Free Not a Fairy Tale: HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance by Romy Sommer

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.
    She wasn’t that weak, frightened little girl anymore.
    Dom’s shadow fell over her. He held out an outstretched arm to pull her up and she took it gratefully. She didn’t know if she could have stood on her own. Her legs shook so much from the unaccustomed strain, and just a little bit of terror.
    “How did I do?” she asked as they headed towards the clubhouse and she finally found her voice again.
    “In six weeks I want to see you do it in half the time,” he said.
    “Does that mean I’m trainable?”
    He nodded, and this time she did cry, a few hot tears leaking down her dirt-stained face. Whether they were tears of joy or fear, she had no idea. She had to do this again in a few weeks? What had she signed up for?
    She was so thirsty that she downed the tall glass of water Dom handed her in a minute flat. His eyes crinkled as he watched her. When she was done, she wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve. Though the movement probably added even more grime to her face.
    “What the hell are you doing?” she asked as he took out his cell phone and snapped a picture.
    He grinned. “I want to remember this moment. This might well be the first time I’ve seen an A-list actress covered in dirt and mud she actually earned.”
    “If that picture ever appears on the net, my people will hunt you down and kill you.” But she said it with a laugh. He was right. The only time she’d ever been this dirty, the dirt had been painted onto her by a make-up artiste. It had taken nearly as long to paint on as it had just taken her to do the obstacle course.
    And the only time she’d felt this liberated, this powerful… actually, she couldn’t even remember ever feeling this high. She’d done it. She’d faced one of her oldest fears.
    “Anything else to drink?” Dom asked, raising his hand to summon the grizzled older man behind the serving hatch.
    Nina nodded. “I’m going to live dangerously. You can make my next one a beer. But I need that shower first.” Though she doubted one shower would be enough to get the mud out of her hair.
    The shower only had cold water and no shampoo, but at least she was a little more presentable when she returned to the bar area. Dom’s eyes glinted as she slid onto the chair across from him. Was that admiration in his gaze?
    Great! If only she’d known the way to attract his attention was to submit to torture, humiliation, and terror she wouldn’t have wasted all that effort trying to flirt with him during the filming of
Pirate’s Revenge
.
    The beer not only slaked her thirst, it eased a little of the stiffness already setting into her muscles. “So what’s next?” she asked.
    “Next I take you home.” His mouth curved upwards in that suggestive half-smile that made her stomach flip.
    She straddled the bike behind Dom as he revved the engine. She had to shout her address into his ear over its roar. Then she hung on tight as he headed back toward town. It was already growing dark when they wove through the streets of West Hollywood and into the tree-lined avenue where she lived.
    “This is where you live?” Dom helped