by Piper Rayne
“Perrie,” Beth said calmly, a little too calmly. “Ash and I never had sex.”
I paused, my teacup in midair. “Sure you did, you said you did.”
“No, what I said was we talked about what I liked and didn’t like sexually. I never once said we had sex. That’s not part of the package.”
I stared at her almost in disbelief. “No, you said…” I didn’t even finish the sentence as I searched my memory. “You two had a contract, right?”
“Of course, but nothing on it was about us having sex.” She laughed. “Ash doesn’t have sex with his clients, that would be ridiculous. But maybe it’s an add-on service,” she quickly rushed out.
Yeah... an add-on service.
28
Ash
I was staring at the map, trying to decide my next conquest, when the door opened and slammed, practically shaking the apartment. I looked up as Perrie walked in, hands on her hips like she was on a mission to kill something or someone.
“Ashley, can I talk to you?”
She used my actual name. Nope, I definitely didn’t want to talk. I slowly stood up, mostly because I had height on her, and with her being mad, it would make her even more feisty. “I’m going to say no, mostly based off your demeanor right now. You look a little pissed.”
“Cut the shit, Ashley. We had sex.”
I stared at her, she stared back. “Was that a question or—”
“We had sex!”
“Very good, Perrie, we had sex... multiple times.”
“But you don’t do you? Have sex with your clients.”
I laughed. “No, of course not.” I mirrored her and crossed my arms as well. “Why are you telling me something you already knew?”
“I didn’t know.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Ash!” She threw her hands up. While I understood she was frustrated and most likely wanted to castrate me for reasons I’m not sure of yet, it was still cute to fuck with her. And why not? I had time.
I stopped her from going any further. “Look, Perrie, you said I didn’t tell you, but I did tell you what I didn’t do with my clients. Maybe you only heard what you wanted to hear.” I stepped so close to her we were flushed together. “And let’s not forget, I wanted to fuck you, just like you wanted to fuck me. So, we both got what we wanted, didn’t we? Or did your pussy already forget?”
I headed toward my room before she could even think of a response. “I’m going out tonight. Maybe it’ll do you some good to do it too. You look like you need a drink.”
29
Perrie
That son of a bitch. He was right, but he was still a son of a bitch. He was definitely right about needing a drink. I took out my phone. I would call up Claire. I would call up Beth, hell I would even call up Barb!
Whoa.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Let’s not get crazy.
I opened my closet to the dress in the very back I never wore. Well, since Ash supposedly gave me confidence, let’s see if his teachings worked.
30
Ash
“Another round!” I motioned to the server.
“Yo, Ash, isn’t that your roommate?”
I licked the salt in between the tits of the bleach-blonde girl before shooting back my tequila. Which let’s be honest, I was only doing to not have to taste her skin. I took the lime she had in between her teeth as I welcomed the heat coursing through me. I finally turned to Isaiah. “Where?” He pointed and I scanned the crowd. No Perrie anywhere, not that her ass would even come out.
“Nah, I don’t see her man.” I started to focus my attention back to the blond when Eric nudged me.
“It sure as hell is.”
I sighed getting ready to tell them both they were wrong and to fuck off when I froze. She was here, she was actually here. But the most important question is what the hell was she wearing... or not wearing?
Some guy was standing in front of her, talking to her, and I couldn’t help but notice how he kept touching her. I started to get up but quickly remembered I was blocked in. I saw him whispering in her ear, and another guy walked up to her and pointed toward our table. The next thing I knew, they were both headed our way.
“Hey, Pear bear.” She rolled her eyes when I called her that. “Who’s your friend?” I nodded toward the fuckface standing next to her. He had the nerve to pull her tighter to him.
She turned to him. “This is Kel. We just met, actually.”
I stared at them. I stared at them hard. “Oh! This is my song!” The blonde I forgot that was even sitting next to me started to move out of the booth and grabbed my arm. “Come on, dance with me.” I made no move to acknowledge her. “Dance with me,” she said again, this time making a show of pushing her tits out while whining. I waved her off, and she sulked to the dance floor. I pointed to the empty seat now next to me and Perrie and her new friend sat down.
“I’ve never been here,” Perrie said before sipping her drink.
I ignored her and looked over her instead. “Kel? As in like the green leafy vegetable that tastes like ass?”
Perrie sputtered on her drink before nudging me in the side. “What is wrong with you? Be nice.” Oh, I’ll be nice. I’ll be really fucking nice.
“It’s okay. I’ll get you another drink, okay?” Kel didn’t wait for her to answer as he kissed her cheek and got up to flock through the crowd.
She turned to me. “What is your problem?”
I ignored her again, looking her up and down. “What are you wearing?”
“What do you think? I’ve had it and figured why not; it’s just collecting dust in the closet.” It had a V-neck that went down to her navel, not to mention it was so short, I’m sure if anyone tried, they could see her pussy. She rolled her eyes as she looked out to the people on the dance floor. “It’s not even that short.”
The hell it wasn’t. “It was short enough for assface to come on to you.”
“Isn’t that the whole point of what we’re doing? To get me more confident and out there. Isn’t that what you said? Wasn’t that the purpose of our sessions?”
How the fuck dare she? Who the fuck did she think she was to use my words against me? I got closer to her face. “Not when you decide to dress like a whore!”
I froze
She froze.
It felt like the whole damn club froze since that was the exact moment the music stopped playing. That was also the moment fuckface decided to bring his ugly ass face around and set two drinks on the table. Neither Perrie nor I said anything as we just stared at each other, breathing hard.
I fucked up.
She stood up, took her drink and threw it in my face. I should’ve expected that. What I didn’t expect was the slap that followed, which made the sting worse because of the ice she just threw in my face. She turned to Kel and took his drink from him and downed it. She wiped her mouth before glaring at me. “Come on, Kel, let’s go back to my place.”
My eyes widened at what she just said.
I fucked up.
I royally fucked up.
31
Ash
Despite what she said, Perrie didn’t come home that night, nor the next night either. By then, I was getting anxious. Each call went directly to voicemail, each text went unanswered, then before I knew it, any texts I did send, immediately came back as Not Delivered. She blocked me, she fucking blocked me.
I was just about to call around again for the third time when the front door opened and shut. Perrie walked right in, heels in hand, still in the same dress from the other night. She glanced at me barely, as I held out my cup of juice to her as some sort of a peace offering. I wondered if she was still mad at me. Her eye roll was beyond distinctive as she went to her room and slammed the door behind her.
I guess no juice then.
I went over to her door and knocked, when she didn’t answer I knocked louder. “Perrie, come on.” I knocked again and even tr
ied the doorknob.
Locked.
“Perrie, I’m sorry, okay? I am, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said to you. I was being an ass I know.” I banged and still it went unanswered. “It wasn’t you, it wasn’t the dress, it was… me.” I found myself admitting the truth. It was me. She looked hot as hell in the dress, but me being a jealous prick and seeing how other men reacted, made me well… jealous. I didn’t want her to wear it for them, I wanted her to wear it for me. I slid down the door and banged again.
Nothing.
After what felt like hours, she finally opened the door and I fell back. She gave me a look of disgust as she stepped over me. I hadn’t even noticed it was nighttime. I stood up going to her. “Perrie, I—”
“Stop. Just stop. I’m going to work. I highly encourage you to not be here where I can see you when I get back. Okay? Thanks.”
32
Ash
This is exactly why I don’t date. Women are complicated. The moment I develop feelings for one of them, I go and fuck things up somehow.
“Wing me.”
I looked over at Eric and handed him the container of wings. I swear to God, he was like a man child—face and fingers just full of sauce. I couldn’t even think of a good reason as to why I was even friends with him. He wanted to come over and get his ass kicked in a few games.
He was staring at something on his laptop. “Eric, are we playing Fortnite or not?”
“No can do, it’s almost showtime.”
I reached for the last slice of pizza. “The hell are you watching, man?” I peered over Eric’s shoulder briefly, already bored with whatever he was doing.
“Any minute now, she’s going to take off the sweater. They turn the heat up to where it’s almost unbearable.” He laughed as he focused on his screen. I checked my phone, still no messages from Perrie, not even one saying fuck you, which I would have happily accepted. I sent her another one, telling her I was sorry. Again.
“Ash, you are one lucky son of a bitch.”
I sighed as I glanced at Eric. He had to be the most annoying prick I’ve ever come across, and I’ve come across a lot of pricks. I’ll humor him, I have the time, apparently. “Why is that?”
“Are you kidding?” He pointed to his screen as if it were obvious. “You get to see that every damn day. Please tell me you’ve hit that.”
I stared at him, still not sure what the hell he was talking about. “What are you talking about?”
“Your roommate. That body doesn’t stop does it?” Not only did I still not know what he was talking about, but I started to hate the way he was talking about Perrie. He started to say more but suddenly he cheered. “Yes, she removed the coat!” Then he looked at me. “How is she? I know you’ve had her; I mean look at her. Please tell me you’ve had her.” He gestured to his screen and I peered over his shoulder again to look at what he was talking about.
I froze.
Perrie was on screen, her jacket in her arms, wearing her jeans and a lace bra. What. The. Fuck?
“What is this?”
“It’s called Hidden Cast. She does her podcast, and we watch and place bets on if she’ll strip down.”
“What?”
He looked at me laughing. “Yeah, man. How did you not know about this?” He clicked on a few things. “There’s an entire directory. See, look, this girl here basically fucks herself and records it for her boyfriend.” He clicked on another screen. “This one here is the dressing room. You won’t believe how many people are fucking in a dressing room. This one here is my favorite—hidden camera in the actual toilet. You can see any pussy you want.”
I stared in disbelief. “Do they know people are watching?” It was a stupid-ass question but I had to ask anyway.
He shook his head. “Are you serious? Not at all, that’s why it’s fun. I tell you what though, if you weren’t here, my keyboard would probably be sticky right now.”
I suddenly felt sick. I remember Perrie saying something about how she hated her job, but they offered more pay the later her podcast went but it had weird stipulations. She only agreed because of the extra money. I strongly doubted this was something Perrie would agree to had she known just how perverted her boss really was.
“All I know is that I plan on fucking her. My dick has been hard since I came across this site. And hey, since you are roommates, I figured you can help me out, man.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small plastic baggie. “Slip one of these in her drink or something and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Rage took over me as I grabbed his laptop and slapped the fuck out of him with it. Blood splattered as his own tooth fell from his mouth.
“Ash, what the fuck?” He stood up and swung, missing me by almost a damn mile. Fucker couldn’t hit me even if he wanted to. He took a step back, still clutching his mouth because we both knew he was no match for me.
A little too calmly, I replied, “Get the fuck out now.”
“Fuck you, Ash, I’m calling the cops.”
I reached for my phone. “Good, please do, so I can let them know how you basically tried to convince me to help you rape a girl.”
He spat out blood. “It’s your word against mine.”
“Is it?” I pointed to the picture frame behind him, as well as across from him. “You think I would be stupid enough to not have cameras in my home?” I actually didn’t, but he didn’t need to know that. I held up my phone, the 9 and 1 already pressed. “Oh, hey, did you want me to dial or did you want to do it?”
“Fuck you, man,” he spat again. “Fuck you.” He grabbed what was left of his laptop which was nothing and left. I tried Perrie’s number again.
“Dammit, Perrie, answer!” I grabbed my keys to my bike to head to where Perrie was. I was willing to bet my own life, she had no idea she was being recorded.
33
Perrie
“That’s all we have for tonight. Thank you, guys, I’ll see you later.” I signed off and waited for Claire to give me the thumbs up that we were off the air. Quickly putting my jacket back on, I grabbed my stuff and headed out but stopped abruptly when I saw Ash pacing in front of his bike. He looked pissed, in fact more pissed than I’ve ever seen him. The moment he saw me, he stalked over to me.
Before he could say anything, I stopped him. “Did you forget I hate you? Nothing’s changed Ash, go home.”
“Did you know?”
I rolled my eyes. I was too tired for this mess right now. “Know what?”
“Did you know your podcasts were being recorded?”
He was an idiot. “Of course they’re being recorded, it’s a podcast. Sometimes we have to play a repeat.”
“No, I mean recorded, as in on camera.” He took out his phone to show me in the studio, in just the negligee. I froze. That wasn’t me. That couldn’t be me.
But it was.
“Where did you...” I couldn’t even finish that sentence as a panic attack started to bubble up inside me. I grabbed his phone and clicked on a few other screens. It wasn’t just me in the studio. There were small videos of me at my desk with a camera pointed directly at my breasts, another had a camera pointed directly at my ass.
I dropped the phone as if it had physically burned me since it might as well have. Ash’s look went from anger to worrisome. “You didn’t know did you?” he asked. At least I thought he did. I couldn’t hear him over my blood rushing in my ears and my heart beating so fast. I suddenly couldn’t breathe and scratched at the jacket I was wearing to get it off.
I remember falling as if I was going down a rabbit hole.
Down.
Down.
Down.
Then everything went black.
I jumped at the sound of sirens and slowly opened my eyes. I recognized my surroundings not as my own, but Ash’s. I was back in his room. I looked up and Ash was staring down at me. He softly smiled before he reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Was that a really bad dream?” I
whispered. He shook his head and dread went through me all over again. I didn’t think so. I wasn’t that lucky. I felt sick. I felt betrayed. I felt violated. I felt dirty. I sat up trying to think. I didn’t have to though; Ash had already done it for me.
“We need to file a police report. Do you have any of your things there? If so, I’ll get them, you’re not going back there.” I dropped my head in my hands. Everything was happening so fast.
“Claire,” I whispered.
“I already talked to her. She was just as shocked as you were. She’s also filing a report.”
“Did everyone know what was happening?”
Ash sighed, leaning against the headboard. “I doubt it. The supposed website isn’t actually searchable, so I’m guessing dark web or some shit. Luckily, I know a few hackers. They were able to infiltrate the server as well as the list of names that had access to it. But that wasn’t even the tip of the fucking iceberg.”
I braced myself for whatever he had to add. “There was a forum—a highly active one. There was also one where your friend Felix admitted to placing cameras in bedrooms of the girls he hooks up with. You weren’t the only one being filmed.”
My eyes grew wide, as I started to scramble out of his bed to run to my room to check for cameras but Ash held me still. “I already traced yours. There was one, but Crouton was blocking its view,” he said smiling. I sighed in relief. I had never been happier for a plant in my life. Emotions started to get the best of me as I bowed my head. “Hey, look at me.” He placed his hand under my chin so I had to look at him. “It won’t happen again. I promise you.”