Chapter 1

Her name was Elizabeth Brighton, she lived in New York City, she was 32 year's old, tall at 5'9 inches, long legged, slim hipped and small busted, her hair was a reddish blond, shoulder length with natural curls, her eye's were gray with flecks of green, she had what her father liked to call pianist fingers, long and tapered.

Her family considered her an old maid, she considered herself an unencumbered woman. She was a legal secretary for a large law firm, she had been a model in her teens and early twenties until the fashion world turned to girls who looked malnourished and ill rather then just slim with some sort of feminine shape.

Each morning at exactly 7:45am she left for work, at 8am she got on the subway and rode to work, arriving at exactly 8:45am, she disliked unpunctual people, she considered it a sign of rudeness, her time was just as important as theirs. She was always very careful in her attire, wearing crisp ironed blouses with a jacket and skirt, alternating with slacks. Occasionally she wore a shirtdress, her shoes were always stylish but comfortable.

Elizabeth had two ruling passions, collecting antiques and her art, she sold her art to afford her antiques, she thought it was the best of both worlds. With the money she had saved while modeling, she bought a large loft in the artsy district of town. She loved the atmosphere and the people, in the five years she had lived there, she had gotten to know most of the characters that lived in the area, though she rarely socialized she still had a ready smile and kind word for everyone.

Elizabeth was just finishing up her last report for the day, Richard Meyers one of the senior partners came out of his office pulling on his jacket, she handed him a few personal notes from callers and wished him a good evening. She liked Richard and his Wife Ruth, she had been invited to several of their dinner parties and had always enjoyed herself. Rushing a bit Elizabeth locked up the office and pulled on her jacket and gloves.

Almost tapping her fingers with impatience, which she rarely did, Elizabeth rode the subway to her stop, she usually let most of the people off first, hating to get caught in the rush, but today she was one of the first out of the doors. She rode the freight elevator to her loft, opening the gate she unlocked her door and went inside. She hung up her jacket, the gloves in the jacket pocket, her scarf wrapped around the collar.

Making sure the lacquered oriental Tang waist high cabinet was properly placed, she stood back and looked, double checking once more, she placed a rice paper mat on the top and waited, once again she found herself tapping her fingers impatiently. Hearing the buzzer, Elizabeth went to the door, checked to see who it was, then opened it. Harry and Mark from the antique shop stood with a dolly which was holding a 4' crate. Holding the door open she ushered them in, telling them to put the crate over by the Tang cabinet.

Standing back she carefully watched them open the crate, the two of them took the statue out of the packing sawdust, they started to brush it off but she told them she would do it and quickly went and got one of her delicate brushes, she gently brushed off the statue, then asked them to place it on the cabinet.

Elizabeth stood staring at the statue, until she heard the two men putting the lid back on the crate, she turned and thanked them for their delivery and help, then she gave them their tip. Even though delivery fee's were paid up front and already taken care of, Natalie always gave them a tip. Mark and Harry were always happy to take deliveries to the loft.

Elizabeth brushed some remaining sawdust off the statue with great care, she stood and looked making sure its placement was just right. Her hand drifted over the statue's lines and she smiled. Startled she jumped as the phone rang, she grabbed her cordless and went up the iron circular stairs to her bedroom to change out of her work clothes.

Sophie, her best friend from modeling days and still a top notch model, chatted away as Elizabeth changed into a t-shirt and jeans. Whenever Sophie was in town she gave Elizabeth a call, then usually came over to pig out on pizza and beer and not have to worry about looks from people in restaurants. After she hung up the phone, Elizabeth washed off her makeup, pulled on a worn, torn sweat shirt and went downstairs to order the pizza and make sure she had plenty of beer on hand.

Elizabeth and Sophie were curled up on the sofa, laughing over a story Sophie had told about an Italian at the last fashion show Sophie done, it was a lingerie show for a well known company, she giggled as she told Elizabeth about the man sitting in the front row with an obvious hard on during the whole show, the girls had purposely given him hot looks at they walked down the run way, just for the fun of it. Modeling was hard, often tedious work and anytime the girls could add a laugh or giggle, they went for it.

Getting up off the couch Sophie, with an exclamation of delight, she went over to the statue, "oh Beth its gorgeous, when did you get this?" Elizabeth for some odd reason didn't want her to touch the statue, she steered Sophie away from it, explaining that it had just arrived earlier that day. "Come see my latest creation, I think you'll like it." Elizabeth went over to the large folding doors that were on tracks in the floor and ceiling. Complaining the whole time Sophie helped push back one of the doors, "why don't you get these automated, it sure would be a heck of a lot easier to open if you could just flick a switch." Elizabeth totally agreed but that would involve having workers in to install motorized cables and what not and she didn't want a bunch of clumsy jerks messing around in her loft.

Elizabeth's loft was separated into sections, the front section contained the kitchen, a small guest bathroom, the living area with her TV which she rarely watched, several chairs and sofa's and most of her antique collection. The second section was where she did her art work, there were canvases every where, off to one side was a king size mattress laying on the floor, that's where she slept most of the time, a big bathroom was in the back where she could shower without worrying about getting paint on anything. this section was usually a chaotic mess, that's the way Elizabeth wanted it, the rest of her life was so organized, so controlled that here she could be as messy and disordered as she wanted. The only reason she had put in the folding doors at all was so she could close them if she had family coming over or certain friends that she would rather not have see her art. The upstairs section of the loft was her bedroom, a traditional bedroom with a 19th century four poster bed, a tall boy and several chests. This pleased her Mother who had actually, with much complaining, gone up the round metal stairs once to take a look.

"Oh my gawd, Beth that's fantastic, it gives me chills all over." said Sophie with a leer as she looked at the canvas. Elizabeth grinned, she thought Sophie would like this one. It was a large picture, about 3 feet by 5 feet, done in charcoals and pencil. The whole drawing was one of supposition, a very voluptuous woman lay on her back, her back slightly arched, her hair spread out around her in wild disarray, wrapped around the woman's body was a winged serpent, its mouth at her breast, the serpent coiled around the woman's lower body, between her thighs and down one leg that lay straight, the other leg bent at the knee. The woman's hands were around the serpents neck, the look on the woman's face was one of sexual abandon or death. Depending on the viewers outlook, the serpent was either killing or making love to the woman, its mouth either suckling a breast, or biting her, the woman's hands were either trying to pull the serpent away or hold it closer.

Most of what Elizabeth drew was sensual fantasy art, now and then she did a few portraits or landscapes to please her parents, but the fantasy art was where she made her money and gave her the most pleasure. Sophie took another drink of her beer and winked at Beth, "Mmmmm I wouldn't mind having that between my legs." Elizabeth laughed, "I sure have had fun drawing it, its not quite done yet, a few finishing touches, but I doubt I'll have any trouble selling it."

Both women looked at each other as the buzzer rang, "if that's Daryl, I'll scream, I swear he has look outs on every roof top in town." snapped Sophie. Elizabeth went over to the door and turned on the outside camera, sure enough there stood her cousin Daryl. She left him waiting outside until they couldn't stand hearing the buzzer anymore, he was a total pest and she knew he would stand out there ringing for hours, she had seen him do it before. Especially when Sophie was over.

With a resigned sigh, she let him in, unlocking the door and pulling it open, then she went and got herself another beer. Sophie put on her best "who the hell are you look" and went for another beer too, one could only tolerate so much of Daryl sober.

Daryl strutted into the loft, in his late twenties, tall, thin to the point of looking like a refugee, he wore skin tight leather pants, a T-shirt and a leather jacket with chains on it and biker boots. Elizabeth often wondered if he set off the metal detectors at the airport, he was pierced everywhere a person could possibly imagine and then some.

Heading straight for the beer and pizza, Daryl gave Sophie a wink "bet your glad to seem me, a babe like you needs a real man to keep her screaming." Sophie just gave him, her "you've got to be kidding look," and went back to talking with Elizabeth. Daryl spotted the new drawing and wandered over to look, he leered at Sophie "ohh baby, let me put my one eyed snake between your thighs, then you can suck out my venom." Elizabeth glared at Daryl, "Your so disgusting, Daryl, why don't you go find some alley to hang out in."

With a hurt look on his face Daryl sighed, "Lizzie, you on the rag again? your always on the rag, what you need is a good stiff one on a regular basis, then maybe you wouldn't be such a bitch all the time." Elizabeth gritted her teeth, she didn't mind being called Liz, or Beth, but she hated being called Lizzie and Daryl knew it.