Page 24 of Felix

Alex snickers. “Same diff.”

Kipp rolls his eyes before giving me a smile. “Hey. Nice to meet you.”

“You, too,” I answer. “Is Emil here yet?”

“In the locker room,” Alex says.

I thank him and head that way, leaving Alex and Kipp to whatever they’re in cahoots over. When I push the door to the locker room open, I find Emil seated inside on a bench. I’m not at all surprised to see a textbook on his lap, but the sight still makes me chuckle.

Emil looks up, huffing a self-conscious laugh before shutting his book.

“Studying?” I ask.

“Shocking, right?”

“Quite,” I tease.

I walk slowly past the bank of lockers until I find the one labeled “Vixen.” A smile pulls at my lips as I trace the letters with my fingertip. When I turn Emil’s way, I catch his eyes darting down my body before he looks away.

Mm. Would it be wrong of me to ask what he was looking at just to see his blush again?

Probably.

“So, ready to go to bed with me?” I ask instead, taking a seat beside him.

Aaand there’s that blush anyway. Oops?

“Yeah. Uh. Yep,” he says.

I keep my grin to myself. “Have any tips for me?”

His eyes widen. “Tips?”

“For being in front of the cameras,” I say, wondering where, precisely, his mind went. “Anything I should know so I don’t mess up filming?”

“Oh.” He huffs a laugh, nudging his glasses. “Yeah, um… You’ll want to be aware of where the cameramen are. Keep yourself angled toward the wide shot, and if you’re, like, going down on someone, tilt your head a bit so your face is in view.”

Well, damn. There’s a picture.

“And normally, I’d say don’t look at the cameras,” he adds. “But in this case, I think we’re supposed to. But, um, also look at me a lot because people like to see that.”

“That I can do,” I say easily.

“Um, good,” he mutters. “Yeah, so that’s pretty much it. But don’t worry too much about getting everything right. Jerome won’t expect you to have it all figured out the first couple times, and he or Nathaniel will tell you if you need to make adjustments.”

“You really like it here, huh?”

I can tell from his tone. Emil speaks about the people here with a sort of fond familiarity that’s usually reserved for family, not coworkers.

“I do,” he answers. “I know what a lot of people think about sex workers. But the people here…they’re good. And I don’t think sex is something to be ashamed about. I might have my hang-ups, but that’s not one of them.”

I’m tempted to ask what his hang-ups are, but I refrain. “I agree. Sex can be an amazing experience. I think, for some, powerful even.”

He nods. “Yeah, um… Yeah.”

“What?” I ask, having a feeling he was going to say something else.

“I just—I figured you were pretty open-minded about it considering, well, the first thing you ever told me was to leave my curtains open so you could watch me jerk off.”

---