Page 6 of Gay for Pay
“Umm…no.” Chris choked out his response, his jovial mood from just moments before having vanished with Victor’s question. Victor laughed for the first time and it was so loud and vibrant, Chris couldn’t help but smile.Goddamn, the man was charming.
“Is okay, Just Chris, I already knowing who I want to mentor you. We have a guy, Jordan. He has been with us for years now. He is straight as an arrow, is that the right term?” Victor asked Chris, he nodded. “Yes, an arrow, but he shoots the best scenes for us. I am thinking you could learn a lot from him and he is friendly guy. I call him when we finish here, are you available this weekend to meet with him?” Chris nodded again; he wasn’t sure where his voice had run off to—he’d been reduced to simple head nods.
“You are being Rest assured, Just Chris, your being comfortable is vital to your performance. We will never make you do anything you are not being comfortable with. Never be fear of saying no. What I would like to do first is introduce you to some of our models, and then we will set up a time later in the week for you to come out to the house and see some of our shoots. Maybe do an online introduction for…wait, we need to decide what name you will use on the site.” Victor sat up and pulled a pen from the pocket of his blazer.
“What do you mean the name I’ll use? I won’t use my own name?” Chris asked and immediately flushed, feeling like a prize idiot. Of course no one used their real names with what he’d seen online. Bravo Delta and Blaze Law—no parent could have tagged their kid with such names. “Sorry, I see what you are saying, anonymity. Right. Honestly, there is no one in my life who cares that doesn’t already know I’m considering this, so Chris is as good a name as any for me.”
Victor sat back, smiling sadly; he clearly understood what Chris was, or actually wasn’t, saying.
“How about we use Kris, with a K, for the site?” he asked. Chris thought for a moment and agreed. At least it would allow him that one degree of separation from all this craziness he was fixing to dive headfirst into.
“Excellent.” Victor stood and walked toward the door. “Come, I will give you a penny to tour.”
Chris chuckled. “You mean the five-cent tour.”
“What scent?” Victor stopped, lifting one arm and sniffing. “Am I smelling?”
“No, never mind. You were saying?” Chris had gotten very good at schooling his expressions, having been on the football team in high school. His coach was a drill sergeant that didn’t play around.
Victor explained that the office was mainly where they handled the business side of things. There was the one room he’d seen earlier that was, in fact, set up to look like a bedroom. There were a few boring pictures on the walls, a camera and some lights standing in the corner. Victor explained this was where most models shot their introductory scenes. It was also used for the occasional shoot when they brought models in that weren’t comfortable driving out to the house.
Apparently most of All Cocks’s business was conducted from the home Victor shared with his partners on the outskirts of the city. “Porn is uncomfortable business from the start, Just Chris, so my partners and I make conscious decision from beginning to create a comfortable environment for our models. That way we making sure we get the most honest response from our endeavors.” They were back at the lobby where this crazy journey began—how many hours ago?
“Let me ask you this, Just Chris, why is it you are wanting to come to work for me? What has brought you here?” Victor stopped him, laying a hand on his shoulder, his grip firm, those captivating onyx eyes staring right through him.Dammit! I was so close to a clean getaway,Chris cursed internally. He didn’t know how forthcoming he should be, but then he thought about how honest Victor had been with him in the little time they’d spent together and decided to be just as open in return. What could it hurt, right?
“You already know from reading my ‘application,’” Chris said the word while making finger quotes in the air, “that I have a record—involuntary manslaughter—it’s a lovely story that I’ll share with you, should we spend more time together. In all honesty, I’m broke and I have no other options, Victor. I’m tired of being a drain on my best friend and his boyfriend. I’m tired of feeling worthless and depressed, having to drag my ass out of bed in the mornings. I just want to have something to do, somewhere to go, I want to matter to…well, to anyone, actually.” Chris was so close to crying, and he couldn’t even figure out why. There was something about Victor that made Chris want to tell him all his deep, dark secrets. Definitely a vampire with those brainwashing powers he had seen on the TV show,True Blood.
Victor grimaced, squeezing Chris’s shoulder tightly with his long, thin fingers. For a moment, Chris flashed back to one of his high school football games. It was his freshman year, and he was still getting used to playing with all the new guys at his high school. They’d won, of course, and his father jogged toward him out on the field with a huge grin on his face. As he approached a then much smaller Chris, he reached out and placed his larger hand on his son’s shoulder, gripping it much like Victor was doing right then.
“Chris, are you being okay?” Victor’s melodic Transylvanian voice brought Chris to the here and now and he sniffled, realizing he had gone misty-eyed at just the memory of the love he’d once gotten from his father. A man that now loathed his son with every fiber of his being.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Chris blinked away the tears and attempted to smile, certain it came across as more of a pout, judging by the knowing look Victor gave him.
“I am thinking that there is more to your life that I should be knowing, am I right, Just Chris?” Victor’s grip on his shoulder was bordering on painful now, but Chris couldn’t pull away. He stared at the man in front of him, seeing him as more than this big guy that ran a porn studio or the Dracula persona he exuded. No, there was something very fatherly about him, and the concern in Victor’s eyes seemed genuine, real.
Chris nodded and choked back a sob; he wanted to bury his head in Victor’s chest and cry until his heart stopped hurting. What the hell was it about this man, this virtual stranger that had Chris ready to lay himself bare at his feet? Had he really been so desperate for the attention Victor was giving him?
Victor shook his head, grabbing Chris by the arm and all but dragging him to his office. “Okay, we are changing the plans. You are coming home with me for dinner, yes?” Victor punctuated the sentence with a question mark, but Chris knew it wasn’t a request.
Following Victor out of the building, Chris realized he was anxious, but also excited to see what this unexpected journey held for him. Maybe he’d finally found the place he was supposed to be.
Chapter Six
Introductions
Chris called Michael on the way out to Mamaroneck, a very small township of New York that was about an hour’s drive from the city. Michael was none too pleased that he was traveling outside of the city with a man he’d just met, and demanded to speak with Victor. After a couple of minutes of that entrancing voice, Victor handed the phone to Chris, and Michael was much more accepting of the arrangement. Apparently Chris was going to spend the night at Victor’s home and ride back into the city with him tomorrow.
As they drove beyond the city limits, the scenery became more vivid and bright, the leaves on the trees shimmering in the midday sun. When the driver pulled onto a gravel road and the trees opened up, he could see out over the water. Chris gasped. “It’s beautiful,” he whispered.
“It is, indeed,” Victor agreed. There were boats and houses lining the waterfront area parallel to the road they were on, and the sky was blue with pillowy, white clouds, so unlike the city that was constantly covered in a cloud of dust and pollution. The car turned onto a dirt-lined driveway and stopped next to a simple but elegant brick home with white trim. It was a three-story house with a lush, green yard that looked out over the water; a large maple tree with an actual tire swing hanging from one of the branches sat adjacent to the porch that wrapped around half the house.
Chris climbed out of the car and quickly headed toward the side of the yard that looked out onto the water. Grass greener than he’d seen since leaving Alabama dropped steeply down a hill, merging into the blue water of Long Island Sound, the colors blending together flawlessly; it was nothing if not breathtaking. Chris turned when he heard the screen door squeak, then slam shut. A man, probably in his early to midthirties, with black, curly hair and exquisite blue eyes walked straight over to Victor and kissed him, intimately, before turning his attention toward Chris. He smiled, extending his hand as he walked toward him. “You must be Chris. I’m Andrew, Victor’s partner.”
Chris shook the offered hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Andrew.”
The back door to the house opened, and three more guys tripped over each other and the steps to be the first to get to Chris, each introducing themselves to him. Gabe was short and slim with long blond hair tied into a ponytail. Chris thought that if he were looking at Gabe from a distance, he might mistake him for a woman. Kory was tall and broad, much like Chris, but he had short, buzzed, dull brown hair and equally dull brown eyes. Dusty was familiar to Chris, though he couldn’t place from where. His skin was a deep, dark bronze, and his brown hair had gold streaks in it, most likely from the sun. Chris held his hand a little longer than the others. “Do I know you from somewhere?” he asked, certain they’d met before.
“I don’t think so,” Dusty said playfully, eying Chris up and down very slowly. “I think I’d remember meeting your fine ass,” he said, running his tongue over his bottom lip, winking at him. Before Chris could come up with an appropriate response, Victor smacked Dusty on the ass and shooed him and the other two toward the house.
