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 ï>¿Katie Takes Her Obsession Indoors byLuckyDave1066Â(C)

   With the Christmas and New Year holidays well behind her and another
couple of weeks before the start of the Spring semester, Katie was at loose
ends.  Her part time job at the local mall was good for some spending
money, but 16 hours a week folding clothes at Old Navy left her with more
free time on her hands than was probably healthy.  She knew all too well
what kind of trouble she could get herself into when she was as bored as
she was now.

   Her surprising discovery the previous spring of a previously unknown
penchant for exhibitionism had shaken her self image.  Her recognition of
this tendency began with a completely accidental, thoroughly tame incident
where she really didn't expose anything at all.  The feelings stirred up in
her by just being close to inappropriately showing a little skin led her to
a handful of outings which all did include some level of exposure, each
slightly more daring than the last.  Her early experiments led her to
accept that she enjoyed being exposed as long as it was in a fairly safe
way, with a very small, very controllable risk of actually being seen by
someone.

   She had been able to rationalize those early experiences as a harmless
way of relieving end of semester deadline induced stress; since nobody
actually saw her, it was almost as if it never happened.  That theory
crumbled the night she was finally caught while naked, not just seen but
forced to interact with a couple of strangers!  Though terrified at first,
she was shocked to find herself becoming aroused by the situation once it
bacame clear the couple meant her no harm.  After that night she was afraid
to risk getting caught again, though the urge to try it again came to her
often!  She hadn't dared to get naked in public since that night, except in
her vivid fantasies.  She tried posting anonymous nude photos online for a
while, but didn't get anything like the thrill actually being nude out in
the world provided.  She gave that less personal way of exposing herself up
after a few weeks.

   In this lull between holidays and the beginning of the upcoming
semester's classes, the appeal of doing something, anything, to break up
the monotony was overwhelming.  One evening as Katie was straightening a
table full of sweaters marked down for clearance, the idea of doing some
sort of naked escapade forced its way into her thoughts, for probably the
tenth time that day.  "Forget it, not gonna happen," she thought, "Besides,
I'd probably get frostbite if I tried to repeat any of my previous outings
this time of year." Satisfied that she'd batted away the idea, she went
back to concentrating on organizing the sweaters by size.  Ten more minutes
of getting the merchandise in order was enough to get her daydreaming
again; "If I had somewhere warm and safe, or at least sort of safe, maybe,
but I don't," she said, trying to banish the ill-advised but exciting idea
one more time.

   Fifteen minutes before closing time, Katie was folding shirts customers
had strewn about wherever they'd decided not to buy them when a brand new
idea forced its way into her consciousness.  She froze in place and warily
looked up at her surroundings.  "Warm...check," she thought, "safe?" Maybe,
lots of possibilities.  Safe enough?  Yes, depending on which options were
taken..." She felt herself blushing, already thinking of scenarios, but
shook her head, thinking, "NO FREAKING WAY.  I work here!  People here know
me!"

   By the time she punched out and headed home, her sensible reluctance to
get anywhere close to naked somewhere in the mall was struggling to fend
off her excitement to at least have a chance at some excitement.  She was
already considering the pros and cons of doing something daring:

   "You work at the mall, this is a really bad idea."

   "It's a huge place, I wouldn't have to be anywhere near where I work."

   "Someone could see you, maybe someone you know!  It's still a bad idea."

   "I'm sure if I plan it well I can do it safely."

   "You thought that before, but still got caught.  It's just not a good
idea."

   "I'm sure I can find a place where nobody would be likely to see me."

   "Maybe you could, but what if you're wrong?  It's probably not a good
idea."

   "I could just take some clothes off, not get completely naked."

   "As long as you stayed more or less covered, maybe it's not your worst
idea ever."

   "As bored as I am, if I don't do this I might do something really
reckless!"

   "If it really was well thought out, a careful escapade would probably be
better than some impromptu recklessness; maybe it's a good idea after all."

   By the time she went to bed she had made up her mind to do something
daring at the mall, and drifted off to sleep thinking about which of her
many options to pursue.

   Over the next few days Katie settled on what she wanted to do and when
she wanted to do it.  She decided to avoid the Mall's more crowded days and
times, settling on a weekday afternoon and evening.  She was determined to
be totally naked at some point in her adventure, and intended to leave the
mall wearing less clothing than she would be wearing when she arrived. 
Preferably a LOT less.  Her only other hard and fast rules were to not
expose herself where any children could see her, and not do anything to
draw the attention of Mall security or the police.  She decided that while
she wanted to get herself in a position where there was a slim chance she
could be caught, she would try to enjoy the risk without actually being
seen.

   Katie enjoyed planning her escapade; the preparation itself was a pretty
good antidote for her boredom.  A side benefit was having an excuse to do a
little shopping to put together her ensemble; part of her outfit was brand
new clearance sale stuff, made even more reasonable with her employee
discount.  Even while planning this thoroughly crazy dare, her generally
practical personality made its presence felt; items she planned to wear to
the mall but thought she might not still possess, let alone be wearing when
she left the mall, were mostly thrift store finds.  She was pleased to keep
her expenses for what might end up being disposable clothing under $40.

   The following Wednesday, Katie was too nervous to have much lunch;
knowing what her plans for the day included, she was already feeling
butterflies in her stomach.  She showered, and shaved anyplace on her body
normally covered up which might soon, with luck, be uncovered for at least
a little while.  Her fine blond pubes were done away with completely, as
was the hair on the parts of her legs not typically seen once bathing suit
season was over.  She put in a bit more time than usual doing her makeup,
not going overboard but taking it up a notch, figuring the bold behavior
she planned deserved a somewhat more dramatic look.

   With her body and face readied for her outing, Katie began to get
dressed; she hadn't actually put her whole outfit on at the same time
before, so she was a little nervous about how it would all work together.
She put on her new black thong, the sheer black bra she was lucky enough to
find in size 38C at a thrift store, black stockings and a matching garter
belt, also from the thrift store, as were the short houndstooth skirt and a
long sleeved, pink button down blouse.  A long fitted grey cardigan with a
full length zipper down the front, bought the day before at her workplace,
some chunky black heels from her closet, and a somewhat beaten up
mid-length taupe trench coat rounded out her outfit.  She looked herself
over in a full length mirror before leaving home and was pretty pleased
with what she saw.  She snapped a few selfies for posterity, knowing that
if she followed through with her plan for the day, this particular outfit
would never again be seen all together!

   The only real complaints she had about her outfit was how much of it
there was, and how much time it might take to get things off, and, if
necessary, get them back on; she couldn't really complain, since every item
had been chosen by her, all with the intent of making her disrobing more
challenging, thus more drawn out and exciting.  The very real possibility
that something could go wrong, requiring her to get at least some of the
outfit back on in a hurry, increased her stress level but didn't get her to
alter her outfit.  She tossed a beat up baseball cap left behind by an old
boyfriend into her purse, thinking it might be wise to have some cover for
her hair and eyes at some point later in the day.  The pink anti-Covid mask
she normally wore to work would help keep her somewhat anonymous, and was
the one item she was sure to keep on throughout her adventure.  The fact it
matched her blouse was a happy accident, "but probably only temporary
anyhow," she thought, shivering a bit as she went over her plan one last
time before leaving her apartment.

   Her usual ten minute commute to the mall was a blur to Katie; as
distracted as she was, she was probably lucky not to have an accident.  She
parked in what would normally be a very inconvenient spot, far from any
Mall entrance, in a tiny parking area next to a loading dock and near an
emergency exit, a choice all about being able to make a quick getaway if
necessary.  She hiked around the outside of the mall until she reached the
main entrance, joining the trickle of shoppers heading in to shop in
mid-afternoon.  She made her way to her first destination, pausing once or
twice to check her reflection in a store window, each time still a little
bit surprised to see the woman looking back at her.  "I know what you're up
to," she whispered to her reflection, whose only reply was a smile, hidden
by her mask.  She made her way to a set of escalators and rode up to the
mall's third level.  Looking at a mirrored wall next to the escalator ,she
spotted a man a few steps below her who appeared to be trying to look up
her skirt!  On any other day she'd have been furious and might well have
called him out, but considering what she had planned for the day she
figured the normal rules didn't apply, and let it slide.

   Katie arrived at her first destination, much earlier than necessary. 
She wanted to be sure of getting the seat she needed at the 3:45 showing of
"Promising Young Woman", chosen as much for its R rating as anything else;
she wanted to be sure there were no children in the theater if she dared to
carry out her plan.  As it turned out, arriving half an hour before
showtime really wasn't necessary, since only a dozen or so other people
ended up joining her; "Who else would have wanted to sit in the back row,
anyway?" she grumbled to herself as the previews started.  All her early
arrival had accomplished was to give her a solid 45 minutes for her anxiety
about what she had planned to build.

   As far as the theater was concerned, showtime was 3:45; including the
fifteen minutes of ads and previews and the usual mid-show scan of the
theater by an usher or two, Katie reckoned her own personal showtime to be
somewhere around 5:00 PM, which would leave her nearly half an hour to do
whatever she was going to do.  She took off her coat and sweater before
even being seated, then once settled in her seat she unbuckled her heels
and slipped her feet out of them.  While there was nothing very unusual
about her behavior yet, the feel of her stocking clad feet on the the cool
tile floor reminded her why she was there.

   Katie checked the time on her phone around 40 minutes into the movie,
then again every ten minutes or so until the movie was well over an hour
into its 1:53 running time.  "Where are the damned ushers?" she wondered.
She'd never been to a movie here where they didn't make a cursory sweep,
usually just before the halfway point in the movie, so she couldn't safely
take much off until they came through.  Near the 1:20 mark she did about
all she dared with ushers likely to cruise through at any minute,
unbuttoning and unzipping her skirt, then unbuttoning most of the buttons
on her blouse.  A lone usher finally strolled in a few minutes later,
taking a leisurely walk down to the front of the theater, looking over the
sparse crowd and slowly returning up the aisle and out the door.

   Glancing at her phone to check the time, Katie estimated she had less
than 20 minutes before the credits would come on; at least a few of her
fellow moviegoers were bound to get up and leave at that point, so she
needed to be dressed in some more or less appropriate way by then, or be
ready to live with being seen while not so attired.  Now, with the coast
finally clear, she hesitated for almost four minutes; in her limited
experience of public nudity, she had never actually gone from clothed to
undressed in the presence of other people.  Though everyone else was busy
watching the movie, she was having a hard time making herself strip within
sight of all these other people, a few of whom were only three rows away
from her!  She wavered for a moment, and considered just getting herself
zipped and buttoned back up, but absolutely hated the idea of giving up so
easily after all her planning.  Eventually she thought to herself, "Fuck
it! I can do this!"

   Once her decision was made, she lost no time in getting the three
remaining buttons keeping her blouse closed unfastened, and pulled her arms
free.  She raised her butt off the seat long enough to slide her skirt down
her thighs and past her knees, and let it drop to the floor.  Now wearing
nothing but lingerie, she already could feel her pulse quickening. 
Thinking about her next few moves sent it even higher; she decided that it
would be better to have her bra be the last piece of her outfit to come
off, since she could always pull her coat over her lap to hide everything
below her waist if someone decided they just had to have a bathroom break.

   If her bra was going to stay on for the time being, the garter belt had
to be the next item to come off, since her panties couldn't be removed with
the belt still attached to her stockings.  Katie had never actually worn a
garter belt before that very afternoon.  She discovered that what had been
easy enough to get on earlier, in the privacy of her well lit apartment,
under no particular time pressure, turned out to be not so easy to get out
of while seated in a dark theater, trying to not draw the attention of any
of the other people in the room, and aware of a hard deadline not too many
minutes away.  Struggling for a minute or two to separate her stockings
from the belt, she finally got the belt detached, allowing her to slide the
stockings down her legs, over her feet and off.  She draped them both over
the back of the seat in front of her; a few seconds later the no longer
needed garter belt joined the stockings.

   As determined as she was to reach her goal of complete nudity, having
reduced her outfit to only a sheer bra and a tiny thong was clearly getting
to her.  She noticed her breathing was becoming fast and shallow, and her
hands were starting to shake.  In her agitated state she forgot about her
plan to make her bra the last piece of clothing to come off, sliding the
shoulder straps down and pulling her arms free.  After scanning the rows
ahead one last time to be sure every head was still facing forward, Katie
reached behind her back and popped the hooks free, then paused, asking
herself, "am I actually going to do this?  Do I really want to?" Seconds
later, she heard a voice within answering both questions, "Yes, yes I am
going through with this.  Ohhhh, yeah, I definitely want to!" She took a
deep breath and released her bra, letting it fall into her lap.  Looking
down at her breasts, lit well by the reflection of a particularly bright
scene on the screen, she couldn't help smiling.

   "Almost there, just one thing left," she whispered to herself.  She
hooked her thumbs into each side of her thong and pulled her final piece of
clothing down her thighs and past her knees; a slight wiggle of her legs
was all that was needed for the tiny garment to drop to the floor.  She
reached down and picked the thong up, and set it and her bra in a row with
her stockings.  Completely free of clothing, she stood up and raised her
arms in triumph, whispering to herself, "I did it!  I actually fucking did
it!" She shuffled sideways a few seats, feeling chills as she moved ever
farther away away from her pile of discarded clothing.  Before her euphoria
subsided a bit she actually wondered if she could get away with moving down
a couple of rows to take in a few minutes of the movie.  As it was, she
hadn't checked how long the movie had left to run in quite a while; she
knew that the longer she remained naked, the greater her chance of being
caught.  Each second felt like another dare, with the odds of her nudity
being discovered increasing quickly.

   Katie reluctantly went back to her seat and thought about what clothing
she should put back on, what to keep off but put away in her purse, and
what to just leave behind.  Before giving in to the increasingly urgent
need to get dressed, she pulled her phone out of her purse and took a few
selfies, hoping it was able to document this amazing moment despite the low
light level.  After her brief photo session, she slipped back into her
thong, but put her bra, stockings, and garter belt away in her purse.  She
was still naked from her head down to her waist and zipping up her skirt
when she noticed the screen go dark and credits begin to roll!  She dove
for her sweater and quickly slipped her arms into its sleeves, turning her
back to the rest of the audience as she fumbled with getting the zipper
started.  She got the zipper aligned and already had it zipped up as high
as it could go when she noticed a couple walking out had stopped as they
neared her row and were staring at her!  Katie hadn't had her sweater on
and zipped for long, but she was sure she had made it without anyone seeing
anything unusual.  "I suppose they might think there's something unusual
about having stockings and a bra dangling on the seat in front of me," she
thought, "or having my blouse still pressed against my seatback like some
kind of skin I just shed." She blushed but returned their stare with a
smile, which turned into laughter as the woman pulled her companion towards
the exit.  Katie stuffed the telltale lingerie into her purse, folded her
discarded blouse and coat, setting them down neatly on her seat, and made
her way out of the theater, still buzzing inside as she replayed the last
25 minutes in her mind.

   A quick stop at the theater Ladies room to check out her new look
confirmed Katie's suspicion that she was still decent without the blouse
and bra, though the neckline of the sweater put a whole lot of her cleavage
on display.  She thought about fishing her bra out of her purse and putting
it back on, but wasn't sure having a lot of sheer black bra showing would
attract any less attention, so the bra stayed in her purse.

   Katie took an escalator one level up to the mall's restaurant district.
She found a quiet bar at a Brazilian steakhouse and hopped up on a
barstool, in a mood to celebrate what she'd been able to get away with in
the theater, and possibly psych herself up to do a little more.  She had
several more ideas about how to indulge in her developing obsession, and
the rush she had felt at her first stop had her craving more excitement. 
Whether it was because of the pandemic and it's constantly shifting rules
or just too early in the evening, she appeared to be the only customer at
the bar.  The lone bartender was efficient; he had Katie's Martini prepped
and in front of her in less than 2 minutes, even allowing time for the
glass to chill.  He was almost too quick, appearing in front of her,
bearing her drink while she was absorbed in reviewing her selfies from the
theater!  Focused on the surprisingly clear shots showing her nude in the
cool light of the theater, she didn't notice him at first, not closing the
image until several seconds after his return!  She blushed as she realized
that after making it through being completely naked in the theater without
anyone seeing her she'd just given the bartender a good, if brief, look at
her nude body!

   Katie enjoyed her drink, and also enjoyed reliving her mischief at the
movie theater.  "Just right," she thought as she sipped her drink, "Risky,
but not TOO risky, and so fucking exciting!" She thought about some other
ideas she'd come up when she was preparing for this outing and debated
whether she should do one more stunt, or maybe more!  She ordered a salad
and a second drink, taking her time deciding if she'd had her fill of
audacious behavior for the night.  Her decision to try something else might
have been partly due to the fact that she was feeling a bit tipsy, but she
was pretty sure she would have made the same decision even if she had never
stopped at the bar at all.

   Katie paid for her snack and headed for an elevator to take her down to
the lowest level of stores, eager to keep her adventurous evening going. 
Waiting for the elevator, Katie studied her outfit in the mirrored elevator
doors.  She noticed that her sweater was only a few inches shorter than her
skirt, "Probably long enough to get by without the skirt at all," she
thought, smiling.  She impulsively decided to give herself a new challenge;
if she had the elevator to herself, she'd take the skirt off right then and
there, and put it away in her purse!  She made the decision without
thinking about the glass walls on the other three sides of the elevator;
when it reached her floor and the door opened, she had a minute while
several people made their way out of the elevator to process the fact that
she was now planning to strip out of her skirt in what amounted to a small
enclosed, moving stage!  "Maybe someone will stay on," she thought, "and
let me of the hook."

   Nobody did.

   Once everyone who wanted to get off had done so, Katie was looking at a
thoroughly empty elevator cab.  She almost let it go to whatever floor it
was being summoned to without her, but caught the door just before it
closed.  She was relieved to see a little bit of the glass wall area was
covered by signs and posters; between that and the fact that she would be
removing a piece of clothing which was mostly covered by her sweater
anyway, she decided to go through with getting the skirt off.  She pressed
the button for the first floor and let the doors close.  Knowing that the
cab might stop at some other landing between her starting point at the 4th
floor and her destination, she hiked her sweater up and tried to get the
skirt off as quickly as possible once the doors were closed.  Between her
jangled nerves and her recent vodka intake, she had trouble getting the
damned button freed, but got lucky, as the cab didn't stop at the 3rd
floor. She finally got the button undone as the cab approached the 2nd
floor, but was just finishing unzipping the short zipper at her right hip
as the door started to open!  She let go of both the skirt, which instantly
fell to the floor, and the hem of her sweater, which dropped into place to
cover her thong and uncovered butt cheeks just in time to keep the crowd
getting on from seeing them.  "No way to know if anyone outside the
elevator was watching," she thought, "and nothing to be done about it now!"
Not wanting to be seen with a skirt resting around her ankles and heels,
she stepped out of it and kicked it towards the back of the cab.  She was
going to stay in the cab until she was alone again and stuff the skirt away
in her purse, but some young kid saw it on the floor, got curious, picked
it up and walked off carrying his prize when the cab reached the 1st floor.
No way was she going to try to get the skirt back from a 6 year old or his
parents; she had no choice but to accept it, that particular garment was
gone forever.

   Katie lingered outside the elevator's mirrored doors to see how she
looked now that her skirt was gone.  Her sweater seemed to be long enough
to get by with, but at 5'-11" the extra 3" of her legs now on display were
bound to attract more attention.  Katie smiled back at her reflection and
whispered to herself, "nothing wrong with a little extra attention once in
a while!" She moved on to the next spot in the mall she had identified as a
promising location for her to do something a bit daring.

   Katie couldn't remember the last time she'd been inside a photo booth,
"probably that junior-high class outing at Myrtle Beach," she thought.  The
photo booth at the edge of this mall's food court appeared to be
considerably older, producing only black and white photos, and accepting
only quarters.  The only thing modern about this machine was the number of
quarters required to get a strip of 4 small prints, 16 instead of the one
or two that users probably had needed to deposit in the coin slot.  Katie
had done her research, and had a ziploc bag full of quarters ready in her
purse.  Other than the tedious feeding of so many coins, this booth had
several advantages for what she had in mind for her next stunt; no credit
card record of who had used the booth, no screen outside the enclosure to
show what was happening inside, and no digital copies.

   Katie pulled the curtain closed, settled in on the bench facing the
camera and coin slot and set her purse on the bench next to her.  She
fished her baseball cap and supply of coins out of her purse and began
feeding them into the slot as she read the directions one more time; "Four
poses, 10 seconds between photos, processed in 2 minutes," she read, "Got
it." She put her cap on, took a deep breath, and pressed the button to
start the 10 second countdown to the first photo.  With her head tilted
down enough for her cap to hide the part of her face her mask didn't, she
quickly pulled her sweater's zipper down past her navel, holding it open
enough to see a whole lot of her boobs, but not her nipples.  FLASH! 
During the countdown to the second shot she undid the zipper entirely and
opened it all the way, but held one arm across her otherwise exposed chest.
FLASH!  As she prepared for the third photo she checked the curtains one
more time to be sure there were no gaps to alert passersby to the
increasingly risque scene developing inside.  She drew her left arm out of
its sleeve, then did the same with the right, letting her sweater drop onto
the bench behind her; she covered her boobs with her hands no more than a
second before the third photo was taken.  FLASH!  She was shaking as she
counted down the ten seconds leading to the fourth photo, but was able to
make herself bring her hands down to the bench beside her!  FLASH!

   "I can't believe I'm sitting here naked with only a curtain hiding me
from the food court dinner crowd walking by!" she whispered, "I know
there's a light next to the opening to let people know the booth is in use,
but what if someone ignores the light and opens the curtain?" She didn't
exactly hope for that to happen, but the more she thought about it the more
exciting that possibilty seemed!  "But actually, I'm NOT naked," she
whispered, quivering as she thought about how she might pose for four more
photos without her thong.  While she was still debating whether or not to
take this session way beyond what she had planned, her right hand began
feeding quarters into the coin slot.  When the green light came on
indicating the correct payment had been received, she stared at it for a
full minute before saying to herself, "I can always shred them..."

   Thinking it might make her latest foolishness just slightly less insane,
Katie didn't begin stripping out of her thong until well after she pressed
the start button.  She turned away from the camera and lowered the flimsy
bit of lace and string partway down her thighs, offering the camera a
completely unobstructed view of her ass.  FLASH!  She let her last bit of
clothing drop to the floor of the booth and turned to face the camera.  A
mirror on the opposite wall confirmed her suspicion that being fairly tall,
this pose would show every part of her body from just above her knees up to
her shoulders.  She instinctively covered her pussy a moment before the
second photo.  FLASH!  She could feel and hear her pulse pounding in her
head, but carried on, sitting down on the bench during the countdown to the
third photo.  She checked the mirror again and saw herself exposed from
head down to just below her knees.  She locked the fingers of both hands
behind her head and stuck out her chest, but crossed her legs to keep her
pussy out of sight.  FLASH!  "Just one more," she thought, "Should I...".
Thinking she wasn't likely to be in this position again any time soon, she
decided to make the most of it.  She pulled her mask down just enough to
uncover her mouth, raised her left boob up and bent down to lick her
nipple. At the same time, she spread her legs as wide as she could, giving
the camera a clear view of her pussy lips!  FLASH!

   Katie was still shaking after the fourth photo, enough so that it took
her a couple minutes to get her sweater sorted out and zipped.  While she
was fumbling with the sweater she heard two familiar voices, recognizing
them as belonging to Denise, her store's manager and one of her co-worker
Audrey!  "Wow, looks like somebody is having fun," said Denise.  Katie
freaked out, wondering how Denise could know something improper was going
inside the booth!  In her haste to get back into her sweater, she had
completely forgotten about her thong, which she finally noticed on the
floor of the booth, just a few inches from the opening.  It slowly dawned
on Katie that since the bottom edge of the curtain was at least a foot
above the floor, her thong could easily be seen by anyone walking by, her
boss included, and had been for a while!  She scooped it up and stuffed it
in her purse, then peeked out through a tiny gap at the edge of the
curtain. Seeing Denise and Audrey already moving away towards wherever they
were picking up dinner, Katie stepped out of the booth.

   Katie was annoyed with herself; even though she'd been careful to not
risk being exposed near her place of work, she'd failed to consider how
many employees there often went to the food court if they had a dinner
break.  She was in such a hurry to get away from there that she almost left
her two strips of stripping photos behind, but remembered them before she
had gone a dozen feet, and bolted back to retrieve them from a bin on the
outside of the booth.  Seeing only one strip of photos, her heart skipped a
beat as she thought about how some stranger, who had been close enough to
touch her, now had photos of her exposing herself.  "He's probably watching
me right now," she thought, "but at least he only got the first batch!  Or,
oh, fuck me, what if Denise has them?"" When she reached for the one strip
still waiting in the bin, she was startled to see a second strip of photos
drop in front of the first.  She realized her second batch of photos just
hadn't been finished the first time she looked, and felt a huge wave of
relief, followed almost immediately by an unexpected and inexplicable pang
of regret!

   Katie put the photos away in her purse and walked back towards the
elevator she'd been in a few minutes earlier, one of three surrounding an
atrium at the center court of the mall.  The atrium connected all of the
Mall's five levels; counting losing her skirt somewhere near the second
floor, her act in the theater on the third floor and her private nude
modeling session in the photo booth on the first floor she'd already done
something reckless at 3 of the Mall's 5 levels.  She hadn't come up with
any ideas for being exposed at the 4th floor.  The handful of large
restaurants ringing the atrium had fairly open layouts; if there was an
even sort of safe place at that level to show some skin, she had yet to
find it.  Which left only the 5th floor to consider.  She had already
thought in detail about what she'd do at there if she were to do anything
there at all.

   Aside from some rooms around the outer edge of the level, the 5th floor
was mostly wide open.  It was a large space used for weddings, parties and
other large social events, all of which were currently prohibited.  Katie
had made a scouting trip a few days before to see if using the space as she
was now thinking about doing was even feasible.  All three elevators had
the 5th floor locked out, but Katie's persistence paid off as the third
stair she investigated turned out to have a broken lock at its fifth floor
door, allowing access to that level from the stair tower.  Though there
were no lights left on anywhere in the open space surrounding the atrium,
enough light spilled in from the atrium for her to see that the space had
been cleaned out, with tables, chairs and anything else likely to be an
obstruction pushed out to the perimeter of the space.

   Katie walked aimlessly around the 1st floor, taking several slow laps
around the atrium, pausing several times to look up at the upper levels. 
Once, then again, she found herself pausing at the doors leading to the
emergency exit corridor she had parked her car near.  This corridor was
also connected to the stair she had found with access to the 5th floor. 
"Am I really going to do this?" she whispered, trying to talk herself into
going through with this last feat.  Eventually, she realized all that her
extended deliberations were accomplishing now was to increase her stress
level; it was time to decide, would she get out or go up?  After a look
around to be sure nobody was paying much attention to her, she pushed open
the door and stepped into the corridor.

   Still clear headed enough to remember her goal of staying out of jail,
she loitered near the door inside the corridor at the base of the stair for
several minutes just in case a security guard might have seen her sneaking
into the corridor, ignoring the "EMERGENCY USE ONLY" sign, and decided to
see what she was up to.  Waiting to begin her trek up the stair, it
occurred to her that she might be on the verge of making her own private
emergency, or possibly a very public one!  If she was to have an encounter
with an observant security guard, here and now would be better than a few
minutes later.  Way, way, better.  Her car being parked right outside would
be enough to explain her location, while an encounter a few minutes later
would be impossible to explain.  Even without being confronted by security,
ducking out of the Mall, getting into her car, and heading home was a
tempting option, but not anywhere near as appealing to Katie as what she
had in mind now.

   The pull of the possibilities the fifth floor offered easily overcame
Katie's safer option, but deciding to go forward with her plan didn't mean
Katie wasn't nervous.  If anything, she was becoming more nervous by the
minute.  She wobbled her way up the two flights of stairs to the 2nd floor
and peeked out the small window in its door.  Seeing nothing but an empty
corridor, she unzipped her sweater 6 inches or so, opening the front of her
sweater to a point well below her boobs.  On a last minute whim, she opened
the cabinet next to the door, pulled her bra out of her purse and hung it
over the fire extinguisher inside.  "I can pick it up on my way back
down,"she said as she closed the cabinet door and moved on to climb to the
3rd floor, which was completely occupied by the multiplex she had visited
earlier today.

   Having had no problems so far, Katie began to calm down a bit by the
time she reached the 3rd floor, but a look out the small window in the door
on that sent her pulse racing; she saw a half dozen people walking just
outside the door!  Luckily they were all headed away, with their back to
the door she was huddled behind; after getting over her surprise at
encountering anyone on her trip up the stair, she calmed down enough to
take her zipper down another 6 inches, exposing her torso down below her
belly button, but her hands still were shaking when she deposited her
panties in that floor's fire extinguisher cabinet.  Worried that she might
yet lose her nerve, she started up to the 4th floor without delay.

   As soon as she reached the 4th floor, Katie made her customary check out
the door's window.  Seeing nothing but an empty corridor, she pulled her
stockings and garter belt out of her purse and placed them in the fire
extinguisher cabinet.  She reached for the zipper pull and began to pull it
down, more slowly than she had done at the previous two floors.  Unzipping
as far as she had been doing would mean completely separating the two
sides. Up to this point she had always had the option of quickly zipping up
if she were to cross paths with someone, but she knew that with her hands
shaking as they were now she'd never get the zipper started in time, let
alone zipped up!  "I'm not likely to run into anyone here," she thought,
"and besides, risking being exposed is kind of the point!" She continued
easing the pull down until she felt a slight resistance; she she inhaled
sharply, then gave one last tug to free the pull from the opposite side. 
She headed up towards the 5th floor glancing down every few steps at the
growing gap between her sweater's lapels, and the resulting ever-increasing
amount of her flesh being exposed.  Upon reaching the landing halfway
between floors, she pushed the sweater off her left shoulder; a few steps
later she did the same at her right shoulder.  The rest of the way up to
the 5th floor Katie felt the sweater open completely in front, now only
covering her forearms.  Her sweater was now being kept from sliding
completely off only because her arms were bent at the elbow.  As soon as
she reached the 5th floor she straightened both arms, pointing them towards
the floor, allowing gravity to complete her exposure.  She picked up the
discarded garment, shook it out and draped it over a guardrail.

   Katie shuddered as she stepped through the door leading to the wide-open
event space.  She was working without a net now, and knew it; she'd have no
way at all of covering up if anyone joined her in this space.  She made a
quick loop around the space, keeping herself in the shadows, well away from
the railing overlooking the 5 story opening.  She edged closer to the
railing, stopping around 15 feet away, where she could see heads and
shoulders of people across the atrium, one level below, then made another
trip around the atrium, keeping an eye on the moviegoers as she went.  At
the end of this lap, she once again stepped gingerly towards the guardrail,
stopping around 8 feet from it.  She bent over to check the sightline
between the people at the 4th floor and her uncovered breasts, shuddering
as she confirmed that her new location would allow anyone at the 4th floor
see her from her head down to a spot a few inches above her belly button!

   Katie began a slow stroll around the atrium, now depending heavily on
three things to keep her nakedness her own delicious secret.  She reminded
herself that the light level where she was now walking was considerably
lower than out in the atrium or any of the lower floors.  Also, her slow
pace was intended to draw as little attention as possible.  The third thing
working for her was the tendency she had noted during her scouting for this
stunt for people to look down, not up, at least if they had any level below
them to look down to.  As far as she could tell, her observation of this
tendency seemed to be proving true so far.

   At the end of her third lap, Katie took a few steps closer to the
guardrail; now less than 4 feet from the edge, she felt her heart pounding
as she saw that anyone at the 3rd floor could now see her from her breasts
up to her head.  She didn't even bother checking the sightline to the 4th
floor, knowing this distance from the guardrail was almost certain to put a
whole lot of her body on display to people at that level!  The light
spilling in from the atrium was considerably brighter here as well.  She
was now relying heavily on people, many more of them with each move closer
to the railing, not looking up.  The slow pace she felt necessary was like
torture, but it seemed to be working, as she didn't see anyone looking her
way.

   At the end of her fourth lap, Katie thought about doing a lap right at
the edge of the atrium, but decided that would be all but certain to
attract attention, way too much attention.  Though she wasn't bold enough
to stroll naked all the way around the edge of the opening, as close as she
now was to it, she had to find out how being at the edge while utterly
exposed would feel.  She brokered a compromise between her daring and
sensible sides; she stepped forward, one tiny step after the other, until
she was standing right at the guardrail!  She could almost convince herself
that the glass panels of the guardrail might provide some slight cover for
her lower body, but she was certain every inch of her body from her head
down to her waist was now visible to all four levels of mallgoers below! 
She made herself hold that position for a full minute, then backed away. 
She was still a little shocked she had taken that risk, but the rush it
gave her made her less than surprised when she decided to repeat the stunt
at one other spot at the other side of the atrium.  Her second trip to the
well-lit edge was no less satisfying, and lasted almost 3 minutes as she
tried to count how many people were in position to see her naked body if
they would only look up.  She gave up counting when the number of possible
spectators spread over all four floors passed 50!  "Why can't at least one
of them look up," she said, leaning over the railing to complete her head
count, "I'm giving them plenty of time."

   She was just about to push back away from the railing and go back to the
stair and the cover of her sweater when it happened.  A couple she'd
already noticed coming out of a store at the second floor during her head
count had moved up to to the railing at their level.  The woman was tugging
at the man's sleeve and pointing straight at Katie!  She felt lightheaded
when she saw both the woman and the man wave at her, but automatically
returned their wave before turning to bolt back into the shadows.  She was
all but certain she couldn't be seen now, but still was shivering as
violently as she would if she was naked outdoors instead of in the well
heated mall!  She peered through the glass guardrail and watched her
watchers.  They stood still for almost 2 minutes, waiting to see if she
might reappear, then offered a final smile, wave and thumbs-up sign before
strolling away!

   Though the couple seemed unlikely to call security on her, Katie didn't
want to push her luck any further, so she hustled back to the stair,
feeling like she'd pulled off something amazing.  Back inside the stair
tower, she retrieved her sweater and put her arms back into the sleeves. 
Looking over the railing down to ground floor, at least 60' away, she
started to zip her sweater back up.  A broken mirror someone had left at
the top landing allowed her to assess her look in her one remaining
garment. Definitely looking a bit improper, but safe enough, especially
when compared to the way she'd spent the last 15 minutes!  "Time to head
back down," she thought wistfully, "and collect my undies along the way."

   She already had her zipper all the way up when an inspiration for a new,
better ending to her adventure came to her.  Not leaving herself any time
to let the audacity of her revised plan scare some sense into her, she
unzipped her sweater, slipped it off and tossed it over the railing. 
Gripping the railing as she watched her only bit of cover flutter down to
the first floor, Katie began trembling as the extent of her vulnerability
sank in.  She began the long trek down to the ground floor on wobbly legs,
not bothering to collect the lingerie she'd hidden away on the way up in
favor of getting to her sweater as quickly as possible, preferably before
anyone else came along to find it.  "Or find ME!" she thought.  After what
seemed to her like an eternity, she made it to the ground floor and scooped
the sweater up.  Blushing as deeply as she probably ever had, breathing
hard and covered in goosebumps, she fumbled around trying to get into the
sweater, putting one arm into an inside out sleeve.  Though still shaking,
she laughed out loud as she pulled the sleeve back right side out and
finally got into the cozy knit cardigan.

   Katie opened the corridor's exterior door and stepped outside.  As
expected, at this hour the small parking area and the adjacent loading dock
were quiet and dark; the air was chilly, but actually fairly mild as
February nights go, making the short walk to her car feel more invigorating
than frigid.  She glanced back at the exit she'd just come out of and
noticed that the door was stuck, a few inches short of being closed.  The
thin strip of light spilling from the open door seemed like an invitation.
She put her purse in the car and stood next to it a minute or two, weighing
her options.

   Her sweater joined her purse on the passenger seat.

   Carrying her key fob in one hand and her phone in the other, she locked
the car door on her way back to the Mall exit door, and stepped back into
the corridor, this time wearing nothing but her pink mask and a pair of
high heels!  "Those stockings were pretty nice," Katie said to herself as
she started back up the stair, "it would be a shame to leave without them.
Besides, I forgot to take any selfies on the 5th floor.  I should do some
shots by the guardrail, maybe with the stockings..."