Chapter 1

Maria glanced at the red and black silk basque in the window of the lingerie shop and knew she had to do something. She and Rob had been together for two years, but their relationship was getting stale. Since he'd moved into her flat 8 months ago, the fun had stopped. No more intimate meals for two, no more clubbing until the small hours, no more hand-holding in the supermarket. Even the lovemaking had stopped. She couldn't remember the last night of passion they'd spent together.

Rob spent most of his evenings tapping away upstairs on his pc. When she asked him what he was doing, he'd say he was tidying up some report or other for work, or that he was playing on-line poker. She knew Rob worked hard — you don't get to be a successful lawyer at the age of 27 unless you put the hours in — but she expected him to give some of his time to her. She was feeling neglected.

Maria stopped in front of the lingerie shop window and gazed at the displays. The shop mannequins, both male and female, were bedecked in red and black underwear of all shapes, sizes and textures. Red roses and boxes of chocolates completed the sensual scene.

'That's it!' Maria thought to herself. 'Valentines day — how could I forget?'

It was 10th February and many of the shops on the Pennington Road were valentine-themed. The lingerie shop stood next door to the opticians, with a selection of trendy frames suspended on wires next to dangling foot-high cardboard red hearts. The chocolatiers further along displayed a selection of rich truffles, pralines and crèmes arranged on heart-shaped red silk cushions. Even the chemist had a big poster in the window inviting customers to 'keep your heart healthy this valentine's day — get your blood pressure checked.'

While Maria gazed at the lingerie shop display, she felt herself becoming increasingly self-conscious. Here she was, a young woman standing alone on a busy shopping street, gazing wistfully at the erotic underwear on show. Blushing slightly, she felt a heady rush of excitement.

'Why not?' she said to herself. 'Why shouldn't I wear this stuff? I'm a woman aren't I? Damn it!'

And she pushed open the shop door.

The first thing that she noticed was the warmth of the shop. It had been a very cold February, with most days hardly creeping above 5 degrees, so she was pleased to be enveloped in a blanket of warm air.

She looked around her and let her eyes become accustomed to the subdued lighting in the shop. The first thing she saw was a large, metal display shelf with all sorts of vibrators lined up. She flushed as she realised what she was looking at and turned to look in the opposite direction.

A mannequin wearing a pvc cat suit stood in one corner, it's face covered by a leather mask. She looked to the side of this and saw row upon row of female underwear. Pink thongs and green lacy bras, red satin shorts and black pvc basques, orange babydolls and magenta suspenders. The colours took her breath away as she stood and took in the sight and, and... the smell.

She realised there was a very heavy, musky, sensual aroma in the shop. It reminded her of something but she couldn't quite remember what. It was a bit like patchouli, but then maybe more like a musky perfume. Or ylang ylang, it smelt a bit like that.

'Oriental love nectar — our best selling aphrodisiac incense'

Maria started at the voice that seemed to be whispering in her ear. She quickly turned around and found herself looking straight into the eyes of a rather good looking, if a bit hippyish, man. His dark, wavy hair reached his collar and he had at least two day's growth of beard.

Maria could not stop from staring in his piercing eyes. They were a bright blue — bluer than she though eyes should be — certainly bluer than somebody with such dark hair should have.

The man smiled, revealing perfect white teeth, and held out his hand to her.

'I'm Leo, the manager. Pleased to meet you'

Maria took his hand in hers and realised how soft and warm his hand was. She felt him squeeze her hand every so slightly as he gently shook it, then he stood there holding her hand, smiling at her. Eventually he let go of her hand and instead ran his fingers down slowly down a deep crimson velvet basque which hung on a rail beside him.

'This' he said with emphasis 'would suit you'.

He lifted the hanger from the rail, held it out at arms length and appraised it with his eyes. He then looked to Maria and smiled warmly.

'Perfect for you'.

Maria swallowed loudly and looked at the Basque. It was beautiful. It was mainly made of velvet, but a panel in the front was sheer mesh, which would obviously allow the breasts to show through to some extent.

'Why not try it on?'

'I'm, er, I'm here to get something for my boyfriend' Maria stuttered, at once cursing herself for mentioning that she had a boyfriend.

'Oh, something for him, eh?' Leo said and raised his eyebrows with a slightly mocking and flirtatious air, as if he didn't quite believe her or was challenging her.

'Well, what sort of thing are you looking for for your, erm, boyfriend?' he asked, sweeping his arm in a wide arc around the shop.

'Something directly for him? Like a thong? Or maybe a butt plug? Or something indirectly, like that lovely basque for him to enjoy on you?'

'I, I was thinking more about a book, or a video or something' she stammered, feeling very self-conscious and uncomfortable to be talking about such an intimate area of her life with a complete stranger.

'Books, videos! My dear, you have come to the right place' Leo called over his shoulder as he moved to the back of the shop and pushed aside a heavy russet damask curtain. Maria could see past his body into the room at the back of the shop. It contained floor to ceiling bookshelves covered with every kind of magazine, book, video, DVD and CD. She moved forward into the room as Leo stood aside to let her through, his arm keeping back the heavy curtain.

Once she was in the room, he moved in after her, and let the curtain fall back across the doorway with a theatrical sweep.

'and what sort of thing is he interested in?'

'Just, er, general stuff' Maria absently replied, looking around the displays with her lips slightly parted. She still felt scared to be alone with this man, but could also feel herself getting a little bit excited. She became very aware of her body as she moved around the shelves, occasionally lifting a hand up to stroke the cover of a video box, or to move a magazine slightly so that she could see what it contained.

The array of bodies was overwhelming to her. She'd never really paid any attention to pornography before. She'd had a younger brother who used to stash away men's magazines, but they were very tame — Playboy or Hustler. Pretty young girls showing their breasts and maybe a candid shot of their pussies. But this was much more explicit and Maria felt initially repelled, yet attracted and excited at the same time.

She realised Leo was tidying up the shelves on the other side of the room — probably on purpose so that she could browse alone. At that point, she heard somebody open the door into the main shop and Leo moved in response.

'Ah, another customer!' he exclaimed, drawing back the damask curtain. 'I'll leave you to browse'

Alone in the room, Maria felt even more excited. Not knowing where to start, she looked around and saw a shelf labelled 'hetero'. 'Good a place as any' she thought and made her way over. One of the magazines caught her eye. It was called 'Rodger' and had a picture on the front of a couple doggy-style, the man big, muscular and tattooed with his large cock halfway in the woman's pink pussy lips. She flicked the magazine open and saw more photos of these two models. In one, the woman was lying down on a sofa and the man was kneeling over her, his cock not only in her mouth but right down her throat. Flicking a few pages forward, she saw a different couple, this time a very dark skinned latin woman with a deep red pussy and large, brown nipples, lying over the edge of a bed and being entered by a black man with the most enormous cock she had ever seen, standing by the bed.

Maria felt her own pussy begin to tingle and start to get wet and she knew that before too long, she'd have to find somewhere for her to masturbate.

Noise from the shop brought her back to her senses. Leo was saying 'goodbye' to somebody and she heard the sounds of the till shutting.

The next thing she knew, he was back standing beside her.

'Um, Rodger. Good choice. Nice models. They do a vid as well you know — want to see it?'

Maria nodded as Leo found out the video, which had the same latin woman on the front cover. This time she was alone, lying on a bed with her legs spread wide and one of her fingers inserted into her pussy.

'I'll have them both' Maria said, stealing a smile at Leo, who was standing very close, maybe too close.

Leo took the magazine and the video through to the till in the shop and started ringing them up.

'I think you should try on the basque' he called through to Maria as she came out the back of the shop. 'Extra present for him'

Maria thought about this and realised that maybe the basque would be a good idea after all. Maybe Rob needed to see more of her sexual side. Having made her mind up, she walked across to where the basque hung and took it down. She had a look at the label and saw that it was a 8/10 and too small for her. She looked at the other basques hanging on the rail until she found an identical one in her size — 12/14. She held it up in front of herself and saw that it would not only be tight around her chest, but very low cut in front.

'The changing rooms are over there' Leo said, nodding to a curtained off area in the opposite corner of the room'.

Taking the basque with her, Maria turned towards the changing rooms.

'Hold on a minute' Leo called. 'Try these on with it' He tossed her a lacy thong in the same colour as the basque.

She caught the thong and pulled back the curtain to enter the first changing room.

She was quite surprised that it was such a big room and more like a bathroom than a changing room. It had black shiny marble tiles on the floor and mirrors on three sides. A sink, loo and bidet were lined up on one side and a pile of fluffy black towels lay on a chrome chair next to the bidet.

Maria slowly unbuttoned her black rain coat and lay it over the chrome chair. Next she took off her cotton long sleeved t-shirt and lay that down too. Pulling her t-shirt over her head, she looked down and realised that her old, loose fitting bra had ridden up over her breasts. She quickly pulled off the t-shirt and unfastened the bra at the back. That too was tossed onto the chair.

Catching sight of herself in one of the mirrored walls, she stopped a moment to admire her shape. At only 25, her 38C breasts were still very pert and full, and she knew they were one of her best features. She put her hands up to them and stroked each of them from the top, down over the nipple, and all the way underneath. She continued stroking her hands down her belly until she stopped at the waistband to her jeans. She undid the top button and pulled down the zipper. Slipping her thumbs into the top of the waistband, she pulled the jeans down over her hips and let them rest on top of her boots. She sat down on the loo to unzip her boots and then pulled off her jeans. Her socks came next and finally, she stood up and faced herself in a mirror. She smiled at herself and then slowly pulled her yellow cotton pants down over her hips and let them fall to her ankles. She smiled to herself again as she stepped out of them and picked them up, noticing they were slightly wet at the gusset.

She picked up the thong Leo had thrown to her, but hesitated before pulling it on. Her pussy was still very sticky and she didn't want to soil the thong if she wasn't going to buy it. She looked around, wondering what to do and noticed the bidet. Perfect!

She hovered over the bidet and turned it on. The jet of cold water made her squirm, but she soon got used to the sensation and started to move her hips slightly so the water squirted onto the right spot.

Thinking she'd cleaned herself enough, she grabbed one of the black fluffy towels from underneath the pile of clothes on the chrome chair and gently stroked herself dry.

She sighed as she realised the towel was so soft that it felt very, very good on her clitoris. She stood there for some time, stroking herself with the towel, until she heard Leo call from the shop.

'Are you dressed yet?'

She heard him walking closer to the changing room and she panicked.

'No, nearly. Won't be long'

She gave herself one final wipe with the towel and then pulled the thong on. It fit her perfectly, the small triangle of crimson material covering her shaven pussy and the back thong nestling gently but deeply in her arse cheeks. She admired herself in the mirror and posed first to the right and to the left, enjoying the sight.

She then picked up the basque and looked over it to see how it fastened, relieved that the hooks and eyes were at the side, not the back, where it would have been impossible for her to fasten them. She slipped it around her body and started to fasten it at the side. She felt her breasts pushed together by the strictures of the material and grew excited as she watched her cleavage swell as the basque got tighter and tighter.

Having finished, she adjusted the fit slightly and whistled to herself. How could Rob resist her in this? She looked, well, she looked very, very sexy. She admired her firm, flat stomach and the glimpses of her breasts in the sheer panel at the front of the basque. She admired the way her breasts swelled above the material and wobbled slightly as she breathed in and out. She pulled the basque down a little so that the very tops of her nipples were just visible above the material line.

'Can I see?' Leo called from outside the curtain.

'Eh, yeah, yes, hold on' she called back, pulling the basque up again to cover her nipples and adjusting the thong. She walked towards the curtain and pulled it back.

Leo drew in his breath and then let it out in a long, slow whistle.

'Man, is your boyfriend lucky or what?'

She felt his eyes moving over her body — taking in her rising and falling cleavage and the tempting glimpses of her curves through the sheer panel. His eyes moved down to her stomach and then to the smooth lines of her pubic mound and thighs.

Suddenly Leo drew back from the curtain and walked away.

'I'll ring it up for you — is it card or cash?' he called.

Maria felt disappointed. She's wasn't quite sure why, but she felt quite deflated as she stood there.

'You stupid woman' she told herself. 'It's just a sale to him. He probably flirts with everybody that comes in, just to get them to buy something.'

She felt angry with herself as she quickly took off the thong and basque and changed back into her own clothes. Grabbing the items from the chair and picking up her handbag, she made her way to the counter when Leo was standing, packing the video and magazine into a brown paper bag.

'That's £92.50' Leo said without looking up at her. Maria fumbled in her handbag and found her purse, opening it to find her Visa card.

'You want me to pack those?' Leo asked, nodding at the basque and thong she had laid on the counter.

'Ur, yes please, yes' she said, to embarrassed to look at him and all the time fiddling with her purse.

She found the card and pushed it across the counter towards him. Having completed the transaction, she punched in her pin number and felt herself colouring as they waited for the card to be accepted.

She breathed a sigh of relief once the machine churned into life and the card reader told her to remove her card.

Leo grabbed the card out of the reader before she could reach it and stood holding it out to her, smiling provocatively.

'It has been a complete pleasure' he said, winking at her.

'Thanks'

'I mean it. If you ever want anything else, you know where I am'

'Thanks' Maria stuttered, realising he was flirting with her, and quickly picked up the carrier bag and walked towards the shop door.

'Lucky, lucky boyfriend' Alex called after her and she heard him laugh gently as she closed the door behind her.

She made her way back to her flat via her local off licence, where she picked up two bottles of Pinot Grigio for that evening. She was going to cook a risotto and thought the wine would go perfectly with it. As she reached her flat, daylight was beginning to fade and she could see Rob was home by the light in his study window. He rarely went into the office on Saturdays, but spent most of the day working upstairs at home.