For a moment he could only stare after her as she walked across the lobby. It took the elevator doors shutting to snap him out of his shock. That was it?
Seriously? He’d given her, her very first kiss and it meant nothing to her, he thought with disgust as he shoved the doors open and went after her.
It didn’t mean anything to her? Well, that was fine because it meant less than nothing to him. He was relieved, glad even, that she didn’t misconstrue that kiss to mean more than it really was. As long as they were both on the same page then everything was fine, just f**king peachy.
******
“Are you okay?” she asked as she took her water from Nick.
“Peachy,” he said tightly.
“You wouldn’t be so crabby if you’d eaten breakfast,” she pointed out quietly as he glared down at her.
“I am not cranky,” he bit out, narrowing his eyes on her.
“No, of course not. My mistake,” she said, barely managing to bite back a smile as that glare intensified. When she started to think of his glares as cute she didn’t know, but they were. It really had been silly to be intimidated by this man.
He might come off as a jerk, but he really was a big sweetie pie.
“Damn straight,” he said, running his eyes over the large crowd that had gathered to meet her. The bookstore manager had booked them for only three hours, but she had a feeling they wouldn’t be getting out of here until after dinner time.
“Do you think we could do something off the list tonight?” she asked, trying not to sound too eager, but it was difficult. She’d wanted to do this for years, but never had the guts to try. Now that she had Nick she was excited to go for it.
“Which list?” Was his voice hoarser than a minute ago? She wondered if he was getting sick. If he was they would have to put off her plans for another night.
She’d be disappointed, but she’d get over it.
“The original list,” she said, stepping out of the way as one of the cashiers carrying a large cardboard sign with a picture of her books on it walked past her.
“Oh,” he said, looking a little disappointed.
Well of course he was disappointed, she realized, feeling like an idiot. He hadn’t been with a woman since this tour started and was probably hoping that they’d hit a bar or a club so that he could rectify that. The realization that he wanted to be with another woman hurt so she shoved the thought away, knowing that it wouldn’t do her any good to wish things were different.
They were two completely different people and nothing she said or did would ever change that. When this was all over she doubted that she’d see very much of him. Maybe they’d share a laugh while they waited for the elevator together, but she doubted there would ever be anything more than that. Right now she was going to focus on what they did have, a friendship of sorts.
When the manager, a short woman with thick glasses and a nervous smile, removed the red ribbon that kept the people in the line forming in front of the small table they set up for her Nick pulled her chair out and gestured for her to sit down.
Biting her lip, she did just that, hoping that the large breakfast she ate before coming here would help settle her nerves.
She’d been doing this for about a month now and although she thought she was improving with making small talk with her readers and not freaking out, it was still stressful for her. The only times she found herself relaxing was when Nick was close by. Thankfully he’d been staying closer the past couple of weeks, probably to make sure that she didn’t scare off the fans, she thought as she sat down and took a quick sip of water. Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Nick spoke to the bookstore manager, but was thankfully still close enough that she didn’t feel like panicking.
Six hours later everything was still fine. Thankfully Nick wasn’t too far away and the fans had been great. A few made her nervous, but that was mostly because they treated her like a freak of nature. Okay, maybe freak of nature was a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s how she felt when they wouldn’t stop gushing and going on and on about how excited they were to meet her. It was flattering, but it also made her really nervous. She preferred it when her readers didn’t make a big deal out of meeting her. She liked meeting them and hearing what they had to say about her books, but the gushing was a little unnerving. Several times Nick had to step in and calmly get the over-enthusiastic fan to move along.
As she said goodbye to the sweet woman who’d given her a copy of her family’s cookie recipe because Jamie mentioned on her Facebook page the other night that she was dying for a homemade cookie she noted the young college guy behind her. Her eyes shot to the trio of guys waiting for him near the Sports section.
They kept gesturing for their friend to move up in line.
Why were they holding cameras? she wondered as he finally moved up in line and stood in front of her. He cleared his throat nervously.
“Um, J.L. Lewis?” he said, sounding unsure.
“Yes?” she asked, wondering if he was here to get her autograph for his girlfriend or mother. That was the reason most of the guys used when asking for her autograph, but a few of them she suspected were closet romance novel junkies.
Something about this guy told her that wasn’t the case.
Before she could wonder what he was doing he reached over and grabbed her hand, yanking her to her feet and had his mouth plastered against hers, surprising the heck out of her and everyone in line if the startled gasps and nervous chuckles were any indication. Just as fast as it happened it was over.
What the heck just happened, she wondered as her eyes landed on Nick and widened. He was kneeling in front of the table and it wasn’t until he pulled his arm back that she realized what he was doing.
“Stop!” the guy on the ground cried as Nick pulled back his fist and punched him again.
“Oh no,” Jamie mumbled, scrambling out from behind the table to stop him, but before she could get close enough to stop him the guy’s friends were there trying to pull Nick away. Nick didn’t bother to look back as he shoved them away and focused his attention on the guy on the floor.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” the blonde guy with a buzz cut demanded as he tried to yank Nick back. “It was just for a frat scavenger hunt. Let him go!”
Nick ignored him and focused on the guy throwing wild swings as he tried to fight Nick off. A few connected with Nick’s jaw, but if they hurt it didn’t show.
Having had quite enough of this nonsense, Jamie shoved two of the college kids who were in the way and did the only thing she could think of at the moment.
She launched herself onto Nick’s back.
“Get the hell off of me!” he snapped, trying to gently shrug her off even as he moved to punch the guy again.
“No!” she said, wrapping her legs around his waist in an attempt to use her weight to throw him off.
“Jamie!” he snapped, pausing mid-punch to try and shrug her off again, but she wouldn’t budge.
The guy on the floor took the opportunity to make a run for it with his friends not far behind him. With a growl of frustration, Nick got to his feet to go after them, but apparently he refused to do it with her still on his back.
“Get off!”
“No!”
“Get the hell off my back so that I can go kick his ass!”
“You already did!” she pointed out and then added. “He left bloody and crying! Is that not good enough for you?”
He paused briefly and shook his head as he reached back to pull her off, but she refused to let go. “Jamie,” he growled out in warning. Once upon a time that would have sent her screaming for the hills, but not anymore. He wouldn’t hurt her.
She knew that, but just in case he decided to get even with her for this little stunt she made a mental note to hide all her chocolate.
“Um, excuse me?” the bookstore manager said, grabbing their attention.
With a sigh, Nick turned so that they were both facing the woman, who looked a little freaked out. Not that Jamie could blame her. She just hoped the woman didn’t call the cops on Nick because she had absolutely no idea how to bail someone out of jail and she really had no interest in learning how.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have ask you to leave,” she said much to Jamie’s relief. She really hadn’t liked the idea of Nick becoming some guy’s “special friend”
for the night.
Chapter 14
“Go. Away,” Nick bit out tightly, but the damn woman refused to leave. At least she was on the other side of the door, he decided, otherwise he’d be tempted to strangle his little recluse.
“You can’t still be mad!” she said in exasperation. “I eventually got off your back.”
He paused mid-sip of his beer and glared at the door. “You didn’t get the hell off my back until I was in front of your door!” he snapped.
“I had to make sure that you wouldn’t do anything stupid,” she pointed out and he barely stopped himself from storming over to his door, ripping it open and kissing the hell out of her.
Now that would have been stupid.
Perhaps not as stupid as attacking some dumb kid in front of a group of J.L.
Lewis’ fans at a signing, he thought with a groan. What in the hell had he been thinking? He’d never lost it like that and certainly never over a woman. Several of the women he’d taken out over the years received attention from other men and he hadn’t cared at all. He didn’t get jealous, never cared enough to, but today he’d been ready to kill the little bastard.
For any other client he would have simply pulled her away and signaled for either store security to handle the guy or the manager. There was no way he would have taken a chance screwing up his career for anyone. He’d worked too damn hard to get where he was and wasn’t about to let anyone come between him and what he wanted.
Of course all his plans went to hell the moment he saw another man kiss her.
All he could think of at the time was that another man was touching his little recluse. Even as he grabbed the guy he knew what he was doing and that it could very well be the end of his career, but he hadn’t given a damn. All that mattered was taking care of Jamie and if he hadn’t been so furious at the time the realization would have probably worried him like it did now.
“Are you going to let me in?” she asked, sighing heavily with annoyance and sounding so damn cute that he had to stop himself from smiling.
“No.”
There was a brief pause before she said, “If you do I’ll tell you about the new book I’m writing and the big surprise,” she said brightly, probably hoping to lure him into letting her in and pestering him.
“I don’t care,” he said, surprising even himself. As her editor he should care.
The woman’s books were a goldmine and he’d be an idiot not to find out what she was working on so he could prepare an advertising campaign, but at the moment he simply didn’t care.
The only thing he cared about at the moment was getting his head clear, perhaps getting drunk as he tried to figure out how to explain to this whole thing to Rick in the morning when he called up to chew Nick’s ass out for the pictures that were no doubt already making the rounds on the internet.
“You’re really not coming out of there?” she asked, sounding disappointed.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“Fine,” she said, sighing unhappily. “I guess I’ll just go without you.”
He didn’t bother responding as he took a sip of his beer. She could go out on her own for one night. She’d be more than fine. Besides he doubted that she was doing anything dangerous. Knowing his little recluse she was probably getting around to the little karaoke item on her to do list that had made him want to cry.
Actually if she was hitting a karaoke bar then he definitely wasn’t going with her, he decided, taking another sip of his beer.
“Okay, but if you need me I’ll be at Extreme Tattoo on Elm Street. I’ll be back later,” she said brightly as he choked on his beer.
******
“What do you think of that one?” she asked, pointing to a skull with snakes coming out of its eyes to make Nick laugh, but the man only glared down at her.
He’d been doing it for the past hour. Well, actually for the first twenty minutes he argued against her going through with this, but this was something that she wanted to do and wouldn’t let anyone talk her out of. For years she toyed with the idea of getting a tattoo, but her family’s disapproving attitude and her inability to stick up for herself held her back. After the phone call from her mother she decided that she was done letting her family’s expectations, needs and wants dictate her life. This was her life and she was going to start really living it.
It also didn’t hurt that over the past month she’d learned to take chances and enjoy her life. Before this tour she only dreamed of doing things like riding on a motorcycle or trying out paintball, but now that she did them she couldn’t help but want to do all of those other things that she’d been curious about over the years.
She was still nervous. Not that she’d admit that to Nick, but she was glad that he came with her tonight. She only wished that he’d lighten up a bit.
“This is permanent, Jamie,” he reminded her, again.
“That’s the whole point, Nick,” she said, walking over to the picture of the tribal tattoo that she’d chosen ten minutes ago. It was black, intricate and beautiful and she couldn’t wait to have it on her body.
“I really think that you should take some time and think this over,” he said as he ran his eyes over the artwork on the wall.