A Moment of Truth
Erebus
The man they knew as Erebus collected his clothes, taking one last look at the room and sleeping couple. Empty bottles and leather items of clothing were still strewn around. The short dark hair of the man and long black hair of the woman intermingled on their shared pillow as she lay spooned by her lover. The night of passion and her content evident in her sleeping smile.
No matter – he was finished for the evening and his instructions were to be gone before the couple awoke. He didn’t think his shower had taken long, but clearly long enough for them to fall asleep.
Quietly closing the door behind him, and not for the first time he wondered. How did his life come to this? As a leading finance analyst, he had the job, the salary, car, mortgage on an inner city apartment and any girl he wanted. All gone with a couple of ill-timed trades. Using the firm’s money and losing his own in a gamble that didn’t pay off.
Waiting for the lift, he remembered the weeks of running out of money, losing his home and still walking away with a mountain of debt. Unemployed, and unemployable in the financial industry, he finally accepted the offer of a former colleague asking him to help out and as a stripper for her sister’s hen’s night.
“C’mon,” she simpered. “What have you got to lose, let women pay to use you,” she suggested when he asked her for help getting a real job.
“Nah, wouldn’t be right.”
“E, you need the money, right? No one is knocking down your door with a job. Turn up, shake that dirty blonde hair, feel her up – better still let her fingers count your abs.” She ran her fingers down his chest, only stopping at the zip. “I’ve waited for years to see what you are packing. This is one way of making me pay for the privilege.”
The first gig had been eye-opening. Flirting with the bride-to-be, flirting with her friends. The desire in his ex-colleague’s eyes as he stripped down to a g-string before the offer to make more for a private performance. When he politely turned her down, she booked him again for another friend’s event. Then the money and offers flooded his way.
No longer able to use his brain to make money, his body stepped up to the task. Within weeks, he had a full diary and almost earned the same sort of money he did from trading. But night after night performing the same routine to the same songs became boring. He couldn’t imagine stripping long enough to clear his debts and those of his parents who had trusted him.
“You looked good up there,” a guest at one of his shows offered him his towel and a bottle of water.
“Thanks,” the hardest part of his job was the get-away. The more he insisted on not sleeping with clients, the harder they tried.
“How would you like to earn double, and there is no dancing involved?”
“I don’t offer full service,” shame, because if he did she would be the easiest money ever.
“I’m not asking you to sleep with me,” she leaned in, giving him full view of what she had on offer. “I want to pay you to watch my partner fuck me.”
That got his attention and a new career. Once a week, his new client paid for him to watch her and her partner engage in whatever they wanted to in the bedroom.
The rules were simple. Never a full service. The only touching was with women. Never use his real name.
Usually, his only role was to be in the same room and watch the couple try to outperform each other, be a witness to their inhibitions. Occasionally he offered “stimulation” for the female while her partner recovered.
Once his number started being passed around, he invested money in outfits, including a mask. Amongst the wealthy, Sydney remained a small town and the last thing he needed or wanted was for people from his old life seeing him use his body or even worse, judge him.
He could handle the women – in a way he became the perfect man. Ready to make them feel young, sexy and incredibly desirable. They adored him while he lay back and counted the dollars. No, the women were never going to be a problem – it was their partners. He never wanted to see pity or worse, recognition, in the men’s eyes. In a strange twist of fate, it was men like his former colleagues who became his most profitable clients – only able to perform under extreme pressure.
Proof yet again last evening - there was nothing like having a young, well hung and muscled man in the room to keep a wife or girlfriend aroused and the man determined to perform.
Last night was intense – more intense than usual. Jade and Derek arrived fighting over the amount of time Derek spent with his wife and children. Jade couldn’t hide her jealousy, demanding more from Derek that he was either unable or unwilling to give. They fought until Erebus finished getting dressed into his leather “man-dog” outfit and entered the room.
“She’s being impossible,” Derek declared. “I don’t want to spend my night dealing with a sulky child. Get her in the mood.”
Erebus knew it wouldn’t take much – they had been playing this game for months now. What started off with him watching from across the room turned into him running his tongue up her leg to now when Derek and more importantly, Jade trusted him to do anything to her. Not ever being able to fulfil themselves, the anticipation of playing “almost” had her eyes glazing over as he drew her near.
The almond eyes, black hair and calm gaze. The lips gently moistened, waiting for him to make the move. She stretched out, pointing her breasts towards him, ready for whatever his imagination desired. Wanting to punish Derek by showing him how quickly Erebus could change her mood.
Erebus never had sex with clients – and with the one-off’s he never even wanted to. But after playing with Jade for months, he would give almost anything to not hold back. Finish the job and finally go home as satisfied as his clients.
The problem began when he started seeing Jade as a woman instead of a client. Short bursts of conversation while they waited for Derek and he knew the smart wit, the kind heart and her ambitions. Knowing her as a person made it harder for him to ignore how Derek treated her. Yes, he was married but she didn’t deserve to have it rubbed in her face all the time. Whenever she stood her ground or showed anything other than the face of a perfect girlfriend, Derek threw out the line, “If I wanted to be spoken to like that, I could have stayed home with my wife.”
Damn him, didn’t he realize Jade gave up a different life to be part of Derek’s. Instead of accepting the young, beautiful and sexually vibrant woman in his bed, he insisted on playing head games. Wanting to keep her under his control.
He grimaced, remembering how Derek used him to turn Jade on, before blaming her for her own desire. Deep down, Erebus sensed the anger growing within the older man. Anger that he, Erebus, could out-perform and outlast him in and out of the bedroom. For all his wealth and power, Derek wasn’t as young as he used to be. The effort of maintaining and satisfying two women – especially one as hot and energetic as Jade – was not easy.
Time to walk away from this business and life. Find some sense of normality.
In the foyer, Erebus checked his online banking and couldn’t hide his relief. The payment for tonight landed in his account and now he had no debt and even saved enough to buying a small property outright. Not in the city – he couldn’t wait to escape from the city.
No, he’d buy a house in in the country and never again be beholden to the whims of others.
“Erebus,” he turned as Jade ran into his arms. Hair still tussled and with a shirt barely buttoned over her shorts. “Please, I need to explain about last night.”
“It’s fine – as long as you are,” he tried to let her go.
“I’m always okay when you are around,” she looked around at the concierge trying not to notice or judge them. “I mean, whenever you are around, it’s easier for him to make me happy.” He couldn’t look at her without remembering. His head between her legs. Her cries for more. Those perfect breasts demanding for attention. Only for it to end with him sent away and her lover to take over.
“That’s why I want you to move into the spare room. I’d be a good flat mate and between the hours you and I work we would never see each other.”
This time she let him release her as he shook his head, “I can’t, and you know I can’t so please stop asking. You know it’d only complicate things.”
“Really?” Those big innocent eyes. She either didn’t know or didn’t understand her own body.
“Jade, if I moved in that boyfriend of yours would become possessive of you and would start thinking that we were more than what he’d be comfortable with.”
Jade smiled and fingered the sole button hiding her breasts, “He wouldn’t be wrong, now would he. You move in and either he leaves his wife and kicks you out or we have so much fun together I stop caring about his wife.” Erebus smiled, the girl knew exactly what she was doing, wanting to use him in a different way and without him getting any reward.
“You, my love, are playing a very dangerous game,” he kissed her chastely on her cheek, “Now go back upstairs and lie beside your man before he realizes you followed me. It’s late and you never know your luck – he might be ready for you again.”
As he watched her walk away, the emptiness in his soul screamed to be filled. It was time to think about his exit strategy and move onto a life with more meaning.
The train timetable hadn’t been designed for night workers. Especially night workers who needed to travel from one side of the city to the other.
It was almost dawn by the time Erebus opened the door to his tiny bedsit. He spent every dollar earned in the last four years on clearing debts, invested in the clothes for “work”, or savings. No more wasting money to rent a fancy address or drive a current model sports car. He even made his own gym equipment from left over items from construction sites. Ironic, really, most woman wanted him dressed as either the hunky tradesman or a masked stranger in their bedroom. Little did they know the only “honorable” money he made came from laboring and using the skills honed from years working on his father’s building sites.
No woman ever spent time in his bedsit, not that there was room for two. What woman would allow her man to do the things he did? Any woman who would put up with him as a partner was not the sort of woman he wanted.
He needed another shower before bed. Long and hot enough to clear his head. The past four years had done the job financially and it was time to start planning for what’s next. The online ad that fascinated him for weeks was still live. Yes, that’s it!
It took an hour to clear his schedule for five free days and he knew exactly how and where to spend them.