Susie Learns the Hard Way

by Roger Quine

  Quickly she turned, looking for her clothes, and as if a spell had been broken Maureen pulled herself together and made a pretence of tidying the vast array of cosmetics on the dressing table. Susie found the matching suspender belt, smoothed on some light tan stockings and then dressed in the dark business suit and shoes she’d arrived in, buttoning the jacket over a white blouse Maureen found for her – a blouse with buttons at the front.

  ‘Ready now?’ Maureen said, obviously meaning Susie to follow her. Susie took a deep breath, and nodded.

  The dark-haired girl led the way along another gloomy corridor and out into the studio; a fairly large room, with what looked like bits of old junk and furniture tumbled around its edges in the shadows. In the centre was a brightly lit area, the warmth from the lights already noticeable.

  ‘Ah, Charlie, there you are.’ Leo turned from the discussion he was having with a blond lad; early twenties, not bad looking, bit of a wimp, Susie decided with a quick glance. ‘Let’s just have a look at you under the lights.’ Leo was very businesslike as he gestured towards the lit area, and turned away again, obviously expecting that his instructions would be carried out even when he wasn’t supervising. Susie walked onto the set, which consisted of a desk with a phone and blotting pad on it, an office chair, and a grey filing cabinet. She turned to face the camera, and leaned back to sit on the edge of the desk.

  ‘Good, good, now, just stay there and look straight at me,’ Leo directed, taking his place behind the tripod with its squat camera mounted on top. ‘Good, stay still a moment.’ He turned and muttered something to his young assistant, and the lad moved to one of the light stands and began aiming under instruction from Leo, until the photographer was happy.

  ‘Okay. That’s fine. We’ll leave that one like that.’ He directed operations for another five minutes as the assistant fiddled and aimed various lights until Leo was completely satisfied. In front of the lights it was very warm. Only if she squinted could Susie see anything much beyond the brilliant halo, and then only vague shadows. It was all a bit disconcerting and unnerving, but there wasn’t much going on while the lights were adjusted.

  ‘Okay, Susie, now just unbutton the jacket and give us your chest... yes, really push it towards me... looks good through the lens.’ Susie leaned forward, thrusting out her breasts as provocatively as she knew how – and she was surprised how easy it was. ‘Oh yes,’ said Leo appreciatively, ‘very nice. And the lights look perfect. Wait there while we do a Polaroid. Look at me now and hold it...’ There was a sort of shuffling noise and an explosion of light. ‘Okay. Button up and sit down.’

  He turned away and that was it. Susie’s first ever picture as a model was over, and she hadn’t felt a thing. No one was taking any notice of her as she stepped off the set and smiled uncertainly at Maureen.

  ‘You looked great. Come and look at the Polaroid.’ The stylist smiled, and led the way to where Leo was gently peeling the black paper off the picture.

  ‘Almost spot on,’ he confirmed happily. ‘Just a little hot. I’ll go down half a stop, Phil. We’ll go with that.’ He offered the small coloured square to Susie. ‘Looks fine to me ladies, and we’re ready to go to work.’

  The image was not of her, Susie was sure of that. The petite blonde looking at her out of the picture looked calm, confident, and scared of nothing. The crisp business suit was matched by an equally crisp businesslike look, and though Susie herself knew it was just a façade, she supposed that no one else could tell.

  ‘Okay,’ said Leo, ‘we’re ready to take pictures. Charlie, this is what we’ll do. You take a seat behind the desk – yes, that’s good,’ he told her as she seated herself on the edge of the chair and picked up a pen. ‘Maureen, the glasses, please,’ and he waved a hand at Maureen. She stepped out of the shadow at the edge of the light, holding a pair of round horn-rimmed glasses.

  ‘Plain glass,’ she said, fitting them carefully onto Susie and stepping back to admire the effect.

  ‘Like them, like them,’ called Leo. ‘Leave them on and we’ll do a couple of establishers, just to set the scene and get the ball rolling.’ There was a sudden flash of bright light, followed by another. ‘Just move a little between each shot please, love, turn your head or move an arm, but nothing too drastic... good...’

  There were more flashes, and Leo clicked through a few more frames as Susie experimented with the glasses, sliding them up and down her nose, turning her head, tilting it, smiling, and peering moodily.

  ‘Good faces,’ called Leo, still flashing away behind the lens. ‘I like sultry. Goes with the clothes. Think mean and rude for me; get dirty.’ The camera clicked and flashed.

  ‘Okay, fine. I’ll change the film and we’ll keep right on.’ Leo pressed a button and the camera started whining steadily. Thinking that there wasn’t much to this modelling lark after all, Susie waited patiently while he swapped the rolls of film, passing the used one to his teenage assistant with a series of complex instructions about clip tests and processing, and for the first time Susie considered that strangers would soon be looking at pictures of her. Not that there was anything unusual about the pictures so far, but there probably soon would be, and though she’d previously convinced herself that Leo’s client would be a gorgeous hunk, now, as she waited with mounting anxiety to pose more explicitly, he became old, ugly, and smelly, ogling her soft clean pinkness while rubbing a stiff erection that stuck out of a grubby old coat.

  With a new film in place Leo set the camera just a little lower. As he did so the atmosphere in the studio changed noticeably. The lights were still warm and dazzling, preventing her from seeing more than shadows around her, but Susie felt the change as everybody seemed to lean in a bit more, the studio seemed smaller than before, and there was an urgent stillness in the air.

  ‘Stay as you are, love,’ directed Leo. ‘Just undo the jacket and lean back a little... good. And we’ll do one like that, and then just move a little, keep still until I shoot and then move again, just like you did before.’

  Susie did as she was told and the flash went off at once. She turned her head, lifted her chin, pouted, licked her lips, and every time she changed the pose the lights flared and the camera whirred. A dozen times the camera flashed, and as she relaxed and began to move more confidently, so Leo began to direct her from outside the pool of brilliant white, his instructions punctuated by sudden bursts of even brighter light.

  ‘Open the jacket a little more... chest out... turn your shoulders... pull your skirt up some more, show me stocking-tops... that’s good, just stay there while I do a bracket... and move again towards me... undo the top button of your blouse... and the next one, let me see cleavage... yes, good... and legs apart a little more... skirt higher... even more... look straight at me now...’

  She could have played it coy or dumb. She could simply have left the blouse buttoned up and kept her legs together. But she was burning with arousal, and when Leo asked her to spread her legs she shifted her knees generously apart, deliberately making sure that instead of a prim peep, she was giving him her all, thighs wide, panties tight across her mound, the sheer yellow secretly darkened by her dampness.

  ‘Hold it there... and sexy!’

  Susie looked down the barrel of the camera, and didn’t have to fake the pout of arousal. Her knees were apart and her skirt had ridden high up her thighs, and Leo was taking pictures of her yellow knickers, which were plainly visible even before the flash went off and lit them with a blinding glare that made every teasing undulation stand out in shimmering detail. The camera could see right to the softly round gusset, where it swelled and dipped as it clung to her moist body, the bright light picking out the deep furrow at the centre, and the dark shadows of moisture.

  ‘Unbutton your blouse now, right down to your waist... good, and turn to me... just hold it there...’

  Susie knew her eager nipples were pressing cheekily against
the soft yellow fabric of the bra.

  ‘Okay, right hand, pull the bra down so we can see... yes... and change... one more... now thumb and finger, tweak your nipple...’

  The camera was still flickering away as it recorded detailed images of Susie sitting behind the desk, stroking a puckered nipple, teasing it with thumb and forefinger, her eyes half closed, lower lip pouting, looking as hot and ready as a girl can look; and once again, she wasn’t acting.

  ‘Legs a little wider now...’ and the wetness was a dark shadow in the yellow fabric. ‘Leaning back... and further... and one foot up on the bin...’

  She rested one elegantly stilettoed heel on the plastic wastepaper bin by the desk, artistically brimming with crumpled sheets of white A4 as Leo changed film and swung the camera even nearer, shooting from low down near her knee, looking right up between her legs at the tight slash of yellow with its damp valley, zooming in for a close-up so the frame was filled with stocking-top, thigh, and a curve of canary yellow.

  ‘Jacket right off, and pull your blouse out... yes, right, now lean back in the chair... good, pull your bra down on both sides... squeeze them together, both hands... push together and out... now finger and thumb again... now both of them...’

  There’s a direct connection between a girl’s nipples and her pussy, about which Leo either knew nothing or everything, but twisting each hard tip between her fingers created an electrical storm in Susie’s groin and she went from simmering arousal to lustful desire in just a few seconds, mouth open, breath coming in shorter and shorter gasps, liquid fire dribbling from her sex.

  ‘We’ll change that now,’ instructed a voice in the far distance. ‘Take your skirt off – just kick it out of shot over there. Fine, now come to the front of the desk and lean back against it...’

  Susie rested her bottom against the piece of office furniture and supported herself with her hands as she leant back. Leo swung the camera around her, flashing furiously as it roamed over her body, sometimes from a distance, sometimes close up, sometimes high, sometimes low. She pulled the blouse back across her shoulders, then let it slip off completely, and then took off her bra. When Leo instructed, she cupped one and then both her breasts, teased the cherry-red tips, and inched her feet further and further apart, stretching the skirt up around her thighs, exposing the tantalising flesh between its hem and the dark bands of her stocking-tops, pulled tight by the suspenders.

  ‘Hand between them now, love... make a cup and cover yourself... fingers wide apart, make a star... both hands now... one foot on the chair...’

  Swooping in, the camera hovered just in front of her crutch while Leo twirled the focus ring and the yellow blur hardened and became a bright V of colour dipping between her thighs with one long finger pressing it deeper and deeper into the valley; the warm, wet, slippery valley where the fabric slithered in oily juices.

  ‘Lie right back across the desk... shuffle your bum back, and heels up on the edge... knees wide... wider... one hand, left hand, grab your knickers – here, like this,’ and Leo’s hand was on top of hers, guiding her fingers until she had gathered the front of her knickers between finger and thumb, the shock and excitement still fizzling across her skin after he’d let go and was back behind his camera. ‘Pull gently... tighter... tighter again...’

  The sopping material was hard up inside her now, spreading her lips in a shiny pink pout on either side of the yellow slash. The camera saw the taught pressure of the bright fabric, and the slick wetness of the soft pink skin, but only the straining curve of the muscles in her groin told the viewfinder of the desperate wanting Susie felt as she pushed herself towards the camera, urgently seeking something long and thick to spread and fill her.

  She was moving automatically between each shot now, circling hips beginning to pump up and down a little in time with the slow movement of her wrist as she tugged and released, tugged and released, the yellow material pressing, the tension rising, the moisture flowing hotter and wetter...

  ‘Turn over now while I change this roll,’ and Leo’s calm instruction broke the spell.

  If there’d been a long pause she might have got her breath back, might have recovered her poise and might have calmed down a little, but Leo and his young helper were so fast that he was ready to take pictures again in seconds, the flash of the lights once again punctuating his commands.

  ‘Lean over the desk... hands forward... reach out and grab the far edge... arch your back, bottom up, legs straight... that’s perfect... now, one hand, left hand, reach back and pat your bottom... arch the fingers, wide fingers... good...’

  His voice droned on, calm and commanding, never getting excited or dramatic, issuing a stream of banal instructions which made Susie do ruder things to herself in ruder and more exposed positions.

  The camera saw it all, watching from behind with pin-sharp detail as her hand reached down and one elegant finger probed the yellow gusset, worming itself deeper into the juicy valley, then moving to one side and getting a perfect profile as the red-tipped finger probed deeper and deeper, the fingers pressing the material, spreading the soft folds inside further apart, then pulling the yellow aside to expose the pretty little pink entrance with its shiny lips puffed apart and glistening with dew.

  It watched, unmoving, while Maureen moved calmly into shot and followed Leo’s instructions, tugging at the yellow panties till they were halfway down Susie’s widespread thighs, while Susie, almost oblivious to the unexpected participation of the girl, stirred herself with one finger, then with two, delicately pulling the soft folds of flesh apart as the lens pressed closer and closer.

  ‘Last one now,’ said Leo, as he changed the film again and Susie lay on the desk once more, stockings and high heels now the only apparel in their proper place, the yellow knickers gathered around her ankles.

  ‘Knees apart for me now,’ called Leo, as he snapped the camera shut with its new roll of film inside. ‘Now, Charlie, here we go...’ The camera flashed once, and again.

  ‘One foot out of your knickers...’ The camera flashed a couple of times as she wriggled an elegant shoe clear of the fabric, leaving them bunched around one ankle.

  ‘Feet apart... that’s good, now hold your boob with your left hand... now finger and thumb... right hand on your thigh and push your leg outwards... arch your back, lift your bum a little, now just slide your hand lower and pull yourself apart... good, and stay there...’

  The camera circled around her while she opened herself to its gaze, feeling the wetness coating her, aching to be filled, wanting to be pumping against something thick and hard, the fingertips teasing around the outside making it worse, not better, until she couldn’t help herself any more.

  The camera was poised above her, watching two fingers arched tentatively over the tiny bud at the top of that opening, gently teasing it, pulling, squeezing and rolling, the lights flashing every few seconds. And then the fingers straightened, paused, and disappeared from sight, sinking easily inside the pinkness with a gentle sucking noise. When they were all the way in her hand curled around, so she was gripping her pubic bone in her palm. Her hips shuddered and twitched and she sighed deeply. Then the fingers began to move, slowly at first, then faster, until they were plunging in and out.

  She didn’t seem to notice that though the lights continued to flash and the camera circled around, clicking and whirring, Leo himself was silent, with no more commands to give and none needed. Susie’s eyes were only half closed, but she seemed oblivious to the strobing flash as she was preserved on film, her fingers delving luxuriously, spreading wide, pushing deeper, fluttering around the entrance but always returning to the centre with a long deep thrust.

  The camera ran out of film and Leo’s work was done, but Susie didn’t notice. Pinned to the desktop by the spears of bright light she was in a world alone, a world controlled and regulated by the quiet squelching and sucking as her fingers beat their
steady rhythm. Just outside the circle of light the assistants stood in the edges of shadow, watching, afraid to break the spell. Even Leo seemed captivated by the moment. Robbed of the need to direct the action now he was no longer taking pictures, he seemed to realise he was no longer in control of Susie, and he stood, crouched at the tripod, watching in silence.

  Still no one moved or spoke, and then Susie jerked and stiffened as if she’d received an electric shock. Back arched, neck curved and straining, breasts thrust upwards, she braced her heels and shoulders against the desktop and lifted her bottom clear of the surface. She sobbed with ecstasy, until her arm slowed and eventually stopped moving, her bottom settled on the desk once again, and her body went slack.

  She lay still, chest heaving as she gasped for breath.

  Suddenly Maureen was there with a shimmering robe, speaking softly, helping her to sit up and then stand, leading her away back to the dressing room, back to the chair in front of the mirror.

  Susie watched curiously, dreamily, as Maureen knelt, eased her limp thighs apart, shuffled between them, and pulled the robe open, exposing Susie’s soft pinkness once again. Tenderly she put one fingertip very lightly on the slick wetness at the top of the dark slit, and Susie tensed a little, then relaxed. The second finger was electric too, but she didn’t tense this time.

  ‘Now,’ breathed Maureen, huskily. ‘You just sit there and watch while I do it for you,’ and she slid both fingers into Susie’s exhausted body.

  Susie was quite shocked to find Harry still waiting for her when she got outside.

  ‘How was it for you then?’ he asked, positively leering at her.

  ‘Fine, Harry. It was just fine.’

  ‘A good time?’ he queried. ‘Had by all?’

  She knew the pause was deliberate. ‘It was just pictures, Harry, that’s all.’