Her Leading Man (54 page)

Gran’s eyes went as round as pie plates, and
s
he
looked for a moment as if she were at a loss
for
words.
She wasn’t, of course, and Christina guessed
she should have known better
than to think such a
pleasant possibility could exist
.

“
Not a thing,” said Mrs. Mayhew. “It’s just
that
I
thought the two of you were only indulging in a
fling.”

Martin’s look of pained astonishment was so comical,
and Christina was
still suffering from such an
overload of emotions, that she burst out
laughing.
“Gran! You’re awful!”

The old
lady said, “Heh!”

She was proud of herself, though. Christina could
see it in her beady
black eyes.

“
You really were wonderful with Pablo today,
M
artin
. Gran’s absolutely right.”

Martin watched Christina as her slender, elegant
form moved across
his hotel room. He loved her so
much. Maybe too much, if what happened
today was
any
indication. “I can’t believe I did it.” He’d said
the same thing
perhaps fifty times since they’d left
Orozco sprawled on the lobby
floor.

The actor had lost no time in carrying out one of
Martin’s demands.
Paul Gabriel had joined Martin
and the Mayhew ladies in the restaurant after
he’d
bathed
and changed into regular clothes. He’d been
in quite a dither.

“
Orozco just left,” he told them excitedly. “I
don’t
think he’s coming back, either, because the machine
was jam-packed full
of his trunks.”

“
He’d
better not come back,” Martin had growled.

When Paul
had
blinked at him, Christina had
explained
what had happened that afternoon. Paul’s mouth had
dropped open before
he stunned the entire restaurant
crowd by applauding and crying out loudly,
“Bravo!
I
wish I could have seen it!”

Martin had been embarrassed, but Gran had approved
wholeheartedly. Actually, so had Christina,
who couldn’t seem to stop beaming at
Martin.

He and Christina had retired to his room directly
after dinner.
Although almost three hours had passed
since he’d completely lost his poise
and threatened
the life and health of Pablo Orozco, Martin still
couldn’t believe
he’d done such a thing.

As he gazed at Christina, he had to admit,
however
,
that he also felt rather good about
his loss of poise
. Probably too
good, all things considered. After
all, he didn’t really
approve of violence as a means of solving
problems.

Dealing with Orozco
had felt good,
though. It had felt damned good.
As Christina tossed her evening wrap over
a brocaded
chair, she turned and smiled at him
.
Her
smile
still
dazzled him
.
“You’re my hero, Martin. You
defended
me
in battle.”

“
Good
Lord
.”
His tone was dry, but he was
pleased. If a man had to make an ass of himself
over
a woman,
it was nice to
know
the woman appreciated
him for
it.

“
And I love you.” She came over to him
and
started to untie his tie. “I love you more than
anything
.
More than chocolate éclairs.”

“
Since you ate two of them for dessert, I
guess
that’s a lot, huh?” Martin grinned and began
unbuttoning
her front buttons
.

“
You
bet. You’re my hero.”

“
I sort of like being your hero.” He did, too.
In
fact, a certain unruly part of him was already
standing
at
attention.

Christina placed her hand on it, and it saluted
smartly. “I’m glad
we’re getting married, Martin.”

“
So am I.” He started
nuzzling
her neck. The truth
of the matter was that he didn’t give a hang
about
Pablo
Orozco, fistfights, or marriage. He wanted
Christina in bed. Now.

“
It takes some of the sting out of that blasted
telegram
from the regents.”

Still
nuzzling
, and now able to access her
bosom,
thanks
to his deft work on her front buttons, Martin
murmured, “I’ll take care of the
regents
.
Stop worrying
about
them
.”

She chuckled softly. “You’re wonderful, Martin.
You really are my
hero, you know.”

“
Good. Heroes get lots of rewards. I’m
claiming
one of them now.”

He’d been maneuvering the two of them in the
direction
of
the bed. Christina chuckled again as they
fell over onto the soft mattress.
Martin made quick
work of the rest of her clothes, took care of
removing
his
own in record time, and set to work proving himself
to be a hero in bed
as well as out of it.

His
heart swelled when Christina arched
under him
and
then shuddered as her pleasure climaxed. His
own satisfaction followed
swiftly. As he sank, exhausted,
at her side, he pried his eyes open and
gazed
with
wonder at her face, gleaming now with the aftermath
of sexual
gratification and her own perfect
beauty.

His finger traced the fine line of her cheekbone.
“I still don’t
understand it, Christina.”

She yawned, stretched like a cat, and turned into
his arms. “What
don’t you understand, love?”
His eyes drifted shut out of sheer
ecstasy.

“
I don’t
understand what you see in me.”

“
What?”

Martin disapproved when she reared away from
him in order to
stare at him
.
His eyes cricked open,
and he frowned at her. “Come
back here.”

She did as commanded, but she still frowned.
“
You’re being ridiculous, Martin Tafft. You’re the
most perfect human
male in the entire world. Well,
except for my father, but that doesn’t
count.”

Her words were music to his ears. They were so
delicious, in fact,
that he wanted to hear more of
them. “Oh, yeah? What makes me so
perfect?”

“
Good heavens, it would take a lifetime to
enumerate
all of your sterling qualities.”

Better and better. “A lifetime, eh? Well, try to
think of a couple
now,
all right
?”

“
All
right
.” She
ticked off items on her fingers. In
order to do so, she had to roll onto her
back, but
that was all right. Martin still kept his arms
around
her.
“Number one, you’re genuinely courteous and
kind.”

“
Tepid,”
he grumbled.

Her eyes opened wide. “Tepid! Not on your life,
Martin Tafft. Do you
know how many truly courteous
and kind people there are in the
world?”

“
No. How
many?”

She squinted at him in mock disapproval. “I’ve
met one so
far.”

“
You
mean me?”

“
I mean
you.”

“
Golly
,
that’s good, huh?”

“
It’s
darned good. Number two, you’re smart.”

“Ah.”

“
Mind you, there are more smart people in
the
world than there are kind ones, but you’re still in
a
minority.”

“
I
see.”

She ticked off another point on her fingers. “Number
three, you’re
practical and well organized.”

“
That’s
a selling point, is it?”

“
You bet
it is. I hate disorganization and sloth.”

“
I’ll
keep that in mind.”

She
poked him in the chest. “You’d better.”

Martin never did know how many good points he’d
racked up before he
slid into sleep, but he did know
that he was a happy man. A very happy
man.

The filming wrapped up the next day,
sans
Pablo
Orozco. The final scene, the one where
Moses’s underling
and Pharaoh’s brother’s former slave walked
into the sunset with
each other, was filmed from
distance.

Loud crashes and bangs from outdoors signaled the
deconstruction of
Pharaoh’s palace as Martin,
Christina and Ben discussed the editing process
that
afternoon. They met as soon as Christina and Martin
had washed off their
makeup. They sat at a table in
the dining room, sipping coffee—Christina had
tea—and trying to figure out how to complete
Egyptian
Idyll
without Pablo Orozco being
involved.

“
If I so much as set eyes on him, I’m afraid
I’ll
sock him,” Martin confessed.

Ben only grinned, not at all shocked by Martin’s
sudden penchant for
ferocity. “I’ve been trying to
keep from socking him for weeks now.”

Christina said, “Me, too.” Recalling being pawed
the oily actor, she
shuddered. Martin put his hand
over hers, so that made the shudder
worthwhile.

“
I have lots of close-up footage of him,” Ben
said.
I’m sure there’s enough for editing purposes. A
frame here, a frame
there. It’ll be all right.”

“
I hope so. Phin’s expecting a lot from this
picture
.
So am I, for that matter.”

“
I’ve already got everything I want.”
Christina
squeezed Martin’s hand so that he’d have no problem
understanding what
it was she wanted.

Martin grinned
at her. So did Ben.

“
I think it’s great that you two got together,”
the
cameraman told them.

“
Me, too.” Christina sighed with pleasure. She
still
ached when she thought about medical school, but
she’d
cope
.

“
Me, too,” Martin agreed. “But we still have
to
get
this picture edited.” He frowned slightly. “But I
have something to do
in Los Angeles before we get
together, Ben.
Why don’t we set up an appointment
for next Monday. I
should be ready to go
through
the whole picture then, and we can compare
thoughts.”

“
Right. That’s fine with me. I’ll run through it
a
couple of times and take notes, so I’ll be better
prepared.”

“
Great. Maybe you can let Phin see it, too.”
Martin
grinned again. “Maybe you two will have the whole
thing fixed by the
time I show up.”

“
I doubt that.” Ben was serious. “You’re the
best
film editor in the business.”

Christina’s pride in the man she loved took a
gigantic
leap. She would have loved him if all the
world was ranged
against him, but it was pleasant
to know that others in his own business
considered
him the best.

“
Thanks,
Ben.”

What’s more, he wasn’t falsely humble, either.
Christina had no
patience with people who assumed
modesty. Why shouldn’t Martin take pride
in his
work?
The good Lord knew he’d worked hard to be
the best.

Christina had worked hard to be the best, too. She
hoped that one day
the
bitterness that assailed her
every time she realized her hard work was
going to
pay
no dividends would not be so sharp. She didn’t
expect it would ever go
away
entirely, but she hoped
she wouldn’t start to resent Martin on
behalf of her
own disappointment.