A Man of the World Ch. 01

I would like to thank Emily Thayer. Emily wrote and edited the first chapter of A Man of the World based on my online, feedback and notes.

A Man of the World is inspired by MiamiLyfe's Lucky Bastard's story.

All the characters are 18 years old, and all celebrities are fictional version of themselves.

Studio Office -- Visual Effects Department

9/18/2017, 05:30PM

Arthur Umberdragon is pretty sure his eyes have glazed over by now, as the minutes tick away and he is still stuck looking over the same three minutes of footage he had started the day with. The movie that he has been assigned to, the first project he was put on after being hired over a month ago, has a notoriously strict director. Post-production was going to be a crawl, and that meant the whole thing was likely going to run up against its holiday deadline later in the year, even though that was still three months away. But Arthur is glad, not because he was 'finally' in Hollywood, he did not believe in that particular brand of nonsense, but that he has landed a job just after getting his degree. With this and his comfortable inheritance, the home that he lived in, Arthur was looking forward to keeping his life on the up and up.

Shaking himself out of his daze, Arthur checks the time, going through the program on his system to clock out for the day, which flashed a reminder of the hours that he had worked this week, a perfect eight hours after his extended lunch. None of this fully matters, as he had been brought on a salaried employee, but he knows this type of job was always going to require him to be right here at this desk for an extended length of time. He can at least think about sprucing it up with a decoration or two, though family pictures remain out of the question.

Grabbing his jacket and slipping it over his shoulders, Arthur steps out to bear the cool spring air of Hollywood again, remembering when he was still a child, still young enough, he could have believed in the gilded perception of this place, like it could do no wrong. It was never an idea that he held as a teenager, not after what his father taught him, but how anyone who had been here could still believe in it was beyond him. Now, Arthur was convinced that he was the last bastion of sensibility, the last person in the city who would not let the corruption of Hollywood burrow its way into him.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Not today..." Arthur's peaceful walk back to his vehicle is interrupted as he comes across a young-looking woman staring at her phone, though with that sort of description here he knows the woman could be anywhere from eighteen to thirty-five. She has long, straight black hair, and deep brown eyes with a soft, elongated jaw that does catch Arthur's attention for a moment before he straightens himself out and stops, seeing that there is almost no one else around to help on the sidewalk.

"What's going on, can I help you?" Arthur asks, stepping to the side of the path.

"No," She starts, reflexively answering without considering it, until she stops for a second, picking her head up while still facing forward, still not looking at him, "Maybe you can. I just need a ride quick, over to Sunset."

Arthur cannot quite place if she was talking about the street or a specific place that he did not know about, but he knows he is headed in that direction. He initially thinks better than to try to invite her into his car with a stranger, but at the same time, she could always decline, and he would be on his way, no harm done.

"I could call an Uber for you?" he offers, casually seeing the app open on her phone.

"Tried that, they are saying it will be thirty minutes. I am so tempted to just cancel it."

"Well, I could give you a ride," Arthur points a thumb toward the parking garage around the corner, the one he always went to as it was so close to the office.

"Perfect," she replies, grinning and tucking her phone away in a purse held underneath her arm with a light jacket wedged in there as well. After stepping onto the sidewalk again, Arthur takes in the short black cocktail dress that she was in. It was classy, hiding the straps of her bra, if the one she was in had them. He did not let his eyes linger, turning away from the street as they started moving.

"It is nice to meet you. I'm Victoria," she says, picking up her chin as they walk toward the parking garage, turning the corner just then.

"I am Arthur, it nice to meet you too."

"Justice, Victoria Justice?" she clarifies, taking the chance to look over Arthur, who was dressed in a typical business casual type of suit, with khakis, a button-down shirt, and a dark belt. Arthur brushes off the comment as he focuses on checking into the parking garage, finding his car in the first few rows. He always arrived early as he could to make sure he got a convenient spot for getting out later, though today, the rest of the lot was nearly empty. Victoria held her tongue, but her face was twisted with confusion over Arthur's seemingly dismissive attitude.

After they get on the road, with Victoria tapping away at her phone, likely keeping someone else in the loop as to where she was with her now being late to whatever event she was attending, Victoria looks up and notices Arthur's focus on the road ahead of them.

"I am an actress," she says.

"I am sorry."

That earns a careful laugh from her, though she can appreciate the humor involved.

"Zoey 101?"

"Nope," Arthur holds a straight face, and while it could be seen as him holding himself together through a lie, he is telling the truth, as always.

"Victorious, iCarly, Fun Size, Robot Chicken?"

"I do not remember, sorry," Arthur shrugs, with Victoria huffing, as if it were impossible that he had never seen anything she was in.

"That is annoying," she sighed again, her eyes on him. They were lower than he expected, looking down, though he could not place whereas he kept his eyes on the road. Once they arrived at the destination, she had pointed him to, Victoria takes a handful of bills out of her purse, extending them across toward him, "Here."

Arthur holds up a hand and shakes his head, leaning forward lightly with his arms resting on the steering wheel. She tilts the cash down, looking baffled that he was refusing her a second time.

"Uh, to repay you. For the ride?" She was clearly offended by his lack of knowledge surrounding her, though Arthur feels he cannot do much more than apologizing, as he had.

"Pay it forward," Arthur says with a smile, the sound of the car engine filling the space that they shared as she fell silent and tucked the money back into her purse.

"Sure. But, come on. Let me make it up to you somehow. Later," Victoria says as she finds the door's latch, opening it and stepping out to the sidewalk, her heels finding the concrete easily. She winks to him before slipping away and closing the door, leaving Arthur stunned at the entire interaction.

The Umberdragon Estate

9/28/2017 -- 06:00PM

Arthur arrives home after work, checking the mailbox on his way in before the winding drive into the large garage that awaited him. The house that he lives in is massive, tens of thousands of square feet and undoubtedly worth millions of dollars to the right buyer, which Arthur has precisely zero interest in doing. To Arthur, it is the family home, and its placement relatively close to one of the most expensive cities on Earth means almost nothing.

Because he was only one man, and the only one who was still on the premises, wings of the house now sat unused, including the security room. He had disconnected the gate intercom a while ago, his logic being that while it could be useful, it was not going to be worth the trouble. There was no longer any trace from the outside of the premises that you could contact the owner of the house, and he found that highly effective in turning away the endless sea of solicitors.

That did not stop someone that Arthur did not know was coming to 'make right' her promise of paying him back for an earlier favor. It was only twenty minutes of peace before he hears a knock on the door, looking out the front window to see Victoria waiting in the front, a car leaving down the private stretch of road in front of the estate. Arthur's shocked that she has found his home, and partly bothered that she would show up unannounced, though it was even worse considering she had no way to announce it to him, they had not exactly traded numbers. Since she was so offended that he did not know her, what was she doing here? Arthur decides to at least give her the opportunity to explain, waiting for her to knock on the door again before he opened it, feigning surprise but keeping himself in the door frame.

"Victoria? How do you know where I live?" Arthur blurts out, realizing that comes off stronger than he meant it, but still ultimately wanting to address the central question.

Victoria has a grin on her face, her hands on her hips. This time, she is wearing a black dress that is somehow smaller than her other one, this one showing off even more, including the straps of her bra this time. It is a wonder to Arthur, but in taking in the look, he cannot help seeing how little the dress covers her chest, even showing the cups of her bra plainly.

"Oh, well I was doing more work at the studio you work at, asked around a little bit. Had someone do a little digging, and here I am. Bad time?" she ends off, leaning forward to the closer side of the door, not trying to push the limits of his privacy. Beyond what she had already done.

Arthur raises an eyebrow, nodding shortly, "Sort of a bad time, I didn't expect company. Did you need something? Oh, did you end up paying it forward?" Arthur blinks, suspecting that perhaps she has come to tell him the story of her good deed. Instead, Victoria ends up just as confused as Arthur was, exasperated as she shakes her head.

"What? No, I did not, yet," she says, with all the sincerity of someone who certainly planned to get around to that eventually, "I showed up because I wanted to see you again. Can I come in? Thought we could have ourselves a good time."

Victoria had always been up for a challenge, and Arthur's dismissive attitude proved he was just that. Arthur shakes his head, shooting the idea down, getting the idea of what she has really come around for.

"Well, I was not expecting company, sorry, I really should not. Now, I did not have any plans tonight, but do you want to...grab a bite to eat?" Arthur asks, putting a hand on his own hip and looking her over. He is only starting to get the picture, seeing what she had expected of him. And he is hopeful that she was starting to see that he was not quite like that. She responds in kind, accepting the offer and giving Arthur some time to clean up from having been at work, waiting outside, before they head out to a restaurant of Victoria's choosing. It is not one of the finest places in L.A., considering the limited amount of time they were working on, but Arthur was satisfied nonetheless, wanting to give Victoria a chance to explain herself.

On the other hand, Victoria latches on to the idea that Arthur is happy to give her what she wants, he just wants to delay it by making her go on a date first. Maybe he is a classical type, would not sleep with a woman if he did not know her name. Suddenly, she was looking forward to learning a lot more about a type of guy she had never really come across in Hollywood.

It was not long before they were settled into their seats at the high-class restaurant, hosting cuisine from all over the world. Victoria's name had served them well in getting a seat. Arthur starts up the conversation, taking it in a direction he knows could prove controversial, but still, his curiosity is piqued.

"What made you decide on a dress like that?" he asks.

"Like what?" Victoria replies, forcing the issue.

"The dress, it is so open."

"Oh, well. After the whole thing where my nudes were leaked, does not really matter anymore, right?" Victoria shrugs off the topic, while Arthur shows his confusion.

"I have never seen them," he says, and Victoria giggles, nodding along before she decides on another topic.

"So, you live in that massive house all by yourself?" Victoria asks, remembering the estate well for only seeing it once, the main house along with the detached buildings which, near L.A., could easily be rented out as apartments of their own. Arthur was, obviously, not so inclined. Plenty had shown interest in the property over the decades of family ownership, and no offer was tempting enough to move. The fact that it had a private cove, private boat entrance which Arthur did use, and a mostly private road was not something Arthur wanted to sacrifice all for a bit of rental income.

"Yeah. I do not really want to get into why that is, but it is a nice place. Maybe a little large, I cannot see myself leaving it behind though," Victoria hesitates at the answer, confused at his apparent desire to keep secrets.

"It must get lonely, though?" She asks, her eyes drawn to him, showing that she was giving him all of her attention. Not so subtly, though, Arthur could see her phone in her lap, from the beam of light illuminating her face. He felt comfortable playing along, knowing that at the end of the night he could go home with a clear conscience.

"That is not so bad in the grand scheme of things. It is not like I spend all my time there, with working and everything else," Arthur smiles, shrugging off the idea that he was lonely, even though he was alone at the estate.

"I am sure you could always find yourself some company," Victoria assures him, though Arthur is troubled by the assertion.

Instead of having to answer to the remark, Arthur is glad when they are interrupted with the arrival of their orders. While he eats, Arthur mulls over how he recognizes that he is not changing Victoria's mind, in fact, she seems to steadily believe there is something else to him that he is not showing her. As if he is another of the millionaire playboy types that must be everywhere in this city. Arthur wants her to know he is nothing of the sort, but at the same time, he knows coming out and saying that will do little to convince her. Actions speak louder than words anyway, he figures, letting it go while they enjoy their meals, until they find themselves at the front of Victoria's home.

Arthur turns off the car and walks around, prepared to open the door for Victoria, though she is already stepped out when he arrives. He settles for walking her to the front door, where she waits with him, her keys in the door.

Arthur leans into her, and she responds by leaning into him, putting a hand up against his chest as the two share a kiss, with Victoria smiling as she pulls back, and Arthur stands back up. She reaches forward and pushes her door open, while Arthur has already turned to leave in his car after wishing her a good night.

"Going somewhere?" She says, tilting her head at him as he descends her front steps.

"Home?" he questions, turning around from the sidewalk. She pauses, her smile fading as she looks Arthur up and down. Without another word, she steps inside and slowly closes the door. Satisfied with how the evening has gone, Arthur slips into his car and heads home.

Umberdragon Estate

10/17/2017 -- 07:00PM

Despite the rocky end to their outing a few weeks ago, Victoria and Arthur had gone on a date every week since. They had even grabbed reservations, with Victoria's name able to topmost guest lists in the city. Arthur does not want to risk attracting media attention, but he knew that going anywhere with Victoria runs some level of risk, and he would just have to accept it.

Victoria's presence usually did a number to distract them, with the way that they were spending time together indicative of a date more than anything else, like a business dealing. Weekly outings, during weeknights only, no less, and a variety of restaurants as well as one walk along the beach, the week after their first outing. The tabloids did not have a chance to get an interview with either one of them, but all they really managed were a few snaps of the couple walking about. Neither were bothered about it, and for now, Arthur appreciates that he does not have the media hanging off his back.

The pair arrive back at Arthur's estate, as Arthur has appreciated the growth he has seen from Victoria over the last few weeks, and he wants to give her a chance to show her true colors, whatever those may be. Arthur parks his car in the garage, turning it off and walking around, opening the door for his date with a smile on his face. She steps out slowly, this time wearing a more modest teal sleeveless dress that goes to her mid-thigh. In fact, Arthur remembers that her choice of dress has been getting slowly more and more conservative, though he could not really place why that was, he had not made a negative comment about any dress since his questioning of the first one. But in a similar way, he is not bringing himself to be upset about whatever she chooses to wear.

They walk together inside the house, with Victoria closely following Arthur, her eyes on his back. She is pleased, mostly as she has come so close to getting with him after a whole month. She has surprised herself with how long she was willing to put up with his whole act just to get where she is now, but it is only right that she enjoys the fruits of her labor now. And enjoy she would, based on what she had seen so far. His broad frame, his muscle. She looks forward to getting lost in it.

Before long, and beyond Arthur's hesitation, Victoria drags him off to his bedroom, stepping backward along the way, softly finding the bed, and taking a seat, keeping Arthur just in front of her with one of her hands left in his. She uses the other to pull apart the button of his pants, separating it with a push of a thumb and a slide of his zipper, her eyes going from his face to his chest, still covered with his shirt, all the way down to his now exposed bulge. She takes no time in taking away the second covering, his underwear, tossing them down around his knees and pulling his large length out. Her eyes widen at it, and a smooth, "Holy fuck..." leaves her plump lips, as she drops her other hand and uses both to jerk him.

Victoria was eager in the moment, and she was happy to show just how eager she has become by taking in the head of his cock without a second thought, opening her mouth just wide enough for its entry, but smoothing her lips down around it on all sides, keeping her chin tilted upward to lock in eye contact while she sucks away at Arthur's cock. Her long hair draped around her head, falling over each of her shoulders and also spreading out across the back of her dress.

It turns out that it also is not long for this world, as she spends seconds blowing him before her hands fall to the bottom of her dress at the top of her thighs, pulling upward with a ferocity that says she wants it gone right now. Even still, as she struggles with its Arthur cannot help but enjoy the show going on, of Victoria having kicked herself out of her shoes, now tossing her dress over her shoulder as only her black lace bra remained. The bra does a solid job of keeping her chest contained, but it is exactly the opposite of what he wants, a fact he quickly works to solve by reaching around her and taking apart her bra in one quick snap. Arthur lets her stunning breasts out for him to take a fuller look over them, all while Victoria is bobbing her head between his legs.