Chapter 2
"Oh, sure," Susan said, slightly embarrassed at having caused the moment of awkwardness. "Don't mind me. I don't get turned on in the mornings before twelve o'clock. How are you?"
"I'll give you an injection to help the morning doldrums," Lucia said, smiling. "Come in, and let's have a cup of coffee. It's very quiet. I can use the company." She was a medium-tall girl, dark, soft-spoken. Her black hair was done simply, hanging straight.
"Oh, no," Susan said, thinking rapidly to arrive at some excuse. She didn't know the woman that well.
"Oh, come on in," Lucia insisted. "Whatever you have to do can wait a few minutes while we get acquainted. I've been meaning to call you ever since we met."
There was an almost tangible flow of friendliness emanating from the dark, quiet young woman. Susan smiled and walked into the store. Lucia took her arm. It was a soft, warm, friendly touch to guide Susan back through the neatly arranged racks and tables to a counter at the rear of the attractive little shop.
"You sit there," Lucia said, steering Susan to a modern, low chair, one of two facing a marble topped table on which was a fresh vase of flowers. "I have the makings under the counter. The water is hot and everything. Cream and sugar?"
"Just cream, thank you," Susan said.
Lucia poured and mixed instant coffee. Finished, she put the dainty china cups and saucers on the marble table top and lowered herself gracefully into the other chair. She wore a plain, black sheath with a low neckline which showed the upper curves of her large breasts. Her skin was smooth, perfect. Her make-up was applied with a light, expert touch to accentuate large brown eyes and a generous mouth. She was, Susan decided, a very pretty woman.
"I like the store," Susan said. "I had no idea you worked here."
"I just opened up here a few months ago," Lucia said.
"Is it yours?" Susan asked uncertainly. "I mean do you actually own it?"
Lucia laughed. "I'm afraid so. It was a bit of a decision, deciding to go out on my own. I had to borrow money, and the first few months were death."
"I should think it would be fun to own a place like this," Susan said. "All those beautiful clothes!"
"It's nice to be able to stock good things," Lucia said. She made a wry face. "But then some matronly type with a big belly and a huge bust comes in and wants a dress for a girl with a size ten figure. It's a shame. I'm thinking of adding a line of good, medium priced dresses."
"Oh?" Susan asked politely.
"The young, pretty ones are all just starting a family, or their husbands are paying mortgages or something. The girls who look best in my clothes are the ones who can't afford them, and those who can afford them are past the stage where they can wear them."
"Really? Is it that bad?"
"Oh, not really." Lucia laughed. "This is just one of my complaining mornings, I guess." She beamed at Susan. "I'm so glad you stopped by. I was watching you standing outside, thinking of the things I have that would be perfect for you." Penetrating brown eyes swept over Susan's generous bust line, her indented waist. "Now if all my customers looked like you-"
Susan laughed nervously. "I'm afraid I'm one of those who can't quite afford it."
"I have some very good things on sale," Lucia said.
Susan shifted uncomfortably. She resented being given a sales pitch when she had come into the store, on Lucia's insistence, merely for a cup of coffee. "No, really," she said.
"Oh, I'm not trying to push something off on you," Lucia said quickly. "It's just that I like to see nice things on girls who can handle them. I'd like to show you a couple of outfits for fun, just to see how the designer meant them to look on a girl."
She seemed to be sincere. Susan shrugged. "I warn you I'm the sew-at-home-on-a-strict-budget type."
"Then you might get some good ideas," Lucia said, laughing. She rose with cat-like grace and removed a black sheath from a hanger. "Now this," she said. "When the designer created it, he had you in mind."
The dress had simple, close lines and a revealing cutaway in back. "It's lovely," Susan said, fingering the material, "but it's too expensive."
The price tag said $99.95. Susan felt resentment again. It was like dangling a piece of steak in the face of a hungry puppy and then telling him he couldn't have it.
"I'd like to see how it looks on you," Lucia said.
Susan went into the dressing room and slipped into the sheath. It was a perfect fit. Her large, firm breasts jutted enticingly as she walked out, subconsciously holding herself more erect, knowing that she looked good in the dress.
Lucia was very appreciative. She made a huge fuss over the dress. Then there were others, and the next hour was a pleasant, chatty interlude as Susan tried on garment after garment. She liked some, disliked others. She wished fervently that she could say, 'I'll take this one and this one and this one-"
"You've ruined me!" she gasped at last. She had begun to feel at ease with the friendly Lucia. She had decided that she liked her very much. "How can I put on my little homemade skirt and my two-ninety-eight blouse and be happy now?"
"Darling," Lucia crooned, "if everyone looked as good in a two-ninety-eight blouse and a homemade skirt, the dress people would be out of business."
"Thank you." Susan was pleased by the compliment. "Flattery will get you something, if only a kind word."
"You're a lovely girl," Lucia said softly, moistening her full lips with her pink tongue. The look made Susan feel vaguely uncomfortable. There was something familiar about that look, and she couldn't quite place it until something tugged at her memory, something someone had said about Lucia at the party where they had met.
"I have one other thing I'd like to show you," Lucia said, turning away into a room at the rear of the store. She came out with a black garment protected by a plastic covering. She worked the dress out of the covering and held it out to Susan. "This is one you just have to try."
The dress was long and simple. The material was silky and beautiful. "It's nice," Susan said. "It's kind of revealing, isn't it?"
"You haven't noticed the best part," Lucia said. She held the dress up. It was cut away in the front. In fact, there was no front. From waist level, the dress just wasn't there.
"Oh!" Susan gasped. "You must wear a shell or a dickie with it."
"No," Lucia said. "This is it."
"I've heard of low-cut dresses, but this is silly!"
"Actually, I bought it as a sort of joke," Lucia said. She laughed low in her throat. "It's one of the latest things, the logical follow-up to topless bathing suits. It's a topless evening gown. I wouldn't recommend it for public wear just yet. I don't think the world is quite ready."
"No, I don't think so," Susan agreed.
"But for a quiet evening at home?" Lucia smiled suggestively.
Susan smiled with Lucia, thinking of what Gil would say if she greeted him at the door in a topless dress.
"Just for fun, let's try it," Lucia said.
There was a suggestion of feminine conspiracy, enough to engage Susan's interest. She went into the dressing room and slipped out of her blouse and skirt again. Dressed in bra and briefs, she picked up the dress.
"It's to be worn without a bra of course," Lucia called from outside the curtains of the dressing room.
Shrugging, Susan discarded her bra. She slipped into the dress. It was a good fit. It was tight at the waist and elasticized bands snugged the material below her breasts and up her sides as the dress tapered into tiny straps over her shoulders. She looked at herself in the mirror. "Wow!" she gasped.
There is nudity, and then there is adorned nudity. A woman completely nude may engage in taking a bath, sleeping, sunbathing or making love. For other activities, adorned nudity is best, something to hide just enough of a woman to make her body seem mysterious.
This dress was adorned nudity at its best. Her large breasts were bare, but the covering effect of the rest of the dress moderated that nudity into something very electric. She remembered seeing dresses of its type in art books. The women of ancient Crete, tall, bare-breasted love-goddesses, had stood proudly with bosoms out-thrust to emphasize their beauty.
"How does it fit?" Lucia asked from outside the curtains.
"Fine."
"Like it?"
"It's wild," Susan said. "I wouldn't want it for public wear."
"Come out and let me see."
"I can't come out there," Susan said. "What if someone came in?"
"May I come in, then?"
"Sure."
Lucia's face appeared between the parted curtains. She let her eyes sweep over Susan's perfectly formed, bared breasts. She seemed to be holding her breath.
"You have to take off your briefs, too," Lucia said.
Susan had been so bemused by her bare breasts that she hadn't noticed the diamond cuts below the waist level. White material showed through.
"I'd really feel nude then," she said, giggling.
"That's the idea. Let's get the full effect."
Susan raised the dress carefully, so as not to wrinkle it, slipped down her panties, let them drop to her feet, and stepped out of them. The perforations of the dress were between her navel and the upper curve of her pelvis. Enticing white skin glowed in diamond shapes around her body.
Through the dress were glimpses of soft stomach, the curve of her hips, the hollow at the base of her spine just above the slope of her rump. She felt almost naked, yet it made her feel teasingly sexy, pleasantly sensuous. She knew by Lucia's admiring looks that she wore the dress well.
"Not everyone could get away with it," Lucia said, touching her lips with the tip of her tongue. She smoothed the dress down over Susan's hips, although not a wrinkle marred the silky material. Her palms were flat, pressing intimately against Susan's softness. She tugged at the back of the dress, going through the motions of arranging the hang of the material. Her hands flowed to Susan's front and patted the tightness just below her breasts.
"Most women would sag so badly they couldn't wear it," Lucia said. "But you're perfect." Her hands cupped Susan's breasts from below. "Most women need the lift of a bra," she said, pushing up gently. "You're very firm."
Lucia's hands were warm. The touch was just a little too intimate for comfort. Susan froze for a moment, feeling embarrassed. Suddenly she remembered what it was that had been said about Lucia at the party:
"My dear, Lucia Moreland is a darling girl, but don't let her get you alone in a dark corner."
It seemed to Susan, in that frozen moment, that Lucia's hands stayed on her breasts forever. Actually, the touch was brief and could easily have been dismissed as a natural saleswoman's gesture. Then contact was broken, and Lucia was bending to tug at the skirt. Susan allowed herself to breathe.
"It's a damned shame," Lucia said, standing. "You look like ten million dollars in that dress. People would scream and snicker if you dared wear it."
"It would have to be worn on a very warm night," Susan said, letting the tension ease out of her. It was silly to be suspicious of Lucia just because some old biddy wanted to gossip.
"When I ordered that dress," Lucia said, "I was hoping that some newly married girl would see it and want it to surprise her husband. They seem to think, the two or three I've shown it to, that they'd rather spend money for something to be worn out, instead."
"Maybe you're barking up the wrong tree," Susan said. "Maybe you should try to sell it to a woman who has been married for a while, so she could use it to pep up her husband's lagging interest.
She was sorry as soon as she said it. It sounded like a complaint against Gil. She certainly didn't want Lucia to think that she was dissatisfied witl, her marriage.
Lucia tactfully ignored the remark. "I've marked it way down."
"It would be kind of fun," Susan mused. She liked the startling figure she cut in the dress.
"Would your husband like it?"
"He'd go ape." She looked at the price tag. Eighty dollars! It would be cheaper to buy a couple of fifths.
"Don't let the price scare you," Lucia said. "I'll admit a trade secret. I have about twenty-five dollars in the dress. Why don't you take it for twenty?"
"Twenty?" It was foolish even to consider it. Yet she was sure Gil would get a kick out of it. She could imagine his pleased surprise when she came out of the bedroom, nearly nude, adorned nudity. But 20 dollars!
"I'm afraid I couldn't, not right now," she said regretfully.
"Your husband will never know what he's missing."
"There are so many things we need," Susan said, arguing with herself against the urge to buy the dress, and twenty dollars be damned. "I just can't spend the money right now."
Lucia shrugged. "I feel almost like giving it to you. It's made for you."
"I couldn't let you do that," Susan said. She slipped out of the dress and put on her own clothing. Lucia helped, handing her the skirt and blouse. There was that look again. She realized with a shock that Lucia was looking at her just as some men looked at her. She wondered if there was, after all, a kernel of truth in the statement of that catty woman at the party.
Dressed, she followed Lucia back to the little marble-topped table. Lucia paused, turned, a musing expression on her face. "I have an idea," she said. "How would you like a part-time job?"
"I haven't thought about it," Susan said.
"I can't afford a girl full time, yet," Lucia said. "And yet there are many times when I need someone to help. If you wanted to work on Saturdays and a couple of evenings a week-"
"I really haven't thought about it," Susan repeated. "I'd have to talk to Gil."
"I'd let you have things you wanted out of the store at cost," Lucia said. "It would be a wonderful way to build a nice wardrobe."
Susan considered it. She liked Lucia Moreland. She couldn't believe the woman at the party had been right. After all, what proof did she have? A look? A casual touch?
"I'll think it over," Susan said.
"I'll tell you what," Lucia said eagerly. "You talk it over with your husband. Gil, isn't it? In the meantime, why don't you take this dress home with you? Show it to him." She smiled suggestively. "When he sees you in this, he won't be able to say no to anything."
"I don't think I should take it home before I decide," Susan said doubtfully. "We've talked once before about my taking a job and-"
"But this won't be like a regular job," Lucia said. "You'll only be working Saturdays and a couple of evenings."
"Well...."
"If you decide to come to work, fine. If you don't and you don't want to keep the dress, you'll at least have had the chance to wear it for one evening. Okay?"
"All right," Susan said, weakening. It was Friday. Friday night was party night at the Emory house, a party for two with steaks and wine. She could wear a housecoat over the dress until it was time to reveal herself and then....
Good Lord! She was getting horny. Just the thought sent goose bumps down her spine. "Gil Emory" she would say, "you've been neglecting your homework. Get with it, boy."