Page 4 of A Reclusive Heart

“Good coffee,” Nick said, gesturing to his cup of coffee.

He wasn’t about to further embarrass the poor little recluse. He was an asshole, but a nice asshole. The poor thing was going to have a hard enough time here as it was. There was no need to add to it. In fact, his plan was to sit back and watch the little recluse, knowing that she would provide him with countless hours of entertainment in the process.

“So, Nick, I was wondering what you were doing tonight,” Beth, Janet, or was it Marcy? said.

“Washing my hair,” Nick answered, hoping she’d take the hint and finally move on. For the past six months, she’d been after him, and not for a good reason like hot, sweaty sex. No, this one had relationship written all over her. She wanted to “change” him.

Good fucking luck with that.

Even if he didn’t date co-workers or clients, he wouldn’t touch this woman with a ten-foot pole. She wore too much makeup, way too much fucking perfume, wore clothes better suited for a clown, and was known to plan her dream wedding ten minutes after some dumb bastard made the mistake of making eye contact with her.

Before she could reply, Rick strolled in, looking pleased as the little recluse reluctantly followed him into the large conference room. Rick must have tackled her before she reached the stairs and now, she was here to keep him entertained.

Excellent.

“Have a seat,” Rick said with a warm smile for the little recluse.

Jamie smiled weakly as she sat down in the chair across from Nick, making sure that she didn’t look in his direction. He took in her thick, long strawberry-blonde hair that was twisted into some horrible knot at the back of her head, her thick-framed glasses, and baggy suit. Who dressed this woman? As if she sensed where his thoughts had gone, a red blush crept up her neck. He didn’t bother biting back a smile. This was just too good. He liked the idea of a woman leaving him aloneandproviding him with entertainment. It really didn’t get any better than this.

Rick made his way to the end of the long table and waited for everyone to settle in for the meeting.

“Good morning. I trust that you all enjoyed yourselves last night.”

There were several murmurs of agreement before Rick continued. “Edward and Dana Pierce sent their thanks this morning, as well as an insane amount of pastries and muffins. So, it would be much appreciated, if at some point today, all ofyou would stop by the break room and help us out with some of that food.”

Several men nodded while most of the women murmured about diets and carbs. The only one that was silent was the little recluse who was eying the doorway like it was her new best friend. There was no doubt in his mind that she was debating making another run for it.

“I’ve got more good news. I know we’re still all excited about Dana’s book sales and for good reason. Thanks to everyone in this room, Dana’s books have broken worldwide sales’ records. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to do that with several of the new authors that we’ve recently acquired.”

Thatcaught everyone’s attention.

A new author, a great author, could mean better pay, job security, and a partnership. Nick wasn’t too worried about the promotion since he was already a senior agent, but a great author under his wing could mean more pay and working with only the top authors like Dana Pierce and more perks. He liked the perks.

No, scratch that.

Hefucking lovedthe perks.

“Who did we sign?” Jeff, a junior agent, asked with a calculating gleam in his eye.

Nick was curious about that as well. A few weeks ago, he’d been told that they’d signed five of the forty-something clients that were signed with Miss Harris’ company. Out of those five, Nick knew which one he was going to grab. It was the one that he could easily see reaching Dana’s status in five years. J.L. Lewis was going to be his client. She would be his Dana Pierce. He would take her from her already established e-book fame and set the world on fire. There were several other authors that he wanted, but none of them had the potential that J. L. Lewis did.

“I have a list here of who we’ve been able to sign and who we’re still waiting to hear back from. Miss Harris,” Rick gestured to the blushing recluse, “was the owner of Harris Publishing House and has been able to convince many of them to take a chance with us and expand into print. Of those who haven’t signed, we own their contracts for another book, so we have plenty of time to show them that signing with us is in their best interest.”

Everyone glanced at Miss Harris, looking surprised, while the women sent her dismissive looks, which was understandable. Miss Harris certainly didn’t look like the type who could handle a telemarketer never mind an insanely successful business like Harris Publishing.

“Take one and pass the rest along. This is the list of authors we’ve signed, contracts we now hold, and the authors holding out,” Rick explained as he handed a stack of papers to Jeff, who greedily took a copy. Nick knew the second the younger man saw J.L.’s name because his entire face lit up.

Well, tough shit because J.L. Lewis was his.

“Rick,” Jeff said, probably trying to grab J.L. Lewis before anyone else had a chance to see the list. “Who’s getting who?”

He knew how this would go down. The senior agents would meet. They’d take who they wanted and would leave the rest for the junior agents to fight over. He wasn’t worried about Rick trying to grab J.L. Lewis. The man had his hands full with Dana’s new book as well as the new book Dana and Edward just finished writing together, which meant that J.L. Lewis was as good as his.

“Well,” Rick started, only to clear his throat and paste a smile on his face. “As part of the agreement between Rerum Publishing and Miss Harris, as well as the authors’ request, Miss Harris will continue to oversee their work as our newest senior agent.”

There was a long moment of stunned silence as every set of eyes in the room turned to the squirming woman. Nick felt all his good humor slowly disappear.

This wasn’t fucking happening.

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