The Lair of Jack: Long Shot Love Duet (Book Two)

by Aven Jayce

  “I love you forever, Quinn.”

  Epilogue

  “Well, I suppose nothing is meant to last forever. We have to make room for other people. It’s a wheel. You get on; you have to go to the end. And then somebody has the same opportunity to go to the end, and so on.”

  - Vivian Maier

  I CAME ACROSS that quote at the city library while reading a book about an American street photographer. It reminded me of my mom, both the quote and the woman, Vivian Maier.

  Nothing is meant to last forever. We have to make room for other people.

  My mom’s end came early; I don’t believe she made it all the way around the wheel, but maybe there was a reason for that. A reason I might understand when it’s my turn to get off and give my spot to the next person in line.

  I jotted the quote down and slipped it inside my hoodie pocket, forgetting that I had it in there until weeks later, when I came home from my volunteer work and found a gift on the dresser next to my heart necklace.

  Quinn came across the quote when he was doing laundry, and he knew I wouldn’t have written it down if it wasn’t meaningful.

  He bought a small frame from a thrift shop and put the handwritten quote inside, leaving it next to the one thing I still have from my former life... the necklace from my mom.

  That’s Quinn in a nutshell.

  He pays attention.

  That’s the type of wonderful things he does for me.

  And that’s why I love him.

  It was a long shot that we’d make it, but we took the risk and it was worth it in the end.

  He got many things that he wanted—including a woman who loves him unconditionally.

  And I got many things that I wanted—including a man who loves me unconditionally.

  We may not have financial freedom, but when we take a step back and evaluate what we do have—happiness, our loyalty to one another, shared values and faith, laughter, playfulness, a positive attitude, and emotional and physical intimacy—a deep and passionate love. When we think of all that; we have everything. That’s what we call wealth.

  Jack, on the other hand...

  We follow his business online and cater his wild parties. And we can tell how well he’s doing by the number of bodyguards he has.

  At first, Dylan was the only one, then a second brute came on board, and a third, and the last time we catered we counted four. Four bodyguards, two of which live in the house with them. His business is growing, and becoming more dangerous.

  There’re also billboards sprouting up all around the city for the Fox Palace Hotel and Casino, which Jack did end up purchasing. He’s having a grand opening for the remodeled Expo Hall next month. Of course, the kickoff event is a porn expo, a porn expo that we have to cater.

  He’s becoming a household name in this city. And over the past two years, Jack Jameson has become a regular part our lives. He’s my pseudo-brother and our semi-real friend.

  Quinn and I often joke about it, saying things like, “Good God, how the fuck did this happen?” knowing full well we’d be lost without him.

  And sometimes curiosity gets the best of us, and we look at his porn sites. They’re awful though. Full of hardcore this and that, live cams, and sex toys... okay, the sex toys are fun. We secretly bought a few.

  We’re human. We have needs.

  But there was something else we came across on Jack’s profile page of his main business site for Jameson Industries that made us smile. At least it made me smile, while Quinn read it and groaned.

  It’s a quote that sums up his life, like the Vivian Maier quote that I connect to mine.

  Whenever I read it, I’m reminded of the summer we met him. The summer he turned our lives upside down, gobbled us up, spit us out, then became our savior.

  It’s just so Jack, and I’m sure he lives by these words...

  “Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It’s a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.”

  – Eric Burdon

  Music Playlist

  Books 1 & 2

  “Roxanne” by The Police

  “Ophelia” by the Lumineers

  “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals

  “First Day of My Life” by Bright Eyes

  “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles

  “See See Rider” by Eric Burdon & The Animals

  “Beautiful” by Eminem

  “Monterey” by Eric Burdon & The Animals

  “Wild Horses” by Elliott Murphy

  “Whistle” by Flo Rida

  “Boom Boom” by The Animals

  “Can I Sleep In Your Arms” by Phosphorescent

  More about Jack

  If you’d like to read more about Jack (when he was a teenager), you can find him in the Jameson Hotel 6-part series—available in a complete box set.

  The prologue to Jameson Hotel is included on the following pages. Please note: Jameson Hotel is a dark erotic tale with a touch of humor.

  If you haven’t read any of the Jameson books, the complete Jameson Family Saga is available in one box set and includes 6 full-length novels:

  Fallen Snow

  Desert Star

  Sunset Rush

  The Dark Scarlett

  Jameson Hotel (Parts 1–3 & Parts 4–6)

  Thanks for reading!

  Jameson Hotel (Prologue)

  EAGER FOR A CHANGE after losing custody of my son and half of my possessions in an epic and savage divorce battle, I sold my porn company, my house, and the remainder of my belongings to escape the shithole, dehydrated city of Las Vegas.

  I spent the next two years arguing with architects, and countless months trying to get the proper building permits until I was finally approved to have a hotel built on a piece of land between Carson City and Sacramento. It’s a three-story structure with a rustic log cabin exterior that melds with the landscape, and an interior that’s elegantly decked out, comprised of dark-toned walls and rich earthy hues in the carpets and wood floors. With high-end furnishings from the ground up, gold and red accents in the corridors, and fresh Mariposa lilies strategically arranged in every room, I’ve heard it referred to as luxurious and stately, similar to a manor house.

  Located just off Route 50, my hotel is burrowed in the high pines of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Replete with a remarkable view of Lake Tahoe, it’s a place for anyone in need of an escape from their polluted urban life of fast food, gadgets, car exhaust, and nine-hour days in front of a digital blue screen.

  I thought my time away from the porn industry and casinos might sway my ex-wife to lighten up about my visitation rights with my kid, Jack, who I never get to see. However, I’m beginning to realize that as the son of the former king of porn, Paul Jameson, a psychopath who ended up face down with a bullet through his head, his past will always be a part of my present. My ex-wife is fully aware of the disturbing life my father led, and now that we’re no longer together, she’s using it against me, keeping my son at a distance. She also believes I’m turning into a shielded, voyeuristic, mentally ill man just like he was, and she could very well be right. What she doesn’t understand is that I not only inherited part of my father’s estate, but his enemies as well, and I need to protect myself.

  Hiding behind every slot machine back in Vegas and now in these tall mountain pines is someone who’s out to kill me. I don’t trust a soul. Even at six thousand feet, with only one long road in and out of my hotel, I know that someday, someone’s going to arrive and seek vengeance for my father’s fucked up behavior. I am a bit guarded.

  I have cameras around my entire property, in the lobby, restaurant, pool area, gym, laundry room, in all of the corridors, the executive suites, and even some of the standard-stay rooms. While I know I can’t legally observe and record my guests in their rooms, what they don’t know can’t hurt them. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a security
issue and one I don’t take lightly, not after witnessing some of the shit that went down within my father’s porn company. And, I hate to admit this, but sometimes watching people screw in my hotel hardens my dick.

  People traveling through these parts are mostly vacationers hitting the ski slopes during the winter or hiking and boating during the summer. They’re looking for a serene setting, to inhale the mountain air, and to put their four hundred dollar a night bed to good use—fucking like wild beasts every chance they get. With all the cameras in and around this place I can catch some cock getting sucked or a pussy getting eaten out and poked virtually any time of the night or day. And the best part is it’s goddamn real, not a bunch of worn-out porn stars getting paid to unconsciously perform. It’s fucking hot. Shit, even the baggy old asshats that wander into my hotel get it on with their K-Y Jelly for at least one night during their stay.

  I’ve also caught my staff screwing around on their breaks. Housekeeping, restaurant workers, the doormen and baggage handlers, my maintenance and grounds crew, every damn one of them have banged someone at least once in this hotel, mainly one another, but sometimes the guests. The chief badass offenders are my pool boys; three guys who are fresh out of high school and at eighteen their dicks are hard 24/7.

  I may need to change the name of my place from Jameson Hotel to Brothel in the Pines and, in all honesty, I’m just as guilty as the rest of the whorish men and women who hang around here. For Pete’s sake, I’m not going to live my life without pussy.

  And just to be clear, I also don’t take shit from anyone. People who fuck with me never check out. Lake Tahoe is the third deepest lake in the United States with an average depth of a thousand feet. If some swine finds himself sinking to the bottom with a concrete block tied around his chest it’s because he was a threat to someone I care about, in which case he’s never going to be found. Trust me on that one.

  I’m Mark Jameson.

  Oh, and welcome to my hotel.

  About Aven

  Aven Jayce received her MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was a college professor for seven years before resigning to write full-time. She now enjoys life as an eccentric loner—similar to some of the characters in her books.

  Her favorite reads are psychological suspense novels and stories with damaged, nonlinear characters. Guilty pleasures include practical cars, complicated problems, American historical novels, orange chocolate, and anything Betsey Johnson.

  Aven Jayce Novels:

  The NOVA Trilogy

  Fallen Snow (Book One)

  Desert Star (Book Two)

  Sunset Rush (Book Three)

  The Dark Scarlett - A continuation of NOVA

  Jameson Hotel Series (Parts 1–6)

  The Land of Rabbits (Long Shot Love Duet #1)

  The Lair of Jack (Long Shot Love Duet #2)

  Divine

  US Amazon Author Page

  UK Amazon Author Page