"Shit!" Roy swore at the screen, "I was anticipating a quiet, peaceful journey and now some yakking woman wants to come with me." He read the message again.

<Dear Mr. Emerson

I must apologise in advance for contacting you but the Cwm Rydr Study Centre gave me your email address as being someone attending the Art Summer School at the beginning of August and living close to me. I am wishing to attend but it is a cross-country route of over 300 miles and my daughter needs the car for work on weekdays. The Centre has one place left and they have pencilled me in and will hold a place for me until next weekend. With the course so close to starting, I was lucky to get a place at all.

Would it be too much of an imposition to ask if I could travel with you? I will, of course, share the cost of petrol etc.

Yours sincerely,

Lillian Kell, Gt.Bishopham>

"Shit, Gt. Bishopham is only six miles away and the Centre needs all the students it can get to survive, so I suppose I'll have to offer her a seat in my car but maybe when she knows how I will travel, she might change her mind. I wonder if she is a chatterbox like my ex-wife? She must be at least middle-aged if she has a daughter old enough to drive." Still grumbling to himself, Roy replied:

Dear Lillian

There will certainly be room for you and your art gear in my car but before you decide, you need to know my travel arrangements. I will start at about 9:30 on Friday morning and travel by minor roads across England and I have booked a room at a Travel Lodge in Shropshire for the night and next day will meander through the Welsh countryside to arrive at the Centre early afternoon on the Saturday. The return journey will again take two days and this time I have booked a room in Warwickshire.

In view of the fact that we do not know each other and may not get on well, perhaps it would be advisable to meet beforehand. May I suggest lunch at the Cricketers Arms in Town Wed. 19^th July?

Roy

<Thanks Roy, I will meet you at the Cricketers. I'll recognise you as I've seen you and your work at a couple of exhibitions.

Lill>

"I wouldn't have thought you needed to go on a course," Lillian commented after the introductions.

"It's a holiday. I get to see and paint a totally different landscape to around here — and I don't have to cook any meals for a week. Usually I sell a couple of the paintings so the course almost pays for itself. I presume there is no husband to object to your spending time with me?"

"No, he cleared off with his secretary three years ago. What about you?"

"Much the same only it was six years ago. We just drifted apart. She talked and nagged incessantly so I couldn't concentrate and she couldn't get used to my sporadic income. There were times when I was flushed with funds and then went through a meagre period. I do pretty well now though especially after I painted a naked woman on the deck of a rich man's yacht. His affluent friends saw it and wanted something similar. How do you feel about sharing a room with me on the journey?"

"Okay, as long as it is understood that I will share the room but not your bed. When I enquired about you from friends, they said you were an eccentric, but harmless." She grinned and Roy had to smile too. He knew she referred to his unusual dress; sailor's cap covering his bald scalp, goatee beard, sleeveless shirt, shorts and trainers. At 5' 5" he stood a little shorter than her but he guessed there wasn't too much difference in her age to his forty-nine years.

By contrast she wore a neat flower-patterned frock, cut just low enough in the front to reveal a little of her cleavage. Her shoulder length, dark brown hair, curled under at the ends, surrounded a round face that bore little make-up. Her appearance didn't displease him and neither did her conversation. She kept to the point of the travel arrangements and what might be expected of her on the course. "I've been painting, on and off, since school, mainly flowers and only been on two weekend courses locally so when I heard of the Summer School I decided to try and go. At the time I had no idea how difficult it would be to get there by public transport and I didn't really expect anyone from this side of the country to go, let alone someone as close as you."

"I've gone every year for the last five, since Kate left me, so they know me well."

"You look a bit apprehensive, Lill."

"I suppose I am a little. In a way it feels a bit naughty to be in the same room with a man who is not my husband. Not that I have a husband now, but I guess you know what I mean."

Roy grinned and remembered her daughter Sharon's words when they left. "Be good, and if you can't be good, remember to take the pills!" "The ball is in your court. If you want to be naughty, climb into my bed, but rest assured I won't climb into yours and even if I see you naked, you won't be raped. With my work, I'm quite used to being with unclothed women and, while I often get aroused, they don't get interfered with unless they want it."

"Before I asked to come on this trip with you, I decided that I would have to begin to trust men again. It's been a long while and I've not been out with anyone since John left, so it may take time before I go further. We seemed to have got on well enough on the journey but expect to sleep alone tonight."

After a nice meal at the local pub and a couple of glasses of wine, she felt naughty enough to turn her back and undress in the room and don her nightdress in front of him. In turn she saw him naked and had glimpses of his half erect prick, but after a "Good night, thank you for bringing me," she climbed into her bed and turned out the light. Sleep took a long while coming for both of them.

Lillian wondered, "Am I being selfish by not sleeping with him after he has gone to the trouble to bring me? He didn't have to. Am I ready to have a man's prick inside me again? I think so. I still get horny and wet and I'm not that old, I still haven't reached fifty, although that isn't too far away. I wonder what he thought of my old body after seeing the gorgeous girls he paints? Maybe he's like John and wants younger girls. He looked in pretty good shape for his age and his penis is still in working order. Perhaps I'll find out before the end of the course. Sounds as if he is rubbing it now and trying to be quiet doing it. Is he thinking of me?"

Roy was indeed thinking of her. "She's not bad looking and has decent tits that hardly sag. Doesn't shave or at least, hasn't done so for a while. Doesn't talk too much. Even on the journey I didn't get the life history or her and her family. Seems willing enough to pay her way and not sponge on me so perhaps we can be friends if nothing more. Think if I had pushed things, she might be lying alongside me now but perhaps it was better to play it slowly, I've had enough one-night stands but they were only for the sex. With Lill I might want more than that. Remember though, you've only known her for a few days and things could change when you and she get to know each other better. You thought Kate was an ideal partner for several years."

Nestling in a mountain valley and overlooking the Irish Sea, the Cwm Rydr Study Centre started life as a Methodist chapel and the main building now contained the activity rooms, library, and dining room as well as the Warden's accommodation and office. Two neighbouring cottages provided the dormitories, mainly in individual rooms but with a few for couples.

"I've put you in room four like you requested Roy, only two couples this time so the double room was free," Peter Fletcher, the warden and tutor for the course informed them, "I know you like the view over the sea and there's room if you have company." He glanced at Lillian who immediately wondered if Roy planned to seduce her. "Lillian you are in room seven at the end of the corridor," Peter went on, "You're the first to arrive so I suggest you do any outside sketching this afternoon, the forecast for the next two days is for wind and rain so we won't get outside much until Tuesday."

Twenty minutes later, Roy knocked on her door. "Grab your sketchbook and I'll show you some of the sights."

"I've hardly started to unpack," Lillian protested.

"Plenty of time for that later. Sun's shining and the air is clear and fresh so we'd best make the most of it. It can get pretty wild here even in the summer."

Again she tried to protest, not because she didn't want to go but her mind kept returning to the fact that he'd booked a double room and it seemed that he'd had other ladies on previous courses. "Is he as trustworthy as he makes out?" she asked herself, "So far he's been a gentleman but is that a ploy just to gain my confidence and get into my knickers. Will he then be like John and look for someone younger and more attractive? With nine women booked and only three men, there are plenty of women to choose from on this course." A twinge of jealousy went through her body, but she grabbed her pad and pencils and followed him outside. In the end she was glad she did. Not only did he show her some of the interesting sights, but gave her useful drawing tips. Still, alongside him, she felt a true amateur. She laboured over details while he, with quick deft strokes, captured the atmosphere of the scene and even included her in one of the sketches.

As forecast, Sunday was spent indoors with most of the students working either from photographs or doing still life drawings of flowers. Roy though, spent his time drawing others on the course and produced a very acceptable painting of one of the younger ladies, again bringing Lillian's misgivings to the fore.

On Monday the weather, if anything, was worse and they would be cooped up in the studio again. "Can we try some figure drawing, Peter?" one of the ladies asked.

"Yeah, a life figure drawing class with a nude model," a man responded.

"You'll have to use yourselves as models. I haven't booked anyone for the course," Peter laughed not expecting any of them would volunteer.

"Roy's half naked already," Lillian commented nodding at his shorts.

"If I model until coffee break, you have to model from then until lunch. Now let's find some props." Lillian stood open mouthed for a few seconds before she realised that he had decided the matter for her and if he modelled, and it seemed he was preparing to do so, she would have to during the next period. Her perplexity was lost during the hubbub of finding a low couch and a couple of cushions. With no hesitation and no shyness, Roy stripped off and arranged himself so his sexual apparatus was fully exposed. One of the older ladies demurred at the sight but Peter suggested that if it embarrassed her, she only need do a portrait.

"Roy's obviously done this before, probably many times and is quite a home with being naked in front of others, but I'm not. Perhaps I can get out of it. He's got a bigger prick than John. Wonder what it would be like inside me? Are the other ladies wondering the same thing? Perhaps now they've seen it, they'll be queuing at his door..."

Lillian's musing was interrupted by Peter giving pointers on how to start and the angles and proportion of the various part of the body. He concluded with, "We don't often have male models and even professional ones sometimes become aroused when people stare at them as closely as artists do. If Roy becomes aroused, as he probably will with all you ladies looking on, please ignore it and either draw it in its flaccid state or discretely hide it under a piece of cloth or whatever. This is not a class for porno artists." Half an hour later, Roy's penis had started to harden but he was able to prevent a full erection.

From the rather flushed faces of several of the other ladies, even one whose husband stood alongside her, Lillian guessed she wasn't the only one having erotic thoughts about Roy. "Should I visit him tonight? No, it would be too embarrassing if one of the other ladies was already there or came while I was with him. Might be nice to have a cuddle and a fuck by a man again even if it is only for one night. Roy's the only non attached man here so the competition for him will be high." She actually got to touch it before the end of the session. After one of his periodic stretching breaks, he managed to get his feet and arms back in the same places but his prick lay the wrong way. "Put it how it was for him Lill please." Like the others, Peter assumed she knew Roy with more familiarity than she did.

Coffee break ended far too quickly for Lillian. Although she had never agreed to model for them, everyone assumed she had taken up Roy's challenge. "You can use my room to change and there's a dressing gown behind the bathroom door," Peter suggested as he opened the door for her, "Most models don't like doing a strip-tease."

"If I survive this, I'll kill that sod Roy!" she muttered as she slowly undressed. Donning the robe she sat on the chair and tried again to think how she could get out of it.