"Linnea Sinclair - Silent Run" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sinclair Linnea)

Shandy slid off the stool. Hillard’s hand clamped on her arm, halting her.
“There’s peoples who know ‘bout you and him.” His tone was distinctly
threatening.
She shook him off, headed for the door. The Lucy had a schedule to keep.
“You look like you’re ready to fire ion cannons at someone. If you had any,
that is.” Donata Caro’s lilting voice drifted over Shandy’s shoulder as headed for the
podway to the spaceport.
Shandy gave her friend a tight smile. “Hillard thinks I have some pull with
Rinnaker. You know he’s always trying to cadge a favor.” But it was the first time
he’d ever gotten nasty. She didn’t know if that should worry her or not.
The amber skinned woman raised on eyebrow. “Guess he’s heard the talk
about you and tall, dark and Talvarrin.”
“Donni!”
“Oh, that’s right. You and Captain Talvarrin aren’t lovers. He’s just a friend.
Who alters schedules of one of the most powerful merchanter families in the
Conclave so that he can have a few beers, now and then, with an obscure
short-hauler.”
“The Lucy handled a cargo transfer--”
“Once. Eight months ago. And the Valiance has been following the Lucent
Echo ever since.”
“You’re exaggerating,” Shandy said. Donni was a hopeless romantic. The plain
fact was that the Syar Colonies were a popular transfer point. Which made it not
unlikely that she and Captain Cameron Talvarrin might run into each other, share a
few beers. And maybe hash over the usual opinions on the latest improvements in
jumpgate technology, or the rumors of new markets opening in the Deneb sector. Or
discuss the hazards in the space lanes out by the rim colony of Braskar, courtesy of
the Nanjir faction now looking to grab some of the colonies’ wealth.
Punctuated inevitably by Cam Talvarrin’s pronouncements of how one Captain
Shandy Alexis McAllister should conduct her business, and her life.
The pod arrived with the usual hiss and rattle.
“If he’s not in love with you,” Donni asked as they threaded their way through
exiting passengers, “then why’s he following you around?”
Shandy glanced out the grimy windows as the pod rumbled forward. “Maybe
because the Lucy and I provide a good transport service at a fair price. He
appreciates that.”
“More likely he appreciates a gorgeous little brunette.”
“You’re prejudiced. And hallucinating. I haven’t heard from him in a couple
septis. And I doubt if I will.” Especially as she’d told him it would be a cold day in
hell before she’d give up a shot at the newly opened Braskar route because one
Cameron Talvarrin deemed it a waste of her time. “Trust me. I’m really not his
type.”
“That’s why he kissed you.”
“Because we’d both had a few more beers than we should have that night. So
forget about it, okay? I have.”
Liar, a little voice said. She hadn’t forgotten about it. But at least now when
Shandy thought about those mind-numbing kisses it was with the stern reminder
never to get in that situation again. She’d been around spaceport pubs, and spacers,
for almost all of her thirty-two years. She knew what too little sleep, too much
Syarian ale, and one undeniably sexy male with the most incredible blue eyes-- and
enormous ego-- could do: break her heart.