Inferno Anthology

by Gow, Kailin

  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.”

  An hour later Jack came back to the empty club while I was finishing my set-up routine and said goodbye. “Your place or mine tonight?” He said it like there was never any question that we would be spending the night together again that night.

  I smiled. “Yours, your bathroom is bigger than my apartment.”

  “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.”

  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 fourteen 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 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 fifteenth floor.”

  I almost choked on my coffee. “You keep a fuck room?” My voice was louder and more condescending than I meant it to be.

  “I kept a room where I could spend the night, a small suite. I kept 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 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. Then I slowly knelt down 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.

  Sunday night we sat around reading the three different newspapers that Jack had delivered and I was in my glory. It felt so natural and easy that I couldn’t believe we had only met a month ago. I hated to leave, but we had been together since Friday night and I was nervous it would be too much too fast. Besides, I had no clothes or toiletries with me and I definitely needed my birth control pills.

  “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.

  “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 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 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.

  Two hours later there was a knock at the door.

  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 had brought, even though 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 and kissed me on the forehead. Something about when he kissed me on the forehead made my 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 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 security, or lack of security. Any crazy man can find out where you live.”

  Umm … yeah. You did.

  Jack wasn’t kidding when he s
aid Chole had researched me. There were at least two dozen outfits and each one was something that I would have picked out for myself. That is, if I had about $50,000 to go on an insane shopping spree. There were bags and bags of beautiful shirts, pants, shoes, bras, underwear and even lingerie and a robe. Then there were cosmetic and hair products, all of which in the brands that I used. It was over the top, insane, and way too much. 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 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’d 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 worked. “Jack, don’t ignore what I just said.”

  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 and 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.”

  “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 madder. “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 didn’t know why it was too much, too soon. It just was. “It just is, Jack.”

  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 removed his boxer briefs and stood behind me with his glorious naked body. If I couldn’t come up with an intelligent answer before he was naked, how the hell was I supposed to think with that staring at me in the mirror?

  “Then it’s all relative, babe. Just add a few zeros to the salary and I should be allowed to add a few zeros to what I spend on my girlfriend’s clothes.” And with that, Jack turned away and walked into the bathroom. I couldn’t help but watch as every muscle in his fantastic ass tightened with each stride.

  I thought about what Jack had said while I got dressed and I was glad for a few minutes to think about the conversation without the pressure of Jack’s intense questioning. Was he right? I’d never dated a man that earned millions of dollars. Maybe it was all relative? But it still didn’t sit right with me for some reason, even if I couldn’t give him three good reasons why.

  Jack came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel and lord he was sexy. The towel hung low and showed off his deep v and that little light line of hair that lead from his belly button down to that place that made my stomach flip flop.

  “How did you know what shampoo and conditioner and makeup brands I used?” It seemed like way too much of a coincidence that Chloe had happened to select all of my favorite brands.

  Jack threw the towel on the bed and walked into his closet stark naked. I was pretty sure I would never get used to how beautiful the man looked without clothes on. “Sienna told Chloe what you used.” His tone was matter of fact as if he was saying something that wouldn’t shock me.

  He stepped out of the closet pulling up the zipper on a pair of dark gray slacks.

  “What? How did Sienna talk to Chloe?” I was thoroughly confused.

  “I gave Chloe Sienna’s number and she called her.”

  “But how did you get Sienna’s number?” I didn’t even think he knew Sienna’s last name.

  He pulled on a light blue dress shirt as he spoke. “I told you we were going to talk about Internet security, Syd. Any lunatic could find out anything he wanted about the two of you with a few keystrokes.”

  “I guess he did.” I was exasperated. We were going to talk about Internet security? How about we talk about boundaries and stalking?

  My comment didn’t seem to faze Jack in the slightest; he continued to get ready without missing a beat. “Get dressed, babe, we’re going to be late.”

  “Late for what?” I seemed to always be a step behind him in our conversations.

  “Dinner. We have reservations at 8:30 at Coco LaMer.”

  Coco LaMer was the it place of the year. I had passed by it a few times on my way to work and once I saw two of the girls from Sex in the City going in for dinner. I heard the reservation wait was two months long, although I never bothered to verify that information because that type of restaurant wasn’t in my budget. I didn’t bother to ask how Jack got reservations. The man clearly got whatever he wanted.

  I took my turn in Jack’s walk-in closet and dressed in the outfit that I had chosen to keep. It was a gold-colored strapless dress. The top was made of a delicate lace that wrapped around me like strips of gauze, winding in different directions. The waist was high and had a large bow on the right side. The bottom was a shredded mess of sparkly gold strips that completely clashed with the delicate top. It looked like a walking piece of art and fit me perfectly. I paired it with the shoes Chloe had picked, five inch stiletto sandals that wrapped around my ankles. I had long lean legs, but the short skirt and high heels made my legs look crazy long.

  I knew I looked good and I was glad that I had decided to leave my hair down. I walked out of the closet as Jack was clasping his watch on and his reaction was all that I had hoped for and more.

  “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 maitre d’ at Coco LeMer knew Jack by name. While it was nice to get service as soon as we walked in, the thought of Jack bringing some of his 1,000 other women to the restaurant dulled my spirits. Jack was already getting good at picking up on things that bothered me 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 thi
ngs.

  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 had been a mess, crying 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 asshole 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’d 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 blown 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.”