A Reclusive Heart (Hollywood Hearts 2)

“He did,” Rick agreed, finishing off his drink. “If you had explained what was happening I would have been more than happy to go over this with you.”

They let out a collective sigh as they shared another one of those looks that gave him hope that they’d let his little recluse back. “I apologize for the misunderstanding, Mr. Quinn. Would you please consider forgetting this incident and continuing with us?” Jonathan asked, looking suddenly exhausted. Not that he could blame the man since this little episode left his head reeling.

“As long as you allow Miss. Harris to do the same,” Nick clarified.

Jonathan didn’t bother looking at his partners as he nodded. “Consider it done.”

“Thank you,” Nick said, more than willing to let this go as long as his little recluse was safe and happy. He was just about to head after her when one of the secretaries burst through the doors. “The police are here and they’re looking for Miss. Johnson,” she said anxiously.

For some reason he really wasn’t at all surprised, he thought as he put his drink down and went to hunt down his little recluse.

******

“Stupid lock,” Jamie muttered as she gave up her attempts to break into the filing cabinet and rescue her poor lonely little coffee roll that desperately needed her attention.

She was a little stressed out and honestly, she didn’t do well with stress. She needed a sugar fix and she needed it quick. Then when she was done she fully planned on trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life since she’d just lost her job and pretty much her contract within the last hour. Her game plan had been to follow Nick wherever he went, but now that she was out of that situation and thinking a little clearer she realized that he just might not appreciate that one bit.

After all he’d just lost his job and probably his reputation because of her.

Why would he want her to go with him? He probably wanted to get the heck away from her as fast as he could and she really couldn’t blame him.

She needed chocolate, sugar, caffeine, just something sweet to calm her down, she thought as she left his office. For a moment she stood there contemplating her options. There weren’t many. For one thing she couldn’t leave the building. Well, she could, but then she’d have to face the paparazzi that were stationed outside.

She did have her car, but she doubted they’d let her get to it without harassing the heck out of her.

Granted, she had to leave sometime. Why not now? She needed to get some sugar, clear her head, and think and there was no way that she could do that with an office full of people who’d seen her have sex. Yeah, it was definitely time for her to leave, she decided as she lowered her gaze to the floor and made her way to her office.

Less than five feet from her office the scent of cheap perfume hit her hard.

She wrinkled her nose up in distaste at the offending odor as she headed for her door, hoping the scent hadn’t seeped into her office. When she opened her office door she was hit full blast by the eye stinging aroma. It took her a moment before she managed to get her focus off the horrible scent and onto the woman standing frozen at her desk in front of her laptop computer, her laptop computer that should still be in her bag and beneath her desk, but wasn’t.

“What are you doing in here?” she asked, walking to her desk just as the woman ejected a disc from her laptop and placed the disc in the front pocket of her brown blazer.

“I was just leaving you a note,” Holly said, smiling as she stepped away from the desk and headed for the door.

“On my computer?” Jamie asked, frowning down at her computer. It was open to her desktop and she wondered how the woman got past her password.

“It was open,” the woman lied.

“No, it wasn’t,” Jamie said, clicking open the recent documents folder and what she saw there had her seeing red. “You went through my books and private files?” she asked in disbelief.

“Someone must have gone through it before I walked in, Miss. Harris. I only came in here to leave you a note,” she explained as she headed for the door.

“Then where’s the note?” Jamie demanded, fighting back tears of frustration.

Even though everything in her screamed for her to shut up and leave it be she just couldn’t. The woman had gone through the books she’d just written, her e-mails, and the two lists she made.

Out of everything the lists were the things that upset her the most. She’d accepted that people took one look at her and realized that they could walk all over her without a problem, but they couldn’t have known about the things that she’d inadvertently admitted to in the list. No one knew that she was a virgin, they could guess, but they would have never known for sure. Worst, Holly now knew that she’d never been kissed before Nick.

It didn’t bother her that Nick was the only man she ever kissed. Actually it made it feel even more special. She liked the idea of Nick giving her her first kiss.

He was so sweet with her, kind and funny and took such good care of her. The way he treated her and looked at her made her want to hope for the impossible, that he was truly in love with her, but she wasn’t an idiot.

There was nothing even remotely special about her. She might look better than she did a year ago, but there were still prettier and sexier women out there and Nick could probably have any woman that he wanted. Unfortunately for her she was also still Jamie. Just because she’d expanded her outlook on life and tried new things didn’t change the fact that deep down she was and probably always would be the painfully shy woman that hated to be the center of any sort of attention.

Nick didn’t need a woman like her by his side. He was handsome, charming and didn’t mind having all eyes on him. He needed a woman that was outgoing and matched him in personality and looks and she was not that person. As much as she would love to be she could never be that woman. She didn’t know what hurt worse, the knowledge that she would always be “Jamie” or that she didn’t have what it took to keep a man like Nick.

“I figured out what I needed so I guess I didn’t need to leave a note after all,”

Holly said, dragging her attention to more important matters like the woman who’d just gone through her personal files.

Maybe she wasn’t the old Jamie after all, she thought as she picked up phone. The old Jamie would have simply shut her mouth and wallowed in self-pity, but she was done with that. She might not turn into the life of the party, but she was done with allowing people to push her around.