Wildfire

by Susan Lewis

  When at last they landed, her fellow passengers began fussing excitedly as they prepared to disembark. Rayna’s head popped up from behind her seat; her mascara was smudged, but she’d touched up her lipstick and folded her silky hair decorously over one shoulder. Meeting Lizzy’s eyes she smiled; Lizzy smiled back, then glanced at the pilot as she wondered if he had radioed ahead to let them know he had an extra passenger on board. It was almost certain that he would have, but had he told them her name? Elizabeth Fortnum. Would Andy realize that was her? Would he be waiting when she stepped out of the plane?

  The plane’s door was heaved open and the loud chirping and rasping of an African night swamped the cabin, turning Lizzy’s heart over as it swathed her in memories. A warm, scented breeze fluttered her hair as she stepped out into the darkness and tried not to feel as though she was stepping into a void.

  ‘Hey, Lizzy!’

  Hearing her own name she blinked, then focusing on the man at the bottom of the steps her heart began to pound. ‘Doug!’ she cried, running down the steps to greet him.

  Laughing, he caught her in his arms and spun her round. ‘I thought it was you when they radioed through,’ he said, ‘but the Elizabeth threw me. So, how are you? It’s great to see you.’

  Soundly relieved and encouraged by how genuinely pleased he appeared, Lizzy laughed and hugged him back. ‘It’s great to see you too,’ she told him. ‘It’s OK, is it? Me arriving unannounced like this? There’s somewhere for me to stay?’

  ‘Are you kidding? There’s always somewhere for you,’ he assured her. He was grinning all over his face as he held her hands in his and gazed at her incredulously. ‘Shit, I can’t believe it,’ he said. ‘I just can’t believe it. You’re actually here.’

  ‘I’m actually here,’ she repeated, laughing as he seized her again and hugged her as though he had never been so happy to see someone in his life. ‘How long are you staying?’ he asked, as he let her go.

  Lizzy’s heart skipped a beat. This was Doug, she reminded herself, not Andy. And if Doug knew she was here, then surely Andy must too. So where was he? ‘I’m not sure,’ she answered. ‘It depends . . .’

  ‘Hell, it doesn’t matter,’ he interrupted. ‘It’s just good to see you. Can’t wait to see Andy’s face,’ and with a laugh that sharpened her unease he turned to the other ranger and started giving orders.

  To Lizzy’s frustration he allocated Rayna a space in his own jeep, while the Dutch group were loaded aboard the other and driven off down the airstrip. Minutes later they were bumping along after them, Rayna ensconced between Lizzy and Doug in the front seat, the pilot stretched out on one of the bench seats behind. They stopped several times, once to look at a family of hyenas feasting on the carcass of an impala and twice to listen to the distant roar of a lion. The stops were mainly for Rayna’s benefit, but Rayna was more interested to know how Lizzy and Doug knew each other, why Lizzy hadn’t mentioned it before, where Doug came from in Australia and whether or not it was true they served a cocktail called a screaming orgasm. Lizzy winced, but had to remind herself that she too had once made use of that cocktail in much the same way. Suddenly she turned cold. Would the same happen to Rayna tonight as had happened to her on her first night? Both brothers. Rayna was slinky and gorgeous and so obviously available that the possibility was too high to dismiss and if the way Doug was already responding to her was anything to go by, the seduction had been clinched on the booking form.

  Seeing the lights of the camp up ahead, Lizzy crooked an ironic eyebrow as she rehearsed how she was going to cover her nerves and humiliation when she got there. She now knew, because Doug had just told Rayna, that Andy had been out on a drive when the plane came in and had no idea yet that Lizzy had been on it.

  ‘Heck, is this going to be a surprise for the bloke,’ Doug grinned, glancing over at Lizzy.

  ‘A nice one, I hope,’ Lizzy responded.

  The radio squawked over his reply and before she could ask him to repeat it they were pulling up under the trees in front of the camp.

  The next few minutes passed in a daze as staff and guests milled around the reception, sorting the luggage, checking in and arranging dinner. Lizzy watched them, feeling like a ghost at the wrong seance, while trying to will herself into some kind of action. A receptionist was talking to her, telling her that she had chalet number six and that one of the guards would take her and her luggage over, but Lizzy was barely registering the words.

  She didn’t see the brunette at first, her hair was so black that it was lost in the darkness as she walked across the camp, but as the two of them walked into the light of reception Lizzy felt a cold paralysis stealing through her body. Andy’s arm was draped possessively around the girl’s shoulders, hers was curled around his waist.

  Lizzy’s cheeks flared with colour as her heart twisted with shame. Quickly averting her eyes, she could only wonder why the hell Doug hadn’t warned her. How warped did a man’s sense of humour get that he could greet someone the way he had greeted her, whilst knowing what she was about to walk into?

  Reluctantly her eyes moved back across the reception. The three Dutch couples were about to depart with their escorts and Doug was introducing Rayna to Andy and the brunette. Andy’s arm was no longer round the brunette, but as he listened to whatever Rayna was saying he looked down at the brunette and smiled. He was besotted, anyone could see that and Lizzy just wanted to die. She started to move, then her heart stood still as his eyes suddenly found her and at first confusion, then astonishment, then total disbelief registered on his face.

  Forcing a smile to her lips, she walked boldly towards him, holding out her hand ready to shake his. ‘Hi,’ she said. ‘How are you?’

  His bronzed, handsome face was still frozen in shock as, barely aware of what he was doing, he took the hand she was offering and shook it. ‘Great,’ he answered, staring at her as though she were some kind of apparition, ‘Just great.’ Then appearing to collect himself a little, he added, ‘How are you? What are you doing here?’

  She shrugged and threw a quick glance at Doug whose grin was painfully wide. ‘I was just passing,’ she said with a casual wave of her hand.

  Andy turned to Doug, obviously about to ask what he knew about this, when the brunette nudged him, reminding him she was there too. But Andy seemed not to notice as his eyes returned to Lizzy’s.

  ‘Hi,’ Lizzy said, holding a hand out to the brunette. ‘I’m Lizzy.’

  The girl’s eyebrows instantly shot up. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Lizzy,’ she said with a careful glance at Andy.

  ‘This is Catherina,’ Doug jumped in. ‘Our stepsister.’

  Lizzy felt herself start to sway as the suddenness of relief loosened the tension in her limbs. ‘It’s lovely to meet you,’ she smiled. ‘Are you living here, or just visiting?’

  ‘I’m just coming to the end of a four-month stint,’ she answered. ‘I’m starting Uni the week after next.’ Her gorgeous face suddenly lit up. ‘You know, I’ve heard so much about you, but I never thought I was going to get to meet you.’

  Lizzy’s eyes went instantly to Andy’s. ‘What have you been hearing?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Andy said, putting a hand over his sister’s mouth. ‘I’ll tell her myself. How long are you staying?’ he asked Lizzy.

  Lizzy shrugged. ‘I’m not sure,’ she answered, feeling a knot of emotion starting to gather in her throat. It was going to be all right. He was pleased to see her. Wasn’t he?

  Dimly she was aware of Doug leading Catherina away as those left in reception disappeared behind bamboo screens or melted into the darkness. Andy’s blue eyes were fixed on hers, the incredulity starting to give way to laughter.

  ‘I was beginning to give up hope,’ he said softly.

  Lizzy’s head went to one side as she frowned.

  ‘I thought you’d never come,’ he whispered and lifting her chin with his fingers he pulled her towards him and covered her mouth with his.
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  By the time he let her go Lizzy’s eyes were shining with tears. ‘Why did you never write or answer my calls?’ she asked, her voice catching on the emotion lodged in her throat.

  ‘I didn’t want you as a friend,’ he answered. His eyes were looking far into hers as his fingers sank into her hair. ‘Why did you come?’

  Biting her lips in an effort not to laugh or cry, she said, ‘I’m not sure. I mean . . .’ She took a breath and rolling her eyes, she said, ‘Because I wanted to find out how I would feel when I saw you again.’

  His eyes darkened as brushing his thumb gently over her lips, he said, ‘Do you know the answer to that yet?’

  She nodded and as his mouth found hers again she clung to him, pressing herself to him and feeling him respond to the need quickening inside her.

  ‘We’ve got a lot to talk about,’ he whispered, holding her face up to his, ‘but right now I think we’ve got other things to attend to.’

  Chapter 19

  ‘WHERE HAVE YOU been?’ Rhiannon demanded, sinking into the downy white cushions of Galina’s sofa and nestling the phone into her shoulder. ‘I’ve been trying to get hold of you for days.’

  ‘We’ve been making up for lost time,’ Lizzy responded drolly. ‘What do you think we’ve been doing?’

  Despite the slight catch in her heart at the prospect of what this could mean, Rhiannon’s eyes were simmering with laughter. ‘You mean it’s worked out?’ she said.

  ‘Mmm, I think you could say that,’ Lizzy replied.

  ‘Well?’ Rhiannon prompted. ‘Details please.’

  Lizzy’s sigh was one of perfectly feigned boredom. ‘Darling, it was moonlight and madness from the moment I arrived.’

  Rhiannon laughed. ‘Did he know you were coming?’ she said. ‘You did tell him, didn’t you?’

  ‘No. I just walked into the camp, into his arms, then into his bed. We emerged about an hour ago, when I got all your messages.’

  ‘Wow! You mean you’ve been making love for five days?’

  ‘More or less. We talked a bit too. He claims he always knew I’d come, which I don’t believe for a minute, because even I didn’t know I would until I got here. But you know what men are like – they have to say these things, it puts starch in their egos. The truth is, he’s been pining for me all this time, but had too much pride to tell me or ask me to come. He says he asked once and that was enough. The next move had to come from me, which it did and now we’re planning babies.’

  ‘You’re not serious!’

  Lizzy laughed. ‘I am. Well, we’ve talked about it, anyway. I’m not getting any younger, remember, and we’d both like kids so we’ve given up the contraception and we’re at it morning, noon and night. But that’s enough about me, tell me about you. What have you been up to? How’s it going over there?’

  ‘OK,’ Rhiannon answered, aware of how fast her heart was suddenly beating. ‘But getting back to you. Are you serious, Lizzy? I mean, I know you, you love to wind me up, so tell me the truth, are you really intending to . . . stay there?’

  Lizzy’s hesitation was only momentary, but it was enough to tell Rhiannon that there really was no joke, Lizzy and Andy were going to try and make a go of this. Rhiannon’s eyes moved to the tangerine sky outside, where the sun was descending into the shimmering blue Pacific. The sense of loss she was already feeling was pulling at her heart and the prospect of returning to London was suddenly unbearable.

  Lizzy laughed awkwardly. ‘God only knows how this sort of life is going to suit me,’ she said, ‘but, hell, what have I got to lose?’

  ‘Nothing, I suppose,’ Rhiannon answered, getting up to go and pour herself some wine. ‘And if you feel it’s the right thing to do . . .’ She stopped, then pushing herself on, she said, ‘Don’t tell me I’m going to get to play maid of honour twice in the same year I was nearly a bride.’

  Lizzy’s wince was almost audible. ‘I wouldn’t do that to you,’ she replied soberly. Then, ‘No, we have no plans to get married. Actually, we haven’t even spoken about it. Now come on,’ she prompted, ‘tell me what’s been going on over there. When’s the wedding? This Saturday, isn’t it?’

  Rhiannon inhaled deeply. ‘That’s right,’ she said, unplugging the cork from an already open bottle of chardonnay and filling a glass. ‘And everything’s totally last minute. I only had a fitting for my dress yesterday, but apparently the woman’s a genius and will have it ready by the day.’

  ‘What’s it like?’

  ‘Ivory silk, very plain. Actually, it’s beautiful. So’s Galina’s. I’ll take photographs.’

  ‘Speaking of which,’ Lizzy pounced, ‘how are you getting on with the idea of a video, or doing an interview?’

  ‘Oh God,’ Rhiannon groaned, closing her eyes as she sank back down on the sofa. ‘Don’t remind me. I had the most terrible show-down with Max over all that, he virtually ordered me out of his house. God, it was awful.’

  ‘What do you mean? What happened?’

  ‘What happened is that he has Galina’s phone tapped, the phone that I’m on now, so you and I were revealed in all our scheming glory last time we spoke. He even quoted back at me some of the things I said.’

  ‘No!’ Lizzy gasped. ‘What did we say? Or no, I don’t want to think about it. Is someone listening in now?’

  ‘I’m told not,’ Rhiannon answered. ‘Ula, Max’s assistant, left a message on the voice mail to tell me, and I quote, “to please feel free to use the telephone whenever you like, it’s in normal working order now.”’

  ‘Get out of here,’ Lizzy laughed. ‘What kind of guy is he, for God’s sake? Or more to the point, what’s Galina up to that needs checking out?’

  Rhiannon smiled at the familiarity of the phrase. ‘God knows,’ she answered. ‘She says she sleeps with other men, but heaven only knows if it’s true. I know I wouldn’t if I had someone like Max.’

  ‘It could be true,’ Lizzy suggested. ‘After all, why else would he be having her calls listened in to? What are they like together? Do they seem close?’

  ‘Very,’ Rhiannon answered, then started to frown. ‘I mean, they do, but . . . Well, something doesn’t feel right. Don’t ask me to explain, because I can’t. It’s just a gut feeling I have that all is not as it should be around here.’

  ‘Have you mentioned it to Galina?’

  ‘I haven’t had the chance. She was going to try and work it so we could spend some time together before the wedding, but she seems to have forgotten about it now. She went to Chicago on Monday on some Conspiracy assignment and doesn’t come back until late tomorrow. She called me on Sunday, the day after I had the bust-up with Max, but she didn’t mention it, so obviously he hadn’t either.’

  ‘I see,’ Lizzy muttered. ‘Tell me some more about him. I mean, I take it he didn’t shout at you the entire time you were there.’

  ‘Almost,’ Rhiannon mumbled, feeling the heat of her embarrassment returning as she saw, and almost felt, the anger she had seen in his eyes that day on the beach. But it wasn’t only embarrassment. Her heart faltered and she held her breath, waiting for the feeling to pass. It was incredible, irrational even, but there was no denying the intensity of the attraction she felt for Max Romanov and had been feeling virtually since the moment she’d met him. Of course she hadn’t recognized it as that at first, but now she did she was finding it almost impossible to stop thinking about him in ways that aroused her so much she sometimes wondered if she was losing her mind.

  Trying to push it aside now and summoning all the objectivity she could muster, she said, ‘I think he’s an extremely wealthy man who’s very used to ordering people around and getting his own way. He’s got . . . a very definite air about him, not arrogance exactly, more . . . Well, more confidence, I suppose. Actually, he’s quite sinister in a way. Is sinister the word I’m looking for?’ she said, cocking her head to one side as she tried to stay in tune with what she was saying. ‘Maybe not. I don’t know. He’s got this way of looking
at you that makes you feel like the emperor who’s just been told the truth about his new clothes. Do you know what I mean? He sees right through you, strips you bare of everything, but manages to keep a wall around himself that makes you feel that even if you touched him you’d be no closer to him than if you were the other side of the globe.’ She was struggling to think of more, something that wouldn’t alert Lizzy to the way she was feeling, but would tell her how powerful yet remote he was, how unbelievably attractive and disturbing he was, how just the conjured image of his naked body could turn her bones to jelly.

  Then, quite suddenly, her mind switched to Ramon and slapping a hand to her head she cried, ‘My God, I didn’t tell you who else was there, did I? Oh Lizzy, you’re not going to believe this, but Ramon, the guy who rescued me in Marrakesh, is staying at the Romanov villa. At least, he was, he’s flown off somewhere now for a couple of days, but can you imagine the shock I got when I saw him? He’s here for the wedding too, at least I think he is. He was a bit vague about that. Anyway, apparently he’s an old friend of Max’s, the Russian-Jewish connection, and get ahold of this, it was Max, so Ramon tells me and Max didn’t deny it, who was responsible for Ramon being in Marrakesh when he was. I mean that Ramon was there for a specific purpose, namely to get me out of trouble should I fall into it, and Max was the one who organized it.’