79 Park Avenue by Harold Robbins Read Free Book Online Page B

them who was boss. He moved toward her surely.
    He didn't see the vicious upward sweep of her knee xmtil the pain exploded in his groin. He stood there unbelieving for a moment, swaying in front of her. "Marja!" he said in a shocked voice, through rapidly whitening hps. "My God! Marja?" Then the second climax of pain tumbled him to the floor in front of her.
    He could see her watching him coldly through his pain-blurred eyes as he lay doubled up before her. He writhed as the waves of agony ripped through him.
    He felt rather than saw her step over him and pick up her clothing from the chair. He felt a draft on his cheek as she opened the door. He strained, trying to look up at her.
    She was in the doorway looking back at him. Her voice fell coldly on his ears. "If that was what you wanted, why didn't you pick Francie?"
    The pain was receding now. He could breathe agam, but didn't dare move for fear it would return. He forced himself to speak. "Because it was you I wanted, Marja," he mumbled through numb lips.
    Her voice was not quite so cold now. "There's some things I do, some thmgs I don't," she said patiently, as if

    explaining to a child. "What kind uh girl do you think I am, Ross?"
    The door closed behind her and he was alone on the floor of the room. He pressed his burning cheek to the cool tile and closed his eyes. A vision of her as she stepped from the shower flashed before him, and the pain returned. He caught his breath.
    "Marja," he whispered to the cold tile floor. "What kind of a girl are you?"

    Chapter 5
    WEARILY he Opened his eyes. The room was dark, the night outside the windows still. He rolled over, the soft bed giving beneath him; the blanket caught his arms and held them. Vaguely he wondered how he had got here. An ache came back to him and he began to remember. He had stumbled from the bathroom and tumbled into bed. He remembered sinking into its welcoming softness, but that was all. He didn't remember covering himself.
    "FeeUng better, Ross?"
    He turned his head toward Marja's voice. A cigarette glowed from a chair in the comer of the room. He sat up. Now he remembered everything. She had come into the room and covered him while he was dozing. He had been shivering as if with a chill.
    "Yes," he answered sullenly.
    The cigarette made an upward sweep, glowed bright, and then dimmed. "Want a drag?" she asked.
    "Please."

    He heard her move in the darkness, then her silhouette crossed the. window. He felt the bed sink beneath her weight. The cigarette was in front of him. He took it gratefully and put it between his lips. The acrid smoke filtered deep into his lungs. He began to feel better.
    "What time is it?" he asked.
    "About nine," she answered.
    He puffed again at the cigarette and let the smoke drift slowly out his nostrils. It seemed to help him waken. "Where are the others?" he asked, trying unsuccessfully to see her in the glow of the cigarette. "Still downstairs?"
    "No," she answered shortly. "Francie was scared when we came upstairs and found you on the bed. She wanted to go home. Jimmy went with her."
    He thought silendy, bitterly: Fine friends, run out when you need them. But it was just what he could expect from Jimmy. Mike would never have done that. A thought ran through his mind. "Did you tell them what happened?"
    "No," she replied. "Why should I? That was between us."
    "Then what did they think?" he asked.
    "I tor 'em you were sick," she answered. The bed shook slightiy as if she was laughing, but he couldn't tell. "Yuh sure acted hke it. Shiverin' away."
    A resentment came up in him. If they thought he was really sick, that made their actions even more cowardly. He might have really needed them. He tried to see her, but it was too dark. He leaned over and turned on a light near the bed. For a moment the light hurt his eyes and he blmked; then he turned toward her. "Why didn't you go with them?" he asked bitterly.
    She didn't answer.

    "You knew what happened, you didn't have to stay,"