Read Online Fire Hawk by Geoffrey Archer - Free Book Online

the door. Then she searched the cupboard over the basin and amongst bottles of baby oil and skin lotion found some shampoo. Wrapping a towel round her waist to protect her skirt from splashes, she wet his thick, dark hair with the hand shower and massaged the shampoo into it, her long fingers lovingly re-exploring the shape of his head as if recovering a half-lost memory. She worked the shampoo down to his neck and shoulders.
    â€˜You’re so tense,’ she breathed. ‘Your neck muscles are like a statue’s.’
    â€˜I can think of a nice way to loosen them,’ he murmured, reaching up to hold her hand against his neck.
    â€˜Sam . . .’
    With a snort of a laugh she took her hands away. Picking up the shower, she rinsed his head. Then she laid it in the bath and stood back.
    â€˜If you’re going to be like that, I think I’d better leave it to you to wash the rest.’
    She folded her arms and watched as he soaped the more intimate parts of his body. When he’d almost done, she took the sponge from him and dabbed at his back, biting her lip at the extent of the bruising she saw there. By the time the washing was complete, there was water all over the floor.
    â€˜I’ll mop it up in a minute,’ she told him.
    She took a towel from the rail and draped it over his shoulders. Her hands hovered for a few moments. If he’dbeen facing her he would have seen the indecision in her eyes. Making up her mind, she pressed her body against his, hugging him from behind as tightly as she dared. Her mouth reached the level of his shoulders.
    â€˜I haven’t half missed you,’ she whispered, sighing.
    Sam knew that nothing had really changed in her, mind and body still pulling in opposite directions. And the body had usually won. A woman who wanted it all, whatever the consequences. He knew then that he could persuade her if he tried. He knew it for a certainty. And why not? Why shouldn’t they make love, even if it were for old time’s sake.
    â€˜They’d written you off, lover.’
    Her words sliced through his thoughts.
    â€˜Who had?’
    â€˜The Firm.’
    He swallowed hard. He’d expected it – denying spies when they got into trouble was the name of the game – but to hear it confirmed that SIS had been ready to let him die was still shocking.
    â€˜They’d got the denials all prepared,’ she continued softly, still clinging to him, ‘for when the Iraqis paraded you in front of the press. You were dead meat, Sam.’
    He didn’t need to know this. So why was she telling him?
    â€˜And? What changed it?’ he croaked. ‘What swung it my way?’
    She clung to him harder than ever, her chin hooked onto his collar bone.
    â€˜
I
changed it. I told Martin I’d divorce him if you died.’
    Slowly he twisted round. He stared at her in astonishment. There was, he supposed, some daft female logic in what she’d just said.
    â€˜You’d divorce him if I was
dead
? But you weren’t prepared to do it when I was living and breathing and wanting you to?’
    She shrugged and looked down at the floor. It didn’t make a lot of sense, but then what she felt seldom did.
    â€˜Well anyway,’ he breathed, nonplussed. ‘Thanks. Thanks for saving my life.’ He began to dry himself.
    She folded her arms as if feeling the need to get in control again.
    â€˜Well,’ she added, deciding to make light of it, ‘I suppose I did owe it to you, since you saved
my
life.’
    He watched her fingering the long strands of hair that curved down to beneath her jaw line. They were dark and damp from being pressed against his wet shoulder.
    â€˜You kept me sane when Martin was driving me mad,’ she explained. ‘And you took the flak on the Kiev cockup.’
    She was referring to a drugs investigation they’d both been involved in a year ago which had gone sour.
    â€˜And you took it