The man himself was not tall…maybe 5’7″…and about 180 pounds. His long hair was often pulled into a pigtail in the back, as it was when Karen and Ashley visited him. He wore jeans and a sweatshirt despite what often became warm working environments when the lights were on. Perhaps, Ashley thought during her shoot, that explained the darkened setting she was put in.
They sat downstairs for a while with Jeremy and Karen drinking wine and Ashley working on a beer. They talked extensively about Ashley’s pictures and what her next series might be about.
“Well, before we do that,” Ashley informed Jeremy, “we need to get Karen to pose. I told her I wouldn’t do any more until she did at least one set.”
Karen just shrugged when the others looked at her.
“I’ve always thought you’d be fun to photograph,” Jeremy said to Karen. “You have great contrast between your hair and eyes. I’d put lots of light on you to bring that out.”
“Great. That means all my other flaws are accentuated,” Karen moaned.
“I doubt if you have any, Karen,” the man said. “You two are the best subjects I’ve ever had in here.”
Karen had reservations about that when she looked around the room and gazed at the pictures of beautiful women hanging on the walls. On a table in front of the couch were a handful of calendars. Karen leaned forward and grabbed a few. The covers were similar-women in various stages of undress or naked and covered with a sheet or towel. Inside, the women wore less each month until they posed naked for six to eight months of the year.
It was very tastefully done, Karen thought. The women were mostly thin, like Ashley. That didn’t thrill Karen, who couldn’t convince herself she had a nice body, too. Then she lifted a calendar that made her sit motionless, staring at the cover.
Two young women stood side-by-side almost facing each other, their shoulders touching. They held hands. One woman tilted her head so it nearly touched the other woman’s shoulder. They were shown from the waist up and both were naked. The right breast of one woman lightly touched the left breast of the other.
Karen couldn’t take her eyes off the incredibly stunning, dreamlike picture. Jeremy had “fuzzed” the picture so it looked like the women were in a cloud.
“That one was fun,” Jeremy said.
The voice startled Karen back into reality. “I bet. It’s beautiful.”
She opened the calendar. Each month the women seemed to get more intimate. They stood, then knelt and finally laid together on the floor, their arms and legs intertwined in an adoring kiss. Karen was oblivious to the world around her as she imagined the air of desire that must have filled the room when the pictures were taken.
“Did they make love?” Karen asked, looking up at Jeremy
“They asked me to leave the room.”
“That’s a yes,” Karen said with a smile.
Jeremy smiled back. “It sounded like it.”
Ashley gave the silly laugh Karen was so accustomed to. She thought it was cute.
“You take great pictures,” Karen said.
“Thank you,” Jeremy said sincerely. “I’d like to take some of you.”
The woman paused, feeling the force of Ashley’s eyes upon her.
“On a CD only,” Karen finally replied.
“Yes! I knew you would,” Ashley cried, jumping from her seat and hugging Karen. “You’ll love it.”
When Karen separated herself from her roommate, she asked Jeremy what he had in mind for the pictures.
“Your skin isn’t quite as dark as Ashley’s, so I think a lighter room…a lighter background…would be better. I have a bed that I can put a light blanket on, or maybe a pink and white one I have. If you want to stay dressed, that’s fine with me. But I honestly think you have the body to do nudes.”
Karen found that to be extremely flattering. Just hearing someone like Jeremy say it made her feel good. But, surprisingly, Karen found herself wondering if Ashley would find her as attractive as she had found Ashley.
It didn’t matter. She was going to do it, she told herself.
“I’m not going to do this and not be at least partially undressed,” Karen said. “But I’ll never be on your wall or in your calendars.”
“Oh, Karen. Don’t be so sure,” Ashley said. “Be positive. Relax. This will be fun.”
“You have to stay and be my coach,” Karen told Ashley. “Not that Jeremy won’t help me a lot…”
“Yes,” Jeremy interrupted. “I think Ashley should be here if you don’t mind doing it in front of her.”
“I don’t mind,” Karen assured him. “I want her to stay.”
“Good. Tonight?”
“Sure.”
Jeremy told the girls he’d get one of the rooms ready upstairs. They were to help themselves to drinks, which they did with anticipation of what was to come.
“Just do what he says,” Ashley suggested. “He’s really good.”
Karen didn’t need to be told that after viewing Ashley’s photos and the calendars. She couldn’t get the splendor of the two women in the calendar off her mind. Their perfect bodies in perfect union with each other was spellbinding.
About fifteen minutes later, Jeremy called for the girls to join him upstairs. Karen nervously led the way. Once at the top of the steps, Jeremy directed the girls into the room farthest on their right.
As he had suggested, it was a bright area with light colored walls and skylights that bathed the room in sunlight. Additional artificial lighting would even out the brightness and eliminate shadows.
The girls looked quickly at the odd combination of couches and chairs and pillows…and one large bed with the pink color scheme Jeremy had mentioned before. Ashley, especially, was taken by the stark contrast between this setting and the one she had been in. But she loved pink and was captivated by the bed, hoping that one day she would be able to pose in it.
“OK, Karen. I’ll let you decide where you want to begin,” Jeremy said, camera in hand.
“Well, I kind of like these big pillows,” she said, stepping towards a pile of overstuffed cushions on the floor. “Let’s start here.”
“Perfect.” Jeremy said. He moved his lights to that side of the room while Ashley sat on the couch and watched. A minute later everything was set.
“OK. Let me see if this light will work,” Jeremy said. He peered through the camera at Karen and took one picture, spending the next few seconds staring intently at the image on the LCD of his digital camera. “Good. Now just get comfortable.”
Karen sat on the floor, adjusting the pillows so they encircled her on three sides. She took some sense of security out of the wall of cushions surrounding her, as if she could hide in them temporarily. She stretched her legs out a bit and leaned on one pillow with her head in her hand.
Jeremy began shooting.
Karen’s light blue blouse clashed somewhat with one of the pillows and Jeremy asked her to toss the pillow aside. She adjusted the remaining cushions and resumed posing. At this point the photographer was concentrating on the striking light blonde steaks in Karen’s hair. She wore it short and straight, curled closely around her face. The light streaks were in the front, very visible no matter how she sat.
Those streaks, combined with her wide eyes and infectious smile, were the highlights of Jeremy’s first set of pictures. But there was more to this young woman than her face and Jeremy was anxious to see if Karen would consent to more revealing poses.
“Do you want to take a break, or keep going?” he asked.
“Keep going. I’m fine,” she replied.
“Can we try some more informal stuff?” Jeremy inquired politely.
“Sure. Like what?”
“Will you unbutton your blouse one more button? Just look a little more relaxed.”
Karen smiled and opened not one but two buttons. She glanced over at Ashley and got a smile of approval in return.
Now Jeremy had something to work with. Karen’s cleavage was easily viewed from several angles as he circled her, taking pictures the entire time. As she turned her body to continue facing him, her breasts stretched the blouse’s material to the limit. In some instances, only her nipples kept the shirt from falling open.
“Lean back,” Jeremy said between shots.
Karen slid her body away from the pillows and lay on her back, her head resting on the edge of one of the cushions. After a few seconds she put her hands behind her head.
“Perfect,” Jeremy encouraged her.
Karen’s shirt was stretched apart at the top, exposing nearly half of the woman’s bare breasts. Jeremy stood behind her, shooting down the length of her body. Karen arched her back and looked back at him. She felt the shirt pressed tight against her skin. Her nipples hardened.
Without being told, Karen unbuttoned her blouse all the way, pulling it out of her jeans at the end. She told herself if she could manage to have Jeremy take just one picture of her uncovered breasts she would get the courage to do more. She wasn’t sure yet how she wanted to do that.
Jeremy took care of that for her.
“Roll on your side,” he told her.
She did, not knowing what to do with her hands until deciding to put one on her hip and the other by the side she rested on. To her it seemed both of her breasts were hanging free of her shirt. Jeremy, from above, had access to one of them with the other tauntingly close to view.
“Pull the right side of your shirt open,” Jeremy said, referring to that part of her blouse farthest from the floor.
Karen moved her hand from her hip and delicately lifted the right half of her opened shirt. This was going to be it. She’d either end up topless or on her way home.
She watched Jeremy kneel in front of her, reorganizing the pillows. By the time he was set, Karen had the shirt so positioned that it covered neither of her breasts. The right side was pulled back along her side and the left flopped onto the floor. She smiled as Jeremy focused his camera on the top half of her body.
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