Thanks for the Lift
Hello there anyone happening on this!
Having satisfied myself and my characters with the follow-up to "Comfort Zones", I'm branching out into new territory. And after the last story got a little heavier than the first part, I decided the first of my new ideas I should tackle is this complete 180 of a piece. This is a deliberate attempt to forgo all the character-driven aspects I worked so hard on in the CZ duo and just make a good, old-fashioned, all-the-cliches stroke story. Trust me, I'll be back in even deeper waters later, but I thought I'd cleanse my pallette (ahem...) with just a good bit of fun.
So thanks for sticking with me, and if this ain't your thang, that's more than fine by me, I'll soon be returning to more weighty examinations of my favorite themes. For now, I hope you enjoy this for what it is and don't compare it too closely to my previous couple. Cheers! \m/
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The leopard stood by the side of the road with his thumb out, his shirt stuffed into his backpack instead of draped on his body. It was too hot for that shit.
He wasn't used to doing this, but he just needed to get back to his own campus, only about an hour drive. Coming down to the state school from his private one on Friday had been no problem; he'd ridden the fan bus down to catch the football game and party with some of his friends. He'd planned on staying the whole weekend and just hitching back since none of his friends could drive him back. How hard could it be? The interstate not far from here went right by the exit to his college. Surely this wasn't that weird...wasn't there like, a whole subculture or something based around doing just this? Or was that only in, like, the 50's? Whatever. He'd get back fine and even have time to finish up the homework he had for his Monday classes.
The lean, spotty cat sighed and whipped his tail back and forth as yet another truck passed him on the highway without any signs of slowing. This part of the highway wasn't getting much activity today anyway... Maybe he was being the weirdo one. Did people do this anymore? He suddenly thought that maybe he should put his shirt back on...
But after a couple minutes a semi began slowing down as it approached him. It pulled over as much as it could onto the shoulder of the road as the leopard hastily picked up his backpack from the dry, dirty grass. He was a little nervous getting up onto the little step, but thought that anyone who'd be trusted with a big truck and a long-distance delivery probably wasn't gonna be the murder-innocent-leopard-college-kid type. He fiddled around with the handle on the door, finally giving it enough of a pull from the right angle of leverage that it opened past him without him falling off the little ledge.
Oddly enough, the middle-aged rhino in the driver's seat was similarly shirtless even though it was refreshingly cool in the cab to the leopard, due to the air conditioning running at a fair percentage of its capacity. The rhino noticed his surprised look and guessed correctly as to what had caused it.
"Well shit, son, you know better'n anyone how hot it is out. I don't think anyone'd blame either of us for sheddin' a little cloth."
"Heh!" The leopard overdid his reaction to the rhino's friendliness on account of his uncertainty of the situation, but the remark did do a lot to defuse the trepidation in the cat's mind. "Uh, thanks for stopping and all."
"Don' mention it, I never mind a little company. Where you headed?"
"Just back to Morris State. If you're getting on the interstate you'll be going right past it."
"That's just what I'll be doin', hop on in then."
The leopard did so, sighing from the relief of the cool interior of the cab once he was seated, with his backpack on the floor next to him. "Thanks again, sir, I really appreciate the..."
"Hell no, kid, call me Rob. Ain't no 'sir' here."
"Um, thanks then, Rob." He reached a hand across the bench seat. "I'm Zale."
"Pleasure's mine." A rough gray hand wrapped around Zale's furred one; the size difference between them very noticeable. Zale wasn't exactly scrawny, but his species tended not to be very burly, while of course Rob's kind had that particular trait on lock. Not that the rhino was necessarily fat now that Zale took more than a passing look...but he was thick, and his stomach had a definite outward curve to it. The leopard gleaned from the manly handshake that while the older man wasn't totally strapped and gleaming with muscle, it was certainly there. This was honest, natural bulk, earned from unloading hundreds of truckloads at his destinations instead of working out meticulously at a gym.
"What you been doin' down this direction?" the rhino inquired, putting the truck in gear and pulling back onto the road.
"Oh, I was hanging out with some friends from the university."
"Yeah? That's where my delivery just was."
"Oh, cool. They're not in the same league as my school but since we're so close and kinda rivals, our football teams face off every year."
The rhino smiled knowingly at that. "Weekend a' partyin', then, eh?"
Zale blushed a little. "Hehe...pretty much."
"Have a good time?"
"Yeah! Nothing too crazy, I still had to be in good condition to get back to my school today and all."
"I hear ya. How'd you end up hitchin'?"
"Well...none of my friends showed the same restraint that I did last night I guess...and only Jerry has a car anyway. We didn't really plan out everything very well, and he was in no shape to drive this morning, so I guess...I just figured I'd give it a shot."
"Fair enough, and it'll work out well for the both of us." Zale gave the rhino an unsure glance. "Well, you do know this usually involves some compensation for the ride, right?"
"Oh, uh...sure, I think I have some cash left, I can cover your gas for this I think..." Zale started to fish around in his back pocket for his wallet, but Rob interrupted.
"Nope. I'm not takin' yer money. The company compensates me for gas just fine. Besides, you need that to drink some more this weekend, right?" This time there was just a hint of a leer in the grin Rob flashed at the leopard.
"Well I appreciate it but...then what did you...have in mind for payback?"
Rob casually put forth, "For starters, how 'bout you lose the rest of those clothes?"
The blunt suddenness of the request made Zale wonder if he'd even heard right. "Huh?"
"You fuckin' heard me, kid, in exchange for a ride I want you outta your clothes. Hell, you're already halfway there anyway."
Getting more nervous as the rhino talked, Zale was still wondering if this was a teasing joke. "Are you...being serious? 'Cause I don't...uh...swing that way."
"Dead serious. And that don't matter a bit, I'm not gonna make you do a thing to me."
Zale squirmed on the seat, feeling embarrassed and already over-exposed. "I'm really not...comfortable with this, uh, if there's anything else I can do for you I'd be more than happy to make your time worthwhile, but..."
"Sorry kid, I'm fine on money and there's nothin' else I'd want from ya. This is the only payment I'm acceptin', so I'd get to strippin' if I was you."
That last part gave Zale a little chill despite the heat outside the truck. "Wh-what are you gonna do if I don't? Kick me out?"
"Well I'm not gonna say that, but I'll let you find out for yourself what'll happen. I'd have no hard feelings, but let's just say that's the deal I'm offering, and you can take it or leave it."
Well this kind of behavior was exactly what the young leopard man had been afraid of when he'd hatched the plan of hitching a ride. What the hell did this rhino want from him? He'd seemed nice and normal enough. Zale wasn't gay...was Rob? Well surely...unless he just wanted to humiliate this poor cat he'd picked up on the side of a highway by the interstate. What the guy was asking was going to humiliate him no matter if that was the only intent or not.
Rob sighed and rubbed his face, which included the horn above his nose. "Look, son, I don't wanna sound creepier than I am. I'm not gonna hurtcha or nothin', and yeah I get off on a little bit of domination and whatnot but what it comes down to is, what with travelin' all the time and not exactly bein' the obvious type, I don't get to see too much nice manflesh anymore. You're a great-lookin' kid and I'm more than happy to give you a ride, but in return all I ask is you just let me get a good look at all of ya. That's what this is."
The first thing that had been occurring to Zale throughout all this was to make the rhino pull over and let him out. But the lanky cat remembered how long he'd been standing by the road a while ago before someone had been willing to take him on as a passenger. And he'd been standing in the sweltering dry heat and the merciless sun...and he'd drank all of the water bottle he'd brought along...and were pedestrians even legal along the interstate? He wasn't sure of that last question but he thought there might be some sort of rule about that...
Fuck. Was it even really all that much to ask, when it came down to it? He did owe the guy, and even if he could make Rob accept money as an alternative, he wasn't even sure now how much he had left. He'd left his dorm with 40 bucks from the ATM, but he'd bought those absurdly overpriced nachos and hot dog and coke at the game, pitched in for booze two nights in a row, not to mention the pizza they'd ordered in last night while drunk and the other food he'd eaten yesterday. Zale doubted whatever cash he had left over would be sufficient for 70 or so miles' worth of gas.
Not that it mattered, considering that the rhino was pretty set on what he wanted as compensation. And though the older guy seemed sincere about not having any evil designs or anything, Zale still wasn't quite sure what exactly what would happen if he refused. The rhino was definitely a hell of a lot bigger than him, and as mild-mannered as he seemed, that muscle Zale had noticed before wasn't acquired for show and doubtless didn't only function for such.
"All I gotta do is just strip?"
"That's all. I just want you naked."
Zale bristled at the first real mention of the extent of the nude state he'd be in. "And then just sit here like that for the rest of the trip?"
"Just sit pretty, yup."
It sounded almost reasonable at that point.
"This cab is up higher'n everybody else and I stick to the right lane anyway. No one'll be able to even tell you're in here at all, much less have a look like I'm gonna."
Zale took a breath and let it out. "This is purely because I owe you for helping me out."
"A business transaction. I c'n get behind that, sure."
The leopard looked down at his long, baggy cargo shorts and the sandals on his slender feet. Was he really going to...?
"Fine then. Whatever."
Rob smirked. "Knew you'd come around. Thanks, kid."
Zale didn't much like constantly being referred to as "kid" and "son" especially in the light of this new dynamic between him and the trucker, but he'd already made up his mind and grit his teeth. He leaned back in the seat to lift himself into the air a bit as he unsnapped the front of his shorts. With his thumbs hooked in the waistband, he looked over at the rhino one more time. The driver's eyes were mainly on the road, but he gave the cat a thumbs-up. "Go for it."
Zale pulled his tail through the slot in the back and laid it to the side, the end of it knocking against the door once in agitation. His thumbs guided the shorts down awkwardly, fumbling them past his hips and knees until they plopped down to his ankles. Zale could definitely feel the heat in his face even in the cool truck cab.
"Niiiice." Rob's eyes were on him now occasionally, alternating between the form of the big cat and the road in front of them. Zale shivered when he saw a car pass them in the left lane even though he told himself they couldn't see what was happening to him.
"But uh, all the way off." The rhino was holding out his right hand. A moment of confusion for the feline, then he realized what Rob wanted. He slid his feet backwards out of his sandals, and leaned down to remove his shorts altogether. He placed them in Rob's hand ruefully. "Therrrrrre we go. Now...these too," the rhino commanded, dropping the shorts on the bench seat between them and using that same hand to snap the side of the waistband of Zale's green boxers, which made the cat snarl.
"Alright, alright." The leopard hastily removed his boxers as well, aware of the rhino's eyes on him now with increasing frequency, and taking a little more time than necessary bent over while untangling the underwear from his feet, protecting himself from complete exposure for a few seconds.
But there was only so long that would hold water, and all too quickly Zale had to sit back up, depositing his boxers on top of his shorts on the seat. The old leather of the seat felt uncomfortably cool against his bare ass and the back of his balls that were hanging slack between his legs. His penis was no more excited, laying atop that sack lazily, almost seeming reluctant itself.
"There. Happy? You got me naked," Zale addressed the driver sarcastically.
The rhino just sighed contentedly at first, taking in the form of the fully nude male leopard who was sitting stiffly with his arms crossed. "I tell you what, that sure is a sight for my sore-ass eyes. Thank ya, son, that's just beautiful."
The big cat's face was still flushed from the compliments and from his exposed state. He managed only a grunt in reply. He wondered how many other guys the rhinoceros had coerced into exposing themselves to his "sore-ass eyes". How many other naked butts had been right where his own was right now. Not particularly pleasant to this straight cat.
What was even less expected and pleasant was the hand that enclosed his genitals while he stared huffily and determinedly ahead at the road instead of the trucker. It wasn't his own hand.
Said hand wasn't even finished with its affectionate fondle when Zale uncrossed his arms and pushed the rhino's away. "That was not part of the deal!" he growled as his privates re-settled onto the seat.
To his credit, Rob seemed genuine when he apologized. "Heh, sorry 'bout that then, it jus' looked so good sittin' there...thought I'd see if you wanted some help with it, ya know..."
"Well this is not turning me on in the least, so you can forget about that. Look all you want but don't touch me there. Or anywhere," Zale added irritably. Despite what he'd just said, he was a little worried about the oddly pleasant hum of the truck being transferred through the seat and into his butt and his balls, uninhibited by any intervening cloth. And was it just him or was his dick just a bit thicker than what it had been a minute ago? He forced his thoughts to channel into keeping his member deflated, but even he knew the dangers of focusing any kind of thoughts on one's penis....
They probably hadn't been on the road for even twenty minutes yet.
For a while the two alternated between patches of silence in which Rob stole appreciative glances at his naked passenger (and after one unnervingly long look, adjusted the front of his own shorts with a wriggle and a rub), and small talk that Rob tried to strike up about school, work, and other generic topics. Zale answered shortly but not rudely, trying to just make this go smoothly until he could get out of this truck and go take a long shower in his dorm and a nap during which he'd hopefully forget about the whole thing or chalk it up to a fucked-up dream if his memory failed to fail him. He was also increasingly desperately trying to keep his thoughts off of his groin region, where his cock was definitely now showing some engorgement. Stupid truck vibrations humming into his ass. No fucking fair.
Over the course of a few of his looks, Rob noticed the enlargement of the leopard's penis, which now had to lay on top of his thigh in its still-floppy but awakening state. "I thought you said this wasn't turning you on," the rhinoceros said with an unmistakable gesture at the younger male's member.
"It's not," Zale defended himself lamely. "It's just...doing that."
Shit. Now they were talking about it, and it was seemingly listening. The penis twitched and raised a little further up the big cat's thigh, and neither pair of eyes missed the movement. Zale closed his eyes in embarrassment and tried to breathe normally.
This time, when Rob's hand reached between his legs and under his scrotum, gathering up the loose skin and its contents in a gentle squeeze, Zale resigned himself to it. The rhinoceros rolled the leopard's balls in his palm, relishing their shape and softness. Only a halfhearted growl escaped the cat at the contact.
Rob removed his hand and restarted his attempts at petty conversation. Zale was finding it harder and harder to focus and he found himself harder and harder. Why, penis. Why?
Until about three-quarters of the way through the drive, the rhino continued to talk with the younger male, punctuating their discourse with more and more frequent fondles of the leopard's privates. The cat had to admit to himself now that it felt good and that he couldn't deny his arousal. Even though it was the rough hand of a man the same age as his father that was handling him so, the constant teasing had made his cock fully erect and his sack pull up a little bit. One arm now occupied the armrest on the door, the other laying beside him on the seat, giving the trucker access to the member that was the focal point of both of the men's attention.
"Startin' ta like it, aren'tcha there?" Rob's hand gave Zale's penis the first real stroke of the day, his palm facing away from the leopard and his thumb tracing down the front of the shaft as his fist pressed into the leopard's groin.
Zale only let out a tiny "mff" but fuck if it didn't feel good.... To tell the truth he could actually use this right now.
Rob bent the penis down while still holding onto it, gathering up the ballsack that hung under it so that he held all of the cat's private parts in his fist. The downward pressure on his dick made Zale strain a little bit and the fingers lightly flicking against his testicles made him slightly flinch. Damn, this rhino knew what he was doing down there...
Zale had never been one to last long in sexual terms; when he masturbated it was usually a quick affair and when he was with a girl he often had to restrain himself from getting off too embarrassingly early. Now it was haunting him yet again as his cock was already needy from all the soft teasing it had been receiving for the last half hour. He rolled his hips slightly into the rhino's slow stroking.
"Ooh, you do want it, don't you, kid?" The hand left his genitals and ran smoothly up the cat's belly. Rob drummed his fingers on Zale's stomach just above the thicker fur around the crotch. It was too much for Zale and he wrapped his own hand around his shaft with his ears laid back guiltily, intending to just get it over with and end this himself.
But the trucker pushed Zale's hand away, replacing it with his furless gray one. "Uh-uh. Let me." This time his grasp on the penis was overhand, his palm encircling the sensitive underside. "You wanna get off? Fuck my hand."
Zale was dumbfounded at the directness of the command, but god he needed it too badly at this point to argue. After an encouraging mini-stroke from the rhino, he braced himself on both sides with his hands on the seat and tentatively gave a thrust upward into that rough palm. "Nghhh..."
"Thaaaaaat's it, boy. I knew you needed it after all." Zale's face again burned in shame but he increased the depth of his thrusts. Rob pinched the base of the dick between his thumb and first two fingers, trapping the blood inside the shaft and making it strain and engorge even further. "There ya go. Come on. You are awful needy right now, aren'tcha? Didn't get any action this weekend?"
The leopard stopped humping when he remembered that, in fact, the few girls he'd talked to at the big party Friday night hadn't seemed interested and then later he'd been too drunk to masturbate and relieve himself, and then too hungover, and then too preoccupied with finding food and hanging out with his friends and securing more booze for that night. Saturday night had been a smaller affair with just their group playing a few drinking games and having fun. All the females in the gang were taken by one of his male friends. The rhino was right. He'd struck out. And hadn't gotten off since...fuck, it had been Thursday night since he'd last jerked off.
He didn't tell any of that to Rob. He swallowed and renewed his thrusting into the hand, his ass now off the seat completely, his straining arms supporting his weight as he fucked himself into the slowly kneading paw. When that paw left his penis for just a second to slide down to his scrotum, Zale whined at the almost-pain of his achy nuts being fondled again. The fingers explored further under him and gave a few raps on his taint, then a firm but quick little massage along with the testicles still in the rhino's palm. Upon the hand returning to his shaft, his thrusts into it renewed with vigor, his teeth gritted and his breathing erratic.
It was going to be soon. He'd complete his own humiliation by his own frantic thrusting. He was dreading the contemplation of how much he would regret this later, but it was too late to stop without causing himself massive blue-balled agony on the walk back to his dorm.
His bucking was fast and short now, needing so desperately to push himself over the edge. "Come on, boy, I know you got it in ya...God you're one hot fucker, you are..." The rhino shamelessly goading him on made Zale close his eyes as he finally lost it, his ass now several inches from the seat and his pelvis straining to press into Rob's hand as hard as it could.
"Ugh...uhh..." the leopard grunted again and again as his cock spewed his seed indiscriminately into the air, onto his coat, onto the floor. As the spurts slowed down, it dribbled down to pool around where the trucker's fist grasped just below the head. Zale's dick wasn't the longest in the world and most of the shaft proper was consumed by the rhino's admittedly beefy palm.
When he noticed the young man was done cumming, Rob released his member and unabashedly licked off the semen that remained on the hand that the cat had fucked. Zale watched him do so without comment or feeling, and had just enough time to flop down into the seat and pant a few times before he heard Rob say, "This is yer exit, right?"
The leopard blinked a few times and focused his still-starry eyes on the road sign. "Morris Univ...yeah, this one..." he stammered.
The rhino flicked on his turn signal and smoothly transitioned onto the ramp. They could already see a few of the campus buildings.
"Hey, kid, thanks fer I guess...lettin' that happen. I prob'ly enjoyed it almost as much as you did." Rob reached over and gave the big cat's ballsack a final friendly couple of pats.
Zale's only reply was a grumpy "Can I get dressed now?"
The trucker chuckled. "Sure thing."
The cat tried to wipe off as much of the slime from his fur as possible in preparation to get his clothes back on and shook off the larger globs off his hand out the window, though most of it still coated his palm. He wasn't about to lick it off in front of the rhino, though, even though he'd done so more than a few times before. Getting his boxers and shorts back on was a balancing act between doing so quickly and trying to get as little of the sperm on his hands on the fabric as possible. He even one-handedly fished his light t-shirt out of his backpack and wriggled into it.
"Where can I drop you off?"
"Anywhere's fine, that's the front entrance right there, with the bricks."
The truck had to stop in the road since there was no shoulder and it wouldn't fit through this entrance anyway. Zale was more than fine with that; it necessitated a quick departure on his behalf.
He slung his backpack over his left shoulder, not wanting to smear the right strap with his still-viscous seed that was also slightly staining his shirt in places. Pulling the door handle with one finger that was mostly untainted, he did think to turn back to the rhino and mumble, "Thanks for the lift."
Rob actually smiled this time, not a smirk. "Thank you, Mr. Zale. You made this day one for me to remember. I hope I didn't make ya too...uncomfortable."
"Well, I can't say I didn't end up willingly participating.... And I guess, sorry about some of the mess on the floor and the seat...."
"No problem, son, don'tchu worry 'bout that. You have a good day."
"You too." Zale thought about offering his hand, but it'd have to be his left, which would be awkward...and he wasn't sure whether it was necessary to perform such a formal ritual after what had just happened. He ended up just climbing out of the cab, hopping directly from one foot to the next onto the ledge, then the ground without pausing on the step. It was instantly hotter as soon as he left the air conditioning, the sudden temperature shift making him shiver. He pushed the door closed firmly and caught one last glimpse of the rhino sitting in his rig. He stood on the sidewalk by the campus gate and watched the truck pull away, up to the next block where he'd most likely turn around to get back onto the interstate.
That damn rhino had left the leopard with a gooey hand, a sticky shirt...and a hell of a lot to think about on the surreal walk back to the dorm.