Trio

by P. F. Kozak

  Pepper lifted herself up on her elbows. “Aren’t you going to get me off?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I want to draw you while you’re horny, maybe even while you masturbate. I want to see how the lines of your body change when you get hot.”

  “Geez Louise! I thought I could count on you.”

  “You can. I want to teach Butch how to get you off. It’s about goddamn time. If he wants to fuck in the morning, he can set his alarm to get up earlier, so he has time.”

  Pepper scooted off the bed. “I like how you think, Theodore. I’ll go get us some breakfast going while you shower.”

  By the time Ted came into the kitchen for breakfast, Pepper had the food on the table. “Shit, Pepper. You made pancakes?”

  “Sure, why not? You had everything I needed.”

  “Butch will be sorry he missed this.”

  “He said he usually grabs something at the diner across the street from the garage.”

  “Not the same as you making pancakes. This is great!”

  “Geez, doesn’t take much to make you happy, does it?” Pepper sat down across from him.

  “Not anymore. I feel like my family has come home.”

  “Me, too. Butch sort of said the same thing.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said he wants to try it. I think he likes living with you.”

  Ted swallowed a mouthful of pancakes. “I like having him here. I thought of getting a cat for company, but having someone to talk to is better.”

  “You’re allergic to cats.”

  “Yeah, that’s one in Butch’s favor. That and his brick-shithouse body.”

  Pepper giggled. “Are you as gay around him as you are around me?”

  “Sometimes. I try not to lay it on too thick. Don’t want him getting homophobic on me.”

  “We’ll see how he reacts now—I mean, after last night.”

  Ted squirted more syrup onto his stack of pancakes. “Damn, Pepper. These are good.” Just before stuffing another forkful into his mouth, he asked, “You think Butch will want to buttfuck with me again?”

  “He told me again this morning he’s looking forward to shoving it up your ass the way you did his. I think he meant it.”

  Ted looked up at the ceiling. “Thank you, God!”

  Pepper grinned. “It’s not polite to pray with your mouth full.”

  Ted swallowed. “Sorry.”

  “I guess Butch figures he can only go to hell once. According to his mother, he’s already going for divorcing Sandy. So he might as well do what the fuck he wants from now on.”

  “A good philosophy to have. I’ve been living that way all my life.”

  “Butch thinks you’re too smart to be in Willows Point. He can’t understand why you stayed here. Why did you stay after your dad died?”

  “Because running my dad’s bar gave me a job and a flexible schedule so I can paint. I also got the house.”

  “Which is great for Butch and me. Thanks for letting us stay here.”

  “If you ask me, it’s a pretty sweet setup. I’m my own boss. Why would I leave?”

  “Because you’re different than most people around here.”

  “So are you.” He gazed at her intently.

  “That’s one of the reasons why I left.”

  “Tell me something. In Pittsburgh, were you any better off than you were here? I mean, did you have more friends, go to parties, make more money, that sort of stuff?”

  “No, no, and no. Most of the guys I met didn’t do a hell of a lot for me, and I didn’t go out much, except to bars. I did make more money, but it cost more to live there.”

  “Then why did you stay there?”

  “I didn’t want to come back here, not with…” Pepper stopped. She still had trouble saying it out loud.

  “Not with what?”

  “Not with Butch being married to Sandy, and figuring you were still with John. Why the fuck would I want to come back?”

  “We’re why you never got involved with anyone, aren’t we?”

  “Yes and no. It took a long time to look around for someone else. When I did look, I couldn’t find anyone I wanted to be with.”

  “Sounds like that’s more yes than no.”

  “Maybe it is. It seems like a miracle that I ended up back here with the two of you. I never dreamed it could happen.”

  “Neither did I. That’s a big reason why I think we can make this work. We want to be together.”

  “There’ll be lots of gossip about us.”

  “There already is, with Butch’s divorce and my questionable sexual preference. Now, you’re the frosting on the cake.”

  Pepper held up her coffee cup to make a toast. “Here’s to the three of us being in love.”

  Ted clinked her cup with his. “Nicely put, Pepper. I think we have been for a long time.”

  After they finished breakfast and cleaned up, Ted took Pepper into his studio. Pepper wasn’t prepared for what she saw.

  “My God, Ted. This is amazing!”

  “It’s pretty damn cool, isn’t it?”

  “When you said you converted the sunporch into a studio, I didn’t know you meant you built a completely new room.”

  “You remember, the porch was long, but not very deep. I got to thinking, if I knocked out the wall facing the backyard, I could expand the room.”

  Pepper stood in front of the new wall. The sun streamed in the large windows that ran the length of it. “The little windows with the screens your dad had in here weren’t anything like these. Where did you find such big windows?”

  “I ordered them. This side of the house faces east and gets plenty of morning sun.” Ted pointed to the far end of the porch, where the window shades were down. “I put the same windows down there. That side gets the best afternoon light.”

  “Doesn’t it get hot in here, with all the sunlight?”

  “Nope. I had central air put in the house after my dad died. If it gets too warm or too cold, I just have to adjust the thermostat.”

  “How can you afford all of this? It had to cost plenty.”

  “I’ve never told anyone this, not even Butch. But my dad left me a chunk of change when he died. With his insurance policy, his bank account, and the bar, I don’t have to worry.”

  Pepper walked around the studio. Ted had several finished paintings hanging on the wall. She looked at each one like she was walking through a museum.

  The diversity surprised her. Along with the landscapes he had at the bar, he had portraits, nudes, and still lifes. All of them were realistic, resembling photographs. There were other paintings propped against the wall, and one unfinished work of an old-fashioned gas pump on an easel.

  Canisters of paintbrushes sat on a table beside half-used tubes of oil paint and jars of powdered tempera. Several different sizes of palettes were stacked by the paint. Two other palettes were smeared with color.

  Ted had angled a sketching table with special lighting in the corner, and put a laptop with a digital camera on a stand beside it. When Pepper saw the open sketch pad on the table, she stopped and stared at the picture of a nude man.

  “Christ, Ted, that’s Butch!”

  “There are a lot more.”

  “Can I see them?”

  “I’ll show them to you later. I want to sketch you while the light is good in here.”

  “Aren’t you afraid Butch might see this?”

  “I told him when he moved in that coming in here is by invitation only. The same goes for you, Miss Pepper. This is my private sanctuary.”

  “I guess I should be honored you let me come in.”

  “You’re one of the very few.”

  “You know Butch expects to watch you draw me. He asked me to call him later and let him know how long you’ll be working. He hopes to do only a half day today.”

  Ted took Pepper’s hand. “Let’s sit for a minute. I want to tell you what I’m thi
nking.” He led Pepper to the sofa, and moved some picture frames so they could sit down. “I want Butch to watch me sketch you. He’s never seen me work.”

  “How did you get that sketch of him?”

  “From some old photographs, and from memory.”

  “That’s amazing! It really looks like him.”

  “It should. I’ve been drawing him for years, just like I have been you.”

  “Why us, Ted?

  “I’ve never stopped loving either of you.”

  “I thought it was just me, I mean, that I couldn’t stop loving you and Butch.”

  Ted squeezed Pepper’s hand. “After we all stopped seeing each other, did you ever cry yourself to sleep?”

  Pepper’s eyes glassed over remembering how much she’d cried. She looked at Ted and nodded. “Yeah, I did.”

  “So did I. Don’t know if Butch cried, that’s not his style. But I do know he’s spent years beating himself up over what happened.”

  “He told me. He apologized for fucking up last night.”

  “I remember the night Butch came into the bar to tell me he’d left Sandy. I honestly thought somebody had died, he looked so bad. He wanted to know if he could stay with me. It took everything I had not to plant a big, wet kiss on him when I said yes.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “That’s a hard one, Pepper. I hadn’t heard from you in a long time, and figured you had built a new life for yourself. I didn’t want to upset the applecart.”

  “I tried to build a new life. It didn’t fly.”

  “I’m sure Butch would’ve tried to track you down, now that his divorce is final. As it turned out, he didn’t have to.”

  “Yeah, Lois thinks I’m like a bad penny. I keep turning up.”

  “Screw Lois. You don’t have to ask her for anything. Butch and I’ll make sure you’re all right. You have a home, with us.”

  “We are a family, aren’t we?”

  “It seems all we have these days is each other. I’d say that’s a family, wouldn’t you?”

  Pepper wiped her eyes and smiled. “Yeah, I would.”

  “I never got around to telling you how I’m using you as bait.”

  “You’re what?”

  “Using you as bait. I want to reel Butch in.”

  “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Theodore.”

  “You got him to buttfuck. Now I want you to get him to pose, both by himself and with you.”

  “You’re out of your frigging mind. He won’t do that.” She pictured Butch’s response to such a request.

  “I think he will, if you ask him.”

  “Ted, you’ve definitely gone over the high side with this one. I’ll pose for you, but the chances of Butch taking off all his clothes and standing naked while you draw him are slim to none.”

  “Not if he’s feeling you up while he’s doing it.”

  “What?”

  “Okay, let me lay it out for you. I want to sketch both of you nude, separately and together. Then I want to do a painting of you and Butch making love.”

  Pepper laughed. “You aren’t serious?”

  “Who says? I’ve wanted to do a work like this ever since I can remember. You and Butch as models? Perfect.”

  Pepper stood and walked over to the window. She focused on the birdbath in the backyard. “Look, there’s a cardinal. Isn’t it beautiful?”

  Ted reached over to a stack of paintings leaning against the wall by the sofa. He pulled out a small canvas. “Here, take a look at this.”

  He handed her an oil painting of the cardinal she had just seen, perched on the edge of the birdbath. “God, Ted, this is really good.” Pepper looked at the bird and again at the painting. “It’s the same one, isn’t it?”

  “Yup. It must have a nest somewhere close by. It comes for some birdseed and a bath every day about this time.”

  Still holding the painting, Pepper walked the length of the studio, and back to where Ted still sat on the sofa. She took it all in—the paints, the pencils, the sketch pads, the canvases. She stopped in front of him. “You really are an artist, aren’t you?”

  “I really am. And I want to paint the two people I love.”

  Pepper put the painting down and went back to the sketch of Butch. “Are you going to show him this?”

  “Yes. But I want you to back me up when I do.”

  Pepper lightly traced the lines of the drawing with her finger. “He’s beautiful, isn’t he?”

  “There’s a reason Michelangelo’s art is so great. He used Italian men as models.”

  “I can’t promise I can convince him, but I’ll try.”

  Ted jumped up and wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you, sweet Pepper. I knew you’d help me.”

  “Shouldn’t we get started? I don’t want you to lose the light.”

  Ted kissed her hair. “Take off all your clothes.”

  Pepper glanced at all the windows. “Can anybody see in here?”

  “No. I made sure of that. The backyard is plenty big, and I reinforced the fence my dad built around it. I sure as hell don’t want nosy neighbors watching me paint.”

  While Pepper undressed, Ted opened the sofa bed. He already had white sheets on it. “How long has it been since you’ve opened that bed?”

  “About a month. I changed the sheets afterward. They’re clean.”

  “That’s not why I wanted to know.”

  “Why did you ask?”

  “I wondered if you’ve slept with anyone in here.”

  “A few times. Didn’t like how it felt to me, so I stopped doing it.”

  Pepper crawled onto the bed. “Then why did you change the bed a month ago?”

  “Because I had to jerk off after working on that drawing of Butch. I messed up the bed.”

  “I’m surprised you haven’t come on to him. Sounds like you’ve been ready to jump his bones since he moved in.”

  “I have. But he hasn’t been in great shape. I didn’t want to make it harder for him.”

  “From what I’ve seen, you couldn’t make it much harder. He’s been like a poker.”

  “Which is what he needed to do, poke-her, get it?”

  Pepper laughed. “Yeah, I got it all right. And it felt great!” She stretched out on the bed as if making a snow angel. “So, what do you want me to do?”

  “Relax!”

  “I would be more relaxed if you were here beside me.”

  Ted pointed to the sketching table. “I’m going to be sitting on my stool, making love to you with my pencil on the sketch pad.”

  “Can I have a pencil to diddle with?”

  “No, I want you to diddle with your middle finger.”

  “God, Ted, I don’t know if I can do this.”

  Ted flipped the page over with Butch’s drawing, and then picked up a pencil. “Sure you can. Relax and focus. I want to see what position your body naturally takes when you masturbate. I’ve imagined it. Now, I want to see it.”

  “Can I close my eyes?”

  “Absolutely. Fantasize about Butch, if that helps. Forget I’m here. Just do your thing.”

  Pepper took him at his word. She closed her eyes and thought of Butch being there with her. Ted said he would show him how to give her an orgasm. She imagined that now, pretending the finger between her legs belonged to Butch.

  The more she thought about Butch rubbing her, the hotter she got. Her hand went to her breast and she squeezed her own flesh. When she pinched her nipple, a soft sound bubbled up in her throat. She pinched harder. The sparks went straight to her clit.

  Pepper tickled the skin around her vagina before dipping a finger inside. She wanted to be fucked so bad. Her finger moved faster, trying to reach the core of her body as only a man’s cock could.

  She rubbed, and squeezed, and fucked herself, completely forgetting Ted sat there watching. She only thought of Butch, and of his hands on her. At the moment of her orgasm, Pepper shouted Butch’s name.
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  8

  P epper sat on the bed wearing only a painter’s smock that Ted had given her. He’d handed her his cell phone before he ran upstairs to the bathroom. She dialed Butch’s number.

  “Hello. Don’t tell me, Pepper?”

  “Who else?”

  “I figured. What’s up?”

  “When can you come home?”

  “I’ve cleared the decks to leave soon. The other guys here will cover for me.”

  “Good. Ted wants to show you how he works.”

  “I know how he works after last night.”

  Pepper giggled. “Not that. I mean how he draws me.”

  “Did you work with him this morning?”

  “I sure did. You won’t believe some of the pictures he drew.”

  Butch lowered his voice. “I can’t really talk right now. I’ll be home in about fifteen minutes.”

  “There are people around?”

  “You got it. See you soon.” Butch hung up.

  While waiting for Ted to come back, Pepper wandered over to look at the sketch pad again. Ted had drawn her in amazing detail. After she had an orgasm, he asked her to hold the position with one hand on her breast and the other between her legs. After her posing lesson the day before, she understood what he wanted her to do.

  When he finished, he let her see what he’d done. There were several small drawings of her torso in different positions, and one bigger drawing of her whole body. It startled her to see how much the likeness resembled her, and how quickly he had drawn the different positions.

  It embarrassed her, too. The drawings clearly showed her masturbating. Ted had captured the heat in her body, and her lack of inhibition when she climaxed. Even with her self-consciousness about being the model, Pepper recognized the artistry in Ted’s work. His talent couldn’t be denied.

  Pepper didn’t hear Ted come back into the studio. Only when he wrapped his arms around her shoulders did she realize he was there. “What do you think?”

  “How long have you been behind me?”

  “A couple minutes. You’ve been looking at my drawings like an art critic would.”

  “I can’t believe that’s me.”

  “It is. Aren’t you beautiful?”

  Pepper turned around. Ted continued to hold her. “You made me beautiful. There’s more in those pictures than just me.”