"Liaden Universe - 04 - Plan B" - читать интересную книгу автора (Miller Steve)

Val Con spun, eyes and face serious.

"Miri? What is wrong?"

"IЧ" she shook her head and managed to dredge up a half-convincing grin. "You look like a Liaden, boss."

"Ah." His face relaxed and he came across to her, lifting a hand to touch her hair. "But, you see, I am a Liaden, which no doubt accounts for it."

"That's probably it," she agreed and sighed. "You ready to go face the lions?"

One brow rose. "Clan Erob? Hardly lions."

"Yeah, and suppose that gene test comes out negative?You're OK, but I ain't the kind Erob usually has to supper."

"And the portrait of Miri-eklykt'i?" He touched the flower behind her ear with a gentle forefinger.

Miri sighed, recalling with a certain queasy vividness the face of the woman in the old painting. The resemblance was spooky enough if shewas that one's granddaughterЕ

"I don't guess coincidence'll cover it, huh?"

"It seems unlikely in the extreme." He touched the flower again, then drew it from its resting-place.

"Not," he murmured, "for this sort of dinner."

"Huh?" Miri followed him into the bedroom. "It's against the law to wear flowers to dinner?"

"This particular flower," said Val Con, placing it gently in a cut crystal water glass, "is an aphrodisiac."

She blinked at him; blinked at the canopy. "And they've got 'em growing all over the bed?"

"What better place?"

"Right." She closed her eyes, willing tense muscles to relax.

"Miri?"

She looked at the pattern of him inside her headЧbright and clear and belovedЧthen opened her eyes and grinned wryly at the proper Liaden gentleman before her.

"Tell you what, boss: This whole masquerade's gonna come crashing down over something as stupid as that flower. If you hadn't been here to tell me before I went on down, I could've blown everything."Everything , she thought: His melant'i; the melant'i of Line yos'Phelium; her own insignificant amountЧall gone. Because of a flower.

"I ain't up for this," she said suddenly, feeling the panic boiling in her stomach. "Look, boss, I'm a soldier, not an actorЧand nobody down there's gonna believe for one minute that I'm Lady yos'Phelium. Let's see if we can't catch the old lady and tell her we made a mistake, OK? All the meres in the city right now, there's bound to be somebody around who owes me dinnerЧ"

"MiriЧ" That quick he was across the room, arms around her tight, cheek against hers. "It is not a masquerade, cha'trez. It is truth. We are lifemates. And a portion of our shared melant'i involves standing as lady and lord to Line yos'Phelium." He laughed softly. "For our sins."

She choked a half-laugh and pushed her face into his shoulder. "I'm gonna wreck your melant'i."

"No." He kissed her ear. "My lifemate is a lady of intelligence, wit, and courage. How else could it be, but that her melant'i supports and enhances my own? And togetherЧ" He slipped his hand under her chin and tipped her face so she could see the bright green eyes, awash in mischief. "Together, cha'trez, we are"Чhe bent his head, put his mouth next to her ear and breathedЧ"hell on wheels."

"YouЧ" She laughed and hugged him hard before stepping away and taking his hand. "All right, let's go meet the family."