FSE

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"Well, would you just look at that view?" Richard Dunbar asked as he led the way into the expansive resort suite.

"Oh, I could get used to this," Elise sighed wistfully when she stepped in front of the window next to her husband.

Austin's older siblings barged in right behind their parents, momentarily entranced by the view before making a beeline for their room; the 20-year old, slender river otter rolled his suitcase into the suite last, just as his parents stepped into their own bedroom, leaving him alone with the vista. Austin paused before the window, getting a good look at the azure-tiled pool, pristine tennis and basketball courts, winding walking paths, and perfectly manicured golf course 16 stories below, with the mountains, painted in faded hues of purple and orange from the sunset, in the distance. After a couple minutes of gazing down at the other guests splashing in the clear water and laying out on the recliners surrounding the pool, Austin turned to survey the suite.

The decor was a mix of modern and industrial, with low, angular furniture softened by neutral color tones and the occasional pop of color; oversized macro photos of botanicals adorned the walls; the impressive kitchen was large enough for a team of three chefs, and the dining table long enough to entertain a party of 12; the sectional couch stood in front of the window, with a coffee table loaded with design books. All in all, it was fairly typical for an upscale hotel, complete with high-end finishes and premium snacks and drinks in the mini-bar.

From the main living/dining area, Austin checked out the secondary bedroom, poking his head in through the doorway, where he saw his brother and sister unpacking and chatting away in their own world.

"...check out Caravan Station, that's supposed to be one of the best music spots in town," Emmett, nine years older than Austin, was saying from one of the two queen beds.

"That was on my list! Metiverse said that DashCard's going to play a pop-up show there while we're here," Vera, two years younger than Emmett, said excitedly while she was stocking the closet with clothes from her suitcase. "We could probably skip out on one of the dinners, and then after that..."

Austin, unnoticed by either of his siblings, retreated from their doorway and made his way over to the primary bedroom, where he saw his mother inspecting the luxurious ensuite bathroom while his father had begun unpacking the two large suitcases that sat at the foot of the king-sized bed.

"I'm going to need a day just in this tub!" Elise called, her voice echoing off the polished concrete and tile.

"I just might have to join you after golf on Thursday," Richard chuckled.

Austin rolled his eyes, then glanced back at the suite--there were no other rooms, no other beds, just the kitchen, the dining set, the mini-bar, the TV, the coffee table, and the couch...

The otter sighed and knocked on the open door.

Richard started, surprised, then looked over at Austin. "Oh! Spooked me there for a sec."

"Sorry," Austin said curtly. "Just wanted to check what the sleeping arrangements were--is there a pull-out or something for me?"

"Hm? Ah, there's one in the sofa," Richard replied, smiling at his son. "Is that alright with you?"

Austin shrugged. "Yeah, that's fine...thanks."

Richard's smile faltered for a moment before he hitched it back up. "Why don't you explore, get a lay of the land for us? There's a movie theater here, and the restaurants are supposed to be really good--want to scope those out for us?"

Austin pursed his lips, but he nodded. "Sure."

"We'll do dinner in a couple hours, and you--you could also check out the pool and the golf shop?" Richard suggested.

The younger otter shrugged again. "Yeah, just...let me know when you're making moves and I'll come join."

"Sounds good," Richard said dismissively while he returned to his unpacking.

Austin, taking his cue, stepped back from the doorway, leaving his parents in their room. In the living space, he set his suitcase and backpack in the corner next to the sectional couch just as he'd done on every trip with his parents and siblings in recent memory; he knew he shouldn't have gotten his hopes up when he'd heard the phrase "executive suite", but he thought it would be nice, just once, to get a real hotel bed and some privacy instead of sleeping, yet again, in the communal area and being made to feel like a guest on his family vacation. And maybe a couple years away in college would have changed his parents' attitudes; maybe the fact that his sister had gotten married last year would have made her less of a priority for his mother; maybe the fact that his brother had just bought a house near his parents would have made him less of a shiny trophy in his father's eyes; maybe the fact that he, Austin, was becoming more of an adult would have made it more likely that his siblings would include him in their activities. But here they all were, playing out the same song and dance that Austin had been part of for as long as he could remember: the four of them an established and well-oiled dynamic, while Austin remained on the periphery throughout the family dinners, the parties and social events, the trips, and everything in between.

While two separate conversations bubbled out of the bedrooms, Austin grabbed one of the key cards from the welcome packet on the dining table and let himself out of the suite. He retraced his steps to the elevator and took it back down to the lobby. But rather than follow the signs for the in-resort movie theater, the pool, or any of the four restaurants on the premises, the otter strode over to a quiet corner of the lobby, where he settled into a comfortable chair that provided a good view of guests checking in.

Austin contented himself for a while with watching the endless stream new arrivals from his vantage point--a family of six leopards, a young deer couple, a group of older foxes, wolves, and weasels, then there was a solo gopher, a lone wolverine, a hare with a kangaroo, a family of four wolves...Austin watched the two young wolves, neither of them older than eight, run past the front desk and play hide and seek while their parents checked in. The otter's gaze drifted to the father, who looked exhausted in his rumpled shirt, which was just verging on being too tight around his wide belly and thick pectorals...

Austin's stomach fluttered as he suddenly imagined the older wolf pulling off his shirt, revealing his out-of-shape form--courtesy of just a few too many pizzas and not enough time in the gym--covered by unkempt, scruffy fur. The otter could see it clearly in his mind's eye: just the right amount of fluff to grab onto, with enough fat to hide the strong muscles waiting for him beneath, and the wolf's thick arms open and ready to wrap around and hold Austin against his solid chest, with his large hands roaming over the otter's already-shirtless back, pushing down below his waistband to grab his--

"Found you!" one of the wolf's children shrieked loudly, jolting Austin from his vision. He glanced over at the fountain near the gift shop, where both youngsters were giggling and talking animatedly. Their parents, having finished checking in while Austin was indulging in his imaginary rendezvous, joined them shortly, and the otter watched them each take a small hand in their own and lead their kids to the elevators, eventually disappearing behind a wall.

Austin sighed--as much as he'd grown to dislike these vacations with his own family, he had to admit that the abundantly available eye candy was a pretty good perk. Over the course of so many trips, he'd taken up the habit of hanging out by the pool or on the beach (preferably in a private cabana if he could reserve one) for days. On a vacation like this, all Austin needed was a good book, a steady supply of water and snacks, and lots of shirtless dads and jocks.

Checking out the local spots didn't appeal to Austin the same way it did for his siblings, while his mother's constant shopping and spa treatments put her squarely out of reach most days. And it was probably for the best that his father had never tried to get him into golf; the last thing Austin needed was to make a complete fool out of himself in front of Richard. Besides, tennis was his game, which made Austin even more of the "ugly duck" sibling due to the fact that both his brother and sister were champion swimmers; throughout his childhood, his parents had made a point of going to every practice and every swim meet, while his tennis practices were unattended, and he could count on one hand the number of times either of his parents appeared for a match. More often than not, Austin had caught rides to competitions with his friends who also played, and the medals that he did win simply went into a box in his closet, while Emmet's and Vera's trophies stood on the shelf of honor in Richard's home office.

Maybe it was because of Emmet and Vera dominating the family pool back home that Austin was slightly averse to getting into pools in general--growing up, it had seemed like nearly every day was nothing but white, churning water as his siblings practiced their strokes and tried to beat their best times; there had never been room for him in the pool when they were in there, and by the time they were done swimming for the afternoon, it would be time for dinner. On the rare occasions when Austin would wade in with nobody else in the pool, he could guarantee that within 30 minutes, his brother and sister would be diving in, with his parents calling out tips and guidance while he would be scrambling out for safety, feeling like he'd just fled from a Category 4 hurricane. So perhaps that was why, on trips like this, Austin was fully content to simply relax by the pool, listening to the stock guitar music that every hotel played outside, reading a decent book, and surreptitiously looking up every time someone in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

Except this time, he'd finally worked up the nerve to put together a profile on CatchMe. Having grown up somewhat sheltered in a pretty conservative town, Austin's first couple years of college in a much less restrictive environment had been eye-opening...life-changing, even. In his younger years, he'd stolen peeks here and there at other boys in the locker room and the occasional lingering glance at a few of his friends' dads, but it wasn't until he left for college that he began really putting the pieces together. From stumbling across the on-campus Gay-Straight Alliance to checking out a gay bar for the first time and being introduced to lots and lots (and lots) of gay porn by his new friends, the otter had learned more about himself in those two years than he had in the previous 18, and as his world began to make more sense, it began to click into place that maybe...he should find a way to really have some fun and...open up, so to speak.

So yes, there was a butt plug in his dorm room. Yes, he'd invested in some sexy underwear that he fell in love with. Yes, he had swapped head Mason Barlow's dick when they'd both been alone together during a party freshman year. Yes, he kept an unopened box of condoms in his dresser. Yes, he had gone on a few dates (and none of them ended in success, but he was getting out there, wasn't he?). Yes, he pawed off desperately at the thought of finally losing his virginity.

But he just hadn't found the courage to actually get it done.

What if he embarrassed himself and word spread like wildfire around campus that he was just some fucking loser who had no clue what he was doing? What if things ended really badly between him and whoever he was seeing and he still had to interact with them on campus? What if he did something wrong? What if...what if...what if...

And then there was the family vacation. Without fail, every year, there were nine days of the summer when Austin would be somewhere completely new, somewhere he had no ties to, somewhere nobody knew him and he knew nobody, somewhere he could find a total stranger--last year had been Cape Sato, the year before then had been Telfair, the year before that had been Vallaton City, the year before that had been Kingston Heights, the year before that had been Beacon Hill, the year before that had been Laramie, the year before that had been Willington, the year before that had been San Ilos, and so many years before that had been so many other places that the Dunbar family had never returned to.

This year they were staying just outside of Las Positas; Austin had never been here before, nor was it ever likely he would return with his family, so it was the perfect opportunity to create a profile on a hookup app like CatchMe and find someone who could fit into a nice, discrete "vacation-ship" for the week.

All he had to do was make his profile public, and he'd appear in the local search results.

Still sitting in the lobby, Austin pulled out his phone and looked at the listing of available men in the area. For now, his profile was still in private mode, meaning he could see everyone near him, but he couldn't interact with them, and they couldn't see him--it was the equivalent of virtual window shopping.

The otter's thumb flicked over his phone screen, his heart thumping in his ears as he scrolled through the profiles he could see. Just within 1500 feet of his present location, there was a badger, a fox, a deer, a polar bear, a few wolves (although unfortunately not the wolf he'd fantasized about earlier), a black bear, an iguana, a hyena, a couple lions, a tegu, some other otters...

Austin sighed to himself and scratched his chin thoughtfully. He could go public now, although he'd only just arrived at the hotel; did he really want to hit the ground running, or maybe give it a day so he could decompress and try enjoying the start of his vacation without worrying about making a good first impression to potential playmates?

After a minute of self-debate, Austin closed the app without changing his profile setting. He navigated instead to a game on his phone and began to play, distracting himself and wasting his time as he waited for the rest of his family to make their proclamation from on high that they were ready for dinner.

---

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Austin, still facedown on the lumpy pull-out mattress and under the fluffy quilt that housekeeping had brought up last night, winced and cracked open an eye. The kitchen lights were on, illuminating the rest of the open living space, and the high-pitched drone of the grinder went on unabated--who in their right mind thought it would be a good idea to put a coffee grinder in a resort's executive suite?

The sleepy otter sighed tiredly as he answered his own question: Apparently some guest experience "expert" who knew exactly what kind of people would be staying in the executive suite.

The coffee grinder stopped...only for his brother and sister's voices to replace it as a source of noise.

"So, Markus just left the team?" Emmett asked--Austin could hear him audibly scooping the freshly ground coffee out of the grinder, and he tapped the spoon loudly against the glass carafe.

"Yeah. I mean, you'd think he'd have the common decency to let us know before dumping all of his work, and right before vacation," Vera scoffed. "And it's not like we can easily shift things around either, especially because he had so many accounts that he was in charge of..."

While his siblings continued chatting, Austin rolled over onto his side and raised his head. From his nest on the pull-out sofa bed, he saw Emmett and Vera standing behind the kitchen island, preparing their coffee and looking like they weren't going to leave anytime soon. The younger otter rolled his eyes and looked at his smartwatch on his wrist; it was just past 7:20. Austin groaned to himself, then shrugged off his stupor--he might as well get up.

Or he would...if he could sneak off for just a few minutes. As he rolled on the bed, Austin's morning wood rubbed against the inside of his gym shorts that he'd slept in. He loved sleeping in these shorts when he was home in his off-campus apartment; the smooth fabric lining against his pulsing, sensitive shaft was often teasing enough to make him simply hump his mattress, and he lost count of how many loads he'd blown in his shorts. And they were doing the trick again this morning--Austin was tempted, sorely tempted, to discreetly rub one out; it would alleviate his usual morning horniness, for sure. But out here in the communal living space--and with Emmett and Vera talking up a storm while they nonchalantly made their coffee--there was no privacy at all. And if he simply rolled out of bed right now, there would be no hiding the obvious tent in his crotch.

He had to get to a bathroom, at the very least to piss and give himself a few minutes for his erection to calm down, but...

Austin's eyes landed on his toiletry bag--he'd left it nearby for easy access.

Perfect.

The otter sat up on his bed, keeping his pelvis hidden under his quilt, while he casually reached for the bulky toiletry bag and pulled it towards him. Austin timed his movements so as he stood from the bed, his toiletry bag covered his crotch...and he was up and padding towards his siblings' bedroom, all while Emmett and Vera continued their conversation in the kitchen. He kept strategically holding his bag, and made it to the room just as his parents emerged from theirs with a bright and cheery, "Good morning!"

Austin practically dove into the bathroom, closing the door and locking it for his own peace of mind while he heard his parents loudly chatting away with his brother and sister. He sighed to himself--now there was really no privacy for him this morning, apart from these few minutes he could steal away.

Thankfully alone for the moment, Austin tossed his toiletry bag on the counter and glanced at himself in the mirror. Shirtless and sleepy, his brown and tan fur was scruffy from how he'd slept, and there was some crust in the corner of his eye. Austin rubbed his face, clearing away the crust and waking himself up more, before he turned his attention to the pole in his pants.

Austin reached in, past his waistband, and grasped his stiffy, squeezing it just to feel the firm shaft in his palm and tease himself, if only for a moment...he wanted to jerk off so badly, his dick was begging for some relief as he traced his thumb over the corona of his glans...before he pulled the front of his gym shorts down and aimed for the open toilet, relaxing his bladder and letting the stream of urine fly.

He sighed to himself and tilted his head back, staring up at the bathroom ceiling.

Vacation boners were always the worst--they were the result of a special kind of horny, the kind of horny that had to be hidden and willed away until he had some truly decent privacy. He couldn't just whip his dick out and crank one out here and now, not without feeling so ridiculously awkward and ashamed afterward that he had been so desperate that he needed to use his siblings' bathroom. The best he could do for the time being was just ignore how hard he was and give himself a few minutes to relax and soften up again.

"Just nine days," Austin mused softly. "You can get through nine days..."

By the time the otter finished his morning piss and freshening up, his dick was at a tolerable semi, and Austin emerged from the bathroom to find everyone grouped around the kitchen counter, making plans for the day, drinking from steaming mugs, and laughing about previous trips.

---

It didn't take Austin long to settle into a spot by the pool. After breakfast that morning, Richard departed for the golf course while Elise, Emmet, and Vera took a group ride into town for an all-day shopping spree and sightseeing tour around downtown Las Positas. As for Austin, after a meandering, exploratory stroll around the hotel premises, he decided it was time to post up on one of the recliners by the water and soak up the sun while enjoying the scenery.

He returned to the suite alone and dug into his suitcase for the green swim trunks he'd packed. When Austin pulled them out, he considered maybe changing in the bathroom he shared with Emmet and Vera...but for whose benefit? It was just him in the suite, there was nobody here to talk about modesty if he got naked in the living room--so, in front of the open window curtains, with only the unobstructed view of the mountains looking back at him, Austin stripped off his t-shirt, shorts, and magenta jockstrap (it still gave him a certain thrill getting away with wearing such an eye-catching garment while he was staying with his family), exposing his brown and tan fur to nobody but himself. His flaccid penis hung down over his tan-furred balls, and he smirked as he swung his hips back and forth.

"Bow-chick-a-bow-wow," Austin mockingly sang to himself as he thrust his pelvis, throwing his crotch forward before swinging it back--he kept dancing to an unheard beat, shaking his hips and butt, waggling his thick tail, all as he put on an impromptu show for an imaginary audience who were begging for the young otter to seduce them, to come down off his stage and give them private lap dances, to do so much more...

Austin snickered as the moment of levity passed--what his family would have done if they'd seen him like this! He sighed, then resumed getting ready for the pool. After packing his jockstrap away and tossing his discarded clothes on the couch, Austin pulled on his trunks, tied the laces for his waistband, and wriggled into a light gray tank top before he grabbed his book, his phone, sunglasses, and keycard on his way out the door. When he opened the gate to the pool, Austin saw that the whole area was crowded with hotel guests. Families had colonized entire clusters of recliners and tables, sunbathers had taken over most of the remaining recliners, the bar was hosting a throng of people placing their drink and food orders, and children aplenty were splashing in the shallow end while couples and older teens were hanging in the deeper areas of the pool.

"Ah, damn it," Austin muttered to himself--all the private cabanas were occupied.

He shook his head to himself; he should have tried to reserve one beforehand. But there was always tomorrow. Shrugging off that minor inconvenience, Austin began strolling among the rows of recliners, scoping out the perfect spot that afforded him just enough privacy while still giving him some good sunshine. It took a couple minutes of weaving back and forth between rows of guests, but the otter finally spotted a couple recliners that fit the bill over by the fence, next to a grouping of palm trees. He zoomed over to them before anyone else could claim the spot; in a flash, he'd laid out his hotel-supplied towel, shucked off his tank top, and was laying flat on his stomach and opened his novel to the first chapter.

The sun beat down on him as it rose higher in the sky, and the sound of kids screaming and splashing faded into the general background noise and mixed with the guitar music emanating from the speakers around the pool. As Austin continued reading about a spaceship adrift in the cosmos, he occasionally stole a glance up from the page when someone appealing strode through his peripheral vision. There was a thickset alligator carrying his toddler son...the spaceship captain was reminiscing about taking on some suspicious cargo...a muscular, shirtless Labrador walked by, hand-in-hand with a pretty lioness...a distress signal was coming from a nearby nebula...a toned hyena strode past on his way to the pool...the captain's right-hand man was joking with the ship's engineer about how many credits they could get if the distress signal turned out to be a salvage operation instead of a rescue...there was a coyote with a nice belly who had just walked through the pool gate while talking with a slender lop- rabbit...the captain had just guided the ship to the coordinates for the distress signal, but there was nothing except a comm buoy...

"'Scuse me," a deep voice said overhead.

Austin jolted on his recliner, straining his back to look up at--

His heart caught in his throat.

A burly polar bear, wearing red swim trunks and a pale blue, short-sleeved button-up shirt that hung open around his wide, white-furred stomach and chest, towered over him as he stood by the empty recliner next to Austin's. A towel was draped over his shoulder, and he was looking down at Austin...only at Austin.

"Is anyone sitting here?" the polar bear asked gruffly, pointing with a thick finger down at the empty recliner on Austin's left.

For a moment, the otter forgot how to speak. All Austin could do right then was stare up at the bear and notice the extra scruff on his chin and jawline that almost formed a beard, the bright blue eyes that seemed to sparkle down at him, and the curious, yet charming, smile on his lips. And then he had to fight the desire to blatantly ogle the keg-like musclegut and defined pectorals that lay like the most enticing pillows he'd ever seen under the open flaps of the bear's shirt, which rippled in the breeze that blew past them.

Austin blinked, took a breath...and found his voice.

"Oh! No, it's all yours," he managed to squeak out, just a touch too eagerly.

"Thanks," the bear grunted with a nod and a smile.

Austin watched the mountain of man--he had to be at least 6'5", maybe 6'7", which was practically colossal compared to the otter's own 5'8"--spread his towel on the recliner before he forced himself to look back down at his book. Even though he was wearing his dark sunglasses, he couldn't afford to be so obvious with someone so manly, so powerful-looking, so...tantalizingly close to him.

But when he heard the bear readjust the back of the recliner to sit up further, Austin couldn't resist an attempt at being sneaky. Keeping up the appearance of avidly reading his book, the otter's eyes, shaded by his sunglasses, surreptitiously darted over to his neighbor.

The polar bear straightened up and shrugged his open shirt off of his broad, solid shoulders, unveiling his python-like biceps and the bulging wall of fur-covered muscle and fat that was his torso. His gut and love handles were beautifully firm with the perfect amount of flexible jiggle, which allowed them to just barely spill over the waistband of his trunks. The otter saw the faint ripples in the bear's girthy paunch and chest as he moved, and Austin got a passing view of how much his tree trunk-like thighs and rotund glutes filled out his tightly stretched swim trunks as the polar bear bent slightly to place his shirt on top of the rest of his things on the ground.

Before the enormous ursine turned to inadvertently give Austin a view of his crotch, the otter--thankful that he was laying on his stomach, which kept his chubbing cock hidden as it began pressing against the fabric of his recliner--dove back into his book to reread the paragraph detailing the first few minutes of the ambush as space pirates emerged from the gaseous clouds of the nebula.

"Hnng-aah," the bear grunted as Austin heard him settle onto his recliner.

From behind his sunglasses, Austin stole another furtive glance over at the polar bear--with his legs spread comfortably and his hands folded to rest on his upper belly, the massive man was peacefully surveying the pool. The polar bear's belly rose and fell in time with his slow breathing, and Austin noticed that the fabric backing of the recliner had stretched taut like a drumskin to accommodate him. Austin couldn't help but wonder how much the man weighed...how much of that weight was strong, warm muscle...how easily could he hold and carry the otter...how easily he could fold him in half...

Austin forced himself to return to his book, reading the pirates' hails for the captain to surrender his ship or be destroyed. He continued reading about the captain's dilemma in an effort to divert his attention from the bear softly humming to himself and his occasional neck, chin, and stomach scratches...but the bear's baritone and subtle tune was noticeable enough to cut through the background noise, and every little move he made threatened to entice Austin to throw his book away and just stare at the hunk for hours on end.

And yet, there was something else about the bear, something...

Austin's eyes widened behind his shades when he realized that he'd seen the bear during his cursory scroll through profiles on CatchMe yesterday in the lobby.

The otter paused. Or had he seen this guy? Maybe it was someone else?

No, it had to be him, how many other polar bears were staying at this resort?

But still...no way could it be him...could it?

And what if it was him? What would he, Austin, do next? He couldn't just outright say, "Hey, please fuck me right here and now." But what should he say next? Or should he lay a hand on the polar bear's thigh instead of speaking? The white-furred leg was right next to him--although would that be too forward? Maybe he should get up and walk to the pool, seductively swinging his hips along the way...but then that would mean having to get in the pool, it's not like he could just walk to the water's edge and then turn around and come back to his recliner, that would look obvious and stupid. What about...

Too many possibilities crowded Austin's mind, and he froze in indecision, stiff, uncertain, awkward, overwhelmed...until some hitherto unknown rational part of his brain took over, telling him to first take the simple step of just confirming that this bear was, in fact, the man he saw on CatchMe yesterday.

Acting casual, Austin reached down to the small pile of things next to his recliner, and plucked his phone from where it lay on top of his discarded tank top. He made sure to angle the screen away from his neighbor before he unlocked his home screen and opened CatchMe. His eyes glued on the screen, Austin scrolled to the Nearby tab, and--

His stomach dropped out from under him.

The closest profile to him was the polar bear--BigPapaUrso appeared as less than 20 feet away--and there was no question that it was the same bear as the one reclining next to Austin. In the profile picture of him sitting shirtless at a bar, he had the same scruffy chin and jawline, the same blue eyes, the same charming smile, the same thick build--Austin nearly salivated over the picture he saw before he scrolled down to the rest of the polar bear's profile. In BigPapaUrso's stats, he was 57, divorced, a self-described gentle giant and whiskey aficionado, and enjoyed spending time in the gym and relaxing with a good movie (he was particularly fond of sci-fi and action). Austin saw that he worked in the financial field, and had written his relationship goals as "not looking for anything serious, but open to many possibilities."

Austin stared at the bear's profile for a few moments more. He'd confirmed that BigPapaUrso was sitting next to him...but what now?

The more he thought about his options--each of them more outlandish and appropriate for a bad movie than the next--the more that Austin came to realize that simple subtlety would be the best strategy. He didn't need to hurl himself at this guy, he could just...start innocently, and if he struck out, no harm done except to his own ego.

Austin placed his phone back on top of his tank top on the ground and, still acting casual, set his book aside before he rolled over onto his back, exposing his slim, toned stomach. As he hoisted himself up on his elbows, Austin thanked himself mentally for the fact that his semi hadn't gotten any harder and was just slightly hidden by the folds of his swim trunks. He then smoothly (at least in his mind, the sound of wood scraping against wood lessened the "smooth" image he'd been trying to project) adjusted the back of the recliner so it sat up from its previously supine position, and he eased himself into position to lean comfortably against the raised back, now matching the polar bear's posture.

He picked up his book again, but didn't open it--instead, Austin nervously cleared his throat.

"Great day for some pool time, right?"

The otter mentally winced at the words that just came out of his mouth--that was the best he could come up with?

But it did the trick.

The polar bear looked over at Austin and nodded, that charming smile on his lips yet again before he spoke. "Couldn't ask for better. I've been itching to get out here all week," he said amiably.

"Oh, has the weather not been good for it?"

"No, the weather's been perfect, I've just been too busy to really enjoy this place. I finally have some free time, though, so I'm taking advantage of it."

"Are you in town for work?" Austin didn't know where else to take the conversation, but this seemed like a decent enough start.

"Partly, I'm here for two weeks, one week in so far," the polar bear replied, scratching his neck thoughtlessly as he gazed down at Austin. "I'm doing a mix of work and vacation; I have a few clients in the area who need some extra handholding. The market's been a bit volatile, and they appreciate having me out here in person with them," he explained.

"Oh, are you in finance?" Austin pretended to guess.

The bear nodded. "You got it. Part investment broker, part financial advisor. I was with a firm a while back, but I'm on my own now. And let's just say, it's great for business that a lot of my clients own places like this," he chuckled, nodding toward the main resort building.

"Whoa, really? Cool!" Austin said earnestly. "Do any of them own this one?"

"I wish! But unfortunately not--if they did, my stay here would be comped," the bear sighed, as if put out. "But I can still write this off as a business expense, just don't tell the tax service," he added with a sneaky grin as he leaned in and pretended to whisper conspiratorially to Austin.

The otter snickered. "My lips are sealed."

"Much appreciated," the polar bear said, settling back in his recliner. "What about you? What brings you here?"

"Just family vacation," Austin answered. "Not as important as what you're doing, that's for sure."

"Well, family time's important, too," the bear conceded, frowning slightly. "You're in college or thereabouts, right?"

"Going to be a junior in the fall," Austin replied.

"Well, take it from an older guy who's been around the block, you should make time for your folks, it's going to be gone before you know it," the polar bear advised sagely.

Austin grimaced and nodded--while this wasn't exactly the turn he wanted the conversation to take, he couldn't stop himself from saying with just a touch of sass, "Well, I would, if they'd make time for me."

The bear's eyebrows rose for a second, then settled as he gazed thoughtfully at the otter. "Ah...I take it they're not joining you down here?"

Austin sighed. "No...my dad likes to spend his time on the golf course all day every day, and my mom, brother, and sister are off in their own world, so that just leaves me to do my own thing, same as every trip we've done together. And I know there's a lot to do around here and in town, like, this is Las Positas. But it'd be better to do it all with someone else instead of by yourself, you know? And I'd ask my family, but they've all got plans already and they just make me feel like I'm intruding, so that leaves me to do my own thing, and I'm just bored and finding ways to kill time--sorry, I must sound like such a whiny brat," Austin cut himself off apologetically, embarrassed.

But the bear waved him off. "Not at all--it's perfectly understandable. You came here to spend time with your folks, and they're choosing other things over you. If I were you, I'd be whining about it, too."

"Thanks. It's kind of been this way ever since I was a kid, just doing things solo while they all have better stuff to do together," Austin elaborated. He sighed and shook his head to himself. "Sorry, the last thing you need to hear about while you're enjoying your pool time is my family shit."

The polar bear chuckled. "Heh, hey, I'm all out of my own family shit, so if you have some to share, I'm happy to listen."

"Ah, thanks, that's really kind of you," Austin said appreciatively. He paused...then started again when he realized this could be an opportunity to strike. "Although..."

The bear raised his eyebrows quizzically as Austin lowered his sunglasses down along his nose, allowing his eyes to show over the top of the frames.

"I'd rather share some ideas about what you could do to me in your hotel room," Austin finished, doing his best to sound seductive.

The polar bear raised his eyebrows even higher, and his mouth opened slightly--Austin couldn't tell if he was confused or shocked.

"If you...know what I...mean?" he finished awkwardly.

A moment of silence held between them...Austin waiting with bated breath, felt his insides twisting over themselves in suspense. He couldn't quite read the bear's expression--was he too surprised or too angry to speak?