Some girls always get what they want
All I seem to get is the other
- Rachel Stevens
It was a little after nine in the morning somewhere on the coast of southern California, the day already warm, and Rachel Lauren Stevens stood before a full-length mirror and adjusted her hair. A brunette by birth, she sported blonde highlights and a rather cute French braid; and though it had taken hours to get everything just right, she felt it was worth the effort. Anything to make her client happy.
Rachel smiled.
Client.
She liked the way it sounded in her head, the way it rolled off her tongue. It made her feel important. Made her feel special.
Another woman entered the room and began to set up. Rachel watched her in the mirror. A few years her junior, the lovely American blonde had been sent over from the Agency to help their newest star get prepared, and there seemed to be nothing she couldn't handle. Not only had she done Rachel's hair and helped her find the perfect outfit--a recreation of something she hadn't worn in nearly five years--but she was also very beautiful as well, so much so that Rachel found her eyes wandering quite a bit these days.
She turned her attention back to the mirror and lifted her arms over her head, arching a pencil-thin eyebrow at the faint stubble underneath. The Agency would have paid for laser removal, but Rachel's client was a stickler for accuracy, and back in her Funky Dora era, she hadn't been able to afford such fancy treatments. Her fans had found it cute though, and so did she.
Her assistant clapped her hands together. "All set here, Rach. Can I get you something before we start?"
Rachel wrinkled her nose. "I don't think my stomach could handle it."
The American looked her over. "Let me make you some tea. That will settle your nerves."
Rachel nodded and waited for her to leave the room before throwing herself down on the bed and loosing a heavy sigh. She didn't want to seem ungrateful for this opportunity, but it was impossible not to remember the reactions of her mates when she let them know about the anonymous offer.
Prostitution
they had gasped, faces white with shock at the idea of sweet little Rachel even considering such a sinful thing.
But then they didn't have to worry about money, did they? Or suffer the shame of seeing themselves mocked on a daily basis in the tabloids for being destitute and unable to find steady work. Rachel was already thirty and growing older, and had nothing to fall back on but her looks and minor celebrity. That might secure her the occasional slot on a reality show, but it didn't do a thing for her quite-tenuous financial situation.
And besides, it wasn't really prostitution now, was it? She wasn't walking the London streets in hooker heels and a slutty miniskirt, or meeting men in cheap hotels and taking it in the arse because she was out of condoms. She was performing for a devoted fan, making a private movie for him and him alone and taking home almost ten-thousand euros for her trouble. For that sort of money, she could stand to take a little grief from her girls every now and then.
Her assistant came back into the room. "Here you are," she said, handing over a steaming cup of Earl Grey.
Rachel thanked her, blowing on the surface before taking a sip. The woman was a godsend, and she decided then and there that come hell or high water she was going to do whatever it took to keep her on. She was simply too valuable to let slip away, even if Rachel had to pay her out of her own pocket.
And there it was, finally out in the open. Rachel shuddered as it finally dawned her what she had gotten herself in to.
Signing the contract, she had promised herself it was a one-time thing only, just a little easy money to get her back in the studio and back in the limelight. But now, standing in the room where she was about to film her first scene, she knew there wasn't any going back. The reward-to-work ration was simply too good, too lucrative, to walk away from.
She could take some comfort though in the knowledge that she had the power to choose what she did and for whom she did it, that she wasn't obligated to take the harder requests and perform nasty with animals and whatnot. But it was always in the back of her head that she probably would if the money was right.
Rachel took several quick breaths, calming herself, then grabbed her assistant's hand. "Okay," she said. "I'm ready."