Page 12 of Sadie’s Highlander (Highland Protector #1)
CHAPTER 11
S he should’ve known better than to trust Delia. How many times, in all the years that she’d known her sister, had Delia ever kept her word? Never. Not one damn time. Sadie blinked hard against the tears of rage burning her eyes. Dammit. She would not cry . She’d learned early on to hide her feelings to survive. But when she was angered beyond reason, she cried. And crying pissed her off even more.
Alec strode along beside her in silence.
Sadie wouldn’t risk looking at him. She didn’t want to see what surely had to be a solid look of how in the hell did I ever want her plastered across his face. Stinging humiliation flashed through her. What must he be thinking? Delia’s usual shitty treatment was bad enough, but Sadie had endured it for so long it had become the norm—the dysfunctional continuation of the only family life she’d ever known. And now Alec had seen firsthand where Sadie fell in the pecking order. Great. She bet he was just thrilled. Probably thinking Delia had saddled him with a real loser.
Flinching against the old, familiar churn of uncertainty, Sadie swallowed hard and walked faster, internally giving herself a neck-snapping shake. Bullshit! She wouldn’t go there. She was not a loser. Therapy and her psychology degree had done wonders to set her on an even keel. She would not lose the sanity or self-respect she’d worked so hard to obtain. One obstacle at time. Delia first. Explain things to Alec later. She finally stole a glance at him. Oh, that was just great. What a fucking expression! Alec was stone-faced and looked angered to the nth degree, and Sadie didn’t blame him.
The busy CEO of Highland Life and Legends . . . and a damn good lover, she might add . . . shouldn’t have to lower himself to the pettiness of the Williamses’ family squabbles. Sadie pointed toward the Jeep. “If you want to wait in the Jeep while I talk to Delia—”
Alec caught her by the arm and jerked her to a stop. He stared down at her. Silent. Brooding. The emotions flashing in his eyes were unreadable—well, maybe not too unreadable. Maybe she just didn’t want to acknowledge what that dangerous mix of ice and fire was really telling her in his heart-stirring Morse code. He pulled her closer as he spoke, his voice deep and raw with emotion. “Ye no longer have to battle alone, Sadie. Not as long as I draw breath.”
Damn . All coherent thought left her. No one had ever said anything like that to her. Not ever. She had always been alone. Always. Slowly, struggling to regain her composure, she forced her mouth open to speak. “I—”
He pressed a finger across her lips and shook his head. “Nay.” The pressure of his warm, callused finger against her mouth softened, making her catch her breath. “There is no I. There is only we from now on.”
Her heart came dangerously close to thumping its way out of her chest. How could she argue with that? Sadie eased in a deep breath, momentarily losing herself in Alec’s steady gaze.
“We,” she obediently repeated, shivering with the warm tide of feelings crashing through her. Such a strange thing, this being cared for and defended.
He smiled, pressed a gentle kiss to the tip of her nose, then tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. “Aye. That sounds much better.”
As they moved toward Delia’s bus, Sadie gave his arm a squeeze while struggling to regain her composure and figure out exactly what she was going to say to Delia. “But I really need you to let me do the talking—okay? It’s up to me to stand up to Delia.”
Well . . . to sort of stand up to her sister. Financially and career-wise, she couldn’t say everything she wanted to say. Delia not only held the purse strings, but she also owned the keys to the screenwriters’ kingdom. If she angered Delia too much, big sister would make good on her threat, and she had enough connections in the business to ensure Sadie’s writing would never be discovered.
Alec’s jaw tightened and Sadie braced herself for the argument she could see stewing. He had to understand. Delia could permanently kill the dream Sadie had been nurturing since she was big enough to hold a pencil. “Please, Alec?” They came to a stop at the base of the retractable metal steps leading up to the door of the bus. “Please?”
His mouth tightened into a displeased line and his nostrils flared as he drew in a breath deep enough to make it appear as though he’d wakened the demon within and was tripling his already massive size in preparation for unleashing the beast. He glared up at the bus, then looked back down at Sadie. “I will remain silent unless I deem it necessary. I can promise ye no more than that.”
Part of her wanted to throw herself into his arms and thank him for wanting to protect her. But another part of her shouted run like hell. She’d never been sheltered by anyone. She’d always had her back against the wall and fought her battles alone. And that part of her didn’t dare trust this sudden turn of fate. How could he be real? And even more importantly—how long could this possibly last?
The door to the bus slammed open and Dwyn emerged, red-faced and scowling as he stomped down the steps. He came up short when he realized Sadie and Alec were there. “I strongly suggest we install more surveillance cameras around the perimeter of Castle Danu. I dinna trust that woman. She’s as fickle as the sea.” He jerked an apologetic nod in Sadie’s direction. “No offense to ye, mistress, but yer sister is a lying bitch.”
“No offense taken.” Sadie shrugged. “I could’ve told you that a long time ago.” She climbed the steps, sympathetically patting Dwyn on the shoulder as she passed him. “We’ll meet you back at the Jeep after I’ve had a few words with my dear sister.”
“Hmpf.” Dwyn stomped away, muttering under his breath.
The overwhelming stench of Delia’s essential oil diffusers hit Sadie head on before she’d even walked through the door. Ugh. Eucalyptus . Delia must’ve been a koala in a past life, because she adored the scent of eucalyptus. Said it rejuvenated and energized her. As far as Sadie was concerned, it just made the room smell like cough drops. She wrinkled her nose against the pungent aroma filling the opulent interior of the travel bus.
Delia sat behind a table of rich, chocolate-brown marble flecked and veined with gold striations. A pair of leopard print readers were perched on the end of her nose as she squinted at the laptop in front of her. Without looking up, she flicked her fingers in a bored wave back toward a kitchen so well fitted with every state-of-the-art accoutrement that any chef would drop to his knees and give thanks he’d been chosen to use it. “If Mr. MacDara would like some refreshments, I’m sure you can find something to suit him. The kitchen’s well stocked.” Still concentrating on the computer, Delia continued. “You can have a water but get one out of the cabinet. The chilled ones are mine.”
Sadie turned to Alec standing silently behind her. “Would you—”
Alec stood with teeth bared and eyes narrowed to murderous slits.
Sadie pressed a hand on his arm. A silent thrill pulsed through her as Alec’s rock-solid muscles flexed beneath her fingertips. “Remember our deal,” she whispered.
Alec’s jaw flexed as his glare remained locked on Delia. “Best be quick about this, lass,” he responded in a strained whisper.
“Quick about what?” Delia asked as she scooted back from the table and loosely crossed her arms while sinking into the creamy depths of a thick-cushioned leather couch.
“I spoke with Abe, Seth, and Holly.” Sadie waited, watching Delia—preparing for what instinct and past experience warned her was coming. Her sister was a great deal like a cobra. If you watched her closely enough, you could usually tell when she was about to strike. “None of them knew about me joining the team.”
Delia lifted one shoulder in a noncommittal shrug and regally lifted a long-stemmed glass of sparkling water with a paper-thin slice of lemon floating among the ice. “I sent the memo. You’d think writers would also know how to read.”
“Show me the memo.” Delia was lying, and it was almost disappointing that she was making this so easy. Sadie pulled the laptop around, typed in Delia’s password, then opened the email program. A quick scan of the sent folder revealed what she already knew. There was no memo. “If you’re going to lie to me, at least put some effort into it.”
Delia smirked, chuckling to herself as she sipped at her water. “Getting brave, are we, little sister?”
The luxurious hardwood flooring of the bus creaked as Alec stepped forward.
Sadie turned and mouthed, No.
Alec lifted his chin and forced his tensed arms into a tight fold across his chest as though holding himself back. He barely shook his head and swelled with a deep intake of breath, then slowly exhaled.
Alec had reached his limit .
“If the terms and conditions of our agreement are not met—” Alec said in a lethal, controlled tone.
“I was not aware that allowing my sister to play with the screenwriters was part of our agreement.” Delia scooted to sit ramrod straight on the edge of the couch and slid her glass to the table.
Alec gently set Sadie aside, moved past her, and thudded his fists down onto the table. Leaning over until he was nearly nose to nose with Delia, his voice rumbled low and dangerous, almost sounding like the throaty growl of an enraged beast. “Now ye ken that Sadie writing is verra much a part of our deal, aye?”
Delia lifted her pointed chin, her sneer shifting to an imperious look of sheer boredom. “If you must know, I had planned on briefing Seth, Holly, and Abe at this afternoon’s meeting.” She shifted her smirk to Sadie. “I was just teasing you. You always get bent out of shape so easily.”
Bullshit. Delia never teased. She’d shifted back into her defensive I was just kidding mode—the same excuse she’d always used when they were children and she was finally scolded for being even more cruel than her parents or the servants could ignore.
“Abe said the script is finished. All the scenes are done and they’re only on site in case dialogue runs too short or long or needs to be amped up historically. If that’s true, then you know as well as I do that I’m not needed.”
“Well, Abe is not the producer nor the owner of Realm Spinners and contrary to what he might think, he doesn’t know everything about this film.” Delia sank back into the cushions of the couch, curling her glass of water to her chest as though it were a cherished pet. A conniving gleam brightened her features. Delia looked like a cat about to pounce. “I had planned on contacting you this morning about your contribution to this project. We need some super-hot scenes for the film. You know as well as I do that sex sells tickets, and so far all we have are several lead-ins that all fade to black. I need some scenes that are guaranteed to make the women in the theater wet their panties and start lap-dancing on the men beside them.” Her gaze shifted to Alec, then moved back to Sadie. One thin brow arched a bit higher and she took a long, slow sip, then slid her glass back to the table. “Write some hot sex and bring the scenes to me. I want at least three—more would be even better. You’ve got two weeks. Think you can manage that?”
“You want me to write these scenes without working with the other writers?” Sadie’s mind was whirling. This was a trap. She knew it was, but if she could pull this off . . . “Aren’t you worried about the continuity of the storyline since you’ll be filming while I’m working on these ‘hot’ scenes?”
Delia rose from the couch, toddled across the room in her spike-heeled boots and too-tight pencil skirt, and pulled open one of the drawers of a large mahogany built-in. Pawing through the drawer, she frowned down into the folders. “I’ll give you a copy of the script.” Slamming the drawer shut with her narrow hip, she tossed the manila folder onto the table and shoved it toward Sadie. “And besides, you know as well as I do that films are pieces just stitched together. We’ll do the sex scenes back in LA’s closed sets. Better lighting from every angle. Then we’ll splice them in. It’s not like we’re making a constantly looping home movie.”
Sadie scooped the folder up from the table, glancing at the pages as she thumbed through them. What choice did she have? It was either take Delia’s offer or not get a shot at her dream at all. “Two weeks?”
“Two weeks,” Delia repeated. “And don’t forget you’re still responsible for Mr. MacDara here. I’m sure he’ll still insist on a very hands-on approach to ensure we’re keeping to the contract.” The way Delia said hands-on left no doubt whatsoever as to what she was insinuating. Her smirk shifted to an even darker shade of insulting as she winked. “Who knows? Maybe he can help you with those scenes.”
Alec lunged forward, slammed Delia’s laptop closed, then leaned on it until the machine crackled and popped. Its blinking lights flickered out, then it went silent beneath his fist. “What a pity. A bit of carelessness seems to have destroyed yer machine. Poor treatment tends to do that, ye ken?”
“Are you threatening me?” Delia hissed.
“I never threaten,” Alec coldly replied. “I merely keep to my promises.”