Not a very distinctive namebut a name which tells it like it is. I make people beautiful. Women, and Ireally shouldn't say, ssssshh, sometimes men. It...is all I have ever wantedto do with my life. From sitting at my mother's side as she did her hair orput on her makeup, I have been fascinated with beauty, especially femalebeauty. Oh, the consummate joy, the first time mother took me to her beautysalon and allowed me to start into the rituals and tortures only a womancan appreciate inside that. What kind of discount? Funds are limited for luxuries likepub dinners." How much do you like my dress?" I pulled a coquettish pose andfluttered my eyelashes. Disconcerting familiarity or not, I had decidedthat unless Jake Carlton had some atrocious habits, like chewing withhis mouth open, he wouldn't be sleeping in his tent tonight.Happily enough, for the intimate tingle spreading across my body as thenight went one, Jake's table manners were excellent, he was polite andgood humoured company so. She wondered if it was really lust. “Oh no,” she concluded. No man had ever touched her like that and made a spark go clear to her soul. No--one--it was love! The next few weeks were hard. She was confused and terribly alone. He was on the road. All she could do was think about him! God, she wanted to hold him close and feel his naked body next to hers. She wanted to feel his lips. Kissing her and going from her sweet lips to her clit, setting every inch of her ablaze with passion. She realized. “What?”“Let me do some research. But here’s what I’m thinking. There’s a little Zen garden in the Arboretum at the U. It doesn’t grow anything, but it has a peaceful beauty that is entrancing. Let me study it and see what it takes. Del? Would we lose anything vital to the old trees if we removed everything else from between and around them and put in gravel?”“Doesn’t sound very pretty to me, but no, I can’t say you’d lose anything from that. It might even force the roots deeper to get their.