Liliana stayed the night, and it was sweet to have
her next to him in bed. Several times during the night
Dan reached out to touch her and they made love again in
the early morning just before getting up at five o'clock
on Sunday. After a quick cup of coffee Dan walked with
Liliana down the beach toward the Italian Club where she
had left her car the day before.
The tide had ebbed and the morning air was still
cool and fresh as they walked barefoot, hand in hand,
along the damp sand on the empty beach. "How do you
feel about things this morning?" she asked.
"Excited, expectant, hopeful, involved," he
replied. "How about you?"
"All of those things," she replied and looked at
him with a smile on her face. "And maybe a little
guilty." She paused and was quiet for a few steps, "But
not guilty enough to want to stop seeing you. I don't
think I could stop seeing you even if I wanted to.
You've touched something too deep in me. Maybe you've
touched the place in me where Lilith lives. You've let
the genie out of the bottle."
"I don't know what the masculine equivalent to
Lilith is, but what ever it is you've touched it, and I feel the same as you do. I couldn't stop seeing you
even if I wanted to, and I can assure you that I don't
want to stop. The truth of the matter is that I can
barely stand parting with you now."
"I know what you mean, Dan. I wish we could just
stay at your beach hut all day and make love, cook, eat,
drink - maybe go out sailing, but nothing more serious
or reality oriented than that," she said and slipped her
arm around his waist.
Dan put his arm around her. "That does sound
wonderful, and we can do some of those things. We have
the whole week ahead of us. Rita won't be back until
next Sunday - she'll be leaving Nairobi Saturday for
Addis to catch the Alitalia flight. How about Carlo?
When will he be back from Rome?"
"Next Sunday," she said and looked away from Dan,
out toward the sea. "He'll be on the same flight as
Rita."
"I think we should plan on staying together next
Saturday night. Maybe we can go to the airport together
to meet them," he teased her.
She laughed that same deep, throaty laugh that
seemed to be new in her. "There's something diabolical
in you, Mr. Ambassador, and I love it. I will plan on
staying with you next Saturday night, but I don't know about going to the airport together. We'll have to see
how things develop."
They were in front of the Russian Beach Club, and
Liliana stopped walking. "Maybe I better say goodbye to
you here. I can walk on to my car alone. I'll see you
in your office in about an hour."
"That's right I have a language class this morning,
don't I," Dan said and kissed her on the cheek.
"Knowing that I will see you in an hour or so makes
parting a little easier."
He turned and walked back down the beach, and once
turned to see that Liliana was striding along without
looking back. He slipped his hands into the pockets of
his sailing jacket and stepped along at a lively pace
himself. He did not know exactly what they had started,
but he knew that what ever it was it made him feel very
alive. Maybe Liliana was right in describing it as
letting the genie out of the bottle, but Dan was willing
to let the genie have its way. To let love find its own
way.
Dan was deep in his own thoughts when he was
startled by a voice calling to him from one of the beach
huts. "”Bon giorno•, Mr. Ambassador."
Dan stopped and looked toward the row of huts, then
he saw Antonio di Paulo waving from the deck of Mario Bianchi's place. Dan walked across the sand to the edge
of the deck and looked up at Antonio. "I see you get up
early, too," Dan said.
"Oh yes," Antonio said. "Don't forget I'm a
farmer, and we have to get up early to get our work done
before it gets too hot."
"When are you headed north?" Dan asked.
"Later today. I'm just getting a letter off to my
sister in Rome while I wait for Mario. Sure you won't
come along?"
"No thanks, Antonio," Dan replied. "I've got work
to do, but as I said yesterday I would like to go with
you sometime. I hear you're quite a hunter."
"Not too bad," he said. "How about a coffee?"
"Thanks again," Dan replied, "but I've got to get
home and shower before going to work. I stayed in my
beach hut last night, and I was just getting some
exercise before going to the office. Have a good trip,"
Dan waved and continued on down the beach toward his own
hut. He wondered if Antonio had seen him together with
Liliana, then it dawned on Dan that there was probably
no one in town who would be more closed mouth and
cautious about gossiping. After all, Dan thought,
Antonio's in the same boat that I'm in.
That day, as well as the rest of the week, were like a honeymoon for both Liliana and Dan, and the
memory of what it was like to fall in love, share
fantasies and become totally absorbed with one another
would sustain them through the bizarre twists and turns
that their love would take over the next few weeks.
Liliana arrived in the embassy looking fresh and
cool in a smart strapless, cotton sun dress, for Dan's
language class on Sunday morning, but the raw, animal
sexual energy that was circulating between them was too
great for either one to concentrate on the FSI language
text. From the moment she sat down in the chair in the
corner of the office where they held their classes they
both knew that everything between them had changed.
There was a new intimacy that demanded that they share
their feelings, emotions and thoughts along with an
urgent and immediate need for both of them to touch,
kiss and caress one another.
"I can't sit here next to you without touching
you," she said after Dan's secretary had served coffee
to both of them and had closed the door to leave them
alone. "I'm on fire, and all I can think about is
making love. I'm obsessed."
Her voice and her words were like a strong
aphrodisiac to Dan and he could feel the fire in his
loins. "I know exactly what you mean," he said. "I feel as though I'm possessed. I am possessed by a
passion that is overwhelming."
She stood up, kicked off her white leather high
heeled sandals, and pulled off her panties. "Fuck me,"
she whispered. "Fuck me right here on the sofa, now."
Pulling up her dress, she lay down on the sofa.
"Ven, mi amore! Ven allora! Somehow I'll be quiet when
I come, but I have to fuck you now."
He opened his zipper and let the genie out of the
bottle and lay down on top of her. She was wet and
pulsating when he pressed into her.
"Oh, yes, Dan, aye
si," she whispered. "Is it terrible to say fuck me in
English?"
"No, not when you say it," he whispered in her ear.
"I love to fuck you, I love to hear you ask me to fuck
you."
"Then fuck me. Oh my God! Aye Dios. Fuck me
harder!" She drove her nails into his back and her body
trembled as they both came together."
Dan stood up beside the sofa, and Liliana sat up,
then took him in her mouth to suck the last drop of
semen out of him. "That will last me for a few hours, I
hope," she said and reached in her handbag for a tissue
which she rubbed between her legs. Then, standing up,
she pulled on her panties and smoothed her dress before sitting down in the chair again. "Allora, andiamo con
il Signore Bianchi i suo amico en la Ambasciata
Americana en Roma?" she said and smiled.
"Va bene," he said and leaned over to kiss her
before sitting down in his chair.
That episode on the sofa would be repeated several
times over the next few days and it was the most
exciting thing that would happen in the American
Embassy. Everything on the diplomatic front was at a
total standstill. Moreover, the winds which had been
trying to start, and end the tangambili, petered out.
The temperature soared, and the air was still, heavy and
oppressive. The staff became languid, short tempered
and listless. Dan's secretary, a seasoned Foreign
Service girl who was normally light and cheerful, became
sullen and quiet, or complained about everything.
Liliana and Dan however remained immune to the
malaise that fell over the community. Aside from their
morning love making in the office, they met in the
afternoons and took long walks up to the lonely, barren
sand dunes at the north end of the beach, or they swam
and frolicked in the calm glassy waters behind the reef.
On one day at low tide they took masks, snorkels and
swim fins and swam all the way out to the reef, and in
the evenings they sat on the terrace to chat, exchange gossip and sip sundowners. Dan's cook, Abdulahi,
prepared sumptuous meals for them, and twice Dan
barbecued fresh lobsters over a charcoal brazier on the
deck.
They made no attempt to conceal their activities.
Liliana drove her very visible Italian Racing Red Alfa
spyder to the hut which she parked outside, and anyone
who was interested could have seen that it was there
until late at night and once until early in the morning.
On Wednesday night they were both invited to a
reception at the British Ambassador's residence, and
they made a concession to propriety by going separately.
It was a thrilling, conspiratorial feeling though to see
her as Dan walked out of the receiving line into the
noisy, milling crowd of people. Liliana was wearing a
stunning white strapless cocktail dress, and it seemed
to Dan that she glowed in her own radiance. Liliana was
talking to Marie-Claude Lecomte, who, while also a
strikingly beautiful woman, went almost unnoticed by
Dan. When Liliana looked over Marie-Claude's shoulder
to smile at Dan as he took a drink from the silver tray
offered to him by a white jacketed waiter, a silence
fell over the party and Liliana seemed to Dan the only
other person in the room.
Dan worked his way through the party, stopping occasionally to greet people, but he did not linger with
any of them, and it took only a few minutes to get to
where Liliana was standing.
"Bona sera, Signora Brancuzi," he said with mock
formality and kissed her hand, and to Marie-Claude, "Et
bonsoir, Madame Lecomte," whose hand he also kissed as
he continued with the same jocular formality.
"Bona sera, Signore Ambasciatore," Liliana said
and made a slight, almost imperceptible, curtsy.
"Bon soir, Monsieur Ambassadeur," Marie-Claude
said, and, taking her cue from Liliana, she also
curtsied.
"Aren't we all formal this evening," he said. "I
think maybe the tangambili has made us all slightly
crazy."
"It's terrible," Marie-Claude said. "Even the
children in school behave like little monsters. Jean
Pierre and I went sailing on Saturday morning, and I
thought the tangambili was finished. When will it end?"
"It won't be long," Dan answered. "Once the winds
start blowing like they did on Saturday, it's almost
over. Liliana and I sailed on Saturday, too."
"Yes, we saw you taking off. We were on the deck
at the Anglo-American Club," Marie-Claude said.
"No secrets here, are there?" Dan said and laughed.
"None," Marie-Claude replied and gave a knowing
smile to both of them. "I'm going out on the terrace to
see if there's any air. I'm suffocating."
"Adieu," Dan said and kissed her hand.
Marie-Claude left Liliana and Dan alone, just
beyond earshot of any of the other guests. "Good
evening, my love. You look radiant tonight," he said.
"If I do, it's because I feel radiant," she said.
Then she whispered, "It's because I'm in love."
"Oh? I thought it might be the stimulating
language classes we've been having in my office the last
few days," he said.
"That, too," she said and smiled.
"Here comes the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I'll
let you talk to him, and I'll meet you at the beach hut
later," Dan said and took her hand to kiss it.
"Va bene," she replied and gave him a demure smile
over the top of her hand.
Dan moved on through the party paying his
obligatory respects to the officials of the Somali
government, and his own staff from the American Embassy,
including Maggie Chandler who, he well understood,
seemed preoccupied, tense and nervous. After a
reasonable lapse of time Dan left for the beach hut to
await Liliana. They were both determined to make the most of their "honeymoon" by grasping every moment for
themselves.
When Liliana arrived at the hut they sat on the
terrace, sipped a last cognac and watched the lighting
flashes from an electrical storm that was blowing in
from the Indian Ocean. With the onset of the squall Dan
went outside with her to help with putting up the top on
her car, and by the time they returned to the hut the
thunder and lightning were all around them. The first
drops of a heavy rainfall were starting to fall when
they went to bed, and it gave Dan a marvelous sensation
of love and security to hold her close to him while
listening to the steady tatoo of the rain beating on the
roof and the deep rumble of thunder outside. They made
love then slept until dawn when Liliana got up to drive
home.
