"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 20 - Web of Sand" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

Hated it and yet loved it too. Enjoyed it in part and echoed
that enjoyment to match the bleak despair. Feeling the tension
mount in her loins, the hardening of her nipples as she sang of
blood and pain; a sexual stimulus matched by the disgust of
those who warred against the helpless. A contradiction of
civilized mind and primitive nature which created, for her, a
vibrant excitement. Often she ended the Interlude shuddering in
orgasm.

But not this time. Now she controlled her emotions, resisting
the impulse to yield to the spell of the tonal and musical magic,
projecting, aiming the notes like bullets at her audience. As the
last rose to hang quivering like a scream, to end with the impact
of a fist, she bowed, hair cascading to mound on the floor, one
long thigh exposed to gleam in the subdued light, the lines of her
back illuminated by the spotlight which had shone throughout
her performance.

And again the room quivered to the thunder of applause.

"My dear!" Yunus rose to greet her as she neared the table.
"You were wonderful! Superb!"

He was gratified, basking in the adulation given by the others
to his toy. A matter of pride, equal to that felt by the owner of a
winning horse, the possessor of an intelligent dog. And yet, as he
touched her, she felt that there could be something more. A
tenderness. A regard. Surely she must mean more to him than a
voice to beguile his guests?

Then Khan Barrocca said, "Yunus, I offer ten thousand kren
for her contract."

"Only ten?" Yunus shrugged. "You aim too low, my friend."

"A hundred!" Young Chole gulped, recognizing his temerity.
"A hundred thousand, Yunus!"

She waited for him to reject the offer, to make it plain to all
that he regarded her as beyond price. Instead he said, musingly,
"You tempt me, Chole. A hundred, you say?"

"Yes."

"And you have it?" He smiled at the other's hesitation, "No?
Well, approach me again when you do."

The smile had betrayed his nature, it had held more cruelty
than amusement and it had not been kind to have made sport of