Page 25 of Embraced in Ink

She opened the door to Colin.

She knew she shouldn’t have thought about him too much. It was like she had conjured him out of thin air.

Say his name three times, and poof, he’s suddenly in your house, annoying the fuck out of you like Beetlejuice.

“Hello, Colin,” she said, pulling down her yoga top. She didn’t want to show him everything. Oh, he had seen it before, but he didn’t have a right to now.

“Darling,” he said, his crisp British accent annoying the fuck out of her. He leaned down and kissed both her cheeks, and she took a step back.

Of course, that was a mistake, because he took that as an invitation to walk right into her house.

“Wow, you haven’t done much with the place, but I love seeing you. It’s been a while since we’ve been near each other, don’t you think?” he said.

“Sure,” she said.Not long enough, she thought, but she knew better than to say that aloud.

“So, what are you doing here, Colin?” she asked, wanting to get back to practice.

And thoughts of Marcus.

“Well, I know our studios have talked about the new tour.”

“I’m going on a solo tour.”

“And then after, there’s talk of the one we’re doing together. You know, we are forever entwined.”

She held back a gag. She’d even thought that exact thing to herself earlier, but him saying it? No, she was going to be firm with her agent to make sure a co-headliner tour didn’t happen. People might want it, butshedidn’t want it. She shouldn’t have let herself fall for him for that instant back when she first started, but she wouldn’t let herself fall for his kind of traps again.

“No, I have my solo tour, and I don’t know what’s happening after that.” Plus, she was getting married.Gasp. Maybe she wanted to spend more time with the person that she would ultimately spend the rest of her life with, and not be across the world working all the time.

“But after that, you’re going to need me, darling.”

“No, I really don’t.”

“Whatever. Our agents will talk.” He rolled his eyes. She hated that. He brushed her off whenever he didn’t like what she was saying. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll make it work. Because you and I, darling? It doesn’t matter that we no longer have one another in our hearts, we will always have one another in our souls.”

“I really can’t believe you just said that.”

“What? Our music breathes life into the world. Without us, it would be a much darker place. Gray without the sun of who we are.”

Wow. He was laying it on a little thick today. But that was Colin, after all.

“Now, darling, why don’t you greet me the way you used to.” She should have known it was coming. She really should have.

One minute she was trying to think of how to get this waxing poet out of her mind and her house, and the next, his lips were on hers, her eyes wide. His tongue slid against hers, invading her mouth, his hands reaching around her. One palm landed on her ass, the other tugged at her hair. She pushed him and tried to bite down, but he kissed even harder.

Colin usually got what he wanted.

And though she didn’t let fear creep up her spine, she did let her knee raise just slightly.

And then a voice came from the entryway, and she knew that this was either going to get really bad or be over very quickly.

“What the fuck is going on?” Marcus asked, and Colin froze.

Bristol did, as well.

She really hoped to hell she hadn’t just messed everything up. Again.

Chapter 6