Her Leading Man (17 page)

“
Don’t borrow trouble,” Martin advised.
Christina,
he noticed with displeasure, was grinning from ear
to ear, as if she
were enjoying the sight of Pablo
Orozco in a pickle.

In truth, Orozco was pretty hard to take
sometimes
.
Still, Martin didn’t appreciate her
attitude. For God’s
sake, Orozco was the star of the picture, and if he
went, so might
Christina’s job. Not to mention everyone
else’s.

He said crisply, “Will you please open the door
for us, Christina?”
He’d taken Orozco by the shoulder
and was gently pushing him toward the car.
Orozco
winced
every time he took a hop.

“
Sure.” Christina jumped out and trotted to
the
passenger’s side. She opened the door with a
flourish
and
bowed at the two men. Martin smiled
.
Orozco
didn’t.

“
Thanks.” She truly was a lovely woman, even
if
she
did annoy him sometimes
.
Martin couldn’t
understand
what it was about her that caused his innards
so much
trouble. Maybe he
was getting an ulcer. He’d
had a good deal of stomach trouble
these past
couple
of
years. Overwork, he thought grimly. And no time
o
ff. He
really needed to take a holiday.

“
No
problem at all,” she said.

Martin didn’t miss the
twinkle
in her eyes as she
watched Orozco settle himself clumsily in the
passenger’s
seat. He didn’t miss her expression change
into one of
indignation, either, at Orozco’s next
words.

“
You drive this thing, Martin,” said the
actor.
“I
don’t believe in females driving
automobiles.”

Martin cast a glance at the heavens and briefly
prayed for release
before speaking. “Don’t be silly,
Pablo. Christina owns this machine. She
knows how
to
drive it.”

“
Right,” Christina said. She’d planted her fists
on
her
hips, and was gazing steadily at Orozco. “You
can always walk back to the
resort if you don’t trust
me, Pablo.” Her smile was as cold as her words.
It
gave
Martin the shivers. He was surprised Orozco
didn’t turn into a pillar of frozen
mud on the spot.

“
Fah!”
declared the actor. “This is ridiculous.”

“
I agree,” said Christina instantly. “And
more.
Anyone who cavils at an act of mercy is worse than
ridiculous. He’s
stupid as a slug and a damned fool
to boot.”

“
Oh
,
Lord.”

Christina glanced at Martin, who was sorry she’d
heard his dismayed
whisper. Then she winked at him,
and he blinked back
.

She said, “It’s all right, Martin. I’m used to
dealing
with
this sort of thing. Orozco’s an ass. Most men
are.”

“
Fah!” said Orozco. Martin decided that while
the
actor possessed a remarkably handsome
face
,
his conversational
skills lacked brilliance and
originality.

Christina drove them back to the Desert Palm Resort
without another word
being spoken by any of
them
.

Pablo Orozco did not make an ideal patient.
Christina stood at
the rear of the resort’s back parlor,
watching as the doctor examined
him
.
Orozco had
asked her to leave the room before he’d stripped
to
his
underwear, but she hadn’t done it, and now he
was having too much fun carrying
on to notice her
continued presence in the room.

Fortunately or unfortunately—Christina’s attitude
about this
particular aspect of being female varied,
depending upon whether it worked to
her advantage
or not at any given time
—no
one bothered to
shoo
her out
of the room. They probably didn’t even notice
her continued presence. She was,
after all, only a
woman
.

The doctor seemed to know his stuff, although his
bedside manner was
getting a terrible workout. Perhaps
a terrible working-over was the more
appropriate
term. She grinned as she watched.

“
It hurts!” Orozco shrieked in the poor
doctor’s
ear.

“
Of course it hurts, young man. It’s broken.”
The
physician, Dr. Wetherby his name was, had started
out this examination
in a jovial mood. It hadn’t lasted
long.

“
You’re a doctor! You’re supposed to make it
bett
er!”

Christina shook her head, astonished that even so
miserable a specimen
of humankind as Pablo Orozco
should behave so babyishly in the face of a
simple
broken
arm and a couple of cactus spines.

The door opened quietly, and she saw Martin peek
into the room. Her
heart did a crazy dip and went
soft. She pursed her lips and wished it wouldn’t
do
that.
Hearts
were
meant to beat in a steady rhythm
and pump blood, not
act strangely in the presence of
certain attractive members of the opposite
sex.

Actually, when she thought about it, Martin Tafft
was the only man so
far to have this effect on her
own personal heart. She’d always thought it was
because
her
nature was somewhat coldish. She wasn’t
so certain about that any
longer.

After he stared at the scene being enacted on the
bed for a few
seconds, Martin heaved a huge sigh
and glanced around the room. He looked
startled
when
his gaze found Christina.

She smiled and gestured at him to enter. Keeping
her voice at a
whisper, she said, “Come on in. It’s
a pretty good show.”

He didn’t seem to know how to react to her facetious
comment. He looked
kind of like he mig
ht
want to smile. He also looked as
if he might want
to scold her for being a coldhearted witch.

On the other hand, they were talking about Pablo
Orozco here.
Cold-heartedness didn’t enter in to the
equation, since Pablo Orozco was a
fungus.

Martin came all the way into the room, shut the
door silently behind
him, and moved over to stand
beside Christina. “I take it he’s not behaving
very
well.”

She
grinned. “What do you think?”

Martin only sighed again. After watching and
listening
for
another several minutes, he whispered, “Is
his arm broken?”

“
Yes. Clean break, but it’s broken, and he’ll
have
to wear a cast for a while.”

“
Drat.”

Christina was sorry to see Martin reach for that
hank of hair and
begin pulling on it. Poor man. He
was so nice, too. Far too nice to have to
deal with
carbuncles like Pablo Orozco for a living.
Almost as if he were
talking to himself, Martin
muttered, “I don’t suppose there’s any way to
disguise
a
cast, is there?”

She wasn’t sure he’d been talking to her, but she
decided to answer
him anyway. “I’m afraid not. I
f
i
t was merely
a sling, I suppose it might be disguised
by those Egyptian robe
things.”

“
Good God, I don’t know what we’re going to
do
now.”

Christina didn’t like Pablo Orozco. She thought he
was one of the
more
deplorable creatures on earth,
in
fact
.
She did, however, suffer a slight pang
of
indignation—almost of betrayal—on Orozco’s part at
Martin’s comment.
When she next spoke, it sounded
as if she’d dipped her words in alum
before offering
them to Martin. “Yes. I’m sure Peerless will be
quite
put
out, what with having to pay Orozco and train
another actor to take his place,
too.”

Martin’s head jerked toward her so fast, Christina
feared for the state
of his spine. “What?” He’d spoken
rather loudly and caught himself up. He
was back
to
whispering when he said, “I mean—
Oh God, I
don’t know what I mean.”

He renewed his assault on his hair, and Christina
felt a twinge of
compunction for
having given in to
her sarcastic urge. She really should try to watch
herself,
or
she’d
be
getting hard and cold and mean
tempered.
Like her grandmother. While Christina
loved Gran and
wouldn’t consider being like her as
the worst thing that could happen
to her, she’d
rather
be
known as a nice person.

A compulsion that was becoming familiar to her
as she spent more
time in Martin’s company led her
to reach out and touch his arm. “I’m
sorry, Martin.
I didn’t mean to sound so beastly. I guess my
grandmother’s
rubbing off on me.”

Not to mention Orozco. Although, if he so much
as bumped up against
her, she’d flatten him like a
pancake. The thought of him rubbing against
her
made her
sick to her stomach.

Martin appeared troubled
,
and his brow was
furrowed
when
he glanced at her again. His gaze traveled
to her hand on his arm and then back
to her
face.
Christina wondered if he felt the same strange
tingling sensation she did
whenever they touched.
She hadn’t allowed herself to consider the
phenomenon
before, but she did so now. She also withdrew
her hand because
she’d become self-conscious.

They both moved a step or two away from each
other, but
Christina, watching Martin out of the corner
of her eye, noticed that he
stopped tugging on
that hank of hair. Orozco screamed again, and they
turned to gaze at
the sofa, where the doctor stood
over the actor. He was frowning
indignantly down at
the suffering star.

“
There’s no need to make that racket, Mr.
Orozco.
And there’s certainly no need for violence,” Dr.
Wetherby
said stiffly.

“
You
hurt me!”

Christina
muttered, “The doc should have knocked
him over the head with a frying
pan before even trying
to deal with him
.
”

She wished she hadn’t said that when Martin
stiffened.
She shot him a glance. “Sorry, Martin. Pablo
Orozco really gets
my goat.”

“
Yes,” he said repressively. “Well, I imagine
he’s
in a good deal of pain.”

Right. She knew children of five who had better
control of
themselves than Pablo Orozco. She rolled
her eyes, but said, “Of
course.”

The doctor leaned over, did something to Orozco,
and the patient
bellowed again. “Are you trying to
kill me?”

“
Has the man no pride at all?” Christina
muttered
to herself, although she knew Martin heard her when
he shot her an
unhappy glance.

“
For the love of God, Mr. Orozco, try to be
still.
I can’t get these cactus spines out of your leg if
you
keep
flailing about like this. I’ve dealt with children
who are braver than
you are.”

Christina was pleased that the doctor’s mind ran
along the same lines
as her own. She refrained from
saying so
,
because she didn’t
want Martin to think
she was completely heartless.