Getting Under Nathan

Extra Chapter

"You just can't handle me touching myself in front of you," he smirked, closing his eyes again as he reclined backwards on his lounger. "It gets you all fired up. Unfortunately, Bella, I'm not really a sex on the beach kinda guy, so you'll have to control your desire..."

I didn't bother responding to his taunting, and instead I turned my attention back to the beach. Jess and Alex were standing in the shallow water, playing some version of beach ping pong. Whilst I'd never been on holiday with friends before, a couples' holiday felt a lot more relaxed and chilled out. We all travelled around together and we were staying in the same hotel, but we could easily break off into our respective pairs and do our own thing, meaning that we weren't treading on each other's toes the whole time.

A smile made its way onto my face as a particularly large wave crashed to shore and knocked Jess clean off her feet. Alex doubled over in laughter as Jess landed on her side, battling against the power of the backwash as she hurriedly tried to get to her feet so as to avoid being stuck underneath the next wave that arrived. Unfortunately, during the excitement of the wave, they'd lost the ball and soon gave up the search after paddling around for a few minutes in the shallow water to look for it.

It was easy to understand Jess' predicament when I watched the two of them interact. With the game of ping pong over, they were now happily frolicking around in the water, kissing and cuddling. As Jess sat on Alex's shoulders, trying hard to balance before eventually falling off and disappearing beneath the surface of the water, the couple looked every bit blissfully in love with one another. No matter what was going on when they were both at uni, you couldn't deny the chemistry and affection that was evident when they were together.

Dripping wet, they trudged their way out of the sea and headed back towards us. Jess greeted me with a grin as she reached for her towel and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"The water's lovely," she stated, ringing out her hair. A small puddle formed in the sand at her feet from all the water that her hair had been storing.

Alex was chugging down water but nodded in agreement before using his free, left forearm to wipe his hair away from his eyes.

"Yeah, it's a good temperature," he said, handing the bottle to Jess.

"Oh, thanks for leaving me some!" she drawled sarcastically, tilting the bottle to the side to scrutinise the small volume of liquid that remained.

"I was thirsty," Alex shrugged nonchalantly. "There's a stall over there; I'll treat you to a fresh bottle."

"You spoil me," she said dryly.

As Alex and Jess headed off on their quest for more water, I nudged Nathan's leg with my heel. He groaned lazily and asked me what I wanted.

"Shall we go in the water once they're back?" I suggested.

"Sure," he replied just as groggily, yet making no attempt to move from where he was lying.

My bobble was sitting on the small umbrella table, so I quickly scraped my hair back into a messy bun, secured it tightly, and pulled my sunglasses off my head. After Nathan's ordeal with sunglasses, I was unwilling to risk losing my own pair.

After Jess and Alex had returned to keep an eye on our belongings, Nathan and I headed down towards the sea. We stood in the swash for a few minutes, holding hands as the waves broke over our feet. I winced as a slightly bigger wave crashed against our calves before completely obliterating a sand castle that a young boy had been constructing. He looked heartbroken as he watched all his hard work disintegrate into a pile of wet sand but, nevertheless, he picked up his bucket and started again - regrettably no further away from the sea.