"You don't have to do anything you are uncomfortable with."
"Then why do I feel like if I don't do it, it's a problem?"
"It isn't a problem, it's an opportunity. What I am saying is that life is about choices."
Suzanne paused for a moment and looked at me, a little twinkle in her eye, before resuming her work and continuing.
"Did I have to go into business for myself? No, I could have worked for a larger company. Do I have to offer packages other than standard wedding and portrait? Do I have to go out of my way to make my client feel comfortable? It's all choices. You absolutely don't have to do anything that you are uncomfortable with. But, let me tell you, I think it would be a mistake for you not to push just a little bit out of your comfort zone sometimes. First, you may find that you enjoy it. Second, there are fantastic opportunities... monetarily and socially... to be had. Personally, I don't want to shut myself out of the world and out of the chance to make more money."
"I guess I see your point."
I (my name is Andrew) had been working for Suzanne for about 9 months. She was a photographer, I was her assistant. We met when she was my adjunct professor at school. I was a fine arts major with a concentration in photography and she liked teaching her skills to young students for little monetary compensation. After her in-class mentorship she offered me a job and what started as a summer gig turned into a regularly scheduled part-time position. The vast majority of what I did for her was administrative: answering phones, paying bills, keeping the studio clean, etc. But, as a true assistant, I also looked out for my boss. I admit I got pretty good noticing outliers that could ruin a shot; random debris, lint or stray hairs. I was always close by to make sure the end result came out perfectly. And, even when there was something I missed, there was always Photoshop to touch things up.
I knew that Suzanne had a steady stream of business for boudoir and glamour photos. I mean, it wasn't like she was hiding it from me. I was the one who answered the calls and booked the appointments and, if needed, did the skin smoothing and touch-up work on the computer afterwards. When the previous conversation happened, I had literally just learned that her services extended even further into the "adult" spectrum.
She told me that she had a client couple booked. It was a repeat customer who contacted her directly which is why I hadn't already known. This client had previously done... and was now looking to do again... a full, hardcore photo session. It was to be stylized and storyboarded. It was to be intimate and graphic at the same time.
The concern? Suzanne told me that to be in the room during the shoot I would also have to be nude. The clients were nude. She was nude. Everyone was nude.
"It's something I started doing a few years ago at the request of one of the clients. It worked out so well that I have just made it standard. Unless I am specifically asked otherwise, I try to have a male assistant for these shoots. That way there is a gender balance." She was so calm in her explanation. It didn't stop me from sweating.
"It's isn't like I am a model."
"Neither are they, neither am I. This isn't a pro shoot and this isn't meant to be sexual for us. The reality is that our exposure is to make the situation less intense for them. When you are the only one naked you feel exposed. When everyone is naked it feels normal. The odds of their shoot going well are exponentially higher when they feel comfortable. When they are comfortable that is when their sexuality can really come out."
"I guess that makes sense."
"Just think about it, okay? But think fast because I need an answer by tonight. I have a backup I can ask but, if I am being honest, you are better in the studio and that is what really counts."
I was nervous. I had agreed to nothing yet I could feel my face draining of color.
"What if I get an erection?"
"I suspect you will," she responded in the same calm demeanor, "and then it will go away. And, if it comes back, no problem. If you do this, I think you are going to find that the reality of any of the nudity floats into the background pretty quickly."
She left the room and I had a decision to make.
Of course I said yes. I am a guy after all, a decent looking, decently fit, healthy 21-year-old with the opportunity to see nude women. One of which was my boss, a woman of 46 who may as well have been 30. A woman I had had more than a single fantasy about. The answer was always going to be yes, no matter how nervous I was.
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It was only 3 days later the actual event occurred. Suzanne had informed me she had known about it for a while but decided not to give me a lot of time to overthink things. It was a Saturday and had otherwise been pretty busy. It was early fall and there had been 6 senior photo sessions in the studio that day as well as multiple wedding consultations. The day had flown by without my having even noticed. I was reminded of the appointment when she instructed me to set the room temperature to exactly 78 degrees and light a couple of candles. She also handed me a robe.
"Another one of the choices you can make. You don't have to wear this now but, I like to as it helps the underwear, sock and bra marks on my skin go away. While we aren't going to be in the pictures it makes me feel more comfortable to know my skin isn't blemished like that." It was still hours before the shoot but, as with everything leading up to this moment, her explanation made nothing but sense.
Seeing Suzanne in her robe was a bit of a revelation. I had never been able to make out much of her body as she always wore the stereotypical loose, linen "artists" clothing one would stereotype a West Coast painter. Of course I knew she was a woman. Her breasts would still bounce when she walked and the sway of her hips was enough to spark day-dreams, but anything more specific was a bit of a mystery.
Mystery no more.
With the thin cotton robe pulled loosely around her waist, I was treated to an hourglass figure of Page3 model proportions. Her breasts were obviously large and full, her ass round and curvy, she was sexy as hell and I had to sit down immediately to hide a rising erection. A muted grin on her face indicated to me that she knew my predicament and I immediately turned bright red.
For the next 3 hours we finished up work in the studio and I began to regret my decision to participate as I could barely concentrate. Any movement Suzanne made was a distraction and any glance at her was a turn-on. Her nipples were like erasers pressed against the front of her robe. The thin cotton cloth hung to the contours of her ass as she bent over a storyboard displayed on a large presentation table. Even her calves had the most perfect curve I could imagine. I was thrilled when her phone rang and she informed the clients she would meet them at the door to let them in. At least she would be out of my line of sight for a minute, maybe I could calm down.
"Show time," she said with a wink and, surprisingly, put her hand on my shoulder as she walked by. "Take a deep breath, Andy. It's going to be fine."
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The clients were Tim and Katie, a married couple in their early 50's who, as I later found out as I archived their shots into their client file on our company server, lived a solid 6 counties away.
"Clients tend to take these shots away from the communities they live in," Suzanne explained when I exclaimed the distance of their address. "Unfortunately, we live in a pretty repressed society when it comes to things like this."
She had been right, Suzanne that is, in telling me days prior that the clients were not models. This is not to say they were not attractive, they both were, it was more a statement that they were not the commercial version of sex, just a real-life one.