"Cheers," David replied.
She belted down half her Martini, then led him to one of the chairs.
"Sit down," she said, dropping into another.
"Lovely house you have," he said politely.
"It is nice," she said. "Ilene and I had a wonderful time furnishing it." She reached up and patted Ilene's cheek. "Ilene has the most wonderful sense of color.
You should speak to your uncle about letting her try her hand at art direction. I'm sure he'd find out that she could do a terrific job."
"Rina," Ilene said, a happy note in her voice, "I’m sure David didn't come here to talk about me."
"I'll speak to Uncle Bernie," he said politely. "I’m sure she could, too."
"See?" Rina said. "The trouble with Ilene is that she's too modest.
She's one of the most talented people I ever met."
She held up her empty glass toward Ilene.
"Refill."
David caught a glimpse of her lush, full breasts.
It would take more than massage to keep her weight down if she kept on drinking like that.
Rina cut into his thoughts.
"Did the old bastard decide to give me that part in Sunspots?"
David looked at her.
"You have to understand my uncle's point of view, Rina," he said quickly. "You're the most valuable asset the company has. You can't blame him if he doesn't want to put you in a picture that's almost certain to lay an egg."
Rina took the drink from Ilene.
"What it all boils down to," she said belligerently, ''is that he thinks I can't act.
All I’m good for is walking around as near naked as he can get me."
"He thinks you're a fine actress, Rina. But more important, you're the one in a million who is a star.
He's just trying to protect you, that’s all."
"I'll protect myself," she snapped angrily. "Do I get the part or don't I?"
"You get it."
"Good," she said, sipping her drink. She got out of her chair and he realized that she was slightly drunk. "Tell your uncle for me that I won't wear a brassiere the next time I come to his office."
"I’m sure that will make him very happy." David grinned at her. He put down his drink and got to his feet.
"I think he wants to fuck me," she said, weaving slightly.
He laughed. "Who doesn't?" he asked. "I can name at least sixty million men who've thought about it."
"You don't," she said, her eyes suddenly looking right into his.
"Who says?"
"I do," she said seriously. "You never asked me."
"Remind me to get up my nerve sometime."
"What's the matter with right now?" she asked, pulling at the sash of her robe. It fell open, revealing her nude body.
He stared, so surprised that he was unable to speak.
"Go downstairs, Ilene," Rina said without taking her eyes off him. "And see to it that dinner is on time."
David caught a glimpse of Ilene's eyes as she hurried past him and out the door.
If he lived to be a hundred years old, he would never forget the depth of the pain and anguish he saw there.
18.
Until he met Rina Marlowe, Claude Dunbar had been in love with only three things in his life – his mother, himself and the theater – and in that order.
His Hamlet in modern dress was the most successful Shakespearean production ever played in a New York theater.
But it was his direction of Sunspots, an otherwise mediocre play, that lifted him to the pinnacle of his career.
Sunspots was a three-character play dealing with two prospectors, living isolated lives at the edge of a great desert, and a young girl, an amnesiac, who wandered into their camp.
It develops into a struggle between the men, the younger trying to protect the girl from the lechery of the older, only, after succeeding, to succumb himself to the lechery in the girl.
It was all talk and very little action, and despite a year's run on Broadway, Dunbar had been so surprised when Norman called and told him he had bought the play and wanted him to direct the motion picture that he had agreed without hesitation.
It was only after he got to California, however, that he learned who was to play the lead.
"Rina Marlowe!" he'd said to Norman. "But I thought Davis was going to play it."
The producer had stared at him blandly.
"Warner screwed me," he said, lowering his voice to a confidential whisper. "So right away I thought of Rina."
"But isn't there anyone else, Mr. Norman?" he'd asked, stammering slightly as he always did when upset. "What about the girl who played it on the stage?"