Picture Me Naked (Stoddard Art School Series) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Picture Me Naked

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  A word about the author…

  Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  Also available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  Picture Me Naked

  by

  Lisa A. Olech

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Picture Me Naked

  COPYRIGHT © 2013 by Lisa A. Olech

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by Angela Anderson

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Champagne Rose Edition, 2013

  Print ISBN 978-1-62830-041-3

  Digital ISBN 978-1-62830-042-0

  Published in the United States of America

  Dedication

  To Jon, Ben and Tim

  My heart, my purpose, my men.

  ~

  And also…

  for Anne, who believed.

  Acknowledgments

  There have been so many hands that have touched this book and seen it become the best that it can be.

  First, to life model, Mike Molino, whose generosity with my early research helped mold Jagger into the wonderful character he is.

  To the Saturday Morning Life Group—“I see naked people”—whose classroom inspired me to write this book.

  I also want to thank Kathy, Lee Ann, Christyne, Nancy, Sandy, Suzanne, Jill, Janet, Theresa, Sarah, Dianne, and others who have read and reread and reread for me. Thank you for not putting me in a rubber room.

  Thanks to Cindy, who added the final polish.

  And to “Monty,” you know who you are and why I’m thanking you!

  And last but certainly not least, to my men, who never once let me give up my dream and supported me every day in every way. I love you all.

  ~Lisa

  Chapter One

  Stoddard, New Hampshire

  “Come on, darling. You handsome thing,” Zee purred low with a sex-kitten huskiness to her voice. “Do it. Do it for me? Please? I need you…now.” She ran her fingertips over the smooth knob, grasping at the shaft beneath. She wriggled with impatience. “Come on, George, baby, I’ll be good. Come on, do it.” She tried once more without success. “Damn you,” she snapped. “Dammit, car. Start!”

  Z. Z. Lambert fought to keep from pumping the gas pedal and flooding her ancient, dishwater-blue Toyota. She slapped the steering wheel with the heel of her hand, checked her watch, and took one deep, calming breath.

  “Don’t do this to me. I can’t be late, not today.” The finalist review schedule for the Meade Fellowship was due and just the thought of it made her nauseous. She stroked the dashboard in a loving gesture, jiggled the stick shift again to make sure she was in Neutral, and pushed her left foot down on the clutch. Holding her breath, Zee gave the key another turn. The engine whirred and whirred and whirred, coughed and sputtered. It finally caught, and rumbled into the realm of the living. The muffler shuddered beneath her. She placed a fingered kiss on the rearview mirror. “Thank you, Georgie.”

  Zee maneuvered the car out of its parking space and headed off to her eight o’clock advanced life drawing class to be followed by a full day in the studio. The pace was tough, but it would be worth it if she could secure this fellowship and finish her degree on time.

  The Albert Meade Scholarship was why Zee had become an artist to begin with. Winning the fellowship would allow her to give back what the program had given her years ago. It would let her bring art classes to those children whose school’s art programs were being cut due to the economy, and afford her the resources she’d need to continue her own work.

  All that stood in the way was the board’s review, which meant a studio tour of her latest work. According to the email sent to the school, this deciding event could occur three weeks from now or some time during the next three months. Way to narrow that down, Sir Albert!

  The stress of that combined with a personal life that had imploded, and a New England winter that topped the record books in cold and snow—it was all beginning to get to her. As she passed through the quiet town of Stoddard, she noted the shrinking of the dirty snowbanks into sandy muck and prayed for spring to hurry up and get here. Like any other small lake town in New Hampshire, Stoddard was stunning in the fall, and equally beautiful in the spring and summer. But those few months of winter, followed by mud season…you could keep those.

  “I just want a little quiet, George, and to be warm again. Is that too much to ask?” Zee cranked the heat up and checked her rearview mirror, blowing an obstinate curl off her forehead. The steering wheel was like an icicle. “What do you say, you and me and Isabella Rossellini tucked away somewhere nice…maybe on a beach of a deserted tropical island. I could have a little studio. A place of my own where I could paint all day and the rest of the world could go away.”

  Zee slowed at a stop sign and the car coughed in response. “Don’t you dare stall on me, George, we’re late enough.”

  If she could just keep George going a few more months, she’d be set. The car had run fine while she dated Ed Zeigler. Ed, her obnoxious ex-boyfriend, was one hell of a mechanic. He could fix anything—except his sterling personality. She thought about Ed’s last message on her answering machine: I’ll do whatever I have to do to get you back. He was scaring her with his persistent phone calls, and she’d twice found notes tucked under George’s wiper blades. Ed was no dummy when it came to spark plugs and fan belts, but her repeated insistence that things were over between them seemed to elude him. And now, he’d sunk low enough to sic her insane mother on her. Give me a break.

  Zee checked her watch again. It was 7:52. Ho
pefully, Genevieve wouldn’t steal her favorite space by the back corner. Sure, it wasn’t the only good spot in class, but Zee was a bit—what was the word—particular…anal? Her best friend, Leah, would say the latter. So she had a thing about where she liked to set up. The natural light was the best in her little corner spot. That didn’t make her crazy. Zee preferred the term quirky.

  Tapping her fingers in nervous succession between shifts, she swore under her breath. Now she’d lose her spot and have to rush. Damn.

  It was the first day of the term, and that meant a new model. Today they’d work quick sketches, so Zee wouldn’t have to set up her palette. That was good news considering the way the morning was going. She cursed again as the traffic light turned red. Stoddard only had one light, and she could count on one hand the number times she’d sailed through on green. “Come on!”

  Zee zipped George into his favorite parking spot in front of an impressive stone building. Juggling a drawing board and king-sized sketchpad always felt like she was moving a mattress. The wind tried to turn her into a kite as she struggled with the heavy oak doors and raced up the stairs of the Kramer building at the Stoddard School of Art.

  The live model studios were on the second floor, supposedly to discourage peeping Toms or Tom-ettes. In her overloaded stumble, she barely noticed the worn dips in the wide marble steps carved from generations of feet running up these stairs. The new display of artwork in the corridor would have to wait, as well.

  Breathless, she rushed into the room. Genevieve flashed a smug smile from Zee’s coveted space. “Damn,” Zee muttered.

  “There you are.” Leah waved at her from across the room. She’d snagged two easels next to the supply closet, near the drippy wash sink that was probably white at one time or another before scores of artists stained it with every color to have ever come in a paint tube. Leah pulled her long dark hair into a ponytail and tugged her snug Hello Kitty tee back down to hide her bellybutton ring.

  Was it wrong to have abs envy? Zee secretly wished she was brave enough to pierce something other than her earlobes. “Hey, Leah.”

  “I thought you were going to be here early.”

  Zee stopped short of dumping all her things onto the floor. “George had a rough morning.”

  Leah smirked. “Good old George. When are you going to shoot him and put him out of his misery?”

  “Shh. He’ll hear you. I don’t know what’s wrong. I need to find another mechanic.”

  “Whatever you do, don’t ask your mother.”

  Zee grimaced. “No chance of that.” She slipped her drawing board onto the heavy steel easel and adjusted the height bar. “Has anyone said anything about the Meade list yet?”

  “Not yet,” said Leah.

  “This waiting is driving me nuts.” Zee began setting out her things. “Have you heard anything about the new model?”

  “Just that he’s a he.” Leah sipped at a hot pink travel mug, no doubt filled with her triple-shot espresso that Leah referred to as “elephant-speed.”

  “Oh, that’s great.” They’d had women the last three sessions. Zee pulled an antique metal pencil box out of her book bag.

  Leah lowered her voice. “Let’s hope he’s better than the last guy poser we had. Remember him? Man, was he ugly.”

  “We’re artists. We see beauty in everything.”

  “Is that why you spent the last two weeks of his session drawing just his hands and feet?”

  “I needed the practice,” defended Zee.

  “It couldn’t have anything to do with the fact he was a short, no-ass, paunchy hobbit of a man complete with a monkey-butt bald spot.” Leah dropped her voice to barely a whisper, “Not to mention the worst looking set of junk I’ve ever seen.”

  Zee grimaced at the memory. “Aren’t you glad you work in abstract?”

  “Even in abstract, it was ugly junk.”

  “You’re horrible.”

  Leah shrugged. “Maybe I am, but I know ugly when I see it.”

  Zee finished setting up her worktable. A quick look about the room told her everyone was there. It was a small class with only eight artists. They’d known each other for years. Zee loved how they all had their own unique styles.

  The space-stealing Genevieve worked in small watercolor miniatures, some no larger than postage stamps. Leah’s specialty was abstract pastels. There were Sam and Emily, the two sculptors of the group. Geoffrey. His nudes were beautiful studies in sepia done on huge canvases. Friendly Jessica worked with pen and ink. Carl’s work reminded Zee of Toulouse Lautrec. And she, of course, worked primarily with oils.

  But today wasn’t for paints. Zee arranged charcoal sticks and pencils in the order of hardness after sharpening each ebony tip into a point using a paddled sandpaper sharpener. She lowered the heavy steel easel a bit more to adjust to her stature and clipped her pad to her drawing board. Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breaths to settle the harried feelings from this morning’s worries. The conversations around the room melted into a low hum as she brought her focus inward to the blank page, the waiting charcoal, her hands. Kneading the gray gum eraser hypnotically, Zee found her zone. Ahhh.

  Minutes passed. Conversations got louder. Shouldn’t we be starting? Zee checked her watch. Ten after eight. Evidently, the model was running late this morning, too.

  As if conjured by her thoughts, a shaggy-haired male hurried through the door.

  “G’day.” He scanned the room and smiled. “Ah, some fine sheilas to start my morning. Oh, beg pardon… mates too, no offense. Sorry for being late.” He winked. “Had an overnight that wouldn’t leave without another bit of persuasion, if ye gather what I mean.”

  Zee rolled her eyes and stifled a groan. He was tall, but next to Zee, most everyone was. If he wasn’t six foot, he was damn close. His hair was the color of dark honey with sunned streaks of platinum. He wore baggy, torn-at-the-knee jeans and a black tee shirt that hugged the tops of nicely shaped arms. No jacket. He must be freezing.

  Zee tugged on the zipper of her oversized, gray hooded sweatshirt zipping it all the way to the top. She shivered. Hadn’t he read the Stoddard travel brochure? They were in the middle of slush season for goodness sakes. Summer didn’t hit this area until mid July, and lasted about a week. The cockiness of mirrored sunglasses stuck in the neck of his shirt and flip-flops on his feet seemed almost reckless.

  Madeline Sullivan, the class’s moderator, greeted him and turned. “Artists, let me introduce Mr. Jagger Jones. He’ll be with us for the next several weeks. Make him feel welcome, shall we? It’s his first time, let’s be gentle.” Did Madeline just giggle? “Jagger, there is a men’s room down the hall, third door on the right. You can change there.” She tipped her hand and checked her oversized watch. “We appear to be running a smidge behind schedule this morning, so if you’d like to get us started, we’re ready for you.”

  “Won’t be needin’ the men’s room, Maddie, darlin’. Can be naked in a blink of your lovely baby blues.” Jagger smiled, dropped a beaten canvas book bag near the model stage, and kicked off his sandals. Madeline giggled again.

  Zee glanced at Leah. She was drooling. “Mmmmm. Yum-mee. Don’t you just love his accent?” Leah whispered. “What a cool name.”

  “Charming,” Zee muttered, trying to shut out the Australian lilt. She re-sharpened and organized her already-sharpened, organized pencils. Next to her, she heard Leah gasp and exclaim under her breath, “Mercy.”

  Zee slid her gaze back to the model’s dais. Oh… my… Flip-flops or not, Mr. Jones was a beautiful example of the male form. His tall frame made his physique long and lean, yet his muscles were chiseled and well-defined. She only had a view of his backside but it was one of the finest backsides Zee had ever seen.

  And then Jagger Jones turned around.

  Chapter Two

  “He looks like a Greek statue, but that ain’t no fig leaf,” Leah whispered.

  “Shhh.” Zee forced herself to be professional and remo
ve her gaze from Jagger’s…considerable charms. A warm flush washed over her and pooled in her thighs. Wow!

  “I’m going to need a bigger sketchpad,” murmured Leah.

  “Behave yourself,” Zee hissed.

  Madeline announced the first groupings were to be five, one-minute poses to warm up.

  “I’m plenty warm already,” Leah said under her breath. Her hips did a little sashay.

  Zee shot her a look. Leah just smiled and made her eyebrows dance.

  Jagger struck one pose after another. In those brief five minutes, it became quite apparent he wasn’t just some pretty face. He was conscious of his body and how best to display it.

  Zee worked with quick practiced strokes. After the warm up, they worked at a ten-minute, then a twenty-minute sketch. Jagger’s longer poses continued to impress her. He was good. A timer signaled their first break.

  Slipping into his jeans and shirt, Jagger reached into his bag, pulled out an apple and proceeded to munch as he took a stroll about the room looking at all their drawings. Conversation was minimal. Most of the artists were quiet as they continued working.

  Zee was unhappy with a line that tried to capture the slight flair of Jagger’s hip before sweeping into the strength of his thigh. She erased it and dropped the line in once more. Using the pad of her ring finger, she smudged the black dust of the charcoal into a blended shadow. She frowned. It still wasn’t quite right.

  “G’day ladies.” Jagger voice gave her a start. Zee tucked her chin and kept working.