Degrees of Separation

I was sitting in the hotel lobby. The couch was comfy enough, even if it was a little close to the waffle bar. I guess that's what I get for going cheap. The hotel rooms were nice enough, with prompt maid service. The pool area was great. The itinerary said there was a hot tub, though I hadn't seen it. I was particularly fond of the conference room.

Only a few moments ago, I had hung up the phone on my client; happily for a change. He was finally starting to listen. Perhaps I was communicating better. I didn't know. I didn't care. I just typed a few things into my laptop, preparing for our meeting later that day.

Absently, I reached for my paper coffee cup and frowned when it was empty. The coffee was good. For hotel coffee, it was beyond good.

Walking to the coffee bar, which shared a common space with the waffle bar, I took the opportunity to stretch. When I stretch, I take up some space. I twist a little. I look around. And I saw a familiar couple standing at the reception desk with a collection of suitcases. Dani and Scott were checking out of the hotel.

Neither was looking at me. I didn't expect Scott to pay me any mind, but I felt a twinge of absurd disappointment that Dani didn't glance my way. It was silly and insecure of me to expect she would. Did I truly think she would stop by and say, "By the way, you were the best voyeur I've ever had."?

They shared a laugh, a kiss and cuddle only lovers do. Scott gathered up the luggage and walked out the front door while Dani turned and walked my way. Wait. What? I felt my face heat up and my brain shrink inside of my skull. I leaned against the coffee bar trying to play cool, but I was an inexplicable tower of nerves.

She skillfully ignored me while I was a social klutz of pretending to ignore her. Stupidly I stood there drinking my hotel coffee. She poured her own cup, and turned to me casually while stirring her brew. "Not going to say 'hello' to a girl?"

"Hello," I said stupidly.

"Yesterday was ... interesting."

"Yeah," I chuckled, finally relaxing. "What was that?"

"I would think that was obvious. I'm Danielle. You can call me Dani, as you prefer."

"I think that you prefer Dani," I observed with a grin.

She kept on stirring that coffee. I was fixated on the straw going round and round obsessively in the paper cup and when I looked back up to her face, she was giving me the raised eyebrow of expectation. I was missing something. She rolled her green eyes.

"Me. Dani."

"Oh," I was such an idiot. "My name is Scott," I said with a grin.

She raised an eyebrow, sniffing the lie. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Scott," she said with a great deal of emphasis on my pseudonym. "The real Scott and I are checking out today. He's hitting the train home and I'm ... well I'm not ready to go home, yet. Dinner tonight?"

I was silent a half a second. Silence with my cool blue eyes was my favorite stalling trick while my head screamed at me on five different levels. Finally I gave up being Mr. Suave and just spit it out. "I'm here on business. I ... I have a wife." God, what was with the high school awkwardness?

Dani chuckled. "Yeah. I'm here with somebody else, too. But I still eat."

"Okay," I smiled. "It looks like we're on the same page. I would love to have your company for dinner."

"Perfect. I'll meet you here at six?"

"Six is great."

"Six," she confirmed and tossed her full cup of coffee into the trash and sauntered off. She looked back at me quickly, catching me once again admiring her ass.

"Staying another night," I asked as we sat down to dinner at the place across from the hotel.

"At the hotel? No. I'm all checked out. I don't live ... that far from here. I'll just drive home after. Like I said, I just wasn't ready to go home, yet."

This led me to believe that she too was married, and not to Scott. At the same time, the way she covered herself up yesterday in the room said she wasn't all that easy. But here I was. Having dinner with her. What were her intentions? And what were mine, come to think of it?

We ordered.

"So, the elephant in the room," I smirked.

Dani blushed, looked down at her drink and back up to me. Down again and finally up. She locked her brown eyes on to mine. Brown? They were green, before; I was sure of it.

"What was I doing in the conference room," she inquired.

"Yeah. That's the elephant."

She rested her chin on both of her hands and smiled at me. She was teasing me with her delay, and she knew it. "Alright, that was a mistake."

"Apparently," I laughed.

"Scott ... the other Scott ... had pushed me in there. And you know it was exciting. It was a thrill. I was about to lock the door when he said he had to use the bathroom. So, he left and I waited. And I thought he would be right back. And he was right back. You just got there sooner."

"I'm so sorry for that," I said as sincerely as I could.

"Yeah. It certainly was one of my more foolish moments, lately."

"We're all fools, sometimes." Hell, I knew I was.

"So, with that out of the way," I said, instantly flashing back in my mind to all that I had saw yesterday. Dani in her naked glory. Dani making love. Dani in the throes of passion. "Let's get to the business of just having a nice dinner."

"Here's to that," she smiled. You could see her shoulders relax.

"Oh," I asked. "I thought your eyes were green."

Did I detect a flicker of annoyance? I think she wanted a little less prying and a lot more casual. There's something that I take to be self-evident. If a woman is into a man, she will laugh at all of his bad jokes. And blush when he notices something about her. Not scorn in annoyance.

"Contacts," she said. "I have colored contacts I wear sometimes. Brown is my natural color."

"You can always be natural with me," I said. What? Why would I say that? That was a little too mushy for a woman whom I didn't know who spent her weekend with another man. That was a pick up line. She didn't need that, and I didn't need to start handing them out.

"In that case, you'll be glad to know that my breasts are very real."

We both laughed, and from then on, there was no tension between Dani and myself. We were still laughing when the waitress returned with our diner food. As she sat our plates down, I took advantage of the time to recall how naturally Dani's breasts were as she fucked her young stud the day before. They had an easy bounce. They had a fullness that begged for my touch. A nipple that wanted to be bitten. Did she like her breasts mauled as much as I would have loved to maul them? Or was she the type of woman that pushed you off her breasts after too much attention.

"Enjoy your food," the waitress pulled me from my mind.

And we ate. We talked. We laughed. We never went back to talking about Scott that night. We didn't talk about the conference room. It was a good dinner. I realized that I was the nice guy, even if just for that night. I didn't really mind, either. If anything, I relaxed as I stopped trying to play the game of seduction with her. It also made my wedding band feel considerably less constraining.

My consultant contract began to go smoothly for a change, and this in turn extended my business trip significantly. In that time, during the week, Dani would meet me for dinner two or three times a week. Sometimes she had her wedding ring on her finger, sometimes she didn't.

Our conversations were easy and fluid, both of us doing the other the honor of not bringing up spouses, affairs or anything in between. I was absolutely sure that nothing was going to happen between us, but I was nevertheless appreciative of our budding platonic relationship. It was a tremendous relief from the grind at the end of the day, and I looked forward to dinners with Dani more and more.

On the weekends, Dani checked into the hotel with Scott. We dutifully ignored each other. I plodded through my work, and she danced through her adventure.

I pretended to be careful whenever I entered a discreet part of the hotel, should I walk into the two lovers again. Once, I even fancied they would be on my bed fucking as I opened the door. Absurd, but my cock got hard, anyway.

I was masturbating a lot while at the hotel; even more so on the weekend. Dani was the primary benefactor of my fantasies, though I tried to sneak one in of my wife now and then. Sometimes, with my hand on my cock, I thought about slamming into her pussy hard from behind, owning her as she steadied herself with her hands against some nearby wall. I couldn't get enough of her tits in this fantasy.

Other times, and with a more gentle stroke, I was a more considerate lover. At these times I would look into her eyes. Sometimes they were brown. Sometimes they were green. They were always inviting; luring eyes that pulled me in for a deep, soulful kiss as we fucked gloriously.

Most of the time, the times when my cock was the hardest, I didn't bother with fantasy and focused on the memory in the conference room. I will never forget how her breasts seemed to float up and down when she rides cock. I will never forget how her lips parted as she dealt with a rushing orgasm. And the way she sounds when she groans. "Oh, God. Oh, fuck. Cum with me. Fuck me."

I made it habit to be in the lobby in the morning when I thought they would check out. Even two lovers in the midst of sexual adventure develop some sort of routine. They pay. They kiss. Scott walks out with the bags. Dani pretends to get some coffee. We make plans for dinner.

It was a bit different today.

"Scott and I found a hot tub, here," she smirked while biting her lip. "Do you have a bathing suit?"

"Six," I asked.

"Six is great."

At six o clock, I was so tense with nerves that I couldn't wait to ease into the hot, bubbling water of the hotel hot tub. Dani and I stripped down to our bathing suits. I imagined that she was putting on a show for me when she peeled off her over shirt.

Her tummy was slim and shapely. The squint of her belly button told me she was sucking it in a little bit, but I was willing to bet she didn't need to. Dani lifted her shirt higher, and she paused just as the lower weight of her breasts came into view. I could begin to make out the sky blue bikini she was wearing when we first met. Briefly, her thumbs traced the outline of her breasts where they met the bikini. My cock stiffened as I imagined her pulling the bikini top off with her shirt. Finally, she lifted her arms up to remove her shift, the bikini safely guarding the tits I had fantasized cumming on. Her eyes were closed as she kept her hands in the air long enough to shake out her dark hair. Did she know she was begging me to hoist her up in my arms and impale her on my cock?

It was my turn to strip down while Dani eased herself into the water. I didn't bother to return the tease to Dani. If she was paying attention to me when I took off my own shirt, she didn't show it. I was in good shape. My shoulders, chest and biceps pronounced that I worked out, or at least used to. Yeah, my abs were pudgier than I would like, but I wasn't a walking embarrassment.

A moment later, we were both eased into the hot tub. We were close enough for our legs to touch if we stretched out just right. Far enough away for me to know that we were still in the so called Friend Zone. I still don't know why, but for the first time since our first dinner, Dani wanted to talk about Scott.

"I let him fuck me without a condom."

I don't know if I blinked excessively or if my eyes popped out beyond my nose. "Huh?"

"Not this weekend," she was looking at her knees more than at me. "It was the first weekend we got together. We just got carried away."

I was starting to regain the composure that I felt I was famous for. She wanted to tell a story. I was going to hear it. It wasn't much more complicated than that.

"I was so scared, Scott." I was convinced she knew my name wasn't Scott, but we were both used to that name in our peculiar relationship. "What if I caught something? What if I was pregnant? I felt so lucky when ... when everything checked out okay."

"I bet."

"Some things you choose to make happen," she continued, now looking at me with searching brown eyes. "Some things you just let happen. And the things you let happen, I mean they can be amazing. But a lot of times you regret it, afterwards. Do you know?"

I said I did. I wasn't really sure I was dialed in to what she was trying to tell me, but I didn't think she did, either. Making sense of life was like that.

Dani's voice dropped an octave. "When he came in me, I felt everything. It was special. It was passionate. It was primal. And ... and it was so wrong." She bit her lips before continuing. "It was too close. I ... I know that fucking Scott is cheating on my husband. But that was the only moment that actually felt like cheating."

Actually, that made a lot of sense to me.

"And that time in the conference room," Dani laughed nervously.

It seemed like the water in the tub rose in temperature. The water, though bubbling and agitated, was essentially clear, and I hoped she didn't notice I was starting to sport some wood in my swim trunks. Fuck, looking at the way the water lapped beneath her breasts, I almost didn't care if she did see.

"That time in the conference room, I don't know why I just let that happen with you there in the other room. I don't regret it, though. I mean, I think I got lucky that you're not a creep. You actually seem like a really nice guy."

Ugh, the kiss of death.

"But Scott, he's impossibly young for it to be, I don't know, real. I like him. I like him a lot. I even like it when he looks in my eyes and tell me that he loves me. And that's okay because he's too young to know what love is, no matter how he thinks otherwise."

I didn't know where this story was going, but at that point I was hoping it was leading to a fuck. My dick was hard. I was sure her pussy was wet. It was time do what comes naturally.

"But you're not as young as he is, Scott."

And there went my boner.

"There's not that .... That ... separation. If you had come out and joined Scott and I, it would have been too much like cheating. It probably would have been hot as sin, but we couldn't have done it. You can't touch me, Scott. But I'm glad we've got to know each other. And I'm glad you got to watch."

What the fuck was I supposed to say to that? Me too? Happy to be the blue-balled freak in your closet? Shit, what was the use of getting mad now? I was married. So was she. We were getting along pretty well this whole time. Although I really wanted to, it was best not to ruin things.

While I was figuring out how to respond, and while Dani, I'm sure, was trying to read my response, the door to the hot tub room opened up, and in walked another couple. "Room for two more," asked the man.

"Absolutely," Dani smiled.

There were two good things about the intrusion of this couple. First, it interrupted the first awkward moment between Dani and I since our first dinner together. Second, to make room, Dani and I were pressed closer together. Our legs touched, and I made no effort to move mine away from her, feeling like I was getting away with something.

The four of us were making idle, polite chit chat when I became aware of Dani's leg not just touching mine, but rubbing against mine ever so slightly. All four of us were perspiring to some degree in the hot tub, but I suddenly felt like I was a far greater offender. I was hard again. Could they all tell? I wasn't sure I could tell, so how could they?

Dani was biting her lip again, looking at me shyly. She glanced down and back up at me, her lips pursed tightly. I suddenly found it very difficult to remain cool. Beneath the surface of the water, Dani was pleasuring herself.

She smiled when she realized that I knew. I even think she nodded slightly. She closed her eyes, leaned her head back and pretended to be relaxing. I knew better. I knew that while I was keeping conversation with the strangers, Dani was in her own world, her own fantasy.

The couple across from us saw a woman enjoying a hot soak. I cued in on her slightly open mouth. I noticed the tip of her tongue flicking across her lips for just a moment. How her torso was flushed more than ours. I was erotically mesmerized by the rise and fall of her chest, the way it made the water lap over her breasts. My cock throbbed when her leg would for a moment press harder into me. Fuck, this couple needed to go away.

"It's hot in here," the other woman professed before getting up and out, beginning to towel off. Thank god. "I don't know how you all handle it for so long."

"Some people just like it hot," her man answered as he too got out. Brother, you had no idea.

The pair sat on the bench for awhile, thinking that Dani and I gave a fig for what they were saying. Truthfully, I had no idea. What I knew was that with them out of the tub, Dani was working her pleasure more aggressively. Her face was a practiced serenity that belied the movement of her hand. She had started to pull her panties down or out of the way. I thought I saw her fingers pushing through her lips and into her pussy. Her feet were pushing hard into the floor of the tub.

Dani opened her eyes to slits, looking at me from beneath her eye lids. The arousal on her face was palpable. In that second, I believed I might seize her and turn her over the edge of the tub and drive my cock into her from behind.

"Ready for dinner, honey," the guy said to the gal.

And like that, the couple was gone. Dani had the presence of mind to summon a farewell for them as I politely waved. The door shut behind them. We were alone. I was pondering my next move when Dani grabbed my leg high on my thigh.

"Ohhhhhhhh, god," she let out a low moaning whisper. My engorged cock was pulsing beneath my shorts. My brain was fogged over by lust, witnessing Dani in this state of lust. "Yesssssss," she hissed, clutching my thigh.

"Yeah, Dani," I whispered, encouraging her.

"Unghh, baby," she shuttered. Dani let go, her back arching into the side of the tub. Her eyes clenched shut, and just from her leg against mine and her hand on my thigh, I could tell every muscle in her body was tense and tight. A series of grunts escaped her lips as she pushed her hand against her sex before she finally began to settle down.

I leaned against her. My hand moved from my cock to her thigh. With my other hand, I gently touched her face. I waited for her brown eyes to open to share that moment of longing in my own eyes. When they did, she reached out languidly for my body. It was possible she was pushing me away, but I didn't care.

I leaned forward. She leaned forward. We kissed.

Our lips touched gently once, twice and then three times. At once, our lips parted and pressed more into each other. Then our tongues were searching and probing for a deeper passion in a deeper kiss. There were no thoughts in my head when I nibbled on her lip and our kiss deepened. There were no thoughts when my hand lowered from her face, to her shoulder and along its way to her breast I had been dreaming about for weeks.

There were no thoughts when she broke the kiss and pulled away.

Just a moment of silence that was ripe with passion. "You're a good kisser," she whispered.

"Yeah," I answered. "So are you."

Dani exhaled and blew my mind when she slowly got out of the tub. "Scott," she said with more sobriety than I felt. "Remember what I said? That kiss, the one we just let happen, I won't regret it. But it can't happen again. I can't do that to my husband."

Did she know how fucked up that sounded? I was sure she did. Unfortunately, it all made perfect sense to me. "I know you're almost done with your job. And Scott is college bound, soon." These were things we had talked about over our dinners. "I think it's all of ours last week. And in this last week, you just can't touch me."