~Chapter One~

 

Anna Keane, at 28, the youngest member of the contracts negotiating team at the publishing firm where she worked, was ready to celebrate. She had just signed a best-selling author to a four-book deal, which was a real coup -- and one of her first, major successes. Time to break out the bubbly!
To her dismay, though, when she stepped off the plane and checked the monitor for her connecting flight home, the dreaded word glared from the monitor's screen:

United Flight 458---DELAYED

"Lovely," she sighed to herself.
'What was it this time? Homeland security? Equipment failure? Weather?' Anna wondered as she approached an airline representative at the counter, where the situation got even more depressing.
"It's the weather in Atlanta," the young woman explained. "They're having some fallout from the latest hurricane and all flights there have been grounded. And with Atlanta as big a hub as it is..."
Anna chuckled ruefully, "Anything that shuts down Atlanta can throw a wrench in flights all over the East Coast. All right, thank you, I understand. Any idea when my flight will be departing?"
"Not before at least tomorrow afternoon. I'm sorry, ma'am. We can offer you a credit good for use with the food vendors here and reimburse you for half of your night's stay at an airport hotel."
Shaking her head and groaning inwardly, Anna tried to maintain her sense of humor and she definitely refrained from launching into an angry tirade. It wasn't this young woman's fault. After a few moments, she had the airline's credit vouchers in hand and was headed for the bar in the terminal.
With her compact, carry-on suitcase in tow, Anna sauntered up to a stool at the bar. She smoothed her black, silk skirt beneath her shapely ass as she sat down on a bar stool, crossing her legs elegantly, although she revealed just a hint of the lace tops of her stockings.

Then, needing to feel less stuffy after a long, crowded flight, she slipped off her jacket, folded it on the bar stool next to hers, and undid just the top button on her green silk blouse.
The bartender, a pert, college-aged blonde, approached her with a smile. "Good evening. What can I get you?"
"Do you serve champagne?" Anna asked.
When the bartender showed her their selections, Anna's eyes gleamed at one label in particular a very fine, very expensive champagne the kind that just screamed, "Spoil yourself! You've earned it!"
"I'm sorry, but we only sell it by the bottle," the bartender apologized.
Glancing at the wine list, Anna's eyes widened at the price: $250 a bottle. And still that small voice murmured in her head, "Go on, spoil yourself, you've earned it. There are times in your life when you should just cut loose and enjoy."
As she grappled with her decision, Anna's gaze wandered through the room and fell upon a well-dressed man seated alone at a booth in the corner.

He appeared a bit older than her, but he was definitely handsome. His face and demeanor radiated a kind of rugged, albeit sophisticated, animal magnetism. In that moment, a sudden inspiration brought a small grin to Anna's face.
"I'll buy the bottle," Anna told the bartender, handing over her credit card. It was a bit steep for her budget, but she was just too excited about signing that author not to do a little celebrating.

"And please send a glass to the gentleman at the table over there, with my compliments. I'd rather share what I can't drink myself."
 

Brett was on a flight, after a business trip, to Florida to visit with his two children who lived with his ex for a two day stay, but the weather from Hurricane Ivan had shut down the Atlanta airport and he was stranded here for at least the night.
He'd smiled and accepted the offered vouchers graciously and then called his ex to explain the delay and had to listen to a far to long tirade about how he "was ruining plans" she'd made as if he, personally, had arranged for the damned hurricane flight delay.

That wiped any smile from his face and after speaking briefly with each of the children and explaining as soon as the planes were coming there Daddy would be there he immediately adjourned to the nearly airport lounge to have a couple of drinks to wash away the bad taste his ex had left in her wake.
Brett was seated, as he habitually did when possible, in a corner booth so he could watch the people. The comings and goings and interactions as people, and women in particular, watching was generally at last mildly entertaining to him.
He'd just taken a sip from his drink when an extremely lovely woman came into the lounge and went to the bar. He watched, very appreciatively, as she smoothed her skirt and it molded to a very nice-looking butt and sat down then removed her jacket. Her movements made the green blouse hug her impressive looking breasts as she slid it off before laying the jacket on the stool beside her and ordering from the barmaid.
He was just about to reorder when a waitress approached carrying a glass of sparkling wine or champagne and set it on the table said softly, "With the compliments of the lady in the green blouse at the bar sir," before she turned and moved to another table to take an order.
He lifted the glass, smelled its bouquet and sipped after looking at the woman, and seeing she was watching him, he saluted her with a raised glass and smile.
'Mmmm, a very good and expensive champagne,' Brett thought to himself as he placed the glass on the table and, as she's still looking his way, he motioned to her to come and join him in the booth if she wished.
'If nothing else it will be good to have attractive female company before getting a room, and who knows what may happen,' he thought as she rose and gathered her things.

 

Anna didn't normally buy drinks for strangers in bars; it seemed like such a tired and trite pickup maneuver. However, she was in the mood to celebrate and, from the genial way that the man in the booth waved her over, it looked like he was open to some company. Plus, after all, it was better to celebrate with a handsome stranger than alone.
She asked the bartender to bring the bottle over to the booth in a bucket of ice, then picked up her own glass in one hand, picked up her jacket and pulled her suitcase with the other, and gracefully made her way over to the gentleman's booth.
The closer she got, the more handsome he grew. From a distance, Anna had only seen a rugged, dark-haired man. But now she could appreciate the subtle details like his compelling, dark eyes and smooth, chiseled jaw. And from the way he filled out his shirt he must work out.
Silently, Anna reminded herself not to stare like a teenager.
"Thank you for inviting me to join you," she said as she slid into the booth without scooting too close. "I'm grounded thanks to Ivan, so it's nice to have a little company. My name is Anna, Anna Keane."
They shook hands as the man introduced himself as Brett Maverick, and Anna was struck by how firm, but not overly macho and yet comforting his grip was.
She wasn't surprised to learn that he was in the same predicament. Or that he was Owner and CEO of a very well-respected and well-known company. There was something about Brett that just radiated confidence and success. Perhaps it was the way he looked at her.
When he asked about the reason for the champagne, she blushed and explained with a smile, "I just had one of my first big successes at my publishing firm. I signed Jack Forsythe to a four-book deal. We're hoping he can repeat the success of his Dick Magnum, P.I. thrillers. So, I felt like celebrating, even if I'm stuck here at the airport."
With the utmost convivial charm, Brett congratulated her with a toast, and the two of them fell into a lively discussion of their favorite indulgences. The bartender had re-filled their glasses from the champagne bottle chilling at their table, so as the conversation went on, Anna started to feel a little light-headed, a little bubbly, one might say, if you liked puns, and before she knew it, she was confessing that when she really wanted to spoil herself, she'd drop $200 or $300 on silky, lacy lingerie.
But what really surprised her was that when Brett expressed a deep interest in her preferences for lingerie, she found herself slowly sliding up the hem of her skirt to reveal a green, lace garter strap above her black stockings -- green to match her blouse and her eyes.
Her cheeks flushed a deep, rosy pink and warmth washed over her as she wondered if she'd gone too far.

 

"Well, I must say I heartily approve of your choice and taste Anna. The color is striking against your skin, and I can almost visualize how you'd look wearing nothing but the hose and garters Anna," he said with a smile, a wink, and a mischievous look in his dark eyes... or is it a wicked one.
"Allow me to make an offer Anna.

"To properly celebrate why don't we visit one of the boutiques in the Hilton lobby and allow me to indulge you and reward you by buying you lingerie as another part of your celebration. It would really please me to do so and, of course," he said with another smile and another of those winks, "I'd hope to see you modeling them so I could choose the outfits I feel look the best on you, the sexiest and most alluring."
He refilled the glasses which emptied the bottle and upended it in the ice bucket. A wave caught the cocktail waitress's eye and Brett indicated he wished another bottle.

 

 

If she'd been blushing before, Anna's cheeks burned even hotter at Brett's offer to take her lingerie shopping. And yet the smooth, velvety tone of his voice aroused her so much, she couldn't feel embarrassed. Indeed, the cotton panel of her green satin thong was growing very damp. A faint hint of her own, musky scent lingered in the air, and for a split-second Anna almost thought she saw Brett inhaling to savor it.
The bartender refilled both of their champagne flutes from the new bottle Brett had ordered, then withdrew and left them alone once again.

Smiling, Anna met Brett's eyes and raised her glass in a salute.
"You're very generous, Brett. Thank you. I've never modeled lingerie for a stranger before," she admitted, trying to steady her fluttering nerves. With a shaky laugh, she added, "But there's always a first time for everything."
Brett replied with a slow, gallant nod and tapped his champagne flute to hers. The clear, ringing tone of the crystal hung in the air as they both took a hearty sip.
They talked and flirted a little while longer, gradually emptying their second bottle of champagne. Anna asked Brett more about himself and expressed her sympathy at his being delayed from seeing his children. However, she got a very clear picture that he wasn't terribly upset at having to put off seeing his ex-wife for a while.
"I guess you'll have to settle for watching me try on a few scraps of silk and lace," she joked mischievously.
However, her laughter dimmed and she felt herself squirming in her seat at the intensity of Brett's admiring gaze as his eyes slid all along her body, and the way he phrased his response made her shiver.

As they slid out of the booth and he escorted her through the terminal on their way to the airport Hilton, all Anna could think about was how tight and swollen her nipples felt beneath her lacy bra and blouse. How did he manage to look so comfortable and at ease, when just his glance and his magnetic presence were making her come undone?
She melted even further in the limousine that shuttled them the short distance to the Hilton. They sat close to each other, so close that Anna could feel the firm strength of his muscular thigh and shoulder, her body growing warmer and warmer from the heat that radiated between them. And then oh god, then, when he described some of the things, he'd like to see her in she almost felt naked, and even hotter.