Page 52 of A Reclusive Heart

Maybe this didn’t have to end once the tour was done. They could be friends, good friends, and when the need arose, they could have no strings-attached sex, often. It wouldn’t be anything permanent, just two good friends who had great sex whenever they wanted, wherever. This could work, Nick realized as he walked back over to the large sitting area and sat down.

The only problem, as far as he could see, was convincing Jamie that this was a good idea. He really didn’t see a problem with that. She loved spending time with him, had an insatiable appetite for sex and didn’t expect anything from him. There would probably come a time when she started dating and when that time came...

No, that wouldn’t work for him either because the thought of his little recluse being touched by another man didn’t sit well with him, so they were going to have to figure out something else out. He liked being with her and actually liked thinking of himself as her boyfriend so maybe they’d continue with that for a year or two until they worked each other out of their systems or got bored. That made more sense than torturing himself by allowing another man to touch her.

“I’m sending Holly to help. J.L. Lewis’ popularity is skyrocketing. Thanks to her family’s antics, more people are curious about her. We’ve already had calls from vendors demanding more books as well as interviews. Your already tight schedule is about to become a little tighter to accommodate this demand, and to make sure that everything goes smoothly, I’m sending you help,” Rick explained while Nick found himself wondering about something.

Who the hell was Holly?

Before he could ask, Rick’s door swung open and his little recluse came storming into the room, holding a cardboard box in front of her. She didn’t look happy, but when her eyes landed on him, she looked decidedly less than pleased.

“Is everything okay, Jamie?” Rick asked, getting to his feet when she approached them.

Instead of answering him, she shoved the box onto his lap and glared accusingly at him. “You promised me chocolate, you big jerk!” Jamie snapped, making him wince.

“I got you chocolate and two cans of Coke, Jamie, but Rick ate everything,” Nick said with a helpless shrug.

“Wait, what?” Rick asked, looking like a deer caught in headlights as Jamie turned her adorable wrath on him.

“You ate my chocolate?” Jamie demanded as she glared up at the much taller man. It was actually interesting that his little recluse couldn’t stop apologizing to people for screwingheroverbut come between her and sugar and she’d rip someone’s throat out.

“I-I-” Rick stammered helplessly as Jamie’s lower lip began to tremble.

Ah, shit.

His little recluse needed a fix and soon. He knew the signs quite well at this point. As he stood up, Nick wondered if perhaps they should look into a sugar rehab center for her, but he knew that she wouldn’t last twenty-four hours without hurting someone.

“I tell you what, Jamie,” Nick said soothingly, shifting the box under his arm as he put his other arm around her, “why don’t we take you out for a nice hot fudge sundae and you can tell us what’s in this box?”

“You’re patronizing my needs again,” Jamie said with a heavy sigh, but thankfully, that lower lip stopped trembling.

“Are you trying to tell me that you don’t want an ice cream sundae?” Nick asked, already knowing his little recluse would never be able to refuse sugar.

“That’s not what I’m saying and you know it, but I don’t think you should bring that box with us,” Jamie said as she headed for the door.

“Why not?” Rick asked, moving closer so that he could take a closer look at the box

“Because half of those letters contain death threats.”

CHAPTER 26

“Come on, Jamie. It’s time to get up,” Nick said in a soothing tone as he pulled her to her feet.

“Go away. I’m tired and I hate you,” Jamie muttered, trying to pull away from him so that she could go back to sleep, but he wouldn’t let her go. The horrible man didn’t seem to care that it was barely one in the morning and that she was exhausted. In seconds, he had her back on her feet and was nudging her off the plane.

“We’ll be at the hotel in half an hour and then you can go back to sleep, okay?” Nick said in that same tone that he probably thought would make her nod and do whatever he asked when it just made her want to pass out again.

“Mr. Quinn’s right, Miss Harris. Once we get to the hotel, you can rest until the book signing this afternoon,” Holly, the woman who now made them a trio for the rest of the tour, said from somewhere ahead of her, but Jamie was too busy struggling to keep her eyes open to look at her.

Not that Jamie thought the woman would be difficult to find. With stunning red hair, exotic looks, and way too much perfume, she was kind of hard to miss. Since her ticket was a last-minute booking, Holly had been forced to sit several rowsaway from them, but unfortunately for her, that wasn’t enough. Her perfume invaded the cabin space, and within minutes, everyone, including Jamie, was complaining about having a headache.

If Nick tried to force her to share a room with Holly, Jamie was going to revolt. She’d pay for her own room because there was no way that she would survive eight more hours with that stench.

“You’re doing great, Jamie. Just hang in there and we’ll be at the hotel soon,” Nick said after they grabbed their luggage and headed for the exit.

“I don’t need a pep talk,” Jamie mumbled around a yawn as she readjusted the duffle bag over her shoulder. “I need sugar, lots and lots of sugar,” she grumbled, wishing that he would have at least let her get her hands some before they left, but the infuriating man decided twelve hours ago that he was going to turn into Super Overprotective Man, which, of course, meant keeping an eye on her and depriving her of her much-needed and beloved sugar.

Then again, she couldn’t really blame him. Not after reading those letters. She still couldn’t understand how someone that didn’t even know her could hate her so much. When she showed them the letters, she’d been hoping that they’d laugh it off and tell her that it was nothing to worry about, but the looks on their faces when they read the first letter told her everything that she needed to know.

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