Drinking alone at the bar was not exactly his thing, but there was nothing else to really do at the hotel, and certainly not in the city - those desert metropolises were a marvel to behold but pretty boring after a while, especially since alcohol was forbidden outside the foreigners' zone, or whatever this enclave was called. He wondered at people who chose such places for holidays. He wouldn't - not that he would have been able to afford the stay if his expenses weren't covered by the university.

Looking around, he realised that he was pretty much alone at the bar - it was 10 pm; apparently too early for most people. So when the girl came in and sat close to him, he felt compelled to talk to her. He wasn't trying to flirt, it just felt awkward since they were the only ones there. Though, as the words left his mouth, he wondered if he'd do the same had it been someone less attractive.

"Are you here for the conference too?" It was a decent guess: very short, almost shaved hair, the edge of tattoos showing under her short sleeves, aloof demeanour - not the type who'd come here for recreation. One of the oceanographers maybe?

She looked confused. "No, my flight got delayed and I lost the correspondence. The airline set me up here till morning."

"Ah." Well, that conversation died quickly. Lousy guess on his part.

But the girl after a moment went on. "What conference?"

"First Eurasian Conference on Climate Change Mitigation Technologies." Wow, that must have sounded extra boring, he thought.

"Really? Here?" she asked, gesturing at the surroundings.

"Well, yes, the hosts are not really champions of sustainability, they just want to appear like they are taking it seriously. But some of the proceedings are actually interesting - for example, there was this talk on degrowth that could... I see, ok, I will stop talking now," he said as he saw the girl smiling, amused at his rambling.

"No, please, I'm captivated. So you're a climatologist or something?" She was still smiling, and for the first time he noticed her in more detail - she did not just have a beautiful smile; her eyes were large, green and very slightly tilted; she had a lip ring and a pierced eyebrow. Hell. She was the girl of his dreams back when he was eighteen: girls who look like boys who look like girls, he remembered seeing written on a wall once.

He wasn't eighteen anymore, which at least meant he could hopefully avoid ogling. "Or something. I'm an atmospheric physicist. Doing a belated PhD on the atmosphere of Saturn's moons. But there are no conferences on that, so they sent me here. And you? Where are you going this night, passing through this place?"

He realised he had tried to impress her with his credentials. Maybe he had not grown up all that much these past twenty years. But it did seem to work, at least a bit, as she raised an interested eyebrow.

"I'm moving to Australia for work. At a veterinarian hospital. Not too much work on that field back home."

"And where is home?" he asked.

"Naryn. It's a city in Kyrgyzstan." Seeing him nodding without comment, she continued. "That tells you nothing, right?"

"Pretty much, yes. I can't say I know much about Kyrgyzstan. I am afraid I picture all of central Asia as some endless steppe, where wild horses and wild riders run, bow in hand with the wind in their hair. I hope that's not too deeply insulting."

She smiled again - fuck, she was beautiful! "So, we - the collective 'central Asians' - remind you of the second best thing in life then."

It took him a second. "Was that a... Conan reference?"

"You seem surprised - maybe due to some other stereotype you had in your mind?"

"No, no. It's just...it might be silly, but I find it amazing how you can meet some person from some place completely unknown to you, in a random hotel in the Gulf, and find common cultural references. Globalisation has some positive effects I suppose."

She nodded. "So where are you from then? Some place where Crom is known I suppose."

"I'm a Greek who hasn't yet found a chance to run off to Australia I'm afraid." That was half-true - Australia wouldn't be the first choice, but running away was always on the back of his mind.

"Somewhat more familiar than Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, to the average person then. Do you have a name?"

"Alexander - it must seem terribly original, I know." She laughed. "And you? What is thy lordly name?" he asked.

"Nazgul."

"No, it isn't. You're fucking with me."

"No, I am not. Well, I am, a little. It isn't actually pronounced like this. It means something like 'shy rose'."

"That is so very cool to a very specific but not so small audience."

They kept talking about this and that - he certainly multiplied his knowledge of Kyrgyzstan, though his attempts at placing its people in the Hyborian Age world were met with ridicule. This was turning to be a fun night; Nazgul laughed a lot, her mirth in turn bringing him joy. He was happy to see her having fun and amazed to connect to someone from some place he'd never seen. Eventually, of course, the conversation slowed down, as such conversations do. There was only so much common ground you can find with a completely random stranger. Almost a minute of silence caused him a slight panic, as he was frantically trying to find something to say - do not dare to mention the weather, he had to remind himself - but she beat him to it.

"Can I ask you something? Why did you talk to me? You don't seem a naturally social person."

Honesty was usually best, he had long decided. "Frankly, because it felt weird that you were next to me when we were the only ones here." That was no longer the case, there was a healthy number of residents around them, feeding their unhealthy habits.

"I see. For a moment, I thought you planned to make a pass on me."

"That was not my intention," he started. "But if I had, how would that have gone?"

"Well, if you had done that from the start, I would have probably slapped you. At least verbally. But now, after two hours of talking to you and knowing you are fifteen years older than me, with bad humour, slow to get Conan references and ignorant of my culture, I would fuck your brains out."

He swallowed. That was unexpected. He had, at some point during these two hours - had it really been that long? - realised they were flirting, but never thought it would be that successful.

"I see. Then I guess I should make a decision if I want to make a pass on you or not."

"I think that would be a good thing to ponder, yes."

It would seem an easy decision. He could look at her face for hours in awe. And to make things better, at some point, she got up to visit the WC, and that ridiculous saying about 'love to watch you walk away' had immediately sprang to mind.

"I should tell you I am married," he finally confessed.

She shrugged. "Fine by me. My boyfriend is waiting for me in Melbourne. Does it matter to you?" She then thought more on it: "But if you think this will weigh heavily on your conscience or something, I don't want to pressure you."

He gathered his thoughts. "I've always thought that life is nothing but an endless series of regrets. To be honest, I'd regret not doing this far more. And, at the danger of sounding cheesy as hell, there is a passage from a Greek poet that is never far from my mind: If I feel longing, it's not for you, loves gone by, but for those unknown women with whom I shared just a fleeting glance in passing; such that they remained a sweet and unfulfilled desire, when - who knows - they could have changed my life forever."

She retained the slightly amused look. "A bit cheesy, for sure. How should I take that though?"

"Would you like to come up to my room for some coffee or something?" he asked.

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

It is amazing how quickly horniness takes over and we become animals, after so long trying to maintain the facade of civilised society, he thought as his hand immediately grabbed her ass the moment the elevator doors closed.

As if reading his thoughts, she said, "Let's not shock the personnel just yet. Be patient a little while longer."

It was not easy. He unlocked the door with a fervor never felt before, and the moment they got in, she pushed him against the wall, wrapped her hands around his neck and kissed him. She run a hand over his pants and his rock-hard cock, and smiled another mischievous smile. "Take a shower, I will be waiting."

"What about you? I don't mean... sorry, I just can't wait much longer."

"I took a long bath before coming down to the bar. Do you think I wore this outfit on the plane? Or that I went to the hotel bar for a quiet drink?"

Underneath his mind-numbing horniness, he felt a little stupid. Her dress was short, her boots knee-high, and she was wearing fishnets. Unlike him, she probably did like going to bars to drink alone. Alone at first.

"Got it. Not your first one-night stand then." She fluttered her eyelashes. "Don't take off the boots."

The shower was a good idea. Not to cool his head, he had no interest in that, but it allowed time for some grooming. He debated a while whether he should get dressed again or wrap a towel around him before eventually deciding to come out naked. His cock was as hard as a cock could get, and he was aware it was on both the large and the thick side.

She was just sitting on the bed, cross-legged, with her back straight and her hands folded on her lap. She smirked when he approached, but also whispered "fuck yeah" under her breath. As he stood before her, the tip of his cock was right around the height of her chin.

She stuck her tongue out and took a quick lick off the top. Then she tilted her head a little and started licking his freshly shaved balls. He loved that, and his wife never did it. Her left hand stroked his shaft while she put the right one under her dress, her tongue now running the length of his cock slowly, two or three times before she wrapped her lips around him, taking half his length in.

He dared what seemed an improper question. "Do you mind if I film this? Just for..." Her head stopped bobbing up and down and she slowly took him out of her mouth. He felt a momentary and pointless pride at how it barely fit in there.

She looked into his eyes, seriously, and he feared he had crossed a line. "Sure, go ahead. It certainly won't be the first video of me giving head." Just like that. She smirked again and went back to work. He held her head with his left hand and started to slowly fuck her mouth, holding his phone with the other hand. She had no problem playing along, looking straight at the camera most of the time. He wondered if her generation really does copy behaviours from porn sites.

In any case, he couldn't complain. She was good. She was great. "Can I cum on your face?" he asked. His wife always swallowed, but he actually preferred facials. It wasn't even that she would deny him if he asked, it just felt awkward to do so after all these years. Funny how it was so much less weird to ask a stranger if he could cum on her face and film it than his own spouse.

"I insist on it," she teased.

He came a lot - five, six strings of hot cum across her face, her scalp, dripping down to her dress. As he was emptying his load on her he realised he had not even seen her naked yet. That had to change. As she rose, she pulled her dress over her head and stood there, in her boots and fishnets - no underwear - with cum dripping onto her chest. He started to lick it off her neck and moved slowly downwards. She gathered some cum from her head in her finger and stuck it into his mouth.

"I like men who eat cum," she said as if it wasn't obvious.

"I would eat any guy's cum off your body," he said, not knowing where that came from. It was true, though.

She seemed to approve of his comment. She pulled him off her by the hair, and lay down on the bed, legs spread open and clicked her tongue. He didn't need a second invitation. He got on his knees and buried his head between her legs, his tongue frantically exploring her cunt.

He was confident in his skill in oral. He didn't think he had any magic skills or special technique; he simply liked eating pussy, and was willing to keep at it for as long as it takes. So he did, fucking her with his tongue while also fingering her, letting her guide him or readjust him so he could do her clit just right. Her moans were genuine, and after twenty, or maybe thirty minutes of continuous pussylicking, they got louder. She held his head still for a moment and asked:

"Do you mind if I film this? Don't worry, it won't be the first video of somebody eating me out."

He nodded. She then repositioned him and let him get back to work - a few seconds later, she wrapped her legs tight around his head and convulsed violently under him, treating him to her juices. By that time, he was again very hard, and immediately grabbed her by the thighs and turned her around on all fours. He ripped the fishnets around her cunt a little and easily penetrated her. He fucked her hard, pounding her with slow, deep thrusts, enjoying her twitching under him, and seeing the tree of life tattooed on her back move as if, well, as if alive. He did not have the habit of talking during sex, as he thought whatever he said would sound stupid, but having a language barrier removed that obstacle, so he gave it a try, especially as she seemed to be talking a lot under her breath.

"Do you like that, you little cocksucking slut?" he said in his native tongue. She replied with a loud groan. Maybe there was no language barrier during sex at all.

Emboldened, he continued the degrading, calling her all manner of things he normally wouldn't, and describing what he was doing in lewd but accurate terms as he alternated speed and depth of penetration. He slapped her ass, and when she seemed to approve he did it again. She screamed something that could only mean 'harder' and he kept going, drilling her till he couldn't anymore, pulled out, his seed pollinating the painted tree on her back, reaching all the way to the back of her neck. But he couldn't stop now that she seemed so close to another orgasm. As she was still on all fours, he slipped his whole fist inside her, meeting no resistance, and continued fucking her savagely with his hand. It didn't take longer than a minute for her to cum again. She collapsed next to him and the world went dark.

He woke to find her positioning herself on his cock as he was laying on his back. She had showered, evidently gone back to her room and changed into more casual clothes - from the waist up - and was now getting ready to ride him. He had slept through it all.

"Morning. My flight leaves in a couple of hours. I debated between this and getting breakfast, so don't make me regret it," she said. "Don't worry, I've already been fingering myself for a while, this won't take long."

It didn't. She rode him hard, her waist moving rapidly back and forth as he was using his mouth on her nipples, and she was soon trembling, screaming and cumming over his cock again.

"Don't worry, I am not getting on that plane without the taste of cum in my mouth," she said as she got up and then down again on her knees. This time he consciously kept his hands away from her, letting her keep her own pace. She sucked his balls for a bit before focusing on the underside of his cockhead, using her tongue to drive him wild. When he came, she was looking straight in his eyes and he could see her throat gulping every drop.

It took less than three minutes for her to put on pants and open the door to leave. Forever. He felt still asleep but the prospect woke him up quickly.

"Hey, wait a second. I..." He didn't really know what to say. She looked at him patiently. There was still time.

"It's a profound thing, you know," he eventually said. "To share such an experience with a stranger, for a lifetime."

"Do you mean you are going to jerk off to me for the rest of your life?"

"I probably will. But I think it's a bit deeper than that. Even if we had just kept talking through the night at the bar, it would be just as memorable. How many nights like this do you get?"

"Maybe life is not just an endless series of regrets?"

"Perhaps not. If we never see or talk to each other again - and I warn you, it may be a few weeks or a few years but I will try to look you up on social media - I wish that you live long and prosper, Nazgul."

She smiled that perfect smile before turning to go. "Fuck you in another life," he heard her say.