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Cam racked his brain but they didn’t ring a bell. “No, not really.”

“They’re the ones with the viral YouTube channel. They said they’d let me guest on one of their videos.”

“Sounds good,” Cam said, watching the road. The social media stuff wasn’t his thing. He had someone else do it on his behalf because he never had any idea what to say. Ash, on the other hand, was a master at it and a supreme networker. She might have a rep as a party girl, but she knew what she was doing in order to manipulate media attention to her advantage. That was why she was such a big name. Cam knew many talented artists and creators who’d no idea how to use social media effectively. It wasn’t a landscape that became easy to navigate just because you were in the limelight.

He glanced at her as she chatted about whom she’d seen and spoken to the previous night. People thought that she didn’t pay attention to others and was self-obsessed, but she tended to focus on and remember random details about a person that others might not. It was one of the ways she charmed everyone. Although she was perhaps a little self-obsessed and she did overlook some things when they didn’t fit with her aesthetic, like how she still referred to him as Logan, despite knowing his real name. To his face, though, she never called him that. She just used pet names like ‘baby’ instead. She also couldn’t seem to grasp that he was Scottish and not English, despite his having explained it on numerous occasions. But then, she wasn’t the only American to display that particular tendency.

Cameron remembered their first meeting and how she’d been forthright in approaching him, clearly aware that he knew who she was and taking advantage of the signs that he found her attractive. Since his rise to fame, he’d discovered that his previous lack of confidence making the first move with women no longer mattered, because suddenly they were approaching him. The only problem was that perhaps the wrong ones were doing so—or at least the wrong ones for him, a fact that had started to dawn on him lately. He certainly wasn’t knocking it. He loved empowered women and enjoyed their attention and intimacy. What guy wouldn’t? But the series of short relationships based on physical attraction that he’d experienced thus far had left him unfulfilled, and the older he got, the stronger his desire for more. He wanted depth to the intimacy, not just someone he thought was hot and who found him attractive in return, but someone he connected with on a meaningful level. The idea of that was sexier than any illicit encounter he’d experienced so far.

He let Ash continue her monologue. It was a welcome relief not to have to think about what she was saying and try to act interested. He glanced at her. At some point in the future their relationship would end. It wasn’t going to be a forever thing, but they could enjoy the time they had together while it lasted.

Cam pulled into a parking spot next to the beach steps. He passed Ash some money to go secure some sun loungers and went to get the picnic. Once he caught up with her, she was engrossed in conversation with the sun lounger guy and seemed to be getting him to pose for some pictures for her Instagram account.

Cam adjusted the parasols so that their area would be in the shade. Ash preferred it that way because she talked a lot about how the sun caused skin aging and she didn’t want any wrinkles before her time. Plus, Isla was a redheaded, fair-skinned Scot who’d burn just by looking at the sun. Nina wouldn’t with her darker tone, but then she was English, and they seemed to cope marginally better than the melanin-deprived Scots.

Thinking about Nina was a mistake, because his mind started to wander past her skin tone onto her other physical attributes, and that was a fool’s game when she clearly had a poor opinion of him. Plus, he wasn’t single, and even though things weren’t great between him and Ash, it still wasn’t right to fantasise about other women.

A car door slammed and he turned his head. Isla stood with her hands on her hips as Nina got out of the cab. For a moment the sight of Nina’s thin flowery sundress fluttering over her thighs in the breeze threw him. He averted his gaze and waited for them to approach. Their hushed conversation carried on the wind ahead of them, and it had an agitated tone. Cam heard the mention of Zac and it caused him to snap his gaze up. Isla was striding ahead over the sand toward him with Nina lagging behind, her mouth set in a frustrated line.

Isla reached him first and dropped her beach bag onto a lounger. “Hi.”

“Hey,” he said, slowly. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Isla said. She glanced at Nina, who was closing the gap between them. “I’m just going for a quick walk.” She turned and left for the surf.

Cam frowned as he watched her move quickly away, then turned his attention to Nina, who arrived next to him with a sigh.

“Where’s she going?” Nina asked.

“For a walk,” he said.

Nina shook her head. “More fool her. She’s not put any sun cream on yet, so she’ll be returning a lobster.”

He smiled, wondering whether to ask why there was tension between them but worried about overstepping the mark.

Nina sat. “I’m sure you can tell we’ve had a disagreement.”

He took a seat on the lounger next to her. “Anything I can help with?”

She smiled and the fact that he’d finally managed to bring a sincere version of that expression to her face delighted him. It was a shame it was under these circumstances.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “But thanks for the offer.” She paused. “Unless you have the power to hire a hit man.”

He raised his eyebrows. “For Isla?”

She laughed. “No, not her.”

He studied her as the breeze blew strands of dark hair across her face. He had a strong compulsion to tuck them behind her ear, but he quashed it. The two of them were clearly arguing about Zac, which wasn’t surprising, knowing the guy’s history. He seemed to regard women as trophies and tended to have a few that he strung along simultaneously with booty calls—but failed to let any of them know that he had a harem on the go.

Cam saw no problem with playing the field if all parties involved were aware of the circumstances and had the same opportunities for polygamy. If a person wanted more than one partner then why shouldn’t their partners have the same? It was just another double standard as far as he could tell. Not that it was something he’d be into. He preferred to concentrate on one woman at a time, and if Nina was his partner, there would be no way he’d want anybody else on the scene for himself or for her. But she had clearly fallen for whatever these charms were that Zac possessed. Maybe Isla was trying to warn her off. She must know his background, being in the same industry plus on the same label.

He lifted a bottle of water out of the cooler and offered it to Nina. She thanked him and accepted it, her fingers brushing his and sending a wave of electricity firing along his skin. He cleared his throat. “Murder aside, if there’s anything else I can do to help, just ask.”

Nina laughed and the sound was music to his ears. She smiled at him and opened her mouth slightly. He held her gaze, admiring the dark of her eyes and tiny star-like flecks of lighter shade within them. He got the feeling that she was close to confiding in him as to what was really going on. But then she glanced over at Ash, who was coming in their direction, and took a sip of water. “Thanks, Cam.”

Even the sound of her saying his name was awesome.

Ash arrived and sat next to Nina, giving her a hug. Cameron moved the cool bag under one of the loungers and lay back onto his, listening to the chat between Nina and Ash. It was mostly Ash talking, with Nina interjecting with interested noises and questions. He glanced over, able to read that Nina was humouring Ash’s celebrity update in much the same way that he did. He felt an inexplicable affinity toward her.