KILTED DESIRE - Sands of Betrayal (4 page)

That same afternoon, about forty miles to the north in the
small town of Mount Vernon, Katie was also enjoying the weather. Her girls were
camping with their grandparent’s for the weekend, something they did a lot each
summer and Katie was thrilled with some much needed rest and relaxation. She was
outside lying on her lounger, working on a tan and reading a romance book about
vampires for a few hours. Every now and again, she would turn on her computer
and surf the internet. The night before, a friend of hers was visiting,
drinking wine and talking about various things. Her friend, Jen, tried to
convince her that she needed to start dating again now that her marriage was
over, but Katie was reluctant. When she pressed about what type of guy she
would be interested in, Katie blurted out a few things. She only said this to
convince Jen that the type of man she would want would be very hard to find.
She told Jen that she would only consider someone who was tall, very tall in
fact, very fit, independent, and she wanted him to have an accent. She loved historical
romance novels where the hero was British. She wasn’t really ready to start
dating and Jen wouldn’t be able to find anyone that matched her criteria so she
wouldn’t be able to set her up with anyone. Katie thought herself clever and
was quite proud of stalling her friend’s matchmaking plans. Just like Scott,
Katie never really looked in the personal ads, but as she was talking the
previous night about dating in general, she decided to look at some local
posts, just for fun. She was shocked when she saw Scott’s ad. She thought since
the post was only made a few hours before, that it must be Jen messing with
her. It must be. For a post to appear with just what she had asked for, a
Scottish man near Mount Vernon, this must be some kind of set up. Should she call
Jen and question her? Or play along? She was not sure what to do, but she was
intrigued. What if the ad was real? Katie tried to distract herself by doing housework.
No matter what she did, she simply could not get it out of her mind. After an
hour, she called Jen and asked outright if she was playing a joke on her. It
was not a joke. Katie, convinced that Jen was telling the truth, thought now
what should she do? If this ad was real then it must be fate and she should
reply. But, she didn’t need personal ads and this was way too soon. Her husband
had only been gone for a few weeks. She decided she should sleep on it. If it
were genuine, then surely it would be there tomorrow.

Later that evening Scott was watching sports at his
grandparent’s. They went to bed early again and he was alone watching a
baseball game in the living room. It was a nicely furnished comfortable room.
The brown patterned wallpaper and the shag carpet wasn’t exactly Scott’s idea
of modern décor, but it did have a homey feel, especially with numerous
photographs of his parents with him as a small child gracing the walls. He
loved all sports and was really getting into watching and learning more about
the famous American past time. The Cleveland Indians were playing the
Cincinnati Reds and it was a close, exciting game. There was some kind of sport
on every day in America, which he thought was great. Back home there were
televised soccer games most weekends, but not every day. Having forgotten all
about the ad he placed earlier in the day, when the game finished, he headed
for bed.

Around 2:00 a.m., Katie was still wide awake. She’d laid in
bed for a few hours, but just could not sleep. She was restless; her mind was
racing. She kept thinking about the words written in the ad. As much as she
tried to relax and drift off to sleep, it was not happening. She read a few
chapters of her book and watched reality shows that she was not particularly
interested in, but no matter what, she could not fall asleep.

She knew what she had to do, but still was not 100% sure she
should. There was no chance of going to sleep if she did not. After a few more
minutes of tossing and turning, she got up and went downstairs to her computer.
As she turned on the laptop, she wondered about the post and this mysterious
Scotsman. Would the post still be there? If it was real, what was he doing
here? What if it is just some local guy pretending to be Scottish just to hit
on women like her who liked the idea of a man with an accent? Her whole body
tingled when she saw the ad was still there. She hadn’t missed her chance, but
she knew that even if he was real, there was no guarantee that he would even
reply. Therefore, she decided that she would have to send a message that would
catch his attention and pique his interest in finding out more about her. For
what seemed like hours, she sat at her kitchen table typing a message, deleting
it and starting again. Then deleting parts of it and changing her mind about
what she wanted to say. She breezed through three cups of coffee so she was not
going to be sleeping anytime soon. Finally she thought she had it right:

Hi,

I would like to start by saying, that responding to your
post totally freaks me out. I have never responded to a post before because
let’s face it there are some really weird people out there. I can’t help but be
intrigued by you. You have piqued my curiosity, which is why I’m responding. I
have nothing to hide, but I would love to chat with you via email a few times
before sending you my picture. I just don’t know if you are for real. About me:
I’m 33 years old, 5’6”, 138 lbs., I’m not fat, have curves in all the right
places, long blond hair, & blue eyes. I love to curl up and read. I love
learning new things. My friends tell me I’m the life of the party and I love
nothing more than a man who can make me laugh. The fall is my favorite time of
year. I think it must be the crisp air. I do not need a man to take care of me,
but it’s just really nice to snuggle up to someone. I am divorced, and have two
girls. I will never make any excuses about having my girls. They have made me
who I am, and make me laugh every day.

If you are interested in chatting, I would love to know
more about you. For instance, what brings you to the U.S.? What makes you
smile?

Thanks,

Katie

She kept reading it over and over, thinking about what parts
she should change. Was it too much about herself? Did it seem too eager? It was
nearly 5:00 a.m. and the sunlight was starting to fill her kitchen. Her finger
hovered above the enter button. If she pressed it, the message would be sent
and there was no way she could get it back. For more than ten minutes, she just
sat there bending and straightening her finger until finally she pressed the
button. ‘Message Sent’ it said on the computer. It was done, no turning back
now. Her heart skipped a few beats. She knew she shouldn’t get too excited. Even
if he was real, there could be many other women who were also replying. She had
never done anything like this before. This man intrigued her enough to keep her
up all night, and she didn’t even know him. There was no chance of sleep now,
but knew she needed rest so she headed back upstairs and climbed into bed.

Later that morning, Scott awoke and walked into the kitchen
to get his morning glass of orange juice. He never was much of a coffee
drinker. His grandparents, having been up for a while, were sitting and talking
in the living room. He joined them. His Grandfather talked with him about
Scotland, and about how his Grandmother used to love seeing him in his kilt
when he was younger. There were still two or three kilts in his closet, but he did
not wear them anymore, saying he was too old. Scott brought one of his own
kilts with him, but had not worn it yet. He was not sure how people would react
to it in Ohio. His grandparents asked him if he wanted to join them for their
morning walk around the local park, but Scott declined, saying he’d see them
later. He wanted to check out some more school websites on the computer. They
left, but made sure he knew that they would be taking him out for lunch when
they got back and Scott happily did not object. As he turned on the computer,
he remembered the ad he placed the previous day so decided to check his email
first, not really expecting any replies. He could not believe it when he saw
his inbox - twenty-seven new messages. You have got to be kidding me, he
thought to himself. There were three spam messages, but the rest were replies
to his post. One woman had replied four times. After her first reply in which
she did sound quite nice, she had sent three more messages asking why he had
not responded yet. She was deleted. He didn’t want a stalker. He did wonder if
he was doing the right thing by placing this ad. He was not quite sure what to
make of it, but two more messages were from men asking if he would consider a
relationship with another man! He quickly hit delete again and again, the
number of new messages was getting smaller. There were a couple of messages
from women who sounded nice, but they were in their early twenties, which was
way too young for him. He realized that he should probably have put some type
of age requirement, but he was new at this. Maybe he should have made it clearer,
that he didn’t want any men to respond. He thought by asking for a lady, he was
being specific. Obviously some people didn’t read it properly. One by one, the
replies were deleted, for many reasons. One lady sounded nice. She was about
the right age, but lived in Cleveland, nearly a three hour drive, so that was
never going to work. Scott was a little disheartened and ready to admit defeat
as he clicked on the last new message. It was from Katie. He started to read, expecting
to delete it, but he kept reading. She sounded very nice, was a little younger
than he was, sounded intelligent, witty and funny. However, she didn’t mention
where she lived. He hoped she was local and decided to send her a reply:

Hi Katie,

Thanks for your message. I’m with you. This is totally
new and very unusual for me, too, but I figured I’d give it a go as I don’t
know anyone around here. I agree with you about the pictures. I’d like to chat
via email for a wee, bit, too before I’m comfortable sending pictures. I think
I already said in my ad, but I’m 37, 6’3”, around 200 lbs., athletic build,
very short brown hair, and blue eyes, and am very clean cut.

I am here visiting family and checking out schools as I’m
looking for a new career after leaving the military. I’m very laid back and
easy going and am happy doing most things. I am fine with going out to bars,
but am just as happy cuddling up to someone at home.

I’m really looking for someone local to show me around,
have some fun and see where it goes.

Where do you live?

Anyway, I wanted to keep this fairly short for now, but
if you want to continue to chat, then send me an email.

Thanks,

Scott

He was happy with his reply. He kept it short and to the
point, very friendly and offered her the chance to continue their email chat if
she wanted. He decided to remove his post from the website; there were just too
many weird people out there. If he got the chance to meet Katie, then fine. If
not, he would just carry on as he had been over the previous few days.

Katie had fallen back to sleep and it was nearly lunchtime
before she rose from bed. As she made her way downstairs, she wondered if he
would have read her message yet. She did not even make herself a cup of coffee,
unheard of in the Johnson household. Before she did anything, she enjoyed a cup
of coffee when she got up. But today, there was something more important to do.
Her fingers trembled with anticipation as the computer powered up. There was
one new message there, could it be? A huge smile grew on her face as she
realized it was from him. Plus, he sounded genuine. She sent him another
message telling him where she lived, that she was a teacher, and gave him a little
more information, then asked him a few more questions. Now it was time to play
the waiting game again.

Scott replied later that day and over the next few days,
they emailed one another quite a lot, eventually feeling comfortable enough to
send a photo. She sent him a photo taken in her kitchen, a close up showing above
her shoulders. It was a great picture, which showed off her beautiful face,
pretty blue eyes, wonderful smile and her long gorgeous blond hair. When Scott
saw the photo, he was amazed at how pretty she was and was a little concerned
about sending a photo back in case she did not like what she saw. However, he
need not have worried. Katie thought he was cute. He actually sent two
pictures, one a recent close up and the other a few years earlier in his
military days on a training exercise. After the photo exchange, they decided they
should talk on the phone. Katie gave him her cell phone number and asked him to
call her later that evening around 9:30 p.m., after the girls went to bed.

Scott called at exactly the time she asked Thursday evening.
He was always on time, something to do with his military days. They talked for
nearly two hours about all kinds of things. She told him his accent was very
sexy. He wasn’t used to women being this forward, but was very happy she liked
his accent. Katie told him all about her girls, her job and the city they lived
in. She held off telling him that she was not divorced yet, just legally
separated. She would do that when the time was right. He talked about his
military background and what he wanted to do next in his life. He hadn’t
mentioned his injury or gone into great detail about his accident. He would do
that if they met in person and when he was ready, as it was still a very difficult
subject for him to speak about. They talked about meeting in person Saturday
morning at a park near her house. It was a beautiful park full of hiking trails,
woods and lakes. She thought they could go for a walk and then maybe go for
lunch. Scott was happy with this, and couldn’t wait to meet her. She emailed
him directions and they both looked forward to it.