Laura's Big Break (6 page)

“Smile, moron,” she ordered.

Ah, that was more like it. He grinned and she snapped the picture.

“Right, enough of this, get your boring backside in the water sweet cakes. This was your idea, your sad attempt at doing something spontaneous, so get on with it. Or I’m coming to get you.”

Oh, he liked that idea. She looked alarmed, which made it even more appealing.

“Stuff it,” he said with a wide grin. “I’m coming to get you anyway.”

She yelped which made him laugh. Laura ran like a girl to her bag and stuffed her camera into it. Then she actually stopped her escape to put her shorts back on. It was laughable. Charlie was on her before she got one leg in.

“I don’t think so,” he told her as he scooped her up. “This was your idea. So you go in too.”

“I don’t want to.” She wriggled and kicked, but he held her tight. “I’ve changed my mind. Put me down.”

Not for the first time in his life, Charlie was grateful that she was small. It was pretty much the only advantage he had over her.

“You’re making me wet,” she told him.

He cocked an eyebrow.

“Good to know I still rock your world.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“So you’ve told me.”

“Let me go this instant. I do not want to go in the water. I want to go back to the tent. This was a bad idea.”

“I think this was a great idea. In fact the best you’ve had the whole trip.”

He walked into the river until he was knee deep.

“Charlie,” her voice softened, she was changing tactic. He smiled knowingly. “Come on, you’re not a bully, I know you respect women, even when they change their minds.” She batted those long lashes and pursed those pretty pink lips. She patted his chest with her long fingers, making his blood pump faster. “You don’t want to do this,” she said sweetly.

For a second, a split second, he almost kissed those full lips. He shook his head. She was using magic on him. Brainwashing.

“Oh, but I do want to do this.”

And with that, he let her go. There was a big splash, a scream and a stream of curse words he’d never heard her utter before. He was laughing when something hit him hard on the back of his knees and he crumpled. Laura was on his head like lice at a kids party and the next thing he knew, he was breathing water. Which made him laugh harder. She actually thought she could take him. Unfortunately laughing under water isn’t a great idea and he started to choke. Time to take charge. He grabbed her round the waist and flipped her so that her back was to his front, then he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. In all of the commotion they had drifted out into deeper water; he could stand with his feet on the ground and his head out of the water, but there was no way she could.

“Charlie Lewis, let me go.”

“Sure.” He let go. She sank.

Just as she started to kick and swim he grabbed her again.

“Looks like you’re out of your depth, shorty,” he said into her hair.

He waited while she struggled, knowing full well it was pointless. It was entertaining to watch her try to kick him through the water. At last she calmed down. He kept his arms wrapped around her, her back to his front.

“Okay, what now?” she said at last.

“I think we need to clear the air between us,” he said and was pleased at how reasonable he sounded.

She growled. He felt it vibrate through his body.

“About what?” she said.

“You have been harbouring bad feeling about our interaction years ago, and I think it’s time we dealt with your anger.”

Another bout of struggling. He waited for her to exhaust herself, it didn’t take long.

“I think it’s time to admit that you had a part to play in that fiasco too,” he said. “I’m sick of taking all the blame.”

“You took my virginity and ran away.” He could hear years of fury in her voice.

“That’s true, I was young and stupid and I didn’t know what to do with you.” He still didn’t.

That made her stop moving. He could almost hear her thinking.

“Now, you need to admit that you threw yourself at me and didn’t give me many options.”

“Oh, so I forced you to have sex with me?”

“No, but you were all innocent and scared. I didn’t want to hurt you by turning you away. Plus, I was feeling down and you made me feel better. You need to admit that you put me on the spot, and then got mad when I did exactly what you wanted.”

Silence.

“Come on Laura, it’s time to let this go. I know I was a moron, but so were you.”

“You ran away, you didn’t even say thank you.”

“I was an idiot.”

She was trembling, he wasn’t sure if it was the water or the conversation. Suddenly this topic wasn’t the great idea he thought it would be. Suddenly, it was serious. He began to panic.

“Was I terrible? Was that it? Were you embarrassed sleeping with me?” Her voice was small.

Damn.

“No. It had nothing to do with you. I freaked. I’d just slept with my sister’s best friend. I didn’t even know you thought like that about me. It was a screw up from beginning to end.”

“So it wasn’t me?”

Charlie’s shoulders slumped; he turned Laura around so he could look her in the eye. This was his mess and he had to fix it.

“It was me. Sure, it isn’t every day a woman comes asking you to sleep with her. I didn’t even know you were a virgin until it was too late. I’d like to say knowing would have made me behave better, but it probably wouldn’t have. It had nothing to do with you. You were fine.”

“Fine?”

Brilliant. That was the wrong word too.

“You know what I mean.”

Obviously she didn’t.

“Thanks for clearing things up. I feel much better.”

She wriggled to get away and he didn’t stop her. He didn’t know what to say. The fun had been sucked right out of the situation. Charlie watched helplessly as she swam to shore. So much for clearing the air. He was pretty sure he’d just made everything worse.

CHAPTER FOUR

Laura had been cycling for three hours and already felt like her backside was on fire. She cycled standing to give her behind a rest only to find that her poor neglected thigh muscles couldn’t support her weight. She would have rolled to a halt on the grass verge and given into her misery, but Charlie was right behind her and she definitely didn’t want to deal with him. Fine. She was fine in bed. Just what every woman wanted to hear. Okay, so he had been her first time and she didn’t know what she was doing, but fine? It explained a lot about why none of her relationships lasted. Obviously she was about as sexy as a pack of paper towels. Fine. Argh.

“Thanks for tonight’s Facebook update,” he called from behind her.

Against her will, her cheeks burned. She knew he was trying to get her to fight with him again. They got on great when they were fighting. She didn’t care. If it wasn’t for the article she would dump him and run. She’d had enough of Charlie Lewis to last a lifetime.

“This trip is beginning to have a theme. Pictures of Laura taken from behind.”

She bit her lip to stop from answering him. Another Dutch couple cycled past and grinned widely at her; the girl pointed at her bike. At least they didn’t call out some supposedly witty comment.

“I hope the modification you made to your bike is worth the humiliation,” Charlie said.

“This was the sensible thing to do,” Laura told him, astonished at how pompous she sounded even to her own ears.

Sensible. She could sum up her whole existence in that one word. She shifted on her padded seat. The pillow she’d stuffed into her backpack at the last minute had proved a life saver; she’d tied it to her seat for extra cushioning. It helped a lot, but she was seriously considering padding it even further with her fluffy soft sleeping bag. In for a penny, in for a pound.

“Yeah and we know you’re all about the sensible.”

He was prodding her again. She clenched her jaw and focused on cycling.

“What’s the big deal about being sensible?” he called. “There’s no fun in it. You need to loosen up. Take some chances, make some mistakes, it’s what life is all about.”

Anger bubbled through her and out of her mouth before she could stop it.

“I made a mistake once,” she told him icily. “A big one.”

She took her eyes off of the canal to look over her shoulder at him.

“You’re the biggest mistake of my life.”

She smiled evilly just before she rode straight into the water.

Charlie was too shocked to laugh. He’d never seen anything like it. One minute she was giving him her evil teacher stare, the next she was airborne. She flew straight through two bushes and head first into the canal. Without stopping to think he jumped from his bike and scrambled after her. He came to a stop at the edge of the water. Fortunately the canal wasn’t that deep and Laura could stand. Her tiny head poked out of the murky depth, her backpack was gone and her bike was sinking.

“Grab the bike,” he yelled.

She turned in time to see the handle bars disappear under the water and made a desperate attempt to catch it.

“Help me,” she said.

It did cross his mind, but there was too much entertainment value in watching it happen. Plus, what would be the benefit of them both being soaked through? Her face disappeared under the water briefly as she frantically grabbed for the bike. She came up empty handed. Charlie wasn’t surprised; he couldn’t see it through the black water from where he was standing either. What the heck was in the canal to make the water that colour? Now, that was something to make you worry.

“It’s gone.”

Laura looked so dejected he almost felt sorry for her.

“Come on.” He leaned forward and offered her a hand. “There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

There could have been a tear running down her cheek, he couldn’t tell for sure. Her eyes may have been red from the canal water.

“Take my hand, let’s get you out of there and see the damage.”

Reluctantly, she put her tiny hand in his and with little effort he pulled her up out of the canal. Her hair was plastered down her back and stuck to her face, her tiny orange vest top showed off every detail of the lime green lace bra beneath it and her denim shorts were so full of water they were falling down. Laura jerked her hand out of his and spun towards the canal.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

Charlie made a non-committal grunt. At least things were back to normal. Fighting he could handle. Heart to heart conversation was a big no no. He’d learnt his lesson. From now on he was only going to argue and tease. Nothing else. Unfortunately she was distracting him from his new resolve. He was inordinately fascinated by the fact she was wearing a bra today. He knew he should have been focused on the task at hand, but he had a really good view of her perfect little breasts through her thin wet clothes and his hands itched to cover them and make them warm.

“How do I cycle without a bike?”

She put her hands on her hips and growled at the water making her nipples strain against the fabric. A small groan escaped him and Laura stilled. Slowly she turned towards him, her huge green eyes wide.

“Seriously?” she demanded.

Charlie shrugged.

“I’m a man.”

“You’re sick in the head, that’s what you are.”

He couldn’t do anything but shrug again; he wished she would fold her arms over her chest or something because he was seriously losing the battle to reach for her. He cleared his throat noisily and tried to sound like he was in charge.

“Right, first thing we need to do is get you into some dry clothes.”

Maybe something like the burkha most women in Afghanistan wore. Then only her eyes would show. He looked into her wide, expressive emerald coloured eyes and swallowed hard. Right now her eyes were signalling that he was losing his mind.

“All my clothes are in there, idiot.”

She pointed at the water, just in case there was any confusion.

Charlie pulled his eyes from her long enough to look at his bike. Surely he could find her something. After rummaging around in his pannier, he came out with a pair of swimming shorts and a t-shirt with B B King on it.

“Take this.” He thrust it at her before turning away.

“And change here? In the middle of the path, where anyone can see?”

“Sweet cakes, you’re not that interesting.”

He flushed at the lie.

“Towel,” she ordered.

He threw his only towel at her. It was big enough for her to wrap her whole body in. He then watched in fascination as she used it as a changing room and stripped beneath it. It was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. She showed nothing at all, but the fact she was doing it in full light, outdoors and in front of him blew his imagination wide.

He turned away to study the flat landscape in front of him while he controlled his breathing. What was wrong with him? This was Laura. His arch nemesis. The Iron Maiden. He counted back to the last time he’d had sex and figured that wasn’t the problem. He didn’t feel desperate. He glanced at her over his shoulder and saw that she was taking her contact lenses out. He kind of missed her old oversized glasses that made her eyes look like an owl. A sexy owl.