Her Leading Man Read Free

her
cane, it would be chalked up to Gran’s well-known eccentricity. If Christina slapped
her costar, she’d be fired, and then she’d never earn enough money to go to
medical school. Instead she said coolly, “No. I have not changed my mind.
Touch me again, and I’ll stamp on your toes.”
    Orozco laughed. “Ah, I adore this hard-to-get pose of yours, my
dear.”
    Lord, he was
thickheaded.
    “ I’m so sorry I’m late,” Martin said as he
reached the two of them out of breath. Of course, one had merely to take a
single step to become breathless in this outrageous town. Indio. Balderdash.
There was nothing here but palm trees, dates, blazing heat,
and sand. And
now a bunch of actors. They didn’t improve the place any. Christina was not fond
of actors.
    “ That’s all right,” she said to Martin. “We’ve
just introduced ourselves.” And Orozco had slithered
himself into
her black books already.
    “ Good, good!” Martin rubbed his hands
and beamed at them.
    Christina got the feeling he didn’t mean the smile particularly, but
she didn’t fault him for it. If one consorted with picture people long enough,
she imagined, one got out of the habit of meaning anything one said.
    Good heavens,
when had she become so cynical?
    Silly question. Since she’d started acting in the pictures. Still,
Christina would put up with almost anything for the sake of her education.
These days young women weren’t invited to become medical practitioners, and
she’d been discouraged at every turning from seeking scholarships. All of
the rejection had only served to strengthen her resolve. She’d show them all, blast
them .
    With a start, she realized Martin had been talking for several seconds.
Yanking her mind back to her job, she hoped she hadn’t missed anything
important.
    “ . . . so, while I know it’s hot here, our set
designer, George Peters, has created a spectacular Egyptian city
for us. We’ve arranged with a local restaurant to supply iced water and
lemonade so that—”
    “ Lemonade!”
    Christina felt her lips purse with distaste at Orozco’s interruption. But
she didn’t speak, knowing that women who spoke up were not admired.
    Martin frowned at his male star. “Yes. Lemonade. If you don’t like
lemonade, perhaps we can secure some orange juice.”
    “ Fah!” Orozco looked as disdainful as only
he could. As much as she loathed him, Christina had to give him credit for
a remarkable variety of facial expressions. “I require wine.”
    Martin shook his head. “No wine, Pablo. Not during filming. After the shooti ng ’s
done for the day, you can drink, but not
during the making of the pic ture.”
    Christine refrained from applauding or even
smiling, although she wanted to do both.
    Orozco glowered. He did that
well, too. “Non sense. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
    Christina couldn’t help herself. “You’ve heard of it now, Orozco, so
you might as well get used to it.”
    She saw Martin’s eyebrows arch and wished she’d kept her mouth shut.
But Pablo Orozco was such a miserable specimen. Besides, Martin shouldn’t
mind her
being on his side, should he? She gave him a good hard look to let him know
it. He blinked at her, as if her attitude startled him .
    Oh, goody. Now she’d annoyed the producer of the picture as well as
its star. She
wished she could start her day again. Maybe she’d just shoot herself
and get it
over with. Or maybe she could contract some of Gran’s lumbago and spend her day in bed.
    But no. That was stupid, unproductive thinking. Because she wanted
Martin to know she was on his s ide, she smiled at him, hoping the change in her facial expression
would make up for her prior hard look. He blinked harder, and she
sighed.
    “ Er, thank you, Miss Mayhew. Exactly. We’ll
have no drinking of alcoholic b everages on the set while filming is under way, Pablo. I’m sure it
won’t be much
of a hardship for you.”
    Pablo snorted, reminding Christina of a fussy