it’s weird, but somehow, it all makes sense to me now. You really are magic. It’s not just an illusion up on the screen.”
“You’re the magic, kitten. To me.” he replied in a low, sexy voice that made her wish they were alone.
They sat quietly, gazing into each other’s eyes for a while after that, but when the plane started its long descent, they started talking again. They chatted about the filming that was scheduled for the next few weeks. The American location had been used for Marian’s family home. In England, they were shooting on the grounds of a real castle, which was going to provide the backdrop for many of the main attractions in the film, including most of the fight scenes. It was also the setting for the archery competition where Robin famously split an arrow to win the prize. The British castle was standing in for the Sheriff of Nottingham’s seat of power, but there were areas on the grounds, in the forest that surrounded the massive structure, that were to be used for the bandits’ camp.
They would also do a few studio shots back in London, Ren said, for some of the indoor scenes. If anything needed to be re-shot for whatever reason, they’d do it back in the States. They were going to be on site at the castle for the first two weeks, then a week outside of London for the studio work, and then, if all went according to plan, her work on this film would be done.
Katrina and Ren hadn’t discussed full details about what would happen after her time on this project was up. Originally, she would have gone home to New York, but Ren and she had talked about returning to the island first. At some point, she’d have to go home and break the news of their relationship to her parents, but she wanted to hold on to the secret just a little longer. To savor it.
She had to sort out a few more things with Ren first. She had to know how much—if anything—she could tell her parents about his people and his plans for retirement in the coming years. She didn’t want to cut ties with her folks completely. She loved them and until now, had been deeply involved in their lives. She didn’t want that to change irrevocably. She didn’t know where Ren would want to live. If he chose to live on the island, she didn’t know how she would be able to see her folks, and that was important to her. They had a lot to figure out, but there was time.
She had at least three more weeks on this project before her family would expect her home. Until then, she had been calling them every few days to give them updates on how things were going. In fact, once they landed in England and got settled in the hotel, she had promised to call her mother and catch her up on the weekend.
Katrina would distract her mother with tales of meeting the reclusive billionaire and his wife, as well as the movie star, Sullivan Lane. That ought to be enough to keep their conversation away from the even more intriguing bits of the weekend—such as her new love affair with Ren, who just happened to be a shapeshifter.
No, she probably wouldn’t be able to tell her mother about any of that. Not in this lifetime. Though her folks would figure out that she was getting serious about Ren once she brought him home to meet them. She’d met his family. Soon, it would be his turn to meet hers. She was looking forward to it, though she didn’t really want to subject him to her family’s intrusive questioning just yet. She wanted to enjoy this secret time with him to the fullest extent, first.
Their group reached the castle location by late afternoon, and Katrina was amazed to find that they were actually staying in the castle, instead of some random hotel. It was a magnificent edifice run by a small staff of people and, she was told, the place wasn’t usually rented out for these kinds of events. Sonia had called in some favors to get the owner of the place to let her film here, and he had also agreed to allow some of the cast and crew to stay in the many guest rooms that went unused most of the time.
Katrina soon realized that the people allowed to stay at