For a friend.
The heavy Victorian front door swung inwards even before Skye, shivering on the breezy doorstep, had time to take her hand from the bell-pull. It revealed a tall, lean, white-haired man in a dressing gown of such a dark brown that it almost disappeared into the shadows behind him. He had a phone to his ear, and glanced with distracted surprise at Skye's pleasingly rounded outline and, at that moment, pleading eyes..
He spoke into the phone in a voice that matched the dressing gown. 'Fine. How soon can you do it?'
Skye said urgently, 'Just let me in, James.' She was wearing a white vest, somewhat tight across her large and braless bust, and a pair of man's red-and-blue striped cotton boxer shorts, very tight across her hips -- and nothing else but goosebumps, though she modestly held a cardboard parcel in front of the tight crotch of the boxers.
A buzzing, indistinct voice came from the phone. James replied, 'Tuesday's no good for me, I'm afraid,' while standing aside so that Skye could slip past him. With his free hand he closed the door behind her.
Skye mouthed something at him with a questioning expression, and James pointed down the hall. She nodded, then wandered where he had pointed, glancing around. Seen from behind, the boxer shorts had ridden up on her luxurious rear to show more than a hint of underbum.
The underbum and its owner disappeared through a doorway at the end of the hall.
'See you on Wednesday, then,' said James. He put the phone in his pocket and followed Skye into his kitchen.
A huge antique built-in dresser took up most of one wall of the kitchen. Skye was already poking through an open drawer.
'Not in there,' said James. 'Assuming you're really looking for your spare keys and not,' he glanced at a jumble of objects she had excavated from the drawer, 'clothes pegs, a two-foot wooden ruler I keep for sentimental reasons and a leather dog collar.'
'Why would you be sentimental about a ruler?' asked Skye, turning to look at him curiously.
'If we're asking questions, why would a young woman turn up on a respectable older gentleman's doorstep with her vest moulding to her nipples?'
'Oh, it's not my vest,' said Skye, blushing and pressing one forearm across her nipples in a way that made the tops of her breasts bulge up above the neckline of the vest. No doubt she was unaware of this.
'That's not quite the point that needs answering, young lady,' said James, with a look that did not manage to entirely avoid her cleavage. Like Alcatraz, it was virtually inescapable.
'The doorbell rang when I was about to take a shower and I grabbed my boyfriend's boxers and vest from the laundry basket.'
'In order to brighten the postman's day.'
'I'd have brightened it a lot more without them. Anyway, the parcel was all alone on my doorstep when I got to it. Then when the door blew shut I dashed round to get my spare keys and your gatepost bashed my elbow,' as if James was the owner of an ill-trained gatepost. She put her forearm beneath her heavy bosom and rubbed the offended elbow. This jiggled her breasts, no doubt unintentionally.
James glanced at the jiggling, cleared his throat and said, 'I've had a lot of fun with that ruler.'
'Doing what?'
'Ruling.'
'Oh. I've heard about that sort of thing -- or -- you mean, like...?'
James narrowed his eyes and considered her. 'You don't have to get to your office?'
'Working from home. But you're right, I'm meant to be at my laptop.'
'Your keys are in the cupboard under the stairs.'
As he followed Skye back towards the hallway James said, 'I deduce your young man's gone out.'
Skye opened the cupboard door and peered in. 'Oh, he doesn't live with me. It's just that I do his laundry. He's super traditional for his age. It's pitch black in here.' There was a click as her hand found a light switch. Nothing happened.
'Now you know why I was phoning an electrician. Grope around a bit and you'll find what you're looking for.'
Skye laughed. 'I said that once. He was being a bit slow.' She glanced over her shoulder at James as she inched further into the darkness.
James gave an alarmed grunt and reached out to grab her well-cushioned hips. 'Look where you're going. You're about to tumble into my cellar. I should have warned you.'
'And I've made you take hold of me. I'm so, so sorry.' She shot him a smile.
James kept his hands on her hips. Something about her smile must have made him think that she couldn't be trusted near stairs -- he was surely too old and respectable to enjoy the feel of thin cotton stretched over voluptuous curves.
'Here, let me help you.' James caught her left hand with his own and guided it to a hook on the underside of the stairs. To keep her safe he slid his arm round her waist, which brought the side of his body against hers. There was a clink as her fingers met the keys. He said softly into her ear, 'If your boyfriend saw you now he might jump to conclusions.'
'He does tend to do that,' she breathed. 'Once, I got a bit flirtatious at a party, and he even threatened to
spank