Mail Order Bride (Novel)

Chapter 22: Shopping

I woke up with the sun in my eyes. I lay quietly for a while, just enjoying the feeling of waking up next to a beautiful woman. Daise was still lying in the crook of my arm, but she had turned to face away from me and I was snuggled up behind her. I had my right arm draped over her waist.

As I lay there, basking in the early morning light, and in the feeling of Daise's body against mine, I slowly came to realise that something was strange. I hadn't woken up completely, so it took me a little while to figure it out. It suddenly clicked into place for me when I realised that I had an arm draped across my shoulder. I lifted my head slightly to look over Daise and saw that Alina was in the bed, on the other side of Daise and had cuddled up to her. It was her arm that was draped over Daise and resting on me.

When I tried to extricate myself quietly, Daise stirred and turned her head towards me. "Good morning Rupert," she said sleepily.

"Morning Daise. When did Alina join us?" I whispered.

"She crawled in sometime after we fell asleep. I haven't spoken to her, I didn't want to wake you. She was probably feeling lonely. We shared a bed most of the time at home."

"No problem. I was just wondering. I'm going to go for a swim, are you going to join me this morning?"

"I'm so warm, I don't want to move. It's probably a good idea though."

"Ok. I'm getting up now, feel free to go back to sleep if you want."

I got up and went into the bathroom to relieve myself. When I came out to get dressed in my baggies, I couldn't help but admire the sight of the two beautiful women lying snuggled together in my bed, their arms around each other and their long hair intermingled on the pillow.

I shook my head to clear the images that my thoughts generated at the sight and went downstairs to start my morning swim.

Some time into my swim, I became aware that the two women had made it down to the pool. I stopped at the end of one length to greet them.

"Don't stop because of us," Daise said brightly.

"Why not," I answered looking up at the two of them, "I couldn't wish for a better view."

Daise preened a little and Alina adjusted her bikini self-consciously. It looked as if she was wearing one of Daise's, as it was delightfully small. "Feel free to join me," I invited them.

Daise looked at Alina, and responding to some signal I couldn't pick up, turned back to me, "No, I think we'll just watch from here."

They settled down on the pool steps. I carried on swimming for another thirty laps before stopping.

When I got out, they joined me and we wrapped our towels around us before walking into the house for breakfast.

Nqobile had set the table with a variety of cereals and I started the coffee percolating. As we ate, I told them what I had planned for the day.

"I thought we could go to the Pavilion Mall to do some shopping," I told them and saw the interest bloom in their eyes. "After that, I have made an appointment with a friend of mine. We'll meet him a bit later."

"Who is it?" Daise asked.

"His name is Roy Peace. He is a Staff Sgt in the regiment, but more importantly for us, he is in the Metro Police. I called him the day before yesterday when I was making plans and he told me that his section is tasked with dealing with a 'new wave' of organised crime in the city. He says that it is mostly to do with the drug trade at the moment, but Police Intelligence has speculated that they are getting slowly into prostitution. From what he says, I think that it might be the people we are interested in."

"What will he do?" Alina asked, a little tentatively. I got the idea that she was unsure of her status with me; I guessed she realised that she needed to rebuild my trust in her, as she was trying to build her trust in me.

"He'll just brief us at first, although he has said that if we do think that these are the right people, he will take us on a drive to see if we can spot some of them. I emailed him the photos you took at the airport Daise, and he says he thinks that he recognises one or two of them."

"Dimitri?" Alina asked.

"No. I specifically asked him and he doesn't recognise him. He must be here only because of you."

When we had finished eating, we got changed and waited for Sgt Major Dhlamini to arrive. He had left me a message to tell me that he had some things to take care of. While we waited, I asked Alina about her joining us the previous night. She was a little tentative at first, but after some prompting, admitted that Daise had been right: she was feeling lonely and scared and needed the company. I reassured her that she was welcome any time.

Two hours later we were at the Pavilion Mall. We had an unobtrusive group running interference for us while we shopped. The women loaded up on all sorts of clothes at my urging and were ready for me when I called time and hustled them out to the car. Once we had everything loaded, we found a table at Firkins, a restaurant that opened out onto the roof parking lot, and we waited for Roy to arrive.