Chapter 16
Sixteen
JESSE
T he day I went to make a second first impression with Clara, and she had opened the door wearing shorts, my first thought was what those thighs would feel like wrapped around my head.
I’d buried it pretty quickly, and then I’d easily fallen into the role of being Clara’s friend. I hadn’t thought about her in that way for years, but the moment I dipped under the water and settled her legs over my shoulders, those thoughts came back with a vengeance.
Her legs were strong. An assured weight over me. The muscles in her thighs flexed and relaxed under my hands as she battled Becky above me. I couldn’t help that my mind wandered to what it would be like if my head was facing the other direction. Would the hands currently trying to find a weakness in Becky’s defences grab at my hair or try to find purchase somewhere else? She was near silent as she fought, but would she make noises if I was driving her closer to the edge?
I don’t quite know what happened. I was so lost in my own head when I felt Clara’s body slacken underneath me, then her legs were running through my hands, and she was splashing into the water. As I settled her on solid ground, I could feel the tension in her body and thought it would be best to leave her alone once I knew she was okay. Given that she disappeared under the surface the moment I let her go, my instincts were correct.
It wasn’t until I was pushing myself out of the pool that I noticed that I was half hard. I tried to place my hands as naturally as possible in front of my crotch and walked back to my sun lounger.
“Was it everything you hoped it would be?” Rachel said. She had moved to the lounger next to mine, the beginnings of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“Was what?”
She nodded towards the pool. “Whatever the hell that was?”
“It was Gladiator.” I shrugged.
“Sure. It must have been awful to have those legs wrapped around you.” There was a full-blown grin on her face now. I knew my neck was starting to turn a shade of pink that was not sun-related.
“I hadn’t noticed,” I mumbled. Thankfully my dick had calmed down, so I didn’t have the evidence that I was lying calling me out.
“It’s very difficult to get a lie past me. For what it’s worth, she hesitated.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, she is just as affected by you as you are of her.”
I looked over to the other side of the pool where Clara had resurfaced and was now with the twins. She had hesitated. I’d felt it before she fell. I looked back at Rachel.
“And what am I supposed to do with that?” I asked her.
“Now that, I can’t tell you,” she replied.
* * *
After the burst of excitement that was Gladiator, the rest of the day passed at a leisurely pace.
After an afternoon spent outside, we went into the villa for dinner, all sleepy from the sun and hungry. It was more of a sit-down meal than lunch, and everyone sat in what felt like pre-assigned seating. I happily sat back, in between Clara and Rachel, and tried to get a better idea of the dynamics between the whole group.
The two women sat either side of me clearly did not like Samuel, but they made an effort with Danielle. Lucy was better at pretending that she liked everyone, but her voice did become slightly more clipped when she interacted with any of the in-laws. Despite knowing Becky for years, I hadn’t met her fiancé until today, and seeing the two of them together, it was clear that there was love between the two of them. Becky gravitated towards Gavin and seemed to always want to be touching him in some way. Gavin kept one of his arms resting across the back of Becky’s chair.
I’d never seen any of the parents in this kind of social situation before, but there was no awkwardness around the table with them there. They were included in all the conversations with ease and gently teased their daughters whenever they could. Every eye roll the teasing elicited was always done with a surprising amount of love.
Once the plates were cleared, people started to gradually head off to other places in the villa until it was just Clara, Rachel, and me left.
“I’m gonna go stare at my phone for another hour. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Rachel declared as she stood up. She kissed Clara’s forehead and then left the table.
“Do you feel really tired all of a sudden?” Clara asked, slumping in her chair.
“I’ve been tired since Gladiator finished,” I admitted.
“Let’s go up to our room.”
* * *
“What side of the bed do you sleep on?” Clara asked once we were back in our room. She asked the question to the pillows and not to me, like she also just realised that we were about to share it.
“I’m used to sleeping alone, so I just sleep on the bed. What side do you sleep on?” I asked.
“Oh. I tend to sleep on the right,” she said, fluffing the same pillow for the third time in less than a minute.
“Then I’ll take the left.” I took my phone out of my pocket and set it on the left bedside table.
“Alright. I’m going to use the bathroom.” She rummaged in her suitcase and picked up some clothes before she swiped up one of the toiletry bags and disappeared into the bathroom.
I busied myself with removing some of the pillows off the bed and putting them on the floor before I decided they were better placed on the sofa. I was playing Jenga with them when Clara came out of the bathroom.
One look at her and I wondered how exactly I was going to survive sharing a bed with her for a night, let alone a whole week. She was wearing a matching black pyjama set. The shorts barely covered her bum, and the top, like almost every top she wore during the summer months, was cropped, revealing a strip of skin above her waistband.
“All yours,” she said distractedly as she threw her bikini on the radiator and the dress she’d thrown over it for dinner in the general direction of her suitcase.
I grabbed some clothes out of the drawer and rushed into the bathroom. I had a quick, cold shower and brushed my teeth.
By the time I left the bathroom, the main light had been switched off, and there was a soft glow in the room cast by the bedside lamps. She was lying down, her pillowcase now covered in silk, her hair piled on top of her head, and looking at her phone.
As I climbed in on the other side, I was struck by the idea that in an alternate universe, this could be our everyday. I could climb in next to her and roll over to tease her if I wanted. Or press a kiss to her hairline before she fell asleep. We could lie side by side while we read our books. Have lazy Sunday mornings where we didn’t get out of bed until she had come at least twice.
But we weren’t in an alternate universe, and as I settled, Clara put her phone down and turned onto her side.
“Night, Jesse,” she said over her shoulder as she turned out her light.
“Night, Clara.”
I plunged the room into darkness and didn’t fall asleep until long after Clara’s breathing had evened out.