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The Musician

1st movement - Anastasia's Rebirth

Hello there! It's nice to see you again. You're back here to listen to more of my tale about the start of the age of peace aren't you? Hahah! I thought so. Hm? No I don't mind. As I mentioned earlier, my life is reaching the end of its long winding road these days, and I am perfectly happy with the journey I've had. What I truly enjoy now is being able to pass on my experiences to the next generation.

Money? Oh I can safely say that my children have more than enough of that, I saw to it personally that they would never go wanting for it; perhaps its childish of me, but I want them to take parts of my life with them as well, to know some of the wonders that I've seen and experience some of the pleasures that I've had. Surely by now you will have realised that Thomas and Anastasia did not have the smoothest of roads to travel along, far rougher than my own. In fact, they were not alone in this, for there was a third person who featured in their ever entwining fate.

Oh sorry, did I not mention this earlier? Would you like to her about her before we begin? Very well.

The woman in question was a Lynx. She had come from a working class background her entire life, and had the usual aspirations of any schoolgirl as a youngster: find a good looking boy, find a well paid job, settle down and live her life with the people and work that she enjoyed. Sadly, she received far less than what she hoped for. Very early on in life, her hopes and pride were cruelly torn away from her without remorse, and for many years the emotion that you and I call happiness was but a foreign fantasy for her. Eventually, she was saved from this accursed blight, and taken into the care of the main lady of our story, Anastasia. Through her kindness, she recovered, and by the time of the party that I mentioned last time we met, she had been working at Anastasia's mansion for a good many years, going on a decade. However, upon meeting the young man, she found that she too carried the deep desire to be with the human as more than just an acquaintance, Thomas's infectiously polite character winning her over almost instantly.

If you wish to hear about how the most unique period of Thomas's life began, then I suggest you find a more comfortable position in your seat young one, as you will be here for some time if you want the full story. Also, the reason for this meeting place being a more private room than when we last met will become clear by the time we have finished.

---

*1 week later*

Anastasia Farlay sat in the luxurious living room of the Farlay mansion (at least the one situated on this continent, there were numerous others), reclining in a tall backed chair with soft, red hand-woven fabric lining the entire piece of furniture with subtle images of running figures stitched beautifully into it in a fine golden weave. The entire room showed a similar attention to detail in every aspect, with every item seemingly created simply for the leisure of those who chose to enter the room: a large marble fire-place that housed a holographic fire which warmed those near to it as much as they liked with the press of a button but kept the illusion of a real roaring fire without the soot or risk of being burnt, fine wine-red carpet lined the floor while dark mahogany furnishings such as a writing desk, a large man-sized cupboard, one or two small tables that bore ornate platters of refreshments and the rack that housed her now deceased husband's sword collection, all resided at the edges of the room to provide no obstruction or distraction for those simply wanting to rest their weary heads for a short while. The only light source in the room was the soft yellow artificial flames of the fire, leaving the corners of the room dark and bathing the chairs in the warm natural light, just the way it would have been countless centuries ago for another high-born lady.

The enchanting clouded leopardess now wore a light green evening gown which clung to her curvaceous form closely enough to keep her warm, but loosely enough to be considered decent by her guests, the garment also baring small patterns that danced around the base as it pooled at her feet. She was calmly reading a hardback paper book, easily a century old going by the date of publishing stamped on the inside cover. It had been written by a very famous Kangaroo novelist on the planet of Suranin by the name of Jeeves, who by some miracle was still alive at the ripe old age of 134, that had been given to her as a gift for helping his grandchildren make it through the cruel winter two years previous when she had organised funding for the emergency services to continue do their jobs despite a lot of their equipment already being damaged and expensive to repair. That act of selflessness had earned her international respect, though she always claimed it would have unacceptable to do anything less, and the book she was holding was proof of the worth that the author had placed on her actions.

Bound in a light cream textural fabric that went out of production long ago, the book was a stirring romance novel written in the very early days of the writer's career, long before he was even called by his true name, as he had started out using a pseudonym for fear of protest against his works. He had warned her upon giving it to her that some parts of it may be a bit 'steamy' for light reading, but the book was also one of only 12 surviving original copies, of which the kangaroo had owned 3. She felt truly honoured by him giving her something so precious to his heart, like a painter relinquishing custody of his masterpiece, and had taken studiously good care of it. She hadn't found the time to read it up until now, as her duties as head of the Farlay Company had kept her furiously busy between her fits of depression and loneliness, but now that she had been insisted by her assisting directors to take some time away from work after the events of the party a week ago, she'd finally got the chance to open it.

She'd found it to be quite to her tastes all in all, even if it was a 'saucy' tale. Its plot revolved around two young feline lovers living in the depths of the Tuernuncan Jungles, each from different tribes, attempting to continue a loving relationship whilst the male's tribe supported the union with enthusiasm, and the female's tribe opposed it wholeheartedly. She loved the way that the author had taken the time to weave in the characters through the seemingly most mundane of tasks, or the smallest of gestures made across the table. Simply the male going fishing with the other tribesmen by morning seemed to shed a new light on his personality, showing the reader exactly how he differed from those around him in social standing, attitude to life, and even family background through a task that he must have repeated for most of his life; although if she was honest with herself, the idea of many well-built bare-chested men that were used to hunting for a living getting dripping wet gathering the tribe's food for the week in a boat by the early morning light wasn't exactly unpleasant food for thought either.

The beautiful leopardess crossed her legs as she slowly turned the page, having come to the end of the current chapter. After reading a few lines into the pitch black lettering on next cream-coloured page, her light yellow-furred cheeks flushed bright red as she took in the scene taking place in the story; the female lover had requested that the male she was in love with meet her just outside their settlement, away from watching eyes. Within a paragraph she was softly rubbing her hands over her secret lover's taught chest as they kissed by moonlight, tracing her dainty fingers along the lines of his tattoos on their slow journey southwards. Despite her best intentions, for the briefest of moments in her mind, she saw the mental image of herself, dressed in the same tribal attire as the female, doing the same thing to Thomas as he kissed her back.

Her eyes widened in shock of such a lewd thought entering her mind, not having her mind wander like that in years. In the week that the young human had been living here alongside her he had done his best to help out wherever he could; helping out her housemaid with her work, making the bed-sheets after he got up in the morning, and had already taught her more about how to play her grand piano in one week than any teacher had managed to teach her in a lifetime. His passion flowed out of his lips, in through her ears and down to her fingers, where it turned the previously cumbersome digits on her hands into displays of audible ballet. The slightest of instructions from him could turn an accidental phrase into a melodic flourish in an instant, even with her limited experience.

Although she still maintained in her mind that there was nothing between them, the truth was that she was starting to enjoy his company far more than might have been appropriate, and was beginning to hope that his stay here would be longer than they had originally planned.

He was everything she could want in a mate: handsome, intelligent, considerate, entertaining, patient and courageous even in the face of those far beyond himself. Even though old-fashioned social barriers and the notions of proper conduct that had been crammed into her as a child screamed at her to avoid these thoughts, those voices grew ever quieter with each passing day he was around. She had long since finished mourning for her mate years ago, knowing that he wouldn't have wanted her to fall into depression, but had never found anyone who could truly fill the gap that his passing left inside her, until she met Thomas.

Attempting to divert her attention elsewhere before these thoughts made themselves at home, she continued reading her book, quickly finding her place and beginning where she left off. The female in the story had soon removed the small garment made from leaves, string and grass that hid her medium sized breasts from the male's eyes, letting him see her in full glory that she showed to no other. Anastasia felt her heart start to pound in her chest as her eyes read further down the page, reading on quickly as the female slowly dropped to her knees before her lover and untied the male's bulging loincloth, revealing his hardened male organ to her inexperienced eyes. The clouded leopard continued reading as the female looked up into his eyes and opened her mouth submissively, making no protests as the male slid his erect manhood over her tongue until it touched the back of her throat and held it there as she closed her mouth around it and started to gently suck on it of her own accord, bobbing her head gently along its length as she did so. Once again she was unable to prevent her mind from replacing the two figures with herself and Thomas, only this time bringing a much deeper blush out of her as she realised that she didn't know what a human's manhood looked like and so could only imagine the scene as if from behind her as she worked, having only seen feline and canine organs personally up to this point.

Unable to trust herself to go reading on any further, Anastasia closed the book and placed it on the small table situated just to the right of her chair and attempted to calm herself by breathing deeply and clearing her thoughts. Try as she might though, visions of Thomas continually broke through the calm, teasing her with possible ideas what they might do together. Frustrated with herself, she shook her head to try and bring it to order, reminding herself that despite the fact that she may be falling in love despite her best intentions, Thomas was another matter entirely. She couldn't force him to fall in love with her, and if she tried something and it didn't work, she would only be left feeling even more wretched than before. Worse still, she could have lost a very dear friend.

At this precise moment, she heard soft footsteps approaching from the hallway, and turned her head to look to the doorway as a few seconds later she saw the strong dark-furred figure of Lord Harelton enter the room, dressed in a large white bath robe that he had presumably put on before he went to bed after taking a shower going by his slightly damp fur. She guessed that he was naked beneath this. Upon noticing her as he came into the room he did a double take and began apologizing.

"Oh! I'm sorry Anastasia; I didn't know you were here. I'll uh, rest in the Northern wing instead."

Amused by his antics, the charming clouded leopardess beckoned him in the room with a gentle wave of her hand.

"Come now Harelton, is there really anything there that I haven't seen up close before?" she pointed out in good humour.

Now blushing quite profusely himself at her bringing up their past 'encounters', the black dire walked over to an identically adorned chair opposite her, taking a seat and sighing as he felt the comforting heat of the fire start to evaporate some of the left over moisture in his fur from his shower. His eyes glanced over at Anastasia after a few moments, noticing her flustered appearance but fortunately not able to even see the book on the table next to her chair from his angle, much less the title on the spine of it.

"Are you alright Anastasia?" he asked in a caring voice.

Caught off guard by the question, Anastasia wasn't able to think up of a believable response quickly enough, and resorted to attempting to shift the subject elsewhere.

"Why do you ask?" she replied, her eyes meeting the dire wolf's but her unintentional blush remaining on her face.

"You look like something is bothering you." Harelton hinted, arching an eyebrow at her embarrassment.

It was an unexpected benefit of their sexual relationship a few years ago that Harelton had acquired, an innate sense to tell when she had something on her mind that she needed to talk about. While he never claimed to be an expert in psychiatry or life skills, having never been married despite having 2 sons, he was always a good listener. It also helped that she knew he could keep a secret, as not even his own sister knew of his secret tryst with the shapely clouded leopard for the short while it lasted. If there was anybody she could talk to about what she was feeling, it would be him.

Anastasia clasped her hands together and laid them in her lap, looking down at them as she tried her best to piece together her feelings in a way that would be understandable for the wolf.

"Not exactly Harelton. Its more that something isn't bothering me, and that in itself is something that I can't rationalize."

The dire wolf sitting opposite her nodded, understanding that it wasn't something as simple as he'd thought, swivelling his ears to face her and remaining silent as he waited for her to continue with her confession.

"It's about Thomas."

"What about him Anastasia? I think he's an exceptional young man, far more mature than I was at his age."

"I agree. What worries me is that I'm starting to.....think more of him than that."

The dire wolf smiled as he caught onto what she was trying to say. Others may have reacted with an outburst of fury at such a suggestion, or disgust at her for thinking of doing such things with a 'non-indigenous' species, but the years he'd spent at her side, all the way through her marriage and in the years since, he'd developed her attitude of acceptance towards other people's decisions. He also valued her happiness above anything else, and had a small hunch that Thomas did as well. He'd seen the way the young human's face lit up whenever she approached, and how he did his utmost to make as little a burden on her as possible.

"You're attracted to him, Anastasia?"

"Yes." the golden-yellow furred feline gulped at the statement, "And it's getting worse."

Hearing herself say it out loud brought a new weight to it, even if she already knew it to be the truth.

"And why does that bother you?" the wolf enquired, leaning forwards in his seat to make sure he heard her reply clearly.

"It bothers me because I've felt this way before. It's how I felt when I decided I was ready to get married, Harelton. I can't stop thinking about Thomas no matter how hard I try, but the women of his species look nothing like me, they hardly have any fur at all on their bodies, and none of them have a tail. Would he even want to look at me in that way? I believe him when he says that he considers me beautiful, but that alone doesn't mean that I'm what he wants in a woman. Does he want to go as far as I want to go? Would he still look at me the way he does now if I asked him to be mine? I just don't know what to do."

She fell quiet for a while after she had finished her piece, looking down at her hands in her lap as she hoped desperately for a solution, something that would either remove this desire or appease it. She was tired of sleeping in a bed alone with no-one else to keep her company, tired of lamenting about the past that had already gone while she was still moving forwards, and most of all she was tired of having to obey the wishes of the damn high council and put up with someone like Sir Carrington as a future father for her children simply because of a law to protect her species. All she knew for certain was that she couldn't deal with these emotions for much longer without something giving way.

Suddenly Anastasia felt the dire wolf's hand gently tilt her jaw up to look him in the eyes as he stood in front of her, the leopardess having been so entrenched in her thoughts that she hadn't seen or heard him get out of his chair.

"Listen to me Anastasia," Harelton spoke in a calm, level voice as he maintained eye contact, "That man, species be damned, is a once in a lifetime find out of many of the men I've known. You and I both remember how much convincing it took before you finally make your intentions known to John before the two of you were finally married. I have a very good feeling about you two my dear, the same hunch I got when I first saw you and John holding hands at the summer ball over 2 decades ago. Ask yourself this Anastasia: what exactly could you lose by trying?"

The leopardess thought hard for a few moments. Thomas was very tolerant of the presence of other people not of his species, demonstrated by the fact he didn't even frown when some of the people she'd seen in the crowds on his concert videos gave him rude gestures, and had made no complaints about being kept inside the house at all times under her strict orders. Similarly, he neither scolded her nor discouraged her when she asked to learn about styles of music that she was almost certain weren't to his taste, and constantly encouraged her to speak her mind around him no matter how potentially insulting it might be to him. Whenever, she accidentally caught herself telling him about her life as a married woman, and how wonderful she had felt living with her now deceased mate, he never showed any jealousy as she carried on; if anything, she saw him almost reflect that same happiness back at her, as if her smile was all he needed as a reward for listening.

He always made time for her as well, stopping in the middle of writing one of his new music pieces to answer any nagging questions she had from his tutoring lessons even if he was minutes away from finishing. If he was willing to divert time from something that was so precious to him just to hear her out, then why would he ignore her if she asked him to listen? He was probably the only man that she could honestly say would give her a direct answer that could potentially put himself at a disadvantage. Whether it was good or bad news, he would let her know how he really felt in return.

Anastasia, smiled warmly, taking Lord Harelton's hand and holding it gently between her two hands for a moment, rubbing her palm over his hard knuckles. The feline looked him in the eye once more, and gave him a soft kiss on the lips in gratitude for his advice.

"Thank you Harelton" she said softly as she pulled back from their kiss, "I will tell him before the night is over."

---

*In the kitchen*

Thomas stood at the kitchen sink, the sleeves on his white shirt rolled up so they didn't get wet as he helped to wash some of the more stubborn food stains off the plates with clear soap suds coating his wrists. He now wore a plain white apron which he'd found in one of the cupboards, and forgone wearing anything over the top of his shirt for practicality, but apart from this his usual attire had hardly changed at all, with black trousers being held up by a belt and shoes (also black) making up the rest of his visible clothing. He was currently trying to get a dark brown stain off a medium sized plate with a hand-held scrubber, holding it underneath the surface of some hot soapy water to help the process. Granule by granule the stain was relinquishing its grip on the plate, but it appeared to have come from a very spicy food that was annoyingly insoluble in water, making his job that much harder.

The kitchen around him was a fair bit more extravagant than a most to say the least. The large black electric stove alone was 8 metres wide, 3 metres deep and open on both sides to allow for several cooks to provide various varieties of food for a small assembly simultaneously, with every other large piece of cooking apparatus being of similar scale, from the washing up basin he was currently using to the rows of immaculately kept chopping boards and silver cutting utensils. In the centre of the large room was a real wood burning fire surrounded by carefully crafted stone to allow the seasoning and cooking of properly smoked or barbecued meats and vegetables depending on the guests' tastes, with all smoke produced while the fire was lit being sucked out of the room by an automatic extractor fan placed a few metres above it. In spite of all this equipment however, you still had enough space to work without ever getting in someone else's way even if a feast was being prepared. Whoever had designed this room had really thought about it.

He wasn't the only person in this well-stocked room right now, however. He also had Anastasia's live-in house maid for company.

The maid in question was a small female lynx called Rachael that was roughly a head shorter than he was, and also probably much closer to his own age than Anastasia was, but he could spot one or two small grey hairs in the black river of hair that flowed over her shoulders until it reached down to her backside, being kept in a pony tail like his own hair for practicality's sake. Like the Leopardess she served, she was a very pretty sight in any man's book; chesty without being overly 'top-heavy', a large round rear-end, smooth and shiny dust coloured spotted fur with a long winding tail weaving through the air behind her wherever she went. Her face was also a nice sight, a cute pink feline nose that complemented her bright white teeth, sharply pointed ears with a lighter shade of fur on the inside and bright green eyes that soaked up every detail around her as she set about completing her chores.

She was wearing a getup that could almost be considered the stereotypical French-maid outfit that Thomas recognised from Earth history pictures, but with some subtle differences here and there. For example, she didn't wear that little headdress thing that he'd seen earth women wear, and she wore no stockings on her legs either, in fact she was completely barefoot from what he could tell. From what he'd seen, most felines seemed to prefer going barefoot when they had a choice in the matter, which he suspected was due to their claws in one way or another, and of course with them having tough paw-pads unlike humans, he suspected that their feet wouldn't be as sensitive as his own were. The lack of tights was pure logic; unless there was a specific reason that she needed to wear tights, Thomas couldn't see a feline woman wanting to have the fur on her legs being constantly pulled by tight fabric while most of the fur poked through the holes anyway.

Since he'd arrived, she he been helping him to settle into his new life at the mansion, and the human had been very happy to find that she too took absolutely no offense at his species, if anything being very curious about him and his past. They'd had a lot of time to talk whilst completing a lot of the household chores that needed doing, so they'd already got to know each other pretty well, and enjoyed each other's company tremendously. It was nice for both of them to have someone to talk to as they did their best to make sure the mansion stayed in its properly clean state for another day.

He'd told her about his background before bumping into Anastasia at the party very early on, starting out as a boy whose only job was to tune instruments between songs for professionals, before gradually moving up to first become a session musician and working on numerous well known studio projects, then going on to work as a performer for hire, and finally being given permission to write and record his own music as a solo artist as he was doing now. She'd been quite shocked at how differently he'd been treated by other people just because of his species, having never thought about just how cruel some people were towards them simply for not being like them. Things that people did differently for him could range from him being charged slightly more for the same goods as an indigenous citizen, or being served last in a restaurant, to getting rocks thrown at him or being refused service on the spot even if he had the correct amount of money to offer for whatever he was attempting to buy.

In return, she had told him about her own story of coming to be at the mansion, which certainly was no lighter a tale than his own.

Years ago, as a teenager, her mother had fallen so far into debt due to her father leaving that she was cut off by the administration department from using any digital finance services until she had repaid it all in full. Unfortunately, her mother's job was that of a medium level accountant, and wouldn't have brought in enough money to pay off the vast debt and to still be able to pay to drive her daughter to get her education each day; having no other alternative, and requiring money in the hand quickly, she had resorted to selling her body on the street as a prostitute within a week of being issued the statement. As it turned out, quite few men, and even women, were interested in getting a piece of a rare species for the night and went to see her in droves for her services.

After paying off her debts within the time allotted, her mother had attempted to pull out of the prostitution business without delay, but one of her customers had found out where she lived by following her home one night, and started blackmailing her to serve him for free if she didn't want Rachael to find out about her mother's dealings, or worse. As the weeks went by, her mother started coming home with bruises and cuts, and arriving home much later than she previously had done; sometimes strange men would actually come into the house, and her mother told her to lock herself in her room and not to come out for any reason until they were gone. She could still remember some of the foul words they called her as they used her like an object until their carnal hungers were sated.

Finally, no longer being able to take the strain of it, her mother confessed everything to Rachael over dinner one night and had given her all the money she had left, just enough to get her out of the country and over to stay with her grandparents until something better could be worked out for her. On the same day she agreed to leave, the last time she'd seen her mother was just after she boarded her bus, watching her mother as she was running for her life from a large white-furred feline that chased her from the bus stop; though she couldn't tell what species he was, she was certain he was one of the males that had visited the house before, and the last time she'd heard her was when she screamed as the levitating bus she was on rounded the corner and robbed her mother from her sight. It wasn't until years later that it had been confirmed to her that her mother had been found dead on the same day Rachael left.

Things had only got worse after this attempt by her mother to send her to a better place. It turned out that one of her grandparents had died in the time her mother had been away from home, and the other was crippled with senile dementia brought on by the death of her husband, barely able to remember her own name, let alone Rachael's. She'd tried to find a place to stay at an orphanage that the police had recommended to her, but had been intercepted by less-than-trustworthy individuals that snatched her before she got into the lobby, and who despite her being only 14 years old decided to force her into the same unwanted profession as her mother, placing themselves as her first 'free customers'.

She'd suffered that job in emotional agony for nearly 15 years, never once being allowed out of the building she was kept in for even a breath of fresh air, but was supplied with decent food and exercise equipment and ordered to stay in good shape to please her 'customers' or else she'd be made an example of. Thomas had deliberately asked her to not go into details of what they did for that punishment for her own sake, for which she was very grateful. On the 16th year, the building she was being kept in was raided by the law enforcement, being led by a man who had just invented a new reliable way to detect particles of sweat left in the air as a person passed by, and from the fragments of cell debris in it, create a matching DNA profile and 85% accurate facial image of the person it came from. This man was John Farlay.

Upon hearing and confirming her tragic story, he had offered her a place to stay at the mansion for as long as she wanted, and on top of that had offered to pay her for working as a maid if she chose to do so. She had taken him up on the offer without hesitation, and had lived here happily ever since. Miraculously though, this vast amount of pain never showed in her mannerisms, the Lynx always seeming happy and content with her lot in life, and saw to it that every task she took up was either done properly or not at all.

Right now she was busy sorting the dried dishes into all of the different cupboards built into the room according to their size, her job almost complete already due to the speed at which Thomas was able to clean the dishes and the many years she had been performing this task in Anastasia's service. It was hardly surprising that Thomas was this efficient at this in a sad way, as being a human he had been serving others for virtually his entire life save for the small firm that now allowed him be himself for a change. It wasn't uncommon for him to be asked to take up the roll of temporary serving staff by some of the more human-wary people who hired him, just because they felt that forcing him into their service put him firmly beneath them.

After a few minutes, Thomas placed the last dry plate into the large silver rack to his left and proceeded to dry his hands on a floral patterned tea-towel, rolling his sleeves back down and buttoning his cuffs again once he was done.

"Thank you for helping me again Thomas." the Lynx called over to him in a kind voice with a handful of freshly cleaned crockery, "It usually takes me twice as long for me to do this by myself, especially with there being so many different places to put them away."

"You're welcome Rachael, glad I could help." The well-mannered human replied, taking a small stack of bowls in his hands and looking around for the correct cupboard to put them in.

A quick look at the sheer number of small cabinets and drawers was enough to remind him that he still had no idea where anything went, there were easily two dozen cupboards at shoulder height and just as many at foot level on one side of the room alone. Luckily, Rachael had learnt the system off by heart years ago, and pointed over to a cupboard at floor level on the other side of the room without even having to turn to look.

"They're kept over there near the refrigerant-unit, it makes it easier for me to make cereal or Tea for Anastasia in the morning as I don't have to carry the milk far, stops me from spilling as much too." the helpful feline pointed out before re-focusing on her task and arranging all the plates in her hand onto the various shelves that were inside the cupboard, instinctively knowing the place each one had to be returned to. Thomas noted that the smaller and easier to grip plates were placed higher than the large ones so there was less risk of anyone dropping a heavier one as they reached up to grab it.

"Thank you" Thomas replied, setting to his task immediately.

Even though he didn't even make the slightest slip of a finger as he set about piling the bowls on the shelves, his mind was anywhere but on-task at the moment. There was one major distraction that had been haunting him ever since he arrived.

Anastasia.

She was a simply breath-taking woman, in every conceivable way. Her body must have been crafted simply for the purpose of making all other women on the planet jealous, although he knew she had no intention to do so, with each curve and dip that the sleek muscles of her figure made bringing out a new jaw-droppingly exotic view to be admired. No matter what clothes she wore, a business suit if an employee had to make a visit, a soft green summer dress for their lessons in the large glass-windowed extension to the mansion or even that one-of-a-kind dress she had worn when they first met, they were simply accessories to the exceptional beauty contained within them. Every sway of her hips, every absent-minded lick of her lips, every tantalising flick of her long spotted tail only added fuel to the fire set in motion the first time he laid eyes on her.

The kindness and generosity that she had shown him in the short time he'd been here, not only putting her reputation at risk by bringing an un-mated human male to her house to live there but insisting that he pay he nothing for it, had touched him deeply. Her mind reflected every bit of the beauty displayed by her exceptional body; whenever they talked, they could playfully wrap the other's sentences up and toss them back and forth with glee, each of the pair possessing an equally clever tongue and very similar senses of humour. He remembered how they had spent the day of the week that it rained just talking in the living room, and by the time it came around to lunch and the clouds had dissipated, the two of them were practically in stitches from laughing so hard, with even Lord Harelton and Rachael finding it hard to keep a straight face. Never once did she address him as 'human' or 'servant' or even mention their age difference and call him 'boy', avoiding all language that would place him lower than herself. She always talked to him as an equal, even if she was only requesting that he help her to find a pen for her. It made him feel so wanted, and so warm inside just to be around her, that he looked forward to their lessons more than he had anticipated any performance in his life, and this desire to simply be around her frightened him terribly.

He loved her, plain and true.

But what good would he be as a mate? Anastasia was probably the single most ideal woman to be a wife imaginable, but he saw himself as being sorely lacking as a potential husband, and knew that many others would agree with him. All of his life savings combined wouldn't even be able to buy all of the plates he'd just cleaned, whereas she could easily find a man who could by one of the moons for her; although he was in very good shape from regular exercise, he didn't possess the body of a weightlifter, and she deserved a man with a body straight out of ancient legend, who truly could carry out her every whim in an instant with the slightest of effort; and most painfully of all, even if things did go as well as he could ask for, and by some miracle she accepted him as even a temporary partner for a night, he wasn't of her genus or species. There would be nothing he could do to stop her from being forced to submit herself to the sexual desires of the wealthiest male that appealed to the higher courts, or even worse that horrible man that he'd knocked clean out at the Farlay anniversary dinner. He could not give her a child even if she asked for it, and for the first time in his entire life, he wished that he wasn't the human being he'd been born as.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt himself shut the cupboards in front of him, having not even picked up on the fact that he'd finished stacking the plates, which was hard considering the patterns of roses and tulips that had been painted on the out rims of some of them. The human tiredly rubbed his temples for a moment as he put his mind back on track, remembering that his work was now pretty much finished for the night, so he might as well head off to bed and give his brain a rest.

"Hey Rachael, I think I'll go and take a shower then go to sleep, unless you need my help before I turn in for the night?" he said as turned his head to look over at her once he'd removed his hand from his face, only to find that the fogginess in his mind was lifted in an instant at what he saw.

Rachael, being a Lynx and inherently shorter species than him, was having a bit of trouble getting some of the plates onto the top-most shelf where they belonged, and was having to really stretch her smoothly furred legs to bring her hands within range. What grabbed his attention wasn't her nice legs however, but was that the resulting stretch coupled with her leaning slightly over the kitchen counter had hiked up the skirt of her maid's dress at the back, giving him an almost completely unhindered view of the sumptuous cheeks of her attractive rear end, the white lacy panties she wore being stretched tight over her the firm pair and clearly outlining the mound of her womanhood despite it being technically still covered. The way that her small tail was also kept aloft to help her to balance made this lucky glance downright erotic, the short fluffy tuft flicking back and forth as she did her best to get to the plates to their destination.

"I'm....fine.....I'll be there in a second...." the Lynx responded, too focused on not dropping the plates to really listen that closely to what he was saying, brows furrowed as she got within centimetres of where she needed to be.

Quickly blinking to remove that admittedly delightful image of her behind from his mind, Thomas got to his feet and made his way over to help her, before she ended up causing an accident that wasn't her fault.

"Do you want a hand with that Rachael?" he asked politely.

She sighed in gratitude at his offer, knowing that she would have been there for quite a while otherwise. The smaller feline settled back down onto the floor and turned her head to appraise the approaching human gratefully.

"Please, if you would Thomas." She asked, slightly embarrassed at her shortcoming.

"Here," he said as he placed his hands on her waist and gently picked her up, lifting her so that she could comfortably put the plates where they should be without fear of dropping any of them this time around. He'd picked her up like this before now when she accidentally got one of her feet tangled in some weeds in the indoor gardens that day after he arrived, as he'd had to lift her to make sure she didn't get any dirt in a small cut that she'd sustained, but he was still surprised at just how weighty she was. It was a credit to her species that her muscles were as densely packed at they were without altering her figure, but fortunately he was far from feeble by human standards and so showed no sign of this added mass bothering him.

A few moments and a short series of clatters later, she gave him a soft pat on one of his hands to let him know that she was ready to be put down again, and he gently lowered her back to the floor. She turned around and smiled up at the good looking male once she felt her feet touch the floor again.

"Thank you very much Thomas. That's everything finished now, so feel free to start getting ready for bed." She beamed up at him.

"You're very welcome Rachael. I'll see you in the morning." he replied, before turning and making his way out of the kitchen through a set of large white double doors with small circular windows at head-height.

Just as he reached the doors however, he heard a quiet voice sound from behind him.

"Thomas?"

He looked back at Rachael to see her looking over at him with an almost proud motherly look in her eyes, like he was a little boy she once knew that had now grown up. He really didn't understand what he'd done to earn that kind of look from her by doing his bit to help around the mansion, but decided to just accept it. Rachael was, after all, one of the few people that he could truly consider a friend even though he'd only known her for less than a week. She'd shown him a huge amount of trust in revealing her troubled past to him, so it was only fair for him to show that same amount of trust back. As such, they both knew that anything they said in privacy would not leave the room unless they wanted it to, both of them having parts of their past lives that they wished to remain private.

"Yes Rachael?" he replied, taking his hand away from the door so that it didn't look like he was being impatient, a shower could wait a few minutes after all considering he washed every day at morning and at night when he had a say in the matter.

The Lynx leant back against the kitchen counter, folding her arms over her waist and looking him right in the eyes as she did so before replying.

"You're getting more attracted towards Anastasia, aren't you?"

If there ever was a sentence that could be described as mind-shattering, then she'd just spoken it. Thomas would be lying if he said that he hadn't expected her to guess it sooner or later, as he'd picked up on the fact that the Lynx was far more observant than most, but he didn't expect her to be so accurate with her guess so soon. After all, he'd only just realized what he was feeling yesterday.

"Um...h-how do you mean?" the human said as calmly as he could, hoping to shift her thoughts over to one side so that he might at least disguise his infatuation as some kind of mutual admiration for the leopardess as a person rather than as a mate. The last thing he wanted to do was draw Rachael into his wandering mindset and potentially endanger her if she was found out to know of his affections without telling anyone of them. Something like that could cost the Lynx her job or her home or both if knowledge of it left their household.

"I mean that you're in love with her Thomas, and trying to dodge the matter won't work on me.", the Lynx stated with a warm and kindly tone to her voice, instantly discarding any hopes that the human had of avoiding the truth with her.

"I've seen that same look that you give her before, it was the same look that John always used to give her. You smile brightly whenever she's enjoying herself either around you or by herself or with others, you take pleasure in providing her with the smallest of comforts, and your patience for her even when you are I the middle of working on something that you've dedicated your life to is limitless. These are the signs of a man that is truly comfortable remaining with this same woman for as long as she is willing to have him there, and is content to receive whatever she is willing to give him. I honestly don't know whether you even realise how deep your own feelings run, but I would strongly urge you not to ignore them. They will not disappear, and they will take far longer to fade than you think, if they ever do fade at all."

Rachael looked up at the young man as she heard him sigh in dismay, seeing him looking down at the floor almost ashamedly, and decided to cheer him up.

"For what it's worth, I think you'd make a fantastic couple! You should go for it!" she finished with a bright smile.

"What!?" Thomas exclaimed in surprise, his head snapping up so quickly that he almost gave himself whiplash.

"You saw my panties earlier when my skirt was pulled up, didn't you?" Rachael pointed out, flashing John a knowing smile as his face turned beetroot red in embarrassment, telling her all she needed to know without a single word being spoken.

"I swear I never intended to! It was an accident!" he replied, quickly trying to salvage the situation before it ended up with him being seen as some kind of sexual deviant.

To his surprise, the attractive Lynx just giggled at his words, bringing up one of her paws to her mouth in an attempt to contain her merriment, almost bending over forwards as her shoulders shook with laughter at his cute naivety at the situation.

"Please Thomas; you know what my profession was before I came here, and exactly what that job entailed. You didn't really think that I was flashing you a perfect view of my panties across the room to exactly where you were crouched unintentionally did you? You were so out of it that I could have left the room for a nap and then come back in an hour later without you noticing." she teased, causing Thomas's face to take on a look of pure confusion as he tried to work out exactly what her intentions were.

"I was testing to see if you really had a thing for woman of our race, Thomas. Whether you noticed it or not, I've liked you in that particular way from the day you arrived. You're kind, helpful, considerate, handsome, hard working, and if I may point out, anything but uncouth in the way you treat females of any class. We've spent many of these days alone together you and I, in secluded areas, away from anyone who might be listening to us, and you haven't so much as groped me without my permission even though you would have had countless opportunities. I could see that you were desperate to be by Anastasia's side, but I needed to check to see if it was her species rather than your own confidence stopping you from starting anything."

Rachael's tail flicked to and fro behind her as she reached the end of her explanation, letting out deadened thuds as it collided softly against the cabinet door she was leaning against.

Across the room, Thomas was now starting to feel much more at ease, not only with the knowledge that he wasn't about to get into any trouble, but also being able to relax now that somebody else knew what was going on inside his heart and was willing to accept it. Relief washing through his nervous system now that the tense moment had passed, he decided to ask her about the one part of her explanation that he'd picked up on that didn't seem to fit with her actions up to this point.

"Rachael, if you like me in that way, then why are you telling me that I should try my luck with Anastasia? Doesn't that hurt you?" he enquired carefully, making sure there was no sarcasm, anger or surprise in his voice as he spoke.

The female Lynx nodded at his question, understanding why he'd want to know. It would seem rather counterproductive from his point of view.

"The answer to that is both simple and complicated at the same time, Thomas. The simple answer is that it is quite likely that I will still be able to share your bed even when you and Anastasia become a couple, maybe even become a lasting part of your relationship. If you want the full explanation for this then you shall have to ask her yourself, as this is a secret that has been very close to Anastasia's heart for a long time, and one that I will not reveal to anyone without her firm approval."

The mysterious Lynx now pushed herself away from the kitchen counter and made her way towards the doors on the far side of the kitchen that led to the east wing, with Thomas having made his way to the doors that lead back to the central wing as the showers closest to his room were in that section of the mansion.

Just as she reached the doors however, her ears pricked up and she looked back at the younger male with a flirtatious look in her eyes; then, to his utter amazement, she made a quick check out of the windows in the door to ensure that that was no one about to come into the kitchen, before bending over in place, thrusting her backside out at him and slipping her panties down so they rested at the top of her thighs while being held there by her hands.

Thomas's eyes couldn't have opened any wider if he'd just been presented with proof of god. He was gifted with the perfect view of her naked soft grey furred butt cheeks whilst her tantalising white furred womanhood nestled between them, with her small anus sheltered just beneath the base of her tail which wagged excitedly under his heated gaze. He swore that as he watched, a small hint of moisture started to form on her feminine lips, though he was hardly about to ask her to confirm it.

"Personally, young human, I look forward to you making one happy Leopardess out of Anastasia, and I can confidently assure you that she feels the same way as I do. She probably is just as confused with herself as you are, but she loves you. Just remember to let me know when the two of you get together and hit it off; you're going to be something special on Suranin, and I don't want to miss out on the one male on this planet that I've actually had a chance with."

After this final tease, she slowly pulled her panties back up over her smooth rump and walked through the doors. Thomas stood watching her leave as her words and the image of her naked bottom spiralled around inside his head.

Anastasia wanted him as a mate? And was content to allow Rachael to join in as well? Even then, the problem of the Leopardess never having born a child still remained, but perhaps there was hope after all?

One thing was for sure, he needed a nice long shower to relax himself after that encounter with the clever tongued Lynx, as the tightness inside his boxer shorts proved. Maybe later on, once he'd finished, he could find Anastasia and ask her about what Rachael had just said, that is if he could muster up the courage to talk about that kind of thing with such a refined lady.

---

*Later, in the hallways outside Anastasia's bedroom*

The beautiful clouded leopardess who owned the entire establishment now walked at a relaxed pace down the lushly carpeted corridor, clad in just a semi-transparent black bra that strained to contain the large natural white-furred breasts contained within it, and a black thong that covered her privates respectably but not much else, leaving her gorgeous firm backside and long winding tail on display although there was nobody else there to look. She was, after all, only heading to the shower just down the hall anyway, ad she would be discarding the remainder of her clothes once she got there, so it didn't make practical sense to bring her green evening dress with her simply to get it wet then send it to be washed again. However, she was quite grateful that Sir Harelton and Thomas were elsewhere in the mansion at the moment, as aside from the large white towel she was carrying in her hands for when she got to her destination, she had nothing else to cover her almost naked body with if they were to suddenly appear, which could lead to disastrous consequences. Anybody looking would have had a different opinion of catching her in her current state though, her figure easily putting the oil paintings that hung on both sides of the hallway to shame even at a cursory glance from a layman's perspective.

As she walked, she ran over the possible ways that she could explain her feelings to Thomas in her head, the words of Sir Harelton back by the fireplace still fresh in her mind.

The human was young, just on the verge of becoming 24 compared to her own age of 47 years, but hardly oblivious to her moods, so maybe she could be subtle about it and give him little hints here and there as to what she wanted without expressing it to his face? She knew that he wouldn't miss a word she said whenever she conversed with him, those trained ears of his probably even taking in the notes of the words as she spoke as well as their meaning and dedicating both to his memory. There was the chance nevertheless that hints and innuendos could be misinterpreted by him as a mere lust to be mated by a young male and lead him to believe that she only wanted a one-night sexual experience, and she was already certain that her feelings for him ran much deeper than that.

Perhaps it might be best for her to bring up the subject during one of their music lessons? They would likely be alone during this time, and she would be able to be direct and to-the-point with him in her confession, leaving no room for misunderstanding or mixed signals. Then again, it would be interrupting them practicing something that he truly loved doing, something which she knew him to be above and beyond talented at; not only wasn't it the most romantic of settings for her to bring her heart to bear, but he might even perceive it as belittling his own passion for music in light of her own personal desires, and have the unintended effect of making him reject her as a consequence.

The radiant female shook her head lightly at these feeble attempts at a planned solution, coming to the conclusion that she was over-thinking the whole subject at large. After all, her first marriage hadn't been planned out, it had happened because her husband had been unavoidably attracted to her as a mate, and her to him in turn. Eventually they confessed their love to each other whilst sharing some red wine late one evening and somehow had ended up mating in the living room of the north wing of this very mansion, venting themselves well into the early hours of the morning.

She blushed as she remembered that quite raunchy memory, and just how wild they had become on that fateful night; she swore that she could still see a small carpet stain where his wagging tail had knocked their wine glasses from the side board. Regardless of how unconventional it might have seemed for the start of something so emotionally rewarding, she'd never once regretted that evening, or the many others they had shared together. While the leopardess was almost certain that this relationship would not start in the same manner (though she liked to hope it might), she understood that it was best to let things happen naturally, and only attempt to make any changes if she wasn't happy with how things were going. If he loved her in turn, as she suspected from his mannerisms during their lessons, then they would both know when the time was right. She didn't know whether that time would be tonight or tomorrow or maybe even months away, but she could feel somewhere deep down inside her that she wouldn't be kept waiting for much longer

As Anastasia rounded the corner to enter the hallway with the shower room adjoined to it, her receptive black triangular ears picked up a faint wet pattering sound, completely inaudible to any species with less sensitive hearing, coming from about halfway down the hallway behind a dark brown polished wooden door. The moment she heard the sound she also figured out what it must be, with there only really being one thing that was capable of making that kind of noise on this floor it wasn't hard to guess anyway, and that realisation made her entire cheeks burst into a deep red blush within seconds.

Somebody was already using the shower, and Lord Harelton had already showered, and her ever helpful maid, Rachael the Lynx, was currently approaching her down the same hallway as she headed off to finish a last-minute chore, so through process of elimination that only left one person that could possibly be in the shower right now. Unable to catch her mind in time to stop it from slipping past the forbidden line, she envisioned him waiting in there for her completely devoid of all clothing, resting patiently against a shower wall as the warm water poured over his pink skin, and his maleness standing to attention as he waited for her to tend to it, veins pulsing with pent up lust just waiting to be dispensed into her.

Rachael was carrying a large basket of clothes to be washed (that she'd only remembered a few minutes after teasing Thomas in the kitchens), apparently for a colours wash as there wasn't a white garment to be seen anywhere in the heap from any angle, but quickly noticed the blush on her mistress's face as she passed her. Not one to leave a good friend in distress, she instantly halted and checked that she was feeling okay.

"Anastasia, are you alright?" she enquired in a concerned voice.

The clouded leopardess's tail twitched as she jumped slightly, her momentary daydream popped by the Lynx's question; quickly composing herself she turned to talk to her long time companion to relieve her concerns, and doing her best to keep the naughtier thoughts of Thomas out of her head for the moment lest she accidentally embarrass herself again.

"Oh, Rachael.....I was...yes, I was about to head to the shower but.....It's, ahh....in use at the moment....so I'll come back later......Thank you for asking."

Before the leopardess could turn to leave though, The Lynx rested one of her strong hands on the Leopardess's shoulder and held her in place, causing her to look the other feline in the eye. Anastasia was painfully aware of how good Rachael was at reading her expressions, and just hoped that whatever she said next wasn't going to be too hard to bear. The Lynx was wiser than most would give her credit for, so the spotted feline listened to her suggestions very carefully, but she really didn't want to be reminded of how impossible an interspecies relationship was right now when she was so close to one that she sorely needed.

After a few seconds, the grey furred Lynx smiled warmly and gave her shoulder a friendly pat.

"We both know who's in there Anastasia. I know you want him more than anything, and I also know he wants you every bit as much. You aren't going to get a better chance than this to let nature take its course, so don't let it pass you by." Rachael said in a supportive voice before walking on down the hallway in the direction of the maintenance quarters that housed all of the washing machines, leaving Anastasia looking after her as she tried to take in her bold suggestion.

The audacity of it for a women of her standing to do such a thing was unprecedented, to walk in on a male as he cleaned himself just to offer herself to him in a most carnal way, but she'd never really cared for standing or proper procedures anyway. The human's view of her would change once he saw her fully exposed before him, perhaps permanently into one of a woman that was actually within his grasp, but it might also be a change for the better if he accepted her like she hoped. And last but not least, she had done this countless times before with John while he was still alive, so why should she not do it here and now when she was finally in love again? Would she really ignore all of her own words and treat this human differently to her own kind by walking away and leaving him wanting?

Her mind finally made up, she walked with a new determination towards the bathroom door, amber eyes fixed on the golden handle to the room as she stepped closer and closer to what she truly wanted. Once she was close enough that she could see a small reflection of herself in the metal, she reached out with her right hand and felt a small amount of warmth drain from her fingers as they wrapped around the small bar that constituted the handle. For the last time, she took stock of exactly what it was she was about to do and looked at the patterns of black marking reflected back at her in the highly polished wood of the door, then after taking a long and deep breath, she exhaled and pressed her hand down on the handle, stepping quietly into the room as a small cloud of steam enveloped her body.

From the end of the hallway, Rachael smiled and flicked her tail as she saw the door to the bathroom close behind her mistress, speaking quietly under her breath so no one would ever hear her.

"Good luck Anastasia, though I hardly think you'll need it."

---

*Inside the shower room*

-Anastasia-

The main shower room for the central wing, like the rest of the entire estate, was anything but miniature or quaint. In fact, from back to front it was easily the size of a tennis court. All the walls bore clean white diamond-shaped tiles with the occasional blue tile being placed to break up the monotony, and every single one of this tiles had a thin layer of lacquer brushed over them to prevent any mould from starting to grow, with any moisture being wiped off before it even touched the tiles; half the room was taken up by a huge glass walled shower made with permanently frosted glass to ensure the privacy of those inside, titanium rims to these windows completing the look of an expensive private sauna with entry being granted by an automatic sliding door. Over to the left side of the room that was not taken up by this enormous tribute to cleanliness were several doors which each led to a decent sized (and by that I mean you could comfortably fit 2 king sized beds in each with room to spare) changing room fully equipped with hair dryers, mirrors, waterproof benches, non-slip floor mats and compartments for clothes deliberately placed at all heights from the floor to the ceiling so that everyone was able to reach the storage no matter their species. On the opposite wall were mirrors constructed from hydrophobic glass, meaning they never steamed up no matter how humid the air got, along with sink and small outcroppings made for people to put their toothbrushes, makeup and deodorant.

The entire room was lit by small circular lights built into the ceiling behind water resistant glass, bathing the room in a natural light yellow glow from that reminded the leopardess of morning Sunlight. It was something she had specifically asked for when speaking to the woman designing this room, as she loved the feeling of natural sunlight on her fur, but with the focus being on privacy for this particular room, there were no windows to let any of the sunlight in from outside. The warm steam that filled the room confirmed the fact that someone had already been in here for some time, and the loud sound of water falling onto wet tiles below behind the glass separating her from the showers was proof that they were still in here. Looking through the frosted but un-tinted glass, Anastasia could actually see the faint shape of Thomas's naked body outlined against the white tiles behind him; he hadn't turned around to look in her direction or called out that he was still in here when she had entered, so hopefully he didn't realise that she was in here yet. If she was fast then she could catch him in the shower before he finished, but she would have to hurry as he had no fur to clean out, meaning he took far less time cleaning himself than she did.

Anastasia quickly ran into one of the large changing rooms, depositing her towel on one of the towel rails as she passed it. She didn't close the door behind her as she entered the room, her intention behind it to be seen by Thomas should he come out of the showers early rather than to hide herself and let him pass her by. Once inside the room, she quickly unclipped her bra and sighed as the tight hold on her large round white-furred bust was relinquished, the large orbs springing up in joy at their newfound freedom, then slipped her thong down her shapely legs to leave her entire goddess-like body fully exposed to the warm air around her.

She ran a hand absent-mindedly over her stomach as she stood still for a moment, all of those last minute nervous instincts attempting to convince her that what she was doing wouldn't work because of the difference in backgrounds, that her days of being a shapely female that could set the males drooling with a curl of her finger were over years ago, that what she was about to do had no chance of even changing her fate of being thrown into the arms of the richest breeding male around should her plan work anyway, but she ignored every single one of them.

It was her choice, her life, and she would be damned if she was going to let some rich aristocrat she didn't even know get the first piece of her body anybody had taken in years when this human had already earned it many times over with his kindness, possibly having already jeopardised his own career for her. More than all of this desire to be made a woman after so long rose a single need that spurred her out of the changing room and carried her right up to the large glass door of the shower, her hand resting softly against the glass as she looked through it at Thomas's blurred outline longingly. For the last time, she reminded herself of what she wanted before she ran her finger over the waterproof touchpad that opened the door in front of her.

She wanted to feel loved again.

-Thomas-

*Ahhh, I really needed this* the young human thought to himself as he felt the warm water start to course over his skin, removing an entire day's worth of sweat and dead skin cells.

He was very glad to finally have some time purely to himself and attempt to put his thoughts in order before they became a serious problem, that tease from Rachael pushing him dangerously close to doing something incredibly stupid, like just walking up to Anastasia and telling her how he felt point blank. Thomas already knew that wouldn't work, and it would be a fool's errand to even try it with a woman of her calibre. Still, he needed a way to get some of these unwanted hormones out if his system, and quickly; that Leopardess's intoxicatingly curvaceous body would be the death of him if he didn't try harder to keep himself in check.

The shower room he was currently in did provide some small measure of distraction from these more love-oriented thoughts in the sheer attention to detail of its design. The shower heads were all reasonably large (about 1 metre by 1 metre in area), square shaped and occupied every inch of the ceiling; the result was that no matter where you stood in the room you were washed from every angle. The system wasn't wasteful either; specially rigged thermal and pressure sensors detected where the occupants were in the room and directed the flow of warm water into the valves that fed the shower heads above them, cleaning them completely while not having to put the entire room into a warm downpour. The shower heads also had small and completely water-tight lights built into them in-between the spraying jets so you could still see what you were doing perfectly even with the entire ceiling acting as one big raincloud.

The walls inside the shower were lined with the same polished white tiles as he'd noticed outside, completely devoid of even the slightest smudge of dirt or a single strand of stray hair, no small feat when everyone using the shower was likely to have fur of some description. Fortunately, he hadn't been allowed to help out with cleaning out the showers yet, as Rachael had informed him that she had to be completely devoid of clothing whilst doing it, otherwise she'd simply risk getting those clothes wet anyway, but he suspected that it was easily half a day's work just for this room alone.

One thing that he did find a very novel innovation was the flooring of the shower. All the way up to the corners it was filled will small waterholes no more than a centimetre in diameter, but on top of the sturdy material used to construct it there was fine layer of something that he'd never personally encountered before, though he had heard of it. He guessed it to be a synthetic polymer of some kind, probably only made on commission as well considering what it did; it was stark white just like the tiles on the walls, and to the touch it was both soft underfoot and offered a lot of friction when you walked over it, just like rubber, but it still had these same qualities when it was covered in water, which meant that it was very unlikely that you would slip in your own soap suds, and provided a nice soft landing even if you did somehow manage it.

Just as he looked back up to the wall from admiring the floor again, he heard a very faint clicking sound, like a door or a lock being manually opened. Turning around, he looked out of the frosted glass window that served as the front wall of the shower, as with the sound being muffles it was very unlikely it came from inside the shower room itself. Beyond the frosted glass, the door to the bathroom was still closed, but he doubted that he would have heard that open if it did click. Looking over to the changing rooms, he was startled to see that one of the doors had been opened, despite him being the only one in the showers and he was certain that he'd closed his changing room door after him.

A few moments later he shook he head in tired acceptance, wiping a few long black strands of hair out of his face as he took a second look at the blurred shape of the door gently moving backwards and forwards on its hinges. It was very possible that he'd forgotten to close it properly before, and that the warm air circulating around the room caused it to bang against its lock of its own accord; after all he practically cleaned up without meaning to earlier on in the kitchen, so it wouldn't be that far a stretch to leave the door ajar without really noticing.

Maybe his mind just needed more of a rest than he thought?

Turning back to the wall he resumed running his hands through his hair in some attempt to keep his brain from wandering off too far on its own, digging his fingers into his scalp perhaps a little rougher than necessary to help the warm water running through it along. Against his best wishes however, a vivid picture of Rachael's naked backside (that she'd so willingly exposed to him) popped back into his mind's eye; he'd caught every little detail of her attractive rear-end from where he had been standing, and knew for a fact that her womanhood had been ever so slightly wet, and had become wetter by the time she pulled her panties back up. His more carnal instincts could already form a clear picture of how inviting it would look if she used her fingers to spread those pretty pink lips of hers for him, showing him just what she desired for him to put to good use.

Thomas sighed heavily as he felt his manhood harden fiercely at this very stimulating image, his own arousal proving far stronger than he had given it credit for.

"Oh cut it out. You're not going to be getting any attention soon anyway. All you're doing it getting worked up for nothing, Anastasia and Rachael are both beyond your reach, human." he said to his reflection in the tiles in an annoyed tone, looking down at his awakening length as it throbbed in rebellion.

As if to spite him, his dirtier thoughts now switched tactics and showed him a vision of Anastasia bending over for him in the same manner, although still wearing a set of subtly patterned white panties and the same evening dress he had seen her wearing when he spoke with her about an hour ago. He managed to catch himself and cut these thoughts off, but not before the Anastasia in his mind started to slowly slip the panties down her legs. The young human male groaned inwardly and shook his head violently to clear this string of very dangerous mental pictures out as he felt his member reach its full hardness, instinctively knowing that it would now be some time before he calmed down enough for it to become flaccid again. That is unless he saw to this problem himself, but he doubted that he would have any chance of hiding the scent of what he'd done from a species with a sense of smell like a leopard's.

Before he could dwell on this depressing fact however, his breath caught in his throat as he heard the melodic electronic beeping sound that heralded the opening of the electronic door behind him. With his blood now running ice cold through his veins, he very reluctantly looked behind him as he heard the electronic doors shut again; there had been a few quiet footsteps that had been taken by whoever it was entering the shower behind him, that much he'd heard, but he managed to get around turning his head around by sneaking a look behind him through a gap in his hair to avoid letting whoever it was know that he was looking.

What he saw behind him made his jaw slowly fall open in astonishment.

There, standing right before him and looking over at him with hopeful fire-coloured eyes, as naked as the day she was born with just one slender arm covering both of her black nipples, and her long winding tail concealing her womanhood to the best of its ability, was the same radiant leopardess that had stolen his heart with her first words to him back at the memorial party. There, fur dripping wet with shower water, but making no move to conceal herself or her lack of clothes from him in this very private area of the mansion that they had all to themselves, was Anastasia.

-Anastasia-

The shapely leopardess's heart pounded a new thunderous beat inside her chest as she took in Thomas's exposed figure now that his clothes no longer blocked her view, examining every part of her hopefully soon-to-be lover that was presented to her.

He was even more handsome than she could have hoped for.

The younger human was nicely balanced between being toned and devoid of excess fat tissue, with nicely defined muscles running up his back, along his arms and down his legs, but refraining from becoming muscle-bound or overly vulgar in build, with his body shape remaining sleek and agile-looking almost like that of a swimmer. His skin looked so different to the various colours and variations of fur that she was used to, so smooth and slightly off-pink with the only growths of hair being on his head, but the more she looked at the peculiar sight, the more she liked it. The easy to follow dips and valleys that she saw outlined by his back muscles and shoulder blades somehow seemed to fit his personality perfectly, strong and defined with each piece having its individual purpose; it was strange but, in a way that she couldn't begin to describe, his very humanity and difference from her own species now attracted her in the same way that she had felt attracted to the distinctly familiar and alluring feline traits that her husband had shown. It was like someone had quietly slipped inside her mind and took note of the characteristics that she was mostly likely to find attractive in a man, then bestowed each of them upon Thomas in turn.

After she had finished examining him, she stood silently for a few seconds as she tried to gather the confidence to continue.

She had no plan for what would happen next in her mind, only the desire to let him know what she felt. The timing was perfect, the setting was just right to allow him to see her from this new perspective, but if she didn't say the right words here and now, she could have ruined something truly magical. The Leopardess also knew what would most likely occur if he said yes, after all they were a naked male and female alone confessing their love in a private shower, and was very aware of the potential consequences for these actions. But after so many years of listening to the voice of sound logic in her mind, that voice fell silent, and for the first time since her husband died, she acted on what she alone wanted, and listened to the voice coming from her heart.

Trembling slightly in nervousness of what was to come, she reached out with her free arm (as her other was currently covering her nipples for politeness sake, even though she wanted to display them to him desperately) to gently rest her hand on Thomas's right shoulder. She could tell that he'd at least heard her enter from the way that he didn't jump or recoil at her touch, and suspected that he could see her behind him from her reflection in the wall anyway.

"Thomas?" she spoke in a very quiet voice, almost deathly afraid of disturbing the moment and beginning her half-formed confession, not having the slightest clue how to even begin to explain herself to him.

"Yes, Anastasia?" the handsome male replied politely without turning round.

She smiled warmly at his manners in averting his gaze. To someone else it might have seemed like he was being rude, but you must keep in mind that it was far ruder to stare at a lady's exposed body without even asking her permission to look at her. Thomas was hardly the type to try anything without her giving him clearance to do so.

"It's okay Thomas, you can look at me. I needed to talk to you privately. Don't worry, you are in no trouble with anyone here at this mansion, and I am not angry with you." She clarified in an equally timid tone.

She saw him hesitate for a second, seemed to debate something that was occupying in his mind for a moment. Shortly after this though, he turned his body around to that she could once again see his attractive face, only this time, everything below it was also available for her inspection; unable to resist the urge, her gaze sank down his taught chest and nicely toned abdomen until she gasped as she caught sight of his hard member standing firmly up between his legs, with his ball sack nestling just beneath its base as excess water dribbled off it and into one of the many draining holes in the floor.

His manhood was just over 8 inches long and appeared to be quite thick all the way from the base to the tip, but more than both of these facts, the natural design of it absolutely fascinated her: she knew from her past experiences with Lord Harelton that a canine member would be dark red and have a wide knot close to the base that inflated as the male orgasmed, and from the many years spent pleasing her husband she knew that a feline member would have many rows of backwards facing barbs that extended the more aroused the male in question became, but Thomas's manhood was completely different, and lacked both of these characteristics.

She'd never seen a penis with a smooth rounded and almost mushroom shaped tip like his penis had, the darker purple colour of the skin on this part of it also catching her attention. To be honest, she didn't know what she was expecting a human penis to look like, but it still kind of took her by surprise when she saw it.

2 new facts dawned on her as she looked at it.

Firstly, she had most likely interrupted him trying to relieve himself of some of his pent up urges, which made a new rush of guilt enter her mind, as she knew just how hard it was to try and ignore those feelings on a day-to-day basis.

Secondly, as it was so different to anything that she had seen before, she would have absolutely no idea how to please him if it came to it. She didn't even know whether he would even enjoy her body even if he did forgive her for barging in on him like this, as she knew that her own inner muscles were a fair bit stronger than that of a human woman. She suppressed these thoughts however, realising that after disturbing him in the middle of....um....'seeing to urgent matters', she wasn't likely to even get that far with him anyway. There was no way he'd be that aroused because of her.

"I'm sorry Anastasia." Thomas apologized, causing the leopardess to look back up into his eyes; she was saddened to find a very regretful expression on his face. She mentally braced herself for him to deliver his rejection as his blue eyes met her own amber coloured irises once again.

"I'm afraid that it's like that because you're here. Anastasia, I'm in love with you." he confessed with a heavy weight to his words, like he was reading out his life's sins before he died. If he hadn't turned his head to the side out of guilt, he would have seen the look of elation that exploded onto Anastasia's face as he continued.

"Ever since you first took me into your home, I've been unable to prevent these feelings from steadily growing inside me. I know it's not my place to even ask for such a thing to happen to me as to even be your acquaintance, but this is what every last part of me believes Anastasia. There is not a single centimetre of you that I find distasteful. You are the single most enchanting, beautiful, kind-hearted and welcoming women on the face of this planet, and I doubt that I would ever find another like you on any other planet out there. I could never refuse a request from you even if the request was for my own life. If you wish for me to leave this place for your personal peace of mind, then I will gladly do so, but please know that this event isn't your fault in any way, rather the blame lies squarely on me."

Anastasia felt weightless as she listened to him finish his confession, the steady beat of water on her wet fur seeming miles away as she gazed at his face, now knowing that she was wanted in the exact same way, and spoken of in far greater words than she could concoct for him. She had come in here to confess to him, scared half to death about his possible reaction and he had beaten her to the punch, although he seemed to have misunderstood why she was here.

This last fact however, was easily remedied.

The beautiful leopardess gently cupped his cheeks in her hands turning his face back towards her. She saw the new look of hope spread across it as he saw how happy she was at his confession, and slowly drew his her face closer to his with her soft palms, watching as his cheeks tinted a darker shade of red the closer her lips got to his. She suddenly stopped a mere inch away from allowing their lips to meet, making the poor male almost whimper in disappointment, and whispered back to the confused young human in as sincere a voice as she could possibly use.

"Thomas, I don't want you to leave, now or ever. I love you too."

The next instant, she closed the gaps between them and felt her lips gently connect with his in perhaps the most sorely needed kiss of her life. As his hands wrapped around her damp, lithe body to return the heartfelt gesture, she felt the same feeling of complete belonging that she'd felt so many years ago in the time she'd spent with John. And just like back then, she said nothing to dissuade the male in front of her when his hands started to slip down her back, not when they brushed the top of her bottom lightly and caused a sharp tingle of pleasure to flare up in her womanhood, and not when they finally came to rest on her firm butt cheeks causing the tingle of pleasure to become an outright flare, burning ever brighter inside of her as she felt him gently squeeze her firm cheeks beneath his fingers; her only actions in response were to deepen their passionate kiss, slipping her feline tongue past his lips and into his mouth, and to wrap her long tail around one of his legs affectionately, letting him know that she didn't mind what his hands were up to and urging him to continue.

The leopardess could still feel his male hardness rubbing up against her taught stomach, but knew that if she had anything to say about it, his libido would not be left unsatisfied for much longer. This was a fact she proved to him seconds later by slipping a hand down to softly stroke his hard length, earning a grateful gasp from her human partner as her delicate fingers passed over his sensitive skin. If it was possible for her species to do so, she would have purred in his arms, but she settled for moaning into their heated his as she felt his hardness pulse in reaction to her touch.

-Thomas-

The young human could hardly believe what was happening. Anastasia had not only taken no harsh actions at him after revealing his true feelings to her in such an abrupt manner, but also returned them in earnest in clear lack of care at what species and social standing he was, or even a care for proper conduct. He had been so scared to return her tender kiss at first for fear of suddenly waking up in his comfy bed in the east wing to find this whole thing to be nothing more than an elaborate dream, a cruel joke made by his own mind at his fantasy's expense, just as he had done every night since he came here. But no, this was real; he tasted her saliva as they ran their tongues around the inside of each other's mouths passionately, he felt the body heat they exchanged as she pushed her large, firm, white furred breasts up against his chest in the midst of their embrace with her hardened nipples prodding against his skin, and he heard her cute moans of desire and need as he carefully massaged the fur and flesh of her gorgeously curved behind which he cradled in his hands like it was the single most precious object on the planet to him. Actually, Anastasia was the most precious thing on the planet to him now. Not even a lifetime of hatred could dull the inescapable pull that he felt towards her.

The moment he felt those slim, diligent fingers of hers touch his erect manhood, he could do nothing but gasp at the enormous surge of satisfaction he felt from her attentions. From the way she dexterously wrapped her fingers around his shaft without once scratching him accidentally with her sheathed claws, he knew that she had most likely done this many times before, and not with replicas of the real thing. Many would feel jealous towards those on the receiving end of her actions at this fact, or disappointed in the feline woman for being that sexually active before meeting them, but to Thomas it was one of the biggest turn-ons he could imagine. He knew that she had been very happily married for a long time before they met, with her marriage only ending due to the death of her husband, and he wagered that she had most likely enjoyed many of her nights in the bedroom with her husband, the two of them seeking out ever more creative ways to please each other. To others, such a thought would bring rage, fury, feelings of betrayal, disappointment, contempt, but the thought only brought the human new warmth from the very centre of his heart. He was happy that she'd had such a good relationship with someone else.

He was glad that he was getting to see this wonderful new side of her that she'd chosen to hide up until now (or perhaps forgotten how to show), and that he was capable of bringing this burning happiness that she had experienced with her past mate back to the surface in spite of the obvious difference between the human and said husband. Thomas didn't know what traits feline women usually went for, but he suspected that he looked something akin to a tall, thin, hairless, tailless monkey to some of them.

The young human only wished that he were more experienced with women than was, only having had sex himself on a few occasions and none of them being steady relationships, so that he might be able to serve her as well in bad as her previous lover had; but even though he would probably have to try hard at it, considering his instincts were meant for females of his own species, he would endeavour to practice doing so until he could please her precisely as she wanted even if he was blindfolded; she was simply that important to him now that her pleasure was his utmost desire.

Before he could think any more on this however, he felt her alluring lips part from his, her rough feline tongue giving his own human tongue a parting lick on its underside as she brought her head back slightly from his to gaze lovingly into his eyes, wearing a smile more life-giving than Suraia itself. Dear god those eyes; he could stare into them for the rest of his life and not miss a second of the lost time spent doing so.

"Thomas my dearest" she spoke in her silk-soft voice, "I know that you may be nervous about what you can do for me as my male, but I can assure you that you are doing very well, my love. It will always take time to refine something until you are left with something that you are proud of, so don't worry about trying to prove yourself to me. I promise that I will teach you how to touch me just as you teach me how to touch my musical instruments. And as your reward for accepting me, old and foreign to your kind as I am..."

The leopardess's remaining hand on his left cheek slowly slipped off his face and down his chest, mirroring the movement of her head as the beautiful spotted feline moved to kneel down in front of him, making the young human's breath catch when he realized her intentions. He felt goose-bumps start to appear as she allowed the very tips of her claws to extend out from the tips of her fingers, very cautiously teasing him on the hand's journey southwards without breaking the skin even once. When she finally came to rest at his feet with her body weight now resting almost fully on he knees, her hand rejoined its busy twin by moving between his legs to gently cup his heavy scrotum in her soft palm, letting her fingers rub it in a slow repeating pattern to bring the two healthy organs to life in preparation for her next act.

"...allow me to show you what I can do for you as your female." Anastasia continued in a low sultry tone, "I have never been with one of your kind before, so feel free to instruct me as you wish if I am not doing well."

With that, she lowered her gaze to his hard length and resumed carefully stroking his manhood up and down with her right hand, applying a gentle squeeze whenever she made it right to the base. A bright blush now graced his face at his exposure to the goddess-like vision of beauty before him. What did he appear like to her? Was his organ large enough to please her? Did she think it weird for being different than that of her own kind? What did she think of it in comparison to the others she'd seen? Just as these questions started to mount up behind his eyes, he saw he tilt his member that had been pointing straight up until now forwards until it was aimed directly at her face, noticing a small flash of pink on her muzzle as she licked her lips.

The next instant his eyes opened wide as he saw her open her muzzle and extend her tongue towards his domed tip even as a minute amount of his pre-orgasmic fluid escaped from it. She'd been looking straight at it, so he knew she'd seen it come out, but she still leant in so closely that he could so the shadow of her whiskers running along his shaft, and then without any show of disgust of attempt to recoil, her experienced feline tongue made first contact with his sensitive throbbing tip.

He groaned out loud at the fantastic feeling of her rough, wet appendage gliding over his member, collecting up all of his pre that she could find before it retreated back into her mouth to evaluate its flavour. Then it would return to his hard length in earnest, passing over every single millimetre of skin that he had on it. In a passing glance up its underside, she licked the area just behind the round head of his member, making him jump as she found what had to be one of his most sensitive spots. The look of determination he saw flash for a moment on her face told him that she wouldn't forget that in a hurry.

Looking down at his skilled lover as she worked, he saw her smile warmly back up at him, pleased that she was doing a good job. He was just about to speak up to thank her for doing this when she opened her jaw and carefully slid his entire pulsing member into her hot mouth in a single movement, her nose now touching his taught stomach. Thomas had to grit his teeth and call upon every ounce of willpower he had in him to prevent himself from losing it right there on the spot, her ministrations up to this point having been far from average had brought him a fair portion of the way already, especially considering how much he had been thinking about her recently. Nothing else he'd ever experienced even came close to the sensations that her muzzle was supplying him with, her experience clearly showing in the fact that despite having many sharp carnivore teeth, he never came into contact with the sharp side of a single one as she took him in. He groaned out and rested his right hand on her damp head fur as he felt her start to move her head along his length, beginning what he guessed to be one of the most expert acts of oral sex ever given.

Thomas really had no idea how long he managed to hold out, as he quickly lost all sense of time just trying to keep himself in check; it could have been minutes, it could have been seconds, it could have been anywhere between the two. All he could focus on was the skilled motions of the stunning leopardess's tongue as it circled his entire member ravenously inside her mouth, occasionally stopping to lap at his tip heatedly; the almost unbearably erotic feelings she gave him whenever she lightly sucked at him for more of his fluids were driving him virtually insane, and he could only guess how little time he had left before he would undeniably have to give in to her obvious demands. For her honest admission of never tending to a human before, she could have brought any man to his knees in an instant with the gratification she was giving him.

Eventually he could hold it no longer, feeling his own sweat mix in with the still-running shower water, and warned Anastasia of the upcoming danger.

"Anastasia....hhahh....I'm about to lose it....if you don't pull back now.....then I won't be able to stop myself from letting it go in your mouth..."

To his amazement, rather than removing herself from his manhood completely as he had suggested to her, the beautiful leopardess between his legs only pulled her head back along his manhood until just the tip remained in her mouth, maintaining her tight seal around his male organ with her lips. Once she reached the tip, she started pumping her free hand, which he hadn't noticed her move between her own legs during her fellatio, up and down the portion of his member that was left outside of her mouth while simultaneously squeezing his testes gently with her other hand to spur his orgasm along. To cap all of this off, she looked up at him with the most pleading expression he'd ever seen, almost the kind of look that a stray kitten would give to a person passing by as it begged to be taken home; needless to say it performed its task exactly as she most likely intended, and Thomas's willpower snapped clean in two as he saw her bright eyes looking desperately up into his.

-Anastasia-

The beautiful leopardess kneeling on the shower room floor felt her lover give all of the classic signs of his impending release that she'd come to recognise in her previous mates: a momentary tensing of the muscles in his lower abdomen, a pronounced throbbing of his member, causing her to double check her grip on his length, and a very slight shaking in his hands. She couldn't help but blush in embarrassment as she thought back to where she left off reading her rather erotic afternoon book only an hour prior to coming here; the story had been suspended with the lead female being put into almost exactly the same position that she was in right now, but she hadn't been able to follow the story up to the point where the male actually reached his release. The love-struck leopardess wasn't about to make the same mistake twice in one day, and increased her already heated ministrations about his manhood.

A few moments later, his eyes squeezed tightly shut in rapture, his member twitched violently inside her mouth, and she let out a quiet squeak of surprise as she felt his shaft fire a hot, sticky jet of his human essence directly over her tongue. The first healthy jet was quickly followed by a second, equally voluminous volley of his thick sperm, the strong yet very appealing taste driving her to continue sucking on his shaft for more throughout his orgasm. She loved how she managed to draw pleasured moans out of him, even though his personal preferences were still as foreign to hear as astral physics. There are fewer things more satisfying than knowing that you're pleasing the one you love.

While some human women might not have found the taste of human sperm particularly appealing, her taste buds were far from human; she could taste a single grain of sugar in a cup of earl grey tea, and with this enhanced sensitivity came an appreciation for some things that many would consider 'acquired tastes', and as it so happened, she'd quite enjoyed her times spent performing this act for her husband in the past. As Thomas continued to supply his male genes for her delectation, she gently swirled the fluid around her mouth with her tongue, swallowing a small amount of it every time she felt the volume in her mouth reaching the limit of what she could cope with. Surprisingly, she had to swallow quite a few times.

Eventually however, she felt him start to relax against the shower wall, and the flow of white sperm into her mouth slowed before it ceased altogether. Anastasia pulled back from his semi-hard manhood with a fair portion of his cum still inside her cheeks; from his impressive salvo she could at least ascertain that he hadn't been sexually active in a while, if anything needing this encounter more than she did. Ignoring the possibility of simply letting his hot sperm flow out of her lips and down into one of the draining vents, she tilted her head back and swallowed all of his fluid still residing within her mouth in a single gulp, softly rubbing his smooth thighs to help him come round from his intense peak after she was finished. She found it so cute that his legs were still shaking slightly even though she was no longer tending to his member with either her hands or her tongue for the moment. Perhaps his manhood was more sensitive than she thought?

The sensual leopardess waited on her knees on the shower for his approval of her actions, not caring the least about a few patches of her fur becoming matted as she remained there, until his eyes reopened and look down into hers. He spoke up as he lowered a hand to softly stroke her cheek lovingly.

"*pant**pant* Thank you Anastasia. You have no idea how much I've needed that. *pant*"

The exotic feline smiled mischievously, nuzzling into his hand affectionately before answering, "I think you gave me a hint, Thomas."

The human male's face once again took on a very sheepish expression at her very true words. Even from a beginner's point of view, it would have been clear that he was pent up before letting it all out for her.

"I'm sorry about that." he apologised.

"It's fine darling. I wouldn't have done it if I didn't want to." she replied truthfully, moving her legs out from beneath her and getting back to her feet after she was done talking. It was only a 5 second job to get the fur on the front of her legs back in order after kneeling down for a while, and it was hardly something to be concerned about when they were already in the shower.

To her surprise, once she had corrected herself, Thomas stepped forwards and wrapped his arms around her in another warm embrace. The feline's breath caught in her throat as she felt his hands slink down the sides of her slim waist, her lover saying nothing to reveal his intent. He then turned her and softly pushed up against the wall so that she was now standing with her front completely exposed to her human lover.

"Thomas?" she said quietly, her nerves making a sudden re-appearance against her wishes, despite knowing that he posed her no threat. If he had ever meant to hurt her, which she doubted to her core, he could easily have done so by now.

She looked into the beautiful eyes of the human in front of her, his black hair slicked to his body under the constant flow of shower water onto both of their bodies, just as every contour of her own naked figure was revealed as her exotic fur now clung to her own contours; she saw no hesitation or conflicting thoughts lingering in his gaze, only a deep resounding passion for the woman in front of him, a passion that preceded all of the social barriers that separated them, that laughed at such distractions as formalities and species, and a blazing determination that lent itself to his next words so perfectly that all she could do was stand there in his arms blushing like a virgin as she heard him.

"I am going to return the favour, my beautiful leopardess. To do any less before I am allowed to mate you after your wonderful attentions would be a capital crime on my part. Please may I have your permission to tend to you as you have tended to me?"

The blood in her veins ran far hotter than the already warm shower water as she realised what she was being offered. He would do unto her as she had done unto him, putting his own pleasure off until she had felt what he had felt; even though he had no idea whether he would even like the taste, or even be able to tolerate it, he was willing to try this just for her. She couldn't believe how good it felt to be in the arms of someone willing to return her love in every form once again, his hands on her waist applying no force that would hold her in place should she choose to leave right now. This was happening because she wanted it, nobody was forcing her, no one had ordered her to do this, and she was free to stop this at any moment.

This instant of reprieve was her last chance to turn back. If she left now, she could say that all of this was a result of her own lust running away with her head, and she could return to the life she had before the events of tonight. There would not be another opportunity to do this later; she could already feel herself wanting him so badly that it almost physically hurt deep in her chest. But when it came down to the choice of being left alone again with her memories and being given a new life with Thomas, it was no choice at all.

"Do what you want to me Thomas, I'm yours." she whispered into his ear unashamedly, dooming herself to whatever future lay ahead for the two of them.

-Thomas-

The young human lowered himself down onto one knee in front of her in a similar manner to a man who proposes to his bride-to-be, her large and attractive round breasts now rising and lowering in tandem with her breathing just a short distance above him as he brought himself close to her most preciously guarded area. Her tantalizing womanhood was pink lipped with short and soft white fur covering the entire area around it, her shapely thighs and toned stomach providing the perfect backdrop for such a delicate thing nestling between her legs. It was clear for all to see that not all of the moisture was due to the shower water, as some of it clinged to the surrounding fur in spite of the warm water running over it; for all the embarrassment that Anastasia must have been feeling as he looked at her most private region so closely, she didn't allow he hands to move an inch closer to covering her. He knew that she was trusting him immensely by allowing him to do this, and for all the care and kindness she had shown him in the short space they had know each other, he was not about to let her down.

Mustering up what courage he had, Thomas slowly rubbed his hands up her strong calves before running them along her well-formed inner thighs, knowing the value of taking his time with a woman from his previous exploits. He was pleased to hear a quiet moan escape her lips as he allowed his hands to divert their course towards her treasured femininity at the last second, only to circle around on her legs to do the same again. While she seemed to appreciate his tentative approach, he had no intention of teasing her for long, for she must need release just as much, if not more, than he had.

"Please Thomas..." the beautiful leopardess begged him, her long slender tail whipping back and forth in anticipation.

Totally incapable of refusing the exceptional lady responsible for stealing his heart, he complied instantly, slipping one hand between her legs to rub gently against her wet outer lips, massaging her labia tenderly. The aroused feline above him gasped sharply as his fingers made contact with her exposed pink flesh, and started a long drawn out moan as he began rubbing his fingers up and down her womanhood at a steady pace, refraining from exploring any deeper just yet.

Thomas couldn't decide what turned him on more about the enchanting leopardess in that state; was it the way she very subtly rubbed her crotch back against his fingers with every contact they made against her, or the warm juices trickling out of her to cover his fingers as proof that she enjoyed it, or the melodic sounds of her delight that left her mouth to glide into his ears like the most masterfully crafted of symphonies?

He simply couldn't decide, not even when he slipped one finger past those beautiful nether lips of hers until it was in up to the knuckle. The tightness of her female passage surpassed all of the estimates that his mind could possibly conjure from his experience of human females, her irresistible cry of pleasure as he had entered his digit a testimony to her approval of him delving inside her. Not keeping her waiting for a second of her long overdue time, he immediately began to wriggle his finger around inside her, causing her eyes to close tightly shut as new tremors of pleasure shot through her body at his diligent working of her femininity.

"Ohhhh...Thomas..." Anastasia managed to meekly moan out, his enquiring digit seeking out and finding spots inside her that no-one had touched for years, and stimulating every single one.

Of course, just as Anastasia had been effectively flying blind when she had pleased the young human orally, Thomas was similarly unaware of just how effective his attentions were at the moment, with the enthralled feline being in no fit state to inform him of how he was progressing. When he inserted a second finger inside her slick canal to join his first in his welcome inspection of her warm depths, the leopardess seemed to undergo an early miniature orgasm under his careful yet very thorough probing of her vagina with two fingers now searching out her sensitive spots, her warm juices now flowing constantly over his fingers as her inner folds clutched at his inquisitive digits.

"Please...deeper..." his feline lover implored him, cheeks flushing whit what he assumed was embarrassment, but was in reality pure arousal.

The young human glanced up again after catching something out of the corner of his eye, and was amazed to see that while he had been preoccupied with seeing to her delicate entrance, she had sneakily moved her hands up to rub her hefty breasts without him noticing, those large firm orbs now being kneaded by her black-spotted yellow hands to provide a nice contrast to the white fur on the sizeable pair. Even though he was already sliding his fingers in and out of her womanhood, carried along by her heart-wrenching pleas for more of the same, his jaw still fell open at the incredibly arousing sight laid out before him. He'd secretly wondered what it would look like if he ever accidentally walked in on this extraordinary lady in the those of pleasuring herself, but of course had made no move to attempt to achieve this fantasy through peeking in on her, and now here he was on the shower floor between her legs, softly fingering her while she performed one of his most erotic fantasies before his eyes in the shower room of her own mansion.

Determined to do his bit for her as well, the male leaned in close to her pussy lips, seeing his intended target nestled invitingly right at the top of precious womanhood. Extending his tongue, he administered a soft lick to the unprotected nub of flesh that he recognised to be her clitoris, circling his tongue around it in a slow rhythm as he felt her entire body tense up with this sudden change in tactic. Even someone as new to her species as he was could tell that she liked it when he licked her there, so he continued to do it, without relent or reservation.

As if this wasn't enough for the leopardess to think about, the young human now increased the speed at which he thrust his fingers into her tight yet yielding vagina just to bring her even further along. Oblivious to how far he had already driven the aroused feline, he went further once more and closed his lips around clitoris, sucking at the small fleshy nub carefully so as not to damage the small button-like protrusion unintentionally.

"AAAAAAaaaahhhh!!!!.....So close now!!!!.....I'm so close Thomas!!!" his gorgeous lover almost screamed.

The human felt a surge of pride flow through him at being able to give her what she needed, having fully expected himself to fail at trying to service a female both far more experienced than him and of quite a sexually active species in the first place, not that he though any less of her for being so.

Even humans like Thomas had heard the rumours about the reputations certain species had beneath the bed-sheets; without a doubt the horniest of all the races on Suranin were the rabbits, with almost all their long-lasting relationships involving more than 2 partners even in marriage, but just behind them in the quiet whispers exchanged at the back of rooms while nobody was thought to be listening in, were the exotic felines: strong, beautiful, sensual. He had no doubt in his mind that she had experienced better foreplay during her time with her husband, but the look he saw on her face, jaws agape in a breathless open-mouthed smile with her eyes shut against the still raining shower water, that was a look he was certain she had reserved for her mate's eyes only. The knowledge that he could earn that look from her, bring that feeling of contentment and joy back to her did more for him than any applause from any master pianist ever could.

However, perhaps selfishly wanting to see more of her hidden joy that had been cruelly suppressed as time passed, maybe selflessly wanting to bring her to completion after weaving around it for a while, he needed to make her cum for him as she had done unto him earlier. As it so happened, he knew just how to do it as well.

On the next re-entry of his fingers into her womanhood, he pushed them in deeper than any of his previous probing treks had and curled his fingers around inside her, searching for a small soft spot that he knew was there. He smiled warmly as she finally wailed out loud in sheer unadulterated bliss as his fingers made contact with the place he was looking for, her G-spot. She came almost the exact same instant he touched her there, but he still stroked it as her orgasm hit in full force, determined that she would not just have a mediocre peak.

The leopardess now moaned with every breath that she could manage as her vaginal walls clamped down hard on his fingers, seeming to try and pull them even further inside as her orgasmic fluid sprayed out of the small gap left for them. Thomas continued to suck on her clitoris as she came, striving to make this orgasm one for her to remember, forcing the pleasure ridden feline's body to new heights of sexual stimulation, while his free hand gently stroked her thigh to help her cope with this intense experience.

For a full minute, Anastasia just stood unsteadily above him as he supported her legs, shuddering as the young human continued to tend to her with his tongue just a loving mate should and enjoying every moment of it. Thomas licked up what stray portions of her cum that he could that weren't immediately washed away by the running water, savouring her unique flavour as she slowly began to come down from her high.

Eventually, he removed his fingers from her womanhood with a wet squelch and a sigh of pleasure from the beautiful feline. Upon getting back to his feet, he was greeted by a passionate kiss from the more-than-happy leopardess aristocrat, the young human returning it with equal vigour as their tongues entwined once again. It was a short lived but emotional joining, lasting only a few seconds, but conveying just how grateful Anastasia to him without any shadow of a doubt left in Thomas's mind, doing wonders for his confidence.

As their lips parted, he was surprised to feel her gently push him backwards and away from her, though her expression was one of promise as opposed to displeasure. He knew that she'd felt that he was already erect once again as he stood up, as his member had brushed her stomach on the way. He just assumed that she wanted to leave the evening at that, as they had both reached their respective climaxes, but he was sorely mistaken.

The leopardess then did something that would have broken the will of any sane heterosexual male, but utterly shattered that of the young male of the receiving end of it. The gorgeous leopardess turned around and leaning over she placed her hands firmly on the wall in front of her whilst pushing her naked rear out towards the love-struck male behind her. Without hesitating, she raised her long patterned tail, unveiling ever centimetre of the white furred valley between the exquisite cheeks of her bottom, the small pink circular shape of her clean anus and the similarly pink lips of her delightful womanhood displayed just for him. Every single part of her that only the male she chose would ever see was now being shown off him, and from the way her tail flicked about, she enjoyed knowing that he was looking.

Casting a loving look over her shoulder after flicking her long brown hair out of her eyes, she said loud and clearly to the young, without any trace of embarrassment or indecision present in any part of her voice or body:

"Thomas, Take me."

-Anastasia & Thomas-

The two of them wasted no more time, getting straight down to business.

Thomas placed both of his hands on her curvaceous black-spotted butt cheeks, unable to stop himself from giving the gorgeous pair a firm squeeze in his grip, to which Anastasia gave a low grateful moan, entwining her tail around his back to make sure he didn't pull away from doing this again if he chose to. The young human quickly positioned his manhood at the entrance to her pink vagina, the sensitive entrance actually quivering in need as felt his tip touch her delicate folds, making him gasp out as he felt the heat radiating out from her needy opening.

"Please Thomas.....don't make me beg for it....." the leopardess pleaded, desperately wanting him to make love to her, possibly even more than she had wanted her husband on their first night together. Just the feeling of him resting barely outside of her was driving the poor feline insane with desire, having wanted this every lonely night since he arrived.

"I have no intention of making you, Anastasia my love." The young human replied, steadying her hips with his hands to ensure his aim was perfect before driving himself as far inside her as he could manage in a single strong thrust, spreading her vaginal lips far apart as they stretched to accommodate his girth.

Both human and feline cried out simultaneously at the explosion of pleasure that practically decimated their respective nervous systems, though there were slightly different reasons for it in the pair.

Thomas had discovered upon entering her that using the word tight was just not an appropriate adjective for what he was feeling, requiring something far beyond that to describe how her powerful muscles clenched wonderfully at every one of his 8 inches that were now comfortably harboured inside her vaginal canal. Even as he kept himself still, her womanhood did not sit idly stretched around his girth waiting for him to continue, seeming to try every rhythm of clamping down on him that it knew to try and tow him further into port. He had no idea how long he'd be able to endure this divine treatment before it pushed him too far, but he guessed that it wouldn't take much time if he didn't start moving.

Anastasia on the other hand, adored the feeling of him finally embedding himself right up to the hilt inside her. His manhood was certainly substantial enough to please her, but more than that, its unique shape provided a multitude of new sensations that she hadn't felt before in all her years of trying this out during her marriage. The lack of barbs up and down his entire shaft meant that there was no background pain whatsoever for her to deal with as there would normally be when they dragged along her passage, and the lack of a knot meant that she wouldn't be stuck together with him for a while after they finished as she had experienced with Lord Harelton (something which had caused him quite a considerable amount of embarrassment when he hadn't be able to keep up with her sexual demands at first because of his knot tying them together for long periods of time). In particular, she liked the way that the wide bulbous head of his member ensured that the very deepest of her depths were spread apart and stimulated, as opposed to the pointed tips that she'd become used to up until this point, which helped greatly with penetration, but could almost go unnoticed by her until the male finally came inside her.

Not one to disappoint, Thomas started to move his hips immediately, mating her against the wall in a standing variation of the infamous 'doggy style' position. He loved the sight of her tight pink pussy lips stretching as they clung to his manhood when he pulled out, and how easily they parted to allow his member to disappear back inside her welcoming tunnel as he pushed forwards, and so repeated it as much as his hips would allow him to. From the way Anastasia thrust back against him as he drove himself inside her again and again at his reasonably fast pace, she certainly enjoyed this as much as he did, doing her best to squeeze her already succulently snug womanhood on his member in synch with his thrusting. He made sure to squeeze those delightful buttocks of hers as he mated her, knowing how much women of his own kind liked to be touched during this.

The leopardess in front of him was by now panting with her mouth hanging open, tongue flowing over her teeth like a wet red carpet, relishing every strong impact of his hips against hers as he pounded his hard cock inside her just the way she wanted him to. It felt so thrilling to be taken like this again, like she was that same teenager from over 26 years ago that had snuck away from the crowds at the grandest of parties to seek out a spare room with a handsome Leopard named John, that she would later come to marry; she felt the same excitement at doing something that she alone wanted in complete disregard for the opinions of others, the deep satisfaction of been utterly taken by a male who was hell-bent on giving her what she needed, and most of all, she felt emotionally complete.

Somewhere inside her mind, when Thomas had entered her inner sanctum, a part of her mind that she'd forgotten was there had kicked into action, forcing her already gargantuan desire to be near him to swell beyond all hope of measure and scope. Before she entered the shower, her love was unrequited, when they had kissed it had been returned, but now that he was making love to her she was experiencing it in full swing. Nothing else would ever feel so utterly right as being this physically close to Thomas, and she would make sure she did this every moment that they cloud spare together, for as long as her healthy but still aging body would allow.

Just as she was comprehending these long since rusted and forgotten emotions, her human lover decided to remind her that he was eager to please, slipping his hands from her gorgeous bottom and up under her arms to cup her dangling breasts. The feline was powerless to stop herself from moaning as she felt him gently massage them in his palms, lifting each of them as if to test their weight, and gasped sharply every time he rubbed her hard pink nipples. These new sensations melded with the insurmountable feelings being supplied by his eager thrusting into her from behind, shredding her hopes of making this last and replacing it with the need to reach her already imminent peak.

Just a few hard, determined thrusts from her human lover later, she felt her whole body tremble, unhindered bliss being relayed by every nerve up and down her spine as her tight pussy clamped down on the eager male organ still forcing it way ever deeper into her womanhood. Thomas's thrusts suddenly stopped as she felt this ecstatically pure flood of euphoria drown all the corners of her body that she could possibly feel, hearing him grunt behind her while his member throbbed powerfully inside her in time with his heartbeat and feeling him squeeze her breasts in his shaking hands, loving the way her sensitive nipples rubbed against his palms in the process.

"Anastasia.....Can't....." the young human warned, his resolve clearly at an end as well. Truth be told, it was a small miracle that he hadn't climaxed when she had.

"Do it, let it flow inside me Thomas!" the leopardess begged him, thrusting her enticing bottom back into his hips, slamming his cock as deep inside her flower as possible to stop him from pulling out.

Thomas clutched at her tightly as he felt his manhood tingle, an all too familiar tickling surge running up from the base to the tip as he felt himself jet his first shot of hot human cum inside her tight leopardess pussy. This gift of white gooey sperm didn't go unanswered by her, Anastasia's depths clenching down on his hard cock wonderfully to draw the next health blast out of him to paint her inner walls with his very life code. Still he kept cumming inside her, filling her female canal up bit by bit until all the available space inside her vagina had been taken up by his thick fluid, forcing it to trickle out around their union and drip down onto the shower floor from her womanhood in heavy white globs while more sperm was shot inside to replace it.

Despite being effectively locked in place thanks to his current position, he playfully pushed his hips against hers in time with his ejaculations. From the way she giggled and swatted his butt softly with her long tail, he guessed that she approved of this.

Eventually however, their orgasms wore off, leaving behind that wonderful feeling of afterglow, neither wishing to draw away from their partner just yet, relishing the feeling of holding onto each other for a while longer. A short while later, Anastasia stood back up from leaning against the wall, keeping Thomas's slowly softening member inside of her for as long as she was able, loving the feeling of him resting there. Eventually however, his manhood slipped out of her, leaving a beautiful white creampie to steadily flow out of her used vagina in a lovely white stream down her legs. It was such a longed-for feeling, the undeniable proof of what they had done, as she felt it gradually ooze out.

"*giggle* Seems you made quite a mess of me, lover boy. It's fortunate we're already in the showers or Rachael would be furious with us." the beautiful leopardess teased him, turning around in his arms to face the handsome human and plant a soft kiss on his lips before finishing, "Thank you Thomas."

"Anytime my beautiful Anastasia." He answered; resting is forehead against hers affectionately for a moment.

A few minutes later they were both cleaning themselves up from their 'activities', admittedly with quite a few gropes and 'accidental' teases being exchanged during the process, and their new conversation eventually found its way back to how this whole event tonight started.

"If it weren't for Rachael giving me a push then I don't think I would have even made it to the door of the shower if I'm honest. You've really made a tremendous impact on her already you know." Anastasia commented, making the young human beside her blush bright red as he remembered his rather unorthodox encounter with the lynx in the kitchen earlier.

"I've been meaning to ask you about her as it happens Anastasia."

"Hm, how so?" the beautiful leopardess answered, rubbing conditioner through her fur as she spoke, but not letting her eyes leave him while she worked.

"Well, she came onto me pretty strongly in the kitchen this afternoon, and made no secret of what she was attempting to do. When I confronted her about it, she said that I would probably end up mating her if I managed to start a relationship with you anyway. Do you know what she meant by that?"

The leopardess's head snapped up with her ears pricked as she heard Thomas mention what Rachael had said, hardly believing the syllables entering her ears.

"How did she come onto you?" the feline asked eagerly, though Thomas was surprised to see her wearing a bright smile on her face rather than the look of deep distrust he was expecting.

"Well, she, um, bent over in front of me and.....pulled her undergarments down.....saying that she couldn't wait to share a bed with me in the future."

The next instant the human found a new appreciation for the non-slip flooring of the shower as he felt Anastasia leap onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a warm hug as her wet fur rubbed against his soft skin, the clouded leopardess nuzzling his cheek passionately with her nose before pulling her head back and locking eyes with him as she explained.

"Oh Thomas! You truly have no idea how much you've done for her do you? When she first came to live with us in this mansion years ago, she wasn't just nervous around men, she was completely terrified of them, both of strangers come to visit and of my husband. I think you can determine why, given that you've heard her relate her past to you as I have. For nearly 6 months we struggled to help her combat this terror, until John came up with an idea. He went to see her at night with my blessing, completely naked down to his fur to show that he was hiding none of the torture devices that she had come to expect males to be carrying and just sat on a chair and talked to her for an hour. He did this for a week, then started to wear clothes when he visited by adding one item at a time each night, with her eventually becoming comfortable being around him fully clothed. It still took us a little more time to get her to be confident around other men that visited, but through John's hard work she managed to overcome all of the fear that had been drummed into her mind by the horrible people that had kept her a prisoner all those dark years since she was a child. Soon after, she came to see me one day while John was out working at our business, and confessed to me that she had fallen in love with him. After all she'd been through, how could I deny her something she wanted so honestly, when I could see it in my husband's eyes that he cared for her also, in the same way he cared for me as his wife. We became a three person relationship that very same night, and the times we spent together while John was still alive were the happiest of my life to date, until tonight.

"However, as John always told me, all things come to pass sooner or later. He died of a fatal and inoperable cancer tumour years after this relation started, leaving myself and Rachael alone together without him. Rachael never once flirted with anyone else apart from him, trusting nobody to be truly honest with her the way he was. We made an agreement that if I ever found a man that I loved as much as I had loved John, then I would let her join in our happiness the same way she had done before. You are the only man she has ever made a genuine advance on Thomas, you should take what she did as a huge compliment. Don't be afraid to try anything with her as well, she's a woman who's quite literally seen it all in how men have sex with women, just be sure to treat her with the same love that you've shown me. She needs it just as much as I do."

Thomas stood there silently, wracked by the revelation of how hard it was for Rachael to adjust to her new life here at first, and now fully understanding the scale of her actions towards him back in the kitchen. Now that he thought about it, she hadn't retreated from him, acted coldly towards him, or made any effort to avoid him whatsoever despite this long carried fear of his gender. For all she'd been through, she hadn't appeared any worse for wear, and he wouldn't have guessed her previous troubles had she not come out and told him. He of all people should have seen the link between men and her past life much earlier than now.

The young human did the only thing he could think of to do at that moment; he looked down into her blazing amber eyes and kissed her passionately on the lips, breaking their union for a brief moment to speak.

"I promise, I will dedicate whatever life I have to your and Rachael's happiness my darling Anastasia."

The next moment their lips rejoined, and the pair continued kissing under the warm light and water in the shower room, the rest of the world put entirely on hold for their love for the moment, each thinking the same thoughts about their shared futures.

What would happen to their love when it came time for Anastasia to be bred as was the law for her species?

It would survive. Love and breeding were not one and the same.

What would happen when their union became known to the public, and the audacity of it came crashing down on her doorstep?

It would survive. Prejudice was nothing new to Thomas, and she would not let her lover bear it alone for a minute longer.

What would happen when Sir Carrington discovered what they had done?

They would survive it. They would not allow such a pitiable man to separate them now that they were where they belonged:

In each other's arms.

*To be continued... *