A Reclusive Heart

by R. L. Mathewson

  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 fucking 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.

  Lewis had. No, that author was his.

  “I have a list here of who we’ve been able to sign and who we’re waiting for.

  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 prove that signing with us is in their best interest.”

  Several people glanced at Miss. Harris with looks of surprise. The women sent her openly dismissive looks. Not a surprise. 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. Here’s the list of people we’ve signed, contracts we now hold and those holding out,” Rick said as he handed a stack of paper to Jeff who greedily took his. Nick knew the second the younger man saw J.L’s name. His entire face lit up.

  Well, tough shit because J.L. was his.

  “Rick,” Jeff said, probably trying to grab J.L. before anyone else had a chance to see the list. “Who’s getting who?”

  Nick wasn’t too worried. He knew how this would go down. The senior editors would meet. They’d take who they wanted and would leave the rest for the junior editors to fight over. He wasn’t too worried about Rick trying to grab J.L. The man had his hands full with Dana’s new book as well as the new book Dana and Edward just finished together. No, J.L. was as good as his.

  “Well,” Rick started. He cleared his throat and pasted a friendly grin on his face. “As part of the agreement between Rerum Publishing and Miss. Harris as well as the clientele’s request, Miss. Harris will continue to oversee their work as our newest senior editor.”

  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 was…..this was….. Bullshit!

  J.L. was supposed to be his. He had plans. He already put out feelers for promotional events and the response he’d received was astronomical. This was not happening.

  He shoved to his feet. “Rick, can I have a word with you?”

  Rick sighed, but didn’t look too surprised. The rest of the staff sent him grateful looks. Could they really be that stupid to think that he was upset on their behalf? That was just sad.

  “That’s fine. Meeting’s adjourned,” Rick said, grabbing his files and heading for the door. “Miss. Harris?” Rick said to the nervous little recluse who looked like she was about to crawl beneath the table and hide.

  “Yes?” she said nervously.

  “Why don’t you join us?”

  If Rick thought bringing the woman into the meeting was going to keep him on his best behavior then he really didn’t know him at all.

  ******

  This couldn’t be good, Jamie thought as she walked into the large plush office. She followed Rick’s gesture and sat on one of the leather chairs.

  “Would you like something to drink?” Rick asked pleasantly.

  “No, no thank you.”

  No, she wanted to get this over with and retreat to her new office and get to work and forget those hostile looks for a while. She knew from what Rick said that some people would be upset with this agreement, but she hadn’t expected them to become angry like Mr. Quinn obviously was as he paced the office.

  “Nick, why don’t you have a seat?” Rick suggested as he sat down across from Jamie.

  With a tight nod, Nick took the chair facing both of them. Jamie kept her gaze averted from the man, but knew he was looking, more like glaring at her.

  “Look, Rick, this agreement isn’t going to work out,” he announced.

  Rick leaned back in his chair, getting more comfortable. “Oh, why not?”

  “Well, to be honest she doesn’t have what it takes.”

  That surprised her. She’d been doing pretty darn well over the past five years. She started her company from scratch and made a name for not only herself but for her clients as well.

  “I would have to argue that,” Rick said, earning her undying gratitude. “She took a bunch of unknown authors and signed them. Under her guidance many of them have outsold printed authors in the same genre. 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, ve
nders or a thousand other issues a book in print brings up.”

  “She’ll learn.”

  It was starting to disturb her that they were talking about her as if she wasn’t in the room, but she kept her mouth shut. She hated confrontation, which could explain the whole ex-almost boyfriend/new brother-in-law thing.

  “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 that name Jamie cringed. Rick sent her an amused look before giving Nick back his attention.

  “J.L. could very well be the next Dana Pierce.” That made her puff up a bit.

  She knew J.L. was decent, popular even, but as good as Dana Pierce? That was unexpected.

  “If we leave J.L. 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 the company.”

  “What makes you think she can’t do this?” Rick asked and she had to admit that she wondered the same thing.

  “Besides a lack of experience in promoting and handling a book tour, not to mention conventions? Well, I would have to say 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 make-up wouldn’t exactly hurt. Her glasses belong on Erkel. She doesn’t have the killer instinct to get the job done. For Christ sakes’, Rick, she just sitting there meekly while I’m tearing her apart and you think she can handle someone like J.L.

  Lewis? She’ll wreck her career in record time.”

  Miss. Harris gave him a shocked and hurt look. Damn if he didn’t feel like he 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. She shook her head, averting her gaze.

  “It was dead on and you know it, Rick. If you want to train her go for it, but don’t leave J.L. 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?” he asked, sounding surprised.

  “No. Some things are going to be changing around here. For you at least.”

  Jamie bit her lip to stop herself from protesting. This guy was a…he was….a jerk! Did she really trust him to handle J.L.’s career? No, but she didn’t have a choice anymore.

  “What do you mean?” Mr. Quinn demanded.

  “What I mean is you will be training Miss. Harris. You will help her get the look she needs as well as the skills.”

  “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.”

  “That’s great! I already made some contacts. 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 we’ll be able to count on huge sales for the printed book as well as the ebook.”

  Jamie cringed further into herself. Interviews? Book sales? Could J.L. do this?

  “Before you get too carried away, Nick, you should probably know something,” Rick said.

  Jamie couldn’t help but glance at the man from the corner of her eye to see his reaction. She didn’t want to, but she found herself helpless to do anything else.

  “If you have a problem with Miss. Harris then you’re not going to be too happy with J.L.,” Rick said carefully.

  “And why is that?”

  “Because I’m J.L. Lewis,” Jamie answered softly.

  Chapter 3

  This was definitely one of those “oh, shit” moments. He just insulted the woman he was dying to sign. Granted he thought he was insulting the hermit standing between him the author he wanted to sign.

  Ah hell, there was nowhere to go but forward with this one.

  “You’re J.L. Lewis?” he asked in what he knew was his most charming tone.

  Apparently the little hermit didn’t know that because she only nodded.

  A thought occurred to him. “Rick, how exactly is she supposed to represent other clients if she is busy writing and promoting her own work?”

  “She won’t be. Her job here is strictly editing. She’s easily one of the best editors I’ve ever come across. Her clients trust her and we can work with that. They know their books will be handled by others and they’re fine with that as long as Jamie gives their books a final look over before it goes to print.”

  “So, her job here is just to give the final editorial approval before a book goes to print?” Nick asked.

  Rick nodded. “That and to write and promote her books. You’re right about her potential. I really think she’ll reach Dana’s level with the right help.”

  He’d heard of pampering authors before, but this was ridiculous. They created a job for her to keep her happy? It was ridiculous to pay her as an editor when what she really was a proof reader.

  “These authors need someone to work with. A proofreader isn’t what they need. Who’s going to promote their work or organize book signings?” he asked.

  She frowned. “I’m not a proof reader.”

  “No, you’re not,” Rick agreed, to keep her happy? Nick wasn’t sure.

  Rick turned his attention on him. “I’ve decided to let you have first pick. The rest of the clients I want you to assign away. What I suggest is that Miss. Harris get the manuscripts right before they’re ready to go to print.”

  Nick frowned. “So, you’re making us proofreaders?”

  “Only on these clients. It’s what they want. She’s known for having a sharp eye and good taste. She never takes out too much and she has a hell of a knack for detail. Other than that I want you to handle her. I need you to get her ready and start promoting her books. I want her to go on tour with a few lectures, book signings and interviews. I want it at the same level we give Dana, but unlike Dana we don’t have to hold back because of the kids. I trust you know what to do.”

  He caught the panicked expression on Miss. Harris’ face, but ignored it. He had more important things to focus on right now like not doing a touchdown dance then and there. It would probably come off as unprofessional. He’d save it for his office.

  Shit.

  There was so much to do. He needed to call the printers, get a decent picture on her book, set up interviews, book signings, book tours and a convention or two wouldn’t hurt. His eyes drifted towards the little recluse. First they had to give her a makeover, nothing major. Just her hair, her eyes, makeup and good god those clothes had to go. If they could make her look more nerdish or even plainish that would be preferable over hermit.

  He couldn’t help his shit eating grin that seemed to make the little hermit more nervous. He knew just the women to handle this little overhaul.

  ******

  This was depressing, Jamie thought as they drove through a plush neighborhood. Seems things hadn’t changed. She was still the world’s biggest pushover or doormat. Really, labels didn’t matter at the moment because her life just plain sucked.

  How pathetic does someone have to be to just sit there and take it politely while someone trashed everything about her? Pretty darn pathetic. Instead of putting her foot down and demanding a different agent to handle her career she was in a car with a big jerk who wouldn’t stop smiling smugly even though he was having a conversation with someone on his cell phone. He’d been on that thing since they left Rick’s office, setting up this or that.

  She really wished she knew where they were going. Call her crazy, but it would have been nice to have been told, correction, asked to go wherever it was they were going. She was pretty sure he hadn’t said one single word to her since they left Rick’s office. As soon as the door closed behind them he attached a hands free piece to his ear and began his maratho
n of calls. It wasn’t until she sat down at her new desk and logged onto her computer to start editing Margo O’Malley’s latest book that she realized he’d followed her. Without a word he picked up her bag and handed it to her, gesturing for her to follow him.

  Well, it was just one more person to add to her list that knew she didn’t have a backbone. This was just super, she thought dryly as they pulled into a long driveway of a huge white one story house.

  Finally Mr. Quinn ended his call and got out. Obviously he