Free Satin Pleasures by Karen Docter

prepaid special order on the inventory table. Would you get it? It’s tied in a box, so you’ll have to open it. Tess needs to inspect it.”
    He disappeared before Tess could react. She considered crawling into the merchandise drawer at her feet, but knew it was too late to hide. Sharing her lingerie preferences with Dan would not be her first choice; it was hard enough dealing with the man as a business acquaintance without him knowing what she wore next to her skin.
    Somehow, she had to get through the next few minutes with grace. If the events of last night weren’t to come back to haunt her, she had to pretend not to be bothered.
    Yet, she was bothered. Tremendously.
    She’d kissed Dan again and slept through the entire thing. She didn’t know whether to jump up and down with joy or cry. Claiming her actions were dream-induced might make her excuses sound more plausible but, if she had to swallow the blame for something, it would have been nice to be awake in the first place to savor the misdeed.
    In fact, she felt cheated. Now, she’d never know for certain if Dan’s kisses were the stuff dreams were made of or the real thing. That kiss on the bridge wasn’t a valid test because she wasn’t in her right mind then either.
    Maybe she had a concussion, after all. Maybe the lump behind her ear was rubbing against some pleasure center in her brain, turning her into a sex maniac. Since waking up last night to find her hands buried in Dan’s soft hair, she’d had only one thing on her mind. The two of them. Tangled together. On the plump office couch. On top of her finely etched cherry wood desk. Pressed into the luxurious, cream carpet.
    “Where should we do this, here on the display table or on the register counter?”
    Dan’s husky voice rasped across Tess’s lavishly drawn fantasy. Her head snapped up. “Neither!”
    “Don’t you want it anymore?”
    Looking at the slim, flowered box he held in his large hand, she breathed again. “Oh. Yes. I want it.”
    He led her to the long counter by the register. With his strong fingers, he snapped the slim string binding the box. Then, he lifted the cover. “Let’s see what....”
    The words trailed off. “Is this what you ordered?”
    Tess nodded, tempted to grab the box and run. She was embarrassed and, suddenly, feeling more than a little guilty about the money she’d spent on herself. “It’s my early birthday present.”
    The last thing she wanted him to do was pull it out for closer inspection but his hands were already buried in the scarlet satin and lace. Locating the delicate straps, he lifted her new bustier into view. It was beautiful, the material a deeper, richer color and the inset panels of lace infinitely wider than the model she remembered from the picture in Mary’s catalog. The long line of tiny hooks down the front was designed to tantalize while providing lift to her breasts. An invitation to a lover to release them. The matching lace panties were tiny scraps of nothing she knew would feel decadent against her skin. She loved it.
    “When’s your birthday?”
    Looking into Dan’s sea green eyes, she imagined the same fiery look in their depths that haunted her more erotic dreams. Remembering what she’d done to elicit that look, what he did in return, her breasts grew heavy, heat pooled low in her belly. Hands trembling, she took the bustier from him and pretended to examine it closely. “Monday. I’ll be thirty,” she murmured.
    Thirty. Unmarried. No men in her life except her crippled father and a handful of cranky bosses. Thinking about it gave her the doldrums. That’s why she’d splurged on the lingerie in the first place, to bolster her spirits.
    It wasn’t working.
    “Let me be the first to say ‘Happy Birthday’, Tess.” Dan scooped the bustier and panties into the flowered box and calmly retied it with new string from the spool on the counter.
    Not that he was anywhere near calm. Dan concentrated on making a knot,