Page 41 of Broken Rules

“Y-yesss,” I moaned out, turning my head to find his mouth.His tongue touched mine, playful, teasing, stroking in time with his impossibly thick cock.I couldn’t take it.It was all too much.Too good.

“And are you gonna come for me while all those people are down there?”he asked, covering my mouth, plunging his tongue inside, making it so I could only moan my response.

I was going to come, and it was going to be massive.The tension built, tightening my muscles, tightening me around him.

“Shit… you’re gonna make me come…” he whispered, moving faster, harder, our bodies slapping together until there was nothing for me to do but howl, lost in release, lost in sensation, lost in him.I was lost in everything about him and the world he was showing me—a world I wanted so much to be part of.

I shouted it all out, my head tilted back, my eyes open to stare up at the night sky.By the time he finished and pulled out, I was weak, spent.Happy.Genuinely happy.

What if this was it?What if we could be something together?Because I wasn’t sure I would be able to give him up when this was all over.

“I’d suggest we take a swim to cool off now,” he murmured, kissing my cheek and stepping back.“But I’m fucking starving.How about we test the food?”

Like I would’ve said no to anything he suggested at a moment like that.“We have all night, right?”I reminded him with a grin.

17

LEX

It was easy to understand why Dad used to get so frazzled and distant when one of his films was coming close to the finish line.

If it weren’t for my phone being on me at all times, I would forget what day it was.I’d sat in more meetings over the past two weeks than I ever remember sitting through in all the years since I started working with the company.To think, I got bored out of my mind going through budget meetings and such—the shit work Dad used to assign me.

At these meetings, people looked at me for answers, confirmation, or the go-ahead to keep moving in one direction or another.When I wasn’t sitting in conference rooms or on Zoom, I was crunching numbers, researching tactics to get this movie in front of as many people as possible.‘Good enough’ wouldn’t be enough this time around.We had to crush all expectations.Dad’s methods might have worked back in the old days, but in a world of digital distractions, what mattered was rising above the noise.

“If the studio were mine, my first act would be to replace all the older staff in the promotions department.”I pulled off my tie and tossed it onto an armchair just inside my bedroom door.It was past ten o’clock, and I had just gotten home after a stuffy business dinner.There had been countless nights in the past when I hadn’t gotten home until nearly dawn, and I never felt this exhausted.Was I turning into an old man before my time?

“Wow,” Summer murmured on the other end of the call.“That sounds terrible.What’s the age cut-off going to be?Forty?Fifty?What are you going to do to the people then?Drive them out to a farm where they can play with all the other people you put out to pasture for being too old?”

Now that she put it that way, my idea soured.“I’m not saying I would fire them,only that I might reassign them somewhere in the company.Same pay, if not more.It’s not even a matter of age,” I concluded, dropping to the bed to take off my shoes.

“What is it, then?”She was back at her apartment after a long day of her own.That was all we had in front of us from now until the premiere in four weeks.Long days.Connecting over the phone was the safest way to spend time with her lately.

“The ability to be flexible,” I replied as I started unbuttoning my shirt.“A guy may be seventy years old, and it wouldn’t matter so long as he was willing to keep up with current practices.I don’t care what worked back in the eighties or nineties.That was a different world.”

“I guess it’s not easy for people to let go of what has worked for them for so long.I mean, look at your dad.”

Like I needed her to remind me of him.My teeth ground together at the thought.“That’s not the same.He thinks he knows everything, anyway.It wouldn’t matter how old he was.”

“I know, but he’s coming around.He likes what we did with the movie, and let’s face it.Landry International hasn’t put out anything like this in a long, long time.Something with action and a plot, you know?He’s adjusting.”

I would let her hold onto her illusions.There was no use correcting her just so I could say I was right.“I know.That’s true.”

“Can I ask you something?”I heard the water running on her end.It was nice to imagine her puttering around, making herself tea or whatever it was she was doing.A distraction from the responsibilities of the day.“Before, you said if you ever owned the studio… something close to that, anyway.What do you mean if?I thought that was the assumed outcome.”

I froze halfway through, pulling the shirt from my waistband.“Did I say it that way?”

“You did.How come?”

“Freudian slip?”When she didn’t laugh, I gave up the act.“To be honest with you, I’ve never seen myself in his position.”

“You’re kidding!Why did you never say that?”

“It never came up,” I pointed out.“And it isn’t the end of the world.”

“What would you do otherwise?”She made it sound like the most unbelievable concept ever.“Well, I guess you wouldn’t need to work, really…”

It was a relief to be free of what had felt like a straitjacket all day.I left the shirt and pants to be picked up for dry cleaning before sliding into a pair of soft shorts.“I would still be here, at the studio.But I’m more interested inmakingmovies.Not sitting behind a desk, trying to figure out how to squeeze another dime out of the budget.I’d want to be the person behind the camera if possible.”

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