Merlyn's Magic (22 page)

He was so gentle as he lay her back against the sofa, so
reverent as he slipped the clothes from her body, his mouth so
erotically sensual against her own, that he quickly overcame Merlyn's
awkwardness with the situation, and as she closed her eyes she could
even believe it
was
Rand making love to her.

The tension left her body completely as her fingers laced
in the vibrant dark hair at his nape, his skin smooth and muscled
beneath her searching lips. She forgot everything, the cameras, the
technicians, Christopher, as she became lost to the wonder of Rand
making love to her.

She was on fire as that dark head moved down her body,
gasping as his mouth caressed the peak of her breast, her eyes closed
as she drowned in Rand's touch.

'Love me,' she groaned. 'Oh God, love me,' she encouraged
achingly.

'Merlyn…?'

She blinked open dazed blue eyes, staring up into Mark's
puzzled face, not Rand's…

'Damn it, Hillier,' Christopher exploded. 'What the hell
do you think you're doing?'

Mark raised his head to glare across the room at the other
man before easily levering himself to his feet. 'That wasn't in the
script,' he complained. 'What was I supposed to say to that?
She—'

'You could have improvised, damn it,' Christopher shouted
his impatience. 'Couldn't you see she was enjoying it?'

Merlyn gave a pained groan as she bent her knees up into
her body in shame, turning away from all the curiously speculative
faces. There weren't really that many people present, Christopher had
kept them down to a minimum as Liza had said he was going to, but it
seemed as if dozens of pairs of eyes were staring at her.
Had
she been enjoying it? She had tried to pretend it was Rand making love
to her, but it seemed she had succeeded more than she had dared
hope—

'Here.' A harsh voice rasped before something heavy fell
about her body.

Merlyn recognised that voice even as she smelt the
maleness of Rand on the navy blue jacket he had dropped over her
nakedness. She raised startled eyes to look at the man who stared back
at her as if she were a stranger to him.

She swallowed hard. 'How long—'

'Long enough,' he bit out with disgust, his eyes coldly
silver.

It had been
him
she responded to,
him
she had wanted to love her. But how could she make him understand she
had only been able to bear the embarrassment of today by pretending it
was him who made love to her!

'Carmichael,' Christopher greeted lightly as he
interrupted them. 'I didn't realise you were here.'

'Obviously.' That silver gaze raked over him with open
contempt.

'Merlyn is doing really well, isn't she?' Christopher
enthused, not at all daunted by the other man's coldness. 'And after
the start we had this afternoon it's a relief, I can tell
you—'

'
Don't
tell me,' Rand cut in harshly.
'I have no interest whatsoever in hearing about any of your problems.
Suzie never did a nude scene in the whole of her career, and I don't
intend letting her make one now—even posthumously!'

'But, Carmichael—'

Hooded eyes silenced him. 'You heard me, Drake,' he
ordered harshly. 'No nude scene.'

'Rand—'

Fury glittered in his gaze as he looked at Merlyn before
turning and walking off.

'Hell,'
Christopher groaned in frustration. 'Okay, everyone, we may as well
call it a night.'

Mark was buttoning his shirt as he joined them. 'Can he do
that?' he frowned. 'Can he just cut a scene like that?'

'Yes,' Christopher spat out. 'Anything he doesn't like
goes.'

Merlyn swallowed hard, still huddled beneath the
protective cloak of Rand's jacket. 'You mean I don't have
to—have to go through this again?' Her teeth were chattering,
but with reaction, not the cold.

The only way she had got through that scene even once was
by pretending Mark was Rand, her mortification when she realised how
well she had succeeded in doing that such that she wanted to crawl away
into a corner and die. But Rand's presence meant she had to face
exactly what she had done. He had stood and watched as she made love
with another man!

'Hey,' Mark taunted. 'Don't sound so eager to scrap it. As
Christopher said, you were enjoying it well enough a few minutes ago!'

'Shut up, Hillier,' Christopher told him caustically as
Merlyn gasped her humiliation. 'Can't you tell when a woman is
responding to another man and not you?' He sat down on the sofa to take
Merlyn soothingly into his arms.

Mark's handsome face flushed angrily at the rebuke. 'I was
the one lying there with her—'

'But you weren't the one in her mind,' Christopher
declared coldly. 'And women make love with their minds as much as their
bodies. It's all right, Merlyn,' he comforted as she still trembled,
holding her gently against him. 'It's all over.'

'You mean she was pretending I was Carmichael all the
time?' Mark was furious at being told he had been nothing but a
stand-in lover.

'Well it certainly wasn't me,' Christopher scorned. 'Now
could you get
your
mind out of your trousers long
enough to go to my caravan and get Merlyn a glass of brandy; you'll
find a bottle in there somewhere.'

'I'm no one's servant—'

'Get the brandy, Hillier,' Christopher told him through
clenched teeth. 'And stop being such a stupid bastard.'

Mark looked malevolent before he turned and strode out of
the gazebo.

'You've just made yourself a vindictive enemy,' Merlyn
murmured faintly, her eyes closed as she lay weakly against
Christopher, willing everyone else gone before she had to stand up and
put her clothes back on.

'He's been spoiling for a fight ever since he got here,'
Christopher dismissed carelessly. 'Now he's got himself an opponent of
his own weight! It's you I'm concerned about, Merlyn.' The worry could
be heard in his voice. 'I know you said you didn't want to do this
scene but I had no idea it was this bad.' He rubbed the chill of her
hands in his much larger ones.

'I really won't have to go through it again?' She looked
up at him beseechingly.

He shook his head. 'What Carmichael doesn't like is
vetoed.' He looked grim. 'I don't like someone else having this much
power over my film, but we may as well not bother to make it at all if
Carmichael should decide after it's made to speak out against the
authenticity of any part of it. The public loved Suzie too much to
accept anything less than the truth about her.'

Merlyn shivered in reaction again. 'I wish you had
discussed it with him before I—before I had to go through
this.'

Christopher grimaced. 'I was hoping he would see it in the
context of the whole film; I didn't realise he was going to be creeping
around my closed film set!' he added resentfully.

Merlyn wondered what he had been doing there too. Last
night he had given the impression that he didn't care if he never saw
her again, let alone the way he had seen her today.

'Here.' A very disgruntled Mark pushed the bottle of
brandy in front of them.

'Glass?' Christopher queried.

'I brought two.' He thrust the tumblers at them too. 'I
thought you might
both
need a drink!'

'What did you ever see in him?' Christopher bit out as he
poured the brandy for Merlyn and himself, Mark having left after giving
a triumphant smile at the baleful glare he received from the other man.

'At the time, things I didn't have—maturity and
success,' she said dryly.

He raised dark blond brows. 'My, what a bad judge of
character you were!'

There was no answering smile for him in her shadowed eyes.
'I don't seem to have got any better with age!' She took a large
swallow of the brandy, choking a little, but at last able to feel some
warmth returning to her body.

'Carmichael,' Christopher sighed, sipping his own drink.
'Come on,' he decided briskly. 'Let's get you into the warm and then
into some clothes.'

'Has everyone gone?' She had deliberately kept her face
averted from the doorway.

'No, they haven't,' Christopher told her decisively. 'But
you have to work with them all again tomorrow whether you like it or
not, so you might as well face them all now.' He put out a hand to pull
her to her feet.

Merlyn shook her head, rigid with nervousness. 'I
can't—'

'You can,' he insisted. 'And you will. My God, woman,' he
groaned in exasperation as she still refused to move. 'Do you think
you're the first actress, the first
woman
, to
ever pretend it's someone else making love to her just to get through
it? Believe me, when your co-star has been eating Indian food the night
before, sometimes it's the only way
to
get
through it!'

Her mouth curved in the ghost of a smile. 'Are you
comparing Mark to a strong curry?'

'I wouldn't compare him to anything,' Christopher said
disgustedly. 'The man's an idiot. He had to be to let you go the way he
did.'

Merlyn gave him a sharp look. 'He told you we were once
going to be married…?'

'Boasted about it, is a more apt description,' Christopher
replied. 'Until I pointed out that at least you had come to your senses
before you made
that
mistake!'

Her mouth quirked. 'I won't ask how he reacted to that
remark!'

'I shouldn't,' he grimaced. 'Even one of the cameramen
blushed,' he answered dryly.

She didn't know how she did it but somehow she allowed
Christopher to pull her to her feet, wrap the jacket that reached
mid-thigh on her more firmly about her, before walking her over to the
caravan she was using to change and makeup. The clothes she had been
wearing earlier were neatly folded and lying on the chair just inside
the door. The colour drained from her face again as she realised
someone must have picked them up from the floor and brought them over
here.

'This is all my fault.' Christopher frowned as he watched
her anxiously.

'No.' She shook her head. 'It's mine,' she said dully.

'Get dressed and we'll have dinner together,' he
instructed harshly.

She swallowed hard, shaking her head. 'I couldn't face
anyone tonight.'

'Yes, you could,' he told her firmly. 'The only ones with
egg on their faces are Mark and me. I'm thick-skinned enough to take
it, and Mark's had plenty of years to get used to the feeling!'

She shook her head again. 'I'd rather have a soak in the
bath.' To wash away Mark's touch and the degradation she still felt.
'And then order dinner in my room.' Which she doubted she would be able
to eat.

'Hiding?' he enquired.

'Renewing my defences,' she corrected in a subdued voice.
'Did you ever meet Rand when he was married to Suzie?' she asked
curiously.

'Once or twice, I think, at parties,' he shrugged with a
frown.

'Was he different then?'

'He may have smiled a little more, but I believe he was
just as arrogant. Why?' Christopher's eyes were narrowed.

She shrugged. 'I think I would have liked to have known
him then.'

'It wouldn't have done you any good; he was married,
remember?'

It might even have been worth the pain of knowing he was
completely inaccessible to her just to have seen him happy with
someone. After today he was just as elusive to her as if he were still
married, and he despised her into the bargain.

'Thank you for understanding just now.' She squeezed
Christopher's arm gratefully.

'About time, hm?' His tone was self-derisive. 'I really am
sorry about what happened earlier.'

'It's over now,' she dismissed.

'And you want to go and hide, forget it ever happened,' he
guessed correctly. 'Face it head on, Merlyn, it's the only way.'

'Rand is the one I can't face again.' She shuddered just
at the thought of it.

'You think he'll come back?' Christopher raised surprised
brows.

Would he? If she had to judge by the contemptuous way he
had looked at her earlier as he threw his jacket over her then she
would say no. But he had walked away from her before only to come back
again because he needed to make love to her. She didn't know what he
would do now…

She shrugged. 'I doubt it,' she sighed. 'I'm sorry if that
makes things awkward for you.'

Christopher scowled. 'Nothing you do could make things
here any more difficult for me than they already are. I've been up
against flooding in drought areas, and deposed governments replaced by
less welcoming ones right in the middle of filming, but this is
definitely the worst situation I've ever been in! I'll stick to fiction
next time!'

Merlyn wished the whole of the time since she first met
Rand hadn't been real. And she especially wished today were just part
of a nightmare from which she would eventually wake up.

What must he be thinking of her now, besides the obvious
feelings of disgust! It had to be obvious that she hadn't been acting
out a response to Mark, that she had been completely dazed when he
broke away from her in confusion as she hadn't kept to the script. The
whole experience had been mortifying enough without Rand witnessing it!

It felt good to put her clothes on again, although she
took Rand's jacket with her when she went to her room, keeping it
wrapped about her shoulders, loving the scent of him that it carried.
And maybe, just maybe, he would come back, if only to retrieve it.

The water was cold and the bubbles had long disappeared
from its scented surface by the time she got out of the bath. There had
been no visitors to her room during that time, not even Liza for her
customary chat. Maybe her friend had heard all the gossip about her
today and was as shocked by her behaviour as Merlyn was herself.
Although that didn't really sound like the Liza she knew and loved; her
friend's policy had always been 'live and let live'. She never presumed
to judge anyone. Besides, Liza, more than anyone else here, knew how
she really felt about Mark.