Modern Fairy Tale: Twelve Books of Breathtaking Romance Read online

  “I’ll do those for you,” Jenna calls from up above and blows me a kiss, making me grin. She’s had a couple of glasses of wine, and she’s fucking adorable.

  “Thanks, babe.”

  She winks and disappears again.

  “Will you be comfortable doing most of the skiing in the movie?” Luke asks me. He hasn’t had much of anything to drink, but I can tell that he’s at ease, enjoying the conversation.

  “Definitely. I should have taken it up years ago.”

  “You’re a natural,” he agrees. “It was fun joining you during your lessons. Thanks for letting me tag along.”

  “No, it was fun to have you. I’m glad you approve.”

  He nods, and we listen with half an ear as the other men begin talking about a new business that’s trying to move into town, but how the city council voted it down.

  “I like it here,” Luke says softly. “Nat and I discussed the idea of buying a place here for vacations. We have a big family, so it would get used.”

  “That would be cool.”

  “Jenna’s friends are nice.”

  I nod, not saying too much until Luke finally sighs and leans forward.

  “You’re stubborn, you know that?”

  “I like to think of it as private,” I reply with a smile. “Besides, I agree with you. It’s awesome here.”

  “I see what you have here, Christian.”

  I can’t reply. I can only swallow hard and watch my wine swirl around my glass. I don’t want to get too comfortable here, no matter how much I love it. “It’s temporary.”

  “Join me outside,” Luke says and leads me out onto the balcony. It’s snowing, but it’s unusually warm. There’s no wind.

  It’s perfectly quiet.

  “Does it have to be temporary?”

  I turn to him and frown. “What are you talking about? Of course, it does. My life, my career is in L.A. I’m not ready to retire.”

  “I’m not suggesting that,” Luke says with a sigh. “Let me back up. I know I don’t know you well, Christian, but I see a huge difference in you since I saw you a few months ago in Seattle. Whatever has happened here in Montana has been good for you.”

  “I won’t deny that.” I watch as a deer walks down the ski slope. “But my life isn’t here, Luke.”

  “You can always travel on location. You do most of the time anyway. You live in L.A., but we’re filming the movie in Vancouver.”

  I look at him, wondering where he’s going with this.

  “There’s nothing that says you can’t be here, with Jenna, in between films.”

  “Come on, you know it’s not that easy. Between films are press junkets and appearances. Magazine articles. TV shows. It’s never-ending.”

  He sighs. “Don’t let the industry fuck up what you’ve found here, Christian. Because from where I stand, you’ve found something that feeds your soul. And if I’ve learned anything in the amount of time that I’ve been in this business, it’s that it’ll suck the life right out of you if you aren’t careful.”

  “How do you do it?” I turn to him and prop my hands on my hips. “You have a beautiful wife, kids, and you live in Seattle. Yet you’re still as relevant in Hollywood as you were ten years ago.”

  “I set boundaries,” he says thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. “I left it, not intending to return. It had gutted me. But films are what I’m passionate about, and I eventually learned how to balance it. I don’t do press. I’m only on location for a few days. I don’t act anymore, so there’s that.”

  “Until I met Jenna, I would have told you that acting was the best part of my life.”

  “And now?”

  I sigh. “I just don’t know how I can make it work. But I know that I’m enjoying her, and my time here. I’m honest with her.”

  “Are you?” He tilts his head to the side. “Are you even honest with yourself? Because the man I saw months ago was miserable, and the man standing before me now is alive.”

  “Is this why you brought Natalie up here?”

  “Partly,” he admits. “I wanted to see you skiing, to make sure the role’s a good fit. It is.”

  “Not everyone gets the happily ever after that you got,” I remind him.

  “They should,” he says with a satisfied grin. “Because it’s fucking great, kid. It’s better than any Oscar sitting on my shelf. I mean, did you see her?”

  My lips twitch. “I did.”

  “I would give it all up tomorrow if she asked me to, but here’s the kicker: she never would.”

  Jenna wouldn’t either.

  “Ah, there it is,” he says with a smile. “You get it. Enjoy the last few weeks here in your insulated bubble without press, where you get to be a man with a beautiful woman. But just remember that you don’t have to choose one life over the other.”

  I push my hand through my hair. “Thank you.”

  “You can name your first kid after me.”

  I stare at him in horrified surprise, making him laugh.

  “I’m kidding. Sort of.”

  “I need more wine.”

  Chapter Nine

  Jenna

  “This is so nice,” Natalie says from the lounge chair next to mine. We’re sitting in the tranquil area of the spa at the Lodge, drinking hot tea, wrapped in fluffy, white robes.

  “I’m glad you talked me into it.” I sip my tea and sigh with happiness. “I don’t remember the last time I did something like this.”

  “You strike me as being a bit of a workaholic,” Nat replies. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as long as you take care of yourself.”

  She smiles softly. Natalie has an air of absolute calm about her. With four kids and a celebrity husband, I would expect her to be more frantic.

  “I lose track of time.” I shrug and sip more of my tea. “But maybe I should just have a standing appointment once a month for a massage.”

  “Atta girl,” she says with a nod. “I approve whole-heartedly. Now, let’s get to the good stuff. Tell me about Christian.”

  I laugh and set my tea aside, then snuggle down in my robe, thinking about the sexiest man alive.

  I mean, People magazine dubbed him that less than six months ago.

  “He’s a nice guy.”

  Nat wrinkles her nose. “I mean, tell me the good stuff. I promise, I’m a vault.”

  “He’s everything I never expected.”

  “That’s more like it.” She rubs her hands together and wiggles her eyebrows. “He seems so nice, and Luke has great things to say about him.”

  “He is nice. And he doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder like I thought a super famous guy would have.”

  “That’s a plus because, trust me, there are plenty of those. Not that I’ve met many. Luke keeps me and the kids separate from the professional stuff as much as he can.”

  “Really?” I tilt my head, watching her with interest. “How is that possible?”

  “Luke had already set a lot of boundaries when I met him,” she says, rubbing a finger over her lips as she thinks about it. “He was done with acting by then, and he still refuses to do much press. He’s fiercely private. I think the paparazzi give him anxiety, and now that he’s not been in front of the camera for years, they pretty much leave him alone.

  “I will go to award ceremonies with him, like the Oscars, but we never take the kids with us.”

  “I think that’s awesome,” I say quietly. “That he’s managed to balance both family and a demanding career.”

  “It’s not easy. If I weren’t so laid back, I don’t know if it would have worked.” She narrows her eyes at me. “You don’t seem like a laid-back kind of girl.”

  “I’m more type-A,” I reply with a grin.

  “If you’re going to make it work with someone like Christian, there will be times that you’ll have to just go with the flow. Schedules change, life is interrupted, and it can be inconvenient.”

  “Go with the flow,” I murmur. “That a
ctually makes sense.”

  “Also, if you’re a jealous person, this will not work.” She stands to pour herself some more tea.

  “I’m not a jealous person, but I’m also not the kind of woman who is okay with being hidden.”

  Nat raises a brow as she sits back in her chair. “You’re hiding?”

  I explain how the press thinks that Christian is with Serena for the sake of the movie release, and how careful he is not to touch me in public.

  “I’m not okay with being his dirty little secret.”

  “Agreed,” Natalie says immediately. “That’s not okay. He needs to stand up to the studio and make it clear that they don’t get to dictate who he’s seen with. I’ve heard of them doing those things before. I know that Luke had to deal with some of that, and after he put his foot down, he was much happier.

  “Also, you need to know that most of what you’ll see or read about him is completely untrue. And if you don’t listen to him and trust him, it could ruin your relationship quickly.”

  “In what way?”

  This is freaking fascinating! I’m so happy that Luke and Natalie came to visit, not only because they’re nice people and I’ve enjoyed getting to know them, but because Natalie is the only person in the world I know who gets it.

  “Okay, get this.” She leans forward. “Not long after Luke and I were together, he had to go to L.A. for something. I forget what. But while he was gone, I got super sick and had to go to the hospital.

  “So, I’m in the hospital room, so sick, and my best friend Jules is with me. The TV is on, and suddenly, there’s Luke, with some other famous movie star, and it looks like they’re super cozy with each other.”

  “Oh, God.” I cover my mouth in horror. “That’s horrible.”

  “Want to know the worst part? I’d just found out I was freaking pregnant.”

  “No.”

  “Oh, yes. So, I’m sitting there, sick as a dog and pregnant with this guy’s baby, and as far as I know, he’s canoodling with some Hollywood bimbo.”

  “But it worked out.”

  “It did.” She nods happily. “The press will spin everything. They always make it look worse than it is. Luke warned me from the beginning to listen to him. That if I had a question, to go directly to him. But in that moment, I didn’t listen, and I assumed that we were through.”

  “Oh, Natalie.”

  “It was a tough time. But it worked out, and here we are, almost six years and four kids later.”

  “That’s a lot of kids in six years.”

  She laughs. “Oh, girl, you’re not kidding. But he’s such a good daddy, and he loves me more than anything in this world. The rest of it? Well, it feeds his soul, too. So sometimes we have to compromise, but at the end of the day, the kids and I have Luke, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

  “I love your love,” I say with a dreamy sigh. “I admit, I’ve had a crush on your husband since I was a teenager.”

  “You and many thousands of other girls.”

  “I love that he’s a good husband and father. That I didn’t have a crush on a creep. And that he found you.”

  “Thank you. I think that Christian and Luke have a lot in common. You’ll have to be patient with him, Jenna. He’s figuring this all out, and if he’s anything like Luke was when I first met him, there’s a lot about this business that hurts him.”

  “I think you’re right.” I swallow around the tears trying to form. “I see a struggle in him.”

  “You’re both going to be so great. Each of you is a fantastic catch. And this may be because I’m biased, but I think it works out best for them when they’re with someone who isn’t already part of that crazy world.”

  “That makes sense. Natalie, thank you for this. I needed it.”

  “I know.” She reaches over to take my hand. “If you ever need to talk or vent or just bounce something off someone, just call me. We are part of a very exclusive club.”

  “I’m not exactly part of that club yet,” I reply with a laugh. “He’s only here for a few weeks.”

  “I knew I loved Luke after the first week,” she says with a wink. “Time doesn’t matter, Jenna. Sometimes, you meet someone, and you just know. It’s like an instant recognition. Like your heart is saying, oh, there you are.”

  “Don’t make me cry.” I sniff. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I care about him, and I know that I don’t want to overthink it.”

  “Good plan. In fact, don’t overthink it should be your new motto.”

  I take a deep breath and check the time.

  “Oh, we should get going. You and Luke have to catch a flight this afternoon.”

  “It’s Luke’s plane, so we can leave anytime. But you’re right, I’m ready to get home to my babies.”

  Once we’ve changed into our clothes and gathered our things, we walk out to the receptionist to pay.

  I pull out my debit card, but the receptionist just smiles and passes me a huge bouquet of pink roses with a note.

  I hope you had a lovely time.

  <3 – C

  “Yeah, he’s not in it for the long haul at all,” Natalie says and gives me a wink as she offers her card to the receptionist. “That’s one romantic man you have there.”

  “Yours is also taken care of,” Natalie is told. “You ladies are good to go.”

  “Looks like we both have romantic men.”

  * * *

  “I don’t want to get up,” I whisper into Christian’s ear the next morning. “It’s so warm and comfy here.”

  I’m spooned up behind him, enjoying him. He smells like his shower gel with a tiny bit of sweat mixed in from last night’s sexcapades. His back and shoulders are…yum. I love trailing my tongue along his spine, where the muscles dip in. And he’s naked, so my hands can roam all over his warm skin with a pause on his firm ass.

  The man is firm everywhere.

  Every. Where.

  “You don’t have to get up.” He turns onto his back, making me stick my lower lip out in a pout. “We can stay here all day if you want to. Why are you pouting?”

  He tickles my lip with his finger.

  “You took your butt away, and I’m rather fond of it.”

  “Poor baby.” He wraps those muscular arms around me and pulls me in for a hug.

  I didn’t realize until I met Christian that naked hugs are my jam.

  His lips find my neck, and goosebumps immediately cover my skin from head to toe. His hands move from my neck to the small of my back, and the next thing I know, he’s flipped us so he’s hovering over me, kissing my collarbones, and grazing those magical fingertips over my nipples.

  My whole body is now fully awake and ready for action. If I were wearing panties, they’d be soaked.

  Or incinerated.

  “Do you know what you do to me?” he asks, licking the underside of my small breast. The skin there is thin and ultra-sensitive, and I can’t help but circle my hips in invitation.

  “What’s that?” I breathe, burying my fingers in his soft hair.

  “Well, there’s a list,” he begins and drags his tongue down my sternum. “You make me hard.”

  He presses his cock to my inner thigh and glances up at me with devilish, lust-filled, blue eyes.

  “You make me smile,” he adds and circles his nose around my belly button. I catch my breath and bite my lip, so turned on that I don’t know what to do with myself. So, I fist the sheets and hold on tight.

  “Grip onto me like that,” he says, and I do. I hold onto his shoulders with all my might, unable to do anything else as his mouth wreaks havoc on my body. His fingers are still strumming over my nipples as he kisses his way down my pubis to the most sensitive part of me.

  “You make me forget things,” he says, surprising me. “And you make me want things that I never have before.”

  I don’t have time to ask him what he means by that before he plants those delicious lips on my clit and kisses me there,
and my body erupts with pure, unadulterated pleasure.

  I cry out, but it doesn’t stop him. He pushes two fingers into me, makes that incredible come here motion, and I shatter, twisting in the sheets and fisting his hair in my hands as orgasm after orgasm rolls through me.

  Finally, he kisses his way up my body and, with his mouth on mine, he sinks inside me, then stops and just stares down at me.

  I swear, I can’t breathe when he looks at me like this. Like I’m the only thing he sees.

  My God, I’ve fallen in love with Christian Wolfe. Irrevocably, unequivocally in love with him.

  “Condom,” he says, suddenly horrified. “Fuck, I forgot.”

  I sweep his hair off his forehead. “I’m on the pill,” I whisper. He blinks rapidly and shakes his head.

  “I never forget. I’m sorry, Jenna.”

  “We’re safe,” I repeat and brush my fingers down his cheek as he kisses me soundly. I can taste myself on him, and that only fuels my need.

  I need him.

  He links his fingers with mine and pins that hand over my head, then begins to move over me, inside me, watching me with fierce, blue eyes.

  It’s the most intense sex I’ve ever had in my life.

  “You make me want things,” he whispers again before tracing those lips over my cheek to my ear. He’s moving faster, and I hitch my legs up around his hips, opening myself to him more, wanting to feel every single inch of him.

  God, he fills me completely. Not just physically, but he fills my heart, too.

  He scares the shit out of me.

  “Stop thinking,” he says before pulling my nipple between his lips and giving it a tug. “Just feel, Jenna.”

  “Oh, I feel you.”

  I reach down and cup his ass, loving the way the hard muscle feels as he flexes, moving in and out of me.

  What I wouldn’t give for a mirror right now.

  “Jesus, babe,” he growls. “I can’t hold on.”

  “Don’t hold on.” I grip his dick tighter and watch in wonderment as he clenches his eyes shut, succumbing to his own orgasm. Every muscle in his body tenses. He quivers.

  He leans in and bites my shoulder, which only makes me contract around him more.