Eve Read Online Free Page B

by the electric heater, her hands behind her head. She stretched, yawned and when she saw me in the doorway, her mouth pursed and a calculating expression came into her eyes.
    “Have you everything you need?” I asked, smiling at her. “Sure you won’t have something to eat?”
    She laughed. I had a suspicion that she was mocking me and she knew why I was so concerned for her comfort. I hoped that she did know, because it would save time and dispense with the preliminary advances.
    “I don’t want anything . . . thank you.”
    “Well, if you’re sure, but I want you to feel at home. This is the first time I’ve had a woman in my cabin, so it’s kind of an occasion.” I knew I had made a mistake as soon as I had spoken.
    The smile immediately went from her eyes and the cold quizzing look came back. “Oh?” she said, moving to the bed. She took a pink silk night dress out of her grip and tossed it carelessly into the chair.
    She knew I was lying and the way her expression changed told me she expected me to be a liar anyway. This annoyed me. “Is that hard to believe?” I asked, stepping further into the room.
    She bundled various garments scattered on the bed into her bag and then moved it onto the floor. “Is what hard to believe?” she asked, going to the dressing table.
    “That I don’t have women here?”
    “It’s nothing to me who you have here, is it?”
    Of course she was right, but I was irritated by her indifference.
    “Put like that,” I said, feeling snubbed, “I suppose it isn’t.”
    She patted her hair absently and looked hard at herself in the mirror. I felt that she had forgotten that I was in the room.
    “You’d better let me have your wet clothes,” I said. “I’ll put them in the kitchen to dry.”
    “I can take care of them.” She turned abruptly away from the mirror and pulled her dressing gown more closely to her. The two furrows above the bridge of her nose were knitted in a frown. But, in spite of her plainness, and she looked very plain with that wooden look on her face, she intrigued me.
    She glanced at the door and then at me. She did this twice before it dawned on me that she was silently telling me to go. It was a new experience for me and I did not like it.
    “I want to go to bed . . . if you don’t mind,” she said and turned away from me.
    No gratitude, no thanks, no question about taking my room, just a cool, deliberate brush-off.
    Barrow was fixing himself a drink when I entered the sitting room. He lurched unsteadily as he made his way back to the armchair. He sat down and stared up at me, screwing up his eyes to see me more clearly. “Don’t get ideas about her,” he said, suddenly banging his fist down on the armchair. “You lay off. Do you understand?”
    I stared at him. “Are you talking to me?” I said, outraged that he dared to take such an attitude.
    His red face sagged a little. “You leave her alone,” he mumbled. “She’s mine for tonight. I know what you’re up to, but let me tell you something.” He edged forward and pointed a stumpy finger at me, his slack mouth working. “I’ve bought her. She cost me a hundred bucks. Do you hear? I’ve bought her! So keep off the grass.”
    I didn’t believe him. “You couldn’t buy a woman like that. Not a down-at-heel punk like you.”
    He slopped whisky over the carpet. “What was that?” He looked up at me with watery, mean eyes.
    “I said you couldn’t buy a woman like that because you’re a down-at-heel punk.”
    “You’ll be sorry for that,” he said. The two veins in his temple beat faster. “As soon as I saw you, I knew you’d start trouble. You’re going to try to take her from me, aren’t you?”
    I grinned at him. “Why not? There’s nothing you can do about it, is there?”
    “But I’ve bought her, damn you,” he exclaimed, punching the arm of the chair. “Don’t you know what that means? She’s mine for tonight. Can’t you act like a gentleman?”
    I still