Her Fictional Fling: Scandals in Scotland Contemporary Romance Series Book 1 (11 page)

Andi gave Colin her best smile as he set his elbows on the table and made a little tent with his fingers…fingers she knew intimately now.

Andi swallowed, willing the heat from her chest not to spread to her neck where he could see it.

He pointed to her laptop and the notebook she had open next to it. “Writing about me?” he asked, eyes twinkling.

She closed the notebook quickly—real smooth—and covered it with her arms. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I would, actually.” He leaned across the table and kissed her square on the mouth. Several additional pairs of eyes latched onto them, but now they weren’t looking at Colin; they were fixed on her. Her mouth went dry and she fought to keep from overreacting. He kept going, lips close to her ear so that only she could hear his words. “I’d like to know if you’re writing about the way I touched you yesterday, and the way I’m going to touch you today, only much, much more.” She pulled away from him and caught herself just in time to keep from upturning her chair. Colin sat back, arms crossed over his chest, clearly enjoying watching her squirm.

Andi collected herself and began shoving her notebook and pen in her bag. When she reached for her computer, Colin grabbed it and flipped it around so he could see it. But before he had a chance to read anything, she snapped the lid shut. He looked up at her, surprise flashing across his features before he covered it up with a grin. “You must have really had a good time in that dressing room.”

Andi couldn’t help but smile. He had a way of making her laugh just when she was about to get too serious. It was…refreshing. Her life up to that point hadn’t seen much light.

“Alright, smartass,” she said, slipping the laptop into its sleeve and shoving it under an arm where he’d have less chance of commandeering it a second time. “Ready to get out of here?”

Colin jumped up from his chair, gesturing for her to hand him her tote bag, and Andi’s heart did a little flip at the gentlemanly move. It hit her again how different he was from the image the media portrayed, and, before she could dismiss the thought, she spent a second wondering if perhaps she was the one who brought out that side of him.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Touché. But seriously, where are you taking me?”

He winked at her. “It’s a surprise, love.”

He hooked her arm under his elbow and led her out the door, and, out of the corner of her eye, Andi noticed a man staring at them from behind a newspaper. As Colin unlocked his vehicle outside the shop, the man followed them, snapping a picture as Colin opened the door for her and helped her into the cab. Colin caught a glance of the guy without making eye contact, his lips pressed together in a thin line.

“Does he know who you are?” Andi asked as he joined her in the truck, trying not to let on that she was getting a little anxious.

“Probably,” Colin said, his tone revealing nothing. He started up the engine and pulled away from the shop and the photographer who was still snapping away on the sidewalk.

“And you’re okay with that?”

Colin slid his aviator sunglasses off his head and down to the bridge of his nose, hiding his eyes from her. They only served to add to his attractiveness. She wondered how it would feel to see that face on a movie screen, or dressed in a tux on TV, walking down the red carpet with a beautiful actress on his arm.

Her heart lurched.

“Actually,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you about that.” Andi waited but he didn’t say anything more as they pulled onto the M8. It was a beautiful spring day, warmer than it had been since she’d arrived in Scotland, and she hoped he was taking her back to the set; she wanted to see the loch again and make some notes so she could beef up the descriptions in her new book. It was the story of Bjorn’s brother, so she knew readers would be eager to return to the Highlands, and they’d expect an even stronger book this time. She’d even brought her camera along today so she’d have several shots to pin up on her inspiration board at home.

Colin cleared his throat and glanced quickly at her before refocusing on the road. “I have a request to make, Andi.” He paused. “If you say no, I’ll understand, but know that if you say yes, you’ll be doing me a bigger favor than I could ever repay. I’ll owe you.”

“Okay, now you’re just making me nervous.”

“I don’t mean to do that at all. It’s just-”

Andi flailed her palms. “You’re making it worse. Just tell me what it is.”

“You’re sure you want to talk about this now? I was going to wait until we got to our stopping point and tell you then, but with the cameraman and all, it just seemed like as good a time as any to mention it.”

Her eyebrows furrowed and Colin looked over at her silence.

“Okay, then. Andi McKenna—I want you to pretend to be my fiancée.”

So many emotions hit her at once that Andi couldn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure if she was irritated or flattered or some combination of both; the only thing she could pinpoint was confusion. Colin kept driving, glancing at her every few seconds, the color rapidly draining from his face.

She thought back to their conversation a couple days ago at his condo when he’d mentioned his ex and wanting the paparazzi to stop badgering him after their breakup. Andi knew admittedly little about the situation; she really should have spent more time researching him, but the whirlwind of the past few days had pushed that to the very bottom of her priority list.

“I…I don’t really know what to say.”

Colin looked relieved that she was speaking again, but there were a hundred different emotions at war in his eyes, none of which Andi could translate. “Just say yes.”

Okay, now she was annoyed. “Just say yes?” she mimicked him. “Like it’s that simple to say yes to something so…crazy.”

“It’s not like that, Andi. It actually is very simple.”

Was he nuts?

“You couldn’t be more wrong. There are a lot of things to think about. I know it wouldn’t mean anything to you—” Colin cringed at her words —”but it would change my life entirely, at least for the duration of the fake engagement. Besides, I’m going home in a few days. How would we pull this off?” Her heart was beating rapidly now and a thousand questions flooded her mind.

“Basically, I would just have my agent leak a story to the press. You and I would stage a public proposal to make the situation believable, and then you’d go home as planned.”

She could only stare at him in disbelief as he explained.

“After a few months, I would inform the press that we called off the engagement. Chalk it up to the whole long distance thing—me in the UK, you in the US—by then, they’ll have lost interest.”

He gave her an apologetic look. “It helps that you’re not famous—at least not as an actress—I mean. I’m aware that your writing is well known, but a breakup with you wouldn’t cause more than moderate curiosity. And we’d let our families know our true intentions, of course. We can discuss the logistics further, if you agree,” he said, his tone calm and steady as he refocused his attention on the road.

Andi tried to slow her thoughts down so she could concentrate on one at a time and make sense of it all. She took her time, searching for a reason to say no, but really, what did she have to lose? A lot of women would love to prance around in the temporary fairy tale she’d just been offered, even if it didn’t include a castle or a prince or a happy ending. So why was she so hesitant?

She knew the answer the instant the question crossed her mind.

She hesitated because the cold hard truth was that she wanted the whole package. She wanted the prince
and
the happy ending. And a castle wouldn’t hurt either, for that matter. She’d settled for less than the real thing before, and it could break her to do it again.

And yet, she was starting to trust Colin, as rash as that might be, and from what he’d revealed of his character so far, she knew he wouldn’t intentionally expose her to any sort of harm. Though he would deny it, he was too good a person for that. He said he would owe her if she agreed to this charade, but she already owed him for showing her what it felt like to be desired, to feel pleasure. And for bringing her writing back to life.

Whether or not it was wrong, or stupid, or crazy, she knew what she wanted to do.

“Alright.”

“Is that a yes?” Colin pulled his sunglasses off and studied her face intently.

“Yes. That’s a yes. I’ll do it.”

A slow smile spread over his gorgeous face and even though she was technically the reason for its appearance, she knew it wasn’t real. She turned to the window and sighed.

None of this was real.

Chapter Ten

Colin turned the truck off the highway and continued down a winding dirt road toward his favorite spot at Loch Lomond.

He was relieved and pleased when Andi had agreed to his proposal—his fake proposal—but the look on her face had a stronger effect than he would have expected. She’d tried to arrange her features to hide it, but he’d seen the disappointment plain as day, and he hated the fact that he’d been the one to put it there. Seeing her like that had caused such instant, arresting pain that he’d almost retracted his words right after speaking them.

But he needed this; he needed
her
.

“Here we are, writer girl,” he said, injecting as much light into the words as he could. He realized something that had been building since the moment he’d met her only days ago—Andi’s happiness mattered a great deal to him. He would do everything in his power to make sure she wasn’t hurt by the game they were about to play.

“I thought you were taking me back to the set,” Andi said, staring out the window at the landscape. He could tell she was entranced, just as he’d been the first day of filming in the breathtaking Highlands. He’d fallen instantly in love with the rolling hills and the almost surreal freshness of the air, and the fact that when he’d had a rare moment of freedom from the twelve-hour workdays, he could jump on his bike and drive for miles, just taking in the endless green terrain and the picturesque castles.

“Nope. We’re spending the day together.”

“I see,” she said, finally turning to face him. Her unique beauty struck him again. She was such a contrast from the almost plastic women he worked with every day. He supposed they were pretty in their way—the media and the world certainly thought so—but he was quickly discovering that he preferred what might be referred to as Andi’s
imperfections
. He’d learned from being with her that she didn’t care for her curves, but to him they were far more enticing than the too thin actresses he’d grown used to in his profession.

He adored her body; it reminded him of the old black and white films he’d worshiped his entire life, and, he supposed, the fantasy they represented, in which men and women fell in love and lived happily for the remainder of their days. It made a glorious picture, but it was as unrealistic as the movies he starred in.

“You don’t sound pleased,” he said.

Andi gave him a hollow smile. “I am. Just a little tired after working this morning.”

“Ah. How’s the book coming?”

Andi clicked her tongue. “You, my friend, have obviously not spent sufficient time around authors.”

“Meaning –”

“Meaning that the one thing you never, ever ask an author is
how’s the book coming
.”

“Consider my wrist slapped, then. I promise not to bring it up again.”

She giggled, the sound of it lifting some of the weight off his shoulders. “It’s okay,” she said.

Colin gave her a smile and moved to open his door. Andi had already opened hers when he reached her side, so he wrapped his hands around her waist and lifted her down from the truck’s height. “Careful, the ground’s a bit soggy.”

“I know. That stuff ruined my favorite purple boots when I came to visit you on set yesterday.”

He made a mental note of that as he released her, brushing a bit of hair out of her eyes.

“Actually,” she said, her blue eyes shining in the sliver of sunlight cutting through another gray day, stealing all clear thought from his brain, “It’s coming along very well.”

“Glad to hear it,” he said. “That wouldn’t have anything to do with our little visit to the shop yesterday, would it?”

She punched him gently in the side. “Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe I just had a stroke of luck and got my mojo back.”

“Because of me, of course,” he teased.

Andi leaned her head back and laughed, her open red lips setting off a chain reaction of stimulation that reached every corner of his body. “I suppose you can take a little bit of the credit.”

“A little,” he said, stretching an arm into the back of the truck to pull out the picnic supplies he’d packed. “I had you moaning like a porn star and you know it.”

Andi’s eyes widened and a flush of pink rose in her cheeks. She whacked him again, harder this time.

“Keep punching me like that and I’ll have to reprimand you,” he said, lifting a backpack, tarp, and thick blanket out of the back, draping the lot over his shoulders.

“Looking forward to it,” she said, raising her eyebrows.

“There’s my girl,” he said, wishing against his will that the words were true—that she really did belong to him.

He led her down a winding path to a spot he’d found near the water, surrounded by large rocks carpeted in moss. He loved the view here, several small islands dotting the water like a string of precious gems in an emerald bracelet, the sound of waves lapping against the shore in a kind of meditating chant. When they arrived, he worked on laying out the tarp and blanket and pulling food from his backpack while Andi took out a camera and her laptop and sat cross-legged on the soft plaid.

“It’s so beautiful here,” she said, pulling the computer out of its case.

“Don’t tell me you’re planning on getting more work done this afternoon.”

She looked up, her brows knit in feigned confusion. “Um, yeah, I was planning on it. I do have deadlines, you know. I don’t get paid to spend all my time dreaming stuff up—it actually has to get written down at some point.”