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“I can’t swim. There, I’ve said it!” I croak as I manage to kick myself upward and above the water for a hot second, just in time for Will to reach me and for one of my gracelessly flailing arms to smack him hard across the face.
“Hold still!” he says, then curses under his breath.
I feel awful, but at least he insists and puts his arm around my chest, pulling me out of the deep end and into the shallow side of the pool. As soon as my feet settle on the hard surface below, an insurmountable cluster of red-hot shame pours over me. I realize that all I had to do was try to get to this side. Jesus. Instead, I punched my boss in the face.
Good grief…
And I actually felt sexy walking over to the pool just before the fall.
Lesson learned.
* * *
Half an hour later, Will and I sit on the pool’s edge, our feet dangling in the water. He’s nursing a reddish bruise on his cheek with a small ice pack, while I pour us a couple of whiskey shots. Will bought the whole bottle from the bar, insisting that we both needed it. Badly. I couldn’t exactly disagree, considering the embarrassment I’d just put myself through.
Neither of us speaks for a while. We just watch the last rays of sunlight disappear behind the redwoods in the western distance. Most of the guests who witnessed my fall have gone, likely having felt the need to spare me of their presence after that whole… circus. I’m relieved. I’m also very much still on edge, since Will is sitting so close to me.
“Again, I am so, so sorry,” I say to him.
“For the millionth time, stop apologizing. You can’t swim, and you fell into the water. I understand the panic that took over. It’s fine, Olivia.”
“You say that, but if I get a pink slip from you after this trip is over, I won’t blame you.”
He laughs. “Don’t be ridiculous. It can happen to anyone.”
“I guess. I was trying to look cooler than I actually am, and I didn’t even see the wet spot. Really ridiculous.”
“What makes you think you’re not cool enough already?”
“Is that a serious question?”
He laughs again. “You’ve got everything you need to command an entire room of people, if you wanted. Something tells me you’re not even aware of the effect you can have.” His gaze darkens into an intense cerulean blue, much like the sky above us. We’re a little too close to one another. My dress is drying up but the afternoon chills are causing my skin to tighten.
“You’re shivering,” Will notes, looking down around the same time I remember I’m not wearing a bra, and my breasts are starting to react to the drop in temperature.
“Maybe I should head back up to my room,” I mumble, scrambling up from the pool’s edge and onto my feet, careful not to slip again. “Thank you for the whiskey. And the kindness of not letting me drown.”
“You would’ve figured it out eventually,” Will says, watching me pull away from him.
“Yeah. But still… thank you.”
My heart’s beating too fast. My stomach is the size of a pea. And this familiar heat pooling between my legs will have me turning over and over in my sleep tonight. I call it the Will Bucklow Effect now. I’ve been living with it for over a month.
“Olivia?” he says.
I stop and turn just as he gets up, whiskey bottle and glasses in hand. “Yes?”
“I meant it. You’re one hell of a woman. I think you just need to come into it yourself.”
Fires spread just beneath my skin as I give him a faint smile before I walk away, unable to sustain that piercing stare of his. It’s like he’s trying to burrow into my very soul, and I’ve never felt as vulnerable as I feel when he gets so… close.
It’s gonna be a long night.
CHAPTER12
OLIVIA
Come morning, I’m nursing a mild and somewhat expected hangover.
