Loading...Stores were packed the Saturday after Christmas, with every imaginable gimmick in play to make a quick buck off those of us who didn’t quite get what we wanted, or didn’t get it in the right size, or who just wanted to window shop for deals. I was out and about grabbing dog food and some other necessities, and I gritted my teeth as I walked into yet another store packed to the gills with a pulsing mass of shoppers.
Toward the back, I found what I was looking for: a doll for my niece which my wife had singled out as a quick bargain—the girl’s birthday came the month after Christmas, so we always went for the post-holiday deals to save money on her gifts.
“Find everything OK?” I glanced up as a pretty Korean girl approached me. I saw that she wore the tan slacks and red vest of a store employee.
“Oh yeah.” I quickly stood, holding the doll aloft. “Got what I needed. Now, if I can just make it out of here alive.” I grimaced, and then laughed. She giggled.
“Totally get it,” she said. “If I can help you find anything else, just let me know. My name’s Jen.”
I smiled. “Thank you Jen.” I glanced toward the front of the store, dismayed. No fewer than thirty people stood waiting for the lone cashier to scan their items. I turned to the girl with a shrug. “But unless you have some ultra express checkout line, I may be out of options for today. I need to get home soon.” I checked my watch anxiously, and then looked at the doll before extending it back toward the shelf.
“Sure, I can help you,” she said. I blinked up at her. She shot me a wink and a bright smile. “Come with me.”
She didn’t wait for a response, just turned and walked down the aisle, away from the checkout lines toward the back of the store. I followed her, still holding the doll.
The girl reached a thick white door along the back wall of the store marked “Employees Only” and pushed it open with one hand, holding it open for me to pass. “This way,” she said.
I walked through the door into a narrow hall, and then I let her squeeze past to lead the way.
“Sorry,” she called back over her shoulder as we walked down a narrow hall. “We’re short-staffed today because of the break. It’s just me and Karissa working, and the other register is down.” Her hair swung in a long, intricate braid down her back to rest between her shoulder blades. I admired her smooth, confident gait—a woman in charge.
She took off the lanyard around her neck, which bore a small brass key, and slotted it into another door. “However,” she said, stepping through the door and flipping a switch to bathe the room beyond in fluorescent light, “I think I can ring you up back here.” She looked over her shoulder at me conspiratorially, and added, “Just don’t tell anyone.” Then she giggled, and I couldn’t help but chuckle too.
She had a contagious laugh that made me forget for a moment why we were even back here. My imagination ran wild for a few seconds, imagining us in another life together, sneaking away to make out at the back of the store. I ran my thumb over my wedding ring, remembering this wasn’t that life, and we were not here for that.
Jen crossed the room to a small card table, where an iPad sat charging. “We’ve got the whole point-of-sale system installed on here, but we’re not cleared by corporate to use it on the floor yet.” She rolled her eyes and unlocked the device. “Would definitely make days like today a whole lot easier if they’d just get with the program already.”
I watched her as she unplugged the charger and bent to place it in a drawer under a coatrack along the wall. Her slacks smoothed across a trim butt, and I caught myself staring just in time to divert my gaze before she spun back to face me.
“Now, which item is it?” she asked. I held the doll out to her.
“Thanks for doing this,” I said. “You definitely didn’t have to go out of your way for me.”
“Oh, it’s fine,” she said. “I get to be helpful, it’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?” She crossed back to the small table holding the doll. This time, I stared openly at her as she walked, appreciating her long legs and trim waist. Without realizing I had done it, I slipped my wedding ring from my finger and let it drop into my pocket. Call it dick-brain, but I was suddenly lost in a fantasy world with this girl I had just met.
“Can you give me your phone number?” she asked.
“Huh?” I said, caught off guard.
“For the system,” she said. She gestured to the iPad.
“Oh,” I said. “Sure.” I gave her the number and watched her type the digits with a slender finger. I was staring again.
A voice buzzed suddenly through the intercom above us, and we both jumped slightly.
“Attention shoppers,” her coworker’s voice came through the speaker, all business, with a touch of dismay, “I’m sorry to announce all of our registers are down, and we’re unable to ring up your items at this time.”
Jen and I looked at each other.
“Due to the nature of this problem,” the announcement continued, “we’ll need to close the store temporarily until repairs have been made. I really do apologize for the inconvenience.” Then the message ended with a click and a noisy beep.
“Well shit,” Jen muttered, before she remembered I was in the room. She turned to me with a start, covering her mouth demurely. “I’m so sorry,” she said, blushing. “Gotta watch my language.”
“It’s fucking OK,” I said with a smirk. She giggled, a laugh so cute that I couldn’t help but shoot her a wink in return. Her blush deepened.
I felt like the ice had broken, and I also noticed that she suddenly grew much shyer than she’d been before. With a glance up at me and a bat of her long lashes, she turned back to the iPad, busying herself ringing up the item.
We heard the door to the hallway open.
“Shit,” Jen said again, turning and looking at me in alarm. “I can’t let Karissa know I brought you back here.” She was already pushing me back into a janitor’s closet and closing the door. “Stay here a sec and stay quiet. I’ll get rid of her.”
From the darkness of the closet, I stood and listened.
The door to the hallway opened an instant later, and the other girl entered the break room.
“I’ve had it with this store,” Karissa said, fuming. “Everything breaks at the worst possible time.”
“I know,” Jen said, commiserating. “Makes me wish I knew how to repair those stupid registers myself.”
“Do you want to take off?” the other girl said. “I’ll close the store, I don’t mind.”
“No!” Jen jumped in, a little too eagerly. She quickly added, “Let me close this time. You go take care of stuff, get some rest. I could use some time here to wind down a little.”
Even though I couldn’t see them, I could tell the other girl hadn’t fully bought the line.
“It’ll be nice,” Jen added hopefully.
“OK,” Karissa trailed off, “if you’re sure…” She seemed to accept her coworker’s offer, I thought. Then, suddenly, I heard her crossing the room toward my hiding place. I froze. I racked my brain for some explanation I could offer about why I was there, but in the end I knew that if she opened that door, the jig was up.
Her steps trailed closer, but then they stopped at the wall, just two paces away. I exhaled quietly as I heard her grab a bag from the coat hook next to the closet door and, turning, cross the room back to the hallway. She called back to Jen as she left, “Thanks babe, I owe you one.” I heard her blow a kiss, and then the door closed, and Karissa’s footsteps receded down the hall.
Seconds later, Jen pulled open the door. “Sorry about that!” She raised her eyebrows and shot me an apologetic smile. “Gotta watch it around Karissa, she’s been known to bite.”
I laughed. “It’s OK Jen,” I said.
She looked at me quizzically, cocking her head.
“What?” I asked. Something I’d said?
“Oh nothing,” she said, looking down, then back up. “It’s just nice to hear my name, I guess.” She smiled at me, and it suddenly felt like this wasn’t the smile she gave her average customer. It felt special, somehow, like we’d tripped over into some new territory.
“Hey,” Jen said. “Since we’re alone now…” She stopped. Biting her lip, she spun on her heel and walked slowly away from me toward the table, where she spun back around to face me and hoisted herself backward up onto the tabletop, dangling her legs free.
“Yes?” I asked, watching her and suddenly feeling my blood pulse hot in my veins. My heart thudded at something like twice its normal speed. The girl looked plain hot. Shoulders scrunched, palms on the table, looking down with the smile of a rowdy teen as her feet swung back and forth. She looked up at me suddenly and met my gaze. Her eyes narrowed.
“What do you think of me?” she asked, leaning back slightly and studying my face from across the room. I blinked.
“Um,” I said.
At that moment, my phone rang loudly from the front pocket of my jeans. Flustered, I clutched for it and dug it out. “Amber,” the screen read, and my wife’s photo stared back at me.
“Uh, I—I have to take … this,” I managed.
The girl slid noiselessly from the table and took a step toward me.
“Let it go,” she whispered.
I stared back at her dumbly. “OK,” I said.
I reached with my thumb to reject the call, and slid the phone back into my pocket. She stepped closer, raising a hand to my chest. Her fingers rested delicately on my sternum, and then they traced downward slowly. Her dark eyes followed, absorbing me. She was inches away, openly admiring my body. I could hardly breathe.
“Mmm,” she said, noticing the obvious bulge in my pants. It betrayed any doubt that the feeling she had was mutual. As she watched, the rise grew bigger and stretched the denim out toward her, snug and taut. I had given up trying to be discreet, and I was now openly ogling her, watching her breasts rise and fall under the polo shirt. My eyes traced the subtle outline of her bra beneath the fabric.
Hesitantly, she reached for my crotch, and then her hand stopped in midair, hovering, almost as if she were waiting for my permission. I just watched her, not sure what I could possibly do or say. She seemed to make up her mind finally, and I closed my eyes for a second as her fingers brushed me gently, like feathers on a soft breeze.
I almost couldn’t feel her at all. I glanced down and watched as she rested her small hand against me. I fit perfectly in her grip. The bright orange of her nail polish danced under our shadows like fireflies in a fairytale twilight.
“Wow,” she breathed.
I twitched against her palm.
“Hello?” A thin, digitized voice sprang from my pocket.
I flinched, looking down and taking a step back from Jen reflexively. I fished the device again from my jeans. Distracted by the beautiful Asian girl, I realized I had apparently answered my wife’s call instead of rejecting it. I held the phone up to my ear.
“Uh hi, sweetie? Sorry. What’s up?” I managed.
“Are you coming home?” Amber’s voice was distracted, and I heard some pots clang in the background. “I’m almost done with the vegetables, but I was going to have you get some wine on your way back.”
“Um, sure,” I said. “I should be home in about half an hour.” I hung up and looked at Jen. She looked hurt.
“Your, um … your wife?” she asked. She was twirling the corner of her shirt in her fingers.
I glanced down, suddenly ashamed. “Yeah,” I said. “I should—”
“You should probably go, huh?” she said, finishing the sentence. She sounded more than a little disappointed. I noticed her breath was still coming short and shallow. She’d probably be relieving herself properly once I left her alone, I thought. The poor girl was like a shook-up soda can with no one to pop her tab. I desperately wished that I could have done it for her.
With an awkward goodbye, Jen walked me to the front of the store, turning her key in the wall and pressing the exit button to let me out into the fading evening light.
Over dinner that night, Amber and I shared a bottle of wine and gossiped about work and friends. The night was still young when we slipped into bed, and I clutched at her clothes and undressed her roughly, pulling her onto me. We needed almost no foreplay to be ready for each other, and when I slipped into her, she was smooth and warm. I thrust once or twice, and she came almost right away. More than once, I felt her body shudder on top of me as I moved in and out. It was really her night, I thought.
Then, finally, it was my turn, and I flung my hips up to ram against hers as I fired a day’s worth of pent-up cum deep into her. She shuddered again.
“Oh!” I moaned, eyes closing. The night and the alcohol and the release of the orgasm overtook me for a moment. “Oh, Jen…”
Both our bodies suddenly locked up.
“Who?” Amber asked, panting. I opened my eyes. She looked back at me, brow furrowed.
“Oh god,” I said, unable to think of an exit strategy. “Amber…”
She climbed off me and busied herself with her clothes. She didn’t look back.
I slept alone that night, and for the entire week to follow. She had demanded to know who Jen was, of course, and I found myself in the very unenviable position of being unable to tell my wife the truth, which of course made things hopelessly worse.
I couldn’t tell at first why I was protecting Jen, a girl I had barely met. I told myself I was being stupid, that I should just out with it, but for some reason, I just couldn’t betray what had happened in that break room the week before. It felt too special.
Plus, if I was being completely honest with myself, a part of me was still back there with the cute Korean girl, holding her and kissing her slender mouth. It was like I was keeping a flame lit in my mind, tending it helplessly, still believing that one day soon, Jen and I might get to have that ending we were robbed of.
But a few more weeks passed, and that didn’t happen, of course. For some reason, I could never bring myself to return to the store, although I went out of my way several times just to drive past it. I thought about Jen constantly.
Amber eventually got over her initial anger, but even though she’d started to let me back into her graces again, sex with her was completely out of the question. I grew listless. I started staying late at work on an almost daily basis. Anyway, I knew that the girl back home was probably just as happy for me to keep my distance.
She really was right, I knew. I had fucked up royally. Even if it hadn’t been as bad as she’d probably imagined, it hadn’t been great either. Good ol’ dick-brain had really screwed me over.
January turned into February, and I came home from work a little early on a cool Thursday afternoon to find a note stuck to my closet door: “Gone to Mom’s. Be back next week sometime.” I felt my heart sink. It was exceptionally bad timing.
Peeking from inside my work bag was a box of very expensive chocolates from a local chocolatier, and I had made reservations for the two of us at a swanky downtown hotel for the following three nights. It was my mea culpa. I had finally decided to right things between us after weeks of chilly avoidance. And I was just hours too late.
In a haze, a glass of whisky materialized next to me on the nightstand and I started up a Netflix show, laying sprawled in my work clothes on the bed. I had chosen Amber’s side of the mattress without thinking about it, and as my senses began to dull, I let a few tears trace their way down my cheek. We’d had our trials, Amber and I. I knew things weren’t perfect, but I had always thought they could be repaired. Now things were falling apart, and I was scared.
But the whisky worked its magic, and several pours later, I was at least relaxed, even if I wasn’t a picture of happiness just yet. I would solve the issue with the hotel tomorrow, I thought—or maybe I’d just go stay there by myself. Either way, I didn’t need to think about it, or my wife, any more tonight.
My phone vibrated on the nightstand. I ignored it. It vibrated again. And again. It was ringing, I realized.
Amber.
I picked it up, suddenly wishing I wasn’t so buzzed.
“Hi babe,” I tried to sound casual and dejected at the same time.
“Hello?” The voice at the other end was not my wife’s. A long pause.
“This is Jen.”
Another long pause.
“Jen?” I finally managed.
“From the store…” she started, then her voice grew quieter, as if she’d pulled the phone away from her cheek. “God, you probably don’t remember me. I knew this was a bad idea…”
“Jen,” I said. “Of course, I remember.” Then I added, “How could I possibly forget?”
She laughed, a small, faltering laugh. “I hope it’s OK that I called,” she said.
“You know what?” I said, “I’m really glad you did. It’s nice to hear your voice again.” I blinked back watery eyes, hazy from the drinks. I raised myself into a sitting position on the bed.
“How did you get my number?” I asked.
“Um yeah, sorry. You gave it to me that day,” she said. “When you bought the doll.” Then she added, “I kind of … copied it into my phone after you left.”
She giggled. I smiled.
“Ah,” I said. “Sneaky, sneaky girl.”
“I can be … naughty when I want to,” she said. Her voice had turned quieter.
Suddenly, I was feeling warm. I mentally pressed Control-Alt-Delete on the last two glasses of whisky. It didn’t work.
“So what are you doing?” she asked. Now she was sounding suddenly confident, as if we were fast friends.
“Just sitting at home,” I said. Why had she called me?
“Sounds fun, can I come over?”
She’s joking, I reminded myself. She knows you’re married.
After a beat, she continued, “I thought we might, you know … catch up.” She leaned on the last two words like the world’s thickest innuendo. I thought if she kept talking like this I might come just from the sound of her voice alone.
I really did love hearing her talk. Still, I was also aware that I was in no condition to keep up this conversation without steering it wildly afield.
“Not tonight, I’m afraid,” I said. It was not necessary to refuse, as she couldn’t have been serious. But I was tired, and my refusal was also symbolic, in a way—I still held out hope that Amber would change her mind, or that she’d at least call tonight. I still wanted to have that conversation with her, and it would be a stupid risk to bring another girl into our home, least of all, Jen.
From the other end, she giggled again. I realized right then that if I could, I’d put the sound of that laugh on repeat for the rest of the weekend. Then a thought occurred to me. Before I knew it, dick-brain had suddenly ascended the ladder from my groin to my head, slunk into the captain’s seat and charted a course for disaster.
“Hey Jen,” I started, taking a sip of whisky.
No, don’t do it asshole, a voice in my head warned. But the words slid out anyway, lubricated and loaded:
“What are you doing this weekend?” I asked.
—
“I see you’ve booked a deluxe couple’s package with us sir,” the twentysomething girl behind the reception desk peered through a pair of stylish thick-rimmed spectacles. In another life, I would have spent several more seconds admiring the smooth waves of blond hair spilling down her shoulders, the cut of her uniform as it followed the curve of her body from waist to hip, the way she held her shoulders, swept back and in charge. But I was much too nervous to be distracted by her tonight.
“And you have someone joining you this weekend?” The girl blinked up at me.
“Ah yes,” I said quickly. “My…” I trailed off, blushing. I cleared my throat. “My fiancée.” Why did I say that? “Or at least, I’m hoping she wants the job. I plan to propose this weekend.” My mouth was on its own now, just spinning fantasies as I watched helplessly from inside. Dick-brain.
The receptionist was nonplussed. She offered me a thin but sincere smile. “Well, congratulations then, I hope,” she said, typing a few bits of information into the computer and turning as she retrieved a pair of key cards.
“You’re in Suite 1104,” the girl said, smiling. “Please enjoy your stay and let us know if there’s anything we can do for you.” I thanked her. As I turned away, she added, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Shit.
Valentine’s Day? How had that not registered in my mind? How had I been so thoroughly dense as to miss the fact that I’d invited Jen to a romantic getaway on Valentine’s Day weekend? I pressed the elevator button and let out a long, deliberate breath, praying I hadn’t just made a colossal mistake, and somehow knowing that I definitely had.
Once I was alone in the suite, my nerves began to ebb. I drew open the curtains along the far wall and let out a small gasp. I was greeted with a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall panorama of the city skyline, glowing against the cloudless dusk of the winter evening. I watched the cars below, saw street lamps begin to flicker on. It was a pristine moment, coated with the glistening oranges and blues and whites of a city slipping into its eveningwear and donning the jewelry of the night.
I missed Amber. For a moment, I wondered what she’d think if she knew what I was about to do. Probably the same thing she’d have done anyway; it felt like she’d all but given up on us.
I’d texted and called her twenty or more times since I got her note, and she had ignored it all. Eventually, her phone didn’t even ring when I called, just went straight to voicemail, which I took as a sign that she’d probably blocked my number.
I felt an intense regret. I thought of calling her mom, but the two of us had never really hit it off, and if I was on her daughter’s naughty list, then I most definitely topped hers. My only option was to wait things out, it seemed.
And yet here I was, on Valentine’s Day, in the most expensive hotel suite in the city, about to share it with a girl I had spent less than an hour of my life with until now, and whom I’d essentially just described to a stranger as my future wife. Part of me knew that this was all a step too far—or, several very large steps too far. But another part of me also knew that things with Amber had been headed for a cliff for a while.
For the last few years, sex between us had been good, but not great, and our encounters were always brief, with weeks, and sometimes months, of drought in between. We fought more than we joked, and she had suffered often from a deep depression which she refused to treat. And through it all, she seemed to blame me for the worst parts.
At first, I didn’t mind taking the blows on the chin, metaphorically speaking. I wanted to be there for her, and I knew that I was the healthier of the two of us. But it had all just come to feel like too much. We had both talked openly of divorce, and I had even sought out a lawyer.
The incident with Jen had really just been a match thrown into the tenderbox that Amber and I had been building up for years, a marriage which I think we’d both always sensed could go up in flames at any moment. And anyway, this new girl was fun and exhilarating, and God knows that was what I needed at this particular moment.
I mentally flipped off the lights in the Amber room of my brain and shut the door. This weekend, Jen and I would find out just how good life could be.
—
A teardrop pearl hung suspended in the warm light of the restaurant on a long, thin gold chain above the slight Korean girl’s breasts. Her dress did very little to hide the dark plunge of her cleavage from my gaze. And I wasn’t the only one staring—when she’d walked in, she’d gotten quite a few glances. She looked gorgeous.
Her dress was a snug plum satin cocktail gown that hugged her figure and landed high on a pair of delicate legs, which fell from hem to floor like twin ladders to heaven, wrapped in black tights. Her feet stabbed at the floor in a pair of sleek black ankle-high boots, and her dark hair was now shorter, in a cute pixie cut with sharp angles, set off against her soft face, which was vulnerable and lovely in the dim light. Her dark eyes shone. I caught sight of her in the doorway, and my pulse began to race instantly. I honestly couldn’t believe this was the girl from the store—the same girl who had agreed to lavish herself on me for the next three days. Luck didn’t even begin to describe the feeling I had. I stood to greet her, at once both proud and nervous to take her arm as we were escorted to our table.
“You cut your hair,” I said.
“For you,” she said. “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” I said.
I had really worried, after fantasizing so much about Jen over the last few weeks, and really knowing very little about her, that our reunion might pour cold water on whatever ideas I’d formed. But instead I found that I was falling even harder for her the longer we talked. Conversation with her was genuinely effortless. In fact, she seemed even more interested in me than I was in her.
The most surprising and unlikely part of it all was that I found myself quickly forgetting about the pearl, and the half-covered slopes of feminine flesh to which it pointed like a glittering arrow, and I soon became lost instead in the contours of a new, budding friendship.
It had been so long since another person connected with me on an intellectual level like this. In fact, I wasn’t sure it had ever happened in just the way it was happening with Jen.
“Can I ask you something?” I said.
“Anything,” she said, blinking back across the table.
“How come you’re not seeing anyone?” I asked.
“I’m seeing you,” she said, dodging the question and looking down briefly at her plate.
“I’m serious,” I said. “I mean, I’ve never met anyone like you.” She blushed and grinned slightly. I continued, “I can’t believe you don’t have, like, two dozen guys just begging you to give them the time of day. You’re such a beautiful girl.”
“Thank you,” she said, glancing back up. “Truthfully, I’m happy being a bit of a loner.” She laid her fork down on her plate and tented her fingers, elbows resting on the table. “Is that an odd thing to say? I don’t know.”
“Not odd at all,” I said.
“It’s just that, ever since I was a girl, the idea of settling down with a single person and joining my life with theirs has always just seemed like someone else’s game,” she said. “Not mine. I’ve always been content just being alone.”
She had something else to say, but she paused, and seemed to change her mind.
“What is it?” I asked.
Her eyes met mine. “That day in the store…” she started. Her forehead seemed to wrinkle with a tinge of concern. “I just want you to know, I have never been that kind of girl. The kind that sexes up customers in the middle of the day.” She leaned in slightly, aware that she’d been speaking a little too loud.
“That day was so special to me,” she said. “I remember when I first saw you, and it took everything in me not to just jump you in the aisle.”
“Really?” I asked, eyes widening. I watched her, again becoming acutely aware of her femininity, her curves, the smoothness of her skin. The smoothness of her voice.
“Really,” she said. “And you know what else?”
“What?”
“After you left that day, I took off my pants in the middle of the store and masturbated. Just rubbed myself raw, right there in the aisle by the dolls.”
“You what?” I said.
“I imagined what I would have done to you if I could have,” she said. “I screamed, I thrashed.” She licked her lips.
I felt my cock begin to swell.
“It was like I could feel you thrusting into me,” she continued. “Almost like you were actually there, pinning me down…”
She took in a sudden deep breath, wringing her hands as she leaned back.
“Whew,” she said. “I’m gonna cum just thinking about it.”
My mouth just hung open, and my brain was mush. I suddenly snapped to, and blinked several times. “Um, Jen,” I said, “I think we’re gonna need to get out of here now.”
“I think so too,” she said, and winked.
I paid the bill and offered her my arm as we left the restaurant. She leaned into me, awash in a kind of eager restlessness. All I could think about was how good her body felt against me, and how good she smelled. I pictured her sprawled naked in that store aisle, my body pressing down on hers, and I could feel my erection growing. I quickly tried to clear the image and distract myself as we crossed the busy lobby.
The elevator ride was quiet, punctuated only by little bits of small talk. I think the weight of the moment had begun to sink in. Here we were, each dressed to the nines, ascending to the eleventh floor of the nicest hotel we’d ever been in, and we were about to spend an evening here, alone, together. On Valentine’s Day. No pressure.
At the door to the room, I fished for the key card to let us in, but Jen placed a hand on my chest. Her eyes locked on mine.
“Before we do this, I want to say something,” she said.
I paused and looked at her.
“Look,….” She clasped her hands in front of her and glanced down. “I know I’ve caught you in maybe an odd place. I just want you to know, I’m happy just being here with you.” A soft smile crept into her features, and she looked up at me again. “I have zero requirements for you this weekend. And I also have zero regrets.” She cleared her throat. “About any of this.”
She took my hand. “But there is something I need you to do for me right now.”
I raised my eyebrows.
Her lips parted, and her lashes hung heavy over a pair of wide, daring eyes. “Kiss me,” she said.
Everything around her went out of focus.
I reached for her hands and gently guided them to rest around my neck, stepping closer and taking her slender form in my arms. There in the hallway, our lips met for the first time.
I felt my skin tremble in tiny quakes all up and down my body. I was dry and out of practice, but my lips were liquid on hers. She pulled me back against the doorframe to sandwich herself firmly against me. From her lips came endless small, breathy encouragements.
“I love the way you touch me,” she gasped. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes. My hands painted her body.
“Baby,” she said, “don’t stop.”
“Oh!” A grunt escaped her lips as my hands grazed her buttocks. I gripped firmly, enjoying the play of her flesh under the fabric, kneading and smoothing my fingers down over the firm cheeks.
I kissed my way down her neck and ran my lips and tongue across the tops of her breasts, moving my hands up to grasp them through the dress. Her moans grew louder and she began to squirm.
Finally, I felt her hand small snake into my pocket and produce the room key. She pressed me back slightly, breaking my contact with her for a second as she reached to slip the card into the slot and push open the door to the suite.
We were in at last. And the night was very young.
“Oh my god,” she said when she saw the view. Grabbing my hand, she pulled me across the sprawling room to the window. Her breath fogged the glass as she peered out.
“Look down there,” she said. “It’s so beautiful.”
Her fingers wove themselves in mine. Streams of traffic flowed like blood, red and white through the veins of the city, Friday night revelers of every imaginable stripe, each reduced to a pixel of light.
“Come here,” I said, and I pulled her in to wrap her in my arms as we watched. She stood with her back against me and leaned her head back onto my shoulder. I kissed her cheek.
Her fingers brushed my belly and her body turned into mine. Our lips met and she softened under my fingers. She reached down to pull off one boot, and then the other, and then she leaned back in for another kiss, shorter now without the heels.
Her hands went next to her back, pulling down the zipper of the satin dress. She peeled it from her shoulders as I stepped back and watched, admiring her shapely form in the shadows of the room, lit only by the lights of the city outside.
“What do you think?” she asked, twisting a knee inward shyly as she stood there, exposed but for two scraps of black lingerie and her sheer tights, a two-inch lace trim capping each of her slender thighs. From around her neck, the pearl on the gold chain sparkled.
Her fingers tucked self-consciously into the waistband of a black satin thong, and a matching bra pressed up against her breasts.
“Jen, you look beautiful.” I could think of nothing else to say. Her figure was poised and elegant. She stood that way for only a moment longer before I stepped to her and wrapped her in my arms. We kissed gently.
Under my fingers, her skin was warm and soft. Within seconds I was erect, and her hand was gripping me through my slacks. I flashed back to that first moment she had touched me in the break room. The agony I felt that day as I had walked away, leaving us both unfulfilled. Tonight, I would make it up to her, and more.
We tumbled backward as I hastily pulled off my shirt. The cool glass of the window pressed against my back as she cradled my face in her hands and kissed me again. She moved her hips in waves up and down over my groin, varying her pressure, dancing in and out of contact. Her fingers moved down to my belt, and the thin piece of leather was gone in a motion.
Her shoulders danced, and I lost myself in the shadows and curves of her neckline, memorizing the path of the light over and along her collarbone, following the length of gold chain down across the pearl and over her breasts, which sighed like two restless doves against the black satin cups. I put all my energy into resisting the urge to take her.
My slacks came loose, and as they fell to the floor, Jen followed them down, crouching to kneel in front of me.
Her eyes looked up to meet mine, jewels of light dancing between her lashes. I wore a pair of black silk boxers that, against the bulge of my erection, was more formality than anything else. The flimsy fabric shot out like a flagpole toward the raven-haired girl. Her cheek brushed against it as her eyes bore into mine, pale fingers wrapping me gently, in slow motion, like the folds of a curtain.
I breathed slowly, closing my eyes as I took in her touch. She had a deliberate, practiced method to her movements, purposely drawing out each stroke. At one point, I felt her teeth graze the tip of my penis through the fabric, and as soon as they did, she seemed to lose her restraint. Down my legs slid the boxers, and in an instant all the nerve endings along my length were ignited as her lips suctioned around me and she threw her entire body into service.
No movement or pressure was wasted. Every twitch of Jen’s tongue, the gliding of her lips up and down, the rhythmic swish of her dark hair against my thighs as she worked, all had the effect of siphoning wave after wave of pleasure from within the deepest parts of me. The warm, dark hotel room melted around me into a dreamlike pool of pure consciousness, and I forgot everything about who or where I was for several eternally long minutes.
For such a violent, passionate act, the room around us was so deceptively quiet, and we took up such a small corner of it, that to a couple sleeping soundly in the adjacent bed, we might have gone unnoticed. But inside me, things were all but quiet. Years of stagnation and loneliness were being burned alive in an explosive fire that Jen eagerly tended with warm, wet lips.
She felt so good wrapped around me that I knew I would quite literally explode if she kept going, and I wasn’t ready to hit the mountaintop just yet. Slipping my fingers gently under her jaw, I stilled her movements, and when she looked up at me, I nodded.
She stood to face me, and I reached around her without a word and found the tiny hooks and loops of the push-up bra, pinching gently, once, to unfasten them. I brought the ends around toward me, sliding the straps off her shoulders and down her arms. Her breasts sagged slightly, freed from the constricting pressure of the garment. They were perfect small half domes, rising gracefully from her ribs in picturesque arcs, and bearing at each peak a large, dark areola and a pronounced, tophat-shaped nipple.
I raised my hands and held her breasts in my palms, measuring their firmness, reveling in the warmth and intimacy of finally touching her there. Then I slipped my hands around Jen’s waist and held her as our foreheads rested against one another, nowhere to go and no one to be, only each other and only this place.
“I want to just stay here,” Jen said, breathing hard. Her hands closed around my shaft and began alternating long, unhurried strokes as I held her.
“Then stay,” I said. I took a breath and exhaled. “Stay as long as you want.”
“I mean…” Her body shuddered once, slightly. “I mean, with you.” A small sob escaped from her, and she slid her arms around my waist.
“Jen, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’ve never met anyone like you,” she said. “I just— I just don’t want to let you go.”
Now Jen started to weep openly against me, her body heaving in my arms. I hugged her tighter.
“Jen, Jen, shhh.” I smoothed a palm against her cool back, stroking her, absorbing her sobs against my shoulder.
“Hey, sweetie, hey, Jen.” She sniffed and looked up at me. I had a feeling we might need a breather. “What if we take a break for a minute,” I said. “Just take a break and just be together. No sex, no pressure. Just be.”
She nodded, pressing herself into me more tightly and wiping a tear from her cheek. She bounced up and down slightly on her toes as she nestled against my chest. “I like that idea,” she said. “I like that idea a lot.”
We found two soft, oversized robes in the closet and put them on. I brought up the lamps and illuminated the spacious room, and then I took Jen’s hand and led her to the bed. She climbed into it, pulling back the comforter and sliding her long legs underneath it.
I crossed to the corner desk and picked up a menu. “Do you feel like dessert?” I asked.
“I do indeed,” she said. “What sounds good?”
“What about double fudge chocolate cake?” I asked.
She feigned disgust. “No thanks, I’m watching my figure.”
“Well that makes two of us,” I said, looking her over with a whistle. She giggled, tugging suggestively at the lapel of her robe.
“What about cheesecake?” I asked.
“Yep, cheesecake sounds perfect,” she said, throwing up her arms and yawning. “Wake me up when it gets here.”
“You really need a nap right now?” I narrowed my eyes skeptically.
Jen shot me her best pouty lip. “Hey, it’s been a long day,” she said. “Give me a break.” Then she threw herself back on the pillows and closed her eyes.
I smiled. This was the correct way to spend the weekend. No time limits, no agenda, no considerations except to enjoy each other and to take advantage of the cocoon of time and space that we had here.
As Jen’s breathing grew more rhythmic, I glanced down at the room service menu, and got another idea. I picked up the phone.
—
Two knocks rang out from the hotel room door in quick succession.
“Room service,” a woman’s voice called from the hallway.
Jen stirred slightly next to me as I slid from the bed, tightening the robe around my waist.
“Hi, come in.” I smiled at the woman in the hall, looking at her with a mix of amusement and curiosity. She was of vaguely Asian descent and wore an elegant kimono-like gown.
“Thank you,” she said. “My name’s Evelyn, I’m going to be your bath butler tonight.”
“Our what?” Jen was up and standing by the bed, peering curiously at the woman’s cart, which was packed with candles and bottles filled with liquids of all different colors.
The woman laughed. “Oh, hi, didn’t see you there, miss. I’m Evelyn, I’m just here to draw your bath, and then I’ll get out of your way.”
We followed the woman into the large bathroom. Along one wall was a large marble tub with gold fixtures. The woman flipped a couple of switches, and the lights overhead dimmed off, replaced by a single spotlight trained directly down onto the tub.
Jen stepped to me. “This doesn’t look like cheesecake to me,” she whispered, giggling.
“I thought this sounded better,” I said.
Evelyn turned on the faucet and warmed the water, reaching down to plug the drain. Then she arranged a dozen candles of various shapes and sizes around the back edge of the tub, bending to light each of them in turn. We watched, mesmerized. I’m sure before tonight, neither of us had known there was even such a thing as a bath butler.
And what an attractive bath butler she was. She couldn’t have been more than thirty, fit, with reddish brown hair and vivid blue eyes, and a fantastic butt, whose contours I researched thoroughly as she bent in front of me.
“How long have you done this, Evelyn?” I asked.
“I’ve been the spa director here for about five years,” she said. “But we just started the bath service last month.” She looked back at me and smiled. “You’ll have to tell me what you guys think.” She turned back to the tub and ran a hand through the water.
Jen suddenly stepped forward and slipped the hotel robe from her bare shoulders, dropping it at her feet. She stood in the candlelit bathroom in just her thong. Evelyn could turn around any second and catch her. I gaped, and then on reflex I reached forward to touch her arm. What was she doing?
She shrugged me off, refusing to look at me. Instead, with a flourish, she bent over and removed the thong, discarding it on the tile and stepping over it. She stretched her arms in the air and leaned slightly to one side, cocking an elbow behind her head.
“Is it OK if we get in now?” Jen asked. Evelyn turned to glance at the girl and froze. Jen looked down, lifting a foot and flexing her calf slightly, casually, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. She swiveled her ankle distractedly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
I stood glued to the floor, mouth hanging open. This was a completely unexpected move. I hadn’t known Jen for very long, so maybe nothing should have surprised me. But still, this display had me thrown.
I watched a range of emotion pass over the face of the pretty spa director as she eyed the limber beauty. I honestly felt so sorry for Evelyn in that moment. But then, I watched her settle on a look that resembled something like resolve, and she seemed to determine that a job was a job, nakedness be damned.
“Absolutely,” she said. “Please enjoy yourselves.”
Enjoy yourselves? Plural? I had for sure been crushing hard on the woman since she came in, but I now had to decide whether to disrobe in front of her.
It took all of two seconds for me to make up my mind. The robe landed in a heap next to Jen’s, and I took my future wife’s hand as we stepped naked into the tub together.
Evelyn turned discreetly away from us toward her cart.
“If you’d like, I can add fragrances.” She turned back to us, looking us each in the eye deliberately, as if determined to keep things professional. “And would you also like bubbles?”
“Yes please, that all sounds great,” Jen said. “Thank you so much.” But I noticed her voice was lower, a bit huskier, and a bit more feminine. I saw her lips part and her pupils glaze slightly as she eyed the woman at the cart. She wasn’t thinking about the bath anymore.
As Evelyn turned back toward us, Jen rose from the tub, statuesque, water pouring from her limbs.
“Come here Evelyn,” Jen said. The statement was not a question.
The woman blinked. “I’m sorry,” she said, bowing her head nervously. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“I want you to join us,” Jen said. “Please.”
Evelyn glanced at me. My face betrayed to the poor woman every bit of the surprise I was feeling at Jen’s antics. I was nervous, and getting even more nervous. Would this all get us thrown out of the hotel?
I burned hot with embarrassment, but out of the corner of my eye I couldn’t help but take in Jen’s beautiful, wet body as she stood in the bath next to me, water up to her calves, resolute. Light from the candles played off the rivulets of water running down her skin. She stretched a hand invitingly toward Evelyn.
Just then, I had to blink back my disbelief as our beautiful bath butler, blushing a deep red, bowed her head again and, running a hand through her hair self-consciously, began to untie her belt.
“I— I’ve never done anything like this before,” the woman said. Her blush seemed to deepen as she slid the kimono off and draped it across the handle of the cart. She was stunning, in a burgundy lace bra and high-waisted panties. Her breasts hung full and high on her chest, and her legs extended elegantly, bent and parted slightly as she reached to unclasp the bra.
“Evelyn,” I gasped as I took her in. She blinked up at me, a small hopeful smile tempting the corner of her mouth. “You’re beautiful,” I said.
Her eyelashes fluttered and she looked away. “Thank you,” she said, and the smile widened.
The bra fell slack and she parted with it, freeing her large breasts to hang naked on her chest. I rose and stepped from the tub, dripping and fully erect. Evelyn’s eyes went immediately to my cock. She lost focus for a moment and seemed to forget where she was.
Finally, she spoke, a wry smile on her lips. “You look happy to see me,” she said, her voice a half-whisper.
I turned and gestured to Jen. “I’d say we both are,” I said. Then I tipped her chin up with my hand. “Would you like to join us?”
She nodded.
I slipped my hands around Evelyn’s waist and clutched her buttocks firmly.
“Mmm.” She closed her eyes and stepped into me. “You can go ahead and take those off,” she said. I did, slipping them from her waist and running my palms down her long, smooth legs with the underwear in tow.
I kissed her belly, running my hands back up and over her buttocks as I stood and took her hand. She followed my lead and stepped gingerly into the tub.
Jen was on her immediately, and in seconds, Evelyn’s shyness seemed to melt. Sandwiched between my rock hard penis and the Korean sex kitten who had started it all, she writhed and moaned with abandon. The two girls shared a long, deep, groping kiss as their legs clambered in the shallow bath.
“You guys,” Evelyn said, whirling around to face me. She draped her arms around my neck and kissed me hard. Pulling back, she gasped. “This was exactly what I needed.”
I fondled her breasts as my cock wormed its way between her thighs. “Oh babe,” I said. “You have no idea.”
“Ugh,” she said, turning to face the wall, bracing her hands against it and spreading her legs. She looked back at me. “Just fuck me already,” she said. Jen looked at me and flashed me a smile, and a wink.
“Do it baby,” she said.
The slender Korean girl ran a hand down Evelyn’s smooth back, tracing her shoulder blades and fingering the contours of her muscles. “You’re so beautiful Evelyn,” she whispered. She pulled the woman’s face to hers and kissed her gently. Evelyn groaned into Jen’s mouth as I gripped the woman’s hips from behind and positioned myself against her entrance. The lone spotlight shone directly down on the place where our bodies met. I eased myself inside.
I felt instantly at home inside Evelyn’s body. It was warm and slick, and the walls of her vagina were firm but welcoming. She put a hand against one of her breasts and clutched it as I moved in and out of her. Her buttocks rippled in small, fleshy waves with each thrust, slapping with a rhythmic insistence. For a few minutes, it was the only sound to be heard; so perfect was the moment, all our voices were stilled, lulled by the hypnotic ecstasy of the unexpected encounter.
I slid my hands up and down Evelyn’s thighs and along her back. I dug my fingernails lightly into the flesh of her buttocks as I fought to go deeper into her.
Evelyn raised a leg outward to rest on the tub’s edge, shifting to open herself wider. Her toes knocked against a candle and it tipped over, splashing into the tub and simmering out with a thin wisp of smoke.
My legs splashed as I fought for position against her. I grunted, guiding her into place. At this new angle, I could penetrate her fully, and I buried myself all the way inside her with a push. She gasped and bared her teeth.
“Don’t stop,” she moaned.
“I’m gonna cum,” I said. “Jen.” I turned to the girl apologetically. I didn’t want to climax yet, but I was powerless to stop the wave that was bubbling up from my feet and powering its way through my groin.
Jen was standing beside us, transfixed. “Babe,” she said. “Don’t worry about me. Fill her up.”
“Oh yes,” Evelyn said. “Oh yes.” She slapped the wall, closing her eyes tight as her body clutched and collapsed.
“Fill me uuuup!” she gasped.
My thrusts turned violent, and I moved in and out of her in fast, hard, piston-like strokes. All at once, Evelyn’s insides gripped me like a handshake, and at that moment I pressed her body into the wall, wrapping my hands around her to smother her breasts with my palms. I flattened her there, seizing and thrusting into her with sledgehammer force.
My eyes rolled back in my head and I came hard, ejaculating long and deep up into her cavity—so hard I thought the cum might find its way up into her throat and spill out of her mouth. My arms pinned hers at her sides, leaving her to shudder and cry helplessly as we seemed to meld for a moment into a single sensual mass of skin and sweat.
Stunned, we stood that way, panting and holding each other in the water, for a couple of minutes. Finally, the pretty spa director slipped from my shaft and turned to face us. Her hair hung loose and wet with sweat, and her face and breasts were flushed pink. She spent several seconds just finding the breath to speak, and when she did, she was beaming.
“This,” she said with a calming exhale, “has been the best bath I’ve ever drawn.” We all laughed, clutching the girl to us and hugging her tight.
Jen and I stepped from the bath and offered our hands to Evelyn as she followed us. She grabbed a towel and bent to run it up and down her legs, dabbing at her slit, where drops of my semen were seeping from inside her. She pulled on her underwear and donned the gown she’d been wearing. Turning to face us, she placed her palms together in a gesture of genuine gratitude.
“Thank you, both, for surprising me tonight,” she said. “I’ll never forget this.” She gave me a meaningful look. “Ever.”
I smiled. “Neither will I,” I said.
Evelyn stepped to me quietly, looking down and grasping my cock one last time. “Mmm, I’m gonna miss this,” she said. She stooped, lowering herself so that she was eye level with my member. With two fingers, she gathered a last drop of semen that had collected at its tip and raised the digits to her mouth, running them back and forth to coat her lips with the sticky white fluid. Then she stood and, looking deep into my eyes, slipped her tongue out to roll it gently around her lips, licking them clean.
“All better,” she said, patting my chest with a wink.
I turned to Jen and took her hand as Evelyn gave us a slight bow and, grabbing her cart, rolled it from the bathroom. A few seconds later, we heard the door to the room open and close, and we were again left alone in our quiet cocoon.
Jen pulled my hand, easing me toward her and backing across the floor toward the walk-in shower. She opened the glass door and turned on the spray, testing the temperature. She leaned back toward me and popped up on her tiptoes to press her lips to mine, grabbing my shoulders and walking backwards on her toes without breaking the kiss. We stepped under the jets, and I held her close, encased in warmth.
She scrunched her shoulders and rested her fingers against my chest as the water dribbled off her chin. She blinked up at me, and her eyes seemed to stare past me into the middle distance.
“Do you think you and I could ever have a future together?” she asked. The question hung in the air for a few seconds as I studied her. She was vulnerable and beautiful, and I knew what my answer was.
I looked down at her and stroked her hair. “Yes,” I said. “I do.”
I drew my hands over her wet skin as I lowered myself down along her body, running my lips between her breasts and down over her stomach. She shuddered. I reached her opening and brushed my fingers against it, sliding them between her lips and coating my fingertips in her juices.
My tongue probed the sensitive flesh and then slipped inside her. Her scent overwhelmed me, and her liquids were sweet and sharp in my mouth, mixing with the water from the shower that coursed down over my head as I ate her out.
I ran two fingers up into Jen’s slit underneath my tongue, prodding and twisting and thrusting.
“Oh,” she gasped. Above me, the slender girl was lost in reverie. She held my head and swayed, her eyebrows twitching in little pulses of anguish at each spark I ignited inside her.
She stumbled backward and splayed her hands against the wall of the shower, legs jutting outward as I followed her and kept up my thrusts.
“Ohhh yesss…” she stuttered. The muscles up and down her thighs and torso stiffened visibly, and she rocked forward at the waist with a sharp cry.
“Oh!” she yelled and took a faltering step forward, bracing her hand on my shoulder. “Ohhh…” She squinted and squirmed, knees together, feet apart, and I watched a final violent tremor rock her frame in a wave from toes to scalp before she gasped and collapsed down next to me on the floor.
We hugged, exhausted, as a hot torrent covered us from above, and I brought her lips to mine beneath the water for a long, languid kiss.
—
“We were so young, Amber and I.”
Jen and I sat in the king bed in the dark, naked and surrounded by a half-dozen pillows. Her head rested against my chest. Before us, the lights of the city spread out like a dazzling urban constellation.
“I don’t think we knew what either of us really needed,” I said. “I don’t think we were ever right for each other.”
“Did you ever talk about kids?” she asked.
“No, we never did,” I said. “I always thought we’d get around to it. But eventually I started to realize she just didn’t want them.”
“And you did.”
“Yeah.”
She stroked my chest. “I’m sorry.”
I sighed, sinking further back into the pillows. “It’s OK.” I glanced around the room, felt the cool fabric of the bed under me, and all at once I felt safe—safer than I’d ever felt before. Jen’s bare skin was warm and comfortable. Neither of us moved a muscle for several minutes. It felt, I realized, as if I finally had everything I’d ever wanted.
“Look where we are sweetie,” I said, stroking her hair. “Look what we’re getting to do.” I closed my eyes. “This is all so wild.”
She giggled. “I know.”
Her leg snaked around mine. I slid my hand beneath the sheets to rest on her thigh and held her there.
She drew circles with her finger on my chest. “Can you believe you fucked the bath butler?” she asked, giggling.
“I really can’t believe it. It’s still all a bit of a blur,” I said. “Did that all really happen?”
“Oh, it happened all right,” she said. “You both looked so good together.” She traced her finger up to my lips. “So hot.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
She raised up, turning to face me.
“So. Hot.”
I saw a supercharged lust dancing in her smoky eyes. Her limbs moved in concert like a jungle cat as she moved on top of me, toes digging into the sheets, hips rocking with a melodic sway. Her fingers found my rod and with a hushed reverence, she placed her forehead against mine as she moved against me.
“This is so perfect,” she said. “I am so happy right now.” She drew out the word “now” with a quavering moan as her legs surrendered their support and she dropped, filling herself with my erection.
“Jen,” I said. “Oh, Jen.”
“Yes.”
“Baby.”
“Fill me.” The twin doves bounced on her chest, nipples like flattened daggers in front of my face. “Fill me up,” she gasped.
“Oh, Jen. I am, baby.” I pushed in further.
The sweet rhythm of her flexing limbs and quiet urging was the only sound inside the cocoon of the hotel room. I looked up at her. She was a delicate, shadowy silhouette against the downtown skyline, perched on top of me in the center of the king bed, breasts thrust forward, back arched, arms raised as she ran her fingers through her hair, lost and beautiful.
I moved slowly inside her. There was no rush, no urgency, no sense of time at all. She braced her palms on my chest and leaned forward, her short dark hair swaying and bobbing as she moved. My fingers were like thirsty vines, winding their way up and down her soft skin. I found her breasts and gripped them like stress balls, massaging and prodding and squeezing until I drew moans of aching pleasure out of her throat.
Picking up speed, I bucked and rocked inside her. Now my hands were like a lit fuse, running quick, manic trails up and down her skin. And there was no stopping the explosion that was about to occur.
“Jen,” I said. “I’m cumming.”
“Me too.” She slid a hand between us and down to her clit, where she quickly prodded and nursed herself past the brink.
She collapsed against me, our bodies pressed tightly together, her long legs entwined with mine, and as one, we gasped.
“Oh! Jen…”
“Ahhh!” It was a long, protracted scream, loud enough to wake the entire hallway.
“Yes!” I moaned, unleashing a torrent inside her.
She rippled in fits of tightening and slackening, clutching my head, her legs squirming in fits up and down along mine. Her pulsing pocket held me all the way in as I jerked and spasmed, a long ribbon of cum coursing up into her from the mouth of my cock like a firehose, enough to fill a lake. I felt the warm fluid running out of her, down onto my groin, and still Jen’s orgasm continued. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t control her limbs. She just shook and shook, taking in sharp, shaky breaths as she rode it out.
I felt the gleam of sweat breaking out on her skin as she relaxed against me. The warmth of her body and the warmth of our mingled fluids and the warmth of the room was a giant calming blanket. I closed my eyes as my cock grew slack inside her.
“That was unbelievable,” she said.
“It was amazing.” I cradled her head against my shoulder. “I’m just sorry it took me so long to find you.”
“Shh,” she said. “You have me now.” She sighed. “And I have you.”
“You do have me. All of me.” I lifted her face to mine and kissed her. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” I said.