How Did I Get Here?

"How did I get here?" I asked myself.

Of course, the answer was easy: I'm a broke-ass idiot. When I saw an advertisement for an experimental study where each participant would be paid five-hundred dollars if they were chosen, well, I jumped on it. The initial interview and selection process was surprisingly... physical. I suppose I should have expected something like that from the Institute of Sex and Attraction, but I didn't.

There was, of course, a brief mental evaluation, but the majority of the process involved me showing off my body. I mean, I work hard on it, so I'm not terribly shy about showing it off, but usually I'm not sitting in an empty white room, fluorescent lights humming above me, with three women in white lab coats staring dispassionately at my naked body. Plus, I've never taken a nude photo before, so when they did it was a bit weird and unexpected.

I guess they liked what they saw, though, because I was selected. The second part of the process was also weird, but it was much more enjoyable for me. I was given a small binder filled with naked pictures of thirty-two women and asked to rate how attractive I considered each woman.

These women were all stunningly beautiful. At first, I just flipped from page to page, doing my best not to drool over all them all. They really did run the whole range of possibility. From busty beauties with juicy rumps to pretty little petites; barely legal babes to full-blown milfs; redheads with creamy white skin to cocoa-colored enchantresses, and everything in between. It was shocking, in retrospect, that they managed to have such a diverse group contained within those thirty-two pages.

I flipped to the second-to-last page in the binder and felt all the air rush out of my lungs. This woman was stunning. According to the stats listed on the side of the page, she was a C-cup, twenty-five years old (same as me), and just over five-feet, six-inches tall. Her hair was the bright orange of a sunset, her eyes as blue as the Caribbean Sea. Believe it or not, I legitimately spent three minutes on that page just staring into those eyes. I didn't even look at the rest of her body until I'd finished memorizing every last freckle on her face.

Of course, the rest of her was just as amazing. It had apparently been a few days since she'd last shaved, because she had a light dusting of hair above her beautiful pussy. I do personally prefer a nicely shaven pubic area, but on this beauty, it wasn't even close to a deal-breaker. It was almost endearing. Her nipples were perfect pink peaks on top of the perfect sized mounds of her breasts. I will admit, her ass was a little on the small side for my usual tastes, but just like the pubic hair, on her it just worked.

I immediately rated her a 10/10. Of course, I did my due diligence and rated all the rest of the women, but not a single one could compare to the girl on the second-to-last page. No matter what, I could not get her out of my head. Before finishing up with my ratings, I had to turn back to the page and memorize her features again. The odds of me ever meeting or seeing this woman again were extremely low, so I had to imprint this beauty on my brain as clearly as possible. She was the ideal of beauty to me, and I would remember her.

As it happened, I didn't need to worry. She and I met in person a week later, during the third and final phase of the study.

I received a call from the Institute's secretary asking if I was free to come in that night. Of course, I have no job and basically no money, so I jumped at the chance to get it all done and hasten my little payday. The secretary told me to come in at 7 o'clock. I showed up, they made sure I was okay with being here for at least twenty-four hours. It was unexpected, but they assured me food and a variety of drinks would be provided, so I agreed.

They sent me to a locker room and instructed me to get naked and lock up my belongings and take the key with me into another room. At this point, I really didn't care at all, I just wanted my money. So, I followed instructions and walked to the far side of the room and through another door.

The room beyond was surprisingly pleasant. It reminded me of the small studio apartment I lived in while I was going to college. I felt myself relax easily in this comfortable little room, so I made my way to the fridge in the corner of the room. Another pleasant surprise came to me as I popped open the fridge and discovered a case of my favorite brand of beer, Guinness. There was another case of beer in there as well, Miller Lites, along with a number of fruits, vegetables, and a smattering of other foods.

I grabbed a beer and closed the fridge, then turned to take in the rest of the room. That was when I noticed the two wine bottles, one red and one white. I'm not a big wine drinker, but it was nice to see they were willing to accommodate me whether I preferred red or white.

The rest of the room was pretty sparsely decorated. There was a small couch facing a TV in the corner nearest the small kitchen area I was standing in. In the opposite corner from the kitchen there was a bed made up in typical hotel fashion, in other words lots of pillows and a very fluffy and inviting comforter on top. And in the last corner was the door I had entered through.

I was about to take another drink when I noticed there were actually two doors in that corner. It was strange, but this whole thing was strange, so I just shrugged and took another sip of my beer. As I finished the beer, I tipped my head back to get the last few drops. That was when I finally noticed the cameras on the ceiling of the room. There was one in the corner over the doors, and another in the corner above the TV, along with a dome camera in the middle of the ceiling.

Again, weird, but I was getting pretty used to weird with this place. I just shrugged it off again, tossed my empty beer can, grabbed a new one, then plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. I was happy to see it was a smart TV set up with several streaming services ready to go, so I went to Netflix and started browsing through the home screen. That was when I heard the sound of one of the doors behind me opening, followed by a very feminine sounding gasp.

I turned to look over my shoulder and found myself feasting on the drop-dead beauty I'd drooled over in the binder the week before. Just like me, she was completely naked, but she was doing her best to cover herself with her arms. I definitely stared way longer than I should have.

Finally, I came to my senses and turned back toward the TV. I heard the click of the door closing, then a whirr-click from the same direction. It took a moment for me to realize the second sound was the sound of the door's electronic locks engaging. I was about to break the silence, when I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat from the TV.

"Eh-hem. I apologize for not explaining this final phase of our experiment prior to tonight." I looked at the screen and saw the speaker was a middle-aged lady I recognized from the panel of women who had judged me at the beginning of the experiment. "It is necessary for the nature of this experiment that this portion be a surprise. The two of you will occupy this room together for the next twenty-four hours. The only rule we have is that you may not seek to clothe yourselves. Aside from that, you may enjoy this time however you choose to." The woman started to reach forward, presumably to turn off the broadcast, then she stopped and looked back toward the camera. "Oh, I almost forgot. You should both know, during the second phase of the experiment, you both rated each other as the most attractive individual in the binders you were presented." She said. Then she reached for something offscreen and the broadcast ended.

It took me a few moments to process this information. I was stuck in this room for the next twenty-four hours, naked, with my dream woman, who was also naked, and she apparently also thought I was attractive. I had no idea what to do. What does a man even do in this situation?

Then the answer came to me. A man would go and talk to the gorgeous woman in the room and at least try to get to know her. But, what was he supposed to say? "Hi, I'm Malcolm, I'm the naked dude you're gonna be spending the next super awkward twenty-four hours with. Wanna make out?"

I couldn't help shaking my head and chuckling a little. This was so stupid. What did they expect to happen? Of course we were just going to sit around, do our best to ignore each other until the experiment is over, then go our own ways and do everything we can to forget how we just passed over a potentially awesome situation.

I don't know if it's because her bare feet didn't make much sound, or if I was just so engrossed in my mental defeatism that I didn't notice, but I was caught completely off guard when I heard the fridge door open. Out of habit, I glanced over at the unexpected noise and was met with the glorious sight of the woman's ass thrusting out toward me as she bent to get a beer from the fridge. Not staring at that moment was easily the most difficult thing I'd ever had to do. Or, well, not do, I guess.

"Ugh, who drinks this rat piss?" I heard her murmur as she pulled a beer from the case of Miller Lites.

"Ahem." I dramatically cleared my throat. She turned to see me holding up my can of Guinness. I affected my best angry/affronted scowl, and I was able to hold it for a whole second before a smile broke across my face. The woman looked down with a small, chagrined smile.

"I didn't realize the drinks were personalized. Sorry." She said.

"Eh, you're good. Stout isn't for everyone." I said. I made the decision then, I wans't going to let this chance pass me by. If nothing else, I was going to have a good time talking with this woman and getting to know her. The first step, of course, was introducing myself and learning her name so I could stop thinking of her as just 'the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.'

I stood and crossed the short distance from couch to kitchen and held out my hand. "I'm Malcolm Scott, it's nice to meet you." I said. I also was pleased to notice her briefly checking me out after I stood up.

She extended her hand and shook mine. Her grip was just tight enough to show confidence, but not so tight as to show dominance. She probably worked in either business or finance, then. At least, that was my guess. "It's nice to meet you Malcolm. I'm Rachel Thompson." She said.

"Well, it looks like we'll be stuck here together for the next little bit. We might as well get to know each other, eh?" I said.

"How exactly do you mean?" She asked. I noticed her covering herself with her free hand.

I chuckled a bit. "Not like that. I mean just get to know each other as people."

Rachel seemed to relax a bit at this. I went back to sit on the far side of the couch, with the wall behind me, then motioned to the other side of the couch. "Care to take a seat?" I asked.

It was clear she was still wary of me. Well, the only way to fix that was for her to get to know me. Though, maybe there was something I could do to put her more at ease.

I turned around and faced the wall.

"Now you don't have to worry about me checking you out. Granted, I prefer talking face to face, but I've been meaning to get to know this wall better, too." I said. I hoped the joking smile was coming through in my tone.

"You don't have to do that, I'm just a little self-conscious. It's been a long time since I've been naked in front of someone." She said.

I didn't turn around quite yet. "I don't know if there's a non-sleazy way of saying this, but you have nothing to be self-conscious about. You're absolutely stunning." I said. Then I turned around to find her sitting on the couch and facing me.

If I thought it was hard to keep myself from staring at her ass, now I knew a truly difficult trial: keeping focused on Rachel's face when I had the entire front of her naked body sitting just a few feet away..

"So," I said, "tell me about yourself." I had to get her talking so I could actually focus on more than the sumptuous view on display before me.

"Well, what do you wanna know?" She said.

"How about what you do for a living?" I suggested.

"Oh, well, I used to work for a business consulting firm in town." She said.

Ha! I was right. "Used to?" I asked.

"Yeah, I quit about a month ago. A coworker was making my life there really uncomfortable and management wasn't doing anything to help. So, I left. I didn't expect it to be so hard to find a new job. That's actually why I'm here in the first place, it sounded like a fun and possibly interesting way to make some cash." She said with a quiet laugh.

"Well it is definitely interesting so far." I said.

"Yeah." She nodded. "So, what about you?"

We spent the next hour-and-a-half talking. I explained I was also unemployed and job hunting, though I was probably going to move back to my hometown soon. Cost of living there is lower, and the job market might be easier to deal with in a smaller city. That was how I discovered she actually grew up just a few hours away from me. We even went to the same college, but she had done business while I had done humanities. Not a lot of overlap between the two disciplines, so we never met each other.

It seemed like we'd spent our entire lives just barely missing each other. We'd moved to the big city around the same time, we'd both signed on with the same employment agency when we first got to the city. Apparently, we were even both assigned to the same job, but a friend of mine had come to town the day before I was supposed to go to work there and we got hammered together. I slept through my alarm and my phone ringing. By the time I came to, the employer was no longer interested in me.

Somehow, we got to the subject of family, which was when I learned this Rachel was my cousin's best friend Ray-ray. My cousin, Mia, and I had grown up together until her parents moved to the city a few hours away when Mia and I were eleven. Almost immediately after the move, Mia started telling me about this super nice and awesome girl she'd become friends with who she always called Ray-ray. Mia even almost asked me to take Ray-ray to the prom when her date fell through, but she thought I wouldn't be interested in travelling that far for a stupid prom date.

"Unbelievable." I said, "It's like you and I have spent our entire lives almost bumping into each other, then missing each other at the last minute."

"Seriously." She said. She looked like something was on her mind.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I feel stupid saying it, but, well, it almost sounds like... fate." She said. She looked down to the ground and grabbed her left arm with her right hand, something I'd noticed her doing earlier whenever she seemed insecure.

"It basically is fate. Is there any other way to explain so many near misses finally culminating in this ridiculous meetup? I mean, I believe in coincidences and all, but this feels like it goes way beyond coincidence." I said.

"Right?" She said.

The silence stretched for a few moments, so I decided it was time for another beer. "I'm gonna grab another drink, you want one?" I said as I stood.

"Sure." She said with a nod.

As I passed her, my left hand brushed her shoulder. The touch felt like it sent a shock through my arm. Immediately, I wanted more. I forced myself to continue on to the kitchen, but it was nearly impossible to restrain myself from turning around, sweeping her into my arms, and never letting her go.

Somehow, I managed it. I was about to grab the beers, when I remembered the two bottles of wine on the counter.

"Hey, Rachel, what kind of wine do you like?" I asked.

"Red. Why?"

"Huh, I prefer white. There are two bottles here, one of each. Wanna pop 'em open?" I said. I looked back at the couch and briefly caught her looking at my ass. It was a pretty nice confidence boost if nothing else.

"Sure, as long as you don't judge me for killing a whole bottle." She said with a little smile.

"How could I? I'm about to do the same thing." I said, returning the smile.

I searched through the drawers in the kitchen to find the corkscrew. It only took a few minutes, but the corkscrew wasn't alone in the drawer. There was a box of condoms with it.

"Man, they planned for everything." I muttered.

"What?" Rachel asked.

I pulled out the box of condoms and held it up for her to see. "I guess they like to be prepared, just in case." I said with a laugh, then threw the box back into the drawer.

I popped the corks from the bottles of wine, grabbed a couple of glasses, and brought the wine over to the couch. We spent the next hour poking fun at each other for being winos, since we both decided we'd just drinks straight from the bottles, and scrolling through Netflix to find something to watch.

Eventually we settled on some stupid, low-budget horror movie. About fifteen minutes into the movie, Rachel stood up. I paused the movie and looked up at her.

"Did you happen to see where the bathroom is?" She asked.

I looked around the room. The only doors in the room were the ones leading to the locker rooms. Then I noticed the small, curtained-off area on the other side of the kitchen.

"I think I might have found it." I said, standing and walking over to the corner. I pulled back the curtain and, sure enough, there was a small cube with a toilet and a shower separated from the rest of the room by a flimsy curtain.

Rachel just stared at the little cube for a moment, no doubt debating whether she could hold it or not. Finally, she sighed and said, "Can you go turn the movie back on? And turn the volume up, please."

"Sure." I said, smiling.

I headed back to the couch, hit play, and turned the volume up so loud I could barely hear myself think. Then the scene changed and everything in the movie went silent. I heard a little yelp from the bathroom along with the unmistakable sound of water hitting water. Then some of the characters started talking and drowned out any more noises from the bathroom.

I heard the toilet flush, so I turned the movie back down to its previous volume. It was an extremely welcome surprise when, instead of resuming her position on the other end of the couch, Rachel sat down right next to me on the couch. For the next ten minutes of the movie, I had no idea what was happening onscreen. All I could think about was whether or not I should put my arm around this gorgeous woman next to me.

The movie made the decision for me. An unexpected scare came out of nowhere and Rachel suddenly jumped and leaned up against me. Just like before, the feel of her bare skin touching mine seemed to electrify me. This time, though, I could prolong the contact. I chuckled and put my arm around her, pulling her a little closer to me.

Rachel seemed to tense up a bit at first, but she quickly seemed to relax and lean into my side. It was heavenly. I think if I had suddenly dropped dead of some unexpected illness in that moment, then I could have died perfectly happy.

We watched most of the rest of the movie without moving, just enjoying the feel of cuddling up together. At one point, during a particularly tense moment, while the killer was chasing the final girl through the house, Rachel turned toward me a bit more and I felt the unmistakable feeling of her nipple poking into my side.

Up until now I'd been able to, more or less, forget our mutual nakedness, but the sensation of Rachel's nipple on my skin brought the reality of the situation crashing back to reality. And my dick certainly got the message. I tried my best to fight it, but you can't fight biology. I just had to hope Rachel either wouldn't notice, or wouldn't think less of me for it.