Stephanie's Amazing Race Pt. 01

Re-focussing her eyes on the room around her, she quickly looked down at her thighs to see what had invaded her personal space. She was greatly surprised to discover her own hand was the culprit, one finger gently pressed against her skin, playfully tracing a line up along her left thigh, and with clearly only one final destination in mind. She was even more shocked to discover her other hand was also tracing a finger up the side of her body, and was now lingering just at the edges of her right breast.

Shaking her head firmly, Stephanie pushed her own hands away and out to the side, and coughed a couple of times so as to bring herself fully back to the here and now.

Her mind temporarily cleared of any visions of running through the rain, she checked out the hot pants that had come with the running option. The hot pants were a darker shade of red than the lining on the running shoes, and came only one inch further down from her backside. Stephanie had seen others running in such apparel, occasionally, but this was many times tighter and more revealing than anything she'd ever worked up the courage to wear out in public. The soft fabric felt almost obscene in her hands, and there was certainly no doubt that the material would accentuate the full effects that ten years of daily running could have on the female derriere.

Stephanie heard the words "oh my God" echo through the room, and she guiltily looked at the hotel room door before realising that she'd been the one who'd actually spoken.

With her head turned towards the door, she once again caught the image of the woman in the mirror. Stephanie could now see the woman had a redness in her cheeks that Stephanie hadn't noticed before, and a slightly sheen to her hands and neck that betrayed a certain amount of lady-like perspiration.

Looking back at the bed, Stephanie began to weigh up her options.

A tight, white compression t-shirt and red hot-pants waited for future-Stephanie in one possible universe. In the other universe, future-Stephanie had a walk to and from the hotel pool in whatever swimwear was safely wrapped in the second, as-yet-unopened package.

The second option would of course be the shorter option. It was slightly complicated by the fact though that the hotel she was staying in had two towers, with a reception lobby in the middle that joined the two towers together. Of course, it went without saying that the tower that contained the swimming pool was on the other side of that lobby to the tower that Stephanie was staying in. Stephanie instinctively knew that the Game Master must have known that some how.

If she chose the second option, she have to wear swimwear to and from the pool across what would undoubtedly be a busy lobby, and along several corridors and elevator rides where she'd be on full display. She was under no illusions that the swimwear chosen for her would be some modest one-piece that covered most of her torso. Given the running option, she fully expected something skimpy and revealing.

Of course, she'd seen other women wearing such outfits around, brazenly flaunting themselves to an admiring or jealous public. How hard could it be? Of course, those other women weren't Stephanie Henderson. Those other women didn't have a reputation to maintain, and a sense of what is proper behaviour for a young woman. Perhaps though, she found herself privately thinking, perhaps even Stephanie Henderson's grasp on what is proper behaviour wasn't quite as strong as first assumed.

Her gaze danced back and forward between the opened running package, and the unopened swimming package. Unwilling yet to unwrap the latter, and perhaps channeling some deep-seated need to throw herself at the mercy of chance, Stephanie suddenly grabbed the swimming package and - out of habit more than anything else - headed quickly for the bathroom to get change. As she was about to enter the bathroom, she paused, turned and gave one last look at the clothes left on the bed. A look of almost regret swept across her face, before being replaced by something that still shocked Stephanie to the core. She felt a commitment welling up inside of her that this would not be the last time she faced the option of running in those clothes.

Shivering slightly with uncontrollable anticipation, Stephanie silently disappeared into her impromptu changing room.

********

The firm click sounded ten times louder than it should have done. Amazingly, Stephanie even heard it over the pounding of her own heart, as she stood in the tenth floor corridor outside of her room. The click of the room door closing had sent a shockwave through her body, and she was firmly rooted to the floor as she desperately sought self-control over her own limbs. Every fibre of her being seemed to be telling her to get back inside the room, and to cover up the gratuitous amounts of skin that her swimwear was currently flaunting to the world.

Shaking her hands to try and relieve some of the nervousness tension that was paralysing her, she experimentally took a step forward towards the lifts at the end of the corridor. A noise further down from the other end of corridor elicited a small shriek from Stephanie as the thoughts of someone discovering her like this popped into her mind.

Calm down, Stephanie thought to herself. You've got to calm down. There are far more public areas than this deserted corridor for you to make your way through yet.

Stephanie tilted her head back, and clenched her jaw in determination. Tugging at the material of her swimwear slightly, in a futile effort to make it cover more of her body, she then started forward again. Her legs and arms swung in a tense, almost robotic fashion, and every time her own footfalls made a sound in the corridor she had to fight against the urge to fling her arms across her chest and crotch. Nonetheless, she began to make progress towards the lifts that would take her to the lobby, and a wild excitement grew in her eyes.

The swimwear that had been selected for her was not one that would have been found naturally in Stephanie's dresser at home. The tag that had fallen out of the packaging as she'd retrieved the bikini - her mouth wide open in shock at the time - had clearly identified the clothing as coming from the Victoria's Secret's line of swimwear. It was fair to say that Stephanie Henderson was not a valued, repeat customer of Victoria's Secret.

The bikini top was strapless in the bandeau style, and wrapped around her chest to at least cover her nipples. The bandeau was not complete all the way around though. At the front, between her breasts, the two cups were connected by four thin strands of material that kept the bandeau from falling off, but did little to obscure the view of her cleavage. The bandeau's side-ruching only served to even further define the contours of Stephanie's modest, yet mesmerising chest, and the swim top continued around to a simple back clasp that Stephanie swore was going to give away at any time.

The entire bandeau was a rich grape colour. Had Stephanie's mind not been focussed on what other people would be thinking when they saw her, she would've had to admit to herself that she looked rather beautiful in the outfit.

The grape-coloured bandeau was nicely matched by a light purple bikini bottom, whose thin strap-like sides linked a small strip of material that covered her most private of areas to a slightly larger strip of material over her backside. Like the bandeau, the bikini bottoms also had a ruched effect that gathered in the material, only in this case the ruching was directly over her ass so that the material settled deep into between her two cheeks.

Without needing to look in a mirror, Stephanie could feel the material riding gently into her bottom. Unlike with her own - more modest - swimwear at home, any patrons of the hotel who happened to be following Stephanie would get a perfect view of her athletic, well defined backside. Even though there was no breeze to speak off in the corridor, Stephanie could still feel the air gently waft across her bottom, and fully half of each cheek was completely exposed.

She was - Stephanie reflected - no longer tiptoeing out of her comfort zone. She had well and truly caught the first long-haul flight out of her comfort zone, and was heading towards destinations unknown.

The journey to the lifts took less than thirty seconds, and the no-one else was in the corridor. Still, as Stephanie stood by the doors, and pressed the button to call one of the lifts, she felt wave after wave of exhilaration, embarrassment and anticipation wash over her. She stood still for what seemed like minutes as the lifts slowly made their way up to her floor, and with every passing second she felt like her clothes shrunk another millimetre or two, exposing just a tiny bit more skin to anyone who stumbled across her.

Stephanie also couldn't rid herself of the thought that when the lift arrived, someone may already be in it. Not only could she not shake that thought, she couldn't even figure out whether she'd be disappointed or relieved if the lift was empty when it came.

A loud bell-like noise signalled that the lift had finally arrived, and not for the first time today, panic began to well up in Stephanie.

The doors on the right-most lift slid quietly open, and with her arms unnaturally rigid at her sides, Stephanie tentatively walked into it.

The lift was empty. Stephanie outwardly experienced a feeling of relief, although she had to admit the feeling was far more muted than she'd been expecting. As well as that though, the feeling of relief was tinged with something else that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Stephanie stood in the middle of the lift and pressed the lobby button on the control panel. As the doors slid shut, obscuring the view of her relatively safe corridor, the notion came to Stephanie that the next time the doors opened, there would most likely be somebody else on the other side. Stephanie felt something stir inside of her. There was that strange feeling again.

She was on the tenth floor, and the lift would only take fifteen or twenty seconds to reach the Lobby. The light on the control panel counted down the floors as she headed ever onwards to a date with a lobby full of hotel patrons and staff.

Nine, eight, seven, seven, seven. Seven. Hang on. The light had stopped at seven. With a jolt she realised the lift was slowing down too. She hadn't hit the button for floor six though, which left only one other possible explanation...

Stephanie gulped as the doors slowly began to slide open.

Beyond the opening doors, the lights of the sixth floor corridor shone brightly, and illuminated the figure of a man waiting patiently, head buried in a paperback book. The man barely glanced up as the doors finished opening. He walked into the lift and took up a position next to Stephanie, casting only a cursory glance at the control panel to check it was going in the right direction.

Stephanie stood frozen to the spot, starring directly ahead at the now closing doors. As the floor jolted slightly, indicating the lift's continued journey to the lobby, she could feel her heart racing along, and perspiration began to build up once more.

The man's appearance in the lift had suddenly driven home the enormity of what Stephanie was doing. Standing there in her Victoria's Secret swimwear, she was now more exposed to this stranger than she'd ever been exposed to a stranger, or a even a friend, before.

Stephanie Henderson - someone who her friends and family would instantly describe as "reserved" and "quiet" - was now heading into a crowd of people wearing this flimsy bikini.

As these thoughts raced through her mind, she felt movement from the man beside her. For the first few seconds of the ride, the man had kept reading his book. Obviously engrossed in it's contents, the man had initially only given Stephanie the briefest of side-looks so as not to walk into anyone already in the lift.

Now though, a change was sweeping over the man. As Stephanie turned her head slightly to look, the man's eyes stopped moving across the page and became fixed on a single spot. As she watched, his eyes slowly grew wider and wider, until they almost seemed to be popping out of his head. Then, as if caught by a fishing line that Stephanie was expertly wielding, his eyes began inexorable journey towards Stephanie's bikini clad body.

The man, rendered speechless momentarily and with his mouth slightly open, let his eyes wander up and down Stephanie's body. She could actually feel his eyes moving over her skin, up her legs, lingering on the thin side-bands of her bikini bottoms. She felt her own face go a little red, as she imagined his laser-like gaze on her bottom might burn through the thin purple strips of material and cause her bikini bottoms to flutter helplessly down to her ankles.

As his gaze finally continued up, she could feel a tinkling sensation where she imagined he was looking. Suddenly, the whole world exploded into a cacophony of sensations. The otherwise smooth lift ride now felt bumpy, as every slight, minor, almost imperceptible jolt from the lift shaft shot up through her nearly overloaded sensory system. She felt his eyes rest on her nipples, and almost as if on command, she felt them harden under the thin material of the grape-coloured bandeau. Finally, after what had seemed like minutes but could only have been seconds, his eyes finally met hers, and he stood there, staring for a full two uncomfortable seconds. Then, as if belatedly realising how he must look, he shook his head slightly and tried to say something.

"Ahhh... hi? Umm.. yeah, hi." was pretty much all the man could manage though.

Stephanie had been desperately trying to suppress a low, thrilled moan that she could feel building up inside of her, and it took her a few more seconds before she trusted herself to open her mouth to reply.

"Hey." she said, with forced calmness. She quickly waved a hand in what she hoped would be interpreted as a friendly greeting.

The man was medium build, dressed in a light brown t-shirt and with reasonably nice dark grey sports pants. He was also, judging by the movement at the top of his sports pants, wearing fairly loose boxers underneath. His hair was cut short, but with a sense of style around the fringe. If Stephanie had to guess, she'd have said that they were roughly the same age. Stephanie had never overtly courted the attentions of men using her physical assets before. Previously, it had been the intellectual pursuits that had guided her to friends or potential partners. Now, dressed as she was, Stephanie found that she couldn't deny that she - at least in part - welcomed his attentions.

The man saw Stephanie's wave, and went to return it, instantly sending the book he was carrying crashing to the floor. Startled, the man reached down retrieve it and took three goes to actually pick it up off the carpet.

Stephanie just managed stopped herself in time from laughing, and surprised herself to find that part of her was secretly loving this.

As the man finally stood up again, the lift itself stopped, and the counter on the control panel signalled that it's two occupants had now been safely delivered to the lobby.

Stephanie took a deep breath in to steady herself, and the man let out a strangled cough as her chest swelled up with the intake of air.

As the doors opened, Stephanie looked at the man again.

"After you?" she politely asked.

The man, flustered by the book falling and the beautiful woman in front of him, hastily waved away the gesture and indicated that Stephanie - as the indisputable lady in their twosome - should most certainly go first.

Stephanie found it within herself to let a small smile grace her lips, and she nodded her head in recognition. As she turned to look out into the lobby, she felt herself become detached from her own body. She felt it move out of the lift almost under it's own control, and into the wide expanse beyond. Feeling like an impartial, remote observer of her own actions, she even noticed the man follow slowly behind her. He almost stumbled a couple of times, his focus never wavering from the retreating backside of a beautiful woman in a skimpy bikini.

As she walked into the hotel lobby with an absurdly over-the-top calm, the man was suddenly not alone in having Stephanie Henderson as the immediate centre of his universe. In that respect, he had ten other men and women for company.

*********

The pool room door was flung open, and Stephanie almost threw herself through the door frame. Quickly checking that there was no-one else in the pool, she just as quickly closed the door, threw her back against it, and let out a laugh that rang loudly around the large rooftop facility.

The past few minutes had been absolutely terrifying. Not to mention absolutely amazing. Terrifyingly amazing. Or perhaps just amazingly terrifying.

As the peals of laughter slowly settled down, she closed her eyes and visualised those past few minutes all over again.

The lobby experience had been the best part by far.

As she had stepped out in the open area, the two staff members on duty behind the reception desk had, in perfect synchronisation, swivelled their heads to watch her move. Both of the staff members were men, and both had been in mid-conversation with other patrons when the lift doors had revealed Stephanie to the masses.

Confused by the sudden break in conversation, the hotel guests had then also turned to look at whatever had grabbed the staff's attention, and were now similarly taking in the beautiful form of a petite brunette.

Stephanie made herself walk across the lobby to where the second set of lifts allowed access to the other tower. At the top of that tower was the swimming pool where she'd been instructed to swim 15 lengths. She was trying to suppress the thought that - as odd as this might look now to the assembled men and women around her - she'd have to make the return trip soaking wet, and with small water droplets glistening all over her body. Now _that_ would be embarrassing.

A man and a woman sat at a table in the lobby, seemingly waiting for a taxi, bags waiting by their sides. Husband and wife? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Stephanie didn't know and couldn't know, but what she did know was that as she walked past them both, the man sat up noticeably. From the corner of her eye, she could tell he was trying to check her out without being seen to check her out. She could also tell that his female companion saw through his futile attempts at hiding this just as easily as Stephanie did. As Stephanie continued on her way, she could see the woman's eyes narrow, and she half-imagined that she saw the words "bitch" surface on the woman's lips.

Stephanie knew she should be embarrassed at flaunting herself like this. Part of her was embarrassed. Deeply embarrassed. Sure, some women wore this style of clothing in public. Some women also danced naked in bars for a living. Some women covered themselves up completely so no-one could see anything. She'd always thought she knew where she was placed on that spectrum of fully clothed to fully naked, but she was beginning to get the sense that she may have just found herself sliding along to the right a little.

She was also tired. Not physically tired, at least not yet. The tiring business trip hadn't quite hit her physically. That might have to wait until she was safely home over the weekend. No, she was tired emotionally. She suddenly found a voice inside of her telling herself that she was tired of being the quiet one. Tired of being the reserved, professional-above-all-else person that silently faded into the background. She was tired of not being noticed.