Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Fuck! She’s in the water. All kinds of crazy thoughts start flooding into my brain. Each one is lustier than the previous one. All the staff are gone by now. Is she fucking naked? An image crashes into my brain. I’ve placed her nude body on the side of the pool, opened her legs wide and I’m greedily eating her out. The afternoon air is full of her moans of pleasure.
I watch the water around me, waiting to see her swimming over to me beneath the surface, but she doesn’t appear. Bubbles float lazily to the surface of the water where she went under it. The bubbles get bigger and come faster and it hits me then. She didn’t jump into the pool; she fell in.
Holy fuck, she’s drowning.
Instantly, I lunge in her direction and start swimming towards her, pushing myself harder than I ever have before. How long has she been under? It can’t have been more than thirty seconds, but that must feel like a lifetime to the drowning person. I see the black of Amelia’s uniform through the water. She’s almost at the bottom of the pool.
Quickly I dive beneath the surface of the water, grab her under the armpits, and kick back to the surface. I push her head up out of the water and turn onto my back, holding her with one arm and pulling myself along with the other. I swim to the nearest ladder and clamber up it with Amelia pinned to my side with one arm.
I lay her on the ground beside the pool. She’s not breathing.
Memories of Lisa dying in my arms rush into my head. I kneel beside her and give her the basic CPR training I learned in school.
Amelia coughs suddenly, a violent spasm that wracks her whole body. Droplets of water fly from her mouth and I immediately turn her onto her side. She coughs again, though not as violently and retches out a flood of water.
She draws her knees up to her chest as she gasps and coughs frantically. Tears stream down her face and her body trembles, whether from the cold or from panic I don’t know.
“It’s ok, Amelia. You’re ok,” I whisper.
I go get my towel and wrap her in it. She sits up and looks at me. Her hair is plastered to her face and she’s still half crying with shock. Mascara trails leave black streaks down her face and her skin is pasty white.
“You don’t have to go that far to get my attention,” I say.
She looks at me blankly for a moment, then she laughs softly. It’s music to my ears. She must be feeling better if she’s laughing.
“Come on,” I say. “Let’s get you to my car. I’m taking you to the emergency room.”
She shakes her head quickly.
“No,” she says. “Honestly, I’m fine. I was just a little bit shaken up, but I’m fine now, I swear.”
I consider insisting on taking her to the hospital whether she likes it or not, but we’ll sit there waiting for hours for her to be seen and she’ll be freezing in her wet clothes. She really does seem to be fine, and I can’t see what the doctors at the emergency room could do for her. The water is out of her lungs and she’s reacting normally, breathing normally.
“Just please don’t fire me,” she whispers.
I shake my head. “Fire you? For almost drowning? Jeez, Amelia what sort of a bastard do you think I am?”
She looks down into her lap and I realize that with the hand she has been dealt in life, she has no reason to think I would react to this, to her, with kindness. Well, I’m going to show her that the whole world isn’t a bad place.
“Look, if you don’t want to go to the emergency room then we won’t. But you’re going to have a nice hot bath and I’m going to put those clothes in the dryer… if I can find where it is.”
Her eyebrows rise. “You don’t know where the dryer is?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
“It’s in the laundry room next to the kitchen.”
“Right. Let’s get you out of your wet clothes then.” I stand and offer her my hand.
As I pull her to her feet the towel slips, and I can’t help but notice the way her wet clothes cling to her body. Fuck me, she certainly has curves in all the right places. Those hips. Those breasts. That voluptuous ass.
I force myself to look away from her body as I hold open the door for her to enter the house.
“Come on,” I say briskly, and direct her towards the staircase. “I’ll run a nice hot bath for you. It will relax and warm you through properly.”
“Thank you,” she says, her voice small and unsure.
I open my bedroom door and walk towards the ensuite bathroom. “Won’t be long. Just make yourself comfortable,” I throw over my shoulder.