The Honey Trap

I was not sure which category to publish this in. LW always gets a good response, whilst there is a real Loving Wife, but she is not a cheater so that ruled out LW. There is fetish, BDSM and some silliness. So, let's see when I have to make a decision.

Here I am sat in a hotel bar sipping on a pint of beer, and I'm working. I'm with a couple of work colleagues, just watching the world go by, talking about Life, the Universe, and Everything. And my company was paying for the drinks. What could be wrong with that you might ask, well normally my wife would be with me, but she had to stay at work whilst I was working away. My colleagues and I were people watching. People watching was a little hobby of my wife and mine. But here we were really watching was the interaction, facial expressions and body language of people in the bar.

Let me explain, my name is David, I answer to Dave or most things as long as they are not too rude. I'm a service engineer for a large food producing company which makes a whole range of foods and has factories all over the UK. As a service engineer, I look after the machines that bake your pizzas, and puts the lid on your cans of baked beans. Although, I was based at a factory in the South, I was currently in Nottingham teaching some employees about maintenance error investigation techniques.

A bit more information for you, most people don't go to work to do a bad job, but sometimes things go wrong. It was my job to find out why it went wrong. Did somebody not follow the correct procedure, push the wrong button, did they not have the right tools, and were they trying to make do with what they had, were they distracted, were they cold, wet, tired or all three; did they have problems at home? Or as in most cases did the machine just breakdown. It wasn't to find a scapegoat; it was genuinely to find out what went wrong so we could put things in place to stop it from happening again. And so as the machinery manufacturers couldn't blame our operatives when their machines were at fault.

That was why I am in Nottingham and why Harry, Diane and I were in my hotel bar at half past five. Yesterday in class I talked about the importance of understanding body language and facial expressions when interviewing. Harry and Diane were not going to be interviewing criminals, but normal people who'd had something go wrong with the machinery they were working with. Body language and facial expressions can give so much away. I had been in the hotel bar with the other two from the course yesterday, which was a bonus because I had already selected some subjects for these two to study. Harry was on the admin side of the business, whilst Diane was a Service Engineer like me.

Normally, Sherrie, my wife, would be with me on one of these trips, she would help with observations, she'd give a different perspective from mine on the examples I'd chosen. She liked our trips away, a sort of mini break for her. I would teach, she would shop and sight-see during the day.

Ah, Sherrie and me, we have been married for nearly 20 years, we met when I was in the service. I thought she was gorgeous, and with attention that other men paid her, some other chaps must have thought she was pretty good-looking too. She was the love of my life. I always wondered what she saw in a crusty old bugger like me, I would mention it and she would just smile at me and say, "Beauty is only skin deep, it's the character that really matters." I'd always thought of myself as an ugly bastard, so I was a happy man.

Sherrie was working as an assistant project manager at a large construction firm back home, the project manager she was working for had driven his car into a tree at 60 miles an hour. It appears that being drunk didn't ease the pain of a cheating wife, even with the help of a 300 year old oak tree. The project she was working on with him was due to finish and as she had most of the information and she was asked to step up and finish off the project. She was promised that if she finished the project, and did a good job, she would be promoted to full project manager, more than likely to take the place of the previous project manager because he'd probably be let go.

Whilst she was overjoyed at this, this was something she had been training and aiming for, for a couple of years, she was starting to have second thoughts about the promotion, we were going to talk about it this weekend when I got home. She was having help from the current department boss, Ralph. She was happy with that because we knew Ralph and his wife Carol, in fact, Sherrie and Carol had become quite good friends. Although, one had to be a bit careful around Ralph, he was going places, his father, Richard, was on the board of directors and Ralph was spending 18 months to two years in each section of the business to gain information on how the company worked so that when Richard retired Ralph will get his place on the board. It seemed like quite a good idea.

I had watched Ralph over the last couple of years, he was an interesting bloke. At a party he and Carol would circulate and everything seemed normal, but when Carol was not around, Ralph would go into people's 'private space', if they backed away, he would stay away, however, if they stayed close, he seemed to take that as an invitation for more contact, never anything inappropriate mind you, just a bit more intimacy. I thought it was something he did naturally, and he was probably not aware he was doing it. The thing that bothers me was, that given who he is, were people playing up to him or genuinely interested in him. And did they know what they were doing? It was a tad confusing, but good practise at observing people interacting with one another. If he didn't know he was doing it, then it was all innocent. If he did know what he was doing, then he was a devious bastard. And there was just something about him that didn't sit right with me, he was a tad creepy. I didn't dislike him, there was nothing to dislike. There was something just not quite right, but as Sherrie and Carol were friends, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I did tell you I watched people.

We were in the bar to observe people. To watch their facial expressions and body language, plus the interaction between people. A hotel bar with business people in before they got too drunk was a good place to see this.

The first of my examples turned up, there was an attractive, smartly dressed lady in business attire about 35-ish years old or so and she sat at the far end of the bar. A very smart dapper looking, more mature gentleman approached her, they chatted for about 5 minutes, he bought her a drink and then passed something along the bar to her, she glanced at it and nodded. He smiled and walked away towards the lift; she waited for 5 minutes and then went to the same lift. Neither Harry nor Diane observed the lift stopped at different floors.

I asked my two companions what they thought had gone on there? Diane immediately leapt into her opinion that the lady was a high-class hooker and she had just been booked for an evening of fun. Harry disagreed, they appeared to be more intimate than you'd expect from a hooker and her John. And it was probably a tad early for that sort of naughtiness. I pointed this out to Harry and Diane that the lift stopped at different floors.

At least it got them thinking.

I'd watched that pair the previous evening and it appeared completely innocent. The previous evening, they had turned up later in the bar in much relaxed dress and spend some time going over something on the laptop. There is no sly holding of hands, cute sideways glances, they seemed to be totally concentrating on what they're doing on the laptop. When they parted there was no hugs or kisses on the cheeks, not even a handshake so I'm guessing it was completely innocent. It was just two people going about their work business. But I told them to keep an open mind, it looked innocent and probably was. There was nothing stopping the lady walking up one flight of stairs after getting out the left, just to put people off who were watching.

Next, I pointed to a couple that had just walked in, I told them to watch him, they too had been here the previous evening and I had noted these two as being good subjects for discussion.

The chap went to the bar, she got her phone out and started doing stuff. He came back with a pint of beer and a glass of white wine. He placed the wine on the table in front of her, before he could sit down, she looked at him with a hard stare and said, "It's white," he seemed confused. The look seemed to go on for 10 or 12 seconds but was probably only three or four. He left and went to the bar and came back with a glass of red. He sat down got his phone out and started doing stuff. Fortunately, after a minute or two they both put their phones away and seemed to carry on a normal conversation.

I thought it was strange because that was almost an exact repeat of what happened the previous evening. Was he just plain stupid, or is he making a point? I decided not to bother too much about it. Just to use them as an example.

I asked Harry and Diane what they had noticed about the couple? Harry, commented on the stare she gave him and how long it lasted. I asked them if they thought they were married, they both said yes. I asked why they thought that. Lovers wouldn't have a tiff like that in public. I pointed out a few things to them. Yes, they were married, and to each other because there were wearing wedding rings. Did they notice, the red wine was a much smaller measure than the white, was that him getting his revenge? possibly, it could have been just a genuine mistake. You have to keep your mind open to any outcome. And that after she had drunk the red wine, she seemed happy enough to finish off the white.

"So investigating is about asking the right questions, observations, body language, and facial expressions?" Said Harry, "you don't even have to be an expert on the machinery."

"And it's about building trust, the people you are going to be dealing with are probably scared of losing their jobs because something has gone wrong, they didn't come into work to do a bad job, and they believe their jobs are important, they were doing a service. But, yes, that's the basics, it helps if you know the answers to some of the questions you're going to ask them, but it's often a case of you sitting down and talking through what happened, but yup that's it."

That was when Harry said, "Hey Chief," they had picked up on my old Navy rank and it seemed fun for them to use it, so for this course, I answered to the name of 'Chief', "Is that the lady over there that the others told us about, what do you think about her, is she working, is she on the hunt for a man, or is she a lady of the night?"

I glanced across at her, trying not to be too obvious. She had been here the two previous night's wearing smart business attire but was now sporting a rather cute dress with quite a lot of cleavage on show.

"Oh, she is very interesting, she sits there nearly all evening with her laptop open and so far has had no more than two small glasses of wine each night. She is normally dressed quite formally as if for a business meeting, but tonight she seems to be a bit more dressy up. I think some man, or possibly lady is going to get lucky tonight."

With that I stood up and excused myself to pop to the gents, the beer was going straight through me, or was it the dozen cups of tea I'd had throughout the day. On my way back the business lady was walking the other way, probably heading to the little girl's room. She looked at me and smiled as she passed me. I did seem to keep on walking past her over the last couple of days, and she always seemed to smile at me, probably because I was such an ugly bastard.

I sat down and we carried on chatting and observing people when the business lady came back and sat down again in front of her computer. Diane leaned across to me and said, "That's a bit strange, as she walked past you, she looked at you and smiled. But she hasn't done that with any other man, and there have been a few. A couple have even tried to join her, and she's turned them down. Looks like it could be your lucky night tonight Chief."

I raised my left hand showing her my wedding ring, "I don't play away."

Actually, Diane was completely correct I had noticed, but she seemed to be walking past me a lot and even once touched me whilst we were standing at the bar when she asked me what the time was. Which is a really strange thing for Brits to do. But what I hadn't noticed was that she didn't smile at other men.

It was getting towards 7 o'clock and these people had a long way to drive, and drink driving conviction can seriously mess up your day, so they excused themselves and left me on my own.

We'd come straight from work I'd had nothing to eat since lunchtime, so I wandered up to the bar and I asked for a menu, and I got myself I beer this time. All of a sudden, the business lady was stood beside me. "Have your friends left you alone?"

"Yes, we were just discussing business, they've got a bit to drive to get home and I've had no dinner so I thought I would grab a sandwich."

"I've not eaten either, would you mind if I joined you as we both seemed to be alone."

I think Diane had clicked on well, there was something not quite right here. "Excuse me this is a little rude, but I need to send a message. I took my phone out of my pocket and looked like I was doing something. I was actually turning on The Voice recorder. I then placed the phone on the bar top.

"Actually, I'm quite happy to sit on my own and eat, I have things to think about and I have to phone the wife shortly just to let you know everything is on track for me going home tomorrow."

"Oh, come on, it won't hurt to share a table, in fact I'll even buy your dinner for you. My name is Jasmine by the way." She held out her hand and I shook it.

I was starting to get interested where this was going. I picked up my phone looked at it to ensure that it was recording and said, "OK then, that'll save my company paying for my dinner tonight."

We both ordered and I indicated an empty table in the middle of the room, but she pointed to the booth I'd come from and led the way. I had chosen that booth earlier because it gave us some privacy whilst watching people, but we would still have full view of the bar area. As she walked away I noticed she was swinging her hips more than she had done before.

As we sat down, I excused myself for leaving my phone on the table as I was expecting an important call. We sat down and she started chatting, what was I doing here, how long was I going to be here, did we have children? She already knew I was married from the earlier chat at the bar. I told her about my wife, Sherrie and I how proud was of her. I told her Sherrie normally comes with me, but she had to work. I told her the whole story. I tried to bore her, but she didn't seem bored. I told her I was looking forward to getting home and making her feel loved and relaxed. All throughout the chat she wanted to talk about work, what machines did we have, what did they do. She seemed to accept there was a wife, but she kept on trying to keep the chat away from her.

If nothing else these will be good examples of open questions for my students tomorrow. However, when I tried to draw her with similar sort of open answer questions, I got nothing back. Again, good examples of how to answer questions. What she did tell me was, that she was married to a wonderful chap, but they spent so much time apart that they had agreed to an arrangement, with that she reached a hand under the table and stroked my thigh. This was getting even more strange. I removed her hand from my thigh. I said for the benefit of the recorder, "please don't touch my leg it's spoken for," and I moved away from her.

After we finished eating, she slid around the booth so she could sit much closer to me. I slid away again to keep a reasonable distance between us. I was running out of seat.

"What, not scared of me are you?" As she said this, she put out our hand and placed it over mine.

As I withdrew my hand rapidly, I said. "I'm not scared of you, but I'm scared of where this might end up."

"Well how about my bed, or yours I don't mind."

"Sorry Jasmine, I don't do that. I don't play away from home. I notice you're wearing a wedding ring; don't you believe in what that stands for."

"Oh, my husband and I have an arrangement whilst we're working away, don't ask, don't tell"

She started playing with it twisting it around her finger. I put my hand out and said to her, "Let me have a look at that." She placed her hand in mine. I rotated the ring out of the way, and I saw the very thing I was expecting. I quickly removed my hand.

I held my left hand up showing my wedding ring. I said to her, "Because I work on machinery, I normally wear this wedding band on a chain around my neck. When I'm not working it's on my finger. So, I only wear it about half the time, and it has still left a dent and a white patch around where it normally sits. You don't have one, either a dent or a white line. You don't normally wear that ring. So, let's stop this pissing around."

Her face clouded over, and she withdrew her hand from the table.

I continued. "I am scared of where that picture your friend over there is taking of us will end up, and the story it's supposed to tell." With that I pointed to another attractive lady who was sat at a table in the middle of the room but facing us. "If she's checking her phone she's holding it at a strange angle, not so much to talk to it but to take a picture. Would you like to invite her over?"

She let out a big sigh and her shoulders sagged, she got up and walked across to the other lady, I heard her say quietly. "We've been rumbled, come on let's sort this out," they both walked across to me and sat down, the other lady put her hand out and said, "My name is Darlene," I shook her hand; however, I didn't believe either of the names they'd given me.

I started. "Let's cut straight to the fucking point, this is a honey trap, isn't it?"

Without batting an eyelid Darlene said, "Yes I've been trying to get pictures of you holding hands and kissing, we've been paid to see if you're sleeping around whilst you're away."

A shiver ran down my spine, Sherry wouldn't do this, Sherrie often came away with me. Was it her fucking bratty sister? She never liked me, she thought I'd married above my station. I don't know how much these things cost, but I thought it was out of the scope of her budget. So, I had no idea who it could have done this, except Sherry, but why would she?

I needed to get to the bottom of this. "Who are you working for?"

Darlene answered, she seemed to be the boss, "We can't tell you that, it's confidential."

"Bollocks, that's your rules, not mine, I'll get a court injunction and make you reveal the name. It'll cost me money, but it'll put you out of business."

"If we did tell you, it would ruin our business."

I stood up picked up my phone checked it was still recording and whilst doing that I took a picture of Darlene and Jasmine. I needed another beer, so I went to the bar. Whilst I was there, I enquired of the barman what the hotel's policy on prostitutes was. He looked over my shoulder at the two ladies sitting in the booth. He informed me the hotel didn't like them at all, it gave the hotel a bad reputation and that was not the sort of business they wanted. There were places that welcome that sort of thing, but this wasn't one of them.

I hadn't been back to my room since getting back from work, so I had my laptop with me, I sat back down, pulled it out, opened it and fired it up and logged on to hotels Wi-Fi. Whilst I was doing this, I informed the young ladies that I had just told the barman that they were prostitutes. That made their jaws drop. When my laptop was up and running and I downloaded files to it and posted an update on Trip Advisor.