After five minutes of standing in front of the mirror, I just about summed enough courage to put the revealing bikini underneath my jean shorts and top.
I wasn't even sure why I even felt so nervous since I definitely worked out enough to have a decently toned body. And, besides, the seduction part of my plan was no longer a thing. I was only gold-digging him from the standpoint of his friend now, so it didn't matter whether he thought I was attractive or not.
But, despite those facts, there was still an annoying voice that kept reminding me how insanely intimidating it would be to stand half-naked in front of someone as perfect looking as Nathan. For goodness's sake, he's spent the last couple of years of his life sleeping around with models, so he's clearly got high standards.
I internally cursed myself as I felt yet another round of nervous butterflies glide through my stomach. I was being ridiculous, pathetic even, and this was so not like me.
I mean, the only times I really feel insecure about my body is when I lik–
No! I do not like Nathan. Nuh-uh. No way, never in a million years.
Shaking my head free from that ridiculous idea, I made my way downstairs to where Nathan was waiting for me. He was leaned up against the frame of the back door with some towels slung loosely over his shoulder. Once I had reached him, he quickly looked me up and down.
"You, good?" he said.
I adjusted my tote bag over my shoulder. "Amazing, actually, considering an impolite bastard woke me up at the crack of dawn without even offering me breakfast," I muttered as my eyes narrowed in on him in accusation.
Nathan snorted, and a smile pricked to his face. "Don't worry greedy pants, there's a bar that sells breakfast on the beach," he snickered.
He nodded for me to follow him, and I obliged as he led us through his backdoors and down the cobbled staircase that descended straight down onto the beach. I stopped on one step and took in the sight before me with a thick swallow. The height of the beach house gave a wide-spanning view of the hills in the distance and the soft waves collapsing against the shore.
There was no doubt about it; I was in paradise.
"You coming, or are you going to stand there like an idiot?" Nathan called out. I looked down to find Nathan had already descended the stairs and had an eyebrow quirked up as he stared up at me impatiently.
Rolling my eyes at his rudeness, I soon caught up to him and walked the rest of the way down the beach alongside him. Soon enough, we reached a clean pair of beach chairs underneath a wide-spanning parasol. I watched as Nathan got to work with laying the beach towels onto our lounge chairs. It was rather amusing to see how tentatively he was working that I couldn't resist making a snide comment.
"Hmm, I think mine has a wrinkle in it," I teased.
Nathan looked back at me, then at my towel. Then with a spite-filled look in his eyes, he snatched the towel, crumpled it up before dumping it messily onto the seat.
Looking up at me with a patronizing smile, he double blinked at me innocently."Is that better?"
I shook my head at him pityingly. "Oh, Natalie, Natalie, Natalie," I tuttered. "You would have no future in customer service, would you?" I said with a long sigh as I flopped down onto the beach chair.
With a languid sigh, I fished my sunglasses out of my front pocket and put them on. I was seconds away from leaning back to relax when something caught my eye. Or, more accurately, Nathan caught my eyes.
He was sat on the edge of his lounger with his back to me, but that wasn't the reason I was watching him. I was quite simply looking at him because he was halfway through taking off his top.
Once he had pulled the last of the material over his head, the speed at which my eyes feasted on his naked bronze skin, scared even me. All I could do was watch as the muscles of his back rippled as he bent over to put his shirt away.
Holy shit.
Gulping, I begged my mind to think of anything other than what it would feel like to run, and maybe even scratch my fingernails up and down that back of his. And the more I looked, the more my mind wandered into some wild fucking places.
As he turned back in my direction, I whipped my head down incredibly fast and pretended that I was busy staring at a pebble on the floor for no apparent reason.
"Why don't you take your clothes off?" he asked abruptly.
At that precise moment, my spit decided to lodged itself down the wrong side of my throat, and I started to cough furiously.
"Woah, easy there," Nathan said as he scooted closer to give me some sharp slaps to the back.
Finally regaining my breath; I looked up at him with startled eyes. "W-what did you say?" I stuttered, needing confirmation that my hormonal brain hadn't twisted his words in its desperation.
"I was saying you should probably take your over clothes off because you look a little..," he paused, his eyes roaming over my face. "-a little hot," he finally finished.
It took me five long seconds to realize that he meant I looked hot, in the sense that it looked as though my temperature was climbing rather than because he thought I was sexy.
"Oh, right, yeah. I guess I'm a little hot," I admitted, my voice coming out less confident than I would have liked. I knew for sure why I felt hot. It had nothing to do with the blazing hot sun and everything to do with the shirtless Adonis sat beside me.
"Cool, then get stripping," he pronounced boldly with a mischievous look in his eyes.
I knew he meant it as a joke, but my body took it as anything but a joke. My heart rate was hammering away like a woodpecker on crack.
I did my best to conceal all signs of fluster from my face and stared at Nathan with an unimpressed, almost bored-looking face. "So that you can creepily watch me take off my clothes? Yeah, I don't think so, turn around," I ordered.
He pulled a face. "But why? I'll see you in your bikini in the end," he laughed as his eyebrows knitted together in confusion.
"Because I said so. Now do it," I whined in frustration as I gestured for him to turn.
"Alright, alright, I'll turn around for no apparent reason," he snickered as he made a dramatic show of turning around.
He had a point, but the idea of his eyes digging into me as I removed each and every item of clothing seemed a little too sensual. Once I was sure he wasn't looking, I turned away and tugged off my shirt and shorts. Then standing up, I reached for my towel intending to wrap it around my legs.
Suddenly, I froze as I found two pairs of eyes staring at me. At some point, without me realizing it, Nathan had shamelessly turned around to peep.
"Nathan!" I yelled out in accusation.
He barely even seemed to register my voice, and his visibly dilated eyes, didn't stray for a second, in their unmistakable pursuit in analyzing every square inch of my thighs. Everywhere he looked felt as though it was burning, and I felt so very, very naked. When he took his next breath, I watched as he fidgeted in his seat before clawing his fingers into the towel underneath him.
Finally coming to my senses and realizing the extent of his audacity, I narrowed my eyes. "Nathan, I told you not to look," I yelled.
Whatever spell he was under broke, and his eyes finally met mine. He took a couple of seconds to speak as though he was collecting himself.
He responded with a meaningless shrug. "I didn't promise anything," he said simply. And with that final word, he flicked down his sunglasses and relaxed back on his chair like the self-righteous bastard he was.
I sent a dirty look in his direction and sulkily dumped myself back into my chair. Figuring I would still be tired from my interrupted sleep this morning, I shut my eyes and let the sun caress against my skin.
But despite how lovely the sun felt, and how softly the cushions of the beach chair were pressing into my back, I couldn't drift away for the life of me. And the reasoning for why I couldn't all pointed back to one annoying person - Nathan Woods.
I mean, how was I supposed to sleep after he's been driving my pulse up all morning? First, he sprays me with cold water and then uses some Jedi mind tricks to get me to straddle him. And yes, I am holding him accountable for that since he should have known I was going to attack him. And to top it all off, he takes me to the beach where I'm forced to stare at his stupid naked chest all fucking day.
In short- I was being tortured.
Opening my eyes, I twisted my head around to glare at the culprit at hand. And you'll never guess what? The fucking bastard was asleep. His chest was rising and falling steadily as though he didn't have a worry in the world.
Who the fuck falls asleep that fast?
That did it for me, and I swung my legs to the side and sat up. I leaned over him and was just about to slap him awake out of jealousy, but then I paused.
Wait a minute, he was asleep...
There was a lot somebody could get up to when somebody was asleep.
Ever so slowly, a small smirk wormed its way onto my face as I thought of the most perfect plan for revenge. Squatting down to the floor, I stuck my hand into my beach bag and searched around. When my fingers wrapped around the item of interest, I pulled it out and eyed it with excitement.
It was a pen. A thick black marker pen. I was going to use it to complete my Word search, but now, I had much greater plans for this pen. Plans which involved vandalizing Nathan's poor unsuspecting face.
With a quiet chuckle, I crouched beside his lounger and uncapped it. Making light, gentle movements on his forehead as to not wake him up, I got to work. Once I was down, I stepped back and admired my work. Written bang smack across Nathan's head in big bold capital letters, were two beautiful words:
Sophie's Bitch.
I didn't hesitate for a second before getting my phone out of my bag and snapping a picture or two. Or maybe ten. Then I proceeded to back it up on five different locations.
What can I say; a girl's got to get their kicks in when they can. The only thing that could make this better would be if a) the ink didn't rub off and b) He got enough of a suntan to make the words burn in place.
Satisfied with my work, I returned to my seat and started to innocently get on with my word search.
About fifteen or so minutes later, Nathan let out a groggy groan and rubbed his eyes sleepily. I would have found his actions cute if it wasn't for the hilarious words plastered across his face. He peppered open his eyes and looked over at me with half-asleep eyes.
"Umm, I must have drifted off," Nathan moaned as he slowly sat up.
"Hmm, you don't say," I said slyly as I flickered to the neck page of my book. "But don't worry, I've been having plenty of fun," I sang as I shot him an innocent smile.
Nathan narrowed his eyes as though he was trying to decipher what I meant about that. "Okay then..." he said slowly, shooting me a weird look.
My mind was momentarily lost for the fourth time this morning as he stood up and stretched tall, causing him to let out another quiet groan as the muscles in his back flexed. Anybody would think he was purposely making sex noises to wind me up or something.
He glanced back at me, and I immediately whipped my head back down to my word search.
"I'm heading over to the bar. Want me to pick you up breakfast?" he offered.
I glanced up at him with fake nonchalance and shrugged. "Yeah, sure," I smiled, the evil part of myself cackling.
I waved him off with the little wiggle off my fingers, and I watched in satisfaction as he traipsed across the sand to the hut a few meters in the distance. I chuckled to myself wickedly as he leaned over the counter and started to talk to the girl behind the counter. And boy, would I have killed to be a fly upon that hut wall.
Five minutes later, Nathan returned and flopped back down onto his chair. "Here, there's some croissants and some other shit in there," he said as he threw me over a paper bag.
"Cheers," I called out as I caught it.
As I was busy shovelling my first bacon strip into my mouth, Nathan turned his head my way.
"Do I look weird today?" he asked abruptly.
I slowed down my chews, the urge to snicker almost killing me. "No, weirder than you normally do," I joked
Nathan shook his head. "No, seriously? Is there something actually wrong with my face? The girl at the counter took one look at me and laughed," he murmured.
"Aww, Natalie, is this your first rejection story? It's okay, babe, you'll get 'em next time," I cooed condescendingly as I reached out to rub up and down his arm.
Nathan shrugged me off in annoyance. "Just forget it," he grumbled.
After he said that, a plastic-colored beach ball flew out of nowhere and hit against the side of my beach chair. I turned in the direction of where it had come from, and I smiled as I saw the cutest little girl, of about seven or so in age, yelling after her ball. A lady who I presumed to be her mother was a few meters behind her and texting away on her phone.
I reached out to pick up the beach ball, but Nathan was quicker than me and took it before I could. "Nah, let me," he offered.
He stood up, and I widened my eyes as I realized he was intending to give it back to the little girl himself.
"Nathan, wait," I said in a panic, realizing he was unknowingly about to wave a rather rude sentence in an innocent little girl's face.
Nathan either didn't hear me or didn't care. He walked up to the girl with a warm smile on his face before crouching down to her level.
"Here, you go, honey. Make sure you hold on tight this time," he chuckled as he handed the ball over to her.
If we were in another situation, I would have gushed at how cute he was with kids, but this was not that situation.
"Yay," she squeaked as she happily accepted the ball. I cursed as I heard her American accent, proving that she knew English.
Please, dear God, make her not be able to read yet. Please, please, please.
All my hope was lost when I saw her point a finger rather rudely at Nathan's face. "You've got words on your face," she pronounced boldly.
No, no, no, no, shit!
I leaped to my feet and jogged over to Nathan before swiftly grabbing his arm. "Sorry, sweetie, but I've got to steal him away," I said with a nervous chuckle as I pulled gently on his elbow.
"Sophie's Bitch," the girl read out loudly.
She slapped a dramatic hand over her mouth and let out a long series of gasps. "That's a bad word! You've got a bad word written on your forehead!" she exclaimed as she continued to point at Nathan.
Then just like that, she took off and ran down the beach to her mother. "Mummy, mummy, the tall man has a naughty word on his head," she hollowed, speaking loud enough for the entire of Greece to pretty much hear.
Like a chameleon, I went completely still and hoped by some miracle, I would blend in with my surroundings. Slowly, like I was in some kind of horror film, Nathan straightened back up to his feet and then ever so slowly turned around to face me.
As soon as though hate-filled eyes set on me, I audibly swallowed.
His jaw was clenched, and his eyes looked fierce. I'm pretty sure if you looked closely enough, you could see actual steam coming out of his ears. I was familiar with Nathan's pissed face; I was practically married to that expression.
However, what I was staring at now far surpassed that. The way he was looking at me could only be described as a murderous expression. The expression of someone who wanted, no needed, to kill me.
"Run," he whispered.
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Author's note:
Hope you had fun reading that chapter and thanks for reading.
What do you think Nathan is going to do to seek revenge?
Next Update: Monday (6-8 PM - UK time)