As Claire walked down the ramp on her hands and knees, she could still feel the swat of Eliza's hand on her right ass cheek. It had been light so it didn't sting physically, but the sensation of a hand slapping her bare bum, while completely exposed and naked in front of a crowd of laughing, wealthy older men, was unexpected -- to put it mildly. She was all aswirl with new emotions, and she didn't know how to process them.
She had no time to figure that out. She had to make sure that she could avoid interacting with Russel, Steve and Kyle. That would be a disaster.
As she walked back to the dog bed labelled "Bubbles", a plan came together. She told herself that it wasn't that complicated. She'd interact with clients and do her best to enjoy being a Veritail puppy for about an hour and a half. The event was scheduled to end at 9:30pm, and she'd been led to expect that it would start winding down after 9. Ms. Perston had left to manage other events, leaving Claire and the other V-pups in Eliza's good hands, so Claire would get Eliza's attention and make some excuse to get going a bit early. Eliza owed her for the demonstration, so she should be willing to explain to Russel, Steve and Kyle that they'd have to pick a different V-pup.
The problem with Claire's plan was that she'd have to find the courage to stand up on two feet and talk to Eliza in English. For some reason, she couldn't imagine doing that. If Ms. Perston had been there, she'd have had no trouble doing it, but Eliza was a different matter. Now seated on her dog bed, Claire watched Eliza, transitioning from talking to the crowd of investors over the PA, to being a hostess at large. Claire couldn't take her eyes off her. Eliza gave a few instructions to some staff, she took a glass of champagne and had a sip, gracefully avoided being engaged in conversation by a few eager investors and then she walked toward where Claire and the other V-pups were waiting.
As this was happening, Claire's mind had turned to what was about to happen. She'd been hired to circulate in that crowd of men, letting them ask her for services, saying "arf," "ruf," or "grrrr" as the situation required. Was Eliza just going to announce the start of festivities, leaving Claire and the other V-pups to start wandering the crowd? Would people ignore her? Would she be mobbed?
Claire hadn't expected to feel this anxious as the interactions were about to begin.
As it turned out, Eliza had thought of this. Each of the V-pups was assigned one of her security staff as a handler to get things started.
"Come with me Bubbles," Eliza said, tapping her thigh with her hand. Eliza had decided to take Claire herself.
Crawling on her hands and knees, Claire was thankful for the stick-on knee pads. The mittens didn't even have separated thumbs, so while they protected her hands from getting scuffed, it felt weird to not be able to use them.
Eliza gathered Claire's leash and walked her out into the crowd of men. Claire's heart was pounding. Was this really happening? She focused on Eliza to distract from the men that clustered around them as they walked along a path into the garden. As Claire looked up at this beautiful woman in her heels and professional suit, she realized that it was like Eliza was her master. The idea kind of freaked Claire out, but here she was being led naked, crawling on her hands and knees, collared and leashed, being presented by Eliza to all these men.
Claire really didn't want Eliza to leave her.
But that's exactly what Eliza was going to do. Claire was led a short distance down the path and it seemed that all the men at the event were crowding around, trying to talk to Eliza, vying for the first opportunity to "interact" with Bubbles. Everyone was chatting, sipping drinks and laughing. Claire wasn't a fashion expert, but she could see that these men were wealthy. They had perfectly tailored summer suits. The temperature was about 80 degrees and somehow none of them seemed to be sweating. They all had expensive looking watches and beautiful shoes. Claire especially noticed all the beautiful leather shoes, because from her current vantage it was easier to look at all the men's feet. She had to crane her neck to look up at their faces.
All the faces were confident, they were laughing and chatting casually, and when they looked directly at Claire, their eyes were filled with lust. Looking up at their faces filled Claire with all the feelings of vulnerability, sexiness, sluttiness, shame and fear that were the source of her exhibitionism. Her craving of those feelings was why she was there.
Unfortunately, it is possible to have WAY too much of a good thing. When Claire looked up at the men's faces, she felt completely overwhelmed.
So she kept looking at all the beautiful shoes, and she kept slowly wagging the Veritail. If she kept her focus on those two things, she could avoid what felt like an imminent panic attack.
Eliza kept walking down the path. She had a particular client in mind.
"Hello Mr. Gaines," Eliza said as they approached a bench beside the path.
"Why hello Eliza." Mr. Gaines was seated at the bench. There was a walking cane propped against it. He was very distinguished and looked like he was in his 70s. "Who have we here?"
Everyone had to know who Bubbles was, Claire thought. She'd been displayed much larger than life on the big screen during the demonstration. "This is Bubbles, Mr. Gaines," Eliza said. "She is wearing the Veritail and I thought you would like the first opportunity to see how our new product takes pet role-play to a completely new level." Without even glancing at Claire, Eliza said, "Bubbles, say hello and show Mr. Gaines your best wag."
Claire was aware that it had sounded a bit more like a command than when Eliza had asked her to do things before.
Aware that she was completely surrounded by onlookers, Claire lifted her face up to look Mr. Gaines directly in his eyes. "Arf!" she said, as cheerfully as she could, and gave him an enthusiastic wag.
Mr. Gaines looked delighted. "Hello Bubbles," he said, just like he was talking to a dog. "Come here," he said, tapping his knee with his hand.
Claire hesitantly crawled over so that her face was above and right next to Mr. Gaines left knee. Mr. Gaines reached forward to pat Claire's head, but Eliza reminded him, "if you pat her without obtaining permission first, using the app, Bubbles will growl at you."
Claire wouldn't have growled. She wasn't thinking straight, but she was reminded that she wasn't actually a submissive naked girl, role-playing as a puppy. She was staff hired to demonstrate a product, and growling was part of the demonstration.
"I don't use apps, Eliza," Mr. Gaines smiled and reached forward to pat Claire's head anyway.
"Grrrr!" Claire said, letting her tail drop.