Sex Under Studio Lights

I sat up when she set the salad bowl on the table. "What are you going to play?"

Mom handed me the salad tongs. "You toss." She took her camera out of my hand. "I think I'll play photographer." She sighted the camera on me then pulled back to look at the screen. "You have the settings all screwed up." She set the camera down. "Do you need a salad plate? We could eat out of the bowl."

She sat down beside me, and we ate out of the bowl. Mom speared a slice of cucumber, and I dangled a piece of lettuce from my fork. "I talked to Aunt Deb this afternoon. She said you guys went out to dinner, but she wouldn't tell me much about it."

"We went to dinner and had a good time. Then we went to a bar and had a better time."

I swallowed the lettuce and made sure the next leaf had bacon chips with it. "She didn't mention a bar. Where'd you go."

"We hopped a couple bars downtown and ended up at The Red Zone." She was picking through the bowl and not looking at me.

"That bar is such a meat market."

That made her look up. "And this conversation could go places you don't want to be." She pulled a leaf out of the bowl with her fingers and watched me while she bit it and licked her fingers. "Deb thinks we need to have a more open and honest relationship."

I crunched on a slice of pepper, and speared some more leaves. "You and Deb? I thought you guys told each other everything."

"No, you and me. You and Deb, too." She gathered some baby spinach and looked at me over her fork before she slipped it into her mouth. "Would you have sex with Deb if she wanted it?"

I coughed into my hand. Something must have gone down the wrong way, but I recovered. "Why would you even ask that?"

Mom stopped chewing, and smiled at me with a bit of salad dressing in the corner of her lips. "Inquiring minds want to know. Deb asked me, but I was pretty sure she wouldn't ask you. In the interest of that open and honest relationship, are you going to answer?"

My face might have been as red as the cherry tomato between Mom's teeth. "In a flash. I'd do pretty much anything Deb wanted." I watched Mom swallow. "You're going to tell her that, aren't you."

"Of course I am." She found the tongs where I left them and tossed the salad again. "Too much of the good stuff is on the bottom."

"Is that what you did at the bar? Talk about me?"

Mom picked up a slice of avocado slathered in dressing. She looked at it for a moment then bit it in two. "We didn't talk about you at the bar. We talked about you on Sunday." She finished the slice and watched me pick through the bowl. "At the bar, we drank, we flirted, we danced. When it got late, neither of us went home alone."

For me, the conversation was way past weird. I speared a piece of apple, a cucumber, some carrot, and stuffed them in my mouth. "I'm surprised you found guys your age."

"We didn't. They were more like your age."

I stood up and had to grab the chair before it tipped over. Mom glanced at the chair then at me. "He did most everything right, too. He was just a little impatient. Deb's guy didn't work out as well. That's why we talked about you."

"Mom! What if I know him?"

"It's a big city." She motioned for me to sit again. "Don't get mad. I had sex with a guy your age. It's kinda the flip side of you having sex with Deb, and you said you'd do that."

I was jealous—so fucking jealous. I didn't understand why, but my cock was hard, and Mom's eyes were on the bulge in my jeans. "Aunt Deb wouldn't be a one-night stand," I said. "I mean, it was a one-night stand, right?"

"I'll never see him again. It wasn't really for the sex, anyway."

"What do you mean?" She was so nonchalant it confused me.

Mom sat back like she was done with the salad. "It was about feeling good about myself. I wanted to look good to someone."

"I already told you how good you look. I told you again like a few minutes ago."

I wasn't going to eat more, so Mom picked up the bowl and took it to the sink. "You might have just been telling me what I wanted to hear."

* * *

I faced Aunt Deb again over a beer on a sultry afternoon in August. My glass was still nearly full, and the head was flat. I was too busy talking to drink.

"I thought about what you said about Jen, and the more I thought about it, the more I felt like she was worse than baggage. She was a ticking bomb."

Deb raised her eyebrows to get me to go on. Unlike my beer, hers was half gone. "If we kept settling our differences by having sex, then someday all those unsettled problems were going to blow up in my face."

"Are you going to drink that?" Deb pointed at the beer. "You know, it's hard to predict the future, but I think you were probably right. What did you do?"

I laughed when I looked at my beer. "I guess I'm going on." I took a long drink and set it back on the coaster. "I thought I could make her talk. I took her out after work. We sat across a table kinda like this and I asked her things: 'What if I don't go to law school?', 'What if I don't want to get married right now?', 'What about kids?', 'What are you going to do?'

"She dodged all my questions. Then she looked up past me, waited for some girl to walk by, and flashed her tit at me. I mean, it was a pretty tit, but not the answer I wanted. 'We don't have to talk,' she said. 'I know what you need, and I know how you like it.'"

Deb put her glass down and smiled. "How was the goodbye sex? It was goodbye sex, right?"

"It was strange. I wasn't into it, but she wouldn't stop. She really thought it was going to make everything better." I took another drink to catch up with Deb. "She slept late like she usually does, and I pulled all her shit together and took it to my car. She was mad, now it's over, and work is awkward."

Deb ran her finger up the side of her glass to gather the condensation, and she sucked it off her finger. "Do you feel good about it? Are you OK?"

"I'm going to miss the sex." I sat back and watched Deb. She was gorgeous. Her silver hair fell to her shoulders in waves, and her shirt gaped enough to show cleavage. If I had any doubt that I'd have sex with her, then my cock cleared up the confusion. "You didn't call me to talk about Jen, did you?"

"I didn't, no. But I'm glad to hear about it. I think you'll eventually be happier without her." She ran her finger up the glass again and looked at me while she sucked a drop off her fingertip. "I agreed to help with an 'Art in Action' fundraiser at the Country Club. It's a meet-the-artists thing, dinner, and a silent auction.

"Five or six of us donated some work. Whatever 'Art in Action' makes from it goes to organizing a bigger event for emerging artists. That's the kind of thing that helped me a lot when I was trying to build a market.

"What are you doing Saturday night? I need an arm to hang on."

"I have a shift, but I can change it. Do I have to wear a suit?"

"The one you wore at Ron's memorial looked good." Deb tipped her glass up and finished most of her beer. "Joyce is going to be there, too. 'The City'—that magazine—is covering it, and I got them to hire your mom to shoot it. It'll be her first paying job. She'll probably be just as nervous as you are."

I didn't expect to be nervous. I wasn't nervous until I met Aunt Deb at her front door. "Holy shit, Deb! Did you take all day getting ready?" Her hair was done up on top of her head, her eyes shined from meticulously-done makeup, and her lips were deep red.

"You've been to my openings and receptions before. I'm sure." She wrapped her hand around my elbow and tugged me toward my car. "I don't want to run late. Do you like the outfit?" She wore a shimmering silver, cowl-necked top with a neckline that plunged past her breasts, and flared black pants that hugged her butt.

"It's making me glad I didn't wear sneakers with this suit." I helped her into my car, saw silver heels to match the top, and red nails to match her lips.

Deb sent a text as the guard waved us through the gate then slipped her phone back into her little black purse. "I let Joyce know we're here."

She stopped me after I helped her out of the car. She straightened my tie and smoothed my jacket. "I could tell people that you're my nephew, but I'm going to let them think you're my lover. I don't think a little scandal ever hurt an artist's career."

Mom's camera started flashing when we walked through the door. Deb laughed and waved to important friends, and I tried not to seem confused.

Everyone worked the room. Mom worked it with her camera while Deb pulled me with her and worked it with a martini in her hand. Mom used her real estate agent charm to manipulate people into good light, and the flash of her camera punctuated the conversations. I tried to work with Deb while she laughed at jokes told by rich donors and let them think what they would about me.

There was an agenda. I found it by the door. First came the mixer, then the artists' presentations. The silent auction went on while we had dinner, and when the night was over, everything was sold.

The crowd started to thin, and Deb and I sat down. Mom settled into the third seat at our table. She stretched her legs and sighed. "That took a little more out of me than I thought it would." She gave me a sharp look. "How are you doing?"

She was asking about Jen, but I was done talking about Jen. "I got my official acceptance letter from the University Law School, what, like Wednesday I guess.

"I pitched it into the wastebasket then went back and dug it out again. That's a bridge I can't burn yet. I have to talk to Dad. Whatever I do is going to be easier if he helps."

"Henry's been good to you." She turned away to talk with Deb. "I might get a couple new jobs out of this. I'm going to meet with Sly McCarthy and his wife about some kind of party, and Heidi Carlton wants pictures of her dogs."

I stopped listening and took a deep dive into Aunt Deb's cleavage. She knew where my eyes went, and she straightened her back with her hands on the table to let me see.

Deb interrupted. She laughed at me and told Mom, "It's kind of— interesting, the way your son's looking at me." I guess that was just in case Mom hadn't already noticed.

Mom rolled her eyes at Deb. "Men have been staring at your cleavage all night. I might have a hard time finding pictures of you without some old guy face-planted in your blouse. Now it's interesting?"

"Now it's Eric."

I licked my lips and looked up at Deb. "What would happen if that blouse just slipped off your shoulder a little?"

Deb's eyes flicked around and stopped on a huge aquarium that separated the room from the narrow service entrance. She looked at Mom. "You have your camera? Of course, you have your camera." She grabbed my hand and pulled me with her. "Come on, and we'll find out."

Mom followed us while Aunt Deb dragged me behind the aquarium. She had a naughty smile on her red lips, and a twinkle in her bright eyes when she tugged her blouse off one shoulder and cupped her hand under her bare breast.

"Oh, God, Deb!" It was all I could say. Her breast was full and smooth, and her nipple stood up from her light-colored areola like it was excited to see me.

Mom's camera flashed, and Deb kept her eyes on the room behind me. Her smile didn't change. She peeled her blouse off the other shoulder, and bared both of her beautiful, symmetric twins.

I reached to touch her, and Deb waited until I rolled her stiffened nipple under my thumb before she pushed my hand away. Mom's camera flashed, and flashed again.

Deb laughed at my expression and pulled her top together. She looked at Mom and flipped her hand toward me. "I think he liked it." She and Mom laughed all the way back to the table. A few people still left in the room looked at us curiously, but it seemed like no-one saw what happened.

Mom handed me the camera, and Deb watched over my shoulder while I flipped through the pictures of her smile, of her bare breasts, and of my intrigued expression. I felt the touch of Deb's tits against my arm. Her breath was warm on my ear.

"Maybe I'm more of an exhibitionist than I thought." Deb's lips brushed my cheek. "That was fun, but I think I've had all the martinis I want, and it's time to go."

Mom took her camera back and checked the time. "It's still early for me. I have two bottles of wine in the fridge, and the new hot tub is waiting for us."

Deb nudged me. "You're coming, too." It wasn't a question.

"I'm going to get out of this suit before I get there."

Deb left with Mom, and I found them in the tub, with wine glasses in hand and just their bare shoulders above the water. They were talking when I got there, but they stopped to watch me drop my shirt and peel my jeans off over my swim trunks.

Mom held her nearly-empty wine glass up, and I took her hint. I found the wine bottle and refilled their glasses, and I tried to make out their bodies under the water while I poured. What I didn't see was the most interesting. I didn't see bathing suits.

Deb slipped over close beside me when I climbed into the tub. Her breath was scented with chardonnay. "You might have been able to tell before you climbed in, that Joyce and I are both naked. Shouldn't you be naked, too?"

I settled my arm around Debs shoulder then slipped it down her side and over her hip. Her body was smooth and sleek, and there wasn't a strap or a scrap of fabric on her. Mom watched me while she sipped her wine, and she tickled my foot with her toes. The light was dim, but I could just make out her breasts and the dark triangle of her pubic hair under the water.

Deb put her wine behind me and tugged on my trunks. "Lift your big butt." She swept them down and tugged them off my feet then dropped them behind her. "There, now we're all in this together."

Mom went back to their conversation like nothing had changed. "Did you sell everything? I wasn't paying attention."

"I think everything I had there sold for way more than my estimates. It's the auction effect. The money's all donated to 'Art in Action.' What I get out of it is a tax write-off and the publicity." Deb slipped a little closer and her breasts pressed against my arm. "That, and I took a couple orders, so it works out for me."

Deb's hand traveled up my thigh. I moved a little to let her reach between my legs, and she looked up at Mom. "When do you have to have those photos to the magazine?"

"Next week. You aren't molesting my son, are you?"

"I thought I might." Deb's hand skipped over my cock, and she slipped it up to my chest where Mom could see. She gave me her naughty grin. "You don't mind, do you?"

I didn't mind, and Deb's hand wrapped my hardening cock. She was quiet for a moment while her fingertips played around it. She looked up at Mom. "You did good work. He's well-built all over."

I moaned and Mom laughed. "Henry had something to do with that."

"Maybe, but he has your eyes and your smile. When was the last time you saw him naked?"

Mom looked at me over her wine glass."It's been a long time."

Deb slipped out from under my arm. She turned and urged me up. "Sit on the side. You've seen all of Joyce. Now it's her turn to see all of you.

I squirmed while Mom's eyes scanned my arms and my chest. They traveled up my thighs and settled on my shaft. My cock was growing firm and thick. I was going to be completely hard for Mom in seconds, and I didn't understand why.

"The last time I saw him naked, he didn't look like this."

Deb looked past me. "We should have some fun." She stood beside me, and water streamed off her body, over her beautiful tits and her clean-shaven vulva. She plucked her blouse off the pile of her clothes, braced herself against me, and wrapped it around my head.

That took me by surprise, and I push Deb back before she laughed in my ear. "Stop! You don't need to see what I'm going to do. You just need to feel it." I relaxed and inhaled her remnant scent from her blouse, and I held her tits in both hands while she tied it behind my head.

Deb settled back into the water, and her fingertips stroked my shaft. "I'm really tempted to suck his cock." I could feel her move between my legs, and I could tell she was talking to Mom. "Would you mind?"

I couldn't hear or see Mom's answer, but the water splashed, and I could feel her move closer.

Deb rose between my legs. I could still tell that it was her. She leaned on my thighs and wrapped her rough hands around my shaft. She closed her lips around my cock, and I groaned out loud. I could hardly breathe. I stroked Deb's shoulders and listened to the sounds she made while my cock slipped between her lips. Mom was warm beside me, and I tried to ignore the way her hand stroked across my chest.

I panted "Oh God, Deb. This isn't going to last very long."

Deb let my cock go with a little "Pop!" She wrapped it in her hand and talked to Mom. "What do you think? I bet he'd like it whether it was slow or fast."

Mom's voice came from beside me. "Just a little longer."

I thought they moved, and I lost track of where they were. Lips closed around my cock. A tongue explored its smooth head and then along its length until soft lips and warm breath tickled the base of my shaft. I felt hands on my thighs. There were fingers on my balls and on my asshole.

My cock tingled and then burned. It throbbed and pulsed with excitement. I clenched my teeth and groaned. My first big spurt gushed into a warm mouth then I heard a surprised gasp and a splash between my legs.

A soft hand pumped my cock. I tossed my head back and became a geyser. Every spasm seemed stronger than the last until I couldn't come anymore.

It was Mom who leaned her naked body against me and untied Deb's blouse from around my head. I slipped down into the warm water, and Deb settled herself against me. "You took me by surprise. Did that last long enough?"

I couldn't tell if Aunt Deb's question was for me or for Mom but I nodded my answer. Mom was at my side with her hand on my shoulder and her body against mine. "You two look so good together that I want to shoot you having sex, but not like porn."

Mom paused and shrugged. "Okay, like porn." She drew back a little when I turned to look at her. "It wouldn't be like real sex. I'd be posing you."

Deb laughed. She sounded incredulous. "Why? What could you do with those photos?"

"It's an experiment for me—a new experience. If it works, then the pictures can be portfolio material, but that's all. I'd never sell something like that."

"Anything for art." Deb gestured, and let her hand splash back into the water before she looked at me. "Are you up for that?"

"Oh God, yes," came out without a thought. The prospect of sex with Deb was a turn-on, but I was confused. How could it be even more exciting to have Mom there taking pictures?

Deb found her wine glass and looked past me to Mom. "When? Friday? Eric and I should practice. Practice makes perfect, you know."

* * *

My cellphone was in my pants when it rang—wherever my pants were. I looked at the floor on my side of Deb's bed then I dove over her naked body to find them on her side.

"Dad! Thanks for calling back." I called him the day before, but he liked talking early in the morning. I think he felt like it gave him an advantage. "I need to talk to you about law school."

I stroked my hand over Deb's butt and down the crack of her ass while I listened to Dad. It was a nervous gesture that I wasn't even thinking about. Deb climbed off the bed and left the bathroom door open while she peed. She laughed at me when I had to turn away.

Water running in the bathroom was constant background for our phone call. I flopped back on the bed when Dad hung up and stared at the ceiling for a moment before Deb climbed onto the bed between my legs.