Chapter 20

She was still in the shower when the phone rang, the hotel-room phone. She reached out of the shower and picked up the extension on the bathroom wall. Someone was asking if all was well and whether she was happy with the room. She said yes to both and confirmed that, yes, she would be calling room service to order dinner, but not just yet.

She replaced the receiver at the end of the conversation and returned to her underwater reveries. The powerful streams from the rainfall showerhead and from the jets up and down the sides of the shower were exactly what she needed. Absolute bliss. She let the water massage her from head to foot, literally. When she was satisfied, she stepped out and wrapped her hair and her body in the thick, soft and luxurious white towels. She stood in the steamy room and took her own sweet time to apply moisturiser to her face and her lotion on her body. She reached her arms to the ceiling and raised her feet one by one onto the marble counter tops as she reached and stretched her body out to apply the lotion to her arms, legs and feet. She turned and twisted and revelled in the flexibility of her body as she reached around to massage the lotion into her back and shoulders and buttocks.

She was satisfied that her body was strong and healthy the way she wanted it. Running and swimming every day on the island had not merely kept her fit; it had strengthened her generally and raised her fitness levels back close to where they had been before she had begun this very intense period of long workdays, short nights and frequent long-haul travel. She smiled at her reflection in the bathroom mirrors, examining her body on all sides. She liked what she saw.

Finally, she took the towel from her head and shook her hair out. She poured some oil into her hand, rubbed it into her hair and scalp and shook her hair out again, forwards and backwards and from side to side. By now, she was feeling such sensuous pleasure that she wished again that she had arrived earlier in the day so that she could have gone somewhere – even just for a walk in the botanical gardens or a run along the Bund. She had seen people doing that. Mostly Westerners, for sure, but she would very gladly have joined a tai chi session, too. Either one would have been good. She just wanted to be moving. Her body was craving movement. At the same time, she remained conscious that she needed to get a good night’s sleep so she would be fresh for her meetings tomorrow. The first appointment was for one o’clock in the afternoon. She would have preferred to start earlier, but it was Peggy who had done all the scheduling – to give her time to rest after such a long flight, was her explanation.

Each time she had come to Shanghai, she had stayed at the Hyatt on the Bund. This was her first time in this hotel. She liked to stay at the one on the Bund, mostly because she liked walking on the Bund and along the river every spare moment she got. It was Peggy who had made this booking, too, and she couldn’t remember if she has asked her specifically to book her into her usual, but this hotel was just as good. She really liked the warm feel of the dark wood and the gold lettering, and the sharp, clean black and white marble bathroom.

She walked out to the room and picked up the room service menu. She was in the middle of figuring out what she wanted to order for dinner, if anything at all, when she heard a knock at the door.

“Room service,” a voice said. She frowned in puzzlement.

“Room service?” she asked through the door.

“Yes, ma’am. Fruit basket compliments of the Hyatt,” came the answer and she went and looked through the peep hole. There was a waiter with a basket of fruit. She opened the door. He handed the basket to her and just as she was closing the door, another waiter came down the corridor pushing a trolley, covered with a spotlessly white cloth.

“Excuse me,” he called to her and came to a stop at her door. “Dinner, ma’am.”

“I haven’t ordered dinner,” she protested, pulling the door open again.

He looked at the card in his hand and said, “Your office did, I think, ma’am” he said. “Peggy? You know her?”

She laughed out loud. “Yes,” she told the waiter, still laughing. “She is my assistant. Come in.”

“Thank you,” he said. He rolled the cart into the room and arranged it next to the glass wall looking over the city. “Is it good here?”

“Yes,” Sasha told him. “That’s fine. Yes. Thank you.” He bowed slightly to her and left.

She was still wrapped in the towel she had tossed on to respond to room service. She was contemplating changing into the bathrobe, when another knock came at the door.

“Who is it?” she called out.

“Housekeeping.” The answer came before she finished asking.

“Hello,” she said, as she opened the door again.

“I turn the bed down for you, ma’am?”

“Yes, sure. Thank you.” The maid spent perhaps seven minutes. She turned the bed down, left three small chocolates on the pillow, emptied the trash, put away Sasha’s coat and shoes in the closet, cleaned the shower and sink, and before leaving, asked, “Can I do anything else for you?”

“Erm! No. Thank you. Nothing else tonight.”

The maid opened the door to leave and Sasha heard music in the corridor. She straightened up and looked casually towards the sound. The maid had stopped in the doorway. She turned around and looked at Sasha, then turned back to the corridor and said something. A man playing a guitar appeared in front of the woman, and it was several seconds before Sasha realised that it was Lionel!!

She couldn’t believe her eyes. Sasha squealed in delight and ran to the door. The maid waited a moment and when the man swept the woman up in his arms and they kissed, she walked politely away, not turning to look until she was about to round the corner several doors away.

“What is this?” Sasha asked Lionel, breathlessly, when they finally took a break from kissing and laughing and kissing each other again. They shuffled into the room, she walking backwards, without letting go of each other. He pushed the door shut with his foot.

“What are you doing here?” she asked again. “When did you get here? I spoke to you in LA when I landed,” she added and then realised that, of course, she could not have. She only thought he was in LA. “You were here all the time? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Without giving him a chance to answer, she went on, “So it was you who ordered dinner, not Peggy?”

This time, he did get a word in edgewise, because she let go of him and walked over to the trolley.

“Well, technically, it was Peggy, actually,” he said, but she didn’t seem to have heard.

She lifted the cloth cover and turned back to him. They met again in the middle of the room and when she lifted her arms around his neck, her towel fell to the floor. She had completely forgotten about her state of undress. Instinctively, she bent to retrieve the towel, but he pulled her up straight, held her close to his body and buried his face in her still damp hair.

“Na! Na! No. Leave it. This is perfect.” She laughed deep in her throat and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I hadn’t dared expect this kind of welcome,” he added, “but it works for me. It works perfectly. I could not have planned it any better if I had tried.”

Her skin was damp and soft under his fingers. The oils of her lotion were not completely absorbed so his fingers slid easily and smoothly on her skin. As he held her, he stroked and caressed and kneaded the flesh at her waist, her hips, her back, her buttocks, her arms. He literally could not keep his hands off her. She felt him feeling her and her body rejoiced; her heart was missing beats and it seemed like everything inside her was literally skipping around in her chest and belly.

“So, tell me how you got here,” she said, still delirious and breathless with excitement. “How did you manage to get away? Why didn’t you tell me? Is your brother alright then? When did you leave LA?”

“Which question you want me to answer first?” he asked with amusement, his hands cupping her hips. She laughed, too, suddenly aware that she had been lobbing questions at him since he had arrived, and then she didn’t give him time to even begin to formulate an answer before she asked another full set.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Surprises always unravel me. I’m not sure I like them at all, actually, even the most pleasant ones.”

“Then, we have some talking to do, my love,” he stroked her cheek while he said that, “because I love surprises. I love to surprise people, so we are going to have to work something out about that. I love how you respond to surprises, though. You should have seen your face when you saw me. First, when the music stopped at your door, and then how it changed when you thought it was me.” He was laughing hard now and he was still holding her close.

“You saw the person and you were slightly amused, then you thought it looked like me and you were thoroughly confused. And then, you thought you knew for sure that it was me and there are no words to describe what happened to your face then. It was indescribable. Priceless. Absolutely priceless. I wish I had taken a picture right there and then. I couldn’t explain it to you. You’d have to see it for yourself.” And then, mischievously, he added, “I have to see that expression again some day. I must. I’ll find a way.” Then, he kissed her lips, tenderly, gently, softly. She about melted.

He kissed her and she kissed him. He lifted her off her feet and she climbed up his body, wrapping her legs around tight his waist. His head came level with her chest and he kissed first one breast then the other and she arched her body backwards to help him.

“Oh, I have missed you,” he whispered.

“I missed you, too,” she whispered back. “I am so glad you came.”

“I had to,” he answered. “I was missing all of this.” He nuzzled between her breasts and she felt his tongue sliding under first one and then the other. “I can’t be without this anymore, my sweet one. No more.” She squeezed him firmly with her thighs and let her tongue play inside and around and behind his ear, and then down the side of his neck. She felt him pulse against her, right between her thighs. She squeezed him again and he walked over to the couch and laid her down.

He stood over her and opened his shirt. She sat up and unbuckled his belt then moaned in approval when she realised that he was riding commando under his jeans.

“You like?” he asked.

“I like,” she answered and kissed him there. His legs buckled. He held on to her and slid to his knees, down her body to the floor, between her legs. With urgency and unrestrained passion, they undressed him and lay back onto the couch together, moving against each other’s body and into and around each other’s body, loving each other, revelling in each other, soul and body. He made love to every inch of her body, kissing her here, caressing her there, and when she took him inside her, stroking her gently, and then firmly, hot and hard and then sweet and slow, teasing and tantalizing her inside and outside until she could bear it no more and cried out her love and desire for him, rising to meet every thrust, opening to him and receiving him with a joy and fullness like she never felt before.

He gave her every part of himself. Everything he had in him, he poured into his kisses and caresses and when he, too, could bear it no more, he emptied himself into her, completely and lovingly and then found more of himself and gifted it to her, too.

Finally, utterly spent, they lay against each other and rested. The lights of the city were shining in another world entirely, just on the other side of the wall of glass. They lay and watched it together, speaking softly to each other, and making love again and again ‘til sleep found them both and took them away, and then morning came and found them, their bodies wrapped around each other, their breaths wafting over each other, the liquids of loving still warm between them.