“I don’t even want to kiss you!”
What had she been thinking? Brad was the wrong man for her. He was a distraction.
A damned good-looking distraction, but still.
He rose, a tall stone sentry in the darkness. “Sure seemed like you wanted to kiss me a second ago.”
“You imagined that.”
“So if I kissed you right now, you’d hate it?”
“I’d probably slap you.” She could lie with the best of them. If he did kiss her, she didn’t know what she’d do, but slapping him wasn’t anywhere near what her body had in mind.
“Then there’s only one thing to do,” he said, taking a step closer, to her coming within an inch of her mouth. His gaze flicked from her eyes to her lips and then back to her eyes. “Stay the hell away from each other.” His face hardened, then he walked away.
Her Frog Prince
Shirley Jump
To my son, whose fascination with all things slimy and messy has made my life…interesting. You make me laugh more than anyone I’ve ever known and I wish I could bottle these days with my little boy forever. I love you, messes and all.
SHIRLEY JUMP
has been a writer ever since she learned to read. She sold her first article at the age of eleven and from there, became a reporter and finally a freelance writer. However, she always maintained the dream of writing fiction, too. Since then, she has made a full-time career out of writing, dividing her time between articles, nonfiction books and romance. With a husband, two children and a houseful of pets, inspiration abounds in her life, giving her good fodder for writing and a daily workout for her sense of humor.
The Tale of Her Frog Prince
Once upon a time a princess lost her golden ball down a deep, cool well. She cried as she heard it splash down below. She loved her ball and would give anything to have it rescued. That’s when a frog popped up to offer his help.
The frog said, “If you will love me and take me home with you I will bring your ball back.”
Thinking the stupid and ugly frog would have to stay in the water, the princess readily agreed. “I promise.”
But when the frog retrieved her ball, she hugged it to her chest and ran home, forgetting her promise—until the next day, when the frog came to her house. She slammed the door on him and tried to put him out of her mind. But her father insisted she honor her vow to the frog. Though she was horrified and afraid of the wart-covered frog, she knew she must obey her father.
In her heart, however, she was bitter and angry. When they reached the bedroom she threw him against the wall. “Leave me alone, ugly frog!”
But with her action he became a handsome prince, and she gladly agreed to keep her promise.
From the Brothers Grimm
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Prologue
Merry Montrose sat on the deck of Lady’s Delight, the small cruise boat owned by La Torchere Resort and Spa, and tried not to look miserable. Being an old lady was getting to be, well…old. The curse her godmother Lissa had put on her seven years ago was nearly over, thank goodness. All she had to do was serve as matchmaker to three more couples. So far, she’d put eighteen together; surely, three more should be a cinch. Then she could go back to being twenty-nine-year-old Princess Meredith of Silestia and kiss this old-lady life—and the clunky shoes that came with it—goodbye.
Today, with the horrendous heat, Lissa’s spell seemed especially onerous. The air was sticky and thick, the kind of weather that made her wish it would just rain and get it over with.
Merry had gotten on the boat early, to make sure she got the biggest, best and comfiest deck chair. As the resort manager, she should have deferred to a guest, but she did, after all, deserve the good chair, being a member of the elder set. Anyone who looked at her crone-like face and wrinkled skin would think she was at least…well, she didn’t want to think about how old she looked. That kind of thought did nothing but depress her.
She glanced down at her vein-mapped legs and age-spotted hands and bit back a sigh. Soon. Soon she’d be her young self again and the only wrinkles she’d have would be in her favorite linen suit.
If the heat didn’t kill her first. Once the boat got moving, the ocean breeze would cool her down and take her mind off the fact that she had only a few weeks until her thirtieth birthday. If she didn’t finagle three more happily-ever-afters, she’d be stuck in this crone body forever.
Merry had been forced to leave the kingdom of Silestia where her family—the royal family—lived and relocate to this island in southwest Florida. Once upon a time, she’d been a corporate lawyer. Now, without her résumé, her looks or her money, she’d had to talk herself into this job as resort manager at La Torchere Resort and Spa.
Well, she’d worked a little magic along the way, too. Thank God for that Bessart Family perk. Then Lissa had gone and followed Merry here, getting a job as Lilith Peterson, the concierge. Probably so she could make sure Merry stuck to the conditions of the curse: No telling who she really was. No overt magic. And no return to her old life until she helped along twenty-one happily-ever-afters before she turned thirty. Now Lissa had added a twist—she wanted Merry to work this happy ending without the aid of any magic at all. She’d accused Merry of using it as a crutch. Well, what did Lissa expect? Merry was walking around in the body of a member of the elder set. She needed all the help she could get.
She really needed to get Lissa a hobby so her godmother would stop interfering with Merry’s life and quit this lesson-teaching thing. All it did was make her joints ache.
Finally the resort guests began boarding the boat. The last one on—and in three-inch pink Prada heels no less—was Parris Hammond. They’d attended the same college together years ago, back when Merry had been Princess Meredith. Parris had arrived a few weeks ago to help with the resort’s charity auction coming up soon and had been a thorn in Merry’s existence ever since.
Parris the Princess. Parris the Persnickety. Parris the Annoying.
She’d run out of “P” words, but she had quite a few left from other letters of the alphabet to describe the former debutante.
A lot had changed for Merry in the years since college, but from what she’d seen of Parris lately, not much had changed for—or about—her former classmate.
Parris took a menu from the cook’s assistant as she stepped into the boat and immediately let out a sharp sound of disapproval. “I cannot believe the catered lunch for this cruise is nothing more than tea and a bunch of garden vegetables between two slices of bread.”
The skinny sous-chef looked like he wished he’d stayed belowdecks instead of greeting passengers. “Ma’am, I assure you, the chef’s portabello and artichoke sandwiches are a delight. They’ll be quite filling.”