seen her in several of her edgy designs that were cute and trendy. But I had never seen her in anything like this before. She was a sensual nymph who had stepped right out of Middle Earth.
“Well,” she said as she tried to judge my silent reaction. “What do you think? Do you like it? I was going for a sort of paradox with this one. Kerynne is such an otherworldly beauty, and most of the pieces that I created for her are darker and edgier. I wanted there to be one that stood out as being so completely contradictory for her aesthetic that it would make the audience really think.”
I could tell that she was getting nervous about the fact that I wasn’t answering her or commenting on the design. But I had to take another couple of seconds to try to regain my composure before speaking and blowing the fact that I was so turned on by her right now that I felt myself wanting to fuck my friend right here on the floor of my office.
“I love it,” I said as I tried to steady my voice. “I absolutely love it.”
Hensley smiled in relief.
“I love everything about it,” I continued. “The idea of such a contrast in the other pieces for Kerynne, the fabric choice which I have never seen used to make a whole dress like this before, and the way that you constructed it to move with such innovation and delicacy. I couldn’t be more impressed.”
“Yay!” Hensley squealed as she clapped her hands together in front of her. I could tell that she was equally as excited about her work, although not in all the same ways that it was exciting to me. “Now it will look much different on Kerynne, of course. She won’t have anything on underneath, so you’ll be able to see everything through the fabric. I was thinking a nude thong for the bottom, but nothing for the top. I think her nipples should be visible from beneath it; it will add to the sensual loveliness of the design, especially with her long, dark mane of her kept down loosely around her for this one. Do you agree?”
“Yes,” I said, although all I could think about now was what Hensley would look like in this dress if she hadn’t kept her bra on underneath. “Totally agree, it’s perfect.”
“Cool! Ready for the next one?”
God, I didn’t know if I can handle the next one if it was anything like this one did.
“Yeah, hit me with it!” I went to swivel my chair back around, but she interrupted my turn before I made a complete half-circle.
“Can you help me unzip the back of this before you turn around?” she asked. “It’s got a hidden zipper that runs off-center down the back so that it’s practically invisible to the eye. I was able to get it zipped up to get into it, but I’m afraid of trying to pull it down without accidentally ripping the fabric.”
“Sure,” I said as I got up to walk over to her. I stood behind her as she reached her hand around to point to where the top of the zipper was. She was right; it was nearly impossible to find.
“Hold the top of the dress while you’re pulling the zipper down so that it doesn’t tear,” she said.
I put my hand on the fabric just below her shoulder blade and gently tugged the zipper all the way down to the small of her back. Once the zipper was at the end of its track, I stalled my hand there for a moment against her tailbone. What was I doing? I froze.
Hensley turned her head around over the top of her shoulder to look at me and see why I hadn’t lifted my hand from her back. For a very brief moment, there were a few uneasy seconds of sexual tension while my palm lingered against her. I thought that she might have felt it too by the way her eyes were looking up at me without lifting up her head as her chin rested against the top of her shoulder.
“Arlo?” she said softly with a slight lilt at the end of her word.
3
Chapter Three (Hensley)
That simply had to be in my imagination. There was no way that Arlo had those sorts of feelings about me.
When I got back to my apartment after having spent the day at Arlo’s office, showing him the ten designs and modeling each one