Read Online Blacklight Blue by Peter May - Free Book Online

I won’t just be “some woman”.’ She held out her hand. ‘Anna.’
    He hesitated for just a moment before taking it. ‘Enzo.’ Her handshake was firm and warm. ‘Women adore me.’
    She grinned. ‘Oh, do they?’ She tilted her head and her look became appraising. ‘Maybe I can see why.’ She paused. ‘Different coloured eyes. Very unusual.’
    ‘Waardenburg Syndrome. Goes with the white stripe in the hair.’
    ‘Is it fatal?’
    He flicked her a look. But, of course, there was no way she could have known. ‘Not the Waardenburg, no.’ He drained his glass and felt the alcohol going straight to his head. He had still not eaten since breakfast. He waved the barman to refill the glass.
    ‘Put them all on my room,’ she told the barman. She sipped her champagne and looked at Enzo speculatively. ‘Enzo. Short for Lorenzo, right? But you don’t sound Italian.’
    ‘Scottish.’
    ‘And what brings you to Strasbourg?’
    ‘I thought you were going to do the talking.’
    ‘Well, I’d tell you what brings me to Strasbourg, but you probably wouldn’t be interested.’
    ‘Try me.’
    ‘Parents,’ she said, and she pursed her lips in a smile of regret. ‘Elderly and failing, and full of recriminations about the daughter who doesn’t come to see them often enough.’
    ‘Why’s that?’
    ‘Because I’m never here.’
    ‘In Strasbourg or in France?’
    ‘Both. I’m a ski instructor. Based in Switzerland in the winter. I spend summers in the Caribbean teaching scuba diving. Which keeps me fit for the winter months.’
    In spite of all the thoughts crowding an already overcrowded mind, Enzo finally found himself interested. Distracted. ‘How does someone become a ski instructor?’
    ‘There’s not much else to do when you can’t compete at the top level any more.’
    ‘You were a professional?’
    ‘Skied for France in two Olympics. Didn’t win any medals, but I made the top ten. Trouble is, the body starts to decline just as the brain starts to develop. The intrinsic contradiction faced by every athlete. When you’re young the flesh is willing, but you lack the experience. When you have the experience, the flesh is no longer willing.
Et voilà
. Those who can, do, and those can’t, teach.’
    ‘A bird in the hand’s worth two in the bush.’
    Her smile was a patient one. ‘We’re not going to start that again, are we?’
    ‘Not if you don’t want to.’ He sucked down more whisky. ‘So where to now? Switzerland?’
    ‘Too early. The season’s not properly underway yet. And my contract doesn’t start for another month. I’m heading up into the Auvergne for a few weeks.’
    ‘Pretty bleak up there at this time of year.’
    ‘That’s how I like it. English friends are lending me their holiday house. It’s near a tiny village, lost in the hills somewhere to the east Aurillac. My sanity saver.’
    ‘You’re going up there all on your own?’
    She shrugged. ‘No one else to share it with.’ She sipped at her champagne and stared into the endless stream of bubbles rising through her flute to break the surface. ‘Funny, I never imagined I’d make forty and still be on my own.’
    Enzo said, ‘I’ve been on my own for twenty years. You get used to it.’
    She looked at him curiously, then slipped her hand very gently over his. ‘No one should have to be on their own. Ever. Life’s too short for that.’
    He turned towards her, to find a strange dark intensity in her eyes. Something almost sad. Compelling. And he felt a flutter in his stomach like startled butterflies. She had no idea just how short.
    ***
    The lights of La Petite France reflected off the water below, projecting flickering, amorphous images through the arched window and on to the far wall of Enzo’s bedroom. By its monochrome light, he watched as Anna slipped off the tee-shirt she wore beneath her leather bomber, and shimmied out of her jeans. Until she stood in just black bra and panties, tall and elegant, with