I mutter, “Fuck,” under my breath. Because that means I’m gonna get a lecture about ‘the bottom line’ today.
“Ark,” he says in that stern fatherly voice he’s always used on me. His hair is not gray—I’m not sure if he dyes it or what, but it’s a rich medium brown. And his build is still solid and trim, just like he was twenty years younger. I guess that’s what Silvie sees in him. But you know, the guy’s a porn mogul so… “I’m not happy about your latest failure to provide.”
I have to stop the eye roll. “Ray,” I say, taking a seat in one of two leather chairs in front of his desk. “The last time we failed to provide was a year and a half ago.”
“I know, Ark. But it took me months to recover from that. It’s still fresh.”
Such bullshit. But if this is his angle, I can play. “How can I make it up to you then? Hmm?” I just want to cut this short. I know that JD is screwing that girl at home right now and I’d like to get back there before he marks her with piss and my chances of keeping her for myself are blown out of the water.
And then Ray does what he usually does when he knows he’s gonna get what he wants from someone. He steeples his fingertips under his chin and leans forward. “I have a movie.”
“When do you need me and what kind of shots will it require? Location or studio?”
He smiles. Like big. And that’s when I know he doesn’t want me to run the cameras. “I have a cameraman, Ark. I need an actor.”
“OK, so call JD.”
He shakes his head. “They don’t want JD. They want you.”
“Who?” What the fuck is this?
“A couple from the ranch. They want to make a sex tape and they want you to join in. They saw you a few weeks ago and the wife thought you were exactly her type.”
“Well, you better let her know she’s mistaken, Ray. I’m not participating in any movies.”
He smiles again.
Fuck. “What?”
“I told them you’d say that. So they said they don’t need cameras. Just a…” He struggles for the word. I’m about to fill in the blank with whore, when Ray says, “Date.”
What the fuck is this? “No. I don’t do dates and I don’t do guys.”
“Oh, he just wants to watch, Ark.” Ray gets up and walks around his desk to take the seat next to me. It’s a ploy to make me feel like he’s not the one in charge here by sitting behind the desk. He wants us to feel like equals. “It’s a personal favor, Ark. For me. You owe me two films and I need this. She wants you. She gets you.”
“You don’t own me, Ray. I’m not a whore you can pimp out. I make movies and give them to you in exchange for money. That’s all. If you’d like to cut our business short, I’m happy to sell my holdings, my loft, and get the fuck out of here so you can run your porn site all by yourself. I’m not your whore.”
He sighs and gets up to pour a drink. “Scotch?”
“Fuck, no,” I say. He knows I don’t drink that shit.
He shrugs and helps himself to three ice cubes and three fingers of the golden oak-colored liquid. “Look, it’s one day. Today, in fact. One afternoon. They’ve got the hotel room booked and everything. All you have to do is show up, fuck her senseless, and that’s it. The husband will be in the other room, he’ll walk in on you at some point. He’ll slap his wife around a little, and then you get to finish her off.”
The whole time he’s talking I’m shaking my head. “No way.”
“I’ll tell you what, Ark.” He stops to take a sip of his Scotch. “I know you’re all set to launch Public Fuck America in December. I know you need start-ups to get you off the ground. Just like I needed you when you came to me four years ago. So if you do me this favor, if you get this asshole off my back, I will personally hand you ten of my best producers to give you one video a week.”
“What?” I must be hearing things. He thinks I’d sell myself out to get producers?
“Not all top-tier, of course. I can’t give you all my earners. Plus you and JD are number one, so I only have nine left after you leave. Make that eight, if you take this deal. So one producer from the top ten, one from the top twenty, and the rest from the top one hundred.”
I say nothing. But I’m still thinking about the implications of him asking. What am I to Ray? An asset? That word in my head sends a chill up my spine.
“It’s a good deal, Ark. A great deal in fact. It sets you up just the way you wanted. No more camera work. No more legwork. No more hustling girls every week. You get ten videos a week coming in, that’s a nice easy start to a billion-dollar business. You know none of my guys are gonna walk with you. You know you’d never get a top-ten producer to make films for you once a week. This is gold. And all you have to do is fuck a pretty woman to get it.”
Even though my head is shaking no, I can’t stop my mind from racing with the possibilities of what this might mean. More money. More power. More excuses to stick around and talk myself into thinking this life I’ve made is my destination.
“Ark, it’s an easy out.”
“No.” I laugh. “It’s an easy in. And I’m not doing it. I’ll have your movies by the end of the day.” And then I stand up, ready to walk out, when he grabs my wrist. I look down at it and he lets go. When I find his face, it’s got a look I’m not sure I like.
“Why, Ark? Just give me a good reason why you’re too good to let a woman suck your dick. You watch JD do it every day. You let him sell himself every single day. And yet you’re always too good.”
“I’m not too good, Ray. In fact, I’ll be back with three movies of lips wrapped around my own cock. But you’re not my fucking pimp.”
“You’re JD’s pimp.”