The Virgin and the Billionaires: The Complete Series (11 page)

William cleared his throat.
“I see some friends of mine standing in the corner. You should come meet them.”

Dana obliged and followed
William to the corner of the yard, where a group of well-dressed women and men
were standing and laughing by a poolside waterfall.

William approached them and
they all fawned over him as he greeted them one by one. He introduced them to
Dana as childhood friends.

“We were in the same
graduating class at Harvard-Westlake. Darren and I were on varsity crew
together,” he said, pointing to a tall, lean man with broad shoulders.

“It’s nice to meet you
all.”

They had barely begun to
chitchat with William’s high school friends when a middle-aged man in a white
blazer clasped William’s shoulder with a firm hand. William turned around and,
upon recognizing him, gave the man a genteel hug.

“Chris! Nice to see you.”

“Likewise, William. Glad
you could make it.” He seemed to ignore Dana.

William noticed Chris’ snub
and introduced Dana as his guest.

“Chris, this is Dana
Jacobs.”

 
“I’m so sorry,” Chris replied. “It’s nice
to meet you.”

“Dana is the new assistant
staff photographer at SoCal Style. She’s the one who photographed us.”

Chris’ eyes widened as he
gave Dana a once-over. “Oh, really? Wow. Seeing your work inspired me to get in
touch with these guys. You did a great job on that shoot.”

“Thank you,” Dana replied
politely.

Mr. Stone laughed
uncomfortably. “It seems that you have come to the right party. Perhaps I’ll
introduce you to some friends of mine later.” He sounded apologetic. “Make
yourself at home. Have a look around if you’d like.”

William became engrossed in
some small talk with Chris. Dana took the chance to stray away for a moment and
take in the rest of the house. After deciding that she wasn’t ready to take on
the west wing, she sauntered over to the east wing, drink in hand. There, she
discovered the master suite. She enjoyed visualizing herself occupying the
room: using the enormous closet to organize her oversized shoe collection,
soaking in the Jacuzzi after a long day of shooting, sprawling out in the king size
bed.

As she made her way back
into the kitchen, she was greeted by Mr. Stone.

“Dana, how would you like
to meet some of my colleagues?”

“I’d love to,” Dana said,
sensing the guilt he still felt for snubbing her.

Chris ushered her out of
the kitchen, past the busy caterers, and to a small table at the edge of the
swimming pool. He accepted a martini from one of the servers before he sat
down, handing Dana one as he did.

“Do you like Martinis?” he
asked.

Dana nodded. “These drinks
are so strong! I don’t know if I should.”

“Nonsense,” he replied.
“You’ll probably be way better off later on than most of the lushes here.” He
gave her a cheesy wink.

Mr. Stone moved closer to
the table and got everyone’s attention. Dana noticed a familiar face among the
group: Bela, the model she had enjoyed shooting earlier that week. She seemed
to be enjoying herself, laughing loudly and speaking in a thicker accent than
Dana remembered. Bela noticed her too.

“Oh my, it’s Dana!” she
shouted loudly, before Mr. Stone had had a chance to introduce her to everyone
else at the table. Bela stood and hopped over to Dana on her mountainous
platform shoes, locking her in an embrace.

Dana smiled awkwardly but
was endeared. She hugged her back.

“Everybody, this is Dana. I
just shot with her last week and she is a wonderful, talented photographer.”

The men and women at the
table smiled and nodded.

“Who do you shoot for?” an
older man in glasses asked her.

“I’m the assistant staff
photographer at SoCal Style.”

“For how long?” he
continued.

“Since September.”

“And where were you before
that?”

“It’s my first job?” Dana,
unsure, responded as if she were asking a question.

“And you’ve already shot
Bela Tarasova?”

Dana’s face reddened. Bela
flashed a beaming grin.

“Fantastic,” the man in
glasses exclaimed. “I’m Eddie Figueroa, fashion editor at
Modern Man
.” What brings you to this party, of all parties?” Eddie
sipped a martini.

“Another one of my former
models, William Levy, invited me.”

Eddie and the others raised
their eyebrows slightly.

“That money guy? Crazy.
Well – are you enjoying yourself?”

“Yes, quite. I can’t get
over the serving staff,” Dana said with a playful tone.

“We fashion types like our
parties a little wilder than average.”

“But don’t go back into the
west wing unless you want a
really
crazy
time.” A man in a tweed suit and tie chimed in.

“Yeah, avoid that if you’re
not one for surprises,” Eddie agreed.

All of these people
refusing to tell her what was going on at this ‘crazy’ second party only made
Dana more curious.

“What could possibly be so
crazy back there?” she asked. “If you guys think that I didn’t try –”
Dana lowered her voice. “…
grass
– in college, don’t fool yourself.”

The table burst out
laughing. “Oh, it’s
nothing
like
that,” tweed guy replied.

Dana was enjoying her conversation
with Bela and her friends. When she saw that Mr. Stone had gone off to chat up
a leggy blonde by the dessert table, Dana settled in and enjoyed another round
of drinks with the table.

Later, Dana excused herself
from the fashion table to find a bathroom. She looked around for William and
saw him schmoozing with some older businessmen. She thought it best to leave
him alone.

The only unoccupied
bathroom was on the precipice of the house’s west wing. As Dana emerged, she
noticed Bela heading toward the closed door at the end of the hallway. Feeling
giddy, Dana called out to her.

Bela turned around. “Dana!
Come with me.”

“I wonder what could really
be so crazy back there. Do you know?”

Bela nodded. “You’ll see.
Just come with me!”

“Okay,” Dana laughed and
scampered toward Bela.

Bela shot Dana a cheeky
grin as she opened the door. The two headed together down another long
corridor. Dana could hear music and voices coming from another shut door on the
right side of the hallway. As they got closer, the voices amplified. Dana heard
a series of familiar but out-of-place noises.

Was that
moaning
she heard? But it sounded like
more than two people!

Bela giggled as she opened
the door. Dana’s jaw nearly hit the floor as she stifled a gasp.

In the large, dimly lit
bedroom were another twenty people – including some of the girls she had
seen serving drinks and hors d’oeuvres earlier – in various states of
undress.

Dana cautiously followed
Bela inside, soaking in the sight of people fucking roughly and sensuously all
around her. There were several beds lining the room’s perimeter, each occupied
by a couple or group. The two men on the bed closest to Dana were sucking each
other off slowly and sensuously, while the group on the bed next to them was
gently teasing each other with feathers.

Most of the room’s
occupants were gathered in the middle of the room, standing around a central
object. Dana went closer to their huddle and peeked her head in between the
shoulders of two spectators.

What she saw shocked her.
Two men were kneeling on an elevated mattress, ravaging one of the skimpily
dressed waitresses. One was standing, thrusting his cock in and out of her
mouth as she knelt over on the mattress. The other man fucked her from behind,
pulling her hair and forcing her to arch her back as she pleasured the first
man. Both men were completely nude, exposing their sculpted bodies to the
spectators entirely.

The girl let out stifled
whimpers as she continued to receive her partners’ lengths. The tassels on her
breasts swayed like pendulums as she bounced around with no sense of control.
Dana gazed at the people standing next to her, sipping drinks and touching each
other erotically.

What am I doing here?
she thought.
I’ve seen enough.
Feeling overwhelmed, Dana turned around and left
the west wing.

An unusual feeling swelled
up inside of Dana. Free from the bizarre scene she had just witnessed, she
suddenly realized that William must have known exactly what was going on in the
back. How could he have invited her to a party like this, and under the
pretense of something that was for her professional benefit? Dana was livid.
The liquid courage she had mustered compelled her back out to the patio and
over to William, who was finishing a conversation on his cell phone. His smug expression
turned to concern as he noticed Dana’s affect.

“You knew what was going on
in the back! How could you bring me to a party like
this
?” Dana half whispered, half shouted at William.

“So you went to the west
wing.”

“Yes! What the hell was
that?”

 
William lowered his voice. “Chris has
been throwing these parties for years. Most of the people here know what’s
going on and
choose
not to
participate!”

“That doesn’t answer my
question as to why you brought
me
here.”

“I brought you because this
is exactly the crowd you need to hang with if you want to move up in your
profession. You don’t have to participate in the crazy stuff – you just
need to accept that it exists and see these people for what they are: excellent
people to have in your Rolodex.”

Dana couldn’t believe what
she was hearing.
These
people?

“This is a reality of the
world you chose to live in when you took your job,” William continued. “These
people have ridiculous amounts of money and are constantly surrounded by the
most beautiful people in the world. Of course they are going to engage in
debauchery and things that the rest of the world finds unsavory.”

Dana’s eyes didn’t blink.
She couldn’t believe that William was really saying that drunken orgies were as
normal in the fashion world as a Sunday church service in Chico.

“If you were a rock star,
you’d expect drinking and, um –” He struggled for the right word. “…
unorthodox
sex to be a part of your
everyday life, right?”

Dana pondered this. “Well,
yes.”

“The fashion world is not
much different. Neither is any other major industry in this town.”

Dana wondered how she could
have been so naïve.

“Welcome to LA. This is
what it’s like in the big leagues.” William lowered his voice again. “You don’t
have to participate in the seedier parts if that’s not your thing, but you will
have to interact with and befriend people who do. Businesses like ours require
a thick skin.”

“Wait – finance is
like this, too?”

“Where there’s money,
there’s debauchery.” William took a large sip of his Scotch.

Dana relaxed a little and
decided that sometimes it was best
not
to
indulge curiosity. Yet she couldn’t help but ask William’s take on it all.

“Would
you
ever do something like that?”

William blushed and changed
the subject. “How are you feeling otherwise?”

“Um, good. A little tipsy.
I think I may have had enough for tonight. Only so much a girl can take in one
night, you know.”

“Yes, I understand. I can
call you a car if you would like. I have some important business to discuss
with the gentleman over there.” He pointed to one of the suited men he was
talking to earlier. “I’m sorry that I can’t ride home with you. If you stay for
another hour or so, we could leave together.”

“I’d rather not. I’m pretty
exhausted.”

“I’ll have my car come by
in a few minutes. Thank you for coming out with me. Perhaps we can do it again
soon – in a tamer setting, if you’d prefer.” William hugged Dana and
kissed her cordially on the check.

“Yes,” she said, drawing
herself away and looking directly at William. “Until next time.” She smiled and
made her way out to the front of the expansive house. As she waited for the
cab, her phone lit up.

If you ever need anything, you can reach me at (310) 555-8753. Get home
safe.
 
– W.

***

Dana woke up the next
morning feeling refreshed. To keep herself occupied until she needed to start
getting ready for her date with Alexander, she continued sprucing up her
apartment, giving it a thorough scrubdown and arranging some furniture she had
ordered. The solitude gave her plenty of time to think.