Chapter 3 #3
“You notice those things, huh?” Most clients said they liked something, but they only liked something if it happened to be their favorite color, regardless of how it actually looked on June.
She looked terrible in dark green, yet one of her first clients always insisted on dressing her in it because they loved dark green.
Didn’t matter if it washed June out or clashed horribly with her hair. “I guess that makes sense, Dr. Artist.”
“Suppose I’m pretty observant.” She set up her easel before moving it around, looking for the perfect light.
June stayed in place on the fountain and wouldn’t move until told to.
“You have to be, both as an artist and a doctor. Can I tell you a secret? Every time I see your boss, I go into doctor mode. I can’t help it.
I stare at her and wonder if she’s taking too much of a vitamin. ”
“As an artist?”
“They go hand-in-hand a lot. Doctors look at the big picture, and artists at the minute details. The macro and micro.” Sette seemed pleased with her final setup.
“Your macro is that you’re a gorgeous woman who inspires me to be happy…
well, maybe I shouldn’t put it that way. I swear I’m not that sad.”
“It’s okay.” June tried not to smile. “It’s my job to make you happy, in whatever way.”
“You know what I mean…”
She wouldn’t respond to that. Don’t fall in love with me, okay?
Many people had fallen in “love” with her before.
It never worked out well with her career.
They either discovered they were in love with her forbidden fruit, or they immediately asked her to stop working or “get a real job.” They wanted to be her one and only.
She wasn’t even sure she could live that kind of life.
The thought of only being with one person for the rest of my life… weird.
“So, what’s my micro?”
“I’ve had a lot of time to study that.”
“And?”
Sette wouldn’t meet her gaze. “It’s not something I can put into words.
As a woman of the visual arts, I prefer to explain it with my work.
You’ll have to take a close look to get what I see.
” Now Sette looked at her, eyes sparkling with a new topic.
“Speaking of, my agent is currently shopping around my current collection of your paintings to galleries all over the world. Who knows? You may be displayed in Tokyo soon.”
“Hate to burst your bubble, but I’ve been displayed in Tokyo. Or was that splayed?”
The dramatic sigh making its way over to her almost made June giggle.
Once she was pleased with her setup, Sette wandered over and helped June choose a good pose for them to work with.
June sat on the fountain ledge with one leg drawn up and the other hanging loosely toward the ground.
Her elbow rested against her knee, forehead against hand, and hair tumbling behind her.
Sette asked her to keep a disconnected expression while she painted.
Not hard to do, when she was already bored within ten minutes.
Nice money, though, and I get to look at her.
There was something about a former doctor in flannel painting her, looking at her with those hungry eyes.
Sette wasn’t shy about carnally wanting her anymore.
Those barriers had been torn down between them.
She liked her, she wanted her, and in turn, June felt largely the same way.
I don’t mind her coming over for whatever she wants.
Sette was a bit aloof, but she was kind and thoughtful when June put herself in the foreground.
Even when she got rough in bed, she made sure June was happy.
Miquela was the same way, yet they accomplished the same ends so differently.
For one woman, it was a point of pride. For the other, well…
June was still trying to figure out what Sette got out of it.
“So you’re serious about this art thing, huh?” June had always known that about Sette, but hearing about what went on with these paintings in the outside world was new. “How many paintings have you made of me?”
Sette stopped sketching to count. “About eleven completed works right now.”
“Eleven! What the fuck!”
“Yup. Eleven. I’ve been prolific with you as my muse. I can’t help myself. I look at you and wonder how I can experience your image for the rest of my life… and how I can share it with the rest of the world.”
June blinked away some pollen from her eye. “I’ve never heard that from anyone before.”
“What? That you’re that beautiful?”
“No, no… that you want to share me with the rest of the world. Most want to hoard me for themselves.”
“That’s asinine. A total waste. A woman as great as you should be shared with as many people as possible.”
“Ah, yes, an artistic gang bang.”
“If you want to put it that way.”
“Sure! Wouldn’t be my first one. Gang bang, that is.”
Sette raised one eyebrow before going back to her sketch. “Do I even want to ask?”
“Why not? You’re talking to one of the stars of the kinky club scene.
I used to get paid wads of cash to be a crazy party fantasy.
Even with chicks! Up in New York, they tried it with a ladies’ night.
Yours truly was center stage of what was a nine-woman lesbian gang-bang.
Would’ve been an even ten, but the last one was too drunk and started crying while her besties rushed her out of the room. ”
“That poor girl.”
“Poor girl? Poor me! I like round and even numbers. Nine is weird. It also means death in some cultures. What do we make of that?”
“That your poor body died that night.”
“Kinda, yeah.” Taking on nine people at once was no easy feat, even for someone as experienced as her. “It was worth it, though.”
“And some higher up paid for you to do this?”
“In a way. Back when I escorted, a gal from Brazil said she and her friends wanted a girl for a birthday party. I volunteered.” Hilariously, the other girls at the escort company turned their noses.
How boring of them. “Of course, I didn’t know how many people it was.
I was thinking four or five. When I showed up at the hotel suite and saw short of a dozen women drinking and feeling each other up to get ready, I had to turn around and tell Lady Brasilia that my fee had doubled.
Somehow, they had no problem with that.”
“That’s fascinating. Really.”
June rolled her eyes before forcing herself to convey that bored expression again.
“Do you have an issue with me talking about my work, Sette? I had fun that night. I don’t regret it.
‘Course, not sure I’m young enough to do something like that again, but I’ll probably be thinking about it when I’m in the nursing home one day.
Damn, can you imagine me sunsetting to that? ”
“You will be the toast of the retirement home.” Sette picked up her palette and tested a color in the corner of the canvas. “And I don’t mind. It adds to my pictures of you. How can I convey who you are if you don’t tell me about yourself?”
“So it doesn’t bother you when I say I’ve probably been with about five-hundred people in my life?”
She almost dropped the palette. “I… that’s a lot.”
“Don’t know if you’re too old for this, but when I was in school, they used to say that you have sex with all of your partner’s previous partners, too.
Of course, now I know that’s misogynistic bullshit intended to make women feel like cheated cattle, but people get weird about it.
I’ve been with hundreds. Many more have touched me or watched me do things. ”
“As long as you’re okay with it.”
“I’m asking because last time you seemed uneasy with it.”
“Forgive me.” Sette finished brushing off the palette. “Until you, I had never paid for sex.”
“I have that effect on people. You gonna put that in your paintings, too?”
“God willing.”
June smiled. “I like you, Sette. I know I’ve told you that before, but it’s the truth.
I’ve only told a dozen or so people in my life that I like them.
Most clients are business. They range from deplorable one-night stands I refuse to see again to great lovers who make me see brand new colors.
I’ve only told a few that I actually like spending time with them. ”
“I’m a lucky woman, then.”
You have no idea. June didn’t even know why she liked her so much.
Was it how comfortable she felt around her?
How easy-going she was? Her artistic mind that was married to the logical side of the world?
The fact that she was an excellent lay on top of that?
There were hundreds of people to compare her to.
June was able to forget most of them the day after.
Nothing special. Another night’s work. Sette was different.
She looked forward to her visits, to chatting with her while she sketched her, to ripping off her clothes for her and begging – earnestly – for Sette to fuck her.
“You are. If we had met in the civilian world, I would still be drawn to you. I don’t say that lightly.”
Sette gazed at her, face soft, steady. Then she went back to drawing, the lines of her mouth turning in thought.
Sunset was falling by the time she finished her sketch. June stretched out her limbs, bare foot slipping into the cold fountain water and sending chills across her skin. Sette put her things away while June kicked at the water and thought about nothing but a hot bath.
“Do you want to go inside?” she asked. “I mean… I’m assuming you’re staying longer.”
Sette’s sly countenance quickened June’s heart.
That’s the kind of woman I want doing me tonight.
Last time, Sette had commanded June to serve her.
It was a fleeting moment between them; it was hot.
“I am,” Sette said. “Sometimes I think I’ll go home early with nothing more than a kiss from you, then I see you, and I spend hours thinking about what I want to do to you. ”
“Good.”
“Today I’m thinking… what do you like, June?”
She stopped spreading her toes in the fountain water. “Huh?”
“In bed. I mean, your favorite things. Positions, dirty talk, things like that.”
She laughed. “Not many ask me that.”
Sette wasn’t laughing. “That’s too bad. You deserve to be spoiled, too. People should feel honored to pay for the privilege of giving you what you want.”
“I like lots of things.”
Finally, Sette smiled. “Like gang bangs, huh?”
“I don’t think you could deliver that right now.”
“So, what do you want?”
She had to think about that. “You’re putting me on the spot here. If I had to say what’s off the top of my head… well, Sette, I want you.”
“You like to do what comes naturally, huh?”
June shrugged, her robe falling off her shoulders. She didn’t pull it back up. “I’m so used to people taking the lead, I guess. What do you want to do?”
“Funny, that. I was thinking I simply want you, too.”
June spread her legs across the fountain’s edge and leaned back, her breasts spilling from her bra. “Then come over here and take me, Dr. Christie. I need an exam.”
“This isn’t exactly how an exam goes.”
She extended her arms above her head. “It is now. Come tell this bad girl how dirty she is.” Her smile nearly crushed her face. “If you can.”
She could. She did.
I could get used to this. For a long time.
June didn’t care that the hardness of the nearby bench – the same one Miquela fucked her against not too long ago – dug into her, or that a chill was overtaking her body.
All she cared about was Sette on top of her, kissing her, squeezing her, fucking her with everything she had.
Which was a lot. The woman was good at bottling up her needs, then unleashing them all over her.
June didn’t often think dangerous thoughts during work, but she realized that this was quickly becoming not work. Worse. Sette was proving to be a rare client who could have caught June’s attention even outside of her career. In another life, she could be my girlfriend. Girlfriend.
Her heart seized in fear as Sette went at her with the despotic need of a brand-new beast. “Holy hell, you’re mine,” she groaned into June’s ear. “Do you feel me? You’re all mine.”
“Yeah…” June was trapped between sexual reverie and the kryptonite exposed to her brain. “I’m yours, Sette.” Her orgasm was taking forever. Tortuously so. Was she doing this on purpose? Was she slowly spending herself to draw this out and make June face how much Sette owned her in this moment?
To what end?
“You’re amazing.” Sette’s kisses were harder now, covering June’s throat. “So amazing that I insist on taking you up to your room and giving you whatever you want. You deserve it.”
June didn’t charge her for round two. Or three.