Chapter One

Southern breezes move me. So does warm rain when I'm caught in one of its downpours-the ones that take you off guard, rising out of nowhere during the afternoon of sticky summer days. The savage shades of green in spring move me, that time of year when the seductive beating of the earth drives erotic passions wild. I'm moved by the seasons in their endless change, and at other times, when I'm lucky enough to hear the sound of a woman's velvety laughter while she lies in bed with me, and feel that woman's skin against my fingertips. Such times as these, I know I've moved miles towards my soul and reached a state of grace.

I've found that kind of grace more than once in my thirty-five years, and yet in all that time, I've never felt as stirred by something beyond myself as I was the first moment I saw Savannah. It was not her flaxen colored hair, or her pale complexion; it was her fragrance, reminding me of a spring shower, mixed with her attitude of ease that made me stop short of greeting her immediately. I'd emerged from the darkroom into the studio to answer the sound of the chime informing me that I had company.

"Mr. Renz?" She stood in the waiting area wearing a simple pale blue suit, a long strand of pearls and lipstick-slightly pink-blushing her lips. For an instant I was fixated on those lips.

"May I help you?" I asked, extending my hand to her. She held hers out to me and I held it far longer than convention dictates, though it wasn't awkward to do so.

"Yes, I called yesterday, about a photo session?"

"I remember," I replied.

"The name's Savannah," she added.

"Yes. You inquired about boudoir photographs."

I had the feeling from the outset that she was scrutinizing my insides as thoroughly as I attempted to understand her. I was seduced that instantaneously, completely in love with her. The thought of love descending on me that way so jarred me, I had to eradicate it from my mind quickly. I'm not given to such irrational thoughts about any human, even a woman as alluring as this one.

"And you said you might have time this afternoon?" she queried me. I noticed her eyes then: the lilt of her slightly arched brows, the thick lashes brushed with dark mascara, and the color of her irises I couldn't describe-something that reflected blue and green but was neither one. There was an odd streak of brown in her left iris.

"I really don't know," I responded to her question, flustered. She was not in my plans for the day. "It is late." I looked at my watch seeing that it was nearly four o'clock.

"You mentioned that afternoon is a good time of day for natural light and erotic photographs," she returned.

"I said that?"

"Maybe you just implied it," she suggested, seeing how I hesitated.

I thought so, I never remember using words quite that way.

"So, it's not a good time?" she asked.

I smiled as if I was a blushing kid. "No, no, now's perfect. I could use the break."

I ushered her beyond the curtain to my studio and motioned her to a couch where we could sit together and discuss the shoot.

"I heard about your work from a friend. Norma Evans. She had some photographs taken for her tenth anniversary."

"Most of my clients wanting boudoir photographs have that sort of thing in mind. At least those who aren't looking for modeling jobs. Is that what you were thinking of?"

"I don't have a husband," she said.

"Then this is a professional layout you want?"

"No, I have a lover."

Over half of my boudoir shoots were most likely done for lovers not husbands, but I'd never had a woman put it so frankly. I nodded to her, and went to the more delicate matter at hand. "Perhaps you could tell me the kind of photographs you envision. I think it's necessary for us to have the concept of our work here."

"Nothing posed," she replied. "I need to look natural, like I'm looking at him."

"That's exactly the kind of attitude I suggest you convey," I told her. "I know being with a stranger, it's not always easy to relax; but for the attitude I'm sure you want to convey, it is necessary. You'd be surprised how the camera will pick up any nervousness."

"I don't think it will be hard with you at all," she replied kindly. I suspected that something about me appealed to her. My darkness against her light. Though I'm just five feet ten, I've always had a way of attracting women. I suppose because I can look so mysterious. I've been told the intensity of my brown eyes alarms some women.

"Good," I said nodding. I took the moment to appraise her again, allowing her lush gentleness to seduce me. "And what kind of attire would you like?" I asked, noticing that she hadn't brought anything with her.

"Nothing," she stated flatly.

"Nothing at all?" I was amazed by that. I figured her for sexy lingerie, lacy bra, panties, garter belts and hose.

"Yes, nude, if that's all right?"

"I haven't done nude shots for sometime. It'll be a pleasure." Everything I said sounded awkward, but she took no offense.

"I suppose I imagine myself on a bed, or lounge. A bed perhaps the best, with wrinkled sheets the way it might be just after making love. I could intertwine with the sheets if I get modest."

My mind was already creating the images that would appear in the photos. "Black and whites or color?"

"Both, maybe," she replied.

I nodded, thinking I could make photographing her an endless project. Just concentrating on her lips for an entire afternoon. I was mesmerized by the way she formed her words, and the way her tongue occasionally licked the delicate rose tinted surface. She was shy and bold at the same time, a curious combination of behaviors, but perfectly suitable for Savannah.

"How many photographs were you thinking of?" I asked.

"What do you normally do?" she asked.

"That's all in dollars and cents."

"If money doesn't matter, what do you think would be best?"

"I suppose that depends on whether you want to present your lover with just a single perfect pose, or you'd rather offer him a collection."

"Oh, I need more than one, a dozen at the very least."

"Then I suppose we could just shoot until we're both tired, and we'll see what we have."

She liked that idea, her smile of reply warming me.

For a moment we sat at opposite ends of the couch staring at each other, not in an uncomfortable way, but as if we were trying to both get used to the idea of what was about to happen. Finally I realized that the entire afternoon would slip away if we didn't begin; and because she wouldn't move on with the session without some cue from me, I rose from the couch.

"There's a screen there," I motioned to the Japanese screen in the corner of the room. "You can undress behind it. I'll throw a sheet over the top if you like."

She didn't reply, but instead reached around behind her head and loosened the hair clasp that held her shoulder length tresses in place. Tossing her head, she shook out the curls, and for a moment, when she unbuttoned her suit jacket, I thought she would forgo the modesty of the dressing area and simply disrobe in front of me. It was a relief to see her rise and avail herself of the privacy I'd offered. I'm sure if she hadn't, there might have been an embarrassing accident inside my khakis. As it was, I had no idea how I'd get through this session without giving myself away or making some indecent proposition.

Thankfully, I had some time to adjust to the idea. Once Savannah was safely behind the screen, I busied myself arranging the room as I thought she would like it. After tossing a sheet over one end of the Japanese screen, I threw another across a rollaway bed I kept in the corner, and ruffled it, thinking of sex the entire time. Just under the wide studio windows where the afternoon light would provide a perfect erotic exposure, I adjusted the bed to create the best angles. And on a table next to it, I placed a vase of peonies, the color of them as pale as her skin. The flowers were ones I'd use for a formal wedding shoot earlier that day. (I liked them better next to the mussed bed than as part of the formal pristine bridal setting. I'd always thought that peonies had a way of looking sensuously like female flesh in wanton repose.) Getting my cameras ready I had my back to the rollaway. When I finished, I turned around, surprised to see Savannah sitting primly on the end of the bed. The sheet was wrapped around her, almost as if she was waiting for a doctor to examine her, not a photographer.

"Ah, that didn't take long," I observed.

She smiled demurely. For the first time since she walked in my door, I saw a degree of hesitation in her face, a touch of innocence. If I could only capture that look in the midst of these racy photographs, we'd have an astounding result. The artist in me burned brightly at the possibilities. I wish I knew what lucky gentleman would be receiving this prize, though I could take heart, I'd be the first to glimpse the photographs, seeing this sultry woman posed in her unblushing nakedness.

"Would you like me to begin with you there?" I asked, as I'd readied my camera.

Her hesitation continued, and she seemed lost for words.

"Perhaps you should move up on the bed," I suggested. "Recline against the pillow and adjust the sheet any way you like. And please relax."

She seemed grateful for the instruction and moved as I suggested, the sheet following her the whole way, the pose ending in a rather lovely seventeenth century style Rubenesque-though you could hardly consider her figure Rubenesque. What I could see of her body was her neck and shoulders and all the way down her right side, along her bare thigh. I began snapping pictures, and then motioned her to move to her back. Then, the sheet dropped slightly and I caught her breasts, naked, the white flesh looking as if it was disappearing into her chest, except for the prominent pink nipples that rose off the smooth surface like two tiny volcanoes rising out of a tranquil ocean.

"On your side again, perhaps," I said, my hand directing her. A willing subject she followed my ideas and allowed the camera to see her naked breasts in their fullness swinging away from her torso. The shy smile on her lips remained, though the sexual hunger in her eyes was unmistakable. The way her lips parted made me feel as though she was ready to take my erection between them.

"On your knees?" I suggested as my imagination ran free with images of her in every lewd pose it could summon.

To my delight, she didn't balk, but proceeded as if she were bound to obey me by some tacit agreement between us. I would command and she would submissively yield.