Liam sits for Lena

Liam stood naked behind the shoji screen and considered what he was about to do. Morning light filled the open studio, lending a timeless air to the space. A philodendron hanging from the beam overhead cast a crisp heart-shaped shadow on the thin paper separating him and Lena, who was arranging objects on a table across the room. He put on the silk robe she had given him (as she does) and tied it at the waist.

Bri had gotten him into this. “You should totally take Lena up on her invitation,” she had said. “She’s lovely to work with. I’ll tell her you will.” Bri knew exactly how attracted to Lena her husband was.

Despite his nerves, he stepped around the screen and cleared his throat. “Alright,” he managed to say.

“There you are darling. I was starting to think I lost you back there.” Lena had her long heather-gray hair up in a loose bun, and wore a paint-smudged lavender shirt and a pair of high waisted white canvas pants rolled up at the ankles. Liam noticed that her unrestrained breasts were lively under the thin cotton as she moved around the studio.

Lena had already described the still life he would be sitting for, and she stood patiently beside her easel holding a broad sable brush between two fingers. “Whenever you’re comfortable, honey.”

He took a breath and untied the silk robe, draping it over a nearby chair. He was completely naked in front of her. Nothing to hide behind, nothing to distract from his nakedness. Heart pounding, he rounded the table to sit on a stool placed there for him, one foot up on an overturned crate.

Lena’s brushstrokes were loose at first, her eyes on his body while making deft swipes across the paper. “Sketching, whether you’re doing it with graphite or ink or watercolors, is a lot like making out,” she said, as if partially to herself. She mixed some burnt sienna into rose, a bit of ochre. A dab of cobalt. Her gaze worked down each arm to his hands, across his shoulders and chest — telegraphing the forms to her left hand at the easel.

“Move fluidly from one stage to another, be loose and open to various outcomes. Something isn’t working? Let it go and try something else.”

Flat stomach, umber shade of body hair, then her gaze unmistakably on his penis. A long smooth stroke against the paper with the brush. Liam’s cheeks flushed, and he felt suddenly aware of its length and weight resting on the cool surface of the stool. Now is not the time to get excited, he thought.

“Improvisation,” she said as she left the easel to rearrange a vase of dahlias on the table. Liam caught, against his better judgement, a glimpse of her cleavage as she leaned in, an arm’s length away.

“Cause and effect, you know? Touch and reaction.” Lena reached out with the wet paintbrush and slowly traced the length of him from base to tip, leaving a stroke of rosy paint on his soft skin. She returned to the easel, smiling. “That’s all to say loosen up, honey.”

Liam laughed. He managed, by some grace, to avoid getting an erection, although he felt himself swell and lengthen slightly against his thigh. Was it noticeable? Is that what she wanted? His mind was scrambled by what had just happened — he’d need to sort it out later. In the meantime, Lena had switched to a smaller brush and was now focused on the easel as she painted. More blue, a dab of warm gray. “I’ll do the shadows and we’ll be through,” she said between strokes.

Once finished, Liam stood and retrieved the robe, tying it again at the waist. As he walked back to the dressing area, he heard Lena rinsing her brushes in the sink out of sight. His penis jostled against the silk, stiffening and slipping from the opening of the robe. Safely behind the translucent paper screen, he looked down at his rising erection adorned with Lena’s rosy brushstroke. She was humming to herself as she worked around the corner. Liam stepped into his boxers, tucked the shaft discreetly under the waistband, and got dressed.

At the door, he kissed Lena on both cheeks and thanked her for the experience.

“I should be thanking you, honey. You were a great model, let me know if you’d like to try it again sometime. It’s always easier to loosen up once the first time is out of the way.”

“I’d love to,” he said with a warm smile.

Liam walked to the carpool stop at the end of the street, his thoughts awash with images of Lena’s gaze, her steady hand, her dancing breasts — and his swelling length responding to the stroke of her brush. He found someone going the same way and hitched a ride back into town.