Rafe couldn't even bother to talk to me, to end our relationship in person. I was the recipient of a pay-off, intended to silence me, some poor consolation prize. And I still had no idea what had ticked him off. One day we'd been fucking three times a day, enjoying each other's bodies and company, and the next he was gone with the wind, a mystery of the ages. Was I so unlovable? Did I deserve this somehow?
Like a bad memory, my mom's voice rang in my head.
"Jenna, look inside yourself," she'd urged. "The world won't do what you want just because you're pretty so don't take it for granted. Be nice, be kind to people, you never know what will happen."
I'd scoffed then, throwing my hair over my shoulders, disdaining her advice. The world had been at my fingertips thus far, I only had to smile at men and they did my every bidding. Who wasn't to say that it wouldn't last forever? Okay, maybe not forever, but a good twenty years more at least.
"Whatever Ma," I'd dashed off carelessly. "I know what I'm doing."
But the shake of her head and the sad look in her eyes were reproachful.
"Look at me Jenna," she said. "I was once a pretty girl, even prettier than you, and where am I now? A single mom with four daughters, struggling to make ends meet. I don't want you to be like me."
I'd sighed exasperatedly. My mom's mistake had been that she'd hooked up with my dad, who'd turned out to be a deadbeat loser. I knew better than that. Find a rich man, get married with no pre-nup, and boom! My problems were solved for life.
"I'll be fine, Ma," I said shortly. "Go worry about someone else, like Tina. She needs to lose weight before she becomes a sack of potatoes, no one's ever going to want her," I'd sneered.
My mom had sighed and turned away, but looking back, there was an uncanny element of truth to her words. Now it was Tina married to a rich man and I was getting dumped with a diamond bracelet as the consolation prize.
I cried in the bathroom, grateful that atelier's restroom had plush, fabric-covered walls, the better to muffle my sobs. Not knowing who to turn to, I dialed Deborah on my cell phone.
"Deb, I can't," I cried into the phone. "The wardrobe folks have been so nasty to me, they say I look terrible and ugly. They say it right to my face, they think I can't understand."
"Oh ignore them," soothed Deborah. "Pepe is known for having a sharp tongue, you know how gay guys are, they're jealous of women as if they were women themselves."
"I can't," I cried. "I can't go back out there," I said pitifully, sniffling into the phone.
But Deborah, who'd been kind to me in the past, did a one-eighty.
"You can and you will," she said nastily. "Because you know what? The shit's about to hit the fan."
"You can't scare me with Rafe Connor," I said woodenly. "I know I signed a contract with Levant Corp. but contracts get broken all the time, I'll pay whatever penalties are required." At least my legal training was coming in handy.
"No, you dumb bitch," said Deborah, her voice like nails over the phone. "It's that video you did … the video plus the nudie pix."
"What do you mean?" I asked slowly. "I've done nude photo shoots, I mean, you were there during one, but I've never done any video. What are you talking about?" I asked confusedly.
"The porn!" screamed Deborah. "The porn you did is about to hit the wire!" Her voice lowered. "I heard it's already got ten thousand streams on some seedy website, people watching you get pummeled every which way in some dirty gang-bang." She continued. "Did you like it Jenna? Did you like being a slut in front of the camera? I suggest you finish this job because your career is about to be over."
The woman slammed the phone with a clack and I stood frozen in the tiny bathroom. What video? a voice screamed in my head. Was I being blackmailed? I had no idea what was going on and my only thought was to call Rafe for help.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rafe
I watched the stream dispassionately on my computer. It was coming from the Green Guys, a website known for its hardcore POV porn, gonzo shots where the girls are routinely humiliated, shamelessly fucked in public, that sort of thing.
Jenna was gorgeous. Her blonde hair covered her face, but the moans were familiar, the sensuous body, the way her pussy twitched and squeezed as she was pummeled from behind.
"Please," her breathy voice moaned. "Do me, I need it hard," she sighed as a big dude obliged, reaming her with his ten-incher, another guy feeding his cock into her mouth, muffling her moans even as her ruby lips parted willingly, eagerly even, to suck the glistening fuckpole.
I slammed the cover of my laptop down, the snap a vicious crack in the silence of my office. I didn't need to see more. Everything I'd believed about the girl was true, and then some. Not only did Jenna lie by omission, but the omission had been greater than what I'd believed.
Sure there were the nude photos, but a lot of starlets do that shit when they're young and penniless. They don't know any better, they're victims of predatory photographers, guys who convince teens to take it off, blowing compliments to make the girls feel better.
Little do the girls realize but those photos last forever and the rights are almost impossible to buy back. Look at Jennifer Lawrence and Ariana Grande. Their phones had been hacked and private photos released, with the only recourse being a lawsuit to end the ordeal.
But this was a thousand times worse. This video hadn't been taken from Jenna's private stash. These weren't personal sex tapes, for a special someone's eyes only. This was full-on porn for an audience, professionally produced with cameramen, lighting, a director, marketing, advertising, all that shit.
"Get me press relations," I growled into my phone. And I was immediately connected to Harold Komansky, head of PR.
"Rafe, get a load of that Jenna Walsh video," he crowed after picking up. "She's one hot babe but so dumb! What was she thinking, making a dirty gangbang like this? How much do you think she was paid? Shit, wasn't she a law student at the time or something? Man, this makes no sense but at least her pussy is gorgeous, as beautiful as the girl herself."
All the words I'd been planning to say flew out of my mind.
"Do not, DO NOT, talk about Jenna Walsh that way," I roared into the phone. "She is a human being who's made bad decisions so look away from that pussy, that's not your fucking business."
"Geez boss, I'm sorry," mumbled my PR man. "I mean, I knew you dated her for a while but all the tabloids said it was over, that you ghosted her leaving her high and dry. I didn't think it mattered … I'm real sorry, boss."
I could hardly stop myself from reaching through the phone to strangle this dude, he was so fucking clueless and inept. The debacle mattered because Jenna was still in contract to Levast, still modeling clothes for our stable of designers, showing up at promo events and the like. But I just couldn't bear the thought of another man seeing that beautiful snatch, seeing the sweet way she moaned, her boobs swaying as she took dick up her ass.
"Shut the fuck up," I said furiously. "Draft a press release announcing Levast's termination of the Walsh contract for breach. Send it up here the moment you're done."
"Sure boss," replied Harold tremulously. "Do I still have a job after all this is over? I swear I didn't know," he said, his voice wavering.
"Shut the fuck up, just do it," I raged again before slamming down the receiver. I cursed myself for hiring that nincompoop but my anger was misdirected at Harold. The problem was Jenna, the girl still ruled my mind although I'd cut her off.
How could she have? How could she have betrayed me, her career, and most of all, herself by doing this video? Was there more film out there? I shook my head, the red still blurring my vision, making the air in my lungs catch, breathing painfully difficult.
I'd never been affected by a woman like this and cursed myself. Get it together Rafe, I snarled internally. She's a manipulative slut, just leave it at that.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jenna
I was sobbing on my sister's couch, the damask material darkening with my tears.
"I don't know how this could have happened," I cried, my voice muffled by a decorative pillow. "I can't understand what's happened."
"Jenna," said my twin quietly. "What don't you understand? You did some porn and now that you're famous, people have taken an interest. The porn's always been out there, just no one realized it was you."
"No, it's not me!" I wailed. "I never did porn, it's someone who looks like me with blonde hair and blue eyes, but it's not me!"