to give in before the old prick had a heart attack.”
* * *
Peter needed to stop at the clinic before he picked up Renee to take her to the lake. He was pissed off. “These fucking animals,” he mumbled to himself as he unlocked the clinic’s back door. “Why do I have to come in on my day off just to feed them? Why can’t that skinny little pea-brain bitch of a secretary do it?” The more animals he fed, the madder he got. “They treat me like shit, those fuckers. Hell, I’m the hardest working one here! I ain’t gonna be their slave. Fuck that shit.”
Peter mumbled his little mantra over and over before he walked to the cabinet where the supplies were kept. He opened one drawer after another, not finding what he wanted, yanking the drawers so hard that he broke one of the hinges. Peter paused to wipe the beads of sweat off his brow, then spotted the rubber gloves where he left them by the mice cage.
He reached in and grabbed one of the live mice that were kept as food for the Boa Constrictor. He lowered the mouse into the snake’s glass case, his heart pounding as he stood there and watched the snake eye up the mouse. Gradually the snake began to uncoil itself while its head moved slowly, watching and waiting for the perfect time. The snake moved like lightning, clamping its jaws onto the mouse and quickly spiraling around it, squeezing until the mouse was dead. Peter pulled down his zipper and reached inside, finding his cock erect and throbbing. He fondled himself slowly, watching as the snake moved its jaws forward to engulf the mouse. Seeing the mouse disappear—little by little, deeper and deeper, so trapped and helpless—really excited him.
Peter moved his hand faster now as he watched the end of the mouse’s tail disappear into the snake’s mouth. He came hard, shooting his load on the snake’s glass case. Peter stood there feeling a sense of calm invade his mind. He felt content with the world, in control once again.
When Peter came by to pick up Renee later that afternoon, he was carrying a single, long-stemmed red rose. Her dad opened the door when he heard the doorbell.
“Come in, Peter.” He eyed Peter and was pleased to see him wearing nice khaki shorts and a yellow golf shirt with brown sandals. Now, here is a decent guy! Not like those tattooed, jean-and-t-shirt-wearing bikers, he thought as he smiled and shook Peter’s hand. And so thoughtful, bringing her flowers.
“Where are you two off to today?”
“I thought we would take a nice ride over to the lake and enjoy the scenery,” Peter answered.
Charlie couldn’t have been happier. He clapped Peter on the back, still smiling. “Well, it’s a nice sunny day for it. I’ll be right back. I’m going to tell Renee you’re here.”
He walked into the kitchen and found Renee mixing up some formula into a little bowl of baby cereal. “Renee, honey, Peter’s here.”
“Tell him I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Charlie’s whole face beamed with happiness when he said, “I’ll finish getting his lunch. Go and have some fun. I’ll take good care of this little guy ‘til the babysitter gets here.”
Renee yelled to Peter that she would be down soon, then ran upstairs to her bedroom. She returned wearing a pair of denim shorts with a Bon Jovi t-shirt under an oversized blue blouse. She had put on some black mascara and a smoky blue eye shadow with a rose-colored blush and dabbed a little red lip gloss over her lips, wanting to look pretty for Peter. She walked downstairs expecting Peter to tell her how nice she looked.
Instead, he frowned at her. “Don’t you have a green blouse, Renee? It would go so much better with your bright red hair,” he pointed out, annoyed. “Blue is such a weird color, isn’t it?”
“I guess,” she murmured uncertainly. “I… don’t know. Never thought of it as weird, but I’ll go change. I’ll be right back down.”
Renee hurried upstairs and changed into
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