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Chapter 1

Ben

If I saw one

I swiveled in roup of naked individuals got off on raphic scene I’d watched in the last four hours, and it was all part of my job

I had thought beco to be fun And it had been…at first

What red-blooded male wouldn’t want to work in an industry with hot women and access to sex twenty-four hours a day? But a few o, I’d been proest producer of adult entertainment in Canada, and I had to face facts: I was in way overin a sea of corporate tasks that I had no idea what to do with I was now responsible for production schedules, budgets, casting, and actor relations, and I was so out of my realm

I was an artist

I was the visionary, for fuck’s sake

I watched as cars traveled east and west on the , the harsh round—the soundtrack tothat there had to be more to life than porn

My office door swung open, tearing my attention away from the monotonous traffic, and a familiar voice blurted behind me

“I think I’ve just done soe”

I swiveled around and watched my best friend, Max Levin, stalk into my office

Did I mention he was the traitorous asshole who used to be VP and left to pursue his passion, opening a boutique hotel in don Toronto?

And he’d left ure it out all on my own The dick

But with the way his body vibrated with tension, I couldn’t be ht now Especially because the vein on the side of his forehead looked like it had its own pulse Max was seriously freaked

“What did you do?” I rose froht with dread

Max was always the picture of cale person I knew, but this er He had one hand fisted at his side, the other grasping the handle of a white shopping bag His black hair looked like he hadn’t touched it since he ener suit that always adorned his body rinkled and dull

He slowly reached across his body and his hand disappeared into the bag Immediately my brain went Aht of a severed head or soe But nocould have prepared ht of the tiny blue velvet box that was placed on the desk in front of me

It felt like I’d walked into an invisible wall, ht I had more time before my best friend left s were going to stay the sairlfriend But I’d been terribly wrong

So I did the one thing I did best

“Maxy, you know I love you, but I don’t love love you”