Cynthia's eyes fell again onto Ash, fidgeting nervously as she was fondled and groped so blatantly and openly.
She wanted to turn her head over her shoulder and see if anyone was paying any attention to it, but she found herself too taken by Ash's new looks to be able to.
"Of course it does," she said, so tragically off of her game that she could hardly live with herself for how poorly this was going, but she knew she had to just accept that she had been taken by surprise.
With some time to gather herself, she would be fine again. As the clerks helping both of them turn away to handle the clients' requests, she leans in and says lower, "In twenty minutes, take the lobby elevator up to the penthouse suite."
It almost shouldn't have been that easy. The timing and Cynthia's immediate agreement to what he was after were both signs of the good fortune he hoped awaited him in the tournament.
Not that he cared much at all about the tournament, slapping her ass again and smirking. "Wear something slutty, or nothing at all," he said, and that was all the indication Cynthia needed that this was definitely not the Ash Ketchum she remembered.
That his travels and maturity had done things to him that turned him into someone very, very different than he once was.
And as much as she loved adorable, bright-eyed trainers for her legally questionable-at-best exploits, she was loving every second of what she saw.
"Here you go, Mister Ketchum," the clerk said, handing Ash his key card. "Please enjoy your stay."
"I'm sure I will," he said, flashing one last smirk over to Cynthia before stepping back and smirking.
If anything, twenty minutes was going to be a long time to fill; all he had to do was get quickly settled in and retrieve a little something special from his backpack. A gift, in a sense.
*********************************
Ash had never been up in a penthouse suite before. Accomplished battlers may have been big stars, but that was a lot of money to throw around casually, and Ash preferred a good room in a nice hotel over excessive luxury.
It was all sleep either way. But going up to a penthouse on someone else's dime was a different matter entirely, and Ash gladly came back down to the lobby, flagging down the private elevator that went on an express trip up the tall building and right to the penthouse on the topmost floor.
He carried with him only a small drawstring bag with him as he buzzed to the top floor.
"Yes?" asked Cynthia over the intercom.
"It's Ash," he said, and within seconds, a little light over the buzzer turned green, inviting him up to the penthouse. He stepped into the elevator, and so began the single longest elevator ride of his life.
Not only because there were over fifty floors to race up, but because he was so close now to finally kicking off his plan, which was elegant in its utter simplicity.
He had a running mental list of plenty of the gorgeous women he had encountered over the years who in hindsight he felt like an idiot for not going for.
Some had made moves on him before, others were simply his kind of woman, but one by one, he was determined to get all of them utterly ensnared and devoted to him in ways that were perhaps almost cruel in the intensity he sought.
And Cynthia would be his first. A prized conquest by any consideration, but also a very bold way to stake his claim.
He was no virgin by this point, his fame as a Pokemon Master and his rapidly maturing sensibilities having helped greatly in allowing Ash to have casual bouts to hone his sexual abilities and figure out what he was into, and he brought all of those experiences to the table when it came now to conquering Cynthia.
She wasn't going to go down easy, very experienced and one of the oldest women on his list, who had already married the great Steven who was known for destructive penis which conquered thousands.
But if he could make her submit to him utterly, then there was no way every other woman he lusted after wouldn't follow suit and spread their legs for him. It was the promising start to something he knew would be amazing.
When the elevator reached the top with a pleasant ding, Ash was greeted with exactly the kind of sight he'd wanted from his arrival.
Cynthia stood in front of the elevator entrance, which fed right into the living room area of the penthouse suite, wearing her coat open and showing off some clothes very different than the ones she had been wearing down in the lobby.