Not a Fairy Tale: HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance (10 page)

“By changing the time?”

He danced out of her reach as she took a swipe at him. “You need to move quicker in a fight. And don’t give away your next move with your eyes,” he advised.

Nina stuck out her tongue at him, then turned her back to lean over the counter as she sipped the smoothie. He had to swallow again.

“Cut-off denim shorts aren’t exactly good running gear,” he managed. Or good for going unnoticed. She’d be causing traffic accidents going out in public dressed like that.

She threw a cheeky smile over her shoulder. “I’ll survive.”

Yes, but would he? Her shorts were so short he didn’t need to exercise any imagination to see the soft, pale flesh of her butt peeking out beneath the denim.

And she wore her glasses again. He’d always had a thing for women in glasses. It was part of the school-marm fantasies he’d enjoyed ever since Ms. Mitchell taught him tenth- grade science. Just as well physics had been his favorite subject or he’d have learned nothing that year.

Noticing how his gaze stroked down her long, bare legs, Nina wiggled her ass. He bit back a groan. She was too damn sexy for her own good, and his corresponding hard-on was hugely inconvenient.

It hadn’t taken her long to figure out how to press
his
buttons.

With all the typical arrogance of a celebrity used to getting her own way, Nina clearly didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. By now, any other woman would have realized this wasn’t going to happen.

She really should find herself a nice man who wasn’t going to sleep with her and walk away. One who would take care of her and be there for her.

Which certainly wasn’t him. He already had four needy sisters. He didn’t need another needy woman in his life.

But that challenge she’d issued still boiled his blood every time he thought of it.
I’ll expect you to follow through
.

He’d been told he was a natural flirt. And following through on a little fun flirtation and taking it all the way wasn’t usually a problem for him. Nor was he used to being noble around a woman. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep his natural inclinations reined in.

He’d been such a good boy all week. For someone not used to denying himself when it came to the opposite sex, this was killing him. He wanted to flirt outrageously with her. He wanted to ‘follow through’ on the flirtation even more. He wanted to explore her sensitive spots and have her scream for him with a desire bordering on madness.

What was the worst that could happen if he gave in to the urge to scratch this itch? Aside from losing a lucrative paycheck and never seeing her again?

They headed down to the beach for their morning run. It was still too early in spring for any but the most dedicated surfers to be on the beach, and none of them noticed or cared that a celebrity was among them. Catching the perfect wave was a far higher priority. He watched the black figures head out into the surf with envy.

Nina didn’t complain when he set a faster pace than the previous days, and her breathing seemed less ragged than it had earlier in the week, though when they finally stopped for a rest she dropped on the sand as if she couldn’t stand for another moment. He wasn’t sure how much of that was real and how much was simply the usual actress drama.

She stretched out her long legs and arched her back, so he couldn’t help but notice the swell of her ample, firm breasts. His palms ached with the effort not to touch.

He turned away, whistling to Sandy, and they headed down to the water’s edge.

One thing he was pretty sure of now was that Nina was deliberately trying to seduce him. It was a novel feeling to be chased – he was usually the one doing the chasing.

And as he’d told her that first night, he was a man, and like most men he tended not to be able to think rationally when a sexy woman threw herself at him.

Right now his brain had ceased to think altogether and his body was taking over. It was asking questions like
‘Why not?’
and
‘What harm could it do?’

Sure, unlike the other women he dated, he wouldn’t be able to say “thank you” and walk away afterwards. At least, not for another five weeks. But how hard could it be to stay interested in one woman for a few weeks?

It would be like an all-you-can-eat-buffet, and then she’d be out of his life as soon as her training was over. After that, if she got the role in
Revelations,
she would be out of town for months on end for filming. Enough time for them both to move on.

As far as his body was concerned, this didn’t have to be complicated. And as usual, his head was having a very hard time keeping his body from calling the shots.

Nina propped herself up on her elbows and watched Dom and Sandy frolic in the surf. She had to admit the sea looked calm and unintimidating today. It washed in and out the beach in a hypnotic rhythm.

She couldn’t remember when last she’d felt this relaxed. In spite of the constant physical exertion of the last few days and the constant fizz and sizzle of sexual tension in her veins, she felt as if she were on vacation, as if she’d left the stress of her tanking career behind in her pristine, white apartment. It would still be there when she got back, but for this brief lull it felt good to have fun and find the joy in life again.

And a week of living with someone hadn’t been as excruciating as she’d expected, either. Dom let her have her space when she needed it and didn’t object if she didn’t want to talk. With him she didn’t feel as if she needed to be “on” all the time. He’d already seen her at her worst, so she could simply be herself, or as much of herself as she could ever risk being with another person.

She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, the salty, sultry tang of the sea that reminded her of the scent of Dom’s skin, and imagined trailing her tongue across his skin, licking, tasting…

Her eyes flew open.

He was running up the beach toward her, shirt now off, and when he sat, raining droplets on her, he sat close enough that she could feel the energy and vitality radiating off him. Sandy flopped down between them, panting hard, and she reached out to pet the dog.

“What are we doing today?” she asked, trying to stifle the raging lust buzzing through her. And failing.

“How do you feel about horses?”

“I enjoyed the
Flicka
books as a kid. Does that count?”

He flashed his crooked grin. “At least it means you don’t yet have any bad habits we need to break. We’ll be visiting friends of mine who have a horse ranch near the Santa Monica mountains.”

He leaned on his side, resting on his elbow, his attention focused on her. The space between them shrank until nothing existed but the rise and fall of their breaths. He was all long, lean strength and muscle, and so utterly gorgeous. She watched one large droplet trail down over smooth, solid pecs before she yanked her eyes away, up over his freckled shoulders to his face.

But that was even worse. Because her gaze snagged on his. That emerald gaze pinned her, looked right into her.

She wanted madly, desperately, to lean into him, to kiss him.

Be brave. Do it.

He hadn’t moved away, either.

This was her moment.

But she wasn’t ready. She was still too scared. What if he discovered that she wasn’t as perfect as her on-screen image? What if he saw right through the careful grooming to the girl underneath and was disappointed? What if he rejected her again?

With an effort, she dragged herself out of his enchantment and pushed herself up off the sand. Whistling to Sandy, she raced off down the beach with the wind at her heels.

When she glanced back, Dom had risen too, to give chase. She sped up, not wanting to be caught, not wanting him to look in her eyes and see her desire and her fear and her insecurities.

She didn’t have a hope in hell of outrunning him. Dom caught her up and grabbed her around the waist, swinging her off her feet.

She shrieked, fighting against him, but what chance did she have against a
jiu jitsu
expert with more than twice her strength?

One thing at least she’d learned these last few days. She shifted her weight, catching him unawares and throwing him off-balance, and they collapsed in a heap on the wet sand, rolling together until he had her pinned beneath him. She looked up at him, eyes wide, breathless with laughter.

This last week he’d touched her a thousand times, but that had been nothing on the searing sizzle between them now. Today her bare legs and skimpy t-shirt were no barrier to the prime male body pressed against hers.

Neither spoke. Neither moved.

Then Sandy was on top of them, licking their faces, all exuberant excitement. Dom rolled off her and stood, extending a hand to help her up. Swallowing bitter disappointment, she took his hand. But when he pulled her to her feet, he caught her around her waist and didn’t let go.

“Why are you running from me?” he demanded.

“I’m not running.”

He looked down into her face and slowly shook his head. “Bullshit.”

She could play the flirt, cock her head, and say something about how much fun it was to be chased. She could make a joke, or lie, or brush him off, or push him away.

She did none of these. The way he looked at her, he could already read her fear and insecurity. She tried to avert her gaze, but couldn’t. He held her captive. “I could ask the same of you. You’ve been running away from me all week. Don’t you want me?”

His hands slid down from her waist, over her hips, to rest on her butt. With a gentle tug, he pulled her against him. “I want you.”

The hardening at his groin was unmistakable.

“What’s changed then?”

He shrugged. “I still think it’s a bad idea. I’m your trainer. And I’m a cad.” He lowered his head, traced his tongue along the edge of her mouth. “But you are a very hard woman to resist.”

She pressed her lips against his as triumph soared through her. No more fear, only want and need. He kissed her back, both fierce and gentle at the same time, and there was no way he could deny now what he felt. Her hands settled on his ribs, splaying wide over the t-shirt that pulled tight over his abs.

A low hum vibrated through them, growing more insistent. Dom swore and pulled away. Through her daze, she registered that the hum was his cell phone. He ignored it.

“Answer it,” she said.

“It can take a message.”

But the moment was gone. The heat in her body fled in an instant as icy sensation slid down her spine, reminding her where they were. She pulled away, out of his embrace, and he let her.

With a frown, he pulled the still-ringing phone from his back pocket and answered it. The voice on the other end carried loud enough for Nina to hear. “Hi, handsome.”

“Hi, Olivia.”

Nina looked away.

“You free today? You want to come around?”

Great. A booty call.

“I can’t. I’m working.”

“Pity. Tonight, then?”

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it. Another time, perhaps.” He cut off the call.

Cold, crazy jealousy rose up from Nina’s stomach. She forced it back. “I don’t want to be a cock blocker. If you want to meet your girlfriend, go ahead.” She said it lightly, careful not to look at him.

“She’s not my girlfriend.” He put the phone back in his pocket. “I like Olivia. She’s uncomplicated.”

The kind of woman who wouldn’t ask him for anything more than he was willing to give. Nina swallowed the bile in her mouth and stepped away.

“But I don’t want to see her. I’m here with you now.”

If only
. He might be here with her, but it was only because she was paying him for his time. Just like everyone else she’d met since she became famous. She couldn’t trust anyone’s attention any more. They all wanted something from her – money, a brush with fame, or an entry into her golden lifestyle.

Everyone loved the playful Nina. No one cared to know the real Nina, the person behind the carefully constructed image, the one with doubts and insecurities and an overwhelming fear of losing everything again.

Her chest ached. It was better this way. By keeping her real self walled up tight inside, she couldn’t be hurt. She couldn’t be exposed.

Which was why Dom should be such a safe option. He wanted complications even less than she did. He didn’t want to be seen with her, didn’t want ten minutes of fame for being the guy who banged Nina Alexander. He only wanted her for her body.

Simple, right?

Except it wasn’t that simple anymore. She wanted to be more than another notch on his bedpost. A girl had to have a little self-respect, after all.

So what was she thinking throwing herself at Dom?

Her body might be screaming “
Take me
!”, and he would willingly oblige, but how would her head feel about it when her pheromones finally crashed back down to normal?

Better to call it quits now, before he had the chance to see every non-airbrushed inch of her. He’d certainly had enough experience with women to be able to draw comparisons.

She plastered on her brightest smile, a smile that owed more than a little to the ditsy waitress she’d played on TV for four years running. “We should get moving. They’ll be expecting us at the horse ranch.”

They jogged back towards his house, not talking, not making eye contact. After a quick shower and a change, they headed out once again. Not on Dom’s bike this time, but in the Jeep. She was relieved not to have to endure the intimacy of a bike ride, but the blaring music on the Jeep’s sound system did nothing to fill the awkward silence between them.

Horse riding had to be the most excruciating thing she’d ever done. She bounced up and down, clinging to the saddle, feeling like a dead weight, while her butt and thighs grew increasingly raw. It didn’t help that Dom’s horse-master friend Ross had a pre-teen daughter who could do tricks in the saddle, while Nina could barely manage to stay on.

By the time she’d mastered the basics of how to sit right, how to hold the reins, and how to move in rhythm with the horse, it was already past midday.

Dismounting after the ride was something else entirely though. Her legs were mushy as jello and Dom had to catch her around her waist as she slid to the ground.

“Thanks,” she said, hanging on to him, her hands lingering on the hard muscle of his upper arms a moment longer than necessary. But she kept her head down, letting her ball cap obscure her face so he couldn’t see her eyes.

They followed Ross onto the shaded verandah of the ranch house. Nina had never been more pleased to see a cold beer in her life.

“Not bad for a newbie,” Ross’s wife, Gianna, said as she waved them to sit for lunch.

She was a delicate thing, slender as a pixie, and exactly the kind of woman who made Nina feel lumpy and three sizes too large. But when she smiled, full of warmth and welcome, Nina found it hard to hate her.

They ate lunch together, Nina sitting quietly and picking at her salad as she listened to the good-natured banter around her. Dominic was the same person with them as he was on set, or with his family, or alone with her. There was no difference between public Dom and private Dom.

He was lively, teasing, confident, a magnetic physical presence. People gravitated to him, like moths to a bright flame. And she was just another moth, scalding her wings as she circled him.

Heaven help her, but she felt like a giddy kid with stars in her eyes. And if she ever met Olivia, she might want to scratch her eyes out.

“So what role is Dom training you up for?” Gianna asked, leaning back in her chair and stretching with the elegance and agility of a cat.

“Sonia in
Revelations
.”

Gianna’s eyes widened. “I didn’t think they’d cast the role yet.”

“They haven’t. But I want it more than anything.”

Gianna’s smile lit up her face. “You and me both. Those books were incredible, and Sonia has got to be the most kick-ass character ever.”

“Exactly!”

“I really hope you get it. You can put in a good word and get Dom in there as the stunt coordinator, then our crew can all work on it too.” Gianna’s eyes shone as she turned to Dom. “You haven’t committed to any other projects yet, have you?”

He shook his head. “I told you. I’m taking a break from work for a while.”

It took Nina a moment to decipher the looks on his friends’ faces. An odd mix of disbelief and protective concern. She didn’t for a moment believe he was taking a break so he could train her. There was something else going on here.

But Dom’s expression had shut down entirely and she couldn’t fathom what it was.

“You always work together as a team?” she asked Ross, hoping to ease the sudden tension in the air.

Ross nodded, his frown lifting as he focused back on her. “Everything we do involves a high level of trust. Stunt people often put their lives in one another’s hands, so we’re very careful who we work with. We build networks with people we trust, people we know will have our backs and who won’t take unnecessary risks. Our team is as close as our family, sometimes even closer.”

Nina heard an echo in his words. In the
Revelations
books Sonia built herself a team just like that; a team of warriors who put their lives in one another’s hands, closer than family.

She blinked away a sudden sting in her eyes. It had been a very long time since she’d trusted anyone. She’d seen people turn savage for survival, and even when survival wasn’t at stake, people turned savage. She couldn’t even trust the people on her payroll to have her back.

And it had been even longer still since she’d felt part of a family.

“What do you have planned for the rest of the afternoon?” Gianna asked, placing fresh beers in front of the men, and re-filling her and Nina’s glasses with sweet home-made lemonade.

“Rest?” Nina asked hopefully.

The others laughed.

“What did you have in mind?” Dom asked.

A grin passed between the two of them that Nina didn’t like at all. Gianna’s mouth kicked up into a smile. “I’d like to see how Nina swings.”

Nina choked, and the others around the table dissolved into shouts of laughter. Heat flooded her cheeks.

“Not that kind of swinging,” Dom said. “Gianna’s a trapeze artist, and she gives lessons. You interested?”

Was she interested?
She’d wanted to learn how to swing on the trapeze since the first time her parents had taken her to the circus. But… “I’m a little heavy.”

More laughter. She screwed up her eyes and tried not to let the wave of hurt and insecurity wash over her.

“You are NOT heavy,” Gianna said, passing a critical eye over her. “I’ve had Dom up there swinging with me, and he’s no lightweight, I can assure you. It’s all about core strength and rhythm. Come on, give it a try.”

A beach run. Horse-riding. Now acrobatics. “You’re trying to kill me.” She looked at Dom through narrowed eyes, but he only shrugged.

“There are demons trying to kill Sonia and she doesn’t stop to rest. You want the role, you’ll do this.”

He was right. She’d said she didn’t only want to be in good shape, she wanted to get into Sonia’s headspace. In the books Sonia had to face one unremitting challenge after another, without the same chance to rest and recover that Nina got every night. She should do this.

It was the assured look in Dom’s eyes that decided her. He wouldn’t encourage her to do this if he didn’t think she could, would he?

“Okay, I’ll give it a try.”

Gianna took her inside to change into snug yoga pants and a leotard, and Nina tied her hair back.

“Perfect!” Gianna said, giving her the once-over.

Nina wasn’t so sure. She didn’t have even a dab of lipstick on. And her wide hips and heavy breasts looked even bigger than usual when she stood beside the elfin acrobat.

Gianna led her out to the far side of the house and Nina gasped. A real-live outdoor trapeze stood in the yard, complete with ladders, rigging and thick, cushiony mattresses.

“You’re not afraid of heights?” Gianna asked.

Nina shook her head.

Before Gianna allowed her anywhere near the trapeze, she first had to do warm-up and stretching exercises. Then Ross attached her to a safety line, which only made her pulse race faster, and she climbed behind Gianna to the narrow platform at least 20 feet above ground.

“You not coming?” she called down to Dom.

He waved back. “I’ll be over here in the shade enjoying another beer. Don’t worry. You’re in good hands. Gianna’s an excellent teacher.”

Bastard.

From the smiling look Gianna shot her, she supposed she must have said it out loud.

“I wouldn’t allow Dom up here anyway,” she said to Nina. “No alcohol before you swing.”

“I had a beer,” Nina pointed out.

Gianna smiled. “You didn’t finish it. You don’t drink much, do you?”

Nina shook her head and carried on climbing.

She wasn’t afraid of heights, but the platform was really narrow. She looked down and her heart leapt into her throat. “There’s no safety net.”

“There’s no need for a net. This is a
petit volant
rig. It’s not as high as a big rig trapeze, so the mattresses are more than enough. But you won’t fall.”

Nina wished she felt the same confidence.

Gianna’s 12-year-old daughter shimmied up the ladder on the opposite side of the rig, agile as a monkey. Nina watched her in awe.

I can do this
. She breathed in deeply. “What do I do?” she asked, earning a beaming smile from her instructor.

“Watch first, then we’ll let you have a turn.” Gianna undid the swing that was tied beside them, grabbed hold with her bare hands and leapt out over the void. On the far side, her daughter did the same. They established a rhythm, swinging backward and forward and Nina tried hard to concentrate on the instructions Gianna gave as she swung to and fro. But it was difficult. Both mother and daughter flew through the air with such grace and confidence, it was like watching poetry in motion.

Nina didn’t have a hope of looking anything like them.

“Keep your legs together,” Gianna called. “Long on the way down, short on the way up.”

When she returned to the platform, she showed Nina how to hold the bar. “Stick your chest out, look ahead, bend your knees a little, count to three and off you go.”

The butterfly effect in Nina’s stomach made her want to throw up. But she counted to three and jumped.

She swung, focusing on keeping her legs together, on not looking down. A few swings to and fro and she began to feel the rhythm.

She was flying!

The gentle pressure of the belt around her waist, with Ross at the other end of the safety line, gave her confidence to swing higher and further, as Gianna called encouragement from the sidelines.

She was five years old again and flying high, laughing and shouting for her father to push the swing higher and higher.

She let go her trepidation and her heart soared free.

At last her trajectory slowed and Gianna caught the bar, enabling Nina to get her feet back on the platform. She laughed with the exhilaration and the endorphin thrill, and Gianna laughed with her.

“So what do you think?” her instructor asked.

“That was incredible!”

“That’s what we call the flying trapeze. Next we’ll do what’s known as the swinging trapeze. Instead of leaping off the platform and letting gravity do the rest, this time you’re going to jump and grab the bar, and get it swinging from a standstill. Just like taking off on a playground swing.”

A playground swing on steroids.

Again, Gianna and her daughter demonstrated what she needed to do, and again Nina did it. It was remarkably easy once she let go of her fear.

She really could do this. Up here, defying gravity, she didn’t feel heavy. She felt light as air, and graceful, too.

Sooner than she expected, Gianna had her hanging upside down from the bar, holding on with nothing but her knees.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Dom. No longer sitting beneath the trees, but standing with his arm shielding his eyes from the sun’s glare as he squinted up to watch her, a distinct furrow creasing his forehead.

She swung out and on the far platform Gianna’s daughter pushed off a beat later. She matched the rhythmic to and fro set by the young girl. Her heart in her throat, she watched as the girl let go the swing, reaching out both hands towards her. She caught the extended hands in the grip Gianna had shown her, and laughed with triumph as they swung together.

“Very good,” Gianna called. “Now at the apex of your swing, when you’re right above the centre of the mattress, you let her go and she’ll show you how to do a bullet drop.”

Nina did as she was told and watched as the young girl did a graceful drop into the mats below. As she hit the ground, she rolled, just as Dom had been teaching Nina to do all week.

“That’s enough for your first day,” Gianna said, helping her back onto the platform. Nina was just a little relieved. Though the adrenalin still flowed through her, making her feel more alive than she ever had, her arms had begun to protest and her core muscles, muscles she’d hardly known existed a week ago, were also feeling the strain. And she was sure her hands and the backs of her knees were going to blister.

Gianna explained the simple dismount, then demonstrated how to do it, dropping effortlessly into the waiting mats below.

Nina stood alone on the high platform and looked down. The drop no longer seemed so high, and she was almost reluctant to fall back down to earth, to lose this sensation of freedom and weightlessness.

But she did as she’d been told. She swung out from the platform and let go in mid-air, crossing her arms over her chest and falling backwards. For a moment, she was truly free, the wind sweeping past her, then the mats rose up to meet her, too quickly. She bounced a couple of times before coming to rest, not quite the graceful landing the others had achieved. Next time.

She lay still for a moment, eyes closed as she tried to hang onto that feeling of euphoria, until the mattress dipped beside her with the weight of someone moving towards her.

She opened her eyes, expecting Gianna. Dom grinned as he stood over her.

“Well? Am I still a bastard for making you do this?”

His eyes lit up with irrepressible laughter as he smiled his crooked grin and she wanted nothing more than to seal this momentous feeling with a deep, passionate, all-or-nothing kiss. He must have seen it in her eyes because even though he held out his hand to help her up, he stepped away, putting space between them. She ignored his hand and pushed herself up off the mats.

“Yes, you’re still a bastard.”

Gianna beamed at her pupil as she approached. “You’re a natural! And you’ll make a great Sonia. The producers would have to be idiots not to give you a chance.”

Nina was used to compliments. Everyone told movie stars they were good at everything. The golf instructor who’d taught her to swing a golf club a few movies back had told her she was a natural. She’d known he was lying.

But flying on the trapeze did feel as natural as breathing.

All the way back to the house, the two women kept up an excited chatter. Only once they’d changed into normal street clothes and rejoined the men did their conversation slow.

Nina’s high hadn’t abated much. She still felt as if she were flying. Someone should patent acrobatics as a cure for all forms of depression, because it was impossible not to feel excited to be alive with this zing in her veins.

Ross and Gianna walked them to the Jeep. As they reached the parked car, Dom tossed her the keys. “I’ve been drinking. You’ll need to drive.”