Eagle in the Sky - Smith Wilbur - Страница 13

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solemn also.

She studied his face carefully, with minute attention.

The sun had dried his hair and fluffed it out, and it was soft and fine

and very dark.  The bone of his cheek and jaw was sculptured and finely

balanced, the eyes very clear and slightly Asiatic in cast, the lips

full and firm, and the nose delicately fluted with wide nostrils and a

straight graceful line.

She reached up and touched his cheek.

You are very beautiful, David.  You are the most beautiful human being I

have ever seen.  He did not move, and she ran the finger down his neck

on to his chest, twirling it slowly in the dark body hair.

Slowly he leaned forward and placed his mouth over hers.  Her lips were

warm and soft and tasted of sea salt.

Her arms came up around the back of his head and folded around him. They

kissed until he reached behind her and unfastened the clasp of her

costume between the smooth brown shoulder blades.  She stiffened

immediately and tried to pull away from him.

David held her gently but firmly, murmuring little soothing noises as he

kissed her again.  Slowly she relaxed and he went on gentling her until

her hands went to the back of his neck again, and she sighed and

shuddered.

His hands were skilled and expert, masterful enough to prevent

rebellion, not rough enough to panic her.  He pushed up the thin

material of her costume top and was surprised and enchanted with the

firm rubbery weight of her breasts and the big dusky rose-brown nipples

which were pebble hard to his touch.

It was shocking, completely foreign to his experience, for David was not

accustomed to check or denial, but Debra placed her hands on his

shoulders and shoved him with such force that he lost his balance and

slid down the rock, grazing his elbow and ending in a heap at the

water's edge.

He scrambled angrily to his feet as Debra came up with a fluid explosive

movement, fastening her costume as she did so.  A single bound of her

long brown legs carried her to the edge of the rocks and she dived

outwards, hitting the water flat and surfacing to call back at him.

I'll race you to the beach David would not accept the challenge and

followed her at his own dignified pace.  When he emerged unsmilingly

from the low surf, she studied his face a moment and then grinned.

When you sulk you look about ten years old, she told him, which was no

great exercise of tact and David stalked back to his room.

He was still being extremely dignified and aloof that evening when they

discovered a discotheque named2ooi A.  D.  run by a couple of English

boys down on the sea-front.  They crowded round a table at which there

were already two B.  E.  A.  hostesses and a couple of raggedy-looking

beards.  The music was loud enough and the rhythm hard enough to jar the

spine and loosen the bowels and when the two hostesses gazed at David

with almost religious awe Debra forsook her attitude of cool amusement

and suggested to David that they dance.

Mollified by this little feminine by-play, David dropped his

impersonation of the Ice King.

They moved well together, sharing the gut rhythms of the harsh music,

executing the primeval movements that reeked of Africa with a grace that

drew the attention of the other dancers.

When the music changed Debra came to him and lay her body against his.

David felt some force flowing from her that seemed to charge every nerve

of his body, and he knew that no relationship he had with this woman

would ever run calmly.  It was too deeply felt for that, too volatile

and triggered for momentary explosion.

When the record ended they left Joe and Hannah huddled over a carafe of

red wine and they went out into the silent street and down to the beach.

There was a moon in the sky that lit the dark cliffs crowding in above

the beach, and reflected off the sea in multiple yellow images.  The low

surf hissed and coughed on the pebble beach and they took off their

shoes and walked along it, letting the water wash around their ankles.

In an angle of the cliff, they found a hidden place amongst the rocks

and they stopped to kiss again, and David mistakenly took her new soft

mood as an invitation to continue from where he had left off that

afternoon.

Debra pulled away again, but this time with determination and said

angrily, Damn you!  Don't you ever learn?  I don't want to do that.  Do

we have to go through this every time we are alone?

, 'What's the matter?  David was immediately stung by her tone, and

furious with this fresh check.  This is the twentieth century, darling.

The simpering virgin is out of style this season, hadn't you heard?  ,

And spoilt little boys should grow up before they come out on their own,

she flashed back at him.

Thanks!  he snarled.  I don't have to stay around taking insults from

any professional virgin.  Well, why don't you move out then?  she

challenged him.

Hey, that's a great idea!  He turned his back on her and walked away up

the beach.  She had not expected that, and she started to run after him,

but her pride checked her.  She stopped and leaned against the rock.

He shouldn't have rushed me, she thought miserably.

I want him, I want him very much, but he will be the first since Dudu.

If he will just give me time it will be all right, but he mustn't rush

me.  If he could only go at my speed, help me to do it right.

It is funny, she thought, how little I remember about Dudu now.  It's

only three years, but his memory is fading so swiftly, I wonder if I

really did love him.  Even his face is hazy in my mind, while I know

every detail of David's, every plane and line of it.

Perhaps I should go after him and tell him about Dudu, and ask him to be

patient and to help me a little.

Perhaps I should do that, she thought, but she did not and slowly she

walked up the beach, through the silent town to the hotel.

Hannah's bed across the room was empty.  She would be with Joe, lying

with him, loving with him, I should be with David also, she thought.

Dudu was dead, and I'm alive, and I want David and I should be with him

but she undressed slowly and climbed into the bed and lay without

sleeping.

David stood in the doorway of 2001 A.  D.  and peered through the

weirdly flashing lights and the smog, the warm palpable emanation from a

hundred straining bodies.  The B.  E.  A.  hostesses were still at the

table, but Joe and Hannah had gone.

David made his way through the dancers.  The one hostess was tall and

blonde, with high English colour and china-doll eyes.  She looked up and

saw David, glanced around for Debra, made sure she was missing before

she smiled.

They danced one cut of the record without touching each other and then

David leaned close to her and placed both hands on her hips.  She

strained towards him with her lips parting.

Have you got a room?  he asked, and she nodded, running the tip of her

tongue lewdly around her lips.

Let's go, said David.

It was light when David got back to his own room.

He shaved and packed his ha& surprised at the strength of his residual

anger.  He lugged his bag down to the proprietor's office and paid his

bill with his Diners Club card.

Debra came out of the breakfast room with Joe and Hannah.  They were all

dressed for the beach with Terry robes over their bathing gear, and they

were gay and laughing, until they saw David.

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