A Reclusive Heart (Hollywood Hearts 2)

In a few weeks when everything settled down and his little recluse was firmly under his thumb he’d start working on her new book with her. He knew getting her to do things his way was going to take some time, not much considering how easily she folded under a simple glare, but it was still something that needed to be done and quickly.

There was too much to do and not very much time to do it in to let the little recluse have much of a say if any. He needed to be able to make last minute decisions that would benefit them both and he didn’t have time to hold her hand through every issue. It would just make it a lot easier, for him, if she left everything to him. All she needed to do was work, edit if it made her feel important, and show up and smile when and where he told her to, which he thought with a content sigh, wasn’t going to be an issue.

Four hours later he knew he had her exactly where he wanted her. From here on out there weren’t going to be any problems. She accepted his word as law, which she should. In fact, if all women listened to him as well as his little recluse did his world would be perfect.

He watched as she looked around the hotel foyer nervously. When her eyes landed on the Gold Ballroom’s bulletin board announcing the romance writer’s convention the following day with a special appearance by J.L. Lewis he had to bite back a smile. The blush and look of surprise on her face was actually kind of cute, but it also let him know one very important thing.

Jamie was easily intimidated.

This was going to be so f**king easy. All he had to do was give her a little nudge every now and then, sprout bullshit in her ear and he’d have her doing everything he wanted.

******

“Where the hell are you?” Nick bit out harshly.

“Out,” Jamie said, nibbling her bottom lip as she looked around.

“Where?”

Good question.

She looked down at the complimentary map she’d picked up in the hotel lobby before she started this little adventure and frowned. Why did they have to make everything so tiny? Because the map was the size of a brochure, she thought with a sigh.

“Well?”

“I’m out.”

“You’re out?” he asked tightly.

“You said you wouldn’t need me until tomorrow morning so I decided to walk around and grab a bite to eat,” she said, turning the map slightly to the side and frowned. Was that little brown spot the symbol for a restroom or an ATM? Not that it mattered since all she wanted to do was go to the Museum of Science.

Visiting a museum probably didn’t seem like a big deal and it wasn’t. But she decided to break into the whole “Try new things” agenda slowly. Besides she was only killing time until tonight. Tonight she was going to go to her very first nightclub and she was pretty excited about it.

She’d never been to one. Not even when she was in college. The closest she’d ever come was a sixth grade dance that Tommy Perkins invited her to as a dare.

She’d learned that fact after he grudgingly danced one slow dance with her and his friends started laughing their butts off at him. It had been a memorable moment indeed.

But that was in the past and had no bearing on her life now. Although she was really nervous, she was also pretty excited. She’d always wanted to try something like this, but could never find the courage. Now that she was on this trip she was going to force herself to try new things. By the time this was over she hoped that the old Jamie was good and buried and that she liked the new Jamie.

A loud sigh broke into her thoughts. “Fine. Just head back to the hotel now so that we can go over some things and I hope you ate because it’s probably going to be a long night.”

Her shoulders slumped as she opened her mouth to tell him that she’d be there soon, but something stopped her. She didn’t know what it was, but it gave her a moment’s pause. Yes, this was supposed to be a working trip, but he’d said that she wasn’t needed until morning so she’d made plans. He really couldn’t expect her to drop everything at a moment’s notice to accommodate him, could he?

If she went to him now then he’d know that he could push her around and she was done with that. That Jamie was long gone. The new Jamie wouldn’t be jumping for anyone. She’d wasted too many years of her life hiding in the background and letting her life slip by her. She was done.

When she was supposed to work, she’d work her buns off. She’d write, edit and do the hundred or so things that he expected from her that just thinking about gave her heart failure, but when it was her time she was going to enjoy her life for once and no one was going to stop her, least of all the overbearing bossy jerk.

“I can’t. I have plans,” she said as her eyes landed on a sign for Duck Tours and widened. That sounded like fun, she decided as she headed towards the sign.

“Well, break them. I need you to work.”

“Sorry. Can’t,” she said distractedly as her eyes landed on a large boat/car.

Now that looked like fun.

“Jamie,” he said tightly in warning, but she was barely listening as she handed the friendly cashier the money for a ticket.

“Gotta go!” she said excitedly as she stepped into the small line to get into the boat.

“Don’t you dare hang up. I need to-“

She hung up as a cute guy in his early twenties helped her onboard. As she sat down all thoughts of her overbearing boss disappeared until she was only left with excitement.

She had a feeling she was going to love the new Jamie.

Chapter 7

He was going to strangle Jamie.

When she’d hung up on him hours ago he thought it was a mistake. He quickly learned the error of his ways when the next ten calls went straight to voicemail. When she didn’t show up within the next hour like he fully expected her to he’d become a little irritated with her and decided to catch her when she came back to the hotel.

Either he was losing his hearing or she was the quietest woman in the world, because she somehow managed to sneak into her room, the room next to his, shower, change and sneak out without him knowing. Well, that wasn’t entirely true.

When he stepped out of the shower he heard her door click shut.

At that point he’d been willing to forgive her for ignoring his summons and pulled on a pair of sweatpants quickly before he stepped out into the hall to knock on her door only to catch a glimpse of her as she stepped onto the elevator all decked out in a black cocktail dress and further pissing him off.

After he got dressed, bribed the bellhop to tell him where Jamie was headed he hunted her down to a nightclub of all places. He scanned the long line, hoping he’d find her, but he hadn’t. Somehow Jamie had gotten into the club and he’d been forced to get into the line and wait a damn hour as he kept an eye out for Jamie.