Chapter 9: The Business Proposition
The silence stretched, thin and fragile as the silk blindfold now crumpled on the sheet. Aidan’s heart was a fading drum against his ribs. Suki’s hand was still in his, a point of heat in the cooling room.
He watched the city’s neon glow paint a faint pink stripe across the ceiling, listening to their breaths slowly synchronize. Catriona was the first to move, the floorboards creaking softly as she stepped away from the tripod. She picked up a champagne flute from the glass table, took a sip of the flat, warm rosé.
“The data on that is going to be insane,” she said, her voice thoughtful, almost detached. “Viewer retention on the lead-up, the orgasm build… the finale. It’s perfect architecture.”
Suki’s fingers tightened around Aidan’s. She didn’t look at Catriona. She was looking at the ceiling too, her green eyes reflecting the stray light. “It’s not just data.”
“I know,” Catriona said, coming to perch on the edge of the bed. She ran a hand through Aidan’s sweat-damp hair. “But it is. And we should talk about it.”
Aidan finally turned his head. “Talk about what?”
“About doing it again,” Suki said. Her voice was quiet, but clear. She propped herself up on an elbow, looking from Aidan to Catriona and back. “Not a one-off. A series. Weekly. The three of us.”
Aidan stared at her. The professional veneer she’d worn during the shoot was gone. In its place was a raw, unsettling earnestness. He pulled his hand from hers to push himself up, sitting back against the lacquered headboard. The sheet pooled at his waist. “A series.”
“Yes.” Suki sat up too, folding her legs under her. She didn’t cover herself. The intimacy of the conversation felt more exposed than the act itself. “My solo content has plateaued. The algorithms favor novelty. Chemistry. A recurring storyline with a trusted… performer.” She hesitated on the word. “It would work. We split the subscription profits from the series three ways.”
Catriona’s eyes lit up, that familiar, mischievous calculation flashing in them. “Three ways. Equal partners. God, Suki, the money. The growth. We could build a whole channel. Different themes. Locations.” She leaned into Aidan, her excitement a palpable vibration. “Think about it, Aide. No more grinding overtime at the firm just to cover the damn strata fees.”
Aidan felt the proposal land in the room like a physical object. He looked at his wife, her face alive with ambition and a thrill that had nothing to do with jealousy. He looked at Suki, her stunning face unguarded, waiting. The hum of the city outside seemed to grow louder.
“You’re serious,” he said.
“Deadly,” Suki replied.
“And you’re okay with this?” He directed the question at Catriona, searching her face for a crack, a shadow of doubt.
She kissed him, a quick, firm press of her lips. “Okay? I suggested it, you goof. Weeks ago. This was always the potential endgame.” She grinned. “I just didn’t know it would be this good.”
He absorbed that. The earlier conversations between them, the lingering touches, the specific requests—all leading here. He wasn’t a disposable prop. He was being recruited. The concept was so bizarre it circled back to making a twisted kind of sense.
“It’s not just a transaction,” Suki said, as if reading the conflict on his face. She reached out, not for his hand this time, but placed her palm flat on his chest, over his heart. Her touch was shockingly intimate. “I can’t do this with randoms. It makes my skin crawl. I trust you. Both of you. This could be… something real. Even if it’s for a camera.”
Her words dismantled his final reservation. The money was abstract. Catriona’s enthusiasm was a familiar current. But Suki’s trust, her admission of vulnerability—that was a new weight. A responsibility.
He covered her hand on his chest with his own. Her skin was so warm. He looked at his wife. “You’re really, truly fine with this? Not just for a video. For… a weekly thing?”
Catriona’s smile softened. She placed her hand over theirs, a layered sandwich of flesh and intent. “I love you. I’m secure in that. This is a thing we do. Together. All of us. It’s an adventure. And yeah,” she added, the mischief returning, “imagine the content. The money is real, Aide. We could breathe.”
He let out a long, slow breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. The path ahead was surreal, lined with cameras and contracts and the slippery edges of their friendship. But in the dim room, with the two most important women in his life looking at him with hope and hunger, the answer felt inevitable.
“Okay,” he said. The word was simple. It changed everything.
Suki’s smile wasn’t the practiced, camera-ready one. It was small, relieved, and deeply personal. She surged forward, wrapping an arm around his neck and the other around Catriona, pulling them both into a tight, skin-to-skin-to-skin embrace. They toppled sideways in a tangle of limbs onto the rumpled silk.
Aidan laughed, a rough, surprised sound against Suki’s shoulder. Catriona nuzzled into the space between his jaw and Suki’s, her auburn hair tickling them both.
“Partners,” Suki said, her voice muffled.
“Partners,” Catriona echoed, squeezing them.
Aidan closed his eyes. The scent of sex and vanilla and their mingled sweat was potent. The cameras, dark and silent now, watched from the sidelines. He thought of the video Catriona would edit, the thousands of unseen eyes that would soon witness what had just transpired. Then he thought of the next time, and the time after that. A weekly series. A collaboration.
It was insane.
It was the most solid, real thing he’d agreed to in years.
He held them tighter, the neon from the window bleeding across their joined bodies, outlining a new shape in the darkness.