top of her.
‘I’ve been thinking about this until I nearly went crazy,’ he groaned.
Her whisper went through him like electricity. ‘Why did we waste so much time?’
‘Who cares?’ he said. ‘As long as we don’t waste any more.’
He kissed her everywhere, celebrating her breasts, her tiny waist, her long, slim legs. She was quickly ready for him, telling him wordlessly of her eagerness, and when he entered her she gave a sigh of fulfilment.
His loving was like himself, robust and full-hearted, short on subtlety but long on warmth and generosity, giving more than he took. His slow movements increased her pleasure, driving it forward, harder, more intense, beautiful, ecstatic. He had the control to hold back, giving her every last moment before letting himself go.
And then it was like nothing in the world had ever been or ever would be again. Just for a few moments. Not long enough. She wanted so much more, and she would never stop wanting him. She knew, even as she felt her heartbeat slow to contentment, that he could start it racing again with a word.
They shared a glance, eyes gleaming in the dark, and suddenly they clutched each other, not in passion this time but in joyous mirth. For it was the biggest and most exhilarating joke in the whole world. Arms about each other’s necks, they roared with laughter, knowing the joke was on them.
And then it wasn’t funny any more, but only beautiful and fulfilling, and they were no longer themselves, but something entirely different called ‘us’.
And tomorrow they were saying goodbye.
She’d known that Leo was a dangerously lovable man, but she was never more sure of it than when sex was over and he turned towards her, enfolding her in his arms and resting his face against her warm flesh, as though he needed more from her than physical pleasure.
That was a real dirty trick, she thought. How was a girl supposed to keep her independence of spirit with a man who behaved like that?
But when she was quite sure he was asleep she put her own arms around him, as far as she could, and stroked his hair, and kissed him again and again in a passion of tenderness and farewell.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE worst thing about airports was having to arrive early, so that the goodbyes stretched out painfully. It was worse, Selena thought, if you were waiting for the other person to say something and you weren’t sure what. And whatever it was, he didn’t say it.
She drove him to Dallas Airport. They checked the time of the Atlanta flight, sent his luggage on its way, and found a coffee bar. But suddenly Leo jumped up and said, ‘Come with me.’
‘Where are we going?’ she asked as he grasped her hand and hurried her away.
‘I want to buy you a present before I go, and I’ve just realised what it should be.’
He led her to a shop that sold mobile phones. ‘Anyone who moves around as much as you needs one of these,’ he said.
‘Couldn’t afford it before.’ She was briefly happy at this sign that he wanted to keep in touch. But no happiness could survive the reflection that he was going away, and she might never see him again.
They chose the phone together, and he bought the first thirty hours. She scribbled the number on a small piece of paper and watched as he tucked it away in his wallet.
‘Time I was going through Passport Control.’
‘Not just yet,’ she said quickly. ‘We’ve got time for another coffee.’
She had a terrifying feeling that everything was rushing to the edge of a precipice. She was the only one who could stop it, but she didn’t know how. She couldn’t manage the words, had never spoken them, barely knew them.
She’d done all she could to show him how she felt the night before. Now her heart was breaking, and she could only wonder that he seemed oblivious.
She spent the last few minutes drinking in the sight of him, trying to remember every line, every intonation of his voice.
He was going away. He would forget her.
She had never smiled so brightly.
‘I guess that’s it,’ Leo said, getting to his feet.
She came with him almost to the gate. He stopped and touched her face gently.
‘I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,’ he said.
‘Oh, yeah?’ she said lightly, and aimed a punch at his arm. ‘You’ll forget me as soon as the hostess flutters her eyelashes at you.’
But he didn’t smile back. ‘I’ll never forget you, Selena.’
His face seemed to constrict and she thought for a moment that he would say something more. She waited, her heart beating with wild hope, but he only leaned down and kissed her cheek.
‘Don’t you forget me,’ he said.
‘Better call that number and make sure I don’t.’
‘I’ll do that.’
He kissed her again before walking off. Try as she might she couldn’t find in those kisses any echo of the night before when he’d kissed her in a very different way. Then he’d been a man thinking only of a woman, absorbed only in her, giving and receiving pleasure, and not only pleasure: tenderness and affection. Now he was a man who wanted to go home.
At the gate he turned and waved to her. She waved back, keeping a smile on her face by sheer force of will.
Then he was gone.
She didn’t leave at once, as she’d meant to. Instead she waited by the window until the flight took off, and watched until the sky swallowed it up.
Then she walked back to the parking lot and got behind the wheel, talking to herself like a Dutch uncle.
What the heck! They were ships that passed in the night, and they’d passed. That was all. Ahead of her stretched a brighter future than she’d ever known. That was what she should be thinking of.
She slammed her hand down on the wheel. She’d never told herself pretty lies before.
But now she needed a comforting lie to get her over this moment.
‘I should have said something,’ she raged. ‘Said anything, so he’d know. Then he might even have asked me to go with him. Oh, who am I fooling? He could have asked me to go, but he never thought of it. He won’t call. That phone was a goodbye present. Stop being a fool Selena. You can’t cry in a parking lot.’
The Atlanta/Pisa flight seemed to go on for ever, into not just another day, but another dimension, another world. Leo tried to sleep but couldn’t. He left the aircraft, dazed with weariness and yawned his way through Passport Control and customs. It felt strange to be back in his own country.
He headed for the taxi rank, so absorbed in calculating how long it would take him to get home that he had no attention for the sounds of someone behind him. He didn’t see what hit him, or how many of them there were, although witnesses later attested to four. He only knew that suddenly he was on the ground, being swarmed over by strangers.
Shouts, the sound of running. He sat up, feeling his head, wondering why there were so many policemen around. Hands helped him stagger to his feet.
‘What happened?’ he demanded.
‘You were robbed,
He groaned and felt for the place where his wallet should have been. It was empty. His head was aching too much for him to think any further than this. Somebody called an ambulance and he was taken to the local hospital.
He awoke next morning to find a policeman by his bed, holding the missing wallet.
‘We found it in an alley,’ he said.
