Diving In Read online

  His eyes get wide when he sees me and I know that he’s on to my little game. He gives me a flirty grin as he passes me to go into the bathroom. He knows what I’m up to and I wonder if he’ll act on it.

  He gets out of the shower and he walks into the living room in just a towel. Clearly he’s going to combat me with a little display of his own. As I sit on the couch, I try not to be too conspicuous as I quickly steal a glance at his washboard abs and his broad, toned shoulders.

  “Get up,” he grins.

  “Hmm?” I reply.

  “You’re sleeping with me,” he says like it’s totally obvious.

  I try to suppress it, but that puts a big smile on my face and he takes my hand as he leads me into his bedroom. I get under the covers in his bed and he gives me a flirty grin as he unwraps his towel and reaches for a pair of boxers from his dresser. My eyes are wide as I try not to gasp. He’s got a perfect ass and I blush as I catch a little glimpse between his legs. Yeah, that definitely lives up to the legend. I’ve seen it a few times before, but not in the past several years, so it hasn’t lost its scandalous allure entirely.

  When he turns around, he smirks the second he sees my expression. He knows I was surprised and he totally digs that he ruffled me. He crawls over me on the bed, briefly pausing above me and giving me a sexy smile before he gets under the covers with me.

  “Come on,” he says, “get over here and let me hold you.”

  I can’t help it. I’m beaming from how sweet that sounds. Not come over here and let me fuck you, come over here and let me rip your clothes off, but come over here and let me hold you. He was just subtly flashing me his dick but all he really wants to do is snuggle. I love it!

  He kisses my forehead as I rest my cheek on his light sprinkling of chest hair. A wave of relaxation and contentment comes over me as he lightly strokes his fingers up and down my back and plays with a lock of my hair. He can be so tender when it comes to me. I smile myself to sleep feeling completely adored.

  Chapter 2 - James

  “Stop messing with it, it looks really good,” I say to Lola as she looks in the vanity mirror and brushes her fingers through her hair for the zillionth time on the drive to Rick’s house.

  “I just want it to look right,” she says, biting her bottom lip in concentration. I love when she does that. It’s sort of sexy in an innocent way.

  “It does look right, so quit fucking with it,” I laugh.

  She looks great. I don’t know what she’s worried about. Her petite, little body’s looking toned and firm in all the right places. She’s got on a red sundress that gives off kind of a hippie vibe and her legs are looking mad long in her heeled sandals. Her hair is loose and wavy in that natural way that I’ve always thought was pretty and she’s always thought looked too messy. She’s got on a little necklace with a small, silver hummingbird that I got her for her fifteenth birthday, which is really sweet and sentimental to me, and it hangs off her neck just above her cleavage—which is lookin’ mighty fine, if I do say so myself. She looks hot, as always, but she’s being all girly and getting self-conscious.

  We pull up Rick’s driveway and Lola looks impressed. It’s one of those Spanish villa type of places and he’s got a fountain in front of the circle drive and gold everything like he’s Donald Trump. Rick’s got money, for sure. He’s been in the business since the late ‘80s and he’s worked with some of the biggest porn stars in history—household names that even regular people would recognize. I started out working with him when I was 19 and I had a shitty time trying to break into real acting. He put me in my first porn flick with Shawnna Hendrix, who was one of the biggest stars in porn at the time. She was ten years older than me and on her way to retirement, but that girl rocked my world and I was hooked on the business after that. For a while, I only did small videos, internet-only kind of stuff, because I was worried about people finding out back home. When the huge blowout happened with my parents a few months ago, I decided I could shoot for the moon and go for bigger movies. I’ve done three pretty big ones since then and people say I’m a rising star in the industry, which is super cool.

  Rick’s got waiters running around dishing out drinks and one of them leads us to the back yard, where Rick’s grilling food and everybody’s hanging out around the pool. The whole Sin Cinema gang is here and I like that Lola’s going to meet my work friends.

  “Come on, let me introduce you to some people,” I say, taking her hand and leading her into the sprawling yard.

  First, I want to introduce her to Rick, since he always makes fun of how much I talk about her. He gives me a giant smile and his eyes get all big when he sees the gorgeous girl on my arm. That’s right. I told you she was a stunner.

  “Lola, this is Rick, the owner of the company,” I say to her before turning to him. “Rick, this is my best friend, Lola.”

  “Very nice to meet you, sweetheart,” Rick smiles at her as he shakes her hand.

  She grins and I know what she’s thinking. Rick looks like a walking stereotype of a porn producer. He’s short and stocky with dyed black hair that he keeps slicked back. He’s got a gravely voice from smoking for decades and he gives off that wannabe mobster vibe, like he’s kind of sketchy. In real life, he’s a nice dude, but he wants to look like something out of Goodfellas. Eh, to each his own, right?

  “I’ve heard so much about you. This kid won’t shut up about his beautiful best friend and how great you are. Glad to see he wasn’t bullshitting me. You’re a knock out, honey,” Rick says to her.

  “Jeez, thanks,” she blushes. “I’ve heard a lot about you too. James loves working for you.”

  “That’s good to hear, since I love working with him,” Rick politely replies. “He’s gonna be huge. I keep tellin’ him he’s got the makings of a superstar.”

  I smile proudly when Lola nods in agreement.

  We leave Rick so I can take her around and introduce her to people. She meets Rick’s assistant, Christie, who’s in her early 40s and sweet as can be. She got into the business decades ago trying to be a star—she’s blonde and pretty so it made sense—but she got married and had a son, so she decided fucking onscreen wasn’t for her. Now she’s Rick’s right hand woman and she’s basically the one who keeps the whole production office together. She loves Lola—natch—and they have a friendly conversation for a little while. Lola’s easy to like, so I’m not surprised that everyone she meets thinks she’s great.

  “I thought I saw you over here,” someone says as they grab my shoulders from the back. I turn around and see my good buddy Chad Rockwell giving me a big smile.

  “Hey!” I grin at him. “I didn’t see you. I wanted to introduce you to—”

  “Oh my God, you’re Lola!” He nearly gasps as he takes her hand a plants a playful kiss on her knuckles.

  “Quite the greeting,” she giggles.

  “Lola, this is my friend, Chad,” I say to her.

  She looks very cheerful as they exchange hellos.

  Chad’s a really cool dude. He and his boyfriend, Alejandro Carrera, are both really big stars in Sin Cinema’s gay division. Chad’s tall, blonde and blue-eyed, very all-American, and Alejandro’s all buff and has a full sleeve tattoo of Day of the Dead stuff. They’ve been dating for, like, a decade and they’re the nicest guys you could meet.

  “Is Alejandro here?” I ask him. “I want her to meet him.”

  “We’re over by the waterfall,” he says, motioning for us to follow him.

  Lola gives me a big smile as we walk over to the little waterfall Rick’s got by the manmade pond in the back yard. She’s heard a lot about these guys and I know she’s excited to hang out with them. They were the first people to really befriend me when I moved out here and, even though they knew I could make bank in porn, they never tried to pressure me into it. They were great because they showed me the best routes to get places, where the gourmet markets were—since I love to cook, and even which DMV always has the shortest lines for when I
had to get my California license.

  “Honey, look who’s here!” Chad says when we see Alejandro.

  “Is this her?!” he gasps.

  “Just as stunning as he said, right?” Chad smiles.

  “Lola, it’s such a pleasure to meet you,” Alejandro says to her as he shakes her hand. “You know what, I’m gonna give you a hug because I feel like we’re friends already,” he sweetly ads as he pulls her in.

  She likes it, I can tell from her big smile.

  “Now, you’re out here visiting during your break from school, right?” Chad says as he ushers her to sit down in a chair with them. I follow and sit next to her.

  “Right,” she nods. “I had time with Labor Day weekend and all, so I figured it would be nice to come out here, get some sunshine and see my dude.”

  Her dude. I like the sound of that.

  “I’m so glad you could come out here!” Chad says. “You would not believe how much we’ve heard about you. We could practically write a biography on you from how much he gushes about you.”

  Gushes. It makes me get all shy because it’s totally true, even though I don’t want her to know it.

  “When he first moved here, it was ‘oh, Lola would love that’ and ‘oh, I wish Lola was here so we could do this.’ He built you up like you were Beyoncé.”

  She laughs hard and gives me a cute smile, like she knows it’s true and she’s barely biting her tongue on making fun of me for it. I give her a playful growl and she doesn’t call me on it.

  “I hope I live up to the hype,” she jokes.

  “Well, you’re even prettier than he said, so you’ve already beat that expectation,” Alejandro smiles at her.

  “Jeez, you guys are too kind,” she giggles. “I figured no one would even give me a second look at a party full of super hot porn stars.”

  “You’re fresh meat,” Chad teases. “Everybody here has had sex with everybody else here, so we’re all bored of each other.” Alejandro nods. “You’re new blood and everybody’s probably eying you.”

  She laughs hard and I can see her cheeks start to turn pink.

  We’re both hungry, so we grab a couple of the burgers Rick’s been grilling and we sit down with the guys. They keep revealing how much I talk about her and how I always tell them that my best friend is the coolest, the prettiest, the smartest—all that stuff. I’m so embarrassed because it’s all totally true. I do gush about her. I can’t help it. She’s my little angel and I feel honored that she’s even friends with me, let alone best friends with me.

  After a little while, we decide to walk around so she can meet some more people. I introduce her to a few of the girls I’ve worked with, including this super hot redhead named Amber Blaze who’s website gets more hits than any other girl in the biz. Amber’s really cool, a very free spirit kind of girl and way more mature than her 21 years. I like her a lot and, since I did a shoot with her a couple months ago, we’ve hung out and had lunch several times. She’s super nice to Lola—probably because she’s heard me go on and on about her too—and they seem to get on pretty well.

  Lola’s getting a raspberry lemonade from the bar when we’re approached by Lexi Jaxxon and her buddy Tara Morgan, who is slightly more famous.

  “Hey baby,” Tara says, grabbing me and kissing me on the mouth. “It’s good to see you.”

  “We saw you over here lookin’ sexy and wondered why you hadn’t come over to say hello to us,” Lexi ads with a sultry purr.

  Both of them dig me and the three of us hooked up last week after a shoot. They’ve been all up on me ever since.

  They both don’t even say hello to Lola, which is kind of rude, so I make a point to introduce her. I can tell from her expression that she’s not exactly thrilled to meet them. They act just a little bit arrogant and I know she doesn’t dig their attitude.

  “You’re the high school girl, right?” Lexi says in a vaguely condescending tone.

  “College, actually. A university,” Lola smiles defiantly. Such a tough cookie, my girl.

  “Oh,” Lexi says like she’s a little surprised that Lola checked her.

  “And you’re the one that’s known him since you were kids, right?” Tara asks her in a way that seems kind of like she’s talking down to her.

  I want to step in, but Lola’s got this. I’ve seen her deal with this kind of girl rivalry bullshit before and she’s no delicate flower when it comes to this stuff.

  “Yes,” she nods. “James and I have been best friends since childhood. We grew up together. We’re practically family.”

  “Closer than family,” I smile at her as I put my arm around her and give her a wink to acknowledge that I see how the girls are a little bit bitchy.

  They exchange those kind of fake pleasantries that girls give to each other when they secretly don’t like each other. I’ve never understood why they don’t just say what they mean. Lola doesn’t like them, they have some kind of weird mean-girl cockiness towards her and I don’t know why they’re even standing here trying to pretend to be all polite to each other.

  I make up some excuse about wanting to ask Rick something and I take Lola’s hand as we walk away from them.

  “Ok, what’s up with those two?” she chuckles when we get somewhere more private. “What’s their deal? They’re all bitchy and combative.”

  “Who knows,” I shrug, “maybe they’re jealous.”

  “Of what?” she scoffs with a laugh.

  “Because you’re prettier,” I say, kissing her forehead, “and sweeter,” I add as I kiss her right cheek, “and smarter,” I kiss her left, “and all-around cooler than they’ll ever be,” I conclude with a kiss on the tip of her nose.

  “You’re such a charmer,” she says with a giggle and an eye roll.

  “But I’m also honest,” I grin at her.

  As we’re walking back towards Chad and Alejandro, I see Ethan Dane— my rival, my nemesis, the Newman to my Jerry—walking towards us. He’s scoping Lola pretty hard and I can feel my jaw clench as I step a little in front of her. It’s one of those possessive displays of dominance a la Caesar Milan, but it’s instinct for me at this point.

  “Hey, man. How’s it going?” Ethan smiles at me.

  I give him a nod. “Great, dude, and you?”

  “Really great,” he says, cutting the greetings and looking at Lola. “Hi,” he smiles flirtatiously as he reaches out and shakes her hand. “I’m Ethan.”

  “I’m Lola,” she says. “Nice to meet you, Ethan.”

  I’ve told Lola about Ethan Dane, but not a ton about him. He and I are both the passion guys, the ones that have a growing female following. He’s only about 5’ 10” but he’s really buff and he’s got a tattoo on his shoulder of the lyrics from a Bob Dylan song, which somehow makes him deep, I guess. We’re always in the running for the same movies and we’ve had this professional rivalry since my second or third movie. We started out around the same time and both of us are getting pretty big, so we’re kind of competitive. Right now, it looks like he wants to compete over Lola. Little does he know, that shit ain’t gonna happen.

  “Ethan works for Rick too,” I say, putting my arm around her waist and pulling her into my side.

  “That’s right! I’ve heard of you,” she smiles at him. She curls into me a little more and I can tell she’s cool with playing things up because she knows I’m annoyed and I want to tell Ethan to back off of her.

  “Oh yeah?” he grins, practically licking his chops at her. “You seen any of my movies?”

  “I haven’t seen hardly any porn movies,” she giggles, “not even his.”

  It’s true. She’s seen a couple of pics, but it was mostly me blurry in the background while the camera focused on the girl I was plowing. She told me she’s too scared to see my movies, which is too cute.

  “You should check them out,” Ethan smiles, “you might like what you see.”

  “Maybe she’ll watch a couple of mine this weekend,” I say, unconsciou
sly amping up the sex appeal. “She could see how a pro does it.”

  She giggles and looks into my eyes with this really sultry look that takes me by surprise. Lola can be so seductive without even realizing it.

  “How long are you in town?” Ethan asks her, licking his lips. Dude licks his lips while he’s making eyes at my girl! What is that about?!

  “Just the weekend,” she replies. “Just a little visit out here to be with him,” she says, putting her hand on my stomach in a possessive gesture of her own.

  Ethan seems to take the hint and he keeps the flirtation to an acceptable level for the rest of the brief conversation.

  “So that’s the infamous Ethan Dane?” she giggles once he’s out of earshot. “The rival. The great adversary.”

  “Yep,” I nod. “The challenger to the throne.”

  She snickers loudly and rolls her eyes. “Not much of a challenge, babe.”

  “You are the coolest girl in the world, I swear,” I smile at her.

  “Hey, just like you, I’m honest,” she winks, referencing my comment from earlier.

  I grab her face and kiss her forehead and she laughs.

  We go back over to Chad and Alejandro and we hang with them for a while and talk shit. Lola and Chad both love shitty reality shows and they compare notes about the best bad movies or the worst music videos. They’re pop culture heads and they’re practically best friends by the end of the day. I knew she’d get along great with these guys. They’re good dudes.

  When we leave the party, we decide to go see a movie and then go back home to chill out. I want to take Lola to the beach tomorrow—and not just because I want to see her in a bikini. I think she’ll like relaxing in the sun and I’ll like relaxing with her while she’s in a bikini. It’s more of an added bonus than a straight-up goal.

  She seems to be getting less self-conscious by the minute and she comes out in just a towel after her shower. There are still little beads of water on her shoulders and I love that she’s all wet and sexy. I’m in the room when she goes over to her suitcase to get pajamas. I pretend to look away, but I totally check out her ass as she pulls off the towel and changes into some boy-shorts and a jersey knit nightie. Hot.