‘Alright my love, thanks for everything,’ Howard said, patting her arse.
‘Are you going?’ Scott asked.
‘Yes, why do you want a lift somewhere?’ Pamela asked. The very notion of leaving his girlfriend alone with me and Howard seemed to horrify Scott, who denied he was going anywhere.
‘Right then,’ Howard said, clapping his hands. ‘Shall we get started?’
Zoe took the frillies we’d picked out for her and disappeared back into the dressing room to put them on, which disappointed and confused me a little, then ten minutes later she emerged looking so gut-wrenchingly sexy that I would’ve happily killed everyone else in the room if she’d given me the nod.
Now that was a woman, I thought to myself, my tongue lolling out of my head. I tried not to make it too obvious and stare at her, but then suddenly remembered I was a professional and, as such, was allowed to stare as much as I liked. So I did, and almost wore out my corneas in the process. I’d never really been a lingerie fan or anything like that before, but seeing Zoe three feet away decked out in that lacy black finery I was immediately converted. I still don’t think it suits me, but Zoe looked fantastic in it.
‘My God,’ I kept muttering under my breath. ‘My God.’
What must’ve been going on in boyfriend Scott’s head I could only imagine. Here was his girlfriend, probably looking more stunning than he’d ever seen her before, and he was sharing the moment with two other geezers. What sort of inner conflict must that stir up?
‘Shall we get you on the bed then darling?’ Howard said, popping my intense concentration. ‘Alright, come around here,’ he said, guiding her into position and moving her this way and that with his great sticky paws. Zoe didn’t seem to mind and co-operated like a shop dummy but Scott’s face was a picture, especially when Howard took a light reading off her tits.
‘So, er, so have you done many of these?’ a voice asked behind me. It was Scott, he’d wandered over to make conversation but he was still watching Zoe and Howard like a hawk. As was I.
‘Oh yeah, they’re nothing, just work to me these days,’ I lied.
‘Do they take long? I mean, what’s going to happen? I mean...’
‘Oh, it’s nothing, just the usual old routine,’ I reassured him. ‘Striptease and sex toys, that sort of thing.’
‘No one said anything to me about sex toys,’ he protested, which was a coincidence because no one had said anything to me about sex toys either. I’d just decided to throw that in for a laugh to see the look on his face. It was great.
‘Well we’ll see,’ I told him and moved closer to the set for a better view. Scott followed me step for step, unwilling to leave my side.
‘Okay, and big smile,’ Howard told her, looking through the viewfinder. ‘Come on now, say “cheese”…’ – which she did and SNAP. ‘Now say “big cock please”…’ which again she did and SNAP. ‘Now “hot jizz please”…’ SNAP. ‘Now “spank me please”…’ SNAP, etc. Howard carried on this way for several minutes while he snapped off a roll of cover shots of Zoe in various poses, pulling various faces. He could’ve just got her to say ‘cheese’ or ‘please’ or just asked her to smile, I suppose, but it was funny the way he kept coming up with something new each time and soon we were all laughing and a little more at ease with each other, which I guess was the point.
Actually, to say we were all laughing wasn’t exactly true. One of us looked fit to bust and you ain’t going to win a bun for guessing who.
‘So, what did you do before you worked on this?’ Scott asked, distracting me from his girlfriend, who was just about to start losing her clothes.
‘Oh you know, not a lot...’ I said, trailing off as one of the straps fell down around her shoulders.
‘So how did you get into doing this then? Did you go to college?’ Scott tried again, but I wasn’t biting.
‘Yeah, something like that,’ I replied.
‘And so, I mean, if I wanted a job on your magazine, how would I go about it?’
‘I don’t know,’ I told him, as all of a sudden one of Zoe’s nipples hoved into view.
I can’t tell you what a feeling of exhilaration I felt as that first little bud broke from ground. It was like... like... like... well the only way I can describe it is like this; you know that bit in Jaws, when Roy Scheider’s on the beach and he sees that little kid eaten on the lilo and the camera rushes into his face? That sudden surging realisation. Well, it was like that. A kind of, ‘Oh my God, this is really happening. She’s going to get it all out with me standing right here and nobody in the world can do anything about it.’
Fantastic.
And it’s a different sort of rush from when you take a bird home and she gets her kit off for the first time because there was no connection between me and Zoe, no relationship. She was just doing it, I was just watching. This was all purely voyeuristic, which I guess, in a nutshell, is what pornography is all about. It’s seeing something you have no right to see. It’s like seeing up some girl’s skirt on the bus or accidentally wandering into the women’s changing rooms at your local swimming baths. It’s a taboo pleasure. It’s like, say for example, if you’ve got a neighbour that you really fancy and one night she invites you in for a coffee and you end up in bed together. Well that’s all great and good but doesn’t it feel naughtier, more taboo, when you’re standing on her garage roof in the middle of the night watching her with binoculars?
Well, that’s what I think anyway.
So there it was, first one, then the other, separated only by the sounds of Howard’s shutter snapping open and shut and my swallowing.
Zoe gradually peeled the lacy basque away to reveal her bangers in all their glory (and a fine pair she had too) before going to work losing her stockings.
‘So, I mean, how long have you been doing this?’ Scott tried again, his voice now a little wobbly.
‘Look, sorry mate, I don’t mean to be short with you or anything but I am trying to work here,’ I said and went back to my silent vigil.
Scott looked around the studio, searching for what, I don’t know, but he seemed to look absolutely everywhere except at his slowly undressing girlfriend.
‘That’s it now, peel each stocking off and make out as if you’re going to flick them off the end of your toes,’ Howard was saying. ‘That’s it, that’s beautiful. You’re a natural. Isn’t this fun?’ Zoe giggled in agreement and I emitted a guttural grunt, but Scott didn’t seem to have anything to say on the matter and had disappeared off behind me somewhere, much to my relief.
‘That’s wonderful, hold that. Yep, now legs apart, really thrust forward. Oh, I say, that’s superb...’ SNAP SNAP SNAP. Howard stopped for a moment and looked up from behind the camera. ‘Darling. Honey, all your hair’s hanging down in your eyes. No dear, just leave it. Godfrey will get it.’ Then he turned to me. ‘God’, give her a hand tidying her hair behind her ears will you?’
Oh man, this was just getting better and better.
I moved forward while Zoe lay in position, now only her knickers in place, and gently brushed her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ears. As I did so she looked up and gave me a smile that almost had her eye out. At that moment she was the most sexually-charged woman on the planet and had we been alone I would’ve given her the best five seconds of her life.
‘Thank you Godfrey,’ Zoe grinned and I mumbled something along the lines of, ‘not at all, my pleasure’.
‘Okay then sweetheart, a couple more in that last pose then I want you to start pulling your pants down...’ Howard started to say but this was about all Scott could take. He burst forward out of nowhere, held his hand up in front of the camera and seized Zoe by the arm.