Twenty-One

I THOUGHT ABOUT TALKING the girls into losing their jeans, but it was cute the way they were wading in the creek with their pants legs rolled up. They continued to cluster around the rock where Beth sat and I figured that would be as good a setting as any. I got my sketchbook set and then plugged my mp3 player into a tiny speaker I’d seen advertised on late night TV a couple of weeks ago. It filled the clearing with an eerie note of flute music.

“Shakuhachi!” Beth shouted.

“Beautiful. A flute?” Melody asked.

“Japanese Bamboo Flute,” I answered. “There’s a few cuts of new age flute music, too. I wanted something we could all hear and that wouldn’t sound out of place here.”

“I expected you to put on your headset,” Lissa said. “Are you going to be able to work without closing everything out?”

“It’s something I discovered when I drew Allie,” I said as I ripped through a couple of warmup sketches. “She wanted to hear the music, too, and it affected the way she posed.”

“I’ll say,” Beth joined in. “I was absolutely knocked out by that painting. I started crying as soon as I saw it.”

“Well, remember that I did the painting in isolation, and yes, I was plugged in when I did it. I only did the sketches when we were together. Like today. It’s hard to do a good painting in the wild. Someday I’ll get the hang of plein air painting.”

“How do you want us to pose?”

“Beth, stay on the rock, but can you tuck your left leg up under you? The Graces are happy characters—goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, creativity, and um...” I paused. All three girls looked at me questioningly.

“And... ?”

“Um ... and fertility, I guess.” I don’t know why that made me embarrassed. But it was so much more intimate-sounding than the other characteristics.

“No big bellies today, okay?” Beth asked. “It took me all year to lose mine.”

“Right. Okay, here’s who you are. Lissa, you’re Aglaea which means ‘Splendor.’ Beth, you get to be Thalia. That means ‘Good Cheer.’ And Melody, my bubbly darling, you get to be Euphrosyne, goddess of mirth.”

“Wooo!” Melody laughed. She scooped up a bit of water from the creek and flicked it at the other two girls. They jumped and if I hadn’t calmed them down, there’d have been a water fight in about two seconds. Fine, but maybe later.

“Wait!” I commanded. “Melody, that’s the pose I want. With you leaning in to flick water at the others. But you don’t need to do it again until just before I finish. Lissa, turn to look at me a little. Lips apart, a little surprised. Nice. Beth, you’re the surprise. Lift your chin. Lean in to Lissa to kiss her cheek. Nice. Nice. Can you hold it?” I quickly snapped a couple of reference photos on my camera.

“I don’t mind this,” Beth said. I watched as she let her lips glide across Lissa’s cheek. Sexy as hell.

“No wonder I’m splashing you two,” Melody pouted. “When do I get a kiss?”

“Oh, you beautiful goddess,” Beth said. “Anytime you want.” She turned quickly out of her pose and put a kiss on the tip of Melody’s nose, then snapped back into position.

Hey! Was my best friend putting the make on my girlfriends? Hmm. Do I mind?

It took me all of three seconds to process that information and decide that I didn’t mind at all. The three girls chattered about everything from the weather to school to clothing as I sketched and the music filled the woods around us.

One of the characteristics of the classic paintings of the three graces by Rubens and Raphael is that one of them always has her back to the artist. Frankly, my three were all too beautiful to hide. Lissa’s unbelievable body has always captivated me, but I could get lost just looking at her face. The way Beth had to stretch up just a little to kiss Lissa tightened and lifted her chest. She developed that chest when she was chubby. Now that the rest of her body was slim, her breasts sagged down a bit when they weren’t being supported. But stretching did amazing things and her nipples were surprisingly small and erect, perched on top of the mounds.

I asked Melody to shift in just a little closer, which pushed her right breast into Beth’s left. Every once in a while, I could see one or the other of the two girls shift just enough to let their breasts rub together and cause their nipples to stand out even more.

“My feet are getting cold,” Lissa said after a while. They’d been standing in the water for about forty-five minutes and I had a pretty good sketch.

“Okay. Melody, now.” On command, she dipped her fingers into the water and splashed the other two. I took a quick mental photo of the water and ducked my head to the drawing as the girls’ pose broke down into laughter. They each got a good splash at each other before they waded out of the creek.

We’d brought a couple of blankets and spread them out on the ground. The girls dried their feet and flopped out as I put away the sketching materials. When I looked back at them, Lissa was truly kissing Beth as Beth’s back arched up pushing a nipple into Melody’s mouth. I know how much Melody loves breasts. Her favorite position while we are making love together usually includes having one of Lissa’s nipples in her mouth. It was quickly apparent that Beth liked it, too.

“You guys!” Beth said as she broke from the kiss and started to sit up. “I didn’t come out here to get all involved with Tony’s girlfriends.”

“We know. You want Tony,” Melody said. “But you’re so luscious. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“That’s not it,” Beth moaned. “I love it. I mean I really love it. Can we just cuddle a little bit? I need to tell you all something.”

I stretched out behind Lissa and reached my hand across to Melody so that we were all four connected together.

“Dumpling, you can tell us whatever you want. Now that Mel and Liss are here with me, I’m not quite as uptight as I was when we were alone. I don’t know if I can give you what you really want, but we’ll all be here for you.”

“That’s just it, Tony. You were always there for me. That’s why I thought I could take advantage of you at the party. I was on a mission.”

“That’s understandable,” Lissa said. “I remember when I went after Jack. He’d protected me and guided me for five years as and I was determined that he was going to be more than my guardian. I was on a mission and he didn’t stand a chance.” We all laughed.

“Tony and I were never romantically involved,” Beth said. “I’m not sure either of us even considered the boy and girl part of our relationship. We were always just friends.”