Page 44 of Closer

“Oh, baby, my clients would eat you up.” He puts extra emphasis on the word eat. It’s disgusting.

“Your clients could never afford me,” I stare at Levi, wondering who these people are and what they are doing with his cock.

“It’s true, you couldn’t afford her. She’s costing me fifty large, and I only get her for the week.”

Doc steps back and fishes something out of his pocket—a business card. He hands it to me. I stare at the arrogant logo done in red, white, and blue. Why America thinks they own the FrenchTricoloreis beyond me.

Doc Dong.

Perverse Pleasure Products.

There is a phone number, and a website on the front,and it finally dawns on me that Doc wants to pay me to cast my ... body.

Never. Going. To. Happen.

I try to hand it back to him, as I want nothing from this man—especially having come from so close to his crotch—but he just smiles, and presses my palm closed around it.

I frown and walk around him, stopping as close to Levi as the cast—and the woman holding it—will allow. “Why are you doing this?”

“Why not?” Levi shrugs. He reeks of liquor, and his eyes are bloodshot, but more than that, they are lonely. Margaux has already refilled his glass, and he lifts it to take another sip.

I snatch it away from him and drink it myself. Wincing when the horrible taste hits my palette and the alcohol burns as it settles in my stomach. I am French. I drink a lot of wine for a single woman living in Paris—or maybe I drink becauseI ama single woman living in Paris—but I cannot stomach the hard liquor that Levi swallows as easily as water. “Are you really so vain that you want thousands of women to have sex with a replica of your penis? Because that is absurd, even for you.”

“Careful, AFG, you’re starting to sound jealous.”

I scoff. “I am not jealous. I am just curious as to why you would sell your cock for money,comme une pute?”

Margaux inhales sharply at my language, and I blush, but Levi just laughs.

“Because even I’m smart enough to know I can’t rely on my good looks, and my ...” he lowers his voice, and his eyes hood over, “exceptionally gifted hands forever. I’m selling sex. I’m selling the fantasy, and yeah, I’m making a fucking killing. Enough to set me up long after the groupies are gone, and all the record stores are a thing of the past.”

“You’re drunk,” I say, leaning closer. He is taller than me, but his height does not deter me.I am not afraid of him. “You are making a mistake.”

“And you are fucking stunning,” he whispers. My eyes widen with his candour. His free hand comes to my waist and pulls me closer.

“Oh ... okay.” The woman between us startles me out of stupidity. I try to move away, but Levi’s hand grips the flesh of my hip. “I’m just ... I’m gonna pull this off now.”

There’s a loud sucking sound like all the air rushing out from a vacuum and Levi groans in my ear as Celia pulls the cast away and scurries out from underneath our feet. His erection butts up against my thigh. My cheeks are burning hot, my nipples hard, and I know as long as I live I will never forget the sound he made as his cast was coming off. All male, all alpha, and so fucking desirable that for a beat, I forgot who I am, who he is, and that we are not alone in this room.

“Jesus. If only we were still in porn,” Doc says. “Tell me you got that on camera?”

“Yep,” Chuck replies, sounding a little breathless. “I got it.”

“Well, this cast is screwed,” Celia says, throwing the pink rubber moulding on the floor. “He was moving too much. We’re gonna have to re-cast.”

I shove Levi’s hand off my hip and stalk towards the door.

“Brie,” he says. I stop, but I don’t turn to face him.I can’t. “Lose that fucking card.”

I stare down at the business card in my hand and shake my head, hurrying out the door and back to the safety of my room. As I flop down on the bed, my heart races, and I squeeze my eyes tightly closed and remind myself that there are just three more days left of my sentence. Three more days and I can be home, with enough money to take care of my family.

“Three more days, and I am safe,” I say to my empty room, because everyone knows it’s impossible to fall for someone in just three days.

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