Eve Read Online Free Page A

right word. I instinctively knew that behind her mask she was primitively bad and there was something almost animal in her make-up. Just to look at her was like getting a jolt of electricity.
    I decided that, after all, the evening was not going to be so bad. In fact, it looked as if it were going to be exceedingly interesting.
    “Won’t you have a drink?” I asked, hoping that she would look up again, but she didn’t. She lowered herself to the carpet and tucked her legs under her.
    “I have one.” She pointed to the glass that stood near her in the hearth.
    Barrow came over. “This is Eve . . . Eve . . .” and he floundered, his face reddening.
    “Marlow,” the woman said, her fist clenched tightly in her lap.
    “Yeah,” Barrow said quickly. “I’ve a lousy memory for names.” He looked at me and I could see he had already forgotten mine. I was not going to help him. If a man could , not remember the name of his mistress then to hell with him.
    “So you got wet,” I said to the woman and laughed.
    She looked up. I don’t believe in first impressions, but I knew she was a rebel. I knew she had a hell of a temper, swift, violent and uncontrolled. Although she was slight, her whole make-up — her eyes, the way she held herself, her expression — gave the impression of strength. She had two deep furrows above the bridge of her nose. They were responsible to some degree for the character in her face, and could only have come from worry and much suffering. I became intensely curious to know more about her.
    “I did get wet,” she said and laughed too.
    Her laugh startled me. It was unexpectedly pleasing as well as infectious. When she laughed, she glanced up and her expression altered, the hard lines went away and she looked younger. It was difficult to guess her age. Somewhere in the thirties; maybe thirty-eight, maybe thirty-three; when she laughed, she could have been twenty-five:
    Barrow looked a little sick. He eyed us both suspiciously. He had reason. If he listened carefully he would have heard my glands working.
    “I got wet too,” I said, sitting down in the armchair close to her. “If I’d known it was going to be as bad as this, I would have spent the night in San Bernadino. I’m certainly glad now I didn’t.” They both gave me a quick look. “Have you come far?”
    There was a pause. Eve looked into the fire. Barrow rolled his glass between his thick fingers. You could almost hear him think.
    “Los Angeles,” he said, at last.
    “I get around Los Angeles quite a bit,” I said, speaking to Eve. “How come I’ve never seen you before?”
    She gave me a hard, blank stare and then looked quickly away. “I don’t know,” she said.
    Perhaps Barrow saw what I was going to do, for he suddenly finished his whisky and tapped Eve on her shoulder.
    “You’d better go to bed,” he said in a domineering voice.
    I thought if she has got what I think she has then she’ll tell him to go to hell; but she didn’t. “All right,” she said indifferently and rolled onto her knees.
    “You mustn’t go yet,” I said. “Aren’t you two hungry? I have some stuff in the ice box that wants eating. What do you say?”
    Barrow was watching Eve with uneasy, possessive eyes. “We had dinner at Glendora on our way up. She’d better go . . . she must be tired.”
    I looked at him and laughed, but he wouldn’t play. He stared down at his empty glass, veins throbbing in his temples.
    Eve stood up. She was even smaller and slighter than I had first supposed. Her head barely reached my shoulder.
    “Where do I sleep?” she asked. Her eyes looked over my shoulder.
    “Please keep the room you’re in now. I’ll use the guest room. But, if you don’t really want to go to bed, just yet, I’d be glad to have you stay.”
    “I want to go.” She was half-way to the door.
    When she had gone, I said, “I’ll see if she has everything,” and followed her out before Barrow could move.
    She was standing