Page 82 of Lovestrung

But I didn’t know if I could do that.

If I could tell Penelope the whole truth.

Loving her was the easy part.

Trusting her with all that I was, all my fears?

I wasn’t so sure.

21

The Future Is A Scary Entity

It was my last photo shoot at Privé, and the room was filled to the brim with different people, mostly performers. I recognized them from having worked with a few of them in the past. My eyes caught Astrid in the crowd, and I gritted my teeth at the seductive smile she aimed at me. This was not good. It was a fucking disaster waiting to happen.

The nervous energy made me feel on edge, but I forced my tense shoulders to relax. Callum was busy setting the stage, and I went to the adjacent locker room; I needed to get a shower and to groom certain areas on my body, especially around my groin. I didn’t know exactly what my scene was today, only that it was a solo performance, but that told me enough to make sure that the camera had as clear a view as possible. I hadn’t expected the crowd, and it unsettled me. I knew I needed to speak with Callum about it before we got started.

And I needed to make sure to steer clear of Astrid.

I went to my locker and undressed, trying to get into the right frame of mind, but it didn’t come as easily as it used to. Whenever I worked here, I pushed the real world away and focused on the here and now. I didn’t worry about my past or the future – that last part was paramount, and even more so now.

I only had to think about Penelope and her tempting body, and my dick got hard.

“Hey, man, you decent?” Callum’s voice stopped me from undressing, and I looked over my shoulder and frowned at him.

“What’s with the crowd?” I asked.

His lips pulled down. “I’m not sure, but don’t worry. I’ll have the room cleared before we start.”

“Thanks, man.”

“So,” he leaned against the locker next to me and crossed his arms. “You sure you don’t want to resign the contract?”

“Callum,” I untucked my T-shirt and pulled it over my head. “It’s time I quit, you know that.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, I know. It’s the same for almost every performer here – at some point, most of them quit. Still, the clicks we get on your profile whenever we post something new?” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “Subscribers love you, man. Both the women and the men.”

I chuckled and unzipped my pants. “Sorry, but this was always only going to be temporary.”

“Right, right.”

When he lingered but kept silent, I raised my eyebrows at him. “Anything on your mind?”

“Off the record…is something going on between you and Astrid that’s going to cause the firm any problems?”

I laughed and shook my head. “Definitely not. Why, has she implied otherwise?”

He pursed his lips. “Nah, just a feeling I got from when she was at my party last week. She talked a lot about you, that’s all. And from what I can tell, she’s the one who invited all these people to come see your last performance.”

Unease prickled at my scalp and I frowned at him. “She did what?”

He looked down, but I still managed to catch the grimace.

“Yeah, I know. I’ll talk to her, get her to move everybody out before we start.”

Grateful, I nodded. “I’m not into Astrid, Callum. We’re friends, but that’s it.”

He raised his head and the suspicion in them made me want to find Astrid right away and tell her to set him straight. I didn’t like it.