Forever (56 page)

It was so quiet here, peaceful and without
wind. And they the only living creatures. She watched in silence as
Eduardo took off his jacket and spread it out on the sand. She
stared at him a moment and then sat down on it with all the
solemnity such an act required.

He sank down on the sand beside her, and for
a time they sat side by side in companionable silence, sharing
their own private slice of sea. Neither felt it necessary to
speak.

After a while, she turned her face to him
and broke the silence. 'Eduardo.' Her voice was a bare, quivering
tremolo.

He reached out, silenced her by brushing a
finger across her lips, and caressed her face with his hand.

She drew a deep breath and shut her eyes,
revelling in his gentle touch.

The very air vibrated; moonlight
scintillated and refracted; waves of liquid warmth radiated from
one of them to the other and merged, swirling between them like an
invisible whirlwind of heat, gaining power, strength, potency.

She could feel a tightness come up inside
her, and then the swirling warmth drew their faces together and she
opened her eyes.

So surprisingly different, this kiss. No
frantic groping, no urgent thrusting of hip against hip - just the
gentlest meeting of lips, the sharing of the tenderness they felt,
saying without words how much, how resolutely, unequivocably, and
manifestly abundant was their love for each other.

Finally their mouths parted and she drew
closer and leaned her head against his chest, content merely to be
held, to absorb his warmth and listen to the steady pounding of his
heart.

Thus they lay as the moon rode across the
heavens and shooting stars streaked earthward.

After a while, she sat up and faced him. Her
face shone palely in the moonlight and her eyes were wide and
luminous, her voice soft, almost wistful, i don't usually wax
romantic, but . . . wouldn't it be marvellous if we could just stop
time? If we could hold onto the innocence of this moment
forever?'

'Yes,' he agreed softly. 'But we are not
true innocents. If we were, we would not have survived this long.'
His voice held a hint of sadness. 'The world is an ugly place,
Monica. It is not for the pure or the virtuous or the saintly.'

She sat very still for a moment, staring at
him, and then she slowly nodded. 'I was being silly,' she said.
'You are right, of course. We aren't innocents.' Moving towards
him, she slid her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. 'How
about we agree that philosophy time's over?' she suggested
huskily.

He gathered her up in his arms. 'I thought
you would never ask! Now, let's stop wasting precious time!'

'Let's!' she breathed.

And he covered her mouth with his and they
kissed again, but passionately now, both with the urgency of
physical arousal. Even as their lips were linked, he laid her down
flat and covered her body with his own.

Her eyes were wide and they shone with
bright amusement.

His lips left hers. 'What is so funny?'

A mischievous smile came over her face. 'I
don't know why, but suddenly I don't feel so innocent anymore!'

'Strange that you should mention that,' he
grinned, his breath warm against her cheek. 'For some reason,
neither do I . . .'

Gently he nibbled on her left earlobe, his
hands moving up inside her blouse to cup her sweet, firm, warm
breasts. He heard her soft sensual squeal of delight as he stroked
her nipples with his thumbs. Then, all of a sudden, she scissored
her legs around his buttocks and levitated like a gymnast, her arms
clutching his back. A wild, rapturous kind of abandon shone on her
face as she clung to him.

'Take me, Eduardo!' she whispered urgently,
tightening her legs around him. 'I can't wait any longer!'

Colonel Valerio watched.

Through bulky, infrared goggles procured
from a contact in the CIA.

Colonel Valerio watched. As Eduardo rowed
the Zodiac ashore. Colonel Valerio watched. As Eduardo and his
girlfriend hopped over the side into the water and tugged the
inflatable up the gently sloping, sandy beach.

And he watched as they made their careful,
single-file uphill climb, every now and then stumbling in the
dark.

Colonel Valerio found it amusing that with
the magnifying infrareds, even from a distance he could see where
they were going better than they.

He kept watching until, at last, the young
couple stood on the rocky crest and looked down upon the yacht.
Only once the lovebirds climbed down the other side of the
promontory and disappeared from sight did Colonel Valerio take off
the goggles.

They had no idea how long they were on that
sliver of beach, their naked bodies so perfectly in sync that it
was as if the two of them had merged into one fluid body, one
perfectly melded mind.

i love you, Monica,' Eduardo said.

She gripped him fiercely. 'Make love to me
again!' she demanded huskily. 'Make this night last forever!'

'For ever and ever,' he promised, and spun
around, dipping his head between her legs.

As she felt his tongue seeking her most
feminine secrets, she thrust her hips obscenely upwards and pushed
on his head, stuffing his face into the moist succulence of her
warmth.

He ate up every minute of it.

'Mmm,' he said, when he came up for air.
'You taste like milk and honey.'

'Not sugar and spice?'

He laughed and lifted her legs high and
planted a kiss on each cheek of her fanny. 'That too,' he said.

'And frankincense and myrrh?'

Up went her legs again, smack went his lips
as he gave her fanny two more kisses. 'That too,' he laughed. 'That
too.'

It was that kind of night. Wild and crazy
and wonderfully uninhibited, and there was nothing either of them
wouldn't do - or could seem to get enough of.

How ravenously burned their flames of
desire!

Later they lay on their sides, still
contentedly intertwined, hearts calming, ears still tingling. Each
had lost all concept of time, which was fine with them. The only
thing that mattered was the here, the now.

'Would you believe, for me it's never been
like this before?' Stephanie marvelled. 'My God, Eduardo! You had
me in another worldV

'Does that mean,' he teased, 'that it was as
good for you as it was for me?'

Altogether, they had made love four
distinctly different times, each one better and more satisfying and
longer-lasting than the previous. Every tide of maddened orgasmic
pleasure seemed to lift them higher and higher, until they were
positively levitating, and this rock-enclosed, sandy little haven
which was their oyster echoed unceasingly with their primal cries,
and there was nothing, nothing and no one under the heavens but the
stars and the moon and the drifting constellations to bear them
witness.

Afterwards, when the last orgasm had
subsided, they cradled each other in their arms and lay there,
spent in delicious exhaustion.

By the time they rowed back to the yacht,
the moon had travelled to the other end of the sky and dawn was a
scant hour away. Except for a few winking navigation lights, the
Chrysalis
was dark, a ghost ship of lunar silver and
mysterious shadows.

With one last pull on the oars, Eduardo
nudged the Zodiac against the wet berth at the yacht's stern and
they climbed aboard. Leaving the inflatable tied to a cleat, he did
the gentlemanly thing and walked Stephanie to her suite. Outside
her door, they shared one last, quivering embrace. Then he chastely
kissed her on each eyelid, the tip of her nose, and finally her
lips.

It was another five full minutes before they
parted company.

At Sea • Cannes • Nice

The remainder of the cruise was a countdown
to Brazil. Elba, Livorno, Portofino, San Remo, Monaco ... all went
past in a blur, and Stephanie couldn't shake the odd feeling that
she would wake up at any moment and find herself in her own bed in
New York, with reality reasserting itself, and Eduardo and Brazil -
even the
Chrysalis
itself - dissipating into the fog of all
forgotten dreams.

She told Eduardo once, if she told him a
thousand times: 'I can't believe I'm really doing this! I keep
pinching myself, half expecting to wake up!'

And he smiled. 'You will love Brazil,' he
predicted. 'There is so much I cannot wait to show you.'

'I want to see everything!' she
declared.

'Everything,' he murmured, kissing her
deeply. 'Everything and more . . .'

Stephanie still marvelled at how easily she
had breached the de Veigas' defences. It seemed only yesterday that
she had crashed the speedboat, and now here she was. Doted upon by
Eduardo and his grandmother. Reluctantly tolerated by Ernesto, and
even more marginally by Zarah. Sailing the blue Mediterranean
aboard their megayacht. Preparing to accompany them to Brazil
tomorrow.

By all rights, I should be feeling
triumphant, she thought.

But in the deep of this starry night,
standing alone up here on deck, potent guilts and fears weighed
heavily.

It's not really me who's accompanying
Eduardo to Brazil, she thought. It's Monica Williams.

She sighed to herself.

Monica Williams. My own Ms Hyde ... my own
burden of guilt ...

And she found herself offering up a prayer
of forgiveness:

Eduardo, my darling, my love. The last thing
on earth I want to do is to hurt you. In your heart of hearts, I
think you know that. True, I abused your help and hospitality from
the beginning. I'm not proud of that, but please. Try not to hate
me. Try to understand that I've dedicated myself to seeking out the
truth. Just because my search for it has brought me to your
doorstep, I can't simply drop it.

She stood there, her hair whipped back from
her face by the wind, thinking how much simpler her mission would
be if only she weren't so attracted to him.

A faint whirring sound interrupted her
thoughts, and she turned around. In the glow of the deck lights,
she saw Zaza approach in her motorised wheelchair. She watched as
the old lady manoeuvred it expertly alongside, parked, and locked
the brake. 'I hope I am not disturbing you?' Zaza asked, peering up
into her face.

Stephanie shook her head and fingered a
length of hair back from her face. 'No,' she said, 'of course
not.'

'You are a very nice young woman.' Zaza
smiled up at her. 'I am so glad you decided to come to Brazil with
us. I was right, you know. I sensed from the start that you would
be good for Eduardo.'

'Am I?' asked Stephanie softly. Frowning,
she leaned her forearms on the railing and stared down at the
phosphorescent- tipped waves. 'I wonder.'

'Of course you are!' the old lady said
staunchly.

Stephanie smiled bleakly. 'I wish I could be
so sure.'

'Ah! But I am. You come to this spot often,
don't you?' she asked. 'And always at night.'

Stephanie turned to her in surprise. 'You
seem to be very well informed.'

'I merely notice things.' The old lady
laughed softly. 'The motor of this chair is very quiet. It permits
me to ride around like a ghost. Besides,' she sighed, 'one finds
that the older one gets, the less sleep one needs. So I roam these
decks and corridors and observe things.' Her eyes rested on
Stephanie's face. 'Did you know, I often come up here myself when I
wish to think things over?'

Stephanie shook her head.

'It is a good spot for introspection.'

'Yes,' Stephanie agreed, 'it is.'

For a while, they both stared out at the
dark sea, each preoccupied with thoughts of her own, and then Zaza
worked her chair around until she had it parked facing
Stephanie.'Liebchen,' she said, reaching out and taking one of
Stephanie's hands between both of hers, 'if you are worried about
Eduardo or Brazil, you needn't be. You love one already, and I am
certain you will come to love the other as well.'

Stephanie smiled wistfully. 'You make it all
sound so simple.'

'And it is!' Zaza said with a touch of
exasperation. 'You young people! Always complicating matters!
Always making things seem so much more insurmountable than they
really are! Wait until you get to be my age. Then you will discover
that there are only three or four things in one's entire life that
truly matter.'

'Three or four?' Stephanie asked in quiet
amusement. 'That's all?'

'Yes, that is all. The rest is poppycock.'
Zaza paused and added in a quieter voice, 'Well, if not exactly
poppycock, then nevertheless, things which do not warrant one's
attention, much less one's worry.' She smiled and let go of
Stephanie's hand. 'Well, I must be off. You have a good night,
Liebchen.'

She put the wheelchair in reverse and rolled
back a few feet.

'And try to get some sleep. If something is
worrying you, remember: things always look different in the
morning.'

Stephanie smiled. 'I'll keep that in mind,'
she promised.

Zaza gave a wave and rode off at a stately
speed, the soft whirring of the wheelchair fading. Alone again,
Stephanie turned and stared out at the sea.

Perhaps Zaza is right, she thought. Maybe
things will look different in the morning.

For right this very minute, she knew that
out there somewhere, beyond that dark horizon, Johnny was following
this enormous, awesomely futuristic vessel.

Following me. She tightened her grip on the
railing. But not for long, Johnny Boy, not for long. Tomorrow we're
on our way to Brazil, and you'll lose my trail. And then I'll have
one less thing to worry about. . .

Which still left about a baker's dozen.