Take on Me

by Sarah Mayberry

  Sadie heard Grace giggle in the backseat, and couldn’t stop herself from joining in.

  “What have I done now?” Claudia asked.

  “We love your competitive streak,” Sadie explained. “It’s so soap. If you were a soap heroine, you’d have hair that could take men’s eyes out, and shoulder pads you could hang glide off.”

  Claudia grinned. “If you were a soap star, you’d have fake eyelashes, breasts up around your earlobes and skirts so small the audience would need a magnifying glass to find them.”

  Sadie turned to include Grace in the conversation. “And our Gracie…” she said.

  “Gracie would be the queen of the soap,” Claudia announced unequivocally. “The big-hearted vamp who is always misunderstood, and who can never escape her humble beginnings. And her tits would also be up around her ears.”

  They all dissolved into laughter. The rest of the trip east passed in gossip, laughter and singing, and Sadie found herself relaxing for the first time in weeks. She’d been so busy feeling guilty around Claudia about jumping Dylan, then feeling guilty about avoiding Claudia because she felt guilty, that she’d unconsciously distanced herself from both her friends. It was good to bask in the warmth of their companionship again.

  The sudden transition from tarmac to dirt road signaled their nearness to their destination, and within twenty minutes Claudia was pulling into a clearing on the side of an apparently endless bright blue lake. The rest of the team’s cars were parked to one side, and Claudia parked her SUV in the shade beneath a huge pine tree.

  Sadie slid from the car and stretched her arms high over her head, sucking in a big lungful of fresh air.

  “Careful. You don’t want to O.D. on all that fresh air all at once. We’re from L.A., remember.”

  She almost jumped out of her skin as Dylan stepped around the tree. Immediately all her hard-won relaxation evaporated as her eyes ate up his tall frame. He was wearing a pair of beaten-up khaki hiking shorts, thick socks, well-worn boots and a faded red muscle shirt. He looked supremely edible, and she had to shove her hands into the pockets of her jeans to stop herself from reaching out to touch his strong, tanned arms.

  “You have to acclimatize. Small breaths. Give the pollution a chance to contaminate the fresh air in your lungs,” he said.

  Even though she’d become used to the way his eyes slid over her so suggestively over the past few weeks, she still felt a thrill as he made a leisurely inspection of her body. There was so much heat and promise in his look, she almost melted out of her jeans.

  Since she figured that was pretty much what he’d intended, she forced herself to stiffen her backbone.

  “Tell me, does this whole bedroom-eyes routine work with other women?” she asked conversationally.

  “Mostly.”

  “Well, don’t let me ruin your averages. Feel free to move on to pastures greener,” she said. She ignored the lurch her stomach made at the thought of Dylan with another woman. But it was bound to happen. Better to face it head-on than to have it sneak up on her.

  “Hmm. Have I ever told you that I thrive on challenges?” he said, leaning against the tree trunk and reaching up to pluck a pine needle from a low-hanging branch.

  She watched his long, strong fingers play with the foliage for a beat. She could almost feel his hands on her, sliding beneath her clothes. She should say something, let him know that she was one challenge he could never conquer, but somehow she couldn’t find the energy to talk.

  “So, where are these stupid tents we’re supposed to be sleeping in?” Claudia asked as she exited the car.

  Sadie wrenched her eyes away from Dylan’s hands and tried not to look like someone who’d been watching her own personal adult movie in her head.

  “There’s a professional guide over near the lake,” Dylan said, gesturing toward a tall guy in a ranger’s hat and khaki uniform who was standing with the rest of the story team.

  Her face pulled into a grimace of distaste, Claudia started across the clearing, obviously intent on taking things in hand. Grace moved to stand beside Sadie, tucking her arm through her friend’s. There was a distinct warning in the glance Grace sent Dylan’s way. Despite now knowing the truth about their shared history, Grace still considered Dylan too good-looking and confident to trust. Nothing personal, she’d explained to Sadie, more of a life philosophy thing.

  She tugged on Sadie’s arm to get her walking.

  “Let’s go check out the lake,” she said.

  Dylan pushed off from his lounging position against the tree.

  “Great idea.”

  Before Sadie could retreat, he’d grabbed her other arm. She stiffened at the warm brush of his skin on hers, and Grace shot her a curious look.

  “Water’s cold, but clear as a bell,” Dylan said conversationally as he led them toward the lake. Sadie finally managed to slip her arm free as they neared the shore.

  “Wow. What a great color,” Grace said, shading her eyes with her hand.

  Sadie stared out at the stretch of blue water, trying to concentrate on nature’s bounty instead of the tall man standing beside her.

  “Just what we all need to relax, don’t you think, boss?” Dylan said. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt his hands land on her shoulders. The next thing she knew, he was kneading her tight muscles, his fingers and thumbs turning her insides to mush. She was on the verge of moaning out loud when Grace pointedly cleared her throat.

  “I’ve got a sore spot right here, since you’re spreading the love around,” Grace said, indicating her left shoulder.

  Dylan shrugged good-naturedly. “At your service.”

  Sadie choked back the instinctive protest that found its way to her lips when he lifted his hands from her shoulders and moved to stand behind Grace. Grace gave her a wink, as if to let her know she was happy to take a bullet for a friend. Sadie forced a smile and turned back to the clearing.

  “I’m going to go see about those tents,” she said.

  She’d been here five minutes, and already she was hot and bothered.

  It was going to be a long weekend.

  DYLAN STUFFED the last fold of the three-person tent into its carry bag and sat back on his heels. Ben and Luke were nearby, packing up their sleeping mats and other camping paraphernalia, both their faces dark with stubble, their expressions decidedly grim after a night of little-to-no sleep. None of them was a regular camper, and the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements had not inspired any supernatural bonding to date. Dylan figured they would have done better with a karaoke machine and half a dozen bottles of tequila, but who was he to judge?

  The sound of laughter called his gaze across the campsite to where Claudia, Grace and Sadie were talking with Dan, their guide. Daring Dan, as Dylan had mentally dubbed him over the past twenty-four hours. It was obvious to anyone with an optic nerve that Dan thought all his Christmases had come at once, having scored a bevy of beautiful women to squire across the wilderness for two days. As he’d led them on hikes and supervised various activities, Daring Dan had been doing his utmost to impress the ladies in the team. Particularly Sadie. As Sadie threw back her head and laughed again, Dylan felt his lip curl. It looked like it was working, too, if the number and volume of Sadie’s laughs were anything to go by. He narrowed his gaze on Dan, taking in the other man’s tanned legs and brawny, muscular arms. It had been a long time since Dylan had had cause to be jealous of another man, but he felt a distinct stirring of the green-eyed monster as he watched Dan gazing into Sadie’s eyes. If Dylan didn’t pull off some fancy footwork soon, all his weeks of flirting—fore-foreplay, he’d told himself every time frustration threatened—would have simply laid the groundwork for Dorky Dan to swoop in and grab the girl.

  “Great to see Sadie looking so happy again, eh?” Luke said to Ben.

  “Yeah,” Ben agreed.

  Dylan turned to his fellow tentmates, intrigued.

  “You talking about Sadie’s ex?” he asked, taking a
stab in the dark.

  “The butthead,” Luke said, shaking his head with disgust. “May his dick drop off with a bad dose of scrum pox.”

  “Too good for him,” Ben said.

  Interesting.

  “So their breakup was bad?” Dylan asked, trying to sound supercasual.

  Ben made a rude noise. “Just a little. I still can’t believe Sadie toughed it out and told everyone in the church to come back to the reception and party hearty. My personal definition of courage,” he said.

  Dylan froze. “Her ex stood her up at the altar?” he asked, incredulous that anyone could be so callous.

  “Yep. And Sadie went back to the reception and partied her ass off. Man, what a night,” Luke said, smiling reminiscently.

  “Sadie’s never said a word,” Dylan said more to himself than anyone else. There’d been a lot of wedding talk lately, too, since the feature-length episode centered around the nuptials of two of the show’s favorite characters. Yet Sadie hadn’t even dropped a hint that she’d almost been married herself.

  Ben shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah. Guess she doesn’t want to talk about it.”

  “Which means we shouldn’t be gossiping,” Luke added, looking guilty now.

  Dylan could only admire Sadie’s ability to inspire such loyalty in an industry rife with backstabbing, gossip and innuendo. It was a testament to how well she was liked that he hadn’t heard this irresistible story sooner.

  “When did all this happen?” he asked.

  “Right before you came on board,” Luke said.

  Of course—the trip to St. Barts. Not a holiday, a honeymoon. A honeymoon Sadie had taken on her own. Suddenly the glance she’d shot at Claudia in that first meeting made sense. He was the last person she would have wanted to know about her personal pain.

  His gaze slid across the camping ground to where she was kneeling beside her backpack, running a comb through her long hair. Her face was pensive as she stared off into the forest, unaware that anyone was observing her. He felt a sudden, fierce surge of protectiveness toward her. What kind of a spineless creep humiliated someone they cared about like that? Getting cold feet was one thing, but allowing Sadie to get to the church before delivering the bad news smacked of cruelty and cowardice in equal measures. Dylan’s fingers flexed as he imagined the short, sharp conversation he’d have with the guy if ever he got the chance.

  Obviously sensing his gaze on her, Sadie met his eye. One eyebrow quirked up inquisitively as she called him on staring at her. Then she shook her head to signal her continuing determination to keep him at bay, a small smile curving her lips.

  For the first time, her saucy determination to both deflect him and inflame him didn’t win an answering smile.

  Why hadn’t she told him?

  Even as part of him acknowledged that Sadie had every reason not to make herself vulnerable to him, the other part of him was offended that she hadn’t trusted him with her recent pain. They’d slept with each other. They’d confessed and forgiven old hurts. And for the past few weeks they’d worked hand-in-glove in the most simpatico creative working relationship of his career.

  But she still hadn’t told him.

  Irrational or not, he wanted her to trust him. Almost as much as he wanted to press his body against hers again.

  Clipping his smaller pack onto the tent pack, Dylan shouldered the whole monstrosity. Dashing Dan had another exciting orienteering quest for them to bond over today, he knew, and he sauntered his way across to where the rest of the team was clustered.

  Making it sound as though he was handing out bars of gold bullion, Dan detailed the day’s activities.

  “We’ll be breaking up into teams of two, and each team will take a different route to the same point, which will also be our last camping spot. The first team home wins a secret prize,” Dan said, waggling his eyebrows as though he was talking to a bunch of preschoolers.

  “Goody,” Dylan muttered under his breath. Claudia was standing nearby, and she smirked, clearly as annoyed by their guide as he was.

  “Okay. I’ll give you a few minutes to sort yourselves into pairs, then I’ll start sending you off into the scary wilds,” Dan said brightly.

  Seeing a prime opportunity, Dylan stepped sideways and slid his arm over Sadie’s shoulders. She’d already turned toward Grace and Claudia, clearly about to barter who would be going with whom, but he cut her short.

  “Sadie and I can be a team,” he said, managing a passable imitation of Dan’s perky tones. “Good bonding exercise for story ed and script producer.”

  Sadie opened her mouth to protest, but Dylan talked over her.

  “Come on, Sadie—for the show,” he said.

  “That leaves you and me, Gracie,” Claudia said.

  “Excellent. That works out perfectly,” Dylan said, already steering Sadie toward Dan.

  “A nice long route,” he said to the blond-haired guide. “Sadie and I have got a lot of bonding to do.”

  Dan gave him a wary look and rather reluctantly handed over a plastic-wrapped map and compass.

  “This should take about four hours. Don’t forget your lunch kit.”

  Sadie waited until they were collecting their meal bags from the group’s provisions before speaking up.

  “I’m not sleeping with you again, Dylan,” she said quietly.

  “Who said anything about sleeping?” he said innocently.

  ALL I HAVE TO DO is say no, Sadie told herself as she followed Dylan up a rock-strewn track. If he tries anything—a kiss, say, or maybe if he tries to touch my breasts—all I have to do is stand firm.

  Great in theory—except for the treacherous bolt of desire that darted through her belly at the thought of Dylan’s hard body on hers. God, when they’d all gone swimming yesterday afternoon, she’d nearly hyperventilated. The sight of his lean body in board shorts had forced every sane thought from her mind. Only the presence of her work colleagues had stopped her from jumping him there and then. Now she was stuck alone with him all day, and she was desperately afraid that she didn’t have the willpower to keep him at bay. She wanted to be with him so much. But she also knew that she was dangerously attracted to him, and on more than just a physical level. The potent cocktail of high school crush, present-day chemistry and creative compatibility was heady in the extreme—and she couldn’t afford to risk falling for Dylan in a big way. She didn’t ever want to feel the doubt and pain of loving someone again. It was Greg’s legacy to her, and one she was determined to learn from.

  “I think we go right here,” Dylan said as they reached a fork in the track.

  Sadie leaned over his shoulder to consult the map. “Isn’t it left?” she asked, frowning at the squiggly lines and colored bits on the page in front of her.

  Dylan gave an exaggerated sigh and turned the map around for her. “We’re going this way,” he said, indicating their direction. “It’s a right turn.”

  “Okay, sure.” She shrugged.

  They started walking again, and this time Dylan fell into step beside her rather than pulling ahead.

  “Why is it women are such bad map readers?” he mused.

  “I don’t know. I guess it must fall into the same category as why men can’t put the lid on the toothpaste or the toilet seat down,” she said.

  “I’ll give you the toothpaste, but not the toilet seat. I happen to believe that the toilet’s natural state is seat-up. Therefore, women are the domestic vandals because they consistently leave it down.”

  “What an interesting and, coincidentally, self-serving theory,” she said.

  “I’d be a traitor to my sex if I said anything else.”

  “And we wouldn’t want that.”

  “Hell, no. My sex is very important to me.” The look he shot her was loaded with meaning.

  “Do you ever stop thinking about sex?”

  “Not when you’re around.”

  His honesty surprised a laugh out of her, and she shook her head at his blatant ag
enda.

  “Not going to happen,” she said firmly.

  “Are you going on about that whole us-having-sex thing again? That is so last week,” he said.

  “Really. So if I stripped off all my clothes and said, ‘Let’s go for it,’ you’d say no?”

  “To be honest, I don’t know. Let’s give it a go, and see what happens.” He stopped in the middle of the track, crossing his arms over his chest and adopting a patient waiting expression.

  She couldn’t help laughing again. He was too sexy and too charming for his own good. Or her own good.

  “Nice try. I almost didn’t see the cunning trap you’d laid for me,” she said.

  “No trap. Just two adults who happen to really, really want to get naked with each other.”

  She wished it was as easy as that, she really did. She’d never desired a man more.

  “How long have we been walking?” she asked, determined to change the subject. It was too much fun bantering back and forth with him like this. Too much fun, and too dangerous.

  “An hour. Hungry?”

  “A little. But I can wait,” she said. If they ate too early, they’d be hungry again before they reached the night’s campsite.

  “You’re good at this self-denial thing, aren’t you?”

  “The best,” she said wryly.

  “Tough-skinned Sadie Post. Is that why you braved it out at your wedding reception?”

  It was such a bolt from the blue that she stopped in her tracks and gasped.

  “Who told you?”

  “Did you really think that a secret that good was going to stay secret for long? This is television we’re talking about here.”

  She frowned down at her feet, unwilling to look him in the eye and unable to sort through her mixed-up emotions. The one saving grace in the whole sordid disaster that was her wedding day had been that Dylan was unaware of it. She hated the thought of him knowing she had been so soundly and publicly rejected. Even though intellectually she knew the fault lay with Greg, she felt branded by what he’d done to her. Shop-soiled and substandard.