Fire Force(18)

He spun around when he heard a splash.

He could see a body moving underwater, and for a moment figured that a boozed-up Ollie and Maksie had tossed Nick into the water. On a second glance, he spotted the long hair twisting under the water. Samantha Sharratt broke through the surface and took a gulp of air. The water was glistening across her slim body, and her hair was clinging to her elegantly sculpted face.

‘Too much blood on your hands to sleep, Mr West?’ she asked.

‘Nothing I’ve ever done has stopped me from getting a good night’s kip,’ Steve replied.

She swam to the side of the pool, sprang out and poured two glasses of champagne from a bottle sitting open on the table there. ‘You’re a soldier?’ she asked, kneeling and handing one of the glasses to Steve.

‘I was. These days, I freelance.’

‘Killed many men?’

‘Not as many as you’ve broken the hearts of.’

She smiled. ‘Doesn’t it trouble you?’

Steve handed back his empty glass then swam away from her on his back, but still looking straight towards her. ‘I never hurt an innocent man.’

‘And I never broke the heart of an innocent man either,’ said Samantha, jumping in and swimming after him.

‘I find that hard to believe, Mrs Sharratt.’

No sooner was the sentence completed than she broke into a peal of laughter. ‘Mrs Sharratt?’

Steve had already reached the other side of the pool. He grabbed hold of the ledge, and looked back towards her.

‘You mean you’re not married to Archie?’

Sam was trying to stop herself from giggling. ‘That dweeb? Christ, no. He’s my brother, you idiot.’

He looked straight into her eyes. ‘Then . . .’

She paused, her blue eyes looking straight into his. ‘Maybe “available” is the word you’re looking for.’

‘Actually, “lucky day” was the phrase I was searching for,’ said Steve with a wry smile. ‘But given that it’s the middle of the night, I’ll settle for “available”.’

His hand reached across to touch her wet face. He ran his fingers through her hair, then pulled her gently towards him. For a fraction of a second he could feel her resist, then she yielded. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and her lips parted as he pressed his mouth into hers. Her kiss was liked being punched by a rose: it stung Steve with an intensity that was unexpected. Within seconds, he was gripping her tight to his body, feeling her hands roaming across his back and down into his trunks.

‘How about you show me your room, Mr West?’ she breathed into his ear.

An hour later, still awake, she was lying entwined in his arms in the bed back in his lodge. Steve could feel her hair lying across his chest, and her soft breath blowing across his face. It was past two in the morning and he was shattered: he’d been pushing himself to the limit for the last thirty-six hours, and Sam had turned out to be a tiger in bed, a woman with a sexual energy, imagination and experience that had left Steve aching with exhaustion.

But still he didn’t want the night to end.

Not if that meant she might leave his side.

‘The worst part was when they found our parents,’ she said.

Steve remained silent, but held her closer to his chest.

‘There was an old guy called Lincoln. He’d fought with Dad, and lost a leg, and after that he came to live on the farm and worked as an odd-job man and caretaker. We used to play with him in the garden when we were kids. He was devoted to the family.’ She paused, catching her breath. ‘The war vets left him alone because he’d fought in the war, but he saw our parents being hacked to pieces, and as soon as he could, he ran for the village and phoned us in London. We’d both moved there by then, and we’d begged Mum and Dad to get out as well, but they wouldn’t hear of it. The Sharratts had been in the country for three generations - it was the only life our parents knew. “They can call it Batota or whatever the hell they like,” Dad used to say, “but it’s my land and I’m staying on it”.’

‘It must have been hard for you.’

Sam snuggled in even closer to Steve’s chest, and he could feel the warmth and suppleness of her body sinking into him. There was a scent to her, a salty mixture of sea and wild flowers that he already sensed could quickly become addictive.

‘Everyone’s parents die,’ she said. ‘But you don’t expect them to die like that. Yes, it can be hard to live with.’

Her eyes rolled up towards Steve.

‘That’s why Kapembwa has to be punished,’ she said, her voice suddenly alive with steely determination. ‘The man has raped the country.’