‘Yeah. He might not like it.’
‘He should feel privileged if you let him anywhere near it.’
‘But the girl on my blog would probably be more up-to-date on stuff like this. If that’s what everyone’s doing nowadays…’
Luca shrugged. ‘You should do what you want. It’s your body. If you’re comfortable with it, he should be too.’
‘Hmm, maybe,’ she said, chewing her lip.
‘Let me show you something.’ He took her hand and pulled her up off the sofa, leading her towards the corner of the room he used as his studio.
‘What is it?’ she asked warily. ‘I’m not going to strip off and let you paint me.’
‘It’s not that. I want to show you how beautiful a natural woman can be.’
‘Oh.’ She tried to ignore the stab of jealousy she felt. In the studio she glanced around at the canvases stacked against the walls and on benches, and wondered if this ‘natural woman’ had been a girlfriend or just a model. But instead of reaching for one of the canvases, he went to a shelf in a corner of the room and took down a large book. He flipped through the pages, then laid it down on the worktop.
‘Look.’ He pointed to the page.
Claire came to stand beside him, looking down at the painting in the book – the torso of a naked woman lying on a bed with her legs spread. It was such a graphic close-up of the genital area that she couldn’t help feeling shocked. ‘It’s very… powerful,’ she said, trying to be grown-up about it and not show her revulsion. But she knew her lip was curling like Yvonne’s had earlier over the idea of a full bush. Maybe sheshouldgo for a Brazilian…
‘It’s Courbet,L’Origine du Monde. Don’t you think it’s beautiful?’ Luca was gazing at it lovingly.
‘Um… no, not really. It’s a big hairy snatch. I mean, I’m sure it’s very good, but I wouldn’t want it hanging on my wall or anything.’
Luca laughed. ‘You’re such a philistine!’ he said, bumping shoulders with her. ‘I think it’s amazing.’
He was definitely the wrong person to ask, she thought. She’d start looking into waxing options tomorrow.
‘Okay, look at this one,’ he said flipping to another page, a painting of a naked woman reclining on a couch. ‘It’s Goya.La Maja Desnuda. This was the first depiction of pubic hair in Western art. It’s a very sexy painting, isn’t it?’
Claire had to admit it was. ‘It’s beautiful.’
‘Pubic hair was never shown in classical art. You’ve probably heard that story about Ruskin discovering his wife had pubic hair on the night of their wedding, and freaking out because he thought there was something wrong with her.’
Claire nodded.
‘It’s probably not true, but the sad thing is it may be. He might never have seen a real woman naked, and in the paintings and sculptures he’d have known, they’d have been hairless.’
‘Those Old Masters have a lot to answer for.’
‘And now internet porn is doing the same thing – all those hairless bodies. There are probably some young guys growing up now who think that’s normal.’
‘That’s the problem, though,’ she said, turning to face him. ‘Maybe Mark’s one of them. I mean, not that he’s never seen pubic hair, but maybe it’s not what he’s used to.’
Luca sighed. ‘Like I say, do what you want. But will you promise me one thing?’ he asked, running a hand through his curls.
‘What?’
‘If you do decide to hack it all off, you’ll let me paint you first.’
His eyes were alive with excitement and she swallowed hard. She glanced back at the book. She couldn’t see herself posing like that, her twat on display for all the world to see. But he seemed so eager.
‘I don’t know. How long would it take?’ She would feelso ridiculous lying around naked for hours, flaunting her body like she thought she was all that.
‘A few days maybe. It would just be me,’ he said persuasively, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
‘But what about afterwards, when it was finished?’
