by Jessica Grey
A soft sound interrupted her rapid thoughts. She wasn’t alone. She had been so entranced by the bed itself that she hadn’t noticed there was someone actually on it—sleeping on it, in fact.
At first Alex thought the sleeping figure, like the bed, was covered with fine cobwebs. As she looked closer she saw that it wasn’t cobwebs draping over the figure but hair – foot after foot of sandy-colored hair streamed from the sleeper’s head and over its face and body, moving gently as the figure breathed in and out. The hair wasn’t growing just out of the sleeper’s head, but from the face as well–a beard that would have done Rip Van Winkle proud flowed down to well past the knees. And that is when she figured out that she didn’t have a sleeping beauty on her hands, but an enchanted sleeping man.
As she stared at the figure in shock, trying to calculate how long it would take for that much hair to grow, the sleeping man emitted a soft snore. Alex jumped back at the quiet sound, trying to stifle her slightly hysterical giggles. She may not know much about fairytales, but she was pretty sure that enchanted sleeping princes weren’t supposed to snore.
“Holy crap!” Alex whispered, almost as if it were a prayer, under her breath.
She slid her backpack off, set it down quietly by the door, and walked slowly toward the bed. As she got closer she had a flashback of creeping into her mother’s room after having a nightmare as a child—that moment of indecision. The desire to wake up her mother for comfort weighed against the fear of startling her mom out sleep and thereby scaring herself even more. She wasn’t sure at all that she wanted to wake up this sleeper. She was thankful that the floor of the storage room had quieted the squeaking of her shoes as she crept up to the bed.
She knew that the smart, sensible thing to do would be to turn around and run out of the room, report the whole thing to Nicholas or the police, whoever answered their phone first. Alex could usually be counted on to do the smart, sensible thing, but for some reason she felt almost physically incapable of turning around and leaving. Whether it was the bed, or the sleeper in it, something was drawing her in.
As she reached the edge of the bed she took a steadying breath and looked down. Under the masses of slightly curling dark blond hair, she could see the sleeper’s chest rising and falling in a slight, but steady, rhythm. She wasn’t sure why—maybe the cobwebs and the masses of hair gave the appearance of great age, but she had expected the sleeper to be frail and fragile looking. Yet the breadth of his shoulders and chest surprised her. Now that she was closer, she could tell he was actually quite tall. He took up most of the bed, which was oversized to start with.
“Um, hello?” She cleared her throat and started again. “Are you going to wake up?” She leaned over and continued in a stage whisper, “Who are you? Why are you here?”
There was no response, other than the quiet, steady breathing.
She screwed up all of her courage and poked the sleeper in the chest with her index finger, immediately jumping back in anticipated response.
Nothing.
She clapped her hand over her wildly beating heart and almost laughed.
“I’m going to give myself a heart attack!” she muttered under her breath, leaning back over the sleeping figure. “Curiosity killed the Alex...Oh, Mr. Enchanted Person...” She poked again at his chest a few times. “At least I assume you’re enchanted there’s really no other explanation for hair like this...” she trailed off mid-poke as a memory flickered through her mind. A memory of almost-curly, sandy-colored hair, the sun flickering through the strands as he looked down and laughed at her.
“Oh my god.” Alex flattened her hand against the sleeper’s chest, her palm against the compact, corded muscles.
“Oh my god,” she repeated, as she began frantically brushing the hair out of the sleeper’s face. It was tangled with his beard, and her frenzied, grasping hands fought with it for a moment before she was able to brush it off of his face.
Alex’s world rocked on its axis. Not just her world, but the room was rocking too. The floor and ceiling began to swirl together, and almost switched places.
I am not going to faint. I am not going to faint. Alex thought to herself. I am not going to faint.
Slowly, the room righted itself, but her world was still horribly upside down.
The sleeper was Luke Reed.
*****
We hope you enjoyed this sample of
Awake: A Fairytale by Jessica Grey
The full book is available for purchase
in either ebook or paperback format
on Amazon.com
eBook:
http://www.amazon.com/Awake-Fairytale-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B0075WO1Q0/
Paperback:
http://www.amazon.com/Awake-A-Fairytale-Jessica-Grey/dp/0985039612/
For more information on the Fairytale Trilogy please visit
www.fairytaletrilogy.com
About the Author
Jessica Grey is an author, fairytale believer, baseball lover, and recovering Star Wars fangirl. A life-long Californian, she now lives in Montana with her husband and two children, where she spends her time writing, perfecting the fine art of toddler-wrangling, and drinking way too much caffeine.
You can follow Jessica on Twitter @_JessicaGrey or read her blog at www.authorjessicagrey.com.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Information
Dedication
View From the Tower: Captive
View From the Tower: Longing
View From the Tower: Hope
Chasing Storms
The Price of Beauty
Oh My Fairy Godmother
In Her Service
Mountain Rose
Down the Rabbit Hole
Magical Spell Support
Red
Awake: A Fairytale
About the Author
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Information
Dedication
View From the Tower: Captive
View From the Tower: Longing
View From the Tower: Hope
Chasing Storms
The Price of Beauty
Oh My Fairy Godmother
In Her Service
Mountain Rose
Down the Rabbit Hole
Magical Spell Support
Red
Awake: A Fairytale
About the Author
