Chapter Eight #3
Her thighs were bare under the T-shirt and he knew she wasn’t wearing underwear. Instantly Axel was hard and aching. He was very tempted to wake her up but a part of him that still felt a lingering sense of exposure urged him to display some level of control.
So he left the room and went down to the gym and worked the frustration out of his body and system. For now.
* * *
‘Axel, this is…like a dream.’
Hope’s eyes almost couldn’t take in the sheer beauty of the scene in front of her. An empty beach. White sand. And the sea, stretching out to the horizon, a colour she’d never seen before—a bright turquoise. As if it had been photoshopped.
She barely heard him say, ‘It’s very real, I can assure you.’
The sun, high in the sky beaming down and the kind of heat she’d never felt before. Getting right under her skin and into her bones.
‘You need to put factor on, you’ll burn,’ Axel said.
Hope looked up at him. ‘Are you sure you can take the time off for this?’
‘I told you, I’ve never taken a holiday.’
‘Well, if anyone deserves one, then it’s you.’
Axel took her hand. ‘Let’s look at the villa.’
Hope was already in awe of the white two-storey classical wooden building with its terracotta roof and the wide-open doors with white curtains fluttering in the warm breeze.
The rooms were open and spacious. The furniture was a little dated. There was a vast living area, leading into a dining-room. And there was a media room complete with TV and bookshelves and big soft couches.
Axel told her it had been standing empty for some time and the owner had sold it because they weren’t using it any more.
It had come with a housekeeper and maintenance man. A local couple. They’d cleaned and stocked up on food and made up beds in the bedrooms, up on the first level. It needed TLC but otherwise it was perfect.
‘What do you think?’
Why was Axel asking her opinion? She wasn’t likely to be back here again. Hope felt a pang at that. But she said, ‘I love it. It’s simple and rustic. Will you use it?’
Axel shrugged carelessly. ‘If I don’t, it can be rented out.’
‘If I had a place like this I’d use it. I’d varnish all the floors and paint it all in a warm white and then I’d use lots of textiles and splashes of colour to add some accents. The kitchen needs replacing…but it has so much potential.’
‘You like interior design?’ Axel asked her. They were in what had to be the master bedroom now. It was the width of the house with windows overlooking both the front, out to sea, and the back, where there were expansive gardens and a pool.
‘I love it,’ she said. ‘I’ve got scrapbooks full of pictures pulled from magazines dedicated to how I’ll decorate my house some day.’
‘You could do a course.’
Hope felt self-conscious. ‘I didn’t do my A levels. I’m not sure I’d qualify for a course.’
‘Anything is possible.’
Hope smiled. ‘Spoken by someone who’s never been told that anything is impossible.’
Axel held out his hand. ‘Let’s go for a swim.’
Hope’s insides fell. She avoided Axel’s eye. ‘I’m OK, you go for a swim. I’ll unpack.’
‘Hope, look at me.’
She did so, reluctantly. He was frowning. ‘What’s wrong?’
Damn him. Was she so easy to read? She hated admitting this because it would be another glaring difference between her and his world where people had yachts and dived off them into the sea. Or had villas like this with their own private pools. And beaches.
She had to stop her thoughts from spiralling and the very unwelcome need to compare herself all the time.
She knew it was just a defence mechanism so that she didn’t forget that she was not in any way suitable for this man, other than for this brief hiatus.
She hadn’t needed his mother to tell her that.
By the time the words came out they were almost defiant. ‘I can’t swim.’
Axel blinked. ‘Oh, is that all?’
Hope put her hands on her hips. ‘What do you mean “is that all”? It’s shameful that I’m twenty-four and still can’t swim.’
‘No, it’s not. Lots of people can’t swim. Come on, I’ll teach you.’
* * *
‘That’s it, kick your feet and remember to breathe.’
Axel was holding Hope’s hands as he pulled her across the pool. They’d done this dozens of times and she was finally getting used to what it felt like to be buoyant in the water.
Then he said, ‘OK, turn over onto your back.’
Hope found the bottom of the pool and stood. ‘What?’
She noticed that Axel’s gaze dropped to her chest where she was wearing a plain black bikini. ‘Eyes up.’
He looked up.
‘What do you mean go onto my back? I’ll drown.’
‘You won’t drown, you’ll float.’ He came close and put his hands on her waist and manoeuvred her onto her back before she had time to think about it. Before she could panic she felt his hands under her. One strategically near her bottom.
She squinted at him. ‘I’m not sure that’s entirely appropriate for a swimming instructor.’
‘Stop thinking and concentrate on floating. Just relax.’
Hope finally let herself trust that Axel was holding her and she relaxed her limbs.
‘Now take a deep breath and make small motions with your hands and feet.’
She did. She noticed she was moving around in a lazy circle. It felt nice. Peaceful. She saw Axel and she was momentarily distracted by his bare chest before she realised he wasn’t beside her any more and he was holding his hands up.
‘You’re floating, Hope.’
She realised she was. A sense of joy filled her. She thought of something. ‘Hope floats! That’s one of my favourite movies!’
But then she also realised that she was on a body of water with no support and she panicked a little and went to find the bottom but it wasn’t there because she’d floated into the deep end and she started to sink, but almost immediately Axel was there, lifting her up again, and she spluttered a little but grinned at the same time.
She put her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. ‘I’m almost able to swim!’
His mouth quirked. ‘Not quite but you will be, soon.’
He brought her back up to the shallow end and Hope couldn’t get over the lush beauty of the garden around them, nothing but birdcall and the faint sound of waves crashing on the shore.
‘I can’t believe you just bought this sight unseen and now we’re here. You live on another planet, you do realise that?’
Axel looked at her seriously. ‘Yes, I do. And I realise something else.’
‘What’s that?’
‘That I’ve never made love to a woman in a pool.’
Hope gasped even as electricity shot through her. ‘We can’t. What about Dale and Candice?’ The housekeeper and her husband.
‘I told them they could go for the evening. That we can look after ourselves.’
Hope raised a brow. ‘Are you expecting me to cook for you?’
‘Well, you might have to, because I haven’t got a clue how to cook.’ Of course, he didn’t. He’d grown up with nannies and chefs.
‘I can swap you, cooking lessons for swimming lessons.’
The whole time they were talking, Axel was busy undoing Hope’s bikini top and now he leant back and peeled the triangles from her breasts and threw the scraps of material aside.
He put his hands on her bottom, caressing her flesh.
Hope was overcome with such a sense of joy—the kind of joy she’d never known before, the kind that scared her—she put her mouth to Axel’s and kissed him, desperately, terrified words might fall out of her mouth.
Words she hadn’t even fully articulated to herself yet.