Not a Fairy Tale

“You’ve left your PA waiting outside?” he asked.

“Of course not! She’s running an errand for me and she’ll be back soon.”

Their food arrived quickly. As he dug into the burger, Nina averted her gaze, but she couldn’t disguise the hungry look she cast his fries.

“Go on,” he said with a quick grin. “You know you want to. Besides, you’re going to need to start bulking up. I’m going to make you work off those calories very quickly.”

Her grin as she leaned forward to steal a single fry off his plate was less movie star and more the Nina he remembered. And her satisfied sigh as she savored the fry was the most sensual thing he’d seen in years.

“Aren’t you…?”

Nina smiled and nodded at the two young women who approached their table.

“Could we have our picture taken with you?” the bolder of the women asked.

Dom took the phone handed to him and snapped a few pictures of them posing with Nina, attempting to look as cozy as best friends. By the time the women finally removed themselves, his burger was cold. And Nina had stopped casting lustful glances at his fries. She turned back to him with a half smile. “And that is why I don’t leave home in sweatpants. So when do we start my training?”

“As soon as we’ve eaten and I’m sure you’re not going to pass out from lack of sustenance I’m going to put you through some paces to test your fitness and agility.”

“I have a personal trainer and I work out every day in the gym at my complex. And I used to be a cheerleader in school.” Her smile oozed confidence, but she sounded defensive.

“Sweetheart, that has to have been at least ten years ago. No offence, but I need to know what I’m working with now. And just because you push weights with some gym bunny in an expensive health club does not make you fit.”

He scanned her body, or at least what was visible above the tabletop. She was in good shape and clearly worked out, but she didn’t have the build of an athlete. For what he’d require from her, she needed core body strength, not legs that would look good blown up on a movie theatre screen.

“I won’t be as easy on you as your trainer,” Dom warned. “I’ll expect a hundred per cent commitment from you. I’m going to make you work and I don’t want to hear any complaints.”

She smiled, full of genuine confidence now. “I won’t complain.”

Several hours later she wished she hadn’t said she wouldn’t complain. Dominic had taken her on his motorbike to a training facility up in the hills, and he’d put her through a commando obstacle course. He’d made her run, crawl through dark tunnels, climb ropes and a series of increasingly steeper and higher barriers, swing across a ravine and jump from a height into a bed of mats.

Her legs and arms ached, she’d scratched her shins, and she wanted to cry from the way her breath tore through her throat. The sun baked down. She was over-hot and dripping with sweat. And there was still one more obstacle to go.

Dom kept pace beside her as she ran as hard as she could up the slope. She didn’t want to imagine how she looked: red-faced, panting, with her hair matted to her face and her t-shirt plastered to her skin. They crested the low hill and Nina baulked at the sight below her.

“You know how to swim?” Dom asked. He had no right to look so clean and able to breath. He hadn’t even broken a sweat.

She nodded. “Swimming pools, yes. But that…”

“That” was an oversized pond. No, it was too wide and too deep to be called a pond, too stagnant to be called a river. And the smell…

Memories she didn’t want hurled themselves at her. She swallowed the gag reflex.

“Showers and cold drinks are on the other side,” Dom said. “I’ll meet you at the clubhouse.” He pointed to the wooden building on the far side.

And then he was gone, jogging away from her with a backward wave and a grin she would have loved to wipe off his face.

She looked back at the water obstacle that lay before her. Fear gripped her stomach and again the gag reflex choked her. After several hours of torment, she no longer felt like sassy, confident Nina Alexander. She felt like the scared, plump kid she’d been in that other life so long ago.

Not just scared. Fear squeezed her chest. She sagged to the ground and eyed the water.

She didn’t need to shoot in water for the movie. Well, there was one scene in the third book… she swallowed. But that’s what stunt doubles were paid for.

She could call Dom back – tell him she couldn’t do this. And she could call this whole stupid thing off and go back to playing the rom-com princess.

She could, but she wouldn’t. She hauled herself up onto shaking legs. Then, drawing in a deep breath and closing her eyes, she jumped.

The water wasn’t as deep as she’d expected. It only reached to chest height. And at least it was cool, unlike that choking, merciless water she remembered. She began to wade. Water weeds caught at her, wrapping around her legs. Panic set in as she struggled against them. But they only gripped tighter.

She couldn’t breathe.

Survival rule #1: don’t panic. Her father had told her this years ago when she’d climbed too high up a tree and gotten stuck on a branch that had cracked beneath her weight. He’d talked her down, slowly, calmly.

She stopped fighting. Tears burned against her eyelids as the old memory choked her even more than the weeds. Survival rule, my ass. Fat lot of good it had done him.

She tried to move again, but the tangled weeds still held her tight. Trapped.

The tears threatened to spill over. Who was she kidding? She couldn’t do this.

She looked for Dom, but he was far away, circling the dam, not looking her way. She tried to shout for him, but the tears clogged her throat and all she managed was a whimper.

The black spots were back, dancing before her eyes.

I can do this. She breathed deeply to calm the surge of fear and panic. I won’t cry. He mustn’t see me cry.

When she no longer saw black spots before her eyes, she held her breath and dived down to yank the strangling weeds off her legs. It took three dives to finally free herself, then she pushed up to the surface and began to swim, slowly, careful to keep close to the surface to avoid the tangling weeds that still seemed to reach out to her with their greasy tentacles.

Her already aching muscles protested with every stroke, but she pushed forward, keeping her gaze locked on the distant building that slowly, slowly grew nearer.

Just another few feet, another stroke… on the far bank she dragged herself out and lay panting in the dry, prickly grass. The relief was so great she wanted to cry. She’d done it. She’d actually crossed it and it hadn’t killed her.

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