"Kate Wilhelm - Day Of The Sharks" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

He laughs and pours more drinks. "You'll fit right in, Gary. Just watch how
their eyes gleam when I tell them you're an investment counselor." He laughs
again.

****

The party is little more than an excuse to get loud and drunk, Gary admits to
himself later, wandering on the terrace with a drink in his hand, tired from
the over-long day, bored with people he doesn't know, doesn't want to know. He
knows their types, he thinks, watching a heavy-set man in a flowered shirt
mock-push a nearly bare-breasted woman into the pool, laughing, leering,
lusting. Shar touches his arm.

"Dance?"

They dance, his hand warmed by her golden back that is almost too smooth to be
human. "Can I see you alone later?"

She smiles and doesn't answer.

He dances her to the end of the terrace, more discreetly lighted than the
other areas, and kisses her. "Later?"

"Don't be an idiot. With your wife and my husband on the scene?"

"Veronica will be knocked out with tranquilizers, and Bill's on his way to
passing out."

"What's wrong with Veronica?"
"Nerves, I guess. She flipped out at work. Tried to burn down the office or
something."

"Good God! Did she really?"

"She says she was only burning the files, but the whole place would have gone
up if it hadn't been caught when it was."

"What did they do to her?"

He is tired of talking about Veronica, tired of thinking about her. "Hospital.
Two weeks. Now a vacation, and then into analysis, I guess. She's under a
shrink's care."

"Poor Gary," Shar says, her voice amused.

He can't see her features, but can feel the warmth of her skin, smell the
elusive scent that she wears, that she always wore. When he starts to kiss her
again, she moves away and walks back toward the house. "Later," he says, this
time not asking.