The Old Artist

All characters over eighteen. Thanks to S who helped me edit this story.

*****

The cars darted in and out of the early morning traffic, driving Gary crazy. He began to wonder why he had rented the downtown studio. Art can be a difficult mistress and it demands privacy. While his two-room studio did not compare to the studios of the more famous artists, it did give him the privacy he needed. The annual Nude Figure Exhibition was coming up and he did not have many paintings to show—nothing he liked. He needed to find something that inspired not only him, but also the buying public. As a retired psychologist, he knew the erotic yet subtle response he wanted his art to evoke in his buyers.

He was in pretty good shape for just turning 70. This morning he was not feeling fully awake. His mind was still in a haze of cobwebs from being up late the night before. Strong coffee was needed. He wandered up the back stairs of the old building to his second story studio. The multi-colored leaves were falling in swirls of a cool fall wind. The studio had two very large double windows facing north which provided a strong contrast, yet soft morning light. He loved the natural light. It was light and shadow that always fascinated him—he incorporated it in most of his work. The nude figure would dance in the chiaroscuro he could produce.

He went to his coffee maker and discovered he was out of coffee. Damn, too much on his mind. He would have to go to the coffee shop two blocks away. He grabbed a sketchbook and some drawing materials. Perhaps he could find an unassuming person to sketch and draw in stealth as he drank his coffee.

As he walked down the block, there was a cold chill in the air. It put a skip in his step. He noticed the morning sunlight had changed. Now, the shadows on the street were deeper since the last time he went to get coffee. It had to have been two months since he last made the short trek to the coffee shop.

In the past, he usually flirted with a cute barista. Typically, she was the highlight of the trip to the coffee shop. They both had chatted many times as he sat at the bar facing the various machines as she worked. The last time he was there he had done a quick sketch of her. She liked it and he gave it to her. Ah, he thought, what was her name? Karen, Kate, perhaps it was Kathy. He really needed the coffee to clear his mind. The line was long as he entered the shop. As he stood in line, he looked around to see if she was there. Nope, nowhere to be seen. Oh well, he thought as he took a deep breath.

After he got his coffee and found a comfortable seat at a table, he looked for someone to draw.

"Hey Mr. Stone," a female's voice rang out from behind him.

It's her, he thought, what the hell was her name? Then it came to him. He stood and turned, "Oh, hi Kate." Phew, the old noggin was working.

"I don't see your uniform, are you not working today?" he said in a very friendly tone.

"Mr. Stone, don't you remember? You talked me into going back to college and getting my bachelor's degree in art. It was the best advice ever, thank you so much." And, with that, she gave him a big hug.

Immediately, he smelled her perfume and felt her warm hug was lasting a bit too long. He thought he felt her hard nipples against his chest. Hum, he felt some stiffness in his pants, he thought to himself, you can't be that aroused, heck, and you are old enough to be her grandfather. Perhaps it had to be the cooler weather.

"I turned 22 last month and most of the kids in my classes are younger than I am. So, that makes me the old lady of the group. They ask me for advice all the time."

"Come, please join me," and he pulled out a chair for her.

"Such a gentleman, thank you." as she smiled. "I always like talking to you because you treated me as an adult. You gave me the best advice and you have helped me in ways you can't imagine."

"Now you have my curiosity up, how are the ways I have helped you in ways I can't imagine?" he said leaning forward in his chair smiling.

"Oh, I have gone to your website and also to your profile on Facebook. I have learned so much from your art." She slowly reached out and touched his arm. "Your step by step examples are excellent. The way you draw and paint the nude figure, the way you capture the light on the figure's form and the way you evoke emotion from your art, I find breathtaking."

"I'm flattered, thank you." As he talked, his eyes drifted toward her cleavage and the stirring began again in his pants. Quickly glancing away, he asked how she liked her teachers.

A sad look crossed her face and she said, "A year ago you gave me the advice to go back to college. I did right then and there. Currently, I am getting all "A"s but I feel I have so much more to learn. My teachers have taught me all they can or what I want to learn from them and now I feel I'm in a void, an artist's block."

He started to say something about artist's block, some sage advice when she teared up and said she really needed a favor from him. "That depends on what you are asking." He settled back into his chair.

"Would you consider being my mentor? I can't pay you to teach me because of my lack of funds. If I could be your assistant in exchange for some mentoring services, it would really make me happy. We could work around my school schedule and my work schedule if that would be OK with you."

Gary was completely taken off base. He did not know what to say and he needed to collect his thoughts.

"Many years ago, I used to teach," he said, but thinking that these days as a retired artist all he wanted to do was produce quality art.

"Please, please, I know I can help you and with my digital skills, I can update your website." And she leaned forward showing more of her breasts and again touching his arm.

He relinquished. "Do you work or have classes this next Saturday?"

"Yes, I have to work from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at a restaurant, but I'm free after that."

"What I had in mind was to discuss this further with you after I had a chance to mull it over and in a quiet setting, say, my studio at 6:00 pm?" He started to write the address of his studio on a piece of sketch paper when she spoke up.

"Please, can we make it 6:30, as I would like to clean up after work," thinking that even with the bus schedules she would be cutting it close. "You don't know how happy I am to have this chance."

"Good, I'll see you then, I have got to run." Again, she gave him a rather long hug. He left, walking toward his studio.

*****

The air was cooler, and he picked up the pace as he walked back to his studio. A front must be coming down the Florida coast as they normally do this time of the year. When he got back into his studio, he turned on the heat and proceeded to call one of his figure models, Sally.

"Hi Gary, what up?" Sally answered.

The technology—you've got to love it, Gary thought. You know who is calling before you answer the phone. "Sally, I need a figure model for this afternoon, are you available? I know this is short notice, but I need to pull together some paintings for the Nude Figure Exhibition coming up a few months.

"Sure, how about 1:30? If you turn on that heater in your studio..."

"Sorry, last year the heating system was on the fritz, but this summer I got it fixed and you should be very comfortable," he said, happy she agreed to pose for him.

"See you then..." she hung up.

Getting the materials together to paint with was as important as painting. He was having a hard time keeping Kate out of his mind and his arousal. He told himself that this was a business and he needed to think clearly and not have any distractions.

Next thing he knew, Sally banging on the door, shouting "Gary!"

"Heavens girl, what's wrong?" he asked as he opened the door.

"It's colder than a witch's tit out here! I hate the cold." She took off her light jacket, walking over to the coffee maker. "What no coffee?"

"Sorry Sally, I forgot to get coffee, but how about some tea?" And he turned and went to the cabinet and found some good earl gray tea.

"Typical artist, all you think about is your art...Oh wow, this is beautiful," Sally said as she walked up to his easel. The painting showed the figure in a somewhat natural yet erotic stance. "I love this piece. May I pose similar to this painting?" she asked as she started to take off her clothes.

Normally, Gary was very professional with his models and they felt comfortable being nude in front of him. His encounter with the young Kate had his mind still in overdrive. As he looked at Sally's beautiful body, he began to become aroused again. Clear your head, Gary, he thought, and said, "Please find a comfortable position on the couch and we'll try a few poses like the one in the painting you liked. Let's try ten-minute poses."

As she began to move on the couch, she arched her body to settle into the first pose. Her breasts were so perfect. Not too big like those painted like the old masters centuries ago. He put on a painter's apron because he was slowly getting harder. He did not want Sally to notice. As she stretched, she opened her legs and her labia slowly opened. That was not lost on Gary's artistic eye. Models would rarely open their legs so wide.

Gary's normal procedure was to request a position for the model to pose. Watching Sally move as she tried the different poses piqued more than his artistic interest. It was piquing his arousal as well. He more than liked the moves Sally was making this afternoon going from pose to pose. The problem was now he had a full-on erection. The apron could only hide so much. He stood behind the easel.

Finally, one of the poses was right. "Let's hold that one, Sally." One leg needed to be adjusted so he had to go over and move it into position. As she reclined on the studio couch, he added some purple colored fabric to reflect on her almost alabaster skin. So few flaws! His heart rate was up now, and he felt a flush on his face. Shaking his head, thinking he needed to get back to business, he asked her to move slightly into the light. The fold of her shaved labia seemed to crack open more and her rose colored vulva sparkled in the light, oh so perfectly. The beautiful structure was enough for him to lick his lips.

Models most often ask for a channel on Pandora to listen to music as the artist worked. Sally asked for the Lily Allen channel. "They play sexy songs, almost erotic." as her voice became sultry. His hardness did not go unnoticed by Sally. She was beginning to heat up. She could feel the extra blood pressure flow in her body.

Unabashedly, she asked if he had a girlfriend. "I know your wife passed five or six years ago and I just wondered if you had female company," she asked with a sly smile on her face.

"It has been hard for me Sally; the old ghosts seem to haunt me. And, I'm not quite a normal guy most women want to be with." He started sketching the pose. The charcoal was scratching across the paper. He thought it was always best to get a good preliminary sketch. He decided just to sketch for twenty minutes and take a break. They worked and took breaks. The pose was erotic.

He began to smell a faint odor that was affecting his hormones. Pheromones, such a dangerous drift through the air. He felt a shot of dopamine released in his brain. Years of studying the sexual responses in people, he knew what his dilemma was at this time. He needed to shut these thoughts down, so he decided to engage Sally in conversation. Normally, he would not do much chatting while he worked.

Sally was all full of curiosity now and asked, "What do mean you are not a normal man most women would want to date?"

"Sorry, that slipped out. What you don't know is I had a previous career before becoming an artist. I was a noted sex psychologist and famous for my work on the female extended orgasm and the techniques to achieve a mega-orgasm. Perhaps I have told you way too much. I'm just not myself today." As he sat down in an easy chair by his easel.

"Oh, wow, what an interesting job, tell me more about it." She took a deep breath as she sat up and took a break.

"My problem today is many women in my age range are a bit afraid of what I know and what I can do. It is difficult to find a date who is not overwhelmed and is really interested in the mega-orgasm, which can go on for more than 20 minutes. Are you sure you want to hear all about this, Sally?"

"Here I am in your studio nude and you are afraid that you will embarrass me. I have been here so many times and all you have been...is a perfect gentleman. Thanks for thinking of my concerns, but really! Now, I am so interested in what you found and how it is done. I'll tell you what, if you share with me your secrets and techniques, I won't charge you for today."

"That is quite an offer. This is an erotic discussion, Sally, are you really sure you want to know?"

Sally's mind was now in overdrive. The last few times she had sex with her ex-boyfriend she had to fake an orgasm. How wonderful it would be to have the "never ending" orgasm. "So, Gary, what is the big secret? Please, I want to know. My sex life has been less than desirable, and I was worried I had lost the ability to have an orgasm."

"I worked at a major university in the research department. I'll give you the short version. The work I did was clinical and mostly boring. Biology and dissecting cadavers were not too interesting until we found some nerves not previously documented in the female torso. Our research then took us to India and Thailand. These cultures had an understanding of these nerves beyond our current medical science. Acupressure and acupuncture experts in these countries have passed on ancient knowledge from each generation.

We found a strange form of reflexology practiced in the backcountry of Burma, now called Myanmar. What our research found was never before documented nerve points which were not published in the current body of medical knowledge. Many of these newly discovered pressure points and nerve circuits can hold a woman in the orgasmic state for a given period of time. Most women could not stand more than a minute of constant orgasmic bliss. Back at our lab, we mapped out these acupressure points and wrote papers on the subject." He took a deep breath.

"Oh, Gary, that is amazing. The south is so conservative—I am surprised that the university had such a department."

"By some, we were labeled charlatans. The Tantric communities somehow got a hold of our papers. We were asked to speak at their conferences and teaching seminars. The university disowned us, and we were disbanded. I was the only one of our group that continued speaking and teaching to the alternative communities. I made a good living at it."

"I can't imagine what it would be like to have an orgasm that was five minutes long much less one that is twenty minutes long. If I go longer than thirty seconds, I'm a basket case." She felt a flush of liquid run down her crotch and onto the fabric Gary had put under her. Her arousal was becoming apparent to Gary as he noticed her nipples slightly swollen and a blush on the side of her cheeks. He knew the pheromones of arousal were running actively in her and he was affected. He began to drip, too!

Gary decided to take a chance and to see where this could go. "If you and your boyfriend want a lesson, I will be happy to talk you through the techniques. But you would have to allow me to be present to observe and direct the stages," He said, rubbing his chin.

"My boyfriend and I broke up over a month ago. I believe it was over sex, but he did not say. He just left, said nothing, and I felt left in the cold! I was glad we didn't live together."

"Sorry, I know that feeling," Gary said, thinking he needed to change her thinking.

"Sally, this is a technique that is best demonstrated. But, considering our circumstances here, I'll do my best to describe it to you. Grab your robe and let's sit at the table and drink some tea and talk." As he walked toward the kitchenette, her scent was stronger. She felt her arousal running down her leg.

"Gary, have you got something stronger? How about a drink since it is almost five o'clock somewhere in the world?" she said as she sat at the table.

Digging around in the fridge he found an empty wine bottle and two beers. "Beer is all I have if that is ok."

"Yes, beer is good." Not missing a beat, she said, "What I find interesting is that you had to go to some foreign land and discover ancient sexual techniques. Please tell me more about your trip." As she thought this would ease off the aroused flush she was feeling.

"Well, it is an interesting story, somewhat lengthy, but I thought you were interested in what we found and how we improved on it. We created what we call the almost never-ending orgasm. The women on our team claim they felt like they had an out of body experience when they started riding the continual rollercoaster orgasm."

Sally again felt the flush of liquid running between the crack of her ass and onto her robe. She was getting full on aroused. Her breast and labia were enlarged with blood and she wanted them to be touched. She could feel her breathing becoming labored and it was all because of what Gary had been describing. She took a long drink of the cold beer.

"We found the technique could not be accomplished on your own, you had to have a partner. Our research showed the majority of women on their own came to a point where they thought it was too sensitive for them to continue. Because of this sensitivity and the fact that they achieved one orgasm, they were ready to stop. Timing is everything with a partner in practicing our techniques. We found our female subjects would drift into a pre-orgasmic state when certain acupressure points are caressed, which created unexpected results. These pressure points help keep the slide up to the orgasmic flow gentle and consistent and can keep it there for an extended period of time. A different state begins to develop without affecting sensitivity."

At his point, Sally secretly slipped her hand down to her crotch. It was hot. She had recently heard the old standard song "Fever" by Peggy Lee. Now she knew what the song meant!

"Are you sure all this technical talk is not boring you, Sally?"

"Gad no Gary, I find all of it so interesting, please continue," as Sally knew she was fully aroused.

Gary continued, "We found that there was this plateau within this orgasmic flow that had mini highs and mini-lows. Our female subjects said it was way beyond the old feelings of butterflies in your stomach. This is so difficult to describe and needs to be demonstrated." He took a big swig of his beer; his lips were dry. Would she take the next step? The ball, so to say, was in her court.

Silence. Oh god, she thought, do I take the next step with him? I feel safe with him. I really want to know. Oh, what a dilemma. She took a deep breath, what the hell, "Gary would you please show me this technique? I just have to know if I am falling off the cliff of ever having a strong orgasm again."

"It would be my pleasure. You need to know we are not going to have coitus."

She laughed, "You mean, we are not going to fuck," she giggled a bit louder. Oh, it would be my pleasure to screw her he thought—an understatement.

"First we need to get some atmosphere in here. Go and lie on the couch. Get comfortable and I will be right with you. He pulled the curtains shut and decreased the incoming light, locked the door to the studio. He put on some really good background music on, perhaps Enya, and turned up the studio heater."

He sat on the edge of the couch. She still had her robe on, and he slowly opened it. Damn he forgot to take off his apron and he needed some massage oil. He looked at the studio clock. It was in a perfect position for him to time her first experience. He got up, took off his apron, and got some massage oil out of the cabinet. Upon further consideration, he also got a sleep mask for her and he knew it would help her first experience. He put it on her. "Are you sure you are ok with what we are going to do, Sally?"