Not a Fairy Tale: HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance (16 page)

“I don’t think so.” Nina’s cheeks couldn’t get any hotter. She’d forgotten all about the fundraiser. She’d need a new dress. Preferably one that wouldn’t reveal the yellowing bruises from the damage Vicki had inflicted on her yesterday. Dom had taken her at her word when she’d said she wanted to toughen up. Yesterday’s session hadn’t been stage fighting, it had been for real.

“You can be my date.” Again. One of the many perks of being a celebrity assistant was the entrée into the hottest events in town. Wendy got more of those than most.

Wendy poured herself a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice from the jug on the table. “I had lunch with the Celebrity Assistants Association on the weekend.” Her voice was a study in casual. “One of the assistants has a connection at the studio. Rumor has it Jenn Law was offered the role of Sonia, but she turned it down. It’s too similar to her role in
Hunger Games
and she doesn’t want to be typecast.”

“Any speculation on who else they’re looking at?” Nina’s stomach clenched with anxiety. If they’d already offered the role to someone else, then all this training was in vain. There would be no point in continuing.

She didn’t know which was worse: losing the role or stopping training.

“There are a few names on the shortlist.”

Nina’s heart thudded to the bottom of her ruby-red ballet flats. The carefully guarded look on Wendy’s face said everything her words didn’t. Whoever was on the producers’ shortlist, she wasn’t.

“Which names?” she managed to ask.

“Gracie Carr’s the current front runner.” Wendy arranged her face in a cheery smile. “But she hasn’t signed a contract, so it’s not over yet. We just need to up your game.”

“I can’t do any more than I already am.”

Wendy’s voice dropped so low even Nina barely caught the words. “But nobody knows what you’re doing. We need to leak pictures of you in training.”

Nina rubbed her temple. Dom wouldn’t like it. But Wendy was right. There were no second prizes in this contest, and she was in it to win. She wasn’t about to lose the role of a lifetime to save Dom’s feelings. “Not someone from the press. They can’t be trusted. We need a photographer we can trust to take the pictures we want. Someone with connections to the right kind of magazines, who’ll do exactly what we say.”

“Chrissie has a guy. He’ll be discreet. Dominic will never know.”

It didn’t surprise her that her PA and her publicist had already planned this out between them. After all, all their careers depended on Nina staying on the A-list as much as hers did. The responsibility weighed her shoulders down and she sighed. “Okay, call him. Today Dom’s starting me boxing. That should make for some interesting pictures. I’ll text you the address. Tell him to bring a long lens. Dom mustn’t know.”

But it wouldn’t be long before he’d find out. And too soon this idyll would be over.

Her PA had left by the time Dom returned outside, his gym bag slung over his shoulder, his t-shirt pulling up to reveal his tanned, lean abs. Nina allowed herself a satisfied smile. She’d just have to make the most of every uninterrupted minute she had left with him.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Give me a moment.” She hurried inside, clutching the brown paper bag. Locking herself in the bathroom, she swallowed the morning-after pill then pulled out a pregnancy test kit. Wendy had brought three. Nina fumbled open the first box.

The first rose-pink line took forever to appear. Long, heart-stopping moments as the second hand on her wristwatch ticked around. One line. The hands on her watch ticked over to five minutes.

If there was going to be a second line it would have appeared by now, surely.

Dom banged on the door. “We’re going to be late,” he called.

She carefully wrapped the remaining test kits back in the brown-paper bag and stashed them inside her toiletry bag. Then she threw away the used test and washed her hands.

When she emerged from the bathroom, it was with a bounce in her step. “Okay, I’m good to go.” Everything was going to be okay. Anything was possible.

Another two weeks flew past. Now and then Nina caught a glint of light she was sure was the lens of a camera, but Dom didn’t seem to notice and she kept her mouth shut. But the knowledge that every day together could be their last hung over her like the Sword of Damocles.

Not that she had time to dwell on her fears. Dom kept her working until long after dark each day, without a day off. In addition to boxing and Krav Maga, he’d started her doing actual stunts, everyday bread-and-butter work for stunt people, but the kinds of things most actors never attempted. The kind of things that would give film insurers heebie-jeebies if they suspected their prize actors were even attempting them.

She mastered climbing walls and sword fighting, abseiled and learned how to do low falls – step-outs and headers and back falls. Dom taught her to ride a motorcycle and how to roll across the hood of a slow-moving car, making it look as if she’d been hit.

They had their first argument when he refused to let her try a full-body burn, but she took part in a SWAT team tactical training exercise, a building entry and clearance which ended in choreographed gun fight, complete with live ammunition and squibs exploding all around.

Using what she’d learned on the trapeze and the lyra, she did simple wirework and one of the biggest thrills was being shot off an air ram into an airbag, as if she’d been thrown by an explosion.

This was a world away from the sweet rom-com roles she’d played before and it was
fun
. She wanted the role of Sonia more than ever because the thought of spending the next two years of her life being paid to do this almost every day was the biggest carrot ever dangled before her. It would make the dull work of press junkets and premieres much more palatable.

By far the most fascinating aspect of stunt work, she discovered, was the planning that went into it. She listened carefully as Dom and his team plotted out every step, scrutinized the risks, discussed the safety measures. There wasn’t a single element of any stunt that was left to chance. She learned to look at stunt people in a whole new light. Like true warriors, they weren’t daredevils or adrenalin junkies. They took their work seriously.

She looked at Dom differently, too. He wasn’t the badass she’d once believed him to be. He was a professional, devoted to a job he loved, and doing it to the best of his abilities. She understood that better than anyone.

“When am I going to see you do a real stunt?” she asked, as they lay in bed one night. Her fingers trailed idly over his chest. “Vicki tells me your specialty is high falls and that you’re in very big demand.”

“I’m not accepting any stunt jobs right now. I’m training you.”

Her hand stilled. “Wendy showed me the invoice you sent her. You’ve charged your friends’ regular daily fees and for the hard costs of the protective gear and the materials you’re using to train me, but you’re not charging much for your own time.”

Dom shrugged, a slight move that dislodged her head from where it had lain against his shoulder. She leaned up on her elbow to look at him. “You’d be earning a great deal more taking on proper paying stunt work. Don’t you need the money?”

“I’m good, thanks.”

She frowned and sat up, brushing the hair out of her eyes. This bungalow might not be large, but the trendy neighborhood wasn’t exactly cheap. Nor was the brand-new Jeep parked in his garage. And from what she’d seen of his family home, his parents were comfortable but not wealthy, so it wasn’t as if they were bank-rolling him. How was he able to maintain this lifestyle without working?

Cold fear gripped her stomach. She wasn’t a stranger to friends and lovers trying to worm their way into her life in hopes of an easy ride to riches. She hadn’t thought Dom was one of them.

He sighed and rose to sit beside her, the sheet falling away to bare his torso. She looked quickly away, but he caught her chin and forced her to look back at him.

“I don’t need you for your money, Nina. I’m a self-made man and I have everything I need and want right here.”

“All this from doing stunts?” she waved a hand around at the room, wanting hard to believe him but still not able to suppress the mistrust that seemed to have grown and grown inside her since the day her safe 16-year-old life had been blown apart.

“The more dangerous the stunt, the higher the adjustment fee I earn, and I’ve done quite a few big stunts in my time. So, yes, all this comes courtesy of me throwing myself off things or into things. I get great residuals, too, and a lot of the cash in my bank account comes courtesy of Christian.”

She raised an eyebrow. How did his friend, her former co-star Christian Taylor, fit into this?

“I get a percentage of the gross on a few of his movies.”

Wow. That would add up to some serious small change. A ghost of a smile curved her lips. “So you don’t need me for my money?”

“Nope.” He pulled her down beside him, tumbling her into his arms. “But I do need something else from you and I’m not getting it with all this talk.”

His mouth pressed down on hers, driving her fears and her insecurities back into that dark place inside her, where she tried to keep them contained. She wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed herself to let go, giving in to his touch.
This,
at least, she trusted.

Nina lay on the lounger in the enclosed part of Dominic’s yard, where the sun seemed to bake down the hottest. Though her book lay open in her lap, she hadn’t absorbed much. Her eyes kept drifting closed.

Paul’s house in the Hollywood Hills had an infinity pool and a view that went on forever, the kind of security that guaranteed privacy, and servants on hand to cater to every whim. Yet she’d never felt as comfortable or as safe there as she did here in this tiny, sunny yard.

Since Dom had given her a day off to recover from the grueling week he’d put her through, she could have gone home to her condo. She could be soaking in the hot tub right now, or lazing beside the communal pool. But Dom hadn’t suggested she leave and neither had she.

She couldn’t remember when last she’d had a day of doing absolutely nothing. Today she could simply be herself for a few hours. Whoever that was.

She hadn’t even bothered with make-up.

Not that there seemed much point anymore. According to her agent, the producers had offered the role in
Revelations
to Gracie Carr. The news wasn’t out yet, but with the intense public interest in the movies, how much longer would it be?

The clock was ticking. Like a time-bomb.

She should tell Dom, before he heard the news from someone else. She should end her training and move home. Though Dom’s bungalow felt more like home now than her sterile apartment ever had.

She should, but she wouldn’t. Maybe tomorrow. Today, she was too tired to think about it.

Her eyes drifted closed again and she soaked in the rich fragrance of the flowers that filled the raised beds around her. A wind chime sang softly and beyond, the sound now so ingrained in her psyche it no longer sounded threatening but rather lulling, was the constant song of the sea.

The yard gate squeaked open and she twisted around, then smiled and waved. “Over here.”

“Good morning,” Wendy greeted her, setting down a brown-paper shopping bag and a dress bag on the empty chair beside Nina. “I’ve brought your dress for the fundraiser.”

Nina shaded her eyes against the bright light. She needed her sunglasses. She was going to give herself wrinkles. “Did you get the face cream I asked for?”

Wendy nodded and rooted in the shopping bag. But it wasn’t face cream she pulled out. She removed a popular weekly tabloid. “It’s on page five.”

Nina took the magazine, flicked it open. No wonder it had taken so long for the pictures to surface. Not just one single shot, but an entire double-page spread.

She’d rather have had one grainy long-lens photo published a couple of weeks ago when she still had a fighting chance at the role.

“Hi, Wendy, you arrived at a good time. Would you like coffee?” Dom entered the yard carrying a tray of cups and a French press. Rich coffee aroma filled the air.

Nina hurriedly closed the magazine, but of course Dom noticed. “What is it?” he asked.

Better to get this over with, right?

She held out the magazine and he set down the tray to take it from her. She tried not to flinch as he looked at the pictures. Pictures of her in the boxing ring, looking suitably kickass. Another of the two of them on his bike, her arms wrapped intimately around him, her cheek resting on his shoulder. Another of the two of them walking through the farmers’ market, holding hands and laughing. That had been careless. Careless but wonderful.

The largest picture in the spread had been taken the day he’d introduced her to the air ram. She wore a body harness, primed and ready to be catapulted into the waiting mats, and Dom stood behind her, his hands on her hips. But the camera wasn’t focused on her. It was focused on Dom. Shirtless.

She imagined a lot of women drooling over that picture.
She
wanted to drool over it.

She should get Wendy to ask the magazine for a high-res, blown-up version to keep the memories alive when her training was over. Her chest tightened and tears pricked at her eyes. She must really be tired. She seemed on the verge of tears a lot these days.

“Chrissie’s work again?” Dom asked.

Wendy shook her head. “The article cites a ‘resident of Venice Beach’ who’s seen you around. That must have tipped the magazine off that Nina’s still in town, and they’ve probably had someone following you for a few days.”

She lied well. Nina owed her a raise. She was immensely grateful she hadn’t had to lie outright to Dom herself.

“I’m sorry,” she said, begging Dom to look at her.

He shrugged. “What do you need to feel sorry for? It was inevitable.” He finally looked up from the pages. “Nice pictures, though why anyone would be interested that you wore red pumps to the market beats me.”

“You won’t believe the intense public interest in everything she does,” Wendy said, moving the dress bag to sit on the chair next to Nina. “The one time she went to the supermarket, a celebrity gossip site posted a complete list of everything she bought. You should have seen the heated debate in the comments section on whether the tomatoes were local or imported.”

“You’re not mad?” Nina asked, needing an answer, her stomach still squeezed tight.

Dom passed the magazine back. “I don’t like being manipulated. When Chrissie leaked the pictures, it felt exploitative. But this…” he waved at the paper. “This couldn’t be helped.”

Far from feeling relief, the tense knot in her stomach tightened. Did it count as manipulation if he didn’t know about it?

Dom shrugged. “It’ll be an inconvenience going out if people are watching for you and crowding you for autographs everywhere we go, but you’re the one who said you didn’t want to stop living your life because of your fame. So we carry on your training until something changes.”

‘Something changes’ being a euphemism for when the producers announced they’d filled the main role in
Revelations
. The announcement could only be days away. With pre-production already in full swing, they had to have someone contracted and in training for the role soon. This magazine exclusive was Nina’s last hope, and even that might be too late. Tears burned her eyes again and this time she couldn’t blink them back.

Thanks to a scandal involving everyone’s favorite clean-cut boy-band lead singer and a male prostitute, the media frenzy Dom expected never materialized. There were a few more cameras wherever they went, a few more autograph-hunters, but the residents of Venice Beach took it in their stride that a celebrity was living among them and left them alone.

“It wasn’t us who leaked the news,” his neighbor said, bringing over a bottle of wine, which they shared on the deck as the sun set over the ocean.

Nina shrugged and looked away. “It was bound to happen, I guess.”

Dom frowned as he watched her. Perhaps he’d overworked her. She tired so easily these days and seemed preoccupied and withdrawn. He noticed the effort it cost her to keep up her perky persona in public.

Something was troubling her, he was sure.

According to his sources, pre-production on
Revelations
was progressing at a rapid pace. He hadn’t heard yet if the role of Sonia had been offered to anyone. Surely she would tell him if she’d heard?

“Not everyone can keep up your pace,” Juliet commented, popping in the next morning to take Sandy out for a run.

He shook his head. If anyone could keep up with him, it was Nina.

Nearly five weeks now she’d been living with him and not once had she complained about any task he’d set her. She’d fitted into his life and into his home as if she belonged there. Now that the press knew she was in town and training, she could have returned home to her condo. But she hadn’t, and he wasn’t going to be the first to suggest it.

Even so, a distance had sprung up between them. In bed Nina was as playful and uninhibited as before, but outside the bedroom it was as though she was holding something back. He was too afraid to ask what it was. If it meant the end of their relationship, then he didn’t want to know.

Only in the quiet moments while Nina slept, before the painkillers kicked in and enabled him to sleep too, did he admit to mixed feelings about her getting the role. As much as he wanted her to succeed, if Nina won the role of Sonia she would be gone out of his life without a backward glance.

And he’d have surgery and a long recuperation period ahead. He wouldn’t be able to return to stunt work for many months. If ever. And he’d be alone. His future gaped empty before him.

Dom found Nina in the guest bedroom trying on a pair of jeans. “The zipper goes all the way to the top!” she announced, face aglow with excitement.

He leaned against the doorframe. “Isn’t that what they’re supposed to do?”

“Not this pair! I’m going to have to send my stylist shopping for a kickass new wardrobe to go with this kickass new body.” She ran her hands down over her hips and grinned back at him over her shoulder. “I should have hired you a long time ago.”

He crossed to her, wrapped his arms around her, and nuzzled her neck. She tilted her head back against his shoulder to give him better access. “Mmm… there are a lot of things I should have done a long time ago.”

He tasted the beat of her pulse against his tongue. “Like?” he managed to murmur.

“This.” She turned in his arms, pressed her lips to his.

It was tempting to let the kiss go on forever. Even more tempting to tumble her onto the bed and get between her legs. But then the chances were pretty good at least half the morning would be gone before he came up for air.

With a groan, he pulled out of the kiss. “Put on your swim suit. We’re going to the beach.”

“Why do I need a swim suit to go running?”

“We’re not going running. Juliet’s taken Sandy out for us instead.” He swallowed as she unzipped the jeans and began to peel them off. “There’s a south swell this morning and I’m taking you to San Onofre State Beach.”

“Another day off?” She smiled and the light was back in her eyes. “Would it be terribly un-Sonia-like of me to ask if this means I can get to lie on the beach and read?”

“If you want, though that seems a terrible waste of a trip to the beach.”

“It’s my idea of heaven.”

The jeans came off and he had to turn away. The bed was rapidly becoming a much more attractive option than the beach, but it wasn’t every day the surf conditions were this ideal. And there was one final task he wanted Nina to accomplish before he’d consider her training complete.

He had the car loaded with his longboard, cooler box, and other paraphernalia by the time Nina emerged from the house dressed in a flannel check shirt open over a white tank top, cut-off denim shorts that made her tanned legs appear to go on for miles, and flip flops. She chucked her big beach bag into the car seat behind them and hopped in beside him.

The drive to San Clemente took over an hour. With the sun shining, the windows down, and rock music blaring, it felt like a holiday. Especially with all the impatient commuters headed in the opposite direction.

On a weekend, the beach would be packed, but it was just another weekday. A handful of tourists, a couple of moms with their kids, and the die-hard surfers, black seal-like figures in the water, were the only occupants on the beach. Nevertheless, Nina pulled on a big beach hat and sunglasses to conceal her identity.

Dom chose an unoccupied part of the beach, well back from the water, and spread out a vast beach blanket and shade cover.

“Will you rub lotion into my back?” Nina asked.

He took the lotion bottle she held out, his breath catching as she stripped off her t-shirt and shorts, and stretched out on the blanket in a bikini that left little to his imagination. He’d explored every inch of her body these last few weeks, knew how to make her moan and how to make her scream, yet he still couldn’t get enough of her.

Maybe this settling down-with-one-woman thing wasn’t as bad as he’d always believed it to be. But wasn’t it just bloody typical that he finally found a woman who could do ‘no complications’ even better than he could and he wanted to try for something more with her?

He knelt beside her and poured the lotion onto his hands. Then he began the slow slide of his hands over her body.

Nina was definitely thinner and more angular than when she’d started training, her muscles more defined. With her Mediterranean coloring her skin tanned easily, but the tan looked more natural now than before. As much as he missed the softer, more feminine roundness of her curves, he had to admit he liked this new Nina, too. Now she had the kickass body to match her kickass temperament.

He stroked the lotion into her skin, a long glide of his hands over her back. Up and over her shoulders, brushing the edges of her breasts. Nina closed her eyes and moaned. Exactly the response he’d hoped to elicit, but now he wanted to moan, too.

“You don’t want to be making sounds like that here where everyone can see us,” he suggested, his voice a low growl. “Unless you want me to do something very, very bad to you in a public place.”

“Okay, I’ll be a good girl,” she promised, burying her head in her arms. But he noticed she had to bite her lip as his hands slid over the curve of her buttocks, down the sensitive skin of her thighs.

His temperature must have shot up by at least ten degrees, and it had nothing to do with the baking spring sunshine. Public sex has always been his biggest turn-on, the risk of getting caught heightening the experience, and he suspected Nina felt the same. But this beach was
too
public. Even for him.

He glanced around. No one on the beach looked their way. He rolled her over and poured more lotion on his hands, then started on her stomach, stroking circles over her smooth skin, inching toward her breasts.

Nina moaned again and he leaned down to catch the sound with his mouth, pinning her to the blanket, his hands splayed on either side of her breasts. She opened up in response, their tongues tangled, and he lost himself in her taste, in her soft, wet wildness.

She ran her hands up his chest and he shivered against her touch.

“I think you need to stop now,” she whimpered. “Or I am going to do something very, very bad to
you
in a public place.”