An Accidental Love Affair

by Davida Ann Samenski

  Reece’s fingers tightened around Nicole’s. This was what he was afraid of. “What do you mean?” He thought he’d been careful.

  “An enterprising paparazzo has been following you since London. He spied you on the beach yesterday afternoon, capturing quite a number of images of you in flagrante with an unknown female, but when he zoomed in on her face, discovered it was Miss DeLancey.” Nicole blushed. “And to make matters worse, he followed you from the pub to, I’m assuming from the setup, the Cliff House, getting some nice shots of you both through the un-shuttered window.”

  Reece closed his eyes briefly, clearly remembering the flashes of light as he was drifting off to sleep. “How much did he see?”

  “He saw enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if your little escapade becomes the centerfold in porn magazines across the globe. What the hell were you thinking?”

  Reece clenched his jaw in frustration. He hated being put on the spot this way, but he should have done more to ensure their privacy. “Where are the papers?”

  His brother pointed toward the dining room. “I’ve laid them out across the table. The expanse of it is covered with them.” He shook his head. “You’ve really created a shit storm.” Marcus turned on his heel, stomping away with his cell phone at his ear.

  Nicole was frozen in dismay. “Colin, I . . . what are we going to do?”

  He squeezed her fingers in reassurance. “I think we need to see the papers, and then we’ll decide how to contain the damage.”

  She snatched her hand from his. “I thought you said we were safe,” her voice low, almost a whisper.

  She’d gone as white as a sheet. He tried to pull her close, but she flinched away. “I thought we were.” He glanced toward the dining room. “Look, I’ll take care of this. Give me a few minutes with Marcus. Between the two of us, we’ll come up with a strategy to handle it.”

  She bit her lip in frustration. He’d told her she could trust him, but her doubts were beginning to creep back. “I guess I’ll go hide in the library.”

  His shoulders relaxed a bit. “Good idea. Go lose yourself in your writing for a while. It’ll help clear your mind.” He pulled her close, kissing her forehead.

  She nodded and turned away, her shoulders hunched in shock and self-reproach.

  ~ ~ ~

  Nicole sat at the desk, but she couldn’t concentrate on the love story. She didn’t care that her lovers were in turmoil. Her own life story had taken a bad turn. Fixing it took precedence.

  She opened her web browser, punching up the news. Sure enough, the pictures were plastered across the page. She studied the shots of them frolicking in the surf, with her body wrapped around his. The images were distant and blurry, but the evidence was clear: they were involved in sexual congress.

  She flicked to the next picture, almost fainting at the image: a shot of them in the cottage, their bodies engaged in intercourse. Her head was thrown backward as he kissed her neck; the expression on her face was clearly orgasmic.

  She moaned in dread, dropping her head to the desk. She was doomed, she thought as she closed the lid on the laptop. She wasn’t going to be able to show her face in public again. She’d never get another moment’s peace or privacy; this one bad decision would follow her around for the rest of her life—however long that might be. If her father had seen these pictures, she was dead already.

  Her cell phone buzzed shrilly. She pulled it out of her jeans pocket, gulping loudly. The screen read: Dad. She clicked a button, silencing the ringer.

  Nicole heard raised voices as they approached the library doors. She didn’t want to be drawn into a verbal battle between Reece and his brother. She gathered her things from the desk and bolted for the spiral staircase that led up to the second floor. She planned to scoot out the gallery door and down to her room. She was barely across the landing when she heard her name mentioned.

  “Who is this girl, Reece? Do you know anything about her?”

  “Her name is Nicole DeLancey. She’s a writer visiting England to do research for her novel. I met her at JFK.”

  “I’m familiar with the story. It was convenient she was there at that particular moment, don’t you think?”

  Reece’s eyes narrowed. “What are you implying, Marcus?”

  “I want to get to the bottom of this and find out what’s really going on.”

  “She didn’t plot against me to gain publicity.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do.”

  Marcus threw his hands in the air. “That’s a brilliant answer. Make sure you tell that one to the press.”

  Reece’s reply was full of scorn. “I’m not telling the press anything. They’ve invaded my privacy one time too many.”

  “You’re a movie star. You have no privacy,” Marcus replied, stating the obvious.

  He looked away. “How can we control the damage?”

  “You can start by getting rid of your little tramp.”

  Reece took an aggressive step toward his brother. “Don’t speak about her that way.”

  “Why? Is she more to you than a convenient piece of ass?”

  He knew his brother was probing for information to exploit. He refused to give it to him. “She’s someone I met on the plane. We felt an attraction to each other. I was just passing the time while I waited for my next movie project.” There was no way he was going to tell his brother the truth. Not when he was being a complete jackass.

  “So, you were using her?” Marcus asked doubtfully.

  He clenched his fists. “Yeah, I was using her. I fed her all the right lines. I gave her all the right looks. She was putty in my hands. And now, because of me, she’s fodder for the newspapers.”

  Marcus shrugged in dismissal. “Who cares? Send her off with a nice fat check for her silence and be done with it. You’ve got bigger fish to fry. Melanie is livid.”

  Reece rolled his eyes. “I don’t care about Melanie.”

  “That’s a nice thing to say about your fiancée.”

  Nicole backed up against the door, her mind in a fog. She’d been right all along. Reece was only playing a part. He didn’t care for her one bit.

  She fumbled for the knob, letting herself out of the room and squeezing through the small slit of space she created. She didn’t want the brothers to know she’d overheard them. She moved down the hall toward her bedroom, determined to pack the rest of her belongings and get away from this place as quickly as possible.

  She opened the door, finding Maggie in the process of putting her clothes in a bag. “What are you doing?”

  Maggie glanced over her shoulder. “I’m getting you out of here. You don’t need to be a part of this debacle.”

  “I’m already a part of it, Maggie.”

  “True, but I’m not going to let that little shit, Marcus, drag your name through the mud.”

  Nicole tossed her laptop on the bed. “I think it’s too late for that. They’ve both decided to throw me to the wolves.” Her voice cracked.

  Maggie stopped packing. Staring at Nicole, she could see the stricken look on the girl’s face. “What is it, Nicole?”

  She bit her lip to keep from crying. She wasn’t going to burden this woman with her stupidity. “I need to leave, but I don’t know how to get back to London. I don’t even know where we are.”

  “Colin has to go back . . .”

  Her eyes widened in fear. “No. I don’t want to go with him.” She couldn’t be near him right now. “I need to leave. Is there a train I can catch or something?”

  Sensing her panic, Maggie came around the bed, hugging her. “What happened?”

  Nicole shook her head. “I overheard them talking.” She paced away from the bed and back again. “I never meant for any of this to happen, Maggie. I honest
ly didn’t. I guess I got swept up in the fantasy. I should have remembered things like this don’t happen in real life.”

  The woman gave her a probing glance. “Do you mean with you and Colin?”

  She nodded sadly. “He told me he was . . . it doesn’t matter what he told me. I shouldn’t have believed him. I shouldn’t have . . .”

  Maggie rubbed her arms. “You fell in love with him, didn’t you?”

  With her lips pursed, Nicole looked away. “It doesn’t matter now. He admitted to Marcus he was only using me to pass the time.”

  The older woman snorted. “Don’t you believe that for a moment, girl. I know Colin better than anyone besides his mother. I raised that boy like he was my own. If he said he was falling in love with you, believe him. There’s not a more honest person in the world than Colin Woodhouse.”

  “Well, Reece Collins is a lying sack of shit. I never want to see him again,” she swore.

  “That’s the hurt talking.”

  “The hurt is all that’s left, Maggie. Did you know he has a fiancée? He neglected to mention that the entire time he was fu . . . never mind.” She grimaced, turning away.

  “If you mean Melanie Daniels, that’s just industry gossip. They dated, but he was never serious about her.”

  She threw up her hands. “I don’t care. I just want to get away from here.”

  “I think you should wait. Talk to Colin.”

  Nicole shook her head. “I don’t want to talk to Colin or Reece or whatever character he’s playing today.”

  Maggie knew she wasn’t going to win the girl back by arguing. “Let me get the car. I’ll drive you to the train station and get you settled.” She glanced at Nicole’s head. “Do something with your hair. It’s too noticeable.”

  Nicole tucked her locks up under a baseball cap, donning a pair of sunglasses. It was the best she could do on short notice. She’d try to keep a low profile until she got to London. She’d then pack the rest of her stuff and get the hell out of England.

  ~ ~ ~

  Reece glanced around the library. “Where’s Nicole?”

  “I haven’t seen her. You should keep your distance from her right now.”

  “I can’t do that, Marcus. I’m to blame for this fiasco, not her. I asked her to come here, not the other way around.”

  “Yeah, and she was willing to comply. Don’t be surprised if she sells her story to the papers. She’ll make a lot of money dragging your name through the mud.”

  Reece pursed his lips. “Nicole’s not like that.”

  Marcus’ eyes focused out the window as a car sped down the drive. He couldn’t help but see the girl in the passenger’s seat. His brother’s piece of ass was already running for better climes. Good riddance to her.

  “I’ll be right back,” Reece said as he left the room, bolting up the stairs to knock on her bedroom door. When she didn’t answer, he let himself in. The room was empty. Where had she gone?

  He headed for the kitchen to check with Maggie, but she wasn’t there either. Now there were two missing females. Where had everyone gone?

  He retraced his steps to the library. Marcus was on the phone doing damage control, but looked up as he entered. “Have you seen Maggie?”

  “I saw her leave a few minutes past. I think she was heading to the village.”

  “Oh,” he said in relief. “I’ll catch up with her when she gets back.” He backed out of the room. “If you’re through with me, I’m going to try to track down Nicole. I think she might have tried to walk to the ruins.”

  Marcus’s brows rose at that surprising bit of info. “She knows about the ruins?”

  “Yeah, I showed them to her the first day we were here.”

  His brother frowned. “You never show anyone the ruins.”

  “I showed them to her,” Reece said as he turned on his heel, leaving the house and his brother behind.

  ~ ~ ~

  As soon as Nicole hit London, she called Laura, asking her to meet her at the airport with the rest of her belongings. She wasn’t worried about what her friend would say to the press. Her reputation was already ruined.

  She bought her ticket for the flight home, waiting impatiently for Laura to arrive. She paced back and forth in the waiting area, staring at the teleprompter to force time to go faster and wishing to slow it down when it sped up. She was an emotional wreck.

  She started to wonder about Reece, but she quickly slammed the lid on the subject. He was the last thing she should be thinking about at a time like this.

  She sent an email to her editor, asking Audrey to meet her at the airport when she arrived in New York. She was going to hand over her notes then board a plane for North Carolina. She wanted her mother. She wanted her family. She wanted to bury her head in her pillow and cry.

  ~ ~ ~

  Reece drove back to London in a fury, speeding down the country lanes like a race car driver, taking the turns on two wheels, and nearly decimating a herd of sheep that had wandered into the road. He had to get to Nicole before she disappeared. He had to know why she’d left.

  There’d been no explanation. No note. Only silence. He tried calling the phone number she gave him, but it went to voicemail every time. Where had she gone? He thought her friend Laura would know, so he dialed the number to the house. It rang five times before it was finally answered.

  “Hello,” Laura said.

  He was disappointed it wasn’t Nicole. “Laura, hello. It’s Reece Collins. Is Nicole there by any chance?”

  There was a slight pause. “She’s not here, but if she was, I wouldn’t give her the phone. You’ve got a lot of nerve calling here. You’re a real piece of work.”

  “What are you talking about? Is Nicole there or not?”

  “No, she’s not here any longer. She flew out of London hours ago. She’s on her way home.”

  Reece cursed beneath his breath. He’d missed her. Damn that Maggie! He ridden over to the ruins on the off chance of finding her, but there had been no sign of her, either coming or going.

  He rode back to the house and waited for Maggie to return from the village. He questioned her about Nicole’s whereabouts, but she gave him no information. It wasn’t until Marcus left for London that she’d told him the truth. She’d driven an overwrought Nicole to the train station and put her on a train for London.

  Maggie had lectured him for hours about his treatment of the girl. He couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so angry with him. He’d always been her little angel, while Marcus was the devil incarnate, but today she seemed to see horns on Colin instead of a halo. Why? Yes, he screwed up royally, but that was no reason to rake him over the coals and set his ear on fire.

  He’d torn out of the driveway and down the lane, almost slamming into the closed gates. He saw a van pulled up alongside of the road, flipping them the international sign of ‘bugger off’ before speeding away.

  ~ ~ ~

  Laura arrived at the airport thirty minutes before the flight was to depart. She rushed up to Nicole, hugging her. “I’m sorry I took so long. There was an unexpected phone call just as I was walking out the door.”

  Nicole’s eyes widened. “Was it him?”

  “Yeah, and I told him what for.”

  “He’s not coming here, is he?” she asked, glancing around the terminal.

  “I told him you departed hours ago. He thinks you’re halfway over the Atlantic by now.”

  She sighed in relief. “Good, thank you.” She hung her head. “I’ve really screwed up, haven’t I?”

  Laura hugged her again. “You’re not the first girl to get caught up in something beyond your control. Go home, have a good cry, and then write it out of your system. Remember the first rule of writing is to write what you know.”

>   Nicole nodded. “I’m worried about my reception when I arrive in the States.”

  “No one knows you’re coming. No one will be looking for you. Audrey will refuse to give out any of your personal information, and the airline has already been threatened with a lawsuit if it happens again.”

  “I’m sorry my trip has been cut short.”

  Laura smiled sadly, her lips twisting. “Well, it was fun while it lasted. I’ll be flying across the pond in a month or two for a conference, so it’s good. We’ll see each other then, yeah?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be there.” Nicole looked down, tears starting to burn her eyes.

  “Nicole, don’t worry. You could always use the publicity to promote your book.”

  Her head shot up. “I don’t want people to buy my book because they’re curious about my sex life. I want them to buy it because the story speaks to them.”

  “I know, luv. I know.”

  The announcement came over the speaker that Nicole’s flight was boarding. She grabbed her luggage, heading for the gateway.

  “This is the first time I’ve ever been on time for anything. Maybe I’m turning over a new leaf.”

  Laura smiled, waving goodbye. “That’s the spirit.”

  Nicole walked away, boarding the plane, saying goodbye to England and the man who broke her heart.

  ~ ~ ~

  Reece made multiple phone calls to the publishing company, but no one would answer his questions. He felt as if he needed top secret clearance to learn anything.

  He drove to the rented house in London, banging on the door and waiting for Laura to answer. Was the girl there and purposely avoiding him?

  The door opened slightly. Laura peeked out, narrowing her eyes.