Chapter 20

“I’m going to make a drink,” Emma said. “We might be waiting a while for Mel to talk some sense into my daughter. What would you like Amber? Tea or coffee?”

“Er ... I ... Er ... Tea. Please. White, one sugar.”

“Tea it is then. I’ll make a whole pot.”

The words were hardly out of her mouth when we heard the front door open and then close. Dom appeared at the entrance to the lounge and waited, looking nervous. I could just see Mel behind her from my position, but I didn’t think that either of the other two would be able to.

When Dom made no move to enter the room, Mel gave her a gentle shove on her back. She stumbled forwards a few steps, then stopped to turn and look back at Mel. She waved her forwards and Dom looked at her mother again.

“Dom has something to say,” Mel prompted.

Emma nodded, then gave her that expectant mother stare that I think just about everyone has been subjected to at some point—probably several points—in their lives.

Dom looked at the floor and mumbled, “M’sorry.”

Emma waited. Then said, “Yes. And?”

“M’sorry I—”

“Dom! Look at me.”

The younger woman lifted her head just enough so that her eyes could meet her mother’s.

“What, exactly, are you sorry for?”

Dom shrugged. “Dunno. Everything.” She sounded just like the sulky teenager she’d been for the past couple of years.

Emma shook her head. “You know, if you were two or three years younger, I’d send you to your room to think about it until you’d worked out what you were apologising for. But you’re not. You’re a grown woman, making career and lifestyle choices like a grown woman. So I’m going to assume that you’re saying sorry for shouting at me, for behaving like a spoilt brat, and for trying to deny me the same choices that I’ve been allowing you to make for the past twelve months. Now sit down—” She pointed to the sofa. “—the five of us need to have a good, long, serious talk.” She looked at Amber. “You too dear. Sit yourself down.” She looked at me, but I wasn’t stupid. I was already heading for my favourite armchair while Dom and Amber settled on the sofa. Finally, Emma looked to Mel, who had made no move to come and join the rest of us. “Would you help me make some tea, please, Mel?”

Mel smiled. “I’d love to.”

And while the other three of us sat and waited, my wife and one of my lovers went into the kitchen to prepare a hot drink and, I assumed, some nibbles. I heard Emma say as they left the room. “Thank you. For talking to Dom. It’s made things so much easier.”

“It was nothing. I’m sure you know how she can be.”

Emma’s arrival home the day before hadn’t gone in any way as I’d expected. Neither had this morning. And, frankly, I had no clue what could or would happen next.

After ten minutes, during which I could hear that Emma and Mel were chatting quietly but couldn’t make out a single thing either of them said, Emma came back into the room carrying a tray with a pot of tea and five cups on it. Mel was behind her with two plates of biscuits—one with chocolate, one without. Emma put the tray on the coffee table and began pouring tea from the pot while Mel offered the plates around so we could each take what we wanted.

Then Mel put her plates on the table by the tray and helped Emma give out the cups, before sitting on the sofa between Dom and Amber. Emma sat in the second armchair but moved it around slightly so that she was facing the rest of us.

It was all very civilised. All very English.

I had a bad feeling about it.

“Okay,” said Emma, resting her cup in her lap. “It seems to me that we have a situation here that we all need to talk about. Then we need to make some collective decisions about where we go from here and set some ground rules about who is allowed to fuck my husband and when. Okay?”

I felt my mouth drop open as I stared at her. I really shouldn’t have been shocked by her bluntness. But I was.

Beside me, the three girls nodded and Mel also said, “Good idea. At least then we all know what’s what.”

“Good,” said Emma, as if Mel’s interjection wasn’t the least bit rehearsed and all the decisions she had talked about hadn’t already been made while the two of them were alone in the kitchen. “So, the way I see it is this...

“For the past year, my daughter has been making a career for herself in what we used to call back in my day the Adult Entertainment Industry. And she’s been quite successful at it. She thought, however, she was keeping this a secret from her parents and while one of us was completely ignorant—” She paused to smile at me. “—I was fully aware of what she was doing and who she was doing it with.

“And because I was comfortable with the people she’d chosen to align herself with, because I was confident they were operating with the best of interests of the girls they worked with at heart rather than trying to exploit them, and because of my history in this industry, I chose not to interfere.

“However, this past weekend, my husband—” She again smiled at me. “—discovered my daughter’s little secret and this led us to the position we are now in, thanks to some ... less than ideal choices on both their parts.”

“Hey!” I said. “You’re not going to try and blame all this on me, are you? Because—”

“Who said anything about blame, honey?” Emma cut in sweetly. “Blame implies someone did something wrong. Given the circumstances, both of you made choices that, in the same situation, I think I would have made too. Let’s be honest, if anyone is at fault here, it’s me. I should have told you what I knew about Dom earlier and I should have told you about my past too—a long time ago, in fact. But we are where we are. And, actually, it’s not nearly as bad as you might think.

“Okay, so there are three hot young porn stars in love with my husband, not to mention this old, retired porn star.”

“In love?” I said. “They’re not in love with me! Okay, so we’ve been having sex quite a bit the past few days, but no one’s in love with me.”

“Well, we kinda are,” Mel said. “I mean, I can’t speak for Dom or Amber, but I can call it as I see it. Dom’s probably been in love with you for ages, well, she’ll have had a crush on you—it’s a Freudian thing. Stepdaughters developing crushes for their mother’s new boyfriend when he becomes the main father figure in her life. Especially if her real father is such an arsehole.”

“I’m not ... I mean that’s...” Dom blushed and looked at the floor then said, “Okay. Maybe a little crush.”

“See,” said Mel. “And Amber over here is even easier to explain—and don’t tell me you hadn’t noticed the way she was all love-sick teenager all day yesterday because you’d have had to be blind not to.”

I glanced at Amber who blushed even more than Dom had.

“With her, it’s just a classic case of White Knight Syndrome or whatever the technical name for it is. She’s been in a bad relationship for a few years with no hope of getting out of it. Even when the scum bag disappears for months on end he always turns up eventually. Then you ride up and notice what’s going on, but whereas other people who’ve noticed have looked the other way, you actually do something about it.”

Amber had stopped blushing and nodded furiously while wearing a smile the like of which I’d have never imagined I’d see from her when I first met (and fucked) her.

“As for me...” Mel shrugged. “You were right on Saturday night. I might have thought I had, but I’d never experienced great sex until I fucked you. Or you fucked me. Whichever. Good sex? Yes. But not great sex. So I guess I’m more in lust with you than in love.” She winked at me and flashed her cheekiest, naughtiest grin.

“Which amounts to the same thing right now,” said Emma, looking at me. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have said they were in love with you. Infatuated is perhaps a better word. But the point is that you currently have four hot and horny women who would quite happily spend all day, every day fucking your brains out.”

Dom, Mel and Amber all nodded at this.

“But since one of them is your wife,” Emma added with a grin. “You are really only allowed to fuck one of them. Technically. Fortunately for you—and them—your wife is very open-minded about these things.”

I eyed her suspiciously. “What exactly are you saying?”

“I’m saying that as long as I’ve ... I don’t know... vetted any of the girls in question, I’m freeing you of your vow of monogamy. As long as I’ve met the girl and give her the a-okay, you can fuck who you like—and not just on set.

“Note that I said your vow of monogamy, not your vow of fidelity. If you cheat on me, by which I mean if you fuck someone I haven’t pre-approved, I’ll cut your balls off and serve them to these three for supper. Are we clear?”

I nodded. Somewhat stunned at the direction this conversation had gone. I thought we were going to be talking about making porn movies, not me fucking whoever the fuck I wanted to fuck—within reason.

Emma then turned her attention to the girls on the sofa. “Dom, this is your home and of course, it will be so for as long as you desire. Amber, Bobby offered you a place to stay, well, I’m welcoming you into our little family and you will have a home here as long as you want it, or need it. Mel, I know you have your own place, but if you want to stop paying rent and move in, you’ll be welcome here too, we have more than enough room.

“And all three of you have my permission to have sex with my husband as often as you like, both on set and off it. On one condition. He is my husband. Which means I take precedence—is that clear? If I want to fuck him, I will. If I want to invite one of you, or more, to join us, I will.”