When he spoke, his voice was hoarse. He said, “Let’s go back to the hotel.”
And she could not speak.
When he helped her on with her wrap, his fingers burned her skin. They sat apart in the back of the limousine, afraid to touch. Elizabeth felt as if she were on fire. It seemed to her that it took an eternity for them to reach their suite. She did not think she could wait another moment. As the door closed, they came together in a wonderful wild hunger that swept through both of them. She was in his arms and there was a ferocity in him that she had never known. He picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. They could not get their clothes off quickly enough. We’re like eager children, Elizabeth thought, and she wondered why it had taken Rhys all this time. But it did not matter now. Nothing mattered except their nakedness and the wonderful feel of his body against hers. They were in bed, exploring each other, and Elizabeth gently pulled away from his embrace and started kissing him, her tongue moving down his lean, taut body, embracing him with her lips, feeling his velvet hardness inside her mouth. His hands were on her hips, turning her on her side, and his mouth was running down between her thighs, parting them to his tongue and thrusting into the sweetness there, and when neither of them could bear it an instant longer, he moved on top of her and slowly slid inside her, thrusting deep and making gently circling motions and she began to move to his rhythm, their rhythm, the rhythm of the universe, and everything began to move faster and faster, spinning out of control, until there was a vast ecstatic explosion and the earth became still and peaceful again.
They lay there, holding each other close, and Elizabeth thought joyfully, Mrs. Rhys Williams.
CHAPTER 46
“Excuse me, Mrs. Williams,” Henriette’s voice said on the intercom, “there’s a Detective Hornung here to see you. He says it’s urgent.”
Elizabeth turned to look up at Rhys, puzzled. They had just returned from Rio to Zurich the evening before, and they had only been in the office a few minutes. Rhys shrugged. “Tell her to send the man in. Let’s find out what’s so important.”
A few moments later the three of them were seated in Elizabeth’s office. “What did you want to see me about?” Elizabeth asked.
Max Hornung had no small talk. He said, “Someone is trying to murder you.” As he watched the color drain from Elizabeth’s face, Max was genuinely distressed, wondering if there might have been a more tactful way he could have phrased it.
Rhys Williams said, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Max continued to address himself to Elizabeth. “There have already been two attempts on your life. There will probably be more.”
Elizabeth stammered, “I—you must be mistaken.”
“No, ma’am. That elevator crash was meant to kill you.”
She stared at him in silence, her dark eyes filled with bewilderment, and some other emotion buried deeper, that Max could not define. “So was the Jeep.”
Elizabeth found her voice again. “You’re wrong. That was an accident. There was nothing the matter with the Jeep. The police in Sardinia examined it.”
“No.”
“I saw them,” Elizabeth insisted.
“No, ma’am. You saw them examine a Jeep. It wasn’t yours.”
They were both staring at him now.
Max went on, “Your Jeep was never in that garage. I found it in an auto junkyard at Olbia. The bolt that sealed the master cylinder had been loosened, and the brake fluid had run out. That’s why you had no brakes. The left front fender was still bashed in and there were green markings on it from the sap of the trees you ran into. The lab checked it out. It matches.”
The nightmare was back. Elizabeth felt it sweep through her, as though the floodgates of her hidden fears had suddenly opened, and she was filled again with the terror of that ride down the mountains.
Rhys was saying, “I don’t understand. How could anyone—?”
Max turned to look at Rhys. “All Jeeps look alike. That’s what they were counting on. When she crashed instead of going off the mountain, they had to improvise. They couldn’t let anyone examine that Jeep because it had to look like an accident. They had expected it to be at the bottom of the sea. They probably would have finished her off there, but a maintenance crew came along, found her and took her to the hospital. They got hold of another Jeep, smashed it up a little and made the switch before the police came.”