Page 31 of Their Courtesan
Chapter 8
SETH
Every window in the parlor adjacent to Seth’s studio was opened. Fresh, warm air blew in, carrying with it a helping of pollen that an artist like Seth usually tried to avoid having fly around his home –particularlynear the studio. That day? He didn’t give a horse’s ass.
“Wow,” Zack said, holding the dried canvas in his hands. “Wow.This is great.”
“Isn’t it?” Seth paced behind the chaise lounge Zack occupied, occasionally glancing down at his finished painting of Judith. He had arrived late enough the night before to eat dinner, but instead took his sketched canvas straight to the studio and stayed up all night imbuing it with fantastic colors.I never do that.Seth liked to let his sketches sit for a week or more before editing the lines and evenconsideringthe colors. From the moment he left the Château, however, with his hours with Judith fresh in his mind, he had no choice. It had to be painted right away.
“It’s more than great.” Zack brought the canvas closer to his eyes, careful to not smudge it with his nose. “It’s fucking fantastic. Probably your best since that painting of Versailles. Only this time there’s a naked woman on it!” As Seth wandered away to pour himself more iced tea, Zack continued, “This is that hot blonde from the Château? You sly dog.”
“It is her.” Seth did his damndest to not think about the details of yesterday, lest he start sporting an erection in his trousers.She was… divine.The more he got to know her, the more Seth realized that “divine” was probably not a word often associated with brusque and honest Judith. He couldn’t think of any other word to describe her. Beautiful no longer had any meaning. Exquisite made her sound like a fancy French dish. No, she was more than beautiful, more relatable than French cuisine. Hearing her life story fit her aura so much that Seth could only think of capturing her essence on the canvas.
When he walked into the Château the day before, he had not considered sex with her. Then she had become too perfect to resist.Everything about her was perfect.The way she felt beneath his body. The way she moaned… not fake at all. The way she writhed when she climaxed withhim.That didn’t even touch the way she physically felt on the other end of his cock. That couldn’t even be described in a mortal’s words.She makes me want to be a poet.Muses were dangerous.
“Now, I know she doesn’t look like she had sex because you did her. Either she’s the biggest pro in the universe, or she had done some other seedless sod before you got there.” Zack’s grin was too stupid to bear. “You have to pay extra to get her after a guy?”
Seth didn’t deign that with an answer. As an artist, he had wanted to captureeverythinghe saw on Judith after fucking her, but as a man he refrained from adding the white of his seed to her thighs and nether lips. He did not, however, hold back on the dark blond hairs down there. Perfectly groomed. Perfectly womanly.
He couldn’t stand to think about it.
“Your agent is going to love this, Seth.” He probably wasn’t aware of his actions, but Zack’s finger hovered over the lighting of the window as it poured over Judith’s flawless skin. “I’m serious. You need to call her up right now and tell her your next collection is all nudes.”
“I’ve been thinking about it. Doing a collection, that is.” Five-hundred portraits of Judith everywhere he could put her. Not just on her bed. In a chair by the window, out in the garden,in his home.Now he had to stop thinking about that before things got too wild in his head. At the end of the day, Judith was not a normal girlfriend, no matter how much she played up a fantasy when they were together.
Zack grinned. “You should do that Grace girl next. She had an ass to die for.” He cleared his throat. “I would know… saw it.”
“Did it, I’m sure.”
“To be sure.”
Seth sat down next to his friend. “I don’t want to do the others. If they’ll let me, I’ll do a collection based around Judith.”
The smile fell off Zack’s face. “Now I’m worried about you. All fun and games when we’re talking about all the ladies. You obsessing over one? Eh.”
“I think she might be my muse.”
“Now hold on.” Zack clapped his hand on his friend’s shoulder. While Zack was not the kind of guy who was afraid to show affection to other men, least of all close comrades like Seth, he understood how uncomfortable it made some men… like close comrade Seth.I’m not a touchy-feely guy, even if I am an artist.It was what made being a doctor so easy. While he felt for his patients, he was able to emotionally distance himself from them all. Made certain decisions easier to handle. While nobody ever died on his watch, there were times he had to make last minute decisions in the delivery room that made novice obstetricians cry… like doing a last minute cesarean because otherwise both mother and baby would die. At his level of clientele, though, the mothers weren’t always so understanding of the scars they were left with. Didn’t Dr. Christens know that they had to go back to modelling? That people were waiting to see what bikini fashion they would sport at the wharf next summer? What were they supposed to do withthis.Some thanked him for doing the right thing, but others acted as if they would’ve rather died.
One of many reasons he had to retire.
“Hey, listen to me.” Zack snapped his fingers, getting his friend’s attention. “Watch yourself. Don’t get emotionally involved with a woman like that. That’s a quick road to heartbreak, friend.”
“Would you know?” Seth asked dryly. “Anyway, it’s not like that.”
“You fucked her though, right?”
“Why do you keep asking me that?” They were beyond guy talk now. That wasn’t mirth in Zack’s eye.Don’t act so concerned for me.Like Zack had any room to talk. “If I had, don’t you think I would’ve told you? I’ve got nothing to hide.”
So why was he lying?
Zack gave him one last hard look before turning away. “You fucked her.” He pointed to the picture. “There’s more than one meaning to ‘that’s your work,’ and I’m looking right at it. You didn’t just bang her. You did the impossible, which is taking a woman like her to heaven.”
Seth steadied his breathing but felt his cheeks heat up. They better not have turned red. “So what of it? You screwed the other one.”
“That’s different. That was sex. She might influence some of my work for a while, but it won’t go beyond that. This is mixing work and pleasure here.” He kept jabbing his finger toward the canvas. “Don’t get too attached. Her job is to seduce you and bleed your wallet dry. How much you get charged? I’ll tell you right now, my credit card statement says I owe them an extra ten grand after our visit.”
Only that much?Aside from the modeling charge, Seth was looking at more than that. The Château charged him for the sex. Before he left, Judith urged him to write a personal check to cover her charges that didn’t go through the madam. Particularly the bareback and what happened as a result of it. Altogether it was at least fifteen thousand.
“I can take care of myself, thanks.” Seth got up and took the painting from Zack’s possession. “Besides, don’t you think a collection based around one woman is more powerful than many women? Feels more intimate.”
“Yeah, sure. Intimate.”
Zack didn’t stay much longer. When he left, it was with a final word of advice. Something about Seth needing to look for a real girlfriend while he did what he had to for the sake of his art on the side. The man sounded like he had never fallen in love with a muse before. Maybe he hadn’t. Maybe Seth was too old-fashioned like that.
As soon as Zack had left, Seth picked up his cell phone and perused his contacts for a certain number. “Hello, Joy?” he said when his agent picked up. “I’m working on a new collection and finished the first piece. I think you’re going to like the direction I’m heading in. Can you come over?”
