Art in Reality Ch. 01: A New Beginning

Katie laughed at Alex's heavily sarcastic tone of outrage.

'I wonder what they use these days,' Katie pondered.

'I don't know. Thankfully I didn't have to deal with that in the book. Not in detail anyway. I worked with an illustrator on the project, who did a number of step by step drawings to cover details like that.'

'What else did you discover in your research?' Katie asked after a moment's thought.

'Well, contraception was a much wider field than I thought when I started. Perhaps I'm showing my ignorance, but the range of options is much greater than I'd heard of before. Typical man I suppose. I didn't know that women could have contraceptive injections for example.'

'Oh yes, that's what I do.'

'Oh really?'

'Yeah, no fuss, very reliable, doesn't get forgotten in the, err, heat of the moment.'

'Uh huh. Yes I learnt a lot on the project really.'

'So now I know who to call if I need sex advice,' Katie teased.

'Ah, no,' Alex waved both his hands in a criss-cross in the air, 'I shall hand you a copy of the book and send you on your way.'

The moment he finished speaking, even as Katie smiled at his jest, Alex realised his mistake. In waving his arms about, he had pulled his hand away from hers. She had left it resting on top of his own, on the back of the sofa, up until that point.

He cursed inwardly.

He had been very happy with their unspoken contact and he had ruined it. In a fraction of a second he considered his options. Let it be, and try to find some other way of re-establishing physical contact with her later; or risk drawing her attention by putting his hand back where it was. He could not surely slide his hand back underneath hers though, he questioned himself. What about on top? Would she notice? Possibly. But would she mind if she did?

He opted to chance it. Seizing the moment, whilst she was still laughing, in the hope that she was distracted enough, he lowered his hand back down and on top of hers.

She gave no clear indication of having noticed.

As her laughter petered out, she settled into a smile that put the Mona Lisa to shame for its enigmatic mystery, as the pair sat eye to eye. Alex could not gauge her thoughts at all.

'What else have you written about?' she asked eventually.

Just after her question she slid her thumb over the top of Alex's.

His heart nearly stopped. He dared not to look directly to confirm the action, but he knew it was so. She was not passively allowing his hand to rest on top of hers, she had moved to actually hold his hand.

In the instant, he wondered whether she had moved consciously or subconsciously.

In the next instant he decided that either possibility was fine.

They were holding hands and that's all that mattered.

Answer the question, he mentally shouted to himself. Stop staring at her like a love-struck fool. Keep the conversation going and she'll stay a little longer.

'Erm, all sorts really. But anyway, that's more than enough about me. I want to know more about you.'

A corny line, he conceded to himself, but the intention was honest.

'What would you like to know?' Katie replied.

'Anything. Everything. Your painting. How does one earn a living painting? Do you paint what inspires you and sell the work to an admiring following or do people commission you to create particular pieces?'

Alex pushed aside thoughts of getting his hands on her and concentrated in his conversational skills.

'A bit of both,' she responded, 'except for the admiring following, I don't recall having spotted one of those on my tail.'

The conversation continued. The two of them discussed Katie's work. How she had developed as an artist, and the ups and downs of earning a living as such.

More time slipped past.

*****

Several hours later, Katie was concluding a story about how she had once had an accident involving a painting she had been commissioned to produce. The piece had been ruined by a spilt pot of spirits the day before being due for delivery to her client.

'What did you do?' Alex asked.

'I repainted the whole thing. Stayed up for about thirty-six hours straight,' Katie replied, 'that was a lesson I won't soon...'

She interrupted her own sentence as a huge yawn successfully fought it's way out of her.

She clapped her hand over mouth as it gaped wide.

'I hope it's not the company?' Alex asked.

'No,' she said, and gently squeezed his hand. Neither had broken their hold on each other the whole time.

'Just the hour. It's late isn't it. I should probably be going,' she followed up; though she did not move a muscle.

'It sounds like it's still pretty horrible out there,' Alex said, desperate to cling to any reason to prevent her from leaving.

They both sat for a few minutes listening to the wind and rain which was continuing to batter against the windows.

'It is stay in and watch a movie weather isn't it,' Katie said as more of a statement than a question.

'We can watch something if you like?' Alex said, hoping he was not pushing his luck.

'Erm, you don't appear to have a telly,' Katie said as she turned her head about to look enquiringly around the room.

'Ah, no I don't,' Alex explained, 'I used to have one there on that shelf, but it broke about six months ago. I have an ipad; one of the ones with a fairly big screen, which I took to watching stuff on. And I never bothered replacing the television.'

'Do you want to watch something?' Katie asked.

'Yes,' he replied simply, 'what do you fancy?'

'Anything really. Not something too heavy, if you know what I mean.'

'I know exactly. I'll go and grab the ipad.'

He had hesitated in wanting to get up. It would mean letting go of her hand; but the alternative was her leaving, so he felt it was worth it. He stood up and went over to the desk and pulled the tablet out of the drawer. As he returned to the sofa, he picked up a small table to rest the device on and put the two down in front of the sofa.

Opening Netflix, Alex scrolled through some options for a film to watch, pointing out some potentials for Katie to accept or reject. They settle on 'The King's Speech.' Both said they had seen it before but would happily watch it again.

Alex set the film running and settled back onto the sofa.

Thirty seconds in, Katie whispered, 'do you mind if I move it to one side? It's a shame to have it block the view of the fire.'

'Of course not,' Alex replied.

She stood up and moved the table, with the ipad on it, over towards her end of the sofa. Alex naturally shifted himself forty-five degrees around so as to not be sitting with his head turned to the side. He was leaning more against the arm of the sofa rather than the back now, and he prodded a cushion into a more comfortable shape to better support his lower spine. He was careful to leave his arm resting up on the back of the sofa, where it had been all evening, keeping his hand in the same place in the hope that Katie would reconnect with it.

Katie turned back, wordlessly picked up a cushion and placed it against Alex's chest. She then turned again and sat down, wedging her bottom in the triangular space formed by the backrest of the sofa and Alex's right leg. She lifted both her legs up and stretched them out on the sofa.

Alex's view of the film was blocked, as Katie was sitting upright.

He made no comment, surprised as he was, and delighted, by suddenly finding the edge of her bottom pressed up against his thigh.

A moment later her intention became clear. She had been undoing the knot in the cord of the dressing gown. Now she had it undone, she slipped the robe off her shoulders and dragged it out from under herself. She then reclined her whole upper body and settled into the cushion that was resting against Alex's chest.

Now that her shoulder was just below the level of his chin, Alex had a view down the whole length of her body as she leant back against him. Wearing just the shirt he had provided her with earlier, the majority of her bare legs were visible as they stretched out along the sofa.

To his dismay, his view was fleeting. He had just enough time to appreciate the pristine smoothness of her skin and her immensely sexy, slender thighs, before she flicked her wrists to throw the gown across the lower half of her body like a blanket.

Still, he decided, it was a pleasing glimpse, and it's loss was more than made up for by this surprising turn of events. She snuggled down, more firmly settling her weight back against him.

As if this were not enough, Alex could also freely admire the two curved bumps of her breasts, which were now just a handful of inches below his eyes. Looking past the top-most button that was done up, he could just about make out the inside curve of each breast, under the shadows of the shirt.

Alex ignored the opening scenes of the film as he contemplated the unexpected evening so far. He found Katie profoundly attractive, and she was giving encouraging signals that she had some interest in him too. He decided that she had definitely been flirting with him, at least as much as he had been trying to with her. With her now choosing to snuggle up with him to watch a film, he felt positive that she was not likely to end the evening without being open to discussing a future date, or at least allowing him some form of contact details so that he could get in touch.

Katie meanwhile was also largely ignoring the first scenes of the movie. Unseen by him, she kept glancing sidelong at Alex's right hand, which was resting on the back of the sofa beside herself. She looked down to her other side and noted that his other hand was resting in front of him, on his thigh.

Did she need to do more? Did she need to make it clearer, she thought to herself. She really liked Alex. He was intelligent, very cute, funny, charming, and really easy to talk to. She really hoped she was walking the right line of making her interest clear, without going too fast. She thought that snuggling up, laying back against him, was a clear signal, but he had not moved a muscle in response.

Katie worried if she had misjudged what she took to be Alex's flirting. Was he sat wondering what on earth she was doing laying herself practically on top of him.

No, she determined. They had spent most of evening holding hands. Also, she felt so at ease in his company. Surely that could not be a one-way feeling.

She desperately wanted to achieve just one more level of intimacy, to be sure he was interested in her, as much as she was in him.

Dammit, I'm going for it, she thought.

She reached up and took hold of Alex's hand and arm, and lifted it up off the back of the sofa. She then draped it down across her torso, positioning his forearm to lay diagonally down between her breasts, and smoothing his hand and fingers into her ribcage.

She kept one of her hands over the top of his hand, and her other holding onto his wrist.

Several agonising long seconds passed.

Then he moved. He lifted his other arm and wrapped it around her middle, laying his left hand just above her right hip.

Yes! Katie mentally shouted as her heart skipped a beat.

Mission accomplished. They were cuddling. Definitely, indisputably, cuddling.

Chapter 2

Alex slowly began to wake.

As he drifted up through levels of increasing consciousness he registered a number of unusual sensations. He was not laying flat. He had an ache in his neck. He felt a weight pressing down on his right hand side. Something was moving.

That last realisation brought him up another level. He opened his eyes, which were met by an unusually bright amount of light.

As his vision focused, he registered the living room ceiling in the top half of his field of view, glowing with sunlight. The lower half was filled with a mass of soft, tangled hair.

He rushed sharply to a higher level of consciousness. He was on the sofa; laying on his back, but propped up against the arm. Katie was laying along his right hand side.

She was asleep, judging from her long, slow breaths.

Alex built up a picture from the sensory information he was feeling. She was laying on her left side, mostly on the sofa, but slumped forward so that her torso was pressing down on top of himself.

He tried to make sense of the weight he could feel across his upper thighs.

She must have her right leg lifted and laying across him, he surmised. Yes, he could feel something between his knees, which must be her right foot. He could sense her other leg stretched out and pressed along the outside length of his right leg.

He realised his left hand was resting on top of her hand, which in turn was sitting on top of his chest. With his right hand, he could feel something very different. His whole right arm arm was squashed and pinned beneath Katie's torso. He gently squeezed his fingers and felt soft, warm skin on a firm but yielding structure. His mind suddenly jolted as he concluded that he was squeezing her bottom.

Her naked bottom.

As he slowly relaxed his fingers, this was confirmed when felt his thumb brush softly across the crease between each of her cheeks.

Now a new sensation came to his attention. That of his own body stirring with arousal.

He felt his penis swell and begin to press up against the inside of his jeans; which he now noted he was still wearing.

He was fully awake now and thought back to the previous evening. A flood of pleasant memories filled his mind. Chatting with Katie, holding her hand, her laying against him to watch the movie, her pulling his arm around her, the feel of her body as he cuddled her. He could not remember her falling asleep. Neither could he remember seeing the conclusion of the film. He must have fallen asleep before the end.

His mind came back to the present.

Her bum really felt amazing.

His erection strained harder against his jeans.

His sense of propriety told him to take his hand off her bum, but his arm was pinned firmly beneath her upper body. Dragging it out would have surely woken her and his desire for her to stay just where she was overcame his sense of chivalrous conduct.

If her bottom was naked he mused, what about the rest of her?

His curiosity got the better of him. He decided to risk a little movement, and very slowly lifted his left hand away from its position on top of hers. Then he gently began to lift locks of her hair and reposition them. Slowly he cleared more of his field of view.

Looking down, he could now see her forehead and the bridge of her nose. Further down, he could make out two of his own shirts; one that he was wearing and the one that she was wearing. This made sense of the bottom situation. Her shirt had obviously ridden up as she had slumped down asleep against him, and at some point turned over to lie on her side. Further down still, he could see her bare thigh; confirming that it was indeed angled up and laying across his own legs.

It brought back a flashing memory of his brief glimpse of her lovely legs from the evening, before she had thrown the dressing gown over them.

He wondered what had happened to the gown. It must have slid down onto the floor he surmised. He was quite happy with this, giving him a great look at her beautiful, smooth thigh. This did nothing to ease his aching penis, which he could now see straining a bulge in his jeans. He was thankful that her thigh was not positioned just a little higher, or it would have been resting right on top of his groin.

Being woken by his cock poking into her inner thigh was perhaps not the best wake up call he decided.

On that subject, he thought about what to do when she did wake up. He wondered what her reaction would be.

Just as he was thinking again about whether he should try to free his right arm, so as to remove his presumptuous hand from her bottom, he felt her fingers twitch on his chest.

He strained his eyes down to look at her face. He could just about make out her eyelashes flicker as she opened her eyes.

He froze absolutely still and tried to breath as shallowly as possible.

For a long, agonising minute he worried about how she would respond to her situation.

Finally she moved. She slid he free hand down his chest and onto his abdomen. She kept going down and for an alarming second he thought she was going to go far enough to brush against the bulge in his jeans. She stopped just short, wrapping her hand further round his body and hugging the top of his hip bone.

'Good morning,' she whispered.

Alex did not know how she knew he was awake.

'Morning,' he whispered back.

Maybe she only knew upon his reply, which prompted her to slide her hand back up and high onto his chest. She then took in a deep breath and let out a long, luxurious yawn.

'I don't remember us falling asleep,' she whispered again.

'No, me neither,' he responded, before continuing, 'I appear, sorry, to have taken liberties in my sleep.'

'Hmmm, what?'

'Erm,' Alex could not think what to say, so instead he moved his thumb half an inch across the surface of her bottom.

'Oh dear,' she responded sleepily.

The couple continued laying together; unmoving but for their breathing.

'It's getting brighter. The sun must be coming up,' Katie murmured eventually.

'Yes.'

'I suppose we will have to get up at some point today.'

'I suppose. I think I'm going to have one heck of a crick in my neck when I do,' Alex responded lightly.

Katie all but jumped up in response. She levered up and locked the elbow of her left arm to hover above Alex and look down at him.

'Sorry, I'm lying on you,' she said with concern, as she bobbed her head to make a visual inspection of Alex's neck and the scrunched angle his head was in as it rested on the arm of the sofa.

'I don't mind,' he said and smiled.

Katie watched Alex's eyes roving across her face and his smile deepened.

'Who you lookin' at?' she asked, after several seconds under his scrutiny.

'You're being back lit by the sunlight. It's beautiful. You're beautiful,' he replied simply.

Katie smiled sheepishly and cast her eyes down in embarrassment.

'I bet my hair's a mess,' she mumbled at his chest.

'Yep,' he said glibly, 'but the sun is working wonders on it.'

She smiled again, and turned her head to face the rising sun, shining in through the windows.

'Holy shit!' she practically shouted.

It made Alex jump.

'I got to catch this,' she followed on and jumped up off the sofa.

'What?' Alex uttered in astonishment.

He turned his head to follow her, grimacing as pain shot through his neck, and watched her skipping towards the hallway.

'What?!' he called after her more forcefully than he intended.

She stopped and spun under the archway that led from the living room to the hall.

'That,' she exclaimed excitedly, 'you didn't tell me you had that!'

She stabbed both of her arms towards the windows before spinning again and running into the hall.

Alex flicked his head round to look over his shoulder, grimacing and quietly cursing again at the pain in his neck. He took a quick glance out of his panoramic windows, at the meadow, and the cliffs, and the sun rising above the sea.

He opened his mouth with another question, as he turned back to face Katie, but the words evaporated in his throat. She was at the front door now and pulling on her boots. She was facing away from him and bending over to reach her feet.

Alex stared open mouthed at the full length of her glorious, bare legs and her tight, naked bottom.

The shirt had risen up a long way as she bent forward.

The sight only latest the briefest of moments, but seared into Alex's mind.

In the next moment, she had thrown open the door and was gone.

Alex stood up and staggered, his legs still mostly asleep, towards the font door.

As he made it to the archway, Katie leapt back inside.