Chapter 5

Lexi
She felt ready to explode, like a giant piñata full of secrets. Seeing Umberto Sandoval brought back a flood of memories that she wanted to suppress. He’d been part of her biggest regret.

Lexi had planned to use the day to fix her relationship with David. She knew that announcing that she loved him had made him gun-shy, and he’d been on guard when she got in the car. Lexi had watched as he began to relax as the day went on. She would bet that it was only a matter of time before she could win him back.

The plan had been to remind him what a great team they made. In her wildest fantasy, she’d hoped she could lure him into her bed, but she hadn’t anticipated seeing Umberto today. When Lexi and Umberto had seen each other, he’d almost given everything away. Lexi knew that David was more observant than people gave him credit for and had caught the momentary lapse.

When David had suggested that Manaia drive her home from the car dealership, she’d acquiesced. Lexi wanted to get away from David so that she could deal with all the feelings that had suddenly come flooding back. He knew her better than anyone else and would quickly figure out that something was off.

The irony was that all this really began with David. He’d unwittingly been the catalyst for her downfall, and now, in many ways, he was her redemption.

She found herself sitting on her couch with a bottle of wine, remembering what had happened.

Two Years Before
Lexi’s father, Paul Andon, was excited. He’d maneuvered to take over the Star Academy franchise. The first movie was set to be released shortly, and all indications were that it was going to be the next big blockbuster.

The board of directors wanted to get the cast locked in for the next two movies in the trilogy before the first one hit theaters. The fear was they would make the mistake that Marvel Comics had made with the Avengers series of films. It was reported that one of the key actors had negotiated a deal that would make him upwards of $75 million for just one movie. The board made it clear that they wanted to keep the salaries of the ensemble cast to under that number for two films.

Everything had been going well for Paul until the four actors had met and compared notes. The women had been unhappy with the revelation that they would make considerably less than the men. They’d ended up banding together and wanted to jointly negotiate their contracts, with Craig Wild’s manager, Kent Crain, leading the talks.

Paul’s plan was to divide and conquer. If he could split off either Craig or David from the group, he felt he could break the logjam and get a deal done. Paul figured it would be easy because Craig was all about Craig. If Paul could make him think he could make more money by splitting off, Craig would sign separately and without telling the others.

Paul was keeping David in reserve because he was essentially a novice and didn’t realize that he was really the key to the franchise. David had tested off the charts with their focus groups. While Craig was the perceived star, it wouldn’t take long at all for David to eclipse him.

Aside from Craig being easier to get, the main factor keeping the studio exec from making his run directly at David was that his agent was Ari Gould. If Ari got an inkling that the studio thought the movie was about to explode, or that his client’s contribution to the film’s success was critical, he would make them pay through the nose.

Paul arranged for the production crew and cast to take a cruise on a yacht that day so he could work his magic and get the deal completed.

Lexi had been privy to all this because she’d told her father she wanted to someday follow in his footsteps and become a movie executive. Today was the first day he planned to utilize his daughter.

“Remember, Craig is the key. Be nice to him and do what you can to help him see he’s better off going his own way,” Paul lectured.

“But he’s creepy and will bed anything. I’m afraid of what I would catch if he even touches me,” Lexi said to push back.

“I didn’t tell you to sleep with him. Just talk to him,” Paul said.

“Fine.”

When Lexi met Craig, she quickly figured out that he was more into Trip James than he was into her. That allowed her to turn her attention toward David.

David was young for the business. He was actually a year younger than she was, so Lexi had assumed she could use her charms to bend him to her will.

Her father had hired what were called ‘party hos.’ Hollywood was littered with attractive young women whose visions of stardom had been crushed. They had been the star of some high school musical, and everyone back home had encouraged them to follow their dreams and become the next Academy Award winner. Soon after they arrived in Tinseltown, reality set in.

Now, instead of being the prettiest, most talented girl in town, they were one of many. Some turned to being escorts at parties where the rich and famous played, hoping to be discovered.

Lexi had posed as one of those girls. She’d gotten David to take her to a stateroom on the yacht. Her plan was to reveal who she was so she could gain some leverage over him. If Lexi were lucky, maybe she could even get the inexperienced hick to cum in his pants.

That plan went horribly wrong. David wasn’t some weak-minded, quivering high school boy who was excited just to be in her presence. He was a force of nature. She was stunned when he removed her bikini top.

She realized that if she’d told him ‘no’ or ‘stop,’ David would have. He wasn’t a monster.

Lexi had been one of the few girls she knew who was still a virgin. If she hadn’t been, she might have fared better. David had simply rocked her world. They spent the afternoon doing stuff she never imagined she would do, but with him ... oh, my.

Of course, Lexi’d had a fair idea of what sex was all about. You couldn’t live around this business and not have at least some inkling. She’d even had numerous orgasms, so she thought she was prepared for David. Quite simply, she was wrong.

By the time he was done with her, Lexi was a quivering, sweaty mess. He then had the audacity to walk out of her life.

The irony was that Craig had succumbed to her father’s plans. He’d signed his deal before the movie was released. It was quite a bit more than the original offer, but nothing compared to what he probably should have made.

It turned out that David, the supposedly young, naïve member of the group, was the one who got the massive payday. He’d stubbornly held out until after the movie was released. Her father even wound up giving David a percentage of the gross from the following two films—which, if everything went to plan, would pay him close to what the Avengers actor had earned.

After Lexi had spent the afternoon with David, she had a problem. She now knew how good sex could be and wanted more. Lexi assumed that she could find someone who could give her a decent orgasm. She tried a few guys her age, but they were either pencil-dicked or one-pump-and-dump bastards.

She wanted to try an older, more experienced man. That was how she found Umberto and made the single most incredibly stupid mistake of her life to that point. He and her father had done a few deals together to get movies made. Her father joked that Umberto liked his women young, which explained his subsequent marriage to Camilla. She’d been Umberto’s children’s babysitter when she was younger and was only a couple of years older than Lexi.

As part of the effort to raise money for one of his films, her father threw a party at their house for potential investors, including Umberto. Looking back, it hadn’t been all her fault. He should have known better, even though she was 18 at the time. It hadn’t taken much to get the older man interested, and she found herself in the pool house, giving him oral. Then it all went sideways when Alex walked in on them and snapped a picture.

In typical Hollywood fashion, Umberto paid her money for her silence. It was understandable what Alex had done, but it didn’t sit well with her. Simply walking in would have been enough. Now she had to worry that picture would somehow end up on the Internet. Stuff like that seemed to happen at absolutely the worst time.

If that weren’t enough, her date to Prom, Christian Pelly, had dumped her for Stacy Thurston. What confused Lexi was that Stacy was homeschooled and very religious. Christian had met her doing some volunteer work (aka community service) when he’d gotten himself into a spot of trouble. When he broke up with Lexi, he’d shared that Stacy had made it clear that she wouldn’t put out without his wedding ring on her finger.

Nick Bennet, who’d stepped in as Christian’s replacement for Prom, had a massive bash for graduation. Christian and Nick were best friends, so Lexi knew Christian would show up with Stacy.

It turned out that, in this case at least, Lexi was a terrible judge of character. Nick wasn’t a very nice guy. He was sick of Christian spending all his free time with Stacy and wanted to break them up so the guys could hang out for the summer before they left for college.

Nick knew that Lexi wasn’t pleased with the couple either, so he enlisted her help in finding some guys who were up for a bit of naughty fun. He’d told her that he’d hired someone to show the guys a good time. He was sure she would be happy when she found out the girl was none other than Stacy.

Lexi walked through the party and found Alex with two of his friends. They looked to be well on their way to getting hammered.

“Can you guys keep a secret?” she asked.

Alex gave her a dirty look, and the other two looked nervous.

“Are you trying to set us up for something?” Alex asked.

Lexi laughed.

“Actually, it’s more of an olive branch. Nick hired a girl for a good time. He said she’s up for anything.”

The three of them looked at each other warily.

“I’m not sticking my dick in some crack whore,” Alex said.

“How about this: you check her out, and if she’s good enough, you have your fun. Otherwise, I’ll find someone else,” Lexi negotiated.

His friends had smirks on their faces. There were rumors about what went on at Nick’s parties. Alex and his group had never been invited before, so his two friends looked eager.

“Okay, you win. What do we have to do?” Alex said.

Lexi told them where to find Nick.

After it all went down, she regretted what happened. The night of the party, Nick put Lexi in charge of playing hostess while he set everything up. Lexi later learned that Nick had dosed both Christian and Stacy’s drinks. When they started to feel funny, he’d been the good friend and gave them a bedroom to go lay down in.

He’d given Christian something to put him out for a couple of hours. He provided Stacy a different cocktail of drugs that would free her of all her inhibitions and make her just loopy enough to seem drunk. He’d used that cocktail on more than one girl during his high school years.

Hindsight being 20/20, Lexi felt lucky that Nick hadn’t dosed her and passed her around as a party favor.

She’d completely forgotten all about it until the next day. One of Alex’s friends was dumb enough to video themselves with Stacy. It didn’t take long before everyone received it via social media. At first, Lexi wasn’t sure who or what the video was. Then the camera operator figured out how to actually point their phone at the action. She watched with an increasing sense of horror as the scene played out. It didn’t take her long to put it together and realize both what Nick had done and what her unwitting part in it had been. She quickly called Nick.