Show Me by Carole Hart Page A

curled naked under a still-half-clothed man in front of a crowd of strangers. His cock sliding out of her woke her completely and she was suddenly snatching at the robe on the floor, aware of a blush that spread from the roots of her hair to the soles of her feet. She had just swept the robe on, clutching it shut against her chest, when she spotted Jared Vairy.
    He was standing by the door, watching her intently, but his expression didn’t give her any clue as to how long he’d been there or what he had witnessed. Was the darkness in his eyes lust or repulsion? She froze, not knowing if sheshould wave. At that moment, the director appeared in front of her, smiling.
    “That was superbly done,” the older woman said. “Really first-class. Remind me, what’s your background?”
    “Oh . . . I don’t exactly have a background.” Zaza was still trying to peer around Charity to see Jared, in vain.
    “Really? You mean, this is your first sex scene?”
    Zaza nodded, her heart pounding with an anxiety she couldn’t explain. “Yes, it’s my first time. I’ve never done anything like this before,” she said, and almost felt as if she was pleading her case, trying to prove her innocence of some crime.
    “Well,” Charity said. “I never say this, but you’re a natural.”
    Zaza swallowed, trying to smile. Then Charity turned away, and where Jared had been standing . . . there was no one.

SIX
     
     
     
     
    “ I t’s not even that I don’t want her to be in porn, or that it bothers Ime to see her fucking other men.”
    “No, of course not. Why would that bother you?”
    “Okay, it doesn’t bother me much .” Jared shrugged and gave Emily a watered-down version of his famous smile. “I mean, having my girlfriend fuck other guys in front of me became the new normal years ago.”
    “Granted.”
    “But the thing is, she’s not my girlfriend.”
    “Yet.”
    Jared frowned. “At this moment, Javier could be making her his girlfriend, or Liam could, or any of those rotten, charming, good-looking, damned porn stars— ”
    “So the solution is . . . ” Emily balked and bit her lip.
    “The solution is obviously ,” Jared said with light self-mockery, “to get Babylona to fire her from the job that I just made Babylona give her, so that I can eliminate the competition from the porn stars. After which I have to figure out a way of secluding her from the rest of the world.”
    “And then you have to run into her by mistake, of course.”
    Jared sighed. “I was never this ridiculous about a girl before, was I?”
    “Not remotely this ridiculous.” Emily frowned down at the tub of Häagen-Dazs they’d been sharing and dug her spoon in again, hooking out a chunk of chocolate chip cookie dough. “Disturbingly unridiculous.”
    “You see, that’s it,” he said, with a wistful look in his eyes. “Up till now, I thought love was supposed to be pleasant and fun. Which was great.”
    “Um, except that it wasn’t love.”
    “Well, porn confuses things. You add liking to fucking, and it feels a lot like love. It’s just so much, everything you like, and you think, What could be better than this?”
    “Not to me,” Emily said.
    “Didn’t you used to like it? At least, you used to enjoy . . .”
    “All this,” Emily said through her mouthful of ice cream, gesturing around her at her own living room, with its sleek modern furniture, imposing paintings, and the orchids in lacquer pots that clustered on every available surface. Jared looked around, his gaze resting on her most recent acquisition, a grand piano that she was determined to learn to play—one of these days, when she wasn’t so impossibly busy.
    “Come on,” he said. “It wasn’t all about money.”
    “Well, of course.” She narrowed her eyes, trying to remember. “There was a time when I’d look forward to every new guest. It was like a romance without the responsibility. And, of course, they were all so gorgeous.” She sighed. “But I