Unexpected Layover

The plane took off from Istanbul two hours later than the scheduled departure time, due to a need to find a replacement for a member of the flight crew who had a family emergency. They were further delayed by a winter storm that was much stronger than forecast, meaning the pilot had to alter his flight path to avoid the worst of it. By the time they set down in Italy that evening it was snowing hard, in fact Jenn was sure she felt the plane skid a bit as it set down and braked.

The captain came on. "Welcome to Milan, ladies and gentlemen. Just in time, the airport is being closed due to weather conditions. Connecting passengers should go to their airline's help desk as their flights may have been cancelled or rescheduled. Thank you for flying Turkish Airlines."

Most of the other passengers wearily headed for baggage claim, but as soon as Jenn got out she made a beeline for the Air France desk. There was only a single agent there and a young man was already talking to her, another American by accent. Jenn realized he'd been on her flight, he must have really hustled to get here ahead of her.

"Look, it says right here that there should be a Delta going to JFK," he was saying, pointing to his phone's screen. "From there I can catch something to Detroit. Why can't you put me on that flight instead?"

"Because it is closed, sir," the agent replied, sounding bored and not very sympathetic. "The airport is shut down due to the storm, no flights are departing."

He lowered the phone. "I really need to get back to the States by tomorrow, isn't there anything you can do?"

"I have tell to you, the next Air France to Paris will be at the seven in the morning and from there you connect to your Detroit. The business class is full, but I can put you in the premium voyageur for the connecting flight, otherwise you must wait for the afternoon," she droned. "Assuming Malpensa is not still closed from the storm in the morning. It is a very rare storm, you see."

The young man took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm himself. "That's it? I'm just supposed to wait until tomorrow?"

She gave him a bright, hard smile. "Yes. Now, if you pardon, there is another customer waiting."

"Excuse me," Jenn said. "His flight is delayed overnight, passenger's rights in the EU say he's entitled to lodging."

The look on the agent's face could have frozen a hot kettle of tea. "Of course. Here, let me to find the form for you to fill out, sir." She walked away, though Jenn suspected it wasn't to find any form.

The man turned to Jenn. "Thanks, I didn't know about that. They never do that for you in the States."

"Not anymore, no, but the Europeans are still civilized about it," Jenn said. "Besides, I'm in the same boat as you."

"Missed connection?"

"Yeah, I was actually supposed to be on that Delta to NYC. No idea why I got routed through Milan. Maybe it was a little cheaper than de Gaulle or Schiphol, someone in my department could have launched a penny-pinching initiative I don't know about."

He chuckled. "Same here, I think. I'm with a company based in Detroit and got sent to help the local office in Istanbul set up their new server network. You?"

"Educational symposium."

"Oh, man, you're a teacher? I'll have to watch my grammar," he said, smiling broadly.

"Not that kind. Assistant professor in the art department at Barnard. Jennifer MacDonald."

He stuck out his hand. "Michelangelo Baker, but please call me Joe."

"Not Mike?" she said, shaking with him.

"When I was born my three-year old brother kept mangling Michelangelo into 'Mikajoe' and it stuck, but as I got older only the last part survived."

"Cute story."

He grinned back. "Starts a conversation. How did you get the name MacDonald?"

"My husband. I thought about keeping my old name when we got married, but I hadn't actually published anything yet and both his and my parents are pretty old-fashioned. They kept saying that when we had kids it would confuse people. We didn't have the heart to tell them we didn't plan to have kids."

The agent returned with several sheets of paper and a small vinyl bag. "You will need to fill out this form. It will also tell you what you are entitled to. You may return it when you come back tomorrow. The bag contains toiletries for the night, your baggage will be transferred to your new flight."

"Thank you," Joe said.

"Next."

Jenn stepped up and told her story, though knowing what the result for Joe had been she thought she knew what to expect. It was actually worse, the Delta to JFK from here had been diverted to Rome and therefore was not only not leaving tonight, it had been canceled for tomorrow as well.

Ten minutes of hassle later she had her own set of EU forms and a reservation on the same flight to Paris that Joe would be on but with a connection to New York from there. She turned around and found that Joe was still nearby.

"Thought we might share a cab to town," he said.

"No need, there's a train station right in the terminal."

"Huh?"

Jenn smiled. "You don't travel to Europe for business very often, I take it. The EU loves its public transit."

But when they got there it turned out the trains weren't running due to the union being on strike. At the same time there were no cabs because the storm outside was now closing down the roads to the airport, they were saying it was the biggest winter snowfall to hit Milan in a century.

"Well, there's always the airport hotel," Jenn said.

Joe was checking his phone. "Says it's a Sheraton and pretty close by. Let's walk over."

"Wait up a minute, I'm tired of having both hands full." Jenn put her handbag down on a bench and opened it to put the toiletry kit into it. This required a fair amount of rearranging of contents because she always tried to stuff as much as possible in her purse on plane trips so she wouldn't have to take a carry-on bag. Jenn was a bit 'height-challenged' and hated having to wheedle someone into lifting a roller-bag into the overhead for her and then out again when they landed.

Bending over that much after a long uncomfortable flight made her back sore. When she finished, instead of straightening up she sighed and lowered herself to sit on the bench beside the bag so she could stretch before trying to stand. As a result of this maneuver she caught the tail end of Joe's intent gaze at her tail end.

She felt embarrassed, then a little angry at him for staring. He was now very carefully pretending to study his phone, though his face bore a sort of guilty expression as if he knew he'd been caught and was hoping she wouldn't say anything.

Jenn's irritation evaporated. Joe wasn't bad in the eye-candy department himself, and working at the uni surrounded by undergrad women it had been a while since she'd drawn that sort of attention from a younger guy. "Take it as a compliment that he thinks you're still worth checking out," she told herself.

Of course the airport closing meant there were a lot of stranded travelers besides from Jenn and Joe. And all of them seemed to have made it to the hotel before the pair arrived. "I am afraid I only have one room left," the desk clerk said.

"Guess I'm going to be sleeping in an airport lounge after all," Joe said wryly.

"Don't be silly, I'm not going to let you do that," Jenn said, then to the clerk: "We'll take the room."

The last room in the hotel turned out to contain a single queen-sized bed. They looked at each other.

"You still sure about this? I can sleep on the floor," Joe said.

Jenn was in fact feeling a little nervous about sharing a bed with a male stranger (a tall, dark and handsome male who's younger than you, a part of her brain reminded her), but Joe's clearly sincere offer stiffened her resolve not to take advantage of his gallantry.

"Like I said before, don't be silly," she said. "We're civilized adults, I'm sure we can share a bed for a night without, um... Anyway, we both need a good night's sleep and that's that. Now you'll have to excuse me but I could really use the bathroom at this point."

"Go for it."

The commode was one of the modern washlet sort. The Sheraton here must get a lot of Japanese customers, Jenn thought. Or maybe they figured it was cheaper than putting in a separate bidet, as the French liked. In any event Jenn appreciated the device and used it, she'd often wished they could afford to put one in at home.

"Your turn. You can shower first if you want, then I'll take mine."

Joe had hung up his jacket and was looking at the inside of his free toiletries bag. "Umm, yeah, about that. I just realized I don't have my luggage, meaning I don't have, umm, anything to sleep in except my underwear."

Jenn blinked a few times. "Oh. Me too. I had sort of forgotten about that."

"Look, I can really can leave and..."

"Joe, enough with the chivalry routine, okay? I'm a grown adult, so if we decide not to share the bed then we're going to have to flip a coin about who has to go spend the night in the airport lobby."

Joe chuckled. "Sorry, but my Mama raised me better than to send a woman out into the cold like that. All right, we're sharing the bed in our undies. I promise not to look."

The notion that he would even consider her worth looking at in that situation set Jenn's thoughts down a dangerous path. "Calm down, dummy, he's probably just joking," she said to herself.

She cleared her throat. "Are you going to use the bathroom or what?"

"Sure thing. I'm dying to check out what this French toothpaste tastes like."

While Joe was in the shower Jenn called her husband, telling him about the delay and that she'd be home tomorrow night instead. As so often lately Malcolm seemed distracted and like he was barely paying attention to her.

"Love you, honey," she said at the end.

"Sure, yeah. Uh, love you too, dear," he answered dutifully and hung up.

Jenn looked down at the screen of her phone and sighed. When she and Malcolm had been dating in college Jenn thought she'd found her soulmate. They married in her last year of undergrad, sixteen years ago now. And for the last six years at least, living with Malcolm was less like having a soulmate than it was like having a roommate. One with whom she occasionally (very occasionally these days) had sex. What had gone wrong?

"Your turn again," Joe said, emerging from the bathroom. She glanced up and saw that he was carrying his clothes and wearing only boxers, meaning his brown muscular frame was now available to her gaze. She dropped her estimate of his age down, he must be at least ten years younger than she was. Probably more.

Realizing she was staring she decided to make a joke of it. "For a computer guy you're in pretty good shape."

He looked sheepish. "Not really, just some planking and pushups and stuff so I don't get too soft. I did a real short workout before my shower."

"You're way more serious than I am, traveling always seems like the perfect excuse to avoid my exercise routine," she said. "Probably why I carry the extra pounds."

Joe made a show of looking skeptical. "Extra pounds? I can't see any on you."

"Only because you haven't seen me out of my clothes yet," Jenn said, then realized what it sounded like and blushed. "Guess I should see if the hotel has any hot water left."

"I'll set an alarm for the morning. Seven okay?"

She spent extra time in the shower, soaping and washing every part of herself. She was being silly, she knew. This was a totally innocent state of affairs, plus Joe doubtlessly had zero interest in a lady in her late thirties. It was just that it had been such a long time since she'd been in any sort of situation like this, that's what was sending her imagination on such idiotic flights of fancy.

After she toweled off she looked at her clothing. She'd have to put the panties back on, but wearing a bra to bed would be awfully uncomfortable. Well, she'd just wrap herself in a towel until she got under the covers, that would have to do. Of course the Sheraton towels weren't quite large enough to serve as a full body wrap, so when she was ready to walk out of the bathroom she had a towel serving as a sort of sleeveless top that didn't cover all of her panties.

She cracked the door. "I'm coming out, so either close your eyes or prepare to be horrified."

Joe laughed and the lights in the bedroom went out. She swung the door open and saw that he was already in bed, sitting up with hands plastered over his face.

"Not looking," he called in a goofy voice.

Jenn snorted and turned off the bathroom lights. This didn't make things completely dark due to some low-level ambients in the bathroom, then when she walked past the washlet it lit up and continue to shine on her as she made her way to her side of the bed. Once there she dropped the towel and slid under the covers.

"Sweet dreams," Joe said once she was settled.

"You, too."

Jenn lay there in the semi-darkness staring up at the ceiling. It felt strange being in bed next to a man who wasn't her husband for the first time in so long. She tried to compose herself for sleep, but it seemed like forever before she drifted off.

"Jenn?" a voice said.

"Mmm?" she murmured, snuggling against Malcolm.

"This is nice, but do you know what you're doing?"

Jenn's eyes flew open. Her arm was across Joe's chest (not as hairy as Malcolm's), her leg over his firm thighs, her chin nestled against his shoulder. She let go and scooted back. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"

"No need. Like I said, it was nice," Joe said. "I just didn't want to start hugging you back until I knew if you wanted me to."

"I thought you were my husband."

Joe turned to face her. "Well, your husband is definitely a lucky guy, and right now I wish I was him. In fact, I've been thinking along those lines since I first met you."

"Don't be ridiculous. You're what, twenty-four or five? And I'm thirty-ei... I'm a lot older. You can't think I'm sexy."

Joe reached out a hand and touched her face, very gently. "I'm twenty-seven. And you want to know a secret? I've got a thing about teachers, have ever since fourth grade and Mrs. Cheng. As soon as you told me you're a professor I couldn't help thinking about, well, you know. Plus I had no idea you were older than me by more than a couple years."

"Liar," Jenn whispered.

"Total truth," Joe insisted. "Here's another secret. I was peeking between my fingers when you came out of the bathroom."

"You weren't," Jenn said, giggling.

"And pass up the chance to see a really hot Asian teacher in her underwear? Of course I was peeking," Joe said. "Not that I thought I had a chance with you, but I couldn't help hoping."

The hand stroking her cheek moved down her neck and then onto her chest. Jenn realized she hadn't told him to stop. "I don't know if we should," she said.

"Well, I know what I want, but it's your call," Joe said. "All I can tell you is that if we do you'll be making me very, very happy, and I'll do my best to do the same for you."

She didn't reply. Joe's hand started playing with one of her nipples, still very slowly and gently. "I'd really love for you to say yes," he whispered.

Jenn took a deep breath. This was crazy. She'd just met the guy, she knew virtually nothing about him. She'd never done anything like this, not even back in college. She had to apologize for leading him on and tell him no.

What emerged from her mouth was a long, breathy, "Yes."

Joe withdrew his hand, shifted his body toward here. They weren't touching, but his face was so close she could feel his breath on hers as he spoke. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, damn it, yes!"

He leaned closer and their lips touched. He kissed her. Her hands moved first, going to his shoulders, pulling him closer. She felt his on her hips, drawing her lower body to him as well.

Her nipples were already hard as they pressed against his broad chest. She moaned into his mouth as their kiss grew hotter and more open. His hands roved over her hips, backside, along her spine, over her backside again. Then they slipping inside her panties, groping her rear cheeks directly.

"If this body has extra pounds then I like where they are," Joe murmured.

Jenn didn't answer in words. Her hands moved to his hips, and finding the waistband of his boxers she snapped it. He chuckled.

He began trying to tug her panties down. She moved one of her hands to the front of his underwear and found his erection through the cotton. He was hard, as hard as she remembered young men getting for her. He groaned a little and she relented, shifting to help him get her panties off. His fingers found her slit and traced it, edging between her pussy lips, finding the wetness that was starting to flow there. She was suddenly glad she kept herself trimmed.

Joe stopped kissing her, shifted again and used his hands to indicate that he wanted her on her back. She spread her legs for his hand as his head lowered to her breasts. He nibbled and sucked on her nipples as his fingers sought her clit, teasing it to make it stand up and pay attention.

Jenn began breathing harder. She was very wet now, wet and ready. "I want you," she said.

The young man had other ideas, though. He began kissing his way down her torso toward her needy pussy. "Oh, god," she moaned, glad again she kept her bush trimmed and now also glad for the washlet she'd used earlier. Once he reached her wet box he didn't hesitate before beginning to kiss and lick it.

Joe turned out to be quite good at eating pussy, and very into it as well. She wondered why this should surprise her, deciding that it was because most of the guys she'd dated before Malcolm never were. "I guess there are some good things about the new generation," she thought, and giggled softly. That stopped as she felt an orgasm growing.

Joe could tell as well. Licking a finger to wet it, he slowly pushed into her vagina while at the same time resuming his oral attentions. She tried to hold back but soon she was thrusting her mound at his mouth and clenching at his hair as her climax neared.

Jenn panted out little cries as the orgasm ran through her. Joe remained glued to her pussy, not backing down or coming off when her juices started to gush (the way Malcolm did, those times he still did this). She actually had to tell him to stop and let her breathe when the peak was over; he seemed to be willing to keep going, but she was too sensitive now for that.

"Your turn," she said.

"You don't have to."

"I want to." And it was true, she did. She wanted to see the hard piece of meat she'd felt in his pants, see it and feel it and taste it.

Joe rolled on his back and let her help him take off his boxers. His cock did not disappoint. It gleamed darkly in the dim light from the bathroom, long, hard, and hot in her hand. She got on her hands and knees between his legs for the first licks. His precum tasted salty and rich.

"I can't touch you like this," Joe complained, so she changed positions, getting on her side and propping herself on an elbow. Now she could worship his cock while he fondled her nude body.

It had been a long time since she'd had one as big as this, it took her a little while to remember the old tricks. Soon though she'd moved from licking along the length and sucking the crown to bobbing her head up and down about half the length. Joe's hands caressed her bottom and breasts, increasing her enthusiasm. She started taking the head down her throat just a bit, not enough to gag her.

"Oh fuck, you're good at that," Joe gasped. "Fair warning, if you keep it up I'm going to cum."

She made one last effort, taking perhaps three-quarters of his cock, and held it for a few seconds. Then she pulled off, coughing a little. "What do you want, lover? My mouth, or..."

Joe was quiet for a few beats before finally saying, "My condoms were all in my luggage."