Chapter 1

I'm looking quietly through a few old photos that have long lain undisturbed. They were taken in the misty days of monochrome.

There is a blurred grey snap of me with romping with Max.

I'd got Max as a puppy on my eleventh birthday; soon he'd be a handsome black mongrel; running like the wind. I loved Max.

I stare into the image and its ambiguous allure radiates back.

It's not a snap worth more than half a glance really; the sort of dud shot you'd normally discard. But I've kept it...

Gerald, Max & Me

It had been during the summer of fifty-two that Gerald had come to live with us. I'd found him quite fun around the house after all the gloom of father's death. Gerald had served alongside father in the war.

Gerald regarded me as an adult; I saw him as a playful uncle.

I wasn't sure what he meant to mother.

Gerald said he'd taken too photography as a hobby with a clever little camera he'd got in Singapore.

That summer he'd told me I was photogenic and had got me posing for him in the study. It had been fun until mother unexpectedly appeared.

She'd stopped in her tracks and with steely cold eyes she'd said softly,

"Margot, if I find Gerald getting fresh with you, I'll see to it that you never finish boarding school." She paused looking disparagingly at Gerald, then added, "So do be careful not to lead him on dear; for all our sakes.

Now, would you leave us Margot." ... I'd left in a mist of humiliation.

The summer had warmly ripened and we're all in the garden.

Both mother and I are sunbathing in swimsuits.

Before long Gerald is getting us to pose for his photographs.

He spends time arranging our individual pose before snapping the shutter. Then Gerald has another shot of mother and I in a close embrace. Somehow it has a clammy unsettling effect on me. I'd told them the sun was too hot and I needed to cool off.

I had gone indoors, leaving their laughter behind me.

I'd gone to my cool bedroom and seeing Max lying at the foot of my bed, guessed he had felt hot too. Max sniffed and wagged his tail at me in welcome. I cooed to him and he came to my side. Shucking my bathers off onto the floor, I was ready to shower. Then Max had jumped up and lain out luxuriously on my bed, his doleful eyes glued to mine.

The invitation to stroke him was irresistible and I sat beside him.

Absorbed in his long silky form, my fingers were running across his warm belly. Suddenly his penis protruded rudely in my palm. My hand sprang back surprised. Yet, I peered in wonder at the beautiful swollen sheath.

Its pink tip was emerging, glistening invitingly. It entranced me.

I felt a strange, shameful sensation; that my caresses were arousing Max. With beating heart my hands gingerly stroked his loins.

I gazed into his eyes. Did he sense what I felt? He raised his moist nose for me to kiss, as my fingers further coaxed his sheath. Then I gasped as Max fully exposed himself. Max was panting softly now ... as was I.

Bewilderingly then, Max was astride me.

My limbs moved to encompass him with a sense of joy.

Then catching sight of Gerald at my door, my heart had lurched with shame. With camera in hand, Gerald had stood mesmerized.

Compromised

Once spotted, Gerald had just as promptly disappeared. But I'd realised the randy sod had contrived to snap me unawares in my bedroom. If only I hadn't been naked it could have been innocent enough ... but catching me with Max on my bed like that had me disconcerted. I felt guilty; yet defensive.

How much had that rat Gerald seen of my imprudence?

The Beast in Gerald

The following Sunday morning, Mother was at church.

I was sunbathing in the garden when Gerald had come to sit on the grass beside me. In my swimsuit I felt apprehensive.

We hadn't spoken since the bedroom lewdness so I was unsure of my ground.