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

Blade was about to admit his thought of a few minutes earlier, that she was vaguely familiar, but
checked the impulse. It just might, somehow spoil the game that was slowly, but gaining points every
moment, developing between them. Blade was, suddenly very much interested in the game. He was not a
man to be unappreciative of what the gods send.
He shook his head. "Haven't the faintest idea who you are. Should I know? Are you someone
important?"
Again the hint of pout. "No-o. Well, maybe some people think so, but not really. If you see what I
mean?"
 "I don't. Does it matter?"
The girl stood up. "No. Not the slightest. I like it. We'll have a game, shall we?"
Blade smiled. "By all means. What kind of a game?"
"We won't tell names. Now or ever. And we must each promise never to try to see the other again.
Will you do that? We're strangers now and we'll stay strangers. We will never, never see each other
again. Whatever we say, or whatever happens between us, will be forgotten when this day is over. It will
be like it never happened. Do you promise?"
"Whatever happens? What do you expect to happen?"
A shrug of slim shoulders, a liquidity of unrestrained breasts beneath the dress. "I don't know.
Neither do you. This is part of the game. We just let things develop naturally. Maybe nothingwillhappen."
Blade laughed. "That I do not like to think about. But all right, I promise. When does the game start?"
She knelt beside him again. "Right now. But first we have to have namesтАФno, don't tell me your real
one. I mean made up names. HmmmтАФlet me see."
Her eyes roved over his body. She traced a finger through his chest hair. "I think," said Blade, "that I
am going to like this game."
She put a hand over his mouth. Her fingers were cool and crusted with sand. "Be quiet. Ummm, yes.
Hercules. No help for it. It's obvious, and a little trite, but you will just have to be Hercules. You agree?"
Blade reached for his cigarettes and lighter on a nearby blanket. "I suppose I must. As long as I don't
have to clean out my stables. Who are you going to be? Something mythical and classical as well?"
"Of course. I am Diana."
Blade nodded. "Good choice. It suits you, I think. Goddess of the moon. And of hunting."
The green eyes narrowed at him. "I amтАФvery good at hunting."
Blade leaned back and exhaled smoke. "And I the willing prey, Diana. NowтАФare you going to swim
or not? I have just remembered a bird and bottle at the cottage. A couple of birds, in fact, and all the
bottles we need. Interested?"
"Very much. After my swim."
She glanced up and down the little cove. The beach was small, a scallop of sand and shingle eroded
by the sea at the base of overhanging cliffs. Some hundreds of yards down the cliff facade a wooden stair
switchbacked precariously up to the rim.
"Can anyone see us?"
Blade flipped his cigarette away and smiled at her. He was still not quite convinced that she would do
it, but was prepared to be pleasantly surprised.
"The villagers may be idiots and smugglers, but I doubt there are many Peeping Toms around. They
leave me pretty well alone. Of course there is old Professor Wright. He strolls along the cliffs sometimes.
But he's nearsighted and more than a little around the bend. He wears anInverness cape and a
deerstalker cap and thinks he is Sherlock Holmes in retirement. He even keeps bees."
"Professor Wright sounds like an old darling," said the girl. "I shouldn't mind him seeing me. As long
as there are no camerasтАФ"
There was a clue in that last imperfect sentence, but Blade let it slide past. At the moment he did not
care who she was. What she wasтАФthat was the important thing. And what she was kept him speechless
for a moment.
She pulled the mini-dress over her head in a single motion and let it drop on the sand. She faced him,