Under their guidance and direction she bought everything from shoes to simple lingerie. Her bedroom and half her small living room were now filled with shopping bags. An excited smile tugged at her lips at the thought of going through everything and playing dress up.

She felt like such a girl today! It was exciting and scary and she couldn’t wait to get started!

“Miss. Harris, please hold while I transfer your call to Mr. Quinn,” Jennifer suddenly announced, breaking through the Christmas morning-like euphoria Jamie had going on.

“Ah, that’s not really necessary!” Jamie hurried to say, but it was already too late. As the last word flew out of her mouth she heard the audible click of the phone being switched to a different line.

“Good morning, Miss. Harris,” Nick said smoothly. “I hear you’re not feeling well this morning.”

“I…ah, that is…I’m…..,” she rambled on nervously.

“You’re planning on working at home today I gather.”

“Yes,” she answered quickly. Then she remembered that she was supposed to be sick and cleared her throat and tried to make her throat sound all scratchy-like, “Yes.”

“You don’t sound too good.”

Relieved that he was buying it, she relaxed a little. “Yeah, I think I just need a day or two to recover. I should be fine in a few days, but in the meantime I’ll just have to work here.” She added a little sigh at the end to make it sound like she wasn’t entirely happy with the idea of skipping the office for a few days.

“I see,” he said.

“So, I’ll see you in a few days?” It came out more of a question than she planned. She really needed to work on being firm. No wonder people walked all over her, she thought, disgusted with herself. Well, she’d fix that later today with a trip to the book store. She was going to buy every self-help book there was on being more affirmative.

“Hmm, perhaps I should stop by and see how you are. I could bring you something to eat and perhaps some tea for that sore throat of yours and we could go over a few things,” he offered.

He wanted to come here? Oh no, no, no, no, that couldn’t happen. Today was her fun day. Today she was going relax and be girly. She couldn’t do that with him here! Plus she didn’t want him to burst her bubble.

Right now she felt pretty and womanly. If he looked at her and still saw the same old Jamie it would break her. She liked this new Jamie. She wanted, no, needed to be this Jamie.

“T-that’s okay. I don’t want you to get sick.”

“Oh, but I don’t mind. Why don’t I swing by?”

“Er……”

“I can be there in ten minutes. I can see how you are and we can get some work done,” he said.

“Well, I-“

She was cut off by the beautiful sound of someone knocking at her door.

Thank god for annoying neighbors. No doubt Mrs. Brigs wanted to tell her to turn down the television that wasn’t on or it was Mr. Ames accusing her of stealing his mail, again. Heck, even the landlord informing her of a rent hike would be more than welcome at this moment.

“I have to go. Someone’s at the door. So, I’ll just see you at the office in a few days. Bye,” she said quickly, not giving him a chance to respond, knowing he would just find some way to come by.

She tossed her phone onto the couch as she made her way to the front door.

At least she bought herself two more days before she had to listen to Nick Quinn tear into her again, she thought as she opened the door.

A small whimper escaped her as she came face to chest with Nick Quinn. Oh, this was so not good.

******

Nick didn’t even bother looking at the little recluse as he swiftly backed her up. He had more important things to do like get inside her apartment so he could assess the damage and see what needed to be done in order to make this work for him.

Once he backed her into her apartment far enough he shifted her away, she may have stumbled, he wasn’t really sure or cared at the moment, and turned to shut and lock the door. Satisfied that he had her where he wanted her, he placed the new laptop on the table by the door and let out a relieved sigh.

Admittedly last night he’d been a little pissed that the little recluse wouldn’t let him inside so he could do some damage control, but he went home and regrouped. He went through the itinerary he’d worked his ass off yesterday to set up and added a few things, deciding that he could in fact be generous and allow the little recluse a few hours to console herself after her failed makeover, but that time was over.

He turned around to get his first glimpse of the made over little hermit and frowned. Where the hell had she gone now? He swore under his breath as he scanned the small organized living room and didn’t find her.

“Miss. Harris?” he called out. He stepped past the couch and a half dozen shopping bags and quickly scanned the adjoining kitchen. Nope. No little recluse there.

He wasn’t too surprised when she didn’t answer. No doubt she thought he’d eventually get bored and go away. Not a chance in hell of that happening, he thought as he looked at his watch. They needed to go over a few things, pack, get to a photo shoot, pray for a miracle, go to Cole’s game and then catch a flight to Boston. This was his chance to make his mark and he wasn’t about to f**k it up.

“I’m not going anywhere, Miss. Harris. The sooner you get out here the sooner we can get to work,” he announced as he put his hands on his h*ps in an effort to keep himself from tearing the little apartment to shreds to find her.

Shaking his head in disgust, he walked back to the door and grabbed the laptop. He was pretty sure Rick never had to go through this much bullshit for Dana. The reason for that was pretty simple, Dana had been motivated to get out there and ignore her doubts and fears.

She’d been trapped in a loveless marriage with a worthless piece of shit that cared more for his computer and girlfriend than he had for his family. Writing had been Dana’s only means of escape and she’d worked her ass off day and night to perfect her craft and it had paid off not only for her, but for Rerum Publishing and definitely for Rick.

Nick wanted what Rick had. He wanted to be a leader in the industry and most importantly he wanted to leave his mark on the world and Miss. Harris was the key. If he couldn’t get her to cooperate and get in line with his plans he would be good and f**ked. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d be switched to another editor if he couldn’t pull this off quickly. His bosses were practically drooling at the idea of having another author of Dana Pierce’s caliber and they wouldn’t tolerate mistakes.

With that in mind he knew that he had to entice the little recluse into doing what he wanted. He sat down and removed the new laptop from the bag. As it powered up he looked around the small room. Beyond the basics like furniture, a small television and a computer there really wasn’t anything special about this room.

The only wall decoration was a framed diploma. Other than that there were no pictures of friends or family. No knick knacks or keepsakes to be found. Now that he really took the time to look around the only area of the room that looked lived in was the computer area. While the rest of the room was spotless and bare, her desk was not. It was piled high with papers, probably manuscripts, books, candy bar wrappers, a jar of hard candies and a very old mouse pad.

Realization hit and he knew how he was going to get what he wanted. This little recluse was truly that, a recluse. She was a young woman with no life or experience outside of her books or computer.

That’s why she’d sold her successful internet company and taken a job when she didn’t need one. This little recluse wanted to experience life, to make changes and take chances. All he had to do was offer her those opportunities and he’d own her ass.

He placed the computer on her bare coffee table and opened up the document he’d been working on only an hour ago.

“Miss. Harris,” he said, trying to sound casual, “I’d like to apologize for upsetting you. I realize that this is all a bit sudden and overwhelming for you. I believe Rick made a mistake in assigning me to you.” He ignored the snort of agreement that came from somewhere in the vicinity of the tan door, probably the bathroom, and continued.