Art in Reality Ch. 01: A New Beginning

She was clutching an array of stuff, which Alex quickly realised was painting equipment.

She stopped and looked at him.

'Shit it's cold out there,' she exclaimed.

'Err, yeah,' was all Alex managed to reply.

'I am not wearing enough to be outside,' she continued as she stumbled on the spot, kicking her boots off whilst trying to stay balanced with the armfuls of equipment.

Alex stood dumbfounded; contemplating with no small amount of arousal just how little she was wearing and particularly how her nipples had clearly responded to the cold.

The instant she finished kicking off her boots she skipped past him, back into the living room and towards the wall of windows.

She reached a clear spot just in front of the glass and dropped most of her stuff to the floor with a clatter. Alex slowly walked towards her, watching her pull an easel out of a case and begin extending the legs.

Her intention dawned on him.

The view out of his windows was spectacular, he had to remind himself. He had become so used to it, he realised it was a shame he did not properly recognise it any more. Whereas Katie had been hit as though with a sledge hammer by the incredible beauty of the landscape, bathed in glorious rising sunlight.

It was particularly beautiful this morning too, Alex conceded.

The storm had cleared and left a fresh, clean look to the world, as though all the grey had been washed away. There was not a single cloud and the fiery orange light in the sky was reflected on the white surf of the waves crashing against the base of the cliffs.

'Sorry,' Katie suddenly paused and looked up at Alex from her kneeling position, 'do you mind? I've got to catch this, do you mind?'

'Carry on,' Alex spread his palms wide and grinned at her childlike enthusiasm.

She stood back up, sparkled a dazzling smile and returned to setting up her painting gear, following a clearly well practised and efficient process.

Alex perched on the arm of the sofa as he watched her.

The easel went up and had a large pad of heavyweight paper secured to it. A fabric roll of tubes of paint and assorted brushes was hung from the side of the tripod. A glass jar was filled from a bottle of water that emerged from a rucksack, and was slid securely into a holder on the other side of the stand.

Katie reached up with a band in her hand, raked her fingers through her tumble of hair and tied it back into a short, stubby ponytail on the back of her head. As she reached up high, Alex had clocked the shirt rising just enough to give another glimpse of the perfect curved creases where her bottom met her thighs.

He suddenly felt a pang of guilt at his voyeuristic pleasure. He felt a little too much like he was taking unfair advantage of her lack of clothing; as she was clearly unaware of quite how much of her body had been revealed.

The thought prompted him to behave more like a gentleman and find her clothes.

He headed off and found them in a heap in the bathtub.

'Bugger,' he murmured to himself as he picked them up. They were all very damp and the jumper was in fact still dripping as he lifted it. He should have thought to hang them up to dry yesterday evening he chastised himself.

He pulled his airer out of the bathroom cupboard and set it up in front of the radiator. He then stretched the clothes out on it to dry. When he came to them, he wondered for a brief moment whether he should be handling Katie's knickers.

He carried on, deciding it would be far too silly for him to ask her permission at this point.

As he untwisted them and shook them out, he could not help but think about the spectacular bottom, and other areas, that was their job to hug.

When everything was set out to dry, he got her boots from the hallway and placed them directly on top of the hot radiator, as they were still wet too. He then moved on to the kitchen, glancing briefly into the living room as he went by, where Katie was clearly engrossed in her work.

He took croissants out of the cupboard and set them under the grill to crisp and warm up; and made coffee and poured juice.

*****

Katie caught movement in the corner of her eye. She glanced across to see that Alex had sneaked up to her side and placed a small table next to her. On top of it, was a tray bearing a plate with two croissants, a dish containing butter and jam, a knife, a teaspoon, a mug of steaming black coffee, a small sugar bowl and little jug of milk, and a tall glass of orange juice.

The smell of croissants and coffee instantly aroused her nostrils and woke up her tummy.

In a rush of surprised delight, she grabbed him into a hug.

'Thank you,' she spoke into his ear.

The whole encounter was too brief for Alex to raise his arms and return the hug, before she pulled away and popped a quick kiss onto his cheek.

'You're welcome. Are you, warm enough?' he enquired, in a gallant attempt to suggest she might want something more to wear.

'Yep, thank you,' she said as she was already distractedly looking back out of the window. 'It changes so quickly,' she murmured with concern, as she instinctively reached back for her brush, having seemingly forgotten all about the breakfast already.

Alex decided to leave her too it.

He walked over to his desk, where he had placed a croissant and a coffee for himself. He sat down facing her and began his breakfast, watching her whilst she worked.

Very quickly a new chivalrous dilemma became apparent to him.

As the sun had risen higher, it was now beaming directly through the windows and bathing Katie in light.

The white linen shirt she was wearing became all but see through where the intense radiation shone through it.

Alex gaped. He could clearly make out a crystal clear silhouette of her whole body, through the fabric. As she shifted her weight and moved around on the spot whilst painting, Alex gazed at every line and curve of her luscious form. From exposed legs, up the sweeping outline of her hips, in at the waist and back out to meet the curve of her breasts; then up onto a direct view of her long neck, visible now that her hair was tied up. It was a breathtakingly erotic sight. He was rapidly back to straining hard in his jeans again.

'What's a man to do?' he uttered under his breath.

He looked down at his plate.

Well I have got to eat, he said to himself, by way of a flimsy excuse to stay where he was.

And he had offered her more clothes, sort of, he lied to himself.

He stayed put, staring voraciously at his sexy, unexpected guest, as he ate breakfast.

When he finished his meal, he sighed, having decided he needed to stop being a blatant voyeur.

'A cold shower needed,' he murmured, and placed his empty coffee cup down on his plate.

The clink caught Katie's attention.

She turned round to face him.

'Sorry, I'm no company at all when I'm working,' she said with a smile.

'That's okay,' he returned the smile.

'Have you been watching me?' she asked, noting his position at the desk and the empty dishes on top.

Alex felt his cheeks instantly flush with guilt.

'No.'

I was a damn good job he was sitting, with his groin hidden behind the desk, or he would have died of embarrassment.

'Liar,' she chided.

'Sorry,' he felt sure he must have gone bright red, 'I was. I'm sorry, I was watching you,' he confessed guiltily.

'Hmmm. I don't mind,' she conceded, 'though I'm very picky about who sees work in progress.'

'Looked good to me,' Alex stated candidly, knowing full well he was not referring to the painting. He felt marginally better for voicing his guilt, despite her not being aware of the truth of the confession.

'It's an amazing view,' Katie said wistfully.

'It is.'

'Such incredible landscape.'

'Would you like to go for a walk?' Alex suddenly thought to ask. 'There are lot's more good vantage points along the cliff-top path towards the village.'

This might keep her around for a little longer, he thought.

'In fact,' he decided to seize the moment, 'I'd like to buy you lunch, as a thank you for rescuing me yesterday. There's a great pub overlooking the harbour.'

'Yes, that sounds brilliant,' Katie replied, 'though you don't need to buy lunch as a thank you, you've already cooked me dinner for that. I shall buy you lunch; as a thank you for, err, letting me take over your living room with my painting paraphernalia.'

Alex chuckled, then added, 'ah, it's a fairly long walk though. Have you got time for a couple of hours in each direction?'

'Yep, I've all the time in the world.'

'Great,' he stated with enthusiasm.

'I can leave you with your work,' he added, 'I was just thinking about going for a shower.'

'Don't worry, I'm done here,' she replied. 'Shower sounds good, I think I could use one too.'

'Did you want to go first?' Alex offered instinctively.

'Do you mind?' she asked. 'It will give my hair a little more time to dry before going out into the cold.'

'Not at all, you go for it.'

'Ta,' she said and wandered off towards the bathroom.

*****

When Katie pulled the cord and turned the bathroom light on, the first thing she noticed was her clothes hanging up, drying on the airer. She made a mental note to thank her attentive host.

The next thing her eyes settled on was the enormous, free-standing bathtub.

'Hmmm,' she hummed.

It looked inviting.

She stuck her head back out of the door and called out, 'Alex, do you mind if I have a bath?'

'Of course not,' came back his reply from the living room, 'if you look under the sink, there's an assortment of bathy things. Mostly old christmas presents. Help yourself to anything in there if you want to add something to the water.'

'Thank you,' she called back.

She ducked back into the bathroom, shut the door and slid the bolt across.

Then she went over and turned on the hot tap to the bath, then crossed to the sink and opened the cupboard beneath. There was an eclectic mix of products stashed away in there.

''Ooooh, bubble bath,' she cooed, picking up one of the bottles, 'yes please.'

She also noticed a new tooth brush in it's wrapping.

She opened the door and called out again, 'do you mind if I use this new toothbrush from under the sink? I'll buy you a new one when we get into town.'

'It's yours,' Alex called back. 'You buy a toothbrush and I'll buy lunch.'

Katie smiled and shouted, 'we'll see about that.'

She closed the door again and walked back to the bath, picking up the bottle of bubble mix as she passed.

After unscrewing the lid, she poured a large measure of the milky white fluid into the water. It immediately started producing thousands bubbles as the water gushed in from the tap.

She stood back and unbuttoned the shirt she was wearing before slipping it off her shoulders and onto the floor.

Oh yes, she thought to herself. That is all she was wearing.

Her mind instantly flashed back to waking up on the sofa, with Alex's hand on her bum.

She did not mind. She would quite like to wake up with his hand on her bum again, she decided.

Her attraction to him was going stronger and stronger the more she thought about it. She had been hoping to find some way of spending more time hanging around, and had been delighted when he asked her about lunch. Is this a date, she wondered?

The bath did not look full enough to get into yet, so she filled some time with brushing her teeth.

Should have thought to sneak in here earlier and chew some toothpaste she chastised herself. Probably been breathing stinky morning breath over him all morning she fretted.

After a thorough scrub, she rinsed her mouth and the brush, then wondered where to put it. She shrugged her shoulders and popped it into the cup that also held his. Her eyes lingered for a moment on the two brushes next to each other.

The bath was a good depth now, so she stepped over the high rim, taking care not to slip, and lowered herself in. The bubbles had expanded into a two inch thick layer that spread over the whole surface of the water. As she sank down until the nape of her neck rested against the edge of the tub, the water was deep enough for the bubbles to cover her right up to her shoulder blades. She turned off the tap and let out a long happy sigh.

Her mind meandered around little moments from the previous evening. As the hot water caressed her body and her mind moved on to dreaming up future activities with Alex, she began to feel rather horny.

A soft knock interrupted her flight of fancy.

Her eyes flicked over towards the door and landed on the bolt. She instantly saw that she had not locked it.

Then, surprising herself, she calling out on instinct, 'come in.'

There was a pause; then Alex's voice carried through the wood, 'I just thought, your clothes can't be dry yet, I didn't think to hang them up until this morning, so I...'

'I can't hear you,' Katie interrupted, 'come in.'

After another pause, she watched the handle very slowly turn and the door creep open. Alex briefly made eye contact before looking away and shuffled forwards until he was just about in the room.

'I hung your clothes up to dry, I hope you don't mind,' he began, 'but I'm afraid I only thought to do it this morning.'

'Thank you.'

'I should have thought of it last night. I was just going to suggest that when you're done in here, you could go into my room and have a rummage around to see if you can find anything vaguely useful to put on.'

A small smile spread on Katie's face as she watched him whilst he spoke. His eyes were wandering high and low around the room, as he looked absolutely anywhere but at her. What a sweetheart.

'And I was going to put the dressing gown down outside the door,' he held up the robe he was holding, by way of explanation, before turning around and hanging it on the back of the door.

'I'll leave it here if you want it,' he said and reached for the door handle.

'Didn't you want a shower?' Katie caught him before he stepped out.

Over his shoulder, he looked at her for a fleeting instant before resuming his inspection of the ceiling.

'There's no hurry. Take as long as you like,' he said.

His adorable, gentlemanly behaviour brought out the devilish streak in Katie.

'You can jump in now if you like,' she stated calmly, 'I won't look.'

His eyes flicked to meet hers. She gazed back with a steady, challenging expression; daring him to go ahead and strip off. She enjoyed his stunned face for several seconds before overtly and excruciatingly slowly rolling her head away from him to face the wall.

'I, was, just, half way through, was writing an email, to my agent,' Alex rambled, 'I should finish it really, whilst it's, on my mind.'

'Oh, okay,' she responded lightly, without turning her head back to face him.

'I'll leave you to it,' he concluded hurriedly, and practically slammed the door as he fled the room.

Katie bit her lip hard, to stop her giggling from being loud enough to hear outside the bathroom.

She luxuriated in the bath for what must have been at least another fifteen minutes, wondering if he might change his mind and come back in to take up her offer.

He did not.

Katie then thought about getting out and drying herself off, and wondered whether he might enter when she no longer had a concealing layer of bubbles to hide beneath.

To hell with it, she thought; she would deal with that if it happened. She stubbornly refused to simply lock the door. That felt cowardly.

Flushed from the heat of the water, she was reminded again of how nice the cool flagstones were on the soles of her feet once she stepped out of the bath.

She had enjoyed the thrill of being so blatantly suggestive and she was happy that she felt safe enough with Alex to be so sexually provocative. His charming embarrassment had been very endearing, but she began to feel a little bad for making him feel uncomfortable. She resolved to make it up to him, as she rubbed herself dry.

*****

Alex was in the living room, supposedly tidy up; but was meandering around, achieving nothing, as his mind raced.

He was kicking himself for feeling like a stammering, awkward schoolboy. He questioned himself over and over: why could he not have come up with some witty, charming response to her suggestion. There was no way had could have summoned the confidence, he conceded, to take a shower in front of her, regardless of her supposed promise to not look. He felt like he had many years disadvantage over her youthful good looks.

There must have been some better way to respond to her flirting though.

That thought made him pause.

She had been flirting; quite outrageously.

This was a good thing, he reminded himself.

She was clearly interested in him. She had, after all, woken up with his hand on her bum and she had not batted an eyelid. All the signals from the night before were good. Then to invite him into the bathroom whilst she was in the bath was a big move.

He began to feel more positive.

Finally, to suggest he jump in the shower in her presence; that was blatant flirting! She had seriously upped the stakes with that one, he thought.

'Okay, two can play at that game,' he vowed.

He heard the click of the bathroom light being switched off, so he skipped over to perch on the edge of his desk and grabbed a notebook to pretend to be reading.

'I'm done,' Katie announced.

Alex looked up to see her standing under one of the entrance archways to the room. She was back in his bath robe, with tousled wet hair again. She looked damn good.

'You don't mind me looking through your stuff for something to wear?' she asked.

'No, not at all,' he replied, 'most of the clothes are in the wardrobe and the bigger of the two chests of drawers.'

'Anything off limits?'

'No, help yourself to anything you find. Though there's nothing that will fit of course. You might have to settle for just a bow tie or something.'

It was his turn to level a cool, challenging gaze at her.

Her eyes widened. Oh right, she thought; he is not so embarrassed by her sexual advances as she had worried about. Game on.

As she tried to match his stare, she could not quite manage to prevent a hint of a smile cracking her poker face.

'I'll see what I end up in,' she said, as dispassionately as she could manage. Then turned her back on him and walked away towards his bedroom.

'If anything,' she added, loud enough to be sure he heard.

Alex grinned. That's more like it.

He headed to the bathroom for his shower.

*****

Alex washed himself quickly under the shower. He replayed a few of his favourite moments in his mind's eye to keep his confidence up. His memory vividly recalled Katie's spectacular, naked bottom as she bent over to pull her boots on and the sumptuous curve of her breasts as the sun shone through her shirt. His penis came alive, growing thicker and heavy, helped further by the water stimulating the skin down his back, buttocks and thighs.

Change the subject, he thought quickly. He could not enact the plan he had formulated with a raging hard-on. That would be going too far.

He flicked the lever over and blasted himself with a few seconds of cold water to distract himself, before turning the shower off and stepping out.

He appraised himself in the full length mirror as he towelled himself dry. Nothing special he thought, but not too shameful either. Being in a profession that essentially involved sitting at a desk for long periods made him consciously engage with exercise. He took long walks over the rugged terrain around the house whenever words were not flowing; he cycled as much as possible, instead of using his car; and he made a point of specifically scheduling time to go for a run at least three times a week.

He could see defined muscles on his arms and legs, he did not have any flabby bits, and whilst there was no six pack, his abdomen was flat and firm.