Lacy Things by Yvonne Eros

She walked across the aisle, her eyes delving into each of the wired bins in the center of the store.  A myriad of colors caught her attention, and she reached down to handle them. The young woman loved the feel of silk, and didn’t mind the sensation of cotton.  But she absolutely could not resist the temptation of lace.
    Krystal wasn’t the kind of girl who found herself attractive.  She had a very innocent appreciation for her looks and found the gazes sent her way whenever she entered a room inexplicable.  She thought her appearance modest at best, and very rarely noticed the attention that was received.
    Low self-esteem left the beautiful woman alone for most of her life, since men consistently had taken advantage of her generous, benevolent nature.  Despite her penchant for being a little oblivious to the men flocking around her, she always had friends close by to keep them in line.  A sisterhood of spies, they worked together like a pack of wolves making sure any man who abused the good-natured girl was quickly tracked down like prey and devoured.
    Such a scenario had led Krystal to the lingerie store that evening.  For the first time in a long while, she opened her heart up completely to her latest boyfriend, leaving her emotions entirely exposed.  Apparently, no matter how much her heart was opened, it wasn’t opened wider than his gymnast ex-girlfriend’s legs.  Although it had been weeks since she found him “testing her flexibility” on her own kitchen counter top, Krystal still felt entirely unsexy.
    A strand of her long wavy blonde hair fell from the side of her head, obscuring her vision as she lifted up a silky red bra.  She whipped her neck to the side, tossing the unkempt tress to a more manageable position.
    The subtle movement allowed her to notice him for the first time in the corner of her eye. Perusing a column of shelves on the other side of the store, a man with dark features and entrancing eyes stared back at her for only a while longer before he realized she was no longer focused on the bra between her hands.  He quickly averted his gaze and looked back at the shelves of lingerie in front of him.
    Krystal grinned.  It was the first time she had seen that shy awkwardness in a man for as long as she could remember.  While he tried unsuccessfully to shield his intentions, she took the time to scrutinize every bit of her mysterious admirer.
    The man was wearing white collar clothing.  A nice button-up shirt couldn’t hide the fact that his arms were bulky and toned.  His sleeves were rolled up, and she could see his flexed forearms reaching into a pair of dark slacks.  Those pants, just like his top, accentuated his physique.  As he turned to look on the opposite set of shelves, she homed in on his tight butt like a surface-to-ass missile.
    She could definitely have fun with that one.
    His dark hair was medium length, just thick and long enough to play with.  The thought alone sent tingles to the tips of her fingers.  He looked away, abandoning the shelves to stare blankly at a rack of sheer stockings behind him.  The way his eyes scanned the items with unfocused determination made her assume the man was clearly there to look at women and not make any purchases for a lover… or himself.  She noticed the five o’clock shadow on his face – it looked good on him.  His tanned skin looked even more impressive underneath the store’s fluorescent lights.
    Her eyebrows lifted for a moment as she considered her next move.
    There was surely some lingerie in that direction that she could be interested in.
    Krystal made her way through the racks and aisles of the store with great effort to appear modest without hiding the exaggerated swaying of her hips.  She gravitated toward the man at a snail’s pace, but he never ventured very far anyway.  Her eyes never fell directly upon him as she weaved through the place, but her peripheral vision proved well enough to see his eager