The last thing Jack had said to her before he left was, “Red is a good a color for you.”
Lin had puzzled over this remark, and the ironic smile that had accompanied it, for the entire subway ride home.
Because she hadn’t been wearing anything red at the time.
Or so she’d thought.
It wasn’t until much later, when she was undressing for bed, that she realized what he’d meant:
Her panties.
Oh God.
Lin Kanazawa didn’t think of herself as ‘Japanese-American’, ‘Asian-American’ or any other hyphenated label; her family had lived in the Boston area for five generations, which she figured ought to be American enough for anybody.
Her father, however, had an entirely different point of view. He was obsessed with his Japanese heritage and ancestry, explaining to anyone who would listen that his family was descended from “pure Samurai bloodlines,” as he described it. And he felt it his duty to run the household according to “traditional Japanese values”—which meant that Lin, as a mere daughter, was treated by him as little more than a servant.
Her father’s own parents were much more liberal and cosmopolitan in their outlook and didn’t know what to make of him. They clucked their tongues over the situation but would not interfere. Lin’s mother did her best to soften the harsh discipline under which Lin was raised but could only do so much.
She had, however, at least managed to convince Lin’s father that a college education would increase Lin’s value as a potential bride. Her father could hardly argue the point as he had met Lin’s mother in college.
But that was the extent of her freedom. She was expected to excel in all of her classes, help her mother look after her father and brothers and do her share of the housework. And during school vacations she was expected to earn money.
Which was how she became a temp.
And how she met Jack.
There was nearly always employment available for temporary workers. Employers loved them because they worked for next to nothing and didn’t qualify for the usual costly benefits required by full-time employees, such as health insurance.
It was summer and Lin had just started her newest assignment, as a cashier in a large and apparently failing department store not far from Harvard Square.
The store was badly maintained—the floors were dirty, the lighting spotty and the merchandise indifferently shelved. The floor manager explained, as he walked Lin to her post, that he wasn’t planning to stay any longer than it took to find another job.
He showed her to her station; one of a pair of checkout stalls at the rear of the floor. He told Lin that most of the customers—when there were any—preferred to go out the way they came in, and that basically the only reason there were checkout stalls here at all was that the store was required by law to have another exit there and management found it cheaper to hire temp cashiers than security guards to sit there all day.
He suggested that in the future she bring something to read.
He introduced her to Jack, “your fellow temp and compatriot in boredom”, and left.
She said hello to Jack and went to perch on the high stool in her stall. This brought her up to knee level with the walls that enclosed her space. She looked around the area, noting that the few customers poking around among the merchandise appeared to be elderly ladies who had probably started shopping there years ago and just gotten into the habit.
She sighed. Even though her father drove her crazy she did share some of his values, including a severe dislike of wasted time—even if she was getting paid for it. Tomorrow she would bring some of her textbooks for the upcoming semester and get a head start on her classes.
Out of the corner of her eye she studied Jack. He had greeted her cordially enough, with a nod and a slight wave and then gone back to staring off into space, arms crossed and one leg over the other. Lin guessed that he had just started that day as well.
He seemed to be about her age—probably a hard-up college student like herself, she thought. He was of average height and build, with brown hair worn long around his collar. Lin couldn’t tell from where she was sitting but she thought she remembered blue eyes. He was wearing wheat-colored jeans and a faded blue work-shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Lin looked down at the knee-length, pleated brown skirt and the crisp, long-sleeved white blouse she had on and felt over-dressed.
Her father always insisted that she dress conservatively—no surprise there—but Lin allowed herself the small rebellion of not wearing pantyhose in the summer. She despised it at all times, but especially in summer she felt as if her legs were suffocating.
Not that Jack was liable to notice—or care, even if he did notice.
Lin didn’t know much about men, other than her two brothers. She was not allowed to date, as such. She had been told by her father that if she met any “nice Japanese boys of good family” while at school they were welcome to apply to him for permission to spend time with his daughter after being interviewed by him.
Like that was ever going to happen, she’d thought to herself.
Otherwise, her father assured her, when she had completed her studies he would arrange a suitable match for her.
When he turned away Lin had rolled her eyes and made faces at his back. But in her heart she was sure it was the only way she would ever get married.
She was, in her own words to herself in the mirror, “Skinny, flat-chested and moon-faced.” She wore glasses. She loved her long, glossy black hair, which she wore parted in the middle and down around her shoulders, and she secretly thought that she had a pretty smile, but that was about it.
So when Jack suddenly swiveled around on his stool and began talking to her she assumed it was out of sheer boredom.
She had little experience in conversation with men her own age, her upbringing having made her feel insignificant as well as unattractive—an impression that had only been heightened after attending college for two years without once being asked out. So at first she had answered only in shy monosyllables, glancing at him for an instant and then back down at her lap.
But under the influence of his persistent friendliness—and of course having nothing else to do—she gradually began to relax and take part in the conversation.
Nothing of much consequence was said; it was mostly school and studies, books and music, likes and dislikes—gradually warming up, as the day progressed, to include elements of personal history.
Lin found herself actually enjoying the conversation. She found herself meeting his gaze more often, then little by little turning on her stool until she was facing him. And by the end of the day she was unconsciously aping his posture: leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, hands hanging loosely or gesturing, feet propped on the highest rung of her stool.
She enjoyed looking at him, enjoyed the easy flow of his talk. She had no illusions that he found her attractive…but there was something about the way that he looked at her—a knowing, almost mocking quality behind his glance, as if he knew more about her than she did herself—that she found subtly disturbing.
Still, with the exception of their lunch breaks, which they were required to take in turn, and the extremely rare moments when one or the other of them actually had to help a customer, their conversation continued and became more open.
And at the end of the day, when the floor manager came to empty their registers and let them out through the rear doors before locking up for the night, Lin found herself actually looking forward to coming back to work the next day.
Jack accompanied her down the two flights of stairs and out onto the sidewalk. It was there, just after wishing her good night, that he leaned forward and with a mischievous glint in his eye said softly, “Red is a good color for you,” before turning and heading off down the sidewalk.
Red.
Red as her face.
He had been looking up her skirt the whole time! Staring between her legs! Oh God, she had gotten so caught up in the conversation that she hadn’t even thought about how she was sitting. And even if she had it would never have occurred to her that anyone would be interested.
She suddenly recalled the way Jack had been looking at her while they’d talked. The expression on his face as he’d said, “Red is a good color for you.”
Ohgodohgodohgod, he must think I’m a complete slut!
She pulled her skirt, which she had been holding half-lowered around her knees since her realization, back up around her waist and fastened it.
As if in a trance she pulled her desk chair in front of the full-length mirror on her closet door. She took some blankets from her bureau drawer and folded them and piled them high on the chair before climbing up and perching precariously at the top of the heap, facing the mirror.
She placed her heels on the seat and leaned forward on her elbows, imitating as closely as possible her position on the stool at work. She pictured the wooden sides of her stall: no, they wouldn’t have come up as high as her knees.
She began moving her lips silently, recalling snippets of their conversation. She began to relax her posture slightly and gesture occasionally, the way she remembered doing…
…And watched, half-fascinated, half-horrified, as her knees began drifting apart, giving a clear view up her skirt and exposing her panties to anyone who cared to look…
Like Jack.
She buried her face in her hands.
She waited for the tears to come, the tears that would reflect her shame and humiliation.
She waited. Then waited a little longer, trying to bring up the feelings she knew she should be experiencing.
Nothing.
She raised her head and opened her eyes. Stared at her image in the mirror…at the exposed flesh of her thighs and the triangle of red fabric where they joined.
What a stupid thing to get upset about, she thought. It’s just underwear, for heaven’s sake.
She replaced her reflection in the mirror with an image of Jack, sitting just as she was, just as he’d been sitting that afternoon.
Only now he was openly, deliberately staring between her legs.
Now he was raising his eyes to look straight at her, and smiling the way he had when he had left her.
She shivered…then straightened her back and met his eye…and opened her legs a little wider.
So, he likes red, does he?
The next morning she made sure her father had left and her mother was busy before she finished dressing. From the very back of her closet she pulled out a summer dress she had worn only once, before her father deemed it too immodest for a well brought up Japanese girl.
The dress was, of course, conservative by nearly anyone else’s standards, and so pretty that she hadn’t been able to bear the thought of getting rid of it. It fell sweetly to just past the middle of her thighs; it had a hint of elastic woven into the bodice which emphasized what little bust-line she had; there were sleeves, but just barely.
And it was, of course, red… the bright, vibrant red of a fresh poppy blossom, with a tiny bit of black embroidery here and there.
She slipped it over her head and stood before the mirror as she zipped herself up. She smiled at herself and felt very nearly pretty, even with her glasses on.
She brushed her hair until it shone. Then she reached into the back of her lingerie drawer and pulled out her only pair of satin panties, a luxury she had regretted indulging at the time she bought them but now…
They didn’t quite complement the color of her dress; they were more of a dusky rose. But she didn’t care; no other pair would do for today.
She stepped into them and savored the texture of their fabric as they slid up her thighs and nestled into place. Mmmm…
Fortunately she had a pair of black sandals that went well with trim on the dress. She took one last look in the mirror, resisting the giddy temptation to blow herself a kiss, before sticking her head out of her bedroom and listening carefully for a moment.
Then, carrying a small knapsack with the regular ‘office clothes’ she planned to change into before coming home, she slipped out the back door and made her way to the subway station.
She lost a little of her confidence on the train—she was sure everyone on board was looking at her bright dress disapprovingly. But she quickly realized it was just her own nervousness and when the train reached her stop she hurried up the stairs and out of the station.
Her nervousness, however, did not diminish as she approached the store–quite the opposite, in fact. But she bit her lip and pushed herself forward.
The truth of the matter was she had no definite plan. For all she knew Jack might just show up with a book today and ignore her completely—and she suddenly wished she had brought a book as well, as she’d had planned to do yesterday. Too late now, she thought, as she rode the escalator to her floor.
But if nothing else she wanted to see him look at her in her red dress, wanted to see the expression on his face as he realized that this was her reaction to his remark.
Even if she wasn’t quite sure what she meant by it.
When she stepped off the escalator, however, the floor manager greeted her with the news that she would be on her own today. Apparently Jack had been called back to his previous temp job to help straighten out some emergency. The floor manager said, smirking, that he was sure she could “handle the crowd” by herself and that he would relieve her at lunchtime.
Lin trudged dispiritedly across the floor to her station and sat at her register. Outside it was overcast and humid; inside there were even fewer customers than there had been yesterday.
After about ten minutes of staring vacantly in front of her Lin considered asking the floor manager to bring her a book—any book—from the book department on the bottom floor.
After twenty minutes she was ready to scream.
After thirty minutes the possibility of running amok and stapling a few customers to the walls, followed by setting fire to the store, became an attractive possibility.
By lunchtime she was sure she was certifiably brain-dead and, when relieved by the floor manager, seriously considered going home and phoning in sick.
But after a quick lunch, which revived her somewhat, she stopped at a nearby used bookstore and bought a paperback detective novel to get her through the afternoon.
She waited until the last possible minute of her lunch break before returning to work.
But when she got to her post the floor manager was gone and Jack was back on his stool. He was wearing a different shirt but the same jeans as yesterday.
Lin had to restrain herself from bursting into a huge smile. But she allowed herself a small one when she saw Jack look at her dress, and then at her, almost exactly the way she’d imagined it.
“Nice,” was his only comment.
But that ‘I-know-all-your-secrets’ look was in his eyes, and Lin was unable to repress a small shiver as she walked past him to take her place.
Now that he was really there, however, she felt herself losing her nerve. She sat facing away from him, pretending to check her cash register and trying to control her breathing.
But almost immediately he began talking to her in the same easy way as he had the day before, telling her about the job he’d been doing that morning and how the boss there was a moron who could have taken care of the whole thing himself without any help from Jack, and asking her about her morning…
…And before she knew it she had turned to face him and was chatting away as if yesterday’s conversation had never stopped.
At first she was self-conscious about the comparative shortness of her dress and kept her feet on the lowest rung and her knees together. But after a while she noticed that every so often Jack’s glance flicked briefly downwards toward her lap then just as quickly back up again. If she hadn’t been watching she’d never have noticed.
But now she’d noticed. And somehow, knowing that he wanted to look up her dress again, and that she could let him or not, as she chose, made her feel, for the first time in her life, both powerful and sexy.
She thought a moment. Then, while apparently still paying close attention to what Jack was saying, she took off her glasses and made a little show of lifting the hem of her skirt to clean them with.
She followed his glance as it shifted down to her lap. There was nothing to see, of course, but it gave her a tingly feeling to be able to control his attention like that. She put her glasses back on and at the same time, as if unconsciously, she moved her feet to the highest rung of the stool, raising her knees above the dividing wall.
She leaned forward on her elbows…but was careful to keep her knees together, and was amused and gratified to see his glance flick downward more and more often.
She toyed with him for the rest of the afternoon—letting her knees drift apart…then somehow together again just when he happened to look there. She used her elbows to gradually inch her dress up towards the top of her thighs, pretending not to notice when he unconsciously licked his lips.
Lin was having the time of her life…and she thought her pretence of displaying herself innocently was totally convincing.
She was wrong.
She had been paying too much attention to the direction of his gaze and not enough to its content. Otherwise she’d have noticed a certain deepening of that knowing look, and a certain twist at a corner of his smile.
He hadn’t been fooled for long… as she was about to find out.
There were about ten minutes left before closing time when she noticed Jack’s attention begin to shift. He was looking around the store—and she had no idea why, as there was absolutely no one there other than the floor manager, a distant figure at the other end of the store from them.
Then Jack stepped out of his stall, saying, “You’d better get that register straightened out before it’s time to close, or we’ll never get out of here.”
Lin had no idea what he was talking about, especially since she hadn’t used the register all afternoon. Nevertheless she got up from her stool as he entered her stall, and allowed him to brush past her to reach the register.
He squatted down as if to look more closely at the machine.
Then he suddenly swiveled, fell to his knees in front of Lin, lifted the front of her dress and thrust his head beneath it.
Oh! Shocked, Lin gasped and attempted to back away but Jack quickly seized her legs and pulled her to him.
He began rubbing his face slowly back and forth against the skin of her belly.
Lin had no idea what to do. In a panic she glanced around the store, but she already knew there was no one nearby. To get the floor manager’s attention she would have to scream out loud. That’s what she should do, she decided. She was going to scream, right now…
…Except that now Jack was kissing his way down the front of her panties, even as his hands were drifting up the backs of her thighs…
Ohhhhhh…
Lin felt her mouth falling open in a mixture of sigh and groan, and instead of a scream what came from her mouth was a whispered, “No…” that even she could barely hear.
Through half-closed eyes she saw that even if there had been anyone nearby, the walls of her stall would make it seem as if she were simply standing in front of her register—if it weren’t for the fact that she seemed to be hyperventilating. She put out her hands and grasped the walls on either side of her for support.
Oh God, she was standing in plain sight—from the waist up, at least—while a man she’d only met yesterday was… Mmmm… nuzzling her between her legs… while his hands were cupping and sliding sensuously over her behind, his touch delicious through the warm satin.
Ohhh…his tongue! She could feel it slithering in and out between her legs, dampening the crotch of her panties (or were they already wet?), then pausing to press against her in a way that made her close her eyes and begin to pant.
Her glasses slid down her nose but she couldn’t spare a hand to adjust them—it was taking all her strength just to remain standing…
So there was little she could do when she felt her panties being slowly lowered…then allowed to fall in a heap around her ankles…
…When she felt first one foot then the other being raised and her panties removed entirely…
…When she felt him stand up… then raise one of her arms like a toll-bridge barrier and walk past her.
Her eyes snapped open.
He was walking back to his own stall.
And dangling casually from his right forefinger were her panties.
Mortified, she lunged for them… but the wall prevented her from getting close enough.
“Give them back!” she hissed.
Now back in his stall, he turned to face her, his expression a mockery of innocence. “Give what back?”
Lin, shaking with anger now, pointed a finger at the panties dangling from his extended forefinger. “Those!”
His expression didn’t change. “Those what?”
Lin thought about charging out of her stall and trying to grab them, but he was obviously stronger than she was—and she couldn’t bear the thought of the humiliation that would ensue if she made a scene.
She huffed out a frustrated breath then, continuing to point, stage-whispered, “My panties!”
Jack raised an eyebrow and cupped his free hand to his ear. “What? I can’t hear you.”
The bastard! He was deliberately humiliating her.
…And in the back of her mind Lin knew exactly why.
She glanced around to make sure there was still no one within earshot, grasped the wall with both hands and said, enunciated as clearly as she could through her clenched teeth.
“My. Panties.”
A look of mock-comprehension crossed his face and he smiled at her. “Ohhhh… are these your panties?”
He held them up in front of her face with both hands, just out of her reach.
Jesus, he was holding them up in full view. She stared at the dark stain in the crotch and her mouth went dry,
But she knew what he wanted. “Yes,” she replied, her voice husky in her suddenly parched throat. “Those are my panties. Now will you please…”
“Are you sure?” he asked, his gaze now boring into hers. “Do your panties have a big wet spot right here?”
He draped them over one hand, grasped the crotch in the other and began rubbing his thumb over the wet spot. His eyes never left hers.
Lin wanted to weep with humiliation, but she refused to let him see it.
“Yes,” she managed to say, though her lips were beginning to tremble. “My p-panties…” She drew a shuddering breath. “…have a big …w-w-wet ssspot… right th-there.”
She held out her hand, begging. “May I p-please have them back?”
He stared at her for a moment, considering. Lin felt ready to collapse to the floor.
Then he seemed to notice something out of the corner of his eye and said, “Not just yet. See me outside.”
And with that, to Lin’s dismay, he stuffed her panties down the front of his jeans, indicating with a sideways tilt of his head that she should look in front of her.
Lin turned and saw the floor manager coming toward them. That’s right, she remembered, it was closing time. She saw with relief that he was still too far away to have noticed any of what had just happened.
She quickly smoothed down her dress, feeling very vulnerable without her panties.
When the floor manager arrived Jack said, “Mind if I cash out first? I have an appointment I need to get to.”
The meaning of his tiny smile was not lost on Lin.
After a quick glance at Lin to be sure she was alright with that, the floor manager quickly finished with Jack and let him out the back door. Then he did the same for Lin before locking the door behind her.
With her knapsack in hand Lin hurried down the stairs and out to the sidewalk. She looked all around but there was no sign of him. She wondered if by “outside” he had meant outside the door on their floor. She thought she would have seen him or that he would have said something, but decided to go back and check.
As she climbed the stairs she realized that her body was humming with tension like a drawn bow. She told herself she didn’t care about the damn panties anymore, even if they were her favorite pair. But she was going to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him.
Not really…
As Lin climbed the stairs her mind was filled with images and sensations from what had just happened: the feeling of sexual power she’d felt when she was teasing Jack; the shock when he’d suddenly ducked beneath her dress; the rough texture of his face against her belly; the rubbery feeling in her legs as he’d stroked her with his hands and tongue; the mocking smile on his face as he held up her panties and taunted her.
She was deeply confused. She was sure she had brought the situation on herself by teasing him as she had, there was no doubt about that.
What she wasn’t at all sure about was how she felt about it.
Once again she saw him holding up her panties and forcing her to say out loud that they were wet and that they were hers…
…And found herself having to stop on the stairs and close her eyes for a moment. Just to catch my breath, she told herself.
After a moment she managed to shake the image from her mind and continue upwards. But the images and feelings kept creeping back into her awareness.
Which is why she didn’t hear the footsteps behind her.
She had just reached the landing between the second and third floors when she suddenly felt a hand between her shoulder blades. And before she could react she was pushed face first into the wall and held there.
Then her dress was jerked up.
Gasping, she dropped her knapsack and put out her hands to stop it. But instead her arms got tangled in the fabric as her dress was lifted over her head…but not completely off, just up to her shoulders so that her head and arms were trapped as if inside a large cloth bag. She tried to struggle free but now the hem of the dress was being held closed above her head.
The fabric was thin enough to let some light through but she was effectively blind. What was worse though, to her mind, was the fact that since she wore no bra and Jack had taken her panties she was now completely naked and exposed from the shoulders down.
Jack! It had to be Jack. Well, this time she was going to scream, and keep screaming until someone came. She opened her mouth and sucked in her breath…
…Only to have it knocked completely out of her by a hard, stinging slap on her behind.
God, it hurt! And before she could take a breath her behind was slapped again, so hard that she fell against the wall, her breasts and stomach scraping against the cinder-blocks.
There was no air-conditioning in the stairwell and Lin was already suffocating inside the prison of her dress, the heat and pain and her fear combining to make the sweat roll down her face. Her glasses had long since fallen off and were somewhere below her chin.
There was another slap to her behind and she grunted with the pain of it and then began to whimper.
She was no longer trying to scream for help: the pain was terrible, but for Lin the humiliation was even worse. The thought of someone—she pictured the floor manager—discovering her being spanked with her dress up over her head was more than she could bear.
Another slap, so hard that she found herself standing on her toes for a moment, her breath hissing through her teeth.
Then suddenly she felt the palm of a hand running over her behind—smoothly, sensuously, first one cheek then the other—the touch cool against her burning skin.
And then through the fabric of her dress, right next to her ear: his voice. Jack’s voice.
“Red is definitely a good color for you. Too bad you can’t see it.”
It took her moment to realize what he meant. Then the picture flashed into her mind: Jack standing next to her, holding her dress closed over her head, as if she were a prize fish he’d caught in his net—while she stood there helpless, her red, naked behind on display.
She imagined she could see his handprints there, white against the red…and shivered, though she didn’t know why.
Somehow she found the courage to speak. “Let me go. Please.”
There was no reply at first; just his hand again, this time starting at the back of her neck and descending along her spine in a long, slow caress. He ended by cupping and squeezing each cheek in turn…and then probed between them for a moment with a fingertip, making her gasp out loud.
Then his voice again, his mouth so close that Lin could feel the fabric of her dress being pressed against her ear by his breath.
“Repeat after me,” was all he said.
And then he began slapping her behind again, now in a rhythm that emphasized the words he spoke:
“It’s NOT (Slap!) NICE (Slap!) to BE (Slap!) a LITTLE (Slap!) COCK-tease! (Slap!)”
Oh God, the pain! She was simultaneously weeping, moaning and performing a little pain-dance, twitching on the balls of her feet. Her behind was on fire! Oh, why didn’t he stop?
She remembered why… but just a little too late. He began again.
“It’s NOT (Slap!) NICE (Slap!) to BE (Slap!) a LITTLE (Slap!) COCK-tease! (Slap!)”
There was a slight pause, then: “IS it? (Slap!)”
The last slap was so vicious that it echoed through the stairwell and Lin had to put her hands over her mouth to muffle her scream.
Oh God, the fire was spreading, climbing up her spine and… ohhhhhh… down between her legs!
“No!” she managed to cry out. “No, it’s not nice!” The words were muffled by her dress and by her sobbing but she got them out.
There was an expectant pause. Lin knew Jack was standing there with his hand raised, ready to slap her again, and quickly stuttered out, “It’s n-not… nice to… to be a l-little… A little…”
Her voice failed her. She simply could not bring herself to say such a horrible, nasty phrase, a term that a well-brought up Japanese girl should even know…especially since she would be saying it about herself.
“SAY it!” he roared, and slapped her behind again… and then again. “Say it, or I’ll tie a knot in this dress and put you out on the sidewalk!”
He had found her weak point. She suddenly saw herself out on the sidewalk, staggering around blindly in the late afternoon sunlight, strangers staring and pointing at her nakedness…
“Cuh… c-c-cuh… c-cock… t-tease,” she whimpered.
She wanted to sink into the floor.
She also, she realized to her horror, desperately wanted Jack to touch her again, the way he had before.
His voice, again at her ear, but this time strangely gentle: “Again. What are you?”
Inside her dress she used her hands to wipe the tears and sweat and smeared make-up off her face, then replied, her lips trembling,
“I’m a… li-little…”
Oh God, her throat was so dry! “I’m a li-little…”
She suddenly buried her face in her hands and sobbed, “Cock-tease! I’m… I’m a little cock-tease!”
And to her shock she suddenly found the heat in her loins beginning to build into a raging fire. Unable to stop herself she raised her head and began to speak, getting louder as she went on. “I’m a… little… cock-tease! I’m a little cock-tease! A dirty, nasty, f-f-filthy… COCK-TEASE! Ohhhh… GOD!”
At that moment the heat inside her suddenly became liquid and seemed to burst out of every pore, and she found herself melting… deliciously. She slumped against the wall, her knees sagging. She would have slid entirely out of her dress and fallen to the floor had Jack not circled her waist with his arm and held her up.
Ohhh… she had never felt anything like it in her life! It was as if everything that had happened—the pain and heat, the humiliation and fear, and her eventual surrender to all of it—had somehow combined to give her such an incredible sensation of pleasure that she had nearly fainted.
Slowly, almost reluctantly, she returned to her senses and forced herself to stand upright, though she swayed for a moment as she did so. Jack’s arm was still around her waist and she enjoyed the feeling of his strength as he held her to him.
She had no idea what had just happened… but she was sure Jack did.
“Turn around.” His voice was again gentle.
Lin did as she was told, turning slowly in place with little shuffling steps. She expected to feel ashamed again at having to display herself to him… but found that she did not.
She wanted Jack to look at her.
More than that, she wanted to see him looking at her.
She got the first part of her wish immediately. Jack let her stand there, still trapped inside her dress, for a long moment, and though he said nothing Lin could feel his gaze on her, and she wished her body was more voluptuous and pleasing.
Then… ohhhh… his hand, flat against her belly, moving slowly downward… turning slightly to comb through the nest of curly hair… probing gently between her legs…
Oh! She was shocked to discover how much moisture was there…she felt it coating his fingers as they slid along her lips… Mmmm… it felt wonderful.
And then his hand was gone.
And suddenly her dress fell away from around her head and settled into place, her glasses falling to the floor with a clatter. Even the dim light of the stairwell blinded her for a moment and she blinked several times before focusing on Jack…
…Who was standing in front of her with his hand raised, the fingers glistening with her moisture. And before she could speak he reached forward and touched them to her lips, gently, as if transferring a kiss. And somehow even though Lin was now covered by her dress this simple act felt more intimate than anything else that had happened.
She hesitated… then, scarcely knowing why, she kissed his fingertips where they were touching her mouth.
And suddenly she knew what he wanted her to do next. Looking into his eyes, she reached up and took his hand in hers, opened her mouth and began to lick his fingers clean, taking them into her mouth one at a time until she was done.
As did so she was thrilled to see him close his eyes for a moment and let a small groan of pleasure escape his lips.
In that instant a tiny sense of the power she had felt earlier that day began to return to her. Still holding onto his hand, she leaned forward, looked directly into his eyes and said, softly but distinctly, “I’m sorry for being such a little… cock… tease.”
She was delighted to see that knowing look return to his face—though it also made her shiver again slightly. She had no idea how he would react…
…But she certainly had not expected that he would disengage his hand from hers and run his fingers through her sweat-soaked hair, adding his other hand to gently straighten out the wild disarray into which it had fallen. Or that he would cup the sides of her face and delicately massage her temples with his thumbs.
But it felt wonderful, and she leaned into it and would have purred if she’d known how. She looked up into his eyes, allowing herself to simply rest in their blue depths.
So when he said quietly, “Would you like your panties back now?” she was slightly taken aback. Yes, getting her panties back was the reason she had come up here in the first place, but now…
Getting her panties back would mean that it—whatever this was—would be over. Finished. They would go their separate ways… and then tomorrow? Would he expect her to pretend it had all never happened? Would he even be there?
She backed away from his hands and looked down. She could think of no reason to postpone the inevitable… or even why she should want to, really.
She raised her eyes to his, about to assent… and then she noticed that look again, that slightly mocking expression that told her he knew everything she was thinking.
And for some reason this gave her hope, though she had no idea why–or even for what.
So she met his expression with a bold look of her own and, remembering the way he had made her speak in the store, said very clearly, “Yes. I want my panties.”
His smile widened into a grin—and Lin knew she had been right.
“Well,” he said, holding her gaze, “You know where they are.”
She had forgotten. Inadvertently her gaze dropped to the front of his jeans, taking in the bulge there, then just as quickly jumped back up to his face.
Oh my. Did he really think she was going to…
Well, yes, obviously he did.
No. This time he was wrong, she thought. Kissing and licking his fingers had been wanton, but everything else that had happened had been out of her control, she told herself. She was a good girl. There was no way she was going to put her hand down inside his pants.
Except for one thing, she suddenly realized.
She really, really wanted to.
But just long enough to retrieve her panties, she told herself, that’s all.
She stepped closer to Jack, met his smile with a somewhat forced one of her own, then slowly placed her hand against his stomach just as he had done to her.
His shirt was damp with sweat and vaguely sticky to the touch. And when Lin turned her hand downward and attempted to slide it beneath the waistband of his jeans, she found they were so tight that she could only get as far as the knuckles at the base of her fingers.
She heard Jack give a grunt of amusement before taking a deep breath and sucking in his stomach. Her hand slipped inside so suddenly she found herself cupping his erection through his underwear.
They both gasped and Lin quickly moved her hand to one side before continuing to probe downwards.
Her fingers found the edge of a soft clump of fabric that she assumed were her panties. But she quickly realized that they were inside his underwear.
Which Jack had known all along, of course.
Fine, she thought.
She hooked two fingers of her free hand into the waistband of his pants, stretched it out as far she could, then removed her other hand and immediately plunged it beneath the waistband of his underwear—being careful this time to keep to one side.
She only wanted her panties, after all.
Nevertheless the side of her hand brushed against him there, and then her fingertips encountered a snarl of wiry hairs and then something warm and smooth which she thought for an instant was the fabric of her panties but quickly realized was not and she recoiled slightly. But she understood that her panties would have to be somewhere below so she forced her hand even further, so far down that her arm was now more than half-way up to the elbow inside his pants.
There they were: her fingers touched satin, all crumpled up in the crotch of his underwear. She snagged her panties with her fingertips and pulled upwards…
…Only to be stopped when Jack seized her arm with one hand and then placed his other hand over hers through his pants.
Thank goodness, thought Lin—though she had no idea why. And her capacity for thinking about it—or about anything, for that matter—was severely diminished when she felt her hand, and the satin fabric it was holding, pressed firmly against his erection… and then wrapped around it… and then slowly moved up and down… as he continued to stare directly into her eyes.
Oh God, he’s making me stroke his… his cock with my panties!
Lin thought she might swoon with excitement; the sheer boldness of what she was doing, coupled with incredibly sensual feel of warm satin sliding over the blunt form of his erection filling her hand, was making her dizzy.
She should not be allowing this to happen, she told herself firmly. She should remove her hand and her panties right this second. She should put her panties back on, straighten her clothing and leave. She should…
She suddenly leaned forward and kissed him.
Her mouth opened under his, and she moaned as she felt his tongue begin to explore her mouth. She felt his hands loosen their grip on her arm and rise to grip her shoulders. She was free to remove her hand…
…But she continued to stroke him, reveling in her complete surrender to the erotic spell they were now weaving together.
Jack was making small ‘Mmm’ noises of pleasure as their tongues continued to intertwine, and Lin suddenly noticed that she was, too. She found herself wishing that she knew better how to please him. Even without his hands on her arm she was finding it very difficult to stroke him smoothly, hampered as she was by his jeans. But the only way to improve the situation would be to…
No. She had gone too far already, she couldn’t possibly…
She did.
She broke off their kiss and stepped back, simultaneously pulling her panties free of his pants like a magician pulling a handkerchief out of a hat.
Not daring to look at him she sank to her knees and quickly unfastened and unzipped his pants. She resolutely refused to think about what she was doing as she lowered his pants and then his underwear to his knees…
But suddenly there it was: his cock, bobbing in front of her face. Ohhh… So strangely shaped, so oddly beautiful.
She risked a glance up at Jack’s face and then quickly lowered her gaze again. She unfolded her panties and held them up in the palms of her hands for a moment, like an offering, before wrapping them gently around his shaft.
She began stroking him again, slowly, delicately, as if polishing an extremely fragile ivory sculpture. The satin was such a pleasure to her hand. She slipped her free hand between his legs and cupped him there, using the heel of her palm to apply gentle pressure in rhythm with the upward and downward movement of her strokes.
She stole a glance upward and saw that he was standing with his mouth hanging open and his eyes closed, his expression suffused with pleasure. His hips were rocking gently in synchronization with her strokes.
Lin found herself becoming aroused again by his arousal. Plus there was something she found incredibly sexy about the fact that she was stroking him with her panties; the way the purplish head of his cock appeared and disappeared in her panties excited her.
She wanted to kiss him again and feel his tongue in her mouth, but she didn’t want to break the spell of her rhythm. So she did the next best thing: she leaned forward and, without missing a stroke, kissed the very tip of his cock.
Oh God, she couldn’t believe she was behaving this way! Kneeling in front of this man she hardly knew, stroking him and now kissing him there like a little…
Slut.
The word appeared in her mind like a red neon sign being switched on and for an instant Lin became the person she had been yesterday: the obedient, virginal daughter of conservative parents. She looked at herself through those eyes, and was shocked at how far she had fallen in such a short time.
If her parents ever found out, Lin knew, they would disown her.
Again she considered stopping. Then she shrugged inwardly.
To hell with it, she thought. This has nothing to do with them. This is for me.
Then she leaned forward and kissed Jack’s cock again as she continued to stoke him with her panties.
But this time, remembering the feel of his tongue, she allowed her lips to open and little by little she took as much of him into her mouth as she could.
Jack groaned out loud—and Lin knew without looking that it was a groan of pleasure. She continued to hold him with her mouth and allowed her tongue to taste… then lick… and then swirl playfully around the head… and was delighted when Jack groaned again and, placing his hands on her head, began stroking her hair.
The word ‘slut’ still glowed in her mind… and Lin found herself wanting to say it out loud, the way she had said ‘cock-tease’. That would be so exciting…
But I can’t, she thought, beginning to bob her head up and down in rhythm with her strokes, because my mouth is full of cock.
Ohhhh! Once again there was a rush of heat and moisture between her legs.
My mouth is full of cock. My mouth is full of cock. My mouth is full of cock…
Suddenly all of the rhythms—her thoughts, her mouth, her hands, even his groans—fell together and Lin found herself completely in their power. She was on board a runaway train, and it was moving faster… faster…
She heard a second voice beginning to moan and it took her a moment to realize that it was hers. Oh God, she was going to… going to…
Her entire body convulsed for a moment—and then once again that sweet, overwhelming sensation of melting from the inside out…
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh….
Suddenly she felt Jack’s hands gripping her head and his hips beginning to jerk convulsively. Thinking that perhaps she was hurting him with speed and pressure of her strokes Lin stopped everything and raised her head to look at him…
Only to see his eyes snap open and stare down at her, and hear him gasp, “Jesus, no! Oh God, don’t stop! For chrissakes… please!”
Quickly Lin resumed stroking him with her hands…but before she could take him back into her mouth Jack gave a strangled cry and to Lin’s astonishment something white and pungent began spurting from the tip of his cock. It rained down over her hands and panties and again for a moment Lin thought she had hurt him somehow.
But then she looked up and saw the blissful expression on his face and she realized that he was feeling something similar to the exquisite pleasure she had just experienced for the second time; even now she was still quivering like a tuning fork.
She continued to stroke him and hurriedly reapplied her mouth to the head of his cock, holding it gently with her lips as she licked him clean, savoring the salt-sour taste as she coaxed a few last spurts from him with her tongue.
When she felt Jack begin to subside Lin sat back and gently removed her panties from around his cock. There were small wet stains all over them. They were ruined, probably, but Lin didn’t care.
In fact, she planned to wear them home just like that. She had a sudden picture of herself riding the subway, dressed in the conservative office clothes she’d brought along but underneath it all wearing those red satin panties, still wet with his juices.
Mmmmm.
Suddenly she remembered Jack and glanced up at him,
And saw him looking down at her with a tenderness in his eyes that she had never seen before.
She stood, slowly.
She held out her panties with both hands, showing him the stains he had put there.
She smiled and said, “Red is a good color for you.”
Then she put her arms around his neck and kissed him.