Although the thought of a rat in the same room as me made my head spin, the early evening was a welcome surprise, and I had decided to take a cab over to Jack's to surprise him. But when I went out front to hail a cab, I found Mateo waiting for me. I walked to the car and, as usual, he jumped out to open my door. "Good evening Ms. St. Claire."
"Hi Mateo. How did you know I was getting out early?"
Mateo seemed confused by the question. "Jack called to tell me to pick you up at 10."
I climbed in the car and sat thinking. How did Jack know that I was getting out early? I knew he owned the hotel, but did they really bother him with every little thing that went on in the hotel? It seemed odd for a man who owns a chain of hotels to be aware of a club closing a few hours early.
The doors opened to the penthouse and I found Jack standing in the kitchen pouring two glasses of wine. He handed me a glass in exchange for a kiss and I kicked off my shoes as I spoke. "How did Mateo know that I was getting off early tonight?"
Jack looked at me with a sheepish, but devilish grin. "You left with some unfinished business." He sipped from his glass, his eyes watching me intently as he drank.
It took me a second to connect the dots, but then I gaped at him with my mouth hanging open. "Are you saying what I think you are saying?"
"I don't know what do you think I'm saying?" He smirked, actually smirked, at me!
"You had them close down the club just to get me home two hours early to have sex with you?"
Jack clanked his wine glass down on the counter and took mine from my hands, as I was about to take a sip. "You have no fucking idea what lengths I would go to to have sex with you." Then he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder caveman style as he walked to the bedroom.
Chapter 18
Almost a week went by before Jack asked me if wanted to come to his other office. I was starting to think that he had forgotten, and a strange part of me almost hoped he had. I wanted to pretend that the other part of him didn't exist. I was blissfully happy with my Jack, the hot hotelier that I had become inseparable from. The thought of seeing another side to him, one that had the potential to change who he was to me, was physically painful to me.
I was surprised when we pulled up at a nondescript building that I had passed by many times but never actually noticed. I'm not sure what I had expected, but flashing neon signs with a large triple x, would have fit what my wild imagination had envisioned better.
The lobby was typical office building gray and there was a central desk with a security guard who greeted Jack by name when we entered. I still hadn't said a word as we entered the elevator and Jack pushed the button for the third floor.
"Is just your office on the third floor or do you share space with other companies?" I was forcing myself to make small talk to keep my heart from pounding out of my chest.
"I own the building, Cole Productions occupies the entire space."
Cole Productions, it sounds so business like, definitely better than Jerkoff Jack's I suppose. And his business occupies the entire building? If there were no other companies in the building than I would have expected there to be half naked girls making out in the hallway or something.
We approached a door and I started to panic. My heart raced and I was sure Jack could feel the sweat in my palms. Jack stopped at the door and turned to me. I must have looked as bad as I felt, because I saw the panic written on his face. "Are you okay babe?"
"Yes." I lied.
"Are you sure you want to do this? I've been sick the last week thinking of bringing you here. You are so good and sweet and everything I'm not and I don't want to taint you with my disgusting life." He held my face in his hands and wiped away a stray piece of hair.
I put my hands on his and didn't expect what came out to come rolling off my tongue. "I don't want to come, but I have to. I need to know who you are and this is a big part of you. I can't let myself fall in love with a man who has another side that I've never seen."
"Fuck, babe. That's what I love about you, pure and honest, no games." He kissed my lips gently and pulled me close to whisper in my ear. "I'm falling in love with you too babe."
Holy. Shit. We picked a fine place for a heart to heart. The door we were standing in front of abruptly opened and my momentary swell of love in my heart was pierced by a silver bullet as I stared into the face of the woman that Jack had brought to the conference what seemed like a long time ago.
"Jack, baby, it's about time. We have two live shoots today, a cover to pick and the writers want approval on the final script in the Candy series." She put her long red fingernails on his arm and I immediately wanted to scratch out her eyes.
"Jenna, this is Sydney. Give us about 15 minutes to settle in and I'll start with the cover."
Jenna gave me a fake smile and I gave her one back. I'd seen the woman twice and heard her speak once, and I was damn certain that she wanted Jack. Or worse, she had already had him.
Jenna walked off and Jack took my hand and squeezed it tight before leading the way to his office. The walk down the halls to his office gave the first glimpse that the office was anything more than a typical office. There were framed posters and awards, much of which would have seemed normal in a movie production company, if the people in the posters had clothes on. I tried not to gawk as we walked, but I couldn't help myself.
Jack's office was nothing like the hall and nothing like I expected. If was big and clean and there were no signs of either porn or his personal life. "Did you clean out your office for my visit, or does it always look so empty and sterile?"
Jack laughed. "Nope, this is how it always is. I take it you expected something different?"
I shook my head embarrassed.
"Like I told you Syd. This started out as nothing more than something to embarrass my father. Then it turned into a profitable business. It's a business to me. One I actually like running, unlike the hotels which scream of my father at every turn. I don't keep pictures on the wall or films all over, because I keep it strictly business in here. And you're the only woman I've ever wanted to look at while I was working, so I guess I'll have to break the sterility and get a framed picture of you for my desk soon."
I rolled my eyes at him, but the thought of him only having a picture of me in his stark office did warm my heart. "So am I going to get a day in the life of Jack Cole Heston view today?"
"We should talk about that before I start the day babe. There are shoots going on here and I usually go check them out. I can go check in and you can hang out in here if that makes you feel more comfortable."
His offer was thoughtful, but I wanted to see it all, the good, the bad, the ugly. "I want the full tour, you don't need to leave me behind."
Jack eyed me tentatively and I could tell he was considering his response carefully. His eyes caught mine, searching for something. He blew out a deep breath. "Okay."
Our first business of the day was script approval. We met with two men and a woman that I came to find out were the writing team for the multi partner movies. I was surprised to find a woman writer and even more surprised at how business like and professional the meeting was. They skipped over the sex scenes and just spoke about the storyline. I wasn't a virgin to X rated movies, but I must have watched the wrong ones, because none of the movies that I watched seemed to have had an actual story that was realistic, like the ones we reviewed that day.
After script approval we moved onto covers. We met with a photographer, who showed Jack and I a bunch of glossy photos for a movie called Triple Double, which apparently referred to Triplets that starred in movies together that all have double D breasts. The photographer was a nice older man, maybe in his late sixties. It was odd to hear the man talk about his grandchildren, while they looked at glossies of women while holding themselves open with one hand and inserting a vibrator with the other. But the way that they all seemed to work together, it really did seem like a business instead of the wild orgy that I had imagined.
Our last stop of the morning was a visit to the set, to check in on the progress of two movies. I wasn't nearly as nervous as I was when we first arrived, after seeing how professional things were run. Jack's assistant came by and took our lunch order and then we headed down to what Jack called "the hanger". The hanger was the entire basement of the building that was split into two extremely large wide open spaces that were each set up to accommodate many sets.
Jenna met us at the door and I cringed when she put her hand on Jack's arm as she spoke.