Vignettes of a Master (2 page)

Blushing Book Blog

March,
17
th
.

Jonah and Leticia in a lingerie store
.

“No,” I said simply. “That’s not right for you.”

Leticia stood before me in the secluded alcove of the lingerie store, wearing a flimsy red bra, and matching panties. The fabric clung tight against the honey brown of her skin, hugging and accentuating the curves of her body so that she stood, like a goddess. She shook her head in confusion, and the tendrils of her hair caught and glowed golden in the overhead lights.

“Lingerie is a visual stimulation for the man who is your lover, but it is also an important expression of yourself,” I said to Leticia as I stepped closer to her. I reached out and ran the tip of my finger across the swelling flesh that rose above the cup of her bra. “This looks sexual, and any man would be delighted to see you standing before him in such attire… but is it really you, Leticia?” I shook my head slowly. “I think not. You need to wear something that is softer, less bright. You need to wear lingerie that reflects your own sensuality. Maybe soft blue, or pale grey would be better – it’s more subtle.”

I stood back and ran my eyes over her again. She seemed to shrink under the cold calculation of my gaze. “And the panties are all wrong,” I said. “Remember that a lover’s first kiss between your parted, open thighs should be through the fabric of your lingerie. You need fabric that is softer, less covered in lace. You want his mouth to linger there… linger so that you can feel the warm heat of his breath through the silk and the soft tingle of it as his mouth covers your sex.”

Blushing Book Blog

March,
17
th
.

Jonah and Leticia after the article is finished and both have read it. They are in the living room.

I folded the newspaper carefully and set it down on the coffee table. I looked up at Leticia. She was sitting across from me, perched on the edge of her chair. Her eyes were alight and bright with eager excitement. She saw my face, saw the cold look in my eyes, and she blinked, then frowned.

“You didn’t like it?” she asked softly, and her tone was desolate, her voice hollow.

I shook my head. “I liked your writing,” I said. “I think you told my story well. What I read was an honest recording of everything I said and believe. Thank you for that.” The words were stiff and forced, my voice brittle.

“But you didn’t like it…?”

“I don’t like me,” I said. I stood up and stuffed my hands deep within the pockets of my pants. I began to pace the floor, staring off into the distance, my mind playing back over excerpts. “What you wrote was an honest reflection,” I began again carefully, “but the fact is that after reading your article, I have come to the conclusion that Jonah Noble is an asshole!”

Leticia almost laughed. I saw the flash of surprise, the sudden relief, and the start of a smile. She sat back, and the glow of happiness and pride returned to her expression.

Blushing Book Blog

March,
17
th
.

Leticia and Jonah on a balcony, as she recalls his previous story about being on a balcony
.

The view was breath taking. I stood in the darkened hotel room and looked out through the open glass doors. I had never seen a sight so lovely.

Out on the balcony, Leticia was standing, with her legs apart, her hands braced on the steel railing, her back arched so that I could see the soft line of her spine like a row of little pearls just below the honey brown of her skin. She was completely naked, standing in the darkness, staring out at the city lights. There was a soft summer breeze in the night, caressing the skin of her shoulders and tugging at tresses of her hair.

I stepped out onto the balcony, walked silently until I was standing close behind her and could smell the scent of her perfume and the softer, subtle aroma of her arousal. She sensed me behind her: I felt her straighten her body and shift her weight onto one leg so that one hip thrust forward and the firm rounded flesh of her bottom changed shape, like in invitation.

I heard Leticia take a sharp, nervous breath and hold it.

“You’re stunning,” I said softly. “You are truly, totally beautiful.”

I sensed her smile, and then heard it in her words. It was a wistful, dreamlike sound. “I was just remembering what you did with Caroline on a balcony,” she said softly, perhaps not daring to turn to face me – perhaps still too shy to be so forward with her thoughts, her needs. “I was just wondering how she might have felt.”

Blushing Book Blog

March,
17
th
.

Jonah watching Leticia sleep
.

In a world gone mad, there was this.

Simple, pure, innocent beauty.

I stood in the doorway and watched Leticia sleep. She was
laying on her back, her lips slightly parted, her hair awry and her body outlined beneath the single cotton sheet so that I could see the darkened shadow of her nipples, and the defined shape of her long legs. She looked so peaceful – so serene, and I wondered then at how man measures beauty, and how abused the word is. Beauty was everywhere – it was in nature and in giant structures. It was in magnificent buildings and in classical music.

And it was here. In this simple bedroom, lit by the filtered light of the moon, in this young woman’s face: a beauty so rare, and so pure
that for long seconds I could do nothing more than marvel, and be humbled by the gift of her love that she had given me.

Kelsey’s Korner Blog

March,
19
th
.

Jonah and Caroline at a bar.

“Don’t do that,” I said softly, but there was steel in my words. “Don’t cover your leg. The dress has fallen off your thigh, and I like the fact that other men in the bar can see the soft silk of your skin.”

Caroline nodded obediently. I could tell she was aroused, but she had been trained in obedience and part of her training had been for her to act in a demure manner unless ordered otherwise. This was a rare opportunity for the exhibitionist within her to be given life.

She swung on her bar stool, turning to face the crowded, smoke-filled room properly. There was jazz music playing in the background and she caught the beat of the music and it seemed to resonate within her; she leaned away languidly and arched her spine. The move was natural, and yet in doing so her breasts thrust out hard against the fabric of her dress. I watched her face closely: the idea of being on display aroused her, and I ran my eyes across the faces of the men in the crowd, seeing a glint of hunger in the way they stared at her.

Kelsey’s
Korner Blog

March,
19
th
.

Jonah seeing Leticia across the room for the first time since she walked out of his life.

Time stopped.

There she was – there across the room. I felt the beat of my heart quicken, and a sudden tight fist seemed to seize my chest and squeeze it.

I held my breath. Leticia came into the room holding a wine glass, with an older man beside her. She was wearing a dark blue dress that hung low to the ground so that her shoes peeped from beneath the hem of the fabric with every step she took.

She looked beautiful – she seemed to glide across the carpet like love in motion, and I stood frozen as I watched her move amongst the crowd, laughing brightly, but the sound seeming artificial and forced in my ears.

I backed away a pace, made to leave the room, but the crowd was thick around me as well-wishers sought to catch my attention, steal just a moment of my time. But I only had eyes for one woman.

And then she saw me…

Kelsey’s Korner Blog

March,
19
th
.

Jonah and Leticia waking up together.

I lay perfectly still and gloated over her, aching to reach out, but denying myself and making the exquisite moment of anticipation linger until the ache to touch her was so fierce so as to be almost unbearable.

Perhaps she sensed
me, perhaps some instinct told her that I was watching her. Her eyes fluttered and she came awake dreamily, stirring beneath the satin sheet and arching her back voluptuously.

I traced the tip of my finger across her cheek and she seemed to come instantly alive to me. Leticia’s eyes swam into focus and there was tenderness and loving in her expression. She sighed contentedly, and then there was a purr in the back of her throat filled with a more urgent, primitive meaning. I took her in my arms, bowed my head over hers, and stared deeply into her eyes for the longest time, until she finally lifted her face to mine, and I kissed her with a passion and hunger that I had never felt before.

Kelsey’s Korner Blog

March,
19
th
.

Jonah and Leticia out in the rain
.

The rain fell in a soft grey curtain, misting the distant buildings and seeming to wrap itself around us so that, for a moment, it was just Leticia and I, walking together in a soft grey haze, removed from the world around us.

“I love you, Jonah,” Leticia said suddenly, stopping and turning to stare up into my face. Raindrops hung from her eyelashes like sparkling little jewels, and she shook them away and blinked. She shivered – perhaps from the damp – perhaps from nerves. I stared down into her beautiful face, and reached out with my hand to cup her chin so that she couldn’t look away.

I smiled. I looked past her shoulder and saw grey shapes looming out of the mist as people came from out of the distance and rushed past us on the sidewalk. I waited until they had passed, and until Leticia and I were alone again.

All alone.

“I have something to tell you,” I said softly. “Something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a very long time, Leticia. Something that just can’t wait to be said for a single moment longer…”

This Redhead Loves Books

March,
19
th
.

Jonah and his father.

“You’re not my son.”

I’ll never forget those words, or the venom in the way the old man’s voice cracked like a whip as he stood by the firelight, his frail body ravaged by disease, but his eyes still blazing fiercely.

“What do you mean? You disown me?”

The Old Man shook his head, and his laugh became mocking. Then suddenly he coughed and his whole body was wracked with pain. “I mean you’re not mine. You’re not a real Noble. You were adopted.”

I glared for long seconds, and felt the world I had known all my life suddenly tilt off its axis. I felt my mind reeling, felt everything around me begin to mist as the walls around me seemed to close in tight.

Then I got mad.

“Fuck you!” I said. “And fuck the Noble name.” I felt my hands clench into fists, and the anger fizzed the blood in my veins. “I might not be a Noble, but I’m a man – a better man than you ever were. You think you hurt me just then, by telling me I’m not your son? You old fool – you liberated me! You set me free of all this bullshit.”

This Redhead Loves Books

March,
19
th
.

Jonah Noble watches Leticia put on make up.

She stood before the mirror and made a pouting face, pursing her lips and holding lipstick up to her face. Then she saw me in the reflection of the mirror and she turned shyly.

“Can’t a girl have a moment of privacy?”

I shook my head and folded my arms, leaning in the doorway, watching her from a distance. “Leticia, I like to look at you. I like to watch you – the way you move, the gestures you make. You have a beautiful innocence about you that I can’t get enough of.”

“Even when I’m putting on make up?” She laughed, and it was a throaty chuckle that sounded fresh and alive with the energy of her.

“You don’t need make up,” I said. “You have rare natural beauty. You shouldn’t hide who you are behind a mask of cosmetics. And you should never wear red lipstick.”

Leticia looked bemused. “I like red.”

I smiled. “In ancient times women would paint their lips red to simulate the red fleshy colour of their aroused pussy. It was a subconscious way of attracting men. It said, loud and clear to all the men, that the woman was in a state of arousal. That’s why red lipstick to this day is associated with sex and sensuality.”

Leticia blinked, then frowned, then looked aghast. “Oh, hell. Really?” She dropped the tube of lipstick like it was suddenly burning hot.