Chapter 18: Panty Heaven...

J'Von, Tony and Mike were wandering the balconies of Pacific Place when they spotted Lorelei leaving the store alone.

"We gonna go get her?" Mike asked.

"What, right here in the middle of the mall?" Tony frowned. "This is a rich people's mall. Cops'll be on us like flies on shit if we screw up."

"He's right," J'Von nodded, "but we ought'a let her go, anyway. Think I saw her boy still there in the store. She'll come back."

"So what? You wanna wait?"

"If that bitch really did do Damon, she gotta be, like, mob or somethin'," J'Von thought aloud. "For real. But her boy there, he look like he's her kid brother or somethin'. He's the weak link. We grab him, it don't matter if we get her right away or not. She'll have to play ball."

"The fuck's he doin' in there, anyway?" Tony grumbled.

J'Von's eyes slid over to regard his friend nonchalantly. "Maybe homeboy needs some new panties?"

************

"These are thongs, and these are what we call boy cut panties, which is what I generally prefer," Audrey explained with that cool, teasing smile. She played the whole lecturer angle fairly straight, but her grin, the look in her eyes and the way she stayed well within in Alex's personal space hinted at much more of an educational experience than simple vocabulary and visual identification.

Alex felt like he could die. This was embarrassing. Kind of hot, entirely because of Audrey's physical nearness and the looks she gave him as she took him through her store, but still embarrassing.

"You see a little bit more skin with thongs, of course, but there are times when less is more. Boy cut panties hold a little more obvious sex appeal."

"Huh," he managed rather eloquently.

"It's probably best if I just give a hands-on demonstration," she said, a little more quietly and a little more closely. "Maybe something a little more intimate."

Okay, perhaps this isn't something to die over, Alex considered as he felt her breath on his right ear and the side of his neck.

"Alex Carlisle?" a familiar voice asked.

He glanced over to his left. Across the table full of thongs and lacy boy shorts was the tall, lovely girl who'd occupied at least a quarter of his higher brain functions over the course of his junior and senior years. She had (unwittingly and innocently, and he knew it) caused him to lose hours of sleep, give away his winter formal tickets, turn up late for his second crack at the SATs when she'd had a flat tire and called him in a panic, join the Japanese club even though he wasn't taking the class and never had, and miss pretty much every decent play his high school football team made on the field because he was paying more attention to her in her cheerleading uniform.

He hadn't seen her in over a year. She had gone to the University of Washington. He went to community college. Same city, but it hardly mattered. They didn't even turn up at the same parties. There was nothing but brief, distant communication online.

Now here she was in snug black slacks, a similarly snug black tee, a headset over her tied-back black hair and a nametag that read, "Taylor." This was now definitely something to die over. Right here, right now. Heart attack. Stroke. Brain aneurysm. Aaaany second now.

"You two know each other?" Audrey said, needing only a second to recover.

"We went to high school together," Taylor said warily.

"Um. Hi, Taylor," Alex managed. "How are you?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Alex here is shopping for his girlfriend," Audrey smiled, "and she asked me to help him out a bit."

Taylor looked at him with obvious disbelief. She managed to keep her jaw from dropping. "You have a girlfriend? And you're buying her lingerie?"

"W-well, we hadn't really gotten to talking about the labels yet, y'know?" Alex offered awkwardly. He desperately didn't want to be dishonest with her; that was the only thing that prompted his correction. He wasn't remotely capable of more sophisticated thinking than that at the moment. "I mean, we just met recently. Um. How are you doing? Did I ask that already?"

"You did," she said, eyes narrowing suspiciously. She couldn't help but notice that Audrey was holding Alex's hand.

"Taylor, I'm going to take my dinner break now," Audrey broke in. "While I'm gone, could you count down the registers? We've done a lot of cash today."

"Sure," Taylor nodded slowly. She moved off without breaking her gaze right away.

************

It took her longer than it should have, she realized, to figure out where he was. She left Alex in the store to stride along the walkway that wrapped around the five-story open atrium of the mall. In part, it was because her senses were as dulled as the rest of her abilities. That was most of the reason she wanted to confront this: she didn't trust in her ability to conceal herself. Not yet.

There was no telling how long it would take before she could begin recovery in earnest. That was entirely up to Alex and his ability to overcome his inhibitions and enjoy what she could offer. He was finally on his way, and she felt better already, but there was a long way to --

She felt something from him. Desire. So much desire. Sharper, much more intense than the mere lust-on-sight that she'd left him with. This was deep, serious longing. Aged, at least relative to his short span of sexual maturity. Knowing his desires as she did, Lorelei had a deep suspicion of whom he'd encountered. That was intriguing. Refreshing, too. Then the feeling was muted, faded, but did not die. Longing like that, born at such an early age, would never entirely fade. In the moment, though, he was distracted by that earlier, newer desire.

It took awhile, and so did looking around for the source of the scent that had drawn Lorelei out... but eventually, that desire began to build in anticipation. Alex wasn't running away from it at all. She felt him embrace this current lust.

That was when she realized where the smell was coming from. It was upstairs, in one of the restaurants. They ranged in quality, but nothing beyond the reach of anyone with basic employment with a desire to splurge a bit. Lorelei got onto the escalators, ascending to the top of the mall.

The Asian seafood buffet. He was in there. That made sense. He had even established wards around the place. A week ago, she could have crushed such defenses with ease, but now it would take effort. Once inside, she would be under constant assault on levels no mortal would sense.

She gave better than even odds that he'd know she was present now, but she waited anyway. It made sense to take advantage of the delay, see if he'd come out to meet her or if she'd have to go in. Timing often made all the difference in the world. It wouldn't show to observers, but this confrontation would likely be very draining.

A small shiver ran through her, nothing visible to any of the many observers looking her up and down but certainly very welcome. It wasn't satisfying, but the sensations would continue. Satisfaction would come, as would nourishment.

There. Right there. Oh, so good. Good boy. Very good boy. Feeling better prepared, the succubus walked into the restaurant.

************

"It's all a matter of how things come off," Audrey explained softly to the guest seated on the cushioned chair in front of her. She swayed a bit and touched him more now that they were alone, shielded from scrutiny by the tall dressing room door and the Kylie Minogue music piped through the store PA system. "Anticipation makes it better."

The store manager turned around in front of him, gyrating just enough to be inviting. She took Alex's hand in hers and guided it to the zipper on her skirt.

He no longer looked like a deer in her headlights. He'd at least accomplished that much. Part of him was still very conscious that Taylor was out there somewhere, but he had put the worst of those feelings behind him a while ago. That wasn't going to happen now, and probably never had any chance anyway. She had gone to UW with her basketball star boyfriend, the one he hadn't known about until they'd gone on two dates that Alex didn't know weren't dates. She went on to UW. He went to community college.

Life wasn't all about eventually finding true love with your unrequited crush from high school. That fairy tale sold movie tickets, but it wasn't real. Reality involved getting burned a few times as you grew up, and going through multiple experiences with other people before finally figuring out who you wanted to be with. You didn't owe anyone loyalty or monogamy until you had both agreed to it, and until then, there were other fish in the sea.

Some fish had skirts that slid from their hips to reveal lacy black boy shorts and thigh-high stockings that all together highlighted a nice ass.

"Like how that comes off?" she grinned over her shoulder.

"I do," Alex nodded. He was cooler about this now. In the moment. Audrey had never burned him and wasn't expecting anything but some fun. Maybe she'd always fantasized about taking a guy into the dressing room. Maybe she'd done it before. As Lorelei had said, this wasn't mind control.

"Don't be shy," she said, shifting her stance this way and that to give him a good look. "Visuals are important, but this is also a full-contact sport."

Alex smirked, appreciating her sex ed act, and brushed her hands up her stocking-clad legs, over her hips, along the small of her back. She sighed in appreciation. "I should see how these come off," he suggested.

"You really should," Audrey breathed.

His fingers hooked under the lace, slowly lowering them as she bent and twisted to accommodate the removal. "Wow," Alex smiled softly. "I do like these. They enhance the big reveal... but most of that comes down to who's wearing them."

"It does," Audrey said, turning and lowering herself to him. She took up the fabric on both sides of his neck in her hands and pulled him into a passionate, hungry kiss. His hands continued to roam but drew her in very close.

She broke off, needing to come up for air. Audrey inhaled heavily, eyes wide as she looked at her playmate with an excited grin. He had gotten her in his lap, almost grinding against him, but she'd thought better of that. She pulled her weight off of him. "See what I mean about anticipation?"

"Certainly," Alex nodded. He didn't have anything on his mind other than showing her some real appreciation. Even the worry about someone busting the two of them in this dressing room had disappeared from his thoughts. Admittedly, there was much less blood in his brain than there had been before. It had flooded to a more immediately useful organ.

Audrey could see that much in Alex's eyes. Saw it, reveled in it. She grabbed at his belt, jerking it open and fighting to release his flesh. "I think you still deserve a full demonstration of the payoff for dressing effectively," she grinned. His hands were still on her hips, right where she wanted them, and as soon as she had his organ free and had tugged his pants down, those hands pulled her very close.

They didn't need to fumble much. Both of them were quite ready, having indulged in an alternative sort of foreplay for the last ten minutes. Audrey discovered that Alex's inexperience with lingerie didn't equate to unfamiliarity with anatomy. She hadn't really been thinking about what to expect, but in the moment she understood that there might have been a bit of a bend to him, maybe a little give to his flesh. There was nothing of the sort. She didn't expect the solid, large, unyielding stiffness that gloriously penetrated her as he pulled her hips up onto his.

Audrey grunted helplessly. She wasn't normally noisy, but she couldn't help it. Her eyes didn't normally roll back, either, but they did this time because this guy felt so god damn good. She probably could've leaned backward, no hands, and stayed seated just by virtue of being wrapped around this magnificent cock.

Mister Right Now rocked her forward onto him, giving her another flesh-splitting rush. She grunted again, hands clutching at his shoulders, wanting to kiss him and laugh out loud and beg for more all at once. She ground up and down on his cock again, and again, wanting it to go on forever. His hands spread over her ass, helping her steady herself, taking some of her weight and making her feel deliciously dirty.

She was going to cum hard, she realized. Hard and fast. He'd just gotten started, and didn't seem like he was going to stop anytime soon. This fling was going to get her off more than once. His mouth wrapped itself around the side of her neck, right below her ear. "Oh fuck me," she breathed.

"Gladly," Alex hissed.