"Good morning, Zhen."

Zhen turned his head away from the fruit bowl he had been inspecting, giving a nod of recognition to the lizard beside him. "Good morning, Code," he replied with a smile.

To all his other coworkers who were milling about in the kitchen making coffee, filling water bottles, or grabbing snacks before the workday began in earnest, it seemed like the two of them were simply getting along well. They were both quite careful to keep everything aboveboard at work, after all; anyone who listened in on their conversations at lunch only ever heard them discussing topics relevant to their work or careers, or relevant current events. Those who inquired were told – truthfully – that the two had met by chance on a plane, and had hit it off.

The exact details of that meeting had no need to be discussed, after all. And their coworkers would never guess – and had no need to know – that on the preceding Friday, after dinner out, the two of them had gone back to her hotel room and...

Zhen turned himself towards the sink in the work kitchen and diverted his full attention towards washing the pear he had taken from the fruit bowl. The memories were fun, but now was not the time.

After their fun, and subsequent cleanup, the two had spent their time together talking for a while, watching a movie on the TV in Code's room, and playing games on the personal laptop she had brought with her, all dressed in little more than their underwear. Zhen had spent the night there with her, spooned up with her from behind, and it had been with a heavy heart the next morning when he bade her farewell to head home and get on with all the weekend tasks and chores that needed doing.

Seeing her again this Monday morning brought all the memories back. As much as he would have liked to reminisce, he only had a few scant minutes to pour himself some iced tea, grab a snack and head off to a meeting room. Those statuses weren't going to report themselves, however much he wished that they would.

"By the way," he inquired as he dried the pear with a paper towel, setting it down for a moment, "Did you see the email about Jao?"

Code shook her head as she took a bottle of lemonade from the fridge. "I'm not paid to check work emails on the weekend. What happened?"

"He's retiring, apparently," Zhen informed her, unscrewing the lid on his thermos to fill it with iced tea from the dispenser. "It means a few people are going to get bumped up on the ladder, and I might be one of them."

"Oh! Well, best of luck. I think you deserve it, though I might be a little biased."

He gave a good-natured chuckle. "Fortunately, I am completely unbiased on my own excellence in my work," he remarked with a smirk, his whiskers perking up as he did. "Anyhow, I need to get going to a meeting. I'll see you at lunch."

"See you," she told him with a nod – and the tiniest, subtlest wink.

The two of them had returned to their normal – well, "normal" – routine at work, for the most part. They would each lunch together and then slip away to his office to avoid the lines to the bathrooms, as they had been doing before. But now they were a little more... teasing. Their showing off to each other was more deliberate. More compliments were paid. More allusions to their previous time together were made. They never took things too far – they both knew better than to fuck at work, which would have been loud, messy, and much harder to hide – but Zhen would have been lying if he said he hadn't been sorely tempted by the idea.

And while they both went their separate ways at the end of each workday, they kept in touch on their phones, conversing more freely and personally after hours. 

So, on Friday while they were at lunch together, he floated the idea of coming by to see her after work.

"...if you're not busy, of course," he hastily added.

She smirked and gave a small chuckle. "Zhen, I'm all alone in a foreign country. The nearest actual city is a -long- drive away and I don't have a car. I'm just going to spend my night in my room anyway playing video games or reading books otherwise. I'd love for you to come visit."

Glancing upward, she looked him in the eyes before winking and flicking out her tongue for a brief moment. Clearly, there was more she wanted to say, but not in a place where they could be overheard. Zhen was quite capable of guessing what she was alluding to, however, and gave a small chuckle, adjusting the collar of his shirt for a brief moment before returning to his food.

She wasn't the only one who would enjoy his visit, that was for sure.

--------------------

Zhen took a moment to compose himself as the elevator doors closed and took him up to Code's floor. This was much easier the second time around, but it still only assuaged his nerves so much. She had left the office without him; he'd had a meeting overrun and had texted her to tell her not to wait up, since he had some small errands to run along the way too.

After walking to her door, he drew in a breath and knocked on it.

"Who's there?" he heard her call out sharply. 

Hardly a friendly greeting, but he brushed it aside. "It's Zhen," he answered. A few moments later, he heard the lock click on her door, and she opened it up.

"Come on in," she said flatly, stepping away from the door. Zhen raised an eyebrow and entered, hanging up his jacket on the peg by the door. Something was obviously bothering her; she wasn't normally this curt with him, especially after business hours.

"Is everything all right?" he asked her. She was sitting on the end of the bed, staring at the wall absently, and didn't answer at first. "Did I do something wrong?"

She shook her head. "No... sorry. I had a rough afternoon. It's nothing you did."

He took off his shoes and then came to stand in front of her. "Do you want to talk about it? I want to help if I can."

She was silent for a little longer, but eventually spoke. "I had an... encounter with someone while I was waiting for my taxi to show up. I'd seen him around a few times, but this was the first time we spoke. And he started hitting on me. Really badly, and really strongly. And he wouldn't take no for an answer."

Zhen frowned, his whiskers drooping slightly as he did. He had an idea of who that might have been. "Striped skink? Almost always has his left hand in his pocket?"

Code blinked in mild surprise, and nodded. "Yes. It sounds like you know him."

"Not personally, thankfully," Zhen told her, choosing his words carefully. "But Bo has a bit of a... reputation. He hits on all the women in the office at some point or another. Don't let it bother you, he tends to take the hint and move on fairly quickly."

She didn't seem convinced, and glanced to the side. "Is he always so creepy about it?"

Zhen felt a chill, and crouched down a little bit, reaching out and putting a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "What exactly did he say to you?" he inquired.

Code drew a breath and sighed, but she didn't push him away, and instead tilted her head to the side, resting it against his hand. "He got WAY too close, for starters." she explained. "He had some awful pick-up line and kept addressing me as 'babe' without even asking for my name. And he did it in front of a bunch of people, but nobody said anything. It was extremely creepy. Normally I'd have shoved him away to make my point, but that's not a wise thing to do to one of your client's employees while you're on the job."

Zhen's frown deepened. "That's a lot worse than normal for him. He's the CTO's son, so that's probably why nobody wanted to get involved." He gave her another look, and the obvious conclusion hit him. "He might be overdoing it because you're also a lizard."

"Oh, definitely. I figured -that- out when he opened by asking when was the last time someone put some eggs in me," she muttered with obvious distaste, a small snarl visible on her upper lip. With another sigh, she straightened up and shook her head slowly. "I got him to leave me alone eventually, and my taxi came not long after. But it was still unsettling, and it's been bothering me ever since."

Zhen reached out and gently put his other hand on her thigh, watching her reaction to make sure it wasn't unwelcome, but she put her hand on top of his and held it there. "I'm sorry to hear that. I hope he leaves you alone," Zhen told her sincerely. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Honestly? Being able to talk about it is helping a lot," Code answered. She turned her head and looked him in the eyes for the first time since he had arrived, and he could feel her relaxing under his touch. "When nobody intervened or said anything about it after he left, I felt so alone. But knowing that you're on my side makes me feel better."

"I'm glad," he said, rubbing her thigh. After a moment, he cleared his throat. "I know we both had something particular in mind when we set up this visit earlier, but if you aren't feeling like it, don't feel like you have t-"

"Zhen," she said sharply, cutting him off. He stood up, but she reached out and took hold of his hand in both of hers before he could take it more than a few inches away. "I appreciate your reassurance, but I trust that you'd back off if I asked you to, unlike the guy hitting on me earlier." She looked up at him and gave him a smile. "Plus, if you weren't here, I'd just be spending the night with some take-out food playing video games and feeling sorry for myself. So the distraction is more than welcome."

He returned her smile and gave a small chuckle. "There's the Code I know," he said happily, "but do tell me if there's anything in particular I can do to help."

"You could start by undressing the rest of the way..." she murmured to him silkily.

Zhen didn't need to be told twice, and began unbuttoning his shirt as she did the same. He took a step back to make space for her as she stood up to take off her pants. "I've been waiting all week for this, you know?" she told him, "I'm not going to let some creep ruin it for me. Fuck him. Metaphorically, of course."

"Agreed," he replied as he dropped his own pants, both of their clothes accumulating in a pile around them. He took a moment to gaze over her body; her light and toned musculature, her smooth scales, and naturally, the slit between her legs that he could see plainly enough now that she was naked. "What would you...?"

He trailed off as Code dropped to her knees in front of him, clearly with something in mind already. She pressed her snout in against his sheath, nosing at it, his cocktip already starting to slip out from it as his arousal quickly grew. She put her left hand on his hip to steady herself, while the right one cupped his balls, rubbing the large orbs from underneath with her palm as her fingers teased the back of them.

Gently, Zhen put one hand on her shoulder, and rested the other on the back of her head, stroking over her smooth, blue-green scales and letting her do as she pleased with him. As soon as the head of his cock was exposed to the air, he felt her licking at it; while her forked tongue was small and flat, it was quite dexterous. She was able to tease his sensitive flesh quite nimbly, licking at it and teasing the tips of her tongue underneath the edge of his glans, sending jolts of pleasure through him.

He let out a small groan, enjoying the feeling of her soft tongue against his emerging shaft. It didn't take long for him to become fully aroused from her attention, his cock sliding out to its full length, one ridge at a time slipping past the collar of his sheath. She suckled on his length gently as she bobbed her head, taking advantage of her long snout to easily keep the whole thing inside of her maw. Still, her teasing was relatively gentle, and she obviously didn't intend to finish him like this, but he was enjoying it nonetheless.

Her hand slipped a little further back and squeezed his rump, but he thought little of it, instead focusing on the pleasure her tongue and lips were bringing to him. But when he felt her reaching further back, trying to slip her fingers under his tail, he gently let go of her shoulder and grasped her wrist, pulling her hand away from his rear and returning it to his hip, which she patted gently in understanding. He looked down to watch her sucking on him, feeling her lips and tongue against his cock as her hand caressed his balls, rolling them about in her palm.

As he breathed deeply from arousal, an idea came to him, though along with it came deep nervousness about actually asking for it. But she'd trusted him earlier, so he had to trust her in return. And she'd just shown she was willing to respect his boundaries; he knew he would do the same if she didn't like his suggestion.

"Code?" he asked softly.

The hotel room was very quiet, so she was still able to hear him. "Mm?" she inquired, staring up at him without taking his cock out of her mouth, but slowing her motions slightly.

He took a breath and steeled his nerves, trying to calm the butterflies in his stomach. She had agreed to so much so far, and surely even if she refused, she wouldn't have a problem with him asking. "I, er..." he began, fumbling over the words. He took another breath and changed up his wording to ask a little more indirectly. "...would you like a drink?"

She caught on to his wording immediately, and stopped her head motions, taking his whole cock into her maw and staying still, putting both hands on his hips. Her tail swished behind her as she waited expectantly, releasing his hip only long enough to give him a thumbs-up of approval.

Zhen's heart raced as he realized that she had indeed accepted, and he put his hands on her shoulders gently, looking up and staring at the far wall. "Ah, I... didn't really think this far ahead..." he murmured, hearing her give a muffled chuckle a moment later. He took deep breaths and tried to relax, though admittedly, despite all the previous times he'd gone through the extra effort of pissing with an erection, attempting it while he could still feel her mouth around his shaft made it significantly harder.

She waited, patiently and understanding, gently rubbing at his hips with her hands. It took a little while, but Zhen finally felt the tingling running through him indicating his bladder was starting to release, and squeezed her shoulders. "Here it comes..." he whispered, and closed his eyes.

As his hot, golden fluid passed through his cock and into her mouth, he heard her groan quietly, and felt her tongue against the underside of his shaft, feeling the swollen urethra there. Moments later, in the near-silence of the hotel room, he heard her swallow, and felt another little shiver run through him as he felt the sensation of relief from urinating. He heard her gulp again, and squeezed her shoulders; something about that sound he found incredibly alluring, on top of the generally pleasurable sensations of having her mouth around his cock as he pissed.

"Ohh..." he groaned out quietly, surprised at how much he was enjoying it. "Tell me if you need me to stop," he quickly added, realizing he should have said something sooner, but she didn't protest. Instead, however, she stopped swallowing, letting his piss pool up in her maw for a bit. He could feel the heat of it against his own cockflesh, and then he heard and felt her swallow heavily again, her tongue licking him clean after the wetness around his length disappeared.

Zhen's breaths came heavily as he continued to relieve himself into her maw, listening to her swallowing, able to clearly hear every gulp from her in the quiet hotel room, even over his own deep breathing. There was something immensely satisfying about what he was doing, and something deeply arousing about how she drank down every drop. He was disappointed when his stream finally came to an end, but he immediately felt her licking at his tip, cleaning up the last drops as he clenched his muscles to get all of it out, enjoying the last swallow he heard from her.

After giving him another thorough licking, she pulled her head off of him slowly. His shaft was completely covered in her saliva, glistening from tip to base. She brought both hands between his legs, cupping one of his balls in each, and fondling them gently in her palms.

"Was that all right?" he asked nervously.

She smirked, rubbing over his testicles with her thumbs. "I'm very glad you don't drink coffee." she told him teasingly. "But I enjoyed it... I feel all hot and warm inside now. It's really nice."

He nodded, reaching up and rubbing the top of her head again with his hand. "I'm glad."

A moment later, she let go of him, and tilted her head towards the bed behind her. "Now that you're all slicked up... could you lie down for me?"

He nodded, happy to do as she asked, climbing up onto the bed and lying down on his back, his branching horns pressing into the top of the pillows. He tucked his tail between his legs and spread them a little as he did, his cock standing straight upwards, throbbing needily from his intense arousal – he was a little surprised at how incredibly turned on he was, but then again, this was the first time he'd had a woman who actually shared his deepest kink. One that he was still exploring, no less, and being so encouraging about.

She was quick to join him, and got onto her hands and knees while straddling his body, eventually putting her hands on his chest and feeling over his muscles. The way she loomed over him was slightly intimidating, but in a way that only made his erection throb harder – she had plans for him, and he was eager to see what they were.

She straightened up a little, and Zhen took the opportunity to peer down his snout and take a look at her. She was clearly aroused too, her pussy glistening wet with her juices, her breaths coming heavily as she curled her tail upward behind her, positioning her hips above his waiting shaft.

Yet when she descended, he felt the tip of his cock pressing up against the tight ring of her tailhole instead, rather than her wet folds. He groaned as he felt her teasing her rear entrance open with his pointed cocktip, easing his hot, hard flesh into her anal tunnels little by little. He certainly wasn't going to complain, not with how tight she felt around his throbbing cock, but he still found her apparent preference for anal interesting – it wasn't the time to ask, but he would have to inquire at some point.

Instead, he reached up and held onto her sides gently as she descended at her own pace, toes curling, groaning out as she sank down on his cock. She descended until his pointed glans popped into her past her sphincter, holding herself there for a moment before lowering further and taking the first of his ridges into her ass. Another little gasp escaped her as it did, and Zhen groaned quietly too, resisting the urge to buck his hips and thrust into her.

She lifted herself up, letting that ridge pop back out from her, and then lowered her hips back down again enough to engulf the top two ridges one after another. She repeated the motion, going up one ridge and down two, until she had hilted herself on his cock, wiggling in his lap as she savored having his full length buried within her. He tried to keep himself still, but it was hard, the tightness pressing on his cock from all sides making him take shuddering breaths.

Code sat up in his lap as she ground her ass against his hips, and he moved his hands down to take hold of her thighs near her rump, curling his fingers underneath them. He looked up at her and gave her a nod; wordlessly, she nodded back as she panted for breath from arousal, and she started to lift her hips. As she did, Zhen helped her along with his grip on her legs, letting her set the pace. At first she brought herself halfway up his cock, letting two ridges pop out from her, before lowering her hips down again and letting them pop back in, shuddering and groaning above him as she did. He breathed heavily too, unable to stop himself from squirming a little underneath her as he felt her tight ass sliding up and down his cock, rocking his hips upwards whenever she lowered herself down with his help.

"Higher," she told him after a brief time, and he obliged, helping lift her up higher, so that she was riding up and down three of his ridges. Each one teased at the rim of her tailhole on both the way in and the way out, the tightness pleasuring him just as the stretching pleasured her. Her anal walls pressed tightly against his pulsing cock, heavily leaking preseed inside of her. Even as they kept going, she was always squeezing snugly around his flesh, those tunnels getting spread out again each time she sank down onto his shaft.

He groaned wordlessly as his eyes closed tightly for a moment, reveling in the pleasure. When he opened them again, he saw that she was fingering her pussy with one hand, the other resting on her leg for support.

"I don't think I'll last long," he confessed softly. He wished it were otherwise, and that he could enjoy the tightness of her body around him for longer. "It... you feel too good."

She gave a small groan, and rocked her hips downward harder on the next motion. "Go faster, then," she told him, panting deeply, teasing her clit with her middle finger. "Give me a good ride and fill me up."

Nodding to her, Zhen gripped her thighs a little more tightly and took a breath. He went back to bouncing her up and down half of his length, but began to buck his hips up into her as he did, groaning as he kept thrusting up into the tight confines of her ass. His hands moved her faster up and down, bouncing her in his lap, losing all sense of rhythm as he went for the finish. As she slipped a couple of fingers into her pussy, he could feel them teasing at herself through the narrow wall of flesh separating her tunnels, his thrusting cock bumping against her teasing digits.

Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes as he felt an orgasm oncoming, Zhen put everything he had into his last few thrusts. He ground hard against her rump on each one, trying and push his cock as deeply into her tunnels as he could, clenching his jaw and scrunching his eyes further with each passing second of mounting pleasure. When his climax hit, he opened his mouth and let out a groan, tipping his head back abruptly, feeling his whiskers brush at his own shoulders. He shifted his grip to hang onto her hips tightly and hold them up against his own, keeping his entire length within the confines of her ass as it throbbed and began shooting his cum into her, his balls pulling upward between his legs.

He shuddered heavily with each wave of pleasure that washed over him as he blew his load into her, firing rope after rope of his hot, sticky warmth into her tunnels. Midway through his climax, he heard her moan louder as she reached her own peak, and he felt sudden wetness against his scales as her pussy juices squirted onto his belly. But more than that, he felt the tunnels of her ass clench harder and squeeze around his cock, overwhelming him with pleasure and bliss, milking his cock for everything she could get from him. For a few ecstatic moments, both of them shared in their orgasmic pleasure, and then Zhen began to pant heavily as he came down from his peak and slowly regained his senses.

"Oh, fuck..." Code panted out after her own orgasm came to an end, "...that was really good. I needed that, thank you."

Zhen nodded tiredly, still basking in his own afterglow. "Thank -you-," he responded between breaths, gently rubbing her hips and rump.

They stayed like that for a little while as they both recovered, until Code gently began to pull herself off of him. "Okay, we should get cleaned up," she said as she did, easing her way off his softening shaft.

But Zhen gripped her hips firmly and stopped her. Emboldened by his success earlier, he wanted to ask her something else.

"Before we do," he asked as he looked up at her questioning gaze, "would you care to return the favor?"

She tilted her head slightly. "What favor?"

Zhen cleared his throat, realizing he had been a little too evasive. "I could, er... go for a drink," he muttered quietly as he glanced aside for a moment, but still loud enough for her to hear in the near silence of the hotel room.

That was enough for her to get the hint, and she gave him a smirk. "Well, of course. It's only fair," she told him teasingly, and started to shuffle up the bed on her knees. He helped guide her, staring at her loins as she got closer – after having had sex, her pussy was soaking wet with her nectar, as were her inner thighs. With her legs on either side of his head, she pressed her netherlips up against his snout, and Zhen obligingly opened his mouth to let her get a little closer.

Extending his tongue, he began licking up the juices on her labia, finding them ever so slightly sweet on his tongue. But she put a hand on the back of his head to remind him what he was really in this position for, and he withdrew his tongue back to his mouth. "Tap my hips if you need me to stop," she told him, drawing a breath. "And try not to spill any... this is my bed, after all."

He tried to nod, but just ended up pressing his muzzle against her lower belly. It did take her a little bit to relax enough in her post-orgasmic state, but he was willing to be patient for her just as she had been for him, and brought his hands to her hips to rub over them slowly.

Soon enough, heard her sigh quietly, and felt a fluid splash against his tongue – it was salty, of course, but not unbearably so. More notably, it was also at room temperature, a detail he had forgotten about since their previous time together, taking him by surprise. Trying not to move, he let it pool up in his mouth a little before he swallowed, and extended his tongue to tease at her slit again gently.

With his hands on her hips, and his head effectively pinned down between her thighs, he continued to drink, enjoying the contrast in taste between the salty piss she was gushing into his mouth and the mildly sweet pussy juices that had drenched her vaginal tunnels. He breathed deeply through his nose, sending his warm breath across her belly, staring up at her as she looked back down at him and watched to make sure he was managing fine.

But he could hear her low groans as his tongue lightly teased at her slit, and knew that she was enjoying the relief of emptying her bladder. He spaced out his gulps, trying not to swallow too quickly or not often enough, and was able to keep up with her until her stream waned and trickled off to a stop. As she pushed out the last few squirts much like he had done, he stuck out his tongue and licked across her urethra at the top of her slit, moving on to tease across her clit as well before he released his hold on her hips.

She shuffled back to give him some space, but rubbed the top of his head with one hand affectionately all the same. "Have you ever done that before?"

Zhen grinned sheepishly. "No," he admitted, "but there was only one way to find out if I'd like it or not."

She chuckled softly and started to get up, and he slowly rose to his feet as well. "I won't be able to stay the night, I'm afraid," he told her as they headed to the bathroom to shower, "but I'll stay for as long as I can. I want to make sure that you're going to be all right."

"I'm fine," she told him as she stepped into the bathroom and reached for the shower controls. "I'm feeling much better now because of you. Thank you."

Zhen's cheeks flushed again from the praise. "You're welcome," he replied bashfully.

--------------------

Lying on his back on his exercise bench, Zhen's arms strained as he lifted the barbell up over his head again. His muscles strained to hold up the weight, and the barbell slightly rattled against the safety railings on either side of it as his arms trembled from the effort. He was in his basement gym on a Wednesday night, huffing for breath as he lowered the barbell again after counting to three; while he did keep himself to an exercise regimen, tonight he was working out more to vent his frustrations than a desire to keep in shape.

Code had been back to her normal self on Monday morning, but that had changed by lunchtime. He had known something was wrong when she sat in the chair opposite him with a frustrated sigh, ripping apart the paper bag containing her take-out lunch with her bare claws. As she had eaten, snapping apart the wooden chopsticks and stabbing them into her dumplings in clear frustration, she had told Zhen that Bo had been hitting on her again – now that he had his sights set on her, he was going out of his way to find her and pester her during work hours, much to her disgust and displeasure.

Zhen did his best to reassure her, but her aggravation was beyond the aid of mere words. He suggested she talk to HR, but she told him that she already had. As soon as she mentioned who was harassing her, the woman at the desk had immediately lost interest, as if she knew it was futile to bother. Not that that was going to stop Code; she told Zhen how she intended to go the Malicious Compliance route, and file a report every day until they got buried in enough paperwork that they couldn't ignore her any more.

But the next day when she had a similar story while angrily pulling the top off the Tupperware container with her packed lunch in it, he had offered to help directly. He was surprised when she suddenly got defensive, telling him to stay out of it – he was, after all, up for a promotion soon, and causing trouble would reflect poorly on him. She was just a consultant, there for a few more months before heading back home, but he was a senior and full-time employee. It would be a Career-Limiting Move on his part at best, she reminded him.

He appreciated her concern for him, and she wasn't wrong. But that didn't mean he liked it. He had told her as much, but she had insisted that he let her handle it alone, and he had relented.

Back in the present, Zhen gritted his teeth as he raised the barbell again, both from the strain and from his frustration. His muscles were aching, but he wasn't done yet.

He'd still gone to her hotel room after work on Tuesday, and he'd done his best to help her unwind. She had been up-front in stating she wasn't in the mood for sex, but he was still able to provide a shoulder-rub, conversation, delivery dinner, and a movie to help her relax. Everything seemed fine when he headed home.

But it didn't last. Earlier that day, Code's mood had been sour even during their customary stop in at his office before returning to work. She had brushed him off when he inquired, and he had let it go, but it still bothered him.

Panting for breath, Zhen lowered the barbell and released it, letting it come to rest within the rails as he slid out from underneath it and sat up. He stood up in front of the floor-length mirror on the wall, looking himself over – his muscles showed up clearly through his t-shirt and the light fabric shorts he wore. Years ago when he'd first started to work out, it had been a point of pride to look at himself and see how he was improving.

But tonight, he didn't feel strong at all. He felt weak, powerless, and helpless. Grimacing, he turned and swung at his punching bag, sending it swinging back and forth under the anchor holding it up. What was the point of being strong if he couldn't use it to protect someone he cared about? He swung hard again at the bag when it came back, sending it backwards. Nothing he did or said seemed to be helping, and she was refusing to allow him to help further out of a well-intentioned but nonetheless frustrating concern for him.

Exhausted, both physically and mentally, Zhen took one last angry punch at the bag, then slumped towards his bench. Grabbing his water bottle and phone, he sat down to recover. 

For a while, he mulled over what to do between sips of water. Perhaps there was some other way he could help her – she wasn't as strong as him, sure, but she certainly wasn't frail or weak by any stretch of the imagination, and he had no doubt she could overpower Bo if it ever came to that. She was simply tied down by office politics. But perhaps he could be strong for her in some other way, if he could give her support. Or even just the chance to vent. He had come down to vent his frustration with the situation on his gym equipment – now it was his turn to let her blow off some steam too.

Making up his mind, Zhen brought up his contacts list, tapping the phone icon next to Code's name. He started to worry after a few rings went by, but then she picked up on the fifth. "Zhen?" he heard her say over the phone, sounding surprised.

"Good evening. I hope I'm not interrupting anything," he responded.

"Nothing that can't be paused. Is something wrong? It's not like you to actually call."

Zhen took a breath as he set his water bottle aside. "I wanted to check in on you. I wanted to make sure you're all right."

"I'm fine," she answered, "I'm sorry for being grumpy earlier. I didn't mean to take it out on you."

"As long as you're all right, that's all I care about. I'm here to listen, if you want to get it off your chest."

"Thanks," she said, and when he heard her inhale, he braced himself, feeling only a tiny, momentary regret for his offer.

She immediately launched into a tirade. "It was just so hard to not slug him in his stupid smug face! It's bad enough I had to actually print something earlier – who demands printed forms in this day and age? – but no sooner do I get to the printer than that sleazeball walks up and goes 'Heeeeeey girl' like it's fucking high school..."

Zhen listened to her, only occasionally interjecting with a word or noise of acknowledgement to let her know she was still there. In a way, he was glad to hear her opening up, rather than constantly being cagey and guarded with her feelings. Minutes went by, but he continued to listen and encourage her.

"...just would not take the hint. Back home I've seen people get disciplined for less, but he kept going on about how I'd 'look better full of eggs' and how I 'ought to put those hips to use laying a clutch' for him. Does he seriously think those lines are going to work? Where I'm from, he would have been fired after the first one! I don't know how much more direct I need to get than telling him to piss off. Maybe I need to learn some colorful local insults from you. It's a bit scary, because I don't -think- he'd try anything forceful, but I don't know. I'm pretty sure he knows he's not going to get punished for anything he says, and he's hoping I'll relent to get him off my case. I won't, of course, but that doesn't make this any less unpleasant. I just... ugh."

Zhen waited a moment to make sure she was done before speaking. "I agree. I'm ashamed that there's such flagrant nepotism going on; I hope you don't think it's common over here."

"No, I don't. Or at least no more common than anywhere else in the world. I just feel so isolated. There were no fewer than six people around who heard that and not one of them came to help me, or said anything afterwards. I've contacted my consultancy, and they're doing what they can, but there's only so much they can do from across an ocean."

"I'm always here to help you if you need it," he reassured her, "even if it means just giving you a way to vent."

"Thanks. I appreciate it. I do feel better, but I'd like to talk about something else."

Zhen nodded reflexively before realizing she couldn't see him. "Of course," he answered verbally instead. "Do you really want me to teach you some local insults? I know a few good ones."

He heard her chuckle over the phone. "Maybe another time. But you know, you speak my language incredibly well. Where did you learn it?"

"Partly from school," Zhen told her, "but mostly from TV. Our cartoons here are, ah... not very good. Don't tell anyone I said that, please." He heard her snicker. "But I was able to see some foreign children's shows from a young age, and as I got older, I kept watching foreign things. It helps a great deal with casual conversation – our classes are usually very formal. Great for business. Not so great for small talk."

"And I guess you imported some adult movies eventually too, huh?"

Zhen blushed, but gave a nervous chuckle in response. "It's where I learned the more colorful words in my vocabulary, yes."

"Makes sense." Code replied, "I know enough to get around at work when I need it but I'm at a loss outside of the office over here. I'm getting better, though."

There was a brief pause, and Zhen realized something he'd been meaning to ask. He wasn't sure if it was a good time or not, but there was only really one way to find out. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Sure, go for it."

Zhen was grateful that the phonecall meant she couldn't see his nervous fidgeting as he worked up the nerve. "Both times we've, er... had sex, I noticed that you, ah..." he took another breath, and forced himself to ask his question in one go. "You seem to prefer anal?"

He heard her chuckle quietly. "That's putting it lightly. Though to be honest, while I do like it a lot – and I do mean a lot – it's more that I hate the normal option."

"'Hate' is a strong word. May I ask why?" he inquired.

She explained, "There's a lot of reasons. The biggest is that I end up going into heat for two weeks every year in the middle of summer, and I hate it." She sounded frustrated again. "It's the only time I'm fertile, and against my will, my body is aching and screaming at me to find a mate and breed. But I don't want children, and having to fight my own body over it every year drives me insane. I absolutely despise casual talk about it too – nothing turns me off faster than being told that someone wants to breed me, or knock me up, or whatever. And there were a lot of unwanted or single-parent kids where I grew up because of that kind of mentality. Those kinds of people just see me as nothing more than a womb to impregnate. Some conquest in their own mindless cravings to breed. I hate every moment of it."

Zhen blinked in surprise from hearing the venom in her voice. Her feelings on it were obviously very strong. "No wonder Bo is bothering you so much," he mused.

"Exactly," she confirmed. "Especially that cavalier attitude towards it. It rubs me the wrong way."

"So, for my own reference... is your front completely off-limits?"

"Just don't try and fuck my pussy," she answered bluntly. "Your fingers, your tongue, any toys or what have you, those are all fine. I liked it the other day when you were licking me."

"Fair enough," he told her.

"Anyway, that's the big reason. There's plenty of other stuff I like about anal too – it just feels better, for me and for the other person. Plus it's kind of... trusting, you know? Any guy can stick his dick in a pussy and get results, but doing anal without getting hurt takes effort, and care, and practice. If someone's willing to do that for me, it shows they actually care, and they don't just see me as a hole to fuck, you know? And even most people who will do it treat it as a second option; it's pretty rare for someone to prefer it on a woman. But even if someone doesn't have as strong a preference as I do, if they're willing to only take my ass, it shows that they respect me and my boundaries. People who know I don't like vaginal and insist on it anyway just show that they don't care about me at all, and just see me as a means to get their rocks off."

"I understand," Zhen answered. It made sense to him, but a moment later, he got an idea. If she was feeling uncomfortable because someone was hitting all of her turn-offs, maybe he could make her feel better if he pushed her buttons instead.

Lowering his voice and holding the phone close his mouth, he spoke to her in a lusty growl. "You do have an exceptionally fuckable ass, after all."

He heard her take a breath in surprise, but he pressed on before she could respond. "Both times so far I've been in your ass, it was incredible. You feel so tight around me, always squeezing on me, no matter how long we've been going." He had to admit, the talk was getting him worked up too. He could feel his shaft starting to strain against the front of his shorts as it tried to slide out from his sheath. Holding the phone with his left hand, he started to wiggle his way out of his shorts with his right, letting them fall around his ankles along with his briefs.

He could hear her breathing over the phone as well, audibly getting aroused by his words. "Go on," she told him between breaths.

"Just thinking about it is making me hard," he told her honestly, feeling some gratification from admitting it openly. He was sure he could hear her unzipping something in the background. "I wish you were here – I've only got my hand available to help me, and it's nowhere near as tight and wonderful as your ass is. And hearing the way it makes you moan... that makes it even better." He was surprising himself – having gotten past his initial hesitation, the words were pouring from his mouth freely, unrestrained, as he got more and more into the moment, grasping and stroking his cock to the thoughts he was having. "There's nothing quite like hilting inside of you when I finish – both times so far, it's felt absolutely heavenly to unload under your tail. Feeling you squeezing around me, holding in everything I fill you with."

He could hear her breathing more heavily than before, getting just as worked up as he was. "I've never had a particularly strong preference one way or the other, but I'm starting to rethink that. The next time we're together, I want to take you anally again. And the time after that, too." 

Her breaths were louder, and he could barely make out the groans she was trying to suppress. Zhen learned forward a little bit, ready for the metaphorical climax to his little speech. "You know what?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"I wouldn't fuck your pussy even if you offered – not as long as your ass is available."

"Oh, fuck," she said suddenly, still panting. "You really know how to rile me up."

Zhen couldn't help but grin to himself as he jerked his hand back and forth over his length with one hand, going from base to tip. "I'm stroking myself to the thought," he admitted to her in a low voice, "The thought of stretching you out the way we both love. I wish you were here – I'd already be pounding you from behind up against the wall."

He heard her groan briefly. "I'd love that too," she told him. "I'm fingering myself right now, wishing it was you instead. But it's just not the same... those ridges of yours feel so good going in and out of me. Every time one of them goes past my ring, it makes me tingle all over. And the first time, oh, I loved feeling your balls slapping against my pussy." Zhen's hand stroked faster as he listened to her praise, turned on by the sexual nature of it but also deeply enjoying what she was saying about him, specifically.

"Tell me more," he whispered to her over the phone.

"You know exactly what I want. You're not rough, you're in it for pleasure, for both of us. That's what I want too." She took a moment to catch her breath before continuing. "When you cum inside me, it feels fantastic. So much heat inside me, telling me that you enjoyed it just as much as I did. I wish I could have it right now."

"I'd fuck you at work if I thought I could get away with it," he told her, panting for breath. "I'd bend you over my desk and rail you until you squirted on the carpet."

She gave a wordless groan of pleasure in response to show how much she liked that idea, and he pressed on. "If you came by my office during a break I'd bounce you in my lap until you came. Your ass is more than good enough to finish me off within that time. It's hard to hold on for long inside someone so lusciously tight."

"Would you cum inside?" she gasped out after a moment.

"Absolutely," he told her, "I'd fill you with every drop I had." He listened to her panting and groaning on the other end of the phone for a moment, biting his lip, the follow words slipping from his mouth before he even fully realized he was saying them. "Maybe even piss inside you, too." Zhen was slightly shocked at admitting it out loud – he hadn't fully intended to voice that thought to her, but he was so deep in the moment that it had slipped out anyway.

"Fuck, I'd love that," she answered, her voice full of enthusiasm.

"You didn't seem to mind drinking it, so I could fill you up from the other end," he whispered to her, deciding to press on. "Just slide your pants down a bit, press into your ass all the way, relax..."

She moaned suddenly, cutting him off. "I'm- I'm gonna cum!" she blurted out, her breaths coming rapidly over the phone.

"Do it," he told her, "I want to hear it. Moan like you would if I was-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence when he suddenly heard her moaning loudly over the phone, gasping for breath, and then moaning again louder a moment later. He tried to listen to her entire climax, but was soon caught up in his own, pushing himself a little too far in the heat of the moment and suddenly shuddering in his seat. Zhen groaned out into his phone as his cock throbbed in his grasp, firing thick ropes of cum onto the floor. While he did moan a bit louder than he otherwise would have to make sure she could hear it, his ecstasy in the moment was as genuine as the thoughts that had spurred his orgasm on.

As suddenly as it began, he came down from his peak, even more exhausted than he had been before he had called her. He took several more breaths before he called out to her. "Are... are you there?" he asked between gasps. There was no reply for a moment. "Code?"

He heard fumbling – she must have dropped her phone at some point during her climax. "Yeah," she answered after a moment, her panting breath easily audible over the phone. "Yeah, I'm here. That was... that was good. Wow."

"For me, too," he admitted.

"I... I don't know how much of what you just said you really meant, but it was exactly what I needed to hear," she informed him, her words punctuated by rapid breaths. "So thank you."

Zhen sat up a little straighter. "I meant it all," he told her sincerely. "I want you to enjoy what we do – and what we've already done has been amazing."

She made a small pleasured noise. "You're going to make me want a second round with that kind of talk."

He chuckled, and then exhaled. "Tempting, but I'm completely drained. I was working out before this and I'm nearly dead on my feet. I still need to clean up – myself, and the mess you just made me make."

"-I- made you make?" she fired back with mock offense.

"It was the mental image of your lovely posterior that made it happen," he teased.

"Mm, well, I'll take the blame if it comes with the credit, too." She gave a small laugh, and then sighed. "I need to clean up, too. You made me squirt so hard, I hit the wall."

He snorted in amusement, unsure if she was exaggerating or not. "Sounds like we both need to get going. I'll see you tomorrow."

"You too. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," He responded, before hanging up. Putting his phone down, he took a side glance at the mirror again. He looked a little silly with his shorts around his ankles, but he no longer felt ashamed to look at himself in the mirror even in such a state.

Instead, he finally felt proud of himself again.

--------------------

Zhen checked his phone. It was almost ten minutes after the hour, and Code still hadn't shown up to the lunch table. Sometimes it happened, but she normally sent him a message to let him know what was going on.

He frowned, opening his messaging app to confirm he hadn't just missed a text from her. Absently stirring his reheated rice with his chopsticks, he contemplated going to look for her for a few seconds before he heard rapid footsteps approaching.

As he started to turn his head, he saw Code approach, one hand clenched into a fist as the other kept a death grip on the tupperware box with her lunch in it. She all but slammed it onto the table as she angrily sat down, and Zhen carefully measured how best to respond before he spoke. "Bo?" he inquired.

"That-!" she began, before taking a deep breath and forcing herself to lower her voice to a whisper. "That son of a bitch groped me," she spat.

Zhen nearly dropped his chopsticks. "He did -what-?" he asked in a hushed voice as he leaned forward.

"I was just getting my lunch from my bag, and he started hitting on me." Code rolled her eyes as she mocked Bo's voice. "'Hey babe, let me take you out for something better', and so on. I told him no, not interested, and tried to leave, but then he grabbed my ass. He's lucky my boss was still around, or he'd be picking his teeth up off the floor."

Zhen's frown deepened, his whiskers drooping. "What did you do?"

"I told him that if he touched me again, I'd break every bone in his hand," Code told him as she tore the lid off her lunch box. Shaking her head and grunting in frustration, she added, "He finally took the hint and backed off, but I'm sure he'll try again some time."

Drumming his fingers on the table, Zhen thought for a moment. "Let's go to my office," he told her quietly.

Code raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Why?"

"Fewer people to overhear."

She frowned as he started to get up. "I'm not afraid. If anything, he should be afraid; I could snap him in half like a twig if-"

She stopped as she noticed Zhen was giving her a firm stare, and once they made eye contact, he winked at her as he picked up his rice bowl. Curious, she put the lid back on her box and followed after him.

Zhen pushed open the door to his office with his elbow and stepped behind it, striding over to his desk and setting down his rice on it. Code followed behind, pushing the door closed with her tail, standing in front of his desk and giving him a curious look.

"Okay, what's this really about?" she demanded.

Zhen held up his hands defensively. "I didn't want to cause a scene. Go ahead and vent; nobody will hear us in here."

"I don't know what else there is to say, I'm just sick of him," Code began. "HR keeps brushing it off. I got in touch with my consultancy, but they're limited in how much they can help. But the worst part isn't him, it's that nobody else is helping! Almost all of my team was still there and they didn't say anything or try and help. They just kept their heads down and pretended nothing was going on. I got some empty reassurances afterwards but none of them was willing to stand up for me at the time."

"Do you want me to help?" Zhen offered.

Code gave a deep sigh. "I appreciate it, I really do, but I don't want to get you involved. It'll reflect badly on you and you have a promotion in your future. And you don't work directly with either him or me, so it would be awkward at best and probably wouldn't help much either."

"I suppose you have a point," Zhen admitted in a grumbling voice.

"I obviously can't rely on anyone around here," Code complained, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "Present company excepted, of course. Ugh. I'd go trash his office or something. He's got booze in there, or so he claims. I'd love to 'refill' it but I'd almost certainly get caught, if not by him then by someone outside it." She sighed, prying the lid from her lunch box once more.

Zhen brought a hand to his muzzle, tapping his chin in thought. He had an idea... one that would let her get some revenge without being caught, and would let him help a little too. But was it a good one? Would she go along with it?

There was only one way to find out.

"What about his truck?" Zhen suggested.

Code looked up from her lunch. "What -about- his truck?" she asked. "He never shuts up about it. What does he even need a pickup truck for, anyway? His ego?"

Zhen gave a wry chuckle. "Yes, everyone who's spent more than five minutes with him knows about his truck, whether they want to or not. I'm just saying... he has a reserved space behind the building. A perk of being the CTO's son, of course. And it's very quiet and secluded back there, especially when it's, say, about fifteen minutes into the lunch hour."

Code tilted her head, giving him a questioning look. Zhen began to worry, fidgeting a little as he resisted the urge to nervously wring his hands, but then he saw her smile. Well, it was more of a devious grin – one that revealed her sharp teeth.

"Oh. Oh, yes, that's a great idea," she muttered fiendishly, her tail swishing back and forth behind her. Tossing the lid of her lunch box onto the desk, she made for the door. "Let's go."

Abandoning his own lunch as well, Zhen hurried after her. Code led him towards one of the back stairwells, closer to the rear of the building – and even further away from the kitchen area where most people were eating. By the time they got to the corridor on the ground floor by the rear exit, there was complete silence other than the sound of their footsteps.

Reaching the back door of the building, Code approached the rear door – it was a heavy fire door with a bar across the middle. As the got close, Zhen told her, "Hang on. This is a one-way door. We'll have to go all the way around to get back in through the lobby, and that will be suspicious."

"I know," she told him. "I also know the company's smokers come out here on their breaks." She pushed open the door by putting her weight on the bar, and waved for Zhen to go past her. Just outside of the door, someone had left a brick, and she wedged it between the door and the frame so that the door wouldn't be able to close.

"I should have known the concept of 'exit only' wouldn't mean much to you," Zhen teased.

She snorted in amusement, and gave a small laugh. "You know me, I'm not going to use the front entrance if I can avoid it," she playfully fired back.

Zhen chuckled, taking a look around. Sure enough, Bo's truck – easily noticeable since it was the only pickup in the entire lot, let alone the reserved spaces at the back – was parked just a couple of stops over from the door, between a sedan and a van. The truck was also bright yellow, which helped it to stand out even further. As he had expected, there wasn't a single person anywhere nearby, and there likely wouldn't be – at least not until the end of the lunch break, but they had lots of time to spare.

"Want a hand?" Zhen asked, "I can help you let the air out of his tires."

Code shook her head. "Oh no, that asshole is getting a lot worse than that." She lifted up the hood on the truck, propping it open with the stand inside. Zhen raised an eyebrow, but quickly figured out what she had planned when he saw her unbuckling and unzipping her pants.

"Oh," he said simply as he watched. Not that he disagreed with her motivation.

Unfortunately, she immediately ran into a problem: it was going to be very difficult for her to actually piss into the truck with her pants around her ankles, since she wouldn't be able to lift a leg up very high. Taking them off would make it harder to make a quick getaway if it came to that, and keeping them high would make it likely she would get her own pants wet.

As she puzzled it over, Zhen approached slowly, a devious thought of his own percolating in his head for a few moments before he voiced it. "I could probably do that a lot more easily."

She chuckled, keeping one hand on her pants as she held them around her thighs. "Yes, I'm afraid you have the advantage over me on this one."

He continued, "You don't own a car, if I recall correctly?"

"No," she confirmed, "I don't even have a license."

He lowered his voice to something more teasing. "Do you know what happens if you get water in a gas tank?"

"Hm?" For a moment she was puzzled, but then it clicked. She pushed past him to wedge herself between the truck and the van, flipping open the gas tank cover. Quickly, she twisted the cap off, reaching over the edge of the truck to set it in its flatbed for the moment. With her right hand, she spread her pussylips apart, and stood close to the truck – she was just barely tall enough to put her waist level with the gas tank if she stood on her toes a little.

Zhen stood close by, watching as she took a few breaths and then started to piss. He couldn't see much, but he was able to barely catch sight of her golden fluid quietly streaming into the tank and out of sight. "Oops," she said a moment later as she shifted a bit from standing on her toes, and Zhen saw fluid running down the side of the truck. "Oh well."

He wanted to watch the whole thing, but they didn't have forever. He unzipped his pants and fiddled with the briefs underneath enough to reveal his sheath, using his fingers to spread it enough to expose the tip of his cock underneath. Despite not being aroused, he still took a moment to start – there was a certain thrill to what he was doing, even though the chances of them getting caught were miniscule, so long as they hurried up.

It was only after he started to piss that he realized he wasn't even aiming at anything in particular. His stream arced through the air and splashed onto the engine block, and he moved it back and forth as best he could – aiming like this was probably not unlike what Code was doing, and it wasn't easy. On the other hand, it wasn't really a situation where he cared if his aim was off-target at all – the bigger the mess, the better.

Glancing to the side, he saw Code still standing next to the gas tank, absently looking upward with her eyes closed. She slowly flicked her tongue out for a moment, clearly enjoying herself, wiggling her hips and deliberately splashing the truck on either side of the opening of the tank. "What -does- happen when you get water in the gas tank?" she asked conversationally.

Zhen turned his attention back to under the truck's hood, moving his stream around as well, splashing the radiator and the various pipes there. "It gets into the rest of the car, of course. It won't start, and he'll have to get a mechanic to drain the whole thing."

"I'd feel bad about that if he wasn't such a creep," Code muttered darkly. "I'll settle for him getting a repair bill instead of a medical one."

Zhen chuckled as he aimlessly sprayed the engine again, looking for something else to soak. At his corner of the truck, he spotted the cover for the windshield wiper fluid, and reached over with his free hand to flick it open. He didn't even watch where he was pissing as he unscrewed the cap underneath, and then turned to aim at it, directing his stream into the plastic opening. It drummed quietly on the surface and he stayed there, intending to empty the rest of his bladder into it.

"And what about the windshield wiper fluid?" Code asked. He glanced up and saw she was looking over at him as she fastened her buckle, having already finished and pulled her pants back up. "What happens if water gets in there?"

"I'm not sure offhand, but certainly nothing good." Zhen told her, looking down and seeing his aim had gone off-target and he was spraying the inside of the truck's paneling. As he adjusted himself to send his piss back into the wiper fluid container, he held himself there for a little longer before he ran dry, giving a few clenches of his muscles to get the remaining squirts out – though all of them landed on the container rather than in it. With a quick shake, the best he could do in his position, he got the final droplet onto the front bumper.

He screwed the wiper fluid cap back on as Code did the same with the gas tank cap, and then he quickly got himself presentable again, doing up his pants. He lowered the hood of the truck carefully to avoid slamming it, and took a quick look to ensure they hadn't left any evidence... besides the obvious spots of wet concrete.

Code quickly headed back for the door of the building, pushing it open and returning the brick that served as a doorstop back to its original position. They slipped back into the building, and as Zhen heard the door close behind him, he realized that they'd gotten away with it – and that he'd finally been able to help her out in a more direct, if somewhat unusual manner.

--------------------

Zhen took another sip of champagne. It was cheap stuff, but that was to be expected at a company party. It was Friday evening, and it had been Jao's last day; he was officially retired now but the company had put together a sending-off party at the function room of a nearby hotel. 

Thanks to him, Code was there too; normally a consultant like her wouldn't get an invitation, but he'd been allowed to bring a plus one, and had extended the invitation to her. Free food was still free food, according to her, so she had accepted and gotten a ride over in Zhen's car.

"Are you having a good time?" Zhen asked her conversationally.

"Please, it's a company party. The best you can have is a mediocre time," she responded flatly, but with a small smirk. "Come find me whenever you're ready to leave. I'm just going to be pilfering dumplings, hanging out with my team, and avoiding you-know-who."

Zhen nodded and bid her farewell to go and mingle. He met with Jao and gave him a heartfelt farewell and well-wishes, and greeted the various coworkers under him that he recognized – mostly the managers, since he was a technical director, but he knew a good number of the regular staff too, and it was a good opportunity to meet recent new hires while he was at it.

Still, Zhen had other things he'd rather be doing on a Friday night, and began trying to mentally determine how long he would have to stay to meet the expected level of courtesy. He passed on the food beyond one or two tiny appetizers, contemplating what he could make for dinner... especially if he could work up the courage to ask Code to come back home with him. He'd been considering it and preparing for it for a while – he'd made some special purchases, both for the kitchen and for the bedroom, but had yet to use them. Perhaps when she was ready to leave, he could...

"Something wrong, Zhen?" he heard from his side, snapping him back to attention. He turned and looked at the source of the voice, spotting one of his coworkers: an older tiger lady in a long, purple dress.

He shook his head and turned to face her. "Hello, Qiu. No, nothing's wrong."

"Just lost in thought?" she inquired, idly swirling her champagne around in its glass.

Zhen gave a small chuckle. "Just thinking about dinner. Nothing terribly exciting, but the last time I tried making pan fried noodles it... didn't go so well. I think I know what went wrong, though. But anyway, how have you been doing?"

"Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine. Just been a little worried, though."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Why's that?"

"Well, did you hear about what happened to Bo?"

Zhen's skeptical expression intensified as he asked, "No, what was it?"

"Some hoodlums messed up his truck," she told him. "He couldn't start it, and he had to get a tow truck to come and take it to the mechanic."

Raising his glass to his lips to hide his reaction, Zhen took another sip of champagne to buy a few seconds to formulate a response. Forcing a frown onto his face, he shook his head in the most disapproving manner he could manage to put on. "That's terrible," he responded carefully, "Do they have any idea who did it?"

"No, nobody seems to have seen anything, and there aren't any cameras outside," Qiu told him, and Zhen internally breathed a sigh of relief. "But what if they come back and do it again?"

"Maybe it was some kids from the local college," Zhen suggested. Trying to change the subject, he continued, "Don't you have a grandson there? How's he doing these days?"

"Oh, he's still in high school," she answered, but she was more than happy to talk about her grandson, to which Zhen nodded and listened. Eventually some other coworkers came over to join in on the conversation, and he began tuning it out; there was only so much he could care about children he'd never met.

Glancing and listening around, he tried to see if there was anything more interesting going on in his vicinity. Over the generic popular music playing in the background, and the noise of numerous conversations going on around him, he picked up a sound that made him frown deeply: a slurred "Heeeey, babe!" from somewhere to his left.

Turning his head to look through the crowd, it didn't take him long to pick Code's distinct scale coloration out from among his coworkers. Zhen wasn't sure whether to be impressed or disgusted that Bo had managed to get himself drunk off the cheap champagne so quickly, but his intoxication was obvious from his speech and his motions. Then again, given what Code had told him, he might have been drinking at the office before even coming to the party.

He couldn't hear what Code was saying, but she certainly looked very defensive, doing her best to keep her distance from the striped skink who was inching closer to her. For a brief moment, Zhen made eye contact with her, and he lifted his snout slightly in a silent inquiry. However, he saw her wave her hand at him from beside her hip, a subtle but clear signal for him to stay away. He frowned more deeply, but stayed where he was.

"Zhen?" he heard Qiu say from next to him, and brought his attention back to her. "Something wrong? You look like you just ate a lemon."

"It's nothing. I'm fine," he lied. Not being allowed to help was bothering him more than he cared to admit.

"Come now, I saw you looking at that sweet young lizard woman you spend your lunches with. You should go say something if you feel that strongly about her."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zhen said flatly, draining the rest of his champagne glass. He had no intention to get a refill.

"If you say so, but I think you two make a cute couple."

He took a breath, doing his best to keep the conversation polite. "She's a consultant," he explained, "She's only here temporarily. We just have some shared interests, that's all. There's nothing-"

"Get your hand OFF of me!"

The conversations in the room ceased after Code's sudden outburst, and Zhen turned to look for her again, fearing the worst. Everyone else was looking the same way towards Code and Bo, the latter taking his hand back after apparently having grabbed her arm.

"Don' be like that, girl, I'm jus' tryin'a show you a good time," Bo slurred, oblivious to the room's attention on him. "I know someplace private we c'n go, I'll make you feel better..."

Zhen scanned the crowd. Plenty of people were watching, some were muttering, but none were helping. Either from fear or cowardice or simply from the bystander effect, they were leaving her to fend for herself. He saw Code glance around at the crowd around her in a silent appeal for help, but no-one answered.

"Excuse me," Zhen said to his companions, without looking at them, setting his glass down on the floor. He began pushing his way through the crowd, despite the fact that he had no idea what he was going to do or say when he got over there, but he knew he had to do -something-. He'd had enough of being a powerless bystander.

"Zhen, don't-!" Qiu called out to him, but he ignored her, riding an unexpected surge of confidence as he focused only on getting over to the confrontation in progress.

Once he got close enough, he saw that Bo had backed Code up to one of the walls, the crowd edging away to make space rather than try and help. Of greater concern, however, was that he could see Code's right hand clenching into a fist, then unclenching and holding her claws at the ready; she was preparing to defend herself physically if nobody else would help her soon.

"Please, just leave me alone," Zhen heard Code say, with notable restraint in her voice. "I'm not interested. Go bother someone else."

"You don' have to be so frigid, babe," Bo continued, "I can warm you up real good, an' maybe put some eggs in you at the same-"

Zhen broke through the crowd, reached out, and grabbed Bo by the shoulder, trying to pull him away from Code. "What do you think you're doing?" Zhen shouted accusingly in his native language, loud enough for the room to hear. "Do you think this is any way to behave?"

Bo tore free from his grip and whirled around, and much to Zhen's surprise, he tried to take a swing with his fist. However, it was slow and uncoordinated enough that Zhen was able to grab Bo's arm mid-swing and stop him, and putting his other hand on Bo's chest, Zhen held him at arm's length. It did the skink no harm, but it didn't stop him from flailing fruitlessly and trying to grab onto Zhen's arm to pull him off.

"Fuck off, old man!" Bo spat, and Zhen resisted the urge to point out he was only in his thirties. In a fair fight it would have been no contest, but Zhen was holding back; he knew that if he did anything more than simply try to restrain Bo, he was going to be up to his whiskers in trouble. He also had no idea what he was supposed to say next – reminding Bo that he was disgracing the company and his family would probably have more of an effect on the audience than on Bo himself, so what-

Bo kicked at Zhen, weakly hitting his shin. It surprised the dragon more than it hurt him, but it was enough for his grip to slip sufficiently for Bo to break free. Staggering backwards as he tried to wind up for another swing at Zhen, Bo bumped into a table behind him and tripped; with a crashing of glasses and plates, both he and the table fell to the ground.

The attention of everyone in the hall was turned to the unfolding chaos, as others tried to back away in a hurry, more tables getting knocked over by accident. Looking to his side, Zhen saw Code staring at him in wide-eyed shock; deciding that it was his time to leave before things got worse, he turned to her and quickly pointed towards the exit. He mouthed, "Let's go," then turned and made his escape by skirting around the edges of the crowd and out of the room.

Outside, they came into a wide corridor connected to the hotel lobby. Before they could get far, Code grabbed onto Zhen's arm, getting his attention. He turned and saw that she looked furious.

"What the fuck, Zhen?" she demanded, trying to express her disbelief without raising her voice too much. "What are you -doing-?!"

"Helping my friend," Zhen told her firmly. "I saw someone I care about in trouble, and I came to help. Isn't that what friends do?"

"Yes, but did you have to do it like that?" she demanded. "You're going to be in deep shit! I told you not to get involved! I didn't want you to put your own career at risk to-"

Zhen grabbed onto her shoulders, interrupting her. "I don't care about my career!" he told her sharply, looking her in the eyes, but doing his best to avoid letting his own temper flare in response to her outburst. Maintaining his gaze, he added in a quieter tone, "Not as much as I care about you."

She went silent, and he continued. "What kind of friend would I be if I let you get harassed just to preserve my own job security? What kind of person just turns a blind eye to misbehavior because they don't want to upset their boss?" Lowering his arms, he gently held her left hand in his own hands, meeting no resistance from her. "How could I look at myself in the mirror knowing I could do something to help, but chose not to out of fear and selfishness?"

"But..."

"What did you think you were trying to prove by keeping it all to yourself? I've seen and heard how uncomfortable you've been recently," he explained. "You're good at hiding your feelings, but not that good. Your distress has been obvious. And besides – all I did was scare him a little. Don't think I didn't see that you were about to hit him."

Code glanced away, looking at the hand she had been clenching earlier, and then closed her eyes for a moment. "Thank you," she said quietly after a moment, relenting. "You stopped me from doing something stupid."

"Of course," Zhen replied softly, glad that it hadn't broken into a full-blown argument. He glanced back towards the hotel's function room. "We should get going. Let me take you home and make you a proper meal."

She gave him a nod, following him as they made a quick exit from the building. "I'd like that," she told him, then bitterly added, "The dumplings weren't very good anyway."

He took her to his car, and it was a quiet drive to his house. She broke the tension a little by turning on the radio, but they listened to it in silence. Throughout the trip, she seemed distant, and Zhen was concerned for her, but unsure of what to say. However, when he pulled into his driveway and they got out from the car, he saw her look at him over the top of the car. "You have a nice place," she told him.

"Thank you," he replied, starting to walk up towards the door as he fished in his pocket for his keys.

"I'm feeling better now. I'm glad that someone here cares about me, at least." She followed him up the path, standing by his side as he unlocked the door. "I'm just... conflicted. You did the right thing, but I'm worried-"

Turning to her, Zhen reached out and pulled her into a hug without hesitation, holding her against his front. "I don't regret it," he told her quietly, "but even if I did, I'd rather help and regret it, than not help and regret that instead."

She took a deep breath and hugged him back. "Thank you."

"Besides," he said with contempt as he released her, walking inside and turning on the lights, "I didn't really want that promotion anyway. I have enough of my calendar eaten up by meetings as it is. I'd still like to do -some- programming at my job."

She laughed a little, and he was glad to hear the sound. "That's exactly why I went into consulting instead of becoming a manager or an architect or something."

"Precisely! I only became a technical director because of the 'technical' part." He shook his head, letting out a sigh, closing the door behind her and locking it. After he did, he turned to her and took a breath, standing straight. Even though the rush of adrenaline from his unexpected – if brief – fight with Bo had worn off, he was still feeling more confident than he ever had before with her.

"Code," he asked her bluntly, "do you want to stay here overnight? I'd be happy to have you, but if you'd rather be alone tonight, I understand."

In the middle of taking off her shoes, leaving herself barefoot, she looked up at him and gave a small smile. "I'd much rather stay here," she told him. "Do you have a couch or a futon or something...?"

"I have a pull-out couch," he told her. His heart pounded as he considered his next words, but as soon as he knew what he wanted to say, he started speaking. "If that's what you really want, I can bring down some blankets. But you're welcome to share my bed, if you'd prefer."

He'd considered giving her all the usual extra disclaimers – that there was no pressure, that she could say no, that he would only do what she was comfortable with, and that he'd understand no matter what her decision. But she already knew that, and he knew that it didn't need to be said.

It took her a moment to answer, barely a second that seemed to stretch on forever and made his newfound confidence waver, but she stepped over to him and took his hands, looking him in the eyes. "I was hoping you would offer," she murmured to him. "I don't want to mope and be alone tonight. I want to be with someone who cares about me. I want to be held and appreciated, to know that I'm wanted by someone – genuinely, and not in that superficial way that Bo was coming after me."

Zhen's heart fluttered as he gently held her hands, aware of his own hastened breathing. He didn't know what to say, so instead, he leaned forward a little. When she did too in response, he leaned in the rest of the way, and kissed her.

In that moment, it was like a dam breaking – all of his pent-up desires and emotions surged, and he gave in to them. He let go of her hands to instead wrap his arms around her, squeezing her upper body against his as he tilted his head to kiss her deeply, locking his muzzle with hers. As her arms reached around him, he ground his hips forward, pressing the growing bulge in his pants up against her, finding her grinding herself back against him just as eagerly. His hands roamed over her back as she held onto him, his tail lashing behind him and brushing against the wall. He groaned into her maw as he held her close, hearing her doing the same; he closed his eyes to savor the moment, wishing silently that it would never end, feeling her rubbing up against his loins through his clothing...

He wasn't sure how much time had elapsed when he broke the kiss, panting heavily for breath, but keeping her held tight in his grip. Opening his eyes a little, he saw her looking back at him, her eyes filled with a desire much like his own. 

"I couldn’t help myself," he told her quietly, and heard her chuckle. With a sigh, he continued, "Code, I... I know this can't last. When your contract ends, you'll head back home. I hope we stay in touch, and maybe we'll be able to see each other again if I make business trips to near where you live, even if we don't have a long-term future together. But..." He saw her nod in understanding, and he continued. "...despite that, I still deeply appreciate all the time we've spent together, and I want to enjoy your time with me as much as we can while you're still here."

"I feel the same way," she told him, squeezing him a little with her arms. "I'm grateful for everything you've done for me, and I wish I could stay here longer. I know what we have is transient, but it means a lot to me." Moving slightly closer to him, she quietly added, "And I'll always remember our time together."

"Me too," he muttered softly, holding her tightly. After a moment he leaned in to kiss her again, but it was different this time; rather than the wild passionate kiss from before, this was more tender, an expression of their shared desires. He reached his hands in between them and started undoing the buttons on her shirt, but despite the intensity of his lust, he took his time, wanting to savor the moment with her, gradually exposing more of the sea-green scales of her chest. She let her arms hang at her sides as he tugged her shirt down and off of her body entirely, and dropped it onto the carpet. 

In a similar fashion, he shrugged off his suit jacket, tossing it aside before working on his own shirt. As he undid the buttons, he felt Code's hands reaching for his chest and rubbing over it as he exposed more and more of the scale-covered muscles underneath. Pushing his chest outward and into her grip, he stripped the shirt off and let it fall, leaving him just as shirtless as her.

He put his arms around her and pulled her close once more, now without any clothing between their bare chests, her thin, forked tongue dancing around his larger tongue. He felt her hands moving over his arms, rubbing up the muscles there, and he gave her a squeeze to make them flex for her to feel. After a few seconds, he brought his hands between them to unbuckle her belt, then undo the button and zipper behind it. She shifted and wiggled her hips to let her pants fall down to her ankles, stepping out and kicking them away, without breaking the kiss for a moment. Leaving her clad in her panties, he instead reached for his own belt, his pants joining Code's on the floor nearby a few seconds later.

Grinding up against her once more, with just the thin fabric of his tented briefs and her damp panties separating their loins, he reached behind her and squeezed firmly at the curves of her rump before sliding his hands down to the backs of her thighs. Easily pulling them up to lift her legs off the floor, he felt her grip on him tighten as he did; with her held securely, her knees at his sides, he began shuffling through his house with her, heading for the stairs and bringing her up them one step at a time.

It wasn't until he shouldered open the door of his room and brought her to his bed that they finally broke their kiss, both of them breathing heavily afterwards. Carrying her to the bed, he set her down on it and tipped her gently onto her back, his hands gripping her panties to slide them off of her legs as he stood up straight, leaving her naked at last. She wiggled back on the bed, spreading out her legs to show off both of her holes, beckoning to him enticingly with one hand, her chest heaving up and down as she breathed deeply from her arousal.

Coming back to his senses, he wasted no time in awkwardly shoving his briefs down over the erection tenting them, letting them fall to the ground. As he walked to the other side of the bed, he pulled open a drawer and took out a bottle of lubricant, before climbing up onto the bed next to her and getting onto his knees, his cock jutting out towards her and throbbing needily.

"On your side, please," he said between breaths as he started slicking up his shaft with his left hand. Knowing what was in store, the touch of his fingers against his sensitive flesh felt utterly insufficient; he wanted her, and nothing else was going to be able to satisfy him that night.

"You're very well-prepared," she commented, rolling onto her left side to face away from him, keeping her head turned to watch his slicked hand gliding across his length. Teasingly, she curled her tail upward and raised a leg, flaunting her ass to him, presenting the curves of her rump and that tempting, tight tailhole of hers, the very bottom of her pussylips just barely visible to him as well. They, and the inside of her thighs, were glistening with her juices.

"I've been wanting this – wanting you, here, at home – for a while," he explained, squeezing out more lube onto his fingers. "I made sure I'd be ready whenever it happened." Reaching over and pressing a lube-covered digit up against her sphincter, he teased and pressed at it to ease his finger into her rear tunnels, listening to her groan softly. She was so tight! He could hardly bear to be outside of her, but soon, soon, he would be able to satisfy their desires. Gently, he slid his lubricated finger in up a bit at a time all the way to the knuckle, moving it around inside of her to encourage her passages to loosen up a little, feeling them relax around his digit.

Once he had slicked her up enough, Zhen closed the cap on the lube bottle and tried to set it on the bedside table behind him without looking. He heard the bottle fall to the carpet, but didn't spare it so much as a glance, and instead shifted closer to her as he lay down behind her. His arms wrapped around her, one sliding underneath her body, and he pulled her close as he spooned up against her from behind, as closely as her thick tail would allow. She draped that long appendage over his hip as he settled in behind her, taking a brief moment to grab the bedcovers and pull them up and over them to just below their shoulders.

"I want you so much," she murmured between breaths, wriggling back against his chest.

"Me too," he murmured simply, grinding his well-lubricated cock up against her rump until he felt the tip nudging at her tailhole. Keeping his left arm wrapped around her while the right reached between her legs, he brushed his fingertips against the lips of her slit, discovering that she was soaking wet. She wanted him just as much as he wanted her – he was hard as a rock and leaking copiously.

Shifting his hips forward, he pressed his cocktip more firmly against her rear hole, putting more pressure against it. Zhen inhaled sharply the ring of muscle yielded and he began penetrating, his pointed draconic glans stretching her out as it pushed inside; even with his finger having loosened her up a little, he still felt her anal walls tightly enveloping his sensitive flesh. He also heard her groan out in pleasure, her toes curling under the bedcovers. He held her more tightly with his left arm as he eased himself into her, both of them making pleasured sounds as the ridges on the underside of his length popped into her one at a time. 

Once the last ridge popped into her tight rear, he ground his hips up against her rump, his left arm keeping her held tightly to his chest. He savored the moment, gently rocking his hips to press his shaft against her walls, embracing her warmly, resting the side of his head against hers, his whiskers draping over her neck. As he began pulling his hips back, he slipped two fingers into her pussy, teasing at the inner walls there, listening to her moan as both of her holes were pleasured at once.

Nuzzling her head as he picked up a gentle rhythm, Zhen moved his hips back and forth, withdrawing his shaft partway before sliding back into the wonderful tightness of her rump. Every pop of one of his ridges into or out of her tailhole brought them both pleasure, as the two of them took heavy breaths between Code's moans and Zhen's pleasured grunts. His fingers dipped in and out from her slit, and occasionally pressed up against her walls so that he could feel his cock sliding through her anal passages on the other side of the narrow wall of her flesh.

"Your ridges feel so good...!" Code groaned aloud.

"Because you're so wonderfully tight," he murmured to her in response. He took his time, savoring the moment, nosing against the side of her muzzle as he brought his hips back, pushing them forward after a pause, sliding his length in and out of her steadily as opposed to thrusting. After some time she twisted her upper body, turning her head to press her snout against his, and he held her tightly as he shifted his torso to lock lips with her in another kiss.

They each groaned into the other's mouth as Zhen picked up the pace just a little. He started to make proper, if gentle thrusts into the tight confines of her ass, and spread apart the two fingers in her pussy, stretching out the nectar-drenched walls. His tongue dove into her mouth, her thin forked tongue flicking and rubbing against his in return, both of them breathing heavily through their noses.

Zhen's eyes drifted closed as he tenderly fucked her, losing himself in the moment, and the feelings of how soaking wet her pussy was around his fingers, how passionately she was kissing him back, and how tightly her ass squeezed against his cock. She placed her arms over his, holding them against her as he held her to him, gradually increasing the pace of his thrusts to a moderate tempo.

He was deliberately holding back, at least on himself – but not on her, as his fingers wandered around inside of her slit, teasing at the inner walls. He brought his thumb close to the top of her netherlips, blindly feeling around until he pressed it against the nub of flesh at the top, making her shiver in his grasp and moan into his mouth. Each time she squirmed against him, curled her toes, or made a pleasured sound, he took it as a small personal victory, reveling in each one alongside the pleasure he got from hilting himself inside of her tailhole again and again.

When she began writhing in his grasp all of a sudden, he almost wondered if she needed to tell him something – but the splash of her pussy juices against his fingers and the tightening of her ass around him told him all he needed to know. Slowing his thrusts but keeping his fingers and tongue moving, he pleasured her throughout her climax, holding off to avoid succumbing to his own for the moment. His grip on her remained firm as she shuddered and squirmed in climax, and he listened to her muffled moans of ecstasy, feeling her squirting against his fingers and getting her juices all over the bedcovers below.

All too soon, he felt her go limp in his arms, and he broke the kiss, stopping his movements entirely, while she immediately began to gasp and pant for breath. Withdrawing his fingers from her utterly soaked pussy, he slipped his right hand between her legs from behind, lifting her right leg up by the thigh. He rested his head against hers, nuzzling at her cheek as his whispers draped over her jaw and neck, and whispered sensually to her, "You're amazing. I want more. Do you?"

She took a few more heavy breaths, her chest heaving, but gave him a nod, patting the back of his hand encouragingly. With that, Zhen drew his hips back, sliding each of his ridges out from her rear hole until just the head of his cock was left inside, and resumed his thrusting.

But this time, he didn't go slowly.

Zhen savored the pleasure of pounding his hips against Code's smooth-scaled rump, driving every inch of his shaft into her all the way down to the hilt. Over and over he brought his hips back only to slam them against her again, groaning from the tightness of her walls around his throbbing spire of flesh. She moaned out next to him each time his balls swung forward and slapped against her drenched pussy, and he grunted in pleasure between his heavy breaths as he went all-out on her.

His hips hammered against her in a blur, his arm holding her in place. He could feel his pleasure building up on each thrust, each pop of one of his ridges in or out of her sphincter, and he gritted his teeth as he kept up his rapid pace. She moaned and squirmed in his grasp, hands clinging to his arm tightly, her eyes rolled upward and her forked tongue hanging from her mouth. He closed his eyes tightly as his climax drew nearer, starting to feel exhausted from how long he had been pounding her continuously, but he was determined not to stop even though he was panting and heaving for breath.

"I can barely hold on...!" he groaned to her, but she couldn't form a coherent response. She suddenly tensed in his grasp and wordlessly cried out as a second orgasm overtook her, and when her tunnels clenched and squeezed around his shaft, Zhen didn't slow down. Even as ecstasy surged through him and his mind was drowned in pleasure, he continued to thrust his hips into her, feeling each thick shot of his seed erupting inside of her ass. Her squirting nectar splashed onto the front of his balls as they slapped against her slit, until he was finally too exhausted to continue and hilted himself into her as deeply as he could, grinding his hips up against her rump. They both groaned and shuddered together as he blew the rest of his load into her anal passages, and both were left in an immobile heap together to bask in their afterglows when they came down from their peaks.

Zhen's head swam, barely able to discern anything around him. He was completely drained, but it had been unquestionably worth it. He lowered her leg and brought his right hand around to her front again, resting it on her belly as they stayed locked together, the room completely silent but for the sounds of them each taking big, heaving breaths of air.

Slowly, gradually, they recovered, their breathing slowing down over time and becoming steadier. Neither of them moved; Zhen had no idea how long for, his perception of time completely gone as he savored the lingering pleasure, enjoying the moment with Code as he relaxed against – and inside of – her.

"Thank you," he heard her murmur after what had probably been several minutes. Smiling, he nuzzled his snout against the side of her head, keeping her held to his front. And as he did, he relaxed a little more, giving a long, slow exhalation of breath...

She let out a gasp when she felt the liquid warmth pouring into her from his mostly-soft shaft, followed by a shuddering groan. "Zhen...!" she gasped out, but offered no protest to the dragon relieving himself inside of her, flooding her already cum-filled tunnels with his urine.

"It feels just as heavenly as I'd hoped..." he muttered to her, giving her another nuzzle. His right hand slid back towards her pussy and gently brushed over her netherlips, coming to rest over them. Speaking in a silky whisper, he invited her, "Won't you join me? I have to wash these sheets anyway, you may as well..."

At first she did not respond, but Zhen knew that if she was averse to the idea, she would have said something. His smile grew when he felt her relax against him, and temperate fluid began washing over the fingers that were resting against her pussylips. Gently, he spread her labia slightly apart with his index and ring fingers, letting the middle one play over the stream that was gushing forth from her urethra.

Both of them were too tired to do much more than lay there, as Zhen emptied his bladder into her ass while she released hers onto his hand, where it spilled down onto the covers below, soaking the fabric and spreading out. He savored the intimate moment with her, and was disappointed when he finished pissing into her, tensing his muscles to make sure he gave her every last drop. She continued for a while longer, and he let her room-temperature fluid run through his fingers, sometimes pressing them together to let her piss pool up in them for a moment. But when she ran dry as well, including the last squirts, she let out a soft sigh and leaned back against him.

"Thank you," she repeated to him quietly.

"Thank -you-," he replied, hugging her with his left arm.

She relaxed against him for a moment before speaking again. "I suppose we should go and clean up," she admitted grudgingly.

"We both need a shower," he agreed, "and I need to get the laundry going soon so that we'll have a dry bed to sleep on. And then I'll make us some dinner. Don't worry about the mattress, I got a waterproof liner for it... well, just in case something like this happened."

She tipped her head back a bit, turning it to look at him. "Oh?"

"I've been wanting to bring you to my home for a while," he reminded her, then sighed morosely. "I just wish it weren't under such poor circumstances."

In response, she hugged his arm closer to her front, and rubbed her tail against his side. "These circumstances seem pretty good to me," she teased him, rocking her rump against his hips, making him smile once more.