No Attachments
Technology can either bring us closer to one another or distance us from others. No matter what we keep in our pockets, its what we keep in our hearts that keeps us together.
No Attachments
2009 by Eldyran
San Fransisco County, California
Seven Months From Now
Joshua Fox's 10:13 flight from New York to San Fran landed at 4:15 that evening, and Josh was on the trail of Rulio Hernandez no later than 4:46. It wasn't like he felt rushed or anything; Josh was just highly efficient at what he did.
Rulio was also very good at what he did. The thirty five year old former executive had formed not one, but three huge .com start ups, using investor capital to fill niche needs wherever the online market had a digital hole. One of the greatest problems of digital commerce, however, was that transactions tended to be nothing more than ones and zeros bouncing between large finical institutions. Whether or not a physical product arrived to the end consumer was not Rulio's concern.
The only thing he cared about was the huge sum of zeros he siphoned from his startups, funneled to undisclosed off shore bank accounts somewhere off the Rio coast. All he had to do was convince and reassure his investors just long enough to watch his personal retirement fatten. Once regulators finally got suspicious, he would snip any loose electronic ends tying him to the inevitable bankruptcy, and set up shop again under a different alias.
So far the short haired opossum had gotten away with it not once, but three times, leaving hundreds of investors in the lurch. The FBI had estimated their total losses to exceed 6.2 million dollars already. Because Rulio transfered most of the money out of the country, the FBI had few leads to follow up on, even if they felt more obligated to do so. And since they hadn't traced Rulio's ill-gotten funds back to the smuggling of weapons or drugs from South America, they considered it a low priority, white collar crime.
As a media spokesperson commented: 'It is on ongoing case, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was aggressively pursuing all leads.' Given that much lost capital, it would be only inevitable that someone, somewhere, would seek private investigation.
And that was precisely how Joshua Fox came into this equation.
As the taxi cab driver shuttled Josh from the airport to one of San Fransisco's suburbs through the early evening March shower, the donkey glanced in his rear view mirror to the passenger in the backseat. He seemed to be quietly watching the sheen of rain drops slide past the rear passenger side window. Dressed in a plain but well cut gray long coat and sporting a pair of designer sunglasses, Josh looked no more memorable than the throngs of tourists streaming out of the airport on any given day. The only thing that stuck out in the mind of the cabbie was the unlit cigarette tucked away near one of Josh's huge vulpine ears.
Josh was, coincidently enough, a gray fox. The best way a bystander would describe him if he passed by on the street would have been "What fox?". And that is just the way Josh liked it. Without his work boots on he stood a unremarkable 5'6". No one would call him thin by any stretch of the imagination, but his species build was slender by nature. Depending on what disguise he wore, it was hard to tell how much he weighed, not more than 160 lbs at most. The majority of his fur was light gray with streaks of charcoal.
"Hey mi Amigo, which hotel did you want?" the donkey flashed his passenger an unsure look as they continued to drive past inn after inn along Interstate 280 leading south out of the city. The fox turned his head toward the rear view mirror and the pair of brown eyes staring back at him. His black muzzle lips curled into a smile.
"Oh I won't be spending the night," Josh grinned, "We're going to the library."
* * * * *
It took them just over a hour to reach San Mateo with the weather and rush hour traffic. While the yellow cab idled in the downpour, Josh splashed through the huge puddles on the way to the public library's front steps. He tried the front set of glass double doors, but found them locked. The drenched fox stabbed the call button a few times, not overly concerned with the water running down his head fur and long coat.
All of the electronics he discreetly concealed and carried were designed to be water and shockproof, at great expense.
Like the cab, the vulpine idled for a little bit in the rain. His paw tips drummed along his coat, tapping at the beads of rainwater sliding down its sides. A box next to the call button gave an obnoxious electronic squawk.
"Can't you read the sign? We close at five." The voice sounded feminine and cranky. Josh just leaned back a bit and scratched some behind the cigarette tucked near his right ear.
"Funny, I thought your circulation desk stayed open till six." There was a moment of silence, and Josh thought he heard a reluctant sigh.
"It's Five-Fifty-Two. You can drop off any returns to the drop box in the rear."
"I'd like actually like to apply for a library card." The fox leaned up against the intercom and gave a suave grin. He didn't know if the head librarian could see him on a security camera. There was another, longer pause.
"Seriously?"
"Absolutely!" Josh's grin widened. "And I know a devoted public servant like yourself wouldn't deny an avid reader his opportunity to further his ravenous taste for the literary pursuits!" The box sat silent for another moment, as if in contemplation.
"Alright. Come on in. The circulation desk is right up the stairs to the second floor." There was a light buzz, and the fox opened the front glass door in crafty triumph.
The inside of the San Mateo public library looked fairly new. Aside from the stained glass hanging in the tall window sills, its secular origin could not be questioned. The marble of the tiled floors looked barely scuffed, and very little dirt had settled into the lines of grout intersecting the stony squares. A couple of potted palms sat in a few choice corners for decoration. On closer inspection Josh noticed they were made of fake plastic, but little dust had settled on them. Most of the books and computers filling the first floor looked recently purchased.
Josh shuffled up the wide stairway leading up to the second floor and its large circular circulation desk. A thin female lioness stood hunched over a rack of new books, her conservative white blouse stretched tight across her small breasts. Thin wire framed glasses sat precariously perched on the top of her wide feline nose, and a pair of wary green eyes looked up to their sorting to appraise the silver tongued fox.
"Isn't it a bit dark in here to be wearing sunglasses?" The lioness quipped, looking up to the banks of florescent lighting set into the slopped ceiling. Half of them had been turned off to conserve power this near to close. Josh dropped his elbows on the circulation counter top and just leaned forward on them with a slight smirk. One of his gray paw tips ran along her nameplate sitting between them.
"Deloris. After I heard your voice from downstairs, you reminded me of the song." The fox licked his muzzle lips slowly and rattled off some lyrics. "Things are going great, and they're only getting better. The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades ..."
The lioness' tail flicked, a hint of a flush falling across her repressed, furry cheeks. She slid a form across the counter top, pulling out a pen from a jar with fluid, practiced grace. She laid it across the form in perfect bureaucratic fashion.
"Current address only. If you were a member of the previous San Mateo county library system, please print your old sixteen digit ID number on the line indicated."
Her alto voice was even and flat in well rehearsed monotone. Josh snatched up the pen and started scribbling down some fake address with even tempered zeal. For a few minutes, only the sound of scribbling and book shuffling filled the near empty library. Josh slid the finished application back across the table and the lioness scooped it up before glancing at the zip code.
"Live there long?" Deloris mused before stepping over to a keyboard and tapping in her credentials. Josh leaned in, pretending to admire her more, but adjusted the cigarette behind his ear some. The tip of the fake cancer stick pointed down toward the keyboard, recording each keystroke.
"No I just moved here. But I'm already enjoying it so far." Josh's vulpine tail flicked some, and the lioness' cheeks flushed some more.
"Well Mr. ... Fox." The librarian shot him a short sideways look, a playful glint in those green predator eyes. "Maybe I'll see you at the weekly book club then."
Fox really wasn't his last name. In his line of work Josh had honed his skills of decryption and tracking so well that he decided to erase his own past. With no ties to family or old friends, even if his traces had figured out who Josh was, it made it just that much harder for them to blackmail the fox into not revealing their location to his fly by night employers. But there was no way the average librarian would have guessed it. Deloris might have even thought that Josh's line of work might be a bit ... thrilling.
"Hmm ..." The lioness frowned after tapping at the error notice on screen. "It seems your zip code isn't valid."
"Yeah ..." Josh sighed. "I must not know it off the top of my head. But don't worry, I'll come back another day and get the correct info to ya. I promise." The fox dipped his sunglasses down just a bit to show off a hint of a wink before shuffling off with a short wave.
"Um ..." The lioness waved back, a little bit disappointed and flustered at the same time. "The next book club meeting is Thursday if you wanted to show! Three o'clock if you can make it!"
The fake smile on Joshua Fox's muzzle dropped the moment his hind feet hit the ground floor. He had no intention of even being in the same state on Thursday. His stone set face didn't even flinch as he opened the front doors and stepped out back out into the chilly downpour. The cab's wipers continued to sling rain off its windshield as it waited for him, its headlights casting twin auroras of welcoming yellow glow.
Josh got into the backseat and didn't even bother to wipe his sunglasses off. Most of the time he paid more attention to the inside part of his lenses than he did the real world just beyond them anyway. The cabbie turned around in the front seat, still confused a bit.
"Did you get what you needed mi Amigo?" He asked, his large donkey ears splayed somewhat. When the fox simply nodded, the cabbie put the car in gear and turned back around. "Where to then?"
"Just drive. It doesn't matter where."
"Its your dinero, mi Amigo."
* * * * *
As Josh looked out the rain streaked backseat window from behind a pair of shades, he seemed to be tapping at his digital watch. In actuality while the cab drove through the wet streets of San Mateo, the fox logged into the county library system.
A concealed and form factored hybrid satellite and cellular phone tucked into one of his many pockets transmitted data up to one of the LEO satellites circling above him. When he needed a faster connection, he'd make use of one of the 4G networks in urban areas, but sometimes his traces led him out of cellular reception. Josh liked to be connected to the grid at all times, any time. With most of his traces continually on the move to avoid detection or capture, he needed to be just as mobile, if not more so.
Through the red tinted Virtual Retinal Display projected from the right lens of his sunglasses onto his right eye, Josh tapped in the librarian's login code. The digital eye of the high resolution micro camera concealed within the fake cigarette saw all and forgot nothing. His right index paw tip tapped about his digital calculator watch, using it like the keypad of a cell phone to input characters. His left paw's thumb and index pads rubbed back against each other using an Embedded Input Device. He double tapped as needed, manipulating the cursor on his virtual screen.
Mobility often comes with a price. Josh had to invest in one of the prototype hydrogen power cells coupled to a silicon nano-wire Ion-Lithium battery. Using Personal Energy Generators designed into the soles of his work boots and based on principles of electromagnetic induction proposed by Faraday, Josh recaptured lost kinetic energy and recharged his electronics while walking. Since he was always on the move, that was just about every waking moment. While affording him an unparalleled sixteen hours of mobile energy life, his entire electronics setup had cost him several hundred thousand dollars.
But it had been worth it. Even Wireless Energy Transmission technology, based on some of Tesla's largely ignored patents, allowed all of Josh's low draw electronics to fit anywhere on his body, concealed in any number of pockets. Even the main cluster of CPU's didn't require any cords to transmit data or power to any of of the myriad of peripherals hidden on his person.
No Wires. No Attachments.
Through bleeding edge technology and sheer guile Josh became one of the best of his profession: Those hired to trace down delinquents who had skipped out on their financial obligations.
Skiptracers.
The usual tools of the skiptracer are readily available to the general public. Marriage licenses, death certificates, voter registration cards, paid utility bills, and old land line phone numbers leave a surprising permanent paper trail. Very rarely do skiptracers need to dabble into private bank accounts, medical histories, and other private records protected by Federal Laws.
While Josh did have limited access to those last ditch measures, he hated crossing those lines. The last time he had tangled with the US government he almost got back traced himself. Despite his coloration, Josh preferred to keep his operation snowy white. At least on the outside. After all the dead ends Josh followed up on concerning Rulio, it was the opossum's love of books that had finally snagged him up.
Josh found out that one of Rulio's old derelict library cards from 5th grade had been renewed this past last week. Too cheap to actually buy something that wasn't a status symbol, the opossum had gone to the San Mateo library and checked out a copy of Patterson's 'The Big Bad Wolf'. While Josh couldn't help but like the providential timing of the slip up, the choice of reading material made the skiptracer's stomach turn.
He hated that first person / third person switch at the novel's shaky beginning. It had been Strunk and White Heresy.
The vulpine skiptracer's brow narrowed in concentration as he delved deeper into the San Mateo county's library accounts. Sure enough, Josh matched up two library cards with the same old style sixteen digit ID number. Not only did the new library card give Rulio's new alias, but the opossum was kinda enough to list a temporary residential address. A wide smile broke out across Josh's muzzle.
"Driver, take me to Coyote Point."
"I'm sorry mi Amigo, I'm not from around here." The taxi driver admitted. "I might have to drive you around a bit to find it." The meter on the dash was already approaching three hundred dollars. Within seconds Josh brought up a GPS module in his VRD.
"It's okay, just get on the Bayshore Freeway. I'll guide you from there."
* * * * *
An hour later Josh walked through the door to StarElk Sister's coffee shop and stepped in line. As he pretended to poke about a newsstand paper for a bit, he made a discreet look around at the java chain's patronage that evening. Sure enough, an opossum sat at one of the table checkerboards, sipping some latte and reading 'The Big Bad Wolf'.
After Josh confirmed that Rulio's cabin cruiser sat anchored in the nearby harbor, he had inquired to some of dock regulars on where the reclusive reader spent his free time. The tips led him to this coffee shop, and after getting a hot tea and picking up a magazine on the local cultural scene, the skip tracer sat down on a comfy recliner near the financial fugitive. Josh flipped through his magazine, keeping the cigarette camera trained on the opossum for a few minutes. While recorded footage of the suspected trace and a matching library card would be good enough for some, his employer required more conclusive, concrete proof.
But Josh was a crafty fox, and had plenty of options rather than risk a direct encounter with the white collar criminal.
On a hunch Josh sent a spoof SMS to the phone number listed on the renewed library application. A few moments later the opossum dug into his pocket and gave a sour look to the forwarded spam on his smart phone. Josh almost caught himself laughing when he saw Rulio used a Motorola Aura. Instead the fox sunk down into his chair, brought the magazine back up, and managed to turn the choke into a throat clearing sound. Rulio seemed too annoyed to notice the digital tracer.
Josh waited a few more minutes before calling in some backup. The webcam stream of a coyote popped into view in the VRD, and the cracker wearing a MIT baseball cap looked busy multitasking between several keyboards at once. The apartment behind him looked like a fluctuating state of organized chaos.
"Look what the feed streamed in. What'cha need Fox?" The coyote never faced the cam as his paw tips danced between boards like a musician.
"I need you to Hack a Gibson." Josh mumbled into a small button microphone concealed by his long coat's lapel. The fox smirked when the coyote frowned and flew his camera the bird.
"Off by One, Fox. I suppose you want me to use the internets, which are a series of tubes filled with free floating equations."
"Something like that, Zeke. I was wondering if you could crack someone's bluetooth for me. I'll send you Five and Four Zeros for your time." Josh offered, keeping a peripheral eye on his clueless trace.
"What's the Weasel using?" The payment of five thousand dollars didn't seem to stir the coyote much. "And what protocol you running now?"
"He's got an Aura." Josh almost laughed at the way Zeke stopped in mid keystroke. "And ZigBee Twenty-Ten." The coyote made a pointed stare into his camera.
"He's still using 2.0?" The cracker rubbed his brow in disbelief. "I can spare the thirty seconds, no charge. Hell, as long as its not a Federal phone I'll do it for shits and giggles." Even though the coyote only had a voice feed, Josh bet Zeke could hear the creak of his jaw muscles with how wide he grinned. Old history.
"Come on Zeke. You still mad about that? Didn't you get the custom T-shirt I ordered for you?"
"Yeah I wipe my tail hole with it every day." They both shared a small chuckle at that. It seemed like the two were comfortable with each other. Not quite friends but more than just business acquaintances. Zeke seemed to terminate his other tasks or put them on suspend before devoting a single keyboard to the trite task at paw. "So what's your IP?"
Josh rattled it off and waited for a moment. He noticed the CPU load meters on two of his cores kicked up in the VRD, but nothing overt seemed to happen. "You need me to accept any remote queries?" He asked.
"Nah. You're already too slow. I grabbed it three seconds ago." Josh's muzzle lips pursed at Zeke's efficiency. They were both really good at what they did. "You say he was running an Aura ... ah never mind I see him."
Josh waited for a while, casually flipping through the magazine on his lap. After about thirty seconds the fox noticed his cigarette cam zoomed in on the opossum.
"That the Weasel? He looks like Lion Food."
"You know I can't discuss my traces. But hey, speaking of which, you have that custom code I asked for ready?" Josh took another sip of his green tea.
"What do you think I was working on when you called. It'll be ready by O-Three Hundred." Zeke seemed to rub his chin in Josh's red tinted view. "So what am I looking for exactly?"
"Anything that connects him to South America. Contact lists. Recent URL history. Mobile banking e-stubs." Josh watched as the coyote had the WOW! Signal moment wash across his muzzle.
"Null sweat. I'll dump it all to you. You got enough space on that SSD of yours?" Zeke asked.
"Half a Terabyte. Should be enough, you think?" Josh's grin couldn't widen any further than it already had at the smart ass comment. He got up out of his chair, dumped the rest of his tea, and threw the empty cup into the recycle bin. He thanked the coyote for the quick favor and promised to return it when needed before walking out the lobby door.
Rulio never had a clue he had been traced.
Josh was back at the airport by 8:20. He tipped his driver over three hundred dollars for waiting at all his stops and for helping him carry in his luggage; all of two suitcases. The fox paid with unmarked bundles of twenty dollar bills. It brought the taxi bill to a cool grand, but Josh didn't mind. For about four hours of physical legwork, Josh made Twenty Five.
He was on the next plane to Seattle by 8:45.
* * * * *
A light bit of turbulence jolted Josh awake, and the snoozing fox blinked about the first class cabin, which for the most part, was empty. Out of the twenty seats, only five other passengers occupied them. The clock in his red tinted view read 10:13. His flight was scheduled to land in Seattle in less than thirty minutes.
Josh took off his sunglasses for a moment and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He stretched the stiffness out of his limbs and turned on the nozzle above him for some fresh air. It didnt help his jet lag all that much, but the fox had learned to manage it through the years, catching little naps here and there. He'd usually find longer spans of sleep when waiting idle for key moments in physical legwork.
"Can I get you anything Sir?"
Josh blinked up the flight attendant standing next to him in the isle. He hadn't even noticed the raccoon until he spoke.
"Yeah ... sure." Josh had to suppress a yawn. "Something carbonated. Non-caffine."
"Right way Sir." The raccoon smiled and with a swish of his ringed tail, headed all the way to the back. It gave Josh time to reexamine the other passengers. Most looked like standard businessman or junior executives. He caught one female mongoose dressed in air force casuals shooting him a curious look every few minutes. Josh ignored her.
Without his shades on, he felt awkward. He slid them back on and the outside world became comfortably disconnected again. Josh felt relieved that he wasn't seated next to anyone. He always hated that about longer flights. Someone would inevitably start up a conversation to be polite, but in all honesty Josh felt little need to put any energy in to what one of his favorite authors called 'single serve friends'.
As if to accentuate the point the flight attendant returned and placed a short can of ginger ale and a plastic cup in the holder next to him. Everything in this on the move society seemed economy sized now; single serve coffee, a package of nuts, and more importantly, social connections. Josh gave a clipped thanks to his attendant in direct proportion to the smaller drink and the raccoon moved back to second class, never to be seen again.
Josh killed a few minutes by checking his hotel reservation in Seattle. There had been a few unfortunate incidents in the past few years with inexperienced desk clerks fumbling up his stay. Even though the fox didn't pick favorites with any particular chain, with the amount of money he tended to plunk down on any given stay, the management made sure send those incompetent lackeys packing like the single serve employees they were.
The fox lived in hotel rooms, airplanes, and cabs. Josh didn't even own or rent a home. Why would he? He'd never spend more than three consecutive days in it anyway. All that Josh owned sat in the stow aways above his head; Two small Ti 6-4 suitcases containing various disguises, toiletries, and spare hydrogen fuel cells. No books. No mementos. Nothing that wasn't absolutely required for him to do his job.
It'd only weigh him down otherwise.
The cabin loudspeaker crackled to life after a short series of dings, and the pilot announced they'd be landing in Sea-Tac within 15 minutes. Josh looked out the window to the unusually clear night sky and the familiar red light blinking atop the Space Needle in the far distance. The gray fox settled back into his buckled seat just as his large vulpine ears popped, indicating the plane's descent.
* * * * *
Lee looked up from his computer just as the Fed Ex guy approached. The snow leopard personal assistant dropped into receptionist mode as a matter of habit even before he realized the delivery guy was smoking hot.
"Welcome to Worthington Research Conglomerate. How can I help you today?" Lee offered with a little bit more cheer than the dreary afternoon drizzle falling outside the office window really deserved.
His spotted feline tail swished a bit as the Fed Ex guy smiled back. Lee loved a guy in uniform; with the tight gray shorts and thick soled work boots, the gray fox looked just plain delicious. The sunglasses and cigarette tucked behind his ear detracted only a tiny bit from the overall package, and Lee forgot his mundane busywork within moments.
"Express Delivery for Mr. Cross." The fox's grin widened, pulling out a small electronic pad. While the snow leopard scribbled a digital signature on the pad, the receptionist fought to keep eye contact.
"Mr. Cross is out of the office, but I'll make sure he gets it first thing when he gets back."
"When's that?"
"I can't say for sure. He's left for Rio Grande do Sul this morning." Lee gave a half shrug. The fox's smiled dropped.
"Damn. My boss said the shipper paid extra to get it to him by eight." The fox leaned in after tucking his pad back in one of his many pockets. His cute paws reversed themselves to steady his body against the lip of the desk. It gave Lee a magnificent peek at those slender arms and gorgeous body. The way he leaned sent a welcoming vibe in the feline's 'dar.
"It's my fault really." The delivery guy sighed. "I mixed up a delivery and got tied up on the freeway. If this isn't in Cross' paws by two o'clock, I'll get in major trouble."
"I don't know ..." The spotted feline hesitated. "I was left strict instructions ..."
"Tell me, Lee." The fox tapped some stray letterhead bearing the leopard's name with lazy paw tip. "How grumpy can Mr. Cross get?"
"Oh he's a real peach sometimes."
"I bet." The fox agreed as his smile reappeared. His fangs were white. The stark contrast of his black lips muzzle lips entranced the receptionist. His gregarious smile widened even as he scooted the slim package even closer across the desk. "Its not much. I think its a disk. Probably some research data Mr. Cross needs."
"Really?" Lee took the package and felt about the sides. He felt the square shape of a CD case safely bubble wrapped inside.
"So see? All you have to do is email the contents to him, and it would help him, you, and me out." The fox bit his lower lip in a real cute way. "And I could sweeten that deal even more ..."
Lee grinned and put a paw under his chin. He leaned forward, scooting his elbow across the desk for balance. Their noses came very close to touching. "Oh really," the feline's golden eyes lit up in a sassy way, "Hows that?"
"Me. You. Drinks sometime after six." One of the fox's paw tips came up to push down his shades. One of the jade eyes winked, and Lee's heart stopped. "What do you say?"
Lee didn't have much to say, in fact. The smooth talking fox had rendered him speechless. A spotted paw reached blindly to the jar next to him, groping about for a pen before scribbling down his name and phone number. The fox tucked it discreetly into a pocket, and Lee winked back before tearing open the package with a letter opener.
The Fed Ex guy just gave a courteous nod before walking away, his gray and black tipped tail swishing about with one last tease.
* * * * *
The moment after Josh entered and locked his room at the Sheraton, he pulled off his heavy boots with strained grunts. Once the fox stripped off his Fed Ex uniform down to his boxers, he fell back into his posh queen sized bed with a relaxed sigh. The fox pulled off his glasses and let them tumble off his paw tips to bounce on the soft mattress. Josh wiggled the toe-claws of his hind feet, rubbing them gently. Though the PEG devices helped keep him mobile, the weight they added to his already thick work soles really killed his feet.
His paws crept up his calves and thighs, rubbing out the soreness in them. The musculature there was well toned; tight from all the walking he did. Josh's slender paws felt their way up the soft fur of his stomach as his eyes closed in a soft 'mrr'. After a few minutes his paw dipped under the waistband of his boxers and he half scratched, half groped his own sheath. It felt so good after a long morning of legwork and social manipulation.
Josh almost felt bad for Lee. While the feline wasn't the type of guy Josh would normally go for, Josh found the snow leopard decently attractive. He always had a thing for the femmy guys. Maybe it wouldn't hurt for him to go to dinner with Lee after all. Josh had to wait for Lee to email the fake research results anyway.
It could take hours before Zeke's custom rootkit code might transmit any global coordinates to his employer, PenTex. Why the rival research corporation wanted GPS data on Mr. Cross' PDA was beyond him. Still, Josh needed to remain in the area to make sure the receptionist had sent the malicious script, or else he'd have to find another way to deliver the payload to his current trace. Maybe he'd go to dinner with Lee, even just to have another shot at manipulating him to re-send ...
The fox cursed aloud and pulled his paw out of his briefs. He pushed himself off the bed, pulled off his boxers, and walked into the bathroom to take a cold shower. What was he thinking? Not with his head at least. As he stepped naked into the stall and turned on the shower, he let the frigid spray of the spigots dance over his flushed flesh and fur. It felt good, dousing the molten cocktail of hormones coursing through him. He had almost violated his personal motto.
No Attachments.
After the quick rise off Josh strolled out of the bathroom with a fur dryer in tow, drying the back of his head with a white towel. He didn't bother to get dressed. Instead he flipped through the room service menu, and after finding nothing of interest, turned on the plasma TV mounted on the wall. He tuned it to CNN and propped one leg on the bed before methodically drying it, then swapping to the other one.
Once he rubbed off his wet ass, Josh sat on the bed and blow dried his tail. Afterwards he went to one of the suitcases, opened it, and pulled out a brush. While sitting back down on the bed and groomed his beautiful tail to perfection, Josh contemplated what to wear. That killed a few minutes. In the end he couldn't decide and instead just plopped back against one of the pillows.
He glanced to the side once he noticed the blinking light on the inside of his sunglasses. Josh pulled them on and realized he'd missed a video call from Zeke. He grabbed the button mike from his long coat then waited patiently for his satellite connection to put his digital call through. There was a momentary stutter as another LEO satellite picked up the lagging data stream, then Zeke's cam popped into the VRD. Josh also noticed Pentax's GPS trace streamed positional coordinates as well.
"Hey, Fox. Glad I caught you." Zeke looked concerned for some reason, absorbed in another online conversation at the same time.
"The code works great. Thanks, you can expect 10% of the finder's fee once my employer wires it to me." Josh relaxed back into his pillow, not concerned that he was still butt naked. It wasn't like the coyote could see the rest of him. Unless ... where did he put his cigarette cam again?
"Nah, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. You're still in Seattle right?" Zeke asked, turning to his camera now. The expression on his muzzle looked a bit distraught.
"Yeah, probably for a few more hours at least. I haven't picked my flight out to Boston yet." Josh played with one of his ears some, half paying attention to the news feed on the plasma screen out of motionless boredom.
"Good. I was wondering if I can call in that favor you owe me."
"That didn't take long." The fox gave a small laugh. "What ya need?"
"Well, its not me. It's a ... friend of mine." Zeke seemed hesitate. It didn't inspire a lot of confidence in the fox. "He happens to live in Seattle, and I think he could really use you."
"This ... friend ... is he in trouble with the law?"
"No no ... nothing like that. I can arrange a get together, lunch at one or something."
"Sure." Josh agreed, "As long as it doesn't get too involved." Zeke wanted to say something, but instead the coyote just smirked. The fox received the address and name of the friend across the secure connections a few moments later. Half an hour later Josh got dressed in his usual outfit and made his way down to the lobby to meet his cab.
* * * * *
"So Alex ..." Josh began, turning sideways in his chair and glancing about the upscale Asian restaurant. He found it hard to pay attention to the sob story Zeke's 'friend' gave him.
"It's ... Alexia." The timid white wolf in the seat across from him corrected, still wiping his blue eyes. They looked red and raw from crying. Josh hated that. He never knew what to say, even though he had been in this same situation a thousand times already. None of the other single serve patrons in the half empty restaurant seemed to notice, or care.
"Right ... Alexia, why don't you start again, this time from the beginning."
Josh gave an inward cringe the moment he suggested it. It was always the same story. They differed only in the minor details. He turned back to the feminine looking wolf with a blue streak in his bangs, glad that his sunglasses hid the look of irritated indifference in his eyes.
While the wolf's build might be construed as large and rugged, the subtle way Alex had worked his claws and hair suggested a slightly feminine touch. Alex's nose seemed wider than other canids. The wolf's lips were thick and alluring, the voice that accompanied them a rich alto. His soft blue eyes looked empathic and inviting at the same time.
Alex's dressed much the same way, with loose fitting sweats, hoodies, and no flashy accessories. He exhibited enough middle ground androgyny that anyone might mistake the wolf for a tomboy if they didn't know any better. While Josh liked a bit of androgyny, the way the wolf blubbered and beat around the bush irritated him.
"Well, Mike and I have been seeing each other for over four years. Maybe we moved to fast." Alex looked down to the untouched cup of tea before him. His blue painted claws played with the rim as he went on. "He moved in with me after six months together. Do you think that was too soon?" Alex looked to the fox for some time of affirmation, but Josh's paw continued to tap at the table cloth.
"When did you first notice that things were going downhill?" Josh asked in flat monotone, moving the conversation along. He tried to suppress a roll of his eyes when it looked like the wolf's blue eyes started to tear up again.
"He started coming home late." The wolf's lower lip quivered, his body racked with recent grief. "Soon after that I noticed the scent of perfume on his coat collars.
"Another female's?" Josh asked out of instinct. When Alex's puffy eyes gave him a questioning look, the fox corrected himself. "I mean, a female's?"
"I ... think so." Alex stammered out. "But I don't know for certain. All I know is just one day ... poof. He's gone. No note. No explanation. Nothing ..."
"I see ..." Josh's paw tapped slower this time. The fox looked around the restaurant again. Most of the lunch rush had come and gone. Most of the background noise came from the waiters helping to clear the empty tables. The clinks of glassware and porcelain mingled with the hushed conversations of the few patrons still left.
"I ... just ... want to know ... why?" Alex's head bowed some, just as a few more tears gathered at the corners of the wolf's closed eyes. The tears fattened, then dropped to the tablecloth with silent spats, staining the red cloth. Josh wasn't the sappy type, but the way her ... his chest hitched, the raw grief the wolf expressed, tugged at the few heart strings the fox had left. For a moment, Josh imagined some blue mascara running down those fluffy white cheeks, and couldn't take anymore.
"Look," Josh sighed, taking off his glasses and laying then down on the tablecloth. He stared right at the sobbing wolf. "I'm going to be frank with you."
The commanding tone in the fox's voice, the almost authoritative look of his PI attire froze the wolf. It stilled his tears for the moment. Alex locked eyes with Josh, hypnotized by his smooth, yet firm words.
"I know this must be hard for you, but I know just how to handle this." The fox said. "I think its best if we go back to your place first." The wolf blinked some.
"You do?" Alex looked unsure, somewhat flustered at the suggestion. Josh just nodded and got up, putting his gray long coat and glasses back on. The wolf hesitated for a second, then did the same. He didn't want to question the fox, after all, Zeke said Mr. Fox was the very best.
* * * * *
Alex's apartment door opened with a soft 'click' and the wolf ushered in the non-nonchalant, discrete looking fox. While Alex closed and locked the door, Josh immediately took to sorting through the untouched mail on the stand in the narrow hallway. The white wolf turned a bit and stood there in disbelief as the shorter gray fox opened up some of the mail.
"So, Mike's mail still shows up here?" Josh peeked through the various bits in his paws. This might be easier than he realized. If the estranged boyfriend had yet to fill out a forwarding address form ...
"Yeah. That's what bothers me. I don't know if he's missing or if he's going to show up one day and pretend this never happened ..."
The wolf let out a quivering sigh, folding his arms across his chest as if holding himself. Josh didn't reply to that, and instead let his cigarette cam take snapshots of the pertinent info for later reference. The fox dropped them back on the stand and walked down the hallway, tucking his paws in the deep pockets of his long coat. His thick soled boots clomped on the wooden flooring, leaving damp smudges behind. Alex looked a little distraught at the mess but decided it could wait.
Josh stepped into the living room, looking about for a few moments before picking up a picture frame from a desk with Mike and Alex cuddling together. He stared down to the picture, ignoring the cozy couches and Far Eastern decor sprinkled about the room.
"This the guy?" Josh tapped on one side of the picture. Alex nodded, looking away. The sight of the other wolf, black, seemed hard on Alex. Josh sat the frame back down after snapping a picture. He opened the desk's drawers before rummaging through them, pulling out a little black book. "Yours? When Alex shook his head Josh paged through it, snapping shots of the addresses and phone numbers contained within.
"If you don't mind me asking, what are you looking for?" Alex squeezed himself tighter, not sure how he felt about a relative stranger prying though his apartment.
"I want to know who this Mike knows. It might come in handy later." Josh tossed the address book back in the door and closed it with with an unceremonious 'clunk'. Josh turned, his tail dragging on the floor some.
"So, which way to your bedroom?"
"I beg your pardon?" Alex's blue eyes widened.
"Look, don't you want me to help you?" Josh's muzzle lips tightened, his tail swished with mind annoyance. The sooner he found Mike the sooner he could get back to his other clients.
"You are willing to do this, for me?" The wolf bit his lower lip. His heart thundered, the pads of his paws sweaty now. "This is just happening so fast."
"Look sweetheart," Josh began, hesitated, then decided to go with it. "I do this every day. You coming or what?"
Alex took in a deep breath and stilled his nerves, before showing the bold fox his bedroom. As the white paw parted the bamboo reed curtain, Josh whistled at the richly Asian decorated room's feng shui.
"Nice place." Josh admired while stepping past the break in the curtain. He nodded to the small bubbling stone fountain at one corner of the room just as the larger wolf stepped up behind him. Everything, including the paper lanterns dotted about seemed to fit nicely with the rest of the apartment's subtle decor in both color and form.
"Thanks." Alex blushed.
Josh took a moment to walk about the room, touching the small stacks of pumice and the other interesting decorations scattered about. After a few minutes he opened the closet, feeling up the various dresses and bras inside with surprised curiosity. The fox's mood changed from strict facts only to intimately inquisitive without Josh even realizing it.
"You cross dress?"
"Sometimes." Alex admitted bashfully. "Mostly for fund raising. Sometimes just for fun. Other times just for ..." When the timid wolf hesitated, Josh followed up.
"For pleasure?" Josh couldn't examine the various fabrics in detail with his dark shades on, so he took them off and tucked them away. His paw continued to linger and play with the silky material. There was an uncomfortable silence as Josh continued to stand there, fascinated.
"Would you ... like me to put something on?" The wolf ran a paw up the other arm, nervous. Josh shook his head, after giving the wolf a questioning look.
"I don't think that's going to help right now, but thanks for offering."
The roguish look in Josh's green eyes tempered the sharp edge of rejection, and Alex's fur prickled. The wolf couldn't deny that the playful exchanges only added to the alluring bit of mystique he felt forming between them. There was a few moments of silence between the two as the skiptracer poked through the most intimate details of Alex's life. After a while Alex decided to poke back in return. It was only fair.
"Do you like guys in drag, Mr. Fox?" Alex couldn't help but be a bit curious, his bushy while tail flagging a bit.
"Yeah. I guess I do." Josh smiled before closing the closet doors. He poked some more around the bedroom, and Alex continued to watch him, wondering where the vulpine was taking this.
"Do you mind if I ask you a personal question Mr. Fox?"
"No, Alex ... ia." Josh smirked at all the knotty sex toys he found in a dresser drawer. His curious paws played around with the various silicon shapes. A small sliver of arousal still lingering from either that morning crept back into Josh. Now that Alex had stopped crying, Josh started to admire how attractive the wolf really was. For a second he wondered what it would be like to watch Alex take one of these toys. "And if you want, you can call me Josh."
"Well, Josh, you don't have to answer if this is too personal, but ... do you ..?"
"Do I ...?" The fox looked over to the white wolf after closing the drawer.
"Like guys or girls?" One of Alex's hind paws seemed to paw about the floor with cute bashfulness. Josh's grin widened. Normally he wouldn't allow a client to ask such personal questions, but for some reason Josh welcomed Alex's curiosity.
"I consider myself a free agent." The vulpine remarked cryptically, staring dead on into those blue eyes.
Josh felt strange making direct eye contact with Alex, but not uncomfortably so. This was the most he had talked to someone without his shades on in quite a few years. After a long moment, Josh gave a series of satisfied nods to the apartment and dug out a small piece of paper and a pen from one of his pockets. The fox handed them to the confused wolf.
"What's this for?"
"Can I get your number?" Before he could explain, Josh realized one side contained the snow leopard's cell number. "Ignore the other number. That was from earlier this morning."
"I see." Alex nodded slowly before flipping the paper over to the unused side and doing what the confident fox asked. "Do you ... have a lot of clients then?"
"At least two a day, sometimes three depending on how efficient I am."
Josh seemed cool about the matter, and Alex's breath shortened. He stepped closer to the fox after Josh tucked away the bit of paper. The fox sensed an odd tension in the air. What it was he couldn't exactly put his paw tip on, but with his own pent up needs and loneliness from earlier still lingering, it seemed to ease his own inner frustration somehow.
"Will you ... take your time on this?" Alex's breath felt hot, like the rest of his body. It was now or never. Sink or Swim.
"I'll take as much time as I need. I won't leave you hanging. I promise." Josh winked as a matter of habit, paws tucked into his deep long coat's pocket. The fox was so used to manipulating others that he did it without realizing it. Or realizing that others might have the wrong idea about what he said.
"Good. That's what I needed to hear." Alex exhaled, needing someone to be with him. Even if just for the moment.
Alex went for broke.
Without warning he stepped up next to Josh and cupped the back of the vulpine's skull with his large white lupine paws. The wolf leaned down, his black muzzle lips pressing against the fox's own. Alex's breath was warm and smelled fresh. His soft, thick lips tasted of green tea. Josh's favorite.
With his paws in his pockets, Josh wasn't prepared for the sudden move. His green eyes widened in surprise, the black tips of his cute vulpine ears flopping limp. While unexpected, Josh couldn't deny that the hot, full lips pressed against his own felt so good. The intimate contact made his eyes close on instinct.
They stood there for a few minutes, muzzles pressed against each other, their lips moving and scraping against each other in subtle ways. Josh's paws found their way out of his coat to slide around Alex's waist. They pulled the taller wolf in closer without realizing it. It seemed like minutes had passed before Alex broke the kiss first, each licking their lips to taste each other as they parted.
"Well, that was unexpected." Josh grinned, his vulpine tail twirled about. His paws roamed up Alex's back some, feeling its shape. He didn't know where that had come from, but the tightness in his lungs and other unmentionable locations didn't object too much.
"You didn't like it?" The look in Alex's blue eyes turned unsure. They trembled with fear of another rejection.
"I'll tell you what I didn't like." Josh's green eyes narrowed with a feral, lusty gleam. "That you stopped."
The fox pulled the wolf back in closer this time, his slimmer muzzle turning up to meet those thick lips again head on. Alex exhaled some, his parted muzzle blowing past Josh's burning lips. Their hot breaths mingled.
"Hmm." Murmured the wolf through the second kiss, his large paws sliding up the back of the fox's head to feel about those cute black tipped ears. It make Josh's head swim. Both their thoughts clouded over with the flushed haze of arousal. Their paws started to roam now: Alex's to the base of Josh's neck. A set of vulpine paws dropped from the wolf's back to cup that sexy lupine ass.
They both forgot what they had come here for, but neither seemed too upset about it. Lost in the heat of the moment, they continued to make out for a while, their paws squeezing each other with firmer and firmer gropes. Their canid tongues slipped between their interlocked lips, dancing and sliding against each other. It was the wolf who broke the contact again, Alex's breath short and heavy. His blue eyes held a questioning, anxious look.
"Would you ... like me to put something on?" The question was vague, but it only took a second for the fox to guess what the wolf implied. Josh found it hard to catch his own breath. The molten heat from earlier this morning rolled through him again. Instead of melting, the fox found a stiff response in his boxers instead.
"On second thought, Ive changed my mind." Josh answered, his breathing uneven. "I think that would help right now."
Alex's thick muzzle lips curled with a provocative smile. A large white paw gently pushed Josh toward and through the beaded curtain. Josh's paw slid down the white fur of Alex's arm and had a hard time letting go of. The wolf giggled at the hesitation and put his head through the curtain.
"Dont worry," Alex whispered, "It wont take long. I wont leave you hanging. I promise." One of the wolf's blue eyes winked, and for the first time, Josh realized what it was like to be on the receiving end of one of those. The white muzzle slid back through the beads and disappeared.
It took a while for the vulpine to realize he had been standing there for a minute with a slack look of dumb arousal on his muzzle. The hardness in his boxers tingled, and he gave an absent rub before adjusting his trapped erection. Josh grunted as his gray and black paws dipped down past his waistband and pulled the engorged flesh sticking down a pant leg into a more comfortable position.
Josh looked about the living room, feeling awkward and out of place. He sat down on the sofa and tried getting comfortable, his paw tips drumming on the well used upholstery. When that didn't calm his hormonal jitters, he got back up and paced. The room seemed hot and stuffy all the sudden, so he pealed off his coat and threw it across the back of the chair. He didn't know how long had been waiting. The last time he took off his glasses, the clock inside had read 4:18.
He walked into the kitchen and read the green digital numbers on the microwave: 4:28. Had it only been ten minutes?
Josh leaned his back up against the refrigerator to think. Several magnets pinning pictures of Alex and Mike to the humming appliance dug into his back. The tent in the front of his slacks went down, and with blood returning to the other head, he started worrying. Why was he here? What was he doing? He'd never gotten involved with a potential client before.
"Josh ..." Alex called from his bedroom in an inviting drawn out way "... you can come in now ..."
The fox swallowed, felt the uneasy cocktail of need and nervousness slosh about his tight stomach. He walked down the hallway, his boots making a loud clomp with each step. They sounded crude somehow. When Josh reached the beaded curtain, he steadied his nerves and took a deep breath, before parting it and stepping through.
The sight inside banished all of the fox's doubts with a small gasp.
Alex lay on his black bed in a provocative, yet relaxed pose. The wolf wore a loose white blouse and tight black skirt. For a moment Josh wondered if Alex had snuck into Deloris' closet and made off with the very best of repressed temptress fashion. Several large body pillows supported his upper back, allowing the wolf to lay back with one underarm tucked behind his head. Alex had one of his legs pulled up and bent at the knee. He used that hind foot to rub the other shin in slow, alluring strokes.
A sapphire necklace dangled down from his neck to lay between the cleft of his fake cleavage. Josh didnt know what prosthetics Alex used for breasts, but from here, the supple mounds of his 'C' cups completed the perfect feminine illusion. Just as the fox imagined, Alex had applied blue mascara to emphasize his beautiful blue eyes. A naughty smile, formed by blue muzzle lips, curled at the corners of the wolf's lips. It was a rush job, but in a way, it helped spur the moment.
Josh drew in a deep breath, his heart thundering at the sight.
"You like?" Alex asked, his eyelids low, the look in them seducing. Josh nodded quickly, the muscles in his neck jumping.
"I like ..." Josh whispered. His breath came out short and uneven.
The fox took a few plodding steps to the edge of the wolf's bed, almost forgetting to sit on it. Alex waited patiently, allowing Josh to take his time and savor the moment. The wolf felt a small spot of wetness spread in the crotch of his black lacy panties, and his hips shifted with the slutty feeling.
Josh's paw crept across the covers to feel about Alex's free one laying at his side. The fox played with the blue claws some before his paw tips slid up the wolf's forearm. Alex's fur was smooth and soft, the undercoat even more so. Past the shoulder the vulpine paw stopped for a moment, Josh's green eyes asking for permissions that his dry muzzle lips could not. The white wolf nodded, and the fox's curious paw slid over Alex's bosom before squeezing the pliable mounds.
Josh couldn't tell what filled Alex's lacy black bra, barely seen under the loose blouse, but it felt like silicon. The fox returned the wolf's haughty smile in earnest. A soft murr of satisfaction escaped the wolf's blue muzzle lips moments before the fox leaned in and kissed the reclining lupine. Their hot lips touched with delicate hesitation, each savoring the erotic moment, before Alex's free paw roamed up and down Josh's back. After a while Josh laid down next to Alex, finding a more comfortable position.
They laid there for some time, making out with the gentle burble of the fountain in the background. Josh braved a soft grind into the skirt and his own tented arousal made contact with a secret hardness. Alex moaned into Josh's lips and his lupine paw clutched the tight vulpine ass, its connected bushy tail shuddering against the sheets. Without warning the fox sat up, leaving the wolf to blink up at him in confusion.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked, the unsure look returning to his blue eyes.
"Nothing." Josh answered before skirting a playful paw down the wolf's chest. "I just want to take our time." His paw slipped down past Alex's waistline, its paw tips skirting the subtle outline of the wolf's rigid sex. "Is that okay?"
Alex whined, his large white ears folding at the teasing touches. "Yessss ...."
Josh's paw didn't linger long, instead opting to trace a index claw down the wolf's skirted thigh. The wolf shuddered at the sensual feeling, his blue muzzle lips parting with a series of hot pants. The claw hooked the edge of the skirt before pulling it up, allowing the fox a naughty peak inside.
The fox's blood boiled at the sight of exposing the wolf's thighs one salacious inch at a time. His heart stopped when he struck gold; the bulge of an aroused lupine sheath contained by black silk and lace. Josh wanted nothing more than to pull down those panties and slip his muzzle over that leaking tapered length.
But no. He refused to be the weak glutton; spoiling the excitement and thrill of first time passion.
Instead Josh's other paw run up the wolf's exposed thighs before cupping the hot bulge. Alex whined again, his blue hind claws curling as the fox's paw gave a gentle squeeze. Josh moved his paw up and down the silky undergarment, his paw tips feeling the outline of the wolf's sheath and balls. They paused to play with the shape of a tapered tip and the splotch of wetness soaked into the material there. Alex squirmed some more, only driving the fox's inquisitive molestations further.
When Josh could take no more his paw pulled on the back of Alex's panties, slowly sliding them down and up past his tail and white ass. His undressing halted just under the wolf's sacs, exposing the wolf's black pucker and perineum only. Josh pushed Alex's legs up, letting the skirt hike up and exposing the wolf's ass even more. The wolf's chest heaved with excitement, his paws pulling back the hem of the skirt. Alex looked down at the hard outline his wet length made in the silky undergarment and panted hard. It was so hot.
The fox scooted around to the foot of the bed and leaned down to put his muzzle on the wolf's bared pucked. Alex groaned at the unexpected sensation of Josh's hot muzzle lips and tongue lapping at his entrance. His hind feet gave little kicks at the air as his balls tightened. It felt so good.
Josh remained down there for several minutes, tasting and slowly licking up and down Alex's exposed perineum. His claws dug into the fleshy part of Alex's thighs to steady his shaking paws, illicting sharp barks of delight from the white wolf. It took all of Josh's will to pull his muzzle off the wolf's tailhole and get up off the bed.
"Wait ... where are you going?" Alex panted, paws still holding his thighs up and apart on the hopes that Josh's skilled and exploring tongue would return to slip into his rear.
"Not far."
Josh made an awkward stumble to the dresser, his hind foot getting tangled in Alex hastily discarded attire. His fumbling paws opened a drawer and felt about the toys again before picking out a mid sized black silicone one with a 2" knot at the base. After realizing what Josh was going for Alex twisted about in bed and reached out to the nightstand. Before Josh returned to the foot of the bed, Alex had pulled out a small tube of lube from one of the nightstand drawers.
"You might need that." Alex licked his blue muzzle lips, the mounds of his chest sagging up and down with labored breath.
"Really now?" Josh stuck his long vulpine tongue out at the wolf. "Legs up."
Alex couldn't obey fast enough. He hooked his paws around the back of his knees and lifted, dragging his thighs apart to give the fox better access to his eager hole. With a flick of a thumb claw Josh opened the tube's top and slowly smeared some on the tip of his other index pad. He applied some to Alex's pucker and the wolf gasped at the squishy feeling. Josh applied more but this time pushed the paw pad inside Alex, sinking in to the first knuckle with only slight resistance. The wolf whimpered as the fox rubbed his prostate in small, tight circles.
"You like?" Josh asked, teasing.
"I li ... ke." Alex stammered out through the convulsions of intense pleasure his body made.
His long eyelashes fluttered at the feeling of having a smaller fox milk him like this, dressed up like a fancy whore and with his legs parted up in the air. He felt the sudden hot gush in the crotch of his panties each time Josh rubbed him deep inside. Alex's ears folded as his pelvis clenched. His prostate tightened. If Josh didnt stop he'd cream his expensive lacy underwear.
Then again, maybe thats what the devious vulpine wanted.
With his blue eyes closed and his body racked with desperate need of release, Alex couldn't see Josh deftly squeeze out some lube onto the black knotted toy with his free paw. The fox had the canid shaped silicon replica all smeared and ready to go before he even pulled his paw tip out of the gasping, squirming wolf.
Alex's eye's opened in surprise to the squishy feeling of the silicon tapered tip slipping back and forth against his bare pucker as Josh positioned it. The wolf's black rosebud parted as the canid tip found its mark, sliding in just past the flared head. Alex let out a half bark half moan as Josh gave a few shallow thrusts with the slick canid phallus, his crafty paws rotating the rounded base. The sensations it created inside the snowy white lupine made Alex's torso thrash about, his pink tongue panting out of partially parted muzzle lips. The pleasure of the rotating length inside him, with its unique curves and swells, made it hard for Alex to keep his hind legs bent and spread.
And Josh hadn't even got the knot in yet.
Instead the fox took his torturous time playing with the wolf. He'd shove the toy in deep, let the orb of the fake knot mash into Alex's eager hole, then slowly ease back out. Josh loved watching Alex's tail hole stretch, edges of the wolf's sphincter opening wide. Alex's ass looked like a snake devouring an egg, gaping wide, its lips straining around the orb's rounded curves to help pull the knot into its hungry maw.
"Josh ... please ..." Alex whined, a small amount of pre leaking out of his black panties now. The fox smirked.
"I said I'd take as much time as I needed." Josh couldnt hide the dark wet stain forming at the peak of his slack's own tent, but he'd take care of that soon enough.
With one paw gently guiding the toy's base, Josh slid his other paw up to cup the wolf's sacs, still contained and hidden behind feminine lace. Alex threw his head back at the touch, arched his back even as his ankles spread wider. The fox loved a subby wolf. Josh rotated his paw holding the toy and let the leverage of his whole arm drive the knot farther this time, but with lurid slowness. He let Alex's hole stretch around the knot's middle; the point of no return.
Alex's eye's sealed shut from the sensation and slight pain, his blue muzzle lips scrunched. The smirking fox kept it right there, backing off even as the wolf tried to bear down and suck the knot into his tight femmy lupine ass. Josh's free paw moved up from Alex's balls and stroked the moist outline pressed up tight inside the panties. The fox squeezed the wolf's knot, jerking the fleshy orb back and forth even as he kept the toy's own knot from slipping inside the bucking wolf.
"Josh ... " Alex panted out in with short, desperate whines. "Gods yes ... knot me ... NOW!"
Josh's haughty smile ceased, his brow creasing as he shoved the silicon knot deep inside Alex's ass. It swallowed it whole with a loud slurp. Alex's back arched, bearing down in the oval orb. It only made the slippery mass rub and massage his swelling prostate past the point of no return. The wolf's fangs clenched, his body locking up from the fits of intense pleasure clenching deep inside him. The fox's ear's perked at the wolf's desperate grunts and small howls clawing their way out of the wolf's throat. Josh's bushy gray and black tip tail swished as he felt Alex's own knot swell. He beat off the swelling flesh faster, making the wolf yip in clipped ecstasy.
"Hmmm yeah ... cum for me babe." Josh panted out, thrusting the slick knot in and out of the wolf's slutty hole.
Alex tensed one final time before his black panties overflowed on either side with creamy white wolf spunk.
Josh moaned at the sight, watching gush after gush spill out of the femmy lace, till his whole paw became soaked with spooge. He slowed down the toys thrusts and let Alex ride out the ebbs of his climax, the wolf's sapphire blue eyes glazed over now. Alex sank back into the body pillows behind him even as cum continued to run down his inner thighs and furry ass cheeks to pool at the base of his white tail.
After a few minutes Josh eased the knot out of Alex with another soft slurp. The wolf giggled and pulled the fox down close next to him. Josh couldn't help but nose the wolf's sweaty brow and lick the salty wetness from the top of Alex's forehead. It tasted so good.
"Hmmm ..." Alex murred at the intimate gesture before sneaking a paw in to rub the tent in Josh's slacks. "Now ... what can I do for you little foxy ..."
"Little?" Josh nipped at one of those large white lupine before spreading his own legs for easier access. He moaned softly at the pads kneading and feeling up his aching need. "Oh ... we'll see about that ..." They shared a deep kiss for a while, Josh grinding against that warm and well experienced paw. Josh pulled his hot lips away with much regret before smiling deep into those beautiful blue sapphires.
"You have a condom?" The fox grinned. The wolf blinked away the haze clouding his eyes.
"Um ... don't you have one? Mike and I are ... well ... were ... monogamous." Alex licked his blue lips nervously, looking around the bedroom. With the heat of the moment lost, his insecurities came back worse than before.
"No. Why would I?" The look in Josh's eyes turned from saucy to defensive.
"I thought that ... since you had a lot of clients ... you did say you did this every day ..." Alex fumbled, backpedaling. Things had gone from sexy to awkward in less than five seconds. Ironic then, that the source of their discomfort would be single serve protection by design.
Josh froze, his gut and spine feeling like ice.
"I most certainly do not do this every day, especially with my clients!" The fox snapped back without realizing it, catching the wolf completely off guard.
"Then ... why are you here?"
"To track down your boyfriend. That's what Zeke asked me to do ..."
"Oh." Alex blinked, looking away.
"Why did you think I was here for?" The tent in Josh's boxers disappeared now, leaving only an uncomfortable cold spot of wetness in them.
"I ... asked Zeke for some company." The jitter in Alex's sigh returned again. "He probably felt wrong coming himself, considering." There was a slight pause, and Josh then prodded Alex on.
"Considering what?" Josh rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. This is why he always avoided attachments; the once fluttery excitement in his stomach had turned into nauseating regret.
"Well," Alex sighed, crossing his arms across his fake boobs, "I asked him out to Prom back in high school. We were going to make out, but I chickened out. Afterwards I realized Zeke didn't know I was a guy, I felt so bad for him." Josh listened in, more curious about his business's associate than getting more stuck in this situation.
Before Josh started doing business with the coyote, he did the usual background check. The cracker had covered the tracks of his exploits fairly well. The same could not be said of his family, however. Josh had found out that Zeke's Uncle Kelvin had been involved with the Baltimore Mafia before a bizarre suicide. Alex continued.
"One day a few years ago Zeke called here out of the blue, and wound up talking to Mike some. Later I found out he had met a dancer by the stage name of Eden."
"So?"
"Well," Alex answered bashfully, "Eden's real name was Jason. I guess Zeke has always had a thing for guys in skirts."
There was a long drag of silence. After a while Alex licked his muzzle lips, the blue lipstick on them feeling cheap and greasy.
"Are you okay?" The wolf asked. The fox didn't bother answering him, and instead pawed around his body for a pair of sunglasses while staring up at the ceiling. When he remember his coat was out in the living room, the Josh out of bed and walked calmly through the beaded curtain. Alex got up and followed, calling after him. "Josh?"
By the time Alex had pushed through the curtain Josh had already swung his long coat around his shoulders and through the arm holes. The once soft look in the fox's eyes had turned into hard emeralds.
"Are you mad?" Alex asked, leaning against the door frame.
"No, not at all. I think I just misunderstood what you needed ..." On the surface, the voice was even and calm. Disconnected.
"You did give me what I needed ... " Alex closed his blue eyes, trying to keep them from misting up.
"Maybe." The fox reached into the pocket containing his glasses before digging them out. "But I think you also need to understand why Mike left you."
"And why did he?" Alex opened his eyes, braving a quick peek at Josh. He seemed so non-nonchalant again. Alex had no idea that Josh was scared to death right now. The fox's heart thundered, and he found it hard to keep a sweaty grip on his glasses as he slid them on his face and muzzle.
"Because." The stolid skiptracer answered with deadpan sincerity. "Guys are jerks. It's nothing to do with you."
"I know." The wolf bit his lip, fighting back tears. "Deep down I know. But ... I still had a good time."
Alex and Josh stared at each other for a few moments, then the fox left without saying goodbye. He took a cab back to his hotel room to pack all his worldly belongs, again, all of two suitcases, and was on the next plane to Boston within the hour. Back on the move. Back on the trail of some trace.
There was one thing that always eluded him though. A genuine connection. Non-single serve.
* * * * *
At 6:23 the next morning Josh blinked up to the bright sky after stepping out of the dark cavernous depths of Logan Airport. Even behind his UV filtered lenses, the unclouded East Coast sun dazzled his jet lagged nerves. Because of his rush to leave the West Coast, the lay over in O'Hare had been horrid.
As single serve cabbie's helped others brushing past him to stow away their luggage, Josh couldn't help but feel no real sense of purpose in the blinking GPS marker on his current trace. He took off his glasses, put his paws in his long coat, and with eyes closed, let the hot sun beat down on his tired muzzle. The salt in the air seemed to energize him some, but not in the way he expected it to.
He thought of Seattle.
Josh's eyes opened in surprise when his paws closed around a forgotten slip of paper. He took out the unexpected find and unfolded it before his bare green eyes. His tail twitched when he realized it was Alex's number. The skiptracer's paw dropped back to his side, tightening. It threatened to crumble up the piece of paper when it curiously stopped.
Josh looked down at the crumpled ball of paper in his paw and for the first time, questioned his life.
No Attachments.
After mulling it over for a while, the annoyed jostle of others pushing past him the furthest thing in his mind, he brought up the phone directory in his VRD. Josh dialed the crumpled number, and had to wait for another LEO satellite to pick up the lagging transmission. His heart thundered alongside the stuttering data stream.
It was the longest wait of his life.
~ Fin ~
Its 12:32 right now. But I cant sleep. Last time I looked at this clock it was 12:41. I went to work somewhere in between. AM or PM. Im not quite sure, You wake up at Logan. You wake up at O'Hare. You wake up at Sea-Tac. Again.
If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I be a different person?
Many thanks to the following for their early critiques:
Sanada-Mutt - *Tentacle*
Tank-Dog - Turkey and Lingerie.
Koshne - Hey, at least I didn't put in Lyrics, right?