F/Stop
15
Canadian Mounted
“Kathleen” by Fernando Cortez, ID1220978626 from Shutterstock.com
MY DEAR CHRISTINE,
I genuinely wish you the best that life has to offer with eternal happiness and marital bliss. Yet it would be far too painful for me to witness you committing yourself to another man. I am at my summer home in Canada and cannot return to Tenbrook this weekend. I have selected items from your bridal registry with Ronda, Anna, and Patricia. We all sincerely pray for you to have all the love and honor God can grant in a marriage.
Blessings on you,
Nate
I’d waited to send the card until we got to Canada so it would have the postmark of our home in Stratford. Our Christine was getting married the twentieth of June.
I knew Kat would be at the wedding. I assumed Mom and Dad would go. The wedding was at the Lutheran Church, so there was no conflict of Mom returning to her former parish. But Julie had begged Kat to come and be with her after she stood as a bridesmaid for her sister. She didn’t know any of the others in the wedding party and felt they were all too old for her to spend time with.
I’d found out quite a bit more when I’d visited home after Ronda got out of her last final. We were packing up Anna and Patricia to head for Canada by mid-week. I went down to Sage to spend Saturday with Mom, Dad, and Kat.
Mom was super-busy. The church was twice the size of the Tenbrook church, having combined two congregations when they became United Methodist. They were already talking about adding an educational wing to the new church.
Dad said he’d had a lot of gastritis lately and had missed some work. Doctor said it was his commute that was causing him too much stress, so he was looking for work someplace closer to Sage. He excused himself to go take a nap and that left me face-to-face with my not so little sister. She’d be fifteen in August and she was definitely prettier than either Naomi or Deborah. I don’t know. Maybe Naomi and Deborah were that pretty when they were in high school. I didn’t remember. I’d seen Deborah and her family in February when I came to Tenbrook for Ronda’s birthday. Naomi, Lt. Hart, was in Germany, managing a helicopter maintenance crew at an airbase near Frankfurt. Living the life she wanted.
“So, what’s the deal?” I asked Kat when we went out for a walk.
“Ugh,” she responded. “Life sucks. I’d wish it was over if it wasn’t so much fun.”
“Um… I’m not sure I parsed that.”
“Okay. The simple story is that stupid Brian couldn’t wait until I was sixteen to have a girlfriend, so he started dating my former best friend Vanessa.”
“Ouch. He’s only fifteen!”
“Yeah. So’s she. They just meet at school and go to the games and dances and stuff. You know what that was like. I go to games down here and I even go to dances and dance with boys. Sometimes. If they aren’t being too gross,” she said. “It’s my own damn fault.”
“Oh, no. Don’t go there. He knew the rule you set up three years ago. It’s not your fault,” I said.
“He caught me kissing Julie.”
Oh. Shit! My sister was… Maybe it was her fault.
“You were kissing Julie?” I said.
“Yeah. I couldn’t help it. I really love her and she loves me. We’re only a year apart in school and she has her driver’s license. We were all out at the barn in Sally’s studio. We fixed it all up and actually each have a space where we can work with models. Sally’s really a good artist. We do a lot of swapping with each other if we need a model, too. Anyway, she had Brian in her half of the studio and I had Julie in my half. She was just so beautiful and sexy. We’d been talking all through the session about just little things. It was really so sweet. I quit painting and went over to her and just kissed her. And she kissed back. A whole lot better than the kisses I had with Brian. And then… He just walked into my studio and caught me kissing his sister.”
“Didn’t he know better than to walk into the studio unannounced?” I asked. “Wasn’t Julie posing nude?”
“Of course. She can hardly keep her clothes on when she gets to the studio. We do a lot of looking at different poses in books together, and I work on getting her in position. Her skin is like silk. Brian has walked in on us before, even though I warned him not to. I think he just likes to catch Julie naked. He gets an eyeful and leaves,” Kat said. “This time I couldn’t chase him out because I was kissing her and… and I kind of had my hand on her breast.”
“Oh, my. Is um… Julie in love with you, too?”
“I think so. She was holding my hand to her breast. And I just wanted to stay like that for the next hour or two years or something,” Kat said.
“It sounds like it might all be for the better then,” I said.
“Yeah, of course. I mean, Julie comes to pick me up and we go somewhere else to paint. Sometimes she brings Brian and drops him off for Sally. But as soon as Brian saw us, he ran back into Sally’s part of the studio and told her we were lezzing out and Sally got all upset.”
“Why?”
“Oh, like I said, we sometimes trade back and forth and pose for each other if we don’t have someone else. So, she was upset because she thought I was a lesbian and I’d seen her naked. She told me I had to take my things out of her barn and not come back there to fool around with my models. It was the only time I’d ever done that. Then.”
“Oh? The only time then?”
“Um… Julie’s my girlfriend now. She said she’d wait until I was sixteen before she told anyone we were girlfriends, but she comes down here about every other weekend and we go someplace where we can paint and then we kind of make out for a while. I really like kissing her. That’s why I’m going up to Chris’s wedding. Julie asked if I would please come and be her date to the reception. I mean, she said her date! I’ll ride up with Mom and Dad, but you know Mom will want to get right back home so she can practice her sermon. She said it was okay if Julie drove me home after the reception if it wasn’t too late and if we stayed away from the alcohol. And she said Julie could spend the night.”
I had a feeling Mom didn’t know my little sister had been kissing and… Oh wow! She’d been feeling up my former girlfriend’s little sister. Well, not so little anymore. Julie and Kat were only a year apart in school because of the way the rules are written about when your birthday has to be in order to start school. But they were a year and ten months apart in age. Julie would be seventeen in September. Kat would be fifteen in August. I had no idea how to deal with this whole thing.
“Well?” Kat said after I’d been quiet too long.
“Kat, you know I’ve got more than one girlfriend, right?” I said. She nodded. “Well, most of those girlfriends are girlfriends with each other, too. In fact, that started way back when Ronda and Christine and I were together. Christine was Ronda’s girlfriend the same way she was mine.”
“I thought so,” Kat said. “It’s the only way it made sense. I mean, what are they supposed to do when they’re just waiting around for their turn with you? Julie and I talked about it, too. She said that if we’d stayed together with Brian, she’d have ended up in an intimate relationship with him and even though she loves her brother, she really doesn’t love him like that.”
“Well, I’m glad of that,” I said. “That would be pretty weird. What I’m trying to tell you is that if you have a girlfriend instead of a boyfriend, I’m okay with that. Or if you have a girlfriend and a boyfriend. You don’t need my approval, but I thought you’d like to know you have my support.”
“Oh, Nate,” she said hugging me. “You’re the best big brother. I want you to know that I love you. But not like that!”
“Good! We’re on the same page. Now what do you want for your birthday?”
“I want to come visit you in Stratford. And Mom says that if it’s okay with you, she didn’t see a problem with us all coming up for a week’s vacation. Is it okay, Nate?” she asked.
“Yes! It’s so okay. I tell you what, we’ll go talk to Mom and I’ll make a reservation for her and Dad in a local inn Patricia and I stayed in once. If you’re okay with it, you can have our guest room that week.”
“Coool!”
Sometimes I’m a good big brother.
My sister and Julie Evans. Wow!
We were eager to hit the road on Tuesday. Patricia and Anna had been in Tenbrook over a week and even Toni wanted to ‘go vacay.’ We stopped overnight in Chicago to pick up Patricia’s car. Being without wheels and dependent on her parents the past week had contributed to their desire to get out of town fast.
Wednesday morning, we headed for Stratford. It’s a long enough trip—especially in the packed microbus—that we stopped at the Holiday Inn in Windsor again. Patricia and Toni had been in one car with Ronda. Anna rode with me. The next day, Ronda and Anna would switch.
We found out the nice top floor suite we’d had on previous occasions had been taken by some radio broadcaster who was living the high life. Fortunately, there was another nice suite on the end of the floor. The guy behind the registration counter carried on a long and involved conversation with Toni, welcoming her back to Canada. He gave her a lollipop and gave the rest of us a voucher for dinner in the restaurant. I was thinking they automatically gave those out to whoever rented the top floor suites.
The end suite didn’t have a jacuzzi hot tub like the other one did. It still had two bedrooms and a huge bed, though, so we were plenty comfortable. And Thursday, after breakfast, we drove on into Stratford and parked behind our new home. It was the first time we’d all been here at once since we bought the place.
Anna and I had focused all our energy on getting the studio ready when we were here in the spring. Ronda and Patricia approved and said they thought it looked great. Then we headed upstairs to the apartment. We hadn’t done nearly the work up there, other than clear the shipping boxes out so we could get to the bed, and make the bed in another bedroom so Kathleen had a place to sleep when we put her up overnight.
Toni would spend the night in what we decided was the guest room. We promised her that the next day, we’d get her a special big girl bed and she’d have her very own bedroom. She was fully potty trained now and we anticipated needing to have a big girl bed for the sun room in our Chicago apartment.
We did a thorough clean and scrub of the whole apartment. We were going to have to supply it, much as we had the apartment in Chicago. That meant shopping trips and we headed in two directions with the two vehicles to get little things like three new beds, pots and pans, a vacuum cleaner, and groceries. You just never think of all the stuff you need in a new apartment until you move in.
When we could, we supplied the apartment with things we found in our own store downstairs. Melinda kept track of what we took out of stock so she could record the inventory of antiques. I was really amazed at how organized she was with the store and Anna asked her to work part time all summer and help us learn the business. She happily agreed. So, we got dishes, silverware, cups, and a comfy chair from the store. I spotted one of those double-decker coffee pots like Adrienne had that made such good strong coffee and grabbed that, too.
We were too exhausted to cook that night, so we went to the little pub up the street for dinner. When we got home, Toni was disappointed that we didn’t have records to dance to, so we put that on the shopping list for the next day. Instead, I held her in my arms and made up nonsense songs that I sang as we danced around the sparsely furnished living room.
Once Toni was down for the night, we all celebrated our new home for the summer with a glass of champagne. The drinking age in Ontario was eighteen, so we had no trouble buying a bottle of bubbly. Then we crowded into the one bed we had in the bedroom so far and slept in layers after we made love. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but the matching beds that would go in this room would be delivered on Friday.
The big thing was that we were home. This wasn’t just an apartment we rented for the school year. This belonged to us and it made me kind of weepy to think about having my family in our own home. I lay awake for a long time that night, with Patricia asleep partly on me and her soft skin beneath my fingers. Anna and Ronda were in a similar position next to us and I could hear the soft breathing of my lovers as I thought about my life.
It was pretty damned wonderful.
Friday morning, I went to the newspaper office to see about running an ad for the studio. The paper came out Monday through Saturday and I could get an ad in for the next day. I took out a fairly large ad, but it didn’t cost all that much. It was two columns wide and four inches tall and I stressed that we were a perfect place for a souvenir of visits to Stratford.
It was really the first time I’d done any advertising for a general clientele and I was unsure how it would go. All my business had come from referrals. After an initial run of customers from my patrons in Chicago, most of my business had come from Levi talking to people in the store. The entire run in Las Vegas had been promoted and driven by the movie production company. I had no patrons and no prior business in Stratford. It would be interesting to see what came in.
Anna got busy at the same time and went to a local print shop to have a brochure made up. She had samples of our catalog for the gallery in Chicago, but we wanted something that focused more on the studio business than the art photos currently available. We’d brought a good selection of those to display as well.
Patricia and Ronda focused on the store. Melinda came in and they all got busy right away. She loved having Toni around and tried to teach her to use the old fashioned cash register at the front of the store. Toni didn’t have the strength to push the buttons down, but she loved it when Melinda rang up a sale. We actually had a few customers wander into the store Friday and a couple bought something.
It happened that there was a photo lab just a few blocks from us. I stopped in and introduced myself to the owner and told him I was new in town and looking for some services. I had a letter of introduction from Levi, telling about our relationship in Chicago and asking for assistance with my photo needs here in Stratford.
“Ah, yes. Attic Allure. I actually filled some of your orders for your studio earlier in the year. Top of the line equipment,” Dave Allen, the owner of Pro Photo Source said when we met. “Are you open for business now?”
“We got the studio set up at the end of March and actually had our first customer that week. We’ve just arrived this week for the summer season, though. I have an ad running tomorrow, but I’m not sure we’ve really established our niche yet.”
“What is your niche?” Dave asked.
I brought a portfolio with me specifically to answer that question. I laid it on the table and as he sorted through the images, I told him about the Attic Allure style.
“Interesting. Turning anyone into a star with a glamour photo. That could be a niche that works here. I don’t know that you’d get many models who would pose nude for you up here, but maybe some of the actors. A tourist getting a glamour photo as a souvenir, though, might work well. Especially if you can tie them into the shows in some way. How can I help?”
“You’ve already been a big help in working to get our studio set up. I’ll continue to need supplies, but I’m stocked at the moment. What I’m looking for right now is someone who can turn around Kodachrome or Ektachrome transparencies pretty quickly so I can make Cibachrome prints. Most of my work has been black and white up to this point, but it’s obvious that I’ll have to extend that to color. The color images I have so far have been pretty successful.”
He looked at the pictures of Leslie, Fran, and Missy and nodded his agreement.
“I can take care of fast turnaround on 35mm transparencies but there’s a premium. I have to send them over to London for processing at a bigger lab. We can get overnight service for $20 on a roll. Of course, if you send more than one roll, the price usually drops per roll. We’re paying for a fellow on a motorcycle to ride into London in the evening and then again the next morning. He’s a teen, but he’s dependable. Truth is, he’d probably make the trip for fun, eh? But he appreciates the gas money.”
“I think that will work. I don’t know that the work will always need to be overnight, but I’ll plan on that for now. I got spoiled with black and white photography by taking a roll of film and having a proof sheet an hour later.”
“You’ve got some fine photos in your portfolio. I’d advise you to separate out the nudes to a second portfolio so you can show it only to those you deem to be interested. You don’t want teens coming in just to look at your pretty girls.”
“That’s good advice. I haven’t had a storefront before. Some of this is new to me.”
I shook hands with Dave and told him I’d probably have a test roll of transparencies after the weekend.
I bought half a dozen copies of the newspaper on Saturday and clipped out our ad to send to Mom and Dad, Uncle Nate, and Levi. I sent a copy to Jordan, too. He wasn’t a patron who just provided money or equipment for me, but he’d become quite a mentor in my business and was still a frequent customer when I had new prints to sell.
I didn’t want to do nothing but wait all day, so I got Patricia and Toni to pose for me in the studio. That way, I had some work to do and Toni was definitely due for some new pictures. Of course, I’d take pictures of Patricia all day if I could. I kept them dressed for this day, though. I wanted people who came into the store to see into the studio and inquire.
Anna made up a little sign that said, “Photographer at work. Please do not enter.” There was a signpost thing that we could slide the notice into and set in the middle of the door. Several people did stop and look through the door. They took cards or brochures. Maybe we’d get some business.
I took photos in all three formats and didn’t rush any of them. There were a couple of really special shots of Toni, though. I thought the one of her sitting in a little red wagon was especially precious.
We took Sunday off with the store and studio closed and just wandered around town. We stopped to feed the black swans on the lake and I took some pictures of the theatre and the town. And my girlfriends. I wanted to call them my wives because I felt so married to all three of them.
I got a roll of film down to Dave Monday morning and told him it wasn’t an overnight rush. He told me it would be back Thursday morning. I realized how spoiled I’d been in LA. I didn’t even have any idea how much the processing or the prints had cost. Adrienne had billed it all to Photosensitive Productions.
We opened shop at ten o’clock, not knowing what the day would bring. We were completely new to this whole idea of running a store. Thankfully, Anna understood the entire inventory system and had set up the books with Melinda, so at least one of us knew what was going on.
I was surprised to hear the bells on the door about ten-thirty and a couple of people chatting as they toured the store. I was back in the studio, so I only peeked out to see if they bought anything. They were at the cash register with some little trinket when one asked a question and Patricia looked blankly at her. I didn’t understand the question either.
Ronda to the rescue. I still didn’t understand anything that was said, but Ronda carried on a whole conversation in French. Soon they were laughing like old friends and Ronda had the portfolio out to show them samples of our photos. They made lots of friendly sounds, but left without making an appointment.
“I’m so glad you were here!” Patricia said, kissing Ronda emphatically. “I might have managed to communicate in Spanish, but I’ve never used the language outside of class.”
“You get the Spanish customers, then,” Ronda laughed. “I can handle French, German, and Russian.”
“What do we do if someone only speaks English?” I asked.
I got tickled for that and of course, Toni had to get into that, so I was dancing with her. We were messing around when the bells rang again.
“Speaking of English,” Anna said as we turned to the door. There was Kathleen Thomas, the actress from England we helped out the first of April. “It’s so nice to see you, Kathleen!”
“Oh, Anna, you’re back! I saw your ad in the paper on Saturday, but I couldn’t get over here on the weekend. My show is dark on Mondays. Hello, Nate. You have a baby!”
“Toni, this is Kathleen. She had her picture taken here. Hi, Kathleen. This is my goddaughter, Toni.”
“Oh, you’re so cute,” she said. I think she was talking to Toni.
Anna picked up making the introductions and was straight-forward about Patricia and Ronda being our girlfriends. I knew she’d talked with Kathleen about that when she spent the night.
“I should have known, having met Anna and Nate, that the others in the family would be just as beautiful. I’m so happy to meet you all.”
“What brings you in today?” I asked. “Shall we go have lunch?”
“That would be nice, but I signed a model release and promised I’d be back for more photos. I understand if you can’t do them today. I’ll be available anytime you want me,” Kathleen said.
“How about we eat and plan out what we want to do? Then if we have time today, we’ll proceed. If not, we’ll set another time. I want to take some great pictures of you, not just take pictures to fulfill an obligation on either of our parts,” I said.
“Why don’t I stay with Patricia to mind the store while we make sure Toni has lunch,” Anna said. “Ronda, you’ll really enjoy getting to know Kathleen.”
“Suits me,” Ronda said.
We grabbed my portfolios and walked down to the pub a block away.
“This is a lot more than what you had with you in April,” Kathleen said. “I was impressed by what I saw then. These photos are exciting. Ronda, Nate and Anna were so nice to me when I came busting into their store and cried that I needed emergency photos. Then they took the photos, helped me type up a resume, and gave me a place to stay for the night before my audition the next morning. Oh, and Anna and Melinda took me shopping so I’d have something to wear.”
“How’d that audition go, by the way?” I asked.
“Oh, great. I was made a part of the company and given a small role in the first show this season. I’m slated for a larger role in the last production of the season. And Damien loved my photo.”
“Damien?”
“Damien Rogers is the director of the shows I’m cast in. You know there are several directors. We’re producing both mainstage and studio shows this summer,” Kathleen said. “I’m playing a lady of the court in Merchant of Venice, but I’m cast as Innogen in Cymbeline. It’s a lovely role and I’ll spend most of the play disguised as a boy until my true identity is revealed.”
“That is going to take some significant disguising,” Ronda said, openly admiring Kathleen’s bosom.
“I don’t think the original Shakespearean players had to worry about elastic bandages strapping in their chests,” Kathleen giggled. “But… um… that brings me to another matter. Nate, your photos are wonderful. Will you do a color photo of me?”
“I’m doing a mix of color and black and white in each session now. I’m fairly new at the color and it takes a few days to get it processed and printed,” I said.
“I love the color work you have in the portfolio. But I love your black and white work, too. I’m willing to pose in any way, including the types of poses you have in the portfolio. I mean, yes. I’ll do nudes. I would love a picture like this to give to Damien.”
“Your director?”
“Love blooms as well,” she giggled.
“Well, let’s get started and assume that to get what you really want we might need more than one session. We might have to figure out some costuming and we have significantly less of that here in Stratford than we do in Chicago.”
“I might be able to get some costume help at the theatre. It wouldn’t be too hard. Props, too, if we need them.”
We headed back to the studio and started working. Ronda stuck with me as I talked Kathleen out of some of her clothes, but I didn’t want to just do a nude. I wanted something unique. I think she was disappointed that I didn’t get her completely naked.
“I’ll get these developed and we can look at them. You know, Kathleen, you are my first model in Stratford. I’d like to get something we are both extremely proud of.”
“You know what would be fun?” Ronda asked. “If we did a kind of sexy princess revealed in all her glory. Just a transparent gauzy thing covering your beautiful boobs, or uncovering them. And a crown. Or scepter.”
“Or a sword,” Kathleen said. “I know just the thing. I’m sure you can coax me into it. I won’t be too reluctant. But really, the coaxing was the most fun part of posing today. I can come back tomorrow, but I’ll need to leave at four so I can get some food before my call.”
“Let’s plan on starting at eleven,” I said. “We’ll have sandwiches here.”
It was agreed and Kathleen left.
“I can’t believe you stopped before you got her naked!” Ronda moaned over dinner. “That body is absolutely made to be seen. Fully!”
“I agree,” I said. “But I knew we didn’t have the right things to get a perfect photo and I didn’t want to… um… reach a climax before the final denouement.”
“Denouement? Where did you pick up that word?” Anna asked.
“Working with Leanne. She is constantly tossing around theatre words. It means ‘the big reveal.’ It came to mind when Kathleen was talking about how in Cymbeline, she would play a boy until the big reveal that she is really the king’s daughter. I thought, that’s exactly what I want in her photo. I wanted it hidden until the big reveal. In her case, literally.”
“I hope she has something good in mind,” Ronda said. “I can’t wait to see this.”
I couldn’t agree more.
She arrived promptly at eleven and the first thing we did was go over the proofs of the black and white photos I took. I hadn’t sent the color slides in because I figured we’d have another roll today if all went well and then I could have them done at the same time. It would save ten bucks.
“I love the direction we’re headed,” she said, pointing to three photos that showed her becoming more exposed as we progressed. “I am a bit of a show-off. I’ll give you my costume and props and you can move me into them as you wish.”
I took the pieces and found a kind of long robe, made of lace, that was designed to go over a form-fitting red satin gown. I could see immediately what it would look like and it gave me several ideas. She also brought an ornate sword. It was nearly four feet long. I was admiring the craftsmanship when I realized that it was not actually silver, as I thought it was, but was very cleverly painted.
“Don’t ask me what show this was from,” she said. “I’ve been exploring the props and costumes ever since I got here and this place is a treasure chest. I think I became an actor because I liked to dress up and pretend.”
“I have an associate who is much the same,” I said. “She’s studying costuming and always used to dress up in her latest creations to come to school. She’s coming to visit us later this summer.”
“I hope I get to meet her!”
“Now, come with me, and let’s get you into this beautiful costume.”
“You’re going to dress me?”
“And touch up your makeup. Don’t worry, I’ll have Ronda chaperone us.”
“That could be exciting.”
We went into the dressing room/restroom and I began removing her clothes and handing them to Ronda to hang up. When I had her down to bra and panties, I had her sit and face me so I could tone down her makeup a little and brush out her straight blonde hair. Ronda quickly took over brushing while I worked on her face. It was a common problem with women who were used to applying makeup for the stage. It looked too thick in photographs. And Kathleen had a fair complexion that didn’t need much extra.
“I noticed how you cleverly got me down to my bra and bloomers before you started working on my face,” she giggled.
“It’s so much easier not to worry about getting makeup on clothes,” I said. “And I seldom deny myself the pleasure of seeing a beautiful young woman in her undies.”
“Look all you want,” she whispered.
“Now, let’s put the gown on. I think it will take all three of us. It is quite form-fitting. And a nice form to fit.”
“Thank you.”
It did take all three of us. There was no zipper or closure, but a cleverly concealed elastic panel under each arm that held the dress snugly to her body. I supposed that helped fitting actresses of different sizes. I did need to make sure it fit properly around her breasts. Then we put the lace jacket over it. I called it a jacket, but it was full length. It was open in the front. The effect of the white lace against the red satin was stunning.
We went into the studio and I tried photos against two or three different backdrops before I arrived at a neutral gray mottled background that I liked because it didn’t compete with either the red gown or her blonde hair. I had her pose in several different positions but they were all pretty formal. I took pictures on all three cameras both with and without the lace over-jacket before I led her back to the dressing room.
“We didn’t use the sword,” she said.
“It just didn’t fit with the gown. I think it will, though, when we get this off you.”
It took both Ronda and me to get the dress off her, just as it had taken us both to get it on. By then, her hair was a mess and I handed Ronda the brush. She went to work on Kathleen’s hair. Kathleen was so happy to have someone brushing her hair that she scarcely noticed when I reached around her and unlatched her bra. She started a bit when I pulled it down her arms and exposed her.
“Oh! That’s… breezy,” she said.
“Well, it always looks better if we stiffen the points a little. The breeze will help, I suppose.” I figured that my hands fondling her breasts and rubbing her nipples would help, too.
“Yes. This should help make things perky. You can do that as long as necessary.”
“I need to work on getting the lace jacket on you. Perhaps Ronda could help keep you perky,” I said.
Ronda grinned at me and slipped around in front so she could handle Kathleen’s boobs. I slipped one of her arms into the lace sleeve and pulled the jacket around her back. I found, by the time I got to the other sleeve, that Ronda had progressed to kissing Kathleen. I slipped her arm into the other sleeve and then nudged Ronda out of the way.
“Oh, good job,” I said as I pulled the lace over her boobs. “Nice and perky. I think we need to refresh your lipstick, though.”
Kathleen pressed her lips against mine and pushed her tongue into my mouth. As long as we were in that position, I decided to continue molesting her breasts. Once we finished that kiss, and were all three a bit breathless, I did need to refresh her lipstick.
I led her back to the stage area and handed her the sword, then stepped back.
“Oh, my,” I said. “I’m sorry, dear, but these really won’t work,” I said.
I stuck my hands into the waistband of her panties and pushed them over her butt and down her legs.
“I guess I didn’t think about my fanny showing. Blue and white striped panties don’t do a thing for the outfit, do they?”
“No, but this is truly lovely,” I said, stroking her pussy hair.
It was almost as blonde as her hair. I’d only ever seen pubic hair so light on Patricia, though I suspected that if Ronda ever let hers grow, it would be about that tone. Kathleen rocked her hips against my hand and moaned a bit.
“Now I want the regal princess to come out,” I said.
I had her stand straight and hold the sword with the point on the ground in front of her. I smoothed the lace down her body and arranged her hair. I made sure the sword was positioned exactly so it would block the view of her slit, but I could clearly see down the length of her body. Then I started taking pictures.
I rotated among the cameras and repositioned her in various ways—some that were far less regal, but were extremely sexy. When the lace fell aside from her breast, I spent a moment making sure her nipple was hard and obvious, then took more pictures. Finally, I got a picture of her without the lace at all, but with the sword lying across her thigh as she leaned with her head thrown back. I got that one on the 4x5 camera and wished I had a color sheet for it, but the black and white would still be great.
I set her sword aside and picked her up to carry to the dressing room. As soon as I had her in my arms, she found my lips with hers and we kissed into the room. There, as I seated her on the chair, Ronda picked up the kisses on her lips, caressing her breasts as they kissed. I lowered my head to one of her nipples and loved it with my tongue as my fingers found her moist center. Her legs opened wide to give me access and shortly Ronda and I had her trembling in orgasm.
Ronda and I carefully and lovingly dressed our model. She kept searching out our lips with hers as we got her into her day clothes.
“Nate, I would be pleased to model for you anytime this summer,” she said as we bundled up her costume and sword for her. “I love the way you work. I hope the pictures turn out well. I think Damien will love it, too. He’ll know, obviously, that I was nude, but we really don’t need to tell him about how you helped get me in the mood, do we?”
“Whatever you are comfortable with,” I said.
“Oh, I was certainly comfortable with it. I am so glad to have become acquainted with you, Ronda. It was a delight I would love to return.”
With that, Kathleen headed out, barely making her four o’clock deadline.
I packaged up the three rolls of Kodachrome I’d shot and ran them down the street to Pro Photo Source. Dave took them gladly and called his courier immediately.
“I hope you have something on that roll you can share with me,” he said.
“I think you’ll like seeing these if they turned out as well as I think they did,” I said. “I’m glad I got the heavy-duty lighting for the studio. Kodachrome requires it all to get enough light on the subject. Can you get me 4x5 Kodachrome sheets and can the processor in London handle them.”
“No. 4x5 only comes in Ektachrome these days. You can’t project those very well, you know,” he said. “But I suppose you really want them for Cibachrome. Yes. I think I can get them. Let me check with the lab to make sure they’re equipped. I’ll let you know tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Dave.”
I ran back home and Ronda pulled me into the dressing room, stripped my clothes and jumped on my cock.
“That was so hot! I really don’t care if she returns the favor or not. It was just so hot to handle her and watch her climax. You are all I need to fuck, but I’ll suck her tits any day of the week.”
That was about all we had voice for as we both climbed to a peak.
After we’d assuaged our lust, I went back into the darkroom and processed all the black and white film I’d shot. That night, after Toni had gone to bed, the family perused all the proofs and chose frames they thought I should print. They would be a nice addition to the portfolio and possible sales.
The next morning, Dave called me when the transparencies had arrived. He was nearly as excited about seeing what I’d shot as I was, so we loaded them into a projector in his back room and showed them up on a screen.
Yes, Kathleen was every bit as sexy in the pictures as she was in person. Dave was enthusiastic and asked about getting a print of one of the shots that didn’t really show her exposed. He said he’d hang it in his shop with a note regarding my studio. I agreed.
I got home and quickly showed the slides to my family as we spread them out on the light table. We all agreed on the best one for an enlargement and I decided to print three copies. Anna went to work trying to determine the price for our Cibachrome prints. We had a whole new set of input for our cost side of the equation and I was once again thankful that she was working it out.
“I understand that we’ll want to treat Kathleen special with this first print, but I don’t think these color prints should be included as part of the model offer of two prints. We can discount them for models, but these are just too expensive to give away,” she said over dinner when we were discussing the day. “There are extenuating circumstances in the near future. The special relationship with Kathleen, the fact that you are still learning the techniques, and our introduction into this market. But we need the price determined for what it should be and then discount from there.”
“And what should the prices be?” I asked.
“We have 8x10 or equivalent archival art prints in black and white for $35. Taking the comparative cost of materials, the Cibachrome print should be about three times that. Let’s say $99 for marketing’s sake. However, once we bump the size up to the art print sizes, we’re talking $250 for a 10x15, and $500 for a 16x24. Those big Cibachrome prints are really expensive.”
“Wow! Adrienne just billed the cost of the prints we did in LA to the movie company. I wonder what their processors charged. Fran got a nice big gift there.”
“Well, she did give you a pretty nice gift, too,” Patricia laughed. “No, you didn’t exchange the print for sex. She was already committed to giving you sex before you ever showed her the print. But you both gave the other a nice gift.”
“Yes. I know. And we did a lot of nice things for Kathleen, too,” I said. “We rushed her promo pictures, typed her resume, and gave her a place to stay. She was committed to putting herself in our hands and being nude there before she ever came into the studio this week. If her director boyfriend likes this picture, he might even refer some business our way. I don’t feel bad about giving her a premium print.”
“Don’t go above the 10x15 size,” Anna lectured. “And 8x10 for the photo lab. I don’t think he’d deal well with a larger print anyway.”
“You rule, love. You rule,” I laughed.
“Good. Then take me to bed. Ronda already got hers and she can keep Patricia warm while you satisfy the yearning I’ve developed while talking about all this.”
That dictated the remainder of the evening.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
