Accidentally in Love - Clean Christmas Romance Ebook

She's here to film a commercial. He's determined to send her packing. But on Cupid Island, love has its own script.

Ivy Kidman has one goal: make a name for herself in the world of film production. So when a billionaire hires her to shoot a commercial for his son's luxury island resort, she jumps at the chance. What she doesn't expect is Steele Morgan—the infuriatingly handsome, stubborn owner of Cupid Island, who seems determined to make her job impossible. He calls her accident-prone, but he's the one tripping over his own feelings.

Steele has no interest in starring in a cheesy commercial, and he has even less interest in Ivy disrupting his carefully curated life. He's spent years building the resort on his own terms, and the last thing he needs is a persistent, captivating filmmaker stirring up chaos—and emotions he'd rather ignore. But when Ivy proves she's just as competitive and headstrong as he is, his frustration turns into something far more dangerous: attraction.

As their battle of wills turns into late-night laughter and stolen glances, Steele realizes he might be losing a game he never meant to play. And Ivy? She might just be falling for the man who makes her heart race—on and off the camera.

Will they let their differences ruin their shot at love? Or will Cupid Island work its magic before the cameras stop rolling?

“Are you recording this?” Ivy asked her best friend.

“Yes, now go.” Dawn nodded while holding Ivy’s cell phone toward her with the video record button on.

Ivy straightened her shoulders and put on her serious expression, because the very thing she wanted the world to know about – or anyone who watched this video – was that she would not tolerate animal cruelty. The moment she saw what someone wanted to do to illegally catch some animals, had her head spinning in anger.

“I’m Ivy Kidman,” she said into the video, “and I’m in the woods near West Yellowstone in Montana. My friends and I were hiking, and we nearly stepped in hidden snares. I wouldn’t have known about this if not for seeing this segment on a local news station a few months ago. However, seeing firsthand that poaching is a real issue, I’m going to try and put a stop to it the only way I know how. This might not work, but I’m willing to do anything to keep our wildlife out of the hands of poachers.”

She motioned toward the ground and Dawn moved the phone closer to the object Ivy pointed out. “This is a snare. It is made of sharp wires that wrap together just perfectly so that when a large animal steps inside, the wires tighten around the animal’s leg and keeps the animals from getting loose.” Ivy motioned to Dawn to have her lift the video on her again. “What I plan to do is carefully move these snares and place them in the spot where we noticed tire tracks. If everything goes smoothly, I’ll be able to catch the poachers in their own trapping game.”

Ivy had Dawn zero in the recording as Ivy placed a thick jacket over her arms and gently lifted the snare trap. She cautiously stepped toward the tire tracks and set it down. She did this with five other traps that were close by.

Brushing the dead leaves and twigs off her sleeves, she faced the camera again. “Because we don’t know when the poachers will be here, my friend and I will climb a tree where we’ll stay the night, waiting for these poachers to come. My other two friends will wait near the Wildlife station several miles down the mountain for our notify them to bring someone up here to arrest these idiots.” She took a deep breath and released it slowly. “Pray that this will work, and we can put away some of these poachers who are harming our animals just for sport.”

Ivy signaled for Dawn to turn off the video.

When the video resumed, Ivy and Dawn were in the tree. It wasn’t comfortable, but at least they were out of the poacher’s sight and away from stray animals.

“As you can see,” she said quietly, “I’m now in the tree. Over there –” the video turned toward the tire tracks, “is where we’ll be watching. Keep us in your prayers. These people need to be stopped, even if I take each one by myself. I’ll do all I can to make things right.”

The video turned off again, and when it came back on, it was daylight. Ivy and her friend were still in the tree. Ivy’s hair was messed, and her makeup was slightly smeared under her eyes, but she didn’t care. “I think the poachers are coming,” she said excitedly, but in a soft voice. “Let’s watch.”

The camera was turned toward the jeep coming their way. On top of the vehicle was a large spotlight that was also used by poachers. The jeep stopped and four men jumped out one-by-one. The men ranged in age from about sixteen to forty years old. All of them were hefty, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to take on these men by herself without some kind of help.

The poachers walked a few steps and stopped to listen. They scoped the area before continuing their walk. As they neared the snares, Ivy held her breath. But the men stopped again, looking around. She had always been impatient, and she wanted this finished now. This tree limb she sat perched upon was killing her bottom.

She removed her sunglasses and tossed them in the bushes behind them. The poachers heard which made their steps faster.

The man in front was the first to get his foot in the snare. He yelped and stumbled. As he reached down to grab the wire, it cut his fingers. He cussed and hopped around. Immediately, the second man moved to help, but he stepped in one. Then the third man, followed by the fourth. All of them were cussing up a storm and screaming like little girls as they tried to untangle the wires around their ankles.

Ivy quickly took Dawn’s phone and sent a text to her friends waiting at the Wildlife station. Her friend sent a text back, letting Ivy know they were only two miles away from them.

Dawn chuckled in the background as the video stayed on the men and their struggle. Ivy shimmied down the tree and marched toward them. The four men stilled as their eyes widened.

Angrily, Ivy marched toward them until she was only a few feet away. She rested her hands akimbo on her hips and glared. “Now you jerks know what the animals feel like, don’t you?” She shook her head. “Except the animals don’t have hands to untwine the wires like you do.”

The one in the lead cussed again and shook his fist at her. “I won’t stand for this, and if I were you, little missy, I’d be getting away from here quickly, because as soon as these snares come off—”

“And if I were you,” she interrupted, raising her voice, “I’d be high-tailing it out of here because the sheriff is currently on his way to arrest your sorry butts and take you all to jail.”

The men lost more color in their already pale faces and tried to run back to their jeep. Unfortunately, the snares kept them from getting too far. By the time they made it to their vehicle, the sheriff and two other cars pulled up with lights flashing.

The video zoomed in toward the men as they were all handcuffed and dragged to the squad cars… while still wearing their snares as ankle bracelets.

The video turned back to Ivy who smiled in victory. “This concludes the segment on how breaking the law can eventually turn out to be… very painful in the end.”

Grinning, Ivy clicked off the video that had been posted on social media less than one month ago. After Dawn had recorded this, Ivy took it and edited out the swear words and the dead space in between the action scenes. It had only taken three days for the video to go viral and only one week later for Ivy and her friends to be given a citizen’s award from Wildlife and Game for helping to protect the animals.