Simon was jolted into consciousness by the sound of the Mass Spectrometer behind him beeping loudly to signal the end of a run. The side of his face was hurting from where he'd rested it on his folded arms on top of the lab bench.
He groaned, he'd been working for over eighteen hours now and it was increasingly hard to find the will to rouse himself to put on the next set of samples. He looked across the bench to find Sue looking back at him with a smile on her face.
"Rise and shine young man, if we get this last set of samples run, we can go home tomorrow."
Home: it seemed a long way away both in distance and time. How long had they been here? Three, four days? Simon couldn't remember exactly. Twenty hour working days and four hours' sleep a night would do that to you.
He'd known it would be a shitty job when they'd asked him to do it but the overtime pay was just what he needed to help save up the deposit for his first house so he reluctantly agreed.
Apparently, someone had been dumping toxic waste into the water system up north somewhere and he had been sent with Sue to process the huge batch of samples they'd collected to see what was in it.
As of right now, they'd found approximately six times the square-root of bugger-all after laboriously processing a Mother-Load (new official unit) of samples. This did little to help Simon's mood. But at least they'd be going home soon. Perhaps Simon could play for some sympathy with Sarah. They'd only been out a few times but there was definitely a spark between them. Simon resolved to give her a call as soon as he got back to see if she wanted to hook up.
His mood brightened slightly, Simon grabbed a tray of the samples that Sue had been preparing and began loading them into the auto-sampler for the Mass Spec. He'd been a bit wary of Sue to start with. He'd never really spent any time with her before now but she had a bit of a reputation as the office Cougar. The fact that Simon was in his early twenties and just out of university and she was about fifty only seemed to put him more in the "at risk" category as far as his peers were concerned.
"You'd better watch out for her mate." Pete had warned him jokingly. "She'll eat you alive."
By all accounts, she'd gone through a somewhat public and messy divorce about five years ago and this had triggered a change in behaviour. She'd hit the gym pretty hard and her improving self-image had turned her into something of a sexual predator. Actually, that was a bit of an exaggeration. Simon always imagined that a real Cougar would portray an unshakable aura of self-confidence but he now realised, having spent some time with her, that there was an air of vulnerability about her hiding just below the surface.
Simon actually began to feel a little guilty at some of the conversations he'd been involved in back in the office with people joking about her and how you had to watch your back in case she tried to jump you. He'd never understood why men were considered macho for talking about their sexual exploits but women were considered sluts for the same thing. He found sexual assertiveness an attractive quality in women and Sue was certainly that. In fact, had their genders been reversed, Simon would probably have been considering a sexual harassment complaint from their last few days together.
He'd had to put up with a full range of suggestive remarks right up to comments that were just down right obscene at times. But it was always just tongue-in-cheek enough that he could laugh it off.
It didn't help that her hours in the gym meant that she was now equipped with what could only be described as a killer body. Women of any age would have been proud of her tight stomach and slender legs, not to mention her full breasts and toned ass. And she knew it. She never missed an opportunity to show it off. Her clothes were always styled to show off her physique; a bit extra cleavage here; a flash of thigh there. She took delight in bending over to give you a great view down her top and then holding your eyes to let you know that she'd seen you looking.
As the hours of sleep deprivation took their toll on Simon, the veneers of social etiquette were slowly being peeled away and he found it harder to avoid openly leering at her when the opportunity presented itself.
Like now.
Sue was cleaning up some sample jars and was bending over the sink on the lab bench. The tailored white blouse that she was wearing had several buttons undone and it was gaping open invitingly as she scrubbed. Simon could clearly see the cups of her lacy white bra as they clung to her jiggling mammaries. He'd been staring at them for a while before he realised that she was watching him with a knowing smile on her lips.
"See anything you like?" She asked playfully.
Simon was fed up with being cowed by the woman so decided to call her bluff for a change.
"Yes actually, I do." He replied seriously. "Why don't you get them out for me?"
The look on her face was priceless; the mask of confidence slipped to expose uncertainty and insecurity. But she recovered herself quickly and tried to laugh it off.
"I don't think you could handle me young man."
But Simon was enjoying having the upper hand for once and wasn't going to let her get away so easily.
"Who said anything about handling? I'm quite capable of looking without touching."
Again, a moment of uncertainty from Sue but she obviously still thought Simon was bluffing and decided to call him. Drying her hands quickly she began tracing the neckline of her gaping blouse with the middle finger of each hand. She used the motion to spread the fabric wider so that most of her upper chest was exposed. Simon could see her bra straps and the swell of the tops of her breasts.
"So you're telling me that you could sit there quietly and watch while I stripped in front of you and you wouldn't feel the need to touch?" Her voice had switched to a dangerously seductive tone.
Simon was suddenly a bit worried that he'd bitten off more than he could chew but he wasn't the sort of person to back down from a challenge and he wanted to see how far he could push her. Oh yeah, that and the fact that her body was damn fine and wanted to see more of it.
"No problem." He tried to sound unconcerned and was pretty happy that he'd succeeded despite the fact that the blood rushing to his groin was making it uncomfortable to sit on the lab stool.
Sue's fingers were now busy unfastening buttons until the blouse hung open completely. She let it drape over her curves as she resumed exploring her own flesh with her hands. There was now plenty more territory to explore and Simon was treated to a view of her toned stomach for the first time.
"So you don't see anything that tempts you then?"
"I didn't say that." Replied Simon truthfully. "I see plenty to tempt me. But I've got strong willpower."
"I'm glad to hear it. I've worked hard on this body. I'd hate to think it wasn't up to scratch." Her busy fingers now parted her top and it fell from her shoulders before she shrugged it off completely.
"I don't think you need to worry there." Simon said, admiring her willowy physique as she resumed stroking her nearly-naked torso.
She shot him a genuine smile and raised an eyebrow at him. "Flatterer." She accused. "You're just saying that to try and get me naked."
"True." Simon agreed. "But why would I want to do that if you didn't look good?"
She paused for a moment, as if trying to find fault with his logic.
"I can't argue with that." She conceded. "Perhaps my legs will put you off."
She bent at the waist to remove her shoes and socks. This left just her pert butt sticking up above the lab bench. She obviously realised this because she wriggled it suggestively for him while she worked.
