Moonflower (17 page)

His hands
slid over her hips, lower to her buttocks. He slid his palms
downwards, cupping the flesh, squeezing gently. Sophie crushed her
hips to his, rocking, feeling the hardness there. She thrust her
tongue into his mouth and out again, a mirror of how desperately
she wanted him inside her. Deep inside. As deep as he could
go.

Her
fingers fumbled to unbutton his shirt and her lips followed her
fingers across the strata of muscles, stopping at hard nipples,
teasing them with her teeth. He groaned, snaked his fingers in her
hair.

Sophie
moved lower, sinking to her knees. When she reached for the button
of his trousers, Reuben, with a strangled cry, dropped to his knees
in front of her, unbuttoned her shirt and nibbled the tender flesh
above her collarbone. He gently squeezed her breasts through the
thin fabric of her bra. Sophie unfastened the front clasp and
pushed the cloth aside.

A sharp
breath hissed between Reuben’s teeth before he clasped her back and
ducked his head to her breast. His tongue circled her swollen
nipple. Round and round until Sophie tangled her fingers in his
hair. Only then did he take the nipple into his mouth and suck
gently. He repeated the motion: tongue circling, circling, then
swooping in to suck her gently, until Sophie panted, her head
swaying back to touch the tree trunk. She thought she might pass
out. She focussed on his face.

‘
You do things to me…’ she told him, shaking her head, feeling
close to tears as he unbuttoned his trousers. ‘I just
don’t—’

‘
Know if you can take it?’ he finished for her. ‘And you
torment me, Sophie.’ He looked fierce as he reached forward, his
hand moving between her legs, massaging her there. ‘Why do you
torment me? Does it give you pleasure, Sophie?’

In
answer, she took him in her hand, ran her palm along his length, up
over the bulging head. He moaned, sat back on his heels.

Sophie
stood quickly on trembling legs and fumbled beneath her skirt to
pull her knickers off. Then she knelt again, lifted her skirt and
he guided her hips over his. She sank down onto him, and it felt as
if he’d filled her entire being.

They
moved together slowly at first. He holding her hips, she kissing
his mouth, his cheeks, his chin. And then there was no control
anymore, as they dipped and rose on wave after wave of sensation,
helpless against the strong current. Unable to do anything but hang
onto each other as if their lives depended on it, until the tumult
ended in the burst of a tidal wave that washed them up onto the
warm, soft sand, contentment lapping at their feet.

Reuben’s
arms circled her and held her against his chest for the longest
time. Then he took his shirt off and laid her gently on top of it,
lying down beside her. They held hands, gazing up at the moon
between the trees.

Reuben
sighed deeply, and at that wonderful sound of contentment, Sophie
turned on her side and curled up beside him. ‘I didn’t think you
wanted this anymore,’ she said softly against his chest.

His
fingers brushed her forehead, disappeared into her hair. ‘What made
you think that?’ he asked, almost dreamily. ‘I thought I was being
pretty obvious. You should know by now I can’t help myself around
you.’

Sophie
raised herself on an elbow, her hand caressing the hair on his
chest. ‘You seemed in a hurry to leave the hut this morning. Didn’t
even wait to say hello.’

Sophie
frowned at the recollection.

‘
Well,’ he said, running a finger along her nose, ‘you didn’t
seem particularly happy to see me. And then you turned your back on
me. Rather pointedly, I thought.’

‘
I was teaching a class, Reuben.’

He leaned
forward and kissed her gently. ‘That still doesn’t explain why your
usually sunny disposition turned cloudy the minute I walked into
the room.’

Honesty
was not an option for Sophie; it was part of who she was, so she
had to tell Reuben how she felt, even if it meant laying her soul
bare to him. Did she trust him that much? Yes. Here and now she
trusted him with everything she was.

‘
I decided while you were away to return our relationship to
one that is strictly professional.’

Reuben
frowned. ‘It never was strictly professional. If you remember, the
first time I laid eyes on you, you’d revealed yourself to me in
your bra and we’d known each other for less than hour when you
pulled me on top of you under that wall hanging.’

‘
A slightly biased take on events,’ she said, grinning at
him.

‘
So why did you decide you would not make love to me again,
Sophie?’

A sizable
lump had formed in her throat, but she forged on anyway. ‘You said
all you could promise me was what we had here and now. And when you
left, here and now was over.’

‘
But I came back,’ Reuben said, brushing aside a curtain of
hair that had fallen forward to obscure her face.

Sophie
shook her head. ‘I’m not a sophisticated woman, Reuben. I can’t
take a lover for my own needs and walk away when it no longer suits
me. I was fourteen when I decided to be a conservationist. It isn’t
the easiest career choice for a woman, and I’ve had probably more
than my fair share of challenges and curveballs, but I’ve never
once thought of giving up or doing anything else. That’s the kind
of person I am.’

She sat
up suddenly. ‘You know, I still have the same pair of hiking boots
my parents gave me when I was sixteen and got my first job as a
monitor on a game reserve. I’ve had them re-soled many times, but I
can’t bring myself to throw them away for a fancy new pair.’ Sophie
shrugged. ‘I’m the same with the people I care about.’

Reuben
stared at her. She gently rubbed a finger along the small crease
that had appeared on his forehead.

He sighed
and sat up. Looking away from her, he said into the darkness, ‘I
have around fifteen thousand people in my employ across various
companies. People whose families rely on me for a living. The grit
of business is a breeze compared to that responsibility. Do you
think I keep going with it all because I want to make more and more
money? No, I keep grinding away to keep a competitive edge because
I have a responsibility to keep the jobs going that so many
families rely on.’

Sophie
had seen the fear and fatigue of an animal that had been trapped in
the bush. She saw similar emotions in Reuben’s face and felt great
tenderness for him. She gently brought his face back to her. Kissed
his forehead, rose on her knees, took him in her arms and cradled
his head against her neck.

‘
I hadn’t thought of that,’ she told him. ‘The pressure you
must be under. The responsibility, all the expectations. And that
it never lets up. My poor Reuben.’

He looked
up at her then, studied her face as if he were seeing her for the
first time. There was an intensity in his eyes that she could not
read. It was impossible to know what he was thinking.

His hand
slipped to the back of her neck and he kissed her slowly,
deeply.

Then he
pulled away from her, and it was as if a cloud had passed over the
darkness of his eyes. He broke eye contact with her, peered down
and rubbed her elbow. ‘Look at you,’ he said. ‘I think we should
get you into a shower.’

They got
to their feet, put on their clothes and once they’d cleared the
orchard, ran hand in hand across the lawn, being pelted by the
sprinklers, around the rosebushes and the lake. They snuck along
the path and reached the cottage, breathless and very wet. As soon
as the door closed behind them, he lifted the sleeveless shirt over
her head.

‘
Don’t you want me to make us something hot to
drink?’

‘
Now you tease me, woman!’ he told her, unwinding her
wrap-skirt with a flourish.

Sophie
smiled mischievously, bit her lip. ‘Oh, I haven’t even got started
yet, Mr Manning,’ and she pulled his shirt over his head, not
bothering to undo the buttons.

Reuben
loosened her bra, let it drop to the floor, and pulled her against
him, pressing her breasts to his naked chest. He kissed her face,
her lips, her neck, and that’s how they made their way to the
bathroom.

It was
amidst torrents of hot water and steam, back pressed to the wall,
legs wrapped around Reuben’s waist, that she came a second time, in
shuddering spasms.

They
eventually crawled naked into Sophie’s bed. She pulled the sheet up
over them.

‘
Don’t cover yourself,’ he told her. ‘I want to see you when I
open my eyes.’

So they
lay entwined in each other’s arms beneath the mosquito
net.

‘
Reuben?’

‘
Mmm,’ he said contentedly.

‘
Do you have any idea where we go from here?’

He gave
no immediate response to her question.

‘
I think it’s pretty obvious I’m crazy about you,’ she
prompted. ‘But we really are poles apart, aren’t we?’

The hand
that had been caressing her shoulder was suddenly still, and he was
silent for the longest time, then he sighed. ‘I don’t know, Sophie.
I just don’t know.’

Her heart
ached for reassurances, guarantees that what she gave to him so
fully and so freely would not simply be discarded, would not hurt
her to the point of bitterness. But, if he had asked her the same
questions, she would have given a similar answer.

She
nuzzled his neck as he stroked her hair.

‘
I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day.
Only thing I can tell you, Sophie, is that I’m not giving you up. I
can’t. Not right now.’

Sophie
nodded and laid her cheek against his chest.

‘
Damn it, Sophie!’ he said, suddenly, rolling her onto her
back. ‘Why couldn’t you have been a novelist or a model? A bloody
event planner for all I care! Just something you could have done
anywhere. I’d put you on the first plane to London.’

‘
Or,’ Sophie said, shaking him gently, ‘you could have been a
London vet who was just waiting for a chance to look after animals
on a game farm in Africa.’

Sophie
laid her head on his chest again. It was then she allowed the
fatigue of the day to overtake her. They wouldn’t give each other
up, not just yet. Tomorrow they would spend together. And for
tonight, that was good enough.

Chapter
Eleven

Sophie
did not speak to Reuben again about their future after that night.
There seemed no reason to; things were almost perfect as they
were.

The
lovers fitted comfortably into a routine. Rising early, they would
head out into the bush. Reuben was learning quickly about the
plants and animals around him, and Sophie was amazed at how keen he
seemed to be to throw off his corporate gear and get his hands
dirty.

At around
nine o’clock they’d head back to the house; Reuben to his study
where he’d spend hours with his telephone, e-mails and reports,
while Sophie would see to any admin that needed doing, check
equipment, order in supplies, work on her grid analysis of the
farm, and train Isaac and Sipho.

On the
rare occasion he wasn’t still buried in his study at midday, they
would have lunch together, the staff accepting with surprising
nonchalance that there was something going on between them. They
simply gave them their space, after their own fashion—Patience
pretending she saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, and
Beauty dissolving into fits of giggles whenever she saw them
together.

Sophie
was determined there’d be no awkwardness, so she made sure she
broached the subject with Sara. She was at pains to explain that
they had feelings for each other, it was not a casual
fling.

‘
Rolf and I had a second daughter; she died of cancer,’ Sara
said, checking the gleam on a polished table.

‘
I’m sorry,’ Sophie said. ‘I no idea.’

Sara went
on without a trace of self-pity. ‘She was eighteen when she died.
She would have been about your age now. And I like to think she
would have lived her life as fully as you do, and with as much
kindness and humility.’

Sophie
felt her eyes prickle; she swallowed.

‘
Thing is, Sophie; life is sometimes far shorter than we think
it is. If you hurt no-one and try to do what you know is right, you
should grab happiness wherever you find it.’

Impulsively, Sophie had hugged Sara and left the room with a
lightness in her step.

Even Mr
Solomon seemed to approve, although she couldn’t for the life of
her figure out how he could possibly know about the
affair.

‘
Hmm,’ he would say to her, and nod with approval, when they
came face to face in the garden. Or, when in a more expansive mood,
‘Ah-ha! That rosebush was not dead, my girl. Not by a long
chalk.’

The first
consignment of animals arrived just after five one morning, before
the heat of the day could beat down on the container trucks
delivering the male giraffe and two young females.

Reuben
waited beside Sophie in the area she’d chosen as their home range:
six hectares of golden grassland and acacia trees in the north
corner of the farm.