Hello O great mentor mine. This is my first assignment. It would be the first chapter of a longer story. I just felt it was getting too long. Hope this works.

John56




Camera Obscured

By John56

At 3 p.m. on a hot desert day in Nevada the three words “PHOTOGRAPHS - BEER - NOTIONS” crudely lettered on the weathered wooden sign were the most welcome words in the English language for Bettina Guster.

Four hours ago Bettina was a confident, young executive on her first assignment to convince an old crazy desert dweller to sell his rights to a Nevada Mine. Now she was a lost city girl trapped in a dirty power suit and high heels for gods sake.

A single bead of sweat snaked its way down the neck and disappeared into the cleavage of Bettina Guster’s breasts. Walking for half an hour down the empty silent sandy roadway just allowed the fierce, dry heat to beat the moisture out of her body.

She was supposed to be in Sulphur, Nevada to talk to a client hours ago. Now the best she can figure she is somewhere in the Black Rock Desert. Her piece-of-shit rental car blew a tire and spun out of control an hour ago. And with a cell phone without a signal and shedding her pantyhose Tina began walking down the road.

Bettina falters in the shade of the covered porch of the ramshackle building, the sudden respite from the tsunami of heat crashing against her, shocking her system. She enters the doorway, expecting the cold burst of air conditioning. However, though there was a breeze blowing subtly and refreshingly through the building there was no manufactured air. A tiny bell jangled as she opened and closed the door.

She sees that the building’s décor is simple and very much in the style of the old west. In one corner is a single black velvet curtain with an old camera on a tripod in front of it. Sepia toned photographs are displayed around the curtain.

Tina goes over to the photos and finds they are all of various women in different period dress, from the 1800’s to the current time. They all have the same dazed look on their face.

“Jeez, stick with one period, jackass.” Tina says out loud.

A wooden slat bar is on the other side of the room with large barrels and a few bottles behind it. The bottles do not have labels and the spigots in the barrels are simple wooden dowels. However the bar is clean and the glasses are neatly stacked.

Next to the door is an old display case containing what looks like old miner gear. Ropes, wooden clothespins, tweezers, pans, and sewing equipment line the case.

With a sigh Tina flops into a wooden rocker next to the case. Sitting down she becomes aware of the sore muscles of the long legs peeking out of her miniskirt. She pops off her shoes and rubs her raw, burning feet before stretching her legs out before her. Her eyes begin to drift closed.

Tina opens her eyes with a start hearing a door opening in the back and footfalls on the wooden floor. She looks toward the back hallway to see a tall man in long muleskinner boots, jeans, a faded red shirt, and gloves. The man is wiping his face with a blue kerchief and as he removes it Tina sees a beguiling smile emerging from a salt and pepper beard.

Bettina is mesmerized by his deep, gray eyes. The laughing slate eyes seem to demand compliance.

Propped jauntily on top of this man’s head is a top hat with a native American design headband and a single long peacock feather stuck in the band. A ponytail of gray-black hair streams from behind.

“Good Afternoon, Miss,” The man says, tipping the hat. “You musta come far.” His voice is a soothing tenor with a slight western twang.

Tina loses herself in the man’s eyes which she sees slowly travel up her body. She feels them like firm hands stroking over her feet, up her calves, playing over her thighs. The phantom appendages linger at her hips, Tina moans at the embarrassment of the wetness that springs from within her hot pussy, splashing against the fabric of her white panties.

The caressing eyes travel up her stomach, tracing up the silk of her blouse and over her small, orange sized breasts. They travel up her throat to lay their warmth against her flushed cheeks and finally bore into her own heavy-lidded, turquoise-blue eyes.

“Miss?” He chuckles sexily.

Tina abruptly stands “Uhh -- Hi -- My name is Tin-- uh Bettina Guster,” she uses her best businesslike demeanor to gain back some of the control she has lost.

She shakes the man’s hand perfunctorily the touch of his rough hand is electric. “I have had an accident down the road and would like to use a phone to call somebody. Would that be possible.” Tina ends with a slight smile and wave of the head, playing the unattainable sexy businesswoman.

The man laughs again. “Oh, where are my manners, little lady? I’m J.D., but my friends call me Stoney. And I would like to be your friend. Would you like something to drink, you look done in.”

His eyes twinkle with light, making Stoney impossible to ignore. “Uh -- yes a cold beer would be nice --- but what I would really like to do is use your phone and call --”

“Good, Good!” Stoney interrupts and goes around to the bar and fills a glass with a heady brown ale, “It’s not cold but I make it myself. Drink up!”

Tina, realizing how thirsty she is makes her way to the bar and takes the frothy draft drinking it down quickly. The drink refreshes and revitalizes her spirit, she ask for another.

“You sure are a pretty little thing.” He draws another draft. “Would you allow me to take your photograph. I am a collector of pretty young things.”

As she drinks from the beer she looks at Stoney again. Her type was always the urbane metro-sexual men. She always thought that rural men were dirty, uncouth and dumb as a desert cactus. But as she looked at this older man in front of her she found herself excited.

Stoney carried himself with confidence and there was an air of wisdom that surrounded him. He was certainly not dirty, he smelled of leather, cool summer rain, and the slight musk of horseflesh. Looking into his eyes she saw herself reflected there.

Losing her businesslike air, Tina becomes a shy young girl again. Preening her long, black hair she says, “Ok, Stoney, you can take my picture.”

Stoney comes around the bar and stands in front of Tina. He stands so close she can feel his warmth invading her body. She turns on her stool to face him, not even aware that her skirt has ridden up her thighs and her ivory panties are peeking through. Stony licks his lips and puts out his hand to Tina.

“Follow me, beauty.”

Tina follows Stoney to the curtain. He caresses her cheek with his hand, smiles and leans down and steals a kiss from her cheeks.

“Stay there!” He whispers a command.

Stoney goes over to the camera, somewhere in her mind she realizes that he never adds a plate of film in the ancient camera, but she is too mesmerized to think. Stoney fills the trough of a with powder and holds it up above him as he looks in the viewfinder.

Tina can see his eye magnified in the lens as Stoney says, “Stand still until I set off the flash.”

He presses the button and the strobe flashes brightly. When the strobe goes off Tina feels the light enter through her eyes and tumble through her body. She feels disoriented and then blacks out.

-------------------------------------------------------

When she awakens Tina is still woozy but she feels constrained and cannot move. Stoney is caressing her naked body. Tina is hanging, tied securely by harsh ropes. In front of her is a table with wooden dowels, clothespins, and tweezers. There is also a bridle and a saddle nearby.

Stoney looks her in the eye and says, “Well, little one shall we get to know one another?”

To be continued