Loving Ashe - Book 1 of the Celebrity Series

BONUS: Kiss Here, Mr. Hunter

A little bonus story...

Riley's cheeks were sore. It wasn't from the cold, even though they'd been out the whole day walking around the Grassington Dickensian Christmas Festival, a holiday market that had residents dressed up in period attire for the first three Saturdays in December. It transformed the village into the world of Charles Dickens, Scrooge and Tiny Tim, complete with buskers, carolers, and boys offering to shine your shoes for a few coins. There was also shopping, too - lots of shopping - whether in the stalls or in shops that lined the town square.

Riley had bought so many locally made gifts to ship back to New York that they had to return to the hotel twice to drop off the bags before venturing out again. She'd been so intent on reading her shopping list that she completely missed the mistletoe hanging by the door - twice - till Ashe cleared his throat that second time, blocked her way and kissed her in front of everyone in the hotel lobby.

Riley's face had turned a bright shade of red as Ashe gave her one of his swoon-worthy kisses - complete with a dip that had her holding on to him for dear life - and she turned even redder when everyone in the lobby applauded.

"Show-off," she had muttered, though Ashe only shrugged, grinning.

"How else can I get your attention when you're too distracted by everything else?"

Riley wagged her finger at him. "Wait till your precious phone starts to ring. Then we'll see who really gets distracted."

Then it was Ashe's turn to blush.

No, her cheeks were not sore from the cold that evening either after they watched the fireworks that capped the last day of the festival, but from all the smiling and laughing she did the entire day. After all, how could one not smile when meeting the parents of the man she'd been seeing just four months earlier - for the first time? She was petrified, too, of course, but most of all, she was happy. After all, she finally got to meet the people who brought up the Hollywood actor whose face graced Times Square for most of November, and whose movie, Sentience, was closing in at a billion dollars in gross receipts worldwide.

But as they walked around the festival, stopping to listen to the carolers or watch a magician do his thing, Ashe Hunter, the actor, was nowhere to be seen, not when he was back to being a Yorkshireman first - and damn proud of it. Riley saw the armor he always wore as an actor fall from his face the moment they arrived at the Grassington Lodge the night before, and the way his adopted posh accent was replaced by one that had him saying owt, nowt, and summat. Respectively, she knew they meant anything, nothing and something - and that was just for starters. Riley especially loved it when he called her petal. It was way better than being called babe.

That Ashe had planned to have her meet his parents at the festival was genius. Anywhere else, like the family home in Reeth where they'd be staying after the festival till Christmas would have left Riley a mess. Instead, meeting his parents and his niece, Rowan, for the first time over breakfast at the hotel's dining room (where they were also staying) had been the perfect way to meet them, made even more fun when Rowan refused to leave Ashe's side for most of the morning. Only when she was finally convinced that her uncle hadn't replaced her spot in his heart did Rowan finally declare that Riley wasn't competition after all. When Ashe caught Riley watching him, he winked at her playfully, probably wondering how she was handling her rivalry with a 4-year old.

But while Riley may have handled her alleged rivalry with his niece with grace earlier that day, she wasn't handling the current one - his work - very well. With Yorkshire being five hours ahead of New York, and eight hours ahead of Los Angeles, it meant that everyone else was still in work mode while she and Ashe were ready to turn in for the night. Thank goodness their suite had two bathrooms. That way he could do his thing (work while getting ready for bed) and she could do her thing (getting ready for some action in bed).