Page 143 of Fame And Secrets

He buried his nose in my hair and inhaled. “What’s that?

“My hero.”

He chuckled softly. “When we first met, you told me you didn’t need a hero.”

“I don’t. I need you. You just happen to be one of those anti-heroes. And I’ve always had a thing for a reluctant good guy.” He answered by pulling me close and burying his beard in my neck.

Life never plays out the way you envisioned.

As a little girl, I had this image in my mind of marrying a prince. He’d gallop up on his mighty horse and whisk me away to a castle by the sea, where he’d slay all the dragons and lay the world at my feet.

Instead, I married a rock star. He drove up in his Laguna Blue Corvette and whisked me away to a beach house in the Hollywood Hills, where he ensured my father faded from my nightmares and laid the world at my feet.

Then again…maybe it plays out exactly the way it’s supposed to.

Life was funny that way.

I turned out the light and snuggled closer, thanking god for missed interviews, mysterious flower deliveries, undeserved album release assignments, coerced ghostwriting jobs, failed birth control, even mentally unstable stalkers, and murderous paternal figures. All of it shaped the people we’d become and the people we’d grow to be…the people we’d raise our children to be.

And maybe, just maybe, we wouldn’t screw up too much along the way.

But even if we did, life with Julian taught me an important lesson.

Life could dole out some pretty shitty things. If you let it, it could eat you alive and swallow you down until you shriveled into nothing. But if you could learn to keep treading water…keep your head high enough to still breathe air, some kind of amazing may find you while you’re busy kicking to stay afloat.

And once he’s found you, he won’t let go.

No matter what you do.

Because you’re his princess.

***

Bad boy Zane Tierney let the woman he never knew he always wanted slip through his fingers. But what lengths will he go to in order to protect her from self-destruction?

Will he sacrifice everything he’s worked for and, in the end, trade his life for hers?