by Barbra Novac
“Good, because I want you to come to my house on Saturday.”
There was a pause, and Chloe knew something else was coming.
“And I want you to bring James.”
“James hasn’t even called me yet. I am starting to think he won’t want to see me again.”
Max sighed. “You will have to get rid of this self-effacing nonsense when we see each other regularly. But in the meantime, I am sure it will be okay with James if you just ask him. Oh, and by the way, I am looking at you in that dress, and I just know he will call you again.”
“Maybe…” Chloe said thoughtfully. “But whether he does or doesn’t, I feel strange asking him to take me to your home. Isn’t that a little weird?”
“It’s creative. Tell him you have a big surprise for him. If he’s half the man you’ve described, I think he will be enthralled right away. He’ll want to get to the farm as much as you will want to show him. What I will do is prepare a beautiful banquet for you both, and then I will come and join partway through. Then let’s see how the dinner goes. If it’s a little weird for you, you can ask James to take you home. If you think he is strange, you can ask me to take you home. We can’t both be weirdos, now can we?”
Chloe laughed. “Mmm…not sure about that one.”
“Anyway, I bet it all works out just fine.” Max had that tired tone to his voice again. “One thing is for sure. I want to see you. I really want to hold you, kiss you, and make love to you. If you don’t like me when you see me, that’s okay; we don’t have to do any of those things, but I want to touch you and know that you are safe. That is the most important thing of all.”
Chloe felt comforted and sobered by his words. “Do you think I can be safe if you keep encouraging me to be creative?”
“I think that’s the only way you can be safe.”
“But look at my mother.”
“Look at Gary. Trouble may or may not find you no matter where you are or what life you choose. But I happen to think your mother suffered something very specific that may have been solved if she was around the right people.”
That made sense to Chloe and answered a call that she felt deep inside.
As if thinking of something else, Max said, “Here is my address. I want you to ask James to come and visit whenever he calls you. I am quite sure he will, but I want to know that you have it and that you are making the dress I want you to wear. Can I have your address? I want to send you something for it.”
Chloe read his address, looking at it in a quizzical way. She typed back her address, then examined his location more closely. “Do you live in the Blue Mountains? I didn’t know you were so far away.”
“Well, it’s not that far, and I am not right up in the mountains. I am in a little town called Springwood. It’s pretty here, and if James has a car, it’s a really nice drive.”
“I know the town! A fabric I love very much comes from near that area…”
Suddenly Chloe’s cell rang. “Just a sec,” she called to Max.
It was James. “I’ve called to apologise for what happened between us the other night and to beg your forgiveness and for a chance to take you out again. I am so sorry. Something that you said triggered something in me, a sad story from my own past, and I was so set upon by your words that I sort of fled. But I want to see you again, and I promise I have my emotions under control this time.”
Chloe could barely contain the thrill flowing through her as she thought of that stunning face on the other end of the line.
“Of course you can see me. Oh James, I am so glad to hear from you. I thought you were angry with me and never wanted to see me again.”
“No, silly. I told you on the night I would want to see you again.”
“Yes, yes, but your exit hardly inspired confidence and rationality. You wouldn’t believe the nasty stuff my head was telling me!”
“Let me make it up to you. I will do anything. Please, make me do anything.”
Mmm, that voice matched that eye twinkle she remembered perfectly. She could feel her body responding.
“Well, there is something I would like you to do actually.” The opportunity was just too good to pass up.
“Anything, gorgeous.”
“There is a place I’d like to go, and --” She paused, nervous for a second. “I’d like to share a secret I have with you up there. It’s up in Springwood. Would you take me there this Saturday?”
“It’s a date! And a secret? How can I resist? I’ll pick you up at five thirty so we have plenty of time together.”
Chloe ran back to her computer. “How did you know he’d ring?” she challenged Max.
Smooth as silk, he replied, “I simply know there is no man alive who could resist you. And besides, from the way you described the parting words the other night, he was always going to call you.”
“Yeah, that is true.”
Max paused for a moment, and Chloe felt the mood change.
“Chloe, are you tired?”
Hope stirred in her belly as Chloe longed for him to read her mind as he seemed able to do.
“No. Not yet.”
“I have something else up my sleeve that I would like you to do tonight. Can you see me in the webcam?”
Chloe couldn’t take her eyes off him in the webcam.
“Yes. I see you. You’re wearing your mask and your tux as you do each night.”
“Adjust your camera a little so that I can see you better. I need it lighter and clearer.” She fiddled with the online controls. “That’s better. I can see your pretty face very well now. You know, if you’re happy with me, when you get up here, I am going to want to make love to you. I should warn you, I am a passionate man, not always gentle in my feverish sex. Does that frighten you?”
Chloe’s pulse quickened and the flesh of her palm emitted a thin sheen of perspiration. “No, it doesn’t frighten me. I think I might like that.”
She saw the slow smile spread over his face.
“Do you think you could prove that to me now?”
Desire coursed its way through her veins as the inner walls of her sex clenched. Max smiled seductively into the camera, his small mask sitting snug over his nose, wrapping tight around his face. She so badly wanted to see him. To feel his hands on her.
“Yes, Max. I can prove that to you now. What would you like me to do?”
Max sat back in his chair, though Chloe could see him clearly still. His eyes were on his computer screen, watching her, but his hands fumbled with the front of his trousers. Chloe felt her eyes widen as Max withdrew his long, hard shaft, sensuously stroking it in front of the camera.
Max’s speech came through slightly hampered by his breathy response to his own ministrations. “Do you remember playing games when you were a girl with the little boys behind the toilet block? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours?”
Chloe had played these kinds of games as a girl. “Yes, Max, I remember.”
Max grinned into the computer. “Somehow I knew you were the kind of girl who played those games. I’m showing you mine, Chloe. I want you to show me yours. Pull up your skirt.”
Chloe sat back in her chair, making sure the image kept perfectly within the bounds of the camera. She slid her skirt up to her thighs to reveal their creamy whiteness.
“Mmmm…” he said, stroking his cock, watching her. “That’s very nice, but I want those legs spread as wide apart as you can manage. Will you do that for me?”
“Yes.”
Heart racing now, Chloe sat deeper into the chair. She lifted her legs with her hands underneath and glided them to loop over the armrests on the desk chair. The rests cushioned her legs softly and held them in place. She drew her skirt back now, feeling the cool air rush between her thighs. Glancing up at the computer screen, she saw her own seductive image. Skirt hiked up, legs spread wide, little cotton knickers sitting between her and complete exposure.
“Are those little panties of yours getting wet?” Max asked
while still gently working his delicious-looking cock.
“Oh God, yes!” Chloe panted. The arousal pinned her down now, and the ache between her legs was driving her wild.
“Then hop off the chair and take them off. Before you sit back down again, I want you to get your hairbrush for me and bring that back so that it is within reach.”
Chloe lifted her legs off her chair and dragged her very damp underwear down her legs. She ran to her bathroom, gathered up her hairbrush without thinking of what he had in mind, and made her way back to the chair. Max smiled at her when she came back.
“Show me that hairbrush.”
She lifted it up. Its long, broad wooden handle moulded into a fat, wide end that sprouted bristles. Chloe noticed a lot of black hairs unglamorously clinging to it. She cringed inside, thinking momentarily that she wished she kept it cleaner.
“Mmm, now that’s just perfect. I want you back in the position you were in before.”
With some effort, Chloe wriggled back on to the chair, keeping her image in Max’s view at all times. She’d forgotten the domestic issue of her unclean hairbrush and now focused on the thrill of her sexual moment. As before, she lifted each leg, hooking them carefully over the armrests of the chair. She hesitated.
“Don’t keep me waiting. You know what I want to see.”
Watching the sexy images on the screen, her eyes darting between herself and Max stroking his dick, Chloe inched her skirt up closer to the tops of her legs. Soon it rose over the curve of the tops of her thighs, finally revealing the mass of dark, silky curls that surrounded and covered her sex.
“Oh my God.” Max panted. “That’s so goddamned beautiful. Play with it for me. Spread those outer lips apart and show me I’ve made you wet.”
While her inner pussy walls clenched, hungry for something hard inside, Chloe looked down to concentrate on her aching sex. She nudged her pelvis forward a little, exposing it more to the light. Glancing at Max, she noticed the frenzied strokes he applied to his erection as his eyes remained glued to the screen. She massaged the outer lips, letting them rub on each other. Then she pulled them apart, the wet, glistening dark pink showing clearly on the big screen.
“I will push my dick in there. This cock I am stroking right now will nestle in and feel at home inside you. Do you wish I could fuck you right now?”
Chloe lifted a finger and thrust it into her tunnel, feeling the joy of her walls contracting around it. Sliding it out, slick with her juice, she massaged her clit gently, sending shock waves of pleasure through her entire pussy. She threw her head back and cried out. “God, yes. God, how I want that delicious cock of yours in my pussy right now.”
“Then fuck yourself. Grab the hairbrush and stick the handle in there. Fuck it in and out and show me what you wish my cock could do right now.”
Driven to a lusty courage, she leaned forward and easily grabbed the hairbrush. Bringing the handle to the entrance to her passage, she circled it around the outside a few times to make it slithery and wet. Tossing her head back again, Chloe eased it into her sex, relishing in the feeling of those tight, aching walls being stretched and massaged.
“You are wild, and you are mine.” Max’s voice seemed faraway as Chloe gave herself over to the delirium. “Fuck yourself and make yourself come now. Right now. I want to come watching you bring yourself to orgasm.”
Pumping the handle of the brush in and out with one hand, Chloe used her other to rub rapidly back and forth against her clit. The orgasm came bounding up her spine and hit her between her legs fast. She moaned aloud, thrashing into the chair, her splayed legs kicking out but staying nicely parted.
She looked up through her postorgasmic haze to see Max shooting cum into the air. It landed unceremoniously around and on his tux. His hair lay more tousled than usual in a mess around his face, which carried a thick sheen of perspiration. He panted, his enormous erection receding, his cock melting into the rest of his body, satiated. Chloe lifted her legs off her chair’s armrests and smiled a dark, seductive smile into the camera.
“Why, sir. That was easily one of the nicest fucks I’ve ever had.”
Not moving, Max glanced exhausted eyes toward the camera. “Chloe, you’d better get up here soon, or you’ll be the death of me, I swear!”
She smiled. “I’m going to go and enjoy this high in my bed and let it dictate my dreams. Is it okay with you if I go now?”
“Before you go, tell me this. If you could be the online woman with me, or the real-life woman with James, who would you prefer? I’m not talking about which man you’d prefer, I’m asking you which woman is the real Chloe?”
“I think neither is the real Chloe. I’m not sure where the real Chloe is.”
“Then finding her, my darling, is our real aim here.” And he turned his computer off, disappearing into the night.
Chapter Sixteen
After another devitalizing day of greyish dullness at the office, Chloe came home to a package sitting on her doorstep. Tearing a little of the paper away, Chloe saw that it was lace. With her heart racing, she flew inside to wrench open the box.
It was the most excellent black lace Chloe had ever seen in her life. The stretch in the fabric gave gently, not distorting the beauty or the intricacies of the design. It was soft and made of the finest cotton.
It was for her Anaïs Nin dress. The one she was to wear this coming Saturday. Enthused and driven by the beauty of the cloth, Chloe ran directly to the sewing room and started working on it. A couple of hours later, she emerged only for a brief time to thank Max for the beautiful gift.
The dress, and Chloe in it, was ready at five p.m. on that Saturday afternoon. Chloe sat prim and erect in her stunning black lace sheath. Her hair, delicately bobbed, sat sleek and blue-black against her pearly skin. She’d painted her lips a lush berry red, and her eyes were heavy with dark blue shadow. Satisfied she looked the complete picture in the mirror, she sat on her couch, waiting for her destiny.
Making the dress had changed Chloe. Its design and its muse had reached into her in the last three days. In the end, Anaïs changed Chloe. She’d read the erotica and all the wild stories of slavish narcissism and self-aggrandisement, but the spirit of the woman moved her to self-recognition. The female who could embrace the role made out for her and create a world separate from that to be lived and enjoyed. It was this woman’s selfless courage, her determination to exist completely true to her own nature, no matter how misunderstood or how inappropriate she may seem, that swept through Chloe as she designed the black lace shift. Ultimately, Chloe knew that she needed to embrace the courage in herself, to stand strongly for what she now wanted for her own life.
The world outside her door and its madness, prowling the streets, waiting for her to emerge and conform as if it had its own mind, was not the way things were meant to be. The so-called “normal life” was just another kind of madness. It could destroy her just as easily as anything else if she were not wholly obedient to its ways. Even if, she had discovered through Gary, she were obedient to its ways. What she once thought was rationality was in fact another mask, another fantasy, another supposed ideal.
In the solitude of her beautiful apartment, Chloe had decided in privacy and comfort to abandon the plans for a normal life. Max was right; drama and mayhem would find her no matter where she went -- Gary was an example of that -- and she may as well embrace what was hers for the taking. The decision was made, but not how she thought it would be made. It was made without fanfare, without announcement, and without actually having to give anything up. But it was made completely.
Chloe was ready.
As for the night, she didn’t know what it would bring. In a few hours, sitting between Max and James, seeing how they got on with each other, she would know if they could tolerate each other in her life. Chloe wanted both men. But this decision required their input. Tonight the three of them together would work a plan and see if a trio of sorts was possible.
Chloe
knew today, at this moment, that she had chosen. And she had chosen art. She chose it simply because it gave her more options for who she could be than the offer from real life.
So Chloe sat waiting, ready to embrace whatever came her way. Ready to confess to her two lovers -- neither of whom she’d ever taken -- her hunger for both of them and her desire to see that hunger fulfilled. It didn’t matter if they rejected her. They would merely do what was right for them. That was their task. Chloe didn’t fear rejection. But then, she didn’t really expect it either.
At the ring of the doorbell, the person who answered was the new Chloe. She opened it to James, and the new Chloe reached out her arms and embraced him in a kiss immediately. It was the new Chloe who James kissed, and it was the new Chloe who James held, gently caressing over her clothes. She could feel James’s love and his warmth through her lace dress. She could feel him with the entire new woman she claimed to be.
“My God. You are breathtakingly lovely. Did you make this dress?”
“Yes,” Chloe confessed. “I actually made it this week. A friend of mine sent me the material, but the design came from one of those books I picked up that day we met in the cafe.”
“If I ever get to meet this friend, I’ll thank them in every possible way for encouraging you in this. Chloe, I’m a little early. Can I see your sewing room before we go?”
Chloe took James into her sewing room, the place she’d never taken any other living soul. As she led him around her sanctuary, he smiled and admired everything she made. As he looked, he would glance over at her with obvious admiration and pride in his eyes, making Chloe swim in the warm ocean of her own pleasure. Connecting with James through something so deeply important to Chloe created another successful moment, heralding a good chance for a relationship in the future. Chloe felt her pleasure welling up inside, leaving her fit to burst.
James reached for her as he looked through the room and placed his arms around her, resting them over the curve of her bottom. He leaned down, begging for a kiss. Chloe obliged, feeling his hand cup and curve her ass as she leaned farther into him. She could take him here, right now. But she wanted Max too.
