Kansas jumped up, running out to the backyard, then quickly back again.  She held Nina's sari in her hand.  Sitting atop the coffee table again, she cleared her throat.  "You're sure you trust me?"

"Yes."  Nina took in the garment in the blonde's hands, her expression impossible to read.  Kansas laid the sari over her thigh, reaching behind Nina's neck to untie the laces of her top.  Nina's breath caught as the garment slipped from her body.  Kansas kept her eyes on the brunette's face, using every bit of will power she had to not look at her friend's newly-revealed breasts.  Quickly, she brought the sari up.

"Lay back," she instructed, covering Nina's chest as the brunette did as asked.  Nina was trembling slightly.  "You can say no, Nina.  If you're not comfortable-"

"I'm not uncomfortable.  Just a little. . . this is different."

Kansas smiled, nodding in understanding.  "For me, too.  You're just lovely.  I'm really inspired right now."

"It's okay.  I'm okay."

"Okay."  Kansas took a deep breath, looking at the woman before her.  "Put your arms over your head," she said, voice soft, trying to get a picture in her head that she'd repeat on paper.  She stood back, looking at Nina, and trying to decide what she wanted to do next.  She reached out, gently moving the sari to reveal a bit more of Nina's upper chest.  When her hand retreated, she accidentally brushed one of the brunette's breasts.  "Sorry," she whispered, a rush of arousal flowing through her.  Nina gasped at the touch, but just nodded at the apology.  Kansas noticed that the older woman's nipples began to grow rigid.  She swallowed, the nervousness returning.

Nina lay motionless, watching Kansas' every move.  She was Gumby, whatever asked, she did.  After two hours of furious sketching, the blonde looked at her model, tilting her head slightly, looking for her next pose.  At the moment, Nina lay on her side, sari draped across her breasts, the barest hint of her side showing.  An arm ran along the graceful natural curve of the brunette's body, hand resting on her hip.

"Okay.  Here's what I need you to do," Kansas said softly, her heart pounding in her chest.  She had allowed herself to get so lost in her art that she'd forgotten she was looking at a half-naked, gorgeous woman.  Now, sitting back from her perch on the chair, it all came back to her.

"Yes?" Nina asked after Kansas grew silent.

"Right," Kansas shook herself from her appraisal of perfection across from her.  She set her pad down, nearly a third of it filled from her frantic drawing.  She looked up at the skylight above them, the sun quickly waning. "We're losing the light," she muttered, disappointed, as she knew that meant their time would have to end.

"Would lamps help?" Nina asked.

Kansas took in the room, and where the light sources were, as compared to where Nina lay.  She shook her head.  "I think they're too far away for what I need."

"We can move them-"

The blonde smiled, shaking her head.  "Thanks, Nina.  I don't want you to have to re-decorate your living room just for my drawings."

Nina smiled, sitting up, holding the sari to her chest.  "Okay.  I understand."  She stood, turning her back to Kansas as she pulled the sari around her middle, tying it off just above her left breast.  If she had glanced over her shoulder, she would've seen the blonde's mouth fall open, green eyes huge.

Kansas managed to get her lust under control.  Nina had been nothing but awesome to her that day, patient and tolerant of being ogled at while the teen sketched.  As the brunette turned to face her again, Kansas smiled, raising her pad in salute.  "Thanks for today, Nina.  It was awesome practice for me.  I really appreciate it."

"Not a problem.  See, when you become a famous artist, I can say I knew you when, and I helped you get there."  Nina's grin was contagious.  Kansas kicked lightly at the rug beneath her feet.

"I guess I better get going.  I'll do some work to these, fix 'em up, then come show you.  K?"

"Sounds wonderful."  Nina walked Kansas to the door, then stood, watching the teen jog across the lawn and hop the fence.

***

Kansas was surrounded by her drawings, lying on her stomach on her bed.  She looked from one to the other, comparing, contrasting, remembering.  The smile was glued with super glue.  Her eyes caressed Nina's body, her gaze reaching the brunette's face.  The expression made Kansas' body quiver, her sex clench.  She wondered if that was truly what Nina looked like when in ecstasy- her eyes closed, long column of her neck exposed, full lips parted.  Kansas ran the tips of her fingers over Nina's face, then followed her gaze to the brunette's breasts, covered by the thin material of the sari.  Her nipples were peaked.

"You are so beautiful," she whispered, feeling her breath catch as she imagined the woman naked.  Eyes never leaving the picture, Kansas blindly reached for her pencil, tapping the instrument on the page as the wheels began to turn.  She flipped the pencil around until the eraser tip was just about on the page.

Kansas nearly jumped out of her skin as a knock sounded on her bedroom door, then the door was swung inward.  She gathered all the sketches into a messy pile, hugging them to her chest, yet trying to seem as nonchalant as possible.  She glared at her mother.  "Why don't you ever knock?"

"Because this is my house," Marina countered with a raised brow.  "I'm going out for Dairy Queen.  Want to come?"

"No," Kansas barked, all teenaged attitude, and afraid of being caught with her drawings.  But then her sweet tooth took over as her mother turned to leave.  "Wait!"  Marina turned back. "Get me a chocolate shake?" she asked, hope in her voice.

"If you be nice to me, I will."

"Please, please, please?" Kansas said, giving her mother her biggest grin.  The older woman laughed, shaking her head at her daughter's antics.

"Fine.  But I want the dishes done tonight."

"Okay."  Kansas waited until she heard the slam of the front door before setting her drawings back out.  She studied them all, especially the one she had been looking at before her mother interrupted her.  Her gaze fell on Nina's breasts again.  Glancing at her closed bedroom door one more time, Kansas chewed on her bottom lip as she began to erase and replace those marks with new strokes of her pencil.  She was so into what she was doing, she almost missed the knock on her door.  Glancing up, expecting to see her mother just barging in per usual, she waited, drawings once gain gathered and hidden.  When nothing happened, she called out an invite.

The door squeaked open and Marina walked in, holding her own hot fudge sundae, and Kansas' shake. "Want to come down and watch some TV with me?"

Kansas shook her head.  "No.  Thanks for asking, though."  She grabbed the shake that was extended to her. "And thanks for this.  I've got some art I'm working on and want to finish."

Marina nodded, disappointed, but knew what her daughter was like when in "the zone". "Okay."

Alone yet again, and likely for the night, Kansas climbed off the bed, closing her bedroom door after her mother, and then flipping on the light of the drawing table she had gotten two Christmas' ago.  She placed her current drawing on the smooth top, and went back to work.

***

For some reason, Nina felt guilty when Dan got home from the road that night.  She had done nothing wrong, but even so, she knew that if Dan had walked in on her modeling earlier that day, he wouldn't have liked it.  This made her mind turn to Kansas.  The girl had talent, that's for sure.  She tried to clear her mind of the entire thing.  She'd done nothing wrong, and enjoyed the teenager's company.  Kansas was interesting, and her intelligence amazed Nina.  The girl would be a force to be reckoned with as she got older.  End of story.

Later, as she lay in bed, Dan asleep beside her, Nina stared up into the dark ceiling.  They'd made love earlier, Dan's presence still lingering on her skin and inside her body.  Unable to sleep, the attorney quietly got out of bed, wrapping her naked body in a long t-shirt and closing the bedroom door behind her, so as not to alert Dan that she was up.  She wanted to be alone, and didn't want to answer questions.

It was a hot night, so the breeze rising up under the thin cotton was nice on Nina's warmed skin.  She padded down the hall, ending up in her office.  She was due in court early day after next, and had a few last things to do.

She flicked on the desk lamp and her computer, starting at the cool vinyl of her desk chair on her naked ass.  Brushing dark strands of hair out of her eyes, Nina glanced up, surprised to see the light on in the window across the way.  A glance at the clock ticking softly on the desk, she saw that it was after two in the morning.  She studied the window, trying to see between the still-open blinds, to the room beyond.  What was Kansas doing in there?  What was she thinking about?

With a heavy breath, Kansas pushed herself up from her bed, her back screaming at her for lying in the same position for so long.  On her hands and knees on the mattress, she looked down at her handiwork.  A sliver of arousal mixed with guilt shimmied its way into her heart.  Nina lay back against a bed, her head partially turned away from the viewer, though enough could be seen to know it was the brunette.  One arm was raised above her head, the other hand clutching at the sheet that barely covered her body.  The majority of one breast was revealed, the sheet just barely covering the rigid nipple.  This was the only drawing that Kansas hadn't allowed her imagination to go totally nuts, and had basically used what was actually in the original drawing and pose.  She just used. . . a little license.  She'd hide them away in the morning.  No one could ever see them.  Definitely not Nina.

Kansas finally stood, stretching her arms high above her head, squeaking slightly as she pulled her body taut, getting all the kinks out.  She took one more look at her work, then walked over to her bedroom door, intent on heading out to pee.  Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a light across the way.  She walked over to the window, shocked to see Nina sitting behind her desk, and looking over at her.

The blonde waved, Nina waving in return with a huge smile.  Kansas got an idea, tapping lightly on her window and pointing down.  Confused, Nina raised a brow with a shrug.

"Outside," the teenager said, pointing again.  Finally her neighbor nodded, getting up from her chair.  Kansas was nervous as she grabbed her shoes, hopping across her bedroom one foot at a time as she pulled them on.  Opening her door, the blonde glanced down the hall toward her mother's room.  Hearing and seeing nothing, she scurried down the hall and stairs, toward the back door off the kitchen.

***

Nina tugged on her shorts as she hit the back porch, quietly closing the door behind her.  The night was warm, but pleasantly so.  It was the kind of night where you could put a tent up in the backyard, and it would be wonderful to sleep in it.

"Psst,"

Nina's attention was grabbed.  She glanced to her left, seeing Kansas standing at the chain-link fence that divided their yards. "Hey," she whispered, which sounded so loud to her on the early morning breeze.

"Hey, yourself," the blonde said.  "What are you doing up so late?"

"Couldn't sleep," Nina admitted, leaning on the fence.  "What about you?" she playfully chucked her friend in the arm. "Don't you need your sleep?  A growing girl, or something."

Kansas rolled her eyes. "Somehow I think I'm done.  My mom did the best she could with the DNA, but," she shrugged with a sigh, "think I'm done."

"She did a real nice job, Kansas," Nina said softly as she looked into the blonde's face and green eyes.  She cleared her throat, realizing what she'd just said.  "What are you doing up so late?"

"I was. . . " Kansas stopped herself, remembering just exactly what is was she had been doing. "reading."

"Gotcha."  Nina jerked her head toward her backyard, backing off from the fence.  The blonde quickly hopped the chain-link, like she'd done a million times already that summer, following her neighbor deeper into the shadows of the night.  They settled on the cool grass, the blades tickling bare legs.  Nina crossed her ankles, resting back on her hands as she looked up into the night sky.  "It's such a gorgeous night out tonight," she said absently, almost wistful.

"Yeah.  Years ago when my folks were still married, at the other house, I had a huge trampoline out in the backyard.  I used to bring out a pillow and blanket and sleep on it.  This would be the perfect night for that."  She tore her eyes from the bright star she'd settled on, finding Nina's gaze already on her.  The brunette had a soft smile curving her lips as she listened.  "I used to stare up at the sky, connecting the stars like dots, creating crazy pictures in my head."