Something About Lorelei (5 page)

Jack

I used the launch party as an excuse to have dinner with Lorelei. After she said good night to me, and when I watched her walk down the hallway and step onto the elevator, the thought of not seeing her again until Monday bothered me. I already had plans tonight with Kate but cancelled them so I could have dinner with Lorelei, even though I knew sex wouldn’t be part of the evening plans.

“Can I see your hand?” I asked.

“Excuse me?” She cocked her head.

My lips gave way to a small smile. “Let me see your hand.” I placed my palm face up on the table.

“Why?”

“Lorelei, I don’t bite.”

She hesitantly reached across the table and placed her hand in mine.
Fuck
. Her hand was so soft and my cock was on the rise. I ran my fingers softly along hers.

“You have long, slender fingers, which indicates creativity.” I smiled.

The only thing at that moment I could think of was how good those long fingers would feel wrapped around my cock.
Shit
.

“I’ve heard that before.” She smiled back.

Touching her was too much and the rage of fire erupting through my body was unbearable. I let go of her hand and took a sip of my drink.

“Garrett didn’t tell you anything about me?” she asked.

“No, and he knows he doesn’t have to. I trust him to hire the best people for me.”

“But you’ve already been through fourteen assistants.”

“And how do you know that?” I casually smiled.

“Your mother told me. She said she hopes I stay longer than your last fourteen PAs.”

I chuckled. “Well, Garrett wasn’t to blame, or maybe he was. Who knows. But I have a feeling he made the right choice this time.”

“We’ll see. Won’t we?” She smirked and my cock reached its full rise.

“What else is there about you that I should know?”

“Mr. Sutton, you asked me here tonight to talk about the launch party, not about my personal life. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to get to it.”

Arching my brow, I stared into her beautiful blue eyes. “You seem to be in a hurry. Is there a boyfriend waiting at home for you?”

“No.”

I silently let out a sigh of relief. No husband and no boyfriend. This was good, but shocking. Why didn’t someone as beautiful and smart as she was have a boyfriend?

As we were eating our dinner, I pulled my ringing phone from my pocket and saw my mother was calling.

“Hello.”

“Jack, you need to come to the office right away. Vidal just put together the clothing line for December’s spread and we need to go over them. Coco is here too.”

“I’m in the middle of dinner. Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“Box it up and eat it later. And no, it can’t wait until tomorrow. In case you have forgotten, I’m leaving for Los Angeles.”

I sighed. “Fine. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Click
. “I’m sorry, Lorelei, but we’ll have to discuss the rest of the details on Monday. My mother needs me.”

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Yes. She needs me at the office. This is the reason why the woman has been divorced six times.”

She tried not laugh, but she did anyway. I smiled.

“Ride with me to the office and then I’ll have Tony drive you home.”

“It’s okay, Mr. Sutton. I can take the subway.”

“You aren’t taking the subway this late. It’s not safe. Actually, it’s not safe ever.” I waved my hand for the waitress and had her box up our dinners.

Lorelei climbed out of the booth and I placed my hand on the small of her back as we left the restaurant. Climbing into the limo, I told Tony to take us to the office and then instructed him to drive Lorelei home. When we reached the office, I stepped out of the limo and then bent over to see Lorelei one last time.

“By the way, you can call me Jack.” I smiled and shut the door.

****

Lorelei

I sat there with a confused look on my face as he shut the door. He wanted me to call him Jack? Why? The way he ran his fingers across mine at dinner sent a storm through me. His touch and the sensation I felt made my head spin. I began to sweat and my heart started to beat rapidly. I had even lost my breath for a moment and I couldn’t explain why. Maybe it was because he was so damn sexy. He was confident, too confident. He was the type of person who liked control. I hated people like that. But there was something about Jack Sutton that created an ache between my legs. An ache I hadn’t felt in so many years. The type of ache that scared me and could potentially become dangerous. He was attracted to me. That much I could tell, but did I want that? Who wouldn’t want a hot and sexy millionaire corporate man attracted to her? But we were total opposites and I was pretty sure that he was only attracted to me from the outside. Another notch in his belt was something I wouldn’t become.

“Tony, has Jack ever had you drive one of his PAs home?”

“No, Lorelei. You’re the first.” He smiled through the rearview mirror.

“I see.” I looked down at my hands.

Tony pulled up to my building and opened the door for me. Climbing out, I thanked him and went up to my apartment.

“You’re back early.” Stella smiled as I walked in the door.

“He had to go to the office and meet his mother. Something about the December issue.”

“Oh. So what did you talk about?” She smirked.

I rolled my eyes as I walked into the kitchen and poured a glass of wine.

“Is Hope in bed?”

“Yes. She’s been asleep for about an hour,” Sebastian replied.

“He wanted to talk about me and my personal life.” I took a sip from the glass.

“I think someone has a crush on our little Lorelei.” Stella smiled as she hooked her arm around me.

“He can crush all he wants. He’s a womanizer and all he thinks about is sex.”

“So? You haven’t had sex in seven years and he does wear extra-large condoms.”

“Hold on a second!” Sebastian put his hand up. “How the fuck do you know that?”

“Didn’t I tell you?” She laughed. “He had her buy him a box.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “The guy sounds like an asshole. Who does that shit?”

“Jack Sutton. That’s who,” I spoke.

Jack

I arrived at the office at six a.m., and at about seven, Garrett came strolling in, taking a seat across from me.

“How was your weekend?” he asked.

“It was okay. I worked most of it. You know I’m leaving for Paris Fashion Week in a few days and it’s always hectic around this time.”

He gave me a light nod as he crossed his hands and brought them up to his lips.

“I’m afraid to ask how Lorelei’s working out.”

“She’s working out fine. She’s very talented. Why didn’t you tell me she studied at Parsons?”

“Would it have mattered? You never gave a shit what your PAs did as long as they were capable of working for you.”

I shrugged. “I still think you should have told me. What else do you know about her?”

“Nothing. That’s it. Why?”

“No reason. I took her to dinner Friday night to discuss the details for the launch party and I tried to get her to talk about her personal life and she wouldn’t.”

He cocked his head at me, narrowing his eyes. “You, Jack Sutton, took your PA to dinner? You’ve never done that.”

I shrugged again. “I wanted to get the details out of the way.”

He sat there and glared at me for few moments, his eyes searching deep inside me for something.

“Jesus Christ, Jack. No! No fucking way!”

“What?” I raised my hands.

“You are not even going to think about getting her into bed with you. Fuck, Jack! What the hell is the matter with you?”

“Did I say I wanted to sleep with her? I just said I wanted to get to know her better.”

“And you getting to know her better will ultimately end up with the two of you in bed and, before I know it, she’ll be hurt and she doesn’t deserve that.”

Coco walked in and, instantly, Garrett changed his tone and a smile graced his face. I had been noticing that a lot lately and it was starting to bother me.

“What’s going on in here, gentlemen?” Coco smirked.

“Nothing. We’re just having a little business conversation,” I replied.

“Jack wants to get to know Lorelei better,” Garrett blabbed.

Coco raised her brow at me. “Why? You don’t ever want to get to know anyone personally.”

I leaned back in my chair. “For God’s sake. She’s a good PA so far and I would like to get to know her better. That’s all.”

“Hmm. Stay away from her, Jack. She’s a great girl and I happen to personally like her, which is more than I could say for the other women you keep company with.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean, Coco?”

“I’m just saying that the superficial women you choose to sleep with are just that. Fake and plastic. Lorelei is a real person and she doesn’t deserve to be treated with disrespect by the likes of you.”

“You two may leave my office right now. In fact, I’ll show you how nice I can be to her. I’m telling her she’s going to Paris with us. I’ll need a PA there to handle a few things.”

Coco laughed. “You have never had a PA with you in Paris or anywhere, for that matter. The only thing you need her to handle is your cock.”

Garrett busted out into laughter.

“Okay. Okay. You both had your fun. Now get the hell out of my office!”

I looked at the clock. It was seven fifty. I grabbed my phone and sent Lorelei a text message.

“You aren’t by any chance walking around the building with my coffee are you?”

“No. I’ll be there in five. Starbucks was crazy this morning.”

“And how is that different from any other morning?”

As I was looking down at my phone, waiting for a response, I heard Lorelei’s voice.

“Fine. When I went to pick up the coffee from the counter, I accidentally spilled it and they had to make me a new one,” she spoke as she stood in the doorway.

“Well, at least it wasn’t on my suit.” I held out my hand for my coffee. “Go get settled and then come back in here and have a seat. I need to talk to you about something.”

****

Lorelei

After handing Jack his coffee, I went to my desk and put my things away. I spent the whole weekend thinking about him and I couldn’t tell you why. All I knew was that he was on my mind when he shouldn’t have been and it really irritated me.

After turning on my computer and grabbing my notepad, a cute little boy around the age of five came up to my desk.

“Why, hello there.” I smiled.

“You’re pretty,” he spoke.

“Thank you. You are a very handsome little boy.”

“What’s this?” he asked as he touched the paperweight on my desk.

“Something you shouldn’t be touching,” Jack spoke in irritation as he walked out of his office.

The little boy ran down the hall and to his mom.

“That wasn’t very nice. He’s just a child.”

“I don’t like children. Bring the confirmed guest list in my office and we’ll go over the seating chart.”

Grabbing guest list from my desk, I followed him into his office. “What do you mean you don’t like children?”

“Exactly what I meant. I don’t like kids.” His tone was flat.

“You were a child once.”

“And I didn’t like myself. Now that I’m an adult, I like myself much better.” He winked.

“That’s a terrible thing to say, Jack.” I handed him the guest list and he looked it over.             

“Do you like sharks?” he asked.

“No. Not particularly.”

“And I don’t like kids.”

I shook my head and sat there in disbelief that he would even compare a child to a shark.

“So you never plan on having a family?”

He laughed. “Who me? Do I look like a family man to you?”

“I guess not.”

“Okay, now that we’ve established that I’m not a family kind of man, let’s get this seating chart finished.”

Once the seating chart was arranged, Jack glanced up at me.

“I have some good news for you.” He smiled.

“Oh? And what would that be?”

“You’re going to Paris with me. Well, with us. Me, my mother and Coco, and a couple of other people.”

I swear the color from my face drained.
Shit. Shit. Shit
. There was no way I could go to Paris. He was leaving in a few days and I couldn’t leave Hope. I couldn’t tell him that because he had just gone on a rant about how much he hated children and he wouldn’t understand.

“I’m sorry, Jack. I can’t.”

“Excuse me?” He cocked his head.

“I would love to but...”
Think, Lorelei, and make it good.
“My mother is ill and I can’t leave her right now.”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. I hope it’s nothing serious.”

“We don’t know yet. That’s why I can’t leave the country.”

“I understand. Maybe next year. That’ll be all,” he spoke.

I walked out of his office and, when I sat down at my desk, I sank low into my chair. I couldn’t believe I lied to him about my mother being ill. What the hell was the matter with me? There was no way I could leave my daughter behind and fly off to Paris.

As the day went on, his attitude towards me was different. He was in and out of meetings all day and barely spoke two words to me.