It had been a week since the little cat had made her visit, and Evelyn looked around her basement room. She walked, put new tubes in place, and set things up as though the room was in hiatus, not ready for use.

She smiled as she put the last of the silicon chunks into the grinder, and watched the debris go into a bag that she would put in her household waste. The cut up tubing had long been disposed of, after it had been cleaned and bleached.

Evelyn didn't keep Eva's hair. She wanted to. She really wanted to keep Eva's hair, but she had the clothes that she wore the day before. When she had fucked Eva senseless that night, she took the unwashed clothes and put them into a bag. She folded them carefully, and removed the air from the bag.

She had burned her hair in a bucket, along with the first clothes she gave her. She never removed her comb or brush. She set that inside the alcove on a small shelf, like it was a memorial.

In essence, she didn't want anything left behind where someone could come and accuse her of hurting Eva. There was no blood either. The bucket had long been sanitized, and the room had long been scrubbed with bleach, flooded with it, and washed down again.

The reason for this is that on some small scale, she knew it was a crime that she committed. Just as it was when she had Emile break Mike's arm. What her beloved Tandy had done to her as a preteen was also a crime, but those were just the details of her life. She did not regret it once.

She did not want Mike to bother Roberta, as Roberta belonged to her. It was her job to protect her belongings. He dared to harm her when she already belonged to her. That was a worse crime.

As for Eva, she loved Eva right to her bones. The reason she turned her into a sculpture was so that she could never leave, and would always look like she did when they met.

In her mind, she preserved her beauty forever. That was all that mattered to her.

However, now that she looked at the middle of the room, an image of Roberta restrained and asleep floated up in her mind. Evelyn smiled.

"Not yet. I haven't dug out your secrets yet. But maybe soon."

* * *

"Your sketches are selling quite well." Evelyn said. Roberta lifted her chin, and pouted a little.

"Doesn't it bother you?" Roberta asked. Evelyn smiled. She could tell her lover was having difficulty with the monetary side of their relationship.

"That I am selling the sketches, or that others like to look at them?" Evelyn asked with a small seductive smile on her lips. Roberta blushed.

"Both." She whispered.

"You always complicate things." Evelyn said with a chuckle. "Two answers required instead of one. You make it harder, but that is still good." She sighed a bit.

"As to selling, this is a business. I make art to sell." Evelyn said, and stood up. She went to a counter, got a book, and retrieved two thick envelopes. She went to another part of the gallery and took two frames off the walls.

"Now, let me explain something so you understand." Her voice firmed up, and startled Roberta a bit. This was the firm tone she once used in the beginning. "See these frames?" She handed both of them to her. Roberta looked at each, and was startled again.

"I didn't notice." She whispered. It was her. The first sketch that Evelyn had ever done of her. The second one was of her asleep on the chair.

"Those will never be sold. They are too precious to me, and priceless." Evelyn said firmly. Roberta sniffed a little, as she didn't realize that she felt that way. "These are my private collection." She handed her two envelopes. Evelyn took back the frames, and let Roberta look through the contents of the envelopes.

"Oh." Roberta said as she slid a stack of ten to twenty sketches out of the first envelope. It was a rough guess on her part, but as she looked through each, her face changed.

Each one was tasteful, and if it were a compromising position, it went into that envelope.

"The poncho was my favorite." Evelyn said with a soft smile. "Those sketches are the ones I would not let anyone else look at, let alone sell." Roberta felt herself grow warm. She slid them back into the envelope, twenty three in total. She pulled the others out of the second envelope, and frowned slightly.

"These ones are special to me. Milestones. Points in life that will never come again." Evelyn said in a small voice. The first was Roberta and herself in bed, Roberta sitting on the edge, looking down at her. There were a few of such ones. Even one with her going into the bathroom, completely naked, back on.

"How did you take this?" Roberta asked. Evelyn grinned.

"I didn't use a camera. That morning, when you woke up, I heard you yell out. I walked up the stairs slowly, just in case, and had a nice view from behind." Evelyn sighed. "You had such a lovely bottom, I couldn't help but want to put it on paper."

"The pancakes." Roberta said. She looked at the detail, and how serene her face looked as she ate the food prepared especially for her.

"It took almost two weeks for you to eat like a normal human being." Evelyn said, and sighed happily. "Thanks to that, your hips are a bit wider, your breasts are heavier and fuller, and your cheeks don't look sunken in." Roberta blushed a bit.

"I did starve myself due to how others talked about me." Roberta said quietly. "It was a little foolish." Evelyn snorted.

"You weren't foolish, just insecure." Evelyn took the sketches and put them back in the envelope. "I will put them in their own clear envelopes, or seal them with laminate so they can not degrade. I haven't decided which."

"No laminate." Roberta said quickly. "The laminate will separate in about five to ten years. Once stuck to the paper, there will be no way to preserve the paper. Only dry areas, ones without light, no oil or acids, or mildew. You can use the plastic envelopes or pouches used for comic books." Evelyn smiled.

"That does make sense. It's also how libraries store their more important books. I think I will get the back room renovated, and add humidity and temperature controls." Evelyn sat down, and handed Roberta the book.

"Look at it." Evelyn said. Roberta frowned, and opened it. "Those are the details of each model I sell sketches for. Eva's are limited to my memory now. Those are her numbers. Turn the pages." Roberta obeyed and saw Jill's numbers. There were only a few notations compared to Eva's extensive notations. Eva even had a reference to a girl named 'cat'.

"Oh my." Roberta turned the page again, and saw her name there. There were dozens of entries, and dozens of different names. All were real names, except for the girl, and were near on equal footing with Eva's numbers.

"You see, my dear Roberta, you are a popular model. Not only do I appreciate your beauty, but so do so many others. I do not mind them appreciating it like they do." Evelyn's eyes sharpened.

"However, they can only appreciate from a distance! If someone like 'Mike'," She sneered when she said his name. "tries to hurt you, or tries to get close to you when you did not allow him to, I will beat him to death." Roberta lifted her eyes in surprise.

"You're not joking." Roberta said. "That was you?" She sniffed again. "I've never had anyone willing to stick up for me like that before." Roberta was a simple young woman. If someone treated her well, she would be happy, and treat them the same way. If someone treated her badly, she would become sad, and wonder why.

Now that Evelyn was willing, it made her feel quite good inside.

Roberta closed the book, and put it down. She stood up, and grinned shyly.

"You're looking naughty, Roberta." Evelyn said in a soft silky tone that sent shivers down Roberta's spine. Delightful shivers.

"I just bought some new shirts." Roberta said with a soft look in her eyes. "I know you don't like things that expose me to others, but I want to model for you." Evelyn's eyes narrowed slightly.

Evelyn still had a few things to dig out of Roberta's past, and couldn't take her downstairs to preserve. She shouted inside her mind, and forced herself to calm down.

Calm down! Not Yet!

Evelyn was persistent though. One day, she would find the reason for the shadow on her heart, then she would ask her if she would model for her.

After all, Roberta's beauty would belong only to her.