The Movie (27 page)

Eleanor gently unclasped it. There was an engagement ring nestling against a bed of cream silk; a vast, dark green emerald surrounded by rubies and sapphires, mounted in white gold.

It wa the most ulgar ring she had ever seen. It must have cost a fortune.

‘Oh, Paul,’ she said. The ring winked at her like a set of jewelled traffic lights. ‘It’s so … so … colourful,’ she finished faintly.

Halfin inclined his head, modesdy. ‘Everybody goes for diamonds. And don’t worry, I know you’re not ready to give me an answer fight now, but I want you to take your ime and think about this.’ His handsome face broke into a persuasive smile. ‘Eleanor, I think the time has come. We’re both adults. We’ve both achieved a certain level of success in our lives. We make a great team, and the patter of tiny fet would complete the picture.’ He lifted his glass of bubbling wine. ‘Eleanor, it’s time for you and me to

consider a merger. We’d pay great dividends.’

Eleanor smiled weakly.

‘Now, I’ve got us tickets to the opera for next

Wedrtesday and the ballet on Friday -‘ ‘Paul, I can’t go,’ Eleanor said. ‘What?’ His face darkened.

‘I can’t go. I have to be in New York all next week for a financial presentation with Tom.’

‘I see,’ he said stiffly. ‘Well, of course you must do what you have to. Another time, perhaps?

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Definitely,’ she said, feeling guilty. He’d gone to all this trouble to give her a perfect evening and the only thing she could do was cancel on him.

Anyway, he was right. They couldn’t coast along forever. And with Dr Haydn’s latest pronouncement, she knew the time had come for her to make a decision. She just couldn’t put it off any longer.

‘Look, I really have to do this, Paul. But I’m truly sorry I can’t come to the opera with you … it was a sweet thought. And I promise I’ll think about e,erything you’ve said, and… H1 give you my answer by the end of this month.’

There. It was done.

She had one month to decide.

Paul took a sip of his champagne. ‘To us,’ he said confidently.

‘To us,“Eleanor Marshall repeated, smiling, and wondered why the only thing she could hear was the sound of gates clashing shut behind her.

‘

The limo drove right up to the backstage entrance before dropping Megan off. It was the only way the driver could guarantee that she wouldn’t get mobbed.

‘Honey, if those kids see you walk past them with that thing,’ he said, nodding at the All-Access laminated pass that swung from Megan’s neck, ‘you are gonna get seriously jumped. Normally I’d say just tuck it inside your shirt, but right now, I wouldn’t take any risks.’

She nodded her agreement. Fans were crowding every available inch of space on the route backstage; security was having a tough time keeping them back behind the ropes, md every five seconds some kid rushed up to the car and pounded on the windows before being dragged away, their faces hysterical, contorted into weeping masks of adoration, or frantic pleading. Megan had thought it was merely another example of Zach Mason being ostentatious when a limousine with tinted windows, courtesy of the promoters, arrived at aer apartment to take her to the gig, but now she wasn’t so sure. Right now she was very glad that although she could see this seething mob, they couldn’t see her.

‘Is it always like this?’ Megan asked.

‘Not for Electric City. But didn’t you hear the rumours?’

‘What rumours?’

‘They say Zach Mason is gonna show here tonight. They say he’s gonnajam.’

Megan glanced again at the packs of yelling, screaming fans. ‘Are all these kids here for Zach Mason?’

‘Every last one of ‘em,’ the driver said.

David Tauber arrived five minutes before showtime. No point putting himself through any more of this garbage than he had to. Besides, twenty minutes before showtime he had been getting a highly skilled blow-job from a very exclusive whore, and that wasn’t an experience he cared to rash. You paid enough for it. He had made her perform a slow strip, then massage him, naked, and finally wrap up a very pleasant afternoon with some expert head.

Occasionally he liked to pay for it. That way you didn’t have to talk to them. Something he’d appreciated, as her warm, juicy mouth slid up and down his rearing cock, gradually increasing the pressure, her tongue swirling round th# quivering head of his penis and then licking, hard, along the entire length of it. He fantasized she was tkoxana Felix, on her back instead of on his, but that didn’t really do it for him. Just thinking about loxana could drop a fly into any ointment; she was the pushiest, most aggressive bitch of a woman he’d ever known. He preferred his women like Megan Silver-trusting and eager to please. She was no Roxana Felix, of course, but.., she was pretty. Once he’d worked all that extra fat offher and put her in some decent clothes, yeah, she was quite pretty…

As his cock started to swell even harder and he felt his orgasm begin to build, David Tauber actually started to visualize Megan kneeling at his feet. He knew she’d love to do it. She’d love to do whatever he suggested…

On the short drive over to the Coliseum, Tauber thought about Megan some more. The vibe at Artemis was that she was extremely talented, but she’d made an enemy of tkoxana Felix and Zach Mason. But as far as David could see, everybody made an enemy of the bitch. It was the

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endless sniping with Zach that bothered him. If he could get Megan to swallow her pride and kiss up to Mason a little, her future would be very rosy. As Gloria had pointed out to him, the Michael Crichtons and John Grisharns of

this world were making five million bucks a script. He wouldn’t mind a piece of that action. Maybe he would give little Megan Silver a thrill. David strolled up to the box office and collected a stick on VIP pass Zach had left for him. Distastefully he unpeeled the plastic backing and applied it to the lapel of his Romeo Gigli suit. Ugh. It would probably leave a dreadful mess.

He noticed that none of the kids packing the foyer and entrance hall were wearing anything decent. The scene was all leather and denim and Smashing Pumpkins T shirts. Time to head backstage; if there was one thing David Tauber detested, it was hanging around the little people.

I.oxana stepped out of her limo, All-Access laminate fastened conspicuously at the front of her belt. That way she couldbe sure it showed up in all the photos.

Zach had sent a stick-on pass, a little piece of nothing, round to her house. It was an insult, and if she hadn’t been so determined to hook the bastard, she would not have shown up. As it was, she’d called Sam Kendrick.

‘I need a laminate for the show tonight, Sam. Call the

promoters and have one messengered over.’

‘P,.oxana, Zach is taking care of-‘

‘Now, Sam. Or you needn’t come round this afternoon.

Or ever again.’

A pause. ‘OK.’

She had a second to relish the sense of power. So it was starting already. By the time they started shooting the goddamn picture, Sam Kendrick would be wrapped round

her little finger. When he wasn’t wrapped round the other parts of her.

A small spasm of desire rippled through her at the thought. ‘Thank you, baby.’ She was pure sweetness.

‘Why don’t you bring it with you when you come by?’ ‘I want you,’ he said, quietly, urgendy. ‘It’s mutual.’

And it was. That was the strange thing. That was what threw her. The thought that she might enjoy fucking Sam Kendrick even if she had no other use for him at all.

‘Did you really sign a deal for forty million dollars?’ ‘Yes, I did.’

‘So you don’t need to be a movie sta.’

‘I want to be a movie star,’ 1Loxana corrected him.

‘Do you always get what you want?’ Kendrick asked

softly.

Always, she told him, and hung up. loxana turned round and waved gracefully to the rabid crowd thronging the backstage entrance, trying not to let her momentary unease show. Dear God, what a pack of maniacs. Was this what music fans were like? Her own followers never, ever, exhibited passion like this.

As she turned and began to walk inside the stadium, a teenage girl leapt over the red crowd-control rope and lunged towards her, her face contorted with hatred. ILoxana shrank back, a parlysing fear knotted in the pit of her stomach. This was vchat every supermodel dreaded. The one crazed nut with the knife, the gun, the phial of acid…

Two security men rushed the girl and overpowered her before she got two feet past the barrier. ‘Bitch! Bitch!’ the girl shrieked. ‘It’s you, isn’t it? It’s you! You’ve got him! You’ve got him! I love him!’

‘Who?’ Poxana managed, as the guards dragged her away.

‘Zach! Zach Mason! You’re his girlfriend! They

on MTV[‘

Stunned, P,.oxana managed a bright smile for the photographers waiting at the backstage door.

‘Is that tree, l.oxana?’ a reporter demanded. ‘Are you he-re to see your boyfi’iend?’

‘Did Zach Mason send for you?’

‘Who gave you the laminate, P,.oxana? Did Zach fm it up for you?’

‘Is the movie going to be a love story off-screen as well?’ ‘Were you guys a couple before you got cast?’ ‘P,.oxana! R.oxana!’

Flinging her hair back, loxana delicately removed her l.ay-Bans.

‘Zach Mason and I are working together on See the Lights, people,’ she said, her voice honey-low, reserved and embarrassed. ‘That’s the only thing I can say right now. I’m here to enjoy the show.’

Immediately, cameras fired off around her, flashbulbs popping like machine guns.

‘R.oxana! l.ox! This way, please! Just two seconds!’

She let them snap for a minute, then turned away.

Always keep them wanting more…

‘loxana!’ one of the journalists yelled after her. ‘When’s the wedding?’

As she headed inside the stadium, P,.oxana Felix smiled to herselŁ.

The stadium headlights out front were switched on at full beam. From her viewpoint behind the stage scaffolding, Megan could see the roadies scrambling to put up last minute adjustments to the rigging, technicians pulling at an amp here, moving a laser there. Electric City were renowned for their innovative stage set; the best thing since U2 brought the Zoo TV circus to town, they used giant holograms and computer morphing. Taped music

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was pumping out of the PA, loud as hell, punctuated by football whistles, screams and cheers from the crowd.

Anticipation crackled through the air like static. The headliners would be on any second.

Megan walked around, trying to look as though she knew where she was going, a mixture of seething excitement and frantic nerves at the pit of her stomach. The closest she’d ever got to being backstage anywhere was when she’d fainted in the front row of the Stone in San Francisco, during a Bad Brains set, and had been dragged behind an amp by security. On that occasion she’d got a cup of lukewarm tap water and been thrown back into the mosh-pit. Plus, the Stone was a tiny club.

All-Access laminates at the Los Angeles Coliseum were outside her normal experience.

Being a guest of Zach Mason was outside her normal experience.

Where the hell is David? Megan thought, as she ducked out of the way of yet another roadie pushing a huge flight case across her path. Why isn’t he here yet? I need help! I don’t know where the hell I’m supposed to be!

She’d asked David to take her to the show, .but he said he had to finish off some urgent work on his contracts that afternoon, and could he meet her there? Disappointed, Megan had agreed. She’d been hoping David might want to take her.., but who was she kidding, right?Just because she’d lost a little weight, because he’d found her some half decent clothes, that didn’t mean she was suddenly good enough for David Tauber. David was a big agent, kicking ass on the fast-track. He was sophisticfited, he was elegant, he was super-fit, and he was gorgeous. All things she would never be. No matter how many miles she ground out on the Stairmaster.

But she wished David were here now. She wished somebody was with her. It was terrifying, to be backstage at a. stadium gig, no idea where to go or what to do, just

22I

wandering round the concrete labyrinth trying to keep out of everybody’s way. And thrilling. Totally thrilling, to know she could go anywhere she wanted to, talk to the band if she felt like it, watch a concert from the side of the stage instead of two miles away at the end of a sea of seats. Instead of straining to get a glimpse of five fingers the size of matchsticks, she’d be standing behind the speaker stacks, close enough to reach out and touch the guitarist.

She would see the vast crowd stretched out before her.

She would see what the band saw.

For any rock fan, this was a fantasy come true: that somebody would pluck you out of the crowd and set you downon the other side.

Megan wondered why Zach had done it for her.

‘Hey.’

She jumped round. God, she was pathetic; always under everybody’s feet. Now they must have sent some official to

tell her to get out of the way…

‘Megan! Over here.’

‘Oh, hi, Zach,’ she said, embarrassed. ‘I was looking for

you.’

He walked over to her, amused. ‘Dark Angel shirt,’ he

said, reaching out to touch her T-shirt. ‘Were you a fan?’

Megan looked away. Somehow, when she was getting

ready to come out, this had seemed like a really good idea; black 5os, heeled ankleboots and her favourite Dark Angel T-shirt, the gold seraph logo on a black background. Dressing with a message. She would be a walking rebuke to the asshole.

As a scriptwriter, David had made clear, she was low girl

on the totem pole. If she wanted to keep her job, if she wanted to write any more movies, she’d better shut u,p and smile; get along to go along. And a quarter of a million dollars was a lot of money. So she’d swallowed whatever insults tkoxana Felix wanted to throw at her, and if she hadn’t been able to control her tongue completely with