Bound By Contract

‘You never can tell nowadays,’ Gideon Byrne added insultingly, making no apology for the very personal remark.

‘It’s natural,’ she answered him hardly, a perplexed frown marring her brow.

If she hadn’t known better, she would have said this man disliked her. But surely that couldn’t be so—the man didn’t even know her. Probably he was just annoyed with her because of his unnecessarily wet clothing?

He nodded abruptly. ‘I thought so.’

And…? But maybe there wasn’t an ‘and’ with this man. He might be one of the top film directors in the world, with an Oscar at home to prove it, but he was also one of the coldest, rudest men Madison had ever met…

And, thinking of cold, she was starting to shiver now, and was badly in need of that hot shower she’d promised herself a few minutes ago. ‘If you don’t mind, I think I would like to go upstairs and take a shower before dinner,’ she told him pleasantly.

He met her gaze challengingly. ‘And if I do mind?’ he drawled.

Madison didn’t so much as blink at his rudeness this time. ‘Then I’m still going upstairs to take a shower,’ she said bluntly. Maybe that was the only way to be with this man; politeness certainly didn’t seem to work!

To her surprise, he smiled. And it transformed his face from austere coldness to friendly warmth. Well…almost, she decided. Friendly was perhaps going too far! But he did look more approachable, Madison tried to convince herself. Not that she intended ‘approaching’ him; she was quite happy to just part on that one smile, sure that it was more than a lot of people got out of him.

‘Maybe you and I are going to get on after all, Madison McGuire,’ he murmured enigmatically.

She wasn’t sure she would go quite that far on the basis of one smile! Besides, there must be mere hours left of his visit—hardly long enough for them to need to ‘get on’…

‘If you say so,’ she acknowledged noncommittally. ‘Nice to have met you, Mr Byrne,’ she added politely before turning to leave.

‘Liar!’ came his softly taunting reply from behind her.

Madison paused, turning slowly back to face him. ‘I’m not in the habit of lying, Mr Byrne—’

‘I thought I told you to call me Gideon,’ he rasped harshly.

She frowned. ‘Perhaps you did—Mr Byrne,’ she felt stung into replying; really, the man was nothing but an arrogant bully! ‘But—’

‘We haven’t been formally introduced?’ he cut in derisively. ‘I think it’s a little late in our acquaintance for that; after all, I did attempt to save your life a short time ago!’

‘Attempt’ just about described it! If he hadn’t startled her in the way he had, she wouldn’t have fallen into the water in the first place!

‘I was about to say—but I really couldn’t be so familiar with a film director of your calibre,’ she finished forcefully. ‘But on second thoughts…! I’m not in the habit of lying— Gideon, and it hasn’t been nice meeting you at all!’ She turned on her heel and walked away, going up the stairs that led back to the main part of the house.

And, as she did so, she could swear she heard the sound of Gideon Byrne chuckling down in the pool-room.

Ridiculous. That man didn’t even know how to chuckle!

What a monumental pain in the—! She had never met anyone like him. Cold. Rude. Arrogant. If that was what being awarded an Oscar did for you, she hoped she never got one!

Not that she was ever likely to, she groaned inwardly, if she went around upsetting directors of Gideon Byrne’s calibre.

Oh, hell!

Best just to forget she had ever met him. With any luck, he would have left before dinner…

Gideon’s humour faded as soon as he heard the loud thud of the door closing behind her.

She had pluck; he would give her that. She was also incredibly beautiful, in exactly the way he had noticed on the screen last night as he’d sat watching the Tony Lawrence film.

He had immense respect for the other director, and as he hadn’t had the chance to see his new film yet he’d enjoyed watching it from a technical angle, anyway. But when the serving girl had walked across the screen it was as if he had been given an electric shock…!

He’d been looking for just such a girl for the last six months, seen dozens of would-be-hopefuls, but none of them were exactly what he wanted. When Madison McGuire had walked across the screen last night he’d known he had at last seen his Rosemary.

She was everything he wanted Rosemary to be: the delicately beautiful face of an angel, the deep green of her eyes as she looked briefly at the camera a bonus he hadn’t been expecting, her neck long and creamy, looking too fragile to support the weight of that long, corn-coloured hair, her body boyishly slender, her legs, he had discovered only minutes ago, long and coltish.

Yes, she was everything he was looking for, and as he’d avidly studied the credits, looking for her name, he had read ‘Madison McGuire’ next to ‘serving girl’.

Madison McGuire! The very girl Edgar had been trying minutes ago to persuade him to stay on and meet. And as he’d glanced sideways at Edgar he’d seen that smile of satisfaction on the older man’s face. Damn him!

Part of Gideon had wanted to say to hell with Edgar and this Madison, and just leave as he’d planned. But the other part of him, the purely professional part, had known he would be a fool if he left without even seeing her. Although it had gone against the grain to tell Edgar he had decided to stay on another day after all. Especially as Edgar had taken his decision so calmly, only the twinkling blue of his eyes giving away the fact that he was well aware of exactly what—and who!—had changed Gideon’s mind!

Well, now he had seen Madison.

And she was everything, if not more than he had been looking for in the lead for his next film. The American accent had come as a bit of a surprise; Edgar had forgotten to mention that little fact when he’d spoken of her, and in her part in last night’s film she had merely murmured ‘Thank you, sir’—which had given him no idea where she came from. But she had proved minutes ago that she was perfectly capable of adopting an English accent if she needed to—if only to mock him with!

Yes, he had seen Madison McGuire. Now all he had to do was offer her the part of Rosemary. It was whether or not she would accept that he wasn’t altogether sure of. She would be a fool if she didn’t; the film would be the making of her career. It all depended on just how much she’d decided it hadn’t been nice meeting him!

‘Been for a swim, Gideon?’

Edgar! Just his luck to walk straight into his host in the hallway, Gideon decided as he slowly turned.

Or was it luck? Edgar looked confidently amused—as if he was well aware under what circumstances Gideon had been for a ‘swim’. Perhaps his ‘goddaughter’ had run to Uncle Edgar with the tale of the terrible Gideon Byrne?

Or maybe not. Madison, for all she looked so fragile, had been perfectly capable of fighting her own battles a few minutes ago—at least, verbally!

‘I met Madison down at the pool,’ he told the other man dryly.

‘Yes?’ Edgar returned confidently.

It was that confidence that rankled so much with Gideon. It bordered on smug—and it made Gideon want to wipe the smile right off Edgar’s face!

He shrugged. ‘I didn’t have a costume, but that didn’t seem to bother Madison too much,’ he told the other man challengingly.

Edgar’s humour faded, his eyes taking on that steely quality that would be a warning to lesser men than Gideon. ‘I sincerely hope you’re joking, Gideon,’ he bit out tersely. ‘Madison is here for a little TLC, not to deal with idiots who choose to go skinny-dipping in my pool!’

Gideon could tell that Edgar was more than a little annoyed; he would never have called him an idiot otherwise. But it was his reference to Madison needing TLC that intrigued him. Madison had looked no more than twenty or so, hardly old enough to be recovering from a broken marriage or something like that. Which begged the question, what could be the reason she needed TLC? But it wasn’t a question he intended asking Edgar—he wouldn’t give the other man the satisfaction!

He shrugged, smiling grimly. ‘I told you, Madison didn’t seem to mind. Now, if you’ll excuse me,’ he added as Edgar seemed intent on pursuing the subject, ‘I think I’ll follow her example and take a shower before dinner.’

Edgar’s eyes were narrowed to steely slits. ‘I thought you were leaving before dinner?’

Last night he had decided he would take a look at this Madison McGuire and then leave, and he had told Edgar the latter, at least. But now that he had seen Madison there was no way he was leaving here until he had spoken to her, and looked at her, some more. There was a hell of a lot of work to do, and he didn’t have too much time left in which to do it. In fact, now that he had seen Madison, there was no time to lose.

He shrugged again. ‘I changed my mind. See you later, Edgar,’ he told the other man firmly before walking away.