Friends With Real Benefits (Friends With Benefits Book 7)

by Luke Young

  The next morning at the location where television’s newest reality show was about to gear up for production, Jim woke up at six, took a quick shower then headed out to the club. After a long, exhausting day dealing with one irate client, another plumbing issue and reviewing three bids to completely replace the main sewer line from the club, he called Brian to come in early so he could leave.

  Turning onto their street at just after three, he was met with a number of surprises. While a huge dumpster and several work trucks occupied the driveway, a moving truck and a mobile gym were parked in front of the house. Sitting in front of the mess of vehicles, Jim frowned. He considered squeezing his little car between the trucks then thought better of it. After driving past the mayhem, he made a U-turn then parked on the other side of the street.

  Making his way to the house, he was careful to avoid the giant cables that lined the driveway and concrete path. A generator buzzed loudly and gas fumes filled his nostrils. As he stepped to the porch three people rushed out of the door nearly knocking him over. He frowned at one of them then took a step into the foyer. A light drywall dust filled the air and all their furniture was pushed up against the walls covered with plastic. Workers with tools hustled about and the sounds of whirring tools filled the air.

  With the wall gone between the kitchen and living area, he could see all the way to the back of the house. What once was their kitchen, was now nothing but bare walls. He stepped closer and his jaw fell open. With all the noise, he nearly jumped out of his skin when Victoria came up behind him and said loudly, “It’s going to be great, right?”

  “Huh?” He turned to her quickly.

  “It’s going to be great!” She mouthed the hell out of the words annunciating them like crazy, “It really opens up the space, doesn’t it!”

  “I guess.” His gaze returned to the empty room, asking, “When will we get our kitchen back?”

  “What?”

  He yelled, “When will we get our kitchen back?”

  “Well, we’re not getting our kitchen back, we’re getting an amazing gourmet kitchen.”

  Suddenly an even louder tool kicked on.

  He said, “Okay, yeah. When will that be done?”

  “What?”

  Frowning, he stepped toward the front door and motioned for her to follow him.

  Once outside, he repeated, “When will it all be done?”

  “Three days.” She nodded. “Four days tops.”

  “That’s not too bad.”

  “Until then we’ll eat out by the pool.”

  “Okay.”

  Victoria’s eyes widened and she waved to someone. Jim followed her gaze and it settled on a shirtless man, ripped like all fucking get out, doing pull ups in a mobile gym. Before he could ask who the hell that was, Victoria said, “I want to introduce you to Steve.”

  Grabbing his shirtsleeve, she tugged him forward briefly before releasing him. He paused a moment frowning, then followed after her. He stepped into the trailer complete with top of the line equipment and watched as the fitness-model-of-the-year continued doing pull up after fucking pull up. The trainer counted, “Twenty. Twenty-one. Twenty-two.”

  Jim’s jaw hung lower and lower with every additional rep. Fuck, I can maybe do five of those.

  “Twenty-three. Twenty-four. Twenty-five.”

  The trainer smiled to Victoria then turned his attention to his client. “Okay, three more sets of twenty-five then we start on arms.”

  Steve’s feet hit the floor and Jim’s gaze traveled to his biceps which were already pumped and huge. He shook his head, as he first looked to his wife who seemed to be eyeing the sweaty god in awe. Next he sized up Steve who was all muscles, sweat, maybe six-percent body fat and a gorgeous smile to go with his chiseled face, dark thick brown hair and blue eyes.

  “Fuck me,” Jim mumbled silently.

  “This must be your husband. I recognize him from the pictures inside.” Steve put out a meaty, damp hand.

  Jim took it and grimaced as the handshake was a bit on the strong side.

  “Oh, sorry.” Steve chuckled, upon noticing Jim’s expression. “Sorta got the testosterone pumping here.”

  “I can see that,” Jim replied.

  Victoria pointed to her husband. “Steve, this is Jim. Jim, this is Steve, the executive producer I was telling you about.”

  “Hey, sorry about all the mess.” Reaching back up to the bar, Steve took hold of it and began pulling himself up. While doing reps almost effortlessly, he spoke just like he was standing still and not performing one of the most difficult exercises on the planet. “It will be done soon and gorgeous. You’ll have your house back soon.”

  “Thank you.” Jim forced a smile as he silently counted the reps. The fucker was up to ten again and looked like he could go to one hundred.

  Show off!

  Steve began as he started another pull up, “Hey, John if—”

  “It’s Jim,” Victoria interrupted.

  “Sorry, Jim. I don’t go anywhere without my mobile. Anytime you want to use her, she’s yours.”

  “Oh, okay,” Jim said. “But I have my own gym at the tennis club.”

  “That’s right.” Steve pulled himself up five more times in rapid fire succession then dropped down to the floor. He rubbed his hands together. “Well, the offer still stands.”

  “Great,” Jim grumbled.

  “Oh, hey, by the way, we’re hoping to knock out all the interviews tomorrow for both of you. Does that work with your schedules?” Steve’s gaze went from Victoria to Jim then back to the sexy blond.

  Victoria stared back blankly.

  Steve narrowed his eyes. “You know from the contract.”

  Victoria began, “Um, I…”

  Steve waved his hand at them. “It’s all standard stuff really, but you should block out the whole day for the medical tests and interviews. We’ll have mobile trailers set up. We’re hoping to get started at six.”

  Jim asked, “What is all this?”

  Turning to look at himself in the mirror, Steve flexed his bicep while he rattled off the laundry list, “Complete STD testing. Interviews with all the production staff. A psychological interview and some psych tests. Also we’ll need you to turn over names and phone number for every blood relative in both your families. It was all in the contract. Standard stuff.”

  Jim looked about as confused and devastated as that time in college when the girl he was secretly in love with asked him to take her to prom. After he’d rented a tux and made all the arrangements, she promptly told him she no longer needed him to be her date. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that bad. But it was close.

  “Did you know about this?” Jim looked to his wife.

  Victoria opened her mouth to speak, had a couple false starts then finally said sheepishly, “I think I remember reading about that.”

  “Perfect.” Grinning, Steve fired pretend finger guns at each of them. “Okay, kids, I’ve got to get back to the workout, but we’ll see you first thing in the AM.”

  Jim fired a finger gun of his own while wearing a sneer, although he wished he had a real one right at that moment. Although he wasn’t sure if he would kill Steve or just himself. As he turned on his heels and headed toward the house, he decided he would first kill Steve then put a bullet in his own head.

  Victoria rushed after him. “Hey, I didn’t know.”

  Quickening his pace, he glided through the door, narrowly missing one of the construction crew, as he headed into the master bedroom with his wife about ten feet behind him.

  Victoria poked her head into their room, gave him an apologetic smile then closed the door.

  “STD testing?” Jim scoffed. “Interviews! Full psychological testing! Phone numbers of family! What the hell?”

  Victoria said, “Look, I’m sure it will be relatively painless and it will be over quickly.”

  “Painless?” Jim raised his hands up in defeat.

  “Semi-painless,” she said guiltily,
cocking an eyebrow.

  “Yeah… How could you not have told me about all this? I don’t get it.” He shot her a pointed look. “You knew I would have said no.”

  “I really didn’t know about it,” She pleaded. “I guess I didn’t read the contract all that well. The lawyers said it was all in order.”

  “Yeah, right,” he grumbled. “So, now I need to rearrange my day tomorrow and submit myself to hours of humiliation all so you can explore this celebrity fantasy idea you have.”

  “I’m sorry.” She placed her hand on his shoulder. “I’ll make sure there are no more surprises.”

  “Uh-huh.” He shook his head, sighing. “And I want you to take care of the family phone number stuff. You call everyone and warn them before you turn over the numbers. Tell them this is all your idea and that you’ll send them a fruit basket or new car or something to make it up to them.”

  “I will. I promise.” She stepped to him, wrapping her arm around his waist. “Now kiss me.”

  “I’m not sure I want to.” He frowned.

  “Please.” She moved her lips to within a few inches of his. The anger melted away from his face, replaced with the faintest of smiles.

  He closed the distance and they kissed. Wrapping his arms around her, he gave her a hug. When he pulled back, he said, “I know you really want to do this. I’ll behave tomorrow and get through it. I love you and I want to support you in this, but I really hope we haven’t bitten off more than we can chew here.”

  “It will be fun. I promise.” She put on a smile, but he wasn’t sure she meant it. Not by a long shot.

  Suddenly the sound of a powerful saw reverberated through the house. The married couple shared a grin, followed by a shrug then a laugh before they kissed again.

  Their lips parted the moment they heard the loud boom. Their eyes then widened when they heard the screaming. “CUT IT! STOP! HOLD IT!”

  Jim ripped open the door to find a huge drywall dust cloud covering the room. He breathed in a moment then coughed before closing the door and looking to his wife. “That didn’t sound good.”

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, but we’d better get out there and check. Cover your mouth.”

  Jim pulled open the door, and they made their way through the cloudy room barely able to see a thing. The sunlight shining through the front door was their beacon to safety.

  Once outside they were drawn to the screaming from within the garage. Different male voices all shouting out in unison and mostly in Spanish.

  When they reached the opened door, they discovered Steve, the rest of the production crew and four construction workers standing gazing at a mess of drywall, tennis racquets and other tennis equipment scattered over the floor. It looked like a small explosion had gone off.

  Jim gasped. “All my stuff.”

  Steve turned to him and put his hands up. “We had a slight communication problem. We’ll have this all fixed up and replace anything that was broken.”

  Jim’s jaw dropped as his gaze went from the mess to Steve before returning to the mess. “What happened?”

  Steve said, “Oh, they were just cutting a hole for the new air conditioning that we need to keep the cameras cool. They obviously cut in the wrong place.”

  “Obviously.” Victoria folded her arms. “Look, we can’t have you destroying our house and—”

  “I completely understand.” Spreading his arms wide, Steve corralled them both and led them out of the garage. “These kind of snafus happen. Let’s do this. Since the house is going to be in disarray for a while.”

  Victoria and Jim gazed at him waiting for him to finish that thought, but instead he yelled out, “MARCI!”

  The couple looked at each other in shock then he continued screaming, now looking around wildly, “MARCI! MARCI!”

  The production assistant poked her head out of the trailer door, spotted the pumped up producer and rushed toward him, planner and pen ready.

  Steve said, “We need a suite at the Mandarin Oriental for these two. Leave it open ended.” He turned to Victoria, “That works for you, right?”

  “Um, yeah.” She looked to Jim, shrugging.

  All Jim could do was sigh.

  40

  Later that night in their luxury hotel suite, Jim sat in bed gazing at the large television screen. In one hand he held a bottle of Heineken and between his legs a canister of nuts.

  Victoria strolled into the room. “She’s finally asleep.”

  “You’re missing the best part.” He pointed to the screen. “He can’t get it up and she’s really, really upset about it.”

  She climbed into bed next to him. “Why can’t he get it up?”

  “I don’t know.” He shoveled a couple nuts into his mouth then mumbled. “Want a sixteen-hundred-dollar cashew?”

  “Sure.” Chuckling, she took one from the can and dropped it into her mouth.

  “They just taste like normal cashews, right?”

  She nodded.

  “You’d think they’d be so amazing since it’s like a dollar a nut.”

  “Hotel prices,” she replied, shrugging.

  After taking a pull of his beer, he held the bottle out to her. “Want a sip of my twelve-dollar beer?”

  She grabbed it and took a swig. “How much was the movie?”

  “Only 29.95.”

  “You’d think for that much he could get it up,” she quipped.

  “I know.”

  On screen a sexy woman in her late thirties was bending over a stool, pleasuring herself with a skinny silver dildo while the man stood nearby watching, wearing a solemn expression and pulling on his still flaccid penis. The woman was frowning and making all these noises, which blatantly indicated that she was not satisfied with the dildo. Not by a long shot.

  Grabbing the beer from Victoria, Jim gestured toward the screen with the bottle. “He really wants to give it to her, but he can’t.”

  “That’s sad.” She reached for another nut.

  “I know.” He took a sip. “You missed when she tried to blow him.”

  “What happened?”

  “You think she looks unhappy now, she was really upset before when she was doing all this stuff to him with her hands and her mouth and it was like soft taffy.”

  “Well, that can be very upsetting.” Victoria replied. “I’ve been there.”

  “Not with me.” He turned to her.

  “No.” She made a face. “Hell, you’re hard before the zipper is half way down.”

  “Exactly.”

  On screen the woman was now laying across the man’s lap as he sat on the sofa. He was sliding the dildo in and out of her pussy as she squirmed all around, moaning in a completely unsatisfied way.

  “This still isn’t good for her.” Jim frowned.

  “Sometimes you just need a hard-on.” She cocked her head.

  “I hear you. Maybe he should just go down on her.”

  “That might help.”

  The woman knelt up still wearing her disappointed expression and tried to open the man’s pants. He closed his eyes, sighed then took hold of her hands, stopping her. He rose up from the sofa, apologized and headed for the door, leaving her alone and pouting.

  “I think his wife died.” Jim took another sip from the beer then handed it over.

  She took a sip. “That makes sense. It might take him a while to move on. Maybe when he meets the right woman.”

  He turned to her and smiled. “That does help. Something tells me he’s about to.”

  “I would think so.” She widened her eyes. “An entire adult movie where the guy can’t get an erection would probably be a bad idea.”

  They shared a laugh then each grabbed an overpriced cashew. The displaced couple continued to watch the movie until the man in question finally met the right woman, rediscovered his erection and began to move on.

  Boy did he move on!

  Mid way through a more satisfying onscreen coupling
, Victoria reached for another nut, but instead found something else between her husband’s legs. That something was already hard and the two pretty much ignored the movie for the next thirty minutes as they explored their own X-rated fun.

  For the next four nights, television’s newest potential reality stars stayed away from their home, enjoyed overpriced snacks and movies, both the regular and adult variety, and rung up quite a hotel bill.

  They survived the tests and thorough interview process, which turned out to be not quite as bad as they’d initially thought. When they returned home the place was beyond immaculate. The dream kitchen was fit for the cover of a magazine. Gleaming white cabinets, a large kitchen island with sparkling new quartz countertops and a light green, glass subway tile backsplash. Rich, dark, hand scraped, wide-plank flooring now covered the newly open concept area from the kitchen, dining room and living room.

  Jim’s damaged tennis gear was replaced and organized with newly custom built storage cabinets in the garage. The only negatives were the giant overhead lightboxes and the huge new air conditioning system which was cut into the side wall. Both were a bit of an eyesore, but didn’t take away too much from the other improvements. The married couple was given a full week break before filming was to start.

  41

  On Saturday night, in front of the Kimpton EPIC Hotel, Brian and Jillian watched the valet drive off with their car before looking to each other and sharing an awkward smile.

  “Relax,” Jillian said.

  “Me relax?” Brian chuckled. “You changed your outfit four times and your underwear twice.”

  “I only changed my underwear because I needed to be in a thong to get rid of the panty line with this skirt.” She put her hand on his arm. “Are you worried because you think we’re going to have sex with her tonight?”

  “No. Maybe.” He frowned, shaking his head. “I don’t know.”

  “We’re just going to have dinner.”

  He ran his fingers through his hair. “This is all new to me. I thought you’d be the last woman that I… you know and now you’re selling me to the highest bidder or studding me out or—”

  “You’re being silly.” She held back a smile. “You are my stud and yeah maybe we’ll have some fun, experience something new and help a friend in the process.”