Chapter 39: Interlude III

Dimitri's day wasn't going well. It had started on such a high note, and then rapidly gone to shit.

He had managed to find out who the bastard was who had stolen girls from him and killed some of his men.

A piece of luck, finding out that the cop on the scene that night was a friend of the arsehole, then a little chat with him had soon gotten that they needed. It turned out that breaking his legs wasn't enough, but when his teenaged daughter arrived home from some party or other, a threat to her had gotten him to talk quickly enough. She had provided a little fun for him and his two lieutenants afterwards, and her father's cries of protest had been sweet music indeed. I had been a bit of a surprise to see find that she had been a virgin, considering the way she had been dressed; but that had simply added some spice.

Gathering a group of his men had taken some time, as most of them had gone to ground after working most of the night.

Dimitri had been a little surprised to discover that there were guards at the guys house, and for a few seconds he had considered backing off to observe for a while before moving in, but quickly decided that it wasn't necessary; these weren't any {I}mujahedin {/I} that knew how to fight. It was just some rich white guy with a couple of security guards.

It started off very well with the gate guard walking right up to their vehicle with no suspicion that anything was wrong. He went down easily enough. After that Dimitri had gotten the first inkling that things were not as they appeared.

The first sign was the speed with which the rest of the guards reacted, but even more telling was the way in which they reacted. None of them made the amateur's mistake of rushing out to see what was wrong, instead they all went to ground, and then within a few seconds, they were delivering fire from well concealed positions.

Five of his men were blown away in that initial exchange of fire, and that was with hand guns against their assault rifles. The twenty two of his men that were left after that started to waver, and for a second he thought that they might actually defy his order to attack and run away.

A few well phrased threats, backed up by his known propensity to shoot subordinates who disobeyed him, gave them the necessary backbone, and they formed up in a ragged skirmish line and started sweeping towards the house, firing at any possible cover.

Dimitri found himself almost nostalgic for the days in Afghanistan, where he had at least known that all the men were trained to fight like soldiers. This bunch was mostly just thugs, with only a few veterans among them.

The guards certainly acted like soldiers, and Dimitri was forced to re-evaluate his opinion of them as they fell back towards the house in good order; firing and moving backwards, something he knew most soldiers didn't do well, even the best trained ones.

As far as he could see, they only managed to wound one of them, while he lost another three of his men.

Once they were in the house, it became even more difficult, and Dimitri discovered, to his dismay, that the white guy's vehicle was gone. He decided that it was still worth his while attacking the house however, because it was one way that he could hurt the guy.

Dimitri considered his options for a while as his men traded pot-shots with the men in the house, then decided that he needed to take a couple of prisoners and destroy the house.

One of his men reported that he had seen the soldiers, as Dimitri had started to think of them, escaping from the back of the house into the bush. Dimitri ordered his best lieutenant to take fifteen of the men and follow after them, while he remained behind and set fire to the house.

It only took Dimitri and the four men with him ten minutes to sweep through the house searching for anyone who might have been left behind, and then to set it alight.

Once the house was burning properly, Dimitri set out to follow on the trail of the others into the bush. He had deliberately kept the experienced soldiers close to him; they shared a bond from their days in the terrible mountains of Afghanistan, and still remembered the skills learnt there.

It was soon obvious that the bunch he had sent ahead weren't much use outside the city doing their normal jobs of enforcing, extorting and pimping. The soldiers were moving quickly and leaving booby-traps on their spoor which were catching more than their fair share of victims.

Dimitri directed his small group to move parallel to the spoor and at a distance of around fifty meters from it, and they managed to avoid all the booby-traps. When the inevitable ambush came, Dimitri's group was largely unaffected by it, but the soldiers moving away from the ambush surprised him by moving in his direction, almost ninety degrees from there previous direction of travel. The two groups practically stumbled into one another, and in the short, sharp, fire-fight that followed, Dimitri lost one of his group.

Once the soldiers had broken contact and moved off down the hill, Dimitri was forced to deal with another incipient mutiny, as the seven men left in the original group, and the three in his, were very reluctant to continue.

It took Dimitri almost fifteen minutes to calm them all down and convince them that he had a plan to accomplish what he intended.

Dimitri counted on the fact that the soldiers would have reported back to the white guy, Rupert, as soon as the first shots were fired, and that he would come running back. He suspected that his intention was to meet up with his soldiers, deal with the wounded, and then launch a counter-strike.

Dimitri was coming to think of the man as a soldier and a commander of soldiers, and use that to predict his actions. One of the best indications of the nature of a man is the quality and training of the people who work for him and this performance had convinced him that Rupert was a soldier.

Dimitri proceed to set up an ambush in the position that he felt offered the best chance to catch Rupert and his men when they came up the hill. One of the most important factors for choosing the site of the ambush was the best guess as to where they would climb the hill. He selected a spot that provided good cover for his men, as well as good fields of fire, and they settled in to wait.

The inexperience of his men provided the next cock-up of the day. Rupert had confounded him yet again, by coming up the hill on the other side of the stream-bed, and they were well spaced out. One of the idiots that worked for him set off the ambush too early, taking a shot while they were still too far away for it to do any good. Dimitri saw one man go down, before the rest of his men opened up, blazing away with no effect that he could see. Of course, Rupert and this new bunch of men he had with him chose this situation to prove that they were no neophytes when it came to situations like this. Their return fire came back incredibly quickly, with almost no pause that could be taken advantage of, and it was surprisingly accurate.

Once Dimitri saw that the men that were initially pinned down took cover in the stream-bed, he grabbed one of the men closest to him and started moving around to the right to see if he couldnt out-flank them and shoot them from behind.

They moved as fast as they could through the tangled under-growth, while he listened to the battle stalling; only sporadic fire coming from both sides.

When they reached the stream-bed, Dimitri sent his companion ahead with instructions to sneak up on Rupert while he provided cover from the top of the bank. He watched with satisfaction as his companion set up to take a shot around a corner of the stream-bed and then got off a shot that took Rupert down. Just as he started moving along the bank to get into position to fire himself, he got the most incredible shock: his man went down, shot in the head. He dived for cover hoping that he hadnt been spotted, and then watched in amazement as a woman emerged from the bush and ran towards Rupert, carrying an old .303 rifle. From what he could make out, it was Alinas girl-friend, the one that had got them into this whole mess.

Dimitri lay quietly and watched; not sure now whether it would be safe to move. His caution was vindicated after a few minutes. The whore started fucking Rupert, and shortly after they finished, two others emerged from the bush on the far side of the stream-bed and joined Rupert.

Dimitri crawled slowly back into the bush until he was far enough away, before getting to his feet and starting to run for the road. He decided that he was going to cut his losses and abandon the men that were there. He could hear that there had been a further assault on their position and he held no hope that it had gone well for his men.

Chapter 38 - Exploitation

There was only sporadic fire coming from above us in the tree-line. That didn't surprise me at all considering that from their perspective, we had basically disappeared. There was no way that they could see us in the stream-bed, and when we popped up to fire every few seconds, we were well protected by the undergrowth and the fact that we didn't appear in the same place twice.

We had won the initial fire-fight, the uncontrolled phase and then created and won the controlled phase. I had a maneuver element that was moving in to perform a flanking attack, and my fire-support element was well setup and protected. With all those elements taken care of, I decided that I could spare some time to see if I could get acasevac going and move Cpl. Maseka into position to follow up any retreat.

I got out my phone and called Chris. I didn't get a chance to get the first words out.

"I'm on your tail with my medical bag. How badly do you need me?" Chris asked as soon as he answered his phone.

"Thanks Chris. Johnny is down. They got him with the first volley. I have no idea what his status is, I haven't had time to check on him. He's pretty exposed, though if you close up as much as possible, we should be counter-attacking in the next few mikes."

"Ok. I have one rifleman with me for protection and as a stretcher bearer. Cpl. Maseka was bombing up when I left the parking area."

"Excellent. You'll know when we go. Probably in the next three minutes."

I hung up and dialed Cpl. Maseka's phone.

"Major," he answered, "where do you need me?"

"Get on the road and go round towards the house. If any of them run from us, I expect them to west and head for Everton Road. See if you can set up some OPs along there and ambush them if they come through."

"Will do Major."

I hung up the phone, pretty happy that I had got that set up. As I started to turn back to the fire-fight, I was hit low in the side by a round fired from somewhere down-stream; from behind our position. The round knocked me the rest of the way around as it threw me against the bank.

As I slumped down, I saw one of Dimitri's men emerge cautiously and take aim at me again. Rasta and Bird didn't notice anything amiss, as they were still busy shifting position and firing, and they were further up the stream. From where they were, there was no chance that they could see the guy that had shot me, never mind bring their weapons to bear.

I struggled to lift my rifle, and as I did, I got the terrible feeling that I had come to the end of the road, as I could see that the round that had hit me had ricocheted off my weapon before hitting me. I figured that might have postponed my death, but it had damaged my rifle in the process.

I let my rifle drop, and started making the transition to my hand-gun, but slowly, so slowly. I was focused on the man taking aim at me, while a voice in my head was screaming, 'faster, faster you idiot'.

I had barely gotten my hand on the butt of the weapon, when the man's head seemed to explode. He toppled in what felt like slow motion, falling forwards into the sand and mercifully hiding the ruin of what had been his face.

I was completely confused for a few seconds, still tensed for the impact of the shot that my body expected, and fumbling to pull my hand-gun from the holster and jacking a round into the chamber. I noticed, as a vaguely interesting piece of trivia, that I hadn't needed to do so, as a bright shiny round was ejected from the weapon and arched away to fall to the ground.

I came back to myself suddenly; the sounds around me suddenly become clear and sharp again, and my mind started working.

Daise! I had completely forgotten about her. Now I could see her emerging from the bush further down the stream, standing poised on the top of the bank for a second before plunging down the bank and running towards me.

"Bird," I shouted, "take over, I've been shot."

"Are you gonna be OK?" Bird shouted back.

"Yes, medic on the way. You know what to do."

"Yes," Bird shouted one last time, and I swear it sounded as if he was laughing.

Daise reached me just then, and she dropped to a knee next to me and started pulling at my shirt to get to the wound.

"Hey, Daise. Thanks for that," I greeted her, "I'd forgotten you were even there."

"Forget about that Rupert, let me see where you were shot." She sounded seriously pissed at me, almost as if it was my fault for getting wounded. I pulled up my shirt so she could see what I had already figured out, that it wasn't more than a grazing shot. I suspected, from the way that it hurt to breath, that I had at least one rib cracked or broken, but it certainly wasn't life threatening.

As Daise started to look at my wound, I got distracted by what I knew immediately was Spyker and Moose's flanking attack. The sounds of the short bursts from their R5's sounded distinctly different from the sporadic AK shots.

Bird and Rasta waited a few moments before clambering up the bank and starting an attack in support, and I was deeply regretful that I wasn't with them.

My attention was snatched back suddenly as Daise, looking for something to use to clean the blood away from my wound, pulled her T-shirt off over her head.

My adrenaline was already pumping, and the sight of Daise in only a skimpy bra in the middle of a fire-fight, was suddenly the most erotic thing I had ever seen in my life.

I reached out one arm to grip her neck and pull her close into an intense kiss, and slipped the other hand under her bra to grasp at her breast.

Daise was startled by my actions, and pulled back from me at first. Then she changed direction completely, and started kissing me with incredible hunger, trying to bore into my mouth with her tongue and devour me with her mouth.

I slipped my hand down under her skirt and cupped her between her legs. Daise moaned loudly, and reached to unbuckle my pants and free my penis. Once she had accomplished that, without separating our dueling tongues, she flung her leg over me and settled herself down, impaling herself on me.

I shifted my hands to hold her buttocks, guiding her up and down my shaft. I was vaguely aware that my side was extremely sore, and I would suffer for this later, but in the heat of the moment I didn't care.

There was no finesse, just 'hot monkey sex', which didn't last long. With a shudder that ran through her whole body, Daise came, and I erupted into her a few seconds later.

"Oh god, that was intense," Daise said once she had caught her breath. I just nodded helplessly.

"Well, I hate to disturb you ..." I heard and almost died of fright. It was Chris, and he was supporting a smiling, wan Johnny.

Daise went bright red, and buried her face in my neck.

"Good to see you up Johnny. How are you," I asked.

"Hit my head on a tree when I took cover," he answered, obviously struggling to suppress his amusement at my predicament.

"Shit, you weren't shot?" I asked in surprise.

"No, but unless she was a virgin, that blood must be from you," he answered.

I laughed and pushed Daise up. She just stood and her skirt fell back into place, leaving her completely covered again. She took her T-shirt with her and clutched it to her chest. I had to tuck myself away, before Chris bent over me to check out my wound.

"It doesn't look too bad," he told me, and then proceeded to start patching me up, ignoring all my protestations and complaints.

Chapter 37: Into the Bush

As I took my first few steps, I found that I was back into the rhythm. Once it has been pounded into you by instructors and experience, you never forget it. Eyes flick from right in front of your feet to check your footing, up and to the right, scan right to left, close to far, and back again in a never-ending cycle. Walking slowly and stepping high so that you clear any obstacles; checking every few steps that your spacing is correct to avoid the natural tendency to gravitate inwards towards your comrades; checking back at the section-leader; checking up in the trees to break the cycle and avoid getting into a rut that allows your concentration to drift from what you’re doing. Breathing deeply to counter the effects of adrenaline; using the butterflies in your stomach to help keep you sharp. As your eyes scan, remembering to look for shape, silhouette and movement. Checking, checking, and checking constantly.

As I settled into it, the conscious drills faded into the background. I kept doing them, but I didn’t have to think about doing them, just move, slowly and steadily. I had calculated that if Dimitri’s men had followed the predictable pattern, they would have taken about twenty minutes to recover from the fear of ambush as they advanced slowly and found that the way was clear of booby-traps and soldiers, and started to pick up confidence again.

We reached the stopper group that Cpl. Maseka had left behind, and they got up and retreated once we were past.

As we moved further along, the undergrowth thinned out a little, and we spread out a bit further.

I spared a few seconds to search the bush behind me, and saw that Daise was walking with her rifle butt tucked into her shoulder, and a fixed serious expression on her face. I didn't seriously expect her to be engaged, but I felt it was her right to be a part of what was going on. Johnny noticed my inattention, and gestured furiously at me to indicate that I should concentrate on what we were supposed to be doing. I smiled at him and focused back towards our axis of advance.

---

We had moved more than five hundred meters through the bush in the last twenty minutes, and passed the scene of Cpl. Maseka's last ambush, with no sign of any of Dimitri's men. I wasn't too concerned because I guessed that they had retreated back to the house and probably to their vehicles.

We couldn't move too quickly though, because that was just asking for trouble. We needed to spot any possible ambush before we triggered it, and our extended V-formation was designed to foil any such attempts.

Just as I was about to suggest to Johnny that they had bugged out, everything went to hell in a hand-basket.

It started with the distinctive snap-crack of an incoming round. That gave us the warning, and we all went to ground instantly, just before the hailstorm of fire started lashing the foliage of the trees around us.

The old drills kicked in without thought, 'dive-down-roll-observe-sights-fire'. Without any conscious thought, I found myself in a prone firing position looking over the iron sights of my rifle. I was orientated at about fifty degrees left of our line of  advance, as the fire was coming from our left front.

We had been moving up the right side of a stream, and the muzzle flashes showed that the enemy were on the other side of the stream, about two hundred meters in front of us to the left.

I was firing single shots into the base of the bushes in the general area that the muzzle flashes appeared; one shot to the left, one to the right and one in the center, then moving to the next bush.

Once we were fully engaged, I took a look around, because Johnny should have been taking control of the fire-fight by then, issuing fire-control orders, getting us ready to maneuver.

When  I looked back, I was horrified to see that Johnny was down. The first shots must have got him.

I did a quick appreciation, shifting mental gears back to being a Section Leader (small team commander). Moose and Spyker weren't engaged; they were on the right, and sufficiently far over to be obscured from sight both by the vegetation and by the fact that the slight curve of the side of the hill we were moving up, put them into dead-ground. Bird, on point, was pretty much pinned down, and Rasta and I, while in direct line of sight from the ambushers, had both found good cover behind trees.

At this point there was fairly  sporadic fire from across the stream. I guessed that our immediate response to the ambush had caught them by surprise, and our disciplined return fire had been very effective in keeping their heads down.

Time was compressed, as usual, and the whole process took no more than a minute or so. I hadn't even finished my first magazine, when I started issuing orders.

I shouted, in Afrikaans to avoid having my words understood by Dimitri's men.

"Moose, Spyker. Right around flank attack. Move now." (Regsom kantaanval. Beweeg nou) Bird, break contact. Individual fire and movement left on my command.(Breek kontak. Onderlinge vuur en beweeging links op my bevel.) Rasta, covering fire for Bird, then fire and move to the left into the dead ground. (Dekkingsvuur vir Bird, daarna vuur en beweeg na links tot in dooie grond.)"

I paused between each command for the 'battle talk' process, basically everyone shouted the commands back to me, so I could be sure they had all heard and that there were no misunderstandings.

I couldn't see Moose and Spyker moving, but I got a shouted report, "On the way (Op pad)" so I put them out of my mind.

"Swapping magazine (Wissel magasein)" I shouted, to alert Rasta. I pressed the magazine release catch and shoved the empty magazine down the front of my shirt, grabbed a new one, clicked it into place and was firing again within a few seconds.

As soon as I was done, Rasta did the same.

"Move Bird", I shouted, as Rasta started firing again.

Bird came running past behind me, and a few seconds later he started firing.

As soon as I heard Bird firing, I rolled back then ran, crouched over, behind Rasta and Bird, and took up a firing position (Vuurstelling) on his left flank. Rasta followed suit once he heard me firing, and then Bird did the same.

When it was my turn to move again, I was finally able to jump into the stream-bed and get some decent cover against the far bank. Rasta and Bird were soon in the same position, and I could finally take some time, in relative safety, to think about our situation.

---

I would really appreciate comments on this chapter, especially from Vets, about how true the combat sequence rings.

Chapter 32: Going Home

We hadn’t been driving more than ten minutes before the reaction started to set in. The first to go was Daise. I saw her start to go a little green around the gills, and her hands started shaking. When it turned into dry heaves, I shouted at her to open the window, hoping that the fresh air would sort her out. She made it, nearly. Half the vomit went out the window, the rest splattered all over the door.

“It’s alright Daise, nothing to worry about. You’re having a completely normal reaction,” I tried to reassure her.

“I’m OK,” she responded, but I could see she was far from OK.

“It’s the reaction. You were on an adrenalin high and now you’re coming down from it. Don’t worry about it, we’ll get you into a nice hot bath when we get back and you’ll be alright.”

Alina climbed over into the front seat and helped Daise clean up a bit, before holding her in her arms and comforting her. I then noticed that Bettina was sobbing quietly, but she stopped as soon as her daughter woke up. The distraction of keeping her daughter safe was sufficient stimulus for her to suppress her emotions and focus her attention. Also totally normal. The person who bothered me the most was Katerina. I could see her pale face in the mirror, and it looked as though she was wearing a mask. I would have preferred her to cry but, at first, it looked as if she was going to just suppress her emotions. I thought that was going to be very unhealthy.

“How’re you doing Katerina,” I asked her.

“I am very glad that you rescued me,” she replied, “but I am a bit worried that I will stain your seats.”

“What?” That was a complete surprise. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’m bleeding worse.”

“Shit. Sorry Katerina. I completely forgot the reason you were on the way to the hospital. Are you in a lot of pain?”

“It’s OK. The pain does not bother me so much. It is just the blood.”

“Just hold on. Don’t worry about the seat. It’s you that we need to worry about.”

I thought for a moment, trying to figure out what I could do. I was reluctant to go to any of the hospitals because I didn’t have any faith in their ability to keep quiet about her injuries. Nurses were poorly paid and would be very susceptible to bribes. I couldn’t think of any doctors that I knew well enough to call on in a situation like this, but then I remembered an old friend. I figured he could help. I fired up my cell and found his number one-handed while driving.

“Hi Rupe, what’s up,” Chris answered after the third ring. He was a school headmaster now, but he had once been an Ops Medic, well trained in treating trauma, and I knew he had kept up his knowledge as part of the Occupational Health and Safety requirements for his school.

“Are you doing anything tonight Corporal?” I asked him.

There was a slight hesitation. I could almost hear the gears turning. “I haven’t been a corporal for a long time now.”

“Yes, I know. I would push your button unless I really needed you Chris.”

“Ok. How bad is it?”

“Not sure. Bleeding. Pale face. Some sweating, but that’s probably from shock not internal injuries.”

“Ok. I’ll grab my bag. Where can I meet you?”

“My place. We’re enroute now. ETA 20 Mikes”

“Cool. I should make it in about 25 to 30 Mikes. Just have to explain to the mother of my children why I have to abandon her at this time of night. Should I carry?”

“Probably a good idea. I’m pretty sure you won’t need it. We don’t have anyone in ‘hot pursuit’, but you never know.”

“Ok. SeeYa.”

The phone went dead in my ear. I turned to Katerina and told her, “I have someone on the way who will take a look at you. He’s not a doctor, but he’s the next best thing. He’ll be able to tell us what we should do at least.”

“Ok. Thank you,” Katerina replied, the effort to suppress her pain obvious in her voice.

I gave Sgt Major Dhlamini a call and he told me that he was already back at my place, and that everything looked OK. He reported that Nqobile was busy putting something together for us to eat as soon as we got back. I was happy with that. There’s nothing like a bit of an adrenalin high, then the drop back down, to get my appetite going; both for food and … other things. I glanced over at Daise a little guiltily, but saw that she seemed to have calmed down. Alina had fished some wet-wipes out of somewhere and had cleaned up her face, and was in the process of cleaning some of the mess off the car door.

****

The rest of the trip was anti-climatic, although I did keep a wary eye out for any pursuit. The road was quiet and the few other cars on the road were all content to roar past me as I deliberately kept left, in the slow lane.

As we got to my gate, I pressed the remote control and the electric gate slid open in time for me to drive in without stopping. The garage door opened on the same control, and I saw the Sgt Major waiting for me in the double garage. I pulled in and heaved a sigh of relief when the door closed behind me.

“I’ve got the guys patrolling the fence Major,” the Sgt major greeted me, “some of them are really pissed that they missed the action.”

“No doubt they’ll get their chance later. Just warn them that Chris will be arriving in a few minutes.”

“Chris who?”

“Sorry. He’s an old friend of mine. Was an Ops Medic.”

“We have some injuries you didn’t tell me about?”

“Just Katerina. She didn’t get to see the doctor at the hospital.”

“Oh, OK. I forgot about that.” His voice trailed off and I turned to see what had attracted his attention.

“Hey you horny old goat, that’s Bettina’s nanny. You leave her alone!”

“Ok,” he replied, not taking his eyes off her for a second. I just laughed at him and started helping the girls into the house. I half helped, half carried Katerina up the stairs and got her settled into a bed in the second guest bedroom, with Nqobile fussing around like an old abafazi. We had just got her settled when Chris arrived.

“Howzit man. You have no idea how glad I am to see you,” I greeted him.

“No problem. You have to tell me the what the hell is going on here. You have a house full of beautiful women and what look like soldiers patrolling the yard.”

“It’s a long story. This is Katerina. She’s the one with the problem.”

“Ok. Everyone out. Give me some room please.”

I led the way out of the room and started downstairs. Nqobile bustled past me and headed for the kitchen. I went out onto the deck and started up the Jacuzzi, turning the heat to it’s highest setting. Once it was bubbling nicely, I went back inside to get hold of some of the Boboti that Nqobile was dishing up.

“What is that stuff,” Daise asked. I was happy to see that she had changed into a clean track-suit and looked a lot better.

“It’s like a meat-loaf, just a lot more spicy. Based on a Cape Malay traditional recipe. It’s one of my favourite meals.”

“And the yellow rice?”

“That’s the result of the seasoning. Try some, I’m sure you’ll like it.” I fed her a spoonful from my plate and after the first taste, Daise’s reluctance disappeared and I surrendered to the inevitable, handing her my plate and dishing up onto another plate for myself. For the next few minutes there was silence as everyone made a valiant attempt to scrape their plates clean. As we were finishing, Chris came down the stairs, carrying his bag.

“Any of that left for me?”

“Sure, help yourself. What news on Katerina?”

“Kate will be fine,” Chris answered me quietly. “The injuries aren’t as serious as I thought they might be. I stopped the bleeding, which was the most serious. The tears should heal quickly as long as they aren’t aggravated. It seems that the problem is that she has been repeatedly raped and never got a chance to heal. I would still get her to a proper doctor as soon as possible though.”

“Ok, but she’ll be OK for tonight?”

“Yup.”

Chris sat down and I introduced him around. He polished off his food rapidly and I suggested that everyone join me in the Jacuzzi, then walked out onto the deck and just stripped before climbing into the tub and easing myself into the water, not waiting for the reaction of any of the others. It was only a short time before first Daise, then Alina joined me, their pale bodies lit beautifully by the moonlight as they climbed into the tub. Bettina followed shortly afterwards, telling me as she stripped down that her nanny had tucked her sleeping daughter into bed. Daise climbed onto my lap and snuggled into my chest and the others spread themselves out on the seats in the tub. Chris came out briefly onto the deck and excused himself.

“As nice as the scenery is,” Chris said, “I need to get back home. My son is teething and I need to do my shift so my wife can get some sleep. Don’t forget to get Kate to a doctor, OK?”

“Sure. Thanks a million for coming out tonight Chris. I owe you one.”

“And don’t you forget it,” he said with a smile before disappearing back into the house.

Sgt Major Dhlamini appeared briefly. “I’ll sleep here tonight Major, see you in the morning,” he said before vanishing. I suspected that the nanny was going to be experiencing the full force of his charm within the next few minutes and silently wished him luck.

We sat and soaked for a while in silence, content to just enjoy the warm water bubbling around us and the scenery of the deep Kloof in the moonlight. Someone had turned out the house lights, so it was dark on the deck. The faces of the others were just pale blobs, I couldn’t make out any features.

I slowly became aware of Daise moving her cheek on my chest, rubbing it against me almost like a cat, and it made me become aware of her as a naked woman in my arms. The feel of her against me changed from that of a cuddle to concentrate on the rubbery feel of two breasts pressed into me and I shifted uncomfortably as my erection pressed up under her legs. Daise suddenly shifted so that she was straddling me and before I knew what was happening, I was buried inside her as she rocked gently on my lap. I bent my head to kiss her, forgetting completely that there were other people in the tub with us.

“Oh, that is so hot,” Bettina said quietly, which startled me and brought me back to an awareness of where I was. I tried to pull away from Daise, but she just locked her arms around my neck and pulled my head back into the kiss. I decided that it was dark enough that I didn’t need to worry about being embarrassed, and lost myself again in the sensations.

We stayed like that for some unknown eternity, until it suddenly became urgent and I spent inside her. I wasn’t sure what Daise had experienced, and started to apologise to her, but she just ‘shushed’ me and kissed me again lightly. After a few more minutes, she got up and we both climbed out of the tub and headed off to bed, leaving Bettina and Alina in the tub.