He looked just the same as last time I saw him. A little more careworn perhaps, that twinkle in his eye dulled when he first opened the door. But then he looked at me and a smile appeared on his face.

My insides did somersaults. It was exactly the same as last time I saw him. One look at that face and I was lost. Had it really been a year since I’d seen him? It felt like minutes since I last looked into those eyes.

“Tilly,” he said, sounding as if he didn’t believe I was really standing there. I didn’t believe it either.

It took until the day of the flight for me to make my mind up. For twelve months I’d been trying my hardest to forget about him. I knew he’d have forgotten about me before I was even out of the country. I was proved right. He never once rang me. My number was on his copy of the contract. He had every chance to get in touch, to apologise for throwing me out, for not saying goodbye. I heard nothing.

I tried to get over him. I tried to forget how he’d made me feel, how safe I’d felt beside him, how desirable.

When I told Mom, she was sympathetic but realistic. “He’s in another country and he’s got a castle to look after. You’ve got a career. See it as a vacation romance, you’ll forget about him soon enough, especially now the movie’s greenlit all the way.”

She was wrong. I never forgot him. Not for a moment. I often thought of that night on the boat. Every time I looked up at the stars at night, I thought of being on the loch with him.

“Should I go?” I asked Mom when the production schedule was organised.

“Are they expecting you to go?” she replied, asking a perfectly reasonable question but one that annoyed me nonetheless.

“Eli said I’m welcome to come if I want to see the castle again. He was so happy I got the consent, I think he’d have bought me the place if I asked.”

“What do you want to do?”

See Robert again, I thought. But would I just be torturing myself? If I went and he was as nonchalant as he’d been the day I left, would I be able to cope? Especially if I then had to spend a week in the place watching him flirting with the make up girls.

“I think I’ll stay here,” I said, making my mind up once and for all.

But then on the day the flight was due to take off, Mom knocked on my bedroom door and said something I never expected. “I think you should go.”

“What?” I asked, sitting upright in bed. “Why?”

“Because I’ve seen you get more and more nervous as today got closer and I’ve never seen you like this before.”

“I can’t go. He probably doesn’t even remember my name.”

“Then at least you’ll know for sure. Or would you rather spend the rest of your life thinking what if?”

So I took the flight. I travelled with the advance crew to Doon. I sat in the cafe as the rest of them ate far too slowly. I sat at the table by the window, thinking of last time I was here, his hand on my thigh. I sighed happily at the memory.

I got on Hedley’s boat, my heart pounding as the castle grew closer. I couldn’t believe I was here again. He was in there. Robert was inside there, so close to me.

My throat felt dry. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking as I climbed off the boat and walked to the front of the group, marching up to the castle and knocking on the door.

He stood there. The door opened and there he was. All of the emotions I’d tried to shut away came roaring back in a flood. The sound of his voice saying my name made me melt. I was about to reply when Eli shoved his way past me, hand outstretched.

“Eli Caffrey,” he said, pumping Robert’s hand up and down. “Good to finally meet you. Robert, right?”

“Good afternoon,” Robert replied, looking past him at me.

Eli slapped him on the shoulder, turning him and walking with him back into the castle, leaving me on the doorstep. “I thought I’d come see how the money’s being spent. Love the place but I got one question for you, Robert my man. Where’s the booze? It’s been a hell of a long trip to get here.”

They disappeared together into the study and I turned away. I couldn’t stand there any longer. The castle was stretching out towards me, trying to pull me inside. I couldn’t handle the memories of last time I was here. This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have come. He might have remembered my name but there wasn’t a chance in hell he felt how I felt.

It was stupid. Imagine telling anyone you’d fallen in love with someone after one night together. It was crazy. He’d said one night with me and that was what we’d had. I didn’t deserve anymore and I had no right to be angry with him for giving me exactly what we had agreed to.

I was angry though. Not just with him but also with myself. I wanted to be relaxed about the whole thing. I hadn’t come to Scotland to fall in love. I’d come to get consent to shoot the movie here. I’d done what I came to do. I should have been happy.

I wasn’t happy though. I stood watching the crew offloading equipment from the boat and I felt like the only one who didn’t belong here. Everyone else had a job to do. I was the only one standing around doing nothing.

“Anything I can do to help?” I asked Mikey, the guy in charge of all the equipment.

“Nope, we’re good,” he replied, lugging a silver case onto his shoulder. “Nice place you picked for us.”

“Thanks,” I said, watching as he headed up to the castle. I turned and walked along the shore, lost in my thoughts. Robert was just a few feet away but in many ways he was further from me than when I’d been across the Atlantic. I had so much I wanted to say to him but I was afraid of saying any of it. What if he shot me down?

It can’t work, Tilly. You live in L.A, I live here. I just wanted an easy fuck and you gave me that. Why have you come back? I don’t feel anything for you.

I couldn’t bear the thought. I looked up, seeing the footbridge across the next island. I crossed it, thinking about last time. I’d almost fallen in the water right there, just at the end of the bridge.

I walked slowly up the side of the mountain, not thinking of any particular destination, just wanting to get away from my own thoughts.

Before I realised it, I was halfway to the top. I looked up, getting the strange feeling that it was about to rain. Without knowing how I could tell, I turned back, heading down again, soaking in the view as I went, basking in the beauty of my surroundings, not realising I had missed this place as much as I’d missed him. How could I feel such an affinity for somewhere I’d only been once? But then how could I fall for someone I’d only spent one night with?

I couldn’t answer either question.

It started to rain just as I got to the castle and I stepped inside in time to avoid getting soaked, the clouds blocking out the sun. I’d forgotten how quickly the weather could change here.

I could hear lots of people talking in the dining room, presumably where they were setting up the equipment.

I walked into the smoking room. There was my chair. I sank into it and sighed. This, more than anywhere else, felt like home.

“You look like you belong there.”

I turned my head and there he was, glass of whiskey in hand. He passed it to me, gathering another from the tray near the door. He took the seat opposite mine as I tried not to cough, my throat drier than ever.

I sipped at my glass, the burning liquid scorching a path down into me, doing nothing to ease the internal tremors at the sight of him.

“How are you?” he asked, leaning back in his chair, one eyebrow slightly raised.

“Good,” I managed to get out, the word forced from me as I crushed all the things I wanted to say. “You?”

“I hear you’re in demand.”

“Did Eli tell you that?”

He nodded. “Everyone wants to work with the woman who made Jurgen Harbor smile. Apparently, he’s never done it before.”

“I just flashed him. Never fails.”

He smiled before falling into silence. I watched him for a moment before turning to look out of the window at the churning water of the loch, the snow capped mountains in the distance. “I’ve missed this place,” I said, not realising I’d spoken out loud until the words were out.

“I’ve missed you.”

Did I dream it or did he really say that? I turned to look at him. “What did you say?”

“I said I’ve missed you.”

There was no denying it. I saw his lips move. My hands started shaking again. “I’ve missed you too.”

“Robert!” Eli yelled from the hallway. “Where the hell are you?”

“Duty calls,” I said.

He shook his head. “Want to go for a walk instead?” He asked quietly and I watched him closely. Was he being serious?

“I’d love to,” I replied.

“This way,” he said, pulling open a secret door in the wood panelled walls. “Takes us straight outside.”

The rain had stopped and the grass smelt fresh and clean. “How do you work with him?” Robert asked as he strode along the path.

“Who, Eli?”

“He’s a bit, how I do I put this?”

“Abrasive?”

“That’s a polite way of putting it.”

I shrugged. “I’ve got no choice. He’s the most famous producer in Hollywood.”

“The guy’s an asshole.”

“I agree but I’ve only got to put up with him for another week and then I can move on.”

“Fame beckons you, does it?”

“Something like that. Wait until you see how he is with the actors.”

“Was that not them in there?”

“That was just the advance crew. The rest are on their way.”

“You mean there’s more coming?” He looked angry and surprised in equal measure.

“Ruining your peace?”

“No, it just seems like a lot of work for a week’s shooting.”

“That’s the way things are. Oh shit, there he is.”

Eli had appeared and was waving at us both in the distance.

“This way,” Robert said, grabbing my hand and darting around a hedge. We ran together to the end of it and then down a flight of steps that appeared from nowhere in the grass.

“Where does this go?” I asked.

“The dungeon,” he replied.

“The dungeon?” I squeaked nervously in response.

“It’s this or talking to Eli again.”

“The dungeon.”

He pushed open an ancient wooden door at the bottom of the steps. A gust of cold air ran past me and I shuddered as we walked into a dark tunnel. I pulled out my cellphone, shining the flashlight on damp stonework as we walked deeper into the bowels of the castle.

“What do you think?” he asked as he pushed open another door.

“Cosy,” I replied, looking around at the stone chamber, the only other thing in view a door in the far wall. “Where does that go?”

“Up into the castle.”

I shuddered again, the cold air getting to me.

“Come here,” he said, putting an arm around me.

I don’t know how it happened and I didn’t care but suddenly we were kissing. It was like I’d never been away. His lips on mine weren’t gentle, they were hungry, tasting me, his tongue plunging into my mouth as my hands held onto him, not sure if this was really happening or just my overactive imagination.

I knew it was real when his hands slipped into the back of my panties. He cupped my ass, his body pressed against mine, his cock hard and digging into my stomach.

I fought for breath as he tore at my trousers, getting them undone, shoving them down, his hands between my legs a second later, stroking my pussy, teasing me until my legs buckled under me.

He kept kissing me as he threw his jacket on the floor, lowering me onto it, his head going straight between my legs. I screamed with pleasure as his tongue ran along my pussy, finding my clit and circling it quickly.

“I’ve missed that taste,” he muttered before pushing his tongue into me. “I love the taste of you.”

I wanted him inside me. In seconds I’d done from being kissed to needing to be fucked. I grabbed his head, feeling him move as he continued to explore my pussy. I felt a finger slide into me and I thrust up against it.

He brought me to the brink of orgasm but didn’t tip me over the edge. Just as I was sure I was about to come, he stopped. He moved up me and as I looked up at him, his cock appeared, hard and even more impressive than last time.

He straddled my chest, lifting my head in his hands, pushing himself into my mouth, fucking my face as my insides tingled, my pussy throbbing with need. I was desperate to come but I didn’t want him to stop what he was doing.

“On all fours,” he said, suddenly pulling out, leaving me gasping for breath.

I turned over, pushing my ass towards him as he spanked it hard enough to make me yell.

“You took that ass away for too long,” he said, his cock between my legs, the heat of it making me tingle. “Bad girl.”

I couldn’t reply. All the breath left my lungs as he thrust himself into my wetness, stretching me wide open, filling the emptiness, taking me over the edge to the climax I had greedily sought.

“I’m coming,” I moaned as my back arched, his hands on my hair, tugging it, drawing me onto him, driving himself deep into me as my orgasm tore through my body.

I hadn’t begun to recover before he started slamming home into me. I yelped as his finger slid between my ass cheeks, delving into my tight hole, easing deeper while another orgasm tore through me.

I lost count of how many times I came but my body was shattered by the time he groaned and spurted deep into me. He thrust again as I slumped forwards and then his cock twitched a final time.

He slid free before lifting me to my feet, wrapping his arms around me as my legs refused to work.

“I want you to feel that,” he said, pulling my panties slowly back up my legs. “Feel that and think of me for the rest of the day.”