Singing from the big room followed them to the street, and that was all that did. Nick slid behind the wheel of the expensive year-old car and drove according to her murmured but concise directions. The uniformed gateman at her garden-apartment house greeted them with a smile and guaranteed to take care of the car until their return.
Mirella’s apartment was Cairo modern, plus piles of soft, skin rugs and huge, deep cushions that served as chairs. She latched the door behind them and Nick parked his cane to help her off with her wrap.
“Where shall I put it?”
“Just toss it on the chair — I’ll be needing it again in a few minutes.”
He laid it down gently and turned into the richness of her living room. Mirella touched a switch and the dim light brightened almost imperceptibly. Muted colors came to life.
“It’s lovely,” he said, and meant it.
“Thank you. Drinks and ice are in here...” She brushed against him very lightly as she reached for the cabinet and opened it. Sensation shivered through his veins. She touched another switch and low, blue music filled the room almost instantly, making him tingle suddenly with its tantalizing magic. At least, something was making him tingle. Perhaps it was the way she moved. Or perhaps it was the way her breasts thrust against the filmy fabric that covered them without concealing their temptations. She turned toward him and he knew that, though the music added spice, it was she who was enchanting and she who made his senses whirl, she who had the exciting beauty of a youthful, uncalculating Cleopatra.
“But you’re even lovelier,” he said softly, and thought his voice sounded slightly choked. “And you must hear that so often that it bores you.”
“No.” Her luminous eyes traced a gentle pattern over his face. “It is not something I hear often. I only see the staring, and then I run. I run into a crowd of friends, and meet only their friends, who try not to stare but talk instead about the weather, and then it is that I am bored.” The slight smile on her delectable lips was yet another temptation.
Nick lowered his eyes. “I’ll do my very best to stare no more, and I can say with absolute honesty that I have no desire to talk about the weather. I do want to say that you are the most beautiful and bewitching woman I have ever seen. And the funny thing is, you’re human. And I happen to be crazy about slightly crooked teeth. Now if you don’t go and change I’ll start gaping at you again and you’ll throw me out.”
She laughed, a low and happy sound. Her hand reached over and touched him under the chin, gently raising his head so that his eyes, inevitably, looked right down into hers, and his chin was resting on the soft velvet of her fingers.
“I wouldn’t think of throwing you out. You look at me in a different way, as though you also see my face. And I like it. I like it. I love to be told that I am beautiful. And human!” Her hand released his chin and dropped to his shoulder. “I think that you are beautiful, too. Is that a funny thing to say to a man? Your face is strong and your eyes... they have depth. Cruelty and laughter and determination, that is what I see in them.”
“It’s admiration that you’re seeing now,” said Nick. “Perhaps you’d better not come any closer. Admiration has a way of turning into lust.”
“So it has,” she murmured. “Yes, perhaps you’re right. I must go and change at once.” But the move she made was still toward him, and then her other arm was resting on his shoulder. “And there is such strength about your mouth,” she whispered, almost inaudibly. “I wonder if that can be cruel, too.” Tall though she was for a woman, she had to raise herself on her toes to do what she wanted. Her lips brushed his and lingered lightly. Then the tip of her tongue ran lightly over his lips. Her eyes were half-closed as she said, “Not cruel at all. Too firm, perhaps. Unyielding. But flesh, not stone. Is it ever any softer?”
This time his lips found hers and his arms encircled her. His kiss was light at first, a soft caress and gentle savoring, but when he felt her mouth open under his and her tongue probe his tongue, he allowed himself to yield to his own need. His kiss became passionate and searching, and his mouth fused with hers. Yet he could not get enough, nor could she, and as they held the long, molten kiss their bodies moved closer until they clung as close together as two clothed bodies can.
She bent the spell at last, but did not break it, by turning away her head and sighing deeply. Nick fingered the loose knot of her rich dark hair.
“You shouldn’t have let me do that,” he breathed. “You’ve made me want too much. I want to kiss you all over... I want to take the clothes off you myself...”
Mirella raised her lovely head. “I want it, too,” she whispered. “Kiss me again, and take them off.”
His kiss was less lingering and more urgent than before. Then he slid the gossamer gown down past her shoulders and caught his breath again at the marvelous beauty of her.
“Please, you too,” she said softly. “Undress with me — let me help you.” Her graceful fingers plucked gently at his jacket and took it from him. The luminous eyes narrowed slightly when she saw Wilhelmina resting at the waistband of Nick’s trousers. “You carry a gun?”
“Standard procedure,” Nick said lightly. “In case of enemy action. I’m not always in the company of friends.” He expertly removed one of her filmy undergarments.
“You are safe with me,” she said quietly, and he believed her.
Strange, how wonderful the simple act of undressing could be, when Man undressed Woman and Woman undressed Man.
They did it gently, courteously, exploringly, until they stood before each other like Adam and Eve before the fall. She gazed at him and gave a little sigh, drinking in the splendor of his lean, lithe body and the perfectly shaped limbs marred only by the scars of earlier encounters with the enemy.
“You are beautiful all over,” she said simply. “Come. Please, not the bed. That is for sleeping.” She took him by the hand and led him across the room to where the soft rugs and cushions made a thick, luxurious pile, and they lay down together like a pair of splendid savages in a cave carpeted with fleecy hides and fur.
In the near darkness of their embrace Nick caught sight of the tiny tattooed AXE symbol on his inner elbow. It glowed faintly, a permanent and graphic reminder that he was Spy, not Savage, and the most beautiful and desirable women he had known had not always been the ones deserving of his trust. And so, even when he believed in them and loved them, he held back a fragment of his trust to stand guard and keep reminding him — along with the AXE tattoo — that he was more Killmaster than lover and that a spy had few real friends.
But it was not always easy to remember. Mirella’s subtle touch electrified him. He stroked her softly and touched her in all the lovely places his eyes had shared with all those others, and then he touched the secret places that others had not seen. She trembled a little, and began the pulsating movement of her provocative dance. Only now it was real, and it found a response that gave it meaning and added vitality. Their thighs came together and rotated voluptuously until Nick’s senses reeled and he felt all control slipping from him. He gently disengaged their clinging bodies and changed position so that he could start again, knowing that his every muscular movement and gently stimulating touch were giving her exquisite pleasure. And she knew the art of love as well as he; she was volatile and languorous, now lazy as a cat and then agile as an acrobat; and she gave him all the ecstatic variations her womanly knowledge and her supple body had to offer.
Sparks flew between them. They came together in a dozen different ways and lit a hundred little fires until suddenly she gasped and began to jerk beside him. He rolled over on to her and attacked as he sensed she wanted to be attacked — rhythmically, with vigor, and yet with controlled subtlety. Then she moved convulsively and held him to her and would not let him go, raising her body to bring his even closer, and he felt her tightening around him until the exquisite pleasure was too much to hold back. Wild exhilaration swept them both as one, and kept them together in their intimacy for incredibly long, impassioned moments. They parted then, first to draw breath and then to kiss, and then they made more love until the glowing embers died down to a faint, relaxing glow. Sighing, they stretched out with their bodies barely touching, and were silent.