Heather Graham (2 page)

Alex smiled as she refolded the letter and carefully replaced it in the envelope. Tingles of excitement raced furiously up and down her spine. She didn’t doubt Jim for a second—he knew where he would discover the tomb of Anelokep. And she would be there.

It was the ultimate fantasy. Since she had been a child and first heard Jim weave tales of the mystical and awesome wonders of ancient Egypt, she had dreamed of just such a discovery. Since she had first seen the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx standing a silent, ageless sentinel, she had known her life would be dedicated to the quest of new understanding of the people who had created such indestructible magic.

“I’ll be there right on time, Jim,” she whispered tenderly to the letter as she stuffed it into her bag. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. She leaned her head back against the sofa and closed her eyes to dream again for a minute. A frown suddenly puckered her brow, and she pulled the letter out again.

“If anything should go wrong, get hold of Sheikh Sheriff … A few things are making me a little nervous. …”

Thanks, Jim, she thought. Now you’re making me nervous. You can sure explain that paragraph to me when I get there!

Thoughtfully she refolded the letter a second time.

Only then did her eyes fall upon the second envelope she had drawn from her mailbox. Her heart seemed to leap and squeeze. It was from Wayne. She would recognize his chicken scrawl anywhere.

Slowly, hesitantly, almost as if it were a snake and would bite, she opened it.

Alex, Not Dear Alex, she thought dryly, just Alex:

Understand Jim is in Cairo and that you are going to meet him. Happen to be in Luxor myself. Meet me in Cairo at the Hilton on the seventeenth. I believe we can get it together.

Love you, Wayne

Love you, love you, love you, love you. …

The words rang in her mind until she felt dizzy. Then she twisted the envelope around. Yes, it too had Egyptian stamps; she hadn’t noticed them because she had seen Wayne’s writing.

She swallowed and took a deep breath. I won’t be in Cairo on the seventeenth, she thought sickly, I’ll be somewhere in the Valley of the Kings.

She bit her lip and stood, stretching to shake off the painful dizziness and churning in her stomach. Maybe I can get back to Cairo for the day, she thought. Travel by the Nile was slow, but now there were plenty of flights from Luxor.

“Don’t let him ruin your life,” Jim had warned.

She bit her lip again, then hurried to the cherry wood secretary where she kept her correspondence. You are right, Jim; I am an adult and I have spent my life studying and researching and dreaming of just such a venture as ours.

She drew out a sheet of her monogrammed paper with the tiny etched oasis scene in the far right corner.

Wayne [No Dear Wayne, just Wayne. Anyway, how had he known she was going to be in Egypt? A lucky guess? He knew her father, he knew her own expertise. If he had read that James was bringing an assistant, wouldn’t he expect it to be her? It didn’t really matter. When she saw him, she could ask him. Right now she had to write a brief, noncommittal note],

I’m sorry, I cannot make Cairo on the seventeenth. If you wish, I will meet you in the dining room of the Luxor Egyptian on same date.

She hesitated a long time before signing the short note. And then she brought her pen back to the paper.

Love,

Alex

Feeling satisfied with her solution—one that proclaimed her her own person and yet stated she would be willing to see him, Alex copied off the Luxor address on Wayne’s envelope and applied postage to her letter. She would have to mail it first thing in the morning. She strode with light steps into her kitchen.

Life suddenly seemed incredibly beautiful—a dream in process of fulfillment, a chance to begin again.

Fifteen minutes later Alex brought a small broiled steak and a large salad with all the trimmings into the living room. For company she turned the TV on, not bothering to check the program listings.

It seemed strange that one of the men Jim had mentioned in his letter suddenly came to life before her.

Dan D’Alesio.

It was a rerun, the special on the different hotbeds of unrest in the Middle East, delving into the turmoils of centuries past which, never resolved, now exploded again and again.

It was an excellent documentary, and D’Alesio was good. He was a striking man, dark, well built and apparently agile. He climbed the cliffs of Afghanistan as well as the soldiers he accompanied. His report was intelligent and articulate and more. He gave it something—a rare insight.

Alex could understand why Jim had agreed to let him film the expedition.

She had never met D’Alesio, but Jim had been impressed by him at their first meeting. And she would be meeting him soon. For a totally inexplicable reason, she felt a tiny trail of chills shoot down her spine as D’Alesio’s dark eyes seemed to meet hers across the barrier of the color screen.

They were powerful eyes, she thought, chuckling and giving herself a little shake. So dark, brooding, yet sharply alert. They were jet; they were the intensity of slow-burning fire. They were cool, and yet they were a tempest.

Alex finished her steak and rose to carry her dishes into the kitchen. Meticulously she washed and dried them and tidied the kitchen. She wanted the apartment in perfect order before she left.

She showered and carried a few of her books into the bedroom, hoping to make it a very early night. She was susceptible to jet lag and therefore liked to fly across the Atlantic with an abundance of sleep behind her.

With a glass of wine at her side, she went over various notes, then idly thumbed the pages of a large pictorial book on ancient Egypt. But it was hard to concentrate on either her notes or the pictures. Her mind kept leaping from Jim to Wayne, from hieroglyphics to Wayne, from the Sphinx to Wayne. She even began to wonder if she should back out of the expedition. This was her chance to reconcile her personal life.

Don’t be more of a fool than you’ve already been! she warned herself harshly, and as if in emphasis to the warning, the phone at her bedside began to ring stridently.

She answered it hastily. “Hello?”

“You were supposed to call!”

“Oh, Kelly! I’m sorry, I—”

“No excuses,” Kelly said and chuckled, and as the soft, husky sound reached her, Alex shook her head slightly. Kelly’s natural voice was incredibly sexy. She should have been doing voiceovers for escort services rather than compiling dinosaur bones all day.

“I am sorry. I forgot,” Alex admitted ruefully.

“That’s okay. I know your mind must be working overtime. I just wanted to wish you a great trip! And I wanted to warn you to look out for those desert sheikhs.”

“Kelly,” Alex said with a sigh, “I’ll be in Cairo and Luxor. Believe it or not, there aren’t a lot of sheikhs running around the Valley of the Kings!”

“What about Sheriff?”

“He lives in the United Arab Emirates, not Egypt.”

“He lives where?”

Alex shook her head again with a small smile. Kelly could probably rattle off full volumes on the subject of anthropology, but as to current affairs, she was woefully remiss.

“He lives on the Arabian Peninsula, Kelly, miles and miles from Cairo! He’s financing Jim; he’s not going on the expedition.”

“Oh.” Kelly sounded a little disappointed. “Actually I think it would be the best thing in the world for you if this sheikh were to gallop across the desert and sweep you onto his Arabian charger—”

“Kelly,” Alex interrupted with a soft sigh. Her closest friend was a brunet beauty who loved men only next to dinosaur bones. They flocked to her by the score, and Kelly accepted and went through them as casually as she might a roll of paper towels. It was unthinkable to her that Alex, as a divorcée, could refuse even to date for a year.

“I’ve heard from Wayne,” Alex said softly.

Her remark was greeted by silence, and then an explosion. “Alex, you’re incredible. Most of the time, you are the strongest lady I know. You’ve got a smile cool enough to freeze a whole football team; half the men I know would give up ten years of their lives for a single date—yet you handle them like steel and turn to putty in the hands of Dr. Wayne Randall! Listen to me, kid. I’m not going to try to tell you that Wayne isn’t dynamite-looking, or that he isn’t personable. But Alex, you’re even more dynamite-looking, and more personable. And smarter, which I think is what has always bothered Wayne!”

“Oh, come on, Kelly—”

“It’s true, Alex. He’s jealous of you.”

“Don’t you think he might have changed?”

Again Kelly hesitated. “It’s possible. Are you going to see him?”

“Yes. Just to listen.”

“There is no fool worse than a woman in love!” Kelly said with a snort.

“I’m not going to be a fool, Kelly. It half killed me to file for that divorce, but I did it.”

“True. I think I’m still going to go light a few candles and pray that the desert sheikh carries you off! If you’d let yourself go a little … I mean, honey, the only man you’ve ever known is Wayne. Give another man a chance and you might discover there are more fish in the sea.”

Alex grimaced and asked dryly, “So you suggest an Arabian sheikh, huh? They’re all Muslims, Kelly. I don’t think I’d be happy as a fourth wife or as a harem girl!”

“Maybe not,” Kelly mused with a solemnity that made Alex bite back her laughter. “Hey—what about D’Alesio?”

“What about him?”

“Well, he’ll be filming the expedition. And I tell you,
that
is one hunk of a man. He makes me pant just watching him on TV. Dark, rough, rugged—he is raw sexuality, honey, he’s—”

“He’s married.”

“D’Alesio? Uh-uh. He announced once on an interview show that his life was too hectic for a family.” Kelly giggled. “What he meant was that he wasn’t about to have any strings attached to slow him down. Ummm. Have an affair, Alex, a wild fling.

Just don’t lose your heart.”

Alex sighed. “Kelly, it’s already lost. And I’m certainly not in the mood for an affair.”

“I’ll bet D’Alesio could put you in the right mood.”

An affair. Alex blinked, barely listening as Kelly droned on. She bolted upright in the bed and holding the phone between her ear and shoulder and jerked open her bedside drawer and begin delving with one hand through a pile of lingerie. On the bottom she finally found what she sought—the pills she had long ago stopped taking. As Kelly continued about D’Alesio, Alex engaged in a mental dilemma over another man.

She would be a fool to hop into bed with Wayne. It would be easy to do so … too easy. But it wouldn’t solve the problems between them. But she loved him so much. Missed him so much. What if she couldn’t resist temptation? She would be more of a fool if she took a chance on a pregnancy at this stage of the game.

She popped a tiny pill into her mouth and juggled the phone to wash it down with a sip of wine.

“Alex?” Kelly queried.

“I—I’m listening!” Alex lied quickly. “Umm … how do you know so much about D’Alesio and the expedition and all?”

“Don’t you ever read the paper?”

“Yes, I usually do—and you usually don’t!” Alex laughed. “Did you read the article?”

“You bet. Mike—you remember Mike, don’t you, the race car driver?—called me up to point it out because he knows you’re my friend. It gave me quite a thrill! You’re the unnamed assistant! I know something UPI doesn’t!” Kelly chuckled softly, then asked, “How come Jim didn’t announce your name?”

“I’m really not sure, Kelly. He’s been very secretive about a lot of things. There’s bound to be some competition. He probably doesn’t want much known about anything until we’re halfway into the tomb.”

“Umm … probably,” Kelly said. “Oh, well, I’ll let you get some sleep. Watch out for curses. And if a sheikh should come riding along, trip him, will ya? You need a little experience!”

“Very cute, Kelly. But thanks a lot. And I’ll call you as soon as I get back!”

Alex had barely hung up the phone before it started ringing again. She picked up the receiver with a smile, certain Kelly had a few more last words of wisdom she had forgotten to give her.

“Okay, Kelly,” Alex answered dryly, “What is it? Am I supposed to trip D’Alesio, too?”

There was a pause on the other end. “I certainly don’t suggest it, honey. He’s kind of a tough individual to trip!”

“Jim!” Alex exclaimed joyfully at the sound of the gentle and beloved voice. The line suddenly filled with static, and she closed her eyes as if somehow she might hear better. “Where are you, Jim? This is a terrible connection!”

“Abu Dhabi. United Arab Emirates,” he responded a little impatiently. “Did you get my letter?”

“Yes—”

“Is your flight all set?”

“Yes, I’ll be there.”

“Good. I’ve heard via the professional grapevine that your ex has been getting in touch with you. You’re an adult, honey, and I can’t tell you what to do. I can only remind you that you’re a stunning and bright woman and you’ve got an entire lifetime ahead of you. Don’t accept anything less than what you deserve—which is the best.”

“You’re sweet, Jim, but—”

“I’ve seen him, Alex. He’s been in Egypt a couple of months, exploring something or other.”

“Yes, I—”

“Don’t miss out on the expedition, honey. If a man loved you, he’d want this opportunity for you.”

“I’m not going to miss—”

“Good. Now listen to me, Alex. I want you to know that you have all the puzzle pieces. Do you understand me?”

“I what? The puzzle pieces? Jim, there’s a lot of static on the line. Jim?”

The static suddenly stopped, shut off by a sharp click. “Jim?” Alex repeated. She was answered by a monotonous buzzing. The connection had been severed.

“Damnit!” she hissed, tapping furiously upon the phone with her fingers. The buzzing continued. Sighing with frustration, she stared at the phone, then tried the international operator. The call couldn’t be traced any farther than the province of Abu Dhabi. Exasperated, Alex hung up the phone. How many people could have been calling Chicago from Abu Dhabi at that particular time? Not many, she would warrant.