"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 5 -Appointment at Bloodstar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

"I assume you did; you said you wouldn't come home again until you'd killed him." She
began kissing him lightly at the base of the neck. "You're a man of your word. Usually."

"Usually?" Pias tried gently to extricate himself from Gitana's embrace, but his former
lover would not take the hint.

"You once said you'd love me until the end of time itself."

"That was a long time ago, Gitana. People change, sometimes."

"I haven't." Gitana pulled him more tightly to her, and started backing both of them into
the room she'd come from. "I still love you, Pias."

"But I don't love you." The words were out of his mouth before he could hold them back.

He could feel Gitana stiffen against his body. Her fingernails dug painfully into his back.
"Who, then? That little simp of a gadji I saw you get out of the copter with? Why settle
for a thin-blooded little prissy foot when you can have a real woman?"

Yvette's five times the woman you'll ever be, Pias thought, but this time kept the words
diplomatically to himself. He'd hurt her badly enough already; there was no need to add
to the insult further.

Instead, with a decisive gesture, he pulled away from her and said, "Gitana, please.
We're only hurting ourselves more by dredging up old ghosts and old sorrows. You're a
beautiful woman with dozens of men at your feet. I can't be all that special; there are
probably plenty of them better for you than I am."

Gitana backed one step away. Her eyes showed clearly the volcano smoldering within
her soul. "Then you reject me again?"

"It's not a question of rejection. . . ."

But Gitana was gone, vanished back into the room from which she'd emerged. The



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door slammed behind her, a final exclamation point to their conversation.

Pias went back to his old room and found it all in order. He lay down on the bed for half
an hour, trying to regroup his thoughts and emotions after the disastrous events of the
afternoon. Then he went in search of Yvette.

He found her just as she finished unpacking. She could tell instantly that he was not as
happy as he should be on coming home after such a long time, but she said nothing
about it. She spoke instead about how nice she thought Yuri was and how pleasant the
manor house itself made her feel, waiting for him to open up about his troubles.