Stephanie's Amazing Race Pt. 01

As the man and his partner continued to notice her, she felt a new found well of strength bubble up inside of her.

She forced herself to a stop, and then turned to face the couple. Fixing a smile on her face to mask the waves of terror, excitement, fear and arousal that she was currently trying to ride, she took a few steps towards them.

"Hey." Stephanie said. "I don't suppose either of you two know where the pool is, do you?"

Stephanie knew where the pool was, of course, but that wasn't the point of the question.

The man didn't respond, and seemed preoccupied with trying to figure out where he should look, or whether he should pretend not to hear the question and let his companion deal with it.

His companion seemed to suddenly give him a slightly withering look, and then turned to her face Stephanie.

"Top floor, south tower." she said, with a hint of steel in her voice. "You should probably hurry. Pool will be closing soon."

Stephanie nodded her head in acknowledgement. Message received. Rough translation: "Get out of here now, I don't like the way my partner's checking you out."

"Thanks." Stephanie said, with a sweetness in her voice that probably sounded as forced as it felt.

Turning on her heels, Stephanie continued back on her journey, sensing that behind her the other woman was beginning to have a few things to say to her man. Stephanie almost felt sorry for him, but she was too swept up in the moment to give that too much attention.

She was now in the exact middle of the lobby, walking past the main front doors of the hotel. Whether it was her, or someone outside, something triggered the doors and they opened up to let in the cold late afternoon air.

Stephanie felt a rush as a breeze wafted into the lobby, and played around her tummy, breasts and legs. Her hyper-sensitive sense of touch screamed at the interaction of the breeze on her bare skin, and the coldness of the air gave her a strangely enjoyable sensation around her bottom. It was almost like her wind was giving her ass a playfully, light, innocent slap, and Stephanie found herself confused at the arousal that she felt from that. The Stephanie that she knew certainly wasn't in to that sort of carry-on. Of course, the Stephanie that she knew was safely back in her hotel room, dreaming up excuses for not having completed the race.

The outer doors closed again, and the breeze receded. Stephanie continued on her way, through a sea of glances, gasps, and disapproving looks.

In reality, the lobby wasn't actually that big, and in normal time a woman could cross the entire place in under a minute. Stephanie was travelling in bikini-time though, and she was so wired on the emotion of the moment that she felt like ten minutes passed before she finally reached the south tower's lifts.

She pressed the up button to summon a lift, and almost immediately the doors of the central lift pulled apart. The lift inside was empty, and Stephanie gracefully made her way inside and turned around to face front. She was somewhat startled to see the man from the previous lift standing right there, almost about to enter the lift too. He was still holding his book tightly too him, and he seemed slightly surprised to be there himself.

Stephanie opened her mouth to say something, but her mind froze for a moment. She fumbled for the "open door" button, and held it pressed so the door wouldn't slide shut and the man would be trapped outside.

Neither one of them said anything for a moment, and Stephanie realised she couldn't exactly hold the button forever.

"Ahh.." Stephanie ventured, "are you coming up this tower too?"

"What? Umm, no. No, sorry. I'm... ahh..." the man seemed caught out by the question and momentarily unsure of where he actually was going. As he desperately cast his eyes around him to figure out where he was, a spark of recognition seemed to suddenly hit him.

"Yes, that's right, I'm going to the reception desk". The man said, with some measure of authority returning to his voice.

"Oh." Stephanie said, unsure exactly how that brought the man to be standing in front of her. "Well, the reception desk is back that way." She pointed back to the middle of the lobby, and the man slowly turned to look at where she was indicating.

"Oh, yes." the man continued, stumbling over this words. "Yes, yes, of course. I was... umm... just making sure you got to the, agh, ... lift safely."

The man instantly scrunched up his eyes as the last word escaped from his lips, and agony consumed his facial features at the all too obvious stupidity of what he'd just said. Stephanie wasn't exactly a mind-reader, but she didn't need to be one to know that the one and only thought going through the man's head right now was a far less polite take on "You idiot! Who in their right mind says something like that?!"

Stephanie let the "open door" button go, and placed a hand delicately over her mouth to hide the smile that she was currently sporting.

"Well, good luck with the reception, sir." She replied, and gave another small wave with her other hand.

"Yes, err... thanks." the man said in return, slowly backing away and forcing a cheerful smile.

As the doors of the lift began to close on her admirer, Stephanie had a sudden attack of un-Stephanie'ness. The attacks had been constant and overwhelming over the past few minutes.

"Excuse me, sir?" she called, attracting the attention of the man one last time. As he turned to look at her, and with doors narrowing the view of the lift car, Stephanie spun around on the balls of her feet, bent over slightly at the waist, placed her hands on her knees, and gave her fellow hotel guest a sexy shake of her bottom. Then, with the doors almost closed, she spun back around and bounced up and down on the spot a couple of times. She found herself consumed in the moment as she felt the bandeau both support her breasts, yet still permit their jiggling as they gently rose and fell with her movements.

The doors finally closed, and the last thing Stephanie heard from the lobby was the sound of a book hitting the floor for the second time in as many minutes.

She simply had no idea who this woman was.

******

Stephanie still had the pool to herself as she completed her tenth length. The excitement from the lobby walk was still with her, and was powering Stephanie on to what would have been a personal best time were she in the mood to time herself.

There were several things she still couldn't comprehend. Firstly, that she'd been out in public with barely half of her backside covered. Secondly, had she really talked to that strange couple with such a confident voice? Thirdly, what was with that show she'd put on for the man from the lift?

She reached the end of the pool, and did a quick turn, before setting off on her eleventh leg. Her slim arms held a hidden power to them, and combined her taut athletic legs, she was propelling herself along at a great rate of knots.

Her stomach tightened as she imagined how she'd look, all wet and flustered, walking back through that lobby.

Was it too late to ring the concierge from the pool phone, and request a towel? Was it too late to consider her modesty.

She turned and pushed off for her twelfth leg, knowing full well the answers to those questions. Yes, and most certainly yes.

*******

There were fifteen floors in the south tower of her hotel. It would take all of thirty seconds for the lift to make it's way down to the lobby from the top, but as before seconds were stretching into minutes.

This time, she didn't even have the lift to herself from the very beginning. She'd emerged from the pool only a few moments ago, and had discovered that at some point late in her swim, she'd been joined by a couple of older men - perhaps in their forties.

As she'd stepped out, energised by the fifteen lengths and - perhaps even more so - by the thought of what was to come, she'd realised that she should probably get rid of a little of the surface water pouring off her body. There was a difference between "sexy-when-wet" and "just-dripping-wet". The part of her who was curious about putting on a show was getting louder and more demanding, and the rest of Stephanie Henderson was having a great deal of difficulty talking reason to that other part.

She'd decided that it was within the spirit of the rules given to her that she could at least shake some of the more obvious water off her body.

She'd stood by the side of the pool - devoid of towel - and quickly shook herself, flipping her hair around twisting her body and arms this way and that. Some of the water flicked off, and she felt now that she was wet, without being saturated. This entire action though was greeted with a sudden bought of coughing.

Looking out into the pool, she realised that she was not alone, and that the coughing was from an older gentleman who had seen her and completely messed up his stroke, resulting in swallowing a decent amount of pool water. As he struggled to regain his composure, Stephanie also noticed that he had a friend, who was sitting at one end, legs in the water, about to hop in, but now entirely engrossed in Stephanie's performance.

Stephanie felt the red flush of embarrassment flood into her cheeks, and instinctively turned to leave. She'd only made it three steps though, before that rebellious side of her seized control of her legs. Refusing to let her take another step further, that part of her instead forced Stephanie to turn around, and placed her hands on her hips.

Stephanie found herself opening her mouth again.

"Excuse me sirs, has anyone seen my towel?" she asked, seemingly innocently.

The men spluttered for a moment, and made a show of casting their eyes around the poolside. After a few brief moments though, it became self-evident that no such towel was going to materialise. One of the men even made the genuinely kind offer of lending her his towel. Stephanie smiled inwardly at that gentlemanly gesture.

"Oh, it's okay, but thank you anyway. I'm sure I can slip back quietly to the North Tower without being noticed." Stephanie smiled at them, and then shocked herself by giving them a sexy wink.

Turning around, she headed out of the pool, and bit her lip at the thought of what she'd just left those men imagining.

***********

After leaving the pool, Stephanie had found that there were more than just the two men up on the top floor with her. The floor also had a smaller array of hotel rooms, mostly larger suites for the richest guests, and two of those guests were waiting at the lift to head down to the lobby.

They'd all entered the lift together. Stephanie in her wet bikini, water droplets on her exposed skin, her brown hair now darker after the swim and flattened to her neck and back.

Her companions on this return ride was - by sheer coincidence - the older woman from the reception this morning, and her companion. Now that Stephanie had a few seconds with them, she guessed the older woman was in her late 40s. She was slightly overweight, although far from obese, and dressed in what were clearly expensive clothes. The dress she wore covered her completely, although the material glistened in the light of the lift car. A necklace of large pearls featured prominently around her neck, and she was several rings that clearly sported valuable diamonds. Her own black hair seemed was longer than Stephanie's own brown hair, and was also straight and severe.

Her companion was a well dressed man who looked in his early 50s, although possibly quite spry for that age. A tuxedo and dress pants gave off an image of affluence and influence, and Stephanie couldn't have felt more at odds with these people given the state of her own attire.

Her breathe quickened again, and she didn't say a word to either the woman or the man as the rode to the lobby. Earlier, the woman had harrumphed her for being slightly tardy in approaching the reception desk, and clearly nothing Stephanie was doing now was improving that first impression in the eyes of the woman.

Stephanie heard the tut-tut of the woman, as she leaned in to whisper something to her companion. Without even looking, she could feel the man's furtive glances thrown her way. As with the man in the previous lift, Stephanie could feel his gaze exploring the most intimate parts of her body. She almost felt like he was caressing her backside, and just as she was about to almost turn away, she then sensed that he was looking at the side of her breasts. The thought that her nipples might be quite prominent in the bandeau material flashed to the front of Stephanie's mind. Closing her eyes, she could see herself through the man's own eyes. A petite, brunette beauty in a scandalous swim suit. Her backside only half covered, and two sharp points protruding from the front of her top.

Stephanie gulped, not for the first time tonight, and almost gasped for air when the lift suddenly chimed to announce their arrival at the lobby.

Stephanie dashed out as the doors opened, without even an acknowledgement to her companions, and set her eyes firmly on the lifts for the North Tower. Striding forward, she wondered why this was getting harder with every possible step. She'd only just been down here before. She'd almost been confident then. There was something about the water on her skin though. Whether it was the feeling of the droplets slowly easing - almost teasing - down her body that made her even more sensitive, or whether it was just the fact that everyone would be wondering why this brazen beauty hadn't bothered drying herself. There was something about this return trip that was making Stephanie almost hyper-ventilate. The intensity, the raw emotion of the moment, was beginning to get to her.

Eyes ahead, one foot in front of another, Stephanie swept through the lobby, interrupting conversations and dragging attention along with her.

As she passed the outside doors, they once again opened to let in the night air. This time the cold breeze interaction with the water on her skin forced a shivering moan from her. The moan wasn't just from the cold though, and Stephanie was beginning to wonder if she'd keep it together long enough to make it back to the room.

She finally reached the lifts, and mercifully there was no-one else waiting for one. As she continued her quick, sharp breathing, she was acutely aware that he rest of the lobby was unnaturally silent. After what seemed like an eternity, the bell of the arriving lift echoed through the lobby, shattering that unholy quiet, and the doors to the left-most shaft beckoned. Her emotions on a knife edge, Stephanie threw herself into the lift and frantically hit the "close doors" button, lest someone else try and join her for the ride.

The doors closed. Stephanie's eyes closed. She'd survived, for now.

****

To be concluded in Part 2, as Stephanie attempts the final leg of her own private Amazing Race. All comments, PMs and votes appreciated. Thanks for reading.