'Before you leave tomorrow.' She was finishing her coffee as she spoke, whilst he was picking and dismembering a last strawberry. 'Is there anything you'd like to do?'

'In what way?'

'Well! For a start I've hired a car, as I thought I'd take a few days off and drive to Little Rock. According to the man from Avis, there's a Shuttle launch at nine in the morning and we could always go to Disney? Have you ever been?'

'Good god, no! I'm a little old for Disney aren't I? That's for kids.' She smiled at him. 'You know, I've never ever been on a roller-coaster. Can't say, I've been on any sort of ride since I was about eleven? But I would certainly like to see the Shuttle! Could you take me?'

'You are deprived. Aren't you?' She stood up. 'C'mon then. As it's a seven o'clock start for Kennedy and the traffic will be busy, we'd better go to bed now. We'll then go to Disney and then I'll get you to the Airport in time to get back to your Blighty!'

'Thanks! That would be nice! I'll enjoy that!' He didn't move as she pulled, but sat immovably at the table. 'Wouldn't you like a night-cap? We could go to the Piano Bar in the lobby and have some Bushmills?'

She pulled for perhaps a few seconds more and then gave up. 'I'm afraid I don't need much convincing!'

***

She sat beside him on the leather sofa, her skirt riding so far up her legs, that the spangled thong was visible, below the silk. 'Have you enjoyed tonight? Did you like the dress?' She fingered the hem and arranged it, so that she just preserved her modesty. 'Does all of this appeal to any of your fantasies?'

'I'm afraid my store of fantasies has been rather used up and diminished on this trip.' He chuckled to himself. 'I've seen a beautiful woman perform on a trapeze, then walk nearly naked with me through the lobby and corridors of a hotel and then I've made love to her in virtually every conceivable way. I've been to a sado-masochistic club, with the same lady trussed and locked into a latex leotard and fully on display. In the club, I've seen a beautiful naked, pierced and shaven girl sing like a bird and then nearly be killed.' The images of the whippings and the blood and the sounds of the screams rushed to his mind. 'The latter was not a fantasy, at all. It was a terrible parody of all the violence and hate of the real world.'

'Did the shaven girl turn you on?'

'I'd be a liar to say that I wasn't moved. But turned-on!' He thought for a moment. 'Yes! By the initial part of her act and by the end. But not by the violence. I hate and despise that!'

'So do I!' She fidgeted to soothe the bruises on the cool leather. 'Tell me about the girl!'

'She was about thirty, only about five feet tall and painfully thin.' The haunting voice returned. 'But she could certainly sing! Despite all the chains and rings everywhere!'

'Was her head shaved then?'

'Yes, utterly and completely! She didn't appear to have a trace of hair anywhere on her head, face or upper body. She never showed, whether she had any pubic hair or not!'

'One fantasy of mine, is to be shaved and naked like that.' She leant towards him and kissed him. 'It would be so clean, comfortable and convenient! Think too, of all the money I'd save; on hairdressers, shampoos and conditioners!'

***

'Did I shock you?' He had said nothing since her disclosure.

'No!' He thought of all the terrible things, he had thankfully only read about or experienced second-hand; murder, rape, genocide. 'What you do with your body, is up to you. Anyway, you could always grow it back. You probably would anyway, as shaving is such a bore.' He stroked his now rather short beard. 'Why do you think I have a hairy face?'

'If I liked it that way - ' She pushed the beautiful, blonde locks back from her face to simulate the baldness and looked directly at him. 'I'd have it done permanently. You can have hair completely removed by a laser or electrolysis. That way, I couldn't go back and I'd be into a whole new world.'

'Would you want that?' He was fiddling with her hair, as if frightened for it. 'You've such wonderful hair. Some women would kill for the hair you've got!'

'Thanks! Perhaps, I want to punish myself for my lifestyle.' She thought as if looking for a rational explanation. 'Or perhaps, it's because I have an old girl-friend, who's one of a matched pair of performance artists, who do this naked and erotic, contortionist and sex act! They are both exceptional dancers, muscular, very slim, completely flexible and acrobatic to an unusual degree. They can also fuck in amazing positions, with incredible tenderness. Life was hard for them, until in desperation she suggested that he shave down completely; arms, legs and body. Just like the Chippendales! The more hair he shaved off, the more bookings they got. So finally the hair on his head went as well. He looks fantastic and amazingly sexy, completely naked, muscled, tanned and all covered in oil!'

'So, she followed him!'

'Well! Not immediately! She'd been growing her hair since she was eleven. It was almost black and reached past her waist. It was as much a part of her, as any other part of her body.' She started to laugh. 'It's not that funny, really! But it makes me laugh. She found the feeling of his naked and oiled head, between her legs, so sublime, that she actually made him jealous! He was even threatening to leave.'

'I guess that it could have a certain attraction.' He made a mental note of something else, he might try!

'Then one day, she arrives at my apartment in tears. He'd said she had to reciprocate or it was divorce. She cried buckets and almost fought, as I cut all off those gorgeous locks and then shaved her completely. Then, I plucked and removed her eyebrows for good measure and made up her skin to be all the same colour with some fake tan. She looked amazing, weird even, like some cyberqueen from Star Trek. Then, as I watched her walk down the street in a very short, gleaming white halter-neck dress, heels clicking, with all the men watching, hooting and whistling, I vowed one day to have all of that power!'

'How's the act now?' Next time in San Francisco he'd find it.

'Now, that they've both shaved completely, they've become an incredible commercial success! No party in the Bay is complete without them!'

'So you'd do it for the power and the money!'

***

'Don't we do everything for the power and the money? Or at least in part. My father is a professor and management guru at Berkeley, who teaches of motivators and demotivators, how you get rotten jobs done and why people behave the way they do! People need enough money, adulation, status and security. Once they have enough, they sit back and enjoy it!'

'I'm supposed to be reasonably well off.' He laughed at himself. 'So what do I go and do. Get myself involved in a very large and difficult project.'

'You want the adulation and the status. Me! I'd do it because it would give me money. Security would come with my second fantasy.'

'Oh! There's another!' He was intrigued. 'Do you mind if I ask?'

'There's many and I was going to tell you anyway! You know how I like to show my breasts!' She thrust them forward and pulled the silk so that the discs beneath showed prominently through. 'And I'm so proud of my body. Imagine being kept by a man or even a woman, as a living and completely naked work of art. You would have no clothes or rights, or any means of escape. All I would have to do, is keep stunningly beautiful, perfectly fit and absolutely available for any form of sex at all times. I'd be a sort of Pygmalion in reverse!'

'Isn't that the ultimate in submissive fantasies. But only a fantasy.'

'You could argue, that it would be me, who would be ultimately be in control!'

Copyright 1999 by Ewart Higgins