Regent stood with his mouth open, taking her in. She stood before him in the shorts, the plaid shirt hanging open in front. The inner scoops of her milky breasts were visible above her flat belly.
He wanted to tear that shirt off of her and take her on the bed right then and there. It took a great effort not to reach out and touch her, to pull her into his arms and push his mouth against hers, bury one hand in those luxurious locks of hair. He looked into her eyes – eyes that, without her even realizing it, he suspected, made promises she might not be able to keep.
She oozed sex. It glowed off her, luminescent and warm. And she didn’t even know it.
Regent knew this might take some time. He’d already gotten farther than he’d expected for the first session. But he fully expected her to freeze up at some point soon. He’d need to make her more comfortable, maybe wait till the next day, or the day after that. He needed to gain her trust, that was the key.
“Why don’t you lie back on the bed like that,” he said.
Kendra did as she was told. She got on the bed and stretched out on her back.
“Prop yourself up on your elbows,” he said.
She did. Up on her elbows, the shirt spread open a little more, but it still did not fully reveal her breasts.
It was maybe the sexiest thing he’d ever seen – Kendra lying there like that on her back, one knee cocked, the inner sides and partial undersides of her breasts visible, her skin creamy and unblemished, head back as she looked down her nose at the camera.
Regent wanted to lick those thighs, to kiss the flesh between her breasts. He wanted to feel her legs wrap around him as he slammed into her.
But that would have to wait.
He realized he had an erection, and he turned away from her. Just looking at her made him hard, made him warm and hungry for her touch. But he had to be careful with this one – she wasn’t like all the others. She was different, a challenge. But God, she was incredible. He decided to go ahead and let her see his erection – let her know what she did to him, to men.
She got on all fours facing the camera and the unbuttoned shirt fell open and her breasts dangled and swayed with the slightest movement.
“Beautiful,” he said as he took a few more pictures. “Now,” he said, cautious, smiling. “How would you feel about taking the shirt off?”
She smiled and said, “You want to see my boobies?”
“Yes, I do, Kendra – the whole world is going to want to see your boobies!”
She laughed as she stood upright on her knees. She shed the shirt and tossed it onto the floor beside the bed.
She was feeling that wine, he could tell. She was a little tipsy, just happy enough to keep her going.
Kendra knelt before him wearing only the denim cutoffs. Her breasts were generous scoops of pale flesh, capped by puffy, pale-rosy nipples.
“You said… men will… like this?” she said. She wore an expression of uncertainty – almost childlike uncertainty.
“Men will eat it up, Kendra. This is what men love, it’s what they want. They’re going to be crazy about you. I’m going to use you in the preview section, and I bet you’ll pull in plenty of members all by yourself.”
She smiled a little. “Is that… good?”
“That’s very good,” he said as he kept taking pictures. “Why don’t you touch one of your boobies, there, and – yes, perfect, just with your fingertips like that.”
Her smile grew for a moment, then began to dismantle.
“Are you wearing panties under the shorts?” he said.
“Yuh-yes. Why?”
“Let’s get some panty shots, okay? Men love to see a beautiful girl in panties.”
“They do?”
“Oh, yes.”
She stood up on the bed and slowly lowered the cutoffs. They dropped to her ankles and she stepped out of them, kicked them off the bed.
“Great!” Regent said. “Stand right there like that.” He took several pictures looking up at her, naked but for her baby-blue panties, a towering young amazon fresh out of the jungle.
Kendra lifted her hands and put them over her breasts. “I-I… I, uh… um, I… “ She stepped down off the bed and turned her back to him. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, I just, um… I just feel… embarrassed all of a sudden. I think I want to stop now. Is that okay?”
“Sure, if you want to stop now, that’s fine. But, uh… well, maybe we can do more later. Like maybe tomorrow.”
“Uh… well… yeah, maybe.”
She quickly began to put her clothes back on.
“What’s wrong, Kendra?” he said.
“I don’t know, I just… all of a sudden, I felt… naked. It’s not you, Mr. Regent, and I’m real sorry, I just… I just can’t right now.” When she was finished, she turned to him and said, “Can I see the pictures?”
“Sure. Come over tomorrow afternoon and I’ll show them to you.”
“I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if Mommy’ll be working or not.”
“Oh. Then I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
“Yeah. Like Mommy says, ‘We’ll see.’” She giggled. “I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t mess anything up for you.”
“No, not at all. I want you to be comfortable with what you’re doing. You know, you’ve got money coming. A hundred dollars.”
“A hundred dollars?” she said, putting a flat palm to her chest. “Wow. A hundred. I’ve never seen that many dollars in one place before. Where will I put them? Mommy’ll want to know where they came from.”
“You want me to keep the money here for you for now?” Regent said.
“Yes, please. Keep it here for me. And one more thing – you won’t, uh, say nothin’ to my mommy, will you?”
“You have absolutely nothing to worry about, Kendra,” he said with his most convincing smile. “I won’t tell a soul, and I recommend you do the same.”
“Yeah, me, too. What you said. Well, I guess I should go home now. My doggy’s home alone and I – “
She looked openly at his erection, which refused to go away.
“What’s that?” she said, pointing a finger at it.
“Uh… “ Regent had never found himself faced with that particular question before. “I have an erection. My penis is hard.”
“How come?”
“Because I was looking at you. You made me this way.”
She grinned. “I did?”
“Yes. That’s how men will always react to you, Kendra.”
She stepped forward and put a hand on it, squeezed it. There was nothing sexual about the gesture – it was a gesture of curiosity.
“It’s very hard,” she said.
“Yes, it gets hard when I get excited.”
“Yeah, I know, I read about it in an encyclopedia online. So I excited you?”
He closed his eyes a moment. “You… excited me… so … much, Kendra.” His voice was a tremulous whisper. “I want you right now. I want you here and now.”
She laughed as she turned and headed out of the trailer.
Kendra returned to the trailer to find that Dexter had left another little puddle in the kitchen.
“Dexter?” she said, looking around for him. She saw him, finally – peering around the far edge of the couch looking terribly guilty. “I’m sorry, Dexter. I shouldn’a left you alone so long. C’mere, boy, c’mere, you’re not in trouble.”
Dexter cautiously crept from around the couch’s corner and came to her with his tail between his legs. She reached down and picked him up, and he licked her face while she held him in her arms. Pretty soon, Dexter’s guilt was forgotten, and he was wriggling in her arms, so she put him down.
As she cleaned up the puddle, she thought about what she had just done.
She’d had to stop taking pictures because she’d suddenly – out of nowhere, and very unexpectedly – become aware of the fact that she was naked. Well, she had panties on, but that was all. That was pretty much naked as far as Kendra was concerned. Suddenly, she was naked in this room with this total stranger, and she was ashamed of herself. It was like in one of those dreams she had sometimes where she found herself at school in her underwear, or completely naked. It was a feeling of such intense vulnerability that it had frightened Kendra for a moment. She’d needed to get her clothes back on, that was all, and as soon as she did, she felt okay again. Once she was outside, it was all gone, that feeling of utter helplessness, the chilling awareness of her nudity – she was fine.
“Maybe you’ll be more comfortable the next time we do this, you think?” Mr. Regent said at the door of his trailer.
Kendra shrugged, then nodded. “Sure. Maybe.”
“We will do this again, won’t we? I want more pictures of you, and then I want to get some video.”
“Really? Video?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m giving you the full treatment, sweetheart.”
After leaving, she’d looked back as she neared her trailer, and there was Mr. Regent, smiling, watching her. He’d waved at her, and she’d smiled and waved back.
Mr. Regent was a nice man, and he was very informative. He was very handsome, too. He wasn’t afraid to say anything in front of her, it seemed. Like talking about his erection. Kendra had read about penises and erections in what she thought of as her online encyclopedia. She found the very idea of them funny – imagine, living with something hanging between your legs that could, at any moment, get hard and stand up straight! It was silly. She was struck by the size of Mr. Regent’s erection. Of course, maybe all of them were that big – she had no idea, nothing to measure it against, and was only speculating.
She wondered how big Marc’s got when he was excited. Heat moved up her neck to her face. She wondered what kind of things excited him. Would he be as excited as Mr. Regent if he saw her in a bikini bra and shorts?
Kendra felt a tickling sensation deep in her belly when she thought of Marc seeing her the way Mr. Regent had just seen her, and she giggled. Would he get hard, too? Would he want to touch her? Is that what he wanted?
Or would the same thing that usually happened to Kendra throughout her life happen yet again – would he point at her and laugh?
There was something about Marcus Reznick – she did not know what, only that she had sensed it from him while lying next to him on the roof – that told her he would not do that. Whatever it was, she could see it in his eyes. His eyes were a large part of what made him so appealing. His eyes were sad. She’d considered asking him why, but had not mustered the courage yet. She had not mustered the courage to do a lot of things, but it was about time she did.
She giggled again. It was a black little giggle that bubbled up out of her. It sounded more aggressive than simply mischievous – it sounded almost ominous. It sounded almost like a threat.
Then a bad thought occurred to her, a thought that struck her mind like a bolt of lightning. Big, flaming words rose up in her mind’s eye: WHAT IF MOMMY FINDS OUT?
That would be bad, very bad. Kendra could not even imagine how Mommy would react if she learned she’d posed for naked pictures. But she trusted Mr. Regent not to tell her, because he’d probably be in trouble with Mommy, too. He’d promised it would be their secret – why would he lie?
But what if Mommy saw the pictures online? Would they be on a site where Mommy might go? She would have to ask Mr. Regent.
If Mommy found out… well, it would be awful, that was all. But Kendra told herself Mommy wouldn’t find out – simple as that. And she stopped worrying about it. Simple as that.
Kendra went to the kitchen and took the jar of peanut butter from the cupboard. She got a spoon from the drawer, opened the jar, and scooped some peanut butter out with the spoon and licked some of it off slowly, wondering if it really hid the smell of alcohol.
Dexter went to the door and sat there with his body facing it, his head turned to look at Kendra. When she finally noticed him, she said, “Do you need to go out?”
He stood and hurried around in a tight circle.
She opened the door and screen door and let him out. She watched from the door, licking peanut butter from the spoon, smacking her lips, as Dexter went to the fruitless mulberry in the front yard and urinated on its base. Then, happy with himself, he trotted back up the steps and into the trailer. Kendra sat down Indian-style on the floor and Dexter hopped into her lap.
“Oh, Dexter, I’ve been such a naughty girl,” she said. “If Mommy ever found out, she’d be… she’d be… “ Kendra giggled. “She’d ex-plode.”