FSE

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The first firework thrust into the night sky on a pillar of fire and smoke and exploded in an orgasm of orange light. Following on, dozens more, screaming and gasping through the air, spurting streamers of bright colour across the darkness, an onslaught of noise and flashing fire.

Siri stood close behind me as I bent over the controls, my fingers poised ready to terminate the program if a single firework should ignite or explode out of the proper sequence. He cleared his throat. "Everything running smoothly, Filo?"

"Yes, boss."

"Great. Excellent. Good job, girl, yet again." He tapped me gently on the shoulder, his hand lingering for a moment longer than necessary, then moved away.

There was a big crowd packed tightly into the narrow confines of the town square. Mostly us kakari, but other species as well: a group of huge dark shadow-eaters sat hunched ponderously in a far corner, looking easily over the heads of the smaller kakari, and I could see the small long-tailed forms of trieffi dashing excitedly along the front of the crowd, occasionally being persuaded back behind the safety barrier by the marshals. On top of the blockish, brightly-painted concrete buildings framing the square perched a gaggle of brek'bûr, brown fur under big black leathery wings, sulking loudly about the loud exploding things filling their sky and pretending unconvincing disinterest.

Only one brek'bûr watched with undisguised rapt awe and that was Beni, my colleague and friend, his furry head thrown back to face the sky, his mouth slightly open displaying rows of pointed white teeth, every brief flash and flower of exploding colour reflected in his huge unblinking black eyes. Beni was difficult to mistake for other brek'bûr. Raised by kakari, he didn't just bear a kakari name; he talked like one, lived like one and dressed like one. Currently he had on a specially-adapted fire-resistant orange overcoat, from which a surprising fraction of him protruded unprotected: his long-eared head, his strong clawed feet and delicate clawed hands, his broad fanned tail and his great folded wings. We all had to wear a similar garment when working, but even away from work he followed kakari clothing fashions strictly. A normal brek'bûr, in contrast, found their own fur to be clothing enough.

Beni had seemed impossibly strange when I'd first met him, but after a year working together I'd become so used to him that sometimes I even forgot he wasn't one of us. As my eyes flicked from him to my other colleague Kako, standing beside him, I was struck by how strange we kakari must look to the brek'bûr, with our grey, hairless, tailless bodies, our green eyes, our slender limbs with clawless hands and feet.

Remembering my responsibility, I turned my attention back to the fireworks. Catherine wheels spun on slender metal frames, intricate wheels within wheels producing strange organic-looking windmills of fire, making the crowd gasp. Things were reaching a climax now. As the last Catherine wheel sizzled to a standstill the final thunderous volley of rockets was launched into the air, exploding in deafening blasts which scattered the whole sky with colours: first brilliant red and blue, then sizzling orange and yellow, finally sparkling green and white. A gleaming forest of light seemed for a moment to cast its canopy over the whole town, illuminating the delighted faces of the crowd as it sprouted and blossomed across the sky. But then at last there was silence, and nothing but pale leaves of smoke drifting down from the heavens.

There was work to be done. As the crowds dispersed we moved to gather up long lengths of wire, countless igniters, supports and safety guards. Carefully, thoroughly, checking for misfired or unexploded fireworks.

Siri watched over us as we worked, peering through a small, square-lensed pair of glasses; an archaic affectation on a world where corrective surgery was both effective and free. Occasionally he would offer polite direction in a gentle but officious manner, or stamp a mark on his official pad. He carried about with him an unrufflable neatness; he may have been wearing the same utilitarian one-piece orange coat as Kako and I, but somehow he wore it in a way that made it seem smart, even formal. Even his crests, the three low webbed extrusions which swept back across his head from just above his eyes and marked him as a male, seemed somehow arranged.

He interrupted me as I worked. "Filo. Could I possibly see you in my office for a minute?" I left Kako and Beni to finish up and followed.

Siri's "office" was his home and means of transport, exactly the same basic model of grey metal travel cabin we each lived in. Inside was the same driving seat, the same tiny bed, the same little table and chair and miniature kitchen. But absolutely not the same chaotic untidiness which dominated my own. Not even a single postcard or knick-knack offered its personality to the room, giving it an anonymity so severe as to be distinctive. As I entered I turned to close the door, and lock it. Siri stepped up behind me and slipped an arm around my waist.

It wasn't illegal, under kakari law, to have a relationship with your superior; but it was generally considered highly inappropriate, and if the company ever heard of it it might lose us both our jobs. So we kept it a secret. But now, safe in the privacy of the cabin, we relaxed. His long fingers played across my belly, and his other arm came round to rest across my chest. I leant back into him, smiling as he kissed the back of my neck and then breathed in deeply, as though savouring my scent.

"I hate this sordid secrecy," he told me. "Every time I see you I yearn for you." He kissed me again: a long, gentle, tickling kiss on the side of my neck.

He released me and I turned to face him. I saw that his crests were now standing slightly erect and tinged red. It was hard for males to hide their lust in public; I could only assume Siri managed it by a colossal effort of self control.

Reaching up a hand, he carefully removed the pair of glasses, folded them and deposited them on the little table next to where we stood. He straightened himself and blinked, regarding me critically, and then as though I had met his approval pulled me to him and kissed me.

Siri always came across as such a quiet, cautious, reserved man. His kiss was nothing like that. His kiss was hungry: no gentle meeting of lips but an insistent onslaught that had nothing to do with love and everything to do with raw animal lust. I could never have defended my resolve against a kiss like that had I tried. I wasn't trying and I felt myself melt inside, pooling down from my mouth into my groin.

We broke apart, panting. I felt lit up with lust; all my restrained passion and physical desire, fuelled by a day of insistent and penetrating thoughts about Siri, let loose at last. And from the look of his crests, now standing proud and flushed a brilliant scarlet, I knew he was every bit as eager.

We both shrugged out of our overcoats, me flinging the thick orange fabric carelessly to one side, he dropping his neatly over a nearby hook. I wore nothing but a simple knee-length sarong, knotted around the waist: the almost ubiquitous unisex kakari dress throughout the summer months. Siri wore the full formal kalassa, a complex layered series of garments shrouding him from shoulders to ankles, all immaculately well-tailored and spotlessly maintained. It was an oddity that he always wore such a thing - most of us would only wear one to a wedding or a funeral - but I had to admit that he did look fabulous in it.

Siri didn't like to talk, but he liked to be touched. After kissing again, I ran a hand over his crests, pressing them down and letting them spring back up, then down the smooth surface of his skull, around the sharp line of his jaw, and onto his neck. He stretched back his head to let me better run my fingers over the taut curve of his throat, murmuring softly as my fingertips stroked back and forth.

He moved his hands to rest gently on my hips. I let my hands trickle down over the clean, creaseless fabric of his kalassa, feeling the bony slant of his shoulders beneath. Then my hands poured down his broad flat chest, noticing the fast but steady rhythm of his heartbeat before gushing around his waist. I splashed my fingers all over the jut of his hips, the curve of his back, before letting them seep irresistibly downwards under his waistband into the soft white depths of his clothing. They came to rest on the firm cushion of his buttock. I squeezed. He twitched very slightly in response.

I had no will to move slowly. Fumbling with the material of his kalassa I jerked its skirts down to his ankles in one clumsy motion, and flung its upper sections apart like curtains. At last my hands were free to flow and ripple over the smooth softness of his groin, grey flesh dappled with white, then down to touch the rumpled potency of his testes, and finally streaming along the proud grey shaft of his cock, relishing its solidity, its erectness, its readiness.

I looked up to meet his bright green eyes staring deep into my own. He was breathing deeply, burning lust and intent written in every feature. I allowed him to push me backwards with a hand on my chest, guiding me until I stood with my back flush against the wall, the smooth hard surface chill against my skin.

He kissed me again, even more insistent and insatiable than before. And as he did so his hands worked my sarong, carefully unknotting the fabric from my waist and sliding it free, exposing me to him.

Pulling himself away from the kiss, he looked down to regard me. With a single finger he caressed me between my legs, running it gently around my opening, sending a pleasant tickling tingle rippling up me. And then, ever so carefully, he pushed the tip between the lips, just a little way, making me shiver in anticipation. It was there for just a second before he withdrew it, and brought it to his lips to suck thoughtfully.

Suddenly his hands were back on my hips, gripping firmly. No more foreplay. Never more than a few minutes, with Siri. He stood pressed against me, pinning me to the wall, his kalassa still flapping loose around his shoulders and ankles. I could feel his cock as it came to rest wetly between my legs. We kissed again; intense, uncompromising; and as we kissed I reached down a hand and guided him into me, the whole length sliding smoothly in, filling me, making me shake and gasp.

He adjusted his position only slightly, and then he began, pulling back his hips and thrusting himself back into me. And again. And again. I began to count the thrusts in my head.

One, two, three...

His pace was completely steady, not too fast, not torturously slow.

Five, six, seven...

Each thrust pushed me firmly against the cold wall at my back, and sent a little jolt of pleasure tingling up my spine.

Ten, eleven, twelve...

Siri was a machine. He took seventy-five or sometimes seventy-six thrusts to reach an orgasm, and I relished every one of them.

Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five...

He didn't gasp, or grimace, or grin, but just stared down at his thrusting pelvis with a frown of absolute concentration.

Thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six...

I squirmed with pleasure as the sensation intensified, each thrust burning brighter than the last.

Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty...

A couple of times he'd come after seventy-seven thrusts, and once after only seventy-four.

Fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty...

He didn't speed up at all as the climax neared, just kept up the same unrelenting pumping rhythm.

Sixty-eight, sixty-nine, seventy...

I was nearing fruition, each thrust an injection of unbearable ecstasy.

Seventy-four...

I gasped...

Seventy-five...

I gasped again...

Seventy-six.

We both gasped as he came, his frown of concentration loosening only slightly as he let loose a hot squirt of seed inside me. His hips stopped their pulsing for a brief moment, then resumed.

Seventy-seven, seventy-eight...

I cried out as at last I came too, the sensation exploding around his buried shaft like a firework...

Seventy-nine, eighty, eighty-one...

A firework burning bright but fading.

Eighty-three... eighty-four... eighty-five.

He stopped, panting, as the last echoes of orgasm drifted apart like smoke.

It was festival night. Every town and village had its own festival night, a time in the year when everyone stopped work and came out to dance, sing, eat and drink through the darkness, all work, rivalries and worries forgotten for one night. It was always festival night somewhere. And there were always fireworks. For us, every night was festival night. That was why I loved the job.

I met Kako and Beni, dressed in sarongs and already hung with garlands in green and white: the town colours. Kako had let someone paint her chest and arms in green and white abstract patterns, and Beni had achieved a similar and remarkably striking effect by smearing paint through his long brown fur. I briefly wondered how long it would take him to clean it out again.

"Hey, Filo, where've you been?" Beni spoke in kakari. I didn't even think he knew how to speak brek'bûr. His alien vocal chords gave a strange texture to our language: a deep, rasping, rounded sound that had been distracting at first but quite pleasant once I'd become used to it.

"Just talking tomorrow's sequencing over with the boss," I lied.

"Hss-ss! He could do that any time, he doesn't have to keep you away from the festival. I suppose he's not coming himself?"

I laughed. "Of course not. Can you even imagine it?"

He paused to think, his black eyes drifting skyward. "Yes. I can see it. Right in the middle of the crowd. Wearing an official garland."

"Singing an official song."

"With an official girl on each arm."

"Oh, heavens, Beni, what an image. I don't think it's getting Siri's official stamp of approval."

"But those official girls might, if they drop their sarongs and bend over."

"Ha... hahaha..." Privately I wondered if Siri would be up for a little play with his official stamp. Probably not.

I let Beni paint my chest, his clawed hands deftly applying a swirling pattern of green and white paint without once scratching me, while Kako went to get me a drink and my own string of garlands. Once properly equipped, the three of us moved into the throng, weaving through revellers, singers, dancers, street artists and hawkers. We found a part of the crowd where there was a good vibe and a good beat, drummers and hornists sharing a slow but lively rhythm irresistible to the feet, and we joined the dance. We danced and we drank and when there was food we ate and when there was song we sang. We danced and laughed with strangers, all friends for the night. And there was always a crowd about us, because we had Beni, and people flocked around Beni, staring and pointing and laughing and cheering him on. The brek'bûr dressed like a kakari, painted like a kakari, dancing like a kakari, talking and laughing like a kakari. And Beni danced harder than any of us, jumping and twisting and prancing with surprising grace, apparently completely at ease with his gawping onlookers.

The night grew late and the festivities slowed down; the crowd thinned, quietened, calmed. Kako had disappeared somewhere and I found myself alone with Beni, both too tired for more dancing, in a quiet green corner under an aged and leafless tree. There was still a little music in the distance, but now the main sound was the chattering, groaning discord of a few brek'bûr voices calling out across the night sky; the debate, gossip, squabbles and seductions of a nocturnal and completely unfathomable society. I'd gotten used to this strange background chatter. But as we sat there, the peace was broken by another brek'bûr noise that was far harder to accustom to: a pair of rhythmic gasping screams cutting through the night air from somewhere nearby but out of sight. To a brek'bûr, making as much noise about it as possible seemed to be an integral part of good sex. The other brek'bûr on the rooftops stopped still to listen, their ears perked. Beni and I were quiet as well, until the sound had reached its shrieking climax and passed away. I looked at him. I wondered, not for the first time, if he'd ever...

"Hey, Filo," he said quietly, patting me on the shoulder with a clawed hand.

"Mmm?"

Beni was a dark-furred shadow in the dim night, his great folded wings an even darker shadow behind him as he sat hunched in the grass. But I could tell that he was tense. His ears stood erect, and I caught an unaccountable nervous shake in his voice.

"If you're... in love with somebody, and you can't stop thinking about them, but... but you think they might not feel the same way, should you tell them?"

I grinned. So Beni had his eyes on a girl, at last? It would be hard for him. His clothes, his kakari manners would mark him out as impossibly alien to most brek'bûr girls. He might have to deal with a lot of rejection before he found a mate who'd accept him.

"Oh Beni, of course you should! It might not go how you want, but you have to try. If you don't try. you'll never get anyone! It's simple really. Don't try to overcomplicate it, is my advice, we girls are simpler than we like to pretend. Just wait for a nice quiet moment and say to her, oh I don't know, 'I love you'. It's a classic, but it works."

"I love you."

"That's it! Now what girl'd be able to resist that if it's you saying it? So don't keep me hanging, who's the lucky girl?"

"No! Filo! Listen!" He clasped his furry hands around mine and stared into my eyes. "I love you."

I started. I stared. He stared back at me. I could see the moon reflected in those eyes. His hands shook, and he swayed very slightly from side to side, nervously.

"What?" I said stupidly, at a loss. "Me?"

"Yes, you, it's always been you." He talked too quickly, garbling some of his words. "Remember that first day we went to the festival together? It started then, then every day after, I... I love you, I... I love being with you, I love talking with you, I love everything about you. I can never stop thinking about you, ever. And... and I really hope that maybe you feel the same way?"

Part of me wanted to laugh. Here was a randy brek'bûr making advances on me! But most of me wanted to cry. Here was a good friend opening his heart to me. How was I going to let him down gently? Blast that I couldn't tell him about me and Siri! It would have made a good excuse, it would have been a way to avoid breaking his heart.

"Beni." I steadied myself, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I love you too, in lots of ways. As a friend. My best friend. You know I do. But..." He kept staring at me, with no change in his hopeful expression. "But not in the way you're thinking of. It's just... well... you're a brek'bûr, Beni. I'm a kakari. We can't... be more than friends."

His head dropped, his wings slumped, his ears lay flat back along his neck. He looked away from me. I'd broken him.

"Beni, look, you need to find yourself a pretty brek'bûr girl."

"No." He shook his head, his voice shaking. "No. I just want you." He bent back his head and tucked it under one of his black folded wings, his kakari manners breaking down to let slip this distinctly brek'bûr expression of utter despair.

"Beni! Oh no, Beni, please don't be like this. We'll always be friends. Always! I'm flattered, Beni, really, I... Beni, please come out and talk to me, I want to see those pretty eyes of yours."

It was no use. He'd curled in on himself completely, legs and arms and head and tail all tucked closely into his body. He wasn't responding to anything. I didn't know what else to do, so after a while I lifted him into my arms and started to carry him home. We were about the same size, but being evolved for flight he was a lot lighter than he looked, and with considerable difficulty I managed to manoeuvre him to his cabin, which fortunately wasn't far, placed him gently on the bed, pulled his blanket over him and left him.

"You'll never guess who propositioned me last night." It was morning and I was helping Kako pack our equipment away for the day's journey.

She stopped what she was doing and grinned impishly. "Was it Beni?"

"Yes! But how'd you guess that? It was quite a shock to me."

She gave me a resigned look. "You really are perfectly blind, aren't you? It's plain as the sun in the sky he's obsessed with you."

"Really?"

"Really really. So, I suppose I can finally give you two my congratulations?"

"What? No! Of course not!"

She narrowed her eyes. "Whyever not? I thought you liked him? Is he upset? I haven't seen him all morning."

"What do you mean, 'why not?' Because he's a brek'bûr!"

"Ha!" She snorted. "No he's not. He's a kakari."

"Kako, he has wings."

"And have you ever seen him fly?"

"Well... no. I'm not sure he ever learned how."

"And have you ever seen him open his wings?"

I stopped and thought. "I must have... I'm sure I have. A little bit, for balance. Or to scratch an itch. Or when it's really hot and he needs to cool down."

"But have you ever seen him open them properly? All the way?"

"Um... actually, I don't think I ever have."

"Of course you haven't." She picked up a heavy box and shouldered it into the back of her cabin. "Because he's embarrassed of them. He's a kakari, and kakari don't have wings."

"Exactly."

"But he's a kakari up here." She tapped her head. "He's a kakari in every way except his body. Is that what's bothering you, Filo? Is it a physical issue?"

"Not exactly," I said uncertainly. Sleeping outside my species was something I'd always been interested in trying, and Beni had a certain appeal in his own distinctive way. If he'd just asked me for sex... well, it might have been a giggle. But he hadn't. He'd said he loved me. His intent was far more intimate than mere sex. And a relationship - that whole boyfriend girlfriend thing - across the species divide was something I just wasn't comfortable with. Plus, what neither Kako nor Beni knew, was that I was already in one.

Beni didn't come out of his cabin all morning, but when we set off for the next job his little home moved neatly into place at the end of the convoy.

Our journey only took us twenty minutes. It was only five miles to the neighbouring town, which looked an exact replica of the one we'd just left except that the streets were hung with garlands of orange and red rather than green and white. The fireworks were to be big and elaborate and expensive, as it was every town's civic pride to outdo their neighbours in the extravagance of their festival night.

It was a long afternoon's work. Beni emerged to do his job, his expression unreadable, and he kept an embarrassed distance from me all day. Finally everything was in position, and it was time to program the ignitions, but realising I hadn't had the official stamp of approval for the sequencing I went looking for Siri.

When I reached his cabin I could see a light shining through a chink in the curtains, and as I was about to knock on the door I thought I heard voices inside and paused. And listened. I could just make out Siri's voice: "I hate this sordid secrecy. Every time I see you I yearn for you."

I froze. What? Moving quietly I ducked under the window and peered in through the chink.

Inside stood Siri. And Kako; their arms about each other's shoulders. As I watched he leaned in to kiss her, and I could see it was the same devouring, passionate kiss I'd thought he only gave to me.

No. Please, no. I could barely breathe. My mind strived for an escape: some explanation that made this not what it looked like. But there was none.

Somehow I couldn't stop watching, even though every moment felt as though it burnt me from the inside. I watched as they broke from the kiss and she began touching him, just the way I touched him. I watched as she pulled off his sarong and ran her fingers along his cock, as eager and erect as it had ever been for me. I watched as she did what I had seldom done, kneeling in front of him and taking him into her mouth...

And then I stopped watching and ran away, well away, and cried. I don't think I'd ever cried so hard. I just sat down on the ground and wept tears of anguish, of self-pity, of hopelessness, letting the tears stream down my cheeks and splash onto the grass.

"Filo?" I looked up, wiping the tears from my eyes to see Beni standing over me. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"I... I don't want to talk about it." I cut off his protestation before it began. "Just shut up and come here. Right now. I need to hold someone."

He sat down beside me and I threw my arms around him. I buried my face in his thick, soft, pungent fur and sobbed some more. Beni didn't say a word, just wrapped an arm around my shoulders and let me cry it out, and soon I felt the black sadness drop away, letting a deeper emotion surface: anger. First, anger at Kako. How could she do this to me? But quickly I realised this was baseless anger. Kako almost certainly didn't know about me and Siri any more than I had about her and Siri. She'd been fooled just the same as I.

And so finally I was left with anger only for Siri. It wasn't so much his sleeping with Kako that upset me. I was an open-minded girl, and if he'd told me he was sleeping with both of us, I probably wouldn't have minded too much, once I'd got used to the idea. It was the lies. I'd never loved him, not really, it had been mostly physical, but he'd claimed to love me, and I'd believed him. He'd said I was the only one, that I was special, that one day we'd be a proper couple. He'd probably said the exact same words to Kako. We'd been made fools of, and I was furious that I'd believed him.

Beni stayed silent, moving slightly to rest his head on my shoulder. He had a warm, pleasing, heavy scent which helped to calm my thoughts. What to do? I could tell Kako. But I didn't want her feeling like this too. Let her keep Siri, and enjoy him in innocence for as long as possible. But I couldn't just do nothing. Confront Siri? To what end? You could never win an argument with him; he never shouted or raised his voice, just talked quietly and reasonably until you started to suspect that you'd been wrong all along.

"Filo? You want to talk about it?"

I realised I'd stopped crying some time ago. "No, Beni, it's something I can't tell anyone about. Not even you, I'm sorry."

Much to my relief he didn't try to argue the point, but just nodded. And that's when I came up with the plan. How to hurt Siri. It was a petty, vindictive plan, I knew, but right then petty and vindictive was exactly what I needed.

"Beni, about last night..."

The day's work was over. Our fireworks had been blasted into smoke and dust, and the debris cleared away. We were ready to join the celebrations. I'd been in a grimly cheerful mood all evening, and Beni, working alongside me, was back to his usual high spirits and then some.

"Filo, girl." Siri beckoned me over. "Could you come back to my office for a moment? I'd like to discuss some improvements to the sequencing."

I recognised the signal: Siri wanted sex. And mere hours after I'd seen him with Kako! This was the moment I'd been looking forward to.

"I don't suppose you could excuse me tonight, boss, I've got something a bit special planned."

"Special?" I thought I detected a flash of pique in his expressionless face.

"Well, I've got a date."

"A date?" There it was. The beauty of it. Don't let him know you found out, just let him think he's been dumped, that you found someone better. And the best was yet to come.

"With whom?" he asked stiffly.

I beckoned Beni over and looped an arm round his neck. He rested an arm on my side. "With Beni here."

His face was perfect. Completely expressionless if you didn't know how to read it, but if you did... there was the indignation, the wounded pride, the confusion. I wasn't just dumping him. I was dumping him for a brek'bûr.

He held onto his outward calm with what must have been an enormous effort of self control. "Very well then. You two have fun." And he turned his back and walked back to his cabin. To fume in private, I liked to imagine.

Beni looked at me, grinning a toothy brek'bûr grin. "Would the lady care to accompany me to the dance?" he said with mock formality, holding out a hand.

I took it in mine, and we walked together towards the crowds and noise.

"Remember, Beni, one night to see how it goes."

Part of me was complaining that it wasn't fair to use Beni like this, just to spite Siri. But another part insisted I was only giving him what he wanted. And even though at the end of the night I was going to tell him it would never work, at least he'd be happy for a few hours.

Nearly every night for the last year I'd danced alongside Beni. We both loved the dance, and it was a big part of why we both loved this job. But I'd never actually danced with him. Not until that night.

It was hard, coordinating movements between two people with very different anatomies, and hence, very different natural styles of dance. But we tried, slowly at first, then daring more complex and dangerous rhythms. It was hard sometimes to keep up with Beni leaping and sliding about, looking like a flickering flame in his red and orange make-up.

I helped myself liberally to drinks from passing vendors. Beni gave me a concerned glance about the amount I was drinking but said nothing. I needed the alcohol to help me forget about Siri. And to help me let Beni down later.

It didn't help that I was enjoying myself. Dancing with Beni was fun. His feet moved in complicated and unpredictable patterns, and trying to match it was a challenging and invigorating experience, often sending us crashing into each other, or occasionally other people. As I felt the alcohol starting to upset my dexterity a bit too much I reached out my arms to hold onto him. He clasped me back and we stood embraced, just our feet dancing, but slower. It seemed that we danced like that for a whole wonderful hour, maybe it was really only five minutes, until suddenly we found our feet tangled inextricably. We both tumbled over sideways, landing heavily on the soft ground.

We didn't get up straight away, but lay there regarding one another. His breath was warm against my neck.

"Filo this may be going too far too fast but I really want to kiss you."

I still felt bad about using him. Letting him have one little kiss seemed the least I could do.

"Go on then."

Besides, it was another new experience in life: kissing a brek'bûr. Not many kakari could have done that. Not least because, I was pretty sure, kissing wasn't in a normal brek'bûr's repertoire.

We pulled towards each other cautiously. As our lips met, the first thing I noticed was the fur brushing over my lips and chin, tickling, not unpleasantly. Kissing Beni was nothing like kissing Siri. That had always been a very one-sided process. This was a two-person dance, not least because as we began we had no idea what we were doing. Two very different mouths that were never designed to fit together, fumbling, learning, but enjoying every moment. The alien caress of his strange lips, the warm musk of his breath...

As we parted lips, Beni said, "we need more practice at that."

"Much more," I agreed, meaning it. I hadn't expected it to feel so... right. "Maybe we should work on it somewhere more private, though."

He looked up, seeing the crowd of staring onlookers for the first time. "How about another dance then? We were just getting good."

As I staggered to my feet, swaying slightly, I though I saw Kako in the crowd, grinning at me. I waved for another drink.

The ground seemed to sway under me as we walked back, and I had to lean on Beni for support.

"Filo? Are you alright? I've never seen you drink this much before."

"Never better. Thank you for... for a wonderful night." We'd reached the cabins. Time to say goodbye. Time to... thoughts swirled incoherently. Something I'd been meaning to do. At the end of the night. Something about Beni. What was it?

"Goodnight kiss?" I hazarded.

He kissed me, briefly but affectionately. I glanced around: we stood in a secluded spot, hemmed in by three of the cabins. There was mine, there was Beni's, so the only person who could have seen that kiss was...

Siri. I'd managed to forget about him, but there he was again, the thick waters of my mind swirling sluggishly around him, all the grief and the anger and the hurt. I thought I saw a dark shape behind his window. Could that be him standing there? Watching us?

"Filo, you can barely stand up. Maybe I should see you into your cabin?"

Just at that moment the shrieking cries of two mating brek'bûr split the air, from somewhere nearby.

"See me... into my cabin? Oh, oh! You think you can... take advantage of a girl, when she's had a... little bit too much to drink?"

He visibly jumped in surprise. "What? No! No, no I didn't mean like that. I just wanted to make sure you're alright."

My mind's wobbly focus was still fixed on the dark shape behind Siri's window that might or might not be Siri. I didn't register what Beni had said.

"Well I think it's an excellent idea. But why wait for the cabin? Let's... let's do it out here!" That'd show Siri.

He stared at me for a moment with those impenetrable black eyes, and then said, coolly, "I really think I should get you back to your cabin."

"Wha...? No... here's fine. Here's great. It'll be... it'll be fun! Come on, let's get these off." My hands fumbled with my sarong, and it fell to the ground.

He looked. His tail twitched uncomfortably. He looked, his face expressionless, for a good few seconds before he tore his gaze back up to my face and kept it there. "Filo, you're half blind with drink, perhaps you should put that back on?"

"No. No no no. You put yours... put yours off." I flung my arms awkwardly around his shoulders, around his folded wings. I'd forgotten about Siri again. I wanted Beni. I needed Beni.

"This is all getting a bit too crazy for me. How about you put your sarong back on and sleep on it?"

"This... this is what you want, isn't it?" I dropped a hand to grope between his legs, making him twitch in surprise, feeling something hard and substantial under the cloth. Much more down there, I though blurrily, than Siri ever had. Or any kakari. I had to have it.

"I... uh... wow, crazy and gropey, what a night. Filo, you can probably feel how much I want you. But... not like this."

"Aw, come... come on, Beni, I want it... inside me..."

"Filo!" He snapped at me, loud and severe, with a flash of sharp white teeth and a menacing hissing undertone I'd never heard before. "Get your hand off me!" I let him go. His face and voice softened. "Please, stop this and get to bed. You're... you're embarrassing me."

Something crumpled inside me and I fell to the floor. And, for the second time that day, I wept. The last thing I remembered was emptying my stomach onto the tear-spattered grass.

I woke to a pounding in my head. And pain. Every sense seemed to be hurting me, including a few new ones I hadn't known I'd had. It took a few minutes to realise that the pounding wasn't all in my head. Forcing myself out of bed, wincing as my feet touched the floor, I lurched dizzily to the door, tripping over boxes and discarded clothes on the way. Behind it was Kako.

"Filo, you look awful! Beni said you'd had too much last night; I can see what he meant."

Beni. Beni! Memories came flooding back. I was supposed to let him down gently and instead I'd... offered myself to him, and then groped him. I groaned out loud.

"Good grief, you sound as bad as you look. I left you as long as I could, but we've got to move out, boss won't wait any longer."

A thought nosed against the back of my mind, making me grimace. I looked down. I was wearing my sarong. Beni must have...

"What... did Beni... say?" I said with some difficulty.

"He said you'd drunk half the town's supply of thistlewine and thrown it back up again, and that he'd had to put you to bed. What did you go and do that for? And on your first date too. He was really worried about you."

My mind caught up. "Moving out?"

"Yes, remember? We've got a lovely long drive, all through this afternoon and tonight, to reach Matchwater City by the morning. Which is good news for you, by the look of you. So how about you set your cabin to convoy behind mine and go back to bed?"

It seemed like a good idea. I did it.

"Beni, I'm really sorry. About last night. I lost my head completely. Thanks for looking after me."

It was evening, and the light was already fading. We'd stopped at the company depot to refuel and restock. I'd slept through half the afternoon, and spent the rest running things through in my mind, and my headache had receded to a dull throb.

"No, Filo, I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? I don't think you've got anything to apologise for."

"Yes I do. It should have been obvious you were unhappy about being with me. The amount you were drinking! Did you really need to blind yourself with alcohol before you could bring yourself to dance with me? To kiss me? I guess you lost control of it in the end. Don't get me wrong, I think it's incredible that you'd go to such lengths to make me happy. But I'd like it better if you were happy. We can go back to how things were before. It's alright."

I laughed. I couldn't help it. For hours I'd been worrying, that he'd be angry with me, disgusted with me, or just have lost interest in me. But there he was apologising.

"Beni! You've got it all wrong! I really enjoyed last night, I didn't think I was going to, but I did, well apart from that last bit, and... look, right now I've never felt so sober in my life. Let me show you how drunk I need to be to kiss you, you silly thing."

And I kissed him right there, a gentle kiss on the lips, lingering for just a few seconds. He lit up at once, and surprised me by throwing his head back and letting forth a brek'bûr shriek of joy.

In the corner of my eye I saw Siri, in conversation with his superior, look over towards us, but it wasn't about him any more. I had no more interest in revenge. In fact, I wished he and Kako a long and fruitful relationship. For me, it was only about Beni now.

"Sorry about that noise, I lost control of myself there."

"Hey, I'm sure it's good for you to let out a bit of your inner brek'bûr every now and again." He seemed about to argue otherwise so I quickly changed the subject. "What say we try another date, say..." driving tonight, working tomorrow... "tomorrow night. And I won't drink this time. We'll do it properly."

He nodded eagerly. "You can spend tonight in my cabin, if you'd like." I gave him a speculative look and he jumped visibly. "Oh! Sorry, that sounded like... oh dear... I didn't mean sex, I just meant being together. You know, talking and things." His fur was prickling up in embarrassment. "I... get lonely when you're not around."

I thought about my own solitary afternoon. "So do I. Sure, I'd love to."

And so, as our small convoy drove off, I left my cabin and came into Beni's. Inside was a cacophony of colour. Every town we worked in, Beni picked up cheap garlands in the town colours, as did Kako and I. Unlike us he kept them, and used them to decorate his cabin. They covered every wall, were draped over the little table and bed, and hung in twisted ropes from the ceiling, meaning I had to duck to move about. Everywhere I looked was a multicoloured confusion of synthetic flowers, every one a memory of some place we'd been together.

Beni slipped into the driver's seat and set the cabin to follow my own (itself following Kako's), at the back of the convoy. I pulled up the chair to sit beside him, and we watched the world go past as night fell, talking, the way we always had, about people and places behind us, telling jokes and sharing fancies. It was why he and I had always been such close friends: we felt easy enough between us to tell each other anything. Or at least, almost anything. Ever since Beni had told me he loved me, there'd been an awkwardness there, but now it had drifted away.

Things weren't the same as before, though. There were new possibilities. As we drove through the darkness we practised kissing, just for a few minutes at a time, then back to conversation until the fancy took us again. We were getting better at it. Before long we knew our way around each other's mouths, knew how to please each other, how to anticipate and react to each other. It was a delicate game, a give and take, an all-absorbing sharing I couldn't get enough of. He even surprised me, once I thought I knew all his moves, by slipping in his long, round, pointed tongue to quest enticingly around my own.

I told him about Siri and me, as I should have done a long time ago. I'd been worried he'd be upset, but he just found it extremely funny. But I didn't tell him about Siri and Kako. That secret wasn't mine to give away.

Eventually, with my head drooping against his chest and my eyes struggling to stay open, it became impossible to put off any longer. We were going to have to go to sleep.

"I'll take the floor," I offered.

"Why don't we both take the bed?"

I looked critically at the tiny bed, comfortably large enough for a single sleeper, but only if they were willing to keep their limbs reasonably close to their body. "I see a problem here."

"It'll be alright, we'll snuggle up."

I'd had sex with a few men over the years; usually short, casual relationships. But I'd never actually slept with anyone, in the literal sense. I'd always wanted to.

"I can't imagine I'm going to get much sleep packed in with you in that tiny thing, but I like the idea anyway. Let's give it a shot."

It took some trial and error, but we managed it, me on my side, back to the wall, Beni facing me, snuggled close, our arms looped around each other. His wings and tail drooped over the side of the bed. Neither of us had removed our sarongs. As I buried my face in his soft fur, relishing his heavy scent, I thought, this is nice, but how long are we going to stay like this before we admit we're never going to get to sleep in this position?

When I woke up it was light and I was still holding Beni. He was already awake, his great black eyes staring into mine.

"How did you sleep?" he asked.

"Wonderfully. And waking up in your arms was even better. Did you get some sleep too?"

"Not much. But with you to hold I didn't mind being awake."

We kissed then, long and engrossing, and as we did my hands delved under his folded leathery wings to comb through the fur of his back. Something was unfolding inside me: kissing wasn't enough any more. Our legs, intertwining, rubbed up and down each other sensuously. It seemed that tiny bed contained the whole universe, and it was a universe of passion, and of lust I could hold back no longer. I slid a hand between his legs and grasped what I'd first touched two nights before, now feeling even harder through the cloth. And this time there was no objection; he just kissed me even more intensely.

After we'd finished kissing, we lay in silence for a few minutes, me gently stroking his cock with my fingers.

"Are you sure you're ready now?" he asked me softly.

"Fuck yes. Are you?"

By way of an answer he laid a hand on the knot of my sarong. I nodded, and he began working it loose, while I turned my attention to his own. Our efforts were somewhat distracted as we'd started kissing again, more furiously and less patiently than before.

There was a loud thump at the door.

"You two, up now!" yelled Kako from outside. "There's lots to do, and we're running late! Boss wants you up and ready for work in five minutes!"

We looked at each other forlornly, hands frozen mid-undressing.

"Tonight?"

"Tonight."

It was going to be a long day.

Matchwater was the second-largest city on the south coast; its streets teemed with a mind-boggling mix of kakari, tiny trieffi, scaled cauroid people, huge dark shadow-eaters, statue-like sapoliths and fragile-looking plentilalii, whilst bickering brek'bûr shared the sky with a small fleet of proud grey hyeloki.

Naturally, a big city had to have big fireworks on its festival night. Frankly, the job was a much bigger one than a small team like ours should have been handling in a single day. Someone - either the city or the company or both - was trying to cut corners. We had to work fast and efficiently, setting up head-high metal gantries armed with batteries of fireworks, leaving us plenty of room underneath for the more technical job of wiring up the electronic fuses and triple checking every connection. A single mistake could be disastrous.

Even Siri was getting his hands dirty for once, rigging up a set of gantries on his own. I'd been worried that he'd be holding a grudge against me for dumping him two days before, but he treated me with nothing but his usual cool courtesy. It was Beni he took his frustration out on. If there was any job that was tedious, or unpleasant, or unrewarding, Beni was being assigned to do it. Siri never set us to work together, keeping Kako and I on one side of the site, and Beni on the other. Through the whole day we never got a chance to exchange more than glances, but even that was enough to keep my spirits high.

Somehow, eventually, we got everything set up on time, and there was nothing more to do but safety and sequencing checks. We were all exhausted, our orange fireproofs splattered brown with mud, but Siri had a barely detectable smile in his eyes. I recognised it as anticipation of something to come. Either he was about to find a reason to invite Kako back to his cabin, or he had some petty, vindictive plan of his own cooking: either way, I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"Beni," he said sharply, "Gantry nine. I can see it wobbling in the wind, go shore up the supports."

Gantry nine? That was in the cluster Siri had erected. He was getting Beni to fix his own dodgy handiwork now! Even worse, the ground underneath was a quagmire. I watched Beni duck under the set of gantries, a metal roof laden with rockets, a lacework of wires hanging underneath, and set to work on the centremost support. Siri was punching a program into the control unit; Kako was away testing connections in the opposite direction.

Something was wrong with Siri's gantry. Very wrong. Something worse than a wobbly leg. Something so fundamentally wrong I couldn't see it...

Suddenly I was running towards Beni, shouting his name, waving my arms desperately. "Beni! Out! Out! Get out!"

He stopped what he was doing to look at me in confusion as I dived in next to him. "Look!" I shouted, and pointed up. At the array of rockets positioned just above our heads. Every one of them pointing downwards.

There was a faint click as the local priming circuit activated. We had seconds, if that.

I grabbed his hand, meaning to run, but he pulled me to him. He seemed absolutely calm, his great black eyes staring into mine, as to my astonishment he unfurled his wings, magnificent black leather sheets big enough to block out half the world. And as he wrapped them around me, blanketing me, he pulled me closer and kissed me softly. Then the air exploded.

Beni was in hospital for two weeks. They filled him with so many painkillers that for the first two days he was barely aware of where he was or who was around him, and just lay quietly on his bed, swathed in bandages, a steady stream of drool dripping from between his pointed teeth. When they dropped the dose on the third day, and he came to himself, he was angry. Angry because he'd been put in a brek'bûr ward when he was, as he explained to no effect, quite clearly a kakari.

I'd escaped with only a few minor singes. As for Beni, his fireproof coat had saved his life, but even so, the fire had gotten through and badly burnt his back. As for his wings and his tail, which had been unprotected, they'd been reduced to stumps. Beni thought this was great: two of the features which most distinctively marked him out as a brek'bûr were gone, and he'd never needed them anyway. He was quite disappointed to hear that they'd grow back over the next few years. He even threatened to take steps to prevent their regrowth, until I told him quite firmly that I thought they'd looked very fine on him, and was looking forward to their return.

I visited every day, sometimes with Kako, sometimes alone, to tell him stories and hold his hand and listen to him complain at length about the conditions he was being kept in. And when it was time to leave I'd give him a parting kiss, soft and lingering, which never failed to get as astonished a silence from the brek'bûr patients as it had from any kakari crowd.

He was happy for any company other than the five sick brek'bûr who occupied the other beds in the cramped ward. Having no common language he couldn't talk to them, and every day he complained about their habits. They were naked. They talked too much, and too loudly, and sometimes sang discordantly. They kept trying to talk to him, and touching him. They licked their genitals and did their business where people could see, as though it were natural and not something to be ashamed of. He kept up his air of disdain until the end, but on the last day, when I came to take him home, he went round each of the beds and said what I took to be goodbye in pidgin brek'bûr, and touched foreheads affectionately. Perhaps he was starting on the long road to discover the half of his heritage he'd always taken such pains to reject.

"What did you do to your cabin?" he asked. "It looks different."

Ever since the incident, our fireworks operation had been suspended until an investigation had been completed. I'd parked in a quiet spot overlooking a little town a few miles down Matchwater Bay.

"I tidied it."

"That explains why it looks so unfamiliar."

Beni looked good. He was spry on his feet and his burns had mostly healed although were still apparently somewhat sore, a testament to the remarkably rapid healing powers of the brek'bûr. Even the fur on his back was regrowing, albeit in a shining silver which didn't match with the brown on his front. It gave him a unique, striking look.

"And here's something else that's new." I reached under the little bed and hinged another section out, completely blocking the way between one side of the cabin and the other but doubling the width of the bed.

In the hospital Beni had worn nothing but a thin white sheet for modesty. But every day when I came to him I saw him swell for me beneath it. And every day I'd had to fight the urge to slip in under that sheet and sate myself on him, right there in the ward.

And so when it came that we found ourselves standing there, just him, and me, and our pent-up lusts, and a moderately large bed, we neither of us needed to speak, we just sank down together, embracing with our arms and lips.

Our hands went everywhere. His clawed digits flashed their tender touch from my neck to my hips to my face. I didn't have the slightest fear that his claws would scratch me, and they didn't. I longed to grab him by the fur of his back and pull him to me, but knowing he was sore there I put it out of my mind, and instead ran my fingers through the thick wool of his chest, over his long hairy ears, round his furry rounded shoulders.

He broke from kissing long enough to say, "I guess it's time I let you see me without this thing," gesturing to his sarong.

"Actually, I already took a peek when they took you into the hospital."

His ears flattened. "You were raking your eyes over my privates while I was unconscious?"

"Hell yes. And now you're awake I'll rake my fingers over them too."

I let a hand slip under the waist of his sarong, pushing through dense fur, getting thicker and longer and softer until I found my fingers clenched around his long, straight shaft, pleasingly solid. He paused motionless, mouth slightly ajar, as though completely absorbed in my touch. I loved the firm feel, the warmth, the size of it in my hand. Moving down to the base I felt the tantalising twin bulge of his testes, carpeted in tickling hair; sliding back up to the tip, I felt my fingertips become slick with sticky liquid. Rubbing my thumb over the smooth rounded end of his cock I heard a deep rattling purr resonate deep in his chest.

Flashing him a cheeky little smile I worked him a few times with my hand, slowly, up and down. He felt good to handle, like the shaft of a well-oiled machine. I felt his his clawed grip tighten, saw his tongue flicker in and out.

"Filo, I... I've been pent up for a long time. I'm not going to last long. If you keep on doing what you're doing, I'm going to make a huge mess right now, in my sarong."

"Well. We can't have that." With my free hand I ripped off the offending garment, without breaking the rhythm of my stimulation.

His cock was long and black and straight, with a fluted head alternatively concealed and revealed by his foreskin as I worked him. Behind his cock hung his two furry round balls, looking more than large enough to imminently produce, in his own words, a "huge mess".

I pointed his cock squarely at my chest and sped up my attentions.

"Mmrrr, that's good... but, Filo..."

"Shh. Make as big a mess as you'd like, whenever you're ready. But kiss me."

I felt his pleasure from the twitching of his lips and tongue. I felt it quickly intensify, noticing his hips begin to thrust impatiently in rhythm with my hand. My fingers stroked his chin encouragingly. I knew when he reached a climax by the way his lips tensed and paused mid-kiss, by the rumbling sigh which caught in his throat... I felt and heard these things a moment before I felt his hot seed spurt across my skin. The first wave was a powerful jet of spunk projected in a tight line up my chest and splashing against my throat. The subsequent spurts were less powerful but no less voluminous, the tap of Beni's cock gushing liberally over me again and again, forming hot pools of wetness on my belly and dripping down my sides onto the bedding.

When the last warm drips had been teased out of him we lay still for a few moments, gazing into each other's eyes. He panted softly.

"Now you might last a little longer when we do it properly," I said, stroking his cheek, pretending it had all been planned and not just my hands being unable to hold themselves back.

"I'll need a little time to recover before I can do that again."

I silently cursed my impatient hands. I needed him inside me. I wanted that deluge released inside me. How long did a brek'bûr take to recharge?

My chest was dripping with his cum. Curiously I dipped a finger in the viscous fluid and licked it clean; it was quite unlike kakari seed, with a sickly sweetness that lingered on the tongue.

"Here," he said, "let me clean you up."

I lay passively on my back and he bent to lick my chest with his long, slick tongue, lapping up the liquid, tickling and making me giggle. As he rubbed me clean with a hairy forearm he grimaced. "Ugh. I taste awful."

"Not to me you don't, I like it," and to prove it I kissed him, tasting the heavy sweetness still on his lips. "And I liked it when you were licking me."

"Maybe you could lick me so I know how it feels?"

"And me get a mouth full of fur? Dream on!"

Without warning he licked my face, wetly, making me laugh and swat him away. Them he was down at my belly, hands on my hips, running his tongue in slow lines across the sensitive flesh. I sighed contentedly, enjoying the sensation, squirming as he started to lick in rapid sensuous circles.

I never even noticed him removing my sarong, but there I was, and him moving his attentions gradually downwards over the smooth skin of my groin, until he was right where I wanted him most, his tongue dancing around my opening, thrilling me. I wanted more.

He gave me more. With a slow, deliberate motion I felt him push the pointed tip of his tongue between my lips, not far, and then draw it slowly upwards, bottom to top, lapping me, making me writhe. He lifted his head, flickering his tongue over his pointed white teeth, as though savouring the taste.

"You," he said, "taste wonderful."

And then he was back inside, his long, long tongue pushing in further, all the way, feeling warm and weird and wonderful. The hair around his mouth tickled my lips. His narrow tongue probed in and out, twisting and curling, as though trying to taste every little bit of me. I squeaked like a squashed mouse. And then he was sliding rhythmically and rapidly, smooth and satisfying, in and out, at first just a little, but then pulling completely out of me and thrusting all the way back in, over and over. It was glorious. As I gazed down at him with his hairy head between my legs, with his long ears and his big black eyes and his tongue darting in and out of me, I knew I wasn't going to last any longer than he had. When I came the sensation seemed to fill me, paralysing me, that one moment stretching out into an era of ecstasy.

It was the town's festival night and we sat together, naked, watching the fireworks through the window. Bright colours bloomed haphazardly across the sky, the muffled cracks and booms reaching us a few moments later.

"Amateurish," said Beni dismissively.

"Awful," I agreed, "they're practically just shooting everything up at random."

"Pretty, though."

"That's true."

We were quiet for a moment, before he asked, "whatever happened to Siri?"

"After he tried to kill you? He ran off. They tracked him down a few hours later, found him in the middle of the crowd, draped with garlands, singing a bawdy song and with a girl on each arm."

"What?"

"Major mental breakdown. It's what happens when you hold everything in, it just builds up until one day it explodes out. I don't think he'd been quite sane for a long time."

"Is he alright now?"

"Improving. He seems genuinely sorry about what he did. He's been fired of course; Kako's going to take over our group when we get back on our feet. It looks as though they're willing to give him psychiatric care instead of a jail sentence."

"Good. I hope he gets better."

I looked at him carefully. Most people would hold a grudge against somebody who'd recently tried to murder them, and almost succeeded. But then, Beni wasn't most people. Perhaps this was the moment to broach a sensitive subject? I nuzzled closer, draping an arm round his shoulders.

"Beni, you could learn a lesson from Siri."

"About how to bungle killing somebody with fireworks?"

"No, I'm sure you could manage that just fine. I mean about holding things in."

"I don't hold things in!"

"You're a very fine kakari, but your body and natural instincts are those of a brek'bûr. There are times when you need to let those instincts out, and you don't."

He glared at me. "What times in particular?"

"Like when we were in bed together."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Yes you do. You were very quiet. Brek'bûr... aren't quiet about it."

He thought about it. "Hmm," was all he said.

Outside, the fireworks reached an uncoordinated finale, illuminating the rooftops and treetops in flashes of strange colour, and then there was darkness, and the distant beating of drums.

"Do you want to go out there?" he asked.

"Later. There's something else I want first." I kissed him lightly on the lips, briefly but invitingly. "You."

He grinned and kissed me back. I dropped a hand quickly to his cock, catching it still limp, soft and flexible, almost hidden in the long brown hair between his legs. As I'd hoped, it quickly began to swell between my fingers, pulsing itself longer and firmer and warmer, as Beni planted hairy kisses on my chest, arms, neck and face. Within minutes I found my fingertips caressing a shaft as hefty and solid and ready as I could possibly desire.

Beni valiantly tried to carry me to the bed and throw me down onto it. This was no easy feat, I being a good deal heavier than him, but he persevered and managed it, mostly by virtue of it being only a couple of feet removed from where we were sitting. I barely had time to settle myself comfortably on the bedding, lying on my back, before he leapt on top of me, straddling me. One strong leg was planted either side of my hips, his manhood poised stiffly over me, his dark eyes staring down at me lustfully.

The sight of him hanging over me made my heart thump and my loins quiver. I grabbed two handfuls of chest fur and pulled him down towards me, kissing him hotly, passionately. His lips responded with even more fire.

As he shifted position I felt the wet, firm press of his cock against the inside of my thigh. I was sure he was going to enter me then, to get straight to what I longed for, and I spread my legs wider to invite him in. But I was wrong. He had more pleasure to inflict on me first.

Clawed fingers massaged my chest, kneading the flesh in gorgeous circles. And then his tongue, flickering across the tender surface of my neck. Feeling a need to give back, I stretched a finger to stroke the skin at the base of his cock, and then cupped his hairy testes in my hand, gently squeezing and caressing; I could see the pleasure it gave him written on his face, and I rejoiced in it.

We were forced to experiment, to discover how to please each other. When his roving tongue found a spot that sent a shiver of excitement down my spine, I yelped, and he knew to pay attention to that spot. When I saw his eyes bulge and his tongue flicker, I knew my fingers had done something he loved, and they did it some more. We gave each other everything we could, competing to see who could reduce the other to the highest state of quivering ecstasy, and we were both winning. I yearned for him inside me, and I could see him dripping to be in there.

I broke first. "Beni, please, I need you inside me. Now."

He didn't even pause. He just shifted his posture, and then with a single deft thrust of his powerful hips speared deep into me. A scream of joy formed in my throat but never made it out. He filled me: completely, wonderfully, perfectly. I could feel the hairs of his groin tickling my parted lips, but I would not have been able to take any more of him had he had more to give. We held it like that for a few priceless moments, speechless, motionless, eyes locked, just relishing the sensation of our most intimate connection. And then he began, slowly at first, a slight oscillation of his hips that flashed through me like fire, then gradually gaining power and speed. Some part of my brain started counting the thrusts from ingrained habit; one, two, three; but I forced it to stop.

The pleasure consumed me, but still a small part of me noticed the look of strained concentration on Beni's face. Holding something back.

"Beni," I gasped, struggling to tear a small part of my awareness away from his grinding loins, "let it out."

He shook his head, grimacing with the effort of holding it in.

"Please." I gulped in air. "For me." Oh, the sensation of his thrusting shaft inside of me. "Just let it out."

He let it out. Maybe he couldn't have held it in any longer.

He threw back his head and screamed. A primal howl, distinctly un-kakari, echoing around the little cabin. The sex shriek of the brek'bûr. It undulated in rhythm with the pulsing of his loins, with the waves of fulfilment flooding through me. As we both neared a climax it grew louder and wilder, speeding up as he pushed into me faster and faster, and I cried out too, as loud as I could, my screams curdling with his.

And as I came, orgasmic fire exploding through my body, I stared up at my lover and fancied I saw a great pair of smokey black wings stretched proudly from his back, big enough to envelop half the world.