Obviously he couldn’t walk away completely. There were no other bathrooms available. The poor man was stuck in line with her. Even she felt bad for him. Why couldn’t”Is that your husband?” he asked, still holding her hand she’d like to point out, as he nodded towards Nick who was now scowling at his computer.

She laughed. She really couldn’t help it. The very idea of Nick Quinn being interested in her never mind married to her was truly laughable.

“You have a very pretty laugh,” Sean said, giving her a boyish grin.

Jamie took her hand back and pushed an errant strand of hair back behind her ear. “Thank you.”

“So, I take it he’s not your husband,” he concluded, sounding pleased.

She was about to tell him that Nick was her editor, but didn’t mostly because she still wasn’t comfortable letting people know who she was. So instead she said, “We work together.”

“Ah, I see,” Sean said, leaning in closely, but not too close to make her feel uncomfortable. “Is this your first time going to Boston?” he murmured in a rather sexy tone.

Jamie couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, I’ve been meaning to go for years, but never had a chance,” she said, thinking she also never had anyone to go with or any reason to go. She had friends, but no one she really wanted to take an adventure with. Her eyes darted to Nick. She didn’t really want to do this with him, but he was giving her a good reason to try new things. Also, having him around made her feel a little safer and a little more confident to take a chance.

“There are a lot of new experiences to be had,” Sean said as if he could read her mind. “In fact,” he said leaning closer, “those experiences can start right now, if you want. There’s nothing stopping you from doing whatever you want.”

She was just about to open her mouth and ask what sort of new experiences could be had on an airplane when the bathroom door opened. Jamie was barely aware of the middle age man smiling sheepishly as he stepped past them. Her mind was suddenly racing with ideas.

“Excuse me,” she said absently as she stepped around Sean. “It was nice to meet you. Um, it’s all yours,” she said, gesturing awkwardly to the bathroom.

He simply shrugged. “I didn’t really have to use it. I just wanted an excuse to meet you.”

“Thank you,” she murmured shyly as she practically raced back to her seat, eager to start working on a list while crazy ideas raced through her head. Could she really do this? she wondered.

There was only one way to find out, she thought as she quickly, but carefully, moved past Nick to get back to her seat. She sat down, looked at Nick, fidgeted and fidgeted some more as he typed. Finally he let out an annoyed sigh.

“What is it?” he asked irritably.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a piece of paper and a pen handy, would you?”

she asked quietly. She really did not like the idea of putting this down on paper, mostly because it was private, but there was also her little tendency to lose things.

He sighed long and loud. “Do you need to work?”

She opened her mouth to tell him no, but then reconsidered it. “Yes, yes I have to work,” she lied.

“Fine,” he said, saving his work before passing over the laptop. “There’s a folder on the desktop with your name on it. I’d appreciate it if you kept everything you worked on in there.”

That would definitely make this easier, she thought as she shifted in her seat so he couldn’t see the screen. She opened a new word document and quickly titled it, “Things to Try List.”

******

Nick barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes as the little recluse shifted in her seat so he couldn’t see what she was working on. As long as she worked he really didn’t care and judging by her focused expression and fingers tapping away at a rather impressive pace she was no doubt working on her next book.

A new book would be the perfect finishing touch to this little tour. Granted it would probably start a whole new tour, preferably a European tour, but he would deal with it. He thought about asking her what her new book was about, but decided that he’d ask in a couple of weeks. Right now he didn’t need to add plans to market a new book into his already hectic schedule.

In a few weeks when everything settled down and his little recluse was firmly under his thumb he’d start working on her new book with her. He knew getting her to do things his way was going to take some time, not much considering how easily she folded under a simple glare, but it was still something that needed to be done and quickly.

There was too much to do and not very much time to do it in to let the little recluse have much of a say if any. He needed to be able to make last minute decisions that would benefit them both and he didn’t have time to hold her hand through every issue. It would just make it a lot easier, for him, if she left everything to him. All she needed to do was work, edit if it made her feel important, and show up and smile when and where he told her to, which he thought with a content sigh, wasn’t going to be an issue.

Four hours later he knew he had her exactly where he wanted her. From here on out there weren’t going to be any problems. She accepted his word as law, which she should. In fact, if all women listened to him as well as his little recluse did his world would be perfect.

He watched as she looked around the hotel foyer nervously. When her eyes landed on the Gold Ballroom’s bulletin board announcing the romance writer’s convention the following day with a special appearance by J.L. Lewis he had to bite back a smile. The blush and look of surprise on her face was actually kind of cute, but it also let him know one very important thing.

Jamie was easily intimidated.

This was going to be so f**king easy. All he had to do was give her a little nudge every now and then, sprout bullshit in her ear and he’d have her doing everything he wanted.

******

“Where the hell are you?” Nick bit out harshly.

“Out,” Jamie said, nibbling her bottom lip as she looked around.

“Where?”

Good question.

She looked down at the complimentary map she’d picked up in the hotel lobby before she started this little adventure and frowned. Why did they have to make everything so tiny? Because the map was the size of a brochure, she thought with a sigh.

“Well?”

“I’m out.”

“You’re out?” he asked tightly.

“You said you wouldn’t need me until tomorrow morning so I decided to walk around and grab a bite to eat,” she said, turning the map slightly to the side and frowned. Was that little brown spot the symbol for a restroom or an ATM? Not that it mattered since all she wanted to do was go to the Museum of Science.

Visiting a museum probably didn’t seem like a big deal and it wasn’t. But she decided to break into the whole “Try new things” agenda slowly. Besides she was only killing time until tonight. Tonight she was going to go to her very first nightclub and she was pretty excited about it.

She’d never been to one. Not even when she was in college. The closest she’d ever come was a sixth grade dance that Tommy Perkins invited her to as a dare.

She’d learned that fact after he grudgingly danced one slow dance with her and his friends started laughing their butts off at him. It had been a memorable moment indeed.

But that was in the past and had no bearing on her life now. Although she was really nervous, she was also pretty excited. She’d always wanted to try something like this, but could never find the courage. Now that she was on this trip she was going to force herself to try new things. By the time this was over she hoped that the old Jamie was good and buried and that she liked the new Jamie.

A loud sigh broke into her thoughts. “Fine. Just head back to the hotel now so that we can go over some things and I hope you ate because it’s probably going to be a long night.”

Her shoulders slumped as she opened her mouth to tell him that she’d be there soon, but something stopped her. She didn’t know what it was, but it gave her a moment’s pause. Yes, this was supposed to be a working trip, but he’d said that she wasn’t needed until morning so she’d made plans. He really couldn’t expect her to drop everything at a moment’s notice to accommodate him, could he?