Her gaze drifted away. She knew she had him. She wondered if Rizzo was getting jealous with the hand-on-the-bare-thigh stuff. She also wondered how much of this the bartender was taking in. The bar was otherwise quiet.
She looked back to Boris. His eyes were not on hers but rather on her breasts, or what he could see of them in a moderately low-cut dress. She caught him looking at her neckline. He grinned when detected.
She straightened up and withdrew slightly. She put her hand on his hand, the one on her leg. She made an effort to push it away, but he wouldn’t budge. He was grinning like a lecherous gargoyle.
“You’re a fresh boy,” she said.
“Yes, I am,” he said proudly.
“You’re coming on to me,” she said drunkenly.
“Most certainly,” he said.
“But we just met.”
“I don’t care.”
“Didn’t your mother warn you about strange women in hotel bars?” she teased.
“I like strange women in hotel bars,” he answered.
He wasn’t very smart, Alex was thinking. Occasionally, she liked that in a man.
“Maybe I’m offended,” she said.
“If you were offended, you’d walk away. You’re not doing that.”
She laughed slightly. “Are you always so sure of yourself?” she asked.
“Often,” he said. “I’m drawn to beautiful women.”
She said, “I’m much too drunk. Before I fall off this stool, I should go upstairs.”
“I would like to join you,” he said.
She didn’t answer. She took a final swig of wine, rose from the bar stool, and turned. “Do what you want, Boris,” she said. Then she leaned forward and whispered in his ear. “Follow me but be discreet. The ‘towel heads’ are terrible prudes,” she said.
Boris smiled and nodded. He lifted his hand from her leg so she could stand.
She took a tentative step to leave, played the drunkenness just right, and steadied herself with a hand on his massive shoulder. She turned toward the bar exit, struggled a little on her heels, and headed out. From her peripheral view, she saw him knock back another shot of vodka. He then reached to his pocket and dumped a fistful of cash on the bar.
Alex passed directly by Rizzo. She left the bar and crossed the lobby with another wobble. She went to the elevator. She turned.
Good. He had followed. Now Boris was about ten feet from her, trying to make a decision. She gave him a smile and then, to seal the deal, a wink.
The elevator door opened. There was no one else in it. She stepped in and he followed again.
“My room is on the sixteenth floor,” he said.
“Mine is on the seventh,” Alex said.
“We will go to mine,” Boris said.
“I need to stop at mine first,” she said.
She wondered if she had somehow alerted him to danger. His expression suggested that he didn’t like that idea, her room. In the Russian services, or any services, survival was contingent upon the continuing talent for suspicion. And so far, Boris had survived very well.
“I will wait for you upstairs,” he said.
“If I lie down in my room I might never get up,” she said.
The elevator arrived on the seventh floor. The door opened.
“So if I don’t come upstairs, I’ve gone to bed alone. Don’t wait.”
Impulsively. Boris stepped out of the elevator behind her. But she could pick up the scent of suspicion from him. He didn’t like this. Something about this was setting off alarms.
“Why do you have to go to your room first?” he asked.
She held his hand and gave him a wink.
“Never ask a woman too many questions,” she said. “But if you really want to know, I want my toothbrush and a few overnight things. Is that okay?”
He didn’t answer. She moved to her door. Everything was going the way she wanted it to so far, but it was essential that she bring him into her room, if only for a moment. If he held out for his own room, she was sunk.
But he followed her to her door. She felt his body hulk behind her. She could smell the bad cologne and imagined that she could feel his breath on her neck.
“I have a negligee that I was going to wear for my boyfriend,” she said. “But now, tonight, I don’t care. You’ll be my boyfriend, and I’ll wear it for you. Two days from now I’ll be back in Miami and no one will ever know about us. Except us. How’s that?”
“That’s good,” he said.
“Will you wait outside my room for me?” she asked. “Do you want to wait here? Or would you like to come in and watch me get undressed?”
He didn’t answer. She ran her room card through the proper slot on the door above the doorknob. The little green light came on. She placed her hand on the doorknob and began to push the door open. She felt his powerful hands on her shoulders. She wondered how he would try to kiss her. Then, quickly, she found out.
His slid his hands roughly down her and surrounded her body with his arms. He pulled her back closely to him until her body was flush against his. His lips came down on the right side of her neck and he began to kiss her bare shoulders. He held her in one of the strongest and most powerful grasps that she had ever encountered.
The grasp didn’t thrill her. It scared her.
She managed to turn around in his arms, but only because he let her. He could have overpowered her in an instant. He could have choked her to death in a few seconds. She looked up to him and he smiled. She knew she had him.
His lips came down on hers. His lips were firm and warm, and she realized it had been quite some time since she had allowed a man to kiss her like this. Then one of his hands was busy behind her back. He had the zipper to her dress in his fingers, and he was working it downward.
She professed shock, even when he had it down a few inches and the shoulder strap of her new dress was loose. Her body was pressed firmly against his. She managed to move a leg and push the door open behind her.
“You’re a very bad boy,” she said. “I don’t think we’re even going to get upstairs.”
He grunted. “Maybe not.”
“My room is very comfortable,” she said. “The bed is big enough for two. Follow me?”
Alex pulled away from him. She had a sense that the booze had caught up with him, and his reactions might be dulled. She hoped she was correct.
Flirtatiously, she smiled and took his necktie in her hand. “This is going to be fantastic,” she said. “Come along.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
She felt the door open inward behind her. She pulled him along and whatever hesitation he had felt now dissipated. Boris followed her into the room. As they took the first steps inside, she leaned back to him, cupped her hands behind his head to block his view, and kissed him again.