Parisian Affair (38 page)

'You—you prick!' she exclaimed, before
bursting into laughter. 'You scared me half to death.'

Todd, his soaked hair plastered to his
forehead, grinned. 'Come on in, little girl,' he said, pulling her
toward him. 'The big bad wolf has something just for you.'

'I can't imagine what that might be.'

Soon his arms were wrapped around her, and
the water was streaming down them both, its roar not quite covering
up the gasps of delight and moans of ecstasy that escaped their
lips.

'Give me the keys,' Sylvie demanded. 'I'm
going to drive.'

'I don't think that's a good idea,' Paul
retorted. 'It's an antique and worth a lot of money.' He glanced at
the 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300 S roadster with a measure of pride. Its
dark green paint—so dark it was almost black—gleamed, despite being
slightly dusty, and its natural-canvas convertible top was
virtually pristine. All of its chrome retained its high luster,
even the wheel rims, which shone against the big whitewall
tires.

Fortunately, it had seldom been driven
outside the environs of his grandfather's chateau and those of his
neighbors in the Loire Valley.

'Oh, get off it,' Sylvie said. 'I can drive
as well as you can. Probably better.' She held out her hand.
'Give.'

'I really don't like the idea,' Paul said.
'My grandfather would have a fit if he knew I'd let anyone else
drive it.'

'Face it, Paul,' Sylvie snapped. 'Your dear
old grandpapa probably wouldn't even know
you
if you drove
out to see him in it. He's moldering away in that leaky old
chateau. Boozed up all the time.'

'Sylvie,' Paul protested, 'you're stoned on
crystal meth, and this car—'

'You are, too,' she snapped back, 'and
probably a lot more stoned than I am. I've never had an accident,
and I'm not going to have one now.' She grabbed his hand, trying to
snatch the keys from him.

Paul finally relented with a massive sigh. He
loathed these scenes with Sylvie and would concede to practically
anything to avoid them. 'If anything happens—'

'Nothing's going to happen,' she replied. She
gave him the benefit of a huge smile. 'I know exactly what I'm
doing. Now, get in. Let's go.'

Paul opened the door for her, and she slid
onto the natural-colored leather of the car's seat. He went around
and got in on the passenger side. 'It's not an automatic,' he
warned.

'Tell me something I don't know.' Sylvie
started the engine and put the big car into reverse. 'Wouldn't it
be fun to put the top down?' she said, backing out of the parking
space.

'It's too cold for that,' Paul said, stating
the obvious. He idly brushed dust off the dashboard's beautiful
wood trim. He must remember to get a cover for the car. Even though
it was garaged at enormous expense, the city's air crept in and
coated it with grime.

Sylvie pulled out onto the street and made a
right, and eventually turned onto the rue Vieille du Temple,
heading toward the rue de Rivoli, on which she went westward. He
noted gratefully that she drove with confidence, handling the big,
heavy car as if she'd driven it many times before.

'Where are we going?' he asked.

'I told you before,' she said. 'Place
Vendome. The Ritz.'

'Sylvie,' he said mildly, 'the Ritz is like a
fortress, and they'll never let us in.'

Sylvie laughed and slapped the steering wheel
with a hand. 'We're not going inside,' she said, glancing at him
out of the corner of her eye.

'Then what are we going to do?'

'Wait,' she said. 'They'll be coming out for
dinner in a little while.'

'We could be there for hours,' he replied in
a whine.

'No, Paul,' she said patiently. 'Mark my
word. They'll be going out to dinner soon. They're Americans.'

The traffic wasn't too heavy, and they
reached the rue de Castiglione quickly. Sylvie turned right and
headed straight for the place Vendome, which was a short distance
north.

'We won't be able to park,' Paul said.

'You'd be surprised,' Sylvie said. 'With this
car and my flirting with a gendarme? We could probably idle near
the Ritz for a long time.'

'I don't think so,' Paul replied.

Sylvie drove into the immense place Vendome
and around the huge bronze-wrapped column, commemorating the Battle
of Austerlitz, at its center. Napoleon's statue, so often removed
and replaced, looked down from its top as she slowly pulled down
the block from number fifteen, the elegant entrance to the Ritz
hotel. Pulling over, she shifted into neutral but didn't turn off
the engine.

'Now we watch,' she said to Paul, 'and if you
see them first, let me know.'

'What I see,' Paul said, 'is a gendarme
already coming this way.'

'Not bad looking, either,' Sylvie said,
unbuttoning her blouse down toward the waist. She wasn't wearing a
bra, and when she pulled her blouse apart, little was left to the
imagination regarding her breasts. 'Just keep your mouth shut.'

She lit a cigarette and rolled the window
down, waiting for him. 'Hello,' she said with a big smile as he
approached. He was frowning until he glimpsed her almost completely
exposed bosom.

'Mademoiselle,' he said, leaning in close to
her, 'you are not permitted to park here.'

'We're waiting for my poor grandpapa,' she
replied, 'and we'll only be here a couple of minutes, I promise.
He's up from the country and staying at the Ritz. He can't walk
more than a few feet, so I'm trying to stay out of the way until my
maman
brings him down to the car.'

'Just a couple of minutes, you say?' the
gendarme replied, his eyes reluctant to stray from her breasts.

Sylvie nodded. 'I promise,' she cooed. 'Then
we'll be out of the way.'

'Make sure you are,' the gendarme said. He
tapped the car with a gloved hand, then went on down the block.

'You're shameless,' Paul said, trying to
suppress a laugh.

'Don't take your eyes off the hotel
entrance,' Sylvie said, opening her shoulder bag. 'I'm going to
give us a quick little snort.'

'But the gen—!' Paul began.

'Ha,' she said, unzipping the compartment in
her bag where she kept the tiny Altoids tin. 'He'd probably take
some if I offered it to him. That and a few minutes in the
backseat.'

'You're crazy,' Paul said.

'No,' she retorted, 'I'm practical.'

'Are you ready?' Todd called to her in the
bathroom.

'One second,' Allegra answered. She checked
her makeup in the mirror one last time, then dabbed perfume behind
her ears, letting her finger trail down to the neckline of the
simple black sweater she'd put on. That and her miniskirt would
have to do again tonight. She had packed for only a couple of days,
but she was pleased that the few things she had brought were
elegant, appropriate, and even sexy. She flipped off the light and
left the bathroom, returning to the bedroom, where Todd waited.

'I'm glad we decided to go casual tonight,'
Todd said. 'I really didn't want to put that suit back on.'

'Well, you look great,' she said, kissing his
cheek, 'and I think casual is all I could handle.'

'Do you want to try the general one more time
before we leave?' he asked.

They'd tried his number in Miami several
times after showering, but so far there had been no answer.
Surprisingly, there hadn't been an answering machine, either.

'I left word with the operator to stop trying
him until we get back to the hotel,' she said. 'The concierge will
let her know when we're back. Besides, I'm fairly certain that
we're going to hear the same thing from him that we've heard from
the others. Let's go find a place to eat. I'm starving.'

They left the suite and took the elevator to
the ground floor, then walked out onto the place Vendome. There
were almost no pedestrians about and very little traffic. The
evening was chilly, and there was a brisk breeze.

'This neighborhood is so ... ritzy,' Allegra
said with a laugh. 'And a tad cold, if you know what I mean. I hope
we can find something that's not quite so fancy close by.'

'I'm sure we will,' Todd said. 'Why don't we
walk until we see something that looks good?'

Todd took her hand in his, and they started
walking in a northerly direction. Dusk had already descended, but
the huge square was well lit.

'Wait,' Allegra said, noticing the statue of
Napoleon. 'Let's go over to the column. I want to see it up
close.'

'Fine,' Todd said.

They changed direction and started walking
east, to the enormous column. Just before they reached it, Allegra
heard the roar of a motor and turned to look in its direction.

'What the hell?' she asked, stopping,
squinting against the glaring lights.

Todd turned to look, but like Allegra he
could see nothing but blinding headlights aimed directly at them.
'Ally!' he yelled. 'Ally, get out of the way!'

Allegra heard him, but she was frozen to the
spot. The car was almost upon them, and the area surrounding the
column was directly in front of them. Todd jerked her hand in his,
causing her to lose her balance.

She felt her high heels slide, then her feet
slip out from under her. She could see the grillwork of the roaring
car and could swear that she felt the heat of its engine.

But it was the pain in her legs that made her
cry out. 'No!' she yelled as her legs scraped against the rough
stone.

Suddenly she was lifted into the air, and
before she knew what was happening, she felt the breath being
knocked out of her as she landed with a thud against stone.

'Fuck!' she heard Todd groan. She didn't move
for a moment, trying to get her bearings. When she did, she
realized that she was on top of him and that they were inside the
fence that surrounded the column.

'Are you okay?' he asked, trying to sit
up.

'I—I think so,' she said, scooting off of
him. 'Are you?'

'Yes,' he said. 'Shit. We're both going to be
sore tomorrow.' He was sitting up now, and Allegra was sitting next
to him.

'What the hell was
that
all about?'
she asked, looking at him.

'I'll give you one guess,' he said, shaking
his head as if to clear it of cobwebs.

'I think you saved my life,' Allegra
said.

He carefully got to his feet, then reached a
hand down to her. 'Or you saved mine,' he said. 'You saw the damn
thing coming at us first.'

Allegra took his hand and gingerly rose to
her feet. 'Oh, God,' she said. 'We really could've been killed,
Todd, and it's all my fault for getting us involved in this.'

He hugged her to him. 'I didn't have to get
involved in this,' he said. He looked down at her. 'Are you sure
you're okay? Your legs?'

Allegra peered down. 'Torn panty hose,' she
said. 'Maybe some scrapes. It's nothing.' She looked back up at
him. 'Are you okay? You took the brunt of the fall with me on top
of you.'

He shrugged. 'I'm all right,' he said. 'Did
you get a look at the car?'

'I could hardly see a thing,' she said.
'You?'

He shook his head. 'No. Just the lights.'

'I saw the grille,' Allegra said, 'and it
looked . . . well, it looked old- fashioned. But I don't know what
it was.'

Todd looked around them, his gaze sweeping
the grand square. Nobody had stopped to stare at them as he would
have expected. 'I wonder if anybody saw what happened.'

'Who knows?' Allegra said. 'Besides, I don't
think we want to involve the police.'

'You're sure about that?' he asked. 'Somebody
just tried to run us down.'

'I know, but please, let's just go and eat,'
she said.

He hugged her again. 'Do you want to go back
to the hotel and order room service instead?'

'Maybe that's a good idea,' she said,
nodding.

Todd helped her over the fence, and they
started to walk back across the square to the hotel. In the near
distance, they heard the familiar roar of a car again.

'I don't fucking believe this!' Todd said, as
Allegra scrambled back over the fence toward the safety of the
column.

'Look!' she cried. 'That's it! The car.'

The car barreled toward them, but swerved at
the last second, the driver obviously thinking twice before
crashing into the bronze-sheathed column. 'They're nuts!' Todd
exclaimed. 'Fucking nuts.'

The car roared on toward the rue de la Paix.
As they watched, it seemed to suddenly stop. Then they heard a huge
explosion. Metal and glass were propelled skyward, and another
explosion followed the first. A fireball rent the evening darkness,
and their faces were lit up by it. Suddenly the square came to
life. People started running toward the scene of the accident from
every direction. They heard screams and shouts, and in a few
moments the unmistakable sound of emergency vehicles, the police
and ambulances both.

Allegra squeezed Todd's hand, and he put an
arm around her, hugging her to him. 'I don't want to do this,' he
said, 'but I think I ought to go take a look. Why don't you wait
here a minute.'

'No!' Allegra exclaimed. 'I'm going with you.
I'm not staying here.'

Once again he helped her over the fence, and
they hurried north toward the rue de la Paix. As they neared the
scene of the accident, they could see that it wasn't the car that
had tried to run them down that had caught fire, but the car that
it had broadsided. The police had started to direct traffic away
from the area and shouted at pedestrians to stay back. The scene
was still chaotic, however, and they got close enough to brave the
intense heat and smoke thrown off by the fire.

The Mercedes-Benz's convertible top reared up
into the air almost perpendicular to the car, and the driver was
clearly visible in the hellish light cast by the fire. Allegra
gasped, and threw her hand to her mouth. 'Oh, God, help us,' she
whispered. She turned her head and buried it in Todd's
shoulder.