A Reclusive Heart (Hollywood Hearts #2)(3)
Author: R.L. Mathewson

No one person should be blessed this much. He had everything going for him in life and he knew it. It was a constant reminder to people like her that life really was unfair and was kind of sucky sometimes.

His eyes lit up with amusement as he held out a tampon to her. Not just any tampon, but a purple tampon with the words “Super Super Heavy” written in clear bold letters.

“I believe this is yours, Miss. Harris,” he said, sounding close to laughing.

Jamie grabbed the tampon and shoved it back into her bag as she quickly got to her feet all while avoiding his gaze. When he tried to help her up she took a step back.

“T-this isn’t the women’s room, is it?” she asked, knowing someone up there was having a heck of a time with her today.

“No, no it’s not,” that deep smooth voice that wreaked havoc on her heart said.

She nodded. “Of course it’s not,” she muttered to herself. Really what else could she expect?

Still avoiding his eyes she said, “Well, ah,” she cleared her throat, “it’s ah, very nice. Spacious, clean and all that.”

He chuckled.

Darn it!

“I’ll ah, I’ll just go see what my desk looks like now. It was nice to see you again, Mr. Quinn.”

“Oh, the pleasure was all mine,” he said in an amused tone.

Another nod and she turned to leave only to have her escape halted.

“Miss. Harris?”

She froze mere inches from freedom. “Yes?” she asked, her voice cracking.

“You have a little something on the back of your skirt.”

Of course she did.

“Thank you,” she said, trying to decide whether she should duck back into one of the stalls or risk further embarrassment by looking for the woman’s room to remove whatever it was when Mr. Quinn took the decision out of her hands for her.

She heard the telltale sound of crinkling paper and gasped. Heat rushed up her neck to her face, leaving her to wonder if she could die from embarrassment.

“Got it,” he said, chuckling.

“Thank you,” she mumbled as she made her mad dash to the bathroom door, wondering what else could go wrong today.

Chapter 2

Nick was still laughing twenty minutes later as he took his seat in the conference room. Who knew hiring the little recluse would make his day? He certainly hadn’t expected this little bonus. She’d certainly made his morning.

Ah, good times……

“What has you in such a good mood?” Beth or Janet or whatever the hell her name was asked as she took the chair next to his.

“Good coffee,” he said, gesturing to his steamy cup of coffee. He wasn’t about to further embarrass the poor recluse. He was an ass**le yes, but a nice ass**le.

The poor thing was going to have a hard enough time here, he could just tell with that shy manner and frumpy clothes. There was no need to add to it. In fact, his plan was to stay away from the poor thing and sit back and watch. Maybe she’d provide him with another good laugh.

“So, Nick, I was wondering what you were doing tonight,” Beth or Janet or was it Marcy? said.

“Washing my hair,” he answered, hoping she’d take the hint and finally move on. For six months she’d been after him and not just for a good reason like hot sweaty sex. No this one had relationship written all over her. She wanted to “change” him.

Yeah, good luck with that.

Even if he didn’t date co-workers or clients he wouldn’t touch this woman with a ten foot pole. She wore too much makeup, too much perfume, ugly ass clothes and was known to plan the perfect wedding ten minutes after some dumb bastard asked her out.

Before she could reply, Rick strolled in, looking pleased as punch with the little recluse following reluctantly after him. Hmm, Rick must have tackled her, because he was pretty sure the woman was going to make a run for it and never come back. Now she was here to keep him entertained.

Excellent.

“Have a seat,” Rick said with a warm smile to the little recluse.

She smiled weakly as she took the chair across from him and looked shyly around, noticeably avoiding him. He took in her thick, too long strawberry blonde hair that was twisted into some horrible knot at the back of her head, her thick framed glasses and ugly baggy suit. Who dressed this woman? As if she sensed his gaze, a deep red blush crept up her neck. He didn’t even bother to bite back a smile.

This was just too good. He liked the idea of a woman leaving him alone and providing him with entertainment. It really didn’t get any better than this.

Rick walked over to the chair at the head of the boardroom table and waited for everyone to sit down and settle in for the meeting.

“Good morning, everyone. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves last night.”

There were several words of agreement before Rick continued. “Everybody did an excellent job. Edward and Dana sent their thanks this morning as well as an insane amount of pastries and muffins. So it would be much appreciated if at some point today all of you would stop by the break room and help us out with some of that food.”

Several people nodded while most of the women murmured about diets and carbs. The only one that was silent was the little recluse who was eying the doorway like it was her new best friend. No doubt she’d make a mad dash for it if she thought she could make it unseen.

“I’ve got more good news. I know we’re still all excited about Dana’s book sales and for good reason. You’ve all worked really hard to help push her books and make it what they are today. I’m hoping we’ll be able to do that with several of the new authors that we’ve recently acquired.”

That caught several people’s attention. A new author, a great author, could mean better pay, new job security and a senior editor position. Nick wasn’t too worried about the promotion since he was already a senior editor, but a great author under his wing could mean more pay and working with only the top authors like Dana Pierce. It meant more perks as well as months in Europe on book tours.

He liked the perks. No, scratch that. He f**king loved the perks.

“Who did we sign?” Jeff, a junior editor asked with a calculating gleam in his eye.

Nick was curious about that. A few weeks ago he knew they were able to sign five of the forty-something clients that were signed with Miss. Harris’ internet company. Out of those five he knew the one he was going to grab. It was the one that he could easily see reaching Dana’s status in five years. J.L. Lewis was going to be his client no matter what. She would be his Dana Pierce. He would take her from her already established e-book fame and set the world on fire. There were several others from her clientele that he wanted, but none of them had the potential J. L.