A Reclusive Heart

  When he gripped her bottom and encouraged her to move she did, hesitantly.

  She wasn’t really sure what to do, but she decided that she’d figure it out when he slid his tongue inside of her. Her hands as if they had a mind of their own slid up her damp stomach and over her breasts, pretending that they were his hands.

  His grip tightened on her bottom as his tongue went wild inside of her. She pinched her nipples the way he did and she was surprised at how good it felt. She’d never really touched or explored herself, too shy to even try that, but right now it felt too good to stop. As she continued to gently squeeze and caress her left breast she slid her trembling hand down her stomach.

  The few times she’d attempted to touch herself down there it had never felt good. But the way he was licking inside of her was making the little nub between her legs swell up almost painfully. It was practically begging for attention and when her fingertips brushed up against it she couldn’t hold back the gasp of pleasure that slid through her.

  She watched as his eyes closed to half mast as he watched her touch herself.

  He looked like he was in ecstasy as he continued to lick her. It felt so good. She never thought that anything could feel this good. She loved when he touched her, craved it in fact, but the way he was giving her free reign to enjoy him made every little touch and sensation so much more powerful.

  All too soon she was throwing her head back as she cried, screamed really, his name. She was still screaming his name when she found herself suddenly lifted off his mouth and shoved onto his newly restored erection. He sat up and wrapped his arms around her as he took her mouth in a hungry kiss that quickly ignited her need for him again.

  Her fingers tangled in his hair as she returned the hungry almost brutal kiss as they ground their lower bodies together. It wasn’t long before she was panting and struggling to hold back, but he wouldn’t allow it. He used his hold on her to slam her down hard on his rock hard shaft as he thrust forward. It was too much, too soon and she lost the battle. She screamed his name, barely aware that he was chanting hers almost reverently.

  When the last tremor of pleasure left her body she felt him smiling against her mouth and it wasn’t until that moment that she realized that she was smiling as well.

  He pressed a kiss against her mouth before he lowered them back into the pool. “Now, let’s see if we can do that in the pool this time so that we can check if off your list,” he suggested as his hand slid between her legs.

  Chapter 26

  “Is it time to get up?” Jamie mumbled as she snuggled into the covers.

  “No, not yet, baby. Go back to sleep,” he said, pressing a light kiss against her lips.

  She followed his lips as he pulled away and he couldn’t help but chuckle. It seemed that he’d created a little addict. That thought was quickly confirmed when she sleepily mumbled, “Is it time for more sex? I want sex.”

  “I can tell,” he said, smiling as she started to drift off again. For a moment he sat there watching her sleep, perfectly content just to be near her. She so beautiful, he thought as he reached over and swept her hair away from her face. She sighed softly in her sleep, tempting him to crawl back in bed with her and hold her, but he had work to do.

  He was exhausted, he thought with a smile as he stumbled his way towards the bathroom. They’d made love twice in the pool and then once more when they made it back to their room. It was funny how with Jamie he thought of it as making love and not just fucking or sex. It didn’t matter how hard or hot the sex was it was making love in his mind. Thinking of it in any other way didn’t sit well with him.

  Jamie was……..

  Special.

  She wasn’t like any of the women he’d been with before. She was better, pure, sweet, kind and made him happy. He wanted to take care of her, to be there for her and it didn’t matter that those thoughts should scare the hell out of him, but he couldn’t stop wanting them. That didn’t mean that he could give them to her.

  He wasn’t right for her and would never be good enough for her, he reminded himself and he’d never hated himself more than at that moment. He was the bastard son of a whore and completely incapable of being what she needed him to be. He didn’t trust himself not to hurt her. How could he?

  What the hell did he know about making a woman happy? He had absolutely no idea how to make a woman happy in the long term or to even make a relationship work. Growing up the way he did he saw the “happily married” men around town one day with their wives and kids and the next zipping up as they left the bedrooms of his mother and “aunts.”

  The only decent relationships that he’d seen over the years was Rick and his wife and of course Edward and Dana and there was no way in hell that he was going to kid himself and say that he could have a relationship like those two. Even after five years it was more than obvious that the two of them were more in love now than when they first got married.

  He knew from the times that he went with Edward to catch a game or grab a drink that the man wasn’t playing around. He wouldn’t so much as look at another woman and whenever someone mentioned Dana his expression said it all. There would never be another woman for him but Dana. Dana would never have to worry about Edward coming home late or smelling like another woman, which was good because if he ever hurt her, Nick would beat the shit out of him.

  Jamie deserved to have a man like Edward by her side and as much as it pained him to admit this, he wasn’t that man. He couldn’t trust himself not to revert to his old ways when things got tough or he got bored. It would kill him to hurt her so he wasn’t even going to try. He’d let things die out between them and the moment it did he would step back, wish her luck and move on.

  Shoving away the rather depressing thoughts he took a quick shower. Twenty minutes later he was stepping out of the bathroom, wrapping a towel around his waist when something on the floor in front of the door caught his eye. He didn’t give the large white envelope much thought as he picked it up, figuring that it was just promotional paperwork one of the venders had the front desk slip under his door.

  When he turned the envelope over he felt his heart drop in his stomach.

  YOU CAN’T HIDE

  The words were written in big bold black letters and he didn’t need to open it to know who it was for. Cursing under his breath, he quickly pulled on a pair of pants, grabbed his key card and left the room, ready to kill someone. When he didn’t find anyone in the hallway he ran and checked the stairwell at the end of each side of the building, hoping to find someone lurking in the shadows, but he didn’t.

  The son of a bitch hell-bent on tormenting his little recluse had been close, too damn close and he hadn’t been able to do a damn thing to keep the sick bastard away. Realizing that he’d left his little recluse all alone when the sick fuck was nearby had him rushing back to his room.

  Once inside he had to make sure that she was okay. Once he saw her curled up on her side, fast asleep he pulled the covers up over her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her cheek. He watched her for another minute before he grabbed his cell phone, double checked the lock on the door and shut himself in the bathroom.

  Praying that it was just a coincidence and some kid’s sick idea of a joke he carefully opened the envelope, trying not to fuck up any evidence just in case he needed to call the police.

  What he found inside had him reaching for his phone and making that call.

  ******

  “I don’t care who you are you’re not watching those DVD’s without my presence!” Jamie snapped, surprising the heck out of herself and judging by the curious look Nick shot her, him as well.

  For over two hours she’d waited patiently in an interrogation room while Nick paced like a caged animal. The only thing they were told when they were shown into the room was that they needed to make some calls and call the police department back home to look into their story. Being forced to wait after reading and re-reading that letter had been one of the worst exp
eriences of her life.

  Even in this decent sized office she couldn’t’ shake the feeling that someone was watching her. When she’d opened the death threats the other day at the office she consoled herself with the fact that this happened to a lot of people in the spotlight and that it was no big deal. The truth was she’d been too freaked out to actually give it the proper attention it deserved. She’d hoped that if she ignored it that it would go away. She’d been wrong. Not only had it not gone away but it had followed her to Texas.

  “Miss. Harris, perhaps it would be best if you allowed us to view the video first,” Detective Mathers, a middle aged man with a friendly smile, said gently.

  As much as she would love to leave and pretend that this never happened, she couldn’t. She took a steadying breath as she shook her head. “No, I’m staying. I want to know what’s on those discs,” she said firmly.

  Nick’s hand tightened around hers as he said, “I’m staying as well.”

  With a resigned sigh, the detective picked up the disc marked, “Jamie Harris the whore” and placed it into the computer drive. He typed something and seconds later an image of the pool from the hotel popped up on the flat screen television mounted on the wall in front of them. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched Nick storm into the picture with her over his shoulder.

  “Oh no,” she mumbled weakly.

  “Stop the movie,” Nick demanded, getting to his feet, but thankfully keeping hold of her hand.

  “Is there a problem, Mr. Quinn?” Detective Mathers asked as he paused the movie.

  Nick gestured to other three men and the woman in the office. “I really think it would be best at the moment if we cleared the room for this.”

  “That’s fine, Mr. Quinn, but please realize that this video may have to be viewed by other officers at a later time,” the detective explained as he gestured for the officers to leave the room.

  “That’s fine, but I don’t think they need to be here this time,” Nick said with a nod of thanks as he sat back down and put his arm around her.

  Once the door was shut the movie began to play again.

  “Why are we down here?” the recorded version of her asked as Nick double checked the lock.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” Nick asked as he moved towards the pool and she felt the air in her lungs freeze as the camera moved with the action.

  Someone had been in the pool room with them last night. Thanks to the dimly lit area, changing rooms and equipment there apparently had been plenty of places to hide.

  “Nothing’s wrong!”

  “Do you by chance have your cell phone on you at the moment?” Nick asked as he walked towards the deep end of the pool.

  “No, why?” she asked, sounding confused.

  “No special reason,” he said before he tossed her into the pool.

  Knowing exactly what was coming, Jamie dropped her face into her hands and listened as the entire event that occurred in the pool area played out.

  When it was done she almost fell out of her chair in relief. That is until Nick practically jumped to his feet and started flipping out. Wondering what had him mad, well besides the obvious, she looked up and nearly cried as she read the words on the screen.

  You’ll be dead within the month, but before that happens I thought the world should know that the famous J.L. Lewis is nothing but a whore.

  By 10:00 AM this video and the lovely audio I recorded of your bedroom activities will have already hit the internet.

  Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame, Bitch.

  “Play the audio tape,” Nick said tightly as he reached out and pulled her into his arms.

  Without a word the detective carefully switched out the DVD and within seconds an audio recording of what happened once they reached their room last night began to play.

  “You’re not tired, huh?” Nick’s voice asked teasingly.

  “Not for you, Nick,” she heard herself answer in a husky voice that surprised her.

  “What if I told you that I wanted to finish what we started this morning, hmm? Would you get back on your hands and knees for me, Jamie?”

  When Nick’s deep chuckle echoed throughout the office she squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her face against Nick’s chest, dreading what came next.

  “That easy, huh? Tell me, baby, are you wet for me?”

  “Why don’t you come check?”

  “Any way we can skip to the end to see if whoever the hell did this left another message?” Nick suddenly asked, thankfully cutting off what came next.

  A moment of silence followed before the sound of grunting and cries of pleasure echoed throughout the room. She felt her cheeks burn as it played out.

  Once it was done she nearly sagged with relief. It didn’t take long before she realized that there was no message.

  “Can we check to see if they’ve been released online yet?” Nick asked, giving her a comforting squeeze.

  “Sure,” she heard the Detective say, but refused to leave the safety of Nick’s chest and face the man. That would pretty much be impossible now that he’d watched a video of her having sex.

  “Son of a bitch,” Nick bit out.

  “It’s on the internet, isn’t it?” she asked, biting her bottom lip anxiously.

  “Yes.”

  A video and audio file of her having sex with Nick was now on the internet.

  People all over the world could watch and listen to her having sex and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She knew the police could try and have the files pulled off, but they’d just pop up somewhere else. Worst yet, whoever did this had followed through with the threat, which meant that they probably had every intention of following through with the second threat.

  Within a month someone was going to try to kill her, she realized with something close to panic. The thought absolutely terrified her, but surprisingly she wasn’t worried about herself, she realized. She was worried about Nick. If he was around he could get caught in the crossfire and she didn’t want to see him hurt. It would destroy her if anything happened to him because of her.

  She wanted him safe and the only way to guarantee that was to keep as far away from him as possible. There was only one way she knew how to do that and it would have the added benefit of taking her out of the limelight and giving her a chance to figure out who she’d upset so much that they were willing to kill her over it.

  “Nick?” she said, pulling back just far enough to look up at him.

  “Yes?” he said, looking down at her with so much tenderness that she almost cried.

  “I’m done with the tour,” she announced, knowing that it meant they were over, but not caring one bit. Well, she did, but she was more concerned about getting him to safety and that meant taking away every reason he had for being near her.

  “That goes without saying, Jamie,” he said on a sigh as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to forehead as she tried to hold back her hurt feelings.

  That was it? Seriously? After all they went through he was going to let her walk away that easily? Then again there did appear to be a psycho on her tail so maybe it was for the best that he was giving her up so easily.

  Knowing that it was for the best she didn’t argue with him. She decided to hold back the tears until she got to her new place and could drown her sorrows in chocolate. As long as Nick was safe she could handle anything, even having her heart broken by the big jerk.

  Chapter 27

  “Are you still ignoring me?” he asked, throwing Jamie a sideways glance as he pulled to a stop at a four-way intersection.

  “I’m not ignoring you, Nick. I’m just trying to get this file edited before tomorrow,” she said, not bothering to look up from the computer balanced on her knees. Her words and tone were polite, but they felt all wrong. He might be new to relationships, but it didn’t exactly take a genius to figure out what was wrong with his little recluse.

  She was pissed and for good reason. He’d screw
ed up and hadn’t protected her. Now thanks to him someone managed to invade a very private moment and make it public. As he pulled onto his street he idly wondered how Edward handled it after it happened to him and Dana. If anyone knew how to handle a bullshit situation like this it would be Edward and Dana.

  “Okay, do you want to grab some food?” he asked, slowing down before he reached his house.

  “If it’s okay with you I’d rather just call it a night and get settled in,” she said, not bothering to look up from her computer.

  “That’s fine,” he said, deciding that they’d just order in tonight. Tomorrow he’d have plenty of time to go food shopping since he most likely just lost his job today.

  It was one thing to have a discrete relationship with one of his clients, but quite another to get caught having sex with her and have the video plastered all over the internet. Of course there