I've never liked airports - who does? But I do like airport hotels. I like the anonymity, the sense of being in limbo, the freedom to be anyone I want to be.
I also associate them with incredible, mind-bending sex. You'll see why.
* * *
The weather had been closing in all day, and I blessed the foresight of Denise, my boss's PA, in booking me a room at the airport hotel after the day's meetings; another useful perk of being on the junior management track in my twenties. I'd heard how severe the winter storms in the northern US could be, but this was the first time I'd experienced one for real. The taxi driver said the forecast was for deep snow, and by the time I'd arrived virtually every flight on the board was showing as 'Delayed' or 'Cancelled'.
I knew Denise liked me, though, because she'd got me one of the best rooms in the hotel; on the top floor, with a jacuzzi, and a big bed. What a pity I wouldn't be sharing it with anyone, I thought. I'd buy her a bouquet of flowers when I got back.
* * *
I unpacked my stuff, checked my emails - nothing urgent - and placed an order for room service; a bottle of wine and the usual club sandwich, which I knew from experience would more than I could eat. The voice at the other end of the phone warned me that it would be about an hour as they had a full house that night. I decided to wander down to the airport and look at the bookstore before the food arrived.
After the tranquillity of the room, the chaos of the airport concourse came as a shock; it was thronged with people who'd arrived in the early evening, hoping against hope that their flight would not be cancelled or that they could find an alternative. Most of the passengers were going to be staying there overnight.
I stood in the lee of a pillar and looked at the crowds, deeply relieved that I wouldn't have to bed down on the floor or sleep one of those benches that are designed to be uncomfortable.
I was about to turn away when I saw her.
It was Judy. Judy, my ex-girlfriend Laura's mother.
* * *
I suppose everyone has a physical type, and Laura matched it, as did her mother. Laura had a compact, lithe frame, innocent blue eyes, a snub nose and reddish-blonde hair. She played a lot of tennis, and it showed in the firm muscles of her arms and bottom. I found her intensely attractive.
I'd been dating Laura for most of the summer, and we'd gone on holiday to France with her sister and her husband. One evening we'd had dinner and gone back to the pension early, telling the others we were tired after a day at the beach. I'd admired her body as she stripped off for me in the anonymous hotel room, especially the way her pert breasts bounced as she walked around the room to where I was already lying in the broad bed with a thin sheet over me, enjoying the sight of her in a tight G-string.
The best thing about the foreign hotel room was that it gave us complete privacy from flatmates and family, and we could do whatever we wanted.
And we did.
We'd kissed, long and deep, with her hand exploring and teasing. Then, at her request, she'd straddled my face so that I could pull the G-string aside and lick the pink bud of her clitoris through its thin coat of tawny fur, which I knew she loved from the little whimpers of pleasure she gave. Too shy to describe it, she asked me to kiss her between her legs, and I did so at every opportunity; once, memorably, when we were getting ready for a party to which she was wearing a black cocktail dress, and that had led to fucking her from behind in her bedroom, and we were ten minutes late, which had displeased her parents.
In return she teased my cock with her lips, sometimes running the tip of her tongue from end to end, sometimes taking my whole length into her mouth.
When we fucked I'd found a position that I could keep up for ages, my hands moving between caressing her muscular bum and her breasts, pleasuring her as slowly as I knew how. She came several times, and I ended up pumping myself deep into her, sating myself as I thrust myself between the tight lips of her cunt. When she rolled off me and we were getting our breath back, she'd lain with her legs apart, my come running out of her pussy onto the crisply laundered hotel sheets.
* * *
It was one of those affairs that is driven more by lust than by actual compatibility, and had come to its natural end months ago. But I'd got on well with the rest of the family. Dave, her father, had been distant, but Laura told me he was always like that. On the other hand her mother, Judy had been warm and welcoming. 'She really likes you!' Laura had told me.
Judy was where Laura would be in twenty-five years. She'd looked after herself and still had much same body that had attracted me to her daughter, but with the additional experience and confidence from being in her forties.
In a different world, I had decided, I might have pursued the mother rather than the daughter.
As it turned out, I didn't have to.
* * *
'Judy? Judy, is that you?'
Despite a different haircut and a formally tailored business suit, she still looked enormously desirable, and I had a moment of regret that things hadn't worked out with Laura.
She turned from the TV departure monitor towards my voice. Her guileless blue eyes took me in for a moment before recognition dawned, and she gave a warm smile despite the stressful situation. 'James. How lovely to see you. Are you stuck here too?'
She had been travelling to see a client a few hours away, and had decided to fly to make the journey quicker. Now she was realising she should have put off the trip.
'Isn't this awful? It looks as if we're going to be stuck here overnight,' she said.
I had an idea.
'Look, you don't have to stay here in the terminal. I have a room at the airport hotel. If you're stuck here, you're welcome to share it.'
'That's sweet of you, but I couldn't put you out.'
'You won't be. It's a pretty big suite, and there's a spare bed. Your flight's been cancelled and there won't be any hotel rooms anywhere. You can't sleep here on the floor.'
She could see the sense in what I was suggesting. It didn't take much to convince her, and with relief she agreed to come up. I took the handle of her carry-on, and walked with her to the hotel lobby, just a few steps from away from the chaos.
* * *