Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
“ W e’re running behind,” Nick said when his little recluse practically ran out of the elevators towards him.
“I know. I’m sorry,” Jamie said even as she dropped her suitcase and large duffle bag by his feet. “I’ll be right back,” she said, rushing off towards the hotel’s small convenience store and left him standing there, feeling like an idiot.
The only thing that saved her from a good spanking was the fact that she was in the store and back out in under sixty seconds with a small brown paper bag clutched tightly against her chest. Deciding that he had a pretty good idea of what it was and in no way wanting to invite her to discuss her womanly problems with him, Nick said nothing as she shoved the small paper bag in her duffle bag and stood up, not quite able to meet his eyes.
“I’m ready,” Jamie said, blushing a darker red than he’d ever seen on her before.
Deciding to take pity on the poor thing, Nick gestured for her to walk ahead of him while he threw his laptop bag over his shoulder and grabbed his bag. He wasn’t exactly surprised when she didn’t say anything during the taxi ride to the train station. Poor thing was easily embarrassed, Nick thought with pity as they picked up their tickets and waited for the train. Still, she didn’t utter a single word.
After about thirty minutes, his sympathy was coming to an end. Being embarrassed was one thing, being mortified to this level was unhealthy and not normal. He considered explaining to her that she didn’t need to be embarrassed about that sort of thing around him since he’d been raised by a half-dozen hookers but decided against it. His past was nobody’s business.
When the train finally arrived and they were ushered inside, he damn near sighed with relief. He’d pull his computer out and get some work done while his little recluse got over this and she really needed to get over it. They were going to be working together for several more months to come and he really didn’t need to deal with this bullshit every month.
“I’m sorry, sir. The seats have been overbooked. I’m afraid that we only have one seat available. One of you will have to stand,” the conductor said with a helpless shrug.
If they hadn’t already checked their bags, they’d be getting off the train and hauling ass to the nearest airport, but they couldn’t. The airport in South Carolina was two hours away from their hotel while the train station was only a ten-minute drive away. They’d lose too much time switching now and would miss the book signing.
With a heavy sigh, Nick gestured for Jamie to take the seat while he found a spot to stand near the bathroom. She looked like she was going to argue when he sent her a glare that told her to sit her cute little ass down before he spanked it. After a slight hesitation, Jamie nodded and sat down in the aisle seat.
He was just resigning himself to cramped legs and boredom when he watched a middle-aged man stop in front of her. While Jamie was looking out the window, the man was looking at her, looking rather pleased as he quickly slipped his wedding ring off his finger and into his pocket. Nick watched as the man ran his fingers through his hair and straightened his tie before approaching Jamie and gesturing to the seat next to her with his train ticket.
Oversold train his ass. He was going to have a word with Beth or whatever the hell her name was in transportation, Nick told himself as he watched the asshole strike up a conversation with his little recluse. She really was a naive little thing, Nick decided as he watched the asshole charm her. When she smiled and let out a small laugh that seemed to please the man and piss him off, Nick decided to intervene.
Clearly, she was in over her head and he was helping her. It had nothing to do with the fact that she’d given away a smile so easily to the asshole when he had to work his ass off to earn one. It didn’t. She was his responsibility, and therefore, it was his job to make sure that no one but him took advantage of her. With that in mind, he walked over to her.
“Up,” Nick said, gesturing for her to stand. When she only stared up at him, looking adorably confused, he grabbed her hand and gave it a quick tug. Once she was on her feet, he moved in and sat down, throwing the asshole a smug grin as he gave Jamie’s hand another tug that had her falling onto his lap. He ignored her surprised gasp as he righted her on his lap and got comfortable.
“What are you doing?” Jamie whispered as another beautiful blush crept up her neck. It made him wonder if she blushed during sex. Before that thought left his mind, he was shifting her again and trying not to notice how warm and soft her ass was. Hell, he really needed to get laid.
“Getting comfortable in our seat. Why?” Nick asked as he closed his eyes and settled in for the ride.
She shifted again but didn’t say anything and neither did the guy next to him. He really hadn’t expected to fall asleep, so when he was suddenly jolted awake when the train came to a stop, he was surprised. He was even more surprised to find his little recluse fast asleep in his arms. She was curled up quite nicely in his arms with her head resting on his shoulder.
“Lucky bastard,” the guy next to him muttered as he stood up and squeezed past them.
Ignoring the asshole and just how good Jamie felt in his arms, Nick gently shook her awake. When she mumbled something and tried to turn over in his arms, he gave her another shake that thankfully did the trick. She slowly opened her eyes, looked at him sleepily for a moment before she blinked. He watched in utter fascination as her eyes widened almost comically a split second before she bolted from his lap.
As much as he hated to admit this, she’d felt damn good in his arms and he didn’t like that one goddamn bit. He was a man who liked his space and didn’t need a damn thing from anyone. Sex didn’t count. That was just a way to work out stress and get off. He sure as hell didn’t hold any of the women after he’d fucked them.
If a woman entertained him in bed, he’d consider her for a second bout of sex, but nothing more than that. Then again, if she’d been too needy, brought any drama into his life, or displeased him in any way, he was out the door before she was done screaming his name. He liked his sex bullshit-free and without all that relationship crap.
Some women got pissed about his view on sex, but he didn’t care. If they even hinted at any drama, he lost interest and moved on to the next woman. He liked to deal with women who knew the score before he fucked them. There was no future with him and he made damn sure they all knew it.
“What do you want to do after this?” Nick asked as he looked over some papers the bookstore manager gave him.
“Um,” Jamie said, clearing her throat and trying not to appear nervous, “I was thinking about looking around the mall for a laptop.”
He frowned at that but didn’t bother looking up from the papers in his hands. “I told you I’d find one for you.”
She stopped herself from pointing out that he’d promised to do that a few weeks ago, but she knew with their busy schedule and her list that he hadn’t had much time to look around. Well, tonight, she planned on rectifying that. Not only did she need her own computer to work, but she also needed it to-
“What’s with the sudden rush?” Nick asked, still reading through everything.
To watch porn, she almost blurted out but somehow managed to hold it back. Tonight, for the first time ever, she was going to watch porn. She’d never seen it before, always avoided it, but tonight, she was going to watch one and take notes.
It wasn’t as though she was completely oblivious to the act. She’d read romance novels and watched love scenes in movies, so she felt that she had a pretty good knowledge base of the act, but she’d never actually seen the act before, but tonight she would. She’d pay attention, learn what men liked and what she could expect when it came time to have sex. She might be a virgin, but that didn’t mean she wanted the first guy she slept with to know that. That was her business.
Granted, she’d didn’t necessarily need to shell out a lot of money to watch porn, but she didn’t want to use Nick’s computer in case it left evidence behind and she really didn’t want to have to order one of those movies she’d seen advertised in some of the hotels and have anyone find out that she was doing this. She also didn’t understand why anyone would pay thirty bucks to watch one.
“I’ll take you after this,” Nick said, not sounding particularly happy about it, but then again, he had been spending all of his time with her. She imagined a man like him wasn’t used to going without sex and probably needed a night off. Then another thought occurred to her, one that made her curious, could men get cranky if they went too long without sex? If so, was it like PMS? Could she expect mood swings and sudden urges for chocolate from him?
She really didn’t think she could deal with a cranky Nick. An irritated Nick was bad enough. No, if he got worse, she was going to grab the first bimbo she saw and throw her his way. She’d do anything to avoid Nick getting crankier.
“Jamie?”
“Huh?”
“I said we could go after this if you want to,” Nick said, looking up long enough to send her a frown.
“Oh, okay. Thanks,” Jamie mumbled, feeling giddy.
Who knows, maybe by this time next week, she wouldn’t be a virgin. That would be fantastic. She was also sure that having experienced the act first-hand would probably benefit her writing. If anything, she should have sex for her job. Yes, she definitely owed it to her readers to go out and have sex.
A lot of sex.
“Nick!”
He looked up from his computer and nearly groaned. A half-hour ago, he’d realized that someone fucked up and double-booked them next week and he’d been trying to figure out how to fix it. He just came up with a solution that would work for everyone, meaning him, when the banging started.
Shouldn’t she be working? Nick wondered as he pulled on a pair of jeans. Then again, she probably had another question about her computer. Granted, he thought he’d covered everything during the two hours they’d spent setting up her new computer, but maybe he’d missed something.
“Nick!”
“What?” he snapped as he opened the hotel door to find his little recluse hugging her laptop tightly against her chest and looking close to tears.
“I broke my computer.”
“Did you drop it?” Nick asked, already taking the computer from her to inspect it.
“No,” she muttered, sounding absolutely fucking miserable.
He threw her a curious look as he took her computer over to the couch and placed it on the coffee table. He opened the lid and felt his eyebrows jump as pop-up window after pop-up window featuring sex in various acts kept popping up on the screen.
“What the hell did you do?” Nick asked, already having a pretty good idea that she’d downloaded a virus.
“Research,” she mumbled pathetically.
“What?” Nick asked absently as he did his best to stop the attack.
She mumbled something that he didn’t quite understand. “What was that?” he asked as he ran the anti-malware program he’d installed only hours ago.
“I said I was watching sex for research,” Jamie said, shocking the hell out of him.
“You were watching porn? What the hell kind of research requires you to watch porn?” Nick demanded as he stood up and walked over to his computer, half afraid that she did something to his computer.
“That’s personal,” Jamie said, trying to sound firm, but the woman just didn’t have a clue how to pull it off.
He ran the malware scanning program on his computer and was just about to go recheck her computer when a thought occurred to him. This morning, he’d spotted an odd file in her folder. At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it, but now…
He clicked the file open and received his second shock of the night as he quickly read through the list.
“What are you doing?” Jamie demanded, sounding nervous and for damn good reason.
Holy shit, was she serious? He read the list again as dread shot through him. Yes, she was. She’d made a list, started to do the items and was curious. He’d bet everything he had that brown bag she’d grabbed this morning hadn’t been tampons. His damn recluse bought condoms and was now watching porn.
She wanted to try new things. Hell, he’d encouraged her to try new things so that he had something to hold over her head, and now, it seemed as though she’d taken it one step further. His little recluse was getting ready to start a little sex revolution.
For a moment, Nick wondered how she’d planned on approaching him about helping her out with this, but then realized that she hadn’t planned on approaching him at all. She didn’t want his help. For everything else, he was fine, but he wasn’t good enough for this. No, for this his little recluse planned on approaching a strange man and trusted him not to hurt her.
He glared up at her as she shifted nervously in front of her computer as she wrung her hands together. Although she was a sexy little thing now and he wouldn’t have minded a go between her legs, he’d decided that she was off limits. He also had a firm rule about touching virgins, he didn’t.
Virgins were too much work, too much drama, and he didn’t care enough to introduce them to sex patiently. When he had sex, he wanted to get off. He didn’t really care about anything else and he sure as hell didn’t care about making things perfect for a woman. He got them off and that was enough in his book. It was the reason he’d decided not to act on his attraction to the little recluse, but damn...
She really didn’t want him. She wanted a stranger and that was not the reason why he surged to his feet and suddenly found himself glaring down at her. It wasn’t. He was concerned for her because she was doing something incredibly fucking stupid.
That was all.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Nick snapped, grabbing her by her arms. “Do you have any idea what could happen to you by going around and letting some strange guy fuck you?”
She winced, from his crude words or the way he snapped at her, he didn’t care. Didn’t she realize that she could catch something? Get pregnant? Or worse, go home with some asshole that got his thrills by beating the shit out of women? Didn’t she realize how stupid this was?
“Th-that’s why I was doing research, you jerk!” Jamie snapped back, surprising them both. “I don’t know anything about sex and I have no one that I can ask!” she said, getting good and mad as she pulled her arms back only to give him a good shove.
“I’m sick of not knowing! I want to have sex! I want to know what it feels like to be with a man and if I want to have sex with a thousand men, then that’s my business, buddy!” Jamie snapped, giving him a good shove. “And if you don’t like it, then that’s too bad!” she said, giving him one final shove that knocked him back onto his ass on the edge of the bed.
She turned to grab her computer and storm off when he found himself saying something that he knew that he’d regret. “I’ll teach you.”