“Fuck Syd. You look beautiful. Sexy as hell.”

I twirled to show him the full outfit and smiled at him. “Thank you, the outfit is beautiful. Chloe has incredible taste.” He walked to stand in front of me and took both my hands. “You are going to get me killed, with my temper and the looks you are going to get.” Jack was dead serious and I loved every word.

I rolled my eyes, telling him he was exaggerating and planted a kiss on his mouth.

***

Of course, the matre de at Coco LeMer knew Jack by name. While it was nice to get service as soon as you walked in, the thought of Jack bringing some of his 1,000 other women to the restaurant dulled my spirit. Jack was already getting good at picking up on things that bothered me quickly and whispered “I’ve only ever brought business associates here” as we walked to the table. I thought it was sweet that he noticed the little things.

Sienna jumped up as we arrived at our table. “Surprise!”

I hugged her as if I hadn’t seen her in years. I was happy to see her, but confused.

“What are you doing here?” Sienna looked at Jack and smiled. “I threatened to kill him if he hurt you and he invited me to dinner.”

Yep, that sounded about right for Sienna. I hadn’t filled her in on all that had happened since Jack came back a few days ago, the last time I saw her I was a crying mess over him. So much had happened and it felt like months had passed in the last week.

“I’m sorry Sienna, I should have called you.” I took her hand.

“I’m the one who owes Sienna the apology Syd. I was a complete ass**le to you and Sienna was just being a good friend. I wouldn’t have wanted her to react any other way when I called.”

Sienna smiled at me. “We need to celebrate Syd, how about tequila for a change?” We both cracked up.

The food was incredible and Sienna and I were happy to let Jack order for us. A few men stopped by the table during dinner to say hello to Jack and he introduced us each time, calling me his girlfriend. I loved hearing him call me his.

Sienna told me about some potential gigs that she was working on for us and we told Jack stories of the worst gigs we had ever done. The bat mitzvah where I had the flu and threw up behind the stage in a bucket in between songs. Only for the little boy who was the guest of honor to trip over a few minutes later and be forced to wear a vomit covered suit the rest of the night. The rave in an abandoned warehouse in Boston that got out of control when a biker that was hitting on me didn’t know when to quit, causing a full blow war between two biker gangs to erupt. I don’t think Sienna noticed Jack’s jaw tighten as she told the story about the biker guy, but I didn’t miss it.

Jack didn’t tell many stories about his past, but I wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t want to share or because Sienna and I monopolized the conversation most of the evening. Either way, the three of us laughed most of the night and I was surprised that three hours had flown by. Sienna and I excused ourselves and went to the ladies room to freshen up. I gave her the seven minute catch up on all that had happened. “Well if I didn’t see you guys together tonight, I would probably have been concerned when you got around to telling me you were reunited. But, shit Syd, that man is in love with you.” In love with me, was she crazy?

“That’s the tequila talking Sienna. He is not in love with me. In lust, maybe. But we haven’t known each other long enough to be in love.”

Sienna took my face into her hands.

“Sweetie, time has nothing to do with it. You wasted seven years with that ass**le, that’s a whole lot of time. Did you ever feel for Michael what you feel for Jack?” I thought about the question, but didn’t respond. She smiled broadly. “Right, time doesn’t mean shit.” When we got back to the table, Jack was talking with a silver haired man with a young face and neither of them looked happy. I could see the tension on Jack’s face that wasn’t there ten minutes earlier. “All okay?” I stood next to Jack and put my hand on his shoulder. Young silver looked at my hand on Jack’s shoulder and then did an obvious slow, learing gaze up and down my body. I watched the whole thing and the look made my stomach turn. Unfortunately, Jack didn’t miss it either. Jack stood and got in young silver’s face, and quietly spoke, but I heard every word.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. And get your f**king eyes off of her before I make it so you can’t f**king see.” Young silver snickered, but didn’t look my way again before scurrying back to where he came from.

Sienna and I sat, but the mood had changed. “Are you okay babe?” I asked Jack tentatively.

“Yep. Sorry about that. Why don’t we get out of here.”

Mateo was waiting when we walked outside. I was glad that Jack insisted on dropping Sienna at her building since it was late. Jack was polite, but quiet, and I could tell that whatever was discussed between him and young silver was still bothering him. But I decided not to push him on the subject and instead held his hand and sat quietly the rest of the way back to the hotel.

***

Monday afternoon I finally went back home. I was surprised to hear Michael’s voice on my answering machine. His voice was low and full of remorse. He blabbered on about wanting to find out how I was doing and something about finding my grandmother’s necklace. I pressed delete and didn’t bother to call him back. I didn’t want to be bitter about all those years I had spent with Michael, but the way it ended had left me feeling that I lived with a man that I never really knew, a man I really didn’t like.

As I got ready for work, I found myself thinking of Jack and what he was doing. He has said that he was going to work after dropping me at my apartment, but what did going to work entail for a man that was in his business? I had come home from Jack’s on a high, feeling good about our new relationship and less than two hours later, I was questioning his intentions after just one message from Michael. It took me seven years to take off the blinders and see who Michael really was, I was afraid of making the same mistake again.

Chapter 17

The next week flew by and Jack and I were almost inseparable. I spent most of my time at his apartment, when I wasn’t working. After our first week together, he had insisted that Mateo would pick me up after work, and I knew that arguing a cab was just as safe was a losing battle. Each night Mateo was waiting outside when I walked out and he whisked me directly to Jack’s hotel. We had started to settle in a routine where Jack would get up early to exercise and I would find him working in his home office when I crawled out of bed about 11. He always seemed to finish up whatever he was working on when I came into his office, and I wasn’t sure if it was sweet or he didn’t want me to look at what he was working on.

I was excited when Jack invited me to a business dinner, there was such a big part of him that I didn’t know and I thought that perhaps seeing him at work would quell that tiny little nagging feeling in the back of my head that kept me always searching for signs of a different man than who I was hopelessly starting to fall for.

I dressed for the dinner in a simple cream pencil skirt, rose colored silk blouse and nude sling backs. I decided to pull my normally loose falling blonde hair back into a slick ponytail for a more demure look. I must have achieved the look I was going for, because when Jack saw me, he told me he hard the urge to f**k me hard in between the stacks at the library.

***

Dinner turned out to be with an older gentleman who brought a woman that me initially thought was his daughter, which turned out to be his wife. The restaurant was packed with businessmen and a few women, most of which eyed Jack as he passed. I didn’t blame them; Jack was a sight in his navy sports jacket with light tan pants and a simple striped tie. Aside from being devast-atingly handsome, Jack carried himself with such confidence it exuded masculinity from him that made women swoon.

Jack and I maintained a physical connection throughout the meal. We either held hands, or he leaned his leg against mine or rested his arm around the back of my chair.

It made me wonder if he was aware of the women that looked his way, and it was his unspoken way of comforting me, or if he had caught the guy at the table closest to us looking my way, as I had earlier. Either way, I thought it was sweet and his touch on me just seemed so natural.

It turned out that our dinner guest owned a small chain of hotels in Illinois and Jack had been researching the properties as potential purchases. The Heston hotel chain had two properties in Chicago, but none in the outer cities, which apparently were good investments as the population was growing in the smaller, outlying cities.

Jack discussed what his engineers had found and while I thought it was all very interesting, I was mildly disappointed that the business dinner was hotel related. I was curious about the other side of Jack’s business and I secretly had hoped that the lunch would give me insight into that part of Jack’s life.

After dinner we headed back to Jack’s penthouse. Traffic was gnarled for a few blocks and, by the time we arrived, I only had twenty minutes to change or I would be late for work.

Jack and I changed together in his closet, where I had left my outfit for the night.

“Thank you for coming to dinner with me. I hope you weren’t bored too much?”

“No, it was nice, I was glad to come.” I thought for a minute, he had given me an opening and I needed to take it if I was ever going to satisfy my curiosity on the other side of his life. “Although I have to admit, I was a little disappointed it was hotel business. You never mention your other business.” I emphasized the word other, as if he wouldn’t have known what business I was talking about without my doing so.

Jack stood silent for a minute and then came up behind me as I was letting down my hair. “You want to know more about my other business?”

I felt my face flush and was glad that he was behind me. I don’t know why it embarrassed me to admit that I wanted to know more, but I did. “Yes, I do. You didn’t even want to tell me about that side of your life, so I think it has me curious.” Jack’s arms wrapped around my waist and his face nuzzled in my hair. “Okay then, I’ll bring you to my office with me one day if that will make me feel better.” I felt a flood of relief from a place I didn’t even know was stressed. I turned to face him. “You will?”

Jack kissed me, a sweet, tender kiss on the lips before answering. “Whatever you want is yours babe.”

I smiled and kissed him chastely back with excitement.

“Two conditions, babe.”

Damn it, I knew that was too easy. I looked up at him expectedly waiting for the other shoe to fall.

“One, you remember it is a business for me and not part of my personal life.” I could do that. “Okay. I can do that.

What’s the other condition?”

“You put your hair back in that ponytail and put back on that naughty librarian outfit when you get home tonight.” My insides melted a little bit, and it had nothing to do with him wanting me to play naughty librarian with him. Jack called me coming to his penthouse, coming home.

It was exactly what it was starting to feel like, although it was the man and not the place that made it feel like home.

I reached up on my tippy toes and gave him a kiss. A long, sultry kiss that said I want to f**k you. I sucked in his tongue and nibbled on his lip, but broke the kiss before I was unable to.

Jack leaned his forehead against mine. “Fuck Syd.” He pressed his obvious erection into me. “The librarian is going to get a spanking tonight for leaving me like this.”

I knew it wasn’t nice to do, but I loved leaving him wanting more of me. I felt em-powered by the effect I had on Jack, who seemed so unaffected by everything else in his life.

***

An hour into our performance, I spotted Lyle come into the club. He waited until the end of our first set and then huddled us together whispering as if he were about to let us in on classified government secrets.