Chapter 2

Dale went to the powder room, thinking that his clothes might still be there. He was still looking for them when Catherine found him. Wisely, she didn't say anything for a while, just looked at him with moisture in her eyes. "I guess I went too far, huh? Is it the woman, or the girl?"

"You know, in our state, it's actually illegal for me to be naked with a girl her age. What is she? Eleven? Twelve?"

"Lisa is twelve, and she is a prodigy. I will make her a famous artist. They are all totally discreet, Dale. Nothing bad will happen."

"But it's just not right for her to see me like this! It's not normal! How can her parents allow it?"

Dale was still in the small powder room with Catherine in the doorway. Suddenly, the woman from the family was beside Catherine. "H ... hello, Dale. I'm Marilyn, Lisa's mother. I'm truly sorry we caused you such distress. How can we allow it, you asked? Well, the subject has been a real sore point in our family for some time."

His confidence already badly dented, Dale began to feel trapped. He was naked in a small room with two women, one a complete stranger, blocking his exit. In addition, he was angry with Catherine, feeling that she had tricked him once too often. For him, anger was always tightly held in, but he still wanted to be out of that room, away from Marilyn's eyes on his privates.

"You have to understand just how exceptional Lisa's talent is," Catherine interjected. "She is far beyond anyone I have ever had in a college class. To make progress in line with her abilities, she needs to begin doing figure studies." She could see the emotions on Dale's face, and she was beginning to fear that she had blown everything by reaching too far.

"The problem is," Marilyn continued, "she is terrified of being exposed to a naked man. Truthfully, I don't want her exposed, yet. But I believe Catherine about her talent. We had hoped that while you were getting comfortable exposing yourself, you could help her get comfortable with a naked male body." Catherine was looking very uncomfortable and very guilty as Marilyn said that.

"But she's just a kid!"

"A prodigy is a grown up talent in a child's body," Catherine explained.

"But still a child's mind and an child's emotions," Dale countered.

"She is a young woman now," Marilyn insisted. "Her periods have started. She is already on her third bra size, and she has quite a bit of pubic hair."

Maybe Marilyn thought she was somehow helping with that explanation, but the main result was to send Dale's organ pointing upward. "Shit!" he spat out.

"Oh!" Marilyn gasped. She stood transfixed at the sight for a moment, then turned and fled.

"Did you hide my clothes? Am I a naked prisoner here?" Dale snapped at Catherine with very uncharacteristic venom. She recoiled as if he had slapped her, backing out of the doorway as the tears started.

"N ... no, they're not hidden. I wouldn't do that," she protested. "They're in the bedroom closet. Dale, please - I'm sorry you're upset, but I just thought..."

He bit back an angry retort, sighed, and said "I'm getting dressed. This has gone too far."

The clothes were in the closet as Catherine had said they were. Just as he was about to step into his briefs, there was a hand on his arm, restraining him. He spun around quickly, ready to give Catherine a piece of his mind, but facing him was Caroline.

"I told Catherine that she had gone too far, but she wants so badly for Lisa to succeed that she, um, lost perspective, I guess."

Caroline was not the one who had offended him, and in fact, he had found her to be extremely kind and sympathetic the night before. A lot of his anger drained off. "Please. Don't dress until we at least talk a little. I'm afraid if you put pants on, it will all be over."

"I think it's all over, anyway," he said.

"Come over here," she said, pulling him toward the window, which looked out over the patio. Looking down, he saw the girl sitting by the table, her father's arm around her. She was obviously sobbing her heart out.

"Shit!" It was not an expletive he used regularly, but that was twice already this morning.

"There's still a lot of little girl there," Caroline said. "She feels rejected."

"But that's not the point!" he insisted.

"I know it's not the point from your perspective," she answered. "It's just that there are other people's perspectives involved here."

"But this was supposed to be about getting me ready to pose on Monday," he objected.

"Yes, it is," Caroline agreed, carefully substituting present tense for past. "And being the only naked one among a number of clothed people was her way of 'acclimating' you in the shortest possible time. It was an approach I approved, but only because she did not have time to do it properly."

"But a twelve-year-old kid!"

"Girl," she corrected. "A twelve-year-old girl. Would you have cared if it was a twelve-year-old boy?" Slumping his shoulders, he shook his head.

"Isn't it illegal here?" he asked. "I mean, exposing myself to a minor girl?"

"I guess I don't know the law in detail," she admitted, "but I'm sure you couldn't get in any trouble in this setting - this context."

"But that doesn't mean it's right!"

"Is the legality, the rightness, really what worries you, or is it your ability to avoid an erection when she looks at your genitals?"

Dale's anger flared at that question, but just as quickly, he felt admiration for her intuition and her forthrightness. It was the way he liked to deal with people. Once again, his shoulders slumped, but this time he chuckled.

She barely restrained her joy at the apparent turnaround, but waited until he raised his eyes and looked right at her. Then, she stepped right up and pressed herself to him in a tight hug.

"This isn't very professional," she said with her face pressed sideways against his bare chest, "but you seem to make women want to do this. You are a beautiful person, inside and out, Dale."

She released the hug after several more seconds, and pulled him over to sit beside her on the bed. "Can you just forget this, Dale? Can you forgive Catherine for being overzealous. She really does care for you, you know. Right now she is dying inside, I just know."

He looked her in the eye, but did not say anything, so she went on. "Let's step back a little and look at what's important. You really need the job, don't you?" He nodded. "You had pretty well decided that you would go through the weekend and do the posing, hadn't you?" Again he nodded. "Good. Will you forgive her? Can we start over?"

"I don't want to be an anatomy lesson for a little girl," he insisted.

"Young woman. Young woman, Dale. Still, I can see your point. Will you talk to Catherine?" He nodded again.

Dale's impression of Catherine as a supremely confident, completely in control person received a shot of reality when she entered the bedroom. Tears streaming down her face, she charged toward him, sat beside him on the bed, and did her best to strangle him in a hug. He let her cry herself out.

"I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, Dale. You have to believe that!"

"I know," he answered. "I do appreciate what you're doing for me. It was just ... just too much."

He could tell she was struggling with the next question on her mind, and he was pretty sure what the question was. "I don't know if I can pose for her or not, Catherine. What I can't do is sit around naked with her at breakfast."

"But you can with her parents?"

"I don't know how I can do that with anyone, but I understand what you are trying to do."

"If you dress for breakfast, does that mean that you won't be nude any more?" she asked nervously.

After a long pause and another of his increasingly frequent sighs, he said "No, it doesn't mean that. I've got my mind pretty fixed on the money from that job. I'll trust you to get me ready."

Catherine managed to corral everyone for a delayed breakfast, and Caroline joined them. Before they went out to the patio, Dale asked Catherine "Will just a few more minutes ruin the food?"

"No, why?"

"Could I talk to Lisa alone for a minute?"

"Oh. Sure." Her words weren't very enthusiastic, but he could tell from her expression that she was elated.

"Hello, Lisa. I'm Dale. I suppose you're pretty upset with me right now." He had almost zero experience talking to young teen girls, so the best he could do was talk to her as a contemporary.

"M ... me!" she stammered. "I thought you were angry with me."

"Nah. You didn't do anything wrong. A lot of people want to help you with your art, and I just got caught up in their plans. I couldn't handle it."

"So, you won't pose for me?" she asked, her lip quivering.

"Tell me, Lisa. Would you pose nude for me?"

"But you're not an artist! Why ... ohhhh! But you're a man. I've never been naked in front of anyone," she complained.

"Until yesterday, Lisa, I'd never been naked in front of a ... woman." He barely caught himself from saying 'girl'.

"Not even your mother, or your sister?"

"I'm an only child. My mother and I have only caught accidental glimpses of each other. I'm sure you know that being naked is more difficult for a man."

"You mean erections?" she asked and he nodded.

"Catherine says I have to paint naked people to improve. I'm afraid I'll just freak out the first time I try with a man."

"Have you ever seen your dad naked?"

"As if! My parents are pretty modest."

"So if I had been naked for breakfast, it would help you be less nervous if I posed?"

She ignored the main point of the question and asked "You mean you still might pose?"

"I really do want to help you, Lisa. It's just that I'm really nervous about some things. Let's go out there and get some breakfast."

When they came out to the patio, Marilyn could not look Dale in the eye. Barry, Lisa's father, shook his hand nervously and said "I'm sorry if this whole thing upset you." Dale smiled and nodded in reply.

The meal proceeded with minimal conversation, and Lisa hardly ate anything. When she seemed to have finished, Dale decided on a bold move. "Lisa," he said, "I understand you have a pool. Is it still open? Is it warm engough?" She nodded. "Why don't you go and get your suit on. I'll come and swim with you in a few minutes." Lisa looked to her mother for approval and got an uncertain nod.

When Lisa had left, Dale asked her parents "Have either of you posed for Lisa?"

"Oh, sure," Marilyn answered. "She's done lots of sketches and paintings of us."

"I mean 'undraped'," Dale added.

Husband and wife looked at each other quickly and blushed. "Oh, no. That wouldn't be appropriate," Barry said hurriedly.

Dale looked over at Catherine and then Caroline and received almost imperceptible nods. "Hmmmmm. I would think that for the sake of her potential future, you might want to redefine what is appropriate. You are both attractive people. You would make good subjects, and you are readily available."

Barry was obviously pissed and started to stand up. "Now wait a minute. You have no right to say something like that to us!"

Dale bristled a little, but kept his voice calm as he retorted. "Look, I don't want to offend you, but I was put into the middle of Lisa's situation. You were willing to use me as an anatomy lesson to get her used to cocks and balls. I think that gives me the right to say what I did."

"But parents and children shouldn't be ... I mean we need to maintain modesty," Marilyn objected.

"All I know is that if I was the artist and I needed a nude woman, my mother would pose without any hesitation," Dale asserted.

"Are the two of you pretty casual about nudity?" Marilyn asked.

"No. We live in a very small apartment, so there is not much privacy, but we do not expose ourselves to each other on purpose."

Barry had sat down again, but he was obviously upset. "So, how would you feel if your mother was in the studio when you posed?" He probably thought he had scored a big point.

"I wish she could be there," Dale said honestly. "If I could look in her face, it would be a lot easier to get past the shock and embarrassment."

"You're kidding!" Barry said.

"Not at all. Last night in bed, I was feeling bad about exposing myself to Catherine and the others. I wish Mom could have been the first one to see me. We have always been modest around each other and there has never been a reason to display our bodies. Now, I have to strip to make money that I badly need. There's a reason for other people to see me naked. I wish Mom could have been the first."

Dale heard sniffling from either Catherine or Caroline and Marilyn said "I don't know how you can say that. It has to be so embarrassing to bare yourself to someone you live with - someone who sees you all the time. How can you act normally around them after that?"

"Maybe you should ask Caroline that," Dale said. "You're getting into psychology that's beyond me. All I know is that no one loves me like Mom does. She would never do anything to hurt or embarrass me. Maybe you just have to work out a different 'normal', maybe a closer, more intimate one."

"Why are you wasting your time studying economics?" Caroline quipped.

Apparently, Catherine had had this discussion with Marilyn and Barry before, and she jumped in. "The way you handle that is to keep the nudity strictly in the studio. Walk in with a robe on, just like a professional model would."

"I mean no disrespect, Catherine, but that won't cut it with Lisa. For someone older, it might. She told me that she would be shaking so hard she wouldn't be able to draw if a naked man was posing. You knew that. That's why you wanted me naked for her at breakfast. She needs to see enough dicks so that they are no longer a shock to her."

Now it was Catherine who gave out the big sigh. "You're right, of course. I'm really sorry, Dale. I ... I just didn't think this through enough. And Marilyn and Barry, I'm sorry, too, for messing up Lisa's chance. I know she was hoping, even if she was really nervous about it."

Dale knew what he wanted to do, but he was still working up the courage to do it. He looked around at the others at the table, particularly at Lisa's parents, trying to decide if his bold move was worth trying. The downcast, thoughtful looks on the parents' faces told him that the were ripe for change. After another long pause, he made his decision.

"OK, everyone, let's not have a funeral here. I'll make a deal. I'll pose for Lisa..." he waited for the reactions, which he got, "but there are some serious conditions." He waited again, wanting someone to ask what the conditions were.

It was Marilyn who bit. "Wh ... what conditions?"

"You and Barry and I are going to go over and swim with Lisa, like I said I would. We're going to splash each other, Barry and I are going to throw you gals, we're going to do chicken fights - all the normal pool stuff. Is that OK?"

This was going to be terribly hard for Dale to do, but he still found himself having a little fun. He caught a glimpse of Caroline and he could tell that she knew what was coming. "S ... sure. That sounds fine," Barry said. "What other conditions?"

"Oh, the condition. Barry, you and I will be bare-assed."

"Whaaaattt?" Barry shouted. His shout was punctuated by Marilyn's gasp.

"That's crazy. I can't do that," Barry almost shouted.

"Just so everything is on the table," Dale continued, "the other condition is that Barry, Marilyn, and I will all pose undraped in Catherine's studio after our nice swim. We'll pose separately, of course, and I'll leave while Marilyn poses."

Barry was just shaking his head and Marilyn was staring at him in open-mouthed astonishment. "If you don't agree, I'll go and swim with Lisa for a while, but in shorts. There must be some men's shorts around somewhere. Lisa will never see my dick.

"Catherine and Caroline, would you come in the house with me a help me find some shorts? That will let Barry and Marilyn discuss the importance of Lisa's art career versus the sanctity of his dick."

Not taking any chances, Dale grabbed each of the women by the hand and led them to the house. "You knew what I was going to do, didn't you?" he asked Caroline.

"How did you ever come up with that?" she asked in response.

"Well, it started when I was angry," he answered. "They were all down because I wouldn't wave my dick for Lisa, but they wouldn't even consider baring themselves. That seemed sort of selfish to me."

"But you'll end up naked with Lisa after all."

"Yeah. I barely met her, but she seems like a really nice girl. She was so disappointed - guess I'm a sucker for tears."

"Fortunately for us women," Caroline laughed, "most men are. But don't you still think it's wrong to be exposed to her?"

"Yes, but skinny dipping is sort of, I don't know, excusable? And it will just be in the pool and when posing. Besides, Barry will take over after that."

"Do you really think he will do it again?" Catherine asked.

"Tears, remember?" That brought laughter from both sisters.

"Guess I'd better find those shorts," Catherine said.

"Don't bother," Dale said. "He'll do it. Let's watch from here where they can't see us."

A few minutes later, Marilyn walked off toward their house and the three watchers went out to talk to Barry. "Did she leave angry?" Catherine asked.

"No," Barry answered. "She thought it would be best to tell Lisa what was going to happen."

"And what is going to happen?" Caroline asked.

"I'm going to do it - Dale's conditions." Turning to Dale, Barry said "'The sanctity of my dick' - where the hell did you come up with that?" When Dale just shrugged, Barry said "Well, Marilyn wouldn't let go of that. She practically threatened divorce if I didn't do it."

"So you think you will be doing something wrong?" Caroline asked, quite obviously adopting her shrink role.

"Yeah, I do," Barry admitted, "but damn, Dale! You really hit us hard, there. Problem is, you were right. I love that girl so much. She really is more important than my dick. I have to believe Catherine that this is crucial for her, so I'm viewing it as my duty."

"But not a privilege?" Caroline prodded.

"In my heart, I know it's a privilege, but my gut is tied in knots," Barry said.

"And the skin of your ball sac is squirming and tingling, right?" Dale asked.

Barry's head snapped toward Dale and he blushed brightly. Catherine released a giggle.

"Catherine!" Caroline snapped. "You've underestimated how difficult it is for a man to display his genitals once today. Don't do it again. Barry is doing something courageous. He should have our support, not giggles."

Dale was surprised at Caroline's stern rebuke and wondered if that was a big sister thing. For her part, Catherine was very contrite and rushed to give Barry a hug.

"I don't know how I'm going to do this," Barry said. "What if I get, you know, aroused? I mean, I shouldn't think of my daughter that way, but I can't help it."

"Marilyn will probably wear that thong bikini, too," Catherine added.

"Oh, God! What have I gotten into?" Barry moaned.

"Barry, we've been through this same problem with Dale," Caroline said. "Men always think the world will end if they get an erection where anyone can see it."

"But she's my daughter!"

"Does she know what an erection is?" Caroline demanded. He nodded.

"Will she think you are going to rape her if she sees you get one?" He shook his head.

"Will she think you're a pervert?" Another shake of the head.

"Will she love you less?" More negative response.

"Here's what will happen," Caroline explained. "She will feel sympathetic because she knows it will embarrass you. At the same time she will be thrilled because she has been dying of curiosity about cocks and balls, as Dale put it, for years. Her nipples will stiffen and her little vagina will drool because she will think maybe she helped to cause it.

"Most of all, though, Barry, she will fall head over heels in love with her handsome, brave father who is willing to do this for her."

"You think so?" Barry asked, then with a glance at Dale added "Do you think she'll even notice me with Schwartzenegger here in the same pool?" That made them all laugh.

"Here's what you need to do," Caroline said, clearly in charge, "You take the powder room, Barry, and you use the upstairs bathroom, Dale. Undress and relieve yourselves to reduce the risk of erections. Then walk over together naked. Catherine and I will go up to her bedroom and promise not to look."