by Naomi Niles
I inhaled, then slowly released the air from my lungs as I closed my eyes and allowed her to finish her job in peace. The way I saw Ezra knock his scene out didn’t do anything but give me more confidence about handling my scene when it came. I felt like we were in this together, even when we weren’t going to be on set at the same time. I was a representation of him, and just like that, he was a representation of me. It took her almost 40 minutes to finish my makeup, and once she was finished, she spun me around in my chair and let me see her creation. “Wow,” I said as I leaned forward in my chair. “I look like a completely different person. I look… I look way sexier than I did before you started,” I said with a chuckle.
“Oh, please, Hannah. You were already beautiful, and if you ask me, the makeup takes a little away from that. I prefer women to flaunt their natural beauty, but the movie business calls for makeup all the time. If it didn’t, I think I would be out of a job.” She laughed as she stood and packed her things. Minutes later, one of the stage directors knocked on my door.
“It’s open.”
He twisted the handle and stuck his head inside. “You are due on set in 10 minutes.”
“All right. I’ll be there.”
He shut the door as I stood up and paced the room, rehearsing the first few lines in my head as I went back and forth. I knew I had everything, but I just hoped that nothing would slip my mind once the lights turned on. “You’re going to be fine, Hannah. Absolutely fine. You will stun the director, stage crew, cameramen and everyone else who catches you out there. I believe in you, and you are going to do great.”
“Thank you…” I squinted my eyes, trying to recollect a name that she had never given me.
“Rachel,” she said as she shook my hand. “Rachel. I’m sorry, I think I was just so focused on getting your makeup done that I forgot to formally introduce myself to you.”
“No, it’s quite all right. Well, Rachel, thank you for everything you’ve said to encourage me today, and I know we will see each other more throughout the filming.”
“Absolutely. Knock them dead, Hannah.”
She winked at me, then left me alone in my trailer. I looked at my watch. Three minutes had gone by since I’d gotten the news that I had to be on set, so I slid my feet into my house shoes and headed out of my trailer. “Hannah,” he said as soon as I opened my door. “I was just coming to get you.”
“Ezra! Wow. I had caught a little of your scene before I had to come back here and get ready to shoot mine. You did,” I looked at his chest, “an amazing job.”
“Thank you. We had to redo it twice because we kept missing shots that we were supposed to make, but that was the only reason. Leonard was OK with that because we nailed our lines without any hiccups.”
“Well,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I am up next. Wish me luck?”
He kissed me on the lips. His touch soothed me like a hot cup of coffee on a cold day. His lips gave me more confidence, and his aroma sent me into zones that no amount of liquor could have come close to. “You don’t need luck, baby. You are the luck.”
“All right, we need everyone on set! Places, people! Places!” Leonard barked out directions, prompting me to head to my spot inside the house.
“I’ll be watching you,” Ezra said as I headed to my spot. I blew another kiss at him before he was out of sight.
I headed upstairs inside the mansion to the master bedroom as Leonard had just positioned himself in his chair. “Ahh, Hannah, you look lovely. All right, remove the robe, please. Let me see you.” I looked around the room. There were a handful of men in there with me with and one woman just to the right, assisting one of the cameramen. My hands felt as though they were glued to the front of my housecoat as Leonard clapped his hands together. “Come now, Hannah. Time is money. Please, remove your robe.” Finally, I removed the robe and let it fall to the ground, exposing my undergarments. “Yes, yes,” he said. “Spin around?”
I twirled slowly like a ballerina inside of a jewelry box, catching a glimpse of everyone in the room. The fact that they weren’t paying attention to me made me feel a little better. It didn’t seem like I was putting on a private show for everyone in the room. “Perfect! Perfect! Now, go ahead and climb into bed. Charlie,” he said, looking to his left, “make sure you zoom in once I give you the sign, all right? Great.” He glanced at me. “All right, now, position yourself in the bed, but do not get beneath the covers.”
I did as he asked, knowing that the first scene was going to be the hardest for me. I was used to playing with myself alone, but not in front of a group of strangers. At the same time, if I could make it through this scene, I knew I would have no problem making it through the rest. Just before the scene began, Ezra had snuck into the room and positioned himself near the back wall. A rush of calm blanketed me as soon as we made eye contact. He smiled, and with that, I knew it was going to be easy for me to do what I had to do in my opening scene.
“All right. Are we ready? Lights, camera… action!”
I caught one last glimpse of Ezra, then closed my eyes and slid my finger down to my vagina, slowly toying with it on the outside of my panties. I slowly licked my lips as my eyes were closed tight, imagining Ezra making his way on top of me. In moments, I had blocked out everyone in the room until it was just me alone on the bed, in pitch black darkness, fantasizing about what I wanted Ezra to do to me.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ezra
One week had gone by since we first started shooting the movie, and things were going off without a hitch. Hannah and I were taking turns knocking our scenes out in one take, and in the process, Leonard had become extremely impressed with our professionalism. None of the sex scenes had been filmed yet, but we were slowly leading up to them. I stood by Leonard right before he was ready to shoot another one of Hannah’s scenes. “You two are doing great,” he said with a cup of coffee in his hand. “I knew I was taking a chance on the both of you, but I am elated that I went out on a limb here. You two have been impressive from the first shoot, and I am anxious to see how you two handle the sexual scenes we have coming up soon.”
“Yeah,” I said as Hannah strolled past us with one of her castmates. She made eye contact with me momentarily before she continued towards the set. “I just wanted to make sure that we did our part. I know you were taking a chance on me, well, on us. I didn’t want to disappoint.”
“Disappoint? No. I will hear none of it!” he said, slamming his foot into the ground as if he were offended. “The very last thing you two are doing right now is disappointing me. I’ll tell you this, I had A-list actors in mind to fill these roles, and as of right now, I don’t see a difference between the two of you and any of them.” He put his arm around my shoulder. “I am not just filling your head with nonsense. You are good, Ezra.” He looked at Hannah, “And she is brilliant, as well. Yes,” he said, a smile appearing on his face as if he were filling his mind with lustful images of her. “That woman right there is brilliant. Not only is she a good actress, but she is easy on the eyes. She is perfect for this kind of work.”
“Ezra,” he said, looking directly at me. “Ezra, I have another company as well. One outside of this one that not many people know about. If this movie goes off well, I think there will be a spot for you,” he looked at Hannah, “actually, for the both of you. However, she is perfect for it. She is a natural. Her shape. The way she is in tune with her body, you know? The way she carries herself.” He sipped his coffee with a lustful eye and a mischievous grin.
“Um,” I said, breaking his gaze, “well, we can talk more about it later, I guess. I’d like to hear more about it.”
“What? Oh, right, yeah, we can do that. We can do that,” he said as he kept his eyes on Hannah. “We can definitely do that. All right,” he said, handing me his coffee as if I were his assistant. “Places, everyone! We must get this scene filmed so we can wrap the shoot up for the day. Everyone is doing an excellent job! Hannah, dear,” he said, a
pproaching her. They were too far away from me to hear the conversation, but I saw his hand fall to the small of her back. To me, he was becoming too comfortable with her. The way he spoke about her body and how he looked at her with a seductive glance. Not many people knew that we were an item, and we preferred it to be that way to keep that chatter down, but that didn’t stop my anger from rising each time someone tried to hit on her, and it happened often.
From cameramen to the stage crew and now, the director. We hadn’t even gotten to the sex scenes yet, and I didn’t think the attention would be on her this heavy in the beginning. I placed his cup of coffee on the counter as he laughed and joked with Hannah with his hand still on the small of her back. I watched him closely as my fist balled up. It took everything in me not to charge onto the set and punch him squarely in the face for allowing his hands to wander around on her body. Ezra, relax. Calm down. They are just talking. I closed my eyes and exhaled a few times to slow my heart rate, and once I opened them, Leonard was seated in his director’s chair with the loudspeaker in his grasp. “All right, places! Places! Let’s get this out of the way so we can go home! Are we ready? Excellent. Lights, camera, action!”
After the scene had wrapped up, Leonard called the shooting for the day. “Excellent job, everyone! Beautiful! Now, we will start again tomorrow at 10 am and not a second after. I need my two stars ready for the day, so you two can come in by 12. We have some prep work to do, and I want to make sure that you two are rested before we begin shooting the first major sex scene. Get rested, and more importantly, do what you need to do to relax. Tomorrow is when the fun starts,” he said with a grin as he clapped his hands together.
He climbed out of his chair and headed to the back area with a few members of the film crew as Hannah walked towards me. “Good job,” I said as I enveloped her in my arms. The rest of the film crew started breaking down the cameras as we walked away from the nightclub scene. I put my arm around her and walked her to her car in the middle of the parking lot beneath the bright streetlights above. “So, how do you think things are going so far?”
She sighed. “Well, so far, so good. The only thing I really had to endure was the opening scene where I was playing with myself in the bed. I mean, it was weird being in the room with a group of strangers, but after I saw you, I was OK.”
“Yeah,” I said, laughing. “I nearly left the room and started jackin’ off myself.”
“Oh, shut up. You did not!”
“Seriously. I got hard while you were going to work on yourself. I probably wasn’t the only one, though.”
“Ugh, Ezra!” she said, elbowing me in my side. “See, things like that make me get even more nervous about our scene tomorrow! I don’t want to think guys are doing that.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said as we strolled through the parking lot. “I know, but it’s the truth. Hell, I know some guys will probably jack off to our scene once the movie hits DVD.” She lowered her eyes and glared at me. “What?” I said with a smile. “Come on, now, Hannah. That scene was crazy, and besides that, I always thought Halle Berry was fine! Shit, that was the closest thing I could come to actually having sex with her, so I did it.”
She removed my arm from her shoulder and walked ahead of me. “Well, I guess now, since you are becoming a well-known actor, you may have the chance.”
“Come on, Hannah,” I said, tugging at her arm, “Babe, that was years ago. Besides, I have something better now. I have the woman that all of the other guys will dream of getting their hands on. That was then; this is now. If I had the chance to shoot a sex scene with you or Halle Berry, guess who I am choosing.” She put her hand on the door and raised one eyebrow above the other, waiting for my response. I thought to joke around with her and say Halle, but I felt that I had already pushed her the wrong way. “Baby, you. It’s you, no question. You are the object of my affection right now, all right? No question about it. None.”
She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, that better had been your response, Ezra.”
“Hey, I’m no fool,” I said, laughing, as I opened her car door. “Speaking of, have you heard from that stalker of yours? It’s been almost a week.”
“I’ve gotten calls and hang-ups, but nothing other than that. I was thinking of changing my number, but I didn’t know if somebody involved in this movie might try to contact me. It would be a bad look if I just changed my number and they couldn’t get in touch, so I think I’ll just do it after we are done filming.” She stood near her car door as a slight breeze blew her hair in the wind. The strands fluttered as if they were waving goodbye as I stood next to her.
“All right. Are you ready for tomorrow?”
“I guess. I mean, I really don’t have a choice, do I? But honestly, that first scene helped me relax a little bit, and since you are going to be on the set with me this time, I think it won’t be as hard.”
“Oh, it’s going to be hard. Trust me,” I said, laughing. “It is going to be ROCK hard.”
“Oh, goodness. You are a fucking hornball, Ezra.”
“Me? If anything, you match me completely.” I scanned the parking lot to see if anybody was watching. We were the only ones among a pond of idle cars. The cameramen and other members of the crew were still inside wrapping up their gear. Above, the moon’s glow illuminated everything beneath it. Another breeze blew against our bodies and sent her perfume right into my nose. I took a step closer to her as she put her hand on my chest.
“Wait. What are you doing?”
“I am taking a kiss from my girl. What are you doing?”
“I am stopping you before someone sees us,” she said, looking around. “I don’t want people to start trying to mess things up between us, because once they know we are an item, that is when the rumors start swirling around. I’ve seen the way some of these women here look at you. All it takes is one or two rumors to get in your ear about this or that, and then what we have is wrecked.”
“Oh, you’ve seen them look at me?” I asked with a grin.
“Yes. More than a few times, Ezra. That’s why I just want to keep things cool until we are done with this. Then maybe we can go public, you know? Turn into a power couple or something like that.”
I laughed. “Shit, that doesn’t sound bad. But about the other thing, I understand. I mean, I’ve seen some guys looking at you, too. Hell, even the director.”
“Oh, my God. That creep. He is a certified creep, no doubt about it. I appreciate him giving me this opportunity, but he is a weirdo.”
“He could be related to your stalker.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
I pulled her close and stole a kiss anyway. I couldn’t resist the urge to press my lips against hers. She was mine, and I didn’t care who saw it, but for her sake, I was willing to keep it quiet for now. I hoped she wasn’t trying to play a different angle with me, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Before I met her, she was a private person, so I didn’t expect things to change. I couldn’t wait for tomorrow, though. I wanted every man involved in this movie to see me make love to the woman they wanted.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hannah
I laid in my bed with my eyes wide open, looking at a blank, white ceiling as if it were telling me every secret it kept. My alarm went off at 8 am, and it wasn’t until then that I realized I had barely slept at all last night. Butterflies flapped their wings around in my stomach whenever I thought about the scene I had to shoot today. Carrie wasn’t there to help calm my nerves because she was out of town for another photo shoot. I was alone, tucked underneath my covers, afraid to move like there was a killer creeping around in the house. Just then, my phone rang on my nightstand, breaking the lucid silence that filled the room.
As I reached over to grab it, I realized that it was an unsaved number. Great, I thought as my thumb hovered over the green button. I decided not to answer the call and let it fall to my voicemail. A few minutes later, the number left a message for me to listen to. “Han
nah, babe. Hey. I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked, but I’ve been kind of busy. I know that you have a big shoot today, so I hope you knock it out! I will talk to you soon.” I laid in my bed, stock-still, as Brian’s voice sunk into the depths of my fear. Tears formed at the bottom of my eyes as my hands shook uncontrollably. This was the last thing I needed, especially today.
I steadied my hand long enough to dial Ezra’s number. “Hello?”
“Ezra, he just called me!”
“Who?”
“The stalker! Brian! He just called me! Out of all days, he just called me now!” I grabbed my blanket and held it tight as if it would keep him away from me if he were to creep into my room. “Can you come over, Ezra? Please. Carrie is not here, and I’m scared. I think he is going to find his way up here!”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m on my way over there right now, all right? Just stay in your bed.”
“OK. Please, hurry.”
I hung up the phone and pressed my back against the headboard as I kept my head on a swivel. My limbs shook as if I were in sub-zero weather as I waited for Ezra to arrive. Minutes dragged by like hours, and finally, Ezra showed up. “Hannah,” he called from the living room. “Hannah, it’s me.”
“I’m in the bedroom, Ezra!” I said, peeking my head above the covers. He walked into my room and found me tucked beneath the covers, scared to move an inch in either direction.
“Give me your phone,” he demanded. I leaned my head to the nightstand, pointing him in the direction he needed to go. He quickly scooped it off the table and scrolled to my call log.