Read Online The Insiders by Rosemary Rogers - Free Book Online Page A

should say knew him, because all these years I've tried to stay out of his way. He doesn't come to this city too often—lucky San Francisco!" The sound Marti made was short and bitter, not really a laugh, although she meant it for one. She looked at Eve, her eyes measuring.
    "Eve baby, I'm in the mood to talk. I've been sitting here all bloody evening trying to get drunk, waiting for the goddam phone to ring, hoping Stel would call and tell me she changed her mind. But she didn't, so—no, don't waste your pity on me, Eve," Marti warned, catching Eve's look. "If there's one thing I despise it's pity. But we were talking about Brant. And I've a story to tell if you're interested. Perhaps you'd better listen and learn."
    "That sounds rather ominous!" Eve tried to make her voice sound light, but Marti's mood and solemn words had depressed her.
    Marti said sharply, "Eve, I'm not kidding! Listen, I don't usually tell my life story to anyone, but this part concerns Brant Newcomb, and I'm just drunk enough to want to tell you enough so you'll know he plays rough. You want to hear it or not?"
    "If you're sure it won't upset you," Eve began, but Marti interrupted her sharply.
    "Nothing can upset me more than I am right now— and this all happened a long time ago, anyhow. Funny how you try to forget things, put them firmly out of your mind, and then something happens and it all comes back like a goddam movie or something. God! I can almost see myself as I used to be in those days. Stupid ingenue trying to play it cool and sophisticated."
    Marti had begun to turn her glass around and around between her palms as she spoke, her voice curiously husky.
    "I guess it's an old story, really. My parents—they were so damned rich and such damned snobs! They had to send me to a private school. Public school wasn't good enough for their only daughter—I mean, little Martine might meet poor kids with lower-class morals, and that wouldn't do, would it? So I was sent to Miss Dietrich's Academy for Young Ladies. Boarding school—which meant I was safely out of their way. They enjoyed traveling a lot and they were always partying, and I suppose having a kid was inconvenient. I was quite young when they first sent me away. At least, that's how it seemed to me at first, until I learned how to fit in." Marti looked up at Eve and smiled mirthlessly. "Yep— you could say that that's where it all began. The way I am now, I mean. I started young, and I had really en-thuiastic teachers. And you know what? I enjoyed itl For the first time I knew what it felt like to be wanted and loved. I had my first crush on a girl when I was only eight. She was much older than I, but she loved me back, and she was mother and lover and teacher all in one. I took to the life like a duck takes to water. Craving for love, my analyst called it. Perhaps! But it felt good— it still does."
    Marti shrugged lightly, almost defensively.
    "To cut a long story short, I was one of the few kids who really enjoyed Miss Dietrich's. But after I graduated I tried the 'normal' kind of love the other girls had moved on to—the heterosexual route. I wasn't bright enough for college, you see, and my parents were eager to have me married off, I suppose. They "brought me out' in a hurry and shoved me on the marriage market. God, they must've wanted me out of their way real bad— we were like strangers! Anyhow, I tried to please them; they teach you respect and obedience at Miss Dietrich's. I guess I was curious, too; all the girls I'd been with seemed to enjoy boys just as much as they'd enjoyed each other during our cloistered years. I had a lot of freedom; I mean, what my parents didn't realize was that our set was really pretty wild, especially the younger crowd. Try anything for kicks was our motto. And some of the guys, for instance, had traveled all around the world with their folks and had picked up all kinds of sexual expertise. I'd go out on decorous dates and end up in some