Once Bitten. Clare Willis

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СКАЧАТЬ man was not just handsome. I had seen the Mona Lisa in person on a high school chorus trip, and like her, he made you want to stare until your eyes dried out. His gaze enveloped and then stripped you, literally and figuratively. It seemed he already knew your every hope, dream, fear, and crime; there was nothing you could say that would surprise him. With his lips lifted in that same tiny smile as Mona, he seemed both amused and slightly impatient with the antics of normal humans.

      I heard a noise, like a fly buzzing on a window, which turned out to be Suleiman speaking to us. “Eric, nice of you to join us. I’d like you to meet Kimberley Bennett and Angie McCaffrey. They’re the ones I told you about from the ad agency. Ladies, may I present Eric Taylor.”

      Eric Taylor? He should have been named something exotic and unpronounceable. But when he took my hand and put it to his lips I forgot his name anyway, giving myself up to a brief but blissful sexual thrill. He kissed Kimberley’s hand as well, but she didn’t seem as moved. He sat down between us, but turned to me.

      “That is a beautiful dress you have on. You look like you fit right in.” A slight accent, maybe French, rolled the r in dress.

      “Is that a nice way of saying I’m obviously not a regular?” I responded. When I’m nervous I tend to get a little uppity.

      “No, of course not, I was just teasing. There’s nothing to be obvious about. This is just a nightclub. Most of the people here have nothing to do with the lifestyle anyway, except that they like to wear black and go to clubs. No, Suleiman told me about you. He mentioned that you were fascinated by us.”

      “Really, now.” I was all the more indignant because it was true. “I don’t believe the word fascinated ever crossed my lips.”

      Eric leaned into me so that his lips were about two inches from mine. A rich sweet scent rose from him, something I thought I recognized but couldn’t quite place, definitely not cologne but almost an internal perfume.

      “But you are fascinated, aren’t you, Angela?” he whispered, his voice low and caressing.

      I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to get a grip on myself. But when I inhaled my head spun like I’d had three cosmos. With my eyes still closed I leaned closer, forgetting for a second who and where I was, wanting to enter the smell, wanting to kiss the lips…then somehow my cerebrum came back and took over from my cerebellum. I leaned back and opened my eyes, mentally pinched myself. I took a big slug of my drink. Eric sat back in his seat so that he was facing the whole table.

      “So, Eric, what do you do for a living?” Kimberley asked.

      “Hmm, for a living, an interesting expression. I live, for a living. But if you mean what do I do that involves money, I dabble in this and that. The stock market, venture capital, real estate development.”

      I looked for a smile to see if he was kidding, but his expression was serious. I figured that if he were lying he’d at least have the smarts to pick just one of those areas, instead of claiming all three.

      “And I’m a model,” Lilith interjected.

      This woman did have the sunken cheeks, acne-ravaged skin, and dark circled eyes that most models display when you see them up close, but a steady diet of coffee, cigarettes, and blow did not mean she made her money on the catwalk. As with actors, most of the people who claimed to be models didn’t have the W2 forms to back it up.

      “Really, what was your last job?” I asked, not wanting to be mean, but unable to stop myself.

      “French Vogue.” Lilith smiled. She had me there. It would take quite a bit of effort to check that one.

      “You should give me your card,” I parried. “My agency hires a lot of models. I might be able to get you a job sometime.”

      I looked at Eric and wondered if Lilith and I were sparring over him and I hadn’t even realized it. His self-assured smile told me that was what he thought.

      “Do you live in San Francisco, Eric?” I asked.

      He shook his head. “Alas, no. It is a lovely city, but I’m here on business.”

      I felt a not-so-little stab of disappointment. “Where do you live?” I asked, hoping he’d say somewhere close, but with the sinking feeling that the answer would be Paris, Tangier, or Burkina Faso.

      Suleiman interrupted before Eric could answer, leaning forward to speak to both Kimberley and me. “Eric and Lilith are two of the people I had in mind for the ad campaign. I just love the way both of them look, don’t you?”

      Well, one of them, yes, indeed.

      “Lilith is a model, so she already has experience,” Suleiman said. Lilith gave me an “I told you so” smile.

      “Show them your teeth, both of you,” Suleiman said.

      Lilith drew back her upper lip and I let out a gasp. She had perfect little fangs, about a half-inch long, the color blended exactly with the rest of her teeth. They looked as real as the ones on the tiger in the San Francisco Zoo.

      Suleiman said, “We did those for her about a year ago. I don’t know where Eric got his, but they’re even better. Show her yours, Eric.”

      Eric’s eyes glinted in the candlelight. “Maybe later,” he said, and smiled without opening his lips.

      I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. “So, Eric, where do you know Suleiman and Moravia from?”

      “Oh, Sully and I are friends from way back. But let’s talk about you,” Eric said, moving toward me again. I leaned back. I wasn’t ready yet for another whiff of his magic spell.

      “Sully tells me you’re doing the advertising for Macabre Factor. What are some of the other companies you’re working with?”

      I picked some of HFB’s “household name” brands. “Strevichnaya vodka? You’ve seen those big billboards with the naked lady in the bottle, like a ship in a bottle?” Eric nodded, gazing at me with those translucent eyes. “Um, Comet toothpaste, you guys probably use a lot of toothpaste, we do their advertising. Tangento, they’re a big company, have a lot of subsidiaries you might know, Adonis athletic wear, Venus lingerie. Unicorn Pulp and Paper, they make, uh, paper products.”

      Oh my God, I’m babbling.

      Eric smiled. “Not at all. I am aware of all these companies. Very high profile.”

      I wondered about his saying “not at all,” an obvious non sequitur. It almost seemed like he had read my mind.

      “You must be very good at what you do,” Eric continued, “but you don’t seem like the type.”

      “And what ‘type’ would that be?” I replied. I felt like he was toying with me, but I didn’t want him to stop.

      “The business type, the nine-to-five type. You seem like an artist to me.”

      “Well, I was an actor. Majored in drama in college.”

      Eric nodded knowingly. “Yes, an actress, that’s what I would have said. Why did you leave it?”

      “The СКАЧАТЬ