Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
“ O h, my God, I love you, J.L. Lewis!” a woman screamed, startling her.
As discreetly as she could, Jamie leaned to the side to see who was screaming, only to groan. A middle-aged woman wearing a homemade tee-shirt with her pen name written on it was jumping up and down excitedly with five other women sporting the same shirt.
Maybe it was time for a break? Jamie thought, shooting a hopeful glance towards Nick only to watch him shake his head firmly, once. That’s all it took for her to paste the weak smile back on her face and turn around in her chair to greet her next fan.
Only an hour into this and she wasn’t sure that she could do it any longer. This was too much for her. She wasn’t used to this much attention and every time someone stepped up for her autograph, she had to fight back the surge of panic that threatened to drop her to her knees. This wasn’t her. If last night had taught her anything, it was that she couldn’t handle things like this.
Why the hell did she sell her business and take this job? Because she was an idiot and thought that if she forced herself into a bad situation that her survival skills would kick in and she’d be able to acclimate. It was a really stupid plan, Jamie decided as she signed her name, barely able to register what the person in front of her was saying. When she walked away smiling, Jamie felt her shoulders slump in relief only to tense right back up when the next person in line stepped up.
This was a bad idea. She couldn’t do this. She didn’t care if they sued her and demanded that she give all the money back. She just couldn’t do this. This wasn’t her life and she didn’t want it anymore and definitely not after last night. She needed to go home to her small, lonely apartment and resign herself to the fact that she was meant to be alone forever.
“Excuse me,” Jamie said, her voice shaking as she stood up and knocked her chair over. She felt her face burn as every head turned in her direction with looks of amusement and confusion.
Why the heck didn’t she sneak out of her room this morning and make a run for it when she had the chance? She’d wanted to, had actually planned on running, but just as she’d grabbed her bag, Nick banged on her door and demanded that she get her butt going so they could prepare for this signing. But nothing, not the three-hour lecture or the pointers that he gave her, had prepared her for this. She hoped that she’d be able to handle this once she sat down at the small table covered with stacks of her books, but she’d been wrong, so very wrong.
The moment she’d stepped into the large ballroom, she’d felt the same discomfort she’d felt last night when she’d stepped into that club. Yesterday, she’d felt excited at the prospect of trying new things. That all ended the moment reality slammed into her.
Within seconds, she’d realized that she didn’t belong, but she’d still forced herself to stay, hoping that it would be okay. As she made her way to the bar, she’d prayed that no one noticed her. Once she found an empty seat, she sat down and refused to leave. After thirty minutes, she’d somehow managed to grab the bartender’s attention and ordered a drink because, by that point, she’d needed sugar badly.
All of her excitement and plans ended the moment she saw the dance floor. She’d been intrigued even as she felt her newfound self-esteem crumble. She didn’t know how to dance and was too scared to give it a try and she wanted to so badly but couldn’t bring herself to take the risk.
Caitlyn was right.
She really was pathetic.
“Are you okay?” the older woman standing in front of her asked with grandmotherly concern that should have eased some of her panic, but it didn’t. She needed to get out of here now.
“Excuse me,” Jamie said, swallowing hard as she took a step back. “I-I just need some water.”
“Here you are, J.L.,” Nick said smoothly as he handed her an ice-cold bottle of water. He picked up her chair, put an arm around her shoulders, and helped her back to her seat.
She looked up at him, sending him a pleading look, but he ignored it as he flashed her a smile that had the other woman blushing.
“I hope you’ll forgive me. I should have brought her a bottle of water an hour ago,” he said charmingly to the woman, but the way he’d maneuvered her back into her seat both impressed and depressed her. “I’m very sorry, J.L.,” Nick said with an innocent smile as he jammed his foot behind her chair to stop her from escaping again.
“Thank you,” Jamie mumbled pathetically, forcing a smile as she made a show of opening her water and taking a sip.
“He’s so sweet. You’re so lucky to have someone like him helping you,” the woman gushed and Jamie was tempted to tell the woman that she was more than welcome to take him when he gave her a nudge.
“Thank you,” Jamie said, already guessing the reasoning behind the nudge to her side. “I don’t know what I’d do without him,” she said with that forced smile even as her brain screamed for her to do something else.
Run .
“I’ll be right here if you need me,” Nick said, taking two steps back to lean against the wall. To anyone else, he probably sounded sweet and considerate, but she knew damn well that it was a threat.
If she tried to move so much as an inch out of her chair, he’d be all over her. The message was clear, if she moved, he’d drag her right back and probably staple her butt to the chair. Knowing that it was pointless to argue, Jamie pasted that smile back on her face and forced herself to get through the rest of the signing.
For the next eight hours, she put up with him shoving water at her as an excuse to remind her to keep her butt in the chair, forced her to take pictures with fans even though the whole thing made her feel uncomfortable, and four denials for a bathroom break. When she told him that she was hungry and asked for a break, he handed her a package of stale crackers he’d bought from the vending machine in the back hallway.
By the end, she was exhausted, humiliated, and more than done with Nick Quinn. She might be stuck doing this tour because of her contract, which he’d reminded her of thirteen times throughout the day, but that didn’t mean that she was going to be stuck with him .
“Where are you going?” Nick demanded as she walked past his room and headed to her own.
“We need to discuss our strategy for the interviews tomorrow,” Nick said, gesturing towards his room, but she ignored him and kept going.
She grabbed her room card, jammed it into the slot on her door’s electronic lock and kept jamming it until Nick took it out of her hand with a bored sigh.
“What the hell are you doing, Miss Harris?” Nick asked as he opened her door and handed her back the keycard.
“First, I’m going to order the biggest steak this hotel has since you starved me. Then, I’m going to call Rick and ask him to replace you, you psychotic jerk!” Jamie snapped as she went to slam the door shut in his face.
He stopped the door with his foot and shoved it open. Knowing it was pointless to try and shove him out of her room since he easily outweighed her by a hundred pounds, she walked over to her bag, er purse, and dug through it.
“You signed a contract, Miss Harris,” Nick reminded her tightly. “You have a contractual duty to finish this tour. You can call Rick and complain all you want, but it won’t change a damn thing.”
“I already know that,” Jamie bit out distractedly as she turned her purse over and dumped everything onto the floor. “I made a promise and I intend to keep it,” she said, frowning when she didn’t spot her phone among all the crap on the floor. With a small groan, she dropped to her knees and began searching through the mess on the floor. She shoved aside a paperback, checkbook, tampons, half a roll of Lifesavers and still no cellphone. She blew a loose strand of hair out of her face as she looked around the beige rug. Where the heck was her phone?
“Then, I see no reason why you need to call Rick,” Nick said.
She had to snort at that. “Of course you don’t.”
“If you’re upset about the amount of work that we have ahead of us, there’s nothing that I can do about that. Those are the obligations we have and if we want your launch to be a success, then we have to do it,” Nick explained slowly as though he were talking to a child, further pissing her off.
“I have no problem with the work,” Jamie snapped as she looked beneath the bed and sighed. It wasn’t there either.
“Then, what’s the problem?”
“You!” she snapped, not even bothering to look up at him.
“You need me, Miss Harris,” Nick explained, sounding pissed. “I’ll guide you through this process, get you into the best venues, and make sure that you’re a success.”
“Anyone from your company could do that,” Jamie pointed out, wondering where her phone was.
For a moment, he didn’t say anything and she was grateful. It gave her a chance to focus all of her attention on finding her phone and figuring out what she was going to say to Rick. She didn’t want to get him in trouble despite how much he pissed her off, but she didn’t see any way around it. If she didn’t say something, he’d walk all over her and that’s the last thing that she needed right now, especially after last night.
“Finally,” Jamie mumbled when she spotted the sleek black phone peeking out from beneath the corner of the light tan couch. She reached over to grab it only to gasp when a large, tan hand swiped it up. She turned her glare up at him.
“You need me,” Nick repeated as he put her phone in his pocket, probably thinking that she wouldn’t make a grab for it.
He was right, darn it!
“No, I don’t,” Jamie argued tightly as she came to her feet, holding her hand out expectantly.
“Really?” Nick asked with a cocky arch of his brow that she didn’t like, not one bit.
“Really!” she snapped back.
“Then, how do you expect to get through your list without my help?” Nick asked, and judging by his smug grin, she didn’t have to ask what list he was referring to. “Face it, Miss Harris. You can’t do this without me.”