Chapter 7

Shannon came out of the changing room tense. She’d thrown on a robe rather than her lingerie and she gave me a tentative smile. Katie trailed in her wake, but gave me a thumbs up.

“The lighting wasn’t quite what I wanted for those last shots,” I lied. “How about we take some more like we did before?”

Shannon furrowed her brow, but nodded.

We went through many of the same poses we’d done before, though I threw in a few variations here and there. The point wasn’t to get the pictures so much as to help Shannon relax. Which she did. We soon got into a regular rhythm of poses and shots.

Which carried over when I asked her to pull her g-string down. Shannon didn’t hesitate. She rolled the fabric down slowly until her slit was fully exposed. Once it dropped to the ground, Katie hurried forward and grabbed it while I had Shannon stretch out on the chaise.

Her pussy was beautiful and shaving definitely helped. She looked angelic and naughty at the same time.

Most of my shots were full body images, though I did some of her face and torso as she moved; her face especially when she smiled. I had her roll on her side and did shots from both the front and behind. She had a great ass—the curve of her hips was perfect. I took several pictures of her from behind before a thought made me catch my breath.

I realized I’d get a great picture if I took it from behind while she knelt over the side of the chaise. It instantly brought back visions of Caroline in that pose—my favorite pose. But it would look amazing with Shannon.

I took a deep breath. If I was going to get past the ghosts, I had to be willing to take the shot.

“I’d like to get one of you from behind,” I said, “with you on your hands and knees.”

Shannon looked confused. “Behind?”

“Mmm hmm. On your hands and knees.”

She shifted onto all fours on the chaise, but by then I’d already moved around to the side.

“No,” I said. “Kneeling on the floor.”

“I don’t understand.” Nonetheless, she climbed off the chaise.

“Like this,” Katie said. She walked up to the chaise and then sank down in front of it. She knelt, and slightly spread her legs, exposing all of her shaved pussy.

I swallowed.

“Oh.” Shannon duplicated Katie, but Katie didn’t move away.

I started taking pictures, first of Shannon, but then some of both of them, and then a few of Katie. My dick had stiffened in my pants, but I definitely did not want to call attention to it. After a couple of minutes, Katie retreated from the scene and I took a few more with Shannon smiling at me over her shoulder.

Katie next brought out the white blindfold and some loose silk sashes.

“You still want this?” Katie asked Shannon, who swallowed and nodded.

I had Shannon stretch out on the chaise. Katie put the blindfold on her, which to my mild surprise, actually led to Shannon relaxing more. She still had her air of innocence, but now she looked like a sexy damsel in distress. The sense grew when Katie tied her wrists together with the sash and helped her hold it above her head.

Nude except for her stockings, blindfolded and bound, Shannon slowly shifted and writhed on the chaise. Her nipples were rock hard and her labia engorged.

I took several dozen pictures before I started getting repetitive. Reluctantly, I set my camera down.

“I think we’re done.”

I ended up jacking off twice that night—which given my age was a pretty big feat. I just couldn’t stop thinking about Shannon and the photo sessions. I idly fantasized about moving from photos to sex, even though I knew it would never happen. Shannon’s photos were for her future husband, and I resolved to not even create an album for myself. The memories would fade or be replaced by thoughts of some other woman.

As would the thoughts of Katie. I’d gotten hard looking at the pictures of her from behind. She looked far, far too much like her mother for me not to. The flare of the hips, the lines of her pussy. Even thinking about it later got me hard. I felt a lot of ambivalence about that. I knew my daughter shouldn’t be turning me on, but her mother always had. Was it my fault they looked so much alike?

And, to be honest, it had been a while since I’d had sex. Not since Caroline had gotten sick, nearly four years ago. For too long, I hadn’t cared, but my libido seemed to be coming back. That was a good thing, right?

Except I couldn’t do anything about it. Shannon was engaged. Alyssa had a boyfriend. I didn’t know anyone I could even date, but less go to bed with.

I’d had an amazing sex life with Caroline. I probably needed to just accept that I wouldn’t have anything so amazing again.

It hurt to think about, but not as much as thinking about Caroline did.

It took me a long time to fall asleep.

I spent Monday sorting through all of Shannon’s pictures and identifying the best. I did a little bit of digital touch-up—I was still learning that—and put them into a single file I could load on a memory stick. I thought about uploading them somewhere and sending her a link, but decided against it. I wanted to go through them with her so I could see her face.

Tuesday, I spent my morning teaching myself photo software tricks. If I was going to go digital, I needed to learn them all. I still wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to get rid of film, but I needed to know how to do small fixes at least.

When I joined Katie in the kitchen for lunch, she had a triumphant smile.

“I talked to Wendy,” she said. “We’re having lunch together Friday.”

I raised an eyebrow. “By ‘we’ you mean—”

“All three of us.” Katie smiled. “It’ll be fun.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It will be. She was curious about how you were doing.”

I snorted softly. The fact was, I kind of wanted to see Wendy. I just wasn’t sure it would go well. I hadn’t been exactly rude the last time...

... well, I’d been rude as hell.

My gut tightened at the memory.

“It’s just lunch.”

“Okay,” I conceded. “Friday lunch.”

My daughter smiled with a hint of triumph.

Shannon arrived Wednesday afternoon to look through her photos. We sat in the living room, her on the couch with Katie next to her, me in a chair across from them. I nervously held my breath as she flipped through the pages. Her head was down and I couldn’t see her face.

But when she looked up, she was all smiles.

“These are beautiful.” Her voice was soft, almost awe-filled.

“That’s what I wanted.”

“I’m ... I’m almost embarrassed.” She started to blush.

“But Tony’s going to love them,” Katie said.

Shannon took a deep breath and nodded. “He will.”

“I was honored to take these,” I said.

Shannon’s blush deepened, but she also began to smile.