Susie Learns the Hard Way (21 page)

‘Lie right back across the desk... shuffle your bum back, and heels up on the edge... knees wide... wider... one hand, left hand, grab your knickers – here, like this,' and Leo's hand was on top of hers, guiding her fingers until she had gathered the front of her knickers between finger and thumb, the shock and excitement still fizzling across her skin after he'd let go and was back behind his camera. ‘Pull gently... tighter... tighter again...'

The sopping material was hard up inside her now, spreading her lips in a shiny pink pout on either side of the yellow slash. The camera saw the taught pressure of the bright fabric, and the slick wetness of the soft pink skin, but only the straining curve of the muscles in her groin told the viewfinder of the desperate wanting Susie felt as she pushed herself towards the camera, urgently seeking something long and thick to spread and fill her.

She was moving automatically between each shot now, circling hips beginning to pump up and down a little in time with the slow movement of her wrist as she tugged and released, tugged and released, the yellow material pressing, the tension rising, the moisture flowing hotter and wetter...

‘Turn over now while I change this roll,' and Leo's calm instruction broke the spell.

If there'd been a long pause she might have got her breath back, might have recovered her poise and might have calmed down a little, but Leo and his young helper were so fast that he was ready to take pictures again in seconds, the flash of the lights once again punctuating his commands.

‘Lean over the desk... hands forward... reach out and grab the far edge... arch your back, bottom up, legs straight... that's perfect... now, one hand, left hand, reach back and pat your bottom... arch the fingers, wide fingers... good...'

His voice droned on, calm and commanding, never getting excited or dramatic, issuing a stream of banal instructions which made Susie do ruder things to herself in ruder and more exposed positions.

The camera saw it all, watching from behind with pin-sharp detail as her hand reached down and one elegant finger probed the yellow gusset, worming itself deeper into the juicy valley, then moving to one side and getting a perfect profile as the red-tipped finger probed deeper and deeper, the fingers pressing the material, spreading the soft folds inside further apart, then pulling the yellow aside to expose the pretty little pink entrance with its shiny lips puffed apart and glistening with dew.

It watched, unmoving, while Maureen moved calmly into shot and followed Leo's instructions, tugging at the yellow panties till they were halfway down Susie's widespread thighs, while Susie, almost oblivious to the unexpected participation of the girl, stirred herself with one finger, then with two, delicately pulling the soft folds of flesh apart as the lens pressed closer and closer.

‘Last one now,' said Leo, as he changed the film again and Susie lay on the desk once more, stockings and high heels now the only apparel in their proper place, the yellow knickers gathered around her ankles.

‘Knees apart for me now,' called Leo, as he snapped the camera shut with its new roll of film inside. ‘Now, Charlie, here we go...' The camera flashed once, and again.

‘One foot out of your knickers...' The camera flashed a couple of times as she wriggled an elegant shoe clear of the fabric, leaving them bunched around one ankle.

‘Feet apart... that's good, now hold your boob with your left hand... now finger and thumb... right hand on your thigh and push your leg outwards... arch your back, lift your bum a little, now just slide your hand lower and pull yourself apart... good, and stay there...'

The camera circled around her while she opened herself to its gaze, feeling the wetness coating her, aching to be filled, wanting to be pumping against something thick and hard, the fingertips teasing around the outside making it worse, not better, until she couldn't help herself any more.

The camera was poised above her, watching two fingers arched tentatively over the tiny bud at the top of that opening, gently teasing it, pulling, squeezing and rolling, the lights flashing every few seconds. And then the fingers straightened, paused, and disappeared from sight, sinking easily inside the pinkness with a gentle sucking noise. When they were all the way in her hand curled around, so she was gripping her pubic bone in her palm. Her hips shuddered and twitched and she sighed deeply. Then the fingers began to move, slowly at first, then faster, until they were plunging in and out.

She didn't seem to notice that though the lights continued to flash and the camera circled around, clicking and whirring, Leo himself was silent, with no more commands to give and none needed. Susie's eyes were only half closed, but she seemed oblivious to the strobing flash as she was preserved on film, her fingers delving luxuriously, spreading wide, pushing deeper, fluttering around the entrance but always returning to the centre with a long deep thrust.

The camera ran out of film and Leo's work was done, but Susie didn't notice. Pinned to the desktop by the spears of bright light she was in a world alone, a world controlled and regulated by the quiet squelching and sucking as her fingers beat their steady rhythm. Just outside the circle of light the assistants stood in the edges of shadow, watching, afraid to break the spell. Even Leo seemed captivated by the moment. Robbed of the need to direct the action now he was no longer taking pictures, he seemed to realise he was no longer in control of Susie, and he stood, crouched at the tripod, watching in silence.

Still no one moved or spoke, and then Susie jerked and stiffened as if she'd received an electric shock. Back arched, neck curved and straining, breasts thrust upwards, she braced her heels and shoulders against the desktop and lifted her bottom clear of the surface. She sobbed with ecstasy, until her arm slowed and eventually stopped moving, her bottom settled on the desk once again, and her body went slack.

She lay still, chest heaving as she gasped for breath.

Suddenly Maureen was there with a shimmering robe, speaking softly, helping her to sit up and then stand, leading her away back to the dressing room, back to the chair in front of the mirror.

Susie watched curiously, dreamily, as Maureen knelt, eased her limp thighs apart, shuffled between them, and pulled the robe open, exposing Susie's soft pinkness once again. Tenderly she put one fingertip very lightly on the slick wetness at the top of the dark slit, and Susie tensed a little, then relaxed. The second finger was electric too, but she didn't tense this time.

‘Now,' breathed Maureen, huskily. ‘You just sit there and watch while I do it for you,' and she slid both fingers into Susie's exhausted body.

 

Susie was quite shocked to find Harry still waiting for her when she got outside.

‘How was it for you then?' he asked, positively leering at her.

‘Fine, Harry. It was just fine.'

‘A good time?' he queried. ‘Had by all?'

She knew the pause was deliberate. ‘It was just pictures, Harry, that's all.'

‘I know it was pictures,' he smirked, ‘and I can tell by the look on your face what sort of pictures.

‘Okay, so you were right all along. It wasn't a brochure for office equipment. I don't want to talk about it any more, so let's just leave it.'

‘You didn't enjoy it then?' His grin was still positively evil. ‘I would've thought it was right up your street.'

‘Oh shut up, Harry.' She stuck her tongue out at him.

‘Be nice to me, girl, be nice to me.'

‘Why? What's going on?' She was curious enough not to argue about being called girl.

‘You know you're supposed to make your excuses and leave, don't you?' She glared at him, the truth hurting. ‘But you didn't, did you?' He smiled grimly. ‘There was no reason to stay there and have the pictures done, but you did. You could and should have got out somehow, without causing suspicion, as soon as you realised there was nothing to be learned today, but you stayed. And you let them take pictures. That's the sort of thing that can really wreck a story – or a career.' He was positively gloating.

‘What are you saying, Harry?'

‘I'm saying that whatever you may or may not have done in Catford, or with Yoshi-wosname, that's only hearsay. But now there are photographs, and if anyone ever shows those pictures to the editor, you're history.'

She went cold all over. Had Harry been trying all along to manoeuvre her into just such a position? Was it still only about forcing her out?

‘No one will ever see them, Harry.' Her voice was firmer than she felt. ‘The pictures were for a private client of Leo's.'

Harry nodded sagely. ‘Just as long as it stays that way, and there are no slip-ups. No private purchases of the photos for resale to magazines, for example.'

‘Harry, are you trying to tell me something?' She already knew the answer, and she thought she knew what he was trying to say, but she couldn't decide why Harry would want to blackmail her. Get rid of her, yes. But blackmail? Unless he knew she was going to be useful to him but wanted to keep her under control.

Harry's aloof silence was no help.

‘And another thing.' He neither spoke nor glanced in her direction, so she carried on. ‘When are we going to write something? When are we going to sit down and decide what's going on, and how far we've got? To date you've told me nothing. Nor anyone else, not even Mr Skase. I bet no one but you knows anything about what we're up to, and I'm not even so sure that you do any more. I'm not even sure whose side you're on, Harry. All you do is use me as a kind of unpaid hooker, gathering bits of information which you presumably find useful or interesting, but you never say whether what we've found out is any use or not. It's not fair, Harry, and you know it.'

She sat back in the seat, proud of herself for speaking out.

‘No one said anything about fair, Susie. I don't remember you mentioning fair when I first met you last Monday.'

Was it only last Monday? Hardly a week ago, and look how much had happened, how much had changed.

‘All I remember you saying was that you could handle the job,' he went on, ‘that you were so damn glad to get a job on the paper you'd go to almost any lengths. In fact, as I recall...' He left it hanging there, and she remembered him looking down at the editor's carpet, and her knickers screwed up in a damp little heap, and she knew what he was saying.

‘It's a bit late to change your mind, Susie. Either you want the job or you don't. But if you do...' and now he looked at her sternly, ‘it's whatever I make it, whatever I say it is. And right now we're taking it step by step, just like I told you, following the lead from one place to the next. We will write the story, you can stake your life on that. I probably already have,' he added cryptically, darkly, ‘but that's my affair. And because it's my affair, we'll write the story when I say so, and not before. Okay?'

‘Okay, Harry.' Susie hated being put in her place so conclusively. She felt like a scolded girl. ‘Whatever you say.' But she knew that her quiet subservience had got her into trouble again, as she stared morosely out of the BMW windscreen at the studio door across the street, regretting what she'd done in there. But again she'd made the trap herself, and trying to assure Harry that the pictures were only for a private collection had been a big mistake.

‘Good,' he said, rubbing his hands together. ‘In that case, you'll be happy to do some more then, won't you?'

‘No, I won't, Harry. I may not be experienced enough to talk my way out of it the first time, or even the second or third, but I certainly won't let something like that happen again.' She hoped she'd said it with more conviction than she felt, because she could remember lying on her back on the desk, fingers busy, knowing Leo had finished taking pictures and that she could stop if she wanted to, but wanting and needing the release only orgasms can bring, whether they asked her to or not. And she knew they were watching her,
wanted
them to watch her, wanted them to want what they saw and be aroused by what they saw.

She knew that going back through that door would lead her into the same situation, with the same temptations, and she knew for certain that she would not be able to make her excuses and leave, that she wouldn't even attempt to do anything of the sort. As they pulled away in the car she stared from the corners of eyes at the studio door. Like an alcoholic staring at a glass of vodka Susie knew she was fine as long as she didn't get too close. Once it was inside the defensive perimeter, if she even so much as smelt it or touched it, she would drink it, and then the rest of the bottle.

 

 

 

‘Hi Charlie.' Leo's smile was back in place; the last time Susie had seen him it had slipped a bit. She tried not to think about that. ‘Ready for your next shoot? The last one went really well.'

She smiled briefly, trying to act as if being congratulated for a starring role in a series of especially rude photographs was an everyday part of her life.

‘Yep,' he went on, ‘client loved the pictures. Loved them. Got quite agitated. Best he's seen for a long time, he said.'