Three Rivers (40 page)

They watched her car drive away, and when it was gone, Alexis put his arm around her and said, “Come, let me show you some more rooms in the palace. I will show you one that Mama loves.”

After passing through several courtyards, they went into a lovely reception room. Its walls were of filigreed white marble. Next they walked up a winding marble staircase into an octagon-shaped reception hall. Alexis pushed open a pair of solid silver, carved doors, and they entered the original hammam, where the wives and concubines of his ancestors used to bathe.

The entire room was inlaid in several shades of pink marble. The sunken pool, with its stairs going down into it on four sides, was filled with scented water on which floated fresh flowers. There were beautiful slim columns around the pool and the wonderfully ornate, pierced screens of marble that the ladies used for privacy. There were elegant white marble chaises everywhere with heavy,
pink-and-white striped silk cushions upon them. The whole room looked as if it were made of pink-and-white sugar icing. There were palm trees and skylights and the sheerest of shining white silk which hung on a pink marble pole that stretched between a few of the columns. The curtain of silk, so fine, moved from the merest motion of the air in the room.

It was a dream. As Isabel stood there, she told Alexis she could almost hear the tinkling laughter of the plump and beautiful odalisques as they lounged about, their servants pampering and caring for them. She could see the lovely ladies being washed in the pool, and imagined the sultan entering to choose who he wanted for that night; the eunuchs dashing about … Oh, how fantastic it must have been.

“Yes,” Alexis said and smiled. He was the sultan, and she was his odalisque. He undressed her and laid her on one of the white marble chaises. He sat down next to her and stroked her hair. She was naked but for her magnificent jewels: the diamonds in her ears and on her fingers and the Saladin Diamonds from his mother around her neck.

He told her he was saving himself for a debauched, depraved last evening as a bachelor and that he would play with her, bring her to orgasm, as long as she liked but that he would not make love to her, much as he wanted to. He kissed her, and then he slipped one of the ropes of diamonds from her neck. He moved his mouth to her nipples, then with one hand, his fingers deep inside her, he stretched her open and slowly stuffed the diamonds high up into her. When they were all inside, he moved them round again and again until the sensation was so exciting for Isabel that she came in heavy spasms. He could actually hear the diamonds swishing around inside her. He lifted her head off the chaise, folded her close to him and, kissing her passionately, pulled the necklace with one sharp tug. Isabel screamed as the diamonds came out of her all wet and sparkling.

He draped the rope of diamonds back over her head and held a worn-out Isabel in his arms. She watched him suck each one of the stones clean. She rested against him, and all she could think of was that she wanted him, she wanted to be where only he had ever been able to put
her. He looked at her and knew; she did not have to say a thing, for her sexuality was oozing out of her.

He whispered in her ear, “I will arrange something for you tonight. Now stand up.” From his pocket he drew a pair of silver balls. He showed them to her, and then he gently laid her on her back, while she watched him insert them inside her. He kissed her and told her to get up and walk about a little and she would come. She would come all the time she had them in, for they would move around, giving her light orgasms.

He told her that if she decided to have a man tonight she must remove them, or have the man remove them, or Juju or Maryka. As she walked he laughed as he saw her flush from the new sensation of them. She heard them click together, or at least she imagined she heard them as they roamed around inside her.

Isabel sat next to him and put her tits in his mouth. Alexis raised her and played with her cunt balls. She came and came.

They stayed in the hammam for a very long time. He held her in his arms, playing with her jewels and her nipples as they talked. He told her how much he loved her and how happy she had made him. He wanted to know, did she have everything she wanted?

More than she had ever dreamed of having with any man, Isabel replied. As they lay there quietly in each other’s arms, Isabel, floating on a river of orgasms, thought of Kate, who, unknown to Isabel, was at that very moment sailing down the Nile to Alexandria.

She thought of Ava, her only sister:
I am so sorry you would not let me share my happiness with you. Oh, Ava, my spoiled little sister, maybe one day you will let me
. But of course Ava would never let her. Ava, with her great love for herself, was flushed out to the sea. At that precise moment Isabel flowed with orgasms of life like a river. Three women. Three rivers.

She wafted nude in a fantasy world made real and vital by the very love that these two people exchanged with each other. Isabel lay there with her man in a state of constant flow — lust instilled with tenderness. She tried to conjure up Kate and Ava, the two women who had been her family all of her life until this man had come along. She could not. They were gone. That they had disappeared, and she could not find them, did not distress
her in the least, but only surprised her and filled her, momentarily, with sorrow.

After being a wanderer, all alone out in the world for most of her life, she had come home. Alexis, holding her in his arms, suddenly felt a surge of pity for Isabel, pity for the price she must have had to pay to become the delicious, wonderful woman that she now was. He kissed her deeply; moments later Alexis told her it was time to go. He stood her up and dressed her.

He would not let her do a thing. He slipped her high-heeled shoes back on her feet, and then, when she stood, so beautiful and radiant, he kissed her. With his arm around her, they started walking through the palace. They had gone about a hundred yards when Isabel suddenly stopped. Alexis looked at her and at the pale blush of pink on her face. He started to laugh and said, “You have come, haven’t you?”

Isabel was ridiculously embarrassed to think that just through walking she could have such a strong orgasm. Alexis laughed at her again, and he took her by the elbow, watching her closely as they walked down the stairs, enjoying every minute of it.

It was an extraordinary sensation, so sensual, the constant coming. Isabel kept imagining a little click when the balls inside her came together. When they arrived in the ground-floor drawing room, Alexander was already there with a cold glass of champagne in his hand. He kissed Isabel hello and told her how ravishing she looked. He recognized the Saladin Diamonds and said, “Oh, my, Madame Hyatt has certainly done you proud. Are you very happy?”

“Alexander, I am so happy I think I am a little frightened,” Isabel blurted. “You will get me to him on time tomorrow, won’t you; Alexander?”

He touched her cheek and said, “You must worry about nothing, it is all arranged. Just leave it to Uncle Alexander.”

They dined together, and half an hour before midnight Isabel began teasing them about their depraved, debauched night in the whorehouses of Cairo. Alexander asked if she was jealous. She thought about it and replied that all she wanted was for Alexis to be happy, and that she hoped he would have the most sexual, sensual, debauched, depraved evening possible. She was just glad
she was not going to be there to see it, for she might murder the women.

Much to her surprise Alexis teased her in front of Alexander, saying that he had arranged for five of the best well-hung men in Cairo to call on Isabel that night. What she did with them was up to her. She could turn them away, or she could have them all. They were her slaves for the night and would do anything she wanted.

Alexander asked him if he was jealous. No, Alexis said and smiled. As a matter of fact, he was very aroused by the idea and, unlike Isabel, he would not mind watching and even joining in, because he knew that it would take all five of them to do the job that he alone could do with her.

They all laughed at his vanity, and Isabel, not wanting to let him get away with it, decided to leave him worried. “Well,” she said. “We might just have to find out if that is true, mightn’t we?”

“Oh, she has got you wondering now, old boy.” Alexander laughed.

What each one did the night before they were to be married, neither of them ever knew. Alexis and Gamal paid the men before they entered Isabel’s room. The servant waited outside her door in case he was needed or she was in any danger, but other than that, Alexis knew nothing else about her night and never asked. As for Isabel, well, only Alexander could have told her what had happened, but she never asked.

At ten minutes to twelve she saw both men off. When Alexis left her, he whispered in her ear, “Remember, remove the silver balls.” He kissed her and said, “I will see you on board the
Mamounia
.”

When the two men drove off to their rendezvous, Alexander asked, “Do you think she will take the studs tonight?”

Alexis turned to him and said, “Let’s just say that I have taken out a few insurance policies, and I would be very surprised if she did.”

“Insurance policies?”

“Yes,” and from his pocket he took the beige suede pouch that had held the silver cunt balls, opened it, and held it upside down over his open palm to show Alexander that it was empty.

Alexander roared with laughter and said, “You know, old boy, you are a very clever devil.”

“Alexander, it is not a matter of cleverness. It must be seven months now since I first laid eyes on her, but I knew even then that I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life. It was that old cliché that people always talk about but think never really happens. Love at first sight, a chemistry that happens between two people. Just talking about her makes me love her all the more. She is the most wonderful, sensual, intelligent, soulful woman I have ever met and having her near me adds something to my life.”

Alexander was touched by the passion and love that his friend had for this woman, and was happy for him. From a box next to him on the car seat he removed two opium pipes; they lit them and smoked as they were driven on to what Alexander called his “secret palace.”

Mrs. Nesbitt tried to persuade Kate not to take the Nile cruise down to Alexandria. She told her in the nicest way that Kate looked very tired, even a bit overwrought, and that although one would think that the heat would make her look flushed, she was decidedly pale.

The young ship’s officer explained that the Nesbitts and he would drive straight through to Alexandria; they would take the delta road part of the way and then switch to the desert road. It would be interesting and in three and a half hours they would be in the heart of the city. In four hours at the latest, she could be in her air-conditioned cabin aboard the luxury liner
Aphrodite
.

Kate told them she was determined to take the overnight trip down the Nile. She would have plenty of time to rest and sleep once the great ship had sailed from the port at noon the next day.

There was nothing that Kate’s traveling companions could do to change her mind. With much reluctance, she allowed them to take control of all her luggage including her sterling silver. The small overnight case that she had packed stayed with her, and after yet another reassurance from the Nesbitts that her things would be safe with them, she said good-bye and started down the stone stairs to the slip where the yacht and its thirty-five passengers waited to cast off. A steward from the yacht took Kate’s nightcase and started up the gangway, helping her along.

Before she could even turn around, the gangplank had been removed, and the yacht started to pull away into the mainstream of river. There were three sharp blasts from the ship’s horn as Kate was greeted by the recreation officer of the
Aphrodite
, who was in charge of the tourists on their way back to the mother ship.

Oh, thank God for little blessings! Billy Buckley, the recreation officer, was a twenty-two-year-old football player from the University of Wisconsin. A big, tall, broad-shouldered, handsome, blond American kid with dimples in his cheeks, and a mouth full of perfect white teeth. He gave her a “rah-rah” welcome and told her not to worry about a thing. He was there to see that she had a good time. He would have her case put in her cabin. When Kate said she could do it herself, he said, “Listen, doll, you wouldn’t want to go down there now, it’s like a boiler room. I’ll see that the case is put away while you go sit under that nice striped canopy and have tea with all the others. This is tea-time in Cairo. Isn’t it exciting?”

Kate was utterly exhausted. All resistance gone, she said, “Do what you want. I could use a cup of tea.”

He led her out to the many little tables jammed together. Kate was appalled. It was a geriatrics’ holiday cruise, and she certainly did not see herself as part of it. She was maneuvered in and out of the tables to one close to the rails at the very rear of the deck. There were three other women seated, and they all looked like carbon copies of Mrs. Nesbitt. A hot cup of sweet mint tea was brought to her, and there were cakes and sandwiches on the table. Best of all was that, although it was sweltering hot, they were, mercifully, out of the sun.

Kate could barely get the cup to her lips, her hands were trembling so. One of the women very kindly offered her a small, battery-driven white plastic fan the size of a flashlight. Kate did not even have the energy to reach for it. Finally the lady reached over and placed it near Kate, aiming it up to her face.

There was a crackling sound, and over the loudspeaker came Billy Buckley’s voice, telling them they were now passing under the Imbaba Bridge. About half of the geriatric tea party stayed where they were, too tired even to chance another step, but the rest tottered to the rail at his command.

Kate seemed a great deal better once she had finished
her tea and, suddenly feeling hungry, she had another cup brought to her and then put a few sandwiches on her plate. She realized as she ate that she was very hungry indeed. It was growing ever-so-slightly cooler now.