He has with everyone else so far

“Fine,” he said. “Come in.”

So far Randy had one for one with Nicole and now he would have two for two with Prudence

Prudence blinked at him, suspicion briefly overtaking the indignation on her face. It didn’t last. The corners of her mouth tightened with satisfaction and she stepped past him before he could change his mind, handbag tucked firmly beneath one arm.

“Well. At least somebody in this house remembers their manners," she said irritably.

Randy closed the door behind her while Prudence carried on into the hall as though the invitation had extended to the entire house. Her eyes travelled from the living room to the foot of the stairs and then farther down, lingering on the light beneath his bedroom door.

“Now,” she said, “perhaps you can tell me what all that screaming was about, because I can assure you I’m not leaving until—”

The remote was already in Randy’s hand.

He aimed it at her back and pressed the button.

The beam struck between her shoulders. White light spread across the grey cardigan before Prudence had even finished turning, swallowing the handbag beneath her arm, racing up the rigid line of her back and into her tightly pinned hair. A small sound escaped her. Not quite a scream yet, more the shocked intake of someone who had finally encountered something she hadn’t been prepared to judge. For an instant the glow only bleached the grey from the wool and washed the colour from her face. Then the years began to come out of her.

The deep lines beside her mouth softened first, not vanishing so much as loosening their hold on her. Papery skin along her cheeks filled out and warmed, colour spreading beneath it as the hollows disappeared from beneath her cheekbones. Her jaw lost its brittle sharpness. Her lips grew fuller, the permanent pinch leaving them until they looked made to be kissed instead of to scold. Even the hard little creases between her brows smoothed away. The expression remained Prudence’s, confused and offended, but something else was already moving in behind it when her eyes found Randy. A sudden, unwelcome pull low in her stomach. The first spark of wanting him, sharp enough that her new mouth parted on a breath she had not meant to give him.

Grey fled her hair strand by strand. Pale silver darkened through honey and into a rich blonde while the tight knot at the back of her head came apart by itself. Hair spilled down over her shoulders, thickening as it grew, passing her collar before gathering itself into a long, heavy ponytail that swung against her back when she stumbled. Even that made her look younger. Softer. The kind of woman people turned to watch. The hall light, which had sat well above her a moment ago, was suddenly closer to the top of her head.

“What have you—”

The rest of it broke into a moan. Her voice had already changed underneath the words, lower, silkier, the scold melting into something sultry she did not recognize as her own. The thought that followed was worse. He looked good. He looked better than he had any right to look. She hated that she noticed, and hated more that the sound she had just made was for him.

The narrowness went out of her body all at once. Her shoulders drew back and filled out beneath the light while her chest pushed forward, the modest shape beneath the cardigan swelling rapidly into a much heavier, fuller bust. Prudence gasped and grabbed at herself as the fabric strained across her, fingers sinking into new soft weight that had not been there a breath ago. The cardigan was already changing too. Wool darkened to a glossy wine-red, shrinking and tightening into fitted material as her breasts continued to grow beneath it, forcing the front into a deep, plunging cut that put the new cleavage on display before the jacket sealed itself around her waist. Heat followed the change. Not just in her skin. In her chest. Between her thighs. In the way her gaze kept dragging back to Randy like it belonged there, like the more desirable she became the more she wanted him to be the one looking. She had been looking him in the eye when she arrived. Now she was looking down at him, and still rising.

Her middle followed, soft age giving way to smooth firmness as her waist pulled inward. Below it, her hips spread in the opposite direction, rounding outward with enough force to alter her balance. The skirt twisted around her legs, its fabric liquefying into the same deep red as it climbed and reshaped itself into close-fitting trousers that had to keep lengthening just to cover her. Her thighs thickened inside them, fuller and heavier than before, while the seat filled out behind her until the glossy material stretched smoothly over a newly pronounced curve. Longer too. Each inch of height came with the rest of her, stretching her from the floor up until Randy’s face was level with the new swell of her chest. With every inch of it, the pull toward him deepened. Irritation. Then hunger. Then something she had never given anyone else in her life.

Prudence staggered forward and caught herself on Randy.

A moan slipped out of her as her new body pressed into him, heavy breasts crushed to his face and chest, those freshly rounded hips finding his without her meaning them to. She had to fold down just to keep her hands on his shoulders. The top of her ponytail brushed the hall ceiling. She had loved herself for decades. That had been the whole point. No husband. No man. No one worth the space. Now the centre of that feeling was moving, sliding out of her and into him, and it felt so good she could not keep the sound behind her teeth.

The woman clinging to him was still recognisably Prudence if he looked closely enough. The same blue eyes were there, only larger without the age gathered around them; the same high cheekbones, the same stubborn set of the chin. But the grey severity had been stripped away. Blonde hair fell thick behind her. Warm colour had returned to smooth skin. The thin, stiff figure that had arrived clutching a handbag on his doorstep had become tall enough to fill the hallway, voluptuous and almost absurdly glamorous, wrapped from those newly towering shoulders to her ankles in gleaming dark-red clothes that followed every new curve. Randy had to tip his head back to meet her eyes.

For perhaps two seconds she could only stare down at herself.

Her eyes lowered to Randy.

The first look was only heat. Then it deepened, pulling through her chest, her stomach, the new heavy weight of her breasts where they already brushed his face. She had never given this to anyone. Not her husband. Not a single man since. It built anyway, breath by breath, until wanting him was the only thing left in her head.

Folding down from that new towering height, she found his mouth like she already knew the shape of it. Soft at first. Then firmer. Glossy lips sealed over his and moved with him instead of against him, catching his lower lip, letting it go, coming back before he could take a full breath. A helpless little moan slipped into the kiss as those huge wine-red curves pressed him back against the door.

No rush with the tongue. She waited until his mouth opened under hers, then slid in slow, tasting him, stroking along his tongue and withdrawing just enough to make him follow. One huge hand cupped the back of his head and tilted him where she wanted him. The other spread over his chest, holding him there while the kiss went deeper, wetter, the angle changing whenever his breath hitched so the next pass landed harder.

By the time she finally let him up for air, his mouth was wet with her gloss and he was kissing back without thinking about it. A smile against his lips. Then she took him again, slower this time, like she had all day to teach his mouth what she wanted.

The kiss broke just enough for her to breathe against him. One huge hand left his chest and slid down her own body instead, cupping a heavy wine-red breast, then lower, squeezing the new curve of her hip and ass like she was checking that all of it was real.

“Dear me,” she murmured, sultry and stunned. “I feel amazing.”

Fingers sank into the glossy fabric again, groping without shame, a low pleased sound catching in her throat. “I can’t believe what a bitch my old self was. All those years sour and alone, talking down to everybody, talking down to you. What a waste.”

Randy heard it. My old self. Not the voice of a stranger wearing a new body. Prudence was still in there, looking back at the woman on his doorstep and finally seeing her clearly.

She kissed him again before he could answer, huge and warm and newly in love, still groping that changed body like she couldn’t keep her hands off what she had become.