The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories (5 page)

“
I’ll have to look him up sometime.” Jonas clambered off the bed and took a towel from the side, rubbed some scented oil into it, then came back to the bed where Alexan was sitting with his legs spread. Jonas cleaned his sheath and member, making the fox squirm and yelp in delight.

Alexan pulled on his clothes and patted Jonas gently. “Thanks again, Jonas.” He flashed a grin. “Wish I could take you with me.”

“
Me too.” Jonas returned the smile, and then caught himself wondering,
What if…

Alexan was already gone before he could voice the thought. But his mind kept spinning while he went through the motions of cleaning himself up and straightening the room. He tucked the robe under his arm and went back to the back room.

From then on, Jonas nursed his fantasy of escape. He could have asked any of his clients to take him, but there weren’t many he liked. Besides, his contract promised compensation to Tally if he didn’t stay four more years, and he doubted his father would be willing to pay up, which would leave a sticky situation. Alexan, though—he liked the fox well enough, and the thought of being able to escape the country was thrilling. He could leave all this behind, start over again, maybe end up helping Alexan with his business. He could be good at it, given a proper chance and nobody waiting to outshine him.

Even his weekly appointment with Van Wyck wasn’t as bad as usual. He wandered back into the lounge afterwards and kept himself hard, thinking about Alexan and teasing himself as he sat down. Pike and Alicar were chatting on the other side of the room, and Ishel was picking at one of the wall carvings, turning to join in the conversation from time to time.

Pike was describing the new Cantor at the church down the street. “I tell you, if anyone had Ursis behind him, this one does. He’s the biggest raccoon I’ve ever seen. Maybe he’s part bear.”

Alicar snorted. “That’s as likely as me and Jonas having a kid.”

Pike glanced at Jonas. “Looks like he’s trying to have one himself. Come on, Jonas, give us a show.”

Ishel looked over his shoulder at Jonas, and said, “Don’t stain the couch, okay?”

Jonas took his paw away and leaned back into the couch, enjoying the fact that he was teasing Pike. “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“
What’s on your mind, big kitty?” Pike asked. The raccoon was naked, too, but not aroused, and though his paw brushed his sheath briefly, he made no effort to match Jonas’s show.

“
Oh, I’m just thinking of the king’s announcement that he’s going to be lowering the countrywide tax on ale following the rich harvest last year.” Jonas licked his lips and grinned at Pike. In fact, Mani had mentioned that on his last visit, which perhaps had accounted for his extra excitement.

Ishel laughed. “Cheaper to get drunk, eh?”

“
Actually,” Alicar stretched as he spoke, “it’s a sop designed to make up for raising the taxes on the farms that produce the grain two years ago, which the king needed to do in order to pay for the armies he’s sending to the Reysfields to protect them against the Ferrenians. The Uprising fifty years ago left the king in power but wary about offending the people, so each tax increase since then is met with a drop in taxes. But if you look closely,” he yawned, “the drops rarely make up for the increase.”

The room fell silent. Alicar looked around. “Oh, come on, it’s not that complicated.”

“
You amaze me,” Pike said. “You eat dinner with your father, what, once a week? And you still remember all that?”

“
History,” Alicar said stiffly, “is the most important teacher.”

The raccoon grinned widely. “You haven’t had a lesson from Pike.”

Alicar flicked his ears and grinned back. “Don’t need to. I already know how to be an obnoxious oversexed prat. I just choose not to make use of that knowledge.”

“
Oooh!” Pike squeaked in a falsetto. “My goodness, one would almost think you hadn’t just been cleaning come out of your muzzle.”

Alicar stuck his tongue out at Pike. The raccoon grinned. “You missed a spot.”

Jonas kept quiet, his tail sliding back and forth across the couch. Glancing around, he wondered where Richy was. The group in the lounge included everyone he knew well except for the wolf, and it felt comfortable and familial. He began to have pangs of doubt about leaving. If he stuck around, he might lose his nerve altogether.

“
Goodnight,” he said, standing and stretching. “I’ll see you all in the morning.”

“
Night, Jonas,” three voices chorused. He waved as he padded back into the hallway and to his room.

Lying on his bed, he took his member in his paw again and thought about making love to Alexan, under the night sky on their way back to Ferrenis, the stars sparkling down on them. He’d never had sex outdoors and thought it must be very romantic.

“
Whoever you’re thinking about, I can take his place.”

Jonas’s eyes flew open. Pike was standing in his doorway.

“
You don’t take a hint, do you?” he snapped.

“
Oh, but I do. You were handing them out pretty liberally tonight.” The raccoon closed the door behind him and walked to the bed.

Torn between his fantasy and annoyance at Pike, Jonas sat still. The raccoon was showing now, a bit of pink at the tip of his sheath. “Who is it? One of us? No, a client. Someone you just met today?” His paw grasped Jonas’s member and slid along it.

“
Ohh.” The touch felt good. His clients had touched him, but none with that gentleness. He shook his head.

“
No, of course not.” Pike stroked him softly. “You’ve been like this for a week. A regular, then, someone you’re looking forward to seeing again. Don’t you know you shouldn’t fall in love with a client? It doesn’t matter, I suppose, if it makes you more excited to see him. Makes the experience better for him. I fell in love once, did I ever tell you? Ah, a story for later, then.” His paw worked all the time he was talking, while his other paw moved around Jonas. “You’re thinking about his touch, his scent, his body against yours.” Somehow, Jonas was on his side and his tail lifted, and Pike’s paw was under it. “Imagining him back there, wanting him to be part of you like that.” Then the words stopped and a soft tongue replaced Pike’s paw under his tail.

Jonas moaned. He hadn’t come at all tonight, and the tension was returning, building up in him. He lifted a leg and felt the tongue move deeper. Then Pike slid up behind him. “And he wants to be part of you, too,” he whispered. “Do you want him?” Jonas felt a pressure under his tail, waiting anxiously for permission.

Dimly, he realized what Pike was doing. He scrambled to convince his logical mind that it was okay: he would be gone tomorrow, and so it didn’t matter, and besides, if he let Pike do this, he’d regret leaving that much less. He wasn’t sure it made sense, but his logical mind was not really controlling much anyway. He nodded and said softly, “yes.”

Pike was good; experienced, of course, but also good, with a natural sense for how his partner was feeling. Jonas knew how big he was, had had his paw around Pike, but good Felis, it felt like a tree trunk being pushed into him. Amazingly, though, apart from an initial discomfort, he was enjoying it. He tried to imagine Alexan, but between the raccoon scent and the pressure (
Felis save me, he must be three times as big as Alexan!
), that was next to impossible, so Jonas just closed his eyes and enjoyed it.

They finished within a few seconds of each other, Pike controlling Jonas expertly with his paw. As their moans and panting mingled and faded into the cool morning air, Jonas felt himself relax, and felt the discomfort start to make itself known in his rear again. Before he could say anything, though, Pike slid out. The relief made him shudder again, and the raccoon, arms still wrapped around him, chuckled. “Feels as good goin’ out as goin’ in, eh?”

“
Yeah.” Jonas was already starting to regret saying yes as his logical mind woke up. “What’s wrong with us? You’d think we hadn’t just spent six hours having sex.”

Pike grinned. “Six hours of foreplay, dear. That’s all it was. I didn’t come until now; did you?”

“
No.” Jonas was sleepy, too, now, and trying to work out how to get Pike out of his room before he fell asleep.

“
I liked this, Jonas. Was nice. You’re as good as I thought you’d be.”

“
Mm.”

“
I really mean that. This was really special.”

“
Mm.”

“
Didn’t you feel that?”

Jonas opened his eyes tiredly. He was starting to feel that he wouldn’t mind if Pike stayed with him if he would just shut up. “Better than with Richy?”

Pike was quiet for a moment. “This was different. Wasn’t it for you?”

Different from the six hundred previous times I had someone up my tail? “Sure.”

Pike rested a paw on his side. “This job can get tough if you can’t keep a bit of yourself aside for the people that matter. Make some occasions special. You know?”

“
Mm.” Jonas had closed his eyes again. “You said…never fall in love.”

Pike chuckled. “So I did. Caring about someone, though, that’s what our job’s all about.”

“
I care.”

“
You’ll do okay.” Pike was stroking his side. “You’ll be good. I can tell. You won’t let this job wear you down.”

“
Mm. Won’t have to.”

“
What?”

There was some reason he shouldn’t be telling Pike, but he couldn’t see that it would hurt. “Gettin’ out.”

“
Oh. With your client?”

“
Mm.”

Pike was quiet for a long time. Jonas was hovering on the edge of sleep when he thought he heard the raccoon say, “Then this was a very nice goodbye.”

Chapter 3

Jonas was so excited when the night started that he almost came all over the belly of his first client, a weasel merchant who had insisted on being on bottom. Picturing the fox beneath him, Jonas felt his groin tighten, and he drew his paw away with an effort.

Every time he got his assignment that night, he opened the door expecting the sharp aroma and russet fur of his savior. Every time, he was disappointed.

After his fourth client, he was given a break. Tally was in the back room for the first time all night, and Jonas took advantage of the opportunity.

“
Tally? Was there a fox in tonight asking for me?”

“
Hm?” Tally was taking some notes and not paying attention to him, or pretending not to.

“
A fox, tall and thin. He usually comes tonight.”

The cougar shook his head. “If anyone asked for you, dear, then you’ve already seen them.”

Jonas sighed. Maybe Alexan had spent the night packing and would be late. He couldn’t accept that the fox wouldn’t come back one last time. He’d said he was leaving in a week and he hadn’t said good-bye. He
had
to come back.

“
I haven’t seen Shurian, either. This was his night, too.”

“
The night isn’t over yet,” Tally said absently.

“
I guess not.”

“
Let me get you a drink from the bar,” Tally said. He had never offered that to Jonas before.
Must sound pretty pathetic.

“
All right.” He sank down into the wooden chair and curled his tail around one of the legs. Alexan would show up, he kept telling himself, but the hollowness of his vision was seeping through his self-assurance. Why would a successful merchant bother with a prostitute? He’d never promised to take Jonas with him, after all; that had all been in Jonas’s mind. Maybe he had a wife and family. Or maybe a mate. No, he didn’t have a male mate, Jonas was fairly sure of that. It was one of those things he knew. But he knew precious little else, and though he tried to hold on to his dream, he felt the futility of his hope.

Tally brought him a glass of wine, which he downed rather faster than he had intended to. “You feeling better now?” the white cougar asked, taking the glass back. Jonas, his head recovering from the brief spin it had taken, nodded. “All right. Room two.”

Once Jonas had nodded his acknowledgment, Tally smiled and patted his cheek. “We all have bad days, dear. It’ll pass.” And then he was gone, back into the main room.

Jonas sighed, pushed himself up out of the chair, and went out to only the third disaster of his three-year career.

It wasn’t as bad as the time he’d come right across the muzzle of the cougar beneath him, nor was it as bad as the time he’d let his teeth press down on the huge member of a noble bear—
that
one would’ve gotten him fired, or worse, if Tally hadn’t intervened, telling the noble how
young
and
new
Jonas was, practically a
virgin
, and how the noble’s
enormous
and
impressive
equipment had intimidated the poor young cat. The bear had left with a full refund, grumbling, but hadn’t taken any other action (for fear his wife would find out, Tally said), and had even come back a few months later.