My Kind of Woman

17. Spellbound Regret

I thought for a while that I'd died. I was convinced that when I hit my head on the pool wall, I really fell unconscious and drowned. It had to be the only explanation for why I was in heaven.

Her hair against my neck, her breath against my collarbone, the ghost of her lips still pressed against my mouth. My heart was beating hard, filling my ears and my throat. It throbbed through my fingertips that were still against her waist. My shoulders were chill from being out of the water so long and my breathing was slightly shallow.

Now I'll wake up. Now I'll wake up. Now!

The top of her head was so close to my mouth, I could kiss it. I thought about it. Her hair smelt like vanilla, and it was warm. I shifted my mouth towards her a little. I thought I would kiss her head and I would wake up in my bed, in the dark, and I would think about this dream for the rest of my life.

But as I shifted my head, she suddenly shifted hers too and my heart leapt. She was staring at me like she'd seen a ghost, like she'd come undone from the spell that possessed her to kiss me. Don't just look at me like that! Say something! Kiss me! Kiss me again!

I realised she was moving backwards. My hand wasn't touching her waist again and she was backing up away from me. Her eyes were rounded like a deer in headlights. I was still dazed, I didn't know what to think about what was happening. But when I saw she was climbing out of the pool, I was grounded.

"Mio. Wait, hold on." I called as she ignored me and started for the door.

I hurriedly clambered out the water from where I was and jogged to her, trying hard not to slip. She wasn't running but she was walking quickly, and was completely ignoring me. She didn't so much as glance over her shoulder at me. I was confused as to where she was even going. I called after her, wait wait wait - over and over again.

She went straight through the kitchen and to the staircase, but she didn't go up. She just stopped and let me catch up to her. She stood up on the second step just facing the wall like she was stunned.

Then she turned and yelled, "you're getting water in the house!"

"You're getting water in the house!" I called back, throwing my hands up. I was flustered, I didn't have a clue what was going on.

Was she frustrated with me or herself?

We were both just staring at each other, water dripping from our fingertips and off our suits, breathing heavily. She was still covering her stomach, and her hair was mostly dry. The hair that smelt like vanilla. I realised I really wasn't dreaming then. She'd really kissed me, we'd kissed. I'd touched her waist and she'd whispered to me afterwards. Not even those kinds of scenarios followed me into my dreams, perhaps because I'd previously been aware that something like that never would have happened. But it did.

"You have to understand something like that can never happen again." Mio said like she was telling me off. Me!

"You kissed me." I said, feeling my mood plummeting.

"I know, I know! And I don't know what I was thinking, oh shit." She rubbed her face. If we weren't in the situation we were in, I would've been thinking about the fact that Mio just swore in front of me.

"Don't regret anything. Please." I saw it in her face. I didn't want to hear it. I had nothing to lose anymore, apart from her, and I knew she couldn't have wanted to be that far away from me. She kissed me!

"That's difficult." She frowned at me, eyes soft.

"Please." I whispered.

She looked away from my face and down at the floor. "You're making this difficult."