by Hadley Knox
Chapter Fifteen
By the time I answered my e-mails and took care of a few housekeeping items at my desk, I got back on the road. I had a brief period of time before my lunch date with Mike, my deliveryman, so I needed to do some research.
Hopefully the bookstore wouldn’t be that crowded, because I needed to check a particular section that would elicit embarrassment if I got caught there. When I walked through the doors of the quiet mega store of literature, I found the section dedicated to sex on the first floor towards the rear of the store.
A quick perusal of the titles revealed a plethora of how to guides of various flavors, and more than a shelf full of erotica. The crazy part, I thought to myself, was that even though the store carried hundreds of titles, I knew that it was still not reflective of the available books in the genre. Since the advent of the e-reader, erotica had seen a considerable boom, mainly due to the fact that people could read those books in private without fear that someone would be seen purchasing one.
I went through every title in hopes of finding something on the business of selling sex. The only one that was close to what I searched for was the memoirs of a prostitute from the 1980s. I’m sure that would have been an interesting read, but I didn’t think that would be the least bit helpful.
After half an hour of carefully searching, I gave up and stopped by the romance section. I grabbed a few titles that caught my eye and carried them to the register to check out.
Timing couldn’t have worked out any better, because I got to the sandwich shop just as Mike was pulling in. I didn’t know what he drove, but I could see his face through the windshield of the large red truck.
We met on the sidewalk, and I greeted him with a hug. We walked inside, ordered our sandwiches, and found a table near the back. At thirty minutes until noon, the lunch rush still hadn’t bombarded the area yet.
I bit into my sandwich and swallowed the bite, and then started my spill. “Okay, so I have a business proposition for you.”
“It wouldn’t take much right now,” he said. “My job sucks bad.”
“So what I’m about to tell you is kind of crazy. Hear me out before you pass a judgment, and I must insist on your absolute secrecy.”
“You got it.”
“Recently I met a man who is an escort, and I agreed to help him with the organization side of the business.”
“Like a pimp?”
Chuckling, I said, “No, I actually hate that word. I prefer the term madam.”
“Okay, so madam.”
“Yes,” I said. “He’s got ads posted around and can give out his business card at clubs. Apparently, he makes two hundred dollars per hour and works many hours a week, so he’s doing quite well for himself. I take twenty percent for managing his bookings and a good deal of the advertising.”
“Wow,” he said. He had stopped eating part of the way through my speech and had set his sandwich down. “So how did a nice lady like you get mixed up in this?”
“I met this guy at a bar and then we hooked up.” When I saw his eyes staring wide at me, I feared that he was judging me, so I added, “I was drunk.”
He held his hands up defensively. “Nobody’s judging, Lana.”
“I know, but it sounds better if I add that. Anyways, we hooked up and the next morning, he mentions his fee. We sort of formed a friendship after that, and he told me that he has trouble with keeping his appointments straight. I’m in a tough financial bind right now, so I could use the money.”
“So you’re out rounding up a bunch of men?”
“Actually, I am. I have two problems right now. Number one is that I can’t make as much money because my cut is much smaller, so I actually need to manage a few guys before I can start to rake in the money like he will be able to. The other issue that I’ve noticed lately is that I’m surrounded by all of these good looking guys, like yourself, who are having similar financial hardships.”
“I’m not really hurting for money.”
“But you hate your job.”
“It seems like I’d be trading one challenge for another.”
“But think about the money. You get paid to have sex.”
“I do like to have sex.”
“Really?” I asked. I realized that my tone came across as a little too interested.
“Definitely,” he said. “My girlfriend and I broke up a month ago because she wouldn’t have sex as much as I wanted to. If it were up to me, I would go three times a day. The most I could talk her into was in the morning before work and at night when we got home from work. She refused to meet me for lunch to do it again.”
“Wow,” I said. At first, I tried to hide my amusement, but then gave up.
“Yeah,” he said. “But it’s a big stretch to go into prostitution.”
“I know, and I don’t want to pressure you. I just talked to another friend of mine, and I will tell you the same thing. It’s all up to you. I won’t pressure you at all because this is a deeply personal decision to make.”
“So two hundred dollars an hour, right?”
“Yes.”
“Damn, that’s a lot of money.”
“It’s a whole lot of money.”
“So if I sign on, how many hours would I work?”
“As many as you want. The peak hours are of course the evening and late night. At first, I will probably be able to get you a few clients, but it will take some time to build up your client list to reach twenty hours a week.”
“I can do it twenty hours a week at two hundred dollars an hour?”
“Yes.”
“I’m in.”
“Seriously?”
“That’s a lot of money. I’m definitely in. I’ll have to keep my day job until I can start making enough to quit.” He smiled confidently at me. “But I’m really good at what I do, so I think I can get a lot of repeat customers.”
“That’s great,” I said. “Greg said that he would help out any newcomers, so I’ll talk to him and get a meeting scheduled. I have one more person to ask, and my friend I talked to this morning is supposed to get back to me when he has decided. If all goes well, then it will be four of you.”
“I’m anxious to get started,” he said.
“I bet you are,” I smiled.
Once we had finished with lunch, I raced home because I still had a lot to do before the kids got out of school. I brewed a pot of coffee and when it was ready, I poured myself a cup.
I sat in my usual spot at the kitchen table and started through the list of websites that Greg had texted me that would allow me to post advertisements for their services.
Now that I had at least two men, I could post ads that are more general. I wanted to create an ad and thought the best thing I could use would be a picture of a shirtless man. That was a great idea, I told myself, but I was a little short on pictures of naked men. It would certainly be illegal just to rip one off the internet since most photography was copyrighted.
I decided to text Greg with a request. In less than ten seconds, I got a reply. When I opened the photo he had sent, I gasped, followed by giggling. He had taken his cell phone and pointed it down the front of his pants. That I could definitely not use on the personal, although I had a feeling I could get a lot of business with a picture of that monster. A few seconds later, I got a second one of him in a pair of skimpy underwear. I stared at the picture for a little while before I did anything with it. He was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen, even better looking than Jeremy and that was saying a lot. His body seemed perfect, and in the photo, I could see every line of muscle definition and an enormous package in the front of his briefs.
Now I had to figure out what the name of the business would be. It didn’t have to be anything official, but I had to come up with something to put on the top of the image I would create. I scrawled down a list of words that might work and started mulling them over in my head. They sounded either too cheesy or not sexy enough. I had a picture in my mind of a lonely, d
esperate woman who was seeking male companionship. That wasn’t a hard fete to manage.
Then it hit me. We lived in suburbia and that would be our primary clientele. And I was specific in that I wanted to be referred to as a madam. What better way to reinforce this idea than to put that into the name. From this point forward, I would be the Madam of Suburbia.
The idea was perfect, and from the moment the name came into my head, I knew that this was what we had to go with. It would also help when people called the ad, and a woman answered, it would make sense. If I put Greg’s info on there, and then a woman answered the phone, there was no telling what would go through their head.
I used a graphics-editing program to create an eye-catching image that I could use to post on the internet. Using the photo he had just sent me, I cut off his head and his lower legs and then inserted that photo into the image. It was perfect, and more importantly, it was sexy. If I saw that on the internet, I might just call.
I ran through the list of websites, creating a username and profile, and then inserted the advertisement. I created a document on my computer to track all of the websites that I was tapping into.
When I clicked upload on the final set up, the work cell rang. My heart started beating, and I got really nervous. I still hadn’t come up with a good work track to make the client feel more at ease. I would have to wing it again and hope that I sounded okay.
“You have reached the Madam of Suburbia,” I said. “How may I assist you?”
“Hello,” a trembling voice said on the phone. “I’m calling about your ad I saw online.”
Damn, that was fast, I thought to myself. I just posted the first one a few minutes ago, and already we had a hit. Maybe this would take off faster than I thought.
“I would be glad to schedule you with one of our professionals,” I said. “What sort of man are you interested in.”
“Just a normal guy,” the caller said. “But he has to be hot. And nice,” she added as if an afterthought.
“All of our men are extremely good looking. Do you have any specifications?”
“Not really.”
I decided to schedule her with Greg. I couldn’t consider Mike officially a part of the business until I met with him and went over the rules and got his schedule. That might be another few days, so I would simply book Greg for now.
“When are you looking to have your session?”
“Is tonight okay?”
“Of course,” I said. “What time?”
“How about midnight?”
“I have a guy available then who will be perfect for you. Shall I book you for two hours? That is the recommended minimum.”
“That sounds good.”
I took down the details of the location. Apparently, Greg would have to drive to her house. I knew the address and it wasn’t that far from here.
After I hung up the phone, I got a text from Greg. He was on his way over with the money he had made last night. Before I could even react or text him back, my personal cell phone rang. It was Ben calling.
“Hey, Ben,” I said.
“Hey, Lana.”
“What’s up?”
“I’ve thought a lot about your proposal and I’m in.”
“That’s great!”
“Yeah, I think this is going to be good. The more I thought about it, the more I saw how this could change my life for the better. Frankly, I’m a little excited to get started. I need the money very bad.”
“Good. I’m going to talk to Greg to try to get something set up for a tutorial for the new guys.”
“How many new guys do you have?”
“Right now, it’s just you and my delivery guy,” I said. “I’m hoping to have one more signed up soon, so it will be four total.”
“Great. Just let me know.”
“Thank you for doing this, Ben. I know this will benefit you, but it will help me a great deal, too.”
“No, I appreciate you bringing this to me. I need the money very bad, and it was great of you to think about me.”
“Well, wait until your first client, and then see if you still want to thank me.”
He laughed on the other end of the call, but I could tell that it was a nervous laughter. Up until now, our friendship had been strictly professional and this was crossing a new line. It might take some time for us to settle into new boundaries.
I was about to go to the bathroom when the business cell phone rang again.
“You’ve reached Madam of Suburbia. How may I help you?”
“Yes, I want to book a session with one of your men.”
This caller was much different from the one before. Where the first one seemed scared of her own shadow, this one came across as confident. Even the way she used the word “session” made me think she had done this before.
“Sure. What kind of guy are you interested in?”
“Well, I’ve tried a few different services, and none of them have been able to provide what I’m looking for. You see, I have this fantasy, and it’s a little strange, but I’ve been thinking about this for the past four years, and it’s time to make it a reality.”
“Tell me about it, and I will see what I can do.”
“I want a big man.”
My mind instantly went to Mike.
She continued. “And I don’t mean that he has to be muscular. But he does have to be big around the middle. I want a large gut, like he’s drank a twenty-four pack every day of his life.”
“Okay,” I said. “So a large man. Any other specifications.”
“In my mind, he’s black and maybe a little older.”
What the hell? This had to be some trick. Maybe Pearl had found the number to the service and was trying to help her cousin Ray out. It was as if the caller had a picture of Ray up and was just describing him.
“I have to ask only because we don’t get this kind of call too often. But are you being serious? This isn’t some sort of prank.”
“I can promise that this is not a prank. I know exactly what I want, and I can pay extra if that’s what it takes. I will double the rate that you put on the ad.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I said. “I can definitely make this happen.”
So I scheduled the time and place. She insisted on meeting him tonight, so I knew that I had to work quickly. From what I knew of Ray, he didn’t have much going on, so I was sure he would be more than willing to come through for me. I would need to call Pearl and get his number.
So now, I was up to four escorts in my service, and I still had yet to talk to the last one on my list of prospects.
Chapter Sixteen
The daytime was running out fast, and I still had a lot to do. Greg texted me again that he would be a little later than he thought because he had to make a quick stop. I wouldn’t expect him for another hour at least.
I decided to call the pool boy, Derrick, and see where he was. Luckily, he was in the neighborhood cleaning another pool, and when I told him that I needed to talk to him when he got the chance, he said that he would be by in a few minutes.
Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, I walked out onto the patio to wait for him. I set my personal phone and my business phone down on the table in case anyone called.
A few minutes later, the back gate opened and Derrick appeared there. He wore his usual swim trunks, but today he had decided to forgo the t-shirt altogether.
When he smiled at me, I actually swooned. This was a little frustrating for me, because I would have thought having sex on a regular basis would have helped contain these crazy feelings of lust, but they only seemed to make them worse.
“Hey, Lana,” he said. “I came as quickly as I could.”
“I needed to talk to you,” I said.
“Really?” he asked.
He continued to walk towards me, and as he did, he started undoing the lace of his bathing suit. Before I could protest, he had pushed the suit down, exposing his bare flesh.
I shou
ld have resisted, and I regretted that whole encounter from the moment his lips touched mine. He was already hard as he pressed his body to mine, and that was when I lost control.
I didn’t say anything as he pushed my skirt down, and certainly didn’t say a word as he pushed my shirt over my head. I reached out and gripped his firm ass in my hands as he unhooked my bra and threw it to the patio floor.
“Derrick,” was all I could manage, saying the words with his tongue still in my mouth.
It was fast, but damn, it was good. He picked me up and set me on the lounge chair again. This time, he gripped me by the ankles and pushed them up a little and in one motion, he drove into me. I felt the intensity of his entry and arched my back with immense pleasure.
The speed of his thrusts seemed superhuman. He changed the angle a few times, and each time, it brought a new type of pleasure. Each time a new place inside of me was called to attention.
We both finished at the same time. Out sweaty bodies mingled together and we kissed for a moment.
I couldn’t speak, but I knew that I had so much to tell him. I had the business to run, and damn, he would make a good addition to the company.
“I have to talk to you,” I said.
“I’m glad you did,” he said.
“No, really I have to talk to you about something serious.”
“Oh,” he said flatly. He pulled away from me and shifted himself to lie next to me on the lounge chair. “I thought this was why you were calling.”
“No,” I said. “It wasn’t the initial purpose of my call, but I enjoyed it anyway.”
“I’m sorry,” he laughed. “You probably thought I was crazy coming into your backyard and stripping down.”
“No, seriously, it’s okay. I enjoy our time together.”
“Me, too.”
“So I have a business proposition for you. I know that you struggle with having enough money for school, and I think I have a part time job that will still allow you to clean pools.”
“Okay,” he said apprehensively.