Page 62 of A Reclusive Heart

“That’s fine,” Nick said, deciding that they’d take it easy tonight since he was most likely going to be fired tomorrow.

He couldn’t believe just how badly he’d fucked up.

It was his job to keep her safe and he just…

He should have protected her.

Now, he needed to clean up this mess and make sure that she was taken care of before they fired him. Rerum Publishing wasn’t going to be happy, but then again, he didn’t give a flying fuck. He needed to keep his little recluse safe and he wasn’t about to let them put her in danger for a fucking book tour.

“Is this it?” Jamie asked, finally looking up from her computer.

“This is it,” Nick said, putting the car in park before turning the engine off.

“Thank you for the ride, Nick. I really appreciate it, but you don’t have to stick around,” Jamie said, taking him by surprise as she placed her computer in her bag as she shifted nervously next to him.

“You don’t want me to stick around?” Nick asked as he watched her closely, noting the way that she avoided looking at him as she absently toyed with the zipper on her backpack.

“I think that might be for the best,” Jamie said softly as she stared down at her bag.

“So, that’s it?” Nick asked as he sat there, releasing a humorless chuckle.

“The tour’s over,” Jamie said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal.

“I see,” Nick said evenly as he climbed out of his car and slammed the door shut. He couldn’t fucking believe this. He was giving up everything for this woman and she was giving him the brush-off?

It wasn’t fucking happening.

He grabbed their things from the trunk before slamming it shut and stalking towards the bottom level of his three-story house. He unlocked the door and quickly disarmed the alarm. His little recluse reluctantly followed and looked around thegarage only to frown in confusion when she spotted the black Mustang and line of motorcycles parked against the wall.

“This way,” Nick said, shutting the garage door and resetting the alarm before he made his way upstairs.

He dropped their bags on the floor as he made his way through the living room and headed towards the kitchen. He grabbed an ice-cold beer out of the fridge, popped the top, and leaned back as he watched his little recluse stop in the middle of the living room and slowly looked around.

“Am I renting someone’s house while they’re away?” Jamie asked, sounding so damn hopeful.

“Nope,” Nick said, letting the word pop as he watched her.

“This is your house, isn’t it?” Jamie asked, looking anywhere but at him.

“Mmmhmm,” Nick said, taking another sip.

“Is there perhaps a chance that we’re only stopping here on the way to my new place?”

“Not a chance in hell,” Nick said, watching her.

“Oh,” Jamie mumbled, her shoulders dropping in defeat.

“Awkward, huh?” Nick asked as he felt a muscle in his jaw clench.

“You could say that,” Jamie mumbled hollowly.

“We had to move you out of your apartment quickly. We stored your stuff here and planned to have a place set up for you by the time we got back, but we had to cut the tour short. We don’t have a place set up for you yet,” Nick explained before taking another sip of his beer, his eyes never leaving her.

“Oh,” she mumbled weakly.

“Since I live alone, I thought I’d let my girlfriend stay with me, but it seems that she just dumped my ass not even ten minutes ago, so now we’re stuck in a very awkward situation,” Nick said, placing his beer on the counter before he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her.

“Is there any chance that you’d be willing to give me a ride to the nearest hotel for the night?” Jamie asked, sounding really fucking hopeful.

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