"Hi, bro? Sis?" Jess's tone was light and teasing but from the slight questioning edge to her tone of voice Alex knew at least on that point she was not teasing or making light of anything.
"Bro is fine, I'm still Alex. " Alex told his sister seriously from where he was curled up on the sofa.

The words for now went unsaid between them. Jess nodded firmly, choosing not to comment on Alex's outfit choice or that he was folded up on the sofa in a way she had only ever seen her mother and her girlfriends do. Clearly, Alice was making herself known even now and from the moment she had been introduced to Alice by Tracy Jes had been completely unsure Of Alex's protestations that Alice was a one-time thing and that she would only exist for that one day. Jess planned to be supportive either way, but, well she just could not imagine that the bright young girl with eyes that sparked clear and bright with all her joy and enthusiasm was just going to fold herself away into her slightly dull and quirky little brother.

Jess's eyes had not deceived her, Alex's outfit was similar to the one he always wore for comfort and yet somehow was even more girly than the one Jess had so often, unknowingly teased him about. He wore his customary far too large blue t-shirt but in place of his tight jogging bottoms, he wore the girly leggings Tracy had given him, distinct by the little pink logo on the mid-thigh of the left leg. Jess was slightly surprised though at how like his joggers these girl's leggings were. The bright pink huddy was unzipped and about his shoulders, the sleeves just slightly too long for his had arms. Alex's hair glistening and soft, newly brushed, the brush abandoned on the arm of the sofa, rested on his shoulder loose and free.

Truly Jess could have been forgiven for believing that Alice was present not Alex, the person curled on the sofa looked far more girl than boy. Indeed, Jess could see very little that indicated the boy Alex was there at all.

"Mum told me that you want me to drop you off at Lilly's Shop in a bit." Jess said after a pause.
"Yeah, as long as you're free to do that, still got a while yet though, maybe an hour. Tracy texted me telling me that Lilly wants me to come later and stay later than the last couple of times. She also asked me to ask you if you could stay for a few minutes. " Alex told her in a rush snuggling still further if it were at all possible into the soft pink fluff of his fleece.

Jess thought for a few seconds, her head cocked at an angle before she pulled out her phone and began texting. After a few more minutes she lifted her head from her phone screen and regarded Alex.
"Yeah, that should be fine. What does Lilly need me for?"
"Lifting some tables and things, I don't know exactly. Tracy did say that she didn't think it would take you long."
"That should be fine, Cat says she will meet me at the shop."

"Cat? " Alex queried "Yeah, she is actually Catherine but she prefers Cat apparently." Jess explained. Alex nodded slowly taking everything in, realisation dawning.
"New girlfriend?"
"Yeah, met her a couple of weeks ago. So, no more sneaking after me unannounced, not unless you like to watch. " Jess replied an evil smirk playing over her face.
"You weren't even in your room, sis, can't you at least keep it there," Alex whined, going very red. "Second ew gross, I don't want to see that, like, you're my sister, like it's bad enough hearing that."
Jessica cackled evilly as she walked out of the room.

Alex and Tracy busied themselves moving smaller things around the basement while Jessica manoeuvred a small table and a couple of chairs down into the basement. Jessica made light work of the task but could see why Lilly had requested her presents Alex and Tracy would have had difficulty even working together. The real task though was one Jess had not been prepared for, a robust-looking standalone set of metal shelves that needed assembling and putting next to the shop window. This was the real reason she had been asked to help, Jess realised. The weight of the shelves even disassembled would probably have been too much for Tracy and Alex and Jess knew that she did not and would not trust her little brother to assemble something like this. The only two times that Jess had tried to do something like this with Alex, he had so gotten distracted and had lost the screws. Sighing Jess decided that taking each bit over to the window area and assembling it there would be more effective than assembling it and then moving the completed unit over to the window.

Jess had nearly completed the shelves when the loud argument interrupted her thoughts.
"Mum you simply can't put that in the windows think of poor Mrs Wilson, she will have a fit if she sees that. She complained about that skimpy summer dress being in the window only a few months ago and this is like a hundred times worse."
Lilly too laughed at her daughters' screeched cries of worry. "Mrs Willson rarely buys anything from me and complains about many things. On the rare occasion she has come in here to buy, all the things she has complained about have not stopped her from making that purchase."
"Mum, are you sure about this, I don't think it will just be Mrs Wilson who has a problem with this."
"It's fine, dear, you are overreacting."

Jess was just finishing as Cat walked into the shop, the argument still going on in the background. Cat was a year older than Jess and a few liches shorter with long curly dark hair that hung in ringlets down her back. Her eyes were a fierce blue colour that seemed to sparkle with depth. She wore a casual but feminine outfit, which consisted of ankle boots, jeans and a roll kneck jump wollen jumper. Most of Cat's outfit was lost on Jess who who immediately stood up to greet her and fold the shorter girl into a tight embrace.

Jess felt Cat melt into the embrace, taking immense pleasure from the warmth, physical contact, and attention. Although she had only known the woman a short time, Jess found, that she couldn't help having feelings for the other girl. It was impossibly cute and did things to Jess's heart when Cat laid her head on Jess's shoulder and nuzzled Jess's neck like that. Jess was surprised at herself; it had been a long time since she had felt this much for one of the girls or guys she had dated. Jess wasn't usually an emotional kind of touchy-feel girl but Cat was making her seriously reconsider that side of herself.

Cat's outfit was not as lost on Jess's sibling as it had been on Jess herself. Alex particularly liked Cat's jeans finding the embroidered flower pattern near the pockets to be particularly cute. The jumper was nice too although Alex could not understand why Cat kept playing with the rolled kneck as she and Jess made their way over. Alex turned his attention away from Cat and back to Tracy, Lilly and the book that was in Tracy's hand.
"Tracy might have a point," Alex added weekly looking over at Lilly. "Mightent it be a bit racy for the shop window."
"Nonsense, dear, it's fine it's not as if I'm putting porn in the window or something. You too are such prudes, that's all. When I was your age..." Lilly laughed dismissing Alex's concern as easily as she had her daughter's.
"Mum!" Tracy exasperated but Lilly had already left both of them and their concern behind as she headed down to the basement.

Jess introduced Cat to both Alex and Tracy before realising that Cat was staring transfixed at the book in Tracy's hand. Jess looked over the cover that had caused Alex and Tracy so much concern. The cover consisted of the silhouette of a naked woman lying on her front, her hands tied together and to the bedpost with thick red string, a collar was clearly visible about the woman's neck and a whip motif of four different types of whips formed a border around the edges of the cover.
"She is right, you two really are prudes." Jess told Alex and Tracy with a shake of her head.
Jess's hand which she had rested on the Cat's back travelled, upwards, seeking until it rested on the back of Cat's neck. There it seemed to grab something providing a soft but constant pressure that seemed to jerk Cat's head up. Cat's eyes were comically wide as Alex stared at her transfixed, unsure what was happening or what his sister had done. Jess moved her lips close to Cat's ear and whispered something to her. Jess's words, although barely audible to Alex, who stood next to them, were not as quiet as Jess had intended them to be and left Alex blushing almost as much as Cat now was. While Alex was not sure what else she had said, he was sure his sister had ended it with "later my pet." Tracy meanwhile had not been paying attention to the anties Is the others and was still blushing at being called a prude by Jess and what that suggested about Jess's own experience, her head was now full of those implications and her own fantasies. Grinning Jess left the three blushing silently each for their own separate reason, to go and talk briefly with Lilly.

Cat pulled Alex to the side away from Tracy, she had noticed his eyes travelling towards her neck several times and was also sure he had heard something of what Jess had said. Alex for his part used this opportunity to compliment Cat on her jeans. Cat smiled and thanked Alex before pulling the neck of her jumper down just enough to show a thick band of brown leather beneath.
"It's my collar. " She whispered to Alex who reached a hand out to touch it.
The leather felt supple yet tough and resistant beneath his fingers. Cat could not resist the light shiver then, virtually no one other than her girlfriends had ever seen her collar let alone touched it. Cat could not help but consider how bad this was of her; it was such an erotic feeling for her when someone touched her collar. Just wearing it in public was wonderful, showing it to others was an even greater thrill, but this was so much more and worse. She was showing it to her girlfriend's sibling and he was touching her collar.
"Someday you might be lucky and someone will put one on you." Cat told Alex casually.
"How do you know I would want one," Alex answered guardedly not trusting the feelings seeing her's had unleashed inside him.
"It takes one to know one." Cat teased with a wink, stepping back to regard him slightly.
"Yep, definitely, pet material." She teased again, Alex blushing and looking kind of sheepish.

Only minutes after his sister left with Cat, Alex made up his mind, he had been playing with the idea for most of the last two days. Being Alice had unleashed many weird feelings and desires that Alex had not known he had before that day. Weird feelings that Alex was only beginning to understand and to deal with the impacts of.

As soon as his sister had left Alex walked over to Tracy and expressed his wish, his need. Tracy for her part listened sympatheticly, what he said did not surprise her in the least, she had guessed that Alice would not be so easily squashed. She was slightly shocked though at Alex's, bold pursuit of his feminine alter ego, Tracy had very much thought that it would be several more weeks before Alex or Alice were so bold. Tracy had thought she would have several more long weeks of cajoling ahead of her but Alex and just swept that all away.

"Well, Alice, you have picked an interesting day to want to be that adventurous," Tracy drawled with a mischievous grin. "We will both be mostly up here today, helping mum with customers and displays. Come on, mum will definitely give you a discount, but we don't have long to get you all pretty. Good job you're so cute already, saves time." With that Tracy bustled off leaving a confused, excited and marginally apprehensive Alice to follow along behind.

Alice wanted the whole experience this time, and while Tracy tried to be as patient and explain as much as was possible. Time constraints were pressing and Tracy's explainations did begin to become something of a whistle-stop tour of all things womanhood. Alice tried to take in as much of the information being spouted at her as she could but knew that she would never retain half of what Tracy was telling her.

Winter and the cold weather did severely limit Alice's ability to be adventurous with clothing choices, but she stubbornly insisted on a cute pink top, she had seen while cataloguing old stock several days ago, which showed off her midriff. Alice paired that with a slightly more sensible pair of jeans. The jeans were similar to Cat's pair that Alice had jealously admired that morning and Alice was very pleased with the cute embroidered pockets. Even if she did think that the cute flower and butterfly motif on hers were nowhere near as cutie as the roses on Cat's. If she had been braver this morning, Alice realised, she would have asked Cat where she had got them from. Alice sighed wistfully resolving to be a more brave girl if she saw the Cat again.

Tracy had looked dubiously at Alice's choices, not sure how well either would fit or look on Alice but not wanting to discourage Alice, Tracy kept quiet and tried to hide her thoughts from her face. When Tracy went down to the basement to help Alice dress, she was significantly shocked and taken aback Alice stood before her in only a white bra and pantie set. The look of Alice's pale skin creamy skin and the white bra was almost too much to bare for Tracy who could feel her lust rising like a tangible cloud of heat from her core to her head. Tracy with some regret pushed those thoughts aside, promising herself that there would be time for that some other day, for now, other thoughts had to take precedence.
"Aren't you the smart girl with her snazzy new bra and pantie set."
Alice blushed slightly. "Thanks, I went shopping for them yesterday, it's a cute set, isn't it? "
"You went with Jess?" Tracy asked moving Alice's hand away so as to get a better view of the padded bra.
"No, I wasn't comfortable discussing it with her, so I went on my own. I got a Perrywinkle blue set as well and some really fluffy warm pyjamas. I didn't want to tell anyone in case ..." Alice trailed off.
"In case you didn't have the strength to go through with this today, " Tracy completed for her. "I understand, at some point though we are going to have to have a girl's shopping trip together!" Alice nodded her ascent having just pulled on the top.

Tracy's eyes fell on Alice's crotch and her mouth flew open. Where she had been expecting the tell-tale bulge of Alice's former gender, she saw only a flat mound like she would expect of any other biological female. Indeed, if she had pulled her trousers down, now, Tracy felt sure that she would look almost exactly as Alice now did.
"Oh yeah," Alice smirked, seeing the direction of her friends open mouthed gaze. "I did some research online yesterday and learned some tucking techniques. Don't worry, I haven't removed it. At least not yet."
" OK, Alice, I must say you look very girly like that. In fact, you look a hundred percent girl. But you must promise me that before you do anything drastic you will speak to a councillor. In fact, I think you need to do that regardless, as soon as Christmas is over." Tracy told the other girl managing with some effort to tear her eyes from Alice's crotch.
Alice for her part readily agreed as she put the jeans on. Securing overall this was her pink huddy, which she had worn to the shop that morning, which she now wore open showing off her new top.

While Alice may have been self-conscious about being seen in public she quickly got over her fears. Truth be told Alice had little choice but to get over her fears and very little time to worry about them, all three women, Alice, Tracy and Lilly, spent much of the day rushed off their feet. Alice spent more time behind the til serving customers than she ever had before, but when she wasn't she was sorting clothes racks, offering advice and generally helping out.

Just as they were finishing for the day, a woman came into the store that took Alice's breath away. Alice had been certain before that even if she was a girl she definitely was attracted to girls, but even if she hadn't been before she would have been sure then. Tracy saw Alice's expression and could not hide her smirk nor could she hide from herself the fact that she too was just a little turned on by the undeniably sexy woman.

The woman wore a well-fitting charcoal pantsuit that seemed to emphasis her figure in all the best ways. Complementing the charcoal suit, we were a pair of knee-high black leather boots, that encased her feet, ankles, and legs like a second skin.

"Can you do me...help me...you...I mean can I help you with any? That is to say is there anything you need? " Alice babbled incoherently and endlessly.

Tracy in truth was not fairing much better in the woman's presence. It wasn't just the woman's dazzling looks, it was as much the atmosphere that she exuded. The confidence in her step and undertone of power and dominance everything about her exuded. Tracy had once commented that Jess, Alice's sister was every lesbian's wet dream, she now knew she was incorrect. This woman though Tracy had barely even met her, was in fact that, even the atmosphere she exuded when she walked into a room made Jess seem like a pale comparison.
"Hi, I am Tracy, this here is Alice," At this Tracy dug her elbow into Alice's side, who gave a cute squeak at being so painfully pulled from her reverie over the sexy dreamboat of a woman. "Can we be of assistance or are you just coming into brows, if so, I do have to warn you that we are just about to close for the evening."

A smirk played over the the woman's face as she stalked towards them like a hungry lioness regarding a particularly pleasing young antelope.
"Perhaps you can help me." She told them in a teasing light tone her eyes playing first over Alice, then over Tracy, then back and forth. Finally, her hand reached out brushing a stray lock of Alice's hair back behind her ear while looking Tracy straight in the eye. A shiver of pleasure ran through Tracy at their mutual lust-filled glare. Alice too shivered in pleasure unable to think a single thought as she melted under the woman's heated touch.

It was only when staring back into the woman's eyes that Tracy first noticed how young the woman was. While definitely a lot older than herself and Alex, the woman could scarcely be much into her late twenties. Tracy knew that it was just the woman's atmosphere and her outfit that had led her to the assumption, but Tracy had assumed that this woman was much older than that.
"I'm Tasha McFarland I have an appointment here at this about this time or more accurately for tonight I suppose, I have as Bree an appointment here tonight."
Tracy looked at Tasha questioningly, Alice was still far too far gone to fully appreciate the the words that Tasha had said, except to consider how beautiful Tasha's voice sounded, so rich and sweet, and yet so husky, with a touch the merest possibility, of a harder harsher edge that might under the right circumstances be revealed.
"I write under the pen name Bree, " She told them with a shrug. "Lots of authors use a pen name, and I find it easier this way."

"Hello Bree, I am Lilly the shop owner, and Tracy's mother, we talked on the phone." Lilly introduced herself her arms crossed in a defensive posture she had just come up from the basement where she had been making final preparations and was not at all amused to have come up to find the twenty-four-year-old who she did not fully trust or know having wrapped the two much younger sixteen-year-old girls so tightly in her spell. Alice looked like a love-sick puppy prepared to do whatever Tasha said and her own daughter didn't seem that much better.
"Of course, hello Lilly, it's nice to finally be able to put a face to a voice. And very nice to be asked to do something like this, I have been having difficulty getting my book out there and attracting the audience I know it should have. I also have never done any book signings before." Tasha admitted sounding at once polite, contrite, and at the least a little bit vulnerable.
"Yes well, I hope it's the first of many, and I hope that this can be mutually beneficial, attracting people who would not necessarily visit my shop inside, and people who would not usually buy your books to do just exactly that. Now if you would follow me, I will show you to the basement, where I have everything set up and we can leave Tracy and Alice to close up the shop."

Despite Lilly's words, it was not long before Alice and Tracy were switching places with Lilly to help the author manage the piles of books she had to sign. Despite what it looked like, Tasha was not signing all the books Lilly had bought, only the first fifty but even so that was still a lot of books, both to sign and to manage the piles of signed and unsigned books.
"Why do you use the pen name Bree?" Alice asked, reading the standard inscription Tasha was copying into each book.
"Well, I told you using a pen name made things easier for me, as for why I use the name, Bree, there are a couple of reasons, the main one being that one of my favourite romance authors uses Bree as a pen name. The other is that I have always liked the name and a former lover of nine who encouraged me to write has that name." Tasha answered without pausing in her task.
"How old are both of you." She asked them casually, but the casual interest was only fained to cover the far greater interest and hope she was beginning to form surrounding that question.
"We're sixteen, well that is to say I am and Alice will be in January."
"That's a shame, a real shame." Tasha told them pausing in her work to regard them both.

Then, because she couldn't resist doing it at least once, Tasha let her dominant side out to play.
"Bring me that." She demanded of Alice, her voice now husky, fierce and gravelly.
Alice obeyed as if in a trance, she felt strange as if sinking into a comfortable bed, her mind free and empty of all but one thing Tasha. Tracy saw this and the effect it seemed to have on Alice, she herself felt strangely drawn to the ridiculously attractive woman, whose voice seemed to make her physically weak at the knees.
"Good girl," Tasha's gravelly voice was full of a hunny sweet note. "You really are very submissive; it's been a while since I have found anyone so eager to submit to me. It is almost a sick joke that you are so young and therefore so very unattainable, but for the moment that is no matter. Read the title of my book for me please."

Alice instantly and happily complied with Tasha's instruction.
"The price of her submission." Alice read.
"Yes, sweet one, there is always a price, but I can assure you that it is always worth it and usually the reward is a very enjoyable one. Now bring me two more of those books, not part of the allotted fifty."
Alice did so and after writing in them for longer than she had done for the others Tasha handed one to each of them in turn. "My Christmas present to you both."
Alice, who had returned from that place of revery that Tasha seemed to have to power to send her to at will, a place deep inside herself, still seemed immensely sad despite her gift. "Cheer up, sweet girl, remember, when you read my book, to think of me," Then in a lower sultry, conspiratorial tone. "And remember I always practise what I preach. Always."

Once she was done signing books, Tasha escorted by the two girls left the basement and went up to the store. She was not at all surprised to find that full night, which had been on the cusp of beginning as she had entered the shop, was well and truly set in outside the well-lit shop. Tasha made sure to press a crisp note into Lilly's hand as she passed her, explaining that it was in payment for the two books she had given to Alice and Tracy. When she saw Jess, Tasha immediately stopped to greet her. From the hug and greeting the two gave each other Alice realised that they must know each other something her sister had never mentioned before. When she asked them how they knew each other, her answer was met with a light laugh from Tasha.
"We have known each other for a couple of years now. You could say we move in the same circles." Tasha's response was met with a disgruntled, warning, not entirely happy look from Jess and silence from Alice.
Alice was left to wonder what circles the smart well-dressed business woman, and her sister, almost the opposite, could possibly move in that were in any way near each other.
"Jess, you never told me about your sister. She is a real delight. In a couple of years, you must introduce her to a few of our mutual friends, it would be a pleasure always round, I think. Alice is wonderful and such a great help, very good at obeying instructions. It's strange though, she is very different from you, Jess. Almost the polar opposite!" Tasha remarked with a chuckle which Jess responded to with a slight growl and moving closer to her sister protectively. Alice could not help but feel that she had missed some deeper meaning in Tasha's words.