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Authors: Julie Jaret

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BOOK: Extreme Close-Up (Perspectives Book 1)
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Chapter Thirteen

 

“WHEN YOU STAND on platform, I pose you. I will not touch your
parties intimes,
your lady parts." The diminutive professor had hair like Albert Einstein and a voice like Pepe LePew. He snickered and continued, "I put you in
la posture
,
et
you be very still,
oui
?”

“Yes,” Lisa agreed. The sweet older man put her at ease, but she was still nervous.
Well, who wouldn’t be?
she thought. She was naked under her bathrobe, minutes from dropping said robe in front of the thirty or so university art students who were filing in. For a moment, she regretted asking Braden not to come.

How did he talk her into this? She didn’t truly believe he would refuse to apply to med school if she hadn’t agreed. So why was she here? Because even with the humiliation, somewhere in the back of her demented little mind the idea turned her on. She was hyper-aware of the terrycloth robe rubbing her hard nipples, and hoped to hell she wouldn’t be positioned in a way that the students could see how wet and swollen she was.

In the center of the room, the platform was draped in a white sheet with a couple of white pillows on top. When the professor led her there, the students hardly glanced up. They were all readying their easels and drawing supplies.

“We start with one minute and work up to longer session.” He stacked the pillows. “Sit here, lean back on pillows, knees bent to that side.”

“Okay,” she nodded. Her heart was thumping and her ponytail felt too tight.


Tres bien.
” He addressed the class and gave them their assignment, then gestured to Lisa. She took a deep breath and dropped her robe.

She lowered herself to the pedestal as gracefully as possible, considering that thirty strangers could see every naked inch of her excessively-curvy forty-one year-old body. A twinge of embarrassment touched her, but it felt artificial and muted, like it was brought on only because she had
expected
to feel embarrassment. Like when a sneeze sneaks away, but you make the noise anyhow.

The professor put on some soft music while Lisa reclined on the pillows. He adjusted the position of her legs, straightening one more than the other and tipped her chin down and to the left. Once satisfied with her pose, he confirmed that she was comfortable, then he set his timer for one minute.

Her heart rate slowed to normal surprisingly quickly. It helped that the artists were focused on their work. Most simply glanced her way occasionally for reference. No one stared or ogled, so she didn’t feel judged.

For the second pose, the professor asked her to stand with her hands on her ponytail, as if she were pulling it through the elastic. “Is only one minute, so your arms no fall off,” he chuckled. Holding her arms up like that forced her back to arch and pushed her breasts up. For sixty seconds, she stood still as a statue -- a naked statue with an audience of strangers.

When she and Braden had discussed this scenario, she was privately worried her arousal would drip noticeably down her thighs. In reality, the atmosphere was so completely nonsexual that despite her nudity her body was oddly relaxed. In fact, she found the whole experience rather meditative.

The longer poses were more challenging. One semi-reclining pose had her lying on her belly, propped on her elbows with her chest off the floor as if she were reading at the beach. By the time twenty minutes was up, she had developed an ache in one shoulder and her hand was going numb. Luckily, the professor gave the class a break, so she was able to get her blood circulating again.

She pulled on her robe and sipped a bottle of water. Most of the students had left the room, but a pretty artist with long blonde dreadlocks got her attention with a friendly smile. “Thanks for sitting for us. Is this your first time?”

Lisa laughed. “That obvious?”

“Not at all, I’ve just never drawn you before,” the artist chuckled. “You’re a great subject. Would you like to see?”

She had survived posing naked for strangers, but seeing those strangers’ impressions of her naked body was only asking to have her self-esteem punched in the neck. “No, that’s okay,” she hedged.

The younger woman gave her a knowing look. “You’ve got nothing to be afraid of.”

She hesitated a moment, then walked around the easel. There were a number of bare-bones drawings on the sketchpad, various poses of a graceful woman with lush breasts, nicely-rounded hips and a tiny waist. Lisa found it hard to believe the subject of the drawings was supposed to be her. Maybe the nice hippie chick was high.

Lisa smiled politely and looked at the next easel. And the next. And despite variations in style and perspective, every drawing depicted the same graceful woman with lush breasts, nicely-rounded hips and a tiny waist. After circling the room, seeing her naked self through so many artists’ eyes, she had to blink back tears.

For the first time in her life, she felt beautiful.

The university was close to an hour away, so by the time she got home it was early evening. When she took her phone from her bag, she saw she had gotten a text from Braden:
Well? Should I start filling out applications?

Yes, but you can start tomorrow. Come over?

On my way.

She poured a glass of Chardonnay and drank it all in the five minutes it took him to get there. His sandy hair was windblown, and his snug t-shirt emphasized his sculpted chest and lean waist. Well-worn jeans hugged his thighs and the conspicuous bulge of his crotch. The sexy, woodsy male scent of him made her mouth water. As soon as he had closed the door behind him, she pressed him back against it with her hands on his hard stomach.

“I take it you’re not mad at me for making you do that,” he rumbled down at her, flashing a lust-inducing dimple.

“Not mad. Thank you,” she said, licking and nibbling his lips.

“Mm... you’re welcome, beautiful.” He slanted his mouth over hers. When he deepened the kiss, she pulled away, tugging his hand so he would follow her down the hall.

In the bedroom, she tossed her blouse on a chair and shimmied out of her jeans. He leaned in the doorway, watching with hot eyes as she unfastened the front hook of her bra and let her breasts spill out. She turned away from him and bent, slowly dragging her panties down her legs. From the low groan behind her, she knew he was looking at her puffy, wet folds. Steam billowed from the bathroom when she pushed open the door. “I’m ready for that shower, now,” she said huskily.

He came in and closed the door as she stepped under the water. She squirted jasmine-scented body wash in her hands, and soaped her breasts and belly without ever looking away from him. The hunger on his face fed her soul. His eyes devoured her and he didn’t blink once as he pulled his shirt over his head and kicked off his jeans. Cold air further tightened her already-hard nipples when he opened the glass enclosure and joined her under the spray.

His wet mouth was possibly the most delicious thing she’d ever tasted. His wet body was definitely the most perfect thing she’d ever touched.

He took her soapy breasts in his big hands, lifting and pressing them together, tugging her slick nipples between his fingers. She drizzled body wash down her chest and he made good use of it, thoroughly covering her in slippery bubbles.

“God, you’ve got gorgeous tits,” he murmured. She felt her clit swell as if he were working it with a phantom third hand.

His erection nudged her belly. She poured body wash into her palm and smoothed it up and down his rigid cock, watching the lather build as he grew even harder with each sudsy stroke. When she switched on the hand-held shower head, he gave her a quizzical look.

The twinkle in her big brown eyes accompanied an impish smile. “I want to suck you, but I don’t think that warrants having my mouth washed out with soap.” She went to her knees and ran the spray over the thick length in her hand, rinsing him clean.

He rubbed a wet thumb across her lips and pushed it between them, grunting a little when she sucked on it before he withdrew. “Yeah, I like your dirty mouth just the way it is.”

She brought his penis to her lips and swirled her tongue around the crown, licking the water off. Before she could take him deeper, he peeled her tight fingers from him and took his cock in hand, tracing her lips with the plump, rosy head.

“Just your mouth.”

Her tongue darted out and caught a taste of him before he moved out of reach. “You overestimate me if you think I can keep my hands off you.”

“Well find something else to do with them, ‘cause I’m gonna feed you my cock.”

The words made her pussy clench and she purred like a tiger cub. She clasped her hands at her back and dutifully opened her mouth to receive him. Even with the shower raining down on her ass, she could feel her slick arousal on her inner thighs.

True to his word, he held his cock to her parted lips and pressed inside. “Look at you... Jesus, you’re so fucking hot.” He fed himself to her slowly, two inches forward, one inch back, until he bumped the back of her throat. She arched her back and rubbed her breasts against him, enjoying the way the light brown hair on his thighs abraded her nipples.

Raising her eyes, she found him watching intently. Rivulets ran over his chest and stomach, down his wrist to the hand that held his cock at Lisa’s mouth, where she sipped and sucked the water from him. She covered her teeth with her lips and gave him a long, tight stroke.

He slid his thumb lower, and she swirled her tongue over it, then sucked it in with the rest of him. His nostrils flared and his eyes went full black. The thick shaft in her mouth was so hard, it almost didn’t feel human. With his free hand, he grabbed her wet hair.

“Stop. I don’t want to come before you do.”

She sucked harder, looking up at him with black-brown eyes and hollowed cheeks. When he would’ve pulled away, she grabbed his ass with both hands and held him there.


God Lisa
,” he rasped. “Careful, I’m--
fuck
!”

The moment she felt him tighten she released his cock from her mouth, covered his hand with both of hers, and jacked him off until he covered her breasts in hot, white bursts.

Panting, he sank down to the built-in bench and gave her a heated glare. “You’re gonna pay for that. When I can move again. In a few minutes.”

“Promises, promises,” she muttered, drawing a menacing look from him. She stood under the rain shower until all visible traces of him were gone from her skin.

“You call that clean?” he taunted.

She grinned and soaped herself up for him again. “This thorough enough for you?” Her eyes widened when his dick began to twitch awake.
Mmm... the joys of youth
.

“Guess it’ll do,” he said with a slow smile. He stood and turned on the hand-held sprayer. “You washed, I’ll rinse. Sit.”

Lisa knew sitting was maybe not the most flattering position, but she wasn’t given much choice when he put a hand on her chest and gently pushed her down on the bench. She sat up straight with her hands on her knees as he ran the sprayer across her soapy breasts, watching millions of iridescent bubbles slide down her belly into her lap.

He held the sprayer away and looked pointedly at the tight seam between her thighs. “Open for me.”

She let her legs relax a little.

“Wider.”

She opened wider.

“More.”

She gave him a little more.

Big hands gripped her knees and shoved them apart. “There. Stay.” He licked his lips as his gaze slid over her exposed pussy.

Lisa thought she could probably come with nothing but his eyes on her.

But she forgot that thought and all others when he flicked the spray over her swollen cunt. Her knees closed of their own volition and he pushed them open again.

“I said
stay
,” he reminded her.

“I’ll try,” she promised.

“Not good enough.” He glanced around, then removed the cap from the body wash and balanced it on her left knee. He unscrewed the shampoo cap and set it on her right knee. “Drop them if you want me to stop.” His grin was evil and sexy as all hell as he brought the spray back around.

“Oh god,” she whispered.

Braden made the water lick her from thigh to thigh, teasing her clit. Her knees shook and the shampoo cap fell. He chuckled as she caught and replaced it before it hit the tile. His eyes followed the spray as he drew it over her in a lazy figure eight.

“I love how your pretty little clit gets so hard for me.”

The clit in question was pounding. Lisa bit her lip, struggling to keep her legs from shaking.

“I bet you get yourself off like this,” he ran the spray across her breasts then back over her cunt. “Am I right?”

“Yes,” she gasped and rubbed her nipples. The water needles had made them ache.

“I’d like to see that.” He dropped the sprayer and went to his knees. “Some other time, though,” he murmured before he sank his tongue into her.

Two caps hit the floor, but nobody noticed or cared.

He pulled her knees over his shoulders and lifted her off the bench, licking her from back to front. When he set her back down, he fingered the neat little patch of dark blonde hair she had left on top of her shaved pussy. “I like this.”

She didn’t think any more blood could rush to that part of her body until he wrapped his soft lips around her clit and tugged it into his hot mouth, sucking in time to her pounding heart before releasing her. “I
love
this.” Very lightly, he nibbled and kissed and nuzzled her until she heard herself making incoherent sounds of need.

With a growl, he pulled her clit back into his mouth, sucking with hard pulses, grabbing her ass with both hands to hold her in place when she bucked away. Her orgasm overtook her and she came in great, wet waves, which he lapped up with a greedy tongue.

Chapter Fourteen

 

LISA HELD THE phone at arm’s length so as not to be deafened by Natalie’s joyful screech. If her friend was this happy to hear that Lisa had dropped her catalogue client, she could only imagine the screaming if she were to tell her about The Shower. Luckily, she had no plans to do so.

“It’s about damn time! If they cut your rates any more, you’d be paying
them
to shoot their frigging staplers.”

“Just about,” she said distractedly. Her studio felt too big and empty without all the stacks of office equipment and supplies.

“I’m so happy for you. Who will you be shooting for now?”

“Um, me.”

“Well yeah, I know how freelance works, but who hired you?”

The butterflies in Lisa’s stomach started acting up again, flying around and fretting about money. She ignored the flitty little bastards and idly straightened a reflective umbrella, forcing a confident smile. “Nobody. I’m worth more than what catalogue gigs will pay, so from now on I’m shooting for myself.”

“That’s awesome, Lise.” Nat’s honest excitement for Lisa came through loud and clear, tinged with subtle tones of awe and envy. “Now you’ll have plenty of time to shoot sexy vegetables and build your photo stock.”

She snorted. “Too bad there’s not a lot of call for that kind of thing.”

“Didn’t Thomas order a few prints?”

“Yeah, that covered last month’s electric bill. Now I only need four or five hundred more print orders and I might make a living.” Last week, Thomas had asked Lisa to come by the office to collect her portfolio and his print order. While she was there he had invited her to lunch, and she made a weak excuse about rushing to meet a client-imposed deadline. He was nice, handsome, successful, and close to her own age. He was everything she should want, but she couldn’t have been less interested. “Hey, uh... maybe don’t mention to Thomas that I quit the catalogue gig,” she added.

Nat made a frowny noise. “How long do you plan to use that excuse? Just tell him you’re not into him. In a nice way.”

“But I want to be into him. I should be into him!” She stomped her foot in frustration. “Why am I not into him?”

The woman purported to be her best friend in the world laughed at her.
Laughed
at her! “You know damn well why, and you won’t be getting any sympathy from me. At least, not until I see some photo evidence.”

When they hung up so Nat could get back to work, Lisa tried to relax and soak up the vibe of the studio. Three years ago, she had fallen in love with the funky old building which had housed creatives for decades. The rent was too high on the standard two-year lease, but she had so needed the history and energy of the place that she signed an extended five-year lease for a reduced monthly payment.

With a scowl, she remembered the condescending lecture Vance gave her that night about over-committing. She refused to consider that he might have been right. Sure, she had two more years on the lease and no income to speak of, but she had talent and a unique point of view. She would find a way to channel that into a career. Hopefully before being evicted.

She took a deep breath.
Freedom!
She finally had the freedom to take the kind of pictures she’d always wanted to take, to shoot the things she had always wanted to shoot. The possibilities were infinite! She had so many choices.

Too
many
. It was overwhelming, actually, the more she thought about it.

And kind of depressing, for some reason.

And terrifying.

Really terrifying.

By the time she got home, the cry of the money-anxious butterflies in her stomach had reached a crescendo. A glass of wine did nothing to calm her nerves, but she knew a second glass on an empty stomach would do more harm than good.
What kind of moron drops a bread-and-butter client without a back-up?
She was in no position to be choosy. Where did she get such an over-inflated opinion of herself?

Braden.
She wanted to blame him, but it wasn’t his fault she had gotten too caught up in the fantasy they were spinning. She was the idiot who’d bought into his vision of her. And now, what began as a sexy diversion was messing with her head in a dangerous way.

Vance and Elena would be home in a couple weeks. Jake, a week after that if she could hold off the camp enforcer a bit longer. They had never discussed it, but obviously she and Braden couldn’t continue seeing each other once everyone was back in town. Her throat tightened at the thought. If she ended it now, at least she would have some time to get over him a little before she had to put on a happy face for Jake.

With impeccable timing, her phone buzzed:
How was your day, beautiful?

Tears pricked her eyes. She already missed the way he made her feel.

Lisa? You there?

If she responded, she’d have to tell him and it would be over. Her heart hurt as she turned off the phone and left it in the kitchen where it all began.

Half an hour later, after a quick cry and a minor panic attack, she was in her office desperately trying to goose the muse with loud music and internet loitering. There was no getting her client back, so she had to move forward. She had no other choice. But how could she establish herself as a professional photographer when she wasn’t motivated to take any pictures? Nothing got her excited enough to pick up a camera. Her jaw ached from frustrated clenching. She closed her eyes and tried to massage the muscles the way Braden had taught her.

“Knock-knock.”

She jumped with a shriek. “Shit, you scared me to death!”

“Sorry to barge in.” Gorgeously disheveled, Braden stood in the doorway. Lisa’s heart thumped as she turned off the music, glad to have the desk between them. He set her phone on the desk. “Everything all right? You didn’t respond to my texts, and my calls went straight to voicemail.”

Her eyes flicked to the phone, still powered off as she’d left it. “It died when I got home. Guess I forgot to plug it in.” She connected the charger and powered on the phone, angling it so he wouldn’t see that it was almost fully charged.
Five missed calls. Three voicemail messages.
“Sorry to worry you. Everything’s fine, as you can see.”

He didn’t seem to buy that as he sank into her old red sofa. “Listen to the messages. Put it on speaker.”

“Okay...” She was apprehensive, but set the phone on the desk and played her messages.

Braden’s voice said, “
Hey beautiful, it’s me. Everything okay? It says you read my texts, but you didn’t respond, so... I’ll try back in a few
.”

She tried to cover. “Right. Yeah, I was about to text you back when it died. My brain’s scrambled. It was kind of a rough day.” At least the last part was true.

Before he could answer, the next message began. “
Mrs. Taylor, this is Paul at Camp Big League. Again. We need to make arrangements for you to pick Jake up this week, unless you plan to remit payment--
” She grabbed the phone and stopped the message.

Braden frowned. “I thought he’s at camp ‘til the end of the month.”

Lisa debated how much to blast Vance to his stepson. “He is. Someone got their wires crossed. I’m working it out,” she hedged.

“What’s to work out? Vance pays for camp, right?”

“That was the agreement,” she sighed. “I’ve emailed and left messages, but I guess he’s not checking all that on vacation.”

“My mom’s been in touch. I’ll tell her--”

“And how would you explain this conversation? As far as they know, I haven’t seen you in years.”

“I’ll say you left a message at the house. She’ll make him take care of it.”

That was logical. She relaxed a little. “Okay... yeah. Thank you. Jake would be devastated if he had to come home early.”

He leaned forward and looked at her intently. “Well, I’m not quite ready for him to come home yet, either.”

Shit. Shit-shit-shit.
He gave her the opening, so she had to use it. “Braden... I think we need to stop seeing each other.”

“Like hell we do.” He stood and planted his palms on her desk, looming over her. “What’s going on?”

“I just don’t have room in my life for...
this...
right now.” Before he interrupted, she continued,

Apparently, I went temporarily insane and dropped my catalogue client to do my own thing. So as of this afternoon, I’ve got no income until I take a bunch of new pictures and sell them.”

“But that’s great.” He looked truly happy for her.

“No, it isn’t.” She made a frustrated noise. “It was a huge mistake. I’ve got no inspiration. I can’t think of anything I want to shoot.”

Braden looked at the framed prints hanging around her office. “Well... where’d you get the idea for the squash?”

“I looked in my shopping cart.”

He grinned at her flat tone. “All right. How about the park bench?”

“Walked by it. Thought it was cool.” She sighed. “If I’m gonna build a business I need to do a series... something I can put my stamp on. It was stupid to drop my only source of income before I had a plan.” She watched him study each of her prints, could see his wheels turning.

“Well, the thing I love most in your work is how you make me see stuff in a unique way... like the shadows on the bench, the curves of the squash...”

It was so nice to be appreciated for the thing she liked best about herself, Lisa felt almost safe for a moment. “Yeah, I’ve been brainstorming stuff that would look cool in a really tight shot. So far, nothing comes to mind that would lend itself to a cohesive series.”

“Maybe you’re coming at it from the wrong direction. Instead of looking at the whole, then reducing it to a small part of that... what if you start with the part and only hint at the whole?”

“Hm...” she said thoughtfully. “Keep talking.”

“Okay... you want images that grab someone’s attention... Like, you could take the world’s coolest picture of a hub cap, but so what?”

“Exactly,” she nodded.

“Small part of a larger whole...” he mused. “And I think it should be the kind of thing that forces an emotional response, y’know what I mean?”

She sat forward in her chair, loving the energy that came with spitballing on the right track. “Yeah, it’s gotta be... provocative... like a sharp blade...”

“Or a nipple.”

“Seriously,” she chuckled, though he didn’t seem to be kidding.

“Seriously. The image of your nipple stuck with me for ten years, and not just because I was a horny kid. It’s a small part that hints at the whole... it’s provocative, and there are plenty more body parts to build a series on.”

She felt herself blush. “I am not taking pictures of my nipple.”

He shrugged. “So take pictures of mine.”

Lisa stared at him. It was a good idea. And he did have plenty of provocative parts.

BOOK: Extreme Close-Up (Perspectives Book 1)
2.01Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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