CHAPTER ONE

SHOPPING FOR PLEASURE

 

Jennifer strolled past the gleaming counters on the ground floor of the department store. Her boyfriend followed a few paces behind, holding the helmets they'd worn on his motorbike, now parked outside. His dark glasses, leather jacket and leather pants gave him a slightly sinister air. Other shoppers moved carefully out of his way.

Jennifer wove her way past the perfume counters, where the air was heavy with richly mingling scents. She paused, inhaling deeply the heady mixture of rose petals and musk. Then she glimpsed, to her right, the shining glitter of the jewellery department, and strode towards it.

She studied the displays, pausing to lift long jewelled earrings with her fingers, examining them more closely. Finally, she approached an array of necklaces laid out on black velvet, and stood admiring them.

Her boyfriend, now by her side, rested his leather-gloved hand on the back of her jeans. While her gaze travelled along the row of necklaces, he caressed the firm denim-covered curves of her bottom.

"Which do you like best, Dave?" she asked, without looking at him. He shrugged, having no great interest in jewellery.

"Can I help you?" asked the bright, polite voice of a sales assistant from the other side of the counter. Jennifer raised her head and smiled at the girl, who was wearing the standard white blouse and knee-length black skirt of all the store's female staff. The girl's deep black hair was trimmed in a neat bob around her lively, intelligent face.

"Can I try one of these on?" asked Jennifer.

"But of course!" beamed the girl, adjusting a small mirror on the counter so Jennifer would be able to see herself.

Meanwhile, Dave's hand had moved steadily down the sumptuous swell of Jennifer's bottom, following the seam of her jeans where it ran taut between her buttocks. Without pausing, his fingers followed the line of the seam under her prominent backside and into the hidden region between her legs. Jennifer placed her feet slightly apart as she lifted a necklace made of polished pieces of amber and fastened it around her neck.

Dave's fingers found the place where the denim was frayed. A small slit, only an inch long, had been deliberately cut with scissors in the crotch of her jeans. His leather-covered finger pressed through this slit and probed the soft flesh beneath, for Jennifer was not wearing panties. There was a momentary resistance, then her body yielded and opened. His finger slid smoothly up into her moist vaginal tunnel.

"Oh!" gasped Jennifer, looking at herself in the mirror, "It's very nice!" She admired the way the light reflected from the amber beads as she turned her head from side to side.

No one nearby, not even the assistant, would be able to tell what was happening. They would see Dave's hand pressed firmly - if somewhat intimately - against his girlfriend's bottom: and understandable caress, acceptable even in a public place, given the striking sculptural beauty of Jennifer's rear. No one would dream that his finger was, at that very moment, savouring the pulsing warm interior of Jennifer's slit.

She continued to admire herself in the mirror. Her shoulder-length mane of red hair shone under the shop's bright lights like a mass of dark flames surrounding her strong-featured face, firm chin, long straight nose, and intense blue eyes. Because of her stunning hair, most of her friends called her 'Red'. She liked this better than 'Jennifer'. Nobody ever called her 'Jenny'. The shortened name sounded, to her, like some drab girl who made the tea in a dreary office. It didn't match her personality.

"It's beautiful," she told the assistant, taking off the necklace, "but it doesn't quite suit me. In fact," she said dangling the necklace by the side of the girl's head, "the stones match your eyes perfectly."

The girl was startled and a little flustered by this remark. "Oh, do they?" she said blushing slightly. The slight rose tint to her skin brought out the amber colouring of her eyes even more. Jennifer's steady gaze looked deep into their honey-brown depths, making the girl blush an even deeper pink. It felt good to discomfort her in this harmless way. The girl was very pretty.

Deep in Jennifer's body, Dave's finger stirred, stroked and probed. This physical arousal mingled in her mind with the girl's beauty, and a brief flicker of desire passed over Jennifer's features. Quickly she said, "do you have anything that would match my eyes?"

The innocent question obliged the girl to look closely at Jennifer's porcelain blue irises. She drew her eyebrows together in concentrated scrutiny. Then her gaze, briefly, slipped into the deep pools of Jennifer's pupils and a tiny electric spark seemed to pass between the two girls. Jennifer felt a thrill, as if the girl's gaze had penetrated her body just as surely as Dave's probing finger.

"Er ... I think we might have something," said the girl, turning swiftly away to hide her embarrassment, reaching up to a display of necklaces on the wall behind her. This gesture slightly lifted the hem of her skirt, revealing the back of her knees, where black tights showed a shimmer of pale skin beneath their stretched mesh.

While the girl's back was turned, Dave's finger wriggled more vigorously in its sensitive sheath of flesh. Jennifer gasped aloud, then bit her lip to contain herself. The girl turned back, her face bright with pleasure. "Here!" she said, "try this!" She held up a necklace, her glance darting from its polished stones to her customer's eyes. There followed more serious scrutiny, the eyebrows pulling together prettily and another little electric spark of unspoken understanding. Jennifer wanted to lean across the counter and kiss the girl. Instead, she allowed her to fasten the necklace around her throat, the girl's small agile hands brushing against her flame-red hair.

"There!" said the girl, proudly pointing to the mirror, "have a look!"

The necklace, of course, was perfect. Its blue stones were the precise colour of Jennifer's eyes. The assistant was beaming with satisfaction. Jennifer's own joy mingled with the increasing pleasure she was feeling between her legs. She smiled and gasped.

"Dave!" she said, "how wonderful! Will you give it me as a present?"

"Of course. Whatever you want, Red."

"Get out your cheque book, then. And we'll buy the other one as well, the one with the amber stones. Could you wrap them separately for us, please?"

The assistant, glancing with suspicion at Dave, took the two necklaces away to fold them carefully inside pretty paper parcels. Dave reluctantly removed his finger from its deep exploration, so his hand would be free to write the cheque. The leather of his glove glistened with Jennifer's juices. The girl didn't seem to notice when she returned with the two parcels.

Jennifer was feeling wonderful: aroused and powerful and daring. She sought the girl's gaze shamelessly as she handed over the cheque. Dave's finger had left a damp stain under his signature: the girl's thumb touched this, seeming puzzled by its stickiness, as she put the cheque away in the till.

"You've been very helpful," said Jennifer, calling back the girl's attention, "and I think you deserve a reward."

The girl looked startled. Her mouth opened in a small 'O' of surprise.

"I want you to have this, as a present," said Jennifer, handing one of the parcels back to her.

"Oh no!" protested the girl, in alarm, "I couldn't!"

"Of course you could. It matches your lovely eyes. You were destined to wear it."

"Oh, no! No! No!" The girl waved her open hands in front of her in a paroxysm of refusal.

"Take it!" insisted Jennifer, firmly pressing the package into the girl's right palm, feeling the fingers close in reflex around it.

"But..."

"Absolutely no 'buts'!"

"...we're not allowed ..."

"It's nobody's business but mine. I bought it. I can do what I like with it. Why not come to our dinner party next Tuesday? You can wear your necklace there. We'd love to see you," said Jennifer, as Dave dropped an address card on to the counter in front of the girl.

While she continued to protest, they turned away, with a parting smile from Jennifer's bright blue eyes, and strode briskly back to the shop's front entrance. As they marched across the pavement to their motorbike, Dave asked, "Do you think she's likely to turn up?"

"Oh, she's bound to," said Jennifer, climbing onto the saddle behind him, "I gave her the wrong necklace!"

Dave laughed gleefully as he kicked the bike into action and drove away with a roar down the main street. Over his shoulder, in the bike's rear-view mirror, Jennifer caught a glimpse of a black-skirted figure rushing out of the shop and standing disconsolately on the pavement, looking after them.