul I was thinking the unimaginable about her daughter.

"I don't think I can ask you to do that, Zack. Surely you have things to be doing?"

I shrugged.

"Not really. I was going to go home and mope around a bit!" I joked, and she laughed, breaking the slight tension between us.

"Well, since you put it that way," she said, "I'll gladly accept the offer. Where would you like to do it?"

It was an innocent question, but in the back of my mind I was thinking 'anywhere she'll let me'. I kept that thought to myself, though.

"Well, Biscuit will have nowhere to stay if we're here. He'll already be a bit cold waiting outside, so if it's OK I'll take Sophie back to mine and you can let me know where you are in the morning. Actually, if you're going to be out most of the night, why don't I drop her at school tomorrow? That way you get to catch a few hours' sleep during the day and don't have to get up to take her."

"That's very kind, but are you sure? I mean, it's a lot of effort."

"Nonsense, she'll be no bother at all."

"Right, that's settled then," she said. "Soph, go upstairs and chuck some pyjamas and your uniform in your bag quickly."

Sophie passed me with a huge grin on her face and practically skipped up the stairs. When she was gone, Allison dragged me aside.

"Look, Zack," she said, her voice suddenly full of sorrow, "it's been a really hard time for her over the past couple of years since her dad left. I know you've had a tough time, too. It's pretty obvious you're both needing someone in your lives - she needs a dad, and you just need someone to distract you. Just be aware that she's a bit fragile, OK? If she asks about Emily I don't mind you telling her stuff, but she's quite a sensitive girl, OK?"

I tried to give her the most reassuring smile I could manage.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to burden her with my problems. It's just nice to be around someone who's so full of life. I've always loved my little nieces, so I kind of just see her as another one of those. I hope that's OK."

She smiled back, and laid a hand on my arm, but said nothing more.

---

Sophie wandered into my house possessively, already at home despite only having visited once before. Being nearly bedtime I didn't think there would be much of a chance to spend time together, but I had one idea.

"Soph, do you want to warm up in front of the fire before you go to bed?"

She give me a huge grin and smiled. I grabbed a spare blanket and chucked a couple of logs on the dormant fire, bringing it back to life. I sat her with me on the big soft hearth rug and put the blanket around us. To my delight, she took hold of my arm and wrapped it around herself, and snuggled into my side.

My hand fell naturally onto her hip, and without thinking I let my fingertips stroke her side. She'd changed into a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a jumper before coming over, and the soft cotton material of the trousers moved easily over the skin beneath. She hummed slightly as my fingers danced across her hip, a sound of pure contentment. Since there was no objection to my touch, I grew a little bolder, letting my finger move from her side around to the front, passing over the jutting bone of her hip and into the shallow valley at the top of her thigh, where it met her pubis.

My finger made short passes up and down the top of the crease near her hip bone, but dipped no lower. I felt her legs drift slightly apart and then jerk back together all of a sudden, as if realising that they had betrayed her. I pressed a little lower, feeling the walls of the valley begin to grip my finger, and her legs fell apart to either side and stayed there.

I had been staring into the fire as my fingers danced on her hip, but as I began to slowly work my way toward her sex I looked down at her. In the same moment she looked up, and as our eyes met something silent passed between us. Without hesitating, without stopping to wonder whether it might be appropriate, I leaned down and kissed her.

She responded immediately, kissing back, childish and amateurish, but full of passion, hungry almost. Turning to face her naturally pulled my hand away from its place on her waist, and so I replaced it with my other, placing it gently on her upper thigh. Her legs had closed a little, but now opened wider than ever, tacitly granting the permission which her mouth was too busy to give. I ran my hand up her thigh and bumped into her crotch, cupping it with my fingers, letting my longest digit push the folds of her trousers and pants into the crease of her sex. She broke the kiss, shuddering at the intensity of the sensations, head falling onto my shoulder, face buried in the crook of my neck, hips hunching slightly to push herself harder against the invading fingers. I felt her for some moments, nose buried in the hair on top of her head, inhaling the strawberry fragrance of her shampoo, my heart hammering with excitement at the feel of her beneath my fingers. It didn't occur to me that this was a nine year old girl; she was Sophie, the girl I had fallen for, and that was all that mattered.

Of its own accord, her hand made its way into my lap, grasping at the thick shaft of my erection through the fabric of my jeans. God knows how she knew what to do - I intended to find out, but not right then, not when it would have destroyed the moment. I groaned as she centred her grasp on the head, squeezing hard, then making a gentle milking motion. We writhed together like this for several minutes, Sophie raising her head once in a while to kiss me, then letting it drop back onto my shoulder, groaning and whimpering as I attacked her most sensitive spot.

She stopped me with a urgent suddenness, pushing my had away from her crotch. For a moment I feared the worst, but I shouldn't have. Sophie reached down and grabbed the waistband of her trousers, pushing both them and her pants down to her ankles and kicking them free, and then with a sexual assertiveness which belied her age she grabbed my hand, manipulating it until the middle finger was prominent, and then shoved it down into the now-bared cleft between her legs.

Oh God she was so soft there, so perfectly formed. Her peach split in two neat halves around my finger, and within I found the prominent bulge of her clit, as different from its resting state as my manhood was from its own, and the slickness which seeped from her, no different from the adult lovers I had taken in my time. She was insistent, grabbing my wrist with one hand and cupping her fingers around my finger with the other, forcing me lower, making me crook my finger and press against the entrance to her. We both gasped as my finger pushed straight in, gliding on a wave of her juices. She was so very wet for someone so young, her vagina a fiery-hot, strongly muscled tunnel of flesh which sucked on my finger as I pushed it ever deeper into her, stopping only when my fat second knuckle pushed against the entrance and felt resistance which would take some time to overcome.

I began to move in and out of her, ever so slowly and gently, and with the pad of my thumb exerting gentle pressure on her button. Nothing too rough, nothing which would hurt her highly sensitive sex. She watched for a moment, but then could no longer take the sustained assault, falling back onto the floor, spread-eagled beneath me, her legs bent at the knee and thrown wide. She lay there in nothing but a t-shirt as I molested her. I marvelled at the soft sucking sound her hole made around my finger as I rocked it in and out of her, and at the way her wetness seeped out around my finger to dribble down between her legs and wet her arse, and then the floor. I pressed gently but firmly on each inward stroke feeling the ring of muscle tight around my knuckle, but could go no further, not that night.

She had abandoned her rough groping of my shaft, which was a blessed relief, because by this point if there had been any stimulation at all I would have flooded my boxers with cum. My heart hammered in my chest, setting my head spinning. I couldn't quite believe that this perfect little being was lying naked beneath me with a finger buried in her snatch. I hadn't looked at young girls in a sexual way before, but there was something just right about the shape of her body. Slender hips, hairless, unblemished mound, thin, coltish legs. I pushed up her top until I could squeeze her nipples with my spare hand, and felt an involuntary tensing of the ring around my finger. I pinched and rubbed at the tiny, undeveloped nubbins, and was rewarded with a groan. Immature though they were, Sophie's nipples seemed to give her great pleasure, and so my fingers stayed there, rubbing, tweaking, adding to her pleasure. All the time she moaned and writhed beneath me,  her tongue held tightly between her lips as if concentrating on the sensations I was generating inside her.

I had no idea a young girl could reach that peak we all strive for. I had no clue that she would suddenly strain every muscle in her body, or that she would cry out as if tortured, that her back would arch, then her hips hunch upwards frantically, finally pushing my knuckle past the now-quivering sphincter at the entrance to her hole. I had no idea her hands would grab my arm, dragging my fingers away from her chest, stuffing them into her mouth and sucking and biting frantically on them as over and over her vagina sucked on my invading finger. Her climax beat any I'd given to an adult woman, and would have shocked anyone with its intensity. Her brows furrowed as if she were confused, eyes clamped tightly shut, a sheen of sweat on her forehead, chest mottled with huge red patches, contrasting with her pale, perfect skin.

She shouted as I withdrew my finger, and then curled up into a ball on the floor, still shaking occasionally. I curled up behind her, dragging her to me.

"Sophie," I whispered in her ear. "I think I might be in love with you."

She murmured something unintelligible, and hugged my arms around her.

"It's still not that late," I said. "Do you want to watch a film?"

So we curled up on the sofa and watched a silly romantic comedy together, and this time nothing untoward happened. She was my girl, though. Mine. My girlfriend maybe. My lover, certainly. Nine years old and better than any I'd had before. I guiltily glanced across at the picture of Emily on the wall, and was grateful all of a sudden that I don't believe in the afterlife.

"You want to know how I know all that stuff?" Sophie asked, completely out of the blue. I looked at her and nodded.

"It's mum's Cosmo," she said with a giggle. "She always leaves it around and it's always talking about sex. Are we going to do it properly?"

I shuddered, and wondered the same thing.



---



She stuck her tongue out at me over her shoulder, and wiggled her hips as she pushed the waistband of trousers and pants down below the mounds of her shapely bum. We'd retired to my bedroom to spend the night together in my bed, and perhaps find time to sleep.

"Careful, Soph," I said. "If you keep teasing me I might not be able to stop myself."

"Oh yeah?" she replied, provocatively. "Who says I want you to stop yourself? And anyway, you'd have to catch me first."

"Oh really?"

"Yep!"

We both had the same thought at the same moment. I lunged across the bed, trying to grab her, but she was too fast and darted off down the hallway. I jumped up and raced after her, hearing the thump-thump-thump of her feet on the stairs. She was just disappearing around the corner at the bottom when I reached the top. I raced down, skipping every other step, and rounded the corner in time to see her backside disappearing into the living room. I followed her in and knew that she was now cornered.

She shrieked as I lunged for her, jumping out of the way just before my arms closed around her. I leapt as she dodged to the side, and caught an ankle, bringing her down. She wriggled like an eel, trying desperately to free herself, but I was just too strong.

"No, no! Save me!" she cried out, though her giggles suggested that she wasn't being too serious.

I moved over her, pinning her arms either side of her head and trapping her legs with one of my own.

"Stop wriggling, Soph," I said, breathing hard.

"Never!"

"Fine, you leave me no choice!" I cried, and leaned down, trapping her lips with mine and kissing her passionately.

She fell still, kissing back, becoming limp beneath me. I lay myself down upon her, grinding my crotch against hers, feeling her hips respond. I broke the kiss and looked into her eyes.

"Soph, do you trust me?" I asked.

She stared back at me and nodded. Lifting myself off her, I pushed her t-shirt up until her tiny nipples were exposed. I couldn't stop myself sucking one into my mouth, and she gasped beneath me, arching her back. The deep breath she took made her ribs stand out on her slender torso. I continued to lick and suck on her nipples as one hand worked down to her crotch, fingers snaking beneath both waistbands to press between the folds of her soft, sticky, warm sex. I toyed with her entrance, feeling the ring of muscle slip easily over the end of my finger, still loose from its earlier abuse.

I played with her for only a minute before withdrawing my hand and tugging at her clothes, pulling trousers and pants down past her knees. I knelt up and removed them completely, and pushed her knees wide. Her reddened sex lay open, fattened clit standing out at its zenith, and the slightly gaping coral of her hole beneath. I plunged forward and kissed her there, softly at first, then more insistently, pressing my tongue in between her folds. I worked her bump first, then wiggled the tip into her hole, and just when her hips began to gyrate I went back to her clitoris. Her hips pushed insistently up into my face as I fellated her, and little whimpers came from the back of her throat.

The assault lasted mere minutes before the pitch and rhythm of her moans changed suddenly, growing deeper, becoming growls of lust. She came hard, hips bucking uncontrollably, heels hammering my shoulders, then levering her crotch up to mash against my face, my tongue buried in her hole, my nose grinding against her clit. As it peaked her legs clamped tight around my head, quivering uncontrollably, and my nose and mouth with filled with the scent and flavour of her excitement.

Finally, with the last ripples still causing convulsions in her tummy, she fell back to the floor, spent. I moved up next to her, cradling her in my arms. She smiled at me, eyes glazed over.

"Wow..." she whispered, voice unsteady. "Best one ever."



---



When we made it to bed she was barely able to keep her eyes open. I was beyond aroused by our lovemaking so far, and that clouded my judgement. I should have let her sleep then, but instead I pulled her to me and rubbed myself against her, my shaft pushing into the hot cleft of her abused sex over and over, until I could take it no more and climbed on top of her, masturbating furiously until I fired a thick load over her tummy and crotch. She made no comment as I guiltily cleaned her with a flannel, watching as I wiped the evidence of my depraved act from the freshly-sullied skin of her perfect body. I hugged and kissed her as she finally drifted off.



---



It was Biscuit who woke me, pawing at the door to be let out. I shivered as the icy air washed over my nakedness, and then deliberately shut the door behind him. He would probably be fine out there for a while - I, on the other hand, had business to attend to.

She lay on one side, her arms hugging the pillow in front of her, hair in a tangled mess. I slipped back into bed beside her and cuddled close, growing aroused at the feeling of her naked body against mine, the soft swell of her shapely bum pressed into my lower stomach. I felt the tip of my aroused manhood push against her backside and shivered at the sensation.

She came awake slowly, stretching her arms and yawning. At first she stiffened in surprise at the feeling of being held, but when she looked up at me recognition dawned and she relaxed, turning onto her back, giggling as the hand nearest me closed around the thick shaft which draped across her hip. I leaned down and kissed her and she responded, hungrily kissing me back, her hand gently working on my penis, not with any rhythm, but feeling, grasping, letting it fill her hand comfortably.

I ran a hand up her leg and felt her thighs parting in response. Her cleft was hot and sticky, still coated in the residue of the previous night's lovemaking. I pressed her clitoris hard into the bone beneath, feeling rather than hearing her groan into my mouth. I rolled it back and forth against her pubis for several seconds, delighting in the way that her agonising pleasure transferred to pressure on my shaft. Her button hardened, growing fat beneath the pad of my finger, swelling until my attack on it was too much; she released my shaft and grabbed my wrist, pushing my hand down between her legs until the tip of my finger penetrated the tight ring of muscle at the entrance to her hole, and only relenting when I had established a rhythm of circular movements, pleasuring her and opening her for my pleasure at the same time.

I worked my finger in and out, around and about until I felt the ring slackening ever so slightly. I pushed forward, gaining ground while I could, burying my middle finger in her until the second knuckle pushed fatly against the still-resisting ring. I held it there, pushing ever so gently, still rotating but now in tiny circles. She grew ever more aroused beneath me, her face and chest flushed, eyes closed and our kiss long since abandoned in favour of grabbing gasping breaths between groans of pleasure. Feeling the heat and slickness growing around my finger I realised that my goal was in sight and with gentle but insistent pressure I pushed until my finger was completely encased. I curled it up inside her and felt a shudder run through her body.

She pulled her hand free of me and threw the covers off us, raising herself up onto her elbows and staring down at her own crotch in fascination as my finger pumped in and out of her, while my thumb pressed ever so gently on her clit. With each inward press she grew hotter, slicker, slacker, until I was fingering her with ease, my digit coated in a glistening sheen of her excitement. I thrust repeatedly into her, marvelling at the way she stretched, and opening her hole ever wider.

I tried two fingers, gently at first, and her head fell back onto the pillow, eyes clamped tight shut, breathing in short, desperate gasps. She took my fingers more easily than I thought possible, stretching wider and wider until both were buried in her as far as they would go. A wicked thought entered my mind.

"Sophie, sweetheart," I whispered in her ear. "Can I have sex with you?"

She opened an eye slowly, weakened by my pleasure assault. She looked at me for a moment, searching for something in my eyes, then squeezed her eyes tight shut as a wave of euphoria washed over her, the powerful muscles at the entrance of her vagina squeezing hard down on my digits. She licked her lips and panted, and finally replied.

"Carefully, OK?" she croaked, barely able to speak. I nodded, though her eyes were shut, and withdrew my fingers. she gasped and arched her back as I did so, before curling up her hips, desperately trying to keep them inside.

I moved over her on hands and knees, my shaft bobbing beneath me and drooling onto the pale skin of her stomach. She lay beneath me, abandoned to my ministrations, arms to either side of her head and legs wide apart. At their junction with her body her vagina lay gaping open slightly, the centre of a reddened cleft which was crowned by her fattened clitoris. I lowered myself down until I could feel the hot cleft kissing the underside of my shaft, then humped a few times, feeling the sensation of her sex on mine.

"It's lower, silly," she drawled, eyes still shut. She grabbed my manhood and pushed it down and back, centring it on the notch which led inside. I pushed forward, slowly but insistently, and felt her lips spread around my tip.

The muscle at her entrance resisted me for only a few moments before surrendering to the assault it was under. I pressed forward until I was halfway in, then stopped for fear of hurting her. I watched myself all the time, making my way inside a nine year old girl. I should have been disgusted with myself, but all I really felt was overwhelming love for her. I was making love to Sophie, not fucking her.

I began to move, short thrusts at first, then longer. I looked up at her and her eyes were squeezed shut. She panted with the effort of accepting me. Sometimes she would moan, or lick her lips, but the whole time her eyes were squeezed tightly shut. She may have been only a girl, but her body responded as a woman's would, her hot, tight tunnel becoming ever looser and slicker as I pumped, until I felt myself bottoming out in her. I thrust as deeply as I could several times, glorying in the depth I could achieve, and then all of a sudden it was over. With a surging, relentless pressure I swelled inside her and flooded her sex with my seed. She yelped as I suddenly expanded inside, eyes flying open and hands coming up to grip my arms, digging in her nails. Her stomach and legs quivered, and as I quickly pulled free of her and hugged her to me she continued to shake while tears ran down her face.



---



She had a bath before school, soaking herself in the warm water, letting it sooth the tender entrance to her body. She smiled and reassured me that it was OK, that she was a little sore but that was all. I couldn't stop myself feeling guilty.

I walked her to school with Biscuit, who was glad to finally have some exercise. I dropped her there, explaining to her teacher that Sophie’s mum had been called into work. I could feel the eyes of the other parents and carers on my back, and knew that the gossip would be worse than ever. There would be little doubt in the minds of my fellow villagers that something was going on between Allison and I. I thanked my lucky stars that they almost certainly wouldn't guess the truth.

It didn't stop me worrying, though - before we'd left the house, I had stopped Sophie for a kiss while we could still enjoy it, kneeling down and running my hands up beneath her skirt to feel her bum. She grinned down at me and teased my dick with her foot.

"Soph, we're going to have to keep this a secret, you know."

She rolled her eyes at me.

"Of course we will, silly. Mum would go mental if she found out."

And that, apparently, was that.

---

I sat unable to concentrate on my work. Sophie was at school now, and her mum would pick her up later, having got home from the hospital at roughly the same time that Sophie was washing the evidence of our lovemaking from her immature body. I felt so guilty at having missed her call as my phone frantically buzzed on my bedside table, whilst I perched on the side of the tub and leered her little girl's body.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted her tracksuit bottoms and pants, still bunched together and pushed halfway beneath the sofa. My mind span back to the previous evening, when I had chased her down to the living room and ripped off her clothes before bringing her off in spectacular fashion with my tongue. I shuddered at the memory of her legs locked together around my neck forcing her soft little pussy into my face, mashing her clit against my nose as my tongue probed her hole, and then the sensation of her body being racked by convulsions as she came.

What was it she said? 'Best one ever', wasn't it? Well, that meant something - she'd obviously been putting her Cosmo-derived knowledge to good use and had been giving herself orgasms in the past. Well, I assumed they were self-inflicted. She seemed very sure of herself when it came to sex, and though the tough ring of muscle at her entrance had resisted my intrusion, it had also parted without pain. Perhaps I wasn't her first. The thought utterly intrigued me.

I moved to pick up her clothes, and on a whim pressed the crotch of her pants to my nose. The fabric was crusty with her dried juices, and the scent was out of this world: musky, lightly spiced, intoxicating. I abandoned work to rush upstairs, falling onto the bed, frantically inhaling the fragrance of her arousal and bringing myself to a head-spinning climax.

---

I didn't bother to take the clothes back to Allison that day. It was easy to imagine a perfectly innocent reason that they were forgotten at my house, and it seemed (to my mind at least) less likely to arouse suspicion if I was laid back about it. Besides, if I picked my moment carefully I would be able to see Sophie on a perfectly innocent pretext. Besides, it gave me the opportunity to spend more time with that glorious scent.

I realised I was becoming obsessed, but I also realised why - I had strong romantic feelings for Sophie, and I desperately wanted to spend more time with her. Without a reason to do so my life was empty. We'd agreed to go walking with Biscuit again soon, but that would leave little chance for intimacy, and time alone with her in bed was what I craved more than anything.

---

At least we had our walk planned for Saturday morning. Bright and early she knocked at the door. I opened it with my heart thumping in my chest, blood pounding in my ears; she stood there looking gorgeous in a blue duffel coat over a short pleated tartan skirt and dark blue tights. She grinned up at me and twisted her body slightly, bending one knee in an unabashedly coquettish way.

"Hey," I said, unable to stop myself grinning back. "Um, I would ask you in, in case you wanted to... you know... but we really ought to get going."

She stifled a giggle, her face turning bright red.

"It's OK," she replied in a conspiratorial whisper accompanied by a grin which verged on a leer, "I've thought of that already. I've got a plan. I want to do stuff again."

She led the way. The first half of the route was fairly standard, taking one of the quieter paths which skirted around the far side of a large birch wood to the east of the village. It was a gorgeous morning, dawn breaking as we walked, the sun an anaemic yellow globe whose light barely made it through the thick morning mist. Winter was beginning to bite - frost glistened on the grass through which we crunched, and clouds of steam escaped our mouths as we talked. There seemed so much to talk about, too.

"Are you sure you're OK with what we're doing?" I asked at one point. She gave me an acidic look.

"I'm not a little kid any more, you know," she replied. "I know all about having sex, and I like doing it with you. Why do you think I wanted to come round your house?"

"I, er...  well, I just wanted to make sure."

"You're such a dummy, Zack," she said, punching me on the arm. "You didn't force me to do anything, and I'm not going to tell anyone what we're doing. I know how much trouble you'll be in if I do."

"You know what, Soph," I said, "you're a lot smarter than most of the girls your age."

"Yeah, well..." she said, and looked down. I left her for a moment, not pushing her, waiting to see if she wanted to say more.

"It's 'cause I spent a lot of time around someone really clever," she said at last. Her voice caught slightly, and there were the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "Where we lived before I had a friend called Amy. Actually, she was my babysitter, but we were best friends. She was really smart, she knew everything. I mean, she was only seventeen but she knew way more than most adults. She even lived with us for a bit, but then when we moved here she didn't come with us."

Sophie was looking down at the ground now, avoiding meeting my eye. A tear rolled down each cheek, darkening the skin beneath.

"Do you keep in touch at all?"

Sophie shrugged.

"We send emails sometimes, but I don't have a phone so I can't text her or anything."

"She was really important to you, wasn't she?"

She nodded, and sobbed slightly. I stopped and grabbed her in a hug, and she cried on me.

"Was she the one who told you all about sex?" I asked.

She pushed me away and looked up from me, her tear-laden eyes blinking in the cold air.

"Why are adults so stupid?"

"Uh, I have no idea..." I replied.

"You just don't see things sometimes. Really big things. Amy wasn't just my friend. She didn't tell me about sex. She showed me."

We stood in silence for a moment. I couldn't quite work out what to say in response, and Sophie glared at me, daring to say something stupid and get it wrong again.

"I'm sorry," I said at last, not quite sure what else I should say in this situation.

"Sorry for what? Sorry that she molested me? Sorry she made me feel really wonderful? I'm not. And you can hardly talk!"

"That's not what I meant, Soph. I'm sorry that you can't see her any more. It must hurt."

She just looked at me, her mouth moving, but no words coming out. Then she burst into tears and flung herself at me once more.

"I... miss her... so much!" she said between sobs.

"It's OK," I said, stroking her hair and trying to sooth her. "It's OK, sweetie. We'll fix it, I promise. We'll do something."

---

A few minutes later she had calmed down enough that I no longer had to hold her.

"Sorry," she said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and sniffing loudly. "You must think I'm such a baby."

I shook my head.

"I know what it's like to miss someone dreadfully, Sophie. I know exactly what it's like."

"Your wife, you mean? Mum told me about it. I'm sorry."

"You know, it's not just her I miss," I said. "I miss you when I'm not around you."

She gave me a look as if I was slightly mad, then grabbed me by the hand.

"Come on, I've got a surprise for you."

It was when we were on the far side of the wood, as far as we would get from home, that she finally showed me what she meant. She veered off the path and followed a barely-used track into the woods.

"Jack from down my road showed me this place," she said as she dragged me through the undergrowth. "No-one else knows about it, he says, and he won't be here today because he has a football game."

I felt a fleeting moment of jealousy at the degree to which she knew Jack's schedule, and there were unanswered questions about why he'd brought her into the woods in the first place, but then all these introspective thoughts were banished from my mind by the sight in front of me.

It must have been a folly once. Rumour had it that an old manor house was lost somewhere nearby in the dense, private woods which the MOD owned. They'd taken it over during the war and the work they'd done there was so secret that they never gave it back. Perhaps the folly was associated with the house, though the land it stood upon was public. How had I never heard of this place in all my years of living in the village?

It was a squat tower, three stories high. Inside a stone staircase wound its way up through two levels. The floors were dusty but the wood was sound; there was nothing at all on the first floor, but up at the top of the tower the room had been kitted out to be, if not exactly habitable then at least drier and warmer than outside. There were old sections of carpet in a patchwork on the floor, a small wood burner which exhausted its smoke through a hole in the wall, and somehow, despite the fact that it was clearly larger in every dimension than the door to the staircase, a sofa. I made a mental note to bring some wood and matches one day, if we came back.

"Jack says the whole time he's been coming here he's never seen anyone else," Sophie said. "And the best part about it is this," she continued, walking over to the sofa. She climbed onto it on her knees and looked over her shoulder at me provocatively.

"What do you think?" she asked.

I'm sure she was referring to the set-up, but my mind was on the round little bum which poked sexily at the material of her skirt.

"I think I want you to kneel there while I put my willy in you."

She looked round at me and grinned.

"Hurry up then, Biscuit will start getting bored soon," she said, and giggled.

I walked over to her and placed a hand on her hip, then ran it down to her thigh. Bringing it back up, I flicked her skirt onto her lower back, and then without hesitation pulled her tights and pants down to her knees, leaving her peach exposed through the gap in her thighs.

"Oh God," I groaned. "Your little fanny really is pretty."

As if to emphasise my point I reached out a finger and pushed through the folds, hunting for her vagina. I found it quickly, and found it wet. She must have been expecting something to happen when she brought me to the tower, and had got wet thinking about what it might be. It made me shudder to think of her growing aroused by me. I pressed my finger deeper into her, twisting, gathering wetness so that when I pulled it out I spread her slipperiness all around the entrance to her hole. I used just one finger, making an obscene squelching noise which echoed around the folly, occasionally drowned out by a moan from Sophie's other lips.

"I think you should put your willy in now," she said, voice slightly strained. She was taking deep breaths, holding them for a few seconds and then expelling them loudly. A mottled blush spread out from her reddened vulva down both thighs, and her sex parts glistened wetly, so hot that they steamed slightly in the freezing air.

I stepped up behind her and dropped my jeans and pants to mid-thigh. I was achingly hard, and even the cold air in the tower did little to dampen my ardour. I pressed the head against her and pushed forward, delighting at the sight of my manhood forcing her lips apart and barging its way into her. She groaned and made a series of little gasping noises, then followed them up with an,

"Ow! Ow! Owwwww!"

I paused, distressed by the sounds she was making, but she wasn't as easily put off as I was.

"Sorry," she said, her voice tinged with a hint of desperation. "I still want you to do it, just be gentle, please."

I carried on, less urgently, less lustfully, until I felt the resistance growing too great and stopped again. She let out a huge sigh, and I felt the overstretched muscles at the entrance to her hole twitching and spasming. I was only two or three inches into her.

"He feels so big this time," she said. "It didn't hurt like this before."

"Sorry," I said, feeling wretched that I had hurt her. "I had more time to make you ready before."

"It's OK, don't say sorry. I want you to do it. It starting to hurt less. Can you just rub my bump a bit? I can't reach..."

I gladly felt around the underside of my penis, finding the hard little lump of her clit poking out from her distended vulva. She jumped when I pressed it, and squeaked because doing so forced me a little further into her. As I massaged it, mashing it hard against the bone beneath, I finally felt her loosen a little around my shaft until I began to sink even further in. Finally, ultimately, I had to stop when I had filled up her vagina and there was barely half an inch of my shaft left outside her. I couldn't quite believe I was pressing up against her cervix; my meagre manhood went so much further in this position.

She wriggled her hips, too, in response to the stimulation. Just the friction that caused on my sensitive, tightly-squeezed shaft was enough to take me near the edge. I left her clit and grabbed her hips with both hands, and started to give her a good, deep, thorough ploughing. If I'd thought the sound of my finger in her was obscene, the sound of my manhood squelching into her was something else entirely. Little pockets of air were squeezed out of her by my oversized shaft, making little raspberry sounds which brought a giggle from her. It locked me into her, too, in a vacuum like grip which sucked harder than any blowjob I'd ever had. That, rather than the friction, was what send me over the edge. I somehow retained the presence of mind to pull out, so I didn't coat her insides with cum which would drip out all the way home. Instead I painted the other sofa cushion with fat droplets, holding my wet, shaking rod in a tight grip to stop it bucking wildly out of control and dousing Sophie's back instead.

When the blackness had receded from my vision I looked down at her. She'd turned round on the sofa, and lay there fingering herself as she looked up at me, legs spread lewdly wide, finger pistoning in and out of a gaping, raw hole. I fell to my knees and lapped at her crotch, pushing my tongue into her hole, then sucking on her clit, until with an anguished cry she reached her peak, hips pushing desperately up at me while her hands grasped painfully at the hair on my head, pushing my face into her well-used sex.

I leaned back on my haunches and looked at the ravaged girl. She lay there almost in shock, looking at me through slitted eyes, steaming from both her mouth and her crotch.

"Sophie, if I could," I said, lustfully, "I would fuck you so hard again, right now."

She giggled up at me and finally shut her legs.

"You're dirty," she said, and giggled again.

---

We walked on, Sophie somewhat unsteady on her legs. As was I, if truth be told - the experience was head-spinning. I realised on that walk that I needed Sophie. Desperately needed her.  Not just for the sex, although that was astonishingly good. No, I needed her to be around me, because as we walked we chatted, and she made me laugh, and I made her laugh, and somehow it became apparent that although there was a generation between us we were right for each other. It sounds strange, and I'm sure psychologists and Daily Mail readers would try to suggest it was something to do with being unable to form a proper attachment to an adult, but that's horribly naive.

As I waved her goodbye, and she blew me a kiss and winked at me, I knew that I would have to find some way of seeing her more regularly. And, as I had promised, I must find a way to bring Amy back into her life.

---

Sometimes, when you want something badly enough, the universe just gives in and says 'OK, here you go'. It doesn't happen very often at all, but I'd been through plenty of shit in my time, so perhaps I deserved something nice to happen.

Allison called me two days after I fucked her daughter in the folly in the woods. She sounded unsure of herself, as if tiptoeing around something. She asked how I was, chatter about a bit of the village gossip and by and large said nothing much at all. Eventually we ran out of nothings to say, and I was about to end the conversation, but she seemed to want to say one last thing.

"Um, Zack," she started, when it became apparent that she wasn't going to be able to avoid the issue any longer. "I need to ask you something about Sophie. Actually a couple of things. Only, one of them is a bit awkward and the other's a huge favour."

I laughed at her discomfort, and told her to carry on.

"OK, the uncomfortable one first," she said. "Have you noticed Sophie talking about any boys in particular lately?"

"Uh, no, not really. I mean, I know she plays with the Farley boys sometimes, but she hasn't really mentioned them to me."

"Oh, right. OK."

"What is it, Allison? Why do you ask?"

"Oh, it's nothing, really. Just being silly I suppose. I just... God, I'm not sure I should be telling you this, but I really don't want to talk to anyone else about it. Uh... I, er, caught Sophie playing with herself the other day. Well, actually, I didn't catch her, I just heard her through her bedroom door."

At the other end of the phone my heart was hammering in my chest, a mixture of fear at the direction of the conversation, and excitement at the thought of what Sophie got up to in bed.

"Oh, I'm sure that's perfectly normal for a girl  her age, isn't it?"

"Oh, yes, of course," said Allison in a rush. "Only, it was what she was saying. She kept saying stuff like 'go on, push your willy in' and 'yes, squirt your stuff in me'. I mean, where does she get this stuff from if she hasn't been doing the unthinkable with a boy?"

I tried to stay level-headed, and luckily Sophie had already given me an excellent excuse for her behaviour.

"Well, do you ever leave any magazines lying around? Or does she go on the internet without you there?"

"No to the internet, but maybe to the magazines. I mean, some of them are pretty explicit with their advice. Do you think she might have been reading them?"

"Well, it sounds far more likely than her having sex with someone, doesn't it?"

Except she's having sex with me, I thought. Best not admit that one though.

"Yes, I suppose so," Allison said, sounding relieved. "I suppose I better warn her not to read them."

"Probably best. Only, don't go overboard on her. She's just curious, that's all. It's a good thing she's exploring on her own rather than trying it for real."

Even as I was saying it, I was feeling inhuman. Here I was screwing Allison's daughter, then telling her not to worry, that Sophie's behaviour was perfectly innocent and explicable.

"Yeah, I guess," she said. Finally, my heart was beginning to return to its normal speed.

"What was the other thing you wanted to ask?" I asked, keen to change the subject now that Allison was somewhat mollified.

"Oh, yes. Actually, this one's a huge favour. I've got into a strange pattern with shifts, and Sophie's usual child-minder can't do  a lot of them. I'm looking for someone new, but is there any chance you might be able to look after her once or twice until I've got it sorted? I can pay you all the usual fees."

"I'd love to help out, it's no problem at all. And I would be insulted if you paid me. Just let me know when you need me to look after her. As you know, I work from home, so it won't be an issue having her here any time you need it."

"Oh, thanks Zack, you're an absolute life saver. It'll be easy to sell to Soph, too - you know, I think she might have a little bit of a crush on you. She's always on cloud nine when she gets home from seeing you."

Well, that's probably because she's just cum...

"I'm sure it's just a harmless little thing. She'll forget about me in a few weeks when the next boy band comes along!" I joked.

"Oh Zack. Why is it that men are all so sweet and innocent about this?"

"What?"

"Nothing, it doesn't matter. Anyway, thanks again, Zack. I'll let you know when Sophie's going to be over next."

---

It was two days later that I got the call I had been desperately waiting for since the moment my last conversation with Allison came to a close.

"I've got an overnighter on Wednesday. I'll not need to go in until 4, but that means leaving here before Sophie gets home from school."

"That's fine," I replied. "I'll take Biscuit for a walk and pick her up on the way back into the village, then I'll take her to school the next day."

"Thanks, Zack, I really appreciate it. Um, I hope you don't mind me asking, but why are you being so nice to me?"

"It's simple," I lied. "Ever since Em died the people in this village have been so kind to me. I want to do something to help out other people. And anything I can do to help your work at the oncology ward is important to me. And, of course, having Sophie around lately has really picked me up."

That last part was at least true, if not the whole truth.

---

She gave me a huge grin and almost danced over to me, but thankfully stopped short of a full on hug and kiss with her teachers and classmates watching on. She did, however, take my hand as we walked - an innocent enough act should you have no knowledge of what I planned for her when I had her in the privacy of my own home.

"Did you have a good day?" I asked, trying to keep the tone light for now. She nodded and giggled, then looked round to see if anyone was in earshot. Finding no-one close enough to hear what she said, she proudly announced,

"I started thinking about staying at yours tonight and I started getting a really sexy feeling in last period. I was getting really wriggly in my chair 'cause it was getting itchy down there, like it was trying to get me to touch it, and the teacher thought I had to go for a wee, so he made me go to the toilet. I managed to play with it fast enough to get the feeling. Then I didn't put my pants back on after! I think Mr Thomson was trying to look up my skirt afterwards, too, because I had my legs open. He's a dirty old pervert."

She giggled again, suggesting that she wasn't wholly disturbed by her voyeuristic teacher.

"Does that mean I'm a dirty old pervert, too?" I asked.

"No! Of course not! You're not that old, and anyway you're my boyfriend, it's different."

She hugged my arm tightly to herself, and my heart did backflips at the thought of her calling me her boyfriend.

"So, does it bother you if Mr Thomson tries to see your fanny?" I asked, intrigued.

"Not really, I suppose. Actually, it kind of... God, you're going to think this is really weird, but it kind of makes me feel a bit tingly in my fanny."

"Do you like to show off for him then?"

"I suppose so. Yeah, I do. Is that really weird?"

"Oh no, that's not weird at all. Loads of people like showing off. Besides, it's a winning situation for everyone - he gets to see your fanny and you get a tingly feeling for showing it off. Just be careful, OK? Don't do it when your friends aren't there, in case he tries to do something to you."

She smiled up at me.

"Don't worry, I'll be careful."

"Um, Soph," I continued, "do you ever feel like you want to show off for anyone else? Do you think about it?"

She blushed slightly before she replied.

"Er, yeah, kind of. Sometimes I think about showing off my fanny to people on the bus or something. I always have to play with it after that, it gets really itchy."

"That's what we call a sexual fantasy, or just fantasy. They're really fun, especially if you act them out."

"So you think I should show people my fanny on the bus?!" she exclaimed. I shrugged.

"Might be fun. We could go somewhere together, and I could try to take pictures of the men looking up your skirt. What do you think?"

She was silent for a few moments, mulling it over.

"Yeah, OK," she said eventually. "How are we going to get mum to agree though?"

"Don't worry, I'll deal with that."

She grinned up at me, and we continued on our way.

"Zack," she said, about two minutes later, "do you have any fantasies?"

---

"It's called Neko," I explained, as she stared at the screen open-mouthed.

"So, let me get this straight, you like cartoons of girls who have ears and tails. And that's your fantasy?"

"They're not cartoons," I said, repeating the phrase I'd so often been told. "They're drawings. I mean, real girls can't have tails and ears, so they have to draw them instead. Or dress up and pretend."

"Dress up? Show me!" she said, howling with laughter.

I pulled up some Neko cosplay pictures.

"Oh my God," she said, fascinated. "You want me to look like that?"

"Well, no," I replied, bashfully. "Just the ears and tail would do."

"And you can get those so I can wear them?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Fine," she said. "If that's your fantasy, that's what we'll do."

---

One week later.

"I thought it would just strap around your waist," I said dejectedly, handing her the tail. "But it's kind of different."

She took it off me, turning it this way and that.

"I don't get it," she said, brows furrowed. "Where does this bit go?" she asked, fondling the conical plug at one end. "It doesn't go in my fanny does it?"

"Um, no, not exactly," I replied, feeling hot under the collar. "It goes inside, but not in your fanny. It goes in your bum."

She looked at me with an expression of utter horror, which was hardly surprising.

"Oh my God, it goes up my bum?! How? It's massive!"

"Actually," I replied, not quite sure why I was about to say this, "it's not that big. It would go in easily. You don't have to do it, though. I really did think it would have a harness."

She kept looking at the device, her face still registering shock, but also a little curiosity.

"Would it really go in easily? How do you know?"

"I just know," I said, avoiding the question, knowing that she wouldn't like the answer. She stayed silent for a long moment, and the said, decisively,

"OK, if it would make you happy then I'll do it."

I couldn't quite believe my ears, but I didn't want to question her in case she changed her mind. I practically pushed her upstairs to my bedroom and dug around in my bottom drawer for an old tube of lube. She had already climbed onto the bed and stripped her lower half, and was up on all fours in the exact position in which I had taken her in the folly, her little bum poking into the air and the sweet peach of her sex squeezing out between the tops of her thighs.

While she was quite capable of making fluid enough to allow me to penetrate to the very fullest in front, her bum was another matter entirely. I'd never even considered going there up to now, so I had no idea how pliable or not she might be. I squeezed a worm of lube onto my finger and pressed it to her backside, watching her sphincter twitch slightly as the cool gel touched it. I ran my finger around the puckered skin there for a moment, grinning as I saw her little vagina twitched and gape a little between her spread legs. She was wet there already.

Her head fell onto the bed, which only accentuated her submissive pose. I pressed my fingertip into her hole, finding it easier to penetrate than I imagined it might be, and before long I had eased my whole finger into her behind.

"How are you doing?" I asked.

"It feels good," she said, sounding surprised. "Is it meant to feel this good?"

Oh God, I thought, only in my wildest dreams!

"Yeah," I replied. "It does feel good sometimes. Actually, some girls even like having a willy in their bum rather than their fanny."

"Eww, really?" she asked. "Isn't that a bit gross?"

"Not really. Want to try it?"

"No way! If your big hard willy is going anywhere it's in my fanny."

A shudder passed through me when she said that, and Sophie giggled; she knew full well how aroused that sentence would make me.

"I think you're loose enough now," I said, changing the subject before I lost control and just dropped my pants there and then and screwed her. "You ready?"

She nodded her head, and squeaked when I cruelly curled my finger up inside her. I picked up the tail and suddenly felt less sure of myself. It was a nice small plug, but still it looked huge when I put it up against her. Well, I could at least try and if she wanted me to stop I could. I pressed the narrow point of the plug against her sphincter, and watched as the ring of muscle began to stretch around the black rubber.

"Tell me to stop if it hurts too much, OK?" I told her, and she nodded and grunted, her hands grasping at the bed clothes as I pushed forward and the plug slowly widened her. She let out a surprised squeak when the widest part of the plug breached her, then let out a huge sigh as her tortured ring closed behind it, trapping the plug inside.

"There, that went in easily, didn't it? How's it feel?" I asked.

"It feels... uhhhhhhhhhh..."

She'd was rendered senseless as I grabbed the tail and ran my hand down it, feeling the sot fur slipping between my fingers, which moved the plug inside her. It had another effect, too.

"Zack," she said, sounding a little desperate. "I feel like I really want to have sex with you. Like, now. Right now."

It was such a depraved thing to hear from such a young girl. I stroked the tail again, watching as the muscles in her legs twitched and quivered.

"Zack, I'm serious!" she said, sounding desperate. She dropped onto a shoulder so that she could push one hand backwards between her legs, plunging it in between her lips to rub frantically at her clit. I watched her for a moment, stunned by her raw, needy sexuality, before I shook myself out of my stupor and dropped my pants.

Walking up behind her I bent my penis down and lifted up the tail, making Sophie whimper as I did so, then pressed the head against her remaining unoccupied hole, which had dribbled a line of lubricant down across her pokey-out clit and then along her tummy. I tried to press in, but the plug in her arse was taking up all the room, squashing down her already tight little vagina into a thin tunnel I couldn't force my way into.

"Zack, stick your willy in!" she almost shouted at me. "What's wrong?"

"I can't Soph, the tail's taking up all the room."

She gave a growl of frustration, reaching behind her to pull hard on the tail. Slowly at first, and then with shocking suddenness the plug eased its way out of her. She threw it onto the floor, then demanded that I screw her.

With the tail and the plug gone, I sank easily into her, stretching the skin at the mouth of her immature vagina into a thin line around my eager shaft.

"Oh shit!" she shouted. It was the first time that I had ever hear her swear, and it was a huge shock to hear it coming from her, despite the fact that about four inches of my adult penis was buried in her child's vagina. I stopped, worried I'd gone too far.

"Oh my God," she said. "Don't stop now! Come on, please push it in and out!"

Nothing I'd learned in my life could have prepared me for the sound of a preteen begging me to fuck her. I felt a lightning bolt of pleasure race down my spine and into the shaft of my penis, which swelled and hardened inside Sophie. I began rapid thrusts into her, pushing down hard into her until with one stroke I plunged all the way in.

"Shit, shit, shit," she repeated over and over, as I fucked harder and harder into her, my pubes matted with the juice which was flooding out of her. She became so slick that I could piston my hips no faster, and settled into a steady, deep rhythm.

Then, for the first time together, she came as we had sex. Up to know it had taken my fingers or wriggling tongue to bring her off, but as my hips slapped against her tiny bottom she began to quiver and shake, her tunnel rippling around my shaft. She groaned loudly, burying her face in the mattress, her little feet pounding rhythmically on the edge of the bed and knuckles white as she held on for dear life.

Feeling her going through all that when I was inside her was just too much for me to bear. My orgasm raced unstoppably through me, boiling up through my manhood in massive, hot spurts which fired into her as I continued to pump, until it bubbled out around my shaft, dripping wetly onto the bed and the floor, flung this way and that by my unending thrusting.

She collapsed away from me onto the bed, leaving behind my still-twitching shaft, which even now was still firing out little watery spurts of cum. She rolled onto her back and looked at me with a shocked expression on her face, looking close to tears.

"That felt too much, Zack. I don't like it."

I climbed onto the bed with her, and wrapped her in my arms, snuggling her from behind.

"It's a bit scary at first, I know. But when you get used to it, it'll just feel good. It's just that it felt so very good."

"OK. But not the tail again, alright?"

"OK, not the tail."

---

It was a Wednesday night, a school night, and Allison was working nights, which now meant that I had a house guest. We'd drawn all the blinds and locked all the doors, and a giggling girl had come into my arms on the sofa while our lips locked together and our hands played with each other's bodies. She had pulled down my tracksuit trousers - worn solely so that was easier - and I had snaked my hands up beneath her skirt and found her bare bottom, receiving a grin in return for my gasp of surprise. She had walked to my house through the village in that short little skirt, and must have come the whole way with the cold winter air kissing her most delicate, private place. She knelt above me as we embraced, her hand sneaking down between us to tug at my straining erection.

"Stop, wait," she said, pulling away, shoving my hands off her. "Wait here, OK? I have a surprise. Don't come and find me, alright? And when I tell you to, you have to close your eyes and not open them until I say, OK?"

I nodded with a smile on my face, amused by her seriousness and intrigued by her plan. She scampered off humming a little tune to herself, grabbing a bag before thumping up the stairs and shutting herself in the bathroom with a definitive click of the lock.

I waited there for nearly fifteen minutes. It seemed wrong to turn the TV on or pick up my tablet to surf the net, so I did nothing, and instead speculated what she might be up to. At last, though, I heard the patter of her feet coming downstairs.

"OK, close your eyes and keep them closed until I tell you," she called from the hallway.

"Right, they're shut," I shouted back, and sat there in darkness wondering what could possibly be about to happen.

I heard her coming closer, then some shuffling, and finally she spoke again.

"OK, open your eyes."

My shocked gasp brought a grin to her face. I couldn't help but be surprised, though. In front of me was my very own Neko girl, with cat ears, paws and a tail, which stuck up proudly behind her. She was on all fours on the rug in front of the sofa, side on to me, and the gentle curve of her back down to the round globes of her bum glowed orange in the light of the fire.

"You like it, then?" she asked, and all I could do was nod dumbly in reply. "And look," she continued, turning slightly to point her backside at me, "nothing up my bum!"

I groaned involuntarily at the sight of her little pink rosebud and beneath that the two halves of her juvenile peach sticking out between her legs.

"How did... how..."

I couldn't form the question I was so utterly turned on by her. My rock hard shaft jerked and a glittering droplet of fluid dripped down its length.

"I told mum that I wanted to do some dressing up. She looked a bit weirdly at me when I explained it, but I told her lots of kids were doing it and it was the new thing which came over from Japan, and she just sort of rolled her eyes at me. Then she helped me make it out of gloves and furry slippers and stuff. The tail was the hard part, but look, it really works."

With that she wriggled her bum and made the tail wave from side to side. I started to rise, determined to fuck her right there and then on all fours, but she had other ideas.

"No, sit down," she ordered, coming to me on all fours. "I'm going to tell you what to do and when."

There was no way I was going to argue with that.

Sophie began to act cat-like, rubbing her face up against my knee a few times, before placing her front paws on my thighs and bringing her face close to my straining shaft. She peered at it, tilting her head on one side exactly as a cat might, and then leaned forward and with no hesitation started lapping at it with her little pink tongue. I drew a sharp intake of breath at the sensation - the warm wetness of her tongue where it touched and the cold dampness of the skin where it had been. When she reached the top she swiped off a bead of fluid with her tongue and swirled it around her mouth, making a decisive little 'hmm!' noise before lowering her mouth onto the foreskin-covered head of my manhood. The magazines had taught her well - she sucked and licked, and wriggled the tip of her tongue inside my foreskin, making me gasp at the sensation of rough tongue on the most very sensitive part of my body.

This was not the main show, though, much as I would happily have finished in her mouth. She lifted her head and growled up at me, a primal little sound. She kept making little growling noises as she climbed up my body until she was on all fours above me. Then she leaned down and whispered in my ear.

"The slippy gel is down the side of the sofa. Get some and put your finger up my bum."

I put my hand down the side of the cushion, and there indeed was the cool metal tube of lubricant. I squeezed some out onto a finger and then, with Sophie hovering over me I placed my finger at her rear and gently applied pressure.

She was as pliable now as she had been before, and in no time I was ramming as much of my middle finger into her as I could possibly manage. She closed her eyes and shuddered above me, and then without any prompting reached down for my shaft, lifting it clear of my stomach and aiming it upwards so that with the gentlest pressure she could sink her vagina down onto the top three inches of it. She was so tiny that I had managed to keep my finger buried in her arse the whole time.

She started a gentle rhythm while I continued to finger her bum. I could feel my shaft through the thin membrane between her two holes. Her tongue poked out of her mouth in the cutest way as she concentrated on the act of impaling herself on my penis and finger. I pressed a second finger into her with no apparent effort at all.

Suddenly she stopped, and opened her eyes.

"I want to try it back there," she said, "in my bum. You said some people like it more than the normal way. I want to try it."

She lifted up, expelling my penis with a grunt. It glistened in the firelight, coated with her juices. She shuffled forward a little, and then grabbed it back again. Only when she was readying herself to sit did I pull my fingers from her arse.

She was tentative at first, but then the head pushed past her sphincter more easily than it had ever forced its way into her vagina. She gasped and pushed down hard.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed as I bottomed out in her, my whole shaft encased in her rectum. She craned her head to look down at it, and I looked too, astonished by my penetration of her. Her now-empty fanny twitched and disgorged a pearl of liquid which ran down and wetted my pubic hair.

She fell forward onto me, burying her face in the crook of my neck. She bit me and groaned and whimpered as I flexed my hips and began a  gentle in and out motion. Her arse was nowhere near as tight as her pussy, but it gripped me evenly along the length of my shaft, and when I started to really push her hips down onto me she responded with groans of pleasure not cries of pain. She shuddered her way through two mini orgasms simply from the penetration, and then a big, proper one when I pushed her way from me and pinched her nipples.

Bouncing her in my lap I became astonished at her capacity to take the length of my albeit modest manhood, and the degree to which it turned her on. Her bum slapped against my upper thighs as I plumbed the depths of her arse, and her little pussy grew redder, more swollen and even wetter than the times I fucked her.

I was building up to my climax when her eyes flew open and she looked straight at me with a look of horror on her face.

"Oh God, Zack, oh no, oh no! Stop, I have to-"

But it was too late, and warm piss began firing out of her, all over my crotch as I was fucking her. She looked ready to cry, but the mere sight of her letting loose was filthy enough to make me instantly lose it, holding her hips and lunging up into her as hard as I could as I painted her insides with an enormous load.

The sensation off weeing on me had an effect on her, too - she moaned and shivered her way through a cum of her own, her stream of piss coming in little squirts as all the muscles in her abdomen contracted at once.

Finally, when she and I had both emptied ourselves, she fell against me, sobbing.

---

I bathed her and took her to my bed. Still she would not accept that I was not angry with her, so instead I just hugged her and lulled her gently to sleep. In the morning there was little time for sex before school, though she insisted that we shower together, and there she looked up at me from her position kneeling on the floor and repeated the previous night's act with her mouth, this time sticking with it until I finished. I gently and lovingly washed my spilled seed from her face and chest where it had landed, then raised her for a kiss before diving down to lap at her crotch until her legs shook and her tummy convulsed, and I had to catch her to prevent her falling to the shower floor.

---

Quite without noticing, Christmas had crept up on me. One Wednesday in the middle of a freezing December a very proud Sophie gave me an invitation to her nativity play.

"You have to come," she said, "I'm playing Mary."

I stood and stared at her.

"You're playing the virgin Mary?"

"I know!" she said, giggling madly. "How funny is that? I bet I'm the only girl in my class who isn't a virgin!"

I gave her a huge hug.

"Of course I'll be there," I said. "I wouldn't miss it for the world. And I have a bit of a surprise for you, too. You used to live over in Marsley, didn't you?"

She nodded.

"Well, I'm going over there to visit the wildlife park on Saturday. I'm doing some design work for them and need to have a meeting. Do you think your mum would let you come with me?"

"Yeah, I suppose so," she said. "But I'm not that bothered about going to the zoo," she continued, with characteristic honesty.

"It's not the fact we're going to the zoo," I said. "That's just an excuse to tell your mum. The interesting bit is that I'm planning to take the bus and the train. There'll be men everywhere. If a young girl wanted to flash them her fanny, she could have lots of fun..."

She looked at me open-mouthed, and then a huge grin spread across her face.

"Oh yeah, that would be great! Let's do it!"

"Just remember to wear a nice short skirt, right?"

She nodded, and I saw her hand slip between her legs, which closed tightly to squeeze it against her crotch.

---

She sat next to me on the bus, wearing the same tartan skirt she'd worn on the day she'd introduced me to the tower. And, as she had demonstrated to me behind the closed door of my house before we set off that morning, nothing beneath. I, unable to resist the brazen display of the infinitely smooth swell of her pudendum, had pushed her against the back of the door and pressed my fingers into the hot, pliable folds of her sex, frantically rubbing her. She came hard on my fingers and slumped to the floor in a daze just as the postman pushed the post through the letterbox beside her head, making us both jump and then burst into laughter.

It wasn't a well-used bus service, so there were few chances for Sophie to try out her skills in flashing, but almost as soon as we stepped onto the platform at the station, a chance arose.

"Do you think he might... ?" she asked, indicating with a nod of her head a middle-aged guy sitting on a bench on the platform opposite. I'd already seen him - he'd raised his head when we appeared, and his gaze lingered perhaps a little longer on Sophie than it might.

"I'm almost certain," I replied. "Wait for me to get my camera ready, though."

We'd tested the rig on the bus - I had a camera concealed in a bag which I sat on my lap, ready to capture the looks on the faces of the men who looked at Sophie. It worked, too - I may have had to be on full zoom, but the guy's face was clearly visible on the camera's screen.

"OK, you're on," I said quietly. A sly grin curled the corner of her mouth.

She was subtle about it, I'll give her her due. She started slowly, letting her legs drift ever so slightly apart, then appearing to realise and closing them again. She did this four or five times until it was quite clear that she was being watched. Then, acting like a pro, she feigned excitement at something to her right, tapping me on the arm, pointing, and saying to me,

"Look what my leg is doing."

I glanced down and sure enough, as a result of twisting to her right to see the imaginary cause of interest, her right knee bent and her whole right thigh came to rest on top of the bench, spreading her legs wide open.

I glanced down, desperate not to alert the watcher to the fact that I, in turn, was observing him. On the camera's viewfinder I could see him surreptitiously craning his neck, trying to get a better view; his face had flushed bright red. A hand subconsciously reached down to his crotch and adjusted what appeared to be quite a large tent. Then, when Sophie took it to the next level, legs wide apart, fanny clearly on view to anyone on the far platform, I thought he was going to have a heart attack. She let him watch for a few moments longer, and then closed her legs and carried on as if nothing had happened. She giggled, and I had to suppress a laugh, when the man dashed off to the toilets walking awkwardly. His train came and left without him.

"Well, that worked," I said quietly to her, when the station was once again quiet.

"Yeah, it really did, didn't it? Do you think he went and played with it?"

"Oh, I'm certain of it."

She shuddered slightly, and squeezed her thighs together, rubbing them up and down.

"Looks like you could do with a bit of playtime," I said, and she frantically nodded her head.

"Do you think we could do it in the train toilets?" she asked, a hint of desperation in her voice.

"It really got you feeling sexy showing off for that man, didn't it?"

She nodded once more.

"So much!"

"Well," I said, "I think we'd get in trouble if we went to the toilets together, but you can go on your own. Look, here's the train now. Wait 'til we get on then you can go and sort yourself out."

---

Sort herself out she did. She was gone for about ten minutes, and when she returned she was flushed with arousal, her whole face, neck and upper chest blushing crimson. She stank of sex when she came back, a little girl version of an adult woman's musk. It was very particular, and enthralling. She surreptitiously held her fingers up for me to sniff, and I almost came just from the heady fragrance.

Then she spotted another victim. This time it was a young boy, about eleven or twelve I would say, sitting at a table diagonally opposite on the other side of the aisle. I could see him through the gap between the seats in front of me, and he glanced Sophie's way quite frequently. She saw it too, and she put her hand on mine to get my attention without actually talking to me. While apparently looking out of the window, she let her hand fall onto her thigh, and using the rocking of the train as her rhythm she started pushing the hem of her skirt up her legs. More and more of her was coming into view, the show growing more and more obscene by the moment, but the only person who stood a decent chance of seeing all the way up to her puffy little lips and the clit which I knew would be poking out, was the boy.

He was hooked. Perhaps he didn't realise he was staring quite so openly, or perhaps in his desire to see her he didn't care. Either way his eyes didn't leave her crotch the whole time Sophie was teasing him. I couldn't see beneath the table to where his hands lay, but I could sense by the tensing of the muscles in his arm that his hands weren't merely folded in his lap. There was no doubt that he was playing with himself, and all because he could see up Sophie's skirt to her reddened sex. I glanced down at her lap and had to stifle a shocked gasp, because she had gone further with her display than I thought possible. It was lucky there weren't people in the seats directly across the aisle, because they would have seen everything she had to offer. The skirt was right up around her waist, and her hand was in her crotch, pushing a finger as far as she could get it into her fanny, slowly pulling out and pushing in. More of her fragrance drifted up to assault my nostrils.

Just then the ticket inspector barged noisily through the connecting door behind us, and quick as a flash Sophie righted her skirt and crossed her legs demurely, hiding the wanton act she had been performing moments before. Across the aisle, the boy waited just long enough to get his ticket stamped, then bolted for the toilets, the obvious bulge in his jeans leading the way.

Sophie giggled as he passed, then turned to me innocently.

"This day out really is fun. Thanks, Zack."

I nodded and smiled, and worried that I had unleashed a monster on the poor unsuspecting males of our county.

---

At the wildlife park I asked for the manager by name, and was immediately escorted inside; once there I said I'd make my own way to the manager's office, and started off across the park in the usual direction.

"I'll ask the manager if she can find someone to take you round if you like. Or you can just go off on your own."

She glanced around to see if we could be overheard, then said in loud whisper,

"Can I go off on my own? I want to see if I can maybe find some men to... you know..."

I laughed - she was getting a bit obsessed with her new trick.

"Sure," I replied. "Just be careful, OK? Don't be alone with anyone, and if any of them come towards you get out of there."

She nodded. I noticed her trembling.

"Is that fear or excitement?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"You're shaking all over."

"Oh... yeah. I'm feeling really sexy," she said. "My fanny's getting really wet just thinking about it. It's so itchy right now, but I don't want to go and sort it out, I want to let it feel that way for a while."

Jesus, she was torturing herself with arousal. She knew what her body wanted and she was denying it. Most nine year olds can't handle delayed gratification like that, but she was positively seeking it out. Once again I marvelled at her maturity.

"Right, well off you go, then. I'll meet you back here in an hour," I said, and smiled to myself as she wandered off toward the meerkats.

---

Honestly, I should have called off the meeting. I found it nearly impossible to concentrate, because my mind kept going to Sophie, wandering about outside in the freezing cold, flashing her fanny at random men. I worried about her safety, though really there was no need - she was perfectly capable of looking after herself if needs be. Still, it was a relief when we wrapped things up on time and I could get back to where I had agreed to meet Sophie.

Except that she wasn't there. I panicked briefly, wondering where she could possibly have got to, before a shout of 'Zack!' had me spinning around to find her coming toward me, with one of the keepers in tow.

I immediately thought the worst - she was being accompanied back to me having been abandoned and found doing something she shouldn't (like showing her privates to strangers), and now the shit was about to hit the fan. Except the keeper wasn't stern, and Sophie was showing no sign of having been in trouble. No, something else was up.

Sophie came racing up to me, almost bouncing as she ran.

"Zack, you won't believe this! This is Amy!" she said, clapping her hands and giggling like a girl much younger than her years.

The keeper had caught up, and indeed the name badge pinned on her fleece said 'Amy'. I was about to say 'so what?' when recollection hit me.

"THE Amy?" I asked Sophie.

"Yup," she replied, with a huge nod.  

I turned to Amy, who was standing nervously to one side, not quite sure what to do with herself. I couldn't stop my brain assessing her - she was really rather beautiful; very fine features and a gentle countenance.

"Hi, I'm Zack," I said, extending a hand. "Sophie's told me everything about you. Everything. Not babysitting anymore?"

It was a calculated phrase, and it had somewhat the impact that I intended: Amy turned pale, and the look of fear in her eyes was magnified. Sensing that perhaps I'd gone a little too far, I threw her a line.

"Lucky for me, really," I said. "I get to babysit her now."

Fear morphed into confusion, then a little shock. Amy looked down at Sophie, who nodded and giggled. For the first time the teenager spoke.

"I... um, I have a break now for half an hour. Can we talk somewhere?"

---

We found a spot out of the way to talk, round the back of the owl enclosures on a picnic bench. Amy convinced Sophie that she should go and look at the owls for a bit, and managed to get one of the owl keepers to take her to help out. She smiled wistfully as Sophie left, clearly still besotted with the girl.

"I should thank you, I suppose," I said, when Sophie was out of earshot.

"What for? For making it easier for you to molest her?" Amy shot back, fire in her eyes. I knew I had to stay calm, or the conversation was going to end very badly.

"Is that what you did? Molest her?" I asked.

"No! It wasn't like that with us. I'm not some creepy old pedo. It was... it was love, I suppose. And don't laugh. I really did love her. I still do."

"I'm not about to judge you, Amy. I imagine it was love. I feel the same way about her, I think. And I'm not some 'creepy old pedo' as you put it. I've never felt this way about a girl before. I don't love her because she's nine. I love her because she's Sophie. You of all people should understand that."

She looked down at the table and nodded.

"I'm not really into girls that much either," she said. "Well, I wasn't. I've started noticing them since Sophie."

"It must be hard for you not to be around her anymore," I said. She nodded and wiped the corner of her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I want to help you, because I know how much it means for her to have you around," I said. "Can you come over to Marchdale next Saturday night?"

She looked at me, confusion clouding her face.

"I look after Sophie each Saturday night. All night. You're welcome to come and stay the night with us. There's a spare room, and I really don't mind if she stays the night with you in there. I have no illusions about what you would get up to."

She blushed heavily and looked away to where Sophie was happily talking to the keeper.

"I really do miss her," she said after a moment. "So, so much."

---

Sophie spent the rest of the day bouncing off the walls with excitement. So much so that she forgot all about her mission to tease the men of rural England into a sexual stupor with glimpses of her little conch-shell fanny. She was delirious about having seen Amy, and almost weed her pants when I told her that her old lover would be visiting us one week later.

She needed calming down, obviously. That evening, I ordered her to strip naked and lie down in front of the fire. I made her cross her arms and lie her head down on them, and only when I was satisfied that she was relaxed did I reveal my true intentions, dribbling hot massage oil into a pool at the base of her spine. She moaned and writhed beneath me as my fingers went to work on her muscles, spreading the oil around her back at first, then across her supple buttocks and onto her legs. I worked it all the way down to her calves, then onto her feet, taking the time to rub the day's walking from them both.

Then it was back up her legs, retracing my steps until both hands were on the backs of her thighs, thumbs moving in circles which grew ever closer to her backside, until on each rotation they brushed across her cheeks. Then I slowly began to sink them into the crack of her behind, until they were passing over the puckered entrance to her arse. Her hips pushed back against me quite without me needing to encourage her, and she moaned as with gentle pressure I pushed one thumb into her opening and up into the warm space of her rectum.

I left that digit in place while the fingers of my other hand continued to do their work outside, pushing between the folds of her sex, made slippery by both the oil and her own lubricant. She grunted when I pressed her clit hard against her pubic bone, and I felt the ring of muscle around my thumb twitch in response. Then I moved my fingers back the where the opening to her tunnel lay, and pressed my index finger in, feeling the flesh give way easily, and my invader slide home right to the knuckle. So now I had her with the thumb of one hand up her arse and the finger of my other in her fanny. She moaned beneath me when I flexed both digits at once, and I felt a spasm ripple through her tummy muscles. Her hips bucked back at me again, and I took a moment to watch her perfectly formed back glistening in the light of the fire, leading down to the pleasantly round twin globes of her backside, and beneath that the smooth transition to her slender but powerful legs, the tendons at the back of her knees straining as her muscles tensed. I leaned forward and whispered,

"Turn over, sweetheart," into her ear, as I slid my digits free from her moist, hot grip.

She smiled up at me as she turned onto her back, and snaked her hands around the back of my neck, dragging me down for a passionate kiss. We stayed that way for several minutes, me on all fours above her while our lips were locked together, her tiny tongue duelling with mine, her little satisfied moans reverberating around my mouth. As we kissed she shifted round until her legs lay either side of my knee, and then hunched her hips up so that her mound pressed into my thigh, and she lay there humping away at me as her kisses became more and more frenzied. I broke the kiss to talk to her.

"Do you want me to put it in now?" I asked, but to my surprise she shook her head.

"Your mouth..." she said, panting, still hunching her hips up to press herself against me.

"You want me to kiss your fanny and stick my tongue in your hole?" I asked, teasing slightly.

She squeezed her eyes shut as a shudder ran through her body, and nodded her head frantically. I licked down her neck, making her shudder again, then toyed with the tiny, hard lumps of her nipples, across her tummy and finally down the soft valley between the top of her thigh and the raised mound of her sex, listening with delight to the frustrated growl she made as I came so near to the sweet spot only to pass it by. She shifted her hips and forced herself up into my face, and I relented, pushing my tongue out and down so that it slid over her clit on the way to her hole, pushing apart the fat lips of her fanny and delving into the musky, slippery, hot, rosy-red interior, forming my tongue into a point which pushed at the door of her vagina until it was admitted, slipping past taut, overstretched skin into the burning heat inside. She huffed and moaned as I attacked her, forcing my tongue in and out of her hole, then shifting my attentions to her clit, lapping it with big dog-licks, then focussing in on the heart of it, worming the very tip of my tongue into the hood of skin and onto the over-sensitive meat of her clitoris itself. That last act brought a strained whimper from her lips, and the word 'shit' whispered over and over as her hips undulated, stomach cramped, vagina spasmed and back arched all at once, and she came.

---

If Sophie's excitement the previous Saturday had been labelled frantic, the following weekend she was almost off the scale. She'd brought special clothes with her - her most grown-up attire, for her special friend. I realised that she did nothing of the sort for me, and for the first time wondered if perhaps Sophie really was more interested in Amy than me. In fact, I rather felt she had to be when she took herself off for a bath and returned some time later with her hair done, make-up applied (something I'd never before seen) and looking stunning in a tight-fitting polo shirt and a knee length skirt.

"Wow, you look amazing," I said, and in her reply, she confirmed my suspicions.

"Do you think she'll like it?" she asked, as if I were a friend rather than a lover.

"Of course she will," I said, moving closer to her and tilting her head back ready for a kiss. "You look so sexy."

"Don't!" she said, wriggling free of my grip with a laugh. "Don't ruin my make-up before she gets here."

I laughed and let her be, but inside I was hurt. She truly was more interested in what Amy thought than in pleasuring me. I desperately didn't want it to be the case, but I knew I couldn't change her mind. Nor should I try, because she would no doubt see straight through any effort on my part, and hate me for it.

Amy arrived at ten past seven - about as quickly as she could possibly have managed given that the wildlife park closed at six. She looked petrified when I answered the door and ushered her in - not quite the worldly teenager Amy had described to me, but entirely in line with the individual I had met the week before.

"Hi," she whispered as she crossed the threshold.

"Hey. Sophie's in the living room. She's trying to act cool," I said, blowing the nine-year-old's cover quite deliberately, "but she's unbelievably excited to have you here. She dressed up especially. Please tell her how beautiful she looks."

She turned to me with a wry smile.

"You know, you don't have to tell me to do that," she said.

"Sorry."

Sophie managed to act reserved for about three seconds, then she was up and jumping into Amy's arms, kissing her passionately. Amy was a little less relaxed around me, but still kissed back, and the pair of them collapsed onto the sofa.

I escaped to the kitchen, both embarrassed and somewhat turned on. I could hear more and more frantic noises coming from the living room and imagined them in some obscene pose. I could hear Sophie's excitement growing, her characteristic high pitched mewling arousing my desire, and then Amy's joining it, a lower, much more animalistic sound. I wish I could have restrained myself, but I couldn't - I peeked round the corner of the living room and saw them there on the sofa. Amy's jeans were unbuttoned and pushed down to mid-thigh along with her pants, with Sophie's hand buried between her legs, pressing into the soft black fuzz of her pubes. Sophie was on top, and her skirt had been pushed up above her waist, and knickers pushed down and off, and I could see Amy's hand poking out from between her bum-cheeks, the middle finger pumping in and out of Sophie's little cunt, glistening with her excitement. The kissed passionately the whole time, except when one or other of them had to breathe, and they were entirely absorbed in their passion. I looked on unnoticed and pulled my aching dick out of my trousers, now determined to enjoy myself however I could, since I had been relegated to the role of housekeeper, of enabler.

Sophie's orgasm was something different to those she experienced with me. She rolled into it gradually, rather than it hitting her out of the blue. She grew ever more frantic until with her eyes squeezed shut and jaw clenched tightly she went rigid, shaking with the effort of straining every muscle in her body, and then collapsed. If Amy had come I missed it in my eagerness to watch Sophie's peak, but as she hugged the young girl to her in a crushing embrace, her smile of satisfaction was plain to see. I, too, had a mess to clear up, and left them to back in the glow of their first time together in months while I got a sponge for the floor. Thank God I'd ripped out the carpet and gone for wooden flooring...

---

"You've taught her things," Amy observed as we sat watching a film with a pizza. Sophie, who had been glued to her side all evening, had finally given into the pressure in her bladder and run upstairs to the toilet. "I'm sorry about before, it got out of hand. It wasn't right for us to do that there and then."

I shrugged.

"You know what? It really is OK. I don't mind. She's happy, and that's really important to me. The spare room has a nice big double bed, and I've left some things in there for you."

She looked at me, puzzled and intrigued.

"Like what?"

"Well, why don't you have a look?"

She took me up on the offer and disappeared upstairs. Unbeknownst to both Sophie and Amy, I had decked out the spare room like a honeymoon suite - rose petals on the bed, champagne (well, I thought Sophie could handle a glass), candles around the bed, and in the bedside drawer a rather eclectic range of little toys and lubes. And, to top it off,

I heard the toilet flush, and then muffled conversation coming from above. There was a squeal from one of them, followed by a quite distinct 'oh my God!', and then the patter of feet thundering down the stairs. Sophie raced into the living room and jumped into my lap.

"Thank you, thank you," she said, smothering my face in little kisses.

"What for?" I said, playing the fool.

"You know," she said, reaching down between us and grabbing my dick through my jeans. “The things so we can play.”



“It’s just for you and Amy, you know,” I said, desperately fighting the urge to do her then and there.



“I know,” she said, with a glint in her eye. “I just wanted to say thank you.”



With that she crawled down beneath my legs and, with her tongue poking cutely out of the corner of her mouth, set about the task of freeing my manhood from my jeans. Once done, she leaned forward, and looking straight into my eyes, lowered her hot, wet little mouth onto the top half of my dick.



“Oh Jesus, Soph,” I groaned as I felt her tongue dipping into the folds of my foreskin, teasing the sensitive head beneath while at the same time her hair fell into my lap to tickle me oh so softly. “You don’t have to thank me like that, you know.”



She lifted off her head and grinned at me.



“I know. But I wanted to!”



She gave me another grin and went back to her task, enthusiastically bobbing and sucking until I was tapping her on the shoulder, warning her that I was coming. This time, though, unlike all the other times, she stayed there and let my warm seed fill her mouth, then swallowed it all noisily.



“You know,” she reflected as I lay there panting, “it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Can I have a Coke, though?”



I nodded, and watched her scamper off toward the fridge. It was then that I noticed for the first time that her skirt had changed to a much shorter number, and beneath it was a flash of perfectly bare behind.



She never came back to the living room, and a few minutes later I heard giggles from above, and the unmistakable creak of the spare bed.



---



She came to me in the middle of the night, slipping quietly into bed next to me. I was awake, with visions of the two of them still spinning uncontrollably through my mind, shattering any hope of peace.



“Hey,” I whispered. “Not sleeping with Amy then?”



In the dim light which filtered through the curtains from the full moon, I could see her shaking her head.



“I never slept in the same bed with her before. I like being here with you.”



I grabbed her to me and wrapped her in my arms.



"The only thing is," she whispered, "would it be OK if I just slept here and we didn't do anything? I've had enough for one night."



"That's just fine with me," I whispered back.



"Thanks. It's just she did this thing with the thingy. You know, the thing you tie on..."



"The strap-on?"



"Yeah, that's what she called it. Anyway, she did this thing where-"



I put a finger to her lips, halting her mid-flow.



"Just sleep now, Soph, OK. Just sleep."

She nodded, and before long was snoring happily.  



---



The girls lounged easily around the house in very little the following morning. Amy had become very much more comfortable, and sat on the sofa in a tight t-shirt which accentuated her pretty little tits, and a pair of jogging bottoms which sat so low on her hips that I was amazed not to see her pubes. Sophie, being the unabashed little show off she always was, wore nothing more than a large t-shirt - of uncertain origin, but which had once been a man's. It didn't take much of it to ride up, and as she fooled around she gave us plenty of chances to glimpse the treasures which lay not very well hidden beneath.



Amy left around ten, not long before I had to take Sophie home. My little lover was devastated, but mollified somewhat by the knowledge that we had already planned another visit for the following weekend. Had I known what was to come, perhaps I might have spent a little longer with her that day. Made love to her, selfishly, just once last time.



---



It was Ally who gave me the first sign of the impending end of my relationship with Sophie, though there was no way she could possibly have understood the impact of her casual conversation. I bumped into her at the newsagent on Thursday, two days before Amy's next planned visit - she immediately said hello to Biscuit, who loved her despite the fact that seeing her usually meant some sort of painful and/or invasive routine in his near future. When she finally returned her attention to me, there was a glimmer in her eye.



"You look like the cat who's got the cream!" I said, to which she smiled broadly.



"I am, sort of. I've been trying to get a trainee vet nurse for a while, since Sally left so quickly, and I've finally found one. She's perfect - already works with animals over at that wildlife park over in Marsley, and she's at college doing an animal husbandry course, and she doesn't even mind living in the stinky old flat above the surgery. She rang me out of the blue on Tuesday and we've only had one phone interview, but she sounds perfect."



"Oh, that's great news!" I said, pleased that she'd managed to solve her staffing problem at last.



"Only problem is the name," she said. "We're going to be Ally and Amy! So much potential for confusion!"



I honestly can't remember anything either of us said after that. I know I left there without the newspaper, and at some point must have walked home, but I was in such a daze I couldn't be sure of anything in between.



Somehow, even then I knew it was over for me and Sophie. I had invited Amy back into her life, and Amy had displaced me. I couldn't really blame her, despite the sense of injustice I felt. She was young, and rash, and in love. Perhaps more so than I was - I think I loved Sophie, but not with the consuming passion Amy felt for her. Why she hadn't made more of an effort to stay in Sophie's life before was still a mystery, but perhaps she simply didn't understand how much she needed the girl.



I didn't need Sophie any more, at least not to make me human. She, and Biscuit, had brought me back to life. We never again made love, Sophie and I. nor did we spend much time together - she was too busy renewing h acquaintance with Amy, who was of course reinstalled as her babysitter. There was no reason, then, for me to spend time around Sophie, and not wanting to arouse suspicion I made no extra special effort to make reasons for her to see me. Once or twice she came to take Biscuit out for a walk, but on those occasions it really was nothing more than a man and a girl taking a dog for a walk.



In the end it was simple - Sophie was receptive to my advances because her prematurely awakened sexual spirit was in need. I filled that need, succumbing to the air of availability she exuded, but when her first love returned to her life, there was no need whatsoever for me.



So there you have it - that's what happened between Hallowe'en and Christmas.