Chapter 3: On Top of the World

Mavis was Kendra’s and my favorite model. And Morgan’s. It was the way her aura blossomed when she modeled. ‘Blossom’ was the term Morgan and Mom used to describe how a person’s aura sort of reached out toward things that excited it. Usually those things were other people, but not always. They found the blossom in people who looked at artwork, cars, food, and televisions, too. As far as anyone knew, it was the first time anyone in our family had taken the time to study the phenomenon of how the women see auras. Gramma even participated a little and said that back in the old days they were called aurists.

After two years of working with Mavis pretty regularly, I still jumped to attention whenever she walked through the room. She’d seen me, nude and pointing to the sky, when I posed for some photos for her. Couldn’t help it. I just had this visceral response to her. Working beside her gave me a hard-on. When she modeled nude, I was in physical pain from my erection. I painted my way through it. And even became ... comfortable with it. Like with Kendra, Mavis and I learned to deal with the tight quarters we worked in, the occasional brushes against each other as we worked, and even a hug or little kiss when we saw each other.

Mavis wasn’t as refined a model as Kendra was in terms of being able to memorize and hold a pose, but she just exuded confidence and sexuality. Susan had the sexuality part, but unless she was blindfolded she didn’t have the confidence to let it loose. When she was being completely submissive, though, she certainly responded to me and to my posing her in a decidedly sexual way. Thinking about her scent aroused me. But Susan wasn’t one to casually touch or hug. If she was on, she was on. Otherwise she stayed huddled inside herself. I thought Zen had a lot to do with that.

Susan had backed off from posing again. Things were really difficult between her and Zen. Susan worked at Hallowed Grounds, but it barely met her meager expenses. She’d continued to live in the dormitories because they were covered under her scholarship and Zen had insisted that if she lived with her she had to share the much higher expenses of Zen’s duplex. The only way Susan could possibly do that was if she became a cam model and was as successful at it as Zen. Tensions were high between the two of them. Kendra and Les invited her to stay with them over the summer between our junior and senior years at no charge. She often shared meals with us at our house.

Mavis was different. We had established a routine of models dressing—or undressing—in the bathroom. Annette had put half a dozen different robes on a rack and you could tell what kind of mood a model was in by which robe she (or he) wore into the studio. We’d discuss the pose and when everyone was ready to go to work, the model would take off the robe and pose. I didn’t get aroused when a model posed. I just painted. With Mavis, though, as soon as she dropped the robe, I got hard. Even before she dropped it. I stayed that way throughout our session. It wasn’t possible that my lovers and Kendra wouldn’t notice my response. Morgan said Mavis responded the same way. She wasn’t sure if the response was to being nude or to being with us. Me. Our occasional posing sessions without chaperones told me Mavis responded to me.

I usually paid models $20 an hour for posing. It wasn’t much, but most of them did it to pick up an extra $50 or so on a weekend. They weren’t professionals. They were friends who posed for us. Among the seven of us, though, we simply posed for each other without charge. We’d all been subjects for Mavis’s portrait sessions. Annette and I had held a passionate kiss for an hour while Mavis took photos and Kendra molded clay according to the description of the aura Morgan described. I had no difficulty holding Annette in my arms while I kissed her for an hour. It was like nothing else existed. Kendra and Les even posed while Mavis moved around them taking dozens of photos and I got a couple good sketches.

Mavis had also done a series of Morgan, Annette, and me. One indoors and one outdoors. I had one of the prints framed and it now hung over our bed.

We’d been working for an hour one Saturday morning in late June when we had a three-hour session planned. Mavis lounged back on the daybed with folds of drapery barely concealing her pussy from the angle I was drawing. I focused more on Mavis than on the drapery when she posed, creating nearly photorealistic paintings of her. I often just laid in a rough sketch of how the drapes hung and spent the rest of the time capturing her beautiful body. She still kept her blonde hair short and a little curly, but we did several poses with wigs. They worked fine for me but Morgan complained that the wig dulled her aura.

I loved the reclining pose we’d chosen for this session. She had one leg over the edge of the daybed dangling almost to the floor while the other was drawn up to her knee. We’d asked her for a daydreaming expression as she looked off into space.

It did nothing to dull my sexual response. In fact, I sketched but I really wasn’t concentrating on it. I must have been daydreaming, too.

We took a break and I prepared a new sheet of Bristol for my next sketch.

“Pen?” Morgan called my attention. I wandered over where Kendra was working in the clay and trying to capture both what she saw physically and what Morgan described. I was still amazed at how quickly Kendra could sculpt in clay. Of course, she did a lot of refinement after the model left, but I could already see and recognize the shape. “We were wondering if you’d pose with Mavis,” Morgan said. “Pretty please?”

“N ... Nak ... Nude?” I asked. That was a disaster waiting to happen. One accidental touch of my cock and she’d be covered in semen.

“Not quite,” Kendra said. “We respect your condition, Arthur.” She actually reached over and squeezed my cock through my jeans. They both giggled. “The pose I have in mind would have most of your lower body concealed behind her. Just shirt off would be fine.”

“Need to ... ask Mavis ... too,” I stammered. My only hope was that Mavis would say no.

“Ask me what?” she said coming into the room.

“We’ve suggested that Arthur join you in the pose. Nothing lewd. He’d keep his pants on. This time,” Morgan said. “We’ve just seen this interaction between the two of you for over a year now. We’d like to see if Kendra can capture it.”

“Sure.” Damn! It was hard enough having Mavis’s naked body eight feet away from me. It was going to be ridiculous if I was close enough... Shit! Do they expect me to touch her?

“Can ... I talk to you ... Morgan?” I said.

“Sure. Let’s go in the other room.”

“Is this okay, Fay?” I asked when we were alone.

“Oh, honey! No one is pushing you to do anything with Mavis,” Fay said. “But you have a unique connection. Kendra and I want to find out if we can model it. We might find out that it isn’t really what it appears to be. Think of this the same way as it was with you and Kendra the first time she posed nude. We all knew you had a unique friendship, but that’s what it was—friendship. We aren’t asking you to make love with Mavis or to even touch her as intimately as you have Susan. We just want to capture what is in your eyes.”

“It worries me. I should talk to our Lady. She isn’t here.”

“She’s downstairs working with Les on her stories. There might even be a chance she’ll be able to publish that anthology this year. They’d be up here, but you know Mavis isn’t comfortable having another man in the room while she’s posing. That’s part of why we think we’ll see something cool with your auras,” Fay said. “Why don’t you run downstairs and take a minute to talk it over with our Lady. And Pen, I love you to the depth of my soul. I’m not worried and neither should you be.”

I talked to Annette and she told me the same thing.

“It’s even less than you did with Susan,” Annette said. “And a lot less than you and I did. We won’t be jealous and we won’t ever stop loving you.”

I guessed that was it. I went up to the bathroom and took off my shirt. Then I brushed my teeth. I didn’t know what kind of position they’d want us in, but I was sure she’d be close enough to smell my breath. I thought about just going out for a walk and letting them do whatever they wanted without me, but Morgan and Kendra really wanted to see what was in our auras.

I’d had this uncontrollable response to Mavis ever since I’d met her. The first time she posed for one of my nipple drawings, Morgan had talked about our connection. It scared me. And it made me hard as a rock at the same time. There was nothing for it but to go in and face her. I pulled on a robe, just like all models.

When I got into the studio, Kendra and Morgan were explaining what they wanted to Mavis, who was nodding. I joined and she playfully reached over and tugged at my robe. I got the general gist of the pose and walked around to the back of the daybed. I had to move it out away from the wall just a little so I could get there. I dropped my robe and Morgan got me in the position she wanted me. Then Mavis dropped her robe and my heart skipped a beat.

She got into a position similar to what she’d been in before. Kendra did a little artful draping and Mavis used the remote control for her camera to take a reference photo so I could do a sketch later. Mavis was right up tight against my leg and reached for my hand. It was awkward to hold hands in that position, so she pulled my hand down to her side, just below her left breast. Almost sort of touching it. Then she ran her hand up my arm to just above my elbow.

“That’s good,” Kendra said. “Arthur, you need to look at Mavis’s face.” My eyes had been darting all over, trying not to look at her beautiful breasts or the hairless slit that was almost right under my elbow. I felt her hand touch my face and turn me to face her. I got lost in those electric blue eyes. “Lean in just a little, Arthur.”

Mavis pulled her hand toward her and my face just followed it. I licked my lips. It would be so easy to just keep falling toward her and kiss her.

“That’s it! Perfect!” Morgan said. “Hold it right there.” The camera flashed again and I wondered who held the remote. Morgan began whispering to Kendra as Kendra worked her hands in the clay.

I wasn’t going anywhere. I was caught in her eyes. The gentle touch of her hand on my cheek, my hand on the smooth flesh of her side. I no longer cared to look at her breasts or pudenda. Her eyes told me everything I needed to know.

Have you ever looked into someone’s eyes? Kids used to have stare-downs in grade school. They’d see who had to blink first. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Mavis. I could see her pupils dilate as she looked at me and I fell into those limpid pools. I never wanted to look away. I wanted to hold her in this embrace. I felt more than saw Kendra approach me and move my left hand to Mavis’s right shoulder, then she was gone. It was posed, but I was embracing my naked lover, Mavis.

I looked into her eyes for over an hour and could tell she felt something, too. I couldn’t describe the emotions that washed over me. Words, dammit! This image was burned in my mind forever and I would paint it from memory. Her look was filled with ... passion. Maybe even love. We made love with our eyes.

“I think we’ve got everything we can get for now,” Kendra said. “You two were awesome.”

I relaxed and started to pull away, but Mavis pulled me down until I was pressed against her. I could feel her breasts against my bare chest and smell the scent of her shampoo. I was getting a little dizzy.

“Thank you, Artie,” she whispered in my ear. “I loved being with you like this.” She kissed me on the cheek and pushed me away so she could roll off the bed and grab her robe. I just sat there watching her, gasping for air. I grabbed my robe and pulled it on. By the time I got around the daybed, she was in the bathroom dressing.

I wandered over to Kendra’s workspace and looked at the clay model.

“I don’t think I can do it with paint,” she said to Morgan. Annette walked over and kissed me. I hadn’t even seen her come into the room.

“But without the color, it’s just missing something.”

“I’ve got an idea for it,” Kendra said. “It’s not just the color. It’s the transparency. Your mom sees them like this. The aura is opaque to her. But you see details of their faces because the auras are transparent and a completely different shape than their features.” I hoped so. The clay figure Kendra had shaped only looked like two people in certain places.

“What can you do? We run into this problem every time. Even your instructors aren’t getting what you are trying to do,” Morgan said.

“Glass,” Kendra answered. “I’m going to cast the figures into bronze and use glass to form the aura around them. If I make tiny holes in the bronze casting to anchor the glass, I think it will work.” Mavis entered the room, fully dressed in her street clothes.

“Did we look like that?” she exclaimed. Then she caught herself. “I mean, I know you are trying to capture something unusual, but that doesn’t look like people. Sorry.”

“No. This piece is important, though,” Kendra said. “I need to do one of the two of you without trying to capture the auras and then overlay them. Can you both pose in the same place next weekend?” I looked at Mavis and she grinned at me.

“You mean I’d have to look into his dreamy eyes for another hour? Or two? Or three? I could force myself.” We all laughed. Sort of laughed. Mavis said goodbye and I went into the bedroom and collapsed.

Annette followed me and stretched out beside me to hold me.

“I’m so sorry, my Lady. I couldn’t help it.”

“Help what, love?”

“Getting turned on. I was so turned on the whole time I was with her that I imagined being in love with her. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“Mmm. Can I help you with that?” she asked. “I don’t mind taking advantage of an accidental erection.” She worked my belt loose and tugged at my jeans.

“How could you? Knowing what made me... ?”

“I love you, Pen. Fay loves you. There are probably a dozen other women out there who love you, but we get to be with you,” Lady said. I relaxed enough that she could get my jeans past my butt and still-hard cock. “No matter what makes your cock hard, Fay and I have a place you can point it.”

“I love you so much, my Lady. How can I get turned on by someone else?”

“We live in a strange world, my love. It’s normal to us to have naked models holding poses for us to admire—for you to paint and Kendra to sculpt and Mavis to photograph. That’s not normal in the non-art world. In the art world, we are all magical beings and magic has its own set of rules. The world outside our enclave is mundane. Women get jealous when their men find other women attractive. They haven’t had the opportunity to know the magic.” Annette had rolled on top of me and slid her wet pussy down onto me. All thoughts of Mavis were washed out of my head instantly. This was my lover, my Lady. “Ah! Your magic wand is casting a spell over me. How can I be jealous of something that gives me so much pleasure?”

“They’re gone,” Fay said, coming into the room. “I love Kendra and Les, but I couldn’t wait to get up here with the two of you.” She tore off her clothes and crawled in next to us, kissing first Lady and then me. “Les kept wanting to talk, but Kendra was as turned on as I was and got him out the door as soon as she could. I think Les is about to be struck by lightning.”

We all giggled, thinking about Kendra’s lightning bolt tattoo pointing at her pussy. I didn’t think it would be the first time Les got struck. But with both my lovers in bed with me, I didn’t have the presence to think at all.

Whenever I was with either Lady or Fay, everything else was washed away. My fears, my panic, my darkness. Maybe we did live in a world of magic, but the real magic in that world was here, in this bed with me. I thrust up into Annette’s welcoming pussy. Morgan’s fingers caressed my balls. I erupted in sync with Annette.

Magic was all around us.

“Can we do it all nude with both of you today?” Kendra asked. The day bed had been pulled out into the center of the room so it was more easily accessed from all sides. “The way we did it last week was more like a relief. I’m going to try to make a model of your shape and position in all dimensions, but it won’t have all the details. I can’t work as fast in clay as Arthur can on paper.” I glanced over at her modeling station. The size of the clay boulder she had on the table was impressive. She’d been working on softening it for over an hour already. “I’m not trying to capture auras today. This is the physical model. You’ll probably get bored and we’ll take breaks whenever you need to. I’m guessing it will take six to eight hours to get what I want and I’ll be walking around a lot so I can see you from all sides. We’re not going to try to do it all in one day. But let’s try to get done by the end of Monday, okay?”