"Tonight," she said with a cheeky grin, "you can do anything you want to me."
"Anything?" I asked with an incredulous tone.
Sammi was an adorable ginger, well, near ginger. Some would say strawberry blonde, and might be correct, but ginger suited her personality. She was nineteen, and at thirty-one I had a bit over ten years on her.
And quite the ten years they were. After graduating from Dartmouth I jousted at Renaissance festivals, spent a year as a street poet, and even spent three years in a tattoo shop in Denver. After all that I returned to my Florida roots, got a law degree from Stetson, landed a job with a firm that did admiralty law that paid me well and allowed me to be the quirky weirdo that I am. I live and work in Downtown St. Petersburg and am in a pretty good place all around.
Sammi was the crowning piece of my comfortable life. She was with a Viking reenactment group at the local Renaissance Festival. I was doing weekend gigs there as a courtly poet who only writes filthy, bawdy poems that I would recite to faire goers in an over the top, grandiloquent voice. She asked me to stay after the show for a party in the Viking camp almost a year ago, and well, she's been with me ever since. Although I have a few years on her, some would say that she is an "old soul," and we matched surprisingly well.
She lives in a dorm at University of South Florida during the week, but on Thursdays she takes an Uber across the Bay and she arrives shortly after I get home from the office and she then stays through Monday morning. Usually, on Thursday nights, we walk to Vertical Ventures Gym nearby and climb.
But it appeared that tonight she had other ideas.
Sammie replied without hesitation, "Anything."
"Anything covers quite a bit," I observed.
"Anything at all. Your wildest fantasy can be yours."
"You brought another girl with you?"
Sammi's eyes flared, "I can arrange that!"
"Eh," I said, reminiscing a moment, "to be honest it is a lot of work."
She ignored that comment. "Offer goes away in three, two.."
I did have something in mind. Something I had been planning for a while. It was a back burner project that I didn't know how to broach with her, but now seemed to be the right time.
"Hmmmm" I sort of fake pondered, and then said, "I'd like to draw on you."
She raised her eyebrows in surprise, as if she was reevaluating my willingness to take risks. She pouted playfully, a smirk forming on her face as she realized I didn't have anything more daring in mind.
"That's it? Draw on me? You don't want to do... something else?" she teased, her tone light, yet edged with a hint of disappointment.
I shrugged off her disdain. "My decision is final!" I said with a hint of over-the-top seriousness, using one of my comical character voices. She just rolled her eyes in response.
To add an element of surprise to the evening, I fished out the blindfold stuck between two cushions on the couch. "How did that get there?" I said in mock horror. She snickered. It was a familiar item between us that she recognized it immediately, but her intrigue piqued. "Maybe it will be more fun if you see it when it's done?" I suggested, raising an eyebrow in playful challenge.
"Where is it going?" she asked, her voice laced with curiosity. She seemed to be warming to the idea.
"Hmm... I'm still thinking about it. You will need to strip down," I said, trying to keep my tone serious, though the twinkle in my eyes betrayed my amusement.
Without hesitation, she grinned, undressed, and made herself comfortable on the plush leather couch. Her figure was like a toned sculpture, slender arms and legs with gentle curves. Her small, perky breasts were the perfect balance to her overall lean frame, promising a lively and youthful energy; and a similarly lively evening of fun. I carefully tied the blindfold around her eyes, ensuring she couldn't see a thing. Handing her phone and earbuds to her, I encouraged, "Jam to some tunes while I get the design ready."
She inserted the earbuds and suddenly, the quiet room was filled with the tinny sound of Skálmöld playing in her earbuds. It was a genre she had introduced me to and I had grown to like it as well. Watching her head bob along to the rhythm with such enthusiasm made me smile, and she was oblivious to my presence as I moved around her and prepared for the drawing.
I came back with a handful of pens and a drawing that I had prepared several weeks earlier. It was something I had been saving for the right moment to bring it to fruition. Thanks to Sammi's bold permission, tonight seemed like the ideal chance to make it happen.
I returned to the living room, settling myself on the floor next to Sammi, who was still jamming to her tunes, blissfully unaware of what was to come. I surveyed her naked body, lithe and sleek, she kept herself smooth and shaven. There were so many possibilities, but only one location called to me for my art.
I leaned in closer and double-checked my initial sketch before exhaling deeply to steady my hand. Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I lifted the pen and began tracing the design with precision and care. The tip of the pen tickled against her flesh, provoking involuntary squirms and giggles from her lips. Starting just below her chin, the intricate design flowed down the center of her throat, tracing every curve and contour until it reached her sternum. I added more lines, some that branched out and some that ran parallel to the central line. A few dots, accent marks to give the design some breadth and soften it, were added with a few more touches of the pen. I stepped back and surveyed my handiwork. The lines were sharp, the design impeccable. It surpassed all of my expectations. Against her ivory skin, it was bold and flawless.
But I was not done.
"Sammi," I called out gently, prompting her to remove one of her earbuds.
"What?" she responded, her voice curious, the tinny sounds of Viking folk metal tunes buzzing in her removed earbud.
"I was thinking," I continued, "this design will just smear off easily with these pens. But I have a special ink I can use that will last longer."
"Like for the weekend?" she inquired, her interest piqued.
"Yeah, it will easily last the weekend," I assured her, watching as she pondered the idea for a moment.
She playfully shrugged and smiled, agreeing, "Yeah, that sounds like fun." Then, she returned the earbud to her ear and faded back into her own world of music.
