The perfume of love (rain-bi)

chapter 29

AN: jenna's picture on the side..

Heavenly Hana, as the small town was called, was indeed an idyllic retreat from the world in which most people were obliged to live.

That afternoon all the passengers and some of the officers and crew went swimming at Hamoa Beach, a crescent of sand, shaded by pandanus trees, a little way south of the town.

By this time jenna had lost her pallor and was a pale golden brown all over except for the areas covered by her bikini. She was still carefully using a high protection factor sun-cream on every inch of exposed skin, including her lips and eyelids.
Joanne didn't expose her face to the sun at all. She applied a total sun-block and also wore a wide-brimmed hat of vivid emerald straw which she had bought in Lahaina.

Most of the men were in the water, but the big waves surging towards the beach were deterring most of the women from joining them. Joon, as usual, was golfing. Hana was strolling along the beach with Terry Anson one of Joon's guests. Like many red-haired people he was always in danger of blistering and never stayed in the sun for long without a T-shirt.

It must be an annoying disadvantage, thought jenna, with a twinkle in her eyes, for a dedicated Don Juan to be cursed with a nose which had to be slathered with a special white cream to prevent it burning, and with arms and legs which tended to redden rather than brown. Not that Terry let it cramp his style, was her next, less amused thought. The other women were beginning to exchange glances when, in joon's absence, he flirted with her sister. That they didn't like hana was obvious. She encouraged their antipathy by all but ignoring them.

Since she had stopped going ashore with jihoon, jenna had felt under-exercised. She took off her watch, which wasn't waterproof, and walked down to the water's edge. She had never swum in a sea with strong surf rolling in and inwardly she was a bit nervous. But she felt she had to try it. This surf wasn't like the enormous, terrifying surf of the Banzai Pipeline, and there were plenty of people to come to her aid if she yelled for help.

The warm foam was swirling round her knees when youngji came out of the water, his dark skin glistening, his short thick black hair silvered with droplest.

"you're not afraid of getting wet,  eh, Miss jenna?" he said, directing a rather disdainful glance at the other women reclining under the sunbrellas the crew had put up for them.

"not of getting wet... No. But I have a healthy respect for these breakers. I'm not as strong a swimmer as you are, youngji"

"you'll be okay. Dive into the waves before they have a chance to knock you over. I'll stay close to you, if you like."

"i wish you would, just at first" she said gratefully.

Like jihoon, youngji was a man in whom, in any emergency, she would have total confidence.

They hadn't been in the water long when jihoon joined them.

"aren't any of the other women coming in?" he asked her.

He was really only interested in joanne, she guessed.

"i don't know. It is a bit rough."

"you seem to be enjoying yourself."

"youngji has been lifeguarding me."

But youngji had gone, she discivered. Already he was some yarda away, joining in boisterous horseplay with the other stewards, all of them shouting with laughter.