She looked out the window. Only a few cars were out on the street, massive curved shapes with tailfins prowling up and down under the darkening sky. She noticed it was beginning to snow. She turned back and sat on the overstuffed armchair. She leaned forward and adjusted the hem of her sequined dress. Sleet began rattling against the window a few feet away. She took another drag on her cigarette and twitched her ears in annoyance. "So, honey, what species are you, anyway? You don't smell quite like anything I'm familiar with." He was tall, she thought. Too tall. The top of her head wouldn't even come all the way up under his chin.

"Ah," he said, his voice a bit muffled. "This may take a bit of explaining. If I show you, can I trust you to exercise discretion? The agency has a sterling reputation in that regard and you came highly recommended, Miss."

"Please call me Rose. If this is what you want, you're going to have to show yourself to me regardless."

"Very well. Please do not be alarmed." He stood up, removed the trenchcoat, and took off his gloves. His hands looked odd, almost hairless and lacking either claws or pads, she thought. He unbuckled the snouted leather mask and slowly removed it, revealing a flat face that made her think of apes and monkeys. He was tailless, like a gorilla or chimpanzee.

Her ears perked upward in interest. "You're one of those hu-mans, aren't you? I saw the newsreels."

"That's right."

She paused. "Turn on the radio, would you please?" She pointed at the fat black plastic housing sticking out of the wall.

"Okay. How does it work, exactly?"

"The knob on the left is volume, the one on the right selects channels. Put on some music, please."

"Okay, sure." "The Too Fat Polka" began playing. "Not that one, please!"

He chuckled. "I think you're pleasantly plump."

"Nonetheless--" He turned the dial and got an instrumental string quartet piece. "That'll do." She paused. "With that taken care of, what are you doing here?"

"Do you mean on this side of the portal, or here in this room, right now, specifically?"

"Both," she said, crushing out her cigarette in the ashtray and pulling her tail forward to rest it against the side of her leg.

"Very well. I'm an engineer. I was recruited to come here and work on the modernization project at the big power plant in Baldwin. They needed people who could pass background checks on both sides and get security clearances on both sides, because we're working on critical infrastructure. There are rumors about a trade treaty, but that isn't my department and I don't really know anything about it."

"Fair enough. I don't know about the people on your side, but everybody knows President Eisenhower's a pretty sharp guy. I trust him and Dick Nixon to understand and to do the right thing for us."

He raised an eyebrow at that, but kept silent.

"And the rest?"

"Pardon?"

"Why me, 'Mister Smith?' The agency told me you had an odd request, and you sounded a bit shy and eccentric. They said you specified someone who could be discreet. I'm a working girl, we all know how to keep a secret, but they said you kept coming back to that. They also said you insisted on a vixen, and I'm currently the only one at my agency available weekends. I thought your people had only been visiting our world for less than a year, and I'd never heard of any of them expressing that kind of interest in anyone on this side."

"This is a bit personal."

"I can imagine, but I do think I need to know something about you, and about why you want this."

He rubbed his hands together. "You have animated cartoons here, right?"

"We do."

"Same on our side. And they are mostly, not all of them, but mostly, entertainment for children."

"Same here."

"And lots of them have non-human characters. Maybe for a fantasy story. Maybe it's a retelling of old myths about a time where people--I mean, we, and the animals, lived together, and the animals had the power of speech. Maybe they choose one species or another for a character because this or that species has cultural connotations that work well with the character."

"I am not sure where you're going with this, but please continue."

"Lions and bears are brave and fierce. Horses are strong and swift and graceful. Dogs are loyal. Snakes are sinister, always scheming, and can never be trusted. And foxes are clever, in all the old fables."

"Is that the stereotype you have of us, then?"

He shook his head. "You, we didn't know existed until they opened the portals last year. I'm talking about the animals, the, uh, the beasts of the forests and mountains and plains. Foxes are known for being extremely, extremely cunning little animals. Lots of people find them cute, too, though farmers hate them because they kill chickens and sometimes livestock. They steal eggs, too, and no fence or door can keep them out, nor can any trap hold them. You have them here too, I know, all the same species."

"Go on."

"And in these, um, these animated cartoons, there are a lot of non-human, animal-people characters, and they often have traits and behaviors based on these perceptions, these legends, right? Cats hate mice and chase birds, wolves howl at the moon. And foxes are always really smart, either as heroes or as villains."

"I see."

"And there was, a very long time ago--well, do you have the 'Robin Hood' legends here?"

"Yes, actually."

He began to pace back and forth. "There was an animated Robin Hood feature film I saw as a child. The hero was a brave and clever fox, a rebel who fought to overthrow an unjust ruler. His love interest, Maid Marian, was also a fox. And I decided she was the most beautiful woman in the whole world, and never got over it. I know that sounds shallow, and probably creepy. She didn't get that many spoken lines, she didn't have much of a personality. She was a supporting character for the hero to rescue and woo. But oh, she was pretty. Does that make me a horrible person?"

"That's not the weirdest story I've heard this month."

"I'm glad."

"So, you're telling me, all your life you've wanted a fox?"

"Not an animal. Not a beast. A fox woman, one I could talk to, and everything else. I have a crush on a fictional vixen, and now I'm in a place where they're real."

"Everything else?"

He stopped and looked at her, for a long, long time.

"Are you accustomed to, shall we say, unusual requests?"

"You have no idea."

"I want to touch your fur. I want to touch your hair. I want to touch your, uh, your pretty little snoot. I want to touch your ears, and your fluffy, fluffy tail. I want to touch your belly."

She blinked. "Is this not sexual for you?"

"Oh, no. It's very sexual for me. Very, very sexual. You're very, very beautiful."

"Oh, you're so sweet. I'm fat, and I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to be your mother."

"Nonetheless, I want to do everything with you."

"When you say 'everything...'"

"I don't want to speak inappropriately. Do you, uh, fuck?"

She smirked. "I'm a working girl. Yes."

"Then get over here." He sat on the corner of the bed. She sashayed over to him, gave a slow turn, moving her plump posterior side to side. With her tail slowly, sinuously waving side to side, she turned a second time, then sat on his lap, straddling him, and put her hands behind his shoulders.

"How's this?" she whispered.

"Oh, dear God. Oh, dear God, you're beautiful." He bent forward, rubbing his face against the tuft of fur in her cleavage, then making a little trail of kisses going up her neck. His hands roamed her back, went up the back of her neck. He ran his fingers through her dark auburn hair, gingerly traced the outlines of her ears. He stroked her cheek.

"And tonight I'm all yours."

"All night? I thought it was just two hours."

She indicated the window with a twitch of her ear. "Payment's already been arranged. The weather's horrible, the roads are going to be impassable soon, and you're a novelty. Don't disappoint me, sweetie."

"I shall endeavor to give satisfaction, Miss Rose."

She chuckled. "Give us a kiss."

He leaned back, put two fingers beneath her chin, put his other hand on the back of her head, leaned forward, and pressed his lips against hers, then nibbled them gently.

"I wondered how you'd do with those lips. I think I like it."

I'm glad to hear it. He touched the tip of his index finger to her nose. "Boop."

She blinked. He leaned forward and kissed her again, this time pressing his tongue against her lips. He cupped her breasts in his hands, squeezing them firmly through the sequined red dress. She touched the tip of her tongue to his, then pressed it into his mouth, pulling him closer and moaning softly.

He broke the kiss off to take a deep breath. "You really do like that, don't you?"

"You're a good kisser."

"Your tongue, it's longer and narrower than I'm used to. I think I like it."

"Glad to hear it." She brought up her tail to tickle him under the chin. She stepped back to take off her boots and put them beside the bed. "Care to help a girl out? If I turn around, can you unbutton me?"

"Certainly."

She rotated sinuously in his lap, smiling back over her shoulder as she pressed her hips back against him. He was already erect and she could feel it. She brought the white tip of her tail around to stroke the back of his neck. He undid the buttons at the back of her dress, one by one. She stood up, swaying her hips like a burlesque show stripper, and pulled the dress off over her head, exposing erect pink nipples and causing her breasts to drop a bit.

He sighed and held out his arms. "You look good enough to eat."

She leaned forward, pushing her breasts together, and flashed a smile. "I'm the carnivore here, monkey boy."

"I want to worship you like a pagan goddess."

She leaned down to kiss him again, then leaned back to peel off her long satin formal gloves. He stared at her hands.

"May I?"

"May you what?" He took her hand between his, turning it this way and that, gently stroking the fur on the backs of her hands, touching her claws, then the pads on her fingers and palm. He smiled at her. "You have paw beans!"

"Okay, that's a little weird." She paused. "Now take your clothes off." He stripped down quickly and she looked carefully at his erection. "That's... hmm."

"Is something wrong?"

"I've never seen a cock shaped quite like that. I don't know if I can take it."

"Is it so big?"

She grasped his erection in one hand, making him shiver as she turned it this way and that. "It's not that. It isn't tapered."

"Should it be?"

"To fit inside me, yes. I brought French-letters, and I don't think they'll fit you, either."

"French-letters?"

"Sailors have a vulgar name for them. They call them 'rubbers.'"

"Ah, I see. I brought some. They'll fit."

"That's fine, but it isn't going to make you fit without hurting me." She scratched under her chin. "Lie on the bed."

"Yes'm," he said, saluting, then lay back on the bed.

She got onto the bed beside him and rolled to face him. Just then a gust of wind whistled outside the window and the sound of the sleet rose and fell. She looked to the window, and through it, to the leaden grey sky, then back to him. She scooted up and put one hand gently on the back of his head, then pressed her nipple to his lips. "Suckle me, sweetie. It'll help me think."

Without a word, he began, and she gasped. "You really like this, don't you?" He met her eyes and nodded. "Not quite so hard," she whispered, stroking the back of his head. His hands roamed her body, stroking the curve of her hip, the fur of her belly, ran over the fur of her tail, touched her cheek. She reached down to touch his cock and gave it a playful squeeze.

His response was to move his hand to her groin. "Ah, ah, ah. I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet, but I do appreciate your focus." With the tip of her tail she stroked his cheek.

He stopped sucking. "How do you DO that?"

She smiled. "Do what?" With the tip of her tail she tickled his ear.

"Foxes in my world don't have prehensile tails." He paused. "They had us go to classes, you know, information about the common intelligent species, common body language, things like that. No one mentioned this."

She chuckled. "Lots of us don't have this level of dexterity or control. Do you like it?"

"Very much." He thought for a moment. "Not to change the subject, but I would like very much to go down on you."

She squinted. "Pardon?"

"I want to eat you out. I want to perform oral sex on you."

"That's very gentlemanly of you. Lie on your back. I'll sit on your face."

"I've never done this with anyone like you before. I don't want to hurt you. I want you to enjoy it. Can you show me how to do it right?"

She grinned, showing more teeth than before, and lay back on the bed. She spread her legs and brought her finger down to point at herself.

He squinted. "It looks like a fortune cookie."

She guffawed. "It does not! You take that back!"

He shook his head. "It looks like a fortune cookie with fuzz. A cute, plump little fortune cookie."

"I hope you like sweets, then. You're not diabetic, are you?" She spread the lips apart with her fingers, revealing a bright pink bud.

"That's even cuter."

"Glad you're enjoying the show. Touch it, but be gentle."

"Your clit? The pink bit in the middle?"

"Yes." He touched it with a single fingertip. She hissed through her teeth. "Yes, that's it, but not so hard."

"I didn't want to hurt you." He touched it gingerly. She began to move her hips side to side. "Like that," she said, her face beginning to flush. And when you use your tongue, quick little touches. Don't lick it, and for Heaven's sake, don't suck on it."

"Got it." He lay back, and she squatted above his face, lowering her hips slowly, one hand on the back of his head. "You can start any--ooh!" She arched her back. "Like that, sweetie. Just like that, ah..." She brought her tail around and teased his cock with its tip. He moaned into her.

"Oh, that's right, don't stop, mmmh," she said, her voice husky. She began to make little tentative thrusts with her hips. "Not every guy is willing to, ah, ah," she gasped. He cupped her buttocks in his hands and gave them a squeeze. "Just like that, just like that, don't stop, you're gonna make me, ah, mmh." His hands went up her back, then his arms wrapped around her waist. She leaned forward and grasped his cock in her hands, then kissed and licked its tip. He groaned beneath her. "Oh, that's so good, I'm gonna, I'm gonna," she said, then arched her back, threw her head back, and said, "I'm gonna, ah, ah ah ah!" She cried out wordlessly for several seconds and then sagged onto the bed beside him, panting.

"Did you enjoy that?"

"Very much."

"What's the, uh."

"What?"

"What's with the 'ah ah ah?' That was new to me."

"Sweetie, if you can't take a bit of gekkering, you don't deserve a vixen."

"Fair enough." he paused, and touched her cheek. "Did you really come?"

She chuckled, took his hand, and put his fingertips to her oozing slit. "Oh, yes, sweetie. Yes, I did. Now, put one finger inside me." He did so, and she signed and squirmed. "Yeah, that feels good."

"You're pretty wet."

"Well, of course."

"Do you want to try to, well..."

She looked at his cock. "Hmm." She bent, kissed and licked its tip again. She had to open her mouth almost as wide as it would go to get its broad head in. He moaned, and she broke off after a moment. "Get out a French-letter, please. I'll put it on you."

He searched through his clothing and retrieved a little foil-wrapped packet.

"Lie down, sweetie. I'm gonna take good care of you." She unwrapped the condom and rolled it onto him in one swift motion. Then she knelt beside him on the bed on her hands and knees. She thrust her hips up and back and gave him a sultry look, then lifted her tail. "Just be gentle. Don't try to shove the full length in all at once." He nodded and mounted her. She reached back to guide him inside her, and he pushed in, making her hiss. Frst half an inch, then an inch, then they both felt the resistance. She pressed her hips back against him and gave a small whispering moan. "I think we can do this, sweetie. Little by little," and they moved back and forth. He pushed into her with firm pressure, another fraction of an inch, making her groan again.

"You're so beautiful," he said.

"I know, sweetie. Now push a little harder, ah, ah, mmh." With another firm push he slid all the way in, and they signed and groaned together.

"Oh, Rose, it feels so good," he whispered in her ear.

"Now move inside me," she hissed. "Fuck me, sweetie. Show me what you've got."

He began to thrust, first gently, then more firmly. With each thrust she pushed her hips back to meet him. She began to moan softly. "Yes, sweetie, like that, just like that." She arched her back "Yeah, you're gonna make me come again, ah, don't stop," and he began to thrust harder. "Yes, give it to me, give it to me!" She began moving her hips side to side. He put one arm around her belly.

He panted into her ear. "Oh, Rose, Rose, you're so beautiful!" She began to pant.

"Sweetie, I'm gonna, I'm, I'm, ah ah ah ah ah!" She spasmed and shuddered beneath him.

Even as she gasped for breath, he said "Rose, I'm coming," and he bucked and groaned atop her, thrusting jerkily half a dozen more times, then flopping to one side to lie on his back and pant.

She rolled over to put her head on his chest. "That was good, sweetie. Not every guy's as obliging as you." With one hand she stripped the used condom off him and tossed it into the trash.

He nodded. "I've wanted this all my life, and I still can't get over how beautiful you are."

"I'm happy to be the one you chose, sweetie. Now hush." He put his arms around her. "Are you feeling a bit of a chill?" He nodded. She brought her tail up to lay across his chest.

"Convenient," he said.

"Maybe we can do this again."

"Maybe we can, but I have to be careful. This is, at least theoretically, illegal, and if I lose my clearance, I lose my job and get deported. I like this world, and I like seeing you."

"You're a smart guy. I'm sure you'll figure it out. Now, where's the blanket?"

He drew the blanket over them. "Thanks, sweetie." The sleet rattled harder against the window.