Her Fictional Fling: Scandals in Scotland Contemporary Romance Series Book 1 (7 page)

Cheers,

Colin

Where to begin? Andi’s website listed Lily as her agent, so she guessed that he’d contacted Lily, and she could bet her best friend had been all too pleased to pass along her email address.

Andi sighed.

Lily was just trying to help out. She knew as well as Andi that it wasn’t just her busy writing schedule keeping her off the dating scene. Lily probably figured Andi just needed a little push in the right direction, and the woman wasn’t totally wrong. Plus, he’d found her lucky thumb drive. Even though she saved all her manuscripts to a digital cloud she didn’t one-hundred-percent trust, the stupid pink plastic brought her comfort, and she wanted it back. She didn’t take any risks concerning her career—it was the key to providing for her mom and staying out of a life she didn’t want to go back to—and so far she’d saved all of her completed manuscripts onto the thing.

She read the email over again, three—okay, maybe ten—times, searching for clues between the lines of Colin’s words. She finally decided that he didn’t have any ulterior motive. He was perfectly forward with his intentions. They’d briefly discussed the benefits of a short-term-fling, but that still didn’t quite explain why he wanted it
with her
.

She thought several times about simply deleting the email. If he was any other normal guy, his arrogance alone, the nerve at his assumption she’d show up at eleven, regardless of any other plans she might have, was enough to put her off. But then she would never know why a famous actor had taken a sudden, unexplained interest in her. The only way to know for sure whether or not she could trust Colin was to agree to meet with him.

She paced back to the coffee maker, poured herself a second cup, adding ample amounts of sugar, and returned to the laptop. She wiggled her mouse to wake up the screen, and before she could think about it any further, opened a search engine in her browser.

Colin Walker,
she typed, and a million hits covered her screen.

The usual celebrity stuff, mostly: links to magazine articles, images of Colin jogging, getting coffee or groceries, gracing the red carpet at various movie premieres, the same gorgeous, polished woman on his arm in most of the photos—a woman who looked like the complete opposite of Andi. Fascinating how obsessive people were when it came to the rich and famous. Andi couldn’t imagine anyone ever caring about her running errands, and she liked it that way. She had no desire to live her life under a magnifying glass.

Skimming a few of the top articles, Andi gleaned vague information about a recent breakup and some other random mumbo jumbo, none of which really interested her. She wasn’t invested in what the media had to say about Colin; she could decide for herself whether or not he was worth spending a little time with.

Andi closed the search window and checked her email one more time, refusing to spend the rest of her morning staring at photos of that damned, sexy-as-hell Viking.

She did have work to do, after all, and the producer had paid for a full week in the glorious hotel she now occupied. Plus, she had an hour and a half before she needed to meet Colin, and she wasn’t about to spend it all fussing over her looks. Might as well make use of the uninterrupted quiet, and the pretty polished laminate desk that shone, uncluttered, in sharp contrast to the messy one at home in the dining room she used as an office.

Despite her decision not to spend more valuable time snooping into Colin’s life, the urge to do so was shamefully difficult to resist, so she picked up the laptop and shoved it into her tote. After a quick shower and change of clothes, she left the room to head down to the hotel’s coffee shop for another cup, this time with real cream. She was going to need it.

When it was time to leave for the set, Andi walked to the hotel lobby and found a driver and car waiting for her. She was glad for the scenery on the drive over, and the time to think about the story she was working on. Trying to work on, anyway. She’d been able to pound out a decent chunk of words after her second and far superior cup of coffee that morning, though there was a good chance she’d end up deleting every last one of them later, once she’d had a chance to read over the dreck she’d written.

“Just up ahead, lass,” the driver tossed over his shoulder in the thick Scottish brogue Andi loved. Hearing Colin’s flawless version of the accent the night before, reciting dialogue from her own story after they got back to his condo, had given her a thrill like no other. She hated to admit it, but she’d do just about anything to hear it again. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to spend the afternoon with him. Besides, she was only in the country for a week. Whatever happened during that time, she’d just file away as “research” and go back to her normal life in the U.S.

Back to her normal, mundane life.

As she pressed her forehead against the cool window to admire the rich green landscape and the gray clouds above, a deep sense of emptiness flooded through her.

The feelings Colin stirred up in her may have been unwelcome at first, and sure, they scared the living daylights out of her, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that they’d also awakened pieces of her she’d locked away in darkness since she had last been with Jared. And, unlike when Jared had touched her, Colin had a gentleness and a way of handling her that made her feel…incredibly aroused, yes, but also…safe. His exterior persona hid that tender side of him from the world, but he’d let her see it. Whether it was his intention or not, he had let her in, and what she’d perceived of him was so different from what the tabloids portrayed that she began to second-guess everything she’d read about him during her online search. Not that she believed all of that stuff to begin with, but it was easy to see he’d had his share of women, like any other young playboy actor. She supposed his well-documented behavior before he’d met his ex-fiancée was normal for a guy in his position, and she didn’t judge him for it, but it didn’t suit her, either.

She believed in true love, in faithfulness and loyalty and sacrifice—all the things that saturated the romance in her novels.

Despite her awareness that life wasn’t a romance novel, Andi truly believed that every woman deserved those things from a worthy man.

Jared had given her every material thing she could ever want, even as he gradually but surely removed everything intangible that mattered to her. Their time in bed had been anything but special, but Jared made sure Andi knew that it was her fault, and blamed it on her lack of experience. The blame had sunk in and eaten away at her until sex with him had become something to be endured while she made up grocery lists and stories in her head.

But what about passion?

Was it possible to have all of the things she valued in a man, as well as passion?

Or was that fantasy, reserved for the characters in her books? If she was to continue writing, to continue giving her readers something to hope for, she needed to know; and Colin was a convenient way for her to find out.

“Here we are, my dear,” the driver called out loudly, causing Andi to jump. She’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts she must have missed a good portion of the ride to the set.

He grinned at her in the mirror. “Sorry miss,” he said before opening his door and coming around to get hers. He held out his elbow so she could lift herself over the muddy ground.

“Little soggy, I’m afraid. The land’s beautiful because of it, but the rain’s steady here. Mind your step, lass.”

Andi did a small jump over a muddy hole in the ground onto the closest thing she could find to dry grass. Once she had her footing, the driver released her arm, nodded at her, and headed back to his car to resume his normal duties.

As soon as he left her side, Andi looked out over the landscape and the view made her catch her breath. She’d seen pictures of the Scottish countryside before, and had used them, combined with descriptions from her collection of research books, to build the settings for her stories, but none of them did justice to what spread out before her in that moment.

Across endless rolling hills of the richest green she’d ever laid eyes on, she could see miles of gray ocean, blending almost seamlessly with the sky above. And the air was so clean, so sharply unlike the city stuff she was used to sucking down day after day in Dallas, that it almost stung as its pure crispness passed through her lungs.

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” said a deep voice behind her.

“Holy crap,” she shouted, stumbling backward before catching herself, thankful she didn’t land ass-down in the mud. “You scared the crap out of me.”

Colin came around to stand before her, smiling, his white teeth shining against the bronze hue of his skin, which appeared to have been artificially enhanced since the night before.

“Either you spent last night fake baking after I left, or someone sprayed you down with some very potent stuff.”

They both glanced down at his arms and legs and then back up at each other.

Colin grinned, probably at the appreciative stare down Andi had given his body. “You don’t seem to hate it,” he said, crossing his arms.

“Well, I—”Andi shrugged her shoulders and held out a palm, buying time to work through the knots in her tongue”—It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen.” Her mouth formed a tight line and Colin surveyed her, bringing back images of the night before. She felt warmth, deep in her belly, at the memory of his ridiculously hot naked form. Millions of women would give their life savings for the evening she’d had, even without sex.

His eyes turned serious. “I’m glad you came today. I thought maybe you wouldn’t.”

Andi looked down at her favorite purple boots, now coated in a thick layer of sodden dirt. She blinked up at Colin. “I can’t exactly ignore that flash drive that you found,” she said, both of them well aware that it wasn’t the reason she’d agreed to his request to meet again. “Every book I’ve ever written is on there.”

He leaned in close to her face, hands behind his back. She could smell his cologne, fresh rather than overpowering like a lot of men’s, mixed with the soap he’d smoothed over her body in the shower at his condo, and the chalky scent of theater makeup and bronzer. Her mouth went dry and she held her breath, eagerly anticipating whatever sexy comment he was about to make that would surely turn her legs to jelly once more.

“You know, Gorgeous,” he whispered in that delicious British accent, his soft breath curling around her ear, “they have these things called clouds now.” Colin leaned back without touching her, a satisfied smirk on his face. “Much more reliable for backing up your documents.”

Andi swallowed and narrowed her eyes, pulling herself out of the moment she’d so misjudged. “I know about clouds,” she said, annoyed with herself for being unable to hide the slightly pouty tone in her voice. “I just prefer something I can hold in my hands. Makes me feel much more secure. I have difficulty trusting things I can’t touch.”

“Really,” he said, leaning in again, this time softly brushing his lips against her cheek. “I do believe I’ll keep that in mind.”

After a few moments, Colin finally stopped teasing her enough to introduce Andi to the producer; she’d meant to say hello and give her heartfelt thanks for the trip and the weeklong stay in a lush hotel at the cast party the night before, until everything had taken a fast train straight to hell. Andi had never had any desire to be involved in the screenplay or the filming of her story, but she’d lucked out with a producer who understood her book and promised to portray it well. The producer had graciously offered Andi a read-through of the script, which she’d loved and enthusiastically approved, and since then they’d shared a very casual email relationship until the woman had invited Andi to come take a look at the set. Since it was the last week of filming, the cast and crew were in good spirits, relaxed, goofing off, and taking it easy, and Colin only had to work a few hours to reshoot a couple of scenes where the editor had located errors.

While Colin wrapped up, Andi had a chance to screen a few clips of the movie, and seeing him bring her fictional hero, Bjorn, to life, was an experience she wouldn’t soon forget. Onscreen, Colin gave a dead-on performance of the Viking who’d searched most of his adult life for the girl he’d loved as a child and lost, and it gave Andi chills to see him holding the actress who played Astrid, so close to his body. The passionate portrayal he gave while the camera rolled was, as far as Andi could tell, not very different from the lust she’d seen in his eyes the evening before.

Her gut clenched tight. She knew he only wanted a casual, sex-only relationship with her, and it was guaranteed by their circumstances to be short-lived, but what if even that was an act? What if—when he held her again, when she tried once more to release hold of her body and let him take over—it was all a game?

“Alright, Writer,” Colin said, joining her near a group of cameramen at the edge of the area used for a set. “I can’t take another minute of your mingling. Let’s get the hell out of here for the afternoon, shall we? Do some sightseeing? What do you think, Andi?” He set a hand on her elbow, tugging her gently to his side.

Andi happened to glance at the actress playing Astrid. What was with the stink eye? Andi smiled at the woman, who quickly looked away. A strange twinge of something she couldn’t put her finger on swept through Andi’s veins.
I invented you,
she thought silently
, don’t get sassy on me.
She looped her arm through the gorgeous man beside her and set her other hand on his forearm, putting the bitchy glare she’d just received out of her mind.

“Where to?” she asked, setting her shoulders back as she looked up at Colin.

“That, I can’t tell you,” he said. “You’ll just have to trust me.”

Right. When royalties grow on trees.

“Alright,” she said, “But first, hand over the flash drive.”

Colin smiled and reached down to fish the small pink piece of plastic out of his pocket. He dropped it into her open palm, closing his large hand over hers, the heat from his skin seeping into her own. Maybe, just maybe, her lucky charm would work for her once more.