Safe Words: Angel's Grace, Chapter 2

Two things bothered Angel. The first thing was that she was sure Grace liked her pubic hair, and the second thing was she worried whether she could trust Skyler. She was alone with a large and intimidating man with a thick black beard. Alone in a basement room in the service section of Grace and Baron’s mansion.

Angel had walked in ahead of Skyler, and Skyler stood at the counter, between her and the door out of here. Skyler was a man. An adult. Not a boy like her boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. And not a man like Baron. Skyler was older than Baron. And hairy.

Nervous now, she tugged the cuffs of her running top to free her thumbs from the thumb holes, and then her hands scurried up inside her sleeves. She rocked on her shoe edges, rolling her ankles, looking around the space. The room was chilly. Light shone down from a dozen pendant lamps hanging from the ceiling.

She said, “In here?”

Skyler nodded, mouth slimmed to a grim line. “That’s why I brought you here.”

She said, “It’s cold.”

Skyler said, “Grace would remind you to stop chewing your cheek.”

Angel said, “Grace isn’t here.”

Skyler chuckled. “I report to Grace.”

“You’re going to tell her I was chewing my cheek?”

“Angel, this has to be done. I’m sorry. I won’t tell Grace you were chewing your cheek. If you’re worried about being cold, turn the shower on to hot, and the steam will warm up the room.”

It was a good idea and would help her procrastinate. She crossed over to the shower stall, her sneakers squeaking on the shiny white tiles. It took a moment to figure out the chrome levers, but she found the hot water and started it running. Skyler still waited patiently at the counter.

Angel returned slowly, two of the shower spigots hissing hot water behind her. She approached Skyler, but kept her distance. “Grace told you to do this?”

Skyler nodded. “She did.”

“I thought Grace liked the way I was.”

“I’m sure she likes it. Baron might prefer you shaved.”

Baron. Frightening Baron. She hadn’t even interacted with him this weekend and now the idea he would arrive riled dread within her. “Baron asked Grace to ask you to do this?”

Skyler cocked his head sympathetically. “Maybe, Angel. I don’t ask as many questions as you do. I just do what I’m told.”

Like Angel should do. She asked, “Where?”

Skyler nodded his chin to one of the stainless dog grooming tables and said, “Push that cart over here where the cord will reach.”

She did it, moving over to the cart, getting behind it and slowly wheeling it nearer to Skyler. She kept the cart between them. “Am . . . Am I supposed to be naked?”

“I’ll need you to take your pants off. And your underwear, if you’re wearing any.”

She watched Skyler a second, but her gaze skittered away when their eyes met. She felt ashamed.

This was a test of trust. Grace was testing her, and she didn’t want to disappoint her. But Skyler wasn’t Grace. Maybe if she weren’t a virgin and so inexperienced, she’d not think this was a big deal. Skyler would ask this and she would just say Oh, yeah, okay, like everybody’s done this, and it isn’t so out of the ordinary. And another bothersome thought: what if Grace and Baron had other girls before her? And what if those girls were more obedient and knowledgeable? Not complying right now felt a little like a bother, and she didn’t want Grace to think she was bothersome.

With no more protest or stalling with questions, she pried off her sneakers, hooked her shorty socks off with a finger and still facing Skyler, scooted down her running tights and stepped out of them. Pant-less now, she stood barefoot on the other side of the steel cart, chewing her cheek and tugging down the hem of her running shirt and her zippered vest.

Skyler waited and when she still made no move to approach him, he said, “Come sit up on the cart, okay? Sit on the corner. This probably won’t take me too long.”

She waited a long moment, waiting for something else to happen, like Grace would appear in the doorway suddenly and say she was kidding. There was no way around this. Skyler was going to shave her private area. And what was the big deal? The guy had got a good look between her legs already. Had held a flashlight steady on it, had watched her spill over with a flux of excitement, had watched her even open her petals a little to show him her pink interior.

Lips working in nervous wriggles, biting them, sucking them into her mouth, she came around to Skyler’s side, hands tucked up in her sleeves, walking with curled toes. She snuck underneath him and hoisted herself up to sit on the table’s edge, her thighs squashed together, knees tightly pressed. The steel tabletop was cold on her cheeks and the backs of her thighs. She sat hunched before him, waiting to be told what to do next.

“Can you come sit on the corner? I’ll need you to spread your legs for me. I think that’ll be easiest.” He patted his free hand on the table-top’s corner.

She scooted aside, took a deep breath, then put her hands on the table and got her thighs straddling the corner, her sex bared for Skyler, eyes turned up to the ceiling and lights overhead. Skyler would be looking right now at her bare and furry lady parts. Soon to not have fur. Her toes curled tighter, and she swung her legs nervously.

Skyler asked, “You okay?”

She nodded. Then said, “Why do you think they tiled the ceiling? It wouldn’t get wet up there.”

Skyler looked up, too. “Beats me. Maybe some other local millionaire didn’t tile the ceiling of his dog grooming room so Great Grandpappy Gravesande tiled his to get one up on the other guy.”

She chuckled and eased a little. Skyler chuckled, too. She was pretty sure they were both nervous.

“This is so weird,” she whispered.

“I’ll be gentle,” he whispered.

But when he stroked the backs of his fingers over her pelt, preparing to shave it by flicking the hairs to stand upright, her thighs closed. “Sorry,” she said.

“You don’t have to do this, Angel,” Skyler said.

“Grace wants me to.”

“She does.”

Angel didn’t want to insult Skyler by asking to talk to Grace to confirm this was what she wanted. It would be like an accusation that he was taking advantage of her. The thought had crossed her mind, but now it was more a fear that she was misinterpreting what this task might be about. That this was a test and Angel didn’t understand the question, and without checking with Grace first she would make a big mistake here and the mistake would be proven and inarguable the next time Grace looked between Angel’s legs and saw that she was shaved. Grace might say, “Wait, you actually let Skyler shave you? Oh, no, no, no, this won’t do. We’ll have to send you back to Vermont, we never should have bothered with you.”

She stuttered, “D-do you thin— think . . .”

Skyler paused. “Think what?”

“Maybe . . . Maybe I could talk to Grace first.”

Skyler said, “Do you want to do that?”

“I think . . . Yes, I think I want to do that.”

Skyler waited a long beat, then retrieved the phone from his pocket. He opened the phone app and dialed. “Sorry to disturb you. . . . She’d like to talk to you.” He passed the phone over and folded his arms, standing very close to her naked knees. Angel hunched over, phone pressed to her ear. “Hello?”

Grace said, “How is it going, Angel?”

“Fine.”

“What would you like to ask me?”

“Is this . . . You want me shaved?”

“Did Skyler not make it clear?”

“Yes, he did. I just . . . Sorry, I just wanted to make sure.”

“That’s all right, Angel. Yes, I want you cleaned up, not shaved. Don’t worry, Skyler knows what to do.”

Skyler was trying to get her attention, and she turned her eyes up to see what he wanted. He mouthed to her: “Say ‘Yes, Mistress.’”

“Okay, I just wanted to make sure.”

“You’re in excellent hands, Angel. Is there anything else?”

“No, Mistress.”

Skyler nodded, smiling.

Grace said, “Get tended. Then I want you in the shower and cleaned. Skyler will bring you to me, and we’ll meet at the dress shop. Is that all right, Angel?”

“Yes, Mistress,” she said.

Skyler nodded more, winking, mouthing, “Good.” He showed her a thumbs up.

“That’s all, Angel. I’ll see you soon.”

They closed the call, and Angel handed back the phone to Skyler. He said, “Everything good?”

“Yup,” she said, her lips slimmed. Her hands had tucked into opposite armpits and her bare feet were kicking again like a nervous kid at the doctor’s office.

“You ready now?”

She nodded, and then parted her legs again, the backs of her thighs un-sticking from the cold metal. She looked up to the ceiling again, saying, “You’re not supposed to shave it.”

Skyler said, “I know what Grace wants.”

“Okay.”

Then her pubic hair was ruffled again, Skyler raking it up to stand on end. Her stomach fluttered and her butt muscles tightened. Shit.

Knots of uneasy arousal tightened inside her hipbones and she bit her lips, squinting her eyes up at the lights until star winks formed under her lashes.

The clippers buzzed on. She closed her eyes, felt the back of Skyler’s hand running across her fur again, felt the electric nearness of the clipper blades to her most sensitive place on her whole body. Her stomach muscles tightened, and as they did, she was sure she’d just slickened. She hoped it wasn’t visible to Skyler. But how could he not see it? Right now his eyes were totally concentrated on her sex. He would see it all in bright detail. If she was wetted he would know it.

It was so humiliating. Right now, she knew her cheeks were burning. If she were to look in the mirror, she would see two round and rosy clown spots on her pale cheekbones. She squirmed as the clippers began to shred her pelt. Flicks of clipped hair peppered her thighs, and it gave her the goosebumps. Her nipples hardened in her sports bra, and she fought the urge to grab her breasts and squeeze away their ache.

Skyler clicked off the clipper. “You okay?”

“Yup,” she said again, looking up at the ceiling. The clipper buzzed again and shredded more pubic hair.

She chanced a look down.

Skyler was stooped in concentration, hovering between her open thighs. He smelled like drugstore deodorant. He radiated heat. It was the run. It had him sweating and hot, and now his boss told him to shave their sex pet. The guy was probably scared, knowing if he nicked her labia he’d be fired. Or worse. She chuckled, and it got her stomach bouncing. She could feel the slither of wetness from her sheath, and she bit her lips harder, so wildly embarrassed. She peeped further down to witness the point of action.

Skyler’s large and hairy and manly hands worked between her smooth and ivory thighs. The clipper buzzed over her long scraggly pubic hairs and the clipped hair had collected on her inner thighs. Stuck there by her embarrassing sexual lubrication. She’d flooded again, just as bad as she had in the back seat of Grace’s Mercedes. Grace had teased her that she would ruin the seats if her juices got in under the stitching.

Even the ends of her shorn pelt showed the sprinkle of her dew. Oh my God, Skyler’s knuckles shone. She’d got her juices on his hand. The awful shame of it all tightened her stomach further. That just made it all worse. A tickling trickle seeped between her folds and she could feel it pooling in between her butt cheeks and probably spilling onto the tabletop now.

And through narrowed eyes she spied a further development.

Skyler wore satiny charcoal running shorts, black running tights underneath that showed below the hem of his shorts leg. A bulge had formed in Skyler’s shorts; a knot poked out near his hipbone, light reflecting off the rounded satiny shape; a wide column showed between his legs. Skyler had an erection while he trimmed her pubic hair.