by Taylor Hart
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
The Love Potion Groom
Movie Star Romances
Taylor Hart
Contents
Copyright
Also by Taylor Hart
Foreword by Tamarah Bartmess
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
The Tough Love Groom
The Second Chance Groom
Also by Taylor Hart
About the Author
Copyright
All rights reserved.
© 2018 ArchStone Ink
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. The reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form whether electronic, mechanical or other means, known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written consent of the publisher and/or author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This edition is published by ArchStone Ink LLC.
First eBook Edition: 2018
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the creation of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Also by Taylor Hart
Bachelor Billionaire Romances
The Country Groom
The Unfinished Groom
The Barefoot Groom
The Masquerading Groom
The Christmas Groom
Rescue Me: Park City Firefighter Romance (A Bachelor Billionaire Companion)
The Lost Groom
The Undercover Groom
The Last Play Series
Last Play
The Rookie
Just Play
A Player for Christmas
Second String
End Zone
Hail Mary
Snow Valley Series
A Christmas in Snow Valley: The Christmas Eve Kiss
Summer in Snow Valley: First Love
Spring in Snow Valley: The Bet
Foreword by Tamarah Bartmess
Have you ever had a friendship grow into something you never expected it to be?
In 2010, I moved to a new state, not knowing anyone in my area. Taylor and I connected through our church family and I could immediately tell I was going to like her!
She was someone who was looking for a way to use her gifts and talents to bring something special to this world. She was constantly seeking for ways to help develop herself and think differently and more abundantly.
One of the coolest things about Taylor is that she writes clean romance novels. I have read a few of her books and they are like “Book Candy” for their ability to bring a perfect level of sweetness and escape from the doldrums of life.
Recently, we began talking and conjured up an idea that she could write a Love Potion Romance and I could write a Love Potion Recipe Book. How FUN!
I hope that you will fall in love with B.C Knight and Kira as they discover true love with a little help from some Love Potions.
Tamarah Bartmess
Chapter 1
B.C. Knight walked into the quaint dance club in downtown St. George, Utah unsure what he expected to find. Two of his security guys pretended friendship and flanked him, but kept it cool. The place was packed, which, truthfully, could go well or horribly wrong for him. It just depended on how many clubbers recognized him. Grateful it was already past ten-thirty, he walked in, keeping a low profile, and headed straight to the bar.
He was here to check into a drug rehab facility tomorrow, a thirty day, court-mandated stint. His agent was threatening to drop him if he didn’t get his act together. Even though he really wouldn’t because B.C. made him way too much money. He wanted a good time tonight, his last night before being committed to the rehab facility. B.C. looked around and saw an open seat, right at the end of the bar next to a pretty girl.
The girl was talking to the bartender and he could already see as he got closer, it wasn’t an intense flirtation. No, it looked very friendly and cordial. He even noticed how the girl had this…sweetness about her. She looked like she was sincerely laughing.
Goodness, sweetness, laughing, he could use that humor. Especially tonight, after all, he’d told himself this would be his last big hurrah, ever. Well, definitely the last one for a month. It felt like he was always telling himself this was the last night. For partying. For taking the pills. For…all other destructive things.
Unfortunately, recently this untruth had led to a traffic accident and an innocent woman getting injured. Then his agent had to scramble to keep the DUI out of the press because, according to his agent, he was about to play in the biggest movie of his life…if he could ‘keep his head down and put in his time.’
In the darkest recesses of his mind, he didn’t like keeping his sins out of the press. He didn’t like being here and going to some spa to talk about his troubles, Of course, he’d never tried rehab. Hadn’t had to, hadn’t been forced to until now. He was positive the whole touchy feely part of it wouldn’t suit him.
B.C. was, at heart, a military guy. He’d been in Hollywood the past six years. Somehow, he’d been chosen and plucked out of obscurity, when he’d tried out for a cologne commercial to help pay the rent. Next thing he knew, he’d found himself landing in a whole series of Raced and Wrecked, movies about fast cars and mafia and the FBI. He had a knack for it.
He was built for it. His passion was bodybuilding and running. It’d been easy to do when he was in the line of fire as an infantry guy and even easier when he’d come back to nothing and decided he wanted to make something of himself. Two tours in Afghanistan, seeing all the crap in the world made Hollywood living look easy.
His mother had been proud of him. His father had passed. He was grateful he’d been able to buy Mama the Malibu home she’d always wanted. Too bad his mother had let the money go to her head. He clenched his hand into a fist and tried not to think of the latest loser, pool guy husband she’d married in Vegas last week.
As he sat at on a barstool the bartender noticed him “Hey man.” The bartender was tall, blond. “What can I get for you?”
First, B.C. popped the pill bottle lid inside his jacket and looked around the bar, trying to make sure no one noticed. He had a couple more pain pills. He’d received a knee injury in battle, and then re-injured it about six months ago. The old wound wasn’t the problem anymore, B.C. knew that. Originally, the pills had made
it possible to finish shooting the film, then they’d become a bad habit.
He pulled the pill into his fingers and stared back at the bartender, flashing him his movie star smile. “Shot of whisky please, and a mimosa for fun." He still had his sunglasses on and kept his head down. The two security guys with him stayed close. One stood on his right side and the other behind him, acting chill, swaying to the music.
Out of nowhere, the girl next to him slid over and whispered, “Better get the pill out of your pocket and take it.”
In a flash, he pulled his sunglasses off and stared into the most snarky green eyes he’d ever seen. Eyes that taunted and caught his jig but most of all eyes that saw him. He searched them and found them rough, full of emotion. “Who are you?”
She may have looked like she was having fun a few seconds ago, but right now she looked a little bit lit up herself. She was flushed. Dang, she was pretty. Her blonde hair was short with curly waves, and looked a bit out of the nineties. How much teasing was going on here?
“Take your pill,” she challenged. “You need the escape, right?”
He didn’t like that she knew this, so he did what he always did, distracted. “Honey, where would you go if you could go anywhere?”
For a second she didn’t answer, and then she looked confused. “What?”
“Anywhere?” He pointed at her. “In the world.”
She leaned back, taking in a breath. “You’re going to pay for it?”
He laughed. “Of course.” Yes, the distraction was working.
She let out a rippling laugh. “Fine, Movie Star. I’d go to Paris.” She turned to her glass of lemon water and circled it lightly with her forefinger. “It’s where Nana always wanted to go but never did.”
His heart clutched. Nana. Her grandmother? “Well, then you should go.” Taking his phone out, he pulled up his Delta app. “Let’s get your ticket booked.”
She looked at his phone then scoffed. “Really? Just like that?”
He nodded and pushed it to her. “Put in your details and you’ll have a ticket.” And she would. He’d done this many times at different bars in various places.
She held his gaze, and then pointed at the bartender. “Could I buy my cousin a ticket too?”
Cousin. Well, that sounded better than boyfriend. He flashed a smile. “You bet.”
She looked at his phone, then back to him. “Is this what you do? Buy everyone off, Movie Star?”
This, he hadn’t expected. It actually kind of jolted him out of his movie star numbness. He turned and slipped the pill into his mouth, not waiting for water.
She let out a sigh. “There ya go.”
He turned back to her. She was looking at the bottom of her lemon water, definitely playing forlorn.
The dreadlock, bartender was back.
She flashed a grin at B.C. “Hey, Cuz, this movie star idiot says he’ll send us both to Paris if that’s what we want.”
“Really?” Her cousin looked him up and down then flashed a smile back to the girl. “What did you do—let him smell some of Nana’s love potion?”
She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Kevin, c’mon, don’t bring up Nana like that.”
Kevin was back with a whiskey, plunking it down in front of B.C. “B.C. Knight. The Raced and Wrecked movies.” Kevin flashed another grin. “I love those movies.”
The girl let out a sad pfft. “I hate those movies.”
This made him take even more note of the girl. It wasn’t a common thing for someone to tell him they didn’t like his movies. He frowned at her.
She smiled like she knew exactly what she was doing.
Kevin tapped the counter in front of him. “You okay, dude?”
There it was. The extra attention usually felt off-putting, but this guy acted like he actually cared. For a flash of a second, he didn’t like it and didn’t like that there was clearly something going on with this chick and him.
“Fine.” He slugged the drink back and jammed it down, hating and loving the feel of whiskey burning down his throat. “I want to buy you both tickets.” The need to do it was overwhelming. Make her see that he could do it.
The guy she’d called Kevin lifted his chin a notch. “Thanks, but we gotta take care of some stuff here. No Paris for us.”
The girl swung her gaze back to B.C. “Yeah, do you know what it’s like to have someone you love die?”
He was caught off guard by the question.
She shook her head and he noticed her eyes looked very bloodshot. They misted with emotion. "‘Cause it sucks.”
He thought of the way she’d said her Nana would want to go. “I’m sorry.”
She let out a dithering laugh and glowered at him. “Yeah,” she looked away. “I’m sorry, too. Do you know who’s not sorry? My boyfriend.” She gave B.C an accusing look. “Oh, he couldn’t make it to Nana’s funeral because he’s in Africa saving the world.”
B.C. gathered that she was a tad bitter.
Kevin put his hand over hers. “Kira, do you want me to call an Uber to take you home?”
Yanking her hand back she shook her head. “No.”
“Is she drunk?” he asked Kevin.
She only had water in front of her.
Letting out a loud laugh, she turned to him. “Drunk? You think I’m drunk?” She sputtered and then fell into hysterical laughter. She looked crazy, that’s how she looked. “I don’t even drink.” She laughed again.
He didn’t respond.
Kevin shook his head. "It’s just been a hard day.” He poured her more water.
For a few seconds no one spoke and B.C. could feel their palpable grief coming off in waves. He’d always been able to tap into emotions. Sometimes it was to his detriment. He pushed those emotions away. “So, what’s there to do tonight?”
The girl next to him, the one still giving him the kind of look a cop would give an inmate, shrugged. “Nothing for your types here,” she said, sounding even more drunk and self-deprecating. “Go buy someone else a ticket to Paris.”
Kevin turned an accusing stare on him and he didn’t understand why he felt like an idiot for actually offering to buy someone a plane ticket. It made him feel defensive. “Hey, I will pay for it.” He hated sounding like he had to convince them.
“Like I would turn over my personal information to you.” She glared at him like he was some creeper.
Her mood was giving him whiplash. He scowled at her. “Fine.” He waved at Kevin. “I need the bill.”
Kevin seemed to hesitate, but B.C. made a moving gesture in the air to hurry him up. “It’s fine. The bill please.”
Kevin printed the bill and put it down. As B.C. signed the bill, he gave Kevin a five-thousand-dollar tip. Then pushed it over to him. “There, now you have enough money to take you and her.” He shook his head, not believing he was doing this. “To Paris. Have fun.”
The bartender had the nerve to pick up the receipt, study it, and then rip it up. “No way. Not doing that.”
The girl shook her head and crossed her arms, glaring at B.C. “Why would you do that?”
These people were insane. Were they actually mad at him for giving them money? “I just tipped you five thousand dollars dude, so you could buy the tickets yourself.”
Both of them glared at him.
Kira shook her head and he thought he saw tears in her eyes. “You just don’t get it, do you, Movie Star man? You can’t buy happiness. You can’t …” she looked away and then turned back to him, angry, a tear running down her cheek. “You can’t count on anything! Ever!”
He was confused at the anger directed at him.
Kevin took her hand. “Why don’t you chill out, Cuz. Wait twenty minutes and I’ll take you home.”
She rolled her eyes and picked up a glass of lemon water, sipping from it. He noticed her eyes fluttering and a tear leaked out. “Nana is gone. What’s the point of anything?”
Taking in her black dress, he wondered when the funeral had been
. He cleared his throat and turned to face the club. He couldn’t deal with other people’s problems he had enough of his own.
Keeping his energy close, he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. He looked around and casually, took another pill out of the bottle in his pocket and popped it into his mouth. He couldn’t exactly pop any tomorrow, could he? With his other hand he picked up the water that the bartender had put down and sloshed it back.
Dang. Loathing and regret washed over him. Did he want to take these pills? Well, tomorrow he wouldn’t have a choice any longer. Wouldn’t have the choice to stay clean.
He covertly looked at the girl, who stared at the bar counter, looking forlorn. Man, she was manic. He got that, but he wanted to stay away from that tonight.
His mind flashed to the rehab place. Part of him had already been doing scenarios in his brain, how hard would it be to get more pills? Sure it was a ritzy rehab place. Wasn’t there always someone willing to get them for you? The other part of him, the disciplined part, wanted to tell the whole drug use thing to screw off. He was done. He hated it. Again, he heard a muffled sound from the girl.
She was crying. The cute, snarky girl who’d seemed to know that he was about to pop a pill in his mouth, which he just had, was bent over her ice water and looked bad. “What are we gonna do, Kevin? What are we gonna do?” She muttered to the bartender.
The bartender leaned over her, whispering what sounded like soothing words to her.
