Sketchbook

She looked at me puzzled for a moment then burst out laughing. "Angelfire's little birds!" She looked down at the ground for a moment then pulled me back in. "I have them too..."

This time I heard the more elongated chime of the half-hour clock. I had not been brave enough to slide my hand down inside her leggings, but I had explored their sheer, sleek exterior as well as her upper half and I was in no doubt that she had nipple rings as well as her lip ring and nose stud. I had come to appreciate the lip ring as it gave me something to nibble on; a wonderful contrast to her soft, sweet lips.

We had barely spoken since we arrived in the doorway, but now she broke the silence, her forehead on my chest. She was as breathless as I was. "Trix uses the flat over the gallery. I am staying there for a while. Josh, I so desperately want you to come upstairs with me. I know it will be your first, and I so want it to be with me." She hung her head. "But there is baggage with me, Josh."

I made to speak, but she put a finger to my lips. "Please come up for a coffee with me. I need to tell you things. When I am done, the decision will be yours. Put your hand down below and feel how much I want this, Josh."

I did as I was bid and instead of Sally's stinging slap, Flea's kiss was every bit as feral and intense as Trix's had been in the gallery. My fingers were wet as I pulled them out and licked them. She tasted good and I wanted more.

Five minutes later we were sat at a small kitchen table in the flat above the gallery and there were steaming mugs of coffee in front of us. Flea pulled out her vape-pen and took a long pull. She looked at me. "Sorry -- I won't if..."

I put a hand on hers. "Better than smoking and it looks very sexy."

Smiling, she held it to her lips and blew out a long, thin stream. "Très élégant, non?" Suddenly serious, she took both of my hands in hers and swallowed hard. "Ok, here we go. Five minutes of make or break. If you are still here at the end... Mon Dieu, j'espère que tu es toujours là."

I let her talk without interruption unless she faltered or I needed clarification. At times, her eyes glazed over with tears and her voice wavered. She took frequent breaks for gulps of coffee and to vape. What she told me terrified and excited me in equal measure.

"So Josh, when I first came to England, I saw the lifestyle Trix had adopted. We were in London, in Brighton and it was a mad, heady whirl. When she saw how hard I went for it, she tried to tell me to back off and take it easy, but I wasn't listening. I was off the leash and I went for it big time. I didn't want to be like Trix. I wanted to be her. I was infatuated with her, consumed by jealousy. I did everything to look like her, to do the things she did. I tried to outdo her -- sleep with more guys and women, take more drugs, smoke more. I began to take from her the things she held dear -- sleep with her friends when she was away. I became a complete monster. It was when I tried to take Angelfire from her back in London that thank God, it all came crashing down on me."

I hadn't expected that. "What happened?"

She laughed. "Basically, Angel knew what I was up to. She said she was going to tie me up and tease me. I fell for it, only believing that little Flea was in for a real treat. Instead, once I was secure and going nowhere, Trix came in and she and Angel basically kicked seven shades of merde out of me for hours on end. Not physically, but they told me what a good-for-nothing little slut I had become and it was time to sort myself out or I'd be dead by the time I was eighteen."

She went silent for a moment. "I did so much so young, Josh. I thought I was fucking immortal -- could do anything I wanted. Angel and Trix saved me."

"Anastacia -- Angel. She said-"

Flea interrupted me with a little laugh. "Hey, you haven't fucked her yet."

I shook my head. "No -- but I've been close."

She smiled and tapped the back of my hand. "Then you are a naughty boy -- you can't call her Angel until you've fucked her!"

I closed my eyes. "In that case it sounds like you did in the end."

"Yeah, with Trix's blessing." She looked up at me. "It was amazing. She wasn't there -- Trix, I mean. That would be, like... yeuch -- gross!" She put her chin on her hands and sighed deeply. "As a great English writer once said, it was the best of times and the worst of times. I learned so much from Izzy, Josie, Angel. They were the good part, but there were really bad bits and I also lost a lot."

I reached out to her. "Like what?"

She took my hand and held it to her mouth. "My self-respect mainly. I was completely out of control -- no off button. Just a dead easy lay who would do anything to anyone. It's coming back but slowly. I still have my mad moments, but they are few and far between now. I still feel a bit lost at times." A single tear ran down the side of her nose and she covered her face with her hands. "No, I feel lost most of the time..."

All I wanted to do was hug her. "I feel lost too, but for very different reasons, Flea." I reached out and put my finger to the tear. I kissed the end of my finger and put it to her lips. "Flea, so you slept around; so what? I wish I had, believe me. I dreamed about fucking Anastacia, Izzy and Josie but all I did was play with myself and pretend they were there. You did those things!" I leaned forward and placed a pretend punch on her cute little nose. "I mean, come on Flea - you're a girl and you've slept with half my bloody fantasy list. That's not fair!"

To my relief, she giggled. "Sorry!"

I went on. "So you took drugs -- I'm probably the only eighteen-year-old in town not to have got high. You stopped -- that's what matters. So you tried to be like Trix -- there are worse people to try and be like..."

She put her head in her hands. "Oh fuck, oh merde. I am such a fucking mess, Josh." She took a long pull on her vape pen and held it up. "Look at me -- nineteen and needing fucking so-called comforts like this. Like you say, better than the alternative but if I'd have gone on the way I was, it would probably be fucking methadone, not this."

She was silent for a long time and I let her gather her thoughts. "I was out of control -- like a runaway truck on a mountain track. Trix and Angel brought me down off my illusory cloud and I crashed back to Earth with a hell of a bump. Some of the things I did, I still want to do. They were amazing and I miss them. I've managed to get by without all the other shit for almost a year now and I don't miss that at all."

I needed to know. "What were the good bits, Flea?"

"The parties down in Brighton. Being with Angel when Trix was away -- that's one thing Josh -- we tell each other everything but we are never there together. Making gentle love to beautiful people and other times being used like a sex-toy. Izzy and Josie taking me to places I could never know existed." She sighed. "Trix told me you have seen Angel's Sketchbook, yeah?"

I recalled those hours with that incredible book. "Yeah. Those images of Trix at the parties were something else, especially the ones where she was a bit younger..."

I saw something change in Flea's eyes and the penny dropped. "Oh fuck, Flea -- those aren't Trix are they?"

She set her mouth in a straight line and shook her head slowly. "Non, pas Trix. C'est moi. C'est Flea. I am sorry Josh, but like Trix is of hers, I am so fucking proud of those images I cannot begin to tell you. Angel is a genius and when I first saw them, I was blown away. I hope you don't hate me for what I have been and what I still want to be."

I looked at her crestfallen face across the table and recalled the gamine grin I had seen so often in the pub and realised I could forgive this girl almost anything. "Flea, I couldn't hate you. When I saw those pictures, yes, I thought it was Trix. I lay on Anastacia's bed and I wished that it was me doing those things to the beautiful girl in the pictures. That she was doing those things to me. She was utterly beautiful and now I am sitting five feet from the girl in those pictures and I am getting goose-bumps. Because I now know that the girl is not only sexy and beautiful, but she is funny, intelligent, honest and brave."

I saw tears well up in her eyes as she rose from her chair and moved round to stand in front of me. She pushed the table back and sat in my lap. Our kiss went on for a long time and by the time we were finished our faces were wet with our mingled tears.

Finally she straddled me and put her arms around my neck. She stroked my hair and kissed me softly. "I like people who make me cry for the right reasons, Josh. Too many have made me cry for the wrong reasons. I need a constant in my life and even after a few hours, I know I want you to be that constant. But I also need something more -- a little bit of freedom. I have changed but I still love some of the things I did before. Come with me, Josh. Help me gain control again. I can show you things that you have dreamed of for so long. You can make me a complete person again. I can feel it in here."

She put her hand to her heart and I closed mine over it. We sat for a long time staring into each other's eyes and I felt I could see into her soul. There was not a hint of artifice in her eyes and I had no doubt in my mind she had spoken the entire truth.

At last she stood and reached behind her for her long-forgotten coffee mug. She grimaced and laughed. "Yeuch, c'est froid!" Slowly she walked to the sink and tipped out the dregs. She turned to face me and let out a huge expulsion of air and wiped her eyes. "Phoo! Well there we are - I am finished and it appears you are still here."

I rose and took her face in my hands. "Yep, still here. Can't think of anywhere I'd rather be."

She shook her head, setting her little beads rattling. "After all that?"

I twiddled the beads between my fingers. "Yes, Flea. After all that. Après tout. Je t'aime, petite Flea. Even after four hours, I know I love you."

I held her for five long minutes as she sobbed her eyes out, her head on my chest, her little body heaving. My Houses of the Holy shirt was soaked with her tears and I vowed in that moment I would never wash it again. At last she looked up at me, her eyes red. "Je t'aime aussi, Josh.

I held my breath for a moment praying that I would elicit the right response. "Anastacia said we could help find each other. Why don't we start right now?"

Silently, she took my left hand and led me through to the second bedroom. It was small but the bed was large. I was aware of every chime on the Town Square clock that night. Each hourly chime seemed to signal the start of a new adventure. As the clock chimed for five in the morning, I sank into her glorious wetness for the sixth time. I had been in her mouth, up between her perky little breasts and even briefly in her tight, dark forbidden hole. That was the first time I had ever used a condom in anger and it felt so good to be inside her and be able to finger her deeply. She was accomplished, experienced and a wonderful lover. She was so gentle with me in the early stages but as my confidence and stamina grew, she became more forceful, more demanding and more experimental.

Seeing my cum dripping from the corner of her mouth on our fourth coupling made up for the disappointment of finishing too quickly the first time around. She had been so understanding and had shown me how to get her off with my tongue working on her clit and my fingers inside her, squelching and sliding in the mess I had left when I came in her, our mouths clamped together like limpets before I pulled away, crying out her name.

She had kissed me tenderly afterwards as I lay apologising for my not exactly premature, but certainly early ejaculation. "Don't worry -- hey, we've got all night. I have all sorts of things in store for you. Anyway, my first guy was barely halfway in before he was going off like a leaky hosepipe!"

Thereafter it just got better and better and we finally sank into each other's arms purring as sleep overtook us. I awoke much later to feel soft lips working on me. Then the catch of her lip ring as it grazed the head of my slowly returning erection. I felt raw and sore, but there was no way I was going to turn her down. I knew my afternoon cricket match was already heading for disaster, but I didn't care as Flea held me up and sank down on me. I reached up and tugged gently on her nipple rings and ran a hand over the butterfly tattoo on her hip.

She gazed down at me and fluttered her hands above her head. "Tweet tweet. I am in love!"

I reciprocated the action. "I love you too, Flea. Hey, do you think we should open the fifth panel?"

She grinned at me. "I lied last night -- I had already opened mine."

"Oh Flea, what? You knew already? What did it show?"

She pulled off me. "Sit up a bit..." She piled pillows behind me so I was more upright and rummaged in her bag on the bedside cabinet. She pulled out her piece of paper and nodded. "Yeah, perfect!" Giggling, she brought out her vape-pen. She took a long pull on it and let the vapour out in a thin stream across my swollen glans and down my shaft. I shuddered in ecstasy as she did it again.

"Oh fuck, Flea, that looks and feels incredible!"

She put her pen to one side and slid back on top of me. "Rule one - always find their soft-spot. I now know how to make you my obedient little puppy-dog!" She held the paper up to me and I saw a small shaggy haired girl pictured from behind riding on an anonymous male who was in a sitting position. "I think Angel is clairvoyant!"

I began to move my hips in unison with her wonderful slow grind. "I suppose I'll never get to call her Angel now, eh?"

Flea moved close and slipped her arms around my neck. "Well, maybe not for a week or two anyway. I guess she'll let us shag our silly little brains out for a while before she comes to claim her finder's fee. Trix may come for you a bit quicker than that though, so be on your guard!"

I looked at her in disbelief. "Flea, are you serious?"

She stopped her motion for a second. "Yes Josh, I am. I promise when Angel joins us, it will be spectacular and you'll love my gorgeous cousin!"

I didn't know how to react. Then something hit me like a runaway train. Whatever else I was, I was a voyeur. I loved watching people have sex on the internet. I had fantasised about group sex. If I was going to be with Flea, then I was going to have to get used to watching her with other people. But I would get to do it too. Maybe Izzy and Josie were within reach after all.

We came in unison and showered in the tiny bathroom together. I was in a different world. We went for coffee in the Square and I asked if she wanted to come and see me play cricket that afternoon. She sadly declined as she had a visit to a local Vet clinic where she was hoping to do some intern work during her second year.

Grinning she then picked up a napkin and doodled on it. She quickly drew a very good imitation of the gallery and the flat above it. A big arrow pointed at the flat and under it was scrawled, "9pm. Don't be late!" I took the pencil and added a face with a silly grin on it with a big tick next to it.

I then kissed my new girlfriend and floated home on a fluffy white cloud.

As I left for cricket, I went to Anastacia's door and pushed an envelope through the letter box. In it was a copy of the paper she had given me. I had circled the panels with the lovebirds and the two of us making love in thick red pen, both in the shape of hearts. At the bottom I had written, 'Thank You, F&J xxx.'

I then batted as though I was still on my fluffy white cloud and got some strange looks from my teammates. For once I didn't care given the circumstances. I made nine runs. It seemed appropriate when the only thing on my mind was nine o'clock that night.

Chapter 12: Fantasies Fulfilled

We were barely parted over the next few weeks and our lovemaking ran the whole gamut from gentle, loving slow-burners to out-and-out feral assaults. My folks must have suspected something given my strange time keeping on their arrival back from holiday, but if they did, they kept it to themselves. Flea and I got into a routine of making out in the afternoons with gallery visitors completely unaware of the shenanigans going on just above their heads, then retiring to the pub or for pizzas or curries over long, wonderful aimless chats about anything and everything.

Trix was great, allowing us space and a couple of times when she was away Anastacia let us use her spare room, which now at least had a bed. We half expected her to call in her 'finder's fee' as Flea had called it at one of these trysts, but so far, no demand had been made.

Trix had called in her reward the Wednesday lunchtime after Flea and I first got together. I received a single sketch in the post with a picture of the gallery and 'Weds 12.00 sharp!' written beneath. As I entered, Trix locked the front door and opened the Erotica gallery. She put a finger on my chest and said sternly, "Attend -- deux minutes!" before disappearing into the small room.

I waited the requisite time and entered the room to find her completely naked, facing the wall with her bottom pushed out towards me. Her feet were wide apart and her hands were braced against the wall. She reached one hand back towards me and I took the condom she was brandishing. I was now a little more accomplished in fitting the things and I took no second bidding. Emboldened by my new-found experience with Flea, I gripped her wide hips and went in hard making her gasp. As I slid my hands up to knead her lovely breasts, I saw a new picture on the wall. It was of Flea and I gazing into each other's eyes as we came together and it made me feel so proud.

Trix tapped it. "For the private collection. Only there to let you see it before it goes in the Sketchbook." She ground hard back against me. "Now show me what you've learned and fuck me to bits."

I lasted way longer than I expected and for the second time in that small, cramped room I came hard, but this time inside Trix's lovely tight pussy. It felt amazing and she was right there with me, thumbing her clit as we came together, she naked and me fully clothed.

She turned and kissed me. "Wow, my cuzz is a lucky bitch. You like her, huh?"

I kissed her back. "No Trix, I love her. And I love you almost as much for getting us together."

Smiling, she picked up her clothes and quickly put them on. So quickly in fact, her t-shirt was back to front and inside out. "So glad to hear it. She loves you too. You both deserve each other."

We moved back out into the main gallery and Trix walked over to the main door. She flipped the triangular wooden sign and I expected her to unlock the door. Instead, she took me by the hand and led me behind the cash desk and through the beaded curtain.

She kissed me again. "Wednesdays are usually quiet. I've closed for the day. Flea is down in Hove doing something for her course, so I'll try not to wear you out for her." She began to drag me up the stairs. "Can't say I'll succeed though!"

Between our bouts of lovemaking, Trix told me all about her one-nighter with Bethany Hamilton. It was clearly something that still resonated deeply with her, and I felt a little pang of envy that she had been so intimate with that stunning girl. It was a long, blissful afternoon and Flea was delighted we had got together. It seemed odd to be sitting chatting to Trix after what we had just done and for my girlfriend to walk in and give her boyfriend and her cousin hugs, hoping that we'd had a great time together. I was going to have to get used to this liberalism and openness fast but I was beginning to see the advantages.

It was now well into September and in between us being almost welded together, Flea was in full preparation for resuming her course and I was about to start work and the cricket season was coming to an end. The first team had won the league by a runaway margin and I was elated to be making my league debut for them in the last game of the season. I was even more elated that Flea was going to be there for the first time to cheer me on.