Chapter 11

They sat close together at one end of the chic, elegant hotel bar just off the Champs-Elysees. It was two hours and several drinks later and the girl was glowing with generosity. She wanted to give and give and give herself. Now, Raimond thought, is the time to take off for a hotel. So far he had extracted no information. There had been small talk and a certain amount of talk about life and living and what people wanted and why. There had been a lot of sexy innuendo and virtual promise of what she was like in bed. He was clearly a very successful candidate. He'd passed himself off as an advertiser. The small Simca was passed off as his little gadabout used for narrow streets and at times when he risked not seeing quite straight enough to avoid the lampposts.

His Oldsmobile was for country weekends and trips to Spain and Italy.

The bar was quiet, but had just enough customers to drown their conversation and make them not embarrassingly noticeable. She was sitting close, looking into his face.

Her skin was good and her perfume, which was slight, not overwhelming, dusted in his nostrils, making him think of all of her body as a scented flower. She seemed to like him very much. It was partly the drink, but, he thought, she's been cooped up too long for a woman of her promiscuous passion.

"How's the selection board getting along with making up its mind?" he asked.

"The selection board? Oh, the selection board's taken a trip," she said. "A dictator's taken over and he's all for you.

"So I'll see those pants off yet."

"You're very audacious," she said, smiling and running her tongue over her pouting bottom lip. "Let's go and find somewhere where you'll see what you want to."

Raimond felt the breath catch in his throat and checked himself. He remembered his wife fast asleep at home or perhaps worrying about him and unable to sleep and he reminded himself that he was on business, big business.

"We'd better go to a hotel," he said. "I've got a boss, too.

"Oh, you have." She seemed on the verge of disappointment for some reason but then her eyes twinkled wickedly at him.

"Well, well-that puts us both in the same boat."

"And in the same hotel," he said. "What does your boss look like with her pants off."

"Wonderful," he said.

"Let's go," she said. "I want you to see that there's always something better."

They walked from the bar and heads turned discreetly to glance after her firm curves which moved tantalizingly in the sack dress into which she'd changed from her entertainment costume.