Read The Movie Star's Red Hot Holiday Fling: A novella (Entangled Indulgence) (Sweetbriar Springs) for Free Online Page A

up your sister’s wedding arrangements?”
    His pulse drummed in his ears. She was so adorable when she was flustered. “I’m paying for it.” Blake refused to take “no” for an answer. “Shouldn’t be a problem to add your plate to the tab.”
    “I’m on kitchen duty that night.”
    “Jessie, I’m sure your mom will let you come out and play.”
    “I suppose.”
    A hint of hopeful expectation danced alongside her hesitation. Would she ever believe that the only thing he saw standing in front of him was a tight, sexy-as-hell, gorgeous package?
    There was one way for her to find out how much he wanted to unwrap her, layer by sexy layer.
    Show her.
    He pressed his lips against her delicate ear. “We’ll skip our workout tomorrow morning. You’ll need time to get ready, ’cause it’ll be a long night.”
    He saw the hairs on her nape rise. Heard her sudden intake of breath. “How long?” she whispered.
    “As long as you want it to be,” he answered.
    “And afterward?”
    “I’m sure we’ll think of ways to fill the time.” Blake nibbled her earlobe. “We should make the most of every minute.”

Chapter Five
    “Fits perfectly.” Jessie’s mother finished hooking the eyelet at the back of the strapless, midnight blue dress with a beaded bodice, each stone a different hue. “You’re beautiful.”
    Jessie smoothed her hands down the shimmering skirt. She didn’t recognize the woman reflected in the mirror, nor the luminous glow that seemed to come from somewhere deep within her. “When Blake promised he’d take care of everything, he wasn’t kidding.” She scoped all the boxes and bags that had been delivered to her family’s living quarters at dawn.
    Her mom held up a shoebox. “You ready to put these on?”
    Jessie checked the contents again. Sandals any red-blooded woman would covet were nestled inside the protective tissue. She lifted one out, and the heel had just enough height to accentuate the curve of her calves. Caressing the sweep of satin, playing with the beadwork at the ankle, she sighed. “I do love them.”
    “Hurry up, Cinderella.” Her sister Hannah popped into Jessie’s bedroom. “Your date’s getting antsy. After all, he’s giving the bride away.”
    The entire day had been like a strange fairy tale told in fast forward with no time to press pause. From the minute she’d accepted Blake’s request to join him at the wedding, he’d catapulted into full-on action. First they had Skyped Constanza with the news about his walk-on role in the next Quinn Sawyer movie. Then Blake called in his stylists and arranged for Jessie to have a complete makeover.
    Though this date was only part of a casual fling, she didn’t dare deny the fantasy. Not to her mother. Not to her sister. And not to herself.
    For months she’d been a shadow of herself, her injuries making her feel like a monster held together by stitches, pins, tape, scars. But with her cropped hair professionally styled into a chic short sweep across her brow, her face polished by a makeup artist’s deft technique, and the long open slit in her designer dress revealing her left leg to perfection, she kept wanting to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Blake had given her butterfly wings and enough pixie dust to soar.
    Reality didn’t have a place in this room. Not even if it loomed in the near future.
    She spread her arms, twirled, then wiggled into the sexy designer sandals. “And they fit like a dream,” Jessie said, smiling at her sister and mom.
    They grinned back. Something loosened inside Jessie’s chest, drifted out of her heart, and welled up behind her eyes. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a pill.” Her voice wavered.
    “Don’t cry, or you’ll ruin your makeup,” her mom said with an answering sheen of emotion in her gaze.
    “Just don’t turn back into a badass pumpkin.” Hannah crossed the room to spritz some of her homemade body spray on Jessie’s shoulders.
    The aroma of