Page 58 of Pure Recklessness

And although I was new to all of this, I was confident I wasn’t the only reader or listener that shared these fantasies.

‘I propose that we use the extensive technology that Sated has at its disposal to personalise the character names within the story.’

‘By using AI?’ Mr Devlin spoke for the first time.

‘That’s an option of course, but it’d be much better to use real-life narrators. That would also help to justify the premium price. Especially for the celebrity narrators.’

‘Celebrities?’ He frowned.

‘I’ll explain that on the next slide.’

‘Fine. Go on.’

‘As I was saying, we could have a personalisation option so that subscribers would hear the narrator calling out their name.’

‘So instead of the character’s name, the narrator would say, “Come for me, Eleanor”,’ Mr Devlin growled and I swear the elastic in my knickers snapped.

Jesus.

Hearing those four short words sent shock waves racing through my body.

If only he knew how many times I’d fantasised about him saying that to me.

‘Y-yes,’ I said, trying to recover from how he’d short-circuited my brain.

‘And you think that could work, logistically?’ He frowned. ‘We’d be aiming for a high volume of subscribers and offering that level of personalisation would be a lot of extra work and expensive.’

‘Of course, it’s not something that would be feasible for every short story. Just something for our blockbuster ones. We’d announce them months in advance and use them to drive pre-orders and build excitement. So if a member wanted their story personalised, they’d have to order in advance to allow time to add their name. Then I was thinking, we’d schedule time when booking the celebrity so they could record all of the individual names in one session. So only people who pre-order and pay in advance get the personalisation.’

‘Which would give us capital upfront for further investment.’ He nodded.

‘Exactly.’

‘I like the personalisation idea, but the feasibility and logistics concern me.’

‘I understand. So that brings me to the celebrity narrator slide. Now I know you already have some star narrators. But I was thinking we could hire famous actors or even musicians with the right voices to narrate the love interests. They’ll bring an instant fan base and will be great for marketing. Your family has a lot of celebrity connections, right?’

‘Correct.’

‘Great.’

I reckoned that our subscribers would go feral for stories read by superstars. Imagine laying back whilst your celebrity crush dirty talked, called your name and told you to ‘come for him like a good girl’.

It had success written all over it.

I was sure of it.

I continued through the presentation, taking Mr Devlin through the financial investment needed.

It was an eye-watering amount of money to me. But for a company worth billions, it’d be a drop in the ocean. And they already had an in-house studio, a team of narrators and loads of resources. It was the celebrity fees that were likely to be the most expensive, but I was sure it would pay off.

Once I’d gone through the estimated timelines, I clicked the last slide.

‘That concludes the presentation. Thanks for the opportunity. I’ll now take any questions you may have.’

I blew out a sigh of relief.

I’d done it. I reckoned that went well.