Chapter 1
Cal
What is it with my co-founders and age gaps?
We’re all in our mid-to-late thirties, yet Rafe and Zach have both found love with beautiful women in their early twenties. Incidentally, these are women who fooled around with me but fell for my friends.
The less said about that, the better.
The fourth member of our Alchemy team, my gorgeous mate Gen, has fallen head over heels for the formidable Anton Wolff, a fifty-something billionaire whose dodgy-as-fuck exploits earned him the nickname The Big Bad Wolff. But Gen’s tamed him. He’s as needy as a spaniel these days.
None of this bothers me, though it bothers them, because when you're loved up, you want to inflict that status on everyone around you.
No, thank you.
I mean, for fuck’s sake, the four of us co-founded London’s most exclusive sex club, yet I’m the only one who’s really dabbling now. The others come in with their paramours and promptly disappear off to the private rooms.
It’s down to me to fly the Alchemy flag after dark, and fly it I certainly do.
(I have a very impressive flag pole.)
Don’t get me wrong. I adore seeing my mates so happy.
Rafe’s smitten with, and ridiculously overprotective, of the beautiful Belle.
Her best mate, Maddy, has turned Zach’s life around following the death of his wife.
And Anton, despite my initial misgivings, has thawed out our favourite ice queen. Gen is delirious these days.
I’m just not in any rush myself. I’m thirty-six, I’m loaded, and the business I run affords me spectacular, kinky-as-fuck sex on tap every night of the week.
I suppose I’d like a wife and babies at some point. Just not now.
Not when I’m living every guy’s dream.
* * *
‘I need to talk to Cal,’ Gen says as we wrap up our regular morning meeting.
There’s a collective—and immature—ooh from the others.
‘Sounds like you’re in trouble, mate,’ Zach observes. He stands and stretches, and I don’t miss the adoration in Maddy’s eyes as she looks up at him. That our nerdy, rock-fucking-solid CFO makes our sexy little social media manager as happy as she makes him is obvious to everyone with eyes.
‘He’s not in trouble,’ Gen says, crossing her excellent legs on our fancy Italian sofa. ‘In fact, I have a fascinating proposition for him.’ She shoots me one of her warm smiles, and I grin back. I’m generally up for anything, and she knows it well.
‘If it’s a threesome with her and Anton, say no,’ Rafe advises me. ‘You’d never be able to keep up with him, from what I hear.’
‘Fuck off,’ I tell him as Gen rolls her eyes.
‘No threesomes. Anton’s quite enough for me, thank you very much.’
Maddy sighs happily. She’s a romantic who rooted for Gen and Anton from day one, long before I warmed to the idea of that dodgy fucker going anywhere near my friend.
‘Go on.’ Gen shoos the others away with her hand. Because it’s her, they obey. No one ever does anything I ask, but you don’t mess around with Gen.
They trail out of the airy meeting space at the front of Alchemy’s building and through the double doors to our office space. Once they’ve closed it behind them and we’re alone, I twist my body on the sofa to face Gen.
‘What’s this fascinating proposition, then?’ I ask. Gen doesn’t exaggerate, so her choice of words has my curiosity piqued.
‘Well,’ she says slowly, ‘a couple of months ago, I met with a woman who wanted to sign up to Unfurl.’
‘Right.’ Unfurl is one of our flagship programmes and greatest achievements. It’s specifically designed for people, usually women, who are inexperienced and want to change that in a safe environment.
Belle, who was Rafe’s neighbour, signed up for the programme.
Not only was she a virgin, but she’d been fed religious doctrine and purity culture bullshit all her life.
She wanted to discover her sexuality in style, and she certainly did.
I was in a couple of her early sessions, which were hot as fuck, but Rafe fell hard, and that was that.
‘She’s not inexperienced,’ Gen continues. ‘She’s just got divorced, and she wants to spread her wings.’
‘Good for her,’ I say. I love that. But it sounds like there’s more to this story, so I wait.
Gen smiles like she has a delicious secret, and not for the first time, I observe that Wolff’s a lucky guy. She’s one of my best and oldest friends, but there’s no denying she’s a knockout. That platinum hair and those killer curves are every guy’s fantasy.
‘What makes it intriguing for us,’ she adds, ‘is that she wants to film the experience. She’s pitched me a documentary that follows her journey to reclaim control of her sexuality.
She’s forty-six, and she wants to show women it’s possible to redefine their approach to and enjoyment of sex after a long-term relationship. ’
My mind is whirring. I love this idea—I completely agree that this woman’s message is one that needs to be spread, and I adore the idea of Unfurl being used in this way.
But:
‘When you say it’ll be filmed,’ I ask, ‘what exactly do you mean?’
‘It won’t be a porno,’ she shoots back quickly.
‘No way. She’s been pitching it to Channel 4 and the big streaming platforms. It would be an actual documentary, focused heavily on interviews with her, with us, and with various sexperts who are qualified to discuss female sexuality.
But there’s one more thing you should know. ’
‘What’s that?’ I ask, grinning. Gen’s circumspect by nature, but her obvious excitement is infectious.
She licks her lips. ‘The woman in question is Aida Russell,’ she says. ‘And I thought you’d be just the man to unfurl her.’
Holy fuck.