Protégé

It was yet another in a long list of random things I do - on the Sunday afternoon I had been bored and before I knew it, I had pressed the 'Proceed to Checkout' button on a bass and bass effects pedal. It felt like trying to play steel hawsers after my acoustic, but once again I had done something I had always wanted to do and another piece in the jigsaw that I now thought of a the 'real' Hannah was firmly in place.

And at least now I had something else to do with my fingers of an evening, though my soft little clittie was much easier to get a sweet tune out of than the guitar.

On the Wednesday lunchtime, I decided to go for a coffee in the town square after my latest tattoo. It was my tiny unicorn and hadn't taken long. I sat outside sipping my latte and tapping at my phone, my back to the bustle of the lunchtime crowds.

I jumped as I heard a quiet, Cornish voice in my ear. "Been looking all over town for you since the other day."

I turned to see Meryn standing over me, her vape pen in hand. Vapour escaped her pursed lips and there was an amused look on her face. "Would you like to see the original sometime?"

I gazed up at her in disbelief. I recalled her kissing Angelina and wanted to pull her down onto me. Instead, with my voice tight in my throat, I nodded. "Yes please."

She took another pull. Did she know I'd been watching? She couldn't, surely? She inclined her head towards the Gallery and her hair fell over her eye. "Friday - one o'clock?"

Longing to kiss her right there in front of everyone, I took a deep breath. "Ok."

She merely turned on her heel and I watched her walk away across the square, leather skirt tight to her buttocks, attracting gazes from women and men as vapour plumed upwards. I sat shell-shocked, barely able to think straight and once more it was a very long afternoon.

I had plenty of annual leave waiting, so I took the day off. I wanted Meryn to see the new me, not the old one. I spent most of the morning trying to get my make-up just right - subtle enough without going too far over the top. I decided on my silver crop top. It was raining, so I could cover it until I got to the gallery. After that I didn't care. I loved the way the sleeves puffed out to the elbows and were then tight to my forearms. There were little bands that led from cuffs between my second and third fingers to keep them tight at the wrists and it just felt so sexy. I carefully arranged my hair into a thick ponytail and let it hang down over one shoulder. I added the red ribbon for effect.

I decided against the pub this time. I needed all my faculties intact. My heart racing, I walked up to the gallery to find the door locked and the sign set to 'Angelfire is Closed for the Day'. As my heart sank, I heard a stage-whisper from above me. "Round the back..."

I looked up to see Meryn gazing down at me from an upstairs window. Her eyes widened for a moment as she indicated an alley to the side of the Gallery and by the time I found my way through it, she was waiting. It was hardly the warm welcome I was expecting. She merely said, "Hi," and led me up to the apartment above the gallery.

She took my coat and pointed through to a small living room. "In there - just be a minute." I went in and stood looking out over the town square. It seemed strange to see it from this angle after so long.

She returned with two beers and handing me one, gestured to me with the other bottle. "You look... different."

I took her offering even though I am not keen on beer. "Thanks. Erm, yeah... I felt I needed a change." I was confused by her almost indifference. It seemed like she had changed her mind about me being there. She didn't reply and I felt like crying. I took a drink and winced at the bitterness of it. "Look, I'll go if there's a problem." I indicated my new attire. "Sorry if you don't like it, but I do..."

"Why did you do it Hannah?"

I was again taken aback by the firmness in her voice. "Because... because this is who I want to be. Who I'm meant to be..." I tailed off almost in tears.

"You remember the other week - I said you were a natural beauty?"

I bit my lip and nodded. I was so afraid I had blown it.

"Then you do... this. She gestured to me almost dismissively.

I hung my head. "Sorry..."

She let out a bark of a laugh. "Sorry? Fucking sorry?" It was the first time I had heard any emotion in her voice.

Tears now welled up. "I'll go..."

She put a hand on my arm. "Don't." She tipped the beer bottle to her lips and swilled down half the contents. She sounded almost pleading. "Fucking hell, you were beautiful before, Hannah."

"Am I not now?" I sounded choked.

She took a deep breath. "I don't know what you are Hannah. It's beyond words." She put her bottle down on the table and took me by the shoulders. "When I saw you in the Gallery, I thought you were lovely but that a few little tweaks would make you spectacular." She tilted her head and pointed towards the window. "When you looked up at me from down there and I saw those little tweaks, my heart nearly stopped." She spun me round on the spot then let me go and walked around me twice, trailing a fingernail around my bare shoulders. I felt a shudder deep within.

She stepped back and shook her head. "Holy fucking hell, she's real. It's not a dream." She reached her hands up again and gently held me by the shoulders once more. I felt myself being reeled in. Her eyes were burning into mine, her full lips parting. Her hands went up to the back of my neck and she let out a little moan as she tilted my head forward. My mouth was now opening, desperate for that first touch. Both of her lips closed on my bottom lip and she sucked gently. I was vaguely aware I had dropped the beer bottle as my arms slid around her. Clamped together like limpets, she walked me backwards for three or four ungainly steps and pulled me down on the sofa.

I have no idea how long we were there, but it was quite simply the best time of my life. Every kiss felt as if her entire soul was being poured into me. I tried to reciprocate the intensity of it, match my hands to the cadence she was leading with. Neither of us said a word and we flowed over each other like oil on water; lips, tongues, hands, thighs caressing.

As she finally began to peel my crop-top over my head I found my voice, although it sounded like someone else entirely. "I thought you were going to show me the picture."

She finished her job before she spoke, her fingers tweaking my nipples gently. I was really too big to be bra-less, but I had made an exception. "It's not here - the picture I mean."

I felt a frisson of disappointment. "Oh, you said you'd show me."

She kissed me on the nose. "What I said was, 'would you like to see the original sometime?'" She began to unbutton her black shirt. Two buttons down, she grinned at me. "Fuck it, it's an old one..." She put her hands to the collar and ripped it open revealing lovely conical, pink-tipped breasts with silvery bars through the nipples. I giggled as buttons flew everywhere. Her tattoo was now fully visible and I couldn't wait to examine it in more detail. She removed what was left of her shirt and turned her back to me slightly.

"The picture is in the private collection of the lady whose hands were on my breasts." She smiled over her shoulder at me. "If you want to see it, we're going to have to re-create it - right here, right now."

An hour and a half later I lay in her arms still trembling slightly. Every atom of my being was glowing. From the moment she closed her mouth on my bottom lip, I knew it was going to be special. When we recreated the picture and I felt her nipple bars beneath my palms, the nipples themselves hardening at my touch, I felt all of my alienation and loneliness fade away. She said she'd take it gently with me, but I was firm with her. "No, Meryn - do whatever you want - I'm a big girl. I may not be experienced, but I learn fast."

By the time we finished, I knew this version of Hannah was the person I wanted to be, and Meryn Trego was the person I wanted to be with her.

Then I recalled Angelina telling her she loved her and felt a little pang of fear in my gut. Where did I fit in? Was I just going to be a one-afternoon stand? All of my fears followed that first little pang down from my brain into my tummy like rats following the Pied Piper. I let out an involuntary little sob.

She stroked my hair. "Hey, you ok?"

I felt a tear trickle down my cheek. "Just don't want this to end. It's so beautiful."

She took my hand and kissed my fingertips. "I'm sorry about before Hannah - it's rare I'm lost for words, but you literally took my breath away. I could hardly breathe; barely speak. I still can't believe it." She kissed me tenderly. "So why should it end?"

I closed my eyes and sniffed. "You and Angelina."

She looked at me puzzled and shook me gently. "Hey, what about us?"

It was confession time and I felt wretched. I was so scared I'd be out in the rain in the town square within minutes; my blissful bubble burst by my own stupidity. In a faltering voice, I explained that Angelina was my new neighbour and after talking to her, I'd heard her on the phone to Meryn.

"Then I saw you in the garden... the two of you together... making love..."

There was a little smile on her lips. "Yeah, and?"

I sounded sulky. "I felt jealous. I wanted to be there..."

She laughed and tweaked my nose. "You little spy! Should have come down!"

Now I really did begin to cry. "I so wanted to, but I heard her tell you on the phone that she loved you..." I trailed off into a bout of sobbing and sniffing.

She wiped my tears gently. "Hey, don't let that lovely make-up run - I've got plenty more gazing into those amazing eyes to do before we're finished here!"

I started to say something but she interrupted me and put a finger to my lips.

"Shush! Let me finish, Hannah. I've known Angel since I was sixteen. She's been my mentor, my lover, my boss, my best friend ever since. Of course we love each other, but as old friends do. We see who we want when we want. Sometimes that's us, sometimes there's others. We're more than fuckbuddies but we're not exclusive. She's very special to me, but not... significant, if you get me."

Letting me go, she sat up, gazing out of the window onto the still rainy square. She pulled on her vape pen and sighed. "I could do with someone significant, but I'd never found the right person."

She was silent for a good thirty seconds before she turned and took my face in her hands. "At least until around two hours ago I hadn't."

I felt euphoric and slid an arm around her waist. "Was that someone me by any chance?"

She shook her now tousled hair and put on a full Cornish accent. "No, o'course t'weren't you. T'were some little blonde tart I saw crossin' the square when you were shoutin' up at me window like a fucking drunken fish-wife!"

I pouted but was laughing inside. "I didn't shout or even speak actually. But ok, I'll go then - have fun with her!"

She looked at me with such love in her eyes I nearly cried. "Oh sweet Hannah - you're the one I want to have fun with." She stroked my face. "Hannah, me and Angel and our friends do things differently. There's no rules, no restrictions, no jealousies. I want nothing more in this world than for you to be with me, but there will be others." She laughed. "Both sexes too - sometimes together - we're not fussy!" She paused, now serious. "I know we've really just met, but I'd be made up if you took a chance on me knowing the way I am."

I didn't even have to think. Once I had seen the drawing of her, I was smitten. Once I had seen her with Angelina I was infatuated. Now I had been with her I was sure I was in love. Far better to go with it than to never have tried it. Fifty, sixty, seventy percent of Meryn Trego was better than none at all. Besides, I'd never get to live out the fantasy of my own latest sketch if I said no.

I knelt up beside her. "Do I get to fuck Angel?"

She narrowed her eyes. "You only get to call her that once you've fucked her and earned the right, so it's Angelina to you for the moment girl." She then grinned. "And yes you do, but only if I'm there to watch!"

Around six o'clock we lay once more in post-coital bliss, my head on her chest tattoo. Meryn looked down at me. "Hannah, don't suppose you'd like to go out with me sometime? Maybe a drink down the pub followed by a curry?"

Smiling inwardly, I deadpanned back at her. "Yeah, sounds cool. Free tonight if you're on. What about after the curry?"

She held her hands up. "Dunno, we could think of something. Movie? Nightclub?"

"Don't like the movies - that popcorn smell makes me feel sick. And clubs - nah, boring. Never play heavy metal or folk."

"Oh right. That's them ruled out then."

"Tell you what, why don't we come back here and fuck our dizzy little brains out?"

She got up out of bed for the first time in almost five hours and held her hand out to me. "Yeah, I suppose that might work!"

Six

I was so disappointed that she had to go up to London the next day, but it was wonderful waking up beside someone else for the first time. Angelina was already up there for some award ceremony and Meryn was joining her later.

I spent the rest of the weekend in a euphoric daze, playing my bass until my fingers were sore, then playing somewhere else until something more delicate was sore. I sketched and drew and every picture I produced involved Miss Hannah Andrews and Miss Meryn Trego in some form of sexual congress. My favourite was the one that depicted our first kiss - her slightly fuller, purple lips enfolding my dark-red lower one, our noses rubbing together gently. There were many more and I sat looking at them for hours as I relived our blissful evening together.

Three days later, we Christened my little single bed and clung onto each other for dear life to stop one or the other falling out. To lie across the bed in which I had fantasised for so long about doing incredible things with beautiful people was beyond my wildest dreams. I felt tears of joy trickle down my face as she knelt and lapped at me in my adapted leggings, the sleekness of them rubbing across her back as she worked. She was going into the boutique the next day for her own pair and I was looking forward to adapting them for her.

I had finally got to examine her tattoo in detail and it was truly beautiful; so delicate and almost organic. I had been surprised to find she was not more heavily inked, with only a lovely pair of twined vines up her left arm and two sets of words on her tummy. I spent a long time tracing those words with my fingernails.

From just above her right hip bone to her bellybutton was inscribed, 'Life is for living and life is for loving...' I traced it and put a kiss on the end as a full stop. Then I traced the words that led from the other side of her pierced button to her left hip. 'Love life to the fullest but love me more.' I had gazed up at her and nodded. "I do, Meryn."

As I had examined her chest tattoo, she pointed to the centre of it and I could see something beneath the filigree laciness of it. "Salutary lesson in never getting some lover's name inked on you! Lasted all of three months and I had her name on me for life. Not even sure if I like it, but it covers her fucking name up if nothing else!"

I stroked it with my nails. "I like it, Meryn."

As we lay entwined, I plucked up the courage to tell her about the drone. I hate secrets and just had to tell her. I didn't know how she'd react, but fifteen minutes later she was purring as I played her back the grainy footage that showed her slowly grinding on Angelina's strap-on. She cuddled me in. "Blimey, you're a naughty little dark horse! I love being watched and being spied on is even sexier!"

We then made love with Marcus's drone hovering above my little bed and she vape-kissed me like she had done to Angelina. I thought I'd never stop coming. We replayed it, giggling to each other before I deleted it and the footage of the earlier Saturday.

Then I showed her my sketchbook. After half an hour of almost silent study, she turned to me. "Hannah, why are you working in that fucking dead end office?"

"History."

"What?"

"My Mum is a solicitor. She used to work there and got me the job."

"What a fucking waste, my lovely." She flicked through the pages once more. "Hannah, this is quality stuff. You've got a rare talent, babe. That picture of our first kiss - there are private clients of Angel's who would pay a fucking arm and a leg for it!"

I smiled and stroked her face. "I just draw."

"No - you capture a moment. That's the talent, kid." She pointed at the page. "That is the moment, frozen in time." She opened the book at random and indicated an almost manga-like picture of a gawky, angular me with long raven hair and a short black skirt over ripped fishnets. "How old were you then?"

"Dunno, probably fourteen?"

"Any lessons?"

"Uh-oh. Just started and never stopped!"

She took my chin in her hands. "You gotta show her, Hannah. Fucking lawyer's clerk? Forget that shit, you've got a natural talent. Promise me you'll show her?"

I looked down, unable to process what she was saying. "I dunno..."

"Hannah!" She shook me gently. "This is way better than the stuff I was producing at your age after countless courses and with four years of Angel mentoring me. It knocks some of her own erotica into a fucking cocked hat." She put my book down on the bed, picked up her vape pen and tapped the cover with her knuckles. "Right - that's settled then. Now let me inspire you to draw another beautiful Hannah Andrews original!

Seven

I might have known Meryn would set me up. The timing was so perfect, it had to have been arranged. Two days after her telling me to show my drawings to Angelina, I was getting off the bus at five-thirty when Angelina blew by in a swirl of black silk. "Oh hello, Hannah darling. Glad I caught you. Pop round at eight, my sweet - bring your little sketchbooks. Look forward to seeing them. Lovely night, so meet you in the garden - I'll leave the side gate open."

I looked at her retreating back as she headed into the village pub. As she had done when we met over our garden fence, she waved to me over her shoulder. "Laters!"

Angered, I quickly phoned Meryn on my way home. "Merry, did you-"

"Course I did, Hann babes. Brill stuff like that needs an audience and she's the best fucking audience in the south of England."

My anger dissipated, thrilled that someone was looking out for me for once. "Thanks Meryn."

"Did you do the one with the vape pen yet?"

"Yeah..."

"Great - go knock her dead, girl!"

I was nervous as hell, but I took a selection of sketches from my book - it was a ring binder so they came out easily. There were a few new ones I had done knowing this day may come - not erotica, but versions of the stuff I had done with Lillie and Marcus; making them generic kids and not my brother and sister. I showed these to Angelina first.

We were sitting in her garden, a huge jug of Pimms on the table between us, my glass barely touched I was so nervous. Angelina was in a voluminous black gauzy skirt, the same top I had seen Meryn peel back what seemed like a lifetime ago, and a leather waistcoat similar to my new purchase. I was in my leggings and a t-shirt and if she noticed the difference, she had not batted an eyelid.

She studied the one I had adapted from Lillie playing with an abacus. It was one of my favourites and I was dreading an adverse reaction.

"Any reason you chose the over the shoulder angle?"

I had decided to be completely honest - with her experience she would see through any lies in an eye-blink. "I didn't even think about it. I just started drawing."