Hush

Chapter Two-2

"Ten years is a long time."

"People who were acquainted with that time and the circumstances of her death will never forget what happened. But the world has changed a great deal, and I do think it's ready to view her art in the proper light. I'm afraid it would have been perceived as mere pornography at the time."

"It's that suggestive?"

"It's art first, ma'am." Lucien was defensive, as if he'd spent a great deal of time being defensive about this subject.

"There is much great art that rides a delicate border," Dana offered.

"You're very right, and I do believe that Ariel's falls into that category."

"If you don't mind my prying more. I do think this is a fascinating subject. You say her art changed directions with your love affair?"

"Indeed it did," Lucien replied.

"But you became more than lovers."

"Once the scandal was out, the Tiptons were insistent that Arthur divorce her – a fact that was accomplished in a matter of weeks. We were free to marry, which I count as one of my life's greatest blessings." Lucien smiled triumphantly, as if it had happened just days before.

"I can see the romance in your eyes." Dana found herself responding easily to his sudden facial changes, from his dour grimace, to the light-filled wonder and even the sly indication of something deliciously sordid. He was a charming man.

"It was romance in the classic sense. I was so lucky to have her. Such a vibrant nymph."

"And you were so young." Dana was amazed by the profound way Lucien spoke of his life's love -- the reverence and affection were refreshing.

"You hold that against a relationship?" he wondered aloud.

She shook her head. "I could never do that," she replied. "I'm hardly one to speak of love in the pure romantic sense, since I've never experienced it."

"Never? Not even with your husband?"

She thought for a minute.

"No, never. I suppose I should have. Nick is a dashing, sexy man. But I never felt what I was supposed to feel."

"How do you know?" Lucien asked.

"I know I didn't feel enough. No chemistry, no rapture, no bells and whistles." She laughed and he smiled at her adoringly.

"He must have been the wrong man. There are passions in you," Lucien said kindly.

Dana blushed.

"I'm sorry if I've embarrassed you. But you remind me of Ariel."

"Really?"

"She was a little bottled up when I met her."

"Bottled up?"

"Her passions, her s****l passions," he clarified.

"And you think I am too?"

"I think you haven't had the right man in your life."

"I'm sure I haven't," Dana replied. She felt slightly uneasy with this line of conversation, but it was a fleeting discomfort, for Lucien, as incisive as he seemed to be with his observations, wrapped his words in kindness, so much so it almost seemed natural talking to this man in such an intimate way. "So, tell me, how did you meet your wife?"

He thought back in time. As he did, his head tilted slightly and his eyes caught sight of the ceiling, in itself a breathtaking sight. Dana looked up at it too, seeing how some painter, like Michelangelo had created an ethereal mural of cherubs among the clouds so that it looked like there was a celestial choir singing above them.

"I was an art student. I loved Ariel's work. I studied at the Tipton museum just so I could see her every once and a while. She was a bit of goddess to me at the start. When she came into the museum wearing her long flowing dresses, she looked like an angel or even sometimes a voluptuary from a Maxfield Parrish painting. She was a vision, her contralto voice mesmerizing. She flirted with me from the start. It was said by some that she liked to flirt, as long as it was safe. Of course, her marriage to Arthur made it safe. She was always gadding about the museum casting lascivious glances at the single men there, and at me."

Lucien looked at Dana as if he wondered if he should continue with his monologue. Deciding to proceed, his eyes lit darkly and narrowed. "I suppose I was more forward than most," he began again, "I cornered her one day in a back hallway. I pressed myself against her body and kissed her. I thought it was a perfectly logical thing to do, since she was in the habit of raising my desires in her brazen way. I was actually a little angry that she thought she could display herself that way, and I simply wanted to teach her a lesson. Of course now that's something a man could never get away with. But then, to my surprise, she responded to my affections. When I kissed her, she kissed back. When my hand went to her bottom with a gentle squeeze she moved her groin against me like she wanted more.

"I suppose she really did want to be pursued for all her flirtatious ways. I was taken aback by her forwardness, after my own, though I didn't let her know that. Once the kiss was over with, I backed away and left her standing in that corner alone. After that, she was all smiles around me, her twinkling eyes looked as if there were flames inside, burning with a light from some subterranean source. Sometimes she was skittish and silly with other men who might toy with her. But she never was with me. I think she was in awe of me, if I can be so bold."

"So you pursued her?"

"We pursued each other, but we were very cautious for several months. Sometimes I'd see her everyday flitting about me as I was preparing for my thesis at one of the museum library's work tables. Sometimes I wouldn't see her for a week. Once, she sat down in front of me and just stared. She was wearing this diaphanous blue dress. I remember it well, the way it matched the blue in her eyes, the color of clear ocean water, almost turquoise. I swore she was wearing tinted contacts her eyes had such a vivid color, but she wasn't." Lucien chuckled at his memories. "Ariel had no slip on under the dress. When she leaned in against the table, I could see her breasts from underneath. You don't mind this detailed a recounting?" For just an instant he remembered the journalist in the room.

"No, not at all," Dana answered. She was mesmerized by the story.

"Well," he shook his head, still amazed, "I could see the wide aureoles about her n*****s, the pink color. And the more she stared at me, the more those tiny n*****s turned into the most delicate hard buds. I must admit I stared at them for some time unable to take my eyes off of them. I know she was playing with me, getting back at me for my previous boldness, trying to see if I would squirm or turn away. For an instant, I was taken off guard by her brash titillation, but I recouped and then stared into her eyes. "You want more, don't you?" I asked. "Hush!" she said in the softest whisper, as her finger went to her lips. Then, with her dancing eyes, that seemed to darken as she'd become more sexually engaged, she crooked that finger at me, and we retreated to another empty corner of the building, behind scaffolding where they were making repairs.

"I had my hands all over her. Even though she was feigning protest at every gesture, she was inviting me with the next. I pulled up her dress and tore into her body, my hands gliding over the smooth surfaces of her thighs and belly. She undulated in my arms, practically swooned in them. You would have thought the woman had had no s*x for years the way her body exploded in a fraction of a second. She was limp in my arms for just a moment. And then, she scampered away."

"Oh, my," Dana whispered, as she watched Lucien's wide open expression reflect the way he must have felt that day. "And that's how your affair began?"

"It was a strange affair, you must understand. She came to the museum regularly after that day, and we took turns being the aggressor, pushing the other into nooks and crannies, back rooms and stockrooms, the attic, the basement, and even once we had s*x behind the front desk. At first, all she wanted was her own satisfaction. She couldn't even think of me and mine. Just pressing herself to my body, or a simple kiss was all it took to send her into a rapturous body state. In my youth however, I resented such self-centeredness. One day when we were in the attic of the building, I watched her faint in my arms from just a little tenderness. It was a breathtaking sight, as it had always been, but I was irritated with her, so I pushed her to her knees, drew her dress up over her head so she was completely naked, and I made her – please excuse my crudeness," Lucien said as an aside, "I made her satisfy me."

"And she did, I assume?"

"Yes. And quite admirably. She told me later that it was the first time she ever had "gone down" on a man. In fact, she'd never even considered that I didn't have as much enjoyment as she did from our rendezvous. She was that kind of self-involved woman. However once she was made aware of my needs, she became very accommodating."

"So you were able to keep the affair quiet for some time?"

"No one knew. And we weren't even that careful. I think of the risks we took. The affair went on for a long time without being discovered. Of course as a twenty year old student, I really didn't think about being caught. I hardly had an appreciation of the situation with her husband's family, and of course the museum. But I know she thrived on risk. I'm sure that a psychologist would say she wanted to be caught."

"And you loved her?"

"Oh, it was hardly love at the beginning," Lucien replied. "Lust for certain. She was really daring herself, pushing herself all the time. I can see it more now than I ever did then."

"Not love?"

"Not love, not then. That only came later."

"And what of her painting?" Dana interjected, suddenly thinking she should keep this interview on track with her work.

"When we first met, she was in her landscape period, which she is still most noted for. She was just beginning to paint figures. Of course, it's always been a fascination how she made the human form appear from her landscapes like apparitions. The more we were together, the closer her eye got to the bodies themselves, so that in her very last period, the one no one has seen but me, she's quite detailed in rendering the human body close up, especially the parts of it that caught her imagination most. It did take some time. We were together ten years altogether."

"And when did you actually marry her?"

"Our affair went on for nearly a year before we were discovered. I think of those as our halcyon days. The ones that followed were much more troublesome. If I'd known what she was doing, how she was trying to get found out, if I'd known the results, I would have never let it happen."

"If she was so unhappy in her marriage, perhaps there wouldn't have been a way to prevent that."

"I'm not so sure. I was always good at confronting Ariel. She was as willful as a two-year old brat, but she was easily manageable and easily led."

"Then you were dominant in your relationship?" Dana suggested.

"Many people thought that she led me around, that she had me wrapped around her pinky finger." Lucien's look was scornful at the very thought.

"But you weren't."

"No. I was very demanding of her. In fact, sometimes I didn't treat her well. She was an older woman, so needy in so many ways. No matter how I might put her off, toy with her emotions, she kept coming back to me with her full heart and loins. So many things I'd take back now. Oh, I wasn't abusive, surely. But I was cocky and brash, and sometimes she was so innocent and believing."