Not a Fairy Tale: HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance (23 page)

“Why should I help you? I don’t even know who you are.” The bitterness in his voice cut into her. “The Nina I knew had a heart. She wouldn’t even contemplate…”

“Do you want to know what my third condition was?”

“Not really.”

“I told Tarquin I want Vicki as my body double.”

Dom looked away. “She’s over-qualified for the job, since you’ll be doing most of your own stunts.”

She reached out for his hands. “There are some stunts I won’t be able to do. Please take the job. If you won’t do it for me, then do it for our baby.”

He looked at her. Properly. In the eyes. Then he blinked. “You didn’t get rid of it?”

“Of course not! Though I did think about giving the baby up.” Her voice cracked. “But I couldn’t face that either. Even if you still hate me and never want to see me again, this baby is the one piece of you I get to keep.”
Especially
then. “And I’ve learned there are a few things in my life I really want to hold on to. That’s why I can’t do this job without you. I need your help to keep our baby safe while I work on this movie.”

His expression still gave nothing away. Did she have a chance? Could he forgive her for running out on him, for rejecting him, for even contemplating giving away his child? For signing up to play the most intense role of her career with his baby growing inside her?

What if he didn’t want her, or their baby, after all?

Her voice came out small. “I’m hoping your offer still stands.”

Tears she hadn’t even known were there gathered on her lashes. She’d thought she was all cried out.

Dom brushed them away with his fingertips and her heart leapt.

“My offer still stands.”

She turned her face into his hand and closed her eyes against the onslaught of relief and joy. “I need you, Dom. And not just for the baby’s sake, because if I have to I’ll do that on my own. I need you for
me
. I want you in my life. For as long as you’ll have me.”

He pulled her close, tumbling her into his lap. “That could be a very long time. I’ve been thinking about giving this settling-down thing a try.”

“We probably won’t be able to go to so many parties or have much of a social life once the baby arrives,” she warned.

“I was getting bored of all the partying anyway.”

She leaned into him, her head on his shoulder and looked out at the breakers beating against the beach. They no longer scared her. Nothing scared her. Not with Dom’s strong arms holding her tight.

“You’re not the only one who screwed up. I’m sorry too.” His soft voice vibrated against her cheek. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the surgery, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I love you. Because I do.”

She wrapped her arms around him, clinging tightly to him. “I love you, too.”

His lips caressed her jawline. Then his mouth was on hers and he kissed her through her tears, tears she couldn’t stem – happy tears that no longer stung.

He licked the salt from her lips and pulled away. “Does Tarquin know?”

She nodded. “I nearly didn’t tell him. I gather it’s normal not to announce a pregnancy to the world until the first trimester’s over, and he could have replaced me. Probably should have replaced me. But he didn’t. I had a long talk with my doctor. She’s confident we can make this work.
I’m
confident I can make this work. But the second unit director is the one in charge of filming the stunts. He’s the person who’ll have the final call on how those scenes get shot. I want that person to be you and Tarquin agreed.”

Dom stroked a finger down her cheek. “And have his producers agreed, too?”

She bit her lip. “We haven’t told them. Tarquin’s sworn to keep our secret until principal photography is well under way. I’d like to keep this between you and me until then.” She smiled. Her first real smile in nearly a week. “And my sister.”

“And my sisters?”

She pretended to debate her answer. “Okay. Maybe even your parents. And your nieces and nephews. But that’s it!” They might as well take out an ad in the
New York Times
.

He slid his hand beneath her blouse, beneath the waistband of her jeans, to rest his splayed fingers over her stomach. “Before I’ll consider Tarquin’s job offer, I have one condition of my own.”

“Oh?” Her breath caught as anxiety bloomed afresh.

He laughed softly and bent his head to kiss the last of her tears away. “You’re going to have to start trusting me.”

This time she didn’t hesitate and she didn’t lie. She’d trusted him to teach her to surf. She could trust him with her heart. “I learned something else these last few days,” she said, smiling up at him. “That thing I thought was a crack in the walls around my heart – it wasn’t a crack. It was a bridge.”

He tumbled her onto her back on the sand, his arms on either side of her head, holding himself off her.

“Was that your condition?” she asked.

He shook his head. “My condition is that if it’s a boy I want to name him Nicholas.”

Her father’s name.

She didn’t give a damn where they were or who could see. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him down on top of her, and kissed him.

Now she knew that what she wanted wasn’t more than he was willing to give, she was never going to let him go. And she never made promises she didn’t keep.

A hot August sun blazed down as they hiked through the scrub to the top of Point Dume. After 17 long weeks of filming across three states, including re-shoots and pick-ups, she’d earned a rest. But instead of giving her a day off to enjoy their first day home, Dom had brought her hiking.

One advantage of trying to keep up with a boyfriend like Dominic Kelly was that she didn’t have to worry about her weight any more. She had to be the fittest pregnant woman in the country.

Nina paused for a sip from her water bottle, though it was more an excuse to catch her breath. She lifted her sun hat to enjoy the refreshing ocean breeze gusting around them and placed her hand on her swollen belly, feeling the sudden flutter of movement she was learning was the baby kicking rather than indigestion. She had no doubt Nick was going to be as active as his father.

“Hurry up,” Dom called from further up the path.

She groaned. “Where’s the fire?” But she started walking again, her hand still on the side of her stomach.

“The tide’s coming in.” Dom grinned back at her. “We probably shouldn’t have stopped for that quickie on the way here.”

She glanced around, but thankfully the elderly couple they’d passed on the way up had moved well out of earshot.

The late afternoon sun slanted down across the sky when they reached the highest point at the very edge of the cliff. The barks of the sea lions drifted up from the rookery below and a blue heron swept past on an updraft. Nina sighed as she took in the panoramic view. The spectacular scenery was well worth the trek up.

“Do you remember the first time I brought you here?” Dom asked.

She held back the hair that whipped across her face and nodded.

“You asked me then how I would propose.”

He stepped aside. She looked down past where he’d stood to the wide sweep of pristine white beach, where a team of people appeared to be raking giant-sized letters into the white sand. It took her a moment to make sense of the etched words.
Marry me?

No wonder he’d been in a hurry. The incoming waves already licked at the edges of the letters. Soon they would be washed away.

Dom knelt down before her on the dirt path. “Does this proposal meet with your approval?”

No audience, no champagne, and no fancy designer clothes. Just a windswept hilltop, the wide-open sea, and sturdy shoes. This proposal beat the last one hands-down.

“Yes, yes it does.”

She smiled. There was also none of that sickening sensation she’d felt in her stomach when Paul proposed. Only joy, so bright, bursting out of her. She’d never been as happy as she was in this moment.

Dom held out his hands to her and she took them, but he didn’t get up. “If you don’t want to live close to the sea, we can find a house inland.”

“But you love seeing the sea first thing when you wake up every morning.”

“I love waking up and seeing you first thing even more. If that means a house in the hills, then so be it.”

God, she loved this man more every day. “You know, I think the sea is growing on me. I rather like the idea of living close to the beach. Somewhere more homely than those soulless mansions in the hills. Perhaps a cute little craftsman cottage in a quiet little walk street, with trendy boutique shops and an alehouse close by. I don’t suppose you know anyone with a place like that?”

He rose and pulled her close, wrapping her in his arms and tucking her head beneath his chin. She closed her eyes and breathed him in, that wild scent that made her feel as if anything was possible. And it was. They’d proved it a thousand times over since that first night he’d brought her here.

“I have just the place in mind. Even comes with a fully stocked kitchen.”

“Oh no!” She pulled away. “I love your family, but tomorrow we’re changing all the locks.”

She’d spent the entire flight home yesterday imagining them alone together in that whirlpool tub in Dom’s master bathroom. Instead, they’d walked into a house full of people. The last visitors had only left after midnight.

Dom grinned. “By the time we get home, the locksmith should be done.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key, tied to a gold ribbon. And also attached to the ribbon was the most beautiful diamond ring she’d ever seen. Half the size of the one Paul had offered her, the white diamond nestled in a cradle of gold petals.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, her eyes misting.

Dom arched an eyebrow at her, waiting.

She hadn’t answered him, she realized. Not the important question, anyway. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Dominic Kelly.”

Also by Romy Sommer…

To Catch A Star

The Trouble with Mojitos

Waking up in Vegas

By day I dress in cargo pants and boots for my not-so-glamorous job of making movies. But at night I come home to my two little Princesses, and we dress up in tiaras and pink tulle … and I get to write Happy Ever Afters. Since I believe every girl is a princess, and every princess deserves a happy ending, what could be more perfect?

www.romysommer.com

@romy_s

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