Exams were done, school was out, and it was a fine summer day. What more reason did anyone need for a party? And what was more natural for an otter from the city than a pool party?

Not that everybody who attended was an otter. But Ryan and Jessica, hosting it while their parents were gone, were otters; every otter around that age that Luke knew in town was there; and Luke himself, of course, was one as well. All in all, about thirty college-age people were around, fairly evenly split between male and female, and about a third of them were otters.

Including some damn fine otters, in his mind, their hosts hardly least of all.

Everyone who’d been invited was old enough to drink, and they’d all been encouraged to bring a few drinks each. Plenty of them had showed up with a case of beer. Now, with a few beers keeping his light dinner company, Luke made his way out into the yard.

The yard itself was wide open, and enough folding furniture had been scattered around that most of the people had somewhere to sit and enjoy the sunset. The pool itself rose about five feet from the grass, and was fenced beyond that. From the smells reaching his nose, and some of the sounds underlying the animated chatter, it was no surprise to Luke when he got up to the pool deck and glimpsed a few hands not-exactly-covertly tucked into bathing suits, either the same person’s or someone else’s.

Good times.

Luke was about to find a place to drop his gym bag and slip into the water when he heard his name called. One of his hosts – Jessica – waved up at him from the water, pushing past a handful of girls of mixed species to the edge of the pool and climbing out, snagging a half-full bottle of beer as she went past.

“Hey, Luke,” she said, somewhat more quietly, as she made her dripping way over to him. “How’re you liking it so far, big guy?”

“Doing just fine,” Luke replied with a grin, hefting his own bottle, now mostly empty. “Got a few of these down the hatch, done some hanging out, having a great time in all. How’s the hottest otter babe in the county?” They’d exchanged enough playful flirting over the past few years that he was pretty sure she wouldn’t think he was being pushy; he’d never had any success with it before, and didn’t really expect that to change, but the teasing he sometimes got for it could be fun on its own.

She laughed, draping an arm around his shoulders – the one that wasn’t holding her beer – and leaning on him. “Funny you should ask,” she replied, though instead of answering, she queried him in turn. “You, uh, doing okay since, well, Becky?”

Luke snorted. “Oh, her. I’m not out for blood, but I’m sure not pining over her, if that’s what you mean. I’m moving on.” Sure, he’d been upset when the wolf had dumped him, even more so when it had turned out to be so she could be a groupie for a dim-witted stag on the football team, but he’d got past that after a week or so.

“Mmm, that’s good.” She grinned up at him. “See, the girls here think I’m being prudish.”

Luke blinked. “Prudish? What, for having someone to watch the front door, and someone else to watch the pool stairs, in case someone shows up who shouldn’t see what Ally’s doing in Ben’s trunks, there?” The pair in question, another otter and a fox respectively, jolted upright and turned their attention on him, but he gave them a cheery, reassuring wave, managing not to spill his beer in the process.

“They dared me to pick a guy and go down on him. I told ’em I had standards, even with a few drinks in me. I kinda want to know a guy before getting in his pants.”

“Makes perfect sense to me,” said Luke, shaking his head.

“I thought you’d see it that way, yeah. You’re not that much easier than me. So, you wanna prove ’em wrong?”

The youth blinked. “What? I mean, how do you mean?”

“Well, I think their standards aren’t really very ambitious.” She slid her hand up from his shoulder, scratching behind his right ear. “Want to raise the bar, hot stuff?”

Luke was drunk, but he wasn’t that drunk. “Wha – right where they can see it, you mean?”

“Why not? It’ll get the party really hopping.”

Old habits died hard, and Luke had spent the better part of two years telling himself his attraction to the lithe young woman was either unrequited or not returned seriously enough to matter. And this just didn’t quite seem like her style. “Jess, how many of those have you had?”

“Enough to loosen up and say what I should’ve said before you started dating Becky,” she shot back. “Not so much that I’ll do just any random guy who’s nearby. If you want to come up to my room instead, that’s cool, too.” She pushed her blunt snout against the side of his neck, sniffing at his fur. “Mmm. I do want you, a lot more than I want to show them up. But if you don’t – ”

“Oh, I do,” he cut in. He’d do it with her on one of the picnic tables if it made her happy; smart, fun, and gorgeous – what wasn’t to like? And he was hardly shy about his body, not with the work he’d put into it with his own hours on the swim team and on the track. “Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t the beer talking. I, well, didn’t know you were interested, is all.”

Her roaming fingers paused. “What? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I could’ve just been not your type or something,” he said, shrugged, and bent his neck to nuzzle between her ears. “Got anything planned out?”

“Oh, I thought you could sit on the edge of the pool, facing the water, and I could… mmm.” She twisted against him, her stomach pressing up against his loose trunks. “No way they could say we were faking it.”

“You want to cover me up, or should I do it?” He wasn’t drunk enough to forget about the pack of rubbers in his bag, either – well, maybe not “rubber” as such, but close enough; anyway, he never went anywhere overnight without some – nor about the fact that he’d been doing another girl a month ago and hadn’t got tested in the interim.

“I’ll do it,” she said, shivering against him. “I think I want to feel what you’re like without anything in the way, first.”

“Fine by me.” Luke swallowed. By the time she pulled away from him, even his loose trunks wouldn’t possibly be able to hide anything; combined with the alcohol, arousal was making him a little bit dizzy. He fished blind and one-handed in his gym bag, finding the box, then teasing apart two of the packages in it, extracting one and passing it to her. She claimed a kiss from him, then sauntered back to the pool’s edge with it.

A few eyes turned to him as he let his bag slip to the deck, and turned to his midsection in particular, but it wasn’t like he was the only horny guy here tonight; attention moved on to other things. He looked around the circle of girls – none of them looked particularly vicious, nor even disbelieving, but they did have the dumbfounded look about them of people who’d called someone’s bluff and found that it wasn’t.

Well, if he’d be losing them in short order, he might as well get the trunks out of the way early, while he could still reach his bag. It was a bit awkward to do one-handed, but he managed not to spill his beer. A few appreciative “ooohs” rose up, from the immediate circle and somewhat beyond; one of the voices, he noted, was Jess’s brother Ryan. When Luke looked his way, the other otter youth was floating on his back, fingertips gliding along the front of his own trunks; he winked, and nodded slightly, as if to say, You’ll do.

No catastrophe from Ryan finding out later that Luke had done Ryan’s sister, anyway.

It was pretty straightforward. He sat down, getting his feet into the warm water; Jessica leaned in against his side, nuzzling at his collarbone as her deft fingers caressed his shaft, coaxing it to full attention and then some, curling around it, squeezing, stroking. With her right against him, her breasts against his side, and a number of good-looking people all around, she could probably have stroked him off inside a minute or two without even working hard.

But that wasn’t on the agenda. A bit more lazy fondling, and she pulled open the packet he’d given her, unrolling the rubber within it onto his cock.

“He’s been drinking and he still remembered to give you that?” One of the other girls, a mouse or rat he didn’t recognize, whistled. “You’ve got yourself a keeper, there.”

“I told you I had standards,” Jess said with a wink, and then she swung a leg over.

He hadn’t seen her get rid of the bottom of her bikini, and he certainly hadn’t been involved in anything resembling foreplay. Nevertheless, she slid right down onto him without another moment’s hesitation, to the applause of everyone nearby.

The pool deck wasn’t really a comfortable seat, but he did his best to rock under her, to stir inside a little. Her muzzle turned up to meet his, and tilted to the side; he went the other way and came down to meet her, pressing into a firm kiss and wrapping both arms around her, holding tight.

God, she felt good around him. Warm, snug, welcoming – and her arms and legs around him were just as active as he was; she didn’t just sit on his cock, she rode it, as if they’d been doing it for months. She rode him hard, and inside half a minute she tensed around him, shivering, a whimper slipping from her mouth to his.

Then she slumped, panting over his throat, arms still tight around him.

“I guess you needed that,” he whispered into her ear. He was breathing a little hard, but a long way from his own climax yet; the rubber saw to that, even if feeling her go off around him had been really nice.

“Been aching for it since you said you’d be here,” she murmured against his collarbone.

Something tapped Luke’s shoulder, and he turned his head to see… a white squeeze-tube, a red logo showing a stylized but clearly naked otter man arcing out of water. Following it up, his eyes encountered fur the colour of dark chocolate, dense and oily and wet, much like that of the otter in his lap; farther upward, he met Ryan’s grinning, splay-whiskered snout. “You might want some of this,” Ryan said, “if you want to get a better finish, mmm?”

Luke chuckled, trying to cover up the nervousness in the sound, though he couldn’t keep his ears from going flat. “No objections?”

“What, to you?” Ryan snorted. “Not beyond being a bit jealous of her. Can I take a number, maybe?”

Through the haze of alcohol, Luke couldn’t think of a prompt response to that, and just blinked, reaching up to take the bottle. A few teasing “Ooooohs” and wolf-whistles rose up from the bystanders, and Ryan grinned, winked, and sauntered off.

Luke wasn’t the only one to be a little embarrassed about that direct approach, but Jess recovered before him. “He had a good idea, you know…”

The water was mighty inviting. Luke leaned around her to down the last swig of his beer, setting the empty bottle down far enough from the pool’s edge that it wouldn’t get knocked in, and squeezed some of the silicone lube onto the fingers thus freed; Jess rose up to give him some working room, shuddering as she pulled free. “Don’t take long,” she whispered into his ear, and slid into the water, leaving her beer behind.

Fat chance of that; once he’d put a generous coating of the stuff over the condom encasing his very rigid shaft, closed the tube, and set it down, he let himself slide into the water as well. Bodies parted to give some room; he took a deep breath, and he ducked under the surface, kicking off the wall.

She met him a few feet under, and they slid together. There was nothing subtle about it; they wriggled together, hands roaming, tails entwining. The clumsy undulations carried them lower still, right down near the bottom of the pool, and as her shoulders met bottom, she came around him again, clenching around his shaft, a mouthful of air caressing his whiskers and cheek, trailing up past him in a tumble of silvery bubbles; and this time, he knew he wasn’t far off. Not so close as to share her climax, but she hadn’t quite lost that tension when he felt his own rising. He planted his snout against her neck, burying his nose in the dense fur, and he held her tight as a rush of sensation surged through him, as he pumped a hot load into the waiting condom.

Moments later, they pulled apart; even through the thin layer of poly-whatever-he-was-too-drunk-to-remember, he shivered at the feel of her sliding off his shaft. She twisted around, then, giving a firm nuzzle to his balls and letting another mouthful of air chase over them even as she tugged the condom free; letting a groan of his own bubble upward, he turned, kicked off the bottom, and rose to the surface, to be met by cheers, a few hugs, and another pair of otters – one each male and female – sliding up on either side of him, kissing his cheeks, and sharing a quick grope.

A pretty nice segue into the early stages of nighttime, really.