“I feel so sorry for you.”
“. . . and I’m alive.”
He took his hand from her breast, caught hers, and guided it to his member. She closed her fingers around it and it sprang almost instantly to life.
“Oh, God!” she said.
And then he rolled on top of her.
[ EIGHT ]
1430 30 October 1945
“You look lost in thought,” Jimmy said to Rachel, who was standing before the mirror in the bath and combing her hair.
She turned from the mirror. She had showered and wrapped a towel around her waist, leaving her breasts uncovered.
“You’re not supposed to be looking,” she said, but didn’t seem offended. She turned back to the mirror and resumed running the comb through her hair.
“I’ve got a lot to think about,” Rachel said.
“Like what?”
“Like—not that it matters—I’m too old for you. Like I really have to keep Tony from finding out and, for different reasons, my kids from even suspecting.”
“For different reasons?”
“Because Tony really hates you. My kids, thank God, don’t even know you exist.”
“Your husband hates me because of what I did to his car?”
“Because he suspects you’re involved in getting Nazis out of Germany to Argentina, and he can’t do anything about it.”
After a moment, Jimmy said, “And the different reasons for the kids?”
“No mother wants to have to come off the pedestal of virtue her kids have put her on.”
“Then we’ll just have to make sure your kids don’t find out.”
“The only way we could do that for sure would be for me to get dre
ssed, walk out of here, and never see you again.”
“Is that what you want to do?”
“No. But that’s moot. Eventually, we’re going to run into each other again. We’re just going to have to be very careful.”
“Can I interpret that to mean . . .”
“Do I want to be with you again? Of course I do. I know I should be overwhelmed with remorse right now, but the truth is I like standing here combing my hair while you stare hungrily at my breasts.”
“Wow!”
“But we’re going to have to be very careful and pray we don’t get caught. And I mean that about praying. I don’t want my kids to get hurt.”
“Understood.”
“Are you?”