A Reclusive Heart
Page 17
“Getting comfortable in our seat. Why?” he 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 didn’t expect 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 him.
Ignoring him and how good Jamie felt in his arms he 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 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 had sex with 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 to the bed 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 a little pissed and irritated 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 f**ked them. There was no future with him and he made damn sure that 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,” she 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 paperwork. “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?” he asked, still reading.
To watch p**n , she almost blurted out but somehow held it back. Tonight for the first time ever she was going to watch p**n . She’d never seen it before, always avoided it, but tonight she was going to watch one and take notes. Admittedly she was curious.
It wasn’t as though she was completely oblivious to the act. She read romance novels and saw 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 real act, 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. It was her business.
Granted she’d didn’t necessarily need to shell out a lot of money to watch a p**n , but she didn’t want to use Nick’s computer in case it left evidence behind and she sure as heck 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 a movie.
“I’ll take you after this,” he 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 so he could do that. Then another thought occurred to her, one that made her curious, could men get cranky if they went 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,” he said, looking up long enough to send her a frown.
“Oh, okay. Thanks,” she 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.
******
“Nick!”
He looked up from his computer and nearly groaned. A half hour ago he realized that someone f**ked up and double booked them next week and he’d been trying to figure out how to fix it. He’d just come up with a solution that would work for everyone, meaning him, when the banging started.
Shouldn’t she be off working? he 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 spent setting her new computer up, but maybe he missed something.
“Nick!” she yelled again.
“What?” he demanded as he opened the door to find the little recluse hugging her laptop tightly to her chest and looking close to tears.
“I broke my computer.”
“Did you drop it?” he asked, already taking the computer from her hands to inspect it.
“No,” she muttered, sounding 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?” he asked, already having a pretty good idea that she’d downloaded a virus.
“Research,” she mumbled pathetically.
“What?” he 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 opened and ran the anti-malware program he’d installed only hours ago.
“I said I was watching sex for research,” she said, shocking the living hell out of him.
“You were watching p**n ?” he snapped. “What the hell kind of research requires you to watch p**n ?” he demanded as he stood up and walked over to his computer, half afraid that she’d done something to his computer.
“That’s personal,” she 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 spotted a peculiar file in her folder and at the time hadn’t thought much about it, but now he did. 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 asked, sounding nervous and for good reason.
Holy shit, was she serious? He looked over the list again as dread shot through him. Yes, she was. She’d made a list, started to do the items on the list and was curious. He’d bet everything he had that brown bag she’d hugged to her chest this morning hadn’t been tampons. His damn recluse had bought condoms and was now watching p**n .
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 taken it one step further. His little recluse was getting ready to start a little sex revolution.
For a moment he wondered how she 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 trusting him not to hurt.
She shifted again, but didn’t say anything and neither did the guy next to him. He really didn’t expect 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 him.
Ignoring him and how good Jamie felt in his arms he 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 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 had sex with 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 to the bed 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 a little pissed and irritated 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 f**ked them. There was no future with him and he made damn sure that 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,” she 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 paperwork. “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?” he asked, still reading.
To watch p**n , she almost blurted out but somehow held it back. Tonight for the first time ever she was going to watch p**n . She’d never seen it before, always avoided it, but tonight she was going to watch one and take notes. Admittedly she was curious.
It wasn’t as though she was completely oblivious to the act. She read romance novels and saw 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 real act, 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. It was her business.
Granted she’d didn’t necessarily need to shell out a lot of money to watch a p**n , but she didn’t want to use Nick’s computer in case it left evidence behind and she sure as heck 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 a movie.
“I’ll take you after this,” he 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 so he could do that. Then another thought occurred to her, one that made her curious, could men get cranky if they went 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,” he said, looking up long enough to send her a frown.
“Oh, okay. Thanks,” she 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.
******
“Nick!”
He looked up from his computer and nearly groaned. A half hour ago he realized that someone f**ked up and double booked them next week and he’d been trying to figure out how to fix it. He’d just come up with a solution that would work for everyone, meaning him, when the banging started.
Shouldn’t she be off working? he 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 spent setting her new computer up, but maybe he missed something.
“Nick!” she yelled again.
“What?” he demanded as he opened the door to find the little recluse hugging her laptop tightly to her chest and looking close to tears.
“I broke my computer.”
“Did you drop it?” he asked, already taking the computer from her hands to inspect it.
“No,” she muttered, sounding 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?” he asked, already having a pretty good idea that she’d downloaded a virus.
“Research,” she mumbled pathetically.
“What?” he 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 opened and ran the anti-malware program he’d installed only hours ago.
“I said I was watching sex for research,” she said, shocking the living hell out of him.
“You were watching p**n ?” he snapped. “What the hell kind of research requires you to watch p**n ?” he demanded as he stood up and walked over to his computer, half afraid that she’d done something to his computer.
“That’s personal,” she 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 spotted a peculiar file in her folder and at the time hadn’t thought much about it, but now he did. 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 asked, sounding nervous and for good reason.
Holy shit, was she serious? He looked over the list again as dread shot through him. Yes, she was. She’d made a list, started to do the items on the list and was curious. He’d bet everything he had that brown bag she’d hugged to her chest this morning hadn’t been tampons. His damn recluse had bought condoms and was now watching p**n .
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 taken it one step further. His little recluse was getting ready to start a little sex revolution.
For a moment he wondered how she 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 trusting him not to hurt.
