“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.

Chapter Twelve

Lorelei

Instead of going to Central Park for lunch, I met Stella at a coffee shop down the street. As she was talking about how shitty her day was going, I blurted out, “Can you believe he hates kids?”

“Huh?” She gave me a blank stare as she bit into her croissant sandwich.

“Jack. He told me today that he hates kids.”

“Why does he hate kids?”

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t say. He just said he doesn’t like them.”

“You never told him about Hope, did you?”

Taking a sip of my coffee, I sighed. “No. Why would I?”

“Why wouldn’t you? He’s your boss and I sort of think he should know you have a kid. But then again, since he hates kids, he may fire you just because you have one.” She smirked. “Just keep Hope to yourself.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I have no intentions of telling him anything about my personal life.”

“Good girl.” She grabbed her purse and threw it over shoulder. “I have to run. I have a meeting in ten minutes.” She gave me light kiss on the cheek. “Try not to kill him.”

“I won’t, because if I did, then I wouldn’t have a job.” I smiled.

Before heading back to the office, I stopped at Starbucks and got Jack his usual lunchtime coffee. When I walked into his office, he was on the phone, so I set it on his desk.