Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS
By Beatle_bum

“Good evening, sir, welcome onboard”.

I nodded an acknowledgment to the stewardess, glanced at the seat number on my ticket and headed down the aisle looking for row 7. Once located, I threw the paperback I had been carrying onto my seat, opened the overhead locker, put my overcoat, jacket and bag in there, and plonked myself down in the window seat.

I looked around and was glad to see the Business Class section of the plane was almost empty, although not everyone was onboard yet. This was the overnight American Airways flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to London Gatwick, a flight of 8 to 9 hours or so, depending on how strong the Gulf Stream wind was, and I hoped I wouldn’t have anyone sitting alongside me for the journey. Business Class was all very nice, but it’s a long flight and I hoped to have a vacant seat next to me so that I could stretch out when I wanted, or worse not have to disturb someone sleeping just to visit the bathroom.

Another group of passengers boarded, most of them heading for the economy seats further back, and the aircraft was filling up more than I had hoped. Still only a very few of them appeared to have Business Class tickets. I watched as one woman came down the aisle, struggling with a large weekend bag, and stopped right next to my seat. ‘Damn,’ I thought, it looked like the seat next to me was going to be occupied. She was, I guessed, in early 40’s, about 5’6”, with an attractive face topped with shoulder-length brown hair, dressed in a full-length coat. She put the bag down on the floor, took off her coat and opened the locker I’d just closed, and reached up to put her coat in it. Now divested of her coat and with her arms reaching up, I was able to appraise her more fully. Beneath the coat she was dressed in a dark-blue pin-striped business suit of jacket and mid-thigh length skirt. It didn’t look like ideal clothes for an overnight flight and I figured she had obviously come straight from the office. She now shrugged off the jacket, carefully folded it and reached up again to put it with her coat. Underneath the jacket she wore a white blouse with a feint blue pattern in it, and a simple, but expensive looking, gold necklace around her throat. I could make out the outline of a white bra underneath the blouse, and the outline of her breasts was accentuated as she reached up. They looked good, neither heavy, nor small, but (at least within the confines of her bra) nicely rounded. Coat and jacket now safely in the locker, she bent down to pick up the bag.

“Can I help you with that,” I asked her.

“Oh, please,” she said looking up, “it’s quite heavy though.”

I rose from my seat took hold of the black leather bag and after seeing that our locker was now full, opened the one behind it and hauled the bag up. As I did so I noticed the address tag attached to it. The woman’s name was Lucinda Warren, and she lived in a place I’d never heard of in Cambridgeshire.

“Thanks very much,” she said, and slipped into the seat behind mine.

I nodded an acknowledgement and slid back into my own seat. ‘Good’ I thought, ‘she’s great looking, but I liked my space.’

She must have been one of the last onboard, because a steward were sealing the outer door, and the stewardesses were coming down the aisles checking that seat-belts were secured, and helping the last of the passengers stow their luggage away. I looked around the Business Class section. It really wasn’t anywhere near as full as I had feared. There was another guy sitting in the opposite window seat to mine, but one row further forward, and a couple sitting two rows directly in front of me, but apart from them and the lady behind me, no other seat was taken. Most of those I had seen entering the plane must have headed further back to the Economy section. Mentally I applauded my company’s policy on business travel whereby Economy was the norm, but you were allowed to fly Business Class if the journey was longer than 3 hours.

It was another 20 minutes before the aircraft engines were switched on and we were pushed back from our gate. During this time we had been served a glass of orange juice and sat through the usual emergency procedures video, but now we were finally moving, the stewardesses took their seats ready for the take-off. Actually they needn’t have taken their seats yet, as it was a busy evening that night, and we had to queue behind four other planes before we were allowed to take our position at the end of the runway. Dusk had been approaching when I had boarded the aircraft, but now it was dark outside, and I watched the lights of the airport and the other craft as the cabin lights were dimmed ready for take-off. A roar of the engines and we were hurtling down the runway, and moments later I could feel the ground fall away as we took to the air. We climbed steadily through the clouds up into the night sky. It was actually lighter up here, the setting-sun visible to the east. The cabin-lights came back on, the stewardesses unbuckled themselves and set about getting things ready for the trip, although the ‘fasten seat-belt’ sign remained on for the rest of us. I flicked through the literature in the seat pocket in front and settled on the menu.

Ten minutes into the flight, the seat-belt lights were switched off as the plane levelled out into what would be its cruising altitude. I picked up my paperback and resumed where I had left off in the Departure Lounge. The book was a detective thriller, but so far had offered little in the way of thrills. It would keep me occupied for a while but wasn’t a huge diversion.

Suddenly I felt a sharp tap on my shoulder and turned round to see the woman behind smiling at me.

“Hi,” she said, “sorry to startle you, it’s just, well, I noticed we’re both flying alone, and I wondered whether you’d like some company over dinner.”

“Hmm, I’d like that,” I lied. Well lied is perhaps too strong. The novel was, as I said, less engaging then had been promised on the cover. Perhaps some pleasant conversation over dinner would help pass away an hour or so. “Shall I join you, or would like to come around here?” I replied.

“Whichever suits you,” she said, “I don’t have any big thing about window or aisle seats.”

“Me neither,” I said undoing my seat-buckle and sliding across and out of my row. I threw the book on to my seat as if to state that I would be returning their later, and slid into the seat next to hers. “Hi, I’m Rob, by the way, Rob Thornton.”

“And I’m…”

“Lucinda,” I interjected, “I saw the tag on your bag.”

“Well most people call me Lucy,” she replied holding out her hand.

We spent the next hour or so chatting about our various lives. I told her about the conference I had just been to, and she told me about her work as a computer consultant, and how she’d spent the previous week giving a course in Dallas. I also learned that she was married and that in their marriage the traditional roles were somewhat reversed. She was out earning the big bucks and often had to go away on business, whilst her husband Paul stayed at home and ran a small farm as well as doing the household chores of cooking, cleaning and looking after their daughter.

.Dinner was served whilst we continued our conversation, and one of the topics we talked about was how to while away the time over such a long flight. Lucy told me she always tried to get a few hours sleep, but never managed it properly and always suffered from jet-lag for a couple of days after, and I told her I played chess.

“How can you play chess on your own?” she asked. “Or do you have one of those chess computer thingys?”

“I play against a friend,” I explained. “We are in the middle of a game that’s been going on for about 5 months now. We make one move a day, sending our move by e-mail. The other one than has until 10 o’clock the following day, or the following Monday if it’s the weekend, to make the next move. That way you can take as little, or almost as long as you want, to consider the next move. I’ve got a portable set with me, and I spend some of the time in the air looking at the various possibilities.

“That’s great,” she said, “I love playing chess, but can never find someone other than Paul to play against, and although I’m not that good I usually beat him quite easily. Men generally don’t like playing against me, because they think it’s ungallant to win, and yet they hate losing to a woman.”

“Well the great thing about it is you don’t have to be facing your opponent. I haven’t seen Eric, the guy I’m playing against, for over 2 years. We used to work together but now we just correspond by e-mail. We’ve been playing like this since I left the company, and he’s currently 2-1 up. He’s a better player than me, so I like to think carefully before making any move.”

“I think that’s great,” she said.

“Well, like I say, it passes the time on long flights.” I paused for a moment. “You said that you like to play, would you like a game now? I asked, “I don’t have anything against playing a lady. I’ve got the portable chess-set with me.”

She considered it for a moment. “Well, yeah I guess I would, but aren’t you using the set for your game with Eric?”

“Don’t worry about that,” I replied “whenever we send each other the next move we attach an Excel spreadsheet showing the current position. I’ll just get the board.”

I stood up, opened the locker, and withdrew the chess set from my case.

“Oh, it’s a magnetic one, that’s clever,” she said when I’d opened the set.

“Stops the pieces falling about as the bags get thrown around.”

I placed the chess-set on the arms of the chairs between us, reset the pieces to their starting positions and invited her to make the opening move. Thirty minutes later we were absorbed in a tactical battle. The position was very equal. Apart from swapping my bishop for her knight, and trading the odd pawn, the match was very positional. The stewardess had been round a couple of times to refill our drinks, and an announcement was made over the inter-com that they would be dimming the lights so that passengers could either watch the movie or sleep.

“Do you want to carry on, or would you rather watch the movie?” I asked, switching on the overhead individual light.

“Of course I want to carry on, I’m enjoying this,” she said. “I think I’ve got the beating of you!” She reached up and switched her light on.

“Oh you do, do you? Well in that case, perhaps we ought to put a little wager on it.”

“Fine by me,” she said, “only I don’t carry much money. I pay for everything with plastic.”

I thought about it for a moment. “Well, how about, we each choose something we like from the duty-free catalogue, and the loser has to buy it for the winner?”

“OK, it’s a deal,” she said, reaching for the catalogue, “let’s put a limit of, say, $50 on it. Can you afford to spend that much?”

“I won’t have to,” I teased, “you’ll be the one flashing the plastic.

“$50 it is then,” she said leafing through the catalogue, as I reached for a similar one in the back-seat pocket in front of me.

We sat in silence for a few minutes perusing the gifts.

“Seen anything?” she asked.

I pointed to a pair of cuff-links with a small diamond in each one. “They’re nice,” she said, “OK that will be your prize if the unthinkable happens. I for my part would like this bottle of Jean-Paul Gaultier perfume,” she said, pointing to the item in the catalogue. I love the smell, and it’s such a sexy bottle, the way it’s shaped and decorated like a woman wearing a basque. I’ve always wanted a bottle of that, but felt it’s too extravagant to spend so much on myself. My husband’s got no idea when it comes to buying perfume.”

“Well don’t set your heart on it too much,” I said, “you’ll need your money for those diamond cuff-links. Now I think it’s your move.”

Lucy immediately brought out her bishop and sat back in the corner of her chair, her back to the window, half facing me. I studied the board for a few moments and advanced one of my pawns. She leant forward, made another move and leant back again, tucking her legs under her in the chair. Her position was affording me a lovely view of most of her thigh, and her skirt appeared to be riding up somewhat. I wondered if she was aware of the view I had.

We traded a few more moves and I began to get a positional advantage, and managed to capture her other knight for my pawn. The game appeared to be swinging my way.
Lucy leant forward again and after a few moments studying the board, moved one of her rooks horizontally to patrol a vertical column. Satisfied with her move she leant back further this time, the skirt riding higher still. I could clearly see dark lace at the tops of her honey-coloured ‘stay-up’ stockings, and beyond that some of the fleshiness of her inner thighs. Checking to see that she hadn’t caught me looking, I glanced at her thighs again, before looking back to the board. I moved my rook into to the same rank as hers. As I was now effectively a piece up, I was quite happy to trade like for like.

I looked up and her and, despite her casual posture, she appeared to be concentrating fully on the game. She leaned forward again, this time to move the bishop. Relaxing back against the window, her skirt rode higher still exposing for a brief second a glimpse of her purple coloured panties. It was only a glimpse, though, because a second later she put both legs on the floor and sat up a bit straighter. Damm it, I thought, I’d have liked a longer surreptitious look.

“More wine, sir?” a voice at most shoulder asked, startling me. I turned around to see a steward with a bottle of wine in his hand and an enquiring look on his face. “Sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to startle you, would you like some more wine?”

I mumbled an embarrassed yes and held out my glass.

“And for you madam?”

Lucy had a half-smile on her face and likewise held out her glass.

“Is there anything else I can get you?” he asked. “I won’t be coming round again until the movie has finished, but if you need anything or your glasses freshened, just press the buzzer.”

“Could you get me a blanket please,” Lucy asked the steward.

“Of course, madam, I’ll bring you one shortly”

We turned our minds back to the game. I spent a good three or four minutes analysing the position before making my next move. If I could entice her to prod her king’s bishop’s pawn forward one square, I could pin her rook and queen with my bishop. I moved my knight forward as bait. As I’d hoped she went for it, moving her pawn forward. The steward returned with the blanket for Lucy, which she stored under her seat, but I scarcely noticed as I checked the board to make sure my strategy was correct. It looked good, I was about to win another piece, and moved my bishop into position. Lucy didn’t notice, she moved the rook out of harms way leaving her queen exposed. With a flourish I removed her queen and replaced it with my bishop.

“Shit,” she said, “that was careless of me. I guess I’m not going home with any perfume.”

“Forget it,” I said, “I wasn’t really going to take you up on the bet.”

“What do you mean, forget it? If you win you’ll get your cuff-links, but you haven’t won yet. And, by the way, I hate phoney gallantry. I get enough of that crap at work. A bet’s a bet, and I’ll buy those damn cuff-links if you do win, and you’ll be buying that perfume if I do.”

“Sorry, I thought you’d resigned.”

“I never resign,” she said, “and I hate it when people do. Chess is a civilised version of war, and part of that war should be the victor getting his spoils at the end, namely the ritual killing of the king. Now, my move I think.” With that she took my knight with her pawn and, now that the steward had gone, arranged herself sideways again in her chair facing the board. Only this time she brought just her right leg up giving me again an ample view of her thighs and stocking tops.

We traded some more moves, and a few pieces, and after each of hers she leant back further into the corner of her seat, the skirt creeping further up with each motion, her legs parting further each time. After a few moves I didn’t so much as glimpse her panties, I could now clearly see the purple satin material between the tops of her legs, and equally clearly this was no accident. Lucy was trying to put me off my concentration. We were now down to the end-game, Lucy with just a king, a rook and a couple of pawns, whereas I still had my queen, rook, and a knight, as well as the king. All I had to do was just finish the job off. I studied the board carefully, my eyes occasionally flicking up to peek at the panties.

“Come on,” she said, “You’re taking your time over your move.”

“Just concentrating,” I murmured.

“And what exactly are your eyes concentrating on?”

I looked up and there was a twinkle in her eyes. “Just visualising the next position are you?” she asked, with a hint of laughter in her voice.

“Just trying to figure out how best to mate you,” I responded dead-pan. I looked down at the board and moved my queen. Her hand stole out and made a move, but this time when she withdrew it, instead of draping it on her leg she rested it on the crotch of her panties.

‘Concentrate’, I thought, ‘Ignore those panties and look at the board.’ I stared down again but at the top of my line of vision I could make out some slight movements of her hand. I glanced slightly up. ‘Damn it, she’s stroking herself’ I thought. Now I didn’t want the game to finish, I wanted it to carry on as long as possible, to see how far she would go to try and distract me. I made a pointless move with my rook.

Lucy, her fingers still absent-mindedly tracing the line of her cunt, was looking intently at the board. She reached out with her other hand and moved her rook.

“Check!” she said.

I glanced down and moved my king. She reached forward and moved the rook again.

“Check!” she announced again.

I looked down and then the horror struck me. All I could do was move the king back to where it had been, where she would just check me again. Lucy couldn’t win the game, but she had forced a stalemate. I looked up to see her grinning. “Seems you won’t get to mate me after all,” she said, that mischievous twinkle back in her eye.

“You played very well,” I responded, “using all the weapons at your disposal.” I paused for a moment “If it is not too gallant for you, I would like to buy you that Jean-Paul Gaultier perfume, you deserve it for the way you played.”

“Rob, that’s very sweet of you, and I do like real gallantry. But I will only agree so long as you let me buy you the cuff-links.”

I considered this for a moment. “Actually, Lucy, I don’t want them anymore. I’d like something else please” I paused, “I’d like your panties!”

She blinked. “My panties! My God, you’re one of those pervs who pinches underwear from washing-lines.”

“No,” I laughed, “it’s just, you’ve been flashing them at me for the last hour or so, it would make an appropriate trophy.”

She laughed.“Won’t people in your office wonder why you’ve got a pair of panties round your wrists?”

“No they’re not for me to wear, silly, either round my wrists or round my waist, I would just, er, keep them in my underwear draw at home as a reminder of a delightful plane-trip…, not that I would need a reminder.”

“OK, they’re yours” she said after considering it for a moment, “but, if you want them, you’ll have to remove them!” With that she picked up the blanket from the floor, switched off both overhead lights, and spread the blanket over herself. I meanwhile packed the chess-set away into the back of the seat in front, and lifted the two arms-rests between our seats. Lucy sidled her way towards me so that she was leaning against me, but facing away, and I turned in my seat further towards her.