Three Rivers (26 page)

“Well, let’s begin at the beginning. I want Gamal and a car and driver and the day off. I want to make a surprise for you.”

He looked delighted. “Done,” he said.

“Then, I want the most sumptuous, sensuous supper prepared.”

He looked even more delighted.

“And I want to have it on an exquisitely set table in front of the Monet in your bedroom. Can we?”

“Brilliant idea.”

“Then, I want to make love to you and then I want to give myself to you and I want you to make love to me wildly and with total abandon.”

“I think I like that program very much.”

“Oh, and there is one thing more.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t want either one of us to get sentimental about this trip that we have had together.”

“Done.”

“And, I … oh, nothing. Just thank you.”

They left the breakfast table and he kissed her. She
knew, although he said nothing, that he was feeling sentimental about her.

Together they walked to her room. He closed the doors, took her over to the chaise longue and lifted the bumblebee dress over her head. He put it neatly on the bed and came back to where she was standing. He touched her hair and then pulled her close to him. He ran his hands down her back and over her round, beautiful ass, then he turned her around and looked at her back view. Throwing off his galabia, he held her close up against him. Then he slipped his arms around her waist and rested his hands on her soft belly. He moved his hands to her breasts. His penis was erect again, and he slipped it between her legs.

During the time he held her that way he had his eyes closed. She felt him sigh deeply. When he opened his eyes, he moved his hands over her belly, around to her hips and back up to her breasts again. He kissed her on the ear, on the back of the neck, and then he gave her a very hard slap on the rear and told her to get dressed.

He sat on the bed and made phone calls, watching her. His first calls were to arrange things that she wanted for the day. All the time he was on the telephone he kept his eyes on her. He saw her arrange her things. She laid her dress out on the chaise and went to her dressing table and made up her face.

He thought again how lovely she was as she walked around the room, quite naked. When Isabel went over to the chaise and bent over to pick up her shoes, he hung up the telephone. He walked up to her, told her not to move and, rubbing his hand over her buttocks, spread her legs wide, and he, none too gently, drove into her.

They said nothing as he moved in and out of her a dozen times, at the same time playing with her clitoris. He drove into her, and she contracted every muscle to hold him tight. When she released him, he slipped in and out of her with ease a few more times and then withdrew.

Isabel, completely turned on by him, sat down on the chaise, pulled him towards her, and took him in her mouth. He stopped her and said, “I want you to remember when you are in London how beautiful it is: you, all naked but for your necklace and your makeup, eating me. Get on your knees and look in the mirror; now you will see me disappear into you.”

She did and slowly he moved in and out of her,
amazed yet again as to how wet he could make her. He withdrew, lifted her up and held her close to him. After a moment he said, “Now, go finish getting dressed.”

He was on the bed making phone calls again, but he was still erect and wet from her. She had recombed her hair and was about to slip into her sandals when she walked over to him and climbed onto his lap. He tucked the telephone between his head and shoulder so as to hold her by the waist.

She lifted herself up and slipped onto him, riding him ever so slowly, saying, “Alexis, you are the sexiest beast I have ever met,” and then climbed off.

She turned around to finish dressing, but not before he caught her and spanked her ass, shaking a finger at her as if to say, “Bad girl.” Not once through it all did he stop talking to the man on the telephone in Arabic.

She put on the dress that she had worn when they first met. She went back to her dressing table and put some rings on her fingers. He was at last off the phone and told her to come near him. She stood a few feet away and pirouetted, as he had asked.

Alexis looked at her with a very critical eye and in a very serious voice said, “Could it be possible that I find you even more sexy dressed like that? I do like that dress; it was the dress you had on the first time we met, and the necklace is perfect. Why do I feel such pride when I see you? Hand me my galabia, please.”

He put it on and said, “The only thing that I ask you is to be here at two for lunch with my mother. I have made appointments, so you are free after that, but come home by nine. The rest of the time is just for us. Now, come with me while I get dressed.”

He took her by the hand, and they went through the sitting room to his bedroom. He rang for Gamal and told Isabel to pick a suit for him. She watched him dress, and at one point he asked her what she was thinking.

“Just how happy I am you have not got a banana-colored suit.” Isabel smiled, and they both laughed.

“Go and pick me a serious-looking tie,” he said. “We must have a serious tie for serious business today. Other than you, there is very little light in my day. Now, run along while I become a very important man for the next few hours.”

She handed him a tie and they kissed, this time without
passion but with a great deal of affection. He asked her to leave by the hall door because he was sure his secretary was in the sitting room next to them.

Isabel left him, going through the hall to her room, where she picked up her handbag. When she opened the door, she almost bumped into Gamal.

Before she left the house she asked for a telephone and called Anoushka. After the call, she was starting for the front door when she heard Alexis, from the first-floor balcony just above her. “Oh, Isabel, I was afraid that I had missed you,” he said. “How stupid of me. Are you going to spend any money?”

“What an extraordinary question,” Isabel replied. “I am not going to tell you.”

“Please, darling, don’t be ridiculous. If you are going to spend any money, you must tell Gamal. He will bargain for you, for whatever it is. You are not to pay, do you hear me?”

“Alexis, I do not want your money. I want to use mine.”

“Now, listen, if you are going to be foolish and Women’s Lib, and all that, then you can pay me later. But you must let him handle it.”

“Oh, all right, Alexis.”

“Good-bye, darling,” he called down to her.

Isabel had a glorious day. She went back to the Kan-el-Kalili with Gamal, and they visited the same shops she had been to before with André Beshawi.

In the third shop they found what Isabel was looking for. The owner recognized her immediately. She asked about a netsuke, carved out of a chunk of amber and signed by one of the most famous makers, who died in 1548
A.D.
, in Kyoto, Japan.

The netsuke was about the size of a large walnut but slightly more flat than round. It was carved so that the light that shone through the amber revealed every detail. It was like a large glob of dark, rich honey in the shape of a curled-up, sleeping dog. It was warm and sensual to the touch. She chose it partly because it was something that Alexis could carry with him on his travels, even small enough to slip into his pocket. It was made to hold and to touch, a soothing stone.

She did as she was told, allowing Gamal to bargain for the piece. Thrilled with her purchase, she then went to
meet Anoushka, whom she had invited to tea at Groppi’s.

Groppi’s was a landmark in Cairo. Its location and ambience have always made it a great rendezvous spot and one of the most famous patisseries in the world. If it was in London, it would have been Richoux; in New York, it would have been Rumpelmayer’s; but neither of those comes near to what Groppi’s really is.

Divine sweets and excellent coffee aside, the real treat is the gossip. No day was complete without dropping into Groppi’s for at least a look, if not a meeting. When Isabel arrived, all the chatterboxes were in full swing. It was a delight. She was the first there and so waited at the table for Anoushka. Half a dozen people stopped to say hello. She had only been in Cairo a few days and yet felt quite at home. She chuckled as she thought to herself how she had lived in England seven years before anyone stopped her to say “Hello.”

Anoushka arrived and was sweet and amusing. Isabel had thought this would be good-bye, but was delighted to learn that she would be at Madame Hyatt’s for lunch.

They went from there to the Hilton hairdressers, and by the time they left, both were well coiffured; Isabel had learned that Alexis would be amused when he found out she had been to Groppi’s.

“He will think I am a bad influence on you. You must tell him it was your suggestion,” Anoushka said, and laughed. “You know, he is a very serious man, Alexis. He would not be caught dead in a place like that, but you will see, he is a Cairene, and, important man or not, he will ask you all the news.”

When Isabel asked Anoushka just how important Alexis was, she was amazed. She said, “You really don’t know, Isabel? He has declined the position of secretary of state twice. He is the third most important man in Egypt, but prefers to remain unofficial. He told Youssef that in that way he could be of more service to Egypt and the Arab world. He is brilliant.”

Isabel left her there chattering to a friend and next went to the best flower shop she could find. She bought three dozen white arum lilies and sent them to Madame Hyatt. On the card she wrote: “How kind of you to ask me to lunch. Isabel Wells.”

Then Isabel made Gamal stop at a cart near the old city and bought a dozen ishta. It was getting late, but on
an impulse, she made one last dash back to the Kan-el-Kalili, where she decided to buy an antique Yemenite silver disc on a very long, heavy, handmade silver chain. The disc was carved around the edges in deep relief. From its bottom hung heavy silver chains, all close together like a fringe. Each end of the chains had a silver bell. It was a handsome piece and Gamal struck a hard bargain with the seller. She would pay the dealer, she told Gamal, only when he delivered it to her at four o’clock at Sharia el Nil with the inscription on the disc: “Ishta.” There was a great deal of screaming for more money, but she knew her Arab bazaar men and she was sure it would be done and would be there. He wanted the money.

Into the car they went, and home. There were fifteen people for lunch. Madame Hyatt thanked her for the flowers, which were placed next to the Bergère the matron sat in when they had coffee. Amusing, gay, charming, Madame Hyatt was at her best, and it was a delight to be there.

Alexis never gave Isabel one intimate word or show of affection during lunch. She had been late, and when, on her arrival, she had apologized to Madame Hyatt, Alexis had merely smiled and said, “You see, Mama, Isabel has been here only a short time and she has picked up our ways.”

At last everyone was gone. She said good-bye to Madame Hyatt, who left her with the impression that she very much approved of her. Nothing was said; it was just a feeling. Isabel and Alexis walked through the garden to the main house. It was nearly five by then. When they entered the door, Gamal came forward and told them that there was a man waiting to see Isabel.

Alexis took over. Who was he? What did he want? Did she know he was there? Was she expecting him? The man was brought in to the downstairs’ study and Alexis watched Isabel finish her transaction for the “Ishta” necklace. The man was ushered out, and Alexis laughed uproariously. “What a sweet thing to do, buy your camel a good-bye present. You are wonderful, my dear. Sometimes you do things a young girl would do. Come over here to me.”

He had been sitting more than a little pompously at his desk. Isabel went around to him and the two looked at the
disc lying there before him. He put his arm around her waist. He said it was an excellent piece and that Ishta would love it.

“Alexis, I simply had to buy her something.”

“And what else did you do today?”

He was himself again with her, now that they were alone. Because he seemed so happy, she told him about her day. He did just as Anoushka said he would and asked what gossip she had heard at Groppi’s and said what a waste of time all that was. He said he knew she had had her hair done, touched it and said that it looked lovely. Then she told him that she had bought a dozen ishta for Hosni and that she was driving out to give them to him and to give Ishta her gift.

He turned his chair around so that he faced her and said, “You are the most … the most …” and buried his face in the material of her dress, feeling under it the softness of her belly. He stayed there for a minute very quietly as she ran her fingers through his hair. Then he sat back in his chair and said, “Is there anything else you did, beside the uncalled-for but generous gesture of lilies for my mother?”

“Yes, there is, as a matter of fact.” She sat down on his lap. “I bought you a gift. I was going to wait and give it to you tonight, but somehow I think you should have it now.”

She reached in her bag, which was lying on the desk near her, and took out the badly wrapped little parcel.

“Alexis, it is a small token of great love from me. Something small that I hope you will keep in your pocket or at least with you, when you travel.”

He unwrapped the parcel and fondled the netsuke. He placed it on the palm of his hand and looked at it. Then he told her an extraordinary story.

“This belonged to a friend of mine,” he began, telling her the date and everything about the netsuke. When his friend left Egypt, everything was sold. Alexis, who would have bought many things, felt it wrong because it was all too personal. He especially wanted the amber netsuke because he found something very spiritual in the tiny carving. The man who made it only carved one piece in amber throughout his entire life. And now here it was in his hand. A gift to him by someone he loved.

He thanked her and said of course he felt he could have
it now because it was a gift and that he would carry it with him always. “I love it, my darling.” He held it in his hand, held it up to the light and then slipped it into his pocket.