Chapter 11 #2
“How did you lose your eye?”
Thomas stared at him. “I woke up one day, and it was on my pillow.”
Scott gagged against his fist. “That’s…gross.”
“He’s messing with you,” Janice said. “That’s not what happened.”
Thomas sighed. “I lost my eye in a confrontation with a guest. Two guests, actually. I was hosting an auction, and things got out of hand.” He pointed at his fake eye. “It was a champagne flute.”
Scott gaped. “Someone shoved a champagne flute in your eye?”
“Yes, it was as painful as it sounds, but still not the most painful thing I’ve been through.”
Scott thought about what Janice had said, what Tim had hinted at with the court case, and kept his mouth shut.
Janice frowned. “What’s the most painful thing?”
Thomas took a deep breath. “Listening to Scott’s laugh.”
“Arsehole,” Scott snapped.
Thomas clutched the cleaner to him and laughed like a snake.
“It’s like nails on a chalkboard times a million.” Thomas smiled at Scott, then turned to Janice.
Janice’s eyes were wide.
“It’s honestly not that bad,” Scott said. “I’ve got a professional laugh –”
“I hate that one,” Thomas interrupted.
“And a real laugh.”
Thomas nodded. “It’s a monstrosity, but it’s my favourite thing about you.”
Janice hadn’t moved, hadn’t so much as blinked.
Scott and Thomas shared a look.
“Poke her, will you?” Thomas said. “I think she’s had a stroke.”
“You poke her.”
“I’m holding the vacuum.”
Scott shrugged. “You could throw it at her.”
"Seriously?"
“Jesus, you’re smiling.” Janice clutched her chest, tumbling back a step.
“She’s definitely had a stroke if she thinks you’re Jesus,” Scott mumbled.
Janice’s eyes watered. “Scott said you were in your private room…”
Thomas nodded. “I was.”
“And you’ve come out smiling?”
“I was working on our…” He glanced at Scott. “Project. Some of the takes were kind of funny.”
“Fuck. You,” Scott said.
“But the majority of the stuff we shot was hot as hell, like a scorching, ‘ejaculate in your pants’ kind of inferno.”
Scott’s tummy fluttered. He got giddy off the feedback. That wasn’t good. He looked down, specifically towards his crotch. Fuck. You.
Janice looked lost for words and wiped a tear from her eye.
“Christ,” Thomas growled. “I don’t pay you to stand around being emotional.”
He marched off with the vacuum hugged to his chest, and they both followed him into the living room.
“If you even think about dropping that cleaner for dramatic effect, I will kick you in the balls,” Janice warned.
Thomas sighed and lowered it to the ground. “Happy?”
Janice looked between them. “Ecstatic.”
“Christ alive,” Thomas muttered before stalking out of the room.
Scott went after him. “Are all your staff weird?”
“Yes,” Thomas replied without hesitation. He glanced over his shoulder at Scott. “I was coming to find you.”
He strolled into the kitchen, where he’d set up the laptop on the table.
“We’re ready to go live…”
Scott widened his eyes. “Really?”
Thomas sat down in front of the laptop. “Do you want to watch the cut? Check you’re happy with it?”
“Are you happy with it?”
Thomas nodded.
“Then I trust you. I don’t need to see it. I was there.”
Thomas smiled, then pressed firmly on the enter button.
Scott swallowed. “Is that it? Is it live?”
“Sure is.”
“Fuck…” Scott began pacing back and forth behind Thomas. “Has anyone subscribed?”
“Jesus, Scott.” Thomas chuckled. “Give people a minute.”
“A minute is too long. If we don’t hook them in the first three seconds, they’ll scroll off and pick someone else.”
Thomas caught him on the way past and dragged him onto his lap. “Sit.”
“I can’t. I’m too…” Scott wriggled his fingers.
“Anxious. I know,” Thomas replied. “That’s why you’re going to sit there and calm down. Look.” He pointed past Scott to the screen. “You’ve got a subscriber.”
Scott watched as the views for his teaser videos climbed into the hundreds.
“They’re eating you up,” Thomas mumbled. “It’s a good start.”
“Start?”
“We need more videos.”
“I thought you didn’t want to be involved.”
Thomas hummed. “Turns out I quite enjoy bossing you about. It’s fun. Filming, editing, finding a suitable soundtrack to drown out your off-putting moans the camera recorded –”
“Hey!”
Thomas laughed like a snake. “I’m enjoying it.
We will have to try micing you up next time, as long as you promise not to fake anything.
You were right when you said there is nothing hotter in life than the sound of a man getting close to coming, and from the small moans I heard when you weren’t faking, I know you’re going to sound incredible when I get you there. ”
Scott was beyond thankful that he was wearing his hoodie, so his goosebump reaction to Thomas’s words had been kept secret. He swallowed, then asked, “When you get me there?”
“I mean, I’ll talk you through it. It’ll be your touch, and your hands that make you explode up your chest, but I’d like to think I’m a good director who gets the best out of you.”
“Right…” Scott blinked away his sudden light-headedness.
He focused on the profile page in front of him, no longer watching the views climb or the subscribers rise. He frowned at the button on the screen that said ‘Requests’.
“What’s that?” he asked, pointing at the button.
“I saw a lot of other profiles had it. Camboy 101 does it. Some of his best-performing videos come from requests. Subscribers offer an amount of money to see you perform their request. They pay before you make the content, and you can pick and choose, ignoring the subscribers that offer you too little.” Thomas shrugged.
“I thought it could be fun, add some variety to your content.”
Scott looked away from the screen.
Thomas jogged his knee, making Scott bounce. “I can take it off if you don’t like it.”
“No. Keep it. I just…”
Thomas pressed his chin to Scott’s back. “Just?”
“What if there’s a request I really don’t like the idea of?”
“We don’t do it.”
Scott bit his lip.
“Hey,” Thomas said firmly. “We don’t do what you don’t like. Even if a subscriber offers you the full ￡100,000 to film their fantasy, if you’re not comfortable with it, we won’t be doing it.”
“But –”
“Do you trust me?”
Scott twisted so he could look at Thomas. “Yes.”
“I want to trust you.”
“You can,” Scott said, frowning.
“I want to trust that you will tell me if you’re not comfortable.
I want to trust that everything we do is consensual.
I have more…” Thomas flicked his tongue out across his bottom lip.
“Exotic tastes. Something that is fine for me might not be for you, and I’ve got to trust that you’ll tell me if you don’t like something. ”
“I will,” Scott promised.
Thomas smiled at him. “Good.”
“Has there been any yet?”
“Erm…let me check.” He tapped on the keys. “Only one involving a cucumber.”
“Absolutely not.”
Thomas tipped his head back as he laughed.
“Did Russell text back?”
“He did, completely ignoring the amateur porn part, he mentioned he was going to a bar with Cameron next week, The Frog & Toad.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Of course you haven’t, it’s for more alternative people. I don’t know why he mentioned it to me, or why he keeps going on about how open-minded Cameron is.”
Scott braced his hand on the table. “Please say you’re being deliberately obtuse.”
“Huh?”
“He’s inviting you along.”
Thomas blinked. “Oh.”
“Luckily for you, my schedule is clear.”
“What?”
Scott rolled his eyes. “We can go together.”
“And why would we do that?”
“Because he’s pretty much saying Cameron will be okay with sharing him, but I don’t think that’s fair, not when you were so close to exclusivity. He thinks he can have his cake and eat it, and I’m here to say no he can’t, he has to pick the snake-bake.”
Thomas cocked his head. “And how are you going to do that?”
“By having fun with you at The Frog & Toad and making him realise what he’s missing.” Scott winked.
“Why would you do that?”
“That’s what friends are for.”
Thomas looked away. “We’re not friends.”
“If you say so…”