Chapter 135

I said “Oh Shit!” when Megan said that the guy who called her was Saul Epstein.

She asked. “Do you know him?”

“Yes, I do, and he’s a perv! How did he get your number?”

“He said that Nell gave it to him.”

“That can’t be right, I’m gonna call her.”

I grabbed my cell and she answered on the second ring with, “What took you so long?”

“W-What do you mean?”

“You want to know why I gave Epstein Megan’s number, don’t you?”

“Yes, how did you know that I...”

“Megan just came home and told you, didn’t she?”

“Yes, but...”

“I knew that she would, is she there with you?”

“We’re in the exercise room, she’s right here.”

“Call me back on the wall phone and put me on speaker.”

I told Megan what she said and Megan said, “Did you give that guy my cell number, Mom?” when I called her and hit the speaker button.

“Yes, I did. I talked to him this afternoon. Pete told you that he was a scumbag, didn’t he?”

“Yes, he said the guy is a perv.”

“He is, but he’s also very rich and he has a lot of rich friends, but he’s also a pretty sharp art collector and he wants you to do some work for him. You can make a ton of money and get some fantastic contacts from his friends if you do the kind of job that I know you can.”

“But he said he wants me to do a painting of him and some girl having sex.”

She chuckled, “He was just testing you to see how you would respond. That’s not going to happen. We’ll set those ground rules right away.”

“But is it like, umm, safe to be around him?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure of it.”

“Aren’t his friends perv too if he’s that way?”

“Probably, but their money is good.”

“So you think that I should do it?”

“Yes, I do.”

“B-But why?

“Because you’re a wonderfully talented artist and you should start to capitalize on that right now. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?”

“I would like to go to college.”

“Okay, I’ll be glad to make that happen. What then?”

“What do you mean by ‘You’ll make that happen’?”

“College is expensive.”

“I can probably get a swimming scholarship.”

“You probably can, but swimming scholarships don’t have the clout that things like football and track do. They barely cover basic expenses. It’s not a problem, I’ll make sure that you have everything you need, but what happens after that?”

“Uhh, maybe the Olympics.”

“I hope that’s true and I’ll be behind you all the way if it is, but what happens if you get hurt or if swimming doesn’t have the appeal it once did for some reason. What about then?”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that you have a big talent and you have an opportunity to start making a name for yourself right now. This is a huge break, Dear, and fame and financial success are sure to follow if you play this correctly.”

“You mean that I can get all that just by doing a few paintings for a creepy guy like Epstein?”

“Yes, you can, and it’s not just a few portraits. The one he wants for his office is a life-sized, seated likeness, and the small ones are bust portraits of his staff and a few of his famous friends. If we do this right, and I say we, because I’ll help you with the negotiations in the beginning. You could net at least twenty five and maybe as much as fifty thousand dollars from him alone!”

Megan’s eyes got big and I guess mine did too. Megan then asked, “How did this all happen?”

Nell answered, “Epstein called me a week ago and wanted me to give him your number. He said that he saw your work when I asked him why. He likes your style and he wants you to do a formal painting for his office. I asked him where he saw your work and he said that it was at Abe Cohen’s house. Abe told him that he had to get in touch with me because I had a connection with the artist. I know Saul Epstein; we’ve had some business dealings in the past, but knowing what Cohen’s painting is about, I was concerned that he wanted more than a just formal likeness, so I told him that you were a family friend. I said that the painting he saw wasn’t a specialty of yours and I didn’t want you involved in anything kinky. He said that he knows art and that your composition and shading were amazing, and that’s why he wants you to do his portrait.”

“But why? If the only work he’s seen of mine is a nude of Pete, why does he think that I can do a formal portrait of him?”

“Because I had a couple of things e-mailed to him earlier today. One is a picture of a portrait I once did of John sitting at his desk at home, and the other is a copy of that pencil sketch you did of me that hangs at the Inn. I told him that you did both of them.”

“MOM! Why did you do that?”

“Our styles are so similar that he won’t be able to tell the difference, especially from something seen on a computer screen.”

“But he’ll want the portrait done first, won’t he?”

“He probably will.”

“What if he doesn’t like it?”

“Will you rush through it or do sloppy work?”

“Of course not, but what if...”

Nell interrupted, “Quit worrying, he’ll love it. That kind of work is your thing, Dear. I see it every day from the things you do here. You’re as good as any portrait artist working right now.”

“Stop it, Mom. You’ve helped me with everything I’ve done so far. You made me start all over on the painting I did of Pete. You’re a much better artist than I am.”

“No, I’m not. I just have more experience than you do. Your latest work has a flair to it that I never had. You’ll do just fine, plus I’ll be there to help if you need me. After seeing that pencil sketch, he told me that he wants sketches of his entire staff along with the portraits, and he said that he might ask you to do some renderings of the activities that went on at his house when I pressed him about what else.”

I interrupted with, “You know what goes on at his house?”

“Sure I do, his parties are legendary.”

“H-Have you ever been to one?”

She laughed, “No, Dear, those things are not my style.”

Megan asked, “What kind of parties are they?”

“They’re sex parties with lots of drugs and underaged girls.”

Megan cried, “YUCK, and he wants me to paint them doing stuff?”

Nell answered, “First off, I’ll make sure from the beginning that you are not to be involved in any way. His house is beautiful and so are the grounds around it. I’ll bet that you can come up with some interesting pencil sketches depicting real or imagined activities without actually seeing them taking place.”

“I understand about the portraits, but why not just have someone take photographs of the ‘activities’?”

“I asked him the same thing, and his answer is what convinced me that you should take his commission for the portraits. He said ‘Because anybody can do that’. You have to understand these people. He and his cronies are all big money people. ‘Wow’ factor is important to them and they think that doing what other people do is beneath them. Paying an artist for something a photographer could do at a fraction of the cost shows that they can afford anything and that’s supposed to prove to all their friends how rich they are in their warped minds.”

“Are all his friends like that?”

“Yup, and they are like lemmings. They fall over themselves getting the same thing if one of them has something that they think is cool.”

“So I’ll get more commissions from what I do for Epstein.”

“I guarantee that you’ll be swamped with requests. Not for sex romps, but everyone will at least want a portrait. You’ll be busy for the next year at least, and it’s only the beginning. You’ll have tons of people wanting to hire you when the word about your work gets out.”

Megan sighed, then she asked, “And you’re going to help with the negotiations?”

“Yes in the beginning, but I just had an idea. I think that you should hire Cindy to take care of things after that. She should be with you at least at the beginning of every session, as a matter of fact.”

“Okay, but why?”

“Because I can’t be with you all the time, and you’re so nice that they’ll try to take advantage of you.”

Megan looked shocked and asked, “You mean that I’ll have to defend myself?”

Nell chuckled, “No, Dear, I mean financially. That’s just another game rich people play. They try to beat the price down on everything. Cindy would never let them get away with it if she was with you.”

I asked, “Is Cindy tough enough to do that?”

Nell cried, “Are you kidding, that girl is tough as nails. You don’t see that side of her because she’s in love with you.”

I got as far as, “She’s not in love with...” before Nell interrupted, “Shut up, Pete, I know what I’m talking about.”

Megan surprised me by adding, “She’s right, Pete. You should hear how she talks about you when you’re not around.”

Then she asked Nell, ‘Where will I do this, I can’t bring him here?”

Nell replied, “You know the dress shop next to the gallery where you work?”

“Yes?”

“That used to be a warehouse and the whole back end is vacant. We can rent that and turn it into a nice studio for you.”

Megan stared at the floor for a minute, then she said, “I’d like be in business, wouldn’t I?”

“That’s right you would. You’ll have a business license and everything.”

I was thinking about what was happening when I suddenly got a chill. It was cool in the room and my t-shirt and shorts were plastered to me from perspiration, so I interrupted, “This sounds great, Guys, but I gotta get cleaned up.”

Megan was explaining that I had been working out to Nell as I headed for the bathroom. A long hot shower to work the kinks out after my workout sounded good, but the hot tub looked even better when I passed that, so I went to the hot tub after a rinse in the shower, turned the motors on high, and got in.

I went over to the side with the most powerful jets and I was letting them pummel my back when I saw a figure pass the door on the way to the bathroom and a very naked Megan was getting into the tub with me a minute later.

She seemed unconcerned about being naked and started waving her arms around and chattering away about how excited she was. Her lower body wasn’t visible because of all the bubbles, but her breasts were. She has a swimmer’s body and they aren’t very big, but her nipples were standing straight out and she looked surprisingly sexy.

I guess that I was staring because she stopped in mid-sentence and said, “What?”

“I was just looking at you. You really are pretty, why don’t you have a boyfriend?”

“I-I don’t have time.”

“C’mon, there’s more to it than that.”

“It’s tough meeting guys when you can’t hear what they’re saying most of the time. Saying ‘what’s that?’ or ‘huh?’ quickly gets very old.”

“Really? I almost never notice that you have a hearing problem.”

“I’m getting better at reading lips.”

“It’s noisy in here; what’s it like to you?”

“I can’t hear what you’re saying. All I can hear is water rushing and I can feel the vibrations from the pump motors.”

“Well, you do a good job speaking. Some people with hearing problems talk kinda loud.”

“Thanks, I’m not completely deaf and my mom used to yell at me when I talked loud, so I try to be careful, but, umm, why were you staring at me?”

“Because you’re pretty and I like looking at you when you’re naked.”

“Why? I don’t have boobs.”

“Don’t be silly, your boobs are fine. None of the other girls on the swim team have big boobs. I bet that you have more than almost any of them.”

“I-I guess so.”

“I bet that you noticed other guys looking at them.”

“Yeah, but no guys have ever seen them in, uhh, person before.”

“Well, I feel privileged because they are very nice.”

“Thank you.”

“You don’t mind showing them to me?”

“I like showing my body to you. I’ve never done that with a boy, and I know that it turns you on. It turns me on too.”

I pretended to stroke a mustache and said, “What if I decided to grab you and have my way with you?”

She laughed, “You wouldn’t. You’re my brother and you wouldn’t do that.”

I yelled, “Oh yeah,” and I pretended to lunge at her.

She was lightning fast. She had me around the neck, laughing and giving me ‘noogies’ before I knew it.

I struggled for a second, but all I did was skate around on the slippery floor, then something happened.

She had a death-grip around my neck. My face was against her chest and one of her nipples was poking me in the eye. I started getting a hardon before I realized it, and my cock had ended up between her legs while we were thrashing around.

She suddenly let go and stared at me.

I started to apologize, but she smiled and said, “Its okay, you told me that it would happen.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“I know, and I’m flattered. I actually got the great Pete Baker excited.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

She reached over, turned the pumps off, then turned back to me and said, “I want you to show it to me.”

Shocked, I said, “You’ve already seen it, you even painted a picture of it.”

“Not when it was hard, that was through a one-way glass. I want to see it up close.”

“Why?”

“I never had a chance to really look at one. I’ve seen pictures on the net, I’ve seen the artists’ models at the gallery, but they weren’t hard, and I’ve seen yours at our house and when you’re with Nell, but I’ve never touched one. I want to know what it feels like.”

I thought I’d call her bluff, so I said, “Okay but you have to let me look at your vagina first.”

“Why? All that’s there is some hair and stuff, and you’ve probably seen a million of them,” I chuckled, “Not quite a million, but I’ve seen a few and some can be very pretty.”

“Well, you wouldn’t like mine, there’s nothing to see.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen other ones. The girls’ swim team at school showers together. We all trim ourselves because of the swimsuits and some of them shave it all off. A few of them have stuff that sort-of hangs out but everything is inside with girls like me.”

“Everything?”

“Well, almost everything.”

“You’ll have to show me some day.”

“Will you let me see you if I do?”

I smiled and shook my head, “How old are you, Megan?”

“I’ll be eighteen in January, why?”