Snowbound Games

  Artist and Model

  Thea came out of the shower wearing her little black robe. Nick had wanted badly to join her, but from her perspective their night together was still very young and she wanted to make sure his dick could last for the rest of the performance. She felt just a little slutty thinking in those terms, but the truth was that they didn’t get an opportunity like this very often and they needed to take full advantage of it. A little break now might pay major dividends later. So she convinced him to let her clean up alone and now it was her turn to sit around by herself while he washed in the shower.

  She decided to use the time to snoop. Perhaps she should have felt hypocritical about this decision considering her fight with her mother earlier, but it didn’t feel like she was doing the same thing as her mother. Mom was looking for ammunition to attack Thea with, whereas Thea was simply trying to get to know Nick better. For all practical purposes, this was the first time she’d been alone in Nick’s apartment. She was curious as to what she would find.

  She started with the kitchen, opening up his cabinets, noticing he ate Cheerios—the same old fashioned boring kind you could find in the house Thea shared with her mother. No frosting, no honey and nuts, just the plain old oats that went so well with milk. He also didn’t have a lot of extra boxes of cereal. Like everything else in Nick’s apartment—except those shelves of little lead figures—he seemed completely happy to get by on the minimum amount necessary.

  There were also soups in the cabinet—Campbell’s for the most part—and saltine crackers and ordinary things like that. There were also cans of Hormel chili and blue boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

  In the refrigerator, she found a carton of eggs, a half-gallon of milk, butter, some left over Chinese food, and soda—mostly Coca Cola (regular and diet) and Dr. Pepper. The freezer was packed with Hungry Man dinners and a carton of vanilla ice cream. And a tray of ice cubes, of course.

  On top of the microwave there was an untouched box of Hostess Twinkies and really nothing else to be seen. All in all, she didn’t find her exploration particularly enlightening.

  She wandered throughout the apartment, wondering what she could look at that would tell her more about her new boyfriend.

  Her eyes alighted on a tool box set partially behind the couch. It caught her attention because it was out of place. Nick was very neat. It was atypical to see something lying out.

  She went over to the toolbox and picked it up. It was as large as the one her father had in the basement of their house, but not nearly as heavy.

  She wondered why that was.

  Sitting down on the couch, Thea set the toolbox on the cushion beside her and opened it. The reason it was less heavy than her father’s immediately became apparent. There were no tools inside of it. Instead as the box opened she found trays of mostly unpainted little lead miniatures opening up before her with an extensive collection of paints and brushes in place of tools.

  Hadn’t Nick said he didn’t really have time for this anymore?

  As Thea’s examined the contents of the box she wasn’t quite certain how she felt about what she was seeing here. On the one hand it was another piece of evidence that Nick was a lot younger than she was, spending his limited precious free time on childhood games. On the other hand…

  Thea thought for a moment but she didn’t really see another hand to her argument.

  She wondered what it said about her that finding this box made her so unhappy. Was it evidence that Nick and she were less compatible than she had begun to think they were? Or was it simply proof that there was a lot about him she didn’t know yet?

  She began to close the box up when one of the partially painted miniatures caught her eye. It was a warrior woman with a bikini top and short chain mail skirt, but what caught her attention wasn’t the dress but the skin tone Nick had carefully applied. Unlike the near naked imitation white girls she had seen in the other room, he’d painted this miniature’s bare extremities with luscious chocolate flesh.

  She picked the figure out of the box to examine it more carefully. The tiny sculpted image held a long sword high over her head in her right hand and a short dagger near her waist in her left. The clothing, what little there was, was an uncomfortable looking chain mail that probably ought to be weighing down that boisterous bosom a lot more than it was. Why had Nick painted the figure with brown skin?

  Looking at her own dark fingers holding the figure offered an obvious answer to her question.

  She set the figure down on the couch and picked out another. This one depicted a female wizard holding a staff above her head. Again there was a noticeable lack of clothing—bikini style top and a long flowing loincloth like sash covering her groin. The long arms and legs were painted chocolate again as was the tight thin belly.

  She examined the figure more closely. It was hardly portraiture. Maybe a supermodel was this thin but Thea certainly wasn’t. But there was no getting around the fact that he had painted the figure brown to look like her. Did Nick expect her to play this game with him?

  The bathroom door opened and Nick came out with a towel wrapped around his waist. His flesh had turned slightly pink from the heat of the shower, and beads of water glistened on his skin. “Hey,” he called out, “I thought maybe you’d get in with me after—”

  His voice broke off when he saw what Thea was looking at and his face flushed a deeper shade of red.

  A slight shiver of embarrassment ran its way up Thea’s spine. She knew she’d been snooping and that Nick had just caught her, but she also didn’t truly believe she’d been doing anything wrong. “I was just looking at your figures,” Thea told him with just a hint of defensiveness in her tone.

  Other than that first moment of hesitation, Nick appeared completely comfortable with her discovery. “What do you think?” he asked. “I hadn’t broken the miniatures out to paint in a lot of years, but a couple of days ago I felt inspired.”

  Thea held the female wizard out between them. “You did a beautiful job,” she said. She didn’t comment on the obvious choice of skin tone.

  “It was fun,” Nick said. “I don’t get to draw or paint that much anymore.”

  “You draw?” Thea asked.

  “Yes,” Nick said. “I don’t do it as much as I used to these days—the bar takes up too much time—but yes.”

  Thea’s eyes flashed around the bare apartment, but there were no signs of Nick’s artistry—except for the miniatures of course. The only real picture on the walls was the one of his bar…the drawing of his bar.

  She got up and crossed the room to look at it more closely.

  “That’s one of mine,” Nick confirmed.

  She glanced over at him and was surprised to see how apprehensive he looked. He still stood near the bathroom door, hesitating to cross over to her or fully enter the room. He seemed so confident with her most of the time. It intrigued Thea to realize that there were areas Nick felt vulnerable.

  She leaned closer to the picture to better examine it. The pencil lines were done in deft, sure strokes but with a very light hand. He’d captured his subject very accurately. In all honesty, the only thing wrong with the drawing was that the building he’d been reproducing wasn’t an attractive structure. Nick’s bar was a hole in the wall badly in need of a paint job both outside and in. Still, the picture showed genuine talent. “It’s really good,” Thea complemented him. “I had no idea you could draw like this.”

  Nick shrugged, embarrassed by the complement. “I get by,” he said. “But it takes a lot of work—a lot of practice—to get really good and now that I’m working full time, I just don’t have that sort of free time.”

  She turned back to face him. The red coloring was starting to fade from his shoulders. The towel around his waist was low enough on his hips to show off a pretty good set of abs. Nick wasn’t overly muscular, but he was thin enough for her to see the outlines of his six-pack.

  She felt a flush of heat in her cheeks. “Do you ev
er draw people?” she asked.

  Even as the words came out of her mouth she wanted to kick herself. She hadn’t meant to push him to draw her. She didn’t feel pretty enough to model for an artist.

  Nick took a step forward. “I would love to draw you,” he said. Then he shrugged again in self-deprecating fashion. “But portraits are very hard to do. That’s why I started painting the miniatures again. I’d tried a few sketches but they weren’t coming out right, so I decided to try something simpler.”

  “But it might be fun to try,” Thea suggested. Her mouth kept speaking before her brain could censor herself. “It could be like before, only you’ll be an artist this time instead of a scientist.”

  It took half a second for Nick to understand what Thea was suggesting, but then his eyes began to twinkle in approval. “So you liked that, did you?” he teased.

  Thea felt another wave of embarrassment wash over her, but she didn’t back away from her suggestion. “It was fun,” she said, “pretending to be someone else. We can do things we wouldn’t normally try.” She hoped that Nick would pick up on the hint and get a little more aggressive with her—take just a little bit more control.

  “So you want to be my model?” he asked. “And I’ll be the artist paying you to pose?”

  For some reason, having Nick lay it out that boldly added to Thea’s embarrassment. She felt silly, sorry she had suggested the idea, but Nick didn’t let go of the notion. “You do realize,” he said with a little bit of leer in his grin, “that artists have a terrible reputation for taking advantage of their models.”

  He stepped up and took Thea into his arms.

  She slipped her own arms around his neck and leaned against him. His body was still damp from the shower. His blonde hair fell down his back in long wet strands. She was too self-conscious to look in his eyes so she rested her cheek on his shoulder and said, “Maybe that will make it more fun—getting a little dirty.”

  She shut her eyes and waited for his response.

  Nick gently pulled her away from him and kissed her on each of her closed eyes. “If you want to try something a little different, all you have to do is ask.”

  Thea didn’t answer him. She felt so nervous, so incredibly self-conscious, that she was having trouble breathing. She could feel, almost hear, her heart pounding in her chest. Her whole body quivered in anticipation.

  “Wait right here,” Nick told her. “I’ll go get what we need.”

  Thea listened to Nick step away from her and opened her eyes as he entered the place that should have been the bedroom and close the door. She let out a long breath. What had just come over her? She wasn’t acting like herself at all. She was usually so shy and now here she was suggesting they play another little game and get dirty with each other. What was Nick thinking? What would her mother think if she ever found out? Dating had just gotten a lot more complicated.

  Before she had too much time to regret what she’d just suggested, Nick reappeared. He wore a pair of faded blue jeans instead of the towel, but his torso remained bare and his long wet hair continued to drip water down his thin chest. In one hand he held a stool and in the other a sketchpad, pencil and something else she couldn’t adequately see.

  “Good, you’re here,” he said, his voice sounding particularly crisp and business like. “And you’re already in the robe. Excellent!”

  Nick walked up to her and set the stool down a few feet away from the couch. Then he set the materials he was carrying down on one of the cushions and held out his hand to her. “My assistant had a family emergency,” he said, “so it’s just you and me this afternoon. Are you ready to get started?”

  Thea swallowed her misgivings and started to play the game she had suggested. “Yes, sir,” she said. “Thank you for giving me this opportunity.”

  She took his hand and allowed him to guide her on to the stool. The seat hovered about three feet off the ground, which meant that her feet didn’t touch the floor if she sat with her bottom firmly on it.

  Nick stepped back and considered her. “Hmmmm, that’s not quite right.”

  Without a word of explanation he strode away from her toward the bathroom, returning a few moments later with a hairbrush.

  “Look this way!” he commanded.

  Thea felt a thrill of pleasure deep between her legs. She couldn’t explain it, but she liked Nick telling her what to do—at least under these circumstances. She turned to face him and he ran the brush through her hair several times before stopping to examine her again. Then he moved behind her so he could fluff the hair out over her shoulders.

  Apparently satisfied, he tossed the brush onto the couch and placed the ball of his middle finger lightly beneath her chin. “Hold your face up this way. looking slightly upward. That’s it, that’s it, perfect.”

  He moved around in front of her, critically examining her posture and her position much as a photographer does when preparing to snap a portrait.

  His hands touched her knees on the black cloth of her robe. “Swing these around like this. Now arch your back a bit. That’s it, that’s it. You have beautiful breasts. Let’s use them.”

  Thea arched her back, pushing her breasts out a bit more prominently. It made her feel brazen and added to her sense of excitement.

  “There! Just like that!” Nick told her.

  He picked up his pad and sat down on the couch where he carefully studied her for a few seconds. Then he set pencil to paper and began to make deft strokes on the page.

  Thea lowered her face to see what he was doing.

  “Don’t move!” he snapped. “You’re ruining the pose! I thought you were a professional!”

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Thea played along. “But…this is my first modeling job. I didn’t mean to—”

  “You’re first job?” Nick repeated. He actually sounded angry and appeared to struggle to get control of his temper. “I don’t usually work with amateurs,” he said. He looked around as if searching for someone to take Thea’s place. “But I guess there’s nothing to do about that now. You have to try harder. It’s very important that you keep the pose I put you in without moving.”

  He placed the pad and pencil back down on the couch and stood. “Let’s get you positioned correctly again.”

  His fingers lightly guided her face back into position, then his hands loosened the front of her robe to better expose the curve of her breast.

  She quickly took hold of his hand to stop him. “Is that really necessary?” she asked in her most innocent-sounding voice. “I was told that I’d keep my clothes on for this session.”

  “You are keeping your clothes on!” Nick told her. “I’m just rearranging your clothing to properly show off your assets. Now are you going to question everything I do? Because if you are then we’re going to have to cancel this session right now! I’m not going to waste my time answering a lot of inane questions.”

  He freed his hand from hers and went back to loosening her robe. “You know, you’re quite lucky to have your first modeling job with a man as well-known as me,” he told her. “I have a lot of friends in the industry. You’re pretty enough that I can open a lot of doors for you—if you please me.”

  “Oh I want to please you, sir,” Thea assured him.

  “Good!” He stepped back from her to look at the way he had rearranged her robe and shook his head. “No, that isn’t quite right,” he muttered.

  Reaching inside Thea’s robe Nick took hold of her right breast and pulled it almost free of the confining fabric. Thea couldn’t help looking down to see what he had done. The only reason her breast wasn’t completely exposed was that her thick ebony nipple had caught on the cloth at the edge of her robe.

  “Face up!” Nick commanded.

  She immediately snapped back into position. Nick lifted his hands to gently adjust the angle of her chin. “Now keep your head this way! “Really! How can I recommend you to my friends if you keep acting like an amateur?”

  Without waitin
g for a reply, he took hold of her breast again. “Almost perfect,” he said, “but your nipples are lying flat.”

  “But—?” Thea started to object.

  Nick’s fingers moved faster than her lips. He took her nipple between his thumb and forefinger and rolled it back and forth until the blood finished engorging it. The pleasure was so intense that Thea closed her eyes and parted her lips slightly to make it easier for her to keep breathing.

  “Oh, that’s almost perfect!” Nick said. “Stay just like that!”

  He stepped away from her while Thea tried not to move. It was very exciting sitting here partially exposed with her eyes closed, knowing that Nick was looking at her—perhaps picking up his pencil and paper again and drawing her nipple.

  A flash illuminated the room, noticeable even though Thea’s eyes were closed.

  She opened her eyes and looked around. “What?”

  Nick stood in front of her with a digital camera.

  This was not part of the game! “Wait a minute!” she said as she slipped off the stool to the floor. “I didn’t agree to photographs!”

  “Get back on the chair!” Nick snapped. “If you’re not going to sit still, I can’t use you as my model. I need the photographs to sketch from. Do you want me to recommend you to my friends or not?”

  With the camera out and her breast exposed, Thea didn’t feel like playing anymore. “I’m serious, Nick!” she told him. “Naked pictures are not cool!”

  Nick stuck to their storyline. “If you’re going to be a professional—”

  “Nick, I’m not playing!” Thea shouted.

  Nick lowered the camera. “Oh,” he said. “I’m sorry! I thought this was part of the game.”

  “We were talking about you drawing me!” Thea protested.

  “Yeah, but I thought about what a real artist would do—especially if he was a bit sleazy like I’m playing—and I figured he would take photographs. We can erase them afterward if you want to. I’m just trying to play out your fantasy.”

  Thea believed him. Her anger began to dissipate but not her sense of agitation. “But I don’t want any pictures!” she insisted. “What is somebody saw them?”