Page 84 of The Money Shot
A loud, relentless pounding erupted from the connecting door to the adjoining room, each strike sounding like a fire alarm in the dead of night. Jack groaned, dragging himself upright. “What the hell?”
Adrenaline surged through me as I bolted out of bed, snagging a towel from the bathroom and hastily wrapping it around my waist. We’d specifically told the clerk we didn’t need that room. So who the hell was on the other side of that door?
As I reached for the handle, a thousand scenarios ran through my head, none of them good. Was it hotel staff? Another guest? Someone with a grudge? But when I opened the door,nothing could have prepared me for the hurricane that stormed in.
She was tall, imposing, with a face that looked like it had been chiseled from granite—and not by a kind sculptor. Lines etched deep around her mouth twisted her expression into something between a snarl and a sneer, and her eyes blazed with a fury so unrestrained it was almost feral.
“Jack!” she shrieked. Before I could say a word, she barged past me like I was a piece of furniture. The sheer force of her presence left me frozen in place.
“You think I flew you down here so you could fuck some random guy in a hotel room I’m paying for?” she bellowed, her voice ricocheting off the walls.
I whipped around to see Jack sitting up in bed, his eyes wide. The sheet had slipped to his waist, and he looked utterly exposed—not just physically, but emotionally, like a deer caught in the headlights of a freight train.
“Holy shit, it’s Evelyn,” he muttered, his tone half-disbelieving, half-resigned.
This is the crazy woman Jack’s been stressing out about? This deranged banshee?
Evelyn spun toward me then, her lip curling with such venom, I instinctively took a step back. “And who the fuck are you?” she spat, her voice dripping with disdain. Her eyes swept over me like I was something rancid she’d found under her shoe. “What, are you some cheap whore he picked up for the night? A tiny distraction from the job I hired him to do?”
Her words hit like a slap, and my cheeks burned. I opened my mouth to respond, but she was already turning back to Jack, her attention snapping to him like a predator locking onto prey.
“I didn’t spend thousands of dollars to have you whore yourself out in some beachfront paradise,” she roared, her voice rising to an almost hysterical pitch. “You ungrateful little shit!I’m paying you to work, goddamn it—not to frolic around with this—this nobody!”
My anger flared, not just for myself, but for Jack. How could he put up with this? How could he not see that the life she offered him—this job from hell—was killing him? And why wouldn’t he even consider the potential of what we had together, of the FantasyFans business we were building? He could be free. Happy. Loved.
Jack’s expression was tight with barely contained anger, but before he could get a word out, a sharp knock echoed from the main door.
I turned and opened it, only to find Wilfred, the bellhop, standing there. His usual serene demeanor was gone, replaced by a strained look of concern. His eyes flicked past me to the scene behind, and his lips thinned.
“We can hear the yelling all the way at the front desk,” he said through gritted teeth. “This must stop immediately.”
For a moment, the room was silent except for the sound of Evelyn’s ragged breathing. Her wild eyes darted between Wilfred, Jack, and me, and for the briefest second, I wondered if she was about to explode again.
Evelyn’s eyes snapped to Wilfred, her lips curling into a feral sneer. “You’ve got some goddamn nerve, barging into a private matter,” she spat, her voice dripping with venom. “This is between me and my idiot employee. Why don’t you go fetch a mop or whatever it is they pay you for?”
I stiffened, anger flaring in my chest. Her words were like acid, burning everything they touched. I opened my mouth to defend Jack—to say something—but before I could, Jack swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood.
Completely naked.
Evelyn froze, her manicured hand hovering mid-gesture. Her eyes went wide, darting between Jack’s face and hisvery exposed body. For a split second, I thought I saw something almost human flicker across her expression—shock? Embarrassment? But it was gone in an instant, replaced by cold, seething fury.
“Enough!” Jack’s voice cracked through the tension like a whip. “Get out of our room, Evelyn. Now.”
The raw authority in his tone sent a shiver down my spine. I’d never seen him like this before—completely unyielding, a force of nature. And Evelyn, for all her bravado, looked momentarily stunned, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
“Excuse me?” she finally hissed, recovering enough to lace her words with venom. Her gaze darted down to his chest, then lower, and her nostrils flared. “You think you can talk to me like that? Me? You wouldn’t even be on this stupid island if it wasn’t for me.”
“Evelyn, I…” Jack began, but she cut him off.
“After everything I’ve done for you, this is how you repay me?”
I couldn’t help but gape at her. Done for him? Was she serious? The audacity of this woman was almost impressive in its insanity. She didn’t just think she owned Jack’s time—she thought she owned him.
“You heard me,” Jack said, his voice like ice. “This is my personal life, Evelyn. You have no right to barge in here, no matter how much money you’ve thrown around. Leave. Now.”
For a moment, Evelyn didn’t move. Her eyes blazed with an unhinged intensity that made my skin crawl.
Her manicured nails drummed against her crossed arms. Then, with a venomous smile that didn’t reach her eyes, she stepped closer to Jack, tilting her head like a predator sizing up prey.