by Lane Hart
"Nope, not you and Eve at the club," Nate answers. "There's actually, um, a porno of you that can be downloaded for just nine ninety-nine through VS Production’s website."
"That's complete bullshit! There is no fuckin’ porno. They must be tryin’ to pass it off with some random guy who looks like me, but I haven't-" Senn thrusts his cell phone in my face and I watch in horror as the scene unravels. It's a very clear video showin’ Mandy goin’ down on a man that is without a fuckin’ doubt me in the bedroom at Vito's. But it doesn't end with me makin' the "O" face and comin’ down her throat. Nope. It keeps right on rollin’, showin’ clothes flyin’ as both of us get naked, sparkin’ more embarrassment I didn't know I could possibly have left.
And damn, there is just no polite, decent way to eat a woman out. My face is buried in her pussy, frantically lickin’ up her juices like a man lost in the desert finally stumblin’ upon his first puddle of water. I start to worry that the me on the video may never come up for air, when finally, I’m rushin’ to fuck her but realize my cock is too big or she wasn't quite ready when I try and ram it in. The only savin’ grace to the whole debauchery is the way she holds onto me so tightly at the end like she wanted me to stay right there with her the rest of the night. But what do I do next? Pick her up, actually bite her ass, before throwin’ her on the bed and fuckin’ her like a crazed animal. Wow. No wonder she was upset after that round, and probably sore from my brutality.
All of the sex acts, despite their different locations in the room, are caught from various angles on what had to be some high resolution cameras. Cameras that I didn't even know were there recordin’ every single fuckin’ second of us bein’ together. It finally, thank fuck, ends just before I dress and leave the room. I'm not sure if I want to know the answer to whether or not there's audio.
That's about the time I realize my ass is on the mat on the floor, my face flamin’. Everyone in the gym is lookin’ at me, and hell, most have probably already seen the whole fuckin’ thing by now if it's this damn easy to get. The guys and coaches have likely seen what I thought was happenin’ behind the privacy of closed doors while I was gettin’ real fuckin’ intimate with a woman. Not just any woman, but a goddamn porn star.
"It's definitely you?" Nate asks, squattin’ down next to me. I nod since it's so damn obvious, and there are no other words…
"At Vito's?" Senn asks, and I nod again when he removes his phone from my hands that I forgot I was even holdin’. "You should sue those fuckers.”
"We need to talk," Jude says when he suddenly appears above us. The normally laid back guy’s eyes are narrowed, his jaw's tickin’ like he’s pissed. I should be the one who is pissed. Mostly I'm...numb. She knew. She fuckin’ knew they were recordin’ us and she didn't tell me. How could she? She's a gold diggin’ porn star, that's why. No, she's a woman desperate enough to do anything for money. I don't know if I'm mad at her or just hurt that she would embarrass me by doin’ somethin’ so goddamn connivin’.
Jude offers me a hand up off the floor which I accept, and then I follow him blindly to his office where he shuts the door.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" He lays into me before I can sit down in a chair. "Don Briggs just chewed my ass out over the phone because this Havoc hasn't been open a month and now you're bringing this shit down on us! It's not just you anymore. This is our image! An image that we’ve been trying to build up as role models to youth so we can offer more community programs. Nobody's gonna want their kids taking classes with the fighter who fucked the porn star!"
Once he stops yellin’ long enough for me to get a word in, I say, "I didn't know we were bein’ recorded."
"You didn't?" he asks. His tone lowers in concert with his shoulders slumpin’ forward.
"No."
"Oh."
"Yeah, so you think I could talk to your attorney sister-in-law? See if I can make them take this shit down or sue them for recordin’ and releasin’ it without my permission?"
Jude cringes before he sits down on the other side of the wooden desk and props his feet up on the edge. "Sorry, Zelda, but I know for a fucking fact that in Maryland and South Carolina there's not a damn thing you can do about being recorded without your knowledge. Probably the same here in North Carolina."
"What do you mean nothin’ I can do? I didn't sign up for the entire world to see my naked ass when I’m balls deep in a porn star! That’s a violation of my goddamn privacy!"
"It should be, but it's not. This fucker Sadie dated recorded them together and threatened to share it on the web."
"So what'd she do to stop him?"
"I threatened to kill him and his buddies who had the only copies. They gave me their phones. The police couldn't charge them with shit, but thankfully we were able to contain it."
"There's no containin’ that video of me and..."
"Nope," Jude agrees. "I've heard that something like a million copies have already been downloaded."
After hearin’ that unfortunate information I groan, diggin’ my elbows into my knees when I cover my face. It's more widespread than I thought.
"Hey, it could be worse," Jude offers.
"How the fuck could it be worse?" I ask him from behind my palms.
"At least you didn't do any embarrassing shit when you didn't know cameras were rolling. And I believe estimates on the size of hashtag 'Linc's Master Sword' is trending. So on the bright side, you don't have to worry about hastag 'Little Dick Linc.'"
"Wow." I rub my temples where the motherfucker of all headaches is startin’. "You've...seen it?" I ask hesitantly, unable to look at him.
"Uh-huh. Only for verification purposes of course. Once I confirmed it was you I stopped watching. Mostly. That's fucked up right? It's like the whole ‘trying to look away from a train wreck’, and I was really fucking pissed at Sadie when she told me she had watched it with some girls at school because she didn't believe it was you, so I had to see-"
"Sadie's seen it?” I ask in mortification since I think of her like a sister. “Oh fuck. My parents and Hailey are gonna find out. My Grandma Abrams too. This is really bad. I need to warn them. Can you call your sister-in-law for me?"
"Sure," he says, whippin’ out his phone and pressin’ a few buttons before holdin’ it up to his ear. "Hey, Page. How are my pain in the ass brother and adorable nephew treating you? Good, and I miss you guys, too. Well, the reason I'm calling is Linc's in need of some urgent legal advice. You've already heard? Yeah, that's what I told him. Okay, here he is," he says before passin’ the phone to me.
"Hey, Page."
"Hi, Linc. Sounds like you've been better," she says on the other side of the phone.
"Uh-huh. What can I legally do?"
"Well, since there's nothing about the actual recording itself being illegal, the only thing I would suggest is having your attorney or agent call the company and demand that you receive a portion of all royalties. From what I've heard, they're making a fortune off of you, so you could take them to civil court to force them to pay you some type of compensation for each video they sell. If nothing else, hit them in their pockets."
I sigh into the phone when she confirms what Jude had warned me. "That's better than nothin’ I guess."
"I'd be happy to talk to your agent and do a three way call to see if we can get someone's attention at the studio."
"Thanks, I'd appreciate that," I tell her, and then give her my agent Dave's contact info, leavin’ them to handle the rest.
"What the fuck am I supposed to do now?" I ask Jude when I hang up and give him back his phone.
"No clue," he replies, shakin’ his head. "Depending on what Page and Dave find out maybe issue a press statement to do damage control? Say you didn't know you were being taped. I don't know, man."
"Yeah. Okay. I'm goin’ home," I tell him. Gettin’ up to head out the office door, I move like the walkin’ dead, still in shock and reeling from gettin’ fucked over. I shower and change into my jeans and tee, p
ull my hoodie over my head, and am ready to go sulk in the privacy of my own home. Can't wait to make the horribly embarrassin’ phone call to my family. "Hey, Mom and Dad. So guess what. There's a video everyone's seen of me fuckin’ a porn star and doin’ a variety of other naughty things to her. Sorry for showin’ my dick to the world." That's gonna go over real well.
On the way out the front door, I run into Mace. His face is a bloody fuckin’ mess. That's definitely not how we train around here. "What the fuck happened to you?" I ask him. I glance down and his bare knuckles are all busted up and bleedin’, too.
"I started fighting right around the time Mandy started doing the movies. I can't stop people from watching the shit, but I'm not gonna listen to them call my sister a slut, whore, or anything else."
I feel for him, and know I'd do the same if someone said that sort of shit about Hailey. "I'm sorry. People are assholes."
"Yeah." He laughs without humor, crossin’ his arms over his wide chest. "Thanks to you, now I have to listen to all the guys who know Claire saying the same shit about her. She was devastated before all this, but now-"
"Why is it my fuckin’ fault?" I yell the question at him, glad to let my pent up anger out on someone... "I didn't know we were bein’ recorded! And what the hell? I've never even met Claire!"
Mace's mouth falls open as he silently gawks at me for several seconds. "You're fucking with me, right? You sat with Claire at the fight Thursday night, and went with her to Vito’s house!"
"What the fuck are you talkin’ about? I wasn’t with her that night. The video is of me and Eve. Mandy," I correct.
"You seriously don't fucking know, do you?" he asks, shakin’ his head. Reachin’ into the pocket of his black workout pants he pulls his cell phone out, then flips the screen around to show it to me.
It's a picture of two beautiful brunettes, cheek to cheek, smilin’ at the camera. They're almost identical, except one is thin and frail lookin’ with a slightly sunken in look to her face, while the other is...absolutely radiant. "This is Mandy," he tells me, pointin’ to the malnourished woman. "And this is Claire. She's the oldest, always working her ass off to keep me out of jail and bail Mandy out of trouble like the mess she's in now. Mandy owed one of Vito's drug dealing loan sharks over thirty grand and his guys have been hassling all three of us for it pretty much on a daily basis for weeks. Claire's managed to get it down to twelve thousand in just a week. If it wasn't for her...Anyway, I don't know how the fuck this happened, but you were with Claire."
"Was I?" I mutter, still somewhat frozen in shock.
Thinkin’ it over, I start from the very beginnin’ and try to work my way forward. The shy, awkwardness that first night we met at the club. Her blatant innocence. Tellin’ me she wouldn't take the money for herself, but her sister could use it. The painting. Her sayin’ she's not who I think she is... It's been Claire the whole fuckin’ time! "But why didn’t she tell me the truth, and why did she con me into recordin’ us together?” I ask Mace. “If she had just asked me, I would've given her the money." Yeah, embarrassment was at the top of the list of how shitty this is, but now that I know it was Claire...the girl who could barely get through a lap dance, well, she must’ve been freakin’ out about havin’ sex with me on camera.
Mace raises a single dark eyebrow, one with a fresh gash and dried blood coverin’ it. "Claire said you paid fifteen grand to do the porno with Eve. For some fucked up reason I guess she decided to do it because she—I think she wanted to be with you and didn't think anyone would know the difference. But of course they did! The difference is night and fucking day if you actually know both of them."
"I didn't pay anyone fifteen thousand, and I sure as fuck never signed up for a goddamn porno," I snap at him.
"Then it sounds like both of you got played. If I had to guess-"
"Slick Rick. That son of a bitch," I mutter when it hits me like a knee to my balls. He was there the night it all went down. In fact, he came up to me and asked me about payin’ her, then she disappeared even after her friend came back. It had to have been that shady asshole tellin’ her bullshit to convince her to go through with it for what would've been a huge chunk of cash for her and an enormous payday for him and Vito's company.
"I assume you're referring to James, Mandy's manager?" Mason asks.
"James. Yeah. Where can I find that fucker?"
"Believe me, I would love to pound his ass into the ground, but you don't want to fuck with any of Vito's men. Bad shit happens to anyone who lays a finger on them."
"Fuck Vito," I say.
"Are you nuts!?!" Mace exclaims then quickly glances around us. "Don’t fucking say things like that out in public! He's got people everywhere."
"I'm gonna be on his shitlist as soon as he finds out I'm about to take his ass to court. And if his man James thinks he's untouchable, he's got another thing comin’. Now where can I find him?" I ask again.
He stares at me silently for several seconds, chewin’ on his thumbnail in thought. "I'm sorry Linc, and trust me, it takes all of my restraint not to kick his ass every time I see his annoying fucking face. But there's no way I'm telling you anything that might end up bringing down the wrath of Vito on my sisters. Mandy's in enough shit with him as it is, and Claire and I are trying our damnedest to get her out of it. So just let it go."
Of course I can't help but respect that. I didn't even think about the consequences to the girls if I go after the asshole. "Fine," I agree. "You're right. But if I ever see him in a dark alley I'll beat him so bad he won't even remember his own name."
"If so, call me so I can get in some licks," he says with a small smile.
"Deal," I agree, and after another fist bump, I head home to make a few depressin’ phone calls and then wallow in my own self-pity. Confused. Angry. I don't even know what's worse. Probably the sinkin’ feeling in my chest since even knowin’ the truth doesn't change the fact that the girl I'm head over heels for never actually wanted me.
Chapter Eleven
Claire
Bumping down the long gravel driveway, I wonder for the millionth time if I'm making a mistake by just showing up. When Mason called and gave me Linc's explanation, it made perfect sense, why he left pissed the other night. He hadn't paid me, or Mandy, to have sex with him, and never intended to. So I wrote down his address Mason managed to get from one of the guys at the gym, and got into my beater to head over here and apologize.
Out of the darkness, the lights from the interior of a house finally come into view. There are no streetlights in the rural area, only my headlights guiding the way down the rocky, narrow road. I recognize Linc's big, lime green truck in the driveway from when he followed us to Vito's the other night, but there's also a small, silver car parked next to him. It's definitely a woman's car, no doubt about it. The thought sends a boulder plunging into the pit of my stomach. Before I can turn around and leave, hoping to go unseen, the front porch light comes on. I watch as Linc and a woman step out onto the wrap around porch of the beautiful two-story house. Both of them look in my direction since there's no hiding out here with my headlights beaming. He then walks her to the girly little sports car. Now closer, I can tell she's almost his height, wearing a cute, knee length dress with tall boots. I'm not able to really see her face, only noticing she has long, blonde hair and a perfect figure before she hugs Linc and climbs inside the car, pulling away.
Oh God. I shouldn't have come, and now I've made a huge fool of myself in front of a woman who is probably his girlfriend. But shouldn’t she be pissed he was in a porno with me? She didn’t really seem upset...
I try to pull my shaking self together when he approaches my car. Lowering the window, I figure there's nothing to do but talk to him and get this embarrassment over with so I can leave. Without a word, Linc leans down and rests his forearms on the opening. Only the lights on my dashboard and the front porch illuminate his gorgeous profile, so it's hard to make out his expression. I just wish he'd say somethin
g!
"Hey." I break the silence since it was killing me.
"Hi, Claire." I jump at the sound of my real name from his lips for the very first time, especially when he puts a heavy emphasis on it. "You here to record a sequel?"
Mason told me he'd explained the truth to Linc, but I can't tell if he's pissed or joking. Okay, of course he's pissed. I'm trying to figure out just how angry he really is, but I can't see his freaking face!
"No sequel," I finally respond with a shaky voice. "I didn’t mean to interrupt…just came to apologize. I had no idea...James said you wanted to...and it had to be that night...so either I-I could or Mandy would—"
"So, let me get this straight," he says interrupting my stammering. "You're apologizin’ to me for being a part of a sex tape that's gone viral, thinkin’ I'd not only agreed to do it but had paid actual money to star in, to which you agreed so I wouldn't end up fuckin’ your sister instead of you, all because she really needed the money to pay off her debt to Vito?"
"Yes," I say so softly he may not have heard it over the chirping crickets.
He stands up straight and raises his arms over his head, popping his back before returning his forearms to the window sill. "Nuh-uh. Try again."
"Wh-what?"
"That's not why I'm pissed or what you should be apologizin’ for."
"Oh. So you are pissed?"
"Uh-huh."
"So should I apologize for lying to you about who I was?" I ask, knowing that's all on me. I made the decision to pretend to be Mandy and could've told Linc the truth at any time, but I didn't.
"Nope, not that, either."
"No?" I repeat in surprise. How can he not be mad about that? He thought he was with a wild, crazy porn star and got me instead.