This is the second chapter in this series. Reading chapter one will help set the stage for this one.
Picking the correct category for this story was tough because it doesn't fit into just one. There is some romance, exhibitionism, and bondage, but very mild. Some women like a strong, domineering male in these situations. Hope this sensitive but take-charge engineer doesn't disappoint too badly.
Thank you to my two editors who took hours to help me realize some of my bad habits.
********
That was a tough meeting. I needed to concentrate, but...this morning... I guess the mature way to look at it is to say I had the privilege of making love to a beautiful woman. The teenager still lurking inside me wanted to exclaim, "I got laid!" OK, kinda stupid for an old guy like me. But it's exciting to realize it. I felt like that morning many years ago when my young wife wanted to have sex with me just before I went to work. An hour later, I walked down the hall in my office building with a big smile on my face, looking around at my co-workers, almost wanted to tell them, "I got laid!"
Unfortunately, years later, in a foreign country, I found myself sitting in a meeting. I have a reputation for being professional, down to earth, mature... Well, mostly. I'm a project engineer and my job was to collaborate on this project with the locals to ensure we had something that would work in both Europe, as well as the Americas. I brought the American knowledge of standards and best practices, along with some critical thinking and problem-solving skills. This kind of work is interesting to me - I like these kinds of puzzles. The problem is that I think about things a little too much, trying to figure out what might go wrong, so sometimes I'm considered to be a negative person. But I like to figure out the obstacles and a solution to get around them so they don't become a problem at the wrong time. I'll think about something in depth, trying to consider the second, third, fourth order effects. Unfortunately, my process drives others nuts, but there are few complaints about the results when I'm done.
So, almost instinctively, I thought about Amanda and what our next steps should be. The most unpleasant option was to say goodbye and never see her again, which might have been the smartest in the long run. Breaking her heart was on my list of things I absolutely did NOT want to do. Yeah, I could have led her on and made her think I was falling in love with her. But that would not have been good for anyone. I could have had my few days of fun and dumped her, but how would I have felt in the long run? I did very little in my life that left me with a guilty feeling, and a couple of those things still weigh on me. I wasn't going to do something this week that would make me feel horrible again - at least, not on purpose. A prolonged guilty conscience must make you feel numb to what's right and wrong down the road, and that's a road I didn't want to be on.
I can remember, as a kid, when I first saw pictures of women in their underwear in department store catalogs. I had trouble concentrating for the rest of the day, fearful my mom would figure out what I had done and, well, who knows what she would have done. I had a girlfriend in college, or a girl who was a friend and wanted to be my girlfriend, who once let me reach down her shirt and eventually touch a nipple. My face felt hot the rest of the day, and I couldn't sleep that night. Now days, seeing a nude love making scene on a premium movie channel gets my interest, but is not really exciting. In fact, in my frustration of not getting any physical attention from my wife, for over a decade (it really bothers me), I turned to one of those porn movie sites that typically shows five to fifteen minute snippets of movies. I really dislike the professional porn movies. What captures my attention are the...
"Brian, what is your take?" asked one of my colleagues.
"Well, most manufactures now will accommodate the power requirements of multiple continents. If you look at your phone charging cables, they show both 110 volts AC and also 220 volts AC. They even handle both 50 Hertz and 60 Hertz power. The challenge is to remember to install the correct surge protector in the equipment cabinet. I can tell you from experience that using a surge protector rated for 110 volts on a 220 volt circuit results in an explosion." A couple of people laughed, making me think it happened to them also. "It knocked out the power of the whole floor in my hotel one time," I added with a smile. "But it gave me a chance to practice my Spanish trying to explain what happened."
It didn't really matter what porn excited me. The goal was to please Amanda. Actually, it was more than that. What could I do with her, or to her, that would benefit her? Finding the right thing, or things, might benefit me too.
Two days ago, she was not only dumped by her boyfriend, but immediately replaced by another girl. Then she had the misfortune of missing her flight, followed by a lack of hotel room. She was hurt and exhausted, and was taking it out on everyone. Since I don't like seeing people suffer, especially women, and I was in a position to help, I offered her a bed, a nice meal, pleasant conversation, and a shoulder to cry on. It felt nice that she accepted my gifts. Then she gave me a couple of nice gifts herself. And, boy, were they nice. I mean, really nice.
As I thought about it, I realized she did something similar for me, maybe without realizing it. I had also felt alone, rejected, undesirable. But she certainly changed that thought. She trusted me; she submitted herself to me. She made me feel that she not only liked me, she also wanted me. I liked that feeling, even if it was just temporary. And I wanted her to feel the same.
"No. The venting is an essential," I said. "We put a system into the arctic and it overheated because it could not vent the internally generated heat." I wanted to daydream about her, but I needed to focus on my meeting right now.
********
As soon as she departed the hotel room, Amanda went to the front desk. They gave her a room for the night, but she spent the night in a different room: his room. And she enjoyed every minute of it. Brian didn't know about the room they gave her; it just didn't come up in conversation. But she needed to pay the bill and have a receipt to turn in at work. The room they had given her was not on the same reservation she had for the rest of the week. Last night's room was a different price than the rest of the week. They told her she needed to change rooms, so she checked out of this one and checked in to the next.
Amanda got a taxi and went to her first international business meeting. She was a buyer for an international boutique shop that had expanded to Italy, and they recently promoted her to regional buyer that included the Italy store. She needed to see how they stored and presented the products, as well as see what other products were selling. This store was not exclusive to their chain and sold additional products, and she needed to understand what products she could get her hands on that might complement the products this store was already selling. She'd spend the day watching what displays caught whose attention, how products were grouped together, review purchasing documentation of the store, and customers' spending habits. Some things she was asked to do were really the job of the marketing manager, but that manager was getting a little too involved with extracurricular activities that went well beyond her job description, and management didn't feel comfortable sending her across the pond by herself, or at all, for that matter. So, Amanda was given the opportunity to expand her duties, and she wanted to prove she could do more than just buy products for the company.
It took most of an hour on bumpy streets to arrive at the store. But for Amanda, the taxi ride to the store went by fast. Her mind was occupied with the previous evening and the man that made it memorable. She thought about the dinner conversation of the previous night. It was a delicious dinner, and the discussion was interesting. When he started asking personal questions, she didn't really feel like she needed to hold anything back. He wasn't judgmental. It was nice to be open and talk to someone.
Of course, she didn't tell him everything - she didn't want to freak him out. She had no idea why she even thought about a spanking, much less said the word. And he picked up on it. It had suddenly made her feel "squishy", as her aunt would say about such things. Her aunt was a proper woman who lived in England. But she shared a couple of interesting stories about her life with her husband, and her job as a cleaning lady who helped in the local church, among other places. Some of her aunt's naughty activities made her aunt feel squishy. And her aunt would share a story or two with Amanda when she came to visit.
Thinking about what Brian did to her last night made Amanda start feeling "squishy" again. After a delicious dinner and interesting conversation, Brian walked Amanda back to the hotel. She wanted a hug from him, but he was a gentleman and only took her arm in his before arriving at the hotel. He didn't make any demands of her. He didn't get all handsy with her. He treated her like a lady, with respect. It wasn't until she gave him permission in the hotel room did he even try to touch her. And wow! What touching!
