A Timeless Place

Chapter 42 - Part II

Non-Skinny Dipping and Rising Three Storeys in Love

"What?!" I screeched at him. "No, absolutely not! It's freezing and I'm certainly not going to get naked in a public park!"

And as suddenly as his excitement had appeared, he started to laugh, chortling into the night, "I was kidding!" I visibly relaxed and resumed to my drink. "About the skinny part, not the dipping though! Come on, it'll be fun!" I choked on my drink and coughed.

"I- I prefer having ten toes," I told him, sitting back down after I stopped choking.

"Kitty, come on, be stupid with me!" he stood in front of me, shirtless and holding his hand out for me to take. He looked even hotter in the dim lighting of the park. He was only wearing his pants, those sculptured abs just looking at me teasingly. Okay, it was the opposite, I was blatantly checking him out. And I just couldn't say no when he looked like this. So I did what any hormonal teenage girl would do and grabbed his hands, letting him haul me up.

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this," I muttered as my cold fingers fumbled at the zip on the side of my dress.

"If you survived climbing down the balcony, you can survive this," he said, moving behind me and gently holding the zipper in between his thumb and index finger. I gasped as his cold fingers touched my bare skin. It was odd but very comforting in a way to have Wes unzip my dress and help me slip out of it. And I felt a sudden urge to grab him. But the instant cold wind whipping my body stopped me from doing so as my teeth chattered their way to hypothermia.

"I-is this even legal?" I shook, wrapping my arms around myself while Wes led me to the lake.

"Who knows?" he turned to look at me sideways to smile. His eyes took me in in my under garments and the look he gave me spread instant warmth through me and to my very toes. He regained concentration, "Okay, we run in and out, quickly, got it?"

I looked straight ahead. The lake looked like a thick black solid mass from here. I couldn't see what was in it at all. But I nodded determinedly.

"Alright," he nodded. "GO!"

I ran straight in, bracing myself for the cold water. And it certainly did not disappoint. It felt as though knives were pressing into me as I staggered on, waist deep. I turned around to look at Wes. But he was nowhere around me. Much too late, I realised he was still standing where we had started and he was literally bent over from laughing at me.

"Oh my god, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, WESLEY BANE!" I screamed at him.

He didn't even hear me over the howling of his laughter. I took this opportunity and waddled closer to him where he was standing at the edge and splashed water on him. His head whipped towards me and before his eyes even widened, I ran towards him and jumped on top of him, hugging him to make sure he was thoroughly wet.

He jolted at the coldness of the water and wasn't prepared for when I pushed him into the lake, head first into the water. I laughed as he fell and struggled to get up, slipping and falling a few more times before he finally got his footing right. He grabbed me around my waist with one arm, lifting me up as I screamed, holding onto his arm so as not to fall.

"Noooo! Don't you dare drop me!" I screeched, laughing as he lifted me onto his shoulders, wading deeper into the lake.

Thankfully he didn't and soon we were running out of the lake towards our little picnic site. He threw an extra blanket he had brought around me. It compensated for a towel and I gladly welcomed its warmth as I wrapped him into me.

"We should get going, don't want you to get sick," I held a wet strand of his hair in between two fingers.

"Do you just want to end the date that badly?" he caught my fingers, kissing the palm of my hand.