Page 39 of Illicit Illustration

“We’ve gotten creative withour posing so far without taking off too many clothes. Now I need you to tell me exactly what I’m trying to capture, and then we’re going to set it up. Where’s your camera stand?”

Hazel’s doe eyes stared up at me, her lips parted slightly, and a flush creeping up the side of her neck. It seemed someone enjoyed being bossed around. Which was good, because I wanted to be the one telling her what to do right now.

Not in real life, of course, because I was all about her newfound confidence in the last few months, but when we were alone working on her commissions, I had no problem taking the lead. At least until she decided it was her turn. I could be a good boy when I needed to be.

“Um, I, uh…” she stuttered, her cheeks bright pink. I fucking loved that she had a tell, and I had been fantasizing way too much lately about what she’d look like with nothing on and exactly where that flush would spread when I made her come.

Leaning back, I offered her my hand, helping her sit up on the couch. Her eyes widened when she looked at my shorts, and I had a feeling that my compression shorts weren’t doing too much to conceal my reaction to her.

“Can you…” She shooed me away, and I took a seat on the coffee table, leaning forward and bracing my forearms on my thighs.

“Spill. I’m not letting you back out on me now.”

But my courageous spitfire had suddenly clammed up again, refusing to open those gorgeous lips.

“Since you have decided to go silent on me, let’s see if I can guess.” Raising an eyebrow, I watched as she leaned back against the cushions, banding her arms around her knees in a defensive posture. I rubbed my hands together, grinning as I continued. “Earlier, you mentioned something about me keeping my hands to myself, and then I caught you watching…what you were watching. Does your commission have something to do with self-pleasure?”

“Maybe,” she mumbled, tugging on her lower lip with her teeth.

“And you also said that you didn’t even need me to be in the same room to catch the picture you needed. So that leads me to believe that at least one character is touching themselves while the other one is listening…or watching.”

A tiny nod was all the confirmation I got, but without her explicitly telling me, I was forced to imagine my own version of the scene she’d been commissioned to draw. And while the thought of watching something like that was really fucking tempting, I was going to let her lead on how she wanted to stage this.

“The real question is…do you want to fake this scenario, or do you really want to act it out?”

Her eyes widened, her delicate mouth opening, but the pink hints on her cheeks gave her away. “Like with you… And me…” she stuttered, hugging her arms tighter around her legs.

“That’s up to you. Since what you were watching seemed self-explanatory, I’m assuming the male character is touching himself. But you never told me what the female character’s role is while he’s doing it.”

Hazel’s curious eyes continued staring at me, and I could tell she was clearly still having issues talking to me about anything sexual without getting embarrassed, so I pushed the envelope a little.

“Here’s what I think we need to do. You help me set up your camera in your bedroom to capture the angle you need, and when I go home, I’ll do the same thing. Then you’re going to call me, and we’ll talk things through while we get the images you need.”

“And the things we’ll be talking through are…?”

Scooting forward again, I pulled Hazel’s arms loose and leaned over her, bracing my hand on the back of the couch. “That’s up to you, but I’d be more than happy to tell you exactly how I think you should touch yourself. Because I might keep things covered for taking the pictures you need, but while I’m on the phone with you, I don’t think I can keep myself from taking things into my own hands while I imagine the sounds you make while you’re touching yourself.”

“You’re blurring the lines again, Reid.”

Standing up and holding my hand out toward her so we could get started, I said what had been on my mind for weeks. “Maybe there shouldn’t be any lines between us, Haz. Not anymore.”

An hour later, Iwas still waiting for Hazel to call me. After helping her set up her camera next to her bed and leaving her with a suggestive wink that’d made her blush again, I’d rushed home to duplicate the same setup.

While I waited, I’d worked on getting the side profile shots of myself she’d described, sheets pulled low on my hips. My fist was wrapped around the white material, grasping the erection I hadn’t been able to control while I pretended I was doing something a little more salacious.

You couldn’t really see any details, just my exposed hip at the edge of the sheet, but I hoped it was close enough that Hazel could fill in the rest of what she needed using her imagination. Or the memory of the man she’d been watching on her phone. Because she’d better not have been looking for more videos to watch when I would have gladly sent her one.

Now I was lying on my bed, my briefs pulled back on, staring at my phone like the desperate man I’d become around her. I wasalso waiting for a response to the last text message I’d sent her as Seven before I’d come over to the bar tonight to help Hudson put up some new shelves in the storeroom after last call.

Seven: What’s something you’ve always wanted to do, but never told anyone about?

But she’d left my alter ego on read all evening as well while she was online looking up naughty videos.

I’d even been thinking about what to tell her once she finally answered me. I was trying to be more open with information about myself without giving too much away regarding my identity. She hadn’t asked again for more specifics on my job, but I’d revealed things—or wanted to reveal things—that I didn’t even share with Hudson.

And I wanted to tell her what I’d been thinking about more and more lately, because once my identity was revealed, I wanted to bring her on to help me. If she was still talking to me, that is.

Deciding to torture myself more, I navigated to my external file hosting service, clicking on the link I’d sent her from the time we’d spent together at the distillery. I knew it was stupid to look at them, because it’d just make me feel more frustrated, but I couldn’t help myself.

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