Dusk (Dusk 1) Read Online Free Page B

and waved urgently.
    Thank God , she thought. I’m famished .
    Kase’s narrow face broke into a broad smile as Olivia drew closer.
    “Olivia!”
    She vaulted off the stool and hurled herself into a bone-crushing embrace. Olivia grunted, patting the shorter woman’s back gently at first, then urgently.
    “Can’t… breathe…” she panted.
    “Oh!” Kase backed off a step, her signature smile firmly in place. “How was the meeting?”
    Olivia rolled her eyes. “Oh, please , get me started on that ,” she said sarcastically, making a “blah blah blah” gesture with one hand. “It’s just like going to the beach, except without sand, water, or fun.”
    Kase mimicked her gesture with the opposite hand. “Yeah, and you love having power and knowing all the state secrets. I wish I could be in there. Stupid no-telepaths rule,” she spat, thrusting out her lip in a theatrical pout.
    “You’d be bored to tears in ten minutes, and you know it.”
    “Not if I got to sit next to Merrick.”
    Olivia laughed. “Merrick’s hotter than noon, there’s no denying that, but he’s still not enough of a consolation prize to make a DDC meeting entertaining.”
    Now it was Kase’s turn to roll her eyes, and she did it with such fervor Olivia entertained a brief spark of alarm that she might injure something.
    “ Suuuuuuure ,” she retorted, drawing the word out until it had about fifteen syllables. “Because you don’t ever pass the time thinking about what’s under Merrick’s breechclout and when he’s going to use it on you next.”
    Olivia reached out and swatted Kase’s shoulder.
    “You’re terrible.”
    “You hungry?” Kase jerked a thumb at the volcanic-complected teenager behind the counter.
    “You buying?”
    Kase laughed. “I got you this time. I owe you for the Rigelian sapphire brandy you gave me for my birthday.”
    Olivia snorted. “As if a couple of salmon blini would make us square on that score. Do you have any idea what that bottle cost ?”
    Her friend giggled, a distinct twinkle of devilry blinking to life in her eye. “No, and you’re not going to tell me, because I’m not rude enough to ask the price of a gift and you’re not gauche enough to tell me.” She stuck her tongue out and wrinkled her nose in one of the pugnaciously cute expressions she was famous throughout Galacia for.
    “Oooh!” Olivia swatted Kase on the shoulder again as she sat down. “Two salmon blini and a large medovukah to drink, with a small salad.” She turned to face the boy directly. “Please,” she added sweetly.
    The kid behind the counter didn’t move. His jaw appeared to be locked about halfway open, and his eyes had taken on a distinctly glazed sheen. She raised up a little, and the kid’s eyes moved precisely the same amount.
    For a brief moment, Olivia toyed with the idea of being offended. On the other hand, she remembered being, what? Seventeen, maybe eighteen Dusk years old, when the mysteries of the opposite sex had conspired with her own rampaging hormones to make her very curious indeed. It was just possible… no, more than possible, she admitted, flinching away from an embarrassing memory, that she had stared at older men as avidly and lasciviously as the kid now stared at her.
    “See anything you like?” she asked gently.
    “Uh-huh,” the kid said, his lips turning up into a dreamy smile.
    “Jeffrey!” a voice from the kitchen snapped. “Are those paying customers?”
    The kid shook as if awakening from a pleasant dream into a nightmare, his smile vanishing like a hrunczek lizard under a rock. “Oh, er, sorry, ma’am. What would you like?”
    She smiled and repeated the order, giving no indication of her annoyance. Just because she understood the kid’s predicament didn’t mean she had any interest in being mentally undressed by a boy who probably hadn’t even grown a proper pubic bush yet. The only person she enjoyed being visually undressed by was Merrick, and he was