Authors: K.M. Scott and Anina Collins
Genre: Romantic Suspense
#BehindTheScenesTour
SYNOPSIS
Alexis Marchand is one of the biggest movie stars in
the world, loved by millions of fans around the globe. Her meteoric rise to
fame has come with its fair share of heartache, but she’s remained strong,
thanks to those closest to her and their unfailing support. Life as a movie
star is good.
Until one day a simple letter arrives and turns her
world upside down. Now she lives in terror, afraid of that one fan who has
taken it too far.
Hunter McKary knows something of movie stars
because of his time as a LAPD detective. He thought he left those
days behind him, but when he’s sent to find out who’s stalking the beautiful
blond actress the world adores, he grudgingly goes to New York, expecting to
find a typical spoiled diva like those he met so many times
before back in LA.
The woman he finds isn’t anything like he expected,
and a job he dreaded becomes something else entirely. But someone out there has
different plans for Alexis.
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MEET THE AUTHORS
K.M. Scott writes contemporary romance
stories of sexy, intense, and unforgettable love. A New York Times
and USA Today bestselling author, she's been in love with romance
since reading her first romance novel in junior high (she was a very curious
girl!). Under her Gabrielle Bisset name, she write erotic paranormal
and historical romance. She lives in Pennsylvania with a herd of animals and
when she's not writing can be found reading or feeding her TV addiction.
Anina Collins has always loved a good mystery. From
Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective
Sherlock Holmes to Dan Brown's intrepid Professor Robert Langdon, she's spent
some of her favorite reading times with mystery novels. When she's not writing
her favorite mystery couple, she can be found watching entirely too much
Supernatural and dreaming about the beach.
Behind The Scenes
Excerpt
After pacing until her legs felt like
they'd give out, Alexis closed the door behind her and settled into the most
comfortable spot in the house—her new office chair. Plush and comfy, it
practically swallowed her up in its softness, just what she needed to feel safe
again. She still felt trapped in her own home, but at least in that dark blue
chair, she could pretend that her life hadn't become a series of tiny rooms
connected by dark hallways.
She began reading a script her agent
Melanie had told her about weeks ago and had finally been delivered to her the
day before she left LA. Titled Haunted By Love, it told the story of a woman
who was being haunted by her dead husband, who everyone believed she killed.
Alexis had only gotten a third of the way into the story, but she already hated
it with a white hot passion.
All the parts she got offered were the
same. All the characters felt delicate and frail, like at any moment in the
film someone could come up behind them and say boo and they'd crumble into a
thousand terrified pieces.
She wanted to play strong women. Kickass
women. Characters who could stand on their own and brave whatever the big, bad
world threw at them. Instead, the woman she sat reading sounded far too much
like herself lately.
Terrorized and afraid to leave her house.
Pitching the script onto the floor, she
brought her knees up to her chest and closed her eyes. This was how she'd spend
the rest of the day. Curled up in a ball and pretending the world outside
didn't exist.
A knock on her office door ruined that
plan not five minutes later, though. Why couldn't they just leave her alone?
She leaned back on the arm of the chair
and yelled in the direction of the door, "I'm busy. Whatever it is, talk
to Lauren!"
As she watched in horror, the door opened
against her explicit instructions and Paul walked in with a man Alexis had
never seen before. Smiling, her manager showed the man off like he'd just
created him in a lab or something.
"Alexis, this is Hunter McKary.
He's the man we talked about earlier today. He just arrived, so I wanted to
introduce the two of you."
Her gaze traveled from Paul to this Hunter
person and then down the full length of his body, from head to toe. Her first
impression was he looked like a cop. Or someone who could play a cop in the
movies. He had short brown hair a little too much like that ex of hers, but his
face had a rugged look she liked in men. This Hunter certainly didn't have a
pretty boy appearance so many of her co-stars had lately.
He didn't smile, which unnerved her. There
he stood in her home and he couldn't even crack a tiny smile on their
introduction? That seemed rude. He was probably one of those stereotypical
overly serious bodyguard types she'd never liked.
She did like how that rugged look made him
appear tough, so maybe she could tolerate the sour puss thing he had
going on. For once, though, she wished the men who came into her life didn't
look like stone cut outs of real men.
As that drifted through her mind, her gaze
slid down to his body again. He looked hard there too, like he could
protect someone. Well, if his job was going to be doing just that for her, he
fit the bill.
"Alexis, did you hear me?" Paul
asked, tearing her out of her thoughts about Hunter.
She stood up and extended her hand to
shake his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Hunter. How long have you been a
bodyguard?"
He shook her hand for a moment and then
pulled his away abruptly. "I'm not a bodyguard. I spent time as
an LAPD detective, and now I work for Project Artemis as a specialist helping
people who need protection. A bodyguard is what the world will think I am, but
trust me. I'm far more than just a mere bodyguard."
She stood shocked at how terse he'd been.
Unnecessarily terse considering she'd been more than polite with him.
Cocky men were top on her list of things
she didn't want to deal with in life, so she needed him to understand she
wouldn't be treated rudely like that, no matter how much Paul thought of his
boss.
"Well, if you're anything like the
cops in LA now, I don't see what you could possibly do for me. They haven't
been able to find out the identity of my stalker for months, and I've had to
move clear across the country because they couldn't do their jobs."
Hunter remained stone-faced as she spoke,
and when she finished, he said nothing to her. Not a single word. Instead, he
turned toward Paul and said, "I need to know the layout of this whole
place. Anywhere someone can get in, I want to know about it."
Then he walked out, leaving her standing
there feeling insulted and wondering what made this guy think he could pull
that cocky shit on her. How dare he ignore her like that! He worked for her.
Who did he think he was?
Paul remained behind, smiling
as if things had gone swimmingly. God, did he ever not think everything was
just fine?
Pointing at the door Hunter had just
walked through when he left so rudely, she asked, "And you think that person
is going to be the one who helps me get my life back?"
He looked away and nodded. "Well, he
isn't exactly the chattiest guy in the world, but I trust Persephone. If she
thinks he can help, I say give him a chance."
"Says the man who promised me that moving
cross country to this awful place would solve my problems. I'm guessing this
Persephone finds his Cro-Magnon routine perfectly acceptable, but I don't. If
you think I'm going to take being treated like that in my own home by some
for-hire security guard, you can forget it. Tell him to go find a job at the
mall because I'm not having it!"
Alexis sat back down on her comfy chair
and folded her arms across her chest as steam practically shot out the top of
her head she was so furious at Paul for bringing that man to her home. She
wouldn't be treated like some insignificant thing who didn't even deserve an
answer by any man, least of all some stranger in her own home.
"Lexi, just listen to me. Give him a
chance. I promise you Persephone wouldn't have sent him if she didn't think he
could help. Just give him a week. If you don't like him by that time, then he's
gone. Promise me you'll give him at least that long, though?"
The look on Paul's face told her he was
worried, and he had good reason to be. She'd had enough of men pushing her
around for an entire lifetime. She wouldn't be taking this Hunter guy's shit
not one more time.
"The problem isn't with me, so you're
wasting your breath talking to me, Paul. The problem is with him. He's rude to
the person he's supposed to be helping and in her own house, no less. If he
can't change his attitude, then he'll have to leave and not after a week. Now.
So you have a choice. You can continue to stand here and stare at me with that
terrified look in your eyes, or you can go find your friend's guy and explain
to him how things go here at Casa Alexis. Whatever you do, shut the door on
your way out and tell Lauren I want to see her."
He scurried away, knowing full well she
meant every word she'd said. She didn't make hollow threats. Not to men who
cheated on her and then thought she'd merely stand idly by when they stepped
out with other women, and certainly not about a man she'd just met and already
didn't like enough to want him thrown out into the street on his ear.
Reaching down, she picked up the script
for Haunted By Love off the floor and flipped to the last page she'd read.
After only a few lines, it became apparent trying to focus on anything would be
a complete waste of time, so she threw the script across the room in
frustration. It knocked over a lamp, which crashed to the floor and smashed
into a million pieces.
This day just got better and better.
Her head began to pound from a stress
headache as a result of Hunter McKary and his rudeness. She didn't
want to play a victim in any more films or in her own life either anymore. Even
more, she didn't want to be someone the Hunters of the world thought they could
ignore so easily and never pay a price.
She heard a light tap on the door she
recognized as Lauren's signature knock and called out, "Come in!"
Her best friend and assistant peeked her
head around the door and smiled. "Paul said you wanted to see me?"
Alexis nodded and waved her in. "Yes.
I need to see a friendly face after meeting that odious man."
Lauren closed the door and came over to
sit down on the floor in front of her. With her usual sweetness, she touched
her hand and smiled. "It didn't go so well? He looked very handsome, at
least."
Handsome didn't matter if the man had the
manners of a pig.
"Nothing special, if you ask me. I've
dated much better looking men, so whatever he thinks he's got going
on, it isn't much."
"What made him so odious?"
Lauren asked innocently.
Alexis opened her mouth to explain what
happened, but nothing came out. She was so furious. The man had actually made
her speechless.
Finally, she said, "I don't want to
talk about it now. Just take my word for it. He won't be here long if he
doesn't realize who's the boss here."
"It's your home, Alexis. Paul needs
to understand that if you don't want someone in it, they need to go. I think
he's forgotten that lately."
She smiled down at Lauren. "Thank you
for reminding me. This is why you're irreplaceable, you know that? Everyone
else could go away, but as long as I have you to rely on, I know I'll be
okay."
"You can rely on me. Always. Never
forget that."
Alexis closed her eyes and took a deep
breath in. At least she had one person she could trust in the world.
