Pygmalion

"It's embarrassing," he quietly hissed.

She reddened. "You're ashamed of me. That's what it is, isn't it?"

He was adamant. "No, it's not. If I worked in an office or a factory you wouldn't be able to just come along and see me whenever you wanted. It wouldn't be allowed."

"But you don't work in one of those places," she countered angrily.

"No," he agreed. "But I might have done."

Ariadne momentarily perplexed by Cedric's confused logic paused just a second. "Well, then," she said. "I suppose I'd better be going then."

"Why?" he asked. "Do you have to?"

She smiled. "It was you trying to get rid of me, remember?"

"It wasn't."

"You were."

"I said if I worked in an office or a factory I wouldn't mind you coming."

She sensed the source of his problem. "Cedric you must never be embarrassed because of what you do. Sweeping roads may not hold much charisma, but it's honest and it's decent. Other jobs might seem more glamorous, but if they weren't honest or decent I would despise you if you were doing one of them."

He beamed. "Why did you come?"

"I wanted to tell you something."

"Yes?"

"I was at home, and I got to thinking, and I think I love you."

"You think so?"

"Yes."

He stopped sweeping, and pulled his yellow sou' wester a little lower over his head. "I think I love you too," he said.

She smiled.

"Ariadne," he added. "If you still want to, you know, fuck. I think I would like to try."

"You really want to?" she asked, a tear appearing in her eye.

"I've always wanted to. How could I not want to when you're so, so attractive. But to do it when you were so desperate and were only doing it to keep a roof over your head, that would have been taking advantage. I couldn't do that. I would have been making you into a dancer again."

"You are very sweet," she sighed. "And if you don't take me somewhere private very quickly and fuck me, I'm going embarrass you by raping you in the street."

They ran laughing back to Ropey Mansions. Cedric had left his broom in the care of the environmentally colored bags of leaves by the side of the road.

He threw open the front door of his apartment and took her into his arms squeezing her tightly. "I never thought I could love you so much," he said.

She pushed him back, first into the bedroom, then on to the bed. "I want to undress you," she said. "Then I would very much like you to undress me."

As he lay on the bed she pulled his sweater over his head, kissing him full on the lips as she held his arms immobile within the arms of the sweater. Her tongue reached out inside his mouth, insistently, demanding. She pulled his arms out of the sweater and then began unbuttoning his shirt.

"How many men have you had?" he asked, a little hesitantly.

"More than I can count," she replied openly. She added anxiously, stopping mid button. "Does that bother you?"

"Only that you will consider me very inferior in comparison."

She placed her hand gently over his lips. "No comparison," she said. "I fucked the others because I was paid to. I'm fucking you because I love you. If you're a lousy fucker, then I'll show you how to do better. I can teach someone how to fuck, but I can't teach them to love me."

She had continuing unbuttoning his shirt, kissing him gently across his chest. She then undid his pants, helping the erection it contained to escape. "It feels very nice," she said, wrapping her fingers round its girth.

"It's not very large," he apologized.

"No," she agreed. "But plenty large enough to give a girl a good time. You don't want to believe all you hear. A very large cock can make a girl very uncomfortable." And it grew an extra inch on hearing that.

She pulled his things down his legs. "Now," she said. "Would you like to unwrap your present?"

He shyly unfastened the buttons of her dress. "Tell me how you feel," she murmured.

"I feel an incredible lust," he whispered. "And that's you, doing that to me. My chest feels tight: it's hard to breathe and my skin feels prickly and very sensitive." She grinned in satisfaction and began to stroke his chest with the back of one hand and his cock with the back of the other. He gasped.

"Would you like some help?" she asked, noticing that he seemed momentarily at a loss as to how to unfasten the bra. She placed his hand on the clasp at her back. "Push the two sides gently together," she directed. "Being very careful that you don't pinch. Most girls will complain if you pinch."

The bra came loose and he let the cups fall from off her breasts. He stared at them in wonderment. "Kiss them," she said. "Kiss my nipples and make them go as hard as your cock. Yes, that's right, let your tongue, yes please, do that again, flick with your tongue as you suck."

While he sucked at one of her tits, he gently rolled the nipple of the other, so lightly, between his fingers. Her breathing quickened as he continued with his ministrations. Then he swapped, using his mouth on her second breast while caressing the first.

He looked up for a moment, staring into the face. Her eyes were glazed, her breathing rapid, the palms of her hands were pressed firm against the bed. She stared vacantly back at him.

"Please don't pull down my knickers," she said. But her voice was different. She was not somehow talking to him, but almost, to someone else.

He was confused. "Why not?" he asked.

"Please don't. I don't want you to pull down my knickers."

"Then how are we supposed to do it?" he protested, more with frustration than anger.

"Do what you must, but you can't, you mustn't you, please don't pull them down."

There was something about the way she was speaking. She was frightened, yet she wasn't frightened. She was stopping him verbally, but becoming extremely excited physically. A light began to flicker. He thought he understood.

"How dare you lead me on," he said coldly. "And then tell me what I can and can't do. Your knickers are coming off..."

"No," she gasped.

"And then I will do with you precisely as I desire." She pushed down into the bed covers with the palms of her hands as though fighting imaginary restraints. Her eyes were shut and Cedric sensed she was very close to coming. He looked at her knickers, her sex barely hidden. They were so delicate. "I will not pull down your knickers,"

"Thank you," she murmured softly.

"Instead I will tear them from you." She began to gasp as he took hold of the fragile material, her breathing was uncontrolled, her mouth barely open, she clutched the covers in her hands. Cedric was jubilant. He was making her come, and he hadn't even entered her yet. He kept his hold on the side of the panties, allowing the threat to take full effect. Then with a single violent pull he tore them from her. First, the thin band at her side snapped, followed immediately by a shriek of splintering yarn as the panel covering her pubis was rent apart. He then took hold of the other panty leg and pulled that with an equally brutal force. This also snapped and he held her ruined knickers in his hand.

Her pussy was naked and quivering and accessible. Besides she wore a little tattoo, showing a pair of cherries. He pushed her legs apart opening her to his scrutiny. As he revealed her glistening jewel there was no doubting her arousal. It was obvious that she was both wet and willing.

He directed his own swollen member towards her, seeming to lose his way during the journey. She reached down and taking hold of his cock guided it into her pussy. He felt it engage and allowed it to gently sink inside.

"Oh yes," she gasped beginning to spasm again. "Please, that's good." She wrapped her legs about him and clasped him tight as she came a second time even before he had managed to fully penetrate her.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes." she kept repeating as her orgasm began to subside. She held him tight and then kissed him repeatedly on the face.

He carefully controlled his movements, in and out, watching her face for reaction. Noticing how she would wet her ruby lips with her tongue.

Suddenly she squeezed him tight with her cunt and began to constrict; he felt that she was going to crush him. For a moment he stopped moving, simply sensing the sensations created by her constricting muscles. She was a pythoness, crushing its prey. Suddenly, he knew he was losing control, he was beginning to come, beginning to spurt, and he rocked back and forth inside her as he savored the moment of ecstasy. The sensation of his semen spurting inside her sent her also over the edge for a final time. She dug her fingers into his shoulders and pulled him across her sensitized breasts, relishing the sensation as the course hair of his chest rubbed her nubs, setting her nipples on fire. She squeezed out the last drop of his juice with the muscles of her cunt, then sank back satiated.

She regarded him dreamily as he collapsed upon her. "You were great, whatever were you frightened of. I've waited for that for a long time. You even reacted to my little fantasy. I hoped you would. It didn't disturb you did it?"

He shook his head. At that moment life was perfect and nothing could disturb him.

*****

The following week flew by. Somehow it seemed as though Ariadne had always been there. The next Thursday, as usual, Cedric had left by the time Ariadne awoke. She washed, dressed herself and then collected the post from the front door. There was only one letter, in a buff colored envelope from the Electricity Company. Having opened it to discover a blue printed document, she remembered the file of similar letters in the sitting room. She opened the bottom drawer of the wall unit and placed it atop the others. But as she was about to close it, something gleaming caught her eye. She moved the pile of papers slightly to discover a sparkling ring lying in an open box. It was golden with a single diamond sitting in its mount. Slowly she picked it up and looked at it, and it seemed natural somehow to try it on her left hand.

Cedric returned home that day at just after five. As usual the lift was out of order and he was forced to ascend the stairs. He stepped indoors, and immediately his heart fell. By the wall cabinet was a statue, a marvelous awe-inspiring sculpture, a piece of cold marble that sent a chill down Cedric's spine, for he knew it well. He had shaped it. As he crossed to the statue there were tears in his eyes. He looked at the beautiful detail in the classical face. Then he noticed its hand, the left hand, and there was another stone that he recognized, on the fourth finger, one that he had bought the previous day, and it was a diamond.

*****

Cedric didn't bother to prepare himself anything to eat. It didn't seem worth it. He sat in an armchair completely stunned, and constantly aware of the ominous statue before him, standing there like death itself.

"Is this heaven?" a shadow seemed to say from behind the curtains.

"But I'm Ariadne," came a whisper from the kitchen. She was everywhere, the apartment breathed her. Yet before him stood a white eerie block of cold silence that hung a dank presence throughout the gloomy room.

She had been a miracle, Cedric had never doubted that, but he had never imagined that miracles were only temporary, given on the never-never and able to be repossessed if you didn't keep up with the installments. Perhaps that is why they are now so infrequent: no one can any longer afford whatever it is that they cost.

He took a sheet from her room, he still called it that, from the bedroom, still immaculately tidy, and draped it over the statue, a sign of finality; it seemed apt, for her eyes had followed him everywhere.

He could not stand that. Then he sat down again in the armchair and found that the sheet failed to make any difference.

"I didn't ask you to make a statue of me," the shadows said, as she had said, for everywhere was memory.

Cedric moved the statue back into the bedroom, it was heavy, but he was used to it, and it didn't take long.

The door knocked. Cedric felt reluctant to answer, he wanted to be left alone, but the visitor was insistent, beating again on the knocker.

It was Burt, he discovered as he opened up, who didn't wait to be invited in, pushing past Cedric into the living room.

"Ariadne came to see me this morning," Burt said in introduction, looking awkward and uncomfortable as he sat down. Cedric was impassive.

"I take it she's gone."

"Her statue is in the bedroom," Cedric stated matter-of-factly.

"She wanted me to explain," Burt said. "Why it had to be so sudden. And how she felt. I think it would have upset her too much to tell you herself."

"She knew it was going to happen," Cedric asked, but it was a statement of fact.

"Yes, she knew. Originally she was only supposed to come to life for one day, anyway. But during that first day something unplanned happened, she surprised herself and found she liked it here. That she liked you."

"And I'm supposed to believe that?"

"It's what she told me herself."

"Then she was being kind."

Burt was thoughtful. "You don't think much of yourself, do you, Cedric? No, she was telling the truth. Oh she agreed that you're short, that you're not much to look at, and that you can be a bit of an ass in a lot of ways."

Cedric scowled morosely. "Thanks. I can see why she didn't want to tell me this herself."

"But she said that you were kind, entertaining and caring."

Cedric looked up and laughed at him in cynical scorn. "I'll be getting my handkerchief out in a minute. This is becoming a right sob story."

Burt cut back. "Oh shut up," he said. "Why don't you stop wallowing in a mire of self pity and sit up and realize she loves you."

"Sure."

"Which is why she had to return. Because she didn't want to hurt you any more than she had already done."

Cedric regarded him with a disinterested suspicion. "You're making all this up"

"I'm making a mess of explaining what she told me," confessed Burt. "I know that. But it isn't easy. Do you want to hear the rest or not?"

"Go on," Cedric sighed.

"She wanted me to tell you why she came. You see, it was thought that you were becoming a little too dependent on that statue."

"Thought? By whom?"

"So, as a cure, the statue was brought to life. Just for a day, as I said. So that you could see that even Ariadne was fallible, that she had a character of her own that would have to be lived with. And then you wouldn't idolize her quite so much. But that's not quite what happened. The two of you fell in love, who would have believed it, two such different people, that's not what was expected."

"Sorry to have disappointed you. But quit stalling. Who thought all this out?"

Burt squirmed visibly. "Me. And a couple of mates down at the Green Lion." And of course, Nina."

"Who I take it until recently has been known as Ariadne?"

The caretaker nodded dumbly.

"So it's all been an enormous practical joke," Cedric stated quietly. "What a hilarious time you've all been having at my expense. Her included. What a fool I must have made of myself."

"But it wasn't like that," Burt protested.

"Then how was it? I'm afraid it won't work a second time. Even I'm not that stupid. I think I'd rather you left."

"All right," Burt continued persevering. "So maybe it was a bit of a laugh at first. But not for long. Nina needed a place to stay. She was determined to leave the game and her pimp was going to put the frighteners on her. This solved a problem for her and we all felt it would solve one for you too. But she got more and more of a conscience. And when she saw the ring she couldn't keep up the pretense any longer."

"Please go."

Burt suddenly seemed to find a loose thread on his coat, and apparently missed Cedric's instruction in his concerted endeavor of removing it.

"She wants to see you," he said.

"Down at the pub, I suppose," Cedric said bitterly. "Where you can all have another good laugh. Or does she want me to go to her brothel so she can tout for custom."

"That isn't fair. She'd already decided to leave that life behind. No, as I told you, she's sorry. It would be on your own. At a cafe, she said. I don't know where, but she said that you would."

"She'll have a long wait," Cedric muttered.

Burt continued. "She said she'll wait there until eight. If you could find it within your heart to try again."

Neither moved. Burt waited anxiously for a reaction. "Well," he asked.

"I think I'd rather you went," Cedric said. "You've been a good messenger boy and said all you were supposed to say. Now, please go. Before I say something I'd rather I hadn't"

Burt hesitated, then got up and walked to the door. Cedric sat in his chair motionless, still, like one of his statues. "Close the door behind you," he said emotionlessly.

As the front door clicked shut Cedric got up and crossed to the bedroom. He looked at the statue and pulled off the sheet, folding it and placing it neatly back in the drawer. Ariadne held no charisma now; she was just a statue. He smiled, for the shadows were everywhere. As he was about to leave the room he paused, then returned for another carefully cut, highly polished stone, but not one made by him, for Cedric worked only with marble.