Picture Perfect - Ch 3-2

The next few weeks sped by in a blur of work, sex and the Colombian sun. Luisa and I spent the first few days in and around the city itself, where she made good on her claims that she could help me get shots I wanted both faster and better than I’d hoped. She even, somehow, got me access to the tower of the Basilica Santa Catalina de Alejandría, the city’s famous cathedral, at sunrise. And the picture I got there of the lonely, early morning square below, full of long shadows, would go on to become one of the most distinctive and widely circulated of the Near Horizon’s first year. What I had really been looking forward to came afterwards however, as we escaped Cartagena itself in the rust ridden old chevy she drove, roaming out to the smaller fishing villages and landscapes beyond the tourist trail. I’d made it my mission to not just show the same side of Columbia as everyone else, and it was the sort of exploration and challenge I love as I tried to find the tone I wanted. Not everything I shot worked, but with Luisa as a muse there were far more successes than failures.

But it was the time in between the photography that stands out more, with the pair of us sharing a bed even more enthusiastically than she was sharing her city. I didn’t actually return to my hotel after the first night. Instead I found myself at her apartment each evening, fucking into the early hours, and picking back up again in the mornings. It was as if we both knew that what we had wasn’t going to last beyond this trip, doing our best to ignore the little personality clashes that would have made anything serious impossible, or how we were at very different stages of our lives. Instead, we settled for making the most of every second we did have. And frankly, when it came to the sex, I couldn’t get enough. I was obsessed with her. With the sound of her voice low in my ear and the feeling of her piercings as I rolled my tongue across them. With how she curled her fingers inside my pussy or how she kept toying with my ass, almost relentlessly opening my mind up to just how much I’d been denying myself there.

We were even busy enough, and distracted enough, that I was managing to avoid the now overdue video call with Anton, that Alice had promised me on New Year’s Eve. He was the last person to wear the bracelet, with Alice having entered his life with Harvey’s help, and he was therefore the potential source of answers as to where the silver artefact had come from. Or what exactly it even was. But while part of me was keen to get those answers, another was scared that whatever came along might hasten the end of things with Luisa. Or throw me back out of my comfort zone just as I’d found a grove I could settle into. Which meant I was kidding myself again, pretending that I just hadn’t found a good time yet to pick up my phone.

And so it was late one morning, towards the tail end of my time in the country, that I found myself back in Luisa’s living room, doing my best to ignore how much the laid back chaos of her apartment was beginning to stress me out. And that time I didn’t even have the benefit of her nudity to casually keep my mind from small annoyances. Her daughter was due back in town, ready to take me in search of mud volcanoes, and that meant I had to get used to Luisa with her top back on.

“Have you seen my spare camera batteries,” I asked as she wandered out of the bedroom, my mood left exasperated by the clutter, as I tried to pack up what I needed for the road trip. Normally I’d take my time triple checking something like that the night before, but we had ended up losing track of time, again, going from couch to shower to bedroom as we fucked. The price I was paying now for that wonderfully extended distraction was a low level bubbling anxiety at not being ready. And I was trying not to let it spill over.

I bent over to look under the coffee table as she made her way over, only to feel her hand give my ass a suggestive squeeze from behind.

“Luisa, please,” I whined slightly, knowing if she really pushed for more I was going to end up giving it to her. “Gabi’s going to be here soon.”

I stood back up, batteries unfound, and she met me with a kiss which I lingered in, despite my stress. Luisa then slipped a hand up my top, as she replied making me stifle a moan as my nipple hardened beneath her finger tips.

“We have 30 minutes, still enough time for…”

I did my best to reluctantly cut her off, finishing the sentence for her. “For me to finish getting packed, have my coffee, brush my teeth. Maybe have some breakfast if I’m lucky. And I’m meant to be sending some previews to my editor before we leave too.”

She kissed at my neck, and I wrestled with how easy it would be to give in. One more quick spell between her legs before leaving. But the thought of how much more stressed she would be leaving me later just about pressed through enough to stop me.

“You’re killing me,” I said, gently pushing her away. I was answered with a slight pout, one that attempted to be playful but that I could tell had the stirrings of a slight hurt.

My eyes scanned over her shoulder looking for any more of my remaining gear, but what they fell on definitely wasn’t that. There, on the couch, was the black silicone shape of the butt plug she’d attempted to introduce me to the night before. I’d enjoyed the foreplay and the attention she’d used to slowly warm my pucker up to the idea of taking something like that, but I’d ultimately chickened out, still only comfortable with her fingers and tongue. But the toy itself remained sitting there in plain view, next to a half spent tube of lubricating jelly, prompting me to fluster at the thought of her daughter walking in and finding it.

“You might want to tidy up a little.”

Luisa followed the direction of my gaze until her eyes also fell on the plug. She laughed, but relented to my embarrassment and it up, bundling it away in the drawer of a nearby cabinet. “Gabriella used to steal my vibrator when she was a little younger, she has caught me with much worse than that.”

I remained slightly dubious, even as I saw how relaxed her expression was. “You don’t think she’s going to mind then? About us?”

“That I’ve been sleeping with another woman? Hermosa, she has known since she was small which direction my heart looks. And it isn’t as if there is anything more to tell her. This is fun. A lot of really, amazing, toe curlingly good fun. But we both know that’s all it is. If anything you should be more worried about her making her own moves on you.”

I flustered. “Excuse me?”

Luisa, and the smirk she was wearing, disappeared towards the kitchen, leaving me unsure just how much she was fucking with me. Stopping near a fruit bowl she had set out on the counter, she took the time to toss a banana towards me, at least solving the issue of breakfast.

“I already told you she’s a handful,” the older woman replied. “My girl knows her own mind.”

Luisa was much more ready to roll with whatever came her way than I thought I could ever be, and my immediate reaction was to find some way to protest, although at what I wasn’t quite sure. The idea that her daughter might potentially have that sort of interest in me rubbed against the narrowness of my sensibilities I guess. Maybe she expected me to brush it off as a joke. But then, I realised that with Harvey around there was a chance I wasn’t going to get much of a choice or be allowed to wait behind the neat, self imposed, little lines I drew for myself.

Of course that was the entire damn point.

For a moment that was just long enough to start to feel awkward, I failed to find words to casually banter back and was only rescued by Luisa’s discovery of my battery packs, plugged into an outlet on the kitchen counter.

“These are what you were looking for? No?”

I grabbed the bag they belonged in and hurried across the room to fetch them, knowing my packing would at least be somewhere close to complete once they were stowed away. Luisa caught my haste however, and gently caught my arm, forcing me to slow for a beat as she drew me towards her.

“I raised Gabriella to take what she wants out of life. Not to let the world give her ‘if’ or ‘but’ for an answer.” She punctuated the statement with a final, eager kiss, speaking in a way that left it hard to escape the implication that she thought it was something I needed to do a little more.  “I just wish she hadn’t taken that lesson quite so close to her heart sometimes.”

“I’m more worried about what you want.”

Luisa gave a soft, noncommittal shrug that left me no wiser as to what she was actually thinking, leaving things maddeningly vague as she helped me to pack.

I was just barely ready 20 minutes later, bags packed and my stress just about placated, when Gabi imposed herself on the room. Not that she was loud or even particularly intrusive, but the young woman carried herself with the energy of someone entirely sure of the idea that she was the main character in her own story.

“Hola Mama.”

The breezy words announced the college girl’s presence, as she let herself in with her own key, and immediately owned the room as if it was a stage.

Or maybe, as I thought that, I was simply projecting, as my own interest focused in towards her. Where her mother’s charms were casual, worn with an ease that leant to her beauty, Gabi clearly knew and enjoyed how attractive she was. The resemblance between the two of them was striking; the same olive skin and lush features. But Gabi’s dark hair was cut stylishly, carefully framing the designer glasses that picked out the brown of her eyes as well as the subtle makeup that accented her lips and cheekbones. And it was just short enough to give her a vague queer energy I was very much into. Even more striking however were the expensive jeans she was wearing, high waisted in a way only gen-z seem to be able to manage, and tight enough to cling to her legs and leaving her pert little rear demanding attention. The outfit was finished off with a loose hanging shirt, open entirely at the front and worn over the top of a tank top that left her midriff exposed.

She flitted towards where her mom was sitting, waiting on the couch and embraced her, before only then dropping the duffle bag that she had slung over her shoulder.

“The laundry at college was broken, I thought maybe you could…”

Luisa sighed, looking down at the bag and realising how her daughter was casually still expecting her to do her chores. She gave Gabi a look that was equal parts affectionate and exasperated, left to roll her eyes as the younger woman kissed her cheek before any objection could come.

“Thank you, love you Mama.”

I remained sitting in another of the living room’s chairs, across from Luisa, bags ready and doing my best to not seem overly familiar as they chattered briefly about how Gabi’s drive, from college in Barranquilla, had been. However when the student’s attention strayed towards me, it was with an amused, suspicious look, and a flicker of her gaze back towards her mother.

“So, you’re the famous Riley Levesque,” she asked, switching to speaking in confident English, sizing me up. Obviously Luisa had done more than just mention me in passing and it was tough to tell if she was working out my dynamic with her mother, or simply appraising me for herself. But any doubt was only left to hang in the air for a couple of seconds before the bracelet stirred. I felt it pulling at her mind, like little hooks latching onto what interest in me would have been there and dragging it unmistakably to the surface, while any little hesitations drowned beneath Harvey’s influence. Suddenly the room felt a lot smaller and warmer.

“That’s me,” I replied, trying to do my best to mentally protest to Harvey as I spoke. “Thanks for agreeing to help me like this. Your mom says you know the best spots to try and get some shots of mud volcanoes.”

The thing about having Harvey in your head however is that you can’t really fool her, even if you want to try and kid yourself. And for every thought that was saying how she was far too young for me, that I needed a personal rule against this, there were another half dozen stray ones suddenly, eagerly anticipating where things might go, whether I wanted it to or not.

“No-one will make you feel more welcome in Colombia than my Mother,” she said, thick with suggestion. “But there are some things even she doesn’t know. And she did promise you’d be paying me for my trouble.”

Luisa interrupted to joke, “me doing your laundry isn’t enough for you?”

We had already discussed price however, knowing that Lydia’s expense account would need to cover Gabi’s time and fuel costs. And I had already made the point of making sure I had the cash on hand for her, pulling out my wallet to produce a narrow stack of bills.

“300 US a day? Right?”

Gabriella reached out to take them, lingering with the money held between our grasps for a moment as our eyes met, and I saw the fire of provocation and mischief there. “300? It’s a start. Anything more than the trip out there is going to cost you extra.” She left the statement hanging flirtatiously, as if anything between us was up for grabs, as long as I was willing to negotiate.  I knew from Luisa that she had been studying business, but as she held my gaze, waiting for me to blink first, I was already left with the impression that trying to bargain with her was a losing game. One she was oh so eager to let me play.

She grinned at me as I let the cash go, already knowing I wasn’t going to be able to resist indulging her, and quickly switched back to talking to her mother. There was something about her that felt a touch reckless to get involved with. Like she would do her best to make sure that any situation I got into with her would always be just beyond my control. I should have blanched, found a way to firmly set expectations, for her and myself. But I knew Harvey probably wasn’t about to let me and, more importantly, I realised, for once I didn’t want to. She was young, and beautiful and I was finally in a place where I just wanted to see where the bracelet’s ‘process’ would lead me.

‘Finally,’ I heard Harvey’s voice in my mind, dripping with sarcasm. ‘That only took us a month to get to. We might actually be done this decade at this rate.’

‘You know if you want me to go back to being difficult I can.’

Harvey gave a disembodied chuckle. ‘Sure, if you want to see what it’s like when I really push things.’

The tone of Harvey’s words gave me the impression she thought that she’d barely flexed what she could do so far, and I shrank away from antagonising her. I let myself remember the sheer, suffocating pressure of the attention she could draw towards me back in New York, and realised how I really didn’t want to see her impose herself more than that. I resisted the urge to push back petulantly, and instead I found myself asking a question that sprang into my mind as I watched Gabi telling her mom about how the new semester was going.

‘I thought the idea was to find me my perfect match. You do know I’m not about to fall in love with Gabi right?’ It was true. I was definitely attracted to her, her appeal different enough to her mom but still ticking enough of the same boxes that had left me fawning over Luisa. But even after a few moments I could tell I probably didn’t feel the pull for anything more.

‘I do. But if the price of getting you to loosen up and start giving me an idea of what you are interested in is letting you fuck a college girl or two then I’m happy to play along. For now anyway.’

‘I don’t need to have sex with her to tell you she’s too young for me.’

That drew a wave of exasperation, my response leaving Harvey tangibly disappointed. ‘Is she? Or have you just decided that ahead of time? Come on, I thought we were making progress here, keep an open mind for me. You’ve been doing a good enough job of that with Luisa.’

I felt an embarrassed flush at what I thought were the implications of the statement, letting my gaze fall upon the drawer that Luisa had hidden the buttplug in.

‘I meant with the age gap, but I suppose that counts as being open minded too,’ the voice drawled with amusement.

The blush that came across my face was poorly timed, as I realised how close Gabi’s ass was to my eyeline as the student batted away concern from her mother about how well she was eating at university. I would have been entertained by the sudden shift Luisa had gone through, from carefree to maternal pestering, only for Gabrielle to turn around and catch my expression. The conclusion for her to make was that the flush at my cheeks was from me checking her out, rather than a voice in my head, and she winked at me knowingly.

‘I swear I’m going to throw you in the sea when this is over.’

‘It's been tried. You definitely wouldn't like the outcome, so save yourself the agony.’

Gabi’s attention however moved to the couple of bags I had sat next to me, including my camera gear.

“You know we need to leave soon if you want to have the most time possible taking pictures."

I couldn’t tell how much of the transparent eagerness to leave as soon as she got here was simply her, and how much was the bracelet’s influence working in her head, leaving her desperate to get me alone. Neither could I tell if the frown that crept across Luisa’s face was because of a reluctance to see me leave, or Gabi.

“You’ve already been driving for hours to get here,” the older woman said. “You should at least rest a little while before going out again.”

“Time is money Mama. And your friend here is paying very well for mine right now.” Gabi playfully planted another kiss on her mother’s cheek, and I could tell that Luisa was just as powerless to say no to her daughter when she did that, as I was whenever I was called Hermosa. It was obvious Gabi knew it too. The younger woman was all vibrant, uncontainable energy, and grabbed one of my bags before any other protests could slow her from what she wanted to do. “Plus, there’s meant to be rain later, you don’t want the weather to spoil Riley’s trip do you?”

Luisa conceded. “Fine. Fine. But you are staying for dinner tomorrow once you bring her back.”

“Of course Mama, for you, anything,” Gabi said sweetly, transparent in getting her own way and prompting another roll of Luisa’s eyes.

Luisa started to see us towards the door, only to stop us briefly as I stood shoulder to shoulder next to her daughter at the threshold. It was there that she pulled the younger girl in for a final hug before turning to us both to speak. And as she did so it was with a knowing smile, and a pointed glance in my direction.

“Now play nice, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”

I watched as she gave Gabi a brief, parting kiss on the cheek, only to be caught off guard by the way Luisa then immediately turned to me. A hand found the front of my shirt and pulled me in as she pressed her lips against my own in a long, deep kiss. I couldn’t tell if the display was meant for me, for her daughter, or just for her, but whichever it was, I definitely wasn’t about to stop her, letting myself lean back into it after the initial surprise.

“Try not to have too much fun without me”

******

We drove for a couple of hours up Highway 90, a road that had become increasingly familiar to me from my excursions with Luisa, only this time I wasn’t in her old Chevy, but her daughter’s much newer sedan. Something I hadn’t quite figured out how she was able to afford yet. Gabi’s hand frequently strayed over to rub the inside of my thigh, even as she watched the road and talked energetically over the top of the pop music coming from her radio. The little tugs Harvey kept giving her were presumably the bracelet’s idea of encouragement, or a reward for letting myself go along with things. Not that I was in a mood to complain, and I sat with my legs slightly spread for most of the trip, daring Gabi to caress further.

Given how brashly assured the student was, she was surprisingly good company. She was smart, like her mom, but more restrained in showing it unless I poked and teased to learn how she was on the honour roll at school, or had an internship with Procter and Gamble lined up for the summer in Barranquillo. Instead her focus was on me, and not just in the ways spurred on by Harvey’s magic. She did her best to keep me at the centre of the conversation, trying to make me feel like I was the most interesting person in the world, and actually managed to convince me more often than not. It’s not exactly hard to fall into enjoying having a gorgeous twenty year old hanging on each of your words. And If I was less cynical I might not have pulled myself out of things quite as often as I did, to poke at the veneer of her intent, or to realise just how practised she was at doing it. I’d have to wait a little longer to get my answer as to why however.

The plan was to arrive at El Totumo itself first, allowing me to take some establishing shots of the famous mud volcano and at least have something to fall back on if Gabi’s supposed lead didn’t work out. The moment we arrived however everything was met with the faint whiff of disappointment. The volcano mound didn’t lend itself to the most attractive of pictures, little more than a pile of brown-grey dirt that struggled to be photogenic even with the nearby lake framing it in the background. And it was quickly apparent that any attempt I might make to find interesting compositions would be spoiled by the presence of the shrill western backpackers peppering the area. We stayed for half an hour, before getting back in the car, only Gabi keeping me from becoming sullen. It was a pleasant change to have something to care about other than what was on the other side of my viewfinder.

Instead, Gabi drove us on back roads and tracks, winding our way up the green slopes of one of the nearby valleys. Despite only travelling half an hour more, it felt like we’d slipped into another world than the one we were on at the highway, like I was being shown something illicit and hidden. It did cross my mind that she was simply trying to find somewhere secluded to pull over and jump on me, but we both managed to behave ourselves long enough to keep going, eventually pulling over at the side of the road at the head of an unmarked path. There, we made our way downhill, walking a short distance across a cattle field framed by a rough wooden fence, towards where a narrow river snaked its way coastwards across the patchy green terrain. The trees were sparse, just frequent enough to provide the perfect little accents to the scene, and the valley’s bovine residents regarded us with indifference as Gabi took my hand and hurried me across the last stretch towards our destination.

I almost missed it at first. The small crater where the warm, grey mud fractured up from inside the earth was only a few feet across, barely larger than a hot tub, and I initially mistook it for just another swell in the landscape. It was almost non-descript, lacking the imposing sense of itself that brought the tourists to El Totumo, but there was a charm to the understated, undiscovered little spot that had an immediate appeal.

“I used to come out here with friends all the time back in High School,” Gabi said as she watched my reaction. I could see why sneaking off to relax and fool around here would draw in local kids like her. And if she was hoping I would approve, well, the way the low sun was beginning to frame itself between the slopes of the valley already and drawing out the shadows already had me inspired, leaving my mind racing as to what shots I could get. I just needed a subject, one I could get moody close ups of in the mud, or silhouette against the river and the coming sunset. I quickly went to fetch my camera from my bag, but it was at that moment I realised I’d been working with a pretty large, unspoken assumption.

“You were expecting me to model for you, weren’t you,” she asked.

“I did hope.” That was an understatement. Without someone to put in any photographs the entire trip out here would end up being a bust, and the normal care with which I’d have asked had gone out of my head the moment Harvey had started giving her hints and tugs.

Gabi smirked at me. “Mom implied. But…” she tailed off, pointedly for a moment, leaving me to wait for her to continue. “The price we agreed was for a driver and a guide, not a model. I know what I’m worth and I don’t come cheap.”

She was toying with me. And, God, if I could have captured just how intense the mischief and provocation in her eyes was in that moment. We both knew she was going to do it for me, Harvey wasn’t exactly giving us much choice there. But this was a game to her and I needed her badly, in more ways than one. Gabi planned to enjoy being in the driving seat, and so we both also knew this was going to end with me giving her whatever she wanted.

“How much?”

“A hundred.”

I was expecting worse. “Done.”

She gave a small pout, leaning in so that I thought she was about to kiss me, but instead only moving to whisper in my ear, her words teasing. “You know it’s less fun when you don’t even pretend to negotiate.”

Even if I was being made to work for things, Gabi had clearly come prepared, and I was made to look away, left to study the horizon as she opened her own bag to change. When I was allowed to turn back her previous outfit was gone, replaced by a sleek, white bikini with barely there straps, flawlessly set against the equally shapely lines of her half-exposed body. I did my best not to be too obvious, but she clearly knew the way my eyes were on her as she made for the pool, and I’m sure I didn’t entirely avoid letting a goofy smile show on my face.

The camera loved looking at her even more than I did, and it quickly became obvious she’d done work like this before. Gabi lounged in the warm mud, progressively submerging herself until she was covered from head to foot and obliging my instructions as I worked. The idea had been to try and get more than just portraits, but it didn’t take me long to accept that she was the star. And with the mud rendering everything in a sense of grayscale, the one splash of colour ended up being the green of her eyes, brilliantly stark in the shots where we experimented with her barely breaking the surface. At some point I’d even slipped my own pants off, wading into the heated mud in my underwear. And even though I’m not above getting dirty for my work, this time I wasn’t even bothering to pretend to myself it was only to get better shots.

It didn’t take her long to raise the stakes however, not even letting me shoot for half an hour before making her next, inevitable, offer.

“I’ll take my top off for you if you pay me another two hundred,” she suggested, and my stomach skipped.

I was tempted to say yes immediately, but Gabi lounged back on the edge of the mud pool, arms stretched out, and saw how her expression dared me to haggle with her. I’d later realise that this was the point where it really started to click in my head that what I wanted was a woman who’d challenge me, and I took her bait.

“This is where I say I’ll only pay one hundred and we settle on one fifty, right?”

Gabi laughed at that. “Definitely not. I’m already being very generous, just for you. The boys on my streams have to pay twice as much for this.”

“Streams? You’re what, like a camgirl or something?”

I suddenly had the context for how she could afford a nicer car than her mom despite being a student, or how she was so practised at making me feel the dead centre of her attention. I felt my stomach do a brief, illicit little flip, and took a moment to realise to my own surprise that I found the revelation incredibly titillating rather than offputting.

She gave a small shrug of her shoulders from where she reclined, waist deep in front of me. “I like money. I really like attention. What’s your English saying? You shouldn’t mix business and pleasure? Whoever said that didn’t know what they were talking about, I love seeing how much I can make myself worth. It’s not a dealbreaker is it?”

It wasn’t. I’d dabbled out of boredom and curiosity with tuning in to watch a few cam sites during my loneliest moments of lockdown. I’d found the whole thing massively underwhelming, but I wasn’t about to judge Gabi either. Nor could I deny the odd extra thrill as I felt myself steppig beyond what I’d normally consider reasonable. It was less the idea of paying her to keep going itself, and more that I would be acting so brazenly in doing so.

The shutter of my camera clicked in her direction by way of an answer.

“Two hundred, and you take your time with things.”

Gabi sank down, disappearing until only her chin was visible, her expression seductive. I watched as her arms moved beneath the surface and came back out again moments later with her bikini top removed, casting it onto the nearby grass with a flick of the wrist. I felt my throat dry, licked my lips without thinking. She rose up like something beautifully primal out of the mud, her back turned towards me and stretched her arms out above her head, leaving her contours picked out as if they were covered in earthy grey body paint. I took another burst of pictures, but as she turned back towards me I had to simply lower the camera and take her in without a viewfinder between us.

Her tits were slightly smaller than her moms, but were still more than generous enough against the tight and toned shape of her frame. And even with the thin layer of mud clinging to her it wasn’t hard to see just how firm her nipples had become, eagerly inviting my gaze. I stared for a moment, and the young woman chuckled at me.

“Riley, why don’t you put the camera down. It’s my turn to get what I came here for.”

It was a question, but she wasn’t really asking.

She was close enough to reach up and brush a hand across my cheek, leaving a grey streak smeared across my face. I did as I was told, taking a moment to carefully lean back out of the pool and set the device down next to my bag, only to be met by her arms around my shoulders as I returned, pulling me down with a kiss that felt as dirty as her muddy body left me. I’d only removed my pants by this point, and quickly felt the wet, clinging warmth seep into the rest of my clothes with a start as I dipped in lower, leaving me struggling to remove them far too late.

Gabi helped me peel away my top, and then my bra. We pressed together, our bodies gliding pleasantly against each other while her hands wandered. Quickly found my nipples, the nubs capping my slight chest as equally as firm as her own. And she drew a gasp as she pinched at them, twisting just enough to send a perversely submissive jolt up my spine. There was another smirk, as she realised exactly how easy my buttons were going to be to press, and pushed me back against the edge of the pool to once again firmly claim my tongue with her own.

We didn’t make out for long before my hand found Gabi’s ass, giving a needy grope as I  attempted to relieve her of her bottoms. I expected her to help me wriggle them free, but instead I found her catching my wrist, breaking off from our kisses so she could speak.

“If you want the bottoms off, that’s going to be another fifty.”

I wasn’t able to answer before she leant back in towards me. Her hands gripped my hair and gently eased my head back, allowing her to capture my earlobe between her teeth for a temptingly provocative nibble. I swore, and crumpled to her demands.

She charged me again for the privilege of seeing her slide herself back out onto the edge of the pool to masturbate. Letting me watch, she spread her legs, the shaved swell of her crotch perched at my eye level as she washed it off with a bottle of water. Gabi was a performer, she loved being watched and she knew exactly how to play to an audience. Shamelessly she toyed with herself for me, massaging, glistening dark folds, moaning my name. Her fingers curled up inside herself and she pumped slowly, drawing things out for my benefit until it all became too much for either of us and her efforts became ragged. She creamed, hard, her own wetness flecked and smeared against the mud the coated her and I waited until she was done, before I placed my head between earth covered thighs and savoured her.

It left me desperate for more. I wanted to have her there on the grass, to see her cum not from her own fingers but from mine, to sample every inch of her. And so I lifted myself half up and out of the mud, my body running slick against Gabi’s as I leaned across her. I stooped in for a kiss, but the gesture was awkward and dirty, the taste of her lips earthier than I’d have liked. I tried to grope her chest, reaching for one of her nipples, but in doing so let one of my thighs slip, prompting Gabi to laugh as I clumsily slumped on top of her. I needed her, but the prospect of doing anything while we were both covered head to toe from the volcanic mud quickly seemed more challenging than appealing. And so I cast my eyes down towards the river a short way off.

“Maybe you’d like to come and help me wash off?”

She considered, and I knew before she started to reply that she was going to try and name another price, amused at the idea of just how far she could take things. Instead I leant my mud slick body across hers to place a finger upon her lips, pushing back in earnest for the first time.

“We both know you’re going to come and fuck me whether I pay you or not.” I loved how in control she was, but I also enjoy playing the brat, and my tone did its best to make clear that I wanted her to bite back. The harder the better.

Gabi smirked. “And what makes you so sure, hmm?”

“Call it a hunch.”

“You’re awfully confident of that.” She reached around, giving my rear a delightful, challenging, squeeze. “You know, I’ve not even started to make you pay a tax for fucking my mama yet.”

At the mention of Luisa, the thrill of how indecent I was being quivered through me. I took a moment to search Gabi’s face, momentarily unsure if there was any resentment behind her words, but found only a devilish fire in her eyes. God, she was getting off on the idea of fucking her mother’s lover even harder than I was. I did my best to pull myself to my feet rather than melt from her expression alone, trying to draw out the game as I started to walk towards the river, leaving her to chase after me.

"I’m sure you can find plenty of other ways to punish me for that.”

I dawdled enough, deliberately, on my way down to the bank, that Gabi was practically on top of me as I reached the water. It barely came up to the top of my thighs, but the sudden contrast between the comfortable warmth of the mud and the cooler river caused me to yelp, one that was quickly followed by a similar shriek and laughter from behind me.

“Oh fuck me that’s cold,” I exclaimed but wasn’t left to linger in the thought for long before I felt Gabi bundle into me from behind. Her arms wrapped around me and we both tumbled beneath the surface with a splash as she wrestled me down playfully. As I came back up seconds later, finding my feet again, I barely had an instant to gasp before her lips were on mine again and we fell into each other, hungrily in the middle of the current.

It was hard to tell if we were making an honest attempt to clean each other off, or if that was merely a consequence of how eagerly we wanted to touch each other still. I ran my hands across every curve I could find on her young, beautiful body. And as I helped wipe the mud from the slick dark cascade of her hair, I marvelled at just how much she looked like her mother, whenever I’d fucked Luisa in the shower. Most striking was how identical their nipples were. Gabi’s tits were smaller, but the dark brown nubs that capped them mirrored Luisa’s perfectly, save for the lack of piercings. Although I’d learn later, watching one of her streams out of curiosity, that even that difference wouldn’t last.

Before long the cold of the water was totally forgotten for the heat the Colombian girl lit in me, and her hands began to drift further and further towards my core. I was painfully ready for her when her fingers moved from her thigh to press against my clit, the strumming of her digits causing me to moan whorishly into her mouth, mid-kiss. A kiss that was abandoned entirely when three of those fingers slid inside me, leaving me to clench and whimper at the sensation. Her other hand toying with my own nipples was almost more than I could bare, and, standing there against her in the river, I quickly raced towards my peak. She knew exactly what she was doing, and the climax I could feel swelling inside my core was going to be an incredible one. But Gabi had ideas other than letting me reach it quite so easily.

“Do you want to come?”

“Fuck…Gabi. Yes…”

“How much are you willing to pay for it?”

Her fingers slowed but didn’t stop, stroking me just firmly enough to edge me without letting me have what I wanted. I whined, almost pathetically, my body still trying to claw its way towards release. And swore as I realised the hold she had on me and just how readily I was willing to give in.

“Fuck. Gabi, no. Please…you can’t not let me come like this. Please…”

She eased off fingering my hot, desperate cunt even further in response to my protest. But in its place gave a firm tweak to one of my nipples, pulling the flesh hard enough to make me gasp, just enough of a taste of pain to feel fucking incredible. She wasn’t going to let me come without getting what she wanted, but she wasn’t about to let me forget how much my body needed her in that moment either.

“You didn’t think I was going to let you off that easily, did you? I wonder if you sounded like such a slut when Mama fucked you. Did she make you beg like this? Or did she give your greedy little pussy whatever it wanted? Were you as desperate for her as you are for me?”

“Oh shit, Gabi. I…fuck…” I tried to find some form of protest, but failed as she toyed with me. Dirty talk had always been something I could take or leave before then, but there and then Gabi’s words couldn’t have been doing more to add to the delicious, helpless feelings running through me.

“So I’m going to ask again, Riley. How much would a slut like you pay to come right now?”

“Anything.”

Her thumb circled my clit without actually touching it, teasing the pleasure I knew it would be able to give me. She kissed at my neck and grazed teeth across the skin in a gentle bite that sent me wild. And I rolled my hips, trying to guide her back, deeper, in search of release, only for Gabi to move her hand away just as far as I pushed.

“Two hundred,” she demanded. “And I’ll make you come as many times as it takes to make you forget Mama.”

I tried to speak, but my breath caught and the word only came out as a whisper. “Deal.”

“Loud enough so I can hear you. We don’t want you going back on things do we?”

“Fuck. Deal. We have a deal! Just fucking let me come already!”

Gabi’s fingers resumed their ministrations in earnest, but the intensity still wasn’t quite as fervent as it had been. I draped my arms about her shoulders, leaning myself against her as she took her time, curling and thrusting. She refused to simply rush me to my finish, but instead took her time, building me up so high that when I finally came crashing back down it was with an intensity that left me speechless. I pulsed, blissfully against her hand, cumming long and hard before falling backwards into the water. And it was there that I let myself float for a wonderful moment, figuratively and literally.

The pair of us clambered back onto the bank, neither satisfied with just the one orgasm. Or tired of each other’s bodies as we fucked several more times. I ate her out enthusiastically, her hands assertively holding me in place between her legs as I worshipped her cunt. And as she returned the favour as I made sure I got my money's worth. I even got to enjoy the lapping flicks of her tongue against my arsehole, discovering that she was just as enthused at the prospect of burying her face between the cheeks of my rear as her mom was. My final orgasm came with me splayed out on the grass, with her fingers filling both my holes, reducing me to exhausted, disbelieving laughter.

We were into the blue hour by the time we finished, with the sun dipping below the horizon and just enough light left to let us linger a while next to each other. And it was as I lay there, my body light and my thoughts hazy as I looked up at the sky, that Gabi propped herself up on an elbow to speak.

“Hey Riley?”

“Yeah?”

“If I’m honest, this has been fun, but we both know I’m acting out while I can. I want to go back to college and make the most of doing this sort of thing until a real job means I have to stop. I’ve not decided how far I want to take doing sex work yet, but I enjoy it too much to stop for you. And I don’t think either of us want to try and make something like that work.”

I rolled over slightly to look at her as she finished her Harvey induced confessional and the over-earnest look faded from her eyes. We both knew part of the appeal of this was that I was going to be gone in a week, no obligations to the other as we figured ourselves out and did what felt good. Even so, there was an odd, remaining uncertainty about her, and I leaned over to give her cheek a kiss, encouraging her to voice it.

“You and Mama aren’t serious, are you?”

I shook my head. “Not really, no. We’ve had this talk already, you don’t have to worry about it getting weird.”

“But you’re going to keep having sex with her until you leave?”

As she asked the question I realised I genuinely didn’t have the answer to that. Things had been good with Luisa, but I didn’t know what Harvey had planned for me. Except, for the first time, I was actually looking forward to whatever came next. “Maybe? I’m only here for a few more days.” I paused, with my next words just as much for Harvey as they were for Gabi. “I’m doing my best to keep an open mind.”

“If she doesn’t, I’m not against letting you pay for another round or two.” Gabi offered, earning a laugh as she grinned at me. And as she did, I felt Harvey give a smile of her own, in that odd, shapeless way of hers. A glow of approval straight into my mind.

‘That’s my girl. We might actually be getting somewhere.’

My next encounter with help from the bracelet didn’t come until a few days later, on my way out of Colombia. Gabi would drive me back to her mom’s place in the meantime, but I’ll leave you guessing about how I spent the rest of my trip, and which of them it was with. I’ve always been a believer that some of the best pictures you can take are the ones that leave certain things out and your audience guessing at the rest of the story, just out of frame. Maybe the details aren’t worth telling. Or maybe there are just certain things I’m not going to admit to…

Like Cassie, I got in contact with Luisa again recently, once I was able to look back on all this. I didn’t leave her a storybook ending quite like Cassie got, but she’s happy. Her tour guide business has kicked back into gear and I’ve sent several other photographers her way, telling them she’s the best fixer I’ve worked with before or since. Honestly, I think she enjoys her life the way it is, and I’m definitely not going to fault her for it.

And Gabi? Gabi’s still at college, although I’ve tuned in to some of her streams in the months since. Watching cams like that still isn’t for me, but the girl really knows how to work a room, and while I don’t know if she’s figured out which direction she’s going yet, she certainly seems to be having fun along the way. And I don’t regret a penny of what she made me pay her.