A Study in Fragrance Pt. 04

She got back in the room, ready for whatever was next. "Let's get the frame measured and cut. I can show you how to do the sanding so you can work on it tomorrow. Those long pieces we'll cut for the frame. The shorter ones we'll cut for the shelves." He paused and looked around. "You said adjustable, right?"

She nodded, momentarily distracted by a drop of sweat rolling between her breasts.

"Okay," he wiped his face. "Here's how we're going to do this. We'll cut everything to size. I'll show you how to drill the peg holes which you can do tomorrow. We'll finish tonight with a quick lesson in sanding which, if you finish the peg holes you can start tomorrow as well."

She nodded, understanding most of what he was saying.

"Help me move the table saw over there."

Bending at the knees she knew she was fully exposed to him, her vagina opening up between her thighs. It was distracting her, this idea of working with him while she was naked. Distracting and incredibly hot. She watched him, his eyes darting to her pubic hair, her breasts and then down to the machine on the floor. "On three." He counted and they lifted together. They carried it to the far corner, avoiding the plywood sitting in the center of the room. "Let's move that off to the side. In this heat, it's probably already dried, but I'd prefer to let it sit overnight." He lifted one end and she moved the sawhorse over to the wall, and then they moved the plywood so he could rest his end on the sawhorse. She held her side while he grabbed her sawhorse and maneuvered it under her edge. His hand brushed against her abdomen as he moved the sawhorse into place and she gasped, her vagina clenching at the accidental intimacy. He turned his palm and purposefully stroked across her skin, just above her pubic hair. "Fuck you," she whispered, smiling. She set the board down.

"You see what I was talking about?" He pointed to the floor next to where they'd set down the saw. "The inlay?"

She looked and nodded. The whole floor was strips of light wood except in the middle, where a pattern of dark strips wove in and out.

"I can't quite make it out," he said, scuffing it with his boot. "Could be a Celtic knot, or...jeez, I don't know."

She just looked and then grabbed her phone. "I'll check it out tonight. Online." She snapped the picture, the flash momentarily lighting up the room.

"Hey." A thought occurred to her, looking up at the ceiling. "There's no light in here." But what she meant was, there wasn't any electricity. No switch no outlets. Just the light from the windows and now the opening.

He nodded toward an orange coil by the lumber. "I've been meaning to ask whether you wanted to add that to the list."

Oh fuck. Another five days of labor. But it made her smile. The thought he'd be around her longer, or inside her longer, more to the point, more to his point. More time to practice. She couldn't stop thinking about how much sex she would be having. "How much trouble will it be?"

He motioned her to follow him as he picked up the plug end of the coil and they went out into the hall. She'd never really paid attention to where the outlets were. There wasn't any reason to plug anything in back here. She had one in the bathroom, and two in her bedroom.

"So, if this had been remodeled anytime recently," he looked along the hall, "and they had done it by the books, there'd be an outlet every 12 feet of running wall, six feet from a break or opening."

They both looked and saw only one outlet down the hall along the eastern bedroom wall. He looked up and saw the hallway light and then back toward her bedroom door. "How do you turn this light on?"

She walked to the end of the hallway, in front of her doorway and pointed to a switch around the corner on the bathroom side. She flicked it on and off.

He turned to look at the back stairs and saw the light switch at the top. "Here," he called back to her. "This is the closest I think."

She joined him and waited while he thought about it.

"This complicates things." He paused. "A lot. Let's just double check your room."

Inside it was stuffy and as usual the floor was covered with clothes she'd stripped off and left in her wake. He glanced at the mess and then looked around for electrical. "Okay, so, there's a switch there, and....shit...no electrical close to the room."

She followed where he'd been looking, wiping her hand from below her breasts to across her hips to smear away tickling drops of sweat. Two outlets on Joanie's room side, across from The Study.

She waited, her thoughts going one direction and another. He'll be here all summer. I'll be his toy for weeks. He's going to tell me it's not possible. He's fucking with me. She waited, staring at him.

"What's up above here?"

Em looked up and thought about the plans. Her parents' room was above them, but then she remembered it was much smaller than the new outline of the house. "Mmmm, take a look." She walked to the window kicking her clothes to the side. Leaning over the head of her bed she pulled the blinds all the way up. The Johnson house was just across the way, its windows black holes in the colorful play of paint and surfaces. She hesitated for a moment, imagining they could see her standing fully naked in front of her window. Stupid, she chastised herself. Even if they could see inside, they'd only see her breasts, but more important, they couldn't see inside at all. It was too bright outside. She climbed onto her knees on the bed to make room for him.

He looked through and down then craned his neck and looked up. "Roof up there," he pointed to the ceiling next to the window. "Let's see what it looks like upstairs."

Her parents' bedroom occupied the entire upper floor; a room she had suspected had been the attic in the original Crewitt house. As far as she knew, it had been this way since they owned the place, subject to her mother's remodeling whims. When they popped up into it from the main stair, she saw she'd left the sleeping bag rumpled on the floor and cursed herself silently for being such a slob. She made a beeline for it, as he walked to the western wall to look out the windows above her room.

"So, first things first. The work we're doing downstairs...none of it needs a permit. It's just interior stuff. But electrical...we're crossing a line if we start putting in branches or outlets. And that assumes we don't need a new circuit." He was thinking out loud, wiping his mouth and eyes; it was noticeably hotter up here.

She came up next to him and looked through the window. His scent filled her head even as she tried to see what he was looking at. Just then he stepped back and looked along the wall. "Hnh. You know what that is?"

Emily followed his gaze to a hatch in the wainscoting that she'd never paid attention to.

"Help me move this bureau."

They lifted the chest of drawers enough to clear the top of the carpet and slowly moved it along the wall until the hatch was completely exposed. Her mother's perfume bottles and bric-a-brac jingled lightly when they set it down.

He knelt in front of the latch and pulled on it, careful it wouldn't snag on the carpet. It swung into the room creaking, dust dropping from the opening. He flipped on his flashlight. "Well, looky here." He reached inside and a light came on. "Take a look." He backed away and she knelt down to look inside the opening.

"Holy shitttt..." she breathed out. The space was filled with boxes, insulation between exposed wood coming down from over her head and up from between the floor boards. Bare lightbulbs glared from over her head and all along the space to the front of the house. "What the fuckkk?" She pulled back, the stuffiness and heat spongy, pushing her away. It smelled like raw wood, dust and heat.

He nodded and returned to look. "So," his voice muffled from inside the space, "lots of electrical to branch off of here." He crawled in further. He said something else but she couldn't hear.

"Hold on." She crawled in after him, her knees rubbing along the dusty floor. The rafters were high enough at the wall that she could rise up onto her knees without hitting her head. She rested for a moment, watching him crawl along the wall toward the back of the house. "What did you say?"

He turned his head, looking over his shoulder at her. "So," he rose up onto his knees, facing her parents' room, "this wall is the same wall as the room." He pointed in front of him. "The original wall of the house. I figure your closet is right about where you're kneeling." He pointed up. "That J-box there, looks like I might be able to tie in a Romex branch."

She saw what he was pointing to and had no idea what he was talking about. The air was so heavy and humid, sweat dripped down like candle wax between her breasts, between her legs. He must feel the same way. She could imagine how wet and sticky he was between his legs, around his cock. She licked her lips and nodded. She looked around the space at all of the boxes. While he was studying the situation, she crawled to look at what they were. Clothes, marked in her mother's hand. Joanie's artwork from 1980-1984. She must have been in 1st grade! Frankie's artwork from a similar grade. Her artwork. Shit! What's mother holding onto? And more boxes: magazines, books, more clothes. Most were piled near the hatch scattered from the back of the house toward the front, all along the knee wall, but she saw a few larger ones a deeper shade of brown, tucked where the roof rafters came down toward the floor. Crawling over to them, the back of her head brushing the rafters, she saw they were really old: dusty and yellowed, the ink labels in a shaky hand, brown and faded.

"HOLY SHIT."

Cos looked up in alarm. "What's up? You okay? You see a rat?"

She burst out laughing at his expression and misunderstanding.

"Sorry...sorry...no...everything's all right. Hold on. I...I just found a box that I didn't expect to see here." She caught her breath, the air like a sauna, the dusty wood smell clogging up her nose. Pulling the box toward her, she glimpsed at the labels on the other two. She lost her breath a second time, but managed not to scream again. "Cos," she said with as much control as she could, looking over at him. "Can you help me get these out of here?"

The boxes were heavy, and lodged between floor rafters beyond the subfloor border. While she was wrestling them onto the flooring he had crawled behind her, his face practically pushed into her behind. She knew how she must have smelled, her arousal never having quite settled down from cumming earlier. "You enjoying yourself?" She turned to look over her shoulder at him, smiling.

He grunted and pushed his way next to her. "I'll take this side." They pulled the boxes one on each side until they were close to the hatch.

"Okay," he said. "I gotta get outta here. It's way too hot."

She scooted back and out of the space into the relative cool of her parents' room, backing away to let him out. She was on her butt, her legs spread open as he emerged. His eyes were glued to her vag, his face flushed.

"You need me to help you drag them out?" He kept staring at her spread open.

"I think I can get it from here. Thanks."

He turned back to the opening. "C'mere. I want to show you what's up. I can tie into that box," pointing to the grey metal square near the lightbulb, "and probably get you an outlet and a lamp. Maybe. It definitely won't be kosher, but buried this deep, I doubt anyone will find it until the next remodel." He wiped his face. "You can't overload it though," he cautioned. "I don't know yet how many things are on that circuit. Could be this whole room, or maybe just this wall of outlets." He shrugged.

Other than fantasizing about having sex with him, she hadn't thought about what she was actually going to do in The Study. Study? She wasn't going to be here for school. She shook her head. "Okay. Sure." She stood up, wondering but not caring too much what it was going to cost her. She was distracted by the boxes. They had started gears turning; her heart was almost pounding. She knelt down again next to one, peering at the label.

"It won't be a big deal. I'll throw it in, unless it is a big deal, and then I'll let you know." He turned away, leaving her kneeling, staring at the box. She felt a tugging in her insides, a craving, a need. Wasn't that enough? Thinking back just to what he'd done to her. It had been amazing, but no, it wasn't enough. She wanted more. 7:10. Fuck. What happened to the time?

"For now," he called to her from the stairwell, "let's get that cord set up so we can run the saw and charge the batteries."

When she caught up to him, he had run the extension cord from the outlet outside the guest bedroom straight across the stair opening and into the room. He pulled some tape out of his toolbox and anchored the cord to the floor in front of the stairwell. She watched the whole thing, realizing that every step he took needed a bunch of other little things and those little things all took time. She had thought they were coming upstairs to drill peg holes, but now he was taping down the cord. We're only in the first 'day.' She reminded herself. He still hadn't put in a full eight hours. And she'd already made him cum twice...no three times...the memory of kneeling in front of him in the kitchen rushing back to her. Fuck! Was that only yesterday? The craving in between her legs grew, the humiliation of what she'd done, the tendril thickening, growing up her spine to wrap around her throat.

"Okay, let's get...what are you doing?"

She turned at his voice coming from the tablesaw, and realized she had been playing with herself as she leaned against the doorway. She jumped a little and stared at him, frustrated that he'd interrupted her daydream, and embarrassed that she'd been lightly dancing her fingers between her legs. "I'm so fucking horny," she whispered. "I'm being so wicked. So naughty. I'm still so wet. What you did to me..." She didn't want to stop. She wanted to tease him. To make him come over and help her relieve the need. She bent her knees a little and spread her legs, moving her fingers to spread her lips, slowly slipping a finger just inside, closing her eyes and masturbating for him. "Maybe you need to spank me again...?" Her heart pounded as she said it, wanting/not wanting him to hear her.

"Jesus," he just exhaled and watched. "We're never going to get this done." But he said that part under his breath, just watching her. "Emily," he finally called out to her, with a little urgency. "Emily. If you want me to spank you, you'll need to ask me so I can hear it."

Her arousal jumped. He was willing. He was serious. She only needed to ask. Nooo. Noooo. She couldn't do it. She was lighting up and wanted to crest like she'd done yesterday, but she couldn't deal with the shame. She sighed and opened her eyes. She wasn't ready, and now all she'd done was make herself more aroused.

"I don't know what the fuck I'm doing," she murmured. "What are we doing?" She looked up to him for help.

"I know what I'm doing, and like I said, if you want me to help, you're going to need to ask. Got it?"

She saw the intensity in his eye and shrank a little, the tendril lifting and swaying at the memory of the spanking. He will spank you. You just need to ask. She shook a little and got herself under control.

He was sweating. "You need to focus on this work or it'll never get done." He paused, his eyes boring into her. "You ready to help or do you need to ask me something?"

She unconsciously moved her hands to her butt, feeling the prickliness on her skin. If she didn't get her act together, he'd bend her over his knee regardless. She shook her head. "Okay. Okay." She took a breath, straightening her legs, wiping her finger on her waist. Wasted. I feel wasted. And so horny. I've never felt this way...Her head was swimming, her thoughts jumbled. Jesus Christ. I just played with myself in front of him! "It's almost 7:30. You don't want to work much longer. Should we call it a day?" Seeing him shake his head, she nodded. "OK. What can I do?"

"Maybe," he said as if he regretted it, "maybe it would help if you put some clothes on..."

She laughed and it broke the spell. "Really?" She looked at him to make sure he meant it and nodded. "Maybe so. I'll be right back."

He was moving one of the long boards onto the table saw when she joined him, wearing a light t-shirt and shorts. He could see her breasts every time she bent to help him; he figured she wasn't wearing underwear either. He cursed under his breath and focused.

"Okay. I'm going to miter the edges of all four boards that will be the frame. We don't have a lot of room to maneuver the long ones, so we'll get those two done first." He guided her to help him put one of the long boards across the saw horses, and clamped the board down. "Hold that end so the thing doesn't torque. He grabbed the cross-cut saw. She watched as he carefully moved the blade up to the wood and then held tight as the saw caught the wood. He moved with one gliding motion all the way through, the saw singing slightly when it released. The corner of wood dropped to a tarp with a light clunk.

They switched places and repeated the process on the other end, although with the board clamped at both ends there wasn't much for her to do. And then with the other board. He picked up a third board, looked at it and picked up a different one. Grabbing a tape he measured several others and finally found one he liked.

"I'm going to cut this into two pieces," he kept a running patter as he measured and marked the board, "so you can hold that end." He cut the piece in half. They were standing almost within arm's length. "Okay. Help me keep it in place." He swung the board she'd been holding to miter the other end, and then flipped and trimmed the other piece.

"Okay! There's the frame."

She looked at the wood and realized the light had shifted. "What time is it now?" She could have looked at her phone, but that would mean taking off her gloves.

"8:05. It's late, but we...we fucked around a bit, and I want to show you how to drill those holes so you can get that going tomorrow. The sanding will have to wait." He looked around. "Can you grab one of the lights from downstairs while I set things up?"

She nodded and dashed down to the basement stairs where she'd seen a tripod and light setup. Careful around the open walls along the stair she carried it up to the kitchen, stopped to grab two waters and holding the whole mess as best she could, worked her way back upstairs.

"Thanks," he said, grabbing the water from her. "I really think it's supposed to be cooler tomorrow." He took a long drink and wiped his forehead. "Could you plug it in?"

With the lamp on, the room took on a very different tone. The yellow light, harsh and bright, threw dark shadows into the corner, but the wood floor lit up, reflecting back gold highlights. Cos had set up some kind of contraption attached to a drill that he'd placed near the saw horse. He held the chalk line and nodded for her to come help him. "Just hold it there, where I marked the end." He snapped the line. He removed the board and picked up the other one. They repeated the process. "Hold that end of the tape for a sec." He moved down the chalk line quickly marking the board with a pencil. Pulling the tape away, he picked up a metal L-shaped ruler and moved quickly down the board, marking the opposite line. She couldn't believe how fast he moved, his muscles smooth and fluid. "Okay. One more time." She placed her end of the tape and she watched him repeat the process, noticing a cool breeze moving through the room. Maybe it would cool down finally.