“I’m fine,” I assured him again. “It’s unexpected, but it’s not a deal breaker.”
Lukas’s gaze was heavy with skepticism, but he eventually nodded. Then he seemed almost amused. “I’m happy to hear that.”
He got up from the chair and went back to the coffee pot and finished filling it with water. He carefully measured out the grounds then powered it on.
“I guess I can skip the questions I had planned to ask about any influences you had as a child that inspired you to go into acting.”
A laugh erupted out of him, and the tension in the room seemed to break and fall away. Lukas had a beautiful laugh, andthe relief in his expression didn’t go unnoticed. This was likely the reason he’d had so much trouble finding a suitable candidate for the job.
“Fucking Thurston.” Lukas shook his head. He added a spoon of sugar to one of the coffees and brought it to me. “I can’t believe he didn’t tell you.”
“Well,” I began, searching my brain for possible explanations for Thurston’s subterfuge. Lara Croft came shuffling into the room. She moved like a ninety-year-old. I was only a little surprised when she walked straight over to me and dropped her head into my lap. Two brown eyes looked up at me, and my heart melted. “Oh, God, does she always look sad?”
Lukas rolled his eyes. “She’s also an actor. She’s good at finding the soft-hearted ones and milking them for all the attention she can. I can tell her to lay down if you want.”
“She’s fine. It’s her house.” I combed my fingers through her thick fur. “I never had a dog.”
“Every kid needs a pet. Did you have a cat?”
I looked at Lukas and raised an eyebrow. “A cat? And risk the furniture? Perish the thought. My father had a fish tank in his office. A huge saltwater set-up, and I think he loved those fish more than he loved my brother and me.” I winced at the overshare. “Sorry, we’re here to talk about your childhood, not mine.”
Lukas didn’t seem to mind that I’d gone off on a tangent and rambled about my own trauma. If you could call it that. It didn’t feel traumatic. My parents were workaholic overachievers who had high expectations of their offspring. I never wanted for anything. I always had food and shelter. Security. Safety. Just not love. My brother and I tried to be close, but it seemed like every time we almost bridged that gap, our parents would pit us against each other. On my lap, Lara let out a sigh.
“I know the feeling,” I whispered to her. “So. Lukas Knight. Is that your real name or is that your stage name?”
“It’s my stage name, but I don’t use my real name anymore. Only when legally obligated.”
“Since we’re under an NDA here, what is your real name?”
Lukas grinned but didn’t answer.
With a dramatic sigh, Lara lowered herself to the floor and curled up at my side. I looked down at her and smiled. Her presence made me feel like I’d won her approval, and therefore had won Lukas’s as well.
“Okay, so I’ve never written a biography before. Expect some trial and error. For now, how about we talk about what years of your life you want in the biography and the kind of tone you want. Is it like dark, or hopeful, or funny? That kind of thing.”
“Well, I thought biographies were about someone’s whole life.”
“That can be the case, but sometimes people focus on a specific time period in their life. They might give some broad strokes back story as to the events that led up to the period of time they want to highlight. If someone wants to talk about, say, their time as a soldier overseas, they might not need to spend a whole lot of time on their childhood.”
“Well, my childhood was certainly a contributing factor in my career choice. Not so much the early childhood, but the teen years were rough.”
“I think that’s true for everyone.”
“Not everyone who had it rough ends up in the adult film industry, though.”
“No, some of us end up as socially stunted writers or emotionally constipated doctors who have two settings—angry or drunk and angry.”
Lukas lifted his coffee mug and mimed clinking it against mine. “Fair enough.”
“So you want to talk a bit about your teen years and then jump into your transition from high school student to adult film actor?”
“You can say porn star, Sawyer. It’s not derogatory or anything.”
I felt my stupid cheeks turn into twin flames of mortification. “I know that.”
Willing my stupid nerves to calm down I took a shaky breath and tried again. “I imagine the bulk of the book will be about your time in the adult industry. I have to ask… are we going to get sued if you publish this?”
“I might.” Lukas laughed. “But there’s language in our contract that protects you from any lawsuits.”
