“Is that what you wear to work every night?”
I played dumb. “No, I don’t wear this outfit to work every single night. I wear all different outfits silly.” I placed the palms of my hands against his chest. “Everything okay, you sounded pissed on your call?” 251/408
“Yes, everything is find, it was hotel business.” He wrapped one arm around my waist and tugged me against him hard. “Do you feel that Syd? I just look at you dressed like that and I’m fucking hard again. How am I supposed to watch you go to work, knowing a room full of drunk men will feel the same way about my woman?” Fuck. Me. His jealous streak excited me and now I was going to have to walk around all night with a swell aching between my legs. “I only want one man sweetie.” I reached up on my tippy toes to kiss his mouth softly.
***
him and rolled my eyes in response to his smirk.
Jack navigated us with his hand at the small of my back to the SUV door and the driver jumped out to open it. The uniformed driver nodded to Jack,
“Evening Mr.
Heston.”
We pulled up outside of the hotel and I had expected that Jack was dropping me off and going back to his place, but he told his driver to come back for him in an hour and got out with me. I looked at him quizzically, as he helped me out of the SUV. “I have a few things to take care of here, so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone.” He took my hand and we made our way through the hotel’s front door.
“Two?” I thought maybe I had missed something, what was the other thing?
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Jack smiled at me, an evil but sexy at hell smile. “Within five minutes of walking through the front lobby holding your hand, the entire staff will be buzzing. It will make you off limits and security will make it their business to keep a closer eye on you.” I stopped dead in my tracks in the middle of the lobby. “So you’re essentially a dog pissing on his territory.” Jack tightened the hand he was holding and pulled me to him, wrapping the other arm firmly around my waist. “Yep. Is that a problem babe?”
I opened my mouth to respond and Jack used it as an opportunity to cover my mouth with his and kiss me. It wasn’t a sweet quick kiss, it was a demanding make your knees week and leave me breathless kiss. His tongue explored my mouth and licked at my lips, stopping to suck in my 254/408
tongue. When he broke the kiss, he kept his face close to mine, and I was lightly panting.
“That should do it baby.” He looked around, apparently satisfied with himself.
I peered to one side of the room, and then the other. Jack was right, we had apparently gotten the attention of everyone in the room “You’re unbelievable.” He kissed me chastely before letting me go. “And don’t you forget it babe.”
***
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“Yours, your bathroom is bigger than my apartment.” I smiled.
“I’ll be back at midnight for you.”
“That’s not necessary Jack. I can take a cab to your place.”
He kissed me sweetly on the lips. “I want to.”
I sighed “Okay.”
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Chapter 16
Sunday morning we slept late and it was early afternoon before we got out of bed. Jack ordered room service and a pot of coffee for me. We sat at his dining room table that could sit 14 and I wondered how much entertaining he did that he needed such a big table.
“Do you host a lot of parties?”
“Here? No. The only people that have ever been up here are my boys that you met in Hawaii, and they don’t require a dining room table or hosting.” His statement peaked my interest.
“So, the five hundred or thousand women that you have….
entertained
, none of them have been here?” I dragged out the word 258/408
entertained because fucked just didn’t seem appropriate at the dining room table.
I saw Jack’s face growing uncomfortable. “No, there has never been another woman in my bed Syd. You are the first woman I’ve
entertained
here.” He drew out the word entertained the same as I did, mocking my choice of words.
My inner goddess was delighted with the news that no woman had been in his bed before. But something didn’t make sense. “So where did you
entertain
the women then?”
Jack’s jaw tensed and I instantly knew I wasn’t going to like the answer. He looked down at his plate. “I keep a room on the 15th floor.”
I almost choked on my coffee.
“You keep a fuck room?” My voice was 259/408
louder and more condescending than I meant it to be.
“I kept a room where I could spend the night, it is a small suite and I keep some of my things down there. It has an office in there too.” His voice was controlled and I could tell he was trying to restrain his emotion and not be defensive.
“Do you have an office here too?” I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic, but it came out that way anyway.
“I told you I wasn’t proud of my past Syd. But we’re together now and you’re in my bed, not in that room, so let’s not do this.” Jack got up from the table and stormed out of the room.
I sat for a few minutes thinking.
Jack was right, I was jealous and acting like a brat. He had been honest with me from the start and never pretended he was anything 260/408
other than who he was. He didn’t deserve my judgment. I cleared the table and went to apologize.
I found him in his exercise room, running full speed with headphones on. He watched me as I walked in, but didn’t slow his pace or take out his headphones. I mouthed the words
I’m sorry
to him and he nodded his head as he ran. He was dripping from the insane pace that he was running at and his shirt was sticking to his heaving chest, outlining every cut of his gorgeous body. Jack kept running, but caught my eyes wandering around his body. I could tell that my admiration for his body had distracted him, but he appeared content to keep running.
I pulled off his big t-shirt that I was wearing and stood there before him, completely bare. His lust filled eyes roamed all over my body, but still he didn’t break pace.
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Then I slowly kneeled down on my knees, and looked up at him under hooded eyes.
That was it. He pushed stop and was in front of me, within seconds. I pulled down his pants, opened my throat and gave him the best apology I knew how.
***
“I’m going to take a quick shower if you don’t mind, and start to get ready to go.” It felt awkward to say, but I wasn’t sure why.
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“But you don’t have to be in work until tomorrow night?” More of a statement then a question.
“I know, but I don’t have any clothes or things here.”
“What do you need, I’ll send Mateo to get whatever you need.”
“Mateo?”
“My driver. He’s paid to be on call and usually I’m running around. It will give him something to do.”
“I need clothes and underwear, Jack. Is Mateo going to go into my apartment and rummage through my underwear drawer?”
“No. I’d have to break his fingers for touching your underwear. But I can send 263/408
him to Barney’s to pick up some items that Chloe picks out.”
“Chloe?” Did this man have a person to do all of his errands?
“She picks out my clothes. I’ll call her and she can pick out some things for you and Mateo can pick up the bags.” He said it as if it was simple and normal to have people run out and get my underwear.
“That’s sweet Jack, but I’ll just go home. You are probably getting sick of me anyway, I’ve been here all day and night.” Jack froze. “Are you sick of being with me Syd?” For a second, he looked vulnerable.
“No, of course not.” I could see he needed reassurance. “It’s just, I’m afraid of taking things too fast. I know you are new to 264/408
relationships and I don’t want to push you too fast and scare you away.” Jack’s confident face returned as he grabbed his cell phone. “I spent three weeks torturing myself without you babe.
I’m not letting you slip away now that I have you.”
My heart swelled a little more at his affirmation. He pushed a button on his cell and the conversation was over. He kissed my forehead as he walked out of the room talking on his phone. “Nope, not for me today Chloe, I need you to put some things together for my girlfriend.” His girlfriend? I loved the sound of that.
***
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I heard Jack and Mateo talk for a minute, but I was only dressed in one of Jack’s t-shirts, so I didn’t go out to see what Mateo brought, even thought I was curious.
A few minutes later Jack came back to the living room, I was camped out on his area rug, with newspaper sections spread all over the floor. He plopped a few bags down on the couch. “How about we go out to dinner tonight?”
“That sounds great.” I motioned to the half dozen bags on the couch. “It looks like I have something to wear.” I smiled and shook my head.
Jack walked to me and reached down to where I was sitting to kiss me on the forehead. Something about when he kissed me on the forehead made me insides melt.
“As much as I’d really love to make you model all your new clothes for me, I have an hour or two of work that I have to get done. So 266/408
why don’t you go see if you can find something you like and I’ll go to my office to work so that seeing your naked body won’t distract me.”
“Okay.” Damn, he was cute when he was sweet.
“I’ll bring the rest of the bags to the bedroom and make space in the closet for you to keep your things.”
“The rest of the bags?” There were six on the couch, how many bags were delivered? And he was going to make me space in his closet? Holy shit.
“I told her to send over whatever would look sexy on your cute little ass. Apparently she googled you and found pictures of you singing and there is a lot you will look sexy in.” I was momentarily speechless, but it didn’t matter, because Jack wasn’t finished. “And we need to talk about internet 267/408
security, or lack of security. Any crazy man can find out where you live.” Umm…yeah, you did.
***
I stopped looking at the tags when I found a box of shoes that were marked $1,600 alone.
I decided to keep my favorite outfit, because I really didn’t have anything to 268/408
wear if I didn’t, and the cosmetics and hair products. The rest was in a huge heap on the bed, and Jack was going to have to have Mateo take them back.
Jack finished in his office and came up behind me as I was getting ready.
“Jack, there are way too many clothes there, I picked one outfit to wear tonight, but the rest need to go back. I appreciate you buying them for me, but it’s way too much.”
“Nope.” He kissed the top of my forehead and lifted his shirt off. “I’m going to take a quick shower.” What? He dismissed everything I said in one little word and wasn’t even going to wait around to discuss it with me? He really was going to need a lot of tutoring on how relationships work. “Jack, don’t ignore what I just said?”
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I looked up at him in the mirror behind me and saw his face looked annoyed.
“I didn’t ignore what you just said. I considered it and responded to it.”
“You considered it an responded to it?” Was he insane?
“Yep. Give me three good reasons why you can’t keep them and I’ll change my mind. I’m not unreasonable.” I felt the heat in my face rise, was he joking? I didn’t even know how to respond to that statement. And god damn it, I was drawing a blank for three good reasons why I couldn’t keep them.
His angry face changed to amused as he watched me in the mirror. “You got nothing, huh?” One eyebrow arched in challenge. “Do they fit?”
“Yes.”
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“Do you like them?”
“Yes, but that’s not the point.”
“So why don’t you tell me what the point is then Syd.”
His rapid fire of questions was pissing me off. “It’s too much Jack. You just don’t go around buying your girlfriend of two days $50,000 of clothes.”
“You don’t?”
I could tell in his voice he was screwing with me and it just made me mad-der. “No, you don’t, it’s too much, too soon.”
“Why?”
God he infuriated me. He infuriated me because I didn’t have an answer…I don’t know why it was too much, too soon, it just was. “It just is Jack.” 271/408
He stepped out of the low hanging sweatpants that he was wearing as he spoke.
“That’s not an answer Syd. You still haven’t given me any good reasons babe.” He was right, I hadn’t given him any reasons, but that didn’t mean that I was keeping the clothes. I gave him my best pissed off look in the mirror and he didn’t flinch.
“Let’s look at this another way Syd. Would it be acceptable for a new boyfriend, who earns say $100,000 a year, to buy his new girlfriend a $500 outfit if he wanted to?”
I thought about it. Michael had earned only a little more than that and I guess I wouldn’t have thought it was too much if he had bought me an outfit costing $500. “I guess not, it would be generous, but I wouldn’t think it was insanity.” Jack 272/408