by Kyell Gold
Ignoring his comment about the cards, Jack asked immediately whether Sean was a tourist, and Sean admitted he wasn’t, that he just didn’t get to Siegel much. Jack conversed as smoothly as he dealt, and Sean found it impossible to work any more questions about his dealing into the conversation. He did find out that the fox had been born and raised in Las Vegas and had been dealing blackjack for various casinos since he was seventeen. He blamed his career on his name. “What else is a black fox named Jack going to do in Vegas?” he said.
Jack’s laugh, sincere and light, put Sean at ease. By the time his coffee was gone, so was his nervousness. He was comfortable telling the fox about his childhood in New Orleans, mimicking the Cajun accent of his youth, and telling him that he lived over near downtown, though he didn’t mention where.
“Well,” Jack said. “I live a block away, you seem like a nice guy, and I’m tired of this coffee shop. Want to come over?”
Sean grinned. “You always move this fast?”
“I don’t have time to move slow.” The fox got up from the table and inclined his head. “Coming?”
The red wolf hesitated. His only worry was that Jack was onto him and that this was some kind of trap, but his whiskers weren’t tingling. “Hang on a second,” he said, and reached into his pocket for the cards. “Just want to check with my friends.”
Jack grinned at him and watched him deal out a three-card layout. For a moment, Sean studied them, then swept them back to the deck and stood. “All right,” he said. “Let’s go.”
“You put a lot of faith in them,” Jack said as they walked out into the night. To the south, Sean could see the glow of the Strip and the single beam of the Luxor shooting up to the sky. “Wish I had friends that are that reliable.”
“This was my mother’s deck,” Sean said. “She gave ‘em to me when I left home.”
The fox gave him a sidewise look. “So you asked your mother if you could come back to my place?”
Sean laughed. “Not my mother. Just a family friend.”
“What would you have done if they’d said no?”
The red wolf examined Jack. He saw no reason to dissemble. “I’d have politely—and regretfully—declined.”
Jack shook his head. “You’re an odd one, all right.”
He’d said it almost affectionately, so Sean wasn’t offended. “Isn’t everyone in this town?”
The fox grinned as they stopped at an apartment building. “Touché.” He tapped a code to open the gate and held it for Sean, who had been studying the resident list trying to figure out which one was Jack. “I’m not on there,” Jack said, grinning. “Like to keep a low profile.”
“Okay,” Sean said, embarrassed at having been caught. He walked into the lobby.
The building was plain, but clean and relatively new. Tile floors and wood paneling made Sean think it had been built as part of the boom of the late 90s, when a lot of people searching for a cheap alternative to L.A. had driven up demand for homes in the Vegas area. Jack stepped past him to the stairs and led him down a second floor hall that smelled of carpet cleaner, to an apartment with “206” on the door, and inside.
The fox slid out of his vest easily, but it was the coming-home action of shedding a coat, not an invitation to Sean. He walked across the small living room they’d entered to a cabinet, and opened it. “Something stronger than coffee?” he asked, looking back.
Sean was looking at his slender chest with its white throat ruff and the thick black fur down his shoulders and back. “Only if it’s tall and black,” he said with a grin.
“All right then.” Jack grinned. “I keep that in here.” He beckoned Sean into the next room.
There was nothing in the living room to help Sean’s investigation, and he wasn’t sure what he was looking for anyway. A book on “how to cheat at card dealing?” A membership card to the International Federation of Underhanded Blackjack Dealers? He had a phone bug in his pocket; illegal, but usable in his case because they weren’t looking to bring criminal charges anyway. What he really hoped was that exposing the cards to this place would give him a good read on how his case was going to turn out. For that, he’d have to stick around here for a while.
The final swish of the fox’s black tail as he disappeared into the other room suggested a pleasant way to pass that time. Sean unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and walked into the bedroom after Jack.
The fox caught him by surprise, paws around his waist and warm breath in his ear, murmuring, “Now, let’s see what kind of hand we’ve been dealt.” He brushed his muzzle within an inch of Sean’s, giving Sean time and chance to inhale his scent in return.
Sean made a practice of learning people’s scents from a distance, but preferred to smell someone up close. Jack’s strong vulpine scent masked a myriad of details, which shifted through his nose like the nuances in a fine wine. He wouldn’t have been able to put a name to many of them, but he compared them to other people he knew: here the same excitement as his friend Michael, here the same touch of passion as an ex-lover or two, here the same caution he knew in himself.
He always savored that moment of introduction, especially in this context where he expected the encounter to progress to something more intimate quickly. This getting to know his partner, being let into their private space, was special to him on a personal level, but also excited the part of him that liked finding out about people, liked getting more information about them. He kept his eyes open, too, and looked around the small bedroom.
Jack kept a pair of dressers, a vanity, a bed, and a bookcase that was full of not only books, but also DVDs, CDs, and various trinkets. The DVDs included “Ocean’s Eleven,” obligatory viewing for any Vegas resident, as well as “Rounders,” “The Sting,” “The Cincinnati Kid,” and “The Hustler,” and those were just the ones that leapt out at Sean before the fox’s paws slid inside his shirt and around his midriff. Funny; he hadn’t even felt his shirt’s buttons being undone.
The touch made him shiver. Jack’s paws were as sure as they were quick, claws tracing just close enough to his skin to be felt without exerting any pressure. He placed his paws on the fox’s slender form in return, brushing down the sleek black fur to come to rest on his hips. They rubbed their long muzzles together, teasing each other’s whiskers while their paws pulled their bodies close. Sean realized that somehow, all of his shirt’s buttons had been undone, and the shirt itself was hanging off his shoulders. He pulled back a little bit and looked into a grin as Jack’s paws moved up his chest and over his shoulders, slowly forcing the shirt off.
He had to take his paws off the fox to let it fall, and that brought a brief flash of self-consciousness, because Jack was thin and sleek, and Sean, though he worked out, did not do so regularly enough to get rid of a little extra weight around his waist. But Jack didn’t look anything but pleased at what he saw, and his paws wandered happily down the ivory fur on the red wolf’s chest and stomach. Sean put his paws back on Jack’s hips and slid his fingers under the waistband of the fox’s pants, exploring the thick black fur and slender hips, and then worked around to feel the base of the long, fluffy, black tail.
Jack pulled the wolf against him with surprising force, and Sean found that, mysteriously, his pants had been unfastened as well. They slid down his hips, guided by a confident pair of paws that let them hang around his knees before moving back up the outside of his legs to cup his rump. His tail started to wag of its own accord, and then he put more energy into it as he felt Jack’s tail match his enthusiasm.
It had definitely been a while, he thought. There was no reason he shouldn’t be undoing Jack’s pants the same way the fox had undone his, except that the fastening was pressed up against his boxers, pressing, in fact, right into his hardening sheath, and not only did he not want to relieve that pressure, he didn’t want to change Jack’s paws, which felt so good on his rear, under his wagging tail. Jack had somehow managed to open his pants, and Sean was sure that if he were more
used to this type of encounter, that he would know how and when to reciprocate. As it was, all he could do was slide his paws further inside the still-fastened pants.
He thought at first that he’d accidentally slid inside the fox’s underpants as well, and congratulated himself on his luck in moving forward, but as he explored the slender hips and ventured around to the fox’s tight rear, he realized that Jack wasn’t actually wearing underwear. He felt a little embarrassed at his white cotton boxers, until Jack’s paws slipped inside them, brushing under his tail and driving any embarrassment out of Sean’s mind. He whimpered softly, answered by a low “mmmm” from Jack.
Sean mirrored Jack’s caresses, trailing his fingers under the fox’s tail and between his furry cheeks, getting a nice press and rub against his sheath in return. Jack rubbed his nose against the wolf’s and pulled his hips back, sliding his paws around to the front and cupping Sean’s erection. “Feels like someone’s ready to move to the bed,” he murmured.
“Yeah,” Sean said, and took the opportunity to reach around the front and fumble with Jack’s pants until he got them open. “I guess we both are,” he said as he got his fingers around the fox’s shaft, similarly hard. It was slenderer than his, smooth and warm to his pads, and just a little bit sticky right at the tip. Their progress to the bed was delayed while Sean slid his fingers up and down the fox’s hardness and Jack’s paw closed around the wolf’s, starting to pump up and down.
Sean felt wetness at his tip, spread by the fox’s fingers. His body was shivering, twitching, fur prickling with arousal. He licked the fox’s muzzle, rubbing the tip of his shaft, and grinned. “Didn’t you say something about a bed?”
“Right behind you, Slim,” Jack said, and gave Sean’s shaft a squeeze. “Maybe you need a new nickname, hm?”
The red wolf rubbed his muzzle against the fox’s, flicking his ears at the remark, and licked up the edge of one of Jack’s long, triangular ears, following it as it flicked around. Jack squirmed, the first sign that his arousal was overwhelming his composure, and Sean pressed the advantage, licking further into the ear as Jack buried his slender muzzle into the red wolf’s shoulder ruff.
“Bed. Right,” Sean whispered into the fox’s ear. He turned Jack around, keeping his muzzle in the fox’s ear and working his shaft up under the big fluffy tail. The lithe black form pressed back, tight and hard. “Lead the way,” Sean murmured.
“Walk this way,” Jack said, settling his paws back on Sean’s hips and walking forward. The red wolf matched him step for step until they got to the bed, where the fox let go, jumping up on all fours. He rummaged in a drawer of the nightstand and tossed a small tube back to Sean, remaining on all fours with his tail up. “Let’s see if we have a good pair here.”
“It looks like the high hand to me.” Sean squirted some lube into his paw and slickened up his eager erection, then applied his paw under Jack’s tail, searching for the opening there and taking perhaps a little more time than necessary to explore and lubricate it. Both he and the fox were panting hard by the time he was through. He scrambled up behind Jack and wrapped himself around the fox’s lithe frame, grasping the dangling shaft with his slick paw as he positioned himself and thrust forward.
They gasped in unison, Sean closing his eyes at the tight warmth around him. He couldn’t help himself; he leaned over and grabbed the fox’s ruff in his muzzle, holding the smaller canid and thrusting into him, his knot already tight and hard. Jack didn’t seem to mind, pushing his rear back into each thrust and whining through his teeth as the red wolf pushed into him. Sean hadn’t been thinking that he would tie with the fox, but the more he drove into him, the more his knot wanted the pressure around it, and finally he couldn’t resist any longer. Holding Jack’s body firmly, he pushed with his hips, getting help from the fox, who seemed to want it as much as he did.
When he slid inside, he overbalanced, taking them both flat to the bed, his paw trapped around Jack’s shaft. Gasping, moaning, he thrust his hips forward and back as much as the knot allowed, jerking his paw back and forth around the hot stiffness until he felt the arousal in him come to a peak. He pulled up on the fox’s ruff, panting hard through his nose and moaning into the black fur as his hips drove the smaller canid into the bed and filled him with his release. Dimly, he was aware of the fox squirming below him, but it wasn’t until he collapsed atop Jack that he realized that his paw was hot and sticky as well.
“Uhhh,” he moaned, and Jack echoed his moan with a contented exhalation. Sean nuzzled the tall black ear again, making the fox squirm and turn his head away from the tickling whiskers. “Definitely...a winning hand...” Sean panted.
He felt the fox squeeze his shaft, tight tail clenching around him until he giggled and squirmed himself, and Jack said, “No argument here...I think you take the pot.”
Sean slowly extricated his sticky paw and said, “Let’s share it.”
“Mmm. Deal.” Jack wriggled. “What’s your tie time?”
“Ten minutes, usually.”
“Not bad. You like to talk or just cuddle?”
“Whatever. I’m easy.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Jack brought one of his slender paws to Sean’s and held it against his chest. “You weren’t difficult, but you weren’t easy, either. I had to drop a bunch of hints.”
“The cards?” Sean kept his demeanor casual, but turned on his detective mind.
“Words, and the chip,” Jack said. “I always let the cards guide me, not the other way round.”
“Oh.”
“Disappointed?” Jack curled his tail around under Sean’s, laying across the red wolf’s rump. “You thought I was picking those cards?”
Sean thought for a moment before answering, and then decided, to hell with it, and told the truth. “I thought it would be extraordinary if you hadn’t. But the cards know. It’s just been a long time since...”
Jack squeezed his shrinking knot. “Since?”
The red wolf wriggled and grinned. “Since I met someone so in tune.”
“Don’t get the wrong idea here,” Jack said. “I’m not looking for an attachment.”
“Me neither,” said Sean, and after a moment’s silence, he said what he thought they were both thinking. “But what if the cards...”
Jack shrugged, but Sean could see the corners of his grin. “I didn’t say I wasn’t open to one.”
The water pressure in Jack’s shower wasn’t great, but Sean didn’t mind. It almost took him longer to choose which scented soap to use than to get his fur clean. He had scanned the bathroom for anything that might be a clue, as if to convince himself that he really was here for work and not just following his cock. Really, he was relieved to have nothing to report to the fat wolf, though he told himself sternly that if Jack had admitted to cheating, he would have done his duty to his employer. His cock tingled in mild reproach as he soaped it, recalling the tight warmth of the fox and the way he’d abandoned himself to it, but it had been expected of him, he reasoned. Jack would’ve been suspicious if he hadn’t gone to bed with him.
That didn’t sound very convincing, but it was the best he could do. He got out of the shower and dried as much of his fur as he could with the large towel he found folded neatly on the toilet seat. For a moment, he debated whether to wrap it around himself before walking back out, but he’d feel silly if Jack were still naked, as he suspected the black fox would be.
He was right. Jack swung his legs off the bed as Sean walked out of the bathroom.”You clean up nice.”
“Your turn.” Sean watched the fox swing his rump and tail back and forth as he walked into the bathroom; a moment later the water began running.
The red wolf stretched and pulled on his boxers and pants, and then thought, might as well do a little detective work. He walked around the bedroom, looking sharply at the neatly arranged bookshelves and making note of the titles. A few science fiction novels, a few spiritual books, a little of everything, in fact. Just the sor
t of book collection he would have if he didn’t want anyone to be able to learn anything from it. No books on the cards, though he wasn’t surprised; he didn’t keep his in plain view either. They were full of his notations and he wouldn’t want anyone seeing some of the titles anyway.
In the living room, the same things he’d noticed before. Nothing new presented itself, but something nagged at him. He looked around at the coffee table, the low black sofa, the television, and couldn’t see what it was. The kitchen, though full of interesting smells, was similarly unhelpful. He returned to the living room and, cocking an ear to the shower to make sure it was still running, lifted the fox’s vest carefully from the coat rack. He slipped his fingers into the pockets and found the business card holder that held the casino ID and, behind it, a driver’s license.
Jack Filcher. Not an auspicious name. But the IDs were all in order. He memorized the driver’s license number and replaced the small card holder, and that’s when he realized what was nagging at him.
He took the wallet out of his pants and opened it. Bringing it to his nose, he caught the very faint scent of fox.
Jack had been in his wallet while he was in the shower. He closed it again and then laughed silently. Turnabout was fair play, after all. His detective license was in there, but at this point it didn’t really matter whether Jack knew he was a detective. Replacing his wallet, he went into the other pocket and took out his cards.
He sat on the couch as he shuffled, inhaling the scent of the apartment and focusing on his question: was Jack cheating the fat wolf? The noise of the shower stopped suddenly, and Sean found his mind occupied with images of the sleek black naked fox, wondering what he would look like all wet, the water running through his fur in trails. He shook his head and laid down the third card, and stared. All three were the Jack of Clubs.
He rubbed his eyes and looked again, and now only the first was the Jack of Clubs; the other two were blank.