Chapter 9

“Remind me again what I’m doing here,” I said to Mel as we got out of the car. Dom was already halfway to the warehouse, running to greet a man waiting by the entrance.

“You’re here to see if you can keep that gorgeous cock of yours hard and put it to good use while you have a camera pointing at you and a bunch of people standing around watching.”

“Yeah. Thanks. But why am I putting myself through this.”

“Because she’s your stepdaughter and you care about her and you don’t want to upset her by saying no. Classic Daddy’s Little Princess syndrome.”

I stared at her as we walked towards the building. “That’s hardly the most appropriate phrase given what we’ve been doing the past couple of days.”

Mel shrugged. “Fine. I won’t use it again.” She grinned. “Even if it is true.”

When we got to the entrance of the building, Dom was doing that kissing each cheek thing the French do with a man dressed casually in jeans and a white polo shirt.

“So,” he said, sounding like possibly the campest man in Westmouthshire, “Is this the fabulous cock you told me about?”

“Yes!” Dom gushed. “Oh, Jim, you should see it. It’s so beautiful. And the things he can do with it...”

Jim looked me up and down. “Yes, well ... There are certainly a few miles on the clock, wouldn’t you say? Not exactly my type, but I can see his marketability, which is what counts.” He clapped his hands together. “So, let’s go inside shall we? It’s not the weather for staying out here any longer than we have to.”

He opened the door and went inside, flanked by Dom. I looked at Mel before we went in and said, “Is he gay? Or just really camp?”

“What do you think? Although he likes to keep his private life private so no one really knows for sure. Why, is it a big deal?”

I shook my head. “Just didn’t expect it, that’s all.”

The inside of the warehouse was a pretty large space with a high ceiling. There were some offices on two of the opposite walls, and a second mezzanine level reached by some metal stairs that looked like it was mainly storage. But the bulk of the space was divided into several different sets—rooms, some with three walls, some with two, and one or two open sides dressed as different types of room. There were a few different sized bedrooms, a couple of lounges, a kitchen and a bathroom with a shower and one with a big bath, even a couple made up to look like offices with desks, chairs and filing cabinets. About ten different sets in all. Most of them were bathed in darkness, but one—a bedroom with a single bed made up to look like a teenagers room with posters of pop stars and fashion models—had a set of stage lights shining on it from the open side and the tops of the three walls.

“Okay,” said Jim, “Girls, I have to take ... Bobby is it?” I nodded. “I have to take Bobby to sign some paperwork, you know how it is. It’s only an audition, but you never know, right? If it turns out well ... So, in the meantime, why don’t you go and say hi to his co-star for today. She’s in make-up with Sally.”

“Co-star?” I said.

“Yes. What, did you think I was going to just film you jerking off?”

“No. But I thought...” I looked at Mel and Dom. “I thought I’d be ... er... performing ... with one of these two.”

Jim grinned. “All in good time, my good man. All in good time. Now, come with me.”

“So who’s he fucking?” Mel asked.

Jim stopped walking and said, “Amber Swallows.”

Both Dom and Mel winched. Then Mel said, “That’s harsh, Jim.”

“Yes, it is. But, if Bobby here can get a performance out of Ms Swallows, he’s hired. Pure and simple. And if he doesn’t ... Well, he might still be hired as he wouldn’t have been the only one, now would he.”

He turned and walked away and I reluctantly followed while the girls went in the opposite direction. Evidently, the offices on one side of the building were actually offices and the ones on the other side were changing rooms, make-up rooms and all the things that actors and actresses might conceivably need when making porn movies.

Jim led me into the largest of the offices, holding the door open for me, then gesturing for me to sit in a chair on one side of a large desk. He sat in the much larger chairman’s chair on the other side.

“Right,” he said, all trace of the camp tone he’d adopted earlier gone, “What the hell is going on here?”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard. I get a call from Dom yesterday, waxing lyrical about this amazing new cock she’s found and how he’d be fantastic and I just had to give him a try-out. And when I pressed her she admits that you’re her stepfather. So I ask again, what the hell is going on? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t pick up this phone right now and report you to the police.”

I sighed. “I’ve been thinking that myself. And don’t worry about the cops. There’ll be nothing left for them to arrest when my wife finds out.”

I couldn’t read the expression on Jim’s face. It had changed at the mention of Emma.

“Don’t be so sure about that,” he said. “Okay. Tell me the whole story. How long have you been fucking her? How did it start? Explain everything.”

I shrugged. “How long? Since Friday night. And it was more a case of her fucking me than the other way around.”

“That’s what they all say.”

“Well, this time it’s true. It started when I got home from work and thought everyone was out.”

I told him the story. Everything that had happened since that fateful moment when Dom’s face appeared on the television screen, right up to driving to the warehouse this morning. When I finished, he was quiet for a long time.

“She’s a firecracker, isn’t she? You just wait until you see her on set tomorrow.”

“Excuse me? What?”

“I get it. Okay? I understand. Hell, I feel like a surrogate father to a lot of my girls, especially the younger ones like Dom, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to fuck the living daylights out of them, because I would. I mean, what man wouldn’t after watching them screw the way they do?”

“I thought you were gay,” I said.

He laughed. “What? That?” He waved towards the door, which I took as indicating his earlier attitude. “An act. That’s all. It puts the girls at ease. One less sleaze bag on set as far as they are concerned. If that’s what it takes to put them at ease and get a better performance out of them, then so be it. Even if it does mean I miss out on some top quality pussy. It’s no big deal, I get my jollies elsewhere, but in here I’m as gay as they come and because of that my girls trust me.”

“But you’re lying to them.”

“I’m putting them at ease. Big difference. Trust me, there are some utter bastards in this business. Unscrupulous wankers who take advantage of the girls at every opportunity. Not me. I like to keep my girls happy. Happy girls make better movies and better movies make me more money. And at the end of the day, that’s what I’m in this for—to make money.

“Look, you and I are a similar age I reckon. I mean, you’re what? Mid-forties? I’m forty-eight. I’ve been in this business pretty much my whole life and I’ve seen a lot of changes. In the late eighties, it was very much underground in this country. Hell, it was actually illegal to show penetration or erections on film until eighty-four. Every film that was made risked prosecution, the line between what was legal and what wasn’t was down to artistic merit—which isn’t something you can define.

“So that meant that the films had class. All soft focus and careful camera angles. Films had plots. They had a story. Even if it was the most contrived, unoriginal story, it was still there. And the actors and actresses were treated with respect because we all knew they risked jail if we ended up getting raided—which didn’t happen often, but did happen.

“Things started to change in the nineties. First satellite telly and then the internet changed the game. Pretty soon, any fool with a HandyCam could set themselves up with a website and make videos with girls hired on the cheap. Girls with no respect for the history of the business and no respect for themselves. Girls who were willing to degrade themselves and do whatever the sleazy HandyCammers wanted them to just to earn the cash to get their next fix. Oh, don’t get me wrong. there have always been junkies in porn, but the explosion of production that came with the internet made it worse.

“As things are right now, there’s a ton of shit out there. Low quality. Degrading. Violent even. Well, that’s not me. That’s not what I’m about. Most of the girls I work with, I brought in to the business, like Dom, and they work exclusively with me. There are exceptions, like Mel. She came to me looking for work and I took her on because I just got a good vibe about her, you know? She’s been through a lot for someone her age but she’s got her shit together. In fact, she’s the reason I didn’t have the police here waiting for you.”

“Why’s that?”

“I trust her judgement. She’s a good judge of character. She came over to yours last night to scope you out for me.”

“I thought she came over to get fucked.”

Jim grinned. “Yeah, well, that too. The girl’s a bleeding nympho. But the point is, she thinks you’re okay, so that’s good enough for me.”

“Thanks. I guess. So ... What now? I mean, since Friday night, things have been a bit ... Crazy. You know? I’m used to being in control and I don’t feel even the slightest bit in control right now.”

“Yeah, I get that. Well, here’s the deal. What we do here is try to replicate some of the classic porn of the past. The sixties, seventies, eighties and early nineties. Before the internet explosion. My theory is that if we can make something with a bit more ... Is class the right word? If we can make something that women would want to watch, then we can access what is, right now, a fairly untapped market.

“And it works. Right now, just over thirty per cent of our website subscribers are female. That’s one of, if not the highest in the industry. So we’re heading in the right direction. We do this by keeping our films respectful of the girls in them. No slapping. No spitting. No mouthing off. We do some kinky stuff, but even that is done with respect. We don’t have people who are not into whatever kink it is making those films. We want it to be authentic. I work with a very select group of men, and I pay them above the going rate for the industry—”

“How much?”

“Depends on what the scene is. Anything from two-hundred and fifty quid up to seven-fifty. That’s less than the girls though. They typically get twice what the guys are getting. That’s just the way it is. The girls are stars so they get the higher pay.”

“Makes sense. I can’t believe I’m about to ask this but ... What do you want from me today.”

Jim nodded, then opened a drawer in his desk and took out some paperwork. “First, a couple of signatures. These are standard model release forms and a non-disclosure agreement to prevent you from discussing what goes on here with any competitors.”

He pushed the papers across the table along with a pen and I quickly scanned and signed them. “I’ll need copies,” I said.

“Of course. Next, I want you to do a straightforward one-on-one scene with the model I picked out. Amber is one of the girls that came to me rather than one I brought into the game, a bit like Mel. However, unlike Mel, Amber is damaged goods. I’ve done my best for her, but I’m seriously considering cutting her loose. She’s had a pot habit in the past and I think she dabbled in stronger stuff too. But her real problem was booze. There have been a number of times she’s shown up on set pissed out of her skull and I’ve had to get someone to fill in for her. And even when she’s sober, I just can’t get a realistic performance out of her. She looks bored and disinterested most of the time—which isn’t going to sell any subscriptions, you know?”