Charlie glares at me, and his swollen lips make me want to curse, but this is my fault for not securing the door better.
However, when I go to send Athena back downstairs, I find the rest of the crew waiting expectantly at the top of the stairs. They clearly don’t have the voyeuristic streak she does, but as soon as I open the door all the way, Dante makes a break for it. Pamela trots happily behind him, while Juniper trails after them, giving me her best “I tried to warn them, but what can you do?” hangdog gaze as she goes by.
The mood effectively spoiled, Charlie and I put our coats on and take the dogs out for another walk. This time I let Pamela run with the big dogs, but Athena gets to stay on the leash, against which she protests loudly before she settles in to walk calmly at Charlie’s side like the good girl we all know she really is.
As we stand at the lakeshore, Charlie takes my hand.
“Thanks,” he says.
“For what?”
His mouth quirks wryly. “For healing me with your magic dick?”
I roll my eyes. “Magic dicks only exist in porn.”
“Trust me.” He snorts. “I’m aware of how many magic dicks there are in porn. I write about them regularly.”
“You what?”
His eyes widen, like he didn’t realize what he just said until now. “I mean. Shit, I—” He kicks at a few stones on the beach. Finally, he sighs. “So I’m a freelance copywriter for porn sites. When you read the little blurbs about how Rocket Big Dick is railing Randy Cox with his massive man spear? Yeah, I write those.”
For a moment, the only sounds are the gentle panting of dogs trying to sniff all the smells and a goose whose wings slap the water as it takes off from the lake.
My instinct is to laugh, more out of shock than anything. There’s still a lot I don’t know about Charlie, and his profession is apparently one of them.
Finally, I say, “Is it hard to get work as...as a—”
“Adult content copywriter?” he asks, but his lips are trembling too.
“Yeah. That.”
He wrinkles his nose. “I work for an agency. All their clients are porn sites and sex toy manufacturers. I used to work for a different one. Their specialty was marketing for higher education. But they went under, and I needed work and saw an ad online. It pays the bills, and I’m pretty much immune to magic dicks at this point.”
Is that why he has so much trouble letting go in bed? I assumed it was all about the evil ex, but if he spends all his time breaking down the mechanics of people having sex for some viewer’s pleasure, that could mess with your head. Shame. Good porn is good.
“So you’re opposed to jerking each other off while we watch Rocket and Randy do each other?” I say, more as a joke than anything, but Charlie’s ears go screaming red and I think I’ve said the wrong thing.
“I mean,” he says quietly. “We could try.”
So here we are, back at home on my couch. The dogs are downstairs again—I’ve propped a chair under the door, just to be sure—and Charlie and I are watching a couple of guys he says he hasn’t written about do their thing while we do ours. Charlie’s got his shirt off and his pants open. He’s rocking his hips gently, which means he’s settling the wooden butt plug we found at the bottom of his gift bag more firmly into place, and his face is flushed even though I haven’t even touched him yet.
I could get used to touching him. On the screen, a bearded, tattooed man blindfolds his partner. Charlie bites his lip as he glances at me.
“We should try that,” he says, and I practically tackle him.
Overall, it’s a hell of a weekend. By the end of it, we can barely walk. Seriously. I’ve pulled something, and there’s a strange crackling sound in my knee every time I stand up. I really am not as young as I used to be.
On Sunday evening, spent, exhausted, and strangely content, I drive Charlie back into town. Athena pants happily between us, watching the road ahead like she’s expecting something exciting to come over the horizon at any moment.
I know the feeling.
Saying goodbye is strangely hard, even though nothing is stopping me from asking Charlie to get in his car and drive back out to my place. In the end though, he leans in and kisses me sweetly.
“We’ll see you soon?” he says.
“Yeah,” I say. “My schedule’s pretty free. I only had a couple clients going, and I’m sleeping with one, and the other decided it would be easier to give me her dog rather than training it and fixing her marriage, so—”
He throws his arms around my neck, kissing me feverishly, and yeah, it’s a pretty good weekend.
