Daniel nodded, again looking at her askance. His grey eyes flashed when his lips turned up at the corners. “Come on inside then, I can see we have a lot to talk about.”
Esmaralda followed him into the house that was to be theirs again. The house he had once built for her, almost two centuries ago. At last, they were home.
Just Like Animals
Chapter 1
Eleanor James was forty five years old when her husband decided that he would rather have a life with his twenty two year old secretary. She wasn’t so much devastated that her husband had left, rather that he had left her for an airheaded girl who was the same age as their daughter, Matilda.
“It’s just not working anymore, Ellie.” He’d said one evening as they sat down to dinner. She’d made meatloaf, yellow corn and mashed potatoes. Ironically it was Jack’s favorite meal and it would be the last one she would cook for him.
The following day, Jack packed up his clothes, said goodbye and left for the office as he always did. Only Eleanor knew that that afternoon he wasn’t coming back. That is where her worrying began. She wasn’t worried for Jack, as far as she was concerned he could take a flying leap, but she was worried for herself. It’d been years since she’d worked. Jack had insisted that he be the provider and that Eleanor stay at home to raise their daughter. Even when Matilda left for college and eventually moved in to her own apartment, Jack had insisted that Eleanor stay at home. Now that he had decided that he needed a new life, however, staying at home wasn’t going to cut it and Eleanor was going to have to find herself a job.
Eleanor began her job search that same evening as she sat down to her first night alone with a single serving TV dinner. Three weeks later she was still searching and had learned that hard lesson that no one wanted to hire a woman who had been out of the workforce for twenty two years. She contemplated batting her eyelashes at a few of the interviewers or worse, just finding another man to keep her in a way that she was accustomed to. Neither idea satisfied her however, instead she decided to scour the internet instead of the classified section of the newspaper.
The phone’s shrill ring was what woke Eleanor the following morning. She groggily groped for it on the nightstand and regretted staying up until four AM submitting resumes.
“Hello?” Her voice sounded as rough as she felt.
“Hello, is this Mrs. Eleanor James?” Eleanor pondered the thought. Technically she wasn’t Mrs. Anything anymore except on paper.
“Umm, yes? May I ask who’s speaking?” She said.
“Yes, this is Mr. Fairfield from the Asheboro Zoo.” He paused briefly before carrying on. “This is a little…unconventional…but I find myself down three staff members after an unfortunate incident with one of our enclosures. And,” He sighed loudly. “Look, to be honest, I need the help and I’m tired of hiring twenty somethings that call in sick every other day or spend all day staring at their smartphones.” Eleanor appreciated his honesty, but she didn’t even recall applying to work at the zoo. What the hell would she do at a zoo?
“Okay…” She said.
“Well, would you be able to start this afternoon?” Eleanor’s eyes widened.
“Umm…what exactly would the job require?” She asked.
“Well, I’m going to need you all over the place picking up the jobs of the three staff members I lost. You’ll be floating around our Africa section of the zoo. I’ll definitely need you to do our educational talks for the elephants.” Eleanor opened her mouth to tell him that she knew nothing about elephants, when he added: “But that’s all scripted and the script will be given to you, so don’t worry about that.”
“What time do you need me?” She asked.
“Could you make it by 1:30?” He said hopefully. Eleanor glanced at the clock beside the bed.
“Sure, I’ll see you then.”
“Okay, when you get here make sure to park in the staff lot and come straight to the administration building and I’ll get you set up with everything you need.”
Eleanor still had five hours before she had to be at the zoo, but it didn’t seem like enough time to prepare herself. She felt sick at the thought of working out with the public. Hell, she felt sick at the thought of working at all. It’d been so long since she’d had to earn a living that she was sure she’d forgotten how. After her shower she stood inside the half empty walk-in closet and rifled through her clothes. What exactly did someone wear to give an educational speech about elephants? She certainly didn’t want to wear a dress so she settled on a pair of fitted khaki pants and a plain white t-shirt with a slight V-neck. Looking like a safari tour guide was preferable to having someone’s unruly child peeking up her dress. She matched her outfit with a pair of brown hiking boots. Standing in front of the mirror she inspected herself. It wasn’t exactly a traditional ‘first day of work’ outfit, but it was the best she could do on such short notice.
Heading in to the bathroom, Eleanor found an elastic tie and swept her long brunette hair back in to a ponytail. Jack had always encouraged her to put her hair up, it made her look younger, he’d said. Now, as she peered at herself in the mirror, she realized that he had been right. The longer she looked at herself, the longer she wondered if it wasn’t the ponytail, but rather the past few weeks without Jack that had left her looking younger. The man had always had such high expectations of her that she’d spent the last twenty five years obsessively cleaning, cooking and going to the gym to keep him happy. For the last few weeks she had done none of that, she had lived off microwave meals and left the house to take care of itself. Of course, without Jack there to make a mess of it, there was hardly anything to clean up anyway.
Whatever it was that was making Eleanor look younger, she was happy with the results. Her beautiful brown eyes sparkled, the rounded apples of her cheeks blushed and her porcelain skin was smoother than ever.
Chapter 2
“I can’t tell you how thankful I am that you accepted the job!” Mr. Fairfield gushed as he shook Eleanor’s hand vigorously. “I’m just so tired of hiring the young kids and having them come in and think this is a place to socialize with their friends!” Eleanor nodded. “Don’t get me wrong, I have a great team now, it’s just when I have to hire new faces…” he shook his head, “boy do I hate that!”
Mr. Fairfield led Eleanor through a fluorescent lit hallway to an open office door.
“I understand! I have a daughter, she’s twenty two, and sometimes trying to get through to her is…well, you know!” Mr. Fairfield extended his hand, offering Eleanor a seat as he took his seat behind a large cherry stained desk.
“You have a twenty two year old daughter?” he said, his head jerking back in disbelief. Eleanor nodded with a smile.
“Yes I do, she’s my pride and joy but kids today are so much different than they were when I was younger!” Mr. Fairfield shook his head again.
“There is no way you have a daughter that old!” His eyes wandered down to her perky breasts and the outline of her bra through her white t-shirt. He licked his lips.
“Well, thank you.” Eleanor had to admit that she liked the feeling of a man looking at her with such hunger, she just wished that it weren’t her new boss. He was everything she didn’t find attractive in a man.
“Certainly. Are you…married, Eleanor?” Eleanor felt her palms beginning to sweat at the thought of giving him any type of idea that she was interested.
“Yes, actually I’ve been married for twenty five years!” She said. It wasn’t technically lying, after all it was too soon to file for divorce.
“Ah, he is a very lucky man!” A flash of disappointment crossed Mr. Fairfield’s face before he began to shuffle papers on his desk. “Okay, so let’s get right to it shall we?” He looked up again and after staring at Eleanor’s 34DD’s for a moment, his eyes lifted to her face. “I have you scheduled for the elephant educational talk this afternoon at four.” Eleanor nodded. “I have the whole spiel typed out here for you so that shouldn’t be t
oo tough.” He handed her a sheet of paper. “Now, until then I would really like to put you in the Sonoran Desert Pavilion. That’s about half way between Africa and North America. We house our nocturnal animals there, like our bats.” He waited for a reaction from Eleanor but when he didn’t get one, he continued. “It’s a pretty busy exhibit, but since Niles isn’t here I really need someone to do the feedings for me.” Eleanor nodded. She was unsure about meeting nocturnal creatures in a dark pavilion, but it also sounded like a much better opportunity than shoveling animal waste.
“Okay, I can do that.” She said cheerily. Mr. Fairfield nodded.
“Oliver is in charge of things over there, I’ll take you to meet him shortly. He’s very knowledgeable so if you have any questions he will be able to help. He’ll be there for your whole shift too, so you don’t have to worry about being left on your own to figure things out.” Eleanor nodded again. “He’s quite young though, just so you know. In fact he’s our youngest exhibit manager here at the zoo, but you won’t find anyone who knows more about the animals than he does.”
Mr. Fairfield sat in the driver’s seat of the golf cart and patted the seat beside him.
“Hop on in and I’ll take you over to the Desert!” Eleanor sat beside him and he scooted over a little closer to her. “You’ll find that you do a lot of walking here, but you look like you’re in fantastic shape so you probably won’t have to worry about that.” He reached over and patted her thigh with a smile. “Let’s go shall we?” Eleanor forced a smile.
Although the journey to the Sonoran Desert only took a few minutes in the golf cart, it was a few minutes of agony for Eleanor. Her initial pleasure at having a man look at her the way Jack used to do was overshadowed by just how much he stared at her.
As soon as the golf cart came to a stop, Eleanor hopped out and began to walk towards the nocturnal animal house.
“You’ll find it a shock at first.” Mr. Fairfield said as he jogged to catch up with her.
“What’s that?” Eleanor said.
“Working in the dark. Most of my employees who have worked in here say that it’s a shock at first.” Mr. Fairfield pulled open the door.
“I’m sure I’ll get used to it quite quickly.” Eleanor said, walking in to the house.
The darkness in the house didn’t bother Eleanor as much as the black lights that were spotted around the exhibits. Black lights always reminded her of her crazier college days when they had held black light parties and had way too much to drink. Just looking at the purplish light gave her a hangover.
Mr. Fairfield put his hand on the small of Eleanor’s back, guiding her through the darkness towards a door built in to the side of one of the exhibits. When they got to the door, Eleanor slipped out of the way and out of his grasp so that he could unlock it.
“This is where you will come in and leave the house. We have another exit back in the staff area but it’s really only for emergencies.” He held the door open for Eleanor and then quickly closed it behind them.
The staff area of the nocturnal house was as dark as the front side which surprised Eleanor.
“Oliver likes to keep it dark back here as well, for the wellbeing of the animals.” Mr. Fairfield said.
“Did I hear my name?” A young voice came from behind a stack of Tupperware tubs. Moments later a tall, slender man appeared.
“Ah, Eleanor, this is Oliver. Oliver, this is Eleanor. She’s going to be giving you a hand here until the Elephant educational experience.” Oliver extended his hand and Eleanor shook it.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Eleanor.” He said with a friendly smile.
“You too.” She said in return.
“Well, it looks like you two are well enough acquainted. I’ll leave you to it! If you need anything just call up to the front.” Oliver nodded. “Welcome aboard, Eleanor!” Mr. Fairfield said. Even in the dark, his eyes lingered on her breasts.
Chapter 3
“Geez, was he staring at your tits the whole time he was with you?” Oliver asked with a ridiculous grin. Eleanor nodded.
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“God, talk about a pervert!” Eleanor chuckled.
“I should probably be flattered…” She said.
“Uh uh, the guy is a certified creeper. You’re not the first woman he’s leered at like that, in fact Katie over in the aviary said he tried to grab her ass once.” Eleanor couldn’t stop the loud burst of laughter before it exploded from her lips.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “I know it’s not funny, but he’s such a…homely looking man. It’s hard to imagine him being so overtly perverted.”
“I guarantee you that if he could get away with it, he’d demand a blow job from every woman here before giving them their paychecks.” Oliver beckoned her to follow him behind the Tupperware tubs. “Thank God he can’t get away with it.”
Oliver sat down at a computer and pulled up a folding chair beside him, patting it with the palm of his hand.
“Sit, I’ll show you how things go back here. It’s just you and me right now and to be honest I’m glad of the help.
“So long as you don’t stare at my tits or ask me for a blow job, I’m all yours.” Eleanor said.
If she was being honest, Eleanor had to admit that there was something more than appealing about Oliver. From his shaggy brown hair to his youthful exuberance, she wouldn’t have minded if he did want to stare at her tits or ask for a blow job.
“Oh…so I’d better not ask for a fuck behind the vampire bat exhibit either, huh?” His face was so deadpan as he spoke that Eleanor couldn’t help but laugh.
“Well, I’ll think about that one. Just no BJ’s and no tit staring.” Oliver looked over at her and shrugged, tilting his head to the side.
“You do have nice tits though…” Eleanor reached up and grabbed her tits in her hands.
“Oh…thanks!” She wasn’t exactly sure when talking so freely about sex became so popular, but she had most definitely missed it while being married to Jack. Talking about her body so freely didn’t come naturally, but it certainly did feel liberating.
Oliver looked back at the computer screen and clicked the mouse, opening a spreadsheet. As he stared straight forward he asked Eleanor a question that she had definitely not been expecting.
“Are they real?” He said.
“What?”
“Your tits, are they real?” The way he asked so innocently didn’t make him seem like the creeper type and in a way Eleanor found it endearing.
“Yes, they’re all me.” And then she did something so out of character that she surprised herself. Reaching over she grabbed Oliver’s hand and put it firmly on one of her tits. “See?” Oliver looked shocked, but not shocked enough to pull away. His hand caressed her breast through her t-shirt.
“Wow…yeah, they’re real alright.” Eleanor laughed as Oliver let his hand drop in to his lap.
“I’m sorry, did I make you feel uncomfortable?” She said as she glanced over at the growing bulge in Oliver’s pants. He shook his head.
“No, you didn’t. I’m just…ehhh, I don’t exactly meet many women is all, so I tend to be a bit awkward.” Eleanor reached over and put her hand on his leg.
“You’re not awkward at all, you just need a little practice.” She winked at him and slid her hand a little further up his thigh. She could feel his body tensing as she did. “Just relax.” She said as she approached the thickening bulge.
Just as Eleanor was about to grab his cock in her hand there came the noise of a key searching for a lock. Seconds later the door to the back room flew open and Mr. Fairfield burst in. Peering around the Tupperware containers, he beamed through the dim room.
“Ah! Eleanor, I’m so glad you’re still here!” Slowly Eleanor slid her hand off Oliver’s thigh.
“Yes? Is something wrong?” She said. Mr. Fairfield shook his head.
“Oh no, no, no, not at all. I just remembered that I hadn’t told you about your uniform.
You will need to fill this form in so we can order you one in the right size.” Mr. Fairfield came over to the desk and set the form down. Then he glanced at Oliver. “How is everything going back here?” Oliver nodded.
“Just fine, we were just about to get started on the feeding schedule.” Oliver’s voice cracked slightly and it took all of her strength for Eleanor not to laugh.
“Oh, well, I’ll leave you to it shall I?” Mr. Fairfield rubbed the palm of his hand on Eleanor’s back. She leaned forward.
“Yeah, I think that would be best.” Oliver said, his eyes dropping to Mr. Fairfield’s hand which was still touching Eleanor. “We have a lot to get through.” Mr. Fairfield nodded. After a moment more of lingering behind Eleanor he gave Oliver an uncertain glance and headed for the door.
Chapter 4
After Mr. Fairfield left, Eleanor and Oliver sat in silence for a few minutes before Oliver turned to Eleanor with a smirk.
“Yeah…he definitely has a thing for you.” Eleanor rolled her eyes.
“Oh great. Why do I always attract the creepers?” Oliver laughed.
“Well I’m not a creeper?” He glanced down at her hand and for the first time noticed the wedding ring that she had yet to take off. “But…you are married. Wow, how did I miss that one?” He sounded disappointed.
“Not really…” Eleanor said.
He frowned. “Not really?” He wasn’t quite sure how someone could ‘not really’ be married.
“We separated.” She said before adding, “He decided he would rather have someone our daughter’s age.” Oliver’s head jerked back in surprise.
“How old is your daughter?” He asked.
“Twenty two.” Oliver’s eyes widened.
Adored By The Rancher: Mail Order Brides Box Set Page 18