Chasing Perfection: Vol. III Read online

  I didn’t realize Tracy was following me until she spoke again.

  “You can’t quit.” There was a note of desperation in her voice.

  I turned towards her, folding my arms as I waited for an explanation.

  “If you quit, I lose my job.” Tracy’s pretty face was pinched with worry. “Look, DeVon was getting rid of the low performers and that meant there were more assistants than agents. I was the next in line to go because of seniority. When he hired you, it meant there was an extra position. If you quit, that position’s gone because we both know DeVon isn’t going to hire a replacement.”

  I was trying really hard not to feel guilty, but it wasn’t working. It was obvious Tracy was sincere.

  Her blue eyes swam with tears. “Do you know how long it takes to find another position like this? If I lose this job, I’m going to lose everything. Please, Krissy.”

  I sighed, my anger at DeVon not able to hold up to my compassion for Tracy. She was the closest thing to a real friend I had out here. I couldn’t hurt her like that.

  “Okay,” I said. “I won’t quit.”

  Relief showed on her face and I gave her a tight smile. I wouldn’t quit, no matter how ignorant DeVon became. I’d prove to everyone that I wasn’t just tits and ass, that I was good at this job. Then I’d quit and take Tracy with me when I went somewhere new or, better yet, started my own company. I’d do everything in my power to make sure DeVon was sorry he’d ever started screwing with my head.

  “Oh, here.” Tracy held out a piece of paper. “Mr. Johnson’s message.”

  “Thank you.” I took it and went to my seat as Tracy returned to her desk,

  I sat down and looked at the paper in my hand. If I believed in signs, I might’ve thought this was one. Derrick was the VP over at Dreamtime and someone who I’d thought I’d been using my body to manipulate, when it turned out that he wanted to give me what I was asking for, and he hadn’t wanted my body in return. He’d wanted me to spy on DeVon. Now he was calling in that favor.

  Before, I’d been planning to give Derrick something completely false, let him follow the tip down the rabbit hole, but now, I was starting to reconsider. DeVon used people to get what he wanted. He fucked people and didn’t care who he hurt. Why shouldn’t I call Derrick and give him a run-down of everything Mirage Talent was doing?

  I sighed even as I thought it. That wasn’t me. I wasn’t the kind of person who could hurt a bunch of innocent people just to get back at one person. If I took down DeVon, Mirage Talent would crumble and everyone who worked here would be screwed. Our clients would be screwed. I couldn’t do that to any of them simply because I was pissed at DeVon for something that was partially my fault. After all, I’d been the one who’d initiated both times we’d had sex.

  No, I thought, as I picked up the phone. I wasn’t going to stoop to Derrick’s level.

  “Hello,” I said when Derrick answered the phone. Apparently, he’d left his personal number.

  “What have you learned this week?” He got right to the point, which I appreciated. I didn’t want to have to spend more time than necessary talking to him.

  I gave a couple little tidbits he could check out to make sure my info was good. Carter having two Mirage actors read for him. One of the interns fired for talking to the tabloids. Then I gave him the big lie.

  “I saw an email I wasn’t supposed to see,” I said, lowering my voice as if I was worried someone would hear me.

  “Really?” His interest sounded piqued.

  “There was a lot I didn’t understand, and I’m not sure how DeVon is involved, but I’ve been hearing things about some sort of merger between two production companies are in the works.” I paused for dramatic effect. “Dreamtime Productions is one of them.”

  Derrick swore under his breath and I knew what he was thinking. A merger like that could compromise Derrick’s position in the company. “Thank you, Ms. Jensen,” he said finally. “Keep me posted on any sort of movement on that merger.”

  “I will,” I promised.

  When I hung up, I was still furious with DeVon, but at least I didn’t have the guilt of having done something to Mirage I couldn’t forgive myself for. I was taking the high road. Aside from not feeling guilty, however, I really didn’t feel much better. If anything, the pain I’d been feeling was now mixing with my anger and making me feel worse.

  I was beginning to wish I’d never heard of Mirage Talent or DeVon Ricci.

  Chapter 4

  DEVON

  I’d woken up with a bitch of a hangover that hadn’t done anything to make me less annoyed at the prospect of seeing Krissy again. I’d come up with a plan while downing aspirin and water, and then I’d called Samantha. While not as extreme as Olive, Samantha enjoyed pain enough to do what I wanted, and she was always game for some exhibitionism.

  I’d had her strip as soon as I sent the incomplete files down to Krissy. I’d told her what to expect and that I’d keep at her until we were interrupted. She’d agreed and I’d started on her tits. By the time Krissy burst in, Samantha had already come once and was more than ready to be fucked.

  I hadn’t been able to stop myself from meeting Krissy’s eyes, wanting to see something there that indicated she was jealous, that what I was doing hurt her the way I’d been hurt when I’d caught her at Carter’s. There’d been nothing but disgust and anger, which had just pissed me off more. I brought my belt down across Samantha’s ass harder than I’d intended, but she just arched up towards me, wanting more.

  When I handed Krissy the files, it was all I could do not to grab her and kiss her. I didn’t want to fight. I didn’t want us to be angry with each other. I wanted to punish her, spank her, whip her, and fuck her until she passed out. I wanted to make her forget all about sex with Carter.

  Carter. The thought of him on top of her was enough to break me from the fantasy. I told her to get out and then offered to let her watch me fuck Samantha’s ass. That did it and Krissy walked away. I made sure the door was still open when I shoved a finger into Samantha’s ass and made her cry out.

  “Fuck my ass,” she begged, putting her cheek against the desk so that her ass stuck up even higher in the air.

  I unzipped my pants and took out my half-hard cock. Usually by the time I spanked someone for this long, I was ready to go. I stroked myself, staring at Samantha’s ass and bare pussy, trying to get myself hard. It wasn’t until my traitor mind made me picture Krissy in Samantha’s place that it started to work.

  And then the picture changed to Carter plowing into Krissy from behind, his cock disappearing into her ass...

  “Fuck it!” I yelled in frustration. I couldn’t get hard without thinking about Krissy, and I couldn’t think about her without thinking about Carter and her fucking, which made me lose my erection. It was a no-win situation.

  “Get out,” I snapped.

  Samantha looked at me in surprise.

  “Go.” I pointed towards the door. “I don’t feel like fucking today.”

  “What the hell, DeVon?” She straightened, but didn’t get dressed. She just put her hands on her hips and glared at me.

  “Look,” I said, wanting to placate her so she’d leave. “I’ll give you cab fare or some extra for your trouble.”

  “I’m not a hooker, you bastard.” Her words were harsh, but I could see the heat still in her eyes. “I came here to get spanked, then fucked. You always give it to me good, harder than anyone else does, and now you want to send me away with the job only half done?” She took two steps towards me and ran her tongue over her bottom lip.

  I tucked myself back in my pants.

  “Why don’t you let me take care of that?” Her eyes dropped meaningfully. “I’ll bet you’d get hard if I let you fuck my face.”

  I sighed. I was too tired for this shit. “Just go, Samantha. I shouldn’t have called you.”

  She stared at me for a minute, then grabbed her dress and pulled it on. She closed the rest of the distanc
e between us and pressed her body against mine. She looked up at me and took my hand, shoving it under her dress.

  “This is what you’re missing.”

  I removed my hand and took a step back. “Go.”

  “Your loss.” She headed for the door, tossing one final comment over her shoulder. “If you call me again, you better be able to finish the job, or I’ll take it out of your ass.”

  I plopped down in my chair as she left. I didn’t doubt she’d follow through on her threat. Samantha was a ‘switch-hitter’ in a couple senses of the word. She was bisexual and liked to dominate and be submissive. I wouldn’t have to worry about a next time, though. I didn’t intend to call her again.

  I needed to figure out how to get over this or I was in trouble. If I couldn’t find release in sex, I didn’t know what I’d do. I’d never had this problem before. I ignored the voice that told me that was a lie, that there’d been one other time I’d had to work at getting over someone. That had been different. I’d been a different person. Now, I didn’t make love, I didn’t do relationships. I fucked. I walked away.

  So why wasn’t it working this time?

  Chapter 5

  KRISSY

  The week was excruciatingly slow, but I managed to survive by throwing myself into my work and avoiding DeVon at all costs. Tracy never asked if anything had happened, but she knew something was up and always gave me a head’s up when DeVon was on his way. I didn’t know how she always knew when he wasn’t exactly known for calling ahead, but however she did it, I appreciated her looking out for me.

  The biggest downside to all of this was that I was getting bored. The repetition of work then home was bad enough while I was working. Now it was late Friday afternoon and the weekend was looming ahead of me, all empty and boring. I didn’t want to sit around and risk feeling sorry for myself. I wanted to have some fun, and while I was confident enough in myself to go out on my own, I didn’t really want to. I wanted someone to go with me, like back in New York when my friends and I would go to happy hour after work.

  With just a few minutes left in the work day, I walked out of my office and over to Tracy’s desk. It had always been hard for me to make female friends. Most women either hated me because their men wanted to sleep with me, or they hated me because when we went out, I got a lot of male attention. Tracy didn’t seem like one of those women.

  “Hey, I was thinking I wanted to go get some drinks after work. Maybe check out some guys. You want to join me?” I suddenly realized that I didn’t even know if Tracy was married, or straight. Not that either one mattered to me, but the checking out guys part might not be something she’d be interested in. “Or just drinking,” I amended. “Just something to help unwind after a long week.”

  “That would be great!” Tracy beamed at me. “I just have to finish up this email reply.”

  “Did I miss something?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “No, it’s one of those typical form ones that agencies like ours get all the time. People basically wanting us to represent them for free because they have so much potential.”

  “Why do you respond to them?” I asked, curious. I’d always assumed letters like that would be thrown away, unread.

  “We’re not required to,” Tracy explained. “But when I have the time, I always like to send back a polite, but firm reply explaining how the industry works and that everyone has to pay their dues. No one gets anything for free.”

  I gave her a puzzled look.

  She shrugged. “If they can’t take it in an email, they’ll never make it in this business.”

  She had a point. I told her so and then left her to finish up while I closed things down in my office. By the time I was done, so was she.

  “I’m still figuring out the city,” I said as we headed for the exit. “Where’s the best place to go for happy hour around here?”

  “Dino’s,” she answered promptly. “Best mixed drinks and killer cheese fries.”

  “Lead the way.”

  Dino’s wasn’t far, as it turned out, so we walked, chatting along the way. For all the time we’d spent together, I hadn’t realized how little we actually knew about each other.

  “Well, I’m in between guys at the moment,” Tracy answered my latest question. “I was dating this guy from accounting and we had to keep it hush-hush, but once he went to another agency, it was over.” She took a sip of her drink. “Not because he was at a rival company, but because once there wasn’t any sort of rule against it, we both realized we didn’t have anything in common. We’d just enjoyed sneaking around.”

  I smiled. I could definitely relate to that.

  “I’ve been just doing the casual thing for a year or so,” she continued. “My last boyfriend was a real bastard.” She took another drink.

  “Well, I’m sure you won’t be without a guy for long,” I said. “In fact, I predict that by the end of the night, you’ll have at least half a dozen guys hitting on you.”

  I put my estimate low only because I wasn’t sure how long we were going to be staying. I’d already counted that many men eyeing her. I didn’t blame them. Tracy was hot. I’d noticed almost right away that Mirage didn’t hire anyone who wasn’t at least an eight, and Tracy was above that.

  “What about you?” Tracy asked.

  “Just focusing on my work.” I immediately brushed off the question. “Speaking of work, I’ve only been at Mirage for a little while. You’ve been there over a year. Do you still like it?”

  Tracy nodded. “And this isn’t just the drinks talking, but I love working for you. Some of the agents treat the assistants like their own personal slaves, but you’re not like that.” She frowned as she reached the bottom of her glass. She signaled to a passing waiter who took away the empty glass and went to get another round.

  “Thank you,” I said sincerely. “I’m really glad DeVon assigned you to be my assistant.”

  “You’d think he’d be one of those people who treated the assistants like shit,” Tracy continued on her original train of thought. “But he’s not. He can be a real dick sometimes, but when it comes down to it, he does care about his employees.” She leaned across the table, lowering her voice as if she was going to share a secret. “His assistant, Melissa, is one of my best friends, and last year, when she caught her husband in bed with a man in a rabbit costume – don’t ask...”

  I hadn’t planned on it. I really didn’t want to know.

  “Anyway, she was devastated and DeVon gave her as much paid time off as she needed. Not only that, but he checked in on her every day and even sent her flowers.”

  My stomach twisted. I didn’t want to hear about the nice things DeVon had done, not when every time I thought about him, all I could see was him fucking Samantha. I didn’t actually know what had happened once I’d left, but my imagination was pretty vivid.

  “Melissa says he’s been acting strange lately.”

  The statement pulled me back to the conversation. “Really?” I tried not to sound too interested.

  Tracy nodded. “There’s rumor going around that he might even be seeing someone, like for real seeing them, not just his usual...you know.” She waved her hand in the air in a vague gesture.

  I nodded. I knew. And I didn’t want to think about what any of that meant. Fortunately, an extremely hot guy walked into Dino’s and saved me from having to come up with some excuse to change the subject.

  “Check him out.” I pointed.

  Tracy turned, her eyes lighting up when she saw him. Tousled blond hair, what looked like blue eyes, and a tight ass emphasized by a pair of snug jeans.

  “Go talk to him,” I said.

  “What?” Tracy gave me a look that said she thought I was crazy.

  I grinned at her. “I dare you to go talk to him.”

  She rolled her eyes but stood up. “Fine. But the next hot guy’s yours.”

  “Deal.”

  Chapter 6

  KRISSY

  I hadn�
��t expected Tracy to come back to the table a few minutes later with the hot guy in tow, followed by his equally hot friend. Their names were Chris and Kit and they were roommates, waiting for their big break. Of course. Chris was from northern California but Kit was from Detroit, so we immediately bonded over how our mid-western cities were different from LA. When Tracy suggested we have dinner and then head to a club, I was more than happy to agree. Hanging out with these three was so much better than going back to my apartment for a microwave meal and a movie marathon. Especially since I’d barely thought about DeVon at all.

  By the time we arrived at the club, Tracy and I were both sufficiently buzzed enough to head straight for the dance floor together. Chris and Kit immediately followed and the four of us danced together.