by Terry Spear
“Anal?”
“Punctual. I am too, for the most part, but there are times when I’m not. You are always punctual, except for the other morning when you came down for breakfast later than usual, and I feel I’ve led you astray.”
He reached out to take her hand and squeezed it with reassurance. “Everything will get done that has to be done. I think you’re right in saying Grant has put too much on my shoulders of late.”
That earned him a little smile.
“Did you talk to Grant about it?” Enrick really hadn’t thought she would.
“Aye, I did. He agreed with me.”
Enrick laughed. “Good. I’m glad he didn’t think I put you up to it.”
“He knew you would never do that. You have too much pride.”
Enrick chuckled again. “I want you in my bed tonight. I swear I’ll borrow a dozen alarm clocks and have them set so we won’t be able to shut them all off before we’re wide awake and we’ll be on time for breakfast in the morning.”
She took the last bite of her haddock. “All right. If I see a dozen alarm clocks sitting in your room tonight, in addition to our two cell phones, I’ll take you up on it.”
He let out his breath in relief.
She smiled. Then she frowned. “But they have to be set for an hour before we’re to arrive down here. Oh, and this time, I’ll pack a bag and I won’t have to run through the castle to my chamber in my bare feet.”
He smiled. “You have a deal.”
Lachlan came into the kitchen with “his” wolves and smiled to see Enrick and Heather finishing up breakfast. “Grant told me I needed to check on security, but if you have a minute after you eat, you can do it. I need to get the wolves ready for the beach scene.”
The wolves drank from a big water dish usually reserved for the wolfhounds.
“Aye, I’m on it.” Enrick rose from his chair and carried his empty plate and bowl to the kitchen sink. Before he left, he took Heather in his arms and kissed her. “Lunch together?”
“I’m going to the shop with two of my brothers to make sure everything is going okay at lunchtime. Now go make sure the bad guys don’t cause any trouble.” Heather got a text. “It’s from my pack leader. Got to run.”
“See you in a few hours then.” Enrick was so glad she was staying with him. He needed to ask who had alarm clocks though. As soon as Heather hurried off, the wolves left the kitchen and Enrick asked his brother, “Do you have an alarm clock you can spare?”
“So the two of you don’t come down late for breakfast again?” Lachlan sounded amused. “Sure.”
“Okay, good. I just need another ten.”
Lachlan laughed.
“Hey, this is serious. She won’t stay with me tonight if I don’t have a dozen clocks in the room.”
Lachlan laughed again and slapped him on the back. “Go take care of business. I’ll see if I can round up some more clocks, but of course I won’t give a reason for the need.”
“Good. Thanks, Lachlan.” Then Enrick was out of there, praying nothing had gone wrong with the security because of him not being there earlier to check it all out.
Chapter 14
That morning, the beach scene was all set up and Spencer Emerson, an actor playing one of the main villains in the movie, was supposed to have his role in this scene. He had taken an interest in Heather, and she’d tried to pretend she hadn’t noticed.
She hadn’t meant to speak with him or have anything to do with him, but she’d forgotten he would be in this scene, and like usual, he had to approach her. She admired him as an actor, but that was it.
At first, she hadn’t really paid any attention to him as they were standing on the beach, waiting for the scene to be set up. She figured Spencer was a flatterer, and she’d seen him smiling at other clanswomen. A womanizer. Only it wouldn’t work with the women here. That had to be a real shock to him.
He might have a rakish, wolfish personality, but the real wolves weren’t taken in.
Thankfully, her brothers and Enrick and his brothers hadn’t been around to see the way Spencer had been all smiles with her anytime he’d caught her eye. He’d struck up a conversation with her a few times, but she was always in a hurry to get something else done somewhere else and was on her way someplace. Though she couldn’t help but be a little flattered by his interest in her, she reminded herself he did that with all the women. She could just imagine what his model girlfriend, the one he left behind in Los Angeles, thought of his behavior.
Maybe that was why he was more intrigued with Heather than the other women in the two clans. She didn’t give him the time of day. Some men liked a woman who wasn’t an easy catch. She had news for him. She wasn’t interested in being his catch now or ever. Though she did love his character in the movies. He was a strikingly handsome villain. He was great in the roles she’d seen him play in. He was so vile that she was ready to terminate him herself whenever she watched him in a movie. And she knew if he was in it, it would be a riveting film.
For this film, he had a jagged red scar across his cheek, courtesy of a fight at some point or another between him and the hero. In the story, Spencer was after the enchanted sword and the woman connected to it.
Now, he moved in next to Heather on the beach where the heroine would first meet the hero in the film. The villain would also step in to make his presence known, but they were still waiting for the arrival of Guy’s double, the director swearing he was going to dock his pay for being late to the set. And fire his ass if he didn’t show up promptly.
“Would you like to show me some of your Scottish hospitality?” Spencer asked Heather.
She hadn’t meant for her jaw to drop in reaction to his question, but she was appalled. Julia and Lana were standing near her and both heard his question, their eyes rounded.
“Sorry, no.”
Spencer folded his arms, frowning, looking perfectly ominous as if he could change her mind with his lethal look.
She smiled up at him. “I love your character in the movies, no matter what part you play. You’re the perfect villain.”
He smiled at her.
“In real life, you are way too much of a flatterer.”
He frowned again. “Too much, do you think?” He shrugged. “It’s part of my character.”
“It’s part of your personality,” she corrected. Then she glanced back at the director, who was on his cell phone looking ready to have a meltdown.
Missy was standing nearby, and she looked tired and ready to do anything but this right now.
“I meant I would take you out someplace nice. I think you have real acting talent. I even have some pull if you ever wanted to get into the business. I saw the scene where you pulled your knife out of your boot and held that woman hostage. It was so natural, it looked like you had done so on countless occasions.”
“I have. It comes in handy on dates.” Not really, but she had used it on countless other occasions in the past for defense.
Julia chuckled. Lana smiled at her. So did Spencer, but Heather was sure he didn’t believe her.
“So no date?” he asked, looking really surprised she would turn him down.
Heather shook her head. Seriously? She supposed women were all after him because he was a popular American movie star. She would love to know how many women he had already asked out from the castle.
She was only down here on the beach today because Julia wanted some company, and she was Heather’s pack leader, and so Heather had dragged—ha!—a very excited Lana with them because she was dying to watch the scene. Yeah, seeing the stunt double pretending to be Guy swimming naked in the sea was what had Lana super interested in being down on the beach. Julia had her notebook and was taking notes already about the setting as they all waited for Larry to turn up. At least Heather hadn’t been late to the party.
; The good news was it turned out to be a beautiful day, sunny morning, blue skies with a smattering of fluffy white clouds, a sea breeze, just perfect.
If the double ever showed up for the shoot!
* * *
Enrick was making sure they had plenty of security up on the cliffs overlooking the beach scene that would be taking place next. They had everything in hand, so he was returning to the castle. He wondered where Heather was. He knew she didn’t have a scene to take part in right now, and he was glad they’d resolved the issue of her sleeping with him again tonight.
He was nearly to the keep when he got a call from the director himself. Which surprised the hell out of Enrick. They were finally done with the major battle scenes. He was hoping he hadn’t screwed things up by missing a reshoot or another scene. “Yes, sir?”
“Guy’s double is sick, and we’ve got a scene to shoot now. You look just like Guy, so we’ll increase your pay for any scenes where you serve as the double if you’re interested. I’ll ask your brother Lachlan if you don’t want to do it, but you look even more like Guy, so if you’re agreeable, let’s do this. I don’t believe Grant would want to do it, and he said he’d put a couple of men in charge of security so you’re free to handle it.”
Enrick was both honored with the prospect of being the hero in the story, but annoyed Guy would get the credit while Enrick did whatever Guy didn’t want to do. “Aye, sure, what did you need me for?”
“The beach scene. We need you in the costume Larry was going to wear and, well, you’ll come down to the beach like Larry was supposed to do. We’re all set up. Time is money. Grab Larry’s clothes from wardrobe at the keep. We’ll film you coming down the stairs. Walk down with a good steady speed. When you get down to the beach, you’ll strip and take a little swim in the sea. Your brother, Grant, said you were good for it.”
Enrick would kill his brother. Hell, here Enrick thought the reason he was needed was so the actor wouldn’t have to walk up and down all those stairs. Not that getting naked before shifting into his wolf was any big deal when it came to his pack, but being filmed getting naked for the whole world to see was a whole other story. Then again, no one would ever know that Enrick, instead of the film star, had done it.
“Aye. I’ll be right down.” At least as fast as he could travel the two-thousand-and-six-hundred-feet worth of stairs from the castle to the beach after returning to the castle, stripping, and putting on the new clothes. He would prefer his own, but he’d have to wear a duplicate of the clothing Guy would be wearing.
Enrick didn’t see a sword and scabbard with the clothes in wardrobe. If he were a warrior and going to the beach alone for a swim in years past, he would have armed himself with a sword at the very least. He dashed up the stairs to his room and retrieved his sword and sgian dubh. After he was “properly” attired, he headed out of the keep and finally reached the stairs.
The director called, “Action!”
Two cameramen began shooting Enrick from different angles. It was very different going from fighting in a sea of warriors during a battle where he might never have been seen on the silver screen to being the center of attention, spotlighted by the cameras. He tried not to feel self-conscious, but he couldn’t help it. Most lupus garous didn’t like to be in the spotlight like this.
He made his usual fast walk down the stairs, not slowly as if he were doing this for the camera, but in a manner that said he was in great physical shape and had purpose in his warrior’s stride.
He glanced over at the gathering of people out of the cameras’ view nearer the bottom of the cliffs on the sandy beach and saw the female star of the film waiting for her part in the story, looking bored, yawning, and fussing with strands of hair whipping across her face from the sea breeze. She was frowning as she waited to get her part over with. He didn’t know what her role was, or what he was supposed to do exactly. He’d only briefly scanned the scene to make sure they had proper security.
Then he saw Heather, Lana, and Julia, with a couple of other lasses from their clan standing nearby. Julia was taking copious notes, and he figured she was going to use the idea in one of her books. Heather smiled broadly at him. So did the other women. Ah hell. He had envisioned no one from either clan seeing him like this, not until the film came out, and then they might think he was Guy all along. He would never hear the end of this.
The director called, “Cut!” when Enrick reached the beach.
“You’re going to use the same purposeful stride to that point on the shore and strip out of your clothes right there with your back to the camera,” the director said, pointing to the spot. “Then walk into the sea, swim out a good distance to the halfway point where that first boat is, pause, look out to sea, up at your castle, and then turn and swim back. You won’t see anyone on the shore until you reach it, and suddenly the heroine will appear as if by magic, her hand on your sword.”
Heather chuckled.
Enrick couldn’t help but smile at her.
Several others chortled.
The director frowned. “You’re wearing a sword already.”
“Aye. In the distant past, any warrior worth his salt would be armed wherever he went.”
“Okay, that sounds good. Missy will have brought your old sword from her present world. Your sword”—the director glanced at the sgian dubh handle sticking out of Enrick’s boot—“and your sgian dubh will be left on the beach, along with your clothes. When you return from your swim, you’ll walk out of the water and grab your kilt to put it on, but then you see the heroine standing there with a sword in her hand and you hold your kilt in front of your crotch and stare at her for a moment, surprised, shocked, furious to see her. She could be from the enemy clan. You have no idea who she is, and she’ll be wearing clothes foreign to you, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, unlike the women of your period in time.”
“I will be holding onto my shirt first,” Enrick said. “Not my kilt. The shirt is worn under the kilt.”
“Uh, yeah, you’ll grab up your shirt, hold it in front of your crotch, bunched up like a hardened warrior would do, and then I’ll call ‘Cut!’ and have Guy and the other actors take over from there. You’ll be done, but stick around in case we need to retake any of the scenes.”
Like walking down the stairs? Or swimming again? Enrick sure as hell hoped not.
He noticed some of his men in boats out in the water waiting to rescue him if he had trouble. All three of Heather’s brothers were in one of them. Even though Enrick had never had any difficulty doing this and loved to have a vigorous swim on a hot summer’s day, he was glad the boats were there, just in case he got a cramp.
“Action!” the director called, and Enrick moved through the sand to the spot where he would strip with his back to the cameras.
It was a warm and sunny day in the Highlands, though the water would be cold. Enrick stripped off his borrowed clothes at the same rate of speed he normally did, not in a rush and not super slowly like he was doing a striptease for the camera. He paused, looking out to sea.
The director didn’t say anything, so Enrick hoped he was doing everything right. He stalked toward the water with purpose, trying to ignore the fact that several eyes were upon him, and attempting to soak up the sounds and smells surrounding him instead. At least with the battle scenes, they knew they were supposed to be the good guys fighting with Guy or the bad guys fighting him and his men, and it felt more like it had a beginning and an end. Here, the scene felt out of context for Enrick.
He better get paid a lot more money for this, or Grant was making it up to him. Enrick didn’t mind swimming in the sea—when it was his idea!
Enrick started walking into the water, and everything was quiet except for seagulls screeching high above and the waves crashing on the shore. He tried to pretend this was any other day that he might take a swim in the cold water, and not that his every move
was being filmed for all time. Or that he had an audience of people watching him from the shore.
The smell of fish and briny water filled his senses as he waded out, and when he was finally deep enough, he dove into the water. He wasn’t sure that was what the director wanted since he hadn’t said so. Enrick rose to the surface of the choppy water, expecting the director to call “Cut” and have him do it again, just swimming out when it was deep enough, but maybe the director thought that if Enrick usually did it this way, it would look more natural.
At least it was for him. It took him a few minutes to adjust to the cold water pressing against his skin, but as he swam out as far as they’d wanted him to, his muscles warmed with the effort. He was hoping he wouldn’t get a cramp while he was swimming. That would sure ruin the take. And then he would have to do it all over again. Or Lachlan would have to take his place. No way did Enrick want his brother to show him up! Especially not in front of Heather.
When he thought he had swum out far enough, he took his glances at the castle, the men in the boat smiling at him, thumbs up, one raising his sword in salute. Hell, Enrick truly would never live this down.
He turned and started the swim back. Though swimming in the sea wasn’t on his list of things to do today, it felt good taking a dip in the cold water on the hot day. He still wanted an increase in pay for doing it. All he could think about was getting back to shore and hopefully doing what he needed to without having to redo any of this. He hated having to do things over anyway.
Once he returned to the shore, he tried to look as imposing as any Highland warrior would, which was easy to do if he thought about facing down Robert Kilpatrick, minus his clothes and dripping wet, his skin covered in goose bumps. He finally reached his clothes on the shore, or his double’s, technically. He lifted the long shirt off the sand and held it up and, without thinking, shook off the sand, like he would have done, and belatedly realized the director hadn’t called for that in the scene.
He was trying to figure out how to bunch the shirt up in his hand to cover his crotch to make it look natural, but it wouldn’t work. He would have held it up and pulled it over his head, if he was doing this for real and not staged, so instead, he held the shirt in one hand, letting the remainder fall to the shore, one muscled leg exposed and let his gaze settle on the heroine, so the top of his shirt was crumpled in his fist, and the rest hanging loose and touching the sand.
