of their grubby travel-stained uniforms.
Before Sean could answer a woman came through the
'Private' doorway, a very lovely but very angry woman with eyes that
blazed like the blue sapphires at her throat.
'I am Mrs. Rautenbach-the owner. You asked to see me.'
Sean just smiled at her, and her anger withered slowly as she began to
recognize him beneath the creased HI-fitting tunic and without the
beard.
'Do you still love me, Candy?'
'Sean?' She was still uncertain.
'Who else?'
'Sean!' And she came to him on the run. Half an hour later General
Caithness had been evicted and Sean and Saul were settling comfortably
into the Victoria Suite.
Freshly bathed, with only a towel around his waist, Sean lay back in
his chair while the barber scraped away his three-day growth of
beard.
'Some more champagne?' Candy had not taken her eyes off him for the
last ten minutes.
'Thanks.
She filled his glass, replaced it at his right hand and then touched
the thick muscles of his upper arm. 'Still hard,' she murmured.
'You've kept ahead of the years. ' Her fingers moved on to his chest.
'Just a little grey here and there-but it suits you,' and then to the
barber,
'Haven't you finished yet?'
'One moment more madam. ' He again scissored along the line of Sean's
temple, stood back and studied his masterpiece then with modest pride,
held the mirror for Sean's approval.
'Excellent. Thank you.'
'You may go now. See to the gentleman next door.' Candy had waited
long enough. As the door closed behind the barber she turned the key.
Sean stood up from the chair and they faced each other across the
room.
'My God, but you're big. ' Her voice was husky, unashamedly hungry.
'My God, but you're beautiful,' Sean answered her, and they moved
slowly to meet in the centre of the floor.
Later, they lay quietly while the darkness gathered in the room as
evening fell. Then Candy moved her mouth across his shoulder and, the
way a cat cleans its kittens, she began gently to lick the long red
scratches upon his neck.
When the room was truly dark Candy lit one of the shaded gaslights and
sent down for biscuits and a bottle of champagne.
They sat together upon the rumpled bed and talked.
At first there was a shyness between them because of what they had done
together-but soon it passed-and they sat up far into the night.
Rare it is for a man to have a friend as well as a lover in one
woman-but with Candy this was possible. And to her he released all
those things that had been bottled and fomenting within him.
