I just give her a look that tells her that it’s really up to her just how long we have together.
I’ve already settled for as long as humanly possible though.
Maybe even longer than just one day if I have anything to do with it.
Chapter Five
Olivia
Seeing Jack Mercury up close, it really does feel like I’m in a movie with him. He looks the same as he does on the big screen, but way better.
He’s bigger too, in lots of places. I mean, they say the camera adds ten pounds, but in real life, Jack’s body is all muscle. I can see that even through his pale linen shirt. Every movement he makes sends a part of his body flexing up against the fabric.
But it’s not just his looks that make me shiver, it’s how he carries himself. He has an aura about him that nobody else does.
I’ve never met a celebrity, but meeting Jack proves that at least he really is different from ordinary people.
I met the billionaire owner of the paper at a work function once. He didn’t have an aura. He was boring, cold. More average than an average person. No, Jack Mercury is special and I’m feeling it in more ways than one.
Apart from how perfect he is physically, how amazing he even smells. It’s how well we just seem to click straight away that has me hooked.
Without him saying much so far, it feels like we’re already a team, escaping the office and with his guidance going on some adventure I’m pretty sure even he has no idea where it’s actually headed.
Maybe he just has this effect on everybody, but I didn’t see the guy at the office with the clipboard and the privacy forms looking up at Jack with the same look I know I have now.
I don’t imagine anyone on his staff making goo-goo eyes at him when he tells them to do something either.
I breathe in some more of him before the elevator opens, it’s a woodsy-musky cologne that I’ve never smelled anywhere else. It’s as though it’s coming from inside him somehow rather than a product he would have bought and put on.
It’s just another dimension of the Jack Mercury universe that I feel myself being drawn into.
Not that I’m resisting either. Despite all my reservations about a girl like me being so close to and suddenly alone with a man like him, I feel a thrill of excitement knowing I’d probably do anything he asked me to.
The elevator opens silently and the cool rush of cement and exhaust hits my nose, slapping some reality on the dream-like quality of my day so far.
“I hope you don’t get in trouble with your boss,” Jack says cheerfully, making me jump when I feel his huge hand on the small of my back, guiding me towards a waiting limo.
But it’s not his hand that makes me jump. I’d give anything to have more of those hands on me.
It’s the sudden reminder of my boss. My job. The responsibilities I’ve broken to enter the contest I never in a million years thought I’d even win.
“Everything alright?” Jack asks, sounding genuinely concerned.
I glance up at him, looking like I’m hesitating to even get in the car with him. But it’s only the thought of my boss, Naomi. The paper I work for and the history I know it has with Jack that’s really bugging me.
He doesn’t seem to care or maybe he doesn’t even know.
The best I can manage is a crooked smile and a mumbled word about being fine as I get into the limo.
I can feel his eyes on me, as I crawl in awkwardly, but it’s not the feeling I usually get whenever somebody looks at me from behind.
Everything with Jack just feels different. It feels right. Like he’s the first person in a long time who just accepts me for who I am.
For someone who thinks the world of him, I’m suddenly freezing up and it shows.
By the time he slides himself into the limo, sitting next to me on the huge back seat, I can tell he feels awkward.
“Sorry if I hit a nerve,” he says quietly. “About your boss I mean. I met most of the people in the office before you got there though. They seemed nice enough,” he offers, running his hands down the tops of his thighs.
If I didn’t know better I could be tempted into believing that he was actually nervous. But it’s not that I want to bring up with him.
“My boss. The office I work in,” I start to explain after taking a deep breath.
He’s all ears and I can see his eyes wide with expectation. Grateful we’re finally breaking the ice after my more than awkward introduction.
“It’s a paper. The entertainment section,” I confess, but he only nods with polite interest.