The Painter, Continued

“Hello, Gyasi.”

“Hi, Maxine.”

A comfortable silence enveloped the pair of them. They basked in it. To her dismay, Maxine noticed that her breath had quickened as Gyasi turned away from her and set up his materials to finish up the portrait. She was watching him, intently. He smiled sheepishly when he looked up and caught her piercing gaze roving his body. The two spoke in unison.

“Listen, I…”

“I think we should talk…”

Gyasi gestured for Maxine to go first. “You’re the boss around here. You go first.”

“Ha! You’ve got jokes,” she chided. She cleared her throat so that her announcement would sound stronger. “These past two days have been… adequate. Shit, let me not lie. The sex has been fantastic. Your work is remarkable. But I don’t think it would be a good idea to carry on this way. I’m sure there are lots of reasons that would point to a breach in professional protocol, but in all honesty, I don’t have the energy to conjure up a reason. Long story short, we won’t be fucking today.”

He found her directness amusing and biting at the same time.

“I quiet agree with you,” Gyasi said, nodding in approval. “I came to the same conclusion myself last night, and struggled with how to tell you. I wouldn’t have put it that way, of course…”

His voice trailed off and gave way to a light laugh. Maxine responded by covering her grin with long, delicate fingers and cast a demure glance at him. Her brown, almond shaped eyes, framed by thick lashes, locked onto to Gyasi’s and held him captive. It was these same eyes that had haunted his dreams for the two nights he had been in Kwahu. They had the force of an ocean tide, sucking him into a concupiscent whirlpool of lust and desire. Last night he woke to find himself hard and bathed in his own sweat, rehearsing the feel of her body beneath him and her smooth softness around him…

“You said my work was remarkable. Did you peek? You promised you wouldn’t peek until it was done.”

Maxine shrugged. “Only a little. Curiosity got the better of me. I’m not a very patient woman.”

Her glib confession did little to assuage his misgivings. He did not like his work revealed until it was perfect – until he had every detail stroked in to his satisfaction. She had violated their agreement. He wanted to be angry with her, but she was naked and lying on an armchair with her right hand between her thighs and her left foot pointed delicately downward. It was as if she had forgotten he was in the room at all.

Gyasi watched in fascination as she touched herself absently. He had never met a woman so comfortable with her own body, and one willing to display that confidence in the presence of a perfect stranger. Were they still strangers? He didn’t know what they were. His confusion about who – or what –  they were to each other lead to conflict within himself. What would happen after he left Kwahu the next morning? Would he ever see her again? He kept his gaze fixed on her body. She looked like a tropical feast, from her sobolo colored close crop, to her yooyi nipples and skin that looked like a mix of caramel and dark chocolate, darkened only by those spots that had been kissed by the sun. He ached to devour her.

Maxine seemed completely oblivious to the torturous struggle raging within Gyasi, but that was mere pretense. She knew he was watching her, and not just for the sake of rendering her image. Now that she had forbidden him to penetrate her, she contented herself with fingering her exquisite core and flooding her senses with the memory of his feel and touch. Maxine exhaled her bliss with a husky, satisfied sigh.

“I’ve never tasted a woman before.”

Maxine glanced at him quizzically. “What are you saying? Are you saying you’ve never eaten pussy?”

Gyasi chuckled. “Yes…that’s exactly what I’m saying. But again, I wouldn’t have put it that way.”

“What do you think it tastes like?”

“I dunno… Chicken. Unicorn’s tears. I can’t say.”

“It tastes like pussy,” Maxine chided. “Come here.”

Gyasi obediently scampered to the arm chair and knelt before her. Maxine spread her smooth, brown thighs and placed the sole of her right foot on his left shoulder. To her delight, she discovered that she enjoyed his body. His chest was broad and lean, but not overly defined. It was the body of a man who worked out infrequently, but slavishly when he found the time. When Gyasi’s face was parallel to slippery center, she tilted his head upward by the chin.

“Have you eaten alasa before?”

“Not in a while. Not since I was a kid,” he admitted. Alasa was a poor man’s village fruit. It was certainly not something folks in ‘sophisticated’ company would eat publicly.

Maxine clicked her tongue. “The trick to eating pussy well, is to treat it like alasa. You have to break into it delicately and once you’ve created an opening, nibble at it until it yields and forms to your lips. Don’t stop until you’ve touched and tasted every last part of the slippery flesh. Try it.”

Damn it! She was so raw and poetic. How had she managed to make an act he had spent his life dreading sound so…delicious? Gyasi shuffled over to Maxine’s glistening vagina and timidly licked her clitoris. She smacked him on the side of his head with a gentle thwack.

“Do you lick alasa to get into it? Apply some pressure… just don’t bite me!”

The younger man took a deep breath and began anew, this time brushing his full lips against her dripping clitoris and gently, but firmly sucking it.

Maxine groaned.

Encouraged, Gyasi explored a little deeper, remembering to suck and lick every inch of her fruit as she had instructed. She smelled divine. She tasted like paradise. As her excitement built, she grew wetter and wetter until he was doused by her hot near-climax. His tongue wandered a little further down where he gave the space between her puckered ass hole and vagina a light flick. She gasped and wriggled away, but he grabbed her by the knees to trap her in place and persisted in pleasuring her. Maxine’s protestations filled the study.

Fuck…fuck…fuck….!

Gyasi had never seen any woman’s orgasm unfold before… not like this. She looked wild, powerful, a little scared. He watched in wonder as the proof of her ecstasy dribbled and stained the paisley upholstery of the armchair. Then, unbidden, his hardened penis released a flood of pent up yearning into his jeans.

God. He was losing it. He was losing control of himself in this solitary sexual world they had created for themselves. Gyasi shot Maxine an embarrassed look, but she was lost in her own reverie, tracing his lips with the tips of his fingers.

“Not bad for your first time. I’ll pour us a drink and we’ll see if you can do that again…”

*****

“It’s finished.”

“God. It looks amazing.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

It was amazing what he had accomplished in just three days. Pleased, Gyasi took Maxine by the hand and brought her closer to the finished canvass so that she could examine the details. She loved every bit of it: how he’d captured the gloom of the study, the ray of light that filtered in through the east window, the heft of the breast he had come to know so well… then she saw her face as he had rendered it. She froze.

“Gyasi. What’s up with my face? Is this how you see me?”

“Well, yes. It’s as lifelike as it could possibly get, don’t you think?”

“My eyes. There’s something in my eyes I don’t understand. I could have sworn I was smiling and contented the whole time. Wasn’t that the point of the sex?”

He cringed at the thought of their lovemaking being used as an emotional prop, but he composed himself before answering.

“I saw something beyond that in your eyes, Maxine. Every time we made… we fucked, I saw satisfaction and serenity, yes. But I also saw a little bit of fear and a sadness I can’t explain. I don’t know WHY you look sad – I just feel that you are; and in a way I can’t explain.”

She was staring at him coldly. Damn it! He had offended her. The last thing he wanted to do was offend her. Now she was staring at him with such cold unfeeling eyes. They were like knives in his heart.

“Come with me,” she ordered.

Maxine lead Gyasi through four expansive rooms filled with old furniture and stacks of files. He had never past the study and the foyer during his short stay. He had no idea how massive her house was. For some reason – and for the first time – he sensed that they were not truly alone in the house. It was a feeling he couldn’t shake.

Finally, she pushed a heavy wooden door open and beckoned him to come in.

“What the hell…”

Every inch of this room was covered with Maxine. There was a bronze bust in the corner, several wooden plaques bearing her image and so no shortage of acrylic and oil paintings. How many artists had been responsible for all of these? Had she bedded them all? A sick feeling crept into his belly as his eyes roamed over the room. In the end, only one of the paintings stood out for Gyasi.

“Who did this one?” he asked curtly.

Maxine chuckled ruefully. “It is exceptional, isn’t it?” she whispered. “It was done by someone who was once very dear to me; someone who I thought was irreplaceable… until I met you, Gyasi.”

She gave him no opportunity to form a rebuttal or a thought. Maxine claimed his lips with hers, flicking and sucking them hungrily. He still tasted like her. She had always loved the flavor of her pussy. She drank more of herself in as Gyasi abandoned himself in the moment. His hands were all over her body, reaching underneath the pale yellow sari she had wrapped herself with, spreading her ass cheeks and pressing the strength of his erection into her pelvis.

She must be a witch. Surely no woman should be this irresistible. As suddenly as she began kissing him, Maxine broke contact with his lips.

“You have to go, Gyasi.”

She was a witch!

“But…”

“Please don’t argue with me. Just gather your things and go. I’ll lead you back to the study.”

She walked out of the room without another word, assuming he’d follow closely behind. He did.

Maxine tried to make light conversation. “Kwahu is notorious for sudden thunderstorms! You’ll want to head back to Tema before the rain overtakes you.”

Gyasi grunted as he gathered his brushes and collapsed his easel. When he was all packed up, he gave Maxine a final pleading glance. He hoped he would see her again. He told her so.

“I doubt that will happen, Gyasi.”

“Well then, I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

Maxine smiled with downcast eyes. “I think I have, Gyasi, thanks to you. I’ve already wired all your money to your account. Goodbye, Gyasi.”

As Maxine shut the gate to her compound, a taxi rolled by her gate as if on cue, and not a moment too soon. As she had predicted, the sky broke open and drenched the mountain side in a torrent of rain and a booming thunderclap muffled the sounds of a single gunshot that emanated from the study of Maxine’s house.