Trio

by P. F. Kozak

  Ted liked guys. She used to sneak him copies of Playgirl. They would drool over the naked men together, get hot, and then fool around. If they were alone, they would either sixty-nine or masturbate each other. Ted loved to be jerked off, almost as much as he liked to be blown.

  None of the men she’d slept with over the years came close to satisfying her like she had been satisfied with Ted and Butch. In this case, three was definitely not a crowd. The only thing missing was that Ted had never fucked her or Butch. Maybe that would change now that they were together again.

  Pepper thought she heard Ted come back in the room, but he didn’t say anything. She didn’t know if she should move or not.

  “Ted, are you there?”

  “I’m right here.”

  “Can I move?”

  “No.”

  “Why can’t I move yet?”

  “I’m doing a sketch of you lying there. It will give you an idea of what I have in mind. How are you doing?”

  “My neck’s stiff.”

  “Yeah, I’m getting another stiffy, too.”

  “Very funny.”

  “Do you know, Pepper, you have bumps and curves in all the right places?”

  “Thank you, I think.”

  “Before you move, pay attention to your body. Notice where you are the most uncomfortable. We’ll adjust your position for the actual painting.”

  “You’re going to paint me like this?”

  “If you’ll let me.”

  “But it looks like I’m masturbating.”

  “Exactly. It’ll be even more erotic if your fingers are separating your labia and you actually pinch a nipple.”

  “Ted! Who the hell is going to see this?”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t hang it in the bar.”

  Pepper broke the pose and sat up. “You’re damn right you won’t hang it in the bar!”

  “Pepper, I wasn’t finished!”

  “Well, I am!” Pepper grabbed the sheet and tried to untangle it, so she could wrap herself in it again. “I don’t want a picture of me diddling myself where anyone in town can see it.”

  “Pepper, no one will see my paintings of you, except Butch—maybe. These are for me.”

  “What do you mean, paintings? How many are you going to do?”

  “That depends. Let me show you something.” Ted brought his sketch pad over and sat down on the bed. “This is what I just sketched.”

  Pepper took the pad and stared at it. “That’s me.”

  “You bet it is. Aren’t you beautiful?”

  Pepper followed the lines of the unfinished pencil sketch. She clearly saw the outline of her torso, the curve of her breasts, the beginning of her hand between her legs. “Where’s my head?”

  “This is what’s called a study. If I draw you first, then I’ll know what I want to do when I start to paint.”

  Pepper traced the lines with her finger. “It looks like something you’d see in a museum.”

  “Have you ever heard of Andrew Wyeth?”

  “Sure I have. He’s an artist from Pennsylvania, right?”

  “That’s right. He’s from Chadds Ford. He’s one of my favorite artists. His stuff and Edward Hopper’s made me want to paint.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “In college, I took this art course where we studied his Helga paintings. Christ, Pepper, I fell in love with them. The more I looked at what he did with Helga, the more I wanted to do the same thing with you.” Ted touched Pepper’s hair. “Your hair is the color of apple cider, like hers.” Touching the tip of her nose, he added, “She had freckles, too.”

  “Ted, I don’t understand what you want to do.”

  “Why don’t you shower and get dressed? Meet me in the kitchen. We’ll have some breakfast, and we’ll talk about this. I have a book I want to show you.”

  “What about my room?”

  “We’ll clean it out after we eat. Put on some old clothes. We’ll be carrying stuff to the attic and the basement. Oh, the towels are in the cabinet underneath the bathroom sink.”

  Ted took his sketch pad and went downstairs. Pepper wasted no time digging an old pair of jeans and a T-shirt out of her suitcase. She showered and dressed as fast as she could. Her curiosity about what Ted wanted to do with her made her nervous and excited at the same time. She wanted to know what he had in mind.

  Pepper ran down the stairs and through the dining room and practically burst into the kitchen.

  Ted stood at the stove, frying eggs. He saw her fly though the door. “Jesus, Pepper, where’s the fire?”

  “Sorry. I’m excited.”

  “About what?”

  “About everything! I’m back with you and Butch, I have a job and a place to live, and now you want me to model. Yesterday at this time, I had jack shit!”

  “I’ve been there; so has Butch.”

  “We’re all in the same boat, aren’t we?”

  “I suppose we are. None of our lives have turned out the way we thought they would.”

  “That’s the damn truth. Maybe we’re finally getting back on track.”

  “Maybe we are.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure. Go for it.”

  “You said you and Butch haven’t done anything since he’s moved in. Have you at all since he got married?”

  “No. He’s not into it, Pepper. He doesn’t give a shit what I do, but he’s made it clear he prefers women.”

  “Even though Sandy hasn’t put out for him in a long time?”

  “Yup. The damnedest thing is, he stayed faithful to her. No one believes that, but it’s the truth. When they’d fight, he’d come have a beer with me and talk. Sometimes he’d stay the night here at the house. But nothing ever happened between us.” Ted served the scrambled eggs. “Grab the toast. It just popped.”

  Pepper put the toast on their plates. “Did you want anything to happen?”

  “Sure, I did.” He put the frying pan back on the stove and sat down. “In case you’re wondering, I still do.”

  “Does he know that?”

  “Pepper, why are you asking me all these questions?”

  “You really want to know?”

  “Of course I do. You’re giving me the third degree. I want to know why.”

  Pepper pushed her eggs around on her plate, trying to find the courage to tell him what was on her mind. She finally blurted it out. “You’ve been in bed with Butch and me lots of times, but you’ve never actually slept with either of us. Maybe it’s time you did.”

  Ted sipped his coffee and then calmly replied, “Maybe you’re right.”

  Surprised by his acquiescence, all Pepper could manage to say was, “Really?”

  “Really.” Ted picked up a sketch pad and a book from the empty chair beside him. “This is what I want to show you.”

  The large art book had a woman with braided rust-colored hair on the cover. Pepper glimpsed Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures on the spine just before Ted opened it. He had a page marked.

  “These are the pictures you told me about upstairs, aren’t they?”

  “These are the ones. Look at these sketches he did.”

  Pepper took the book. On facing pages were three pencil drawings of a nude woman in different poses. One of the drawings looked very much like the one Ted had started that morning. “This is what you had me do, except the hands are different.”

  Ted smiled. “You’re catching on, kiddo. Now look at the painting he did.”

  Ted flipped the page over. Pepper saw the title Black Velvet over the painting. A nude woman lay stretched out, her head turned to the side, with a black velvet choker around her neck. She had one hand just above her breast and the other on her stomach. Her legs were crossed at the ankle.

  “It’s beautiful, Ted. She looks so real, like he took her picture with a camera.”

  “I know. The flesh tones and her skin texture are the most natural I’ve ever seen. I’ve worked real hard trying
to do the same thing.” He picked up the sketch pad. “Now, look at these.”

  Ted flipped the pages one at a time, giving Pepper a chance to see the drawings he had made. She couldn’t believe what he had done. The first few pages were copies of the Helga drawings. As the drawings progressed, they gradually became more sensual and erotic, until finally they morphed into a new image.

  “My God, Ted, that’s me!”

  “Yes, Pepper, that’s you. It’s what I did from memory and from the old photographs I have of you.”

  Pepper took the tablet, and again looked at each page. The progression of the changes looked like an animated movie. “Do you remember the flip books we used to have when we were kids? If I could flip the pages of your drawings, it would come alive. Helga would change into me.”

  “Pepper, Helga did change into you. I have more of these. As I studied the Helga paintings, I could see my own version of them in my head. Always, something about the posture or the facial expression would change. I finally realized I kept seeing, and drawing, you.”

  4

  P epper stared at the pages of drawings. By the end of the sketch pad, the pictures of her became more explicit. One showed her kneeling, with her hand between her legs. Another had her bent over a chair, with her legs spread wide. All of them were sensual, and quite erotic.

  “Ted, I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say you’ll model for me. Say you’ll be my Helga.”

  “You want to paint these, don’t you?”

  “Some of them. These are more studies. Think of it as my practicing to really paint you.”

  “Does Butch know you have these drawings?”

  “I’ve never shown them to him. It was tough enough that he had to leave you and marry Sandy. This would have been rubbing salt into the wound.”

  “Will you show him now?”

  “If you want me to. Maybe I should also show him the sketches I’ve made of him.”

  Pepper grinned. “You’ve done some of Butch?”

  “Almost as many as I’ve done of you.”

  “He’ll have a frigging stroke when he finds out.”

  “Not if you tell him how hot he is, and how much you like them.”

  “Theodore, you’re working all the angles with this one!”

  “I’ve had ten years to plan it. Are you in?”

  Pepper closed the sketch pad. “I’m in. It’s too damn good to say no.”

  “That’s my Pepper. You never could say no.”

  “Fuck you, Rembrandt.”

  “Ditto, Pearl.”

  Pepper threw a lump of scrambled eggs at Ted. They hit his chest and rolled onto the floor. “Don’t shoot yourself in the foot. If you want me on your side, you’ll remember that my name is Pepper.”

  “And you are hot, Pepper.”

  Ted and Pepper finished breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, and then went back upstairs to work on clearing her room. When Ted opened the door, Pepper nearly fainted. There were boxes everywhere. Books and magazines were piled on top of the boxes and on the floor. A couple of old easels leaned against one wall, and a stack of unused canvases were stacked against another.

  “Don’t you ever throw anything out?”

  “I’m a pack rat. Whenever I try to throw out anything, I look at it and figure there’s still a use for it. I suppose I went overboard.”

  “I suppose you did.” Pepper picked up an old TV Guide lying on top of a box. It had a picture of Xena, Warrior Princess on the cover. “Why on earth would you keep this? You were never a Xena fan.”

  “Look at the date.”

  When she saw the date, she didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. “This isn’t the same one, is it?”

  “Of course it is. Why do you think I kept it?”

  Pepper remembered the week before they graduated, Ted had a few friends over to the house, including her and Butch. Several times that night Butch grabbed the TV Guide and disappeared into the bathroom. Pepper didn’t think much of it, until Ted took her aside and showed it to her later.

  “Are the pages still stained?”

  Ted opened the magazine to the article, with more Xena pictures. Dried semen spotted the pages. Ted started to laugh. “Look at this.” He pointed to a yellowed stain, and then to another spot close to it. “As you can see, this one’s fresh. I think he must have found it when he put some of his stuff in here. I know I didn’t leave this on top of that box.”

  “He’s jerking off to pictures in a ten-year-old TV Guide?”

  Ted tossed the magazine onto the bed. “I guess so. Just think what he’ll do when I show him my sketches of you. I’ll have to laminate the damn things so he doesn’t cream on them.”

  “Well, we’d better get to work. Somewhere under all this stuff is my new bedroom.”

  Pepper and Ted worked nonstop until lunchtime. Pepper convinced Ted that he should throw out some things, but most of it ended up in the attic. By the time they decided to break for lunch, they had cleared the bed and most of the floor.

  Ted bent over the bed and pulled back the old flowered sheet. “Well, the mattress looks pretty worn.” He pulled the sheet completely off, exposing the whole mattress. “Don’t know if it’s a keeper. We may have to get another one. Want to try it?”

  Pepper patted Ted’s ass, then slid her finger down the seam of his jeans. “What do you have in mind?”

  Ted grinned. “Still hot to trot, Pepper?”

  “Always.”

  “How many lovers did you have in Pittsburgh?”

  “A few. If I wanted company, I could usually find some.”

  “I bet you could.”

  “How many lovers have you had?”

  “Plenty in art school. Since moving back home, not so much.”

  “Did John know about the guys you slept with?”

  “I couldn’t tell him. He got jealous if I looked at another guy, let alone went to bed with him.”

  “I never understood why you moved in with him to begin with. What was he, fifteen years older than you?”

  “Actually, seventeen. I met him sophomore year. I was twenty, he was thirty-seven.”

  “Damn, Ted. That makes no sense. What on earth did you see in him?”

  “After I signed up for his class, he took a personal interest in me. He liked my work and helped me with my technique. We were friends, and then lovers. When I ran low on money and had to find a cheaper place to live, he offered me a room in his house. I took it.”

  “But he dumped you, didn’t he?”

  “About a year after I graduated, things fell apart. He moved on to greener, and younger, pastures.”

  “It feels pretty damn awful, doesn’t it, I mean to get dumped?”

  “I sure got a taste of how you must’ve felt when Butch married Sandy.”

  “What did you do when you had to move out of his house?”

  “I’d saved some money for grad school. I took some of it and got a cheap apartment. Between modeling and waiting tables, I managed a couple grad courses before my dad got sick. That’s when I had to come back. He didn’t have anyone else.”

  “I wish I’d known you’d broken up with John and moved back home. I only found out the other night that your dad had passed away.”

  “I thought of you a lot after I came back. You were already in Pittsburgh. I thought about trying to find you, but I figured you had your own life. I didn’t want to bounce back into it and open old wounds.”

  “I wish you had come looking for me.” Pepper moved closer to Ted and put her arms around his neck. “God, how I’ve missed you. I love Butch, you know that. But I’ve never been able to talk to anyone like I can talk to you.”

  “The same here. I’d say you’re like a sister to me, except for this.” Ted put his hands on Pepper’s ass and pulled her pelvis against his. “Just when I’m totally convinced I’m gay, you walk back into my life and make me hard without even trying.”

  Pepper leaned forward and lightly kissed his lip
s. “Just think what I could do if I tried.”

  “Are you coming on to me, Pearl Kaufmann?”

  “No more than I did the night of our junior prom, Theodore Duncan.” Butch broke his collarbone when he fell playing baseball and couldn’t go. Ted filled in at the last minute—there were practically no tuxes left to rent.

  “You came on to me big-time that night. You wanted it bad.”

  “So did you, but you wouldn’t fuck me. At least you let me blow you.”

  “Best damn backseat head I’ve ever gotten.”

  “I want to do more than blow you.”

  “I know you do.” Ted brushed Pepper’s hair away from her face and rubbed her forehead. “You’ve got a big dust smudge on your face.”

  “You’re changing the subject.”

  Ted ran his finger down her cheek and then across her lips. Pepper opened her mouth and sucked his finger. Ted pulled it out, dragging it over her lower lip. “My hands are dirty.”

  “We’re both dirty, in more ways than one.”

  “What the hell is it about you? I’m gay. I shouldn’t be feeling what I’m feeling now.”

  “Says who?” Pepper reached between them and caressed his erection. “You march to your own drummer, remember?”

  “You’re the only woman I’ve ever had anything like this with.” Ted paused, and Pepper felt him tense.

  “What’s wrong, Ted?”

  He glanced at the floor, and then looked directly into her eyes. “Pepper, I’m a virgin. I’ve never fucked a woman, only men.”

  She held his stare. “I thought that might be the case.”

  “No way in hell am I going to fuck for the first time in front of Mr. Italian Stallion. I do have some pride.”

  Pepper turned and patted the bed. “Well, you asked me to try out the mattress. Let’s do it together.”

  “Shouldn’t we at least shower, and get some condoms?”

  “And give you a chance to change your mind? No way!”

  “You aren’t afraid of having sex with a gay man?”

  “No, not if you’re not afraid to sleep with a straight woman. I’ve been tested, and I’m clean, in case that’s a problem.”