Still on My Mind
Your Picture Still on My Mind
Sequel to: Your Picture in my Mind
*
"...and to see the next quarterly..."
_ _
I wasn't listening to what the lecturer was talking about macroeconomics. My mind was too full of mature tiger rumps and smiles and 80's hairdos.
Damn it.
*
"...and she was like, she kicks ass and she yells like Tarzan and there's definitely something going on between them, it's like the best thing ever on TV!"
_ _
I stirred my coffee absently while Jane went on about something she had seen on TV, and judging by what she was saying, her lesbian best friend forever Maud had also enjoyed watching. We were sitting on the couple of tables in front of a small café, wearing our coats because the weather was perhaps not as balmy as one would hope for such a chic time out, but we were enduring with the sheer determination to act cool about it and enjoy our lattes and our croissants.
"Are you listening at all, Reuben?"
My ears perked and I looked away from nothingness to face the music - that was Jane giving a crooked look to me across the round table.
"Yes?"
"Uh, you totally didn't listen to me when I was telling you all about Xena," Jane accused me.
"I was listening," I said.
"You didn't look like it," she complained," you were like...out there."
"No I wasn't," I said.
She thrummed the tabletop with her fingers and gave me another look.
"Thinking about something?" she questioned. "Things going well with Lafayette?"
God. Nothing had happened with the lion since the night of sex after the gallery opening. I didn't really want to think about that too much either, since it'd been pretty much just sex, and neither Jane nor the lion needed to know about the rest of the details about it, such as the fact that my utter lust during the night had been caused by me thinking about the sexy tiger from the photos.
And in real life, too...God Almighty, things like this just didn't happen.
"Things are...going," I told her quickly.
"Oh?" she leaned forward in interrogation of me.
"Yeah," I replied, and hoped that it sounded casually.
"So you're...dating now?"
"No, no," I shook my head, "Lafayette doesn't do dating, as far as I know."
"But you're an...an item?"
I shrugged.
"I don't know what we are," I said.
Jane pouted.
"Why are you gay men so damn casual about it?" she asked. "You go on dates, you have sex, you go to events together, and you don't want to stick a label to it?"
I cringed.
"How do you know we have sex?"
"Well, you went for a brunch before, didn't you? And a movie, and then the shared cab after the art exhibition last Thursday..."
"That's just meeting up for activities, isn't it?"
"Yeah, as friends...or...with a happy ending..." she suggested.
I frowned.
"Really?"
"Well, what do you want to call it?" she asked. "Sodomy?"
"That's kind of an outdated way of putting it," I pointed out.
"So?"
"Well, because - "
"Do you think I'm...disapproving of you guys being together?"
"We're not together," I shrugged off the suggestion.
"Okay," she crossed her paws defiantly over her chest, "admit it, you're at least sleeping together, then."
"You already assumed we are," I noted.
"Well if you are, what's the problem then? It's not like you're doing it with the entire Castro!"
I started to blush. I wasn't that innocent, oh no, there were things I regretted already, but at least she didn't put it more graphically than that.
"No, I'm not," I said, "neither is Lafayette, I suppose."
"You know, even straight furs do it," she fluttered her eyelids, "sex with no strings attached. I've done it!"
"I don't want to think about you having sex, no thanks," I said.
"Why'd you even try?" she licked her lips.
"I don't know, because you seem to like thinking about me doing stuff?"
"I don't...really think about it, per se," she said, "it's just...I want you to be happy and...find your prince and..."
A prince with beautiful stripes and a sultry look on his muzzle -
_ _
"Well I'm busy with other matters of...ruling the kingdom, besides looking for a prince of my own," I stated before taking a nerve-soothing sip from my cup.
"And nobody stops you from enjoying yourself!" she beamed.
I didn't mind her saying it, but the fact that it implied that she wanted to poke me for even more details about my intimate encounters (or confirmation of their existence thereof) with Lafayette was not something that I enjoyed particularly much.
"I didn't claim that either," I said.
"So when are you meeting again?"
"I don't know," I replied. When her brows started to raise, I went on. "I mean, we haven't talked since Friday, he's been working during the weekend, I think. And he's difficult to get hold to, anyway."
"You know what he needs? A mobile phone!"
I chuffed.
"Those are really expensive, aren't they?"
"Shouldn't any self-respecting journalist have one, anyway? Never know when you hit a scoop!"
Or when you want to make a mobile booty call, I decided.
"I'm not sure the Gazette is quite well off enough to supply all their writers with those. Especially junior staff like Lafayette. He's practically an intern, you know."
"I'm kinda surprised he doesn't have one anyway," Jane mused, "he does like showing off, doesn't he?"
In ways I wasn't willing to discuss with Jane, too, but I wasn't going to go into the detail about Lafayette's purple underpants, for example.
"Well he has a certain air of...exuberance, I suppose?" I said.
"Maybe a little," Jane giggled.
"It's a lion thing, I guess."
"And maybe a tiger thing, too..." she pursed her lips while looking at me.
Tigers, huh?
Like a certain Percy "Chad" Yeager, who had the ability to give me an iron boner even in the form of a fuzzy photocopy I'd been looking at all too often since last Thursday, even with the sexual exertions of the night with Lafayette included.
"A feline thing, then?" I proposed. "Canine things are a whole different chapter, aren't they?"
"Yes," I agreed.
"Hmm," she winked. "Anyway, what Maud was saying, you should really check out this new show, it's sooooo good! And it's got all this fun humor, too, besides awesome action, and Maud says the New Zealander chick is super hot, too, and looks great in leather!"
Oh God...she started again on it.
"And she's called...Xeno?"
"XENA!" Jane yelped. "X-E-N-A, and her friend's name is Gabrielle, and together they fight against evil lords and kings and...demons and gods and..."
"Sounds like a kid's show," I said.
"It's got wide audience appeal!" she said. "I did mention 'looks hot in leather', did I?"
"So that covers straight men, boys and...Maud?"
"Well, they kick the ass of a bunch of leather-clad thugs in each episode, too!" she said. "I can't wait for the next one, I can't believe they've only aired three episodes yet and it's already soooo good! I'm so excited!"
"Sounds like your social calendar is all set, then," I said, "full of...Xena...and...talking about it?"
"I was thinking of heading over to Maude's to watch it, do you wanna come?"
Eeek.
"I'm pretty swamped with reading," I said, "those books are really thick, and I have to try to make some notes, too."
"All work and no play!" Jane complained.
"I did go to the exhibition with you!" I reminded her.
"But Maud couldn't make it because Corinthian had soul sister problems she had to sort out."
I wasn't going to fall into that trap.
"I'm sure we can all do something fun soon."
"Killian is hosting a fondue party next weekend, we could make that!" she sounded even more enthusiastic about this opportunity for socializing. "Could invite Lafayette, too..."
"Do you expect me to bring him as a date?"
"Why not?"
"But we're not dating," I was repeating myself, and didn't like it much.
"But he wouldn't mind an invite, I'm sure,!"
"Probably not, but maybe he'll have other things to do."
"Like a private date with you instead of all of us?"
"Jane..." I shook my head.
"What? It's a legit question! Knowing you share cabs and all..."
"It's an expensive city," I said.
"And yet you're letting your expensive coffee go cold," she pointed at my almost untouched cup.
Dang. I suppose thinking constantly about sexy tigers was keeping some parts of me warm but my palms weren't acting as radiators for it.
"It's still very nice," I told her defiantly while taking a gulp. It really tasted a bit questionable by now, but I wasn't going to let her know. My smile just widened. I couldn't muster a purr, though.
"But you will come to the party, won't you? Killian and Abel are so lovely, and their place is so nice..."
*
I was rolling in bed once again, trying to sleep, when the slightly rumpled corner of the leaflet caught my attention. It was protruding from between the pages of my notebook where I'd hidden it conveniently, I thought, and now the very sight of it taunted my tired brain.
"Shit," I huffed.
I turned on the lamp on the bedside table and tugged the leaflet out of its concealment. I tugged one of my pillows better behind my neck, folded my covers so that they still kept my legs nice and warm, and then, gently, opened the leaflet.
Don't get me wrong, most of the pictures were fantastic, even in their pixilated form on the gallery brochure. I went past the sexy horses, cougars and lions and barely popped wood during that preliminary ogle before I found the tiger again.
I stared at him happily, running my paws over my bare chest, felt up my nipples, and I hardened in my loose boxers, up to full stiffness while I feasted my eyes in the sight of the tiger's sexy pose and his confident, erotic smirk. If only I could see everything...if only he was holding his hard cock in paw in that photo instead of keeping everything too X-rated hidden from the lens. Maybe he could've rolled onto his stomach and shown some taint...beautiful buttocks and balls and a tail swung to the side...
I purred softly when I felt the sweet throb in my pants, and a few grabs through my boxers was all I could take. I slipped the elastic under my balls and let my entire package pop open so that I could caress the entirety of my flesh with my paws. I only let go of myself to turn the pages and fold the leaflet so that I could look at the picture of the older version of...Chad...Percy...whatever, he was one sexy daddy, sprawled among his photographic paraphernalia and knowing that anyone who watched would be feeling the vibrant sexual energy oozing off him.
I wanted to touch him bad...rub those muscles and taste his muzzle and his musk before...before doing whatever he wanted me to do, and I wanted to be pinned underneath him, and to stroke his body, and feel him tremble and shudder and hear him growl while our bodies rocked and eventually I didn't even need the photo, it was just me. My eyes were closed and the images become faster, visceral, intense and...I bit on my lip when the handsome tiger in my dreams exploded with pleasure, in my imagination, accompanied by a deep, guttural groan unlike the strange, strangled half-whine that Lafayette was prone to do during the throes of his height of passion.
My sexual energy waned, I panted there, covered in my seed and my scent and with the heat slowly dissipating into the musky air.
"Damn."
*