Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
N ick was still chuckling twenty minutes later when he took his seat in the conference room. Who knew that hiring the little recluse would make his day?
Ah, good times...
“What has you in such a good mood?” Beth, Janet, or whatever the hell her name was asked as she took the seat next to his.
“Good coffee,” Nick said, gesturing to his cup of coffee.
He wasn’t about to further embarrass the poor little recluse. He was an asshole, but a nice asshole. The poor thing was going to have a hard enough time here as it was. There was no need to add to it. In fact, his plan was to sit back and watch the little recluse, knowing that she would provide him with countless hours of entertainment in the process.
“So, Nick, I was wondering what you were doing tonight,” Beth, Janet, or was it Marcy? said.
“Washing my hair,” Nick answered, hoping she’d take the hint and finally move on. For the past six months, she’d been after him, and not for a good reason like hot, sweaty sex. No, this one had relationship written all over her. She wanted to “change” him.
Good fucking 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, way too much fucking perfume, wore clothes better suited for a clown, and was known to plan her dream wedding ten minutes after some dumb bastard made the mistake of making eye contact with her.
Before she could reply, Rick strolled in, looking pleased as the little recluse reluctantly followed him into the large conference room. Rick must have tackled her before she reached the stairs and now, she was here to keep him entertained.
Excellent.
“Have a seat,” Rick said with a warm smile for the little recluse.
Jamie smiled weakly as she sat down in the chair across from Nick, making sure that she didn’t look in his direction. He took in her thick, long strawberry-blonde hair that was twisted into some horrible knot at the back of her head, her thick-framed glasses, and baggy suit. Who dressed this woman? As if she sensed where his thoughts had gone, a red blush crept up her neck. He didn’t bother biting 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 made his way to the end of the long table and waited for everyone to settle in for the meeting.
“Good morning. I trust that you all enjoyed yourselves last night.”
There were several murmurs of agreement before Rick continued. “Edward and Dana Pierce 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 men 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. There was no doubt in his mind that she was debating making another run for it.
“I’ve got more good news. I know we’re still all excited about Dana’s book sales and for good reason. Thanks to everyone in this room, Dana’s books have broken worldwide sales’ records. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to do that with several of the new authors that we’ve recently acquired.”
That caught everyone’s attention.
A new author, a great author, could mean better pay, job security, and a partnership. Nick wasn’t too worried about the promotion since he was already a senior agent, but a great author under his wing could mean more pay and working with only the top authors like Dana Pierce and more perks. He liked the perks.
No, scratch that.
He fucking loved the perks.
“Who did we sign?” Jeff, a junior agent, asked with a calculating gleam in his eye.
Nick was curious about that as well. A few weeks ago, he’d been told that they’d signed five of the forty-something clients that were signed with Miss Harris’ company. Out of those five, Nick knew which 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. 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 other authors that he wanted, but none of them had the potential that J. L. Lewis did.
“I have a list here of who we’ve been able to sign and who we’re still waiting to hear back from. Miss Harris,” Rick gestured to the blushing recluse, “was the owner of Harris Publishing House and has been able to convince many of them to take a chance with us and expand into print. Of those who haven’t signed, we own their contracts for another book, so we have plenty of time to show them that signing with us is in their best interest.”
Everyone glanced at Miss Harris, looking surprised, while the women sent her dismissive looks, which was understandable. Miss Harris certainly didn’t look like the type who could handle a telemarketer never mind an insanely successful business like Harris Publishing.
“Take one and pass the rest along. This is the list of authors we’ve signed, contracts we now hold, and the authors holding out,” Rick explained as he handed a stack of papers to Jeff, who greedily took a copy. Nick knew the second the younger man saw J.L.’s name because his entire face lit up.
Well, tough shit because J.L. Lewis was his.
“Rick,” Jeff said, probably trying to grab J.L. Lewis before anyone else had a chance to see the list. “Who’s getting who?”
He knew how this would go down. The senior agents would meet. They’d take who they wanted and would leave the rest for the junior agents to fight over. He wasn’t worried about Rick trying to grab J.L. Lewis. The man had his hands full with Dana’s new book as well as the new book Dana and Edward just finished writing together, which meant that J.L. Lewis was as good as his.
“Well,” Rick started, only to clear his throat and paste a smile on his face. “As part of the agreement between Rerum Publishing and Miss Harris, as well as the authors’ request, Miss Harris will continue to oversee their work as our newest senior agent.”
There was a long moment of stunned silence as every set of eyes in the room turned to the squirming woman. Nick felt all his good humor slowly disappear.
This wasn’t fucking happening.
J.L. Lewis was supposed to be his. He had plans. He’d already put out feelers for promotional events and the response he’d received was astronomical. This was not fucking happening.
Nick shoved to his feet. “Rick, can I have a word with you?”
Rick sighed but didn’t look all that surprised. The rest of the staff sent him grateful looks. Could they really be that fucking stupid to think that he was doing this for them? That was just fucking sad.
“Meeting’s adjourned,” Rick said, nodding as he grabbed his files and headed for the door. “Miss Harris?” Rick said to the nervous recluse, who looked like she was about to crawl beneath the table.
“Yes?” she said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Why don’t you join us?”
If Rick thought bringing the little recluse with them was going to keep him on his best behavior, then Rick really didn’t know him at all.
This couldn’t be good, Jamie thought as she walked into the large office and quickly made her way over to one of the leather chairs and sat down.
“Would you like something to drink?” Rick asked.
“No, thank you,” Jamie murmured.
She wanted to get this over with and retreat to her new office and get to work and forget those hostile looks that had been aimed at her for a while. She knew that when she signed the contract that there would probably be a few people that wouldn’t be happy with this agreement, but she’d never expected them to be this mad.
“Nick, why don’t you have a seat?” Rick suggested as he sat down across from Jamie while she watched the man in question narrow his eyes on her.
With a tight nod, Nick took the chair facing both of them. Jamie kept her gaze averted, but she knew that he was still glaring at her.
She could feel it.
“Rick, this agreement isn’t going to work out,” Nick said, getting to the point.
Rick leaned back in his chair, getting more comfortable. “And why’s that?”
“She doesn’t have what it takes to do this job.”
That surprised her since she’d been running Harris Publishing for the past five years. She’d started her company from scratch and had made a name for not only herself but for her clients as well.
“I would have to disagree,” Rick said, earning her undying gratitude. “She took a bunch of unknown authors and signed them. Under her guidance, many of them have gone on to become New York Times bestselling authors. I have no doubt that she’ll be able to do the same here.”
“E-books, Rick. She managed these people by phone and e-mail. She’s never had to deal with promotional issues, vendors, or a thousand other issues a traditionally published author has to deal with.”
“She’ll learn.”
It was starting to disturb her that they were talking about her as though she wasn’t in the room, but Jamie kept her mouth shut. She hated confrontation, which could explain the whole ex-almost-boyfriend/new brother-in-law situation.
“So, she’s supposed to learn on the job? How is that fair to her clients, our clients, now? They’ve signed with us expecting a certain level of professionalism and we’re giving them a trainee? It’s not going to fly. What about J.L. Lewis?” At the mention of J.L. Lewis, Jamie cringed. Rick sent her an amused look before returning his attention to Nick.
“J.L. Lewis could very well be the next Dana Pierce,” he argued, which, of course, made her want to smile. She knew J.L. Lewis was decent, popular even, but as good as Dana Pierce? She never would have dreamed that was possible.
“If we leave J.L. Lewis with a trainee, she’ll never go anywhere and we’ll have missed a golden opportunity. Come on, Rick. Don’t do this. It’s not fair to any of the authors or Rerum.”
“What makes you think she can’t do this?” Rick asked and Jamie had to admit that she was wondering the same thing.
“Besides having absolutely no experience promoting and handling a book tour, marketing, and handling conventions? Well, I would have to say that she’s too shy, quiet, can’t make eye contact, she dresses like a bag lady with jury duty. She needs a haircut and some makeup wouldn’t exactly hurt. Her glasses belong on Erkel. She doesn’t have the killer instinct to get the job done. For Christ’s sake, Rick, she’s just sitting there meekly while I’m tearing her apart and you think she can handle someone like J.L. Lewis? She’ll destroy her career.”
Miss Harris sent him a hurt look. Damn, if Nick didn’t feel like he’d just kicked a puppy, but she needed to hear the truth.
“That was uncalled for, Nick,” Rick said, trying to hand Miss Harris a box of tissues, but she shook her head and continued to avert her gaze.
“It was the truth. If you want to train her, go for it, but don’t leave J.L. Lewis in her incapable hands.”
Rick sighed. “I wasn’t going to, but you didn’t exactly give me a chance to discuss it with you.”
“You weren’t?” Nick asked, sounding surprised.
“No. Some things are going to be changing around here. For you, at least.”
Jamie had to bite her lip to stop herself from saying something. This guy was a jerk. Did she really trust him to handle J.L. Lewis’s career? No, but she didn’t have a choice anymore.
“What do you mean?” Nick demanded.
“What I mean is that you will be training Miss Harris. You will help her get the look that she needs as well as the skills to do this job.”
“Rick, that’s not-”
“In return, you will also get to sign J.L. Lewis as your client. As well as oversee the rest of her clients.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Good because I’ve already made plans for her. I think if we get her face out there and get her to do a few interviews before we start the book tour for her new book that she’ll be able to hit all the lists in the first week.”
Jamie cringed further into herself, wondering if she was really going to be able to do this.
“Before you get too carried away, Nick, you should probably know something,” Rick said as Jamie couldn’t help but look up to see his reaction.
“If you have a problem with Miss Harris, then you’re not going to be happy with J.L. Lewis,” Rick said carefully.
“And why’s that?”
“Because I’m J.L. Lewis,” Jamie admitted, wondering how she was going to get herself out of this mess.