A Reclusive Heart (Hollywood Hearts 2)

That of course didn’t make up for the fact that she hadn’t had sugar in nearly twenty-four hours. She wasn’t hypoglycemic or anything, but very much addicted to sugar at this point in her life and if she went too long without something sweet she got cranky, very cranky. This morning Nick had been sweet enough to make her breakfast, a straightforward breakfast of eggs, bacon and wheat toast that didn’t fulfill her sugary needs. She meant to pick something up on the way to work but never got the chance. Of course once the guys saw the letters she never got her hot fudge sundae either or any food for that matter.

“She’s going to fall over,” she mumbled just as her poor stomach growled viciously for a little attention. As soon as they reached the hotel she was going to order some food and grab some sleep. Her new game plan was to sleep until the very last minute possible instead of spending the customary hour with Nick going over things. If he didn’t like that then that was too bad. She was a tired cranky woman in need of sugar and he was the big jerk denying her her fix.

“How much shit does she need?” Nick asked even as he reached over and grabbed the duffle bag that was giving Jamie so much trouble and threw it over his already occupied shoulder before reaching back over and taking her now free hand into his.

They watched as Holly directed the man carting all eight of her bags towards the waiting line of taxis. She realized that they wouldn’t be heading home for four weeks, but eight bags was a bit of an overkill, especially since they would be moving around a lot. While Holly’s bags were loaded into a taxi, Nick signaled for a different taxi and had their things thrown in the back.

“Nick!” Holly said brightly, waving to get Nick’s attention.

With a small groan that had her smiling he looked over at the woman. “I thought that it might be a good idea if you and I shared a taxi so that we could go over a few things,” Holly said casually, but there was no doubt in Jamie’s mind that talking was the last thing the woman wanted to do with Nick.

It wasn’t too difficult to figure out that the woman was interested in Nick.

What heterosexual woman in her right mind wouldn’t be? He was incredibly sexy, handsome and charming and it seemed that she wasn’t the only woman to notice.

He opened the taxi door and gestured for her to get inside and barely held back her disappointed sigh as she resigned herself to riding to the hotel alone.

“We’ll meet you at the hotel,” Nick said as she closed her eyes and settled in for what she hoped was a short ride.

“Okay,” she said around a loud yawn.

“Okay, what?” Nick asked as he sat down next to her and took her hand into his.

She opened her mouth to explain that she thought that he was riding with Holly, but she was too damn exhausted to try. Instead, she curled up next to him and forced her eyes to stay open during the blessedly short ride.

It seemed like minutes later she was leaning against the wall near their things while she watched Nick check them all in. She was waiting to see how many rooms they had before telling him that she was getting her own room. She didn’t want to hurt Holly’s feelings unnecessarily by flat-out refusing to bunk with her.

Holly just stepped into the hotel foyer followed by a man pushing her bags on a trolley when Nick walked over to her. He handed her a keycard and one to Holly as she joined them.

“So we get our own rooms,” Jamie said, hoping that she didn’t sound too hopeful.

Nick shook his head as he reached down and grabbed his bags. “No, I’m afraid all of our original reservations still stand. Two of us are going to have to double bunk,” he announced and she wasn’t too busy trying to find a tactful way around it to notice the look Holly sent Nick. She knew the minute she was out of earshot that the woman was going to offer to share a room with Nick.

That wasn’t happening. She might be a pushover, but that didn’t mean that she was going to stand by quietly while some woman made a play for her boyfriend, she wasUtterly shocked that she thought of him as her boyfriend.

Even though he’d referred to her himself as her boyfriend a few times she hadn’t given it much thought mostly because she didn’t want to get her hopes up, but she realized that it was true. For the first time in her life she had a boyfriend.

She ignored the fact that that little bit of information was kind of pathetic and focused on the here and now and right now there was another woman interested in her man.

Although she wasn’t the down and dirty cat fight over a guy kind of girl that didn’t mean she was going to stand back while another woman made a play for Nick. She’d simply take the woman aside and explain to her that”Miss. Harris and I will be sharing a room,” Nick announced, shocking the woman and putting the matter to rest as far as she was concerned, which was a good thing since she really didn’t think she would have had much energy to explain anything to the woman at the moment. “We’ll see you in the morning. Have a good night, Holly,” Nick said, grabbing Jamie’s bag and throwing it over his shoulder once he had all of his things.

“Wait! You can’t do that!” Holly yelled after them.

“Goodnight,” was all Nick said as he ushered her onto the elevator. Just before the elevator doors closed she saw the look of fury on the woman’s face and thanks to growing up with Caitlyn, knew the woman was going to make her life a living hell.

Great, she thought dryly as the elevator doors closed. That’s all she needed to make her life perfect.

******

“I could have rented my own room,” Jamie mumbled as she stepped out of the bathroom, drying her damp her off and wearing a pair of light pink flannel pajama pants and a tiny white tee shirt that had his blood simmering.

“They were sold out for the night,” he lied. “It was either share a room with me or with Holy,” he explained, noting the pinched look on Jamie’s face at the suggestion. Not that he could blame her. The woman was incredibly annoying and that perfume of hers was strong enough to peel paint. She was also the last person that he wanted to tag along on this tour.

When he realized who Holly was he took Rick aside and told him to pick someone else. Unfortunately there was no one else. Correction, he could have had her replaced for this tour if he’d been willing to wait another couple of days but he hadn’t been.

After seeing those letters he wanted to get his little recluse the hell out of there as soon as possible and for damn good reason too. The reason of course was the death threats. It wasn’t uncommon for celebrities and authors to receive death threats from unhappy fans and psychos and he knew that she’d no doubt receive more over the years, but these letters were alarming.