A Reclusive Heart (Hollywood Hearts #2)(13)

With that in mind he knew that he had to entice the little recluse into doing what he wanted. He sat down and removed the new laptop from the bag. As it powered up he looked around the small room. Beyond the basics like furniture, a small television and a computer there really wasn’t anything special about this room.

The only wall decoration was a framed diploma. Other than that there were no pictures of friends or family. No knick knacks or keepsakes to be found. Now that he really took the time to look around the only area of the room that looked lived in was the computer area. While the rest of the room was spotless and bare, her desk was not. It was piled high with papers, probably manuscripts, books, candy bar wrappers, a jar of hard candies and a very old mouse pad.

Realization hit and he knew how he was going to get what he wanted. This little recluse was truly that, a recluse. She was a young woman with no life or experience outside of her books or computer.

That’s why she’d sold her successful internet company and taken a job when she didn’t need one. This little recluse wanted to experience life, to make changes and take chances. All he had to do was offer her those opportunities and he’d own her ass.

He placed the computer on her bare coffee table and opened up the document he’d been working on only an hour ago.

“Miss. Harris,” he said, trying to sound casual, “I’d like to apologize for upsetting you. I realize that this is all a bit sudden and overwhelming for you. I believe Rick made a mistake in assigning me to you.” He ignored the snort of agreement that came from somewhere in the vicinity of the tan door, probably the bathroom, and continued.

“I think this is all too much for you, too soon. I’m going to call Rick and have you switched to one of the junior editors. He’ll make sure to keep things simple. You probably won’t even have to leave the office.” He paused to let his words sink in. No doubt she was feeling relieved at the reprieve.

“If you don’t mind, I need to make a lot of calls. I have to cancel flights, hotel rooms, conferences, book signings, and conventions.” He sighed heavily for effect. “I guess I can wait for most of these calls until I get to the office since they’ll take hours. I had you booked all over the country. The one in Hawaii will be kind of tough to get out of.” He paused for a few seconds to allow that to sink in.

“It’s really a damn shame because I think you would have really enjoyed yourself. I know touring can be a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of fun,” he said as he opened his e-mail to make sure that all his travel confirmations were set. “But there’s also a lot of fun, new experiences, trying new things, meeting new people. I think this could have been really good for you, but I’m not going to push you into something that you’re clearly not ready for.”

Nick waited, watching the bathroom door like a hawk. He bit back a groan of frustration, knowing he had to remain cool and calm if this was going to work. His eyes darted back to her desk and he couldn’t help but grin when he spotted the scratch ticket.

“You wouldn’t happen to know the area code for Vegas, would you? I booked you there next month and I need to let them know-“

“Vegas?”

“Yeah, I…” his words trailed off as he turned his head and found the little recluse standing in the bathroom doorway, fidgeting nervously with her fingers. She stood straight, but avoided looking at him.

There were few things in life that left him speechless and this was one of them. The drab, frumpy little recluse that he’d left with his friends was gone. In her place was a very pretty and adorable woman. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, she wasn’t Dana Pierce level pretty, but she was definitely hot.

He ran his eyes from her newly cut silky hair over beautiful caramel eyes, cute little nose, the bottom lip that was fuller than the top, small oval chin, slender neck, surprisingly full br**sts accentuated by a baby pink top, a slender waist, nicely shaped h*ps and short, yet nicely shaped legs.

One very important question came to mind, why in the hell had she been covering all that up? That thought was immediately followed by the realization that this new look would definitely work in his favor. Before all he had was her work to push the name. Now he had a beautiful face to back the work. This would be easier than he thought.

“Where else would I be going?” her quiet voice tore him from his thoughts. He gave himself a mental shake and focused on the problem at hand, convincing her to take a chance with him.

He moved to the end of the couch, gesturing to the computer on the table.

“The whole itinerary is right there if you’d like to take a look,” he said casually as if he wasn’t nervous as hell.

She looked close to bolting again, but curiosity clearly won out. She sat down on the couch, careful to keep her distance from him and scrolled down the list. He knew she liked what she saw by the way she was trying to bite back a smile.

“And there would be time for me to do other things?” she asked hesitantly.

Oh, he had her. J.L. Lewis was his.

“Absolutely.”

Chapter 6

“What are you doing?”

Jamie quickly shifted the new laptop on her tray so that the monitor was now facing the airplane window.

“Nothing,” she said quickly.

Nick frowned down at her. Even sitting down he towered over her, intimidating her. She inwardly sighed, wondering when she was going to catch a break. Thankfully, and much to her delighted surprise, first class seats really were spacious. All throughout her photo shoot and meetings this morning she feared being squished between Nick and some unknown, probably smelly person, during the six hour flight, but luckily the airline bumped them up to first class at the last minute. It probably had something to do with Nick flirting with the ticket woman.