Elijah’s apartment smelled like fast food and weed. A common occurrence when his friend group came to visit. The apartment itself was…
Elijah’s apartment smelled like fast food and weed. A common occurrence when his friend group came to visit. The apartment itself was nothing of great substance, though it did provide plenty of space for guests and his roommate, Ryan. A fan clicked somewhere in the corner, trying and failing to push the stale heat off the sagging brown couch where four grown men sprawled like college kids. Controllers passed hand to hand, one round of kills bleeding into the next. Elijah sat on the rug, his back propped against the coffee table and a pillow, half-watching the screen, half-scrolling his phone.
“So how’s work been going Elijah?” Lucas said, stretching his arms behind his head. He was a lean, tall man, with a cut jawline and athletic build. There was something fox-like in his expressions—sharp, clever, and a little more knowing than he let on. He dressed like someone who wanted to be ignored but never really was, with gentle normcore pieces and subtle tattoos. Lucas had made his claim working as an aspiring ghostwriter, though his career had yet to take off. He still relied heavily on his parents for financial support.
Elijah looked up from his phone. “It’s been alright. We’re starting to pick up on sales with the new shirt series ‘Still Dreaming.’ Jackie and Val are pretty hopeful the momentum sticks.”
Lucas let out a whistle. “Damn. That’s wild, man. Elijah is turning into a business owner. Wish I’d started a company in college instead of screwing around with tech classes.”
“Well, we’re not out of the woods yet,” Elijah said. “Still juggling fulfillment hell and late-night panic attacks.”
“You’re living the dream,” Henry chimed in. He leaned back into the loveseat with one leg crossed, his watch catching the light. Henry always looked like he’d just stepped out of a GQ profile. Long black hair tucked behind his ears, beard trimmed close, linen shirt unbuttoned at the collar just enough to show his fit chest underneath. He’d filled out since their early days. Once a lanky nerd like Elijah, Henry was now the poster boy for successful businessmen. A smooth operator who spoke in slow, precise beats.
“You still doing the runs to that little fulfillment center in Pomona?” Juan asked.
Elijah nodded. “For now, we want to have our product sit in the warehouse and have them ship it. But we can’t keep up with the orders as it is.”
Juan cracked open another beer, grinning. “Man, I don’t know how you do it.”
“We can’t all be nepo artists, Juan,” Lucas cut in. Juan let out a warm laugh.
“Coming from the guy who still has his parents paying his rent,” Juan countered playfully. Lucas smiled coyly in response as Juan continued. “You and Jackie still pulling all-nighters?”
“Sometimes. Val handles most of the customer service now, which helps. Jackie’s a machine, though. The other day, she packed like a hundred orders solo.”
Juan laughed. “She’s got that grind in her.”
Juan was the kind of man who brought light into a room before he even opened his mouth. Tall, broad-shouldered, with smooth dark skin and a perpetual glint in his eye, he carried kindness the way other men carried bravado. A big smile, a bigger laugh, and jokes so quick you couldn’t see them coming. Even now, he leaned into the group with warmth, a magnetic presence without trying. Despite his clearly privileged lifestyle of art and trust funds, it was impossible not to like the man.
“Jackie always did scare the shit outta me,” Ryan said, eyes glued to the TV. “In like… a good way.”
Ryan was the opposite of his counterparts in almost every way. Soft-bodied, pale, with shoulder-length hair and a hoodie two sizes too big. But he was sweet. Earnest in a way that disarmed even the most cynical among them. His room was a shrine to Magic The Gathering, and the group held a joke that one day he would meet his dream girl at a local Commander night.
“She’s intense,” Elijah said. “But she keeps us sane.”
“You ever hook up with her?” Lucas asked suddenly, a smirk curling his lip.
“No,” Elijah replied, a little too quickly. “We’re strictly business.”
Lucas let out a cool laugh as he smoothly worked through enemy lines on screen. “Just asking.”
The conversation drifted to convention gossip, Jackie’s new idea for anime-themed blankets, and Henry’s recent trip to Lisbon. It was easy, like always. Elijah let himself get lost in it, the gentle hum of friendship, the distraction from the weight always pressing behind his eyes.
An undercurrent of desire for something he didn’t fully understand. For someone he wanted to know. Then his phone buzzed.
He glanced at the notification.
“Evelyn sent a video.”
Elijah’s breath caught. He unlocked the phone. The thumbnail for the video was black. Elijah’s thumb hovered over it for a moment, heart racing in his chest. Then, without thinking, he tapped play.
The moans were immediate. Wet. Raw. Rhythmic. Echoing from his speaker like a punch in the gut.
The room froze as all eyes shot to Elijah.
“What the fuck is that?!” Juan laughed loudly, clearly entertained.
“Jesus, bro,” Ryan muttered, shaking his head as his eyes remained locked on his game.
Elijah fumbled with the phone, thumb smashing the volume down. “Shit – sorry! I – shit.”
Lucas laughed. “That’s why you don’t leave porn tabs open, my dude!”
“It’s not like that,” Elijah said, heat blooming up his neck.
“Sounded a lot like that,” Juan countered, still grinning. “You got a VR headset we don’t know about?”
“Got to be disciplined with that kind of stuff,” Henry added.
The group laughed. Elijah hesitated.
He could’ve lied. Could’ve played it off as a slip. As porn and nothing more. But it was more, a lot more, and despite what his better judgment told him, he found himself speaking.
“It was Evelyn.”
That name lit the room like a match.
Lucas jolted upright. “No. Fucking. Way. The hot girl? The one you matched with on Tinder?”
Elijah nodded.
“Holy shit, you actually went out with her?” Lucas sounded more impressed than surprised. “Bro, she was unreal. Like, supermodel levels of hot.”
“Wait wait, you telling me she sent you that?!” Juan asked, still halfway between stunned and amused. “Like, just now?”
Elijah’s phone was still in his hand. The screen had gone dark. He didn’t dare look at it.
“Yeah,” he said.
Henry’s voice cut through the group’s excitement. Cool. Controlled. “So she’s sending you nudes after one date?”
There was an edge to his words. Barely noticeable, but Elijah felt it.
“Something like that,” Elijah said.
Juan whistled low. “Man, I thought she was just teasing you when y’all matched. But look at you, bro! You landed the jackpot, good for you.”
“I think she’s still testing me,” Elijah murmured.
“How so? Seems like you’re doing well if she’s sending you stuff like that.” Juan asked curiously.
Elijah needed to be careful. No one knew what Evelyn actually did, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted them to. Especially given what she’d written in her profile.
Don’t be mad if I fuck your friends 😉
“I don’t know… it’s just some of the things she’s said and done makes me wonder how serious it is.”
“Girls like that have to be careful. They get a lot of creeps wanting them just for their body. She’s making sure you’re safe,” Ryan said matter-of-factly, never losing focus on the screen. He managed several kills and jumped. “Nice!”
“How the hell would you know anything about it?” Henry shot back jokingly.
“Hey, I might still be a fucking virgin, but I’ve been friend zoned enough times to know how girls think. I could write a novel on the stuff they’ve dumped on me.” Ryan said.
“Yeah… maybe you’re right,” Elijah said. His eyes flicked back to the screen.
The video was still there. Frozen on Evelyn’s eyes.
He clicked mute and tapped play.
Evelyn’s raven hair spilled across her shoulders in silky waves, the camera set low, her face angled up as her head bobbed. Her lips were glossy, parted wide around a man’s cock. She swallowed him with slow, practiced strokes. Her tongue swirled around his tip, occasionally adjusting her head and kissing his shaft.
All the while her eyes stayed fixed on the camera.
On him.
Elijah stared back, lost in Evelyn’s eyes.
He knew the man was irrelevant. He knew who this video was actually for. Evelyn was confident and in control, and she was offering him something sacred.
Elijah’s cock twitched in his jeans.
The guys were still talking, maybe laughing, maybe reacting to something Juan had said. But their voices were muffled like they were underwater. Leaving Elijah alone with Evelyn.
He turned the phone slightly, shielding it from view.
Evelyn tilted her head in the video and parted her lips. Saliva spilled from her mouth, pooling on the man’s balls. Then she smiled.
Fuck.
Elijah’s throat went dry.
Elijah knew this was what he signed up for. But to see it was something else. This is what she did, this is who she was, and she wanted him to see it.
Lucas elbowed Elijah lightly. “You good, man? Seem really focused on your phone…” The question was intentionally playful. Elijah let out an uncomfortable laugh.
“Yeah,” Elijah muttered. “I’m fine.”
He wasn’t. His skin buzzed like it was too tight, his heartbeat drumming in his ears. The room was too loud yet far away. This was the woman he was seeing. Jesus…
A wave of despair caught him in his stomach. He wondered how many men Evelyn had done this with. He wondered if she was doing it right now. Perhaps she saw him as a joke, a plaything to keep her entertained. Maybe he would become another faceless man in one of her videos. Long forgotten once she had gotten what she wanted.
All those thoughts faded when she looked up at the camera again. Lips stretched, eyes half-lidded. Not shy. Not apologetic.
She was showing off.
And something in him stirred—equal parts arousal and dread.
Evelyn was trouble.
He knew it in his gut.
But his hand didn’t move from the phone.
And the video kept playing.
The man in the video stood, body taut with motion. Evelyn never looked away from the camera. Her lips stretched wide as his hips drove forward, pumping his cock into her mouth with a pace that was brutal and precise. She took it all. Controlled her breath. Swallowed him like she was built for it.
She liked it. That much was clear.
Her throat flexed, her eyes watered, and Elijah’s gut twisted.
It was too much.
He should’ve been angry. Jealous. Something. But all he felt was the low, coiled heat of shock and arousal. It fired through his body like voltage, stiffening every nerve with something primal. Something he didn’t know he’d wanted until it was staring back at him with a wet mouth and a messy smile.
Elijah was bewitched, and there was no escape from the spell.
The man grabbed Evelyn’s head, holding it still as he pumped into her with reckless thrusts, his pelvis slapping against her face. Her tongue flicked around the base of his cock each time he plunged into her throat, saliva trailing in silver ropes across her chin and onto the floor.
She kept eye contact with Elijah the entire time.
Elijah’s cock pressed uncomfortably against his waistband. He swallowed hard as he closed the video, the screen fading to black. His reflection stared back, flushed and rattled.
Voices cracked back into focus.
“Bro, remember that chick from sophomore year?” Ryan laughed. “The one that tried to cast her ex in my homebrew campaign?”
“God, Callie?! She fizzled that campaign in like, a week,” Juan said, shaking his head.
“You’re just mad she made your paladin racist,” Lucas grinned.
“She made my entire bloodline racist,” Juan corrected. “Like it was in the lore. I had to roll disadvantage on charm checks with every elf.”
Elijah chuckled faintly, phone still in hand. He opened his messages and clicked Evelyn’s name.
Elijah: That was hot.
He stared at it. No. Too forward.
He deleted it. Then hovered again. Something more casual, more guarded. He scrolled back up to the video thumbnail and tapped the little heart icon beneath it.
That was safer.
Then he typed again.
Elijah: When can we meet?
He hit send before he could overthink it, immediately regretting it. The message sat there, blue and bold.
Elijah pocketed his phone.
Henry handed off the controller to Lucas and cracked his neck. “We need to play another campaign soon. I find it funny that all of your characters have absolutely no evasion, by the way.”
“I like my high-damage builds,” Lucas said, kicking his feet up. “Why dodge when you can just nuke the whole map?”
“Because stealth exists,” Ryan muttered.
“You run stealth on a Berserker?”
“No,” Ryan corrected, “But you can still use it from time to time. Brute force can’t get you everywhere. Sometimes a gentler solution is the right one.”
Juan laughed. “You know where else you could apply that advice?”
“Your sex life?” Lucas offered.
“I was gonna say my ex, but sure, that too.”
The couch rippled with laughter.
Elijah leaned into the moment, letting it wash over him. There was security in spending time with such close friends. It was familiar, it was safe, it was his tribe.
But the weight of the message in his pocket kept tugging.
Minutes passed. Elijah pretended to watch the screen, but his mind kept looping the same scene. Evelyn’s face. Her lips wrapped around a stranger’s cock. The gaze they shared. The one she never broke from.
He was about to check his phone again when it buzzed. One short vibration. Then another.
He pulled it out.
Evelyn: Pick me up at this address tonight.
A pin dropped with it. A neon-blue location pulsing downtown. Elijah tapped it.
Club Lux. The lettering glittered like heat lightning. Everyone knew that place. High-end, exclusive, the kind of place full of velvet ropes and overpriced drinks. Elijah had never even tried getting in.
His heart thudded. She still wanted to see him.
Even after that video.
His throat tightened. A dozen thoughts ricocheted at once. Maybe it was a trap. Maybe she was teasing him. Maybe he was going to be the next victim in a long string of men…
Or maybe she really wanted to be with him.
He stood without realizing it.
“I think I’m gonna head out,” Elijah said, brushing crumbs from his jeans.
Lucas looked up. Smirked. “Going to see Evelyn?”
Elijah scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah.”
“Shit,” Juan grinned, “after a video like that? I would too. Lucky guy, having her all to yourself.”
Elijah’s face went warm.
He tried to smile. “Yeah. Lucky me.”
He could feel Henry watching him. The others went back to their banter, but Henry didn’t say a word. Just adjusted his watch, then flicked his eyes back to the screen like nothing had happened.
Elijah grabbed his keys off the table and slipped out the front door.