I had watched, or is it read, somewhere that animals can smell fear. I also remembered something else about predators not killing to eat unless they were hungry. Right now I was hoping this leopard had been well fed because from the way I was feeling I imagined I would be giving off a pretty strong smell of fear right now. I couldn’t really think of any way out of my predicament; if I tried to run, the leopard would definitely catch me. If I shouted for help it might aggravate the animal. What would you have done in such a situation? So I just continued to stroke the leopard and pray someone would come and save me from this situation. It seemed to enjoy the petting and lay down on its belly, my hand never leaving it’s head.
“Wow. That’s impressive. Most Nigerians freak out when they see Sidney.” I heard a heavily accented voice say.
I looked up and saw it was one of the foreign partners from the meeting. Mr Bells, a Lebanese man, came closer, with his hands in his suit pockets. He was stockily built and had a stubble of a beard that begged to be trimmed. His smile was slightly ferocious but maybe that was because he had extra large canines. He stopped approaching and watched us and I was beginning to think he would leave me with the beast.
“Help me out here…” I whispered.
He laughed and gave a shrill whistle. The leopard immediately cocked its ears, stood up and lumbered up to him and he knelt down and kissed it on the head, proceeding to pulling its ears while the leopard made a funny purring sound and opening its jaws filled with huge sharp looking teeth and canines that were much, much larger than Mr Bell’s. I resisted a second urge to bolt out of there.
“You must be a very special person, Mr Chukwudi, “ Mr Bells said. “Sidney does not let most people touch him unless I’m there.”
In my mind I was like, “Guy, no be my intention to pet live beast o!” but I said, “He’s an interesting animal. A leopard, yes?”
“Yes indeed!, Mr Bells said, “I got him as a little cub during one of my visits to South Africa. A hunter had killed its mother and didn’t know what to do with the cub so I decided to buy it from him.” His voice took on a sad note. “I named him Sidney, after my son that died that year. It just seemed…right.”
I raised my eyebrows but said nothing.
The others had come around to meet us. Apparently I had been missed. Some of them, mostly the Nigerians, stayed back probably from fear of the animal. A few however came close. Jenny stunned me by walking right past the beast as if it wasn’t there and grabbed me by the hand.
“Come on, let’s get you back to your hotel.” She said. She cast a hateful glance back at the leopard and to my shock, it returned the stare. It narrowed its eyes, bared its teeth and let out a low growl. I had never seen an animal make a hateful face like that before. Nobody else noticed it and I began to wonder if I had imagined it all. I however followed Jenny back to the car. The driver apparently had been waiting a while and he started the car as soon as he saw us approaching.
“So I take it you don’t like the leopard much.” I said, stumbling after her as she hurried towards the car. “I think the feeling might be mutual…”
“Hateful creature!” she interjected, then turned to me, “You hate it too?”
“Me? No, I…I found it to be quite cute actually as soon as I got over my fear.”
“You didn’t see the least bit afraid though,” she said smiling, “I think you were very brave.”
I grinned and opened the door for her.
“I suppose you’ll want to get some rest after your trip,” jenny said as we entered into the car.
“Yes I would”, I replied. “Will there be any meetings tomorrow?”
“We’ll go into the field to see some other staff, but apart fro that, we’ll be free.” She replied, smiling at me sexily. Her perfume wafted towards me and I inhaled its freshness and recognized it. Ocean breeze. Very nice. Her lovely brown eyes gazed into my very soul and I found myself blurting
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
She laughed, a gentle but high pitched laugh that heaved her moderately sized bossoms delectably.
“Why are you asking?” she said.
“I swear I don’t know,” I stammered, “It just came out…”
“No I don’t,” she said. “And even if I did, it wouldn’t matter.” And she smiled that her sexy smile again.
“Well, I have a girlfriend, a fiancée actually, her name is Ni – “
“That doesn’t matter either,” she whispered, drawing close to me. “All that matters is that you are here and you are spending two weeks. Alone.”
I gulped and said nothing. Apparently Jenny wasn’t the subtle type.
We got to the hotel and I came down and headed towards the hotel lobby. Jenny poked her head out of the car window.
“Do you plan on going anywhere this evening?” she asked.
“Not really,” I said, trying to control the words coming out of my mouth. “I think it would be best if I spent the rest of the day indoors.”
She smiled yet again and I thought, these smiles are coming too frequently,not that I mind but…
“Very well then. See you later.” And she winked and the car drove off.
I watched the car disappear into the distance and I turned around and saw the gate-man also gazing after it. Then he saw me watching him and chuckled.
“Bros, if you no understand that red light wey dem give you now, that wan mean say you need deliverance oh!”
I burst out laughing and strolled into the hotel. I entered my room to find that it had been cleaned out and fresh toiletries placed in the bathroom. A note had been placed by the bedside with a menu for dinner. I looked at the time, it was heading towards 6pm and I decided to do some reading first. I picked up a novel I had seen in one of the drawers, the forest of a thousand daemons, it was an old classic from my school days and I settled down for a good read before dinner. I didn’t know when I dozed off.
I woke up to a knock on the door by 9pm. I had passed out on the bed with the book lying on the rugged floor. The air conditioner was on full blast and I would have gone back to sleep if the person hadn’t knocked again.
“One moment!” I yelled groggily and got up from the bed. Outside was dark and I went to pull the blinds shut. Another knock on the door and I went to open it.
There, standing in the doorway, was Jenny.
If you have been following my description of jenny, you might have gotten the hint that she was a sexy, beautiful lady. That was nothing compared to the vision that stood before me right now. She was putting on a tight body hugging red dress that accentuated all those curves I mentioned earlier. A plunging neckline led down to a mesmerizing view of her heaving bossom. The dress itself ended abruptly just above her knees. In that red outfit she had managed to weave sexy and classy into a single entity. I found myself gazing in wonder and took a step back.
“Whoa, welcome, em…what…”
“Can I come in?” she asked in a quiet voice.
I stepped back and allowed her to enter.
She strolled in and it is like lust sidled in alongside her. Immediately my room was filled with the red-orange flame I had come to understand to be lust. Only that this time I had to search for the source of the flames only to realize that it was coming from me. From her too, but mostly from me. I went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of cold water. Even as I did so my hands were shaking. There was something not right about this, someone I ought to be thinking about at a time like this, but try as I might, I couldn’t remember who that person was. I turned around and saw her watching me as if I was something that enthralled her.
“You were asking me something?” she said in that quiet seductive voice.
I drank the water and offered her some without saying anything. She took it from me and our fingers touched. The electricity was very intense. She looked at me with her piercing eyes and I found myself drawing closer to her.
Something still didn’t feel normal about all of this, but i couldn’t quite figure it out. I decided to avert my gaze from hers and closed my eyes for a moment and tried to think.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Well,” she said and went back to the door that I had left open and shut it, locking the door with the key. “I went to drop off some files at an office nearby and decided to come and check on you, to see if they were treating you alright.”
“You went for an errand in that dress?” I asked incredulously.
“it’s a warm night,” she replied. “I wanted something loose that would make me feel cofortable.
That dress looked anything but loose. I thought to myself.
She walked back up to me and was so close I could feel her warm sweet breath on my mouth.Her chest pressed against mine and I could feel the racing of her heart. My skin started tingling and i was once again drawn towards her.”
“So,” she whispered, “Are they treating you alright?”
We kissed. It was inevitable. I am a person of admirable self control, learnt it from my father and also from the experiences or should I say, manifestations that I had had. I had one other girlfriend before I met Nina and I was faithful to her until we broke up. And I hadn’t even thought of cheating on Nina in the eight months of our relationship. So I was at a total loss as to why I was falling for jenny so easily. The kiss was so sweet and intense that for a moment I lost sense of where I was and didn’t care about anything anymore.
Then I opened my eyes and was taken completely by surprise.
I was kissing a fish. Well, not really. I was still kissing Jenny but two fishes were nibbling busily around my lips. Picture that. I jumped back so fast I fell over the bed. I heard jenny scream in alarm and I hurried to my feet.
Jenny was still as beautiful as ever, that red dress was still sparklingly sexy but jenny’s legs were no longer there. In its place was a huge tail, like that of a large fish, complete with scales and ending in huge fins. She stood there, seemingly suspended in mid air, her tail swaying gently from side to side just above the floor. My jaw dropped open and remained like that for a while. She looked at me puzzled.
“What?” she asked, looking alarmed. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
I must have really worn a shocked look on my face because she became more frightened as I didn’t answer. Tears streamed down her lovely face and her tail swished about aggressively. I closed my eyes and opened them and the manifestation was gone.
“I’m sorry jenny,” I said. “I’m really feeling very tired.”
She looked at me stunned. And then she relaxed.
“You must really love your fiancée then,”
“Well, yes I do.” I said . “I’m sorry if I led you on. You are very beautiful…” I trailed off. I didn’t know what else to say.
Jenny smiled. “It’s alright, I understand. I’ll let you rest.” And she walked to the door and opened it. She paused for a moment then said
“I am attracted to power, Chuks, and you are powerful. I can feel it. I want you, Chuks and I usually get what I want. I still have some more days with you. I’m not giving up.
And then she left.
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