Chapter Three

Kaiden

"You're not hitting me hard enough."

"I don't want to hit you at all!" Laura cries, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation. "Honestly, Kaiden. This is ridiculous."

"Do you want to be an action star or not, princess?"

"This isn't action. This is…is…insane," she splutters in outrage, her cheeks pink with exertion.

I fight a smile. Fuck, she's sexy when she's pissed.

Her eyes narrow on me, her hands landing on her wide hips. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"You're wearing a sports bra." I rake my gaze over her curvy body, hot and slow. "You're sweating. I've had you pinned to the mat beneath me. You bit me. Twice. Fuck yeah, I'm enjoying every minute of this." I stalk toward her, grunting when she takes a step back and then visibly checks herself. "There isn't a single fucking part of this that isn't doing a number on my cock right now."

"Kaiden," she groans. "You're incorrigible."

"I'm honest."

She snorts, shaking her head. She can't hide her smile or those deadly dimples, though. My little star may think she's fooling me, but I've spent every waking moment of the last few days obsessing over her. Hell, I've spent every sleeping moment obsessing about her too. She loves the way I tell her exactly what I think without holding back.

With her, there is no other option. The truth just spills out. I have no control over it. That's just what she does to me. She has no fucking clue how completely she owns me. It's been a matter of days, and already, I'm utterly obsessed with her. Everything she does fascinates me. I'm falling for her. Hard.

I don't fucking deserve her, but I'm falling anyway. We've spent every moment together since Thanksgiving. Being with her is effortless. I don't find myself eager to escape into the shadows. I'm not crawling out of my skin around her. She doesn't stare at me like I'm a goddamn freak of nature or somehow beneath her. She looks at me like I hung the damn moon just for her.

It's not an act, either. When I touch her, she goes up in flames for me. My little star can't keep her hands off me. We've fucked like rabbits all over her house, and we're still not satisfied. I've already been late to work twice because I can't keep my dick out of her long enough to get there on time.

"I don't want to hit you," she mutters, lifting her gaze to mine.

"Why not?"

"Because you matter." Her earnest green eyes make my heart pulse. "Because…because it's cruel, Kaiden. You aren't even trying to defend yourself."

"Princess." I bite back an amused smile. She's so goddamn cute when she's upset on my behalf. It's been a long time since anyone felt that way about me. Shit, I can't even remember the last time it happened. "You aren't going to hurt me."

"I might."

"I can't teach you how to redirect a punch if you won't throw one."

"I did!"

"No, you poked your arm in my general direction."

She scowls at me.

"You hit like a girl, Laura."

"Is that supposed to offend me?"

"I don't know. Is it working?"

"Maybe."

I smile.

She huffs and throws an actual punch, allowing me to redirect her arm at a forty-five-degree angle. I do it carefully, fully aware that I'm about three times her size and could easily hurt her. That's the last thing I want to do. But she wants to learn what I can teach her, and I won't tell her no. Fuck that. Even if she never uses it for a movie, she can use it to defend herself, and that's reason enough to teach her.

"Whoa," she whispers, blinking wide eyes at me. "Do that again."

"But you don't want to hit me," I remind her.

She shoots me a dirty look, making me chuckle.

"Aim right here." I tap my jaw.

She throws the punch, aiming exactly where I pointed. It's cute as hell. She concentrates hard, her brows furrowed and the tip of her tongue peeking from between her lips. I don't think she's ever thrown a punch a day in her life. When she tries, she puts force behind it, though. I deflect it again, pushing her fist away at an angle.

"See what I did?" I ask and then guide her through the steps, showing her how to do the same thing. I reach toward her several times, allowing her to redirect my hand in the same manner.

"Throw a punch," she says, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Uh, fuck no."

"Come on. I can deflect it."

"I'm not fucking throwing a punch at you, princess," I growl, glaring at her. She's lost her damn mind if she thinks that's gonna happen. Hell will literally freeze over first. "We'll practice like this."

"You're no fun."

"This isn't supposed to be fun."

"It was fun when you were pinning me to the mat."

My dick throbs at the reminder. I grab her around the waist, dragging her into my arms to kiss the smirk from her face. She laughs against my lips, wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. I don't pin her to the mat. This time, I pin her to the wall, prying her arms from around my neck to hold them hostage above her head.

She moans, grinding against my erection.

"You don't know how to behave, do you?" I growl, kissing a trail down her throat.

"You love the way I behave," she gasps.

I bury my face in her cleavage, breathing her in. Trying not to fuck her against the wall even though that's exactly what I want to do. I have no restraint around her. As soon as I get my hands on her, nothing else registers. Nothing else matters. She consumes every thought in my head, turns me into a snarling, greedy beast who only wants to fuck and feast and then do it again.

Somehow, I manage to ease off before we get carried away. I press a kiss to her heart and then press my face to her throat, simply holding her. She runs her fingers through my hair, scraping her nails against my scalp.

"This is nice," she whispers after a moment.

"Shit. I'm smothering you."

"No." She tightens her legs around me, trying to keep me where I am when I go to pull back. "Don't move yet. I like when you hold me."

"Good. I like holding you."

"Yeah?" I hear the smile in her voice. "I've never been held before."

I hold her tighter, wrapping her up in the safety of my arms. She'll never be held by anyone else if I have a say. Only by me. Christ, how did she become something so precious, so vital, so quickly? I don't know, but she did. She swept into my life and stole every goddamn piece of my heart.

"Never held anyone before," I murmur against her skin.

"Really? You never dated?"

"Nope."

"Not even before…?"

"I wasn't a saint," I say. "I went on a few dates and did a few things I'm not proud of. But I was never in a relationship."

"Oh," she whispers, her nails still scraping through my hair. "For the record, I never asked for a saint, Kaiden. I'll take a sexy former stuntman any day."

I snort. "The only sexy one here is you."

"Then you need to get your eyes checked."

I shake my head, still baffled that she finds me sexy. I know what I look like, and I sure as hell don't look like the goddess in my arms. Men kill to be close to a woman like her. Women cringe when they're close to a man like me. We are not the same. But she means what she says. I don't doubt her for a minute.

"My eyesight is fine, princess." I pull back to look at her. "It wasn't damaged at all."

Her gaze flits across my face. "I want to ask about that day," she whispers, biting her bottom lip. "But I don't want to push you to talk about it."

"I'll tell you anything you want to know. I don't have any secrets from you, Laura." The time for those is long passed. Shit, I think it passed the second she drew me out of the shadows on day one. "There isn't much to it. The director tried to talk the lead actor's underage sister into a compromising relationship, and she finally confessed what was happening. He snapped when he saw the things this motherfucker was sending her." I swallow hard, forcing back memories. "Damen drove his truck through the director's trailer. He didn't know I was inside."

"Oh my god." Tears of distress well in her eyes.

"I was pinned beneath the truck when the trailer caught on fire. Once Damen realized I was in there, he waded in and dragged me out. He never intended for me to be hurt." I brush tears from beneath Laura's eyes. "No one on set blamed him. I certainly didn't."

"That's why you let everyone believe it was a stunt gone wrong," she says.

I nod. "Damen didn't deserve a prison sentence for what he did. He didn't know I was in that trailer. Hell, I'm not even convinced he thought the director was in his trailer. He was just trying to protect his sister from a fucking monster. Had it been me, I would have done the same fucking thing." Shit, had it been me, I think I would have mowed his ass down right there on set. Men like that…well, they aren't worthy of the goddamn name. They're monsters, not men.

"Oh, Kaiden." Laura throws her arms around me in a fierce hug, her shoulders shaking as she cries quietly.

"Don't cry for me, princess. It was a long time ago."

She jerks her head up, her cheeks wet with tears, her eyes hot with emotion. "I'll cry for you if I want to, Kaiden Huxley," she says, her bottom lip quivering as more tears spill down her perfect cheeks. "You're worthy of being cried over."

"Fuck," I whisper, closing my eyes as a swell of emotion chokes me. Does she even know what she's doing to me? How quickly she's becoming the center of my entire world? She deserves so much better than me—God knows she does—and yet…and yet I'd kill to keep her anyway.

"I want something," she whispers.

"Anything."

Her watery gaze flits across my face, her expression hesitant. "I want you to spend Christmas with me." Her teeth sink into her bottom lip. "Please? It's my favorite time of year, and my parents are on a cruise this year."

The holiday is a few weeks away, but her house is already covered in Christmas shit. I don't even own a stocking. I haven't celebrated Christmas in…shit, not since my dad passed away fifteen years ago. When you're alone, there isn't much to celebrate. Since the accident, there's been even less than that. Truthfully, the whole holiday tends to remind me of how things used to be, which pisses me off. There is no magic in the world. At least there never has been for me.

"Please," she whispers.

Fuck. I can't tell her no. Not with those big, hopeful green eyes on me.

"Yeah," I mutter gruffly. "I'll spend Christmas with you."

Her eyes light up with happiness, stealing my breath.

Christ. If there is magic in the world, I'm pretty sure it's here in my arms. This little star is my magic. She's my Christmas wish.

For the first time since the accident, I pray.

Please, God, let me be strong enough to deserve her. Teach me to be gentle enough to love her. Help me be good enough to keep her.