“I’m sending Holy to help. J.L. Lewis’ popularity is skyrocketing. Thanks to her family’s antics more people are curious about her. We’ve already had calls from venders demanding more books as well as interviews. Your already tight schedule is about to become a little tighter to accommodate this demand and to make sure that everything goes smoothly I’m sending you help,” Rick explained as he took the chair across from him and damn if he couldn’t see the logic in what the man was saying.

Of course there was just one thing that he wasn’t sure about.

Who the hell was Holy?

Before he could ask, Rick’s door swung open and his little recluse came storming into the room, holding a cardboard box in front of her. She didn’t look too happy, but when her eyes landed on him she looked decidedly less than pleased.

“Is everything okay, Jamie?” Rick asked, getting to his feet when she approached them.

Instead of answering him she shoved the box onto his lap and glared accusingly at him. “You promised me chocolate, you big jerk,” she snapped and hell if he couldn’t help but grin. The woman was a sexy little thing that entertained him on so many levels.

“I got you chocolate and some Coke, Jamie, but Rick ate it,” he said with a helpless shrug.

“Wait, what?” Rick asked, looking like a deer caught in headlights as Jamie turned her cute little temper on him.

“You ate my chocolate?” Jamie asked as she glared up at the much taller man. It was actually interesting that his little recluse couldn’t stop apologizing to people for screwing her over, but mess with her sugar obsession and she’d rip someone’s throat out.

“I-I-,” Rick stammered helplessly as Jamie’s lower lip began to tremble.

Ah, shit.

His little recluse needed a fix and soon. He knew the signs quite well at this point. As he stood up he wondered if perhaps they should look into a chocolate rehab center for her, but he knew she wouldn’t last twenty-four hours without something sweet.

“I tell you what, Jamie,” he said, shifting the box under his arm as he put his other arm around her shoulders, “why don’t we take you out for a nice big hot fudge sundae and you can tell us what’s in this box,” he said in a soothing voice.

“You’re patronizing my needs again,” she sighed, but thankfully that lower lip stopped trembling.

“Are you trying to tell me that you don’t want a nice big ice cream sundae?”

he asked, already knowing his little recluse would never be able to say refuse sugar.

“That’s not what I’m saying and you know it, but I don’t think you should bring that box with us,” she said, moving away from him and towards the door.

“Why not?” Rick asked, stepping up next to him to peer down at the box with him.

“Because half of those letters contain explicit sexual content and the other half are death threats.”

Chapter 23

“Come on, Jamie. It’s time to get up,” Nick said in a soothing tone even as he pulled her to her feet.

“Go away. I’m tired and I hate you,” she muttered, trying to pull away from him so that she could cuddle back up in her seat and go back to sleep, but he wouldn’t have it. In seconds he had her back on her feet and was nudging her off the plane.

“We’ll be at the hotel in a half an hour and then you can go to sleep, okay?”

Nick said in that same tone that he probably thought would make her nod and do whatever he asked when it just made her want to nod off.

“Mr. Quinn is right, Miss. Harris. Once we get to the hotel you can rest until the book signing this afternoon,” Holly, the woman who now made them a trio for the rest of the tour said from somewhere ahead of her, but she was too busy struggling to keep her eyes open to try and look for the woman.

Not that she thought the woman would be very hard to find. With stunning red hair, exotic style, and way too much perfume she was kind of hard to miss.

Since her ticket was a last minute booking, Holly had been forced to sit several rows away from them, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough. The woman’s perfume invaded the cabin space and within minutes a lot of people, including her, were complaining about having a headache.

Of course it reminded her that if Nick tried to force her to share a room with the woman she was going to revolt. She’d pay for her own room because there was no way she could stay in the same with the woman and that perfume. She could be the nicest woman in the world for all Jamie knew, but she just couldn’t take being trapped in a room with that tear stinging perfume. It was not happening.

“You’re doing great, Jamie. Just hang in there and we’ll be at the hotel soon,”

Nick said after they collected their luggage and headed for the front entrance.

“I don’t need a pep talk,” she muttered, biting back a yawn as she readjusted the duffle bag over her shoulder, “I need sugar, lots and lots of sugar,” she grumbled, wishing that he would at least let her get some before they left, but the infuriating man decided about twelve hours ago that he was going to turn into Super Overprotective Man, which of course meant keeping an eye on her and depriving her of her beautiful much needed beloved sugar.

Then again she couldn’t really blame him since those letters had freaked her out pretty badly. She still couldn’t believe someone who didn’t know her could hate her so much. When she showed the letters to him and Rick she’d been kind of hoping that they’d laugh it off and tell her that it was a joke, but the looks on their faces when they read the first one told her that it was anything but a joke.

Within minutes Rick had been on the phone with the police and Nick wouldn’t let her out of his sight even to use the bathroom and when she couldn’t hold it a minute longer he made her use the men’s room so that he could stand guard. He thought she was kidding when she told him to sing so that she could use the bathroom. She hadn’t been. Besides learning that the men’s bathroom was surprisingly cleaner than the women’s room she also learned that Nick had a very sexy singing voice.

That of course didn’t make up for the fact that she hadn’t had sugar in nearly twenty-four hours. She wasn’t hypoglycemic or anything, but very much addicted to sugar at this point in her life and if she went too long without something sweet she got cranky, very cranky. This morning Nick had been sweet enough to make her breakfast, a straightforward breakfast of eggs, bacon and wheat toast that didn’t fulfill her sugary needs. She meant to pick something up on the way to work but never got the chance. Of course once the guys saw the letters she never got her hot fudge sundae either or any food for that matter.

“She’s going to fall over,” she mumbled just as her poor stomach growled viciously for a little attention. As soon as they reached the hotel she was going to order some food and grab some sleep. Her new game plan was to sleep until the very last minute possible instead of spending the customary hour with Nick going over things. If he didn’t like that then that was too bad. She was a tired cranky woman in need of sugar and he was the big jerk denying her her fix.

“How much shit does she need?” Nick asked even as he reached over and grabbed the duffle bag that was giving Jamie so much trouble and threw it over his already occupied shoulder before reaching back over and taking her now free hand into his.

They watched as Holly directed the man carting all eight of her bags towards the waiting line of taxis. She realized that they wouldn’t be heading home for four weeks, but eight bags was a bit of an overkill, especially since they would be moving around a lot. While Holly’s bags were loaded into a taxi, Nick signaled for a different taxi and had their things thrown in the back.

“Nick!” Holly said brightly, waving to get Nick’s attention.

With a small groan that had her smiling he looked over at the woman. “I thought that it might be a good idea if you and I shared a taxi so that we could go over a few things,” Holly said casually, but there was no doubt in Jamie’s mind that talking was the last thing the woman wanted to do with Nick.

It wasn’t too difficult to figure out that the woman was interested in Nick.

What heterosexual woman in her right mind wouldn’t be? He was incredibly sexy, handsome and charming and it seemed that she wasn’t the only woman to notice.