Her Leading Man (49 page)

“
That’s right, Pablo. That was a low-down
thing
to do.”

Christina’s gaze swerved from Ben to Martin,
who’d next spoken.
She couldn’t find any words in
her mouth anywhere.

Martin went on. “You know good and well that
Christina and I are
a couple. It’s infamous of you to
take advantage of her while you’re filming
a scene.”

“
She hit me.” Orozco had started sulking.
“With
a rock. She might have killed me.”

Suddenly, Christina found her voice. “I wish
I
had.”

But she knew Ben and Martin were being reasonable
here, and she ought
to desist. She’d made her
point. She could even take a grim sort of
satisfaction
in the knowledge that she’d defended herself with
spirit—violence,
even—and that she’d come away
from the encounter the victor. Even if she did
feel
like
gagging when she recalled the feel of Orozco’
s
slimy
tongue slipping inside her mouth.

Grimacing, she rubbed her mouth with the
ba
ck
of her hand again. “Blech.” Figuring she
wouldn’t
need
it any longer, she dropped the rock. It was better
this way. If Orozco
said anything else, she might lose
her temper again, and it was better
that she not
be
armed at
the time.

“
Are you all right, sweetheart?” Martin let
his
arm
slide around her shoulder. The
weather was hot
than Hades, much too hot to do any cuddling, but
his arm and the
concern in his voice made her feel
a little better.

“
I think so.” She glared at Orozco, whose
face
was probably going to be showing the damage from
her rock for several
days. She was glad. “If he so much as touches me again, though,
I’ll do again.”

Martin sighed once more, and Christina turned on
him
.
“I will! Blast it, Martin, you don’t know
what
it’s
like to be pawed by a creature like him!” Her
finger trembled as she pointed
it at Orozco.

“
I kno
w
, I
know.” Martin looked like he might
have a headache, too. “He was wrong and
behaved
abominably, but it’s over now I think we ought to
go back to the
resort and see if we can get out of
this miserable weather.”

Christina had been perspiring for several long
minutes.
Without a care to her makeup or her tattered
costume, she lifted
one of her ragged sleeves and
wiped her eyes and forehead. The costume
came
away
smeared with dead
-
white facial paint and black
eye makeup. She
didn’t care. Let Peerless take care
of their costumes. Evidently the studio
cared more
for its costumes than it did for its actors.

But that was unfair. Peerless was a company of
people, one of whom
was Martin
Tafft
, and he cared
a lot. She knew it.

“
Yes,” she said. “That’s a good idea. I have a
fearful headache.” Now that she was no longer boiling
mad, she also felt
like falling down on the floor, kicking her heels, battering it
with her fists, and crying,
too. She didn’t say that part, but she
knew she was
in bad shape when
she felt like throwing a tantrum.
Mayhews did not throw tantrums.

“
I need to have the doctor call on me.”
Pablo
Orozco, still pressing a hand to his bleeding head,
finally arose from
where he’d landed after Christina
had whopped him
.
Ben
helped him up.

Christina sneered at him The big sissy. She hadn’t
needed help getting
away from him
.
He needed help
to stand up. She grabbed
Martin’s arm. “Let’s go.”

Martin hesitated for a minute, then looked
at Ben. “Ben . . .
?”

“
I’ll take care of the set,” Ben said helpfully.
“
You
take care of Christina.”

“
Thanks,
Ben.”

Martin and Christina walked back to the resort.
The first few
minutes of their trek were silent until
Martin spoke

“
I’m really sorry you had to endure Pablo’s
assault,
love.”

Christina sighed deeply. “It’s over now.” Her nose
wrinkled. “But I
still want to wash out my mouth.”

“
I’d
like to shoot the bastard.”

Martin’s words startled Christina so badly, she
stopped walking and
stared at him for a moment.
Good heavens, she’d had no idea he’d reacted
so
strongly
to Orozco’s villainy.

Realizing she wasn’t by his side any longer, Martin
turned. His
expression puzzled, he said, “What’s the
matter, love? Do you need
help?”

She shook her head. “No. No, I’m all right. I
just—I just
. . .
” She didn’t know how to express herself.
All she knew for
sure was that Martin’s declaration
had soothed her shattered nerves like
nothing
else
in the world could have done.

Catching up with him, she put her arm through
his. “I love you,
Martin.”

He smiled down at her “I love you, t
oo,
Christina.”

Several days after the rock debacle, Christina
relaxed.
She
and her grandmother, who was up and
about again
now
that
Christina didn’t need her and
her cane any longer, sat in the shade of a palm
tree
oasis,
sipped lemonade, and watched Paul
Gabriel’s
Egyptian army scurry about in their heavy
Egyptian
-
style
armor under the
blazing Indio sunshine.

“
I’m so
glad it’s not me out there any longer.”

“
You should have told them you wouldn’t do
all
of
that running around in the sun,” Gran declared.

Christina said mildly, “You don’t know what you’re
talking about, Gran.
This is my job, and I do it.”

“
Heh.”

“
You’ve never had to work at a real job in
your
life. Ergo, you have no idea how to keep an employer
happy, thereby
keeping your job.”

Her grandmother turned and peered at her, her eyebrows
drawn into a scowl. Christina gazed back placidly,
knowing she was
right whether Gran wanted to
admit it or not.

The old
lady gave up first. “Heh,” she said, and took a gulp of
lemonade.

Christina smiled to herself
.

Life was back to being pleasant again. She and
Martin
had talked out the
Orozco
affair, and Christina
was no longer quite as furious as she had been
the
day
it
happened.
Although they hadn’t made love that
night, since both of them were
totally
exhausted
,
they’d sat and talked for a long time
after dinner
.
Christina had bathed
and changed clothes and
even
washed
her hair after she’d returned to the resort. By
this time, nearly a week had
gone by since she’d
bashed Orozco with the rock, and
she was feeling
almost human again.

The only black spot in the universe that she could
see
was
—
as it had been ever since her arrival in
Indio—Pablo Orozco.

After Orozco had whined his way back to the hotel,
Dr. Wetherby had
been summoned. He’d looked
at the wound and declared it superficial, thereby
annoying
Orozco mightily.

Martin had talked the good doctor into applying
a bandage, even
though Dr. Wetherby said it would
heal faster without one. But Martin knew
that Pablo
Orozco would be unbearable unless there was some
sort of visible
acknowledgement of his wounded
state.

“
The man’s an ass,” the doctor had said at
one
point.

Tugging at his hair, Martin had said, “I know, but
put on a bandage
anyway.”

Dr. Wetherby had huffed, but he did as
requested
.’

The day after the rock incident, Orozco had
commissioned
one of the resort’s cars and one of the bellboys,
and had commanded
that he be driven to Indio
.
He never did tell
anyone what he’d done there
.
Christina suspected
he’d seen another doctor, the bi
g
sissy.

Today the actor was stalking around, shooting
murderous glances at
Christina, who refused to acknowledge
his presence in any way whatsoever,
and
muttering to
h
im
self. That he was still angry with
her, Christina knew
and didn’t care. What could he
do to her? If he tried anything, she’d just find
another
rock
and hit him again.

The possibility made her grin as she sat on her
comfy camp chair and
fanned herself with a palm
branch fan. Paul Gabriel had given her the fan
along
with an
elaborately decorated box containing dates
prepared in various ways.

“
You can call these medication, my dear,” he
said,
handing her the box of dates. “The good folks of
Indio package and
sell them, and they’re quite tasty.
I’m sure they’ll help wipe out the
disgusting taste
of that awful ham
.”

So everyone knew what had happened. They all
sympathized with
Christina, too, which went some
way toward making her feel relatively
human again.
She popped an almond-stuffed date into her mouth
and, after she’d
swallowed it, said, “I like dates,
Gran.” Her appreciation of them had
initially surprised
her, since she was
tired of Indio, Pablo
Orozco,
Egyptian Idyll
, and everything connected
with it. Except
Martin.

Her
grandmother said, “Heh.”

Christina wasn’t fooled. Gran had already munched
down five of the
delectable fruits. She seemed to favor
the ones coated with
coconut
.

Poor Martin didn’t get to relax as she did. Christina
watched him. In fact, it was hard for her to take
her gaze away from
him. She supposed that, given
enough time together, she’d stop being completely
obsessed
with
him, but she didn’t know it for a fact.
H
e
was so perfect in
every way. She couldn’t imagine
not craving him forever the way she did
now
.

With a sigh, she sipped more lemonade. “This is
so
relaxin
g,”
she murmured
.

“
It’s too blasted hot,” declared
Gran
,
fanning herself
vigorously with her own
fan.

Paul hadn’t given Gran a palm leaf fan, probably
because he feared
she’d have hit him with it. “Don’t
be daft, Gran. It may be hot, but this is
a very enjoyable
way to spend one’s day.” She shot her grandmother
a cynical glance.
“Even if you’ll never admit
it.

Mrs.
Mayhew said, “Heh!”

Pablo Orozco, his arm still in a cast, and now
sporting a white
bandage on his forehead as well,
stalked into view. Christina ignored him
for as long
as she could, but finally peered at him since he
didn’t
seem
to be going away. Because she
wanted him to
know she wouldn’t countenance another assault
on
her
person, she scowled ferociously.