Isolation Play (Dev and Lee) (6 page)

And the way the other guys on the team think about it. So I tell Lee, “Fish really helped me get the team on my side.”

“
Mm.” He just nods and then turns his long, slender muzzle, ears cupped in my direction. “What’d he do?”

“
Oh, Aston said something to me about ‘that was very brave,’ and everyone was starting to get all serious, like it’s an after-school special and I’m the kid who learns the special lesson. All quiet and stuff. But when I came out of Coach’s office, Fisher said, ‘Dev, we got a question for you. Who’s hotter, me or Gerrard?’”

He snorts at that, but grins. “I hope you said Gerrard. He is one hot coyote.”

I kind of glare at him. “Well, they’re all looking at me, but Fisher’s grinning and even Gerrard, rolling his eyes, looks like he thinks it’s funny. I still got this nervous feeling, like how do I answer this? Do I tell ’em that just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I think about fucking them?”

“
I thought you told ’em that.”

“
These are football players. We’re not fast learners.”

He leans his muzzle into his paw. “So?”

“
I said, ‘Neither of you. I’d take Charm any day. First off, he’s got a way better bod, and secondly, he’s a kicker. He’s used to gettin’ it between the uprights.’”

That gets a nice laugh out of him. “They liked that?”

I can’t suppress a self-satisfied grin. “It’s an old kicker joke. Charm whacked me on the back so hard I thought my teeth came loose. Then the guys started arguing about whether a good pair of tits was more important than a nice ass and tail. And oh god, Gerrard would not say anything, and they actually started poking at him more than me for a bit, before he left, and he just kept saying, “I’m married.” And then Brick said something about his wife being nothing like the girls he gets on the road, and Gerrard just grinned and said, “it’s all the same in the dark.””

“
Really?”

I nod. “It was great. Aston says, all serious like he’s really not sure about this, ‘Is that right, Dev?’ And I say, ‘Fuck, no.’”

He shakes his head. “I mean about Gerrard getting girls on the road.”

“
Oh. Yeah, I thought I told you about that. There’s always girls outside road games.”

“
You told me that, but...” He looks straight ahead at the road, watching as I make a turn onto the main street leading back to downtown Chevali. “I didn’t think it was the married guys.”

He sounds annoyed, but I’m not sure why. “Depends. I saw Gerrard go off with this lioness once, but I don’t pay much attention to that. The guys talk about getting their dicks sucked...” It occurs to me why he might be upset. “Hey, I never...I mean, I barely noticed the girls.”

“
I didn’t think you did.”

He says it calmly enough that I can tell that that’s not what he’s angry or worried about. So I figure it’s one of those things I can’t help, and I leave it. “You want coffee or anything? I don’t really have anything in the apartment.”

“
Sure. Just not—”

“
I know, I know.” I point up ahead. “There’s a Coffee Bean. Caroll turned me on to them.”

He grins. “That’ll do.”

They know me there, so when the fennec behind the counter sees me, there’s five or ten minutes of questions about the press conference and if people are being nice to me. The lemur working the espresso machine, with ears and nose full of piercings, gives me a big grin and says the drinks are on the house. When I say that Lee’s with me, the lemur says, “Ah, now we know she’s just a friend, hey?” and I grin and nod. They don’t charge me for Lee’s vanilla latte, or my sweet tea, but I tip them a twenty.

“
Apricot tea?” Lee murmurs on our way out, the staff calling good-byes to my wave.

“
I’m in the mood for something sweet.” That gets an arched eyebrow and a discreet flick of the tail that he knows I see.

Hot drinks in paw, we get back to the apartment and curl up on the couch again, sipping the drinks, flipping channels and not really seeing anything. Whatever was bothering him is out of his mind now; he’s perky and chatty, and his paws are nice and active. Neither of us feels much urgency, though his flight is as early as my practice, and I’ll have to drop him off at the airport on the way there. It’s our night.

Even though nothing between us has changed, I feel like he sees me differently. Maybe that’s just me—I feel different,too. The press conference today made my commitment to him stronger—or, rather, it showed him how strong it was. I think he always felt in the back of his mind that as long as my secret wasn’t public, I could walk away from him. The funny thing is, I didn’t introduce him as my boyfriend, so I still could walk away just as easily. But somehow, we both know that doesn’t matter.

“
Do you want me to tell people about you?” I ask him.

We’re still on the couch, though probably about half an hour from bed. My shirt’s off, his dress is undone at the top, and we’re moving our paws through each other’s fur. “About me specifically?” His black ears flick toward me. “Or just about your boyfriend?”

“
I told people I’m seeing someone. They’re going to ask.”

“
They did ask.”

I trace claws through his stomach fur. “Morty?”

He’s quiet, rubbing my chest, his eyes drifting thoughtfully away. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

“
He can’t fire you.” He doesn’t answer. “Can he?”

Lee shrugs, resting his head on my shoulder. “Don’t want to think about it now. I’ll keep you posted.”

I kiss his ear. “I know you can take care of yourself.” I was going to say, ‘but if you need me,’ but as I say it I realize I don’t have to.

His tail wags more quickly, a sensual back-and-forth against my thigh. I trap it in my paw and hold its wriggling tightly, letting a claw tease around underneath it. My estimate of half an hour might be off by a few minutes. He tilts his muzzle, a sparkle in his eye below the reflection of the stars from the window, and talks in his Lauren Bacollie voice. “Maybe I can take care of you now, too.”

“
I’m sure you can do that.” I breathe across his ears, to watch them flick, and pull him closer to me by his rear. “Me being gay and all, now.”

“
I was quite overcome in that press conference.” He says it with a slight smile, which fades as he finishes.

“
But not surprised?” I nose his ear.

He flicks the ear, the smile returning full-force. “I told you, I knew you could do it. I didn’t know you would. It was a brave thing to do, and I don’t mean that in an after-school special kind of way. I mean it in an I’m-proud-of-you kind of way.”

“
Yeah, well.” I grumble gruffly, because I don’t want to get all choked up before going to bed. “You know, like you kept telling me, someone had to do it. I was just sick of waiting for someone else to have the balls.”

Normally, there, he’d slip his paw between my legs and tell me how he knows I have balls. But he doesn’t, he just nods and hugs me. “I’m still worried about you,” he says, his voice muffled by my fur. “But it was a good thing you did, and whatever of it was meant for me...nobody ever did anything like that for me before.”

“
Oh, foxy, dammit.” He tilts his muzzle again. I’m kinda frowning, growling now, because I know I’m going to say it and I can’t stop myself. “It’s all for you. And for me. For us.”

He doesn’t say anything, but he sniffles and swallows back emotion so thick I can feel it coming off him, and the shifting of his body against me is the best thing in the world.

We lie there for a few quiet, lovely seconds, and then I pick him up, cradling him against me, and stand up. He puts his arms around my chest and neck and curls his tail around my leg when I let it go. We stand there for a moment, while his black fingers trace the black stripes along my neck. Then I carry him into the bedroom, nice and slow, and kiss him between his ears as I drop him on the bed. And that moment, right there, I’m sure I did the right thing.

He’s out of his dress in a minute. I’ve unbuckled my pants, still standing, and I’m just lowering them when the phone in the pocket goes off.

The new phone I got after throwing the old one against the wall has some neat features. One of them is a privacy mode that only allows certain numbers to ring through. I had the clerk set it with exactly two numbers, and one of them is currently in a purse on the living room table. My heart freezes for a moment.

Lee doesn’t know this, of course. He’s still helping pull my pants down, on all fours on the bed. He ignores the phone like he assumes I’m going to, pressing his paw against the hardness between my legs. I’ve reached down for the phone and pressed Talk, but he doesn’t notice until I say, “Hi, Mom.”

She’s quiet for a second, the length of time it takes Lee to stare up at me. Then she says, “How did you know it was me?”

Because I knew Dad wouldn’t call me. “I, uh, guess you guys saw.”

She exhales. “Oh, Devlin. You couldn’t have talked to us first?”

Lee tilts his head. A smile grows across his muzzle. I try to step back, but he’s got my boxers and I’m afraid to fight too hard to get away from him in case I make some kind of noise on the phone. I say, “No,” to Mom while glaring down to make it clear I’m talking to him, too. He smiles sweetly back and licks his lips, slowly. “You know why not.”

“
Listen, Devlin,” she says, as Lee’s paw forces my boxers down over my full, hard cock, “if they made you say those things—”

“
If who made me say them?” I try to twist away, but he yanks me closer. His whiskers brush up my length. I shiver.

“
Those liberals.” She doesn’t say it with the conviction my father does.

“
Mom, h-how would liberals make me say things like that?” The stutter happens when Lee wraps his long fingers around the base of my sheath. I tug back, shaking my head, but he holds on, and when I step back I almost drag him off the bed. I try to swat at him with my free paw.

“
Devlin, your father’s upset. I think if you could come home and talk to him, that would...”

It takes me a minute to realize she’s trailed off, as Lee is now breathing wetly on my shaft and it’s getting hard to focus on anything but the warm shivers and the red-and-white curve of his rear, with his tail swishing alluringly above it. “That would what, Mom?”

“
Just for an evening.” She sounds distracted. “It would be good for the neighbors to see you come home.”

I squirm away from Lee’s tongue, panting. He pulls my shaft to his mouth and gets his lips around it before I pull away again. “What do the neighbors have to do wi-ith it?”

“
They talk, you know.”

Lee sucks. I bite my lip. “Can I talk to Dad?”

At that, Lee looks up at me, his ears back. I mouth, “Sorry,” and look as apologetic as I can. He cups my sac and then retreats back to the bed, lying on his back so his own hard shaft is lying exposed on his stomach fur. His eyes stare up at the ceiling, but his ears are cupped to listen to me.

“
He’s gone to bed,” Mom says, even though it’s barely ten o’clock where they are. I didn’t think Dad would talk to me, but I couldn’t help trying.

“
I’ve got practice all week.” I can hear the flatness of my voice, but I can’t seem to do anything about it. “But the week after that is a bye. I’ll have to come in Friday to work out, but I could go up there Tuesday. If you think it would be worth it.”

“
Please try.” But she doesn’t sound very hopeful.

I tell her I’ll make the reservations and will let them know when I’m coming up. There isn’t much to say after that. She tells me that Gregory’s doing well, his new cub—my nephew—is fine and healthy, his wife Marta is good. I tell her it’s cooling down in Chevali, and they should come see my place sometime. She says they’d love to.

By the time I hang up, my arousal is pretty much gone, only its memory keeping my shaft from pulling all the way back into my sheath. Lee flips over onto his stomach and brushes a finger there, along the ridge of fur. I don’t stop him, but I don’t react, either. He gets up on his knees and puts his arm around me, and when he lifts his muzzle to mine, I do pull away.

“
Not really in the mood,” I grumble.

He pulls me back. “I know that, stud,” he says, and just holds me, touching his muzzle to my lips and then withdrawing it. “C’mere and sit down.”

We sit together on the bed, me with my legs over the side and him cross-legged beside me. He waits for me to say something, and I want to be angry at him, but I can’t. “How did you deal with your mother?” I say finally.