Merrick: Harlequins MC (25 page)

Poppy and Merrick arrived at the location five minutes late because he had gotten lost three times trying to find it. They were at a cabin rental place well off the beaten path, and if he’d know it was this far out in the sticks, he would have come in his truck.

She stepped of the bike as Leslie hurried up. “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you!”

“The battery is dead on my phone. I’m only five minutes late. Calm down.” Poppy replied. “We had a hard time find the place.”

“No! Not that! Have you seen?”

“Seen what?”

“You and Merrick are front and center of
Hollywood Online Weekly
!”

“So?”

“So?” Leslie asked in shock. “You need to read it!”

As she sat in the makeup chair, she used Leslie’s phone to read the article. It was all the stuff she hated about Hollywood. It was breathy, gossipy article, wondering who the mystery man was. The article was long on speculation and innuendo and short on facts. Running with the article were several photos taken of the cast and crew, obviously taken from long range, and Merrick was in every one of them. There was one of Merrick crouching over them after the shot was fired, a series of him tackling and wrestling with Charlie when he’d wandered onto the set with his bag, a dozen or more of the car crash and all the goings on with that, a few of them riding on his motorcycle, a few more of them having a quiet moment or talking, and then ended with a several shots of them kissing at various locations. The arrangement of the pictures and the tone of the story made it seem made it seem far more scandalous than it was, questioning if Poppy had men competing for her affections.

She finished reading the story, then noticed a link to another story and clicked it. This was a shorter story, detailing the shooting on the set along with quotes from ‘someone familiar with the event’ how Blake had stopped a possible assassination attempt by tackling and disarming a deranged fan, along with carefully worded speculation that a possible motive was her skin color and the fact they were filming in Texas. The article went on to speculate he was on the losing side of a love triangle and perhaps this would revive his chances with Poppy. The article included a few photos of Blake holding her, taken at the car crash, but were cropped in such a way there was no context, implying they were taken after Blake had saved her from Charlie. Also in the article were the same photos of Merrick kissing her. She flipped back to the previous article and smiled. The pictures of her and Blake were missing from the crash photos.

She turned the phone off with a sigh. She could feel her brain cells dying with every word she read.

***

“Clear the set!” Will ordered.

“I want Merrick here,” Poppy said.

“I think it would be best with a cleared set. Are you sure you sure you want Merrick here…considering?”

“Yes. Absolutely.”

Will thought a moment and picked up his walkie. “Find Merrick and send him to me.” He’d intended to operate the camera and shoot the love scene with just himself and his two actors, but if Poppy felt more comfortable with Merrick there, he wouldn’t deny her that. Love scenes were always tough, especially the first time, and he had a pair of body doubles on standby outside in case they were needed. Blake had done a couple of love scenes, but this would be Poppy’s first.

“You wanted to see me?” Merrick asked as he stepped into the tiny cabin.

“Yeah. Poppy asked that you be here. You okay with that?”

“This the love scene?”

“Yes. I’m not going to have trouble out of you, am I?”

Merrick shrugged. “It’s all pretend, right? I’m okay.”

Will nodded in approval. Blake would be wearing a cock sock, more properly called a modesty pouch, but it could still be uncomfortable for someone to watch his girl getting boned, even if it was all play acting.

It took three hours before Blake and Poppy even began to undress as Will shot, and reshot, angles as they kissed and touched. It was about the most
un
sexy thing Merrick had ever seen. They broke for dinner and Poppy told him about the website. He read it, because she wanted him to, but he was nonplussed by all the attention paid to a simple kiss.

After dinner they returned to the room for more kissing and undressing. There were no lines as these scenes would be cut together in a montage with romantic music in the traditional Hollywood style.

“Are you okay, Poppy?” Will asked. They were getting down to the nitty-gritty of the scene and Poppy had begun to force her performance, and it showed. “We can stop any time and bring in the double.”

She grimaced. “No. I want to do this.” She composed herself, wanting to hit his scene. It was a pivotal point in the movie and she wanted to play it. “Can we try again?”

Will gave her another try, but again her performance wasn’t up to what she’d been giving him in the rest of her scenes. “Cut!”

“I’m sorry!”

“Relax, Poppy,” Blake said softly. She was simply stunning and he was seriously turned on. He lowered his lips to kiss her, but she turned away and it annoyed him that she looked to Merrick. She’d kissed the hell out of him earlier in the scene, which had gotten his juices flowing, but as soon as they got down to the fucking, even if it was all pretend, she’d lost her mojo.

“Will, can I talk to you?” she asked, pushing Blake off of her. Early on she’d been looking forward to doing the sex scene with Blake, but now that it was time, and with everything that had gone on, she was having a hard time going to what she called her movie place, where she could draw upon her imagination and find what she needed to do the scene. Today, the well was dry.

Will handed her a robe. “I can’t do it,” she said softly.

“That’s okay. That’s why we have body doubles. Don’t worry about it.”

“I have an idea, though.”

“What?”

“Double Merrick for Blake.”

“You can’t be serious! We can’t hire him, he’s not part of the Guild.”

“I am. I would be a lot more comfortable with him. He won’t have any lines, right? Doesn’t that technically make him an extra? You didn’t have any problems hiring all those other people.”

“Poppy, I’ll just bring in the body double.”

“You won’t get the shot as you laid it out.”

“We’ll work around it.”

“Will, let me talk to him. I think he’ll do it. He has a better body than Blake anyway, and he looks more like Blake than my double does me. Shoot it with a little backlighting and nobody will ever know.”

Will looked at Merrick propped against the wall, thumbing through his phone. He and Blake had similar builds, and if his hair was cut and dyed, and his tattoos were covered, he could easily pass for Blake in a long shot. He looked around the room. They had planned to shoot in low light anyway, to add some romance, so it wouldn’t be hard to add a touch of backlighting.

“Before I change the lights, find out if he’ll do it. If he won’t, we’ll bring in your double, agreed?”

Poppy smiled. “Agreed.”

***

“You have got to be shitting me,” Merrick said after Poppy explained her idea.

“No, I’m serious.”

“Poppy, I’m no actor!”

“What acting? Make love to me, like you did the first night in the motel on the beach. I know you can do that.”

Merrick began shaking his head as she spoke. “I’m not comfortable doing this at all.”

“It’ll be just me and you.”

“And Blake and Will.”

“I’ll have Blake removed, and you can ignore Will.” She smiled at him. “He’s a professional. I’ll distract you and you’ll never know he’s there.” She smiled at him again then kissed him softly on the lips. “I want my first on screen love scene to be with you.” She pulled his head down and whispered into his ear. “I’m actually going to fuck you. No pretending. I want you to make me come so Will can film it.”

“Blake and I don’t look anything alike.”

“You do. In an hour, people won’t be able to tell you apart in dim light. Trust me. Trust Will.” When he hesitated again, she pulled his ear to her lips again. “I want you. I want you and that’s not acting.”

He stared at her a moment. “I’m so going to regret this in the morning.”

She burst into giggles, remembering when she’d said those very words, then jerked both fists down and back in celebration. “Let’s get you into makeup.

***

He felt ridiculous. He’d just spent ninety minutes having his hair cut and dyed dark to match Blake’s, then had most of his body airbrushed to hid his ink. As the hair and makeup people worked on him, he and Poppy listened as Blake had a screaming tantrum, even going so far as throwing a script at Will when he found out he was going to be doubled, and had started to barge into the makeup trailer to have it out with Merrick and Poppy. He’d been restrained and Will had ordered him off set until he cooled down.

“Just relax, Merrick,” Will said as Merrick entered the cabin, dressed only a robe. “You saw what Blake and Poppy were doing? Start there and just, I don’t know, do what you and Poppy have been doing. We’ve got all the close-ups we need. There’ll be no sound, so feel free to talk or whatever. If you need to stop, that’s fine. In your own time.”

“I want you to film me having an orgasm,” Poppy said as Merrick slipped out of his robe. He was totally soft, but she would fix that.

“Poppy, you don’t have to actually—”

“I want to.”

Will scrubbed his face. “Are you sure you’ll—”

“Positive,” she interrupted. “I want this to be real.”

It took her several minutes to get him going, turning his head back to look at her every time he looked to the camera. She wanted to tease him about being so nervous in front of the camera, and how millions of women were going to lusting after him, even if they didn’t know it was him, but this wasn’t the time. She needed him focused on her and not what they were doing.

It took some time before he could ignore Will, but when she’d finally pulled him into bed with her, he’d forgotten about the camera and Will, and everything else except his need to please this beautiful creature.

She pulled his head into her neck opposite the camera and held him there as he made slow easy love to her. “That’s right, baby,” she murmured as she smiled. “Slow, like that.” It was hard to focus with him making slow sweet love to her, but they only needed one climax and she was determined not to fake it.

He rolled her over, forcing himself to think only of her. Will had faded back into the shadows, and though he knew he was there, he could blot him out. She settled on him then leaned forward, her breasts softly caressing his chest as they moved together. He pulled her down into a leisurely kiss, flattening her into him as he began to stroke harder.

“Keep it slow,” Will said softly. He was keeping them framed from the waist up, but he could tell through the lens how hard they were fucking. They were obviously into it, but this wasn’t a porn shoot. Slow and easy was the only thing he wanted.

“I’m going to come. I’m going to come!” Poppy said, pushing up and propping with her hands on his chest. She began to work her hips, ignoring Will, ignoring everything as her pleasure rose higher, then higher still. She squeezed her eyes shut and let her orgasm take her.

He held her as she froze in rapture, her face twisting in pleasure until she exhaled softly and smiled as her slow giggle escaped her. “I hope you got that,” she said looking into Merrick’s eyes.