"Van Lustbader, Eric - Linnear 04 - The Kaisho" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Lustbader Eric)

'A few,' Do Duc said. 'You can call me Robert.'
'Robert.' She took a step toward him so that she was very close. She studied his face. 'Curious. That's not an Oriental name, and you're so obviously Oriental.' She cocked her head at an angle. 'Or are you? What other race ... Let me see ... Polynesian?' She smiled. 'I'm Venetian, myself, so I know what it's like.'
'What what's like?'
To be an outsider.' Margarite walked away from him, back to the sofa. 'I live among Sicilians. No one trusts you, not really.' She sat down, crossed her legs. 'You're always being put in the position of having to prove your loyalty, even to Family.'
Do Duc smiled to himself. He liked this part of her, the schemer. He stared at the long expanse of her legs with desire - which was hardly difficult - in order to encourage her. Just because his desire was deliberate didn't mean she had to know that. He wanted - no, to be truthful, he needed - to know how far she would go, what she might be capable of under the most extreme conditions. Now he knew one thing: she was going to allow him to find out.
'Do you have family?'
The question knifed through him, so he smiled at her, charming her with one of his many masks. 'That was a

long time ago,' But his voice sounded hollow even to his own ears, and Margarite was clever enough to pick up on this.
'Were you an orphan?'
The seeds of my destruction were sown when I was very young.'
Margarite held his gaze. 'What an extraordinary thing to say. Is it true? You have no family?'
It was, so he shrugged in order that she should discount it. He was appalled at what had come out of his own mouth. Was he mad?
He broke the connection with her that was beginning to disturb him as profoundly as it did her,
'What do you want with Dominic?' Margarite asked to his back.
'Information,' Do Duc said, 'that only he can provide.'
'That simplifies things,' she said. 'I can get it for you when he calls,'
Do Duc smiled coldly so that she knew in her heart he was nothing more than a weapon. 'Margarite, I will tell you now that if you deviate at all from our prepared scenario, Francine will die and you will witness it,'
'All right!' She shuddered and put her face in her hands. 'Just - don't say it again. I don't want you even thinking it,'
She looked up at him, her eyes searching his face through her tears. 'You know, despite what Dominic did, he's still got a number of friends he saved from the Feds and they're very powerful,'
'Yes, I know just how powerful,' Do Duc said. 'Who do you think sent me?'
It was a calculated risk, but a necessary one to help him maintain his control over her.
'Christ, you can't mean it,' Margarite said in alarm. That would kill him,'
Do Duc shrugged as he came and sat down beside her. 'Life is full of surprises - even for me,'

'No, no, no,' she said in a breathless voice, 'you're to me.' She shuddered. 'I know Dominic's friends. They're utterly loyal. If you harm him they'll come after you. Doesn't that worry you?'
'On the contrary. I welcome it.'
He watched the emotions flurry across her lace.
'My God, who are you?' she whispered. 'What sins have I committed that would bring you here?'
Tell me, are you as innocent as your brother is guilty?'
She ignored the tears as they rolled slowly down her cheeks. 'No one is wholly innocent, but I - this is like Judgment Day. No matter what I do I will have blood on my hands.'
'In the end, we're all animals,' he said. 'We've got to get dirty sometime. This is your time.'
She pulled out another cigarette. 'Become like you, you mean? No, never!'
'I wish you wouldn't,' Do Duc said.
Margarite put her hand around the lighter, then apparently thought better of it. She returned the unlit cigarette to the filigreed box.
'It frightens me that you know Dominic is going to call.'
'Yes. I know.'
'His friends ...'
'He has no more friends.'
He dipped his fingertip into the sticky residue of the spilled brandy, brought up on it not only the sweet liquor but a tiny shard of glass. She watched as he pressed the glass until it pierced his skin and drew blood. By this gesture of machismo she reckoned that pain in one form or another was a significant component of his personality. She filed this inference away, not yet able to deduce its usefulness.
She wondered why he hadn't assaulted her. He had had every opportunity to take advantage of an entire array of provocative situations: while she was naked in the bath, while she was dressing as he watched, any time while

they had been here in the library. Certainly, after she had recovered from the initial shock of his presence, she had given him every opportunity, knowing that he would not be thinking clearly trapped between her thighs with his blood filled with testosterone.
She had to try something to extricate herself from this nightmare. She shifted on the sofa, in the process hiking up her skirt to the tops of her thighs. She saw his gaze shift from the blood on his fingertip to her flesh. His gaze had weight as it rested on her, and heat. She could feel her cheeks beginning, to burn.
'What is it about you?' She did not recognize her own voice.
Do Duc looked at her. His fingertip traced a red crescent on the trembling flesh of her inner thigh. He stroked higher, into the spot where she was warm, even now. She felt a kind of connection, and she did what she could to draw him on, to make the heat rise in his blood.
The harsh jangle of the phone made her start. She stared at it as if it were a deadly adder. He took his hand away, and her one chance was gone.
'Answer it,' Do Duc ordered, staring into her terrified eyes.
Margarite hesitated, trembling. It didn't have to be Dominic; it could be anyone, she told herself. Please let it be anyone but him.
She snatched up the receiver with a convulsive gesture. She swallowed, then said hopefully, 'Hello?'