Chapter 4: Falling On Him

Laura went back to her room and changed into her white two-piece bikini. She had taken a twenty-minute walk to ride horses and didn't even get on one. Also, with how her emotions were all over the place, she wanted to cool off, so she planned on going for a swim.

She undid her hair and put on a sheer white shirt to give her a sense of modesty before leaving her room and going downstairs. As she searched for the pool, she came across one of the maids that were running errands and stopped her to ask for directions.

After knowing the general area of where the outdoor pool was, she leisurely made her way there as she carefully observed the features of the house. When she reached the exit, she saw Jen and her boyfriend returning. Not wanting to interrupt them, she opted for another exit.

When she walked into the pool area, the place was completely deserted, with the exception of one person who was relaxing on one of the lounge chairs in the shade. Looking at how an umbrella was added, even though there was enough shade, it seemed he was not here to enjoy the sun.

Laura walked to one of the other lounge chairs and put her phone and sunglasses on it before removing the see-through shirt while observing the other party carefully. Seeing that it was the man that she had been thinking about since earlier, she became nervous and went to the pool, despite talking big all this time.

Feeling her face flush from shyness, she quickly dove into the pool to cool off. There was no point in getting embarrassed all by herself. The man didn't even know she was around since he was asleep.

She swam a few laps before getting out of the pool to take a break. She squeezed the water from her hair as she walked to the lounge chair that had her things, only to realise she did not carry a towel with her. A breeze passed through and she unconsciously shivered as she looked around to see if there was a towel around her.

She finally noticed a towel, but it was on the armrest of James's lounge chair. She looked at the towel before looking at the motionless man, who was deeply sleeping. She hesitated for a few seconds before making up her mind to take the towel.

She tiptoed towards him and grabbed the towel. When she wanted to pull it over, she noticed that he was resting his hand on the towel, so she became even more careful. She nervously wiped the water that was trailing down her neck and reached for the towel once more.

She carefully lifted his hand and slid the towel from under it. Unexpectedly, her hair, which had been resting on her back, obediently slid over her shoulder onto the man's abdomen. Laura held her breath from the unexpected situation and before she could register happened, she heard a deep laugh coming from above her.

She was so startled that she reflexively rushed to move away, only to trip over her own feet. She was falling backwards when she came to and was overwhelmed with panic, only to feel her hand getting grabbed and being tugged forward.

While falling forward, she crashed onto the other party's chest and was quickly held by him in case she fell again.

James had been watching her the whole time but his ray bans hid his eyes, so she did not know that he had been awake from the moment she dived into the pool. He was already amused while watching her try to take the towel from him, but when her hair didn't cooperate with her and foiled her plans, he couldn't resist his urge to laugh.

Laura, who was not expecting things to go in this direction, was flustered and feeling embarrassed. But what really had her heart racing was the fact that she was being held like this by a man for the first time, and she did not hate it.

She was only in her bikini and James hadn't bothered to unbutton the shirt he was wearing, so they were making skin to skin contact. Laura couldn't help but focus on the fact that her cool skin was making contact with his warm chest. In fact, her heart was beating so fast she thought it would beat out of her chest.

On any normal day, she would have already scrambled to get off of him a long time ago, but now she felt like she had been bewitched and had to stop herself from proactively clinging on to him.

"What's your name?" James asked her after calming himself down. Laura looked up at him as she wasn't expecting the question and was met with his grey eyes that were looking at her intently.

"Oh, umm… I'm Laura," she answered while feeling flustered.

"Laura," he repeated, as if he was savouring her name. Laura was looking at his face intently and her gaze wandered over his pink lips that were saying her name, and she felt her mouth dry up.

"You're cute," James said and looked at her once more to see her embarrassed expression.

"Eh?" she responded in surprise, as she was not expecting to receive a compliment out of nowhere.

"I'm James," he introduced himself, and Laura nodded before snapping back to her senses.

"How long have you been awake?" she asked, finally realising the abnormalities.

"Since you dove into the water earlier," James answered honestly and smiled when he saw her face grow redder

"You splashed me with pool water," James continued and she realised that she had been the one to wake him up in the first place.

"I'm sorry," Laura said as she cleared her throat, as if she was trying to shake off her embarrassment.

"No worries," James said as he stared into her green eyes.

"So, do you plan on staying like this all afternoon?" he asked when he saw that she did not look like she had any intentions to get off of him.

"Oh my, I'm sorry about that," Laura said and scrambled to get off his lap, but ended up slipping because of how wet she was and how awkward her current position was.

"Are you sure?" James asked when he noticed she was not making progress at all. He cleared his throat and tried not to look below her neck.

"Sorry, i-" Laura started, but was interrupted by James.

"If I may," he said and placed one hand on her back to keep her balance as he dislodged her legs that were hanging over the armrest so she can lay straight. It was only after he did this did he register just how close they actually were.

"I must be drunker than I thought. It should be easier for you to get off now," James said as he looked at the woman who was now laying on his chest.

"Oh, thanks," Laura said and knelt between his legs as she lifted herself off of him. James looked at the chest that was suddenly in front of his eyes and cleared his throat while looking away, Laura, however, did not notice his expression and took the towel from the armrest instead, planning to use it to dry her still dripping wet hair.

"If you want towels, there are a bunch of them in the small cabinets," James said in case she ended up doing this again with someone else.

"Thanks for the towel, and sorry I splashed you with water," Laura said and James shrugged it off casually.

"Don't worry, why don't you sit more comfortably?" he asked as he looked at her kneeling figure. Laura intentionally misinterpreted his words and just moved back a bit, but she sat on the same lounger he was using, even though there were more than a dozen around.

James did not say anything and watched her with interest. Meanwhile, Laura was also thinking that he was a nice person with a mild temper, not realising that the James she was looking at right now was nowhere close to the real person.