"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 07 - Pearl of Patmos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

"I'm not, very," she said.
"Not what? Modest?"
"Uh huh. I have never been. Mother was always at me about it, but it never took. Anyway it doesn't
really matter, does it? I do have pants on."
Blade nodded. He had the impression, gone immediately, that he had seen this girl before. Or
someone very like her. He yawned and clasped his big hands beneath his head. The girl put her toe in his
armpit and tickled the black hair.
"You don't shave under your arms."
Blade closed his eyes. He shook his head. "No."
She continued to tickle his armpit with her toe. "Do you think it is unmanly or something?"
"No."
Blade was silent. He kept his eyes closed. He could smell her body, a compound of clean woman
flesh and light sweat. She took her toe away and for a moment there was silence.
She said, "You aren't going to go away and let me have this little beach, are you?"
"No."
"You aren't exactly a gentleman, are you?"
He did not open his eyes, but had to grin. "Sometimes I am. In some matters. Depends on the place
and time and the people, and my mood. In this case you are the interloper, not me."
"Interloper? I like that! Anyway this is not a private beach. Anyone can use it. They told one so in the
village."
Blade smiled. "You have stumbled on the one village inEngland in which all the inhabitants are idiots.
This is a private beach, but they will never admit it. Makes sense, I suppose, from their viewpoint. They
are all descended from smugglers. Some of them are still at it, without doubt. I've had the cottage for five
years now and they still think I'm with Her Majesty's revenue. A spy. But I do own the beach rights."
"I came down here because I fancied a swim." She sounded pouty again. She went on, "Do open
your eyes. I can't abide people who don't look at me when they talk."
Blade opened his eyes. He propped himself up on an elbow. The affair had to be straightened out.
Obviously she was not going to go away. He was not quite sure, looking at her again, that he wanted her
to. Tomorrow he'd go through the computer. Today was, well, today. And his life of late had been
monastic.
She stood very near him, hands on her hips, wide-legged, black pants still plainly in view. He stared
pointedly until she twisted about and fell to her knees beside him, trying to pull the mini-skirt down with
no success at all. Her inner thighs were tender brown velvet, rubbed and polished.
The green eyes considered him and seemed not so glacial now. "You do look at a person, don't you.
But somehow I get the impression that you are a gentleman. Even if you are so huge."
Blade chuckled. "I've never heard that size kept a man from being a gentleman."
"No-o. I suppose not. But there is such a lot of you! And muscles. Are you an acrobat or an athlete
or something?"
Blade, who had taken blues (similar to American letters) in every major sport atOxford , nodded. "I
was an athlete. In my long lost youth. Never an acrobat. And never a something, whatever that is."
"All right." She nodded vigorously, her brown hair rippling about her slim shoulders. "I will take it that
you are a gentleman. And I wish to swim. I have no suit. So you will let me have the beach, please? I
promise I won't be long. No more than half an hour."
Something in her eyesтАФsome hint of tease, or promise?тАФcaused Blade to answer as he did. It was,
he divined, the answer she wanted to hear.
"Swim all you like," he said. "With my permission. But I intend to remain here. This is my beach,
remember." He grinned. "I have no intention of being evicted by an interloper."
She feigned indignation well. "But I have no suit! I told you that. I, well, I can hardlyтАФ"
There was no mistaking the tease in her green eyes. She leaned toward him, chin in hand. "You really
don't know who I am, do you?"