[Names have been changed to protect the guilty. The innocent can look after themselves]
*****
I dated Alec for a few months when I was in my twenties and we fucked a few times either side of that, just as buddies. He was a sweet guy, maybe a bit too sweet for me. The kind of sensitive New Man who would send me links to feminist websites with emails saying "thought you might be interested" and who would worry about sexually objectifying or exploiting me when, truth be told, that was exactly what I wanted him to do.
One night he was at mine and we were lying on the bed, fully dressed, watching a tacky documentary about sex workers in a brothel in Germany, if I remember right. I think I'd told him I was interested in it β which I was, but I think I was hoping it would be bit of a turn-on β which it wasn't. At one point one of the girls was talking about her customers and she said something like "A lot of the guys who come to see me are young, handsome, they have wives or girlfriends, but they also have things they want to do in the bedroom that they are too embarrassed to ask for at home."
More out of mischief than anything, I nuzzled up to Alec and asked him. "So, when you go to see a hooker, what is it you ask for that you wouldn't ask me?"
He immediately got a bit shirty and defensive. "I would never pay for sex! I don't believe in exploiting women's poverty for my own gratification and..."
"Yeah yeah, OK, I know" I interrupted him. "But admit it, you've thought about it haven't you? You've imagined it in your fantasies..."
"No I haven't!"
"Liar!"
He was looking genuinely uncomfortable now and it was really quite cute, so I giggled and kissed him "Don't worry, I won't tell on you to the feminist men's consciousness raising group."
"I do NOT go to a feminist men..."
"Alec, babe, chill, it's OK. I'm teasing you." There was a moment's silence, before I said calmly, "but I bet there's something you fantasise about asking a hooker to do."
He made a kind of rattling noise in his throat. I looked at him. He was blushing.
"Ha! I knew it! You do! Go on, tell me. I won't laugh at you, promise."
"No, I don't, I couldn't I mean... um..."
I leaned closer and whispered in his ear "You never know, it might be something I have always wanted to do too."
I'll be honest, at this point I was expecting him to come out with something mechanical or practical, like he wanted me to tie him up with dog chains or suck him off while wearing a scuba mask and snorkel or something ridiculous like that. To be perfectly honest I was horny as hell by that time and I was more than game for any such suggestions. I still didn't expect the answer I got.
"Well," he spluttered. "I do have a fantasy about visiting an escort, like a really classy, expensive Belle de Jour type..."
"Oh yes," I smiled wickedly. "And what do you want her to do?"
"It's not about what she does. It's about what I do."
"Tell me."