Page 76 of Until the Sea Runs Dry

They hurried away, pretending to have received some unspoken call to work. Jane gave Loki a big fuss.

“You are the world’s best boy, aren’t you? My little hero.”

Loki leaned into her, lapping up the attention. Wishing she could get out of there yet knowing she couldn’t until Logan was finished for the day, she resigned herself to the fact that she would just have to cope with being uncomfortable and judged unfavorably.

Somehow, she had become one of those women she had seen in those gossip magazines.

Looking across the way, she met Logan’s eyes. He must have picked up something from her expression as he started toward her only to be stopped by the AD, calling for another take.

It was an intense scene that involved his co-star, the lead of the movie who looked the director’s double. They were around the same age, reeking of the kind of cockiness that spoke of privilege and wealth.

Jane instantly disliked both, though she had no real reason to. While Logan became still, drawing the emotions needed for the scene, his co-star, Jackson joked around with the director, playing the fool until she wished someone would tell them both to behave.

“ACTION!”

The scene began, the two of them sparring off each other. Logan’s character was having a disagreement with his co-star about a woman they were both in love with. Their words and tension spiraled into a tsunami of rage when Loki ripped his leash out of her hands and tore across the set to that piece of fluttering string that had gotten him so worked up.

“Oh no,” Jane said under her breath, shocked beyond belief.

The weight of his leash bounced over the wooden floor, echoing loudly with the sound of his scrabbling paws.

Everyone turned to look.

“CUT!” The AD yelled. One of the suited men Jane had seen earlier, turned on her.

“What the hell is that dog doing here? Do you know how much interruptions like this cost the studio? What kind of idiot brings a dog to the actual set?”

He spat the questions, eyes bulging from his head.

“What’s the matter with you, can’t you speak?”

A million faces watched her terrible faux pas. She opened her mouth to defend herself, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead of replying to his barrage of questions, she heard a voice in her head.

Say something, you idiot! What the hell is wrong with you? Tell him who the dog belongs to.

But faced with the heat of his anger, Jane found herself shrinking.

She was afraid of him.

To her horror, her shoulders started to tremble. Unable to look at him, she dropped her gaze to the ground. Having heard his shouts, Loki stopped chasing the string and padded back to her, his tail between his legs, somehow knowing that he had done something wrong.

“Remove them from the set. Now!”

Logan had been lost in the moment, swallowed by the depths of his character and the torture he was going through, having to restrain himself from pummeling the punk of the man in front of him who dared to love the same woman, yet treat her quite so badly. The script didn’t call for a physical fight — it was stronger without one — though it was all he could do not to punch his co-star in the face.

And he couldn’t put it all down to being in character.

The scene had been reaching its crescendo when somewhere, from the far reaches of his mind, he had heard the dog barking. He’d assumed it was his imagination, some trick of his mind, but when the irate voice shouted after it, he’d known with a sinking stomach.

Loki.

And the person, the woman the voice was so aggressive against, had to be Jane.

It hadn’t been that long ago when Logan had started at the bottom rung of the ladder, and he was well acquainted with being of a lesser status than everyone else. But seeing Jane’s pale face as she took his abuse… saying nothing in return, sent him into a spiral of his own rage.

He had seen another woman like that once, one he worshipped with all of his heart, and it had almost broken him then.

There was no way he would allow this now.

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