Scandalous Series Starter Set: Books 1-3

by R. Linda

  Linc.

  He was there, casually leaning against a black rental car and talking with Nate. In his denim shorts, loose-fitting white tank, and black designer sunglasses covering half his face, he looked better than ever. I was really liking the dreadlocks growing in his hair now, and the fair scruff on his face made him seem so much more…manly. My mother would make him shave before the wedding, though. I could guarantee it.

  I was frozen to the spot. Bailey stopped beside me and squeezed my hand gently, trying to reassure me, but it only made me more nervous. Jack whistled admiringly in Linc’s direction and whispered, “Does he have a brother?”

  I couldn’t even answer him. I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to move. This was a bad idea. I should have flown in the night before the wedding and flown out immediately after. It hurt too much to see him. Loving someone who didn’t love you back sucked.

  Nate saw us first. He pushed off the car and ran straight for me with that big, goofy grin on his face, sweeping me into his arms and spinning around excitedly. He was much taller than I was, so I hung limply in his arms like a ragdoll.

  “I’ve missed you, sis. Glad you made it. Mum was freaking out that you wouldn’t come, because you’ve avoided coming home for so long now.” I could hear the disappointment in his voice.

  “I missed you too.” Guilt coursed through my veins. It was true. I had avoided going home since my second year at university when we returned for Ryder’s nephew Cole’s birthday, and I found out Linc had a fia…fi…I couldn’t even think the word—my brain short-circuited, and I developed a twitch every time I tried.

  A girlfriend with a stupid ring on her finger.

  He was twenty-two, and that was far too young to marry anyone, but her in particular. She was an idiot. I didn’t like her. And I couldn’t bear to see him with her all the time, so I’d not been home for over a year, instead choosing to spend holidays with Jack and his family. It was easier that way, kinder on my heart.

  Jack was my best friend at university other than Bailey—and Ryder, I guessed, though he pissed me off more than anything. We met at orientation and became friends soon after discovering he and Ryder were sharing a room. And since Ryder and Bailey were always preoccupied with sucking each other’s faces off, it left a lot of time for Jack and me to bond. I loved him and all his inappropriateness.

  Nate dropped me back to the ground and stepped to the side to make room for Linc, who was suddenly right there with a smile on his face. His hands were clasped and resting on top of his head. The action caused his t-shirt to ride up enough to reveal tan skin and a very defined lower abdomen I really wanted to trail my…

  “What? I don’t get a hug, In?” he said, interrupting my fantasy.

  I blinked at him a few times and reluctantly stepped forward with the help of an elbow in the back from Ryder, and into Linc’s open arms. They wrapped around me tightly, pulling me to his warm, hard body. I breathed him in. He smelled like the beach and coconuts. Damn lifeguard smell.

  I took it all back. I did want to see him. And touch him. And hug him. And kiss his stupid, handsome face.

  “I’ve really missed you, In. I’m glad you’re here. It’s not the same without you,” he said quietly in my ear before releasing me all too soon. Couldn’t I just wrap my legs around his waist and attach myself to his hip a little longer?

  He reached over to shake Ryder’s hand in that manly back slap, half-hug thing guys did and gave Bailey a kiss on the cheek before noticing Jack standing directly behind me. They glared at each other. Jack’s jaw ticked. He was quite familiar with my Lincoln Andrews obsession, and he was not impressed. Except maybe by his face.

  “Hey, man, sorry.” Nate stepped forward and introduced himself. “Nate, Indie’s brother. This is Linc.”

  “Hi. Jackson,” he replied and held his hand out, his voice sounding much rougher than normal. I guessed he was trying to make a good first impression.

  “And you are?” Linc raised an eyebrow in his direction, planting his feet hip width apart and crossing his arms over his chest. I knew that stance all too well. I’d seen it so many times growing up from both Nate and Linc. Their protective, intimidating, “I’m going to hurt you if you mess up” stance.

  “Jaaack-suuun,” the smartass repeated slowly, as if Linc was stupid. “Indie’s boyfriend. Nice to meet you, man. Call me Jack,” he said confidently, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me close to him. My head dropped, and I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Why did I bring him with me?

  “Ahhh, shit,” Ryder said under his breath as Bailey coughed out a laugh, knowing this could only end badly if Jack was involved. He meant well most of the time—unless he was only doing it for his own entertainment, then all hell could break loose. Jack had no filter. He said whatever he was thinking at the time without considering the repercussions. Occasionally, it was funny and worth it, but most of the time it made you cringe and want to hide from embarrassment, like now.

  “Boyfriend?” Nate looked back and forth between us, a puzzled expression on his face. I’d told them I was bringing at friend at the last minute, not a boyfriend.

  “Umm…surprise.” I forced a grin but was sure it looked more like a grimace. What on earth was Jack thinking? He wasn’t my boyfriend. Two seconds earlier, he was checking Linc out and wanting to know if he had brother.

  “Since when?” Linc scoffed, like it was so hard to believe I could ever have a boyfriend. But I guessed that was true. I’d never had a boyfriend. Not because I didn’t want one. I did. I just wanted the one who didn’t want me. The one who thought of me as a little sister, and I refused to settle for anyone less. Stupid, right?

  I met Linc’s hard glare. His jaw was clenched, and I was slightly amused by his reaction. He wasn’t impressed that Jack was my boyfriend, and that thought sent a thrill through me.

  “Oh, about a year now. Yeah, baby cakes?”

  “Yep.” I beamed up at Jack and snuggled closer to his side, deciding to roll with it for the time being.

  I heard Bailey sigh and Ryder mutter something that sounded like, “Here we go again,” and I had to stifle a laugh because it was like history repeating itself. Only this time it wasn’t Bailey and Ryder fake dating to make someone jealous; it was me and Jack pretending for…reasons unknown. I’d have to ask Jack what he was thinking. Why would he do this? I couldn’t very well come out and say we were only joking now. We’d look like fools. We were going to have to act like a couple for the entire week.

  Nate and Linc exchanged a look, with Linc nodding the smallest fraction. This would have been completely unnoticed by anyone other than Nate because they had that sort of friendship—they didn’t need words, could have an entire conversation with only looks—and by me because I was aware of every move he made when he was around.

  Obsessed? No. That was too harsh a word. Made me seem crazy. I preferred the term “enthusiastically invested,” because I was very invested in everything that man, with the sudden scowl on his face as he snatched my suitcase off the ground and began stomping over to his car, did.

  Nate pointed a finger at Jack. “We’re going to have a chat later.” And then he turned and walked over to the rental car, some sort of SUV with extra seats to accommodate us all.

  Jack looked at me with alarmed eyes for a moment before brushing the fear aside with a wave of the hand. “Meh, he’ll love me. Who doesn’t, really?”

  “Me, right now. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Making that handsome specimen over there realise what he’s going to lose if he doesn’t act soon.”

  A spark of hope ignited in my stomach. If the fake relationship worked for Bailey and Ryder, making Chace, her ex-boyfriend, insanely jealous, then maybe it would work for me. Maybe pretending to date Jack would make Lincoln so blind with jealousy that he finally saw me for what I’d always been. His. Cheesy, I knew, but true nonetheless.

  “And if he doesn’t want me that way?” My voice cra
cked.

  “Then he’s an idiot and doesn’t deserve you. But from the looks he’s giving me right now, I’d say you’ve got nothing to worry about, baby cakes.”

  Chapter Two

  Lincoln

  I didn’t like him.

  He seemed like a dick.

  Loud and obnoxious, making jokes that weren’t even remotely funny.

  She couldn’t seriously be dating that guy. I wanted to wipe that smug look off his face when he bragged about them being together for a year. A whole damn year. How did I not know about this? How did Nate not know about it? I hated that we’d drifted so far apart once she left for uni, without even a goodbye, after her birthday.

  We’d had a moment, the night of her eighteenth birthday. A moment that I may have planned for a little while. A moment that happened by planting a seed in a kid’s mind that Seven Minutes in Heaven would be a great game to play. A moment that came to fruition after spending endless hours mastering how to spin a damn bottle so it stopped where I wanted it to—on Indie. A moment that resulted in Nate nearly walking in on me kissing his sister.

  The car ride back to the hotel was loud and full of chatter with Indie and her friends—her three friends, since I refused to think of him as her boyfriend—though I wasn’t really listening. I was too busy sending death glares into the rear-view mirror every time Jack uttered something in Indie’s ear. I told myself it wasn’t jealousy, because it wasn’t. I’d been looking out for Indie since we were kids growing up next door to one another. She was Nate’s sweet little sister, naïve, innocent, and too trusting. We looked out for her until she left and moved across the country, as far from home as possible. I’d fought every instinct in my body not to pack up and follow her. Doing that would have been suicide.

  “When does Kenzie arrive?” Indie twisted in her seat to look at Ryder, who was crammed in the back with all their luggage.

  “Tomorrow.” In the whole time I’d known him, I came to realise he didn’t say a lot unless it was absolutely necessary. I liked that about him. Unlike Jack, who seemed to love the sound of his own voice.

  I glanced at the clock on the dashboard and frowned. It’d only been twenty minutes since she strolled out of that airport in those cut-off denim shorts showing off her smooth legs and that oversized black t-shirt that looked like it might have come out of Jack’s closet. My grip tightened on the steering wheel. Was it his shirt? Be cool man. Be cool. I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself, but I seemed to have the attention of a certain pair of stormy blue eyes watching me in the mirror.

  I winked, unable to hide my amusement. Damn, did I really wink at Indie? What was I, a teenage boy? Her cheeks reddened, and she ducked her head in embarrassment at being caught. Why was she watching me? I had a feeling she wasn’t all too pleased to see me, given that she was hesitant to even say hello for some reason. Maybe she was planning all the ways she could torment me over the next week, but little did she know, just having her here was tormenting enough, and now I had to watch her flaunt her relationship with Jack-ass back there.

  Finally, after the longest thirty-minute drive in history, we pulled up at the front of the hotel. I was exhausted and just wanted to get us all checked in. We’d flown in about three hours ago, and rather than heading straight to The Falls Hotel, we stupidly hung around the airport with our luggage and hired a car big enough for all of us. It seemed pointless going to the hotel when we couldn’t check in until after 2:00 p.m. It was now 2:08, and I was more than ready to get out of that car and put some distance between Indie and me.

  Parking the car to the side, Nate and I ran in to check us all in first, so the valet could park the car, while the others waited outside with their bags.

  “Welcome to The Falls. How may I help you?” The pretty little blonde receptionist smiled at Nate, and of course, he went into full suave mode, leaning one elbow on the counter and giving her that grin that never failed. I’d seen it work countless times.

  “Hi, we’re checking in. We’re here for the Kellerman wedding,” he said smoothly while I stood off to the side and tapped the keys on the counter.

  “Right, sure.” The girl—Jasmine, her name tag read, making me cringe—said, looking flustered as she began typing on the keyboard. Jasmine. Why couldn’t I get away from that name? A chill ran up my spine every time I thought about my ex-fiancée with the same name and the same hair as the woman sitting in front of me. “What name?”

  “Kellerman, Nate,” he said, pointing to himself, making Jasmine blush more. What was wrong with this girl? “And Indie,” he continued.

  “Uh-huh. Indie is your…wife?” She hesitated, a sour look on her face. I barked out a laugh. You’ve got to be kidding me. Subtlety wasn’t this chick’s forte.

  “No. She’s my sister,” Nate corrected immediately.

  “Oh, okay. Great! That’s just perfect,” Jasmine chirped. “It’s just we have a double room booked, and I thought it would…Never mind. Anyone else?”

  “The double room would be for Jones and Mitchell,” Nate assured her before gesturing to me. “Lincoln Andrews. And we also need another single room for Jackson Meyer.”

  “Let me see.” Jasmine bit her lip, whether in concentration or seductively, I didn’t know, but Nate turned to me and wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Batshit crazy, man. It’s in the name,” I said faintly.

  He laughed. “She’s all right.”

  His funeral.

  “Okay. I have a single room for you, Mr. Kellerman.”

  “Call me Nate.”

  I groaned and turned away to look around, but my eyes landed on Indie standing outside, with Jack-ass’s arms around her waist, laughing at something he had said.

  “Okay, Nate. I have the double for Miss Mitchell and Mr. Jones. Now, with the singles, there appear to have been two adjoining rooms booked. I have managed to secure a regular single room as well. You just need to let me know whether Miss Kellerman, Mr. Andrews, or Mr. Meyer would like the single room. And I’ll place the other two in the adjoining rooms.”

  I stood to attention and turned to face the girl. “Adjoining rooms? They were meant to all be single.” Adjoining rooms. No way in hell was I letting Jack have a room attached to Indie’s.

  “I know, and I’m sorry for that. The adjoining doors can be locked from both sides for privacy. They’re usually reserved for families, but as we’re very busy this week, it’s all I have left to offer. I’d be more than happy to provide free breakfast in the room for those in the adjoining rooms by way of apologising.”

  “Miss Kellerman and I will take the adjoining rooms,” I said quickly before Nate could open his big mouth and put Jack and Indie together.

  “You and Indie?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Look at them. Do you really want your sister to basically share a room with him for a week?” I pointed out the floor to ceiling windows where Jack was grabbing Indie’s ass. I hated the way he touched her. She wasn’t a piece of meat. There was no way in hell I was letting them share adjoining rooms. I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, and I knew Nate would agree.

  Nate’s eyes narrowed, and his mouth set in a firm line. He turned back to Jasmine. “Lincoln Andrews and Indiana Kellerman would be great. Jackson Meyer can have the standard single.”

  Atta boy, Nate. He’d lose it if he knew what I was really thinking and why I wanted Indie in the room next to mine.

  “Perfect. I’ll get your keys.”

  Jasmine grabbed some plastic cards that looked like credit cards and activated them before placing them in small envelopes with the room number and guest name on them. Looking at the numbers, I couldn’t have smiled wider. Things were working out better than I thought. Nate was in room 210. Bailey and Ryder had 212, Jack-ass was in 211. And Indie and I had room 845/6. Six floors above everyone else. We were on our own.

  Things were definitely going to come to a head this week. And it would either be a disaster or end the way I hoped, with
Jack-ass out of the picture and me finally getting the girl, because…

  Hell, I’d been in love with Indiana Kellerman for fifteen damn years.

  Chapter Three

  Indie

  Nate and Linc finally came out with our room keys and handed the valet our ticket. Thank God. All I wanted to do was get to my room and have a cold shower. It was too hot and sticky in this place. I wanted to relax for a while, have a sleep, or watch some television. I needed space. Jack was driving me crazy. He was only trying to help, but I feared it would backfire.

  Linc had a fiancée, and as much as I wanted to believe this plan of Jack’s would work, I knew deep down it was futile. I wasn’t a homewrecker. I didn’t want to destroy Linc’s relationship. In all honesty, as much as it would hurt, if marrying her made him happy, I wished him the best. I would just cut myself off from him completely to save my heart any more pain.

  The huge foyer of The Falls Resort took my breath away. My parents really had spared no expense. Sleek and modern with its black marble floors and accents, it didn’t fit the image I had of Fiji. We handed our luggage to the porter, who assured us he would take care of it and deliver it to our rooms momentarily, before heading to the elevator bank.

  “This place is pretty swish,” Jack said as we stepped onto the elevator, with Linc pressing the buttons for floors two and eight. I was on eight and assumed everyone else was too. Was Linc on two alone?

  “I can’t wait to see our rooms. Too bad they didn’t have any more doubles. It sucks we’re not together, baby cakes, but that’s okay. I don’t mind you sneaking into my room at night. Single beds mean we’ll be a lot closer.” Jack was loud enough for the entire elevator to hear.

  My face heated up, and I was sure my ears were red, too. He just had to say something like that in front of my brother and Linc, both of whom looked ready to strangle the idiot. Bailey snickered into Ryder’s shoulder, finding it hilarious, while he groaned and tilted his head back against the elevator wall, squeezing his eyes shut as though in pain, when really, I knew it was frustration with Jack. Ryder wouldn’t interfere. He was waiting for everything to blow up in Jack’s face, and then maybe he’d step in and save his friend. Maybe.