Wildfire Read online

  The overhead fan turned lazily above them as he sat back on his heels and she raised herself up to cup his balls in her hands. Then moistening her lips with her tongue she took him very slowly, very tightly into her mouth.

  ‘Jesus Christ,’ he muttered, his fingers digging into her shoulders as she began to move her head back and forth. ‘Don’t stop,’ he groaned, taking her nipples between his fingers as she slid her hands round to his buttocks.

  ‘Get up on your knees,’ he told her a few minutes later.

  Still holding him with her mouth she did as he said, positioning herself on all fours and feeling him move even deeper into her mouth as he leaned forward to stroke her buttocks.

  ‘Keep going, don’t stop,’ he said. ‘Just open your legs. Nice and wide. That’s it.’

  His penis was as solid in her mouth as the ache of desire between her legs. She was longing for him to enter her, but this felt so good, so brazen and unbelievably erotic. She slid her mouth right back to the tip of his penis then drew him in again. As his hands stroked her body it was as though she could feel herself merging with his lust, as though he was somehow blurring her senses with the sheer power of his need. She could feel him all over her; in her mouth, on her face, on her breasts, her back, her buttocks; she could feel him pushing inside her, thrusting his thighs against hers, gripping her waist and penetrating her deeply. Yet he was there in her mouth. But she could feel him behind her, knew that he was inside her, pushing himself deeper and deeper inside her.

  In a daze she stopped and turned to see Doug kneeling behind her and as Andy’s fingers tightened on her nipples Doug cupped her face in his hand, leaning over her and kissing her, sucking her lips between his, then pushing her back to his brother’s penis. She took it in her mouth, moaning softly as Doug began to pump in and out of her, sliding his hands to the front of her and rubbing her. The sensations rising in her body were indescribable as both penises pushed into her with slow, rhythmic movements carrying her towards an orgasm such as she’d never known in her life.

  They took her in every position, moving her between them, kissing her, stroking her, loving her and taking her through the night in a daze of unsurpassable pleasure. Through their gentle moans of desire and cries of fulfilment she could hear the distant roar of lions and haunting wail of hyenas – it was as though they were caught in an endless primeval ritual that bathed the senses in unendurable pleasure. As their bodies writhed beneath the canopy of white gauze, the ceiling fan stirred the thick, humid air. She had never known her body capable of such exquisite response, had never known it was possible for two men to share her and make her feel like the most beautiful, most sensuous woman alive.

  When finally she slept she lay with her head on Andy’s shoulder, her hip partially covering his, her hand on his chest. Doug got up quietly from the bed, walked over to where he had left his clothes, dressed quickly, then picking up his gun turned to look down at his brother. Andy was watching him and the two of them exchanged a knowing smile as Andy stroked the tousled blonde head on his shoulder, kissed it, then rolling her gently to one side, got up to leave too.

  The sun was just beginning to rise as Rhiannon wound her way through the trees to where the guests were gathering for breakfast. Everyone was decked out in khaki shorts and shirts with a variety of hats and sun-visors and professional-looking cameras dangling about their necks. As they milled around the lounge with cups of tea and coffee, nibbling on small wedges of cake and puffing early-morning cigarettes, they were firing endless questions at the rangers whose patience and know-ledge appeared as infinite as the charm of their surroundings.

  ‘Coffee?’ Hugh offered, holding up a pot as Rhiannon joined their group.

  ‘Please,’ she answered, checking her bag to make sure she had everything. ‘No sugar. Any sign of Melanie?’ she added, looking up at Lizzy and finding, to her amazement, that Lizzy’s eyes were far from the bleary, bloodshot ones she’d been expecting.

  ‘She’s just popped to the loo,’ Lizzy answered, grinning at Rhiannon’s response to her appearance. ‘Sleep well, did you?’ she asked breezily, taking the cup Hugh was holding out and passing it to Rhiannon.

  ‘Not bad,’ Rhiannon replied, taking the cup. ‘How about you?’

  With a brief, expressive lift of her eyebrows, Lizzy turned to Jack to ask if he wanted to mike her up before they left.

  ‘How much tape did we use yesterday?’ Rhiannon said, tearing her eyes from Lizzy and turning to Hugh.

  ‘Thirty, forty minutes,’ he answered, stifling a yawn. ‘I’ve put a couple of ninety minuters in for this morning. Did you manage to get a shower, by the way? I didn’t seem to have any water.’

  ‘No, me neither,’ Lizzy complained as Melanie rejoined them. ‘At least only a dribble.’

  ‘Apparently an elephant pulled the pipe out of the ground in the night,’ Melanie informed them, picking up her coffee. ‘They’ll have it fixed by the time we come back, or so that woman over there just said.’

  Rhiannon looked to where Melanie was pointing and saw Randy Theakston standing alone just outside the kitchens, apparently engrossed in setting up her camera. Beside her on the table was a smart-looking pith helmet and an expensive pair of binoculars. Her face was stern with concentration, though Rhiannon got the impression that her expression was probably always that way. When she’d finished with her camera she hooked it around her neck, then stood with a hand on her hip looking at no one, speaking to no one and presumably waiting to be told what to do next.

  ‘Are we going to ask her to join us?’ Rhiannon said, noticing that Lizzy was watching her too.

  Lizzy shrugged. ‘If you like. Do you want me to go and ask?’

  ‘No, you go Melanie,’ Rhiannon replied. ‘And pack that yawning in will you Hugh, you’re getting me at it.’

  ‘Morning folks. How are you all this morning?’ It was Jim, one of the other rangers.

  ‘Pretty good, thanks,’ Rhiannon answered.

  ‘Hear the lions in the night?’ he asked. ‘There were several of them about the camp in the early hours.’

  For no particular reason Rhiannon glanced at Hugh and almost burst out laughing when she saw his face turn white. Obviously someone hadn’t obeyed the camp rules last night. ‘Think I’ll go and start loading the gear,’ he said, banging his saucer with the cup as he put it down.

  As he walked off across the grass with Jack and the ranger, Rhiannon turned to Lizzy, seizing their few minutes of privacy. ‘So, come on, what happened last night?’ she said. ‘Was he good?’

  Lizzy grinned widely.

  ‘Lizzy! Don’t keep me in suspense. You look fantastic, by the way, so whatever he did he must have done it right.’

  Lizzy’s blue eyes were dancing with laughter. ‘I’ll tell you this much,’ she said, ‘it was a first for me.’

  ‘No!’ Rhiannon gasped, impressed and intrigued. ‘Why, what did he do?’

  ‘You mean they,’ Lizzy corrected smoothly. ‘What did they do?’

  Rhiannon’s eyes instantly dilated. ‘You mean . . . ? How many were there for God’s sake?’

  Lizzy laughed and picked up a piece of cake. ‘Only the two,’ she said casually. ‘Andy and Doug.’

  Rhiannon’s mouth fell open as she struggled to disguise her dismay. Lizzy might think she was strong enough to handle this, but Rhiannon wasn’t convinced. Nevertheless, she wasn’t going to be the one to dull the light in Lizzy’s eyes, so smothering her concern with a genuine cry of amazement she said, ‘You’re not serious! Both of them? What was it like, for God’s sake?’

  Lizzy shrugged. ‘I guess you could say it just about blew my mind,’ she responded airily.

  Rhiannon was shaking her head. ‘And how do you feel this morning? As if I need to ask. But what did you say when you woke up? Didn’t you feel, well, embarrassed?’

  ‘Embarrassed!’ Lizzy scoffed. ‘I felt seriously fucking amazing, is what I felt. Besides, they weren’t there when I woke up, either of the
m.’

  Rhiannon frowned, not sure what to make of that, though instinctively not liking it. Then bringing her eyes back to Lizzy’s she started to laugh again. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she said. ‘There am I lying abed all on my own-some absolutely dying for it while you’ve got the two most gorgeous men in the camp all to your greedy little self.’

  ‘I know,’ Lizzy sighed. ‘But there are some things a girl just can’t share.’

  Laughing, Rhiannon put down her cup. ‘Come on,’ she said, ‘looks like everyone’s on the move. And try to take that grin off your face, will you, we don’t want to frighten the animals. What happened to Melanie?’ she went on, looking around. ‘Did she ask that woman to join us?’

  ‘Looks like it,’ Lizzy said, nodding towards the reception, where Melanie and Randy Theakston were chatting with Andy and another ranger.

  ‘Morning ladies,’ Andy smiled as they approached. ‘You both slept well I trust?’

  ‘I did,’ Rhiannon answered chirpily, earning herself a quick nudge from Lizzy. ‘How about you?’

  ‘Never better,’ he answered, looking only at Rhiannon. ‘Let me introduce you,’ he went on. ‘This is Randy Theakston. Randy Theakston, Rhiannon Edwardes, producer of the Check It Out programme.’

  ‘Hi, nice to meet you,’ Rhiannon smiled, holding out her hand.

  ‘Likewise,’ Randy responded coolly, barely touching her fingers to Rhiannon’s.

  Rhiannon’s eyebrows rose. ‘Uh, this is Lizzy Fortnum,’ she said, turning to Lizzy. ‘Our presenter.’

  ‘Hi,’ Lizzy said, tearing her eyes briefly from Andy who still hadn’t looked at her.

  ‘You ready to get going?’ he said, tossing his keys in the air as Randy and Lizzy shook hands.

  ‘Do I have to have this thing under my feet?’ Melanie complained, kicking the hamper as she climbed into the jeep.

  Had it not been for Andy’s curtness, Lizzy would have offered to swap places so that she would be sitting in the front. As it was, she decided not to. ‘Just shut up and be grateful you’re here,’ she snapped at Melanie.

  ‘Hop in then, ladies,’ Andy said.

  Rhiannon sat between Lizzy and Randy, neither of whom was much more communicative than the other, though Randy’s aloofness, as Rhiannon made further polite attempts at conversation, was so pronounced it was almost offensive. In the end Rhiannon gave up and turned to absorb the passing scenery. As they bumped along the track heading out into the bush, she tried not to worry about Lizzy. Not that Lizzy would welcome being worried about, for Lizzy liked to think she was perfectly able to take care of herself. And she probably was, it was simply that Rhiannon couldn’t bear for her to be hurt any more than she already had been, and the signs so far this morning were not looking good.

  Some twenty minutes later they were parked at the edge of a track gazing out over endless rolling acres of bushveld, a glorious dawn turning the sky gold as a herd of impala roamed the plains before them.

  ‘I can’t believe I ate one for dinner last night,’ Rhiannon wailed guiltily.

  ‘They’re not in short supply,’ Andy grinned, by way of comfort. ‘You see that fella through there,’ he went on, ‘the one standing slightly to the left between the trees? That’s the buck. He’s the guy who mates the whole herd.’

  Hugh pulled the camera from his eye. ‘The whole herd?’ he echoed.

  ‘That’s right, mate,’ Andy grinned. ‘He’s a busy bloke.’

  Then when I die I want to come back as him,’ Hugh declared.

  As everyone laughed, Rhiannon glanced at Randy – not even the glimmer of a smile touched her lips.

  ‘Now there’s an unusual sight,’ Andy said, pointing. ‘A female impala with horns. It’s a freak of nature, ’cos you never normally see females with horns.’

  ‘You never met my wife,’ Jack muttered, twiddling the controls on his sound-mixer.

  As they all laughed again the radio burst into life telling them of an elephant sighting at Crossreach. ‘A lone bull,’ said the voice. ‘And he’s not in a good mood.’

  ‘Oh, how exciting,’ Randy commented, causing Rhiannon to blink in surprise.

  Andy lifted the radio. ‘Message received,’ he said. ‘We’re not far so we’ll go take a look. Have you heard from base since we’ve been out, mate?’

  Before the other ranger could respond base came through. ‘Morning Andy,’ she said. ‘We’re here.’

  ‘G’day Jen. Any sign of Doug yet this morning?’ he said, steering the landrover back on to the track and making towards Crossreach.

  ‘Not yet,’ came the reply.

  ‘Then give him a message when he shows,’ Andy said. ‘Tell him our guest for the Safari Suite’s arriving earlier than expected, meaning we’ll be returning around nine thirty so the crew can get some shots before he checks in. Doug should be out there at the landing strip to meet him around eleven, tell him.’

  ‘Will do. I’ve got a telephone message here for Rhiannon,’ she said. ‘It’s from . . . Oliver? He says to tell her he called.’

  Andy glanced back over his shoulder. ‘Message received and appreciated,’ he smiled when he saw Rhiannon’s face. ‘Over and out.’

  Randy shifted in her seat, tucked her short silvery hair behind her ears, then began to focus her camera on something way in the distance.

  ‘Is he still in New York?’ Lizzy asked.

  ‘No, he was getting the red-eye back to London last night,’ Rhiannon answered. Then after a pause, ‘This is going to be the longest we’ve been apart since we met.’

  ‘How long ago was that?’ Randy asked, still looking away across the plains.

  Lizzy’s eyebrows rose as she and Rhiannon exchanged glances. ‘Three, almost four months ago,’ Rhiannon replied.

  ‘He’s American?’ Randy said, capping her lens. ‘You mentioned New York,’ she explained when Rhiannon frowned.

  ‘No, he’s English,’ Rhiannon answered. ‘He mainly works out of New York though.’

  Randy sniffed, then turned her grey eyes back to the semi-distance.

  The look on Lizzy’s face as she turned back to Rhiannon was vintage Lizzy – it was a look that spoke volumes.

  It was several minutes later, whilst making a slow descent into a ravine and holding on to their hats as the jeep tilted from side to side, that Rhiannon said, ‘Are you married, Randy?’

  Randy turned her handsome face to profile. ‘I was once,’ she responded. ‘We divorced several years ago.’

  ‘Do you have any children?’ Lizzy ventured.

  ‘No.’

  Rhiannon grabbed for the rail on the seat-back in front as the landrover bounced up over a rock.

  ‘Sorry about that, folks,’ Andy said, glancing over his shoulder. ‘Everyone OK? No damage?’

  ‘No damage,’ Hugh confirmed from the back.

  ‘How about you, Lizzy? You surviving all this bumping around?’

  Lizzy’s eyes widened slightly at what she assumed to be a concern for the tenderness of her nether regions after the night they had spent together. Then catching him watching her in the rear-view mirror she smiled as he winked and the memory of everything they had done coasted a reassuring warmth all the way through her. Idly she wondered if Doug would join them again that night and found herself hoping not – after all, one could have too much of a good thing.

  A while later, after failing to find the elephant, they stopped at a deserted waterhole and as Andy and Elmore began to unpack the hamper, Rhiannon and Lizzy wandered down the bank, discussing the commentary they would overlay on what they had shot so far that morning.

  ‘Hey, watch out, you two,’ Andy shouted over from the jeep as they neared the water’s edge, ‘there are crocs in them there waters so don’t get too close.’

  Rhiannon and Lizzy instantly stepped back and to their surprise almost knocked Randy Theakston over.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Rhiannon said, ‘I didn’t realize you were there.’

  ‘It was my fault,’ Rand
y told her. ‘I came up rather quietly.’

  Rhiannon looked from her to Lizzy and back again, not sure what to say.

  ‘Uh, how long are you staying at Perlatonga, Randy?’ Lizzy said, filling the silence.

  ‘I leave the day after tomorrow,’ Randy answered.

  ‘For where?’

  Randy’s eyes travelled searchingly across the water. ‘Cape Town,’ she said.

  ‘Same as us,’ Rhiannon smiled.

  ‘You ladies going to have some coffee?’ Andy called out.

  Randy turned and hooking her camera over her shoulder began to stride back up over the bank.

  ‘Great company,’ Rhiannon said, as they started slowly after her. ‘I’m so glad we asked her to join us.’

  ‘We must get her address,’ Lizzy responded, her eyes fixed on Andy as he came strolling towards them with two cups of coffee. ‘Thanks,’ she said, smiling up at him as he passed her a cup.

  ‘You’re welcome,’ he said, handing the other cup to Rhiannon. ‘Sorry about the elephant,’ he went on, ‘but there are plenty around here so don’t despair.’

  ‘I won’t,’ Rhiannon assured him. ‘What do you think the chances are of us sighting a cheetah?’

  ‘Slim,’ he replied. ‘More likely to be at night.’

  Rhiannon nodded, then catching the look on Lizzy’s face said, ‘Uh, I think I’ll just go and talk to the boys, there are a few things I need to check with them, if you’ll excuse me.’

  ‘Sure,’ Andy said, turning to walk back to the jeep with her.

  ‘Hey,’ Lizzy said, putting a hand on his arm to stop him.

  As he turned to look down at her Lizzy felt herself start to colour. ‘Are you trying to avoid me?’ she challenged softly.

  Though he laughed his eyes seemed oddly cold. ‘Why would I do that?’ he said.

  She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. It’s just the impression I’m getting.’

  He looked at her for some time, then taking a breath, he dug his hands into his pockets and gazed out at the veld.

  ‘Aren’t you going to say something?’ she prompted, hating herself for how pathetic she was sounding.

  ‘What do you want me to say?’