Chapter 29. Bente Rocks My Girls On Film

Friday September 19, 2008

(Nobody shoots film these days, it is all memory cards, but the language remains largely in use. The Duran Duran video “Girls On Film - night version,” is one of my favorites.)

As a teenager, I used an old Suzuki jeep and old car batteries to make an electric jeep. The original vehicle engine had a roughly 350 cc two stoke engine but that was dead, the electric motor was a easy replacement.

During the July trip to the Colony in Peru, Gracie and I drove this electric jeep to spend a warm romantic night under the stars, in a cleared field in the Amazon rain forest. We made ourselves naked as the animals and did what came natural. We eventually fell asleep.

Then, in the morning light, Bente rode a horse up to the jeep and extended a greeting. Nobody minded that Gracie was undressed. After Bente left us she had to call her ranch-hand friends on the ranch to come say “hello” to their Prince and my latest rescued damsel. The guys would not mind that Gracie was underdressed, sleepy-eyed, and looking like we spent the night together under the stars.

We did not know she called the others, and it took them some time to get to us. In the interim, Bente’s brief visit had aroused other urges.

By the time the guys arrived Gracie was cheerfully tied, spread over the hood of the jeep, and I was doing what pleased both of us. Gracie was pleased to meet some others from the Colony, we both said hello. Since her hands were tied she could not shake hands in greeting so she gave a shy smile, jiggled slightly and invited the guys to shake something else with their hard-working cowboy hands.

They had a hard time believing the request, but Gracie trusted me so she trusted the men who worked for me. Her mother had shielded her from such men all her life, and now she wanted her shields down.

With my permission, and on their best behavior, the cowboys formed lines on her right and left and greeted her. Instead of shaking hands they extended their rough working hands and shook what Gracie was pleased to offer. Her soft warm flesh made a memory that they would each recall fondly on their last day. Gracie enjoyed a great time meeting them all.

The two women hit it off better than I realized, Bente was busy preparing for her wedding but they found time to share. It seemed that they had chatted by sat-phone even while Bente was enjoying her honeymoon with Tango in the South Pacific.

Together they planned something special, and they did not consult me about it. They did talk to the Patron and he thought it was a great idea.

Gracie planned to return to LA on September 28th, after Darnel and the threats to her were ended. (That detail was scheduled for tomorrow, at sea if the weather was good, or in the desert in the unlikely case of rain in California.) But Gracie mentioned to Bente that she wanted to get familiar with some of my friends. Bente mused that the Patron, coming in November, would also want to be familiar with the folks around me, so she ran with that. Together the two requested that the Patron commission Bente to do a photo shoot of my girls at my place during the short time Tango and Bente stopped here on their honeymoon. Apparently I was too busy and did not need to know.

Gracie knew that some of the subjects might not be interested if they thought she or Bente were behind it so she sold the idea to Zar as something that would help the Patron, who would visit in November. The Patron then wrote an email to Zar and Martin saying the photo collection would be a excellent idea. They agreed to a very limited distribution.

I was so busy that again, I did not need to know.

Gracie pulled Ernie in. As her acting executor and operating head of her mother’s companies, he arrange for one of her corporations to lend expensive cameras, lights, backgrounds and other support for the shoot. Bente co-ordinated the arrangements with Zar.

Have I mentioned that, as the wife of my best friend and adopted brother, Bente was provocative very big on having fun at my expense. Li, Abril and others were informed but they played along with “the big secret.”

To the women, the word “photo” meant hours of time spent in front of the makeup mirror gossiping in a Prince-free environment. What could be more fun?

I wondered what they would gossip about.

Bente and Tango were not done with their travels, but they were on a stop on LA for now. Bente was setting up a photo studio (“Bente’s Boudoir Portraits”) in the large house she and Tango had purchased. The house was livable but much of it needed work. Tango was supervising that project. For the few weeks in LA Bente was mainly honing her skill with classes and some “learner’s rate” shoots in her studio. She had a good eye.

With the Patron’s blessing, Gracie and Bente agreed to a plan where Bente would shoot 4 sittings for each subject. One was a close up face shot in full makeup, much like the “head shot” actors pass around. Next was a casual portrait in the living room, using a couple of changes of casual clothing. The selling point for the Patron was the third shot, a boudoir-type X-rated nude or R-rated semi-nude shot which might include another person. For these shots two bedrooms plus the pool area were dressed as simple sets for the photos. Last Bente added an XXX-type erotic shot of each subject set in the toy room, the pool or another, more erotic, bedroom. This last was expected to be closed-set and explicit. Some could opt to be cropped without part of the face in the frame.

The subjects for the photos were all the woman who lived in my house plus others I had been intimate with, or might be intimate with, in the near term. The exceptions were Marta (Gracie was living with her in Detroit), Amy (who was in Prague) plus Cynthia and Kwool who were in Peru. Bente would email the preliminary pics to Gracie in a few days. The book would be finished with another shooting when the others were around in October and November.

During talks about the project with the Patron and Bente, Martin suggested that pictures might be taken of his wives each month as their pregnancies advanced. He wanted front and profile whole body profile nude shots.

At seven in the morning I was eating breakfast when I heard somebody at the door. Zar went to answer, leaving me with Nia. I thought both Li and Abril were still in my bed, sharing kisses and enjoying the cream I left.

I heard unexpected voices. When I made looked into the foyer I found Bente and Zar talking in one corner, Irene, Li, and Abril laughing in another corner, Sam and Red with Phil and my uncle Qwit in another corner, and Uncle Martin arguing with his two wives in another corner. I was told Resha would arrive in the early afternoon after her shift. Belen planned to pick her up unless I could do it.

When I heard the plans I wondered about Red and Phil being there. I had not screwed Red, but she was in the loop and was in on my plan. But Phil wasn’t. They were married but he was not supposed to know where I was living.

It turned out Sam had driven them in the van so he still didn’t where I lived, but I expected to see him at work today. Red would help Bente with the photos and Phil invited himself along at the last minute. Sam, Red and Qwit all tried to dissuade him, but Phil was curious.

Well, you know what happened to the curious cat.

There was another more serious problem, Phil was one of my law partners so he was not supposed to know about Li and Resha. This is what happens when I am out of the loop on things.

I had options, most of them bad for somebody, but in a world of cell phones I had to do something quick. I decided that maybe we were not yet on Def-Con 1 yet, so I would try negotiation. I signaled Irene then walked through the foyer into the kitchen where I grabbed a knife of the type not normally found in a kitchen - a marine combat knife. I took a chair and waited with the knife in on the table front of me.

Phil had seen Li so he followed me a few moments later. “I am guessing you did not expect me on the guest list,” he said walking in. “No worries, I can keep WHOA...” He saw the knife in front of me. “That is not to open letters is it?”

“It opens people very well.” I was not holding it, but his reaction told me something. What he did not see was Irene stepping behind him, holding a dagger she did not need to take control of the situation. I knew the dagger had a silent garrote in the handle, cleaning up blood was a bother for Zar.