"I’m scared," Lily whispered, "let me think this over." She stepped back, away from the pedestal, and strolled slowly around the room. Attired only in a scanty chiffon bra-and-panty set, with a light silk drape covering her sculptured shoulders, my model had to be freezing; the studio space was not that well heated but her chills didn’t arise just from the air around her. She wrapped her arms around herself for warmth and tried to avoid the center of the studio.

"Come on, Lil," I replied, "work with me here. We already agreed to do this session last week. You were really gung-ho then. What’s different now?"

She did not answer for a moment, but turned back towards me. The insubstantial robe did nothing to conceal her spectacular figure, long legs, and golden tan. If anything the snowy white lingerie emphasized the rich tone of her skin. This was not my first modeling session with her; she had even done a nude series, and up until now Lily had never hesitated to try one of my suggestions. Maybe I had gone too far this time.

She was a very good subject along with being strikingly beautiful. Her figure had that lithe sensuality that seemed almost catlike. Statuesque was another term that came to mind, often. Lily had been a varsity swimmer in college, now she roller-bladed on the weekends to keep in shape. As she circled back towards the waiting pedestal the grace of her walk was especially mesmerizing to me, considering how this session would end if everything went as planned.

She was only an arm’s length away when she started to say something to me but stopped short, then took a deep breath and began again. "It’s all too – permanent? I was thinking… You know, something could go wrong; there could be a flood or, or, who knows what!"

"That’s silly – we already discussed all that. I’ve got insurance, and the boutique is fully covered too. Nothing has ever happened there. You even had lunch with Christina last month after she modeled for me. I thought you two talked over everything you had concerns or questions about. You could see she’s one hundred percent OK. Right?"

"Yes, that’s true enough. She even mentioned that there were some very, ah, interesting, side effects. But there’s still – something – that’s bugging me." Lily looked back cautiously at the table-height, fluted, faux-marble pillar and the highly polished disc of thick greenish plate glass that was set flush in its top.
"Could I try it for just a short while?"

"Sure, no reason why not. How about a couple of weeks?" I nodded to her and she sort of nodded too. "That will allow for at least one costume change. Okay, Lil?"

"Um, I guess so…" she said, but her body language spoke otherwise as she turned and retreated quickly to the mirror where she checked her already-perfect hairdo and makeup. At least she hadn’t headed for the dressing room. "Are you sure no-one else will be handling me?" Her question reflected off the glass as she primped herself and pulled up the thong panty higher on her slim waist. She seemed embarrassed to ask it directly to my face.

"Absolutely, doll, that was what we agreed." I walked up behind Lily and placed my hands lightly on her shoulders; she was trembling slightly. "You can trust me," I said convincingly.

She was now touching up her lip-gloss, making kissy-faces at the mirror as she framed her next query. "What if someone I know recognizes me?"

"So much the better!" This, too, we had covered weeks ago. "You’ll get more casting calls for one thing when folks see how dazzling you look. They’ll be envious, if anything. You’re perfect for this…"

"Yes; I know. I know. You buttered me up once already today, but you know how that works with me."

Yeah, I did; not very well. She was an independent lady who liked to make up her own mind, at her own speed, and for her own reasons. I was pushing her, and she didn’t like that at all. I backed away, silent.

Lily said simply, "OK."

"You’ll do it?" I turned back to her, nodded again, and this time my smile was not forced.

"Yeah…" She smiled too as she turned back towards me and started moving to the pedestal. "Let’s get it over with before I change my mind again." It might have been my imagination, but she seemed to be more relaxed now than a few seconds ago. Dropping her robe on the floor, she advanced on the pillar wearing only the revealing lingerie and white high-heeled pumps. "How do you want me to pose?"

"Let’s do the same one you practiced. Remember, sitting with your legs crossed at the ankles, turned slightly towards the left, with your back arched?"

"We never talked about what to do with my hands." She suddenly sounded doubtful again.

"Oh, we’ll work something out – that’s a minor detail. Go ahead, get on up there," I urged quickly.

"Alright, pushy!" she jibed as she sat on the pillar, rocked slightly to center herself on the pedestal, and crossed her legs just as planned. Her feet did not reach the floor. Lily closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, curved her shoulders back and tilted her head just slightly. She knew the clock was ticking. "How much time do I have?" she asked after only a few seconds.

"It should only be about a minute or so," I replied, checking my watch. "Do you feel anything yet?"

"Nothing…. Ah, wait a sec, my tush is starting to get numb — like from sitting on the pot too long."

"That’s normal; first point of contact and all." Seconds were passing.

"Oh, yeah. That’s weird. I can’t move my legs anymore, but I can feel my hands on them. Is that OK?" She stroked the curve of her smooth thigh with one long-nailed finger for a few seconds, then hesitated, seemingly daydreaming.

"Uh, huh," I said, but didn’t really know. None of my other models had been so chatty during suspension. "Remember to raise your arms a little." Almost forty seconds had elapsed.

"I… feel… so… heavy…." Lily’s every movement had become leisurely, sluggish, looking like she was stuck in slow motion. Her speech had begun to slow down also as the numbness spread throughout her shapely body. She started to look down at her legs but paused in mid-action and gazed at the floor instead.

"Relax and enjoy it. Hold your original pose and let your mind drift now. Try to look upwards slightly." Lily was rapidly becoming stiffer with every passing moment. Fighting the relentless effect would only bring her frustration and fear at this point.

"Wait… I… for..got….. my….. hair... …" Her words trailed off into silence as she tried to raise her arms up towards her head. They stopped halfway there and did not move further. All her movements were being rapidly suspended; by this time the only clue that she was really alive was by the blinking of her eyes. Even that modest evidence was becoming more vague as the intervals between blinks grew longer and longer as she seemed to stare blankly ahead. Then she did not blink at all.

This was the critical point in the posing. I quickly came up to her, closed her mouth so her full lips were only slightly parted, and said, "Don’t worry about that now. Just be beautiful; beautiful," and kissed her lightly on the lips. Lily’s last reaction before freezing into place was a slight look of surprise and delight which gave her face a lovely, attractive, expression. She stayed absolutely still.

Even though she could not move any more on her own, I could shift her slightly. Or so I had thought. Trying to compose her hands where I had wanted them was impossible now; she had become rigid very rapidly. Her skin was firm already, almost like plastic, so it was quite difficult to move her arms into a more stereotypical but still graceful position. Her hands were raised in front of her torso in a way that made Lily appear surprised.

"You look gorgeous, baby," I told her, not knowing if she could hear me. I caressed her lightly while turning her immobilized body imperceptibly on the pedestal. From talking to Christina I knew that brief touch would bring Lily minutes of ecstatic rapture.

Her flesh continued to harden as the minutes passed, eventually developing a typical solid glossy sheen that almost looked painted. Fluffing out her hairdo remained; that allowed Lily’s blonde tresses to fall naturally and frame her oval face delightfully. A few quick coats of styling spray then held her coiffure securely in place. After half an hour on the pedestal she was ready to go to her assignment but the expected phone call did not come until almost nightfall. Minutes passed slowly.

Picking up my sketchpad and charcoal, I decided to pass the time and benefit from having a motionless Lily available to pose for me. Some of these would be for her own portfolio (now she could put ‘mannequin model’ on her resume) in partial compensation for her ‘fee’ – although she would never know – and others were simply figure studies that might someday appear in one of my future magazine illustrations or posters. Within a different scenario she might become a damsel in distress, or a nymph perched by a flowing brook, a mermaid, or the queen of an amazon legion.

With flowing strokes of my hand her seductive shape took form on the blank page. Line by line, the supple curve of her neck and lissome musculature of her legs were duplicated. Sketching her was easy when she didn’t move a finger the whole time. There were parts of her figure, however, that were more difficult to render precisely because of the way her costume, skimpy as it was, had broken up the contours of her breast and waist. It struck me how much easier it would be to draw her as a nude at the same time I realized that in her present condition she would never know that I did.

Should never know, I corrected myself. Christina had never said how much she remembered afterward, just that everything was dreamlike while posed. Just to be on the safe side, I said "Lily, don’t worry, I’m going to adjust your costume." Naturally there was no outward reaction at all.

Removing the bikini top was easy; the clasp was in back. It was odd how her breasts did not shift once the thin fabric fell away. They remained shaped as they had been by the cups and felt firm when my hand brushed one accidentally. The one-piece thong panty was slightly more difficult. There was enough room to slip the elastic from her rigid waist and over her stiffened legs though I had to tilt her body slightly sideways at one point. It never ceased to amaze me how utterly inflexible these models became – there was no ‘give’ to her skin at all as I removed the last of her garments as well as her high-heeled shoes.

I wondered what Lily might be feeling or if she had already slipped off into a deep sleep. Little did I know she had remained awake from excitement the entire time and experienced several intense orgasms from just my brief touches on her immobilized body, climaxes that were amplified by her inability to react in any way to the sensations. Not until much later did I find out how much she had enjoyed her impromptu modeling session.

As expected, her naked physique was much easier for me to portray in the drawing. These were not fully shaded renderings, just quick drafts, so I smudged the paper with my thumbs to show depth and fullness. As soon as I finished my first page I started on another, then a third after rigging a floodlight to one side of her perch that made the anatomy of her abdomen stand out in sharp relief. The subtle contours of her back and the caravan of small bumps that marked the path of her spine made almost an abstract composition. Sketch after sketch flew off my pad and I have to admit I lost track of the passing time.

At some point, probably while sketching her upper torso, I had placed a chintzy costume-jewelry pearl necklace around her solidified neck. The addition of just this small prop seemed to make her figure appear more naked than she was when completely unclothed! What’s more her rigid, emphasized nudity was curiously stimulating to me. Perhaps some of Lily’s ecstatic pleasure was radiating across into my mind; perhaps her unusual stance tickled some deep hidden desire of mine. None of my other models had affected me this way after I had posed them as statues. Lily was special somehow.

The first jangling ring of the phone almost sent me to the ceiling; Lily remained impassively gorgeous. Picking up the handset, I listened to the lady from the boutique apologizing for the unexpected delay blah blah and saying their delivery truck had just left a few minutes ago. I thought for a second after hanging up before realizing they would be here any moment! "We’ve got to get you ready quick, Lily!" I said to her.

There was no time to dress her in the original bikini costume so after rooting around the box of lingerie supplied by the store I found a frilly one-piece teddiette with a snap crotch that would be easier to put on my rigid model. Looping it first through the maze of her arms, I pulled it over her shoulders and stretched the garment down across her torso. Made from a lycra-like elastic fabric, the sheer garment fit her like a glove. Smoothing the bodice over the too-firm mounds of her hardened breasts my fingers found the solid buttons of her erect nipples and traced a lazy circle around then before I noticed what I was doing and stopped. It was so easy to linger over her stiffened body and caress her and that was something I should not be doing…

Most of the teddiette covered her torso now, leaving only the closure at the crotch to fasten. After trying to tip her just a little so I could reach underneath my hand touched the still-charged glass plate and at once began to feel numb. Fortunately I recognized the suspension effect and pulled away in time before the stiffness started and I became stuck there. There was another way; I picked up the stiffened Lily and carried her over to a workbench where I could tilt her up onto her back. Now she looked like some sort of gymnast with her legs pointing into the air. I would have loved to sketch her in that pose but time was fleeting. Concentrating on the costume, pulling the two halves together right over her exposed sex, I was finally able to ‘pop’ first one of the snaps in place then the others. Resisting the temptation to give her a much deeper, more intimate, caress I picked up the immobilized model and placed her back upright on the pedestal again. Even though her frozen expression could not have changed, in my imagination she seemed to wear a slightly wider smile than previously.

I barely had time to straighten the teddiette and groom her hair back into position. The shadow of a vehicle on the driveway darkened one curtain and I heard the sound of an engine shutting off. They were here.

"Time to go on your assignment, Lily," I reassured her. "Remember I will be back in a week to change your costume. Until then, just be your beautiful self!" I wanted to kiss her again but the doorbell sounded.

Outside waited a crew of two bored-looking men who brightened noticeably when they saw the ravishing ‘cargo’ they were transporting. Using a hand truck I helped them load the stiff, mannequin-like figure of Lily, my frozen model, along with the pedestal that kept her that way, into the van for her journey to the ‘Intimate Dreams’ boutique. I had booked her for the entire length of her stasis period in the same location. They were a good place to start with. In fact, Sharron was on long-term assignment there right now.

That shop and others like it had used my motionless girls in their windows in the past and had relayed many favorable comments about them to me. It seemed almost subliminal, they said; when any living but mannequinized model displayed their garments the store sold more of them. Always. This time would be no different; with Lily appearing in their front showroom window as part of their latest lingerie display! Many more people would get to see her striking figure posed there and sales of stretchy teddiettes would soar. In a week or so, I’d stop by in the evening and dress her in a new outfit which in turn would become the next week’s best seller.

I enjoyed dressing the models and knew Lily would fancy my attention too.

With luck, when the time came to revive Lily at the end of her ‘trial’ period she would be as enamored with being turned into a living statue as my other frozen models had been. Possibly then she would be willing to join my private collection on an extended basis. She could be an exquisite addition. Time will tell….