18: Tremors

“It’s just a tremor,” I said, pulling Sookie close. I could tell she was ready to flip her shit. I was surprised it had taken so long for an earthquake.

“I don’t care! The earth fucking moved, Eric!”

“It happens all the time,” I told her. “The house is secure.” I had a feeling we’d end up in a hotel for the night. House hunting was going to happen a lot sooner than anticipated.

“It does not happen all the time!” Sookie pulled away from me and when the house started to shake again, she went to the nearest doorway and cried.

I zipped my shorts up. I paused where I was just in case something more severe happened. As soon as it stopped I walked over to where she was and wrapped her in my arms.

“Want to pack a bag and go to a hotel for the night?” I suggested, rubbing her back. She was never going to want to come home again.

“Yes,” she sniffled. “I’m sorry but I can’t do this all night long.”

Henry was barking his fool head off and had come over to Sookie, parking himself at her feet.

“Come on, we can get a change of clothes and go.” I reached down to rub Henry’s head to let him know it was okay. He clearly didn’t like his Mom upset.

Sookie temporarily forgot she was upset to soothe the dog and calm him down. She was good with him. Very patient.

“It’s okay, buddy. We’re going for a car ride. You want to go for a car ride?”

He wanted to go for a car ride if his excited response was any indication.

“We should teach him to get his own leash,” I chuckled. “I don’t know of any hotels that will take him…”

“Well we can’t just leave him here,” she sniffled as she stood up.

“We’re not leaving him. We’ll sneak him in if we have to,” I told her. “We could always go to Rasul’s too.” I’d rather not. I was sure Sookie felt the same way. He was in a one bedroom apartment. It was a big apartment, but still only one room.

“I love Ras, but we’re not refugees. I’d rather camp in the back of the Escalade.” She was serious.

“Why don’t you go pack up an overnight bag for us and I’ll search for a hotel that takes big dogs.”

“Okay,” she nodded. Sookie didn’t get more than ten feet before another tremor started.

I waited for it to stop.

“Go out to the Escalade, take Henry. I’ll be out,” I told her. I was used to it. They also usually happened in the middle of the night while we were sleeping. The house was secure but I understood her fear.

She didn’t hesitate to get the dog and go.

I was not prepared to start looking for a new house. It seemed like it was going to happen a lot sooner than expected. Sookie’s peace of mind was more important to me than living in my hillside home. Secure or not, she wasn’t having it. Happy wife, happy life, that was the saying, right?

XXX

“What is that?” Was she looking at house?

“I think it’s a house. Obviously not the one for us,” she said.

“What are are you looking in?” We’d settled into the hotel less than an hour ago. Henry was curled up around Sookie’s feet.

“Los Angeles, unless you want to look somewhere outside the city.”

“I don’t mind traveling a little for work. I don’t go to the “office” every day, so it’s not that big of an issue,” I answered. “We could get more bang for our buck outside of the city. Henry could use a yard too.”

“Should we go north or south?”

“Do you want beach or seasons?” I crawled into the bed with her. She had her laptop on a tray on her lap.

“Both?” She chuckled and pulled up a map of California. “What about Ojai?”

“I haven’t spent much time there, but I would be willing to check it out. If we’re going to be looking for houses I’ll wait until I start looking for a location… how would you feel about going into the porn business with me?” I knew she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do.

“Uhhhh… you mean acting?”

“No, doing the books or something like that. Something on the back end.”

“Good, because the only one I want doing business around my back end is you,” she snickered.

“Good,” I smiled. I leaned over to nibble her thigh. “I still enjoy what I do, but I don’t feel right fucking other women when I have the best woman sitting at home.”

“So you want to pay other people to do it?”

“Yep, and then sell it,” I chuckled. “It’s what I know. My name is also known so it wouldn’t be too hard to get started.”

“So you want to be a legit pimp,” she giggled.

“I don’t think it sounds so bad. There’s too many shady companies out there. I want what I got, which was a good company that treated the talent well. I’ve always been paid good too. If you join me we could work together, and you can be part of casting if you wanted. I would like you as involved in the process as you’d want to be. I don’t think this is going to happen overnight, but I have to start somewhere, you know?”

 

“Babe, if it’s what you want to do I will support you one hundred percent and do whatever I can to help you,” she said.

“Thank you.” I kissed her leg again. “I’m sure you’d be a lot happier if I wasn’t going to work to have sex with any number of women.”

“I know it’s not cheating, Eric,” she assured me. “If I thought you had some kind of emotional investment in the sex it would be different, but I know you don’t.”

I was glad she knew that. It made it easier for me to go to work. I was going to have to continue to work until I started making money. I was at a point where I only worked with a handful of girls. The four that came to Sookie’s birthday and another girl that I only worked with on occasion. We didn’t even talk between takes. I was fine with that.

“What’s that house?” I pointed to a yellow house as she scrolled through.

“Uhhhh I don’t know.” She clicked on the link. “No stairs and lots of lawn. I like it so far.” She started to click through the pictures of the listing.

“Henry would have a field day running around that lawn,” I chuckled. “It looks like it needs some work, but nothing we couldn’t handle.”

“Just a good change in décor and… oh, that bathroom has got to go.” The master bathroom had obviously been redone last back in the late ‘80s. There was hideous tile everywhere and the bathtub was on one of those goofy platforms. Too much block glass sectioned off the shower area.

“Do you want to waste time looking at it?”

“I can’t hurt. Can we afford it? It’s not cheap, especially if we’re starting a business,” she said.

“If we both sell our current houses we’ll be fine,” I told her. “I have plenty of money for a down payment until then… I think we can afford it. Of course we’ll have to sit down and have to figure it out one day, but knowing what I make, and what I have saved, we’ll be fine.”

“We should probably figure it out before we go sinking more than a million dollars into a house, especially since we’re not married.”

“We can, and will. I think we should call and look at it. I know my house will appraise for over a million. The location promises that,” I said. “If we go look it’ll give us an idea of what we really want. Ultimately, I want you to feel safe. If you don’t feel good in the house, we can rent a place for now if you want.”

“I want us to have a place where we feel good. A house like that is one we could grow into if we decided to have a few gargoyles of our own someday. I never wanted kids before you.”

“I’ve never even thought about them. Kids and porn don’t generally go hand-in-hand. I know my mom wouldn’t mind being a grandmother.” Seeing how Sookie was with Henry, I could imagine her being a mom. She was going to be a great mother, even though she didn’t have her own.

“If it doesn’t happen I’ll settle for more furry babies.”

“With a yard like that I’d give you as many fur babies as you wanted.” I shifted so I was lying on my back with my arms under my head.

“Henry might like a brother or sister to play with. Should I send an email to the listing agent?”

“Yeah, that would be a good idea.” If we didn’t like the place we didn’t have to put an offer in on it. It was a big deal looking at houses together. Technically Sookie and I still had a very new relationship. Getting a dog together, and living together was a step I didn’t think I’d take with anyone. I’d lived with girlfriends in the past, but it was always after a year of being together, and we would break up within the first month. Sookie was the first one that fully accepted what I did for a living.

Sookie sent an email requesting more information and a viewing of the property. Once it was off to the realtor, she went back to the master list of houses for sale in that area.

“What do you think is the top end of what we can afford?” Her house had appraised for $1.1 million, thanks to the energy efficient windows she had installed after the insurance company cleared her to remodel. Sookie had also hired painters and replaced the hardware in the kitchen. A security system that scanned fingerprints had also been installed, along with a few cameras in key places.

“Depending on what your place sells for, I’d say no less than $1.2 million, easy. If that yellow house needs as much work as it looks like it does, I bet we can get it for less.”

“That would be nice. I don’t know what it costs to start a production company. Maybe we should look at something less expensive,” she suggested.

“I’m fine with that. I’m still looking at the numbers. I’d rather get into a new house with room that we’re both comfortable in. As long as you can handle what I do, the production company can be put off a little while,” I offered. Henry decided he wanted a snuggle and got up to come curl into my side.

“Do you want to keep doing movies?”

“Not forever. Since I only work with a handful of girls it isn’t so bad. We all know each other well enough to be comfortable. Stan already knows I won’t be working with anyone new. I’m at a point where I could quit tomorrow, or keep going like I am for another couple years,” I shrugged. “If you asked me to quit I’d do it without question. I think that says something about where I am where it comes to work.”

“I want you to move on when you’re ready. If that never happens, I’ll deal with it,” she said.

“I don’t want you to deal with it, Sookie. How’s this, if I’m still working by the time we’re ready for kids, I’ll put in my resignation,” I said. “I don’t want to do porn and be a father. It doesn’t fit, you know?”

“Can you imagine the field day social workers would have with us?”

“As long as we don’t bring it into the house and I don’t take them on set, it should be fine,” I chuckled. “Wait until I start taking them to school and I run into parents that have seen my movies.”

“Awkward. I might homeschool. Have you seen that common core crap?”

“What’s a common core?”

She laughed and pulled up Google to show me.

“Okay, so look at this. According to common core you get 11 by adding eight and five.”

“Um, what the fuck? That’s 13 not 11. Who the fuck came up with this shit?”

“Beats the hell out of me. I’m not a genius, but I’m smarter than this. I swear the government just wants dumb drones,” she said, shaking her head. “I’d be willing to take classes in teaching if it meant I could homeschool my kids.”

“Do it. I don’t want my kids learning that dumb ass shit.”

“You and me both.” Sookie closed the tab and then the screen on the laptop. “So… how much thinking about the company have you done?”

“Not too much. I need to get some books on business. I can be a cameraman no problem, I just need to figure out what I need to start. What kind of permits and locations I need to look into. If we move to Ojai, I’ll need to see if that’s somewhere we can find an office. Zoning, costs. I can find good talent anywhere…”

“So there’s a lot of research I could do for you.”

“There is. Would you like to?”

“Why not? It’s not like I have a lot going on these days. Besides, I might want to be an investor,” she said.

“Then research away. Why don’t you put that laptop away and come over here to cuddle with your boys?”

“You’re so needy.” Sookie left the computer where it was and came over to the bed.

“I wasn’t this clingy before you,” I told her. She climbed up next to me on the opposite side of Henry. “There’s just something about you.”

“Good boobs, probably.” Sookie rested her leg over my hip. The loose top she had one offered extreme cleavage for me to look at.

“They help. I think it’s something else, though.” I reached up to rub my hand over her tit, dragging the tank top down a little so I could see her nipple. “I think it’s just you.”

“Just me, huh?” Sookie rolled onto her back and pulled me on top of her.

“Just you,” I confirmed. I dipped down to kiss along her collarbone. “Your sweetness. The way you giggle when I tell a stupid joke.” I kissed the top of her breast. “Your sleepy morning smiles…”

“I love your stupid jokes,” she told me. Her legs hitched up a little higher, closer to my ribs. “I love all your jokes.”

“You’d be the first,” I chuckled. I caught her nipple between my lips, suckling it lightly.

“Mmm… must be the love thing then. Makes a girl do crazy things,” she said. Her fingers ran through my hair and down my neck.

“Lord help me if you ever fall out of love with me.” I swirled my tongue around her nipple before moving to the other one.

“You’ll probably end up like Hugh Hefner,” she joked.

“Ah, you know I’ll never use Viagra so I’m screwed there. I’ll lose my appeal as soon as I start to wrinkle.” I kissed the underside of her left breast before sucking lightly, releasing it with a pop.

“Not with an ass like yours.”

“I’ll lose it, I’m sure. I’ll get all depressed and stop working out as soon as I lose you.” As I talked I slowly moved down her body, kissing and sucking in various spots.

“You’ll just have a hot dad bod that brings in the horny housewives.”

“Oooh, I didn’t even think about that when we move. There’s going to be a neighborhood full of soccer moms and housewives that will be vying for my attention,” I teased. I nibbled on her belly button. “They’ll all be outside gardening or some shit when I’m out mowing the lawn.” I sucked just under her belly button. “None of them will hold a candle to you, so I won’t even notice.”

“You might notice, but as long as you come home to me you can look all you want,” she told me.

“I will always come home to you.” I flicked my tongue just under the waistline of her yoga shorts. I pushed her legs back and licked up and down her slit through the thin shorts before I shifted to kiss her lower abdomen.

“Mmm… good. I don’t want to think about you not being there with me,” she said.

I sat up so I could tug her shorts. Sookie lifted her hips, allowing me to pull them down and toss them across the room. Henry knew something was up and jumped off the bed. I didn’t like to fool around with him in the room but I didn’t really have a choice. When I settled on the bed again I pushed Sookie’s thighs apart, admiring the view of her perfectly manicured pussy. She would look damn good on film, but I knew she didn’t want to do it. I got it.

“I am the luckiest fucker in the world. You’re never getting rid of me.” I tilted my head to lick up and down her bare slit. Mmm…

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

It wasn’t the only promise I intended to make to her. I knew Sookie was The One. After the night we had and how quickly I offered to move, I knew that could be the only reason. She was special, and wonderful, and all the good things I needed in my life. I was a lucky, lucky motherfucker.