Chapter 6

It took Annie hours to get back to the apartment.

For a long time, she wandered the streets in the general direction of Skadarliya—trying to think, trying not to think. Eventually she bought a slice of borek and sat down on a bench, watching a few kids splash in the feeble jet of a fountain. She wasn’t hungry, but she chewed and swallowed anyway.

When she arrived home at last, dusk was falling. There was no sign of her husband. Automatically Annie brushed her teeth and put on her pajamas. She let some inane comedy play on the television for a while, without comprehending a word. Then she went to bed—drifting off to something like sleep, except without any rest.

Around 5am, giving up on slumber, she rose to get dressed and cook herself some gluey, inedible kasha. Tom never had come home. She stared at the door, wishing he’d appear so she could scream at him. But when it finally opened, it was Zora who came bustling in with her key. The maid was obviously still fuming over yesterday’s confrontation, eyes shooting resentful daggers, so Annie roused herself and went out. She spent the morning peering in shop windows, full of dismal displays and shoddy merchandise.

Gradually her steps carried her in the direction of Dorcol. If you’d asked her, she couldn’t have said why she was going there, or what she was looking for. But perhaps she found it, because at some point around lunchtime, she turned a corner and ran smack into Miloz, hustling along the street. He smiled and waved, “Annie!”—then stopped abruptly when he saw her expression. “What’s wrong?”

She struggled to choke out anything coherent. “Come on,” he said at last, sympathetic. “Let’s go sit down somewhere and talk.”

She took his arm and they walked a block or two east, soon reaching the waterfront park that overlooked the Danube. “I know a great spot,” he said, leading her to a secluded bench set in an angle between two hedges. It was overshadowed by a majestic old oak tree, and offered a pleasant panorama of the river.

He waited patiently while she caught her breath and quieted the sobs that kept welling up from her chest. At length, she could speak: “Tom and I had a big fight.”

“Yeah,” he said gently, “things looked pretty tense yesterday.”

“But then he didn’t come home last night, and now I don’t know where he is.”

“I can put your mind at ease on that score, at least. I saw him this morning. We had a meeting scheduled, so Deyana and I swung by just before 10 to pick him up. He was at your apartment then. He suggested I take the meeting myself, though, while he and Deyana went over some things—said it was an ideal time to get some work done, since the place would be quiet. You were out jogging or something. And your maid, what’s her name?”

“Zora.”

“Yeah, he sent Zora away too. Said she could have the day off. Hell, the two of them are probably still there now. Want me to walk over with you?”

Annie recoiled at the images that Miloz’s words had summoned in her mind. Did she actually want to take a chance on catching the couple in-flagrante in her own bed? “No.”

Yet after a pause, she went on, anxious for an outsider to weigh in on the doubts that haunted her. Was she being rational? Was she seeing things clearly? “Listen, do you really think that Deyana ... I mean, that she and Tom are just working...? I-I’ve heard things, you know?...”

Miloz looked down at the ground, clearly embarrassed, face slowly reddening. At length he spoke, still not meeting her gaze. “Annie, I’m going to tell you something now. It’s not something I’m proud of, and I wish I could keep it from you. But I think you need to hear it. Yesterday afternoon, after you came for Tom at the club?”

“Yes,” she said nervously.

“Well, he never returned, and after a while I went back to my place. I was bored, and I guess a little horny, so I called up Deyana and asked her to come over and look at some things. When she arrived, I made a pass at her. And, let’s just say that she was very obliging about it, but also extremely frank. She told me it was her job to make us happy—that gratifying Tom and Ricardo was her main focus, but I was part of the package too. She said the minister was very pleased with her whenever she had sex with any of us. And so ... we did...” He looked miserable as he spit out the words.

She wasn’t surprised, not anymore, but it was still painful to listen to. Two days ago she had never even heard of Deyana. Now, that disgusting slag was running around Belgrade, sullying everything Annie cared about.

“I’m sorry Annie. Only, I want you to know the truth about the deal Tom made. And the truth is—he and Deyana had their hands all over each other this morning. Now, I don’t know how far they took it after I left, but I don’t think there’s much doubt. And frankly it makes me sick. I’m just a lonely bachelor, but if I had a woman like you? God, I would never screw it up. You’re too good to be deceived and humiliated like that. You deserve a lot better.”

At that moment, something happened that Annie found difficult to explain afterwards. All she could say for sure was that the emotional buffeting of the last 24 hours must have thrown her far off her equilibrium. She’d been attracted to Miloz from the very beginning, of course, but she’d never intended to act on it. So what had changed now? Was it simply a matter of getting even with Tom? A self-indulgent stab at soothing her bruised ego? Or was she driven by some latent jealousy over Miloz, brought to life by the revelation that the Serbian bitch had her hooks in him too...?

She never could say for sure. But whatever the reasons for it, her actions were unambiguous. Leaning over, she kissed Miloz on his sensuous, full mouth. Kissed him hard.

Without hesitation he kissed her back, eagerly, passionately, lingeringly—cradling her face, so that his fingertips curled in beneath her long chestnut tresses to brush lightly across the nape of her neck. She reached a hand up to the side of his head as well, running her own fingers through the glossy white-gold softness of his mane.

On and on they kissed, lips grinding together insatiably. God, it was thrilling! If she and Tom had ever connected with such intensity, it was too long ago to remember. After a bit, Miloz ventured with his tongue, and she opened her mouth gladly to receive him. The two of them just seemed to fit together—their arms and their mouths and their spirits. The warm tingle of their tongues, as they lunged and parried and toyed with each other ... it was utterly enchanting.

Soon, Annie was breathing hard, chest rising and falling, heart flip-flopping. With one arm, Miloz had her wrapped in a sturdy embrace, while the other reached across to cradle her hip. Then, deftly, he worked that hand in under her t-shirt, skimming it beguilingly up over her bra. Her flesh responded to him, and she pressed her torso back against his fingers, inviting still more of his touch. Through the thin fabric of the undergarment, he teased and tweaked her areolae, and she caught her breath as electric ripples radiated out through her body. Her nipples hardened instantly, poking out with a boldness that would have embarrassed her if she’d had pause to think about it.

At that moment, however, she wasn’t thinking about anything, only feeling. And all of it felt good, and right. The physical sensations were wonderful, of course, but even better was the purity and heat of her emotions. It was so intoxicating to be wanted like this—to want someone else like this—and then to be able to lower her guard and simply give into it...

The woman’s bra was stretchy and her breasts were on the small side, so Miloz—moving with a ravenous urgency—had no trouble working the cups up over them. Then he pushed her shirt up too, bringing the elegant, understated curves of her tits out into the open air. He ran his hands over them greedily. And somehow, in the frenzy of the moment, it didn’t bother Annie at all to be exposed like this, in a city park, in the middle of the day. In her mind, their lovemaking was private, sacred. It was impossible to conceive that any random passerby might stumble across their hideaway.

Breaking free from her lips with some reluctance, Miloz took her nipples in his mouth, each in turn, sucking and massaging them exquisitely. Annie gasped in delight. The fire slowly building in her sex felt powerful, wonderful. Instinctively her hips began to wriggle, trying to create a bit of friction between her legs.

Still nuzzling her breasts, he fumbled the fly of her jeans open and began working his fingers down into her panties. And it was really only then that Annie owned up to herself about where this train was headed. Heaven knows she wanted him to go on, wanted him inside her, wanted ... wanted him so terribly much. But she couldn’t lie to herself about what was happening—she was too honest for that, too principled. And once she faced the hard truth of what she was about to do, she simply couldn’t go through with it.

“No,” she panted, pulling back and putting her hand on the man’s wrist to halt his advance. “Jeez, you’re so hot Miloz, but I ... I mean, I’m still married. Even if Tom did cheat, I can’t just ... i-it wouldn’t be right, you know?”

For a split-second, an angry, thwarted expression flickered across Miloz’s face, and it was unpleasant to see. But then he got ahold of himself. Gradually a look of understanding, or at least acceptance, coalesced on his features. He drew his hands away. “You’re right. I’m just so crazy for you that it makes it hard for me to think straight. But I know you’re not in any frame of mind for something like this. Not right now, at least. I’m sorry.”