A Bigger Stage

[Blase]

"Thank you, Miss," Owen said, not for the first time, when he returned to place two napkins on Rosi's table.

He actually managed to meet her eyes for a second, though the look he gave her was less a look of suave assurance than one of stunned incredulity. It said You let me see you naked.

"I, uh, that is, we... hope you'll come back sometime."

Owen felt like something significant had happened to him, but couldn't have said what if his life had depended on it.

 

[AndreaSubbie]

"I hope so too, Owen ... I'm Rosi .. and I'm glad you liked seeing me. If I get the chance I'll do it again, ok?"

Rosi took the two napkins, kissed both slowly and deliberately, gave one back to Owen and put the other in her pocket.

Holding her coat closed she rose gracefully and left the table, left the cafe without looking back.

She felt that she had made the apology and that she had done no harm.

Maybe next visit Owen might look in her eyes? Anyway, it was time to be getting back.

 

[Blase]

That evening

It was check-in time once again.

As before, Rosi had conscientiously assumed the required uniform and provided proof to her controllers, who had rewarded her by again initiating a conference call; only tonight it was on Spacetime.

And if Sarah and Cindy chose to tease Rosi a bit by only sending audio while Rosi herself was very much in the picture, that was of course their prerogative.

"So, tell us how it went, kitten," Cindy was saying. "Was it an afternoon of new revelations?"

 

[AndreaSubbie]

Rosi sat cross-legged on her bed, naked, the phone in front of her propped on a pillow for a suitable camera angle.

"Oh my, it was good, great really, but different. And Owen spoke to me. I mean I did the coat thing, let it fall open, got the coffee, forgot the cake, Owen brought it over, got another flash, and then um, I kinda apologised to him?"

Rosi screwed up her face like she didn't want to confess something, but knew she was going to have to.

"We kinda came to an agreement. Owen wasn't offended but actually like me flashing him, and I said I'd do it again if I got the chance. And he invited me to go back and see him, in the cafe? At least, I think that's how it was. You know, he's kinda sweet in a socially unskilled kind of way?"

Since she couldn't see them, she had no idea of Sarah or Cindy's reaction unless or until they spoke. She bit her lip.

 

[Blase]

"It sounds like you kind of liked him." Cindy's smile was audible even if it wasn't visible.

"You don't mind that we chose to show you to someone who wasn't an alpha male?"

 

[AndreaSubbie]

Rosi was confused and looked puzzled for a moment

"Why would I mind? It's up to you who you show me to? I mean, you call me kitten, suggest I do something, and I kind of melt and have to do it, even though it's my choice. I can't get enough, ha ha.

"But seriously, I felt I owed him something. Like how I treated him. I didn't want to use him for my own entertainment, but it's ok because he said he liked it and was ok me doing it again.

"Like I said, we came to an agreement."

 

[Blase]

"That's all very good, kitten. You see, part of the fun for us - and it can be a big part, really - is in taking you to mental places you've never gone before, and might well have never gone on your own."

"Owen's a great example. I mean, the idea of getting naked in front of Dane isn't exactly shocking. He's tall, dark and glamorous, and let's face it: Plenty of girls have dropped their clothes for him."

"But would you ever have thought, on your own, to go into a small, out of the way cafe, and flash some shy, nerdy guy you'd never seen before?"

 

[AndreaSubbie]

"Well no, no way, never!"

Rosi thought for a moment.

"But yeah, I get it. And I like it. It's fun for you, fun for me. I mean, naked for a nerdy guy in a small cafe, naked for a rockstar legend, naked for a TV producer and crew .. twice .. where next, huh?

"Oh, and naked at the end of every day reporting in, and naked on camera in a daily conference call.

"If you asked me a week ago, I'd have said that's never happening! Ha ha.

"But yeah, it's all good, I'm enjoying this new life. I just hope you guys don't get bored of me"

 

[Blase]

"Oh, but don't you see, kitten?" Sarah spoke up to ask.

"We've only just begun corrupting you..."

 

[AndreaSubbie]

Rosi's face lit up in genuine pleasure, a look of understanding, of assurance, of belonging.

"You mean there's more? A lot more?"

Even Rosi could detect the hope in her voice, the anticipation.

She tried to contain it, knowing that one of her biggest weaknesses was over enthusiasm. She had to be patient. Measured. One step at a time.

"I'm in," she announced, quietly but firmly.

 

[Blase]

That was when the knock on the door came, accompanied by a not-too-loud call of "Room Service!"

Into the ensuing silence, Sarah's voice came again. "Well, aren't you going to answer the door, kitten?"

"All you need is your phone."

 

[AndreaSubbie]

"My phone? Yes, my phone," Rosi panicked slightly, having to do the conference call, answer the door and keep her phone with her.

kitten, her Trigger Word.

Jumping up off the bed she reached for a robe, realised that wasn't the plan since Sarah already knew what was going on, and held her phone to kind of cover herself and the door in the same picture.

Cracking open the door and hiding behind it but peeping round she asked,

"Um, I didn't order room service?"

 

[Blase]

There was a moment of fraught silence.

Then, Sarah's measured tones came from Rosi's phone.

"When I said 'answer the door', kitten, I meant open it, as you would to anyone who was welcome."

 

[AndreaSubbie]

Her heart racing, Rosi closed her eyes for a moment, heard kitten over and over, knew she couldn't refuse, and stepping back, phone held out wide so that Sarah and Cindy would see as soon as she did herself, opened the door wide without covering herself.

"Come on in!"

 

[Blase]

There in the doorway, pupils dilated to the size of full moons, stood Eternally Awkward Owen.

"I, uh..." he stammered, then stopped to swallow a lump in his throat.

"I'm sorry... she said you'd be here..."

Owen had carefully prepared an entire mental script, just on the extreme off-chance that everything that had happened today was not in fact a setup that would ultimately end with him either featured on a reality TV show, or possibly robbed, beaten and left for dead.

So naturally, all the words he'd carefully prepared flew right out of his head, leaving in their place perhaps the stupidest thing imaginable.

"Can I see you?" he said hoarsely.


Rosi could hear Sarah's voice saying, "It's your choice, kitten. You can send him away if you want. Or you can let him come in."

 

[AndreaSubbie]

"No, no come in .. shit .. I wasn't expecting anyone,"

Rosi beckoned Owen in, closing the door behind him and gestured to the small sofa the room provided, setting her phone on a little table so it would be on screen for sarah and Cindy.

Rosi perched naked on the sofa arm.

"Sit down, Owen ... it's ok. You can leave any time you want, ok? If you want to stay, have a seat on the sofa, ok?"

"Can you guys see ok?" she asked the two conspiritors.

 

[Blase]

Owen all but fell onto the sofa.

Not only was his face not showing much color, but he was visibly trembling.

For all of that, however, his eyes never left Rosi for a moment.

The pathologically shy Owen was staring for all he was worth.

When he finally got his heart slowed down enough to consider speaking again, all that came out was a half-whispered, "You're so beautiful."

 

[AndreaSubbie]

"Why thanks, Owen, that's really sweet of you!" Rosi stood up from the sofa arm, facing Owen with her hands on her hips, but still in view of her phone,

"Would you like a drink? They gave me a fairly good mini bar in this room? Oh, and I hope you don't mind but I'm on a call with my two closest friends."

Then to her phone Rosi added, "As I was saying, I'm in, ok?"

 

[Blase]

"Could I have some water?" Owen asked. "I don't really drink."

This wasn't much of a problem because the vanity in Rosi's room did have a couple glasses on it. Tap water wasn't prestigious but it was wet.

As Rosi busied herself getting the water, she could still hear Sarah speaking. "Perhaps you should join Owen on the sofa, kitten."

 

[AndreaSubbie]

Rosi brought back the water and handed Owen the glass, careful not to get in the way of the phone, and also to stand as close as she could to him.

Hearing Sarah's instruction, but adding her own interpretation, Rosi again sat on the right hand sofa arm but this time her feet were on the seat cushion right up against Owen's right thigh, her bare legs almost touching his arm, her left hand on the sofa back, right on her right knee.

She twisted to talk to the girls, "Excuse me a moment, I want to ask Owen something," and turning back to Owen she let her right leg straighten to the floor, giving him an almost eye level view between her legs, and surely he must smell her scent?

"You wanted to see me, Owen? To talk to me? Was it to ask me out?"

She gazed into his eyes, her look as gentle as her voice. She really didn't want to scare him. Was it possible she was being offered a pet of her own?

 

[Blase]

"She said you... liked me..." Owen said uncertainly.

"Tha-"

"That I could come here and it would be okay. Once, anyway."

Owen still looked as though jumping up and bolting seemed to be quite a viable option.

"If it isn't okay, I'll... I'll..."

He swallowed again.

"I saw you naked," he said dreamily.

 

[AndreaSubbie]

"Yes, I do like you, Owen, you're quite sweet in your own way. And yes you saw me naked. But not as naked as I am now."

Rosi then took a gamble based on what Sarah and Cindy had told her about men.

"And Owen, I'm not upset that you masturbated thinking of me naked. It's ok. In fact it's more than ok. I'm flattered."

Rosi didn't want to startle him with any sudden moves. She kept her voice level, calm, reassuring, soft.

An idea came to her, but whether or not she acted would depend of Owen staying or running away.

 

[Blase]

"I'm sorry!" Owen said, startled. "I... Oh."

"I'm glad you don't mind."

He seemed to recollect something, then, and his eyes slipped downwards for the first time since he'd entered the room.

Looking at the soda cushion in front of him, he breathed, "I've... I've never kissed a girl."

 

[AndreaSubbie]

"And I've never had a boy masturbate for me, and I'd really like to see it ... what do you think?"

Rosi was still talking quietly, reasonably, wondering if Owen would go for it, whether she was again pushing too far too fast.

She wished she could ask Sarah and Cindy but didn't want to break the slender thread of confidence holding Owen in her room.

 

[Blase]

"Kitten." The word came from Rosi's phone, quiet but with a certain urgency.

"Can you take me off speaker for a sec?"

When Rosi did, Sarah said, "Rosi, you have to lead him a little. He's scared stiff."

"Why don't you ask him if he's ever seen a girl touch herself? But then, don't wait for an answer. Just stand up and start to slowly touch yourself so that he can see."