A Reclusive Heart (Hollywood Hearts #2)(70)

Knowing that it was for the best she didn’t argue with him. She decided to hold back the tears until she got to her new place and could drown her sorrows in chocolate. As long as Nick was safe she could handle anything, even having her heart broken by the big jerk.

Chapter 27

“Are you still ignoring me?” he asked, throwing Jamie a sideways glance as he pulled to a stop at a four-way intersection.

“I’m not ignoring you, Nick. I’m just trying to get this file edited before tomorrow,” she said, not bothering to look up from the computer balanced on her knees. Her words and tone were polite, but they felt all wrong. He might be new to relationships, but it didn’t exactly take a genius to figure out what was wrong with his little recluse.

She was pissed and for good reason. He’d screwed up and hadn’t protected her. Now thanks to him someone managed to invade a very private moment and make it public. As he pulled onto his street he idly wondered how Edward handled it after it happened to him and Dana. If anyone knew how to handle a bullshit situation like this it would be Edward and Dana.

“Okay, do you want to grab some food?” he asked, slowing down before he reached his house.

“If it’s okay with you I’d rather just call it a night and get settled in,” she said, not bothering to look up from her computer.

“That’s fine,” he said, deciding that they’d just order in tonight. Tomorrow he’d have plenty of time to go food shopping since he most likely just lost his job today.

It was one thing to have a discrete relationship with one of his clients, but quite another to get caught ha**ng s*x with her and have the video plastered all over the internet. Of course there was also the fact that he had about thirty conventions and interviews to cancel tomorrow, which wouldn’t make Rerum Publishing House very popular. It was a tossup which one they’d take issue with, but he was willing to bet his, thankfully large, bank account on being canned for the video.

“Is this it?” Jamie asked, looking up from her computer for the first time in hours.

“Yes,” he said, throwing the car into park and shutting off the engine.

Jamie sighed as she shut down her computer. “Thank you for the ride, Nick. I really appreciate it, but you don’t have to stick around. If you could just give me the key I think I’ll be all set,” she said, sliding her computer into her bag as she shifted nervously next to him.

“You don’t want me to stick around?” he asked slowly, starting to have a good idea where this was going.

“I, um,” she cleared her throat uncomfortably as she shifted again, “think that might be for the best.”

Holy shit, she was breaking up with him, he thought with a humorless chuckle. “So now that the tour is over you want to end this, is that right?” he asked, cocking his head to the side to study her as she struggled to answer. If he hadn’t been looking at her he probably would have missed the way her little chin quivered or the way her eyes filled with tears.

She looked away from him as she nodded. “The tour’s over and we said this would end along with the tour,” she said softly, giving him a helpless shrug.

“I see,” he said evenly as he climbed out of his car and slammed the door shut, violently rocking the car. He couldn’t f**king believe this. He was giving up his job and his way of life for this woman and she was giving him the brush off? Not f**king happening.

He grabbed most of 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 when she looked around the garage filled with his black Mustang and his motorcycles her brows creased in confusion.

“This way,” he said, shutting the door and resetting the alarm once again before walking past his bikes to the door that led to the second level of his home.

When he stepped off the stairs he dumped their things on one of the leather couches as he walked through the living room and headed towards the kitchen section of the large open area. 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 look around.

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

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

“This is your house?” she asked, looking anywhere but at him.

“Mmmhmm,” he said, taking a sip of his beer.

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

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

“Oh,” she said, her shoulders drooping a bit as she opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out.

“Awkward, huh?”

“You could say that,” she mumbled.

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

“Oh,” she said weakly.

“I just happen to live alone and have plenty of room so 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,” he said, placing his beer on the counter before he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her.