Chapter 256: Swimwear
Chapter 256: Swimwear
Giselle’s finger remained beneath Elias’s nose for one extra second.
It was an intimate gesture. Too intimate, perhaps, for two people who continued to call each other Besties with perfectly straight faces. Yet Giselle did not seem aware of the boundary she had crossed. Elias had spent enough time beside her to know why. Little by little, he had shifted what felt normal between them. Holding hands. Sharing a bed. Pulling him close in public. Kissing him to prove a point.
A light touch to his nose barely registered as unusual anymore.
Elias closed his fingers around the hand she had not withdrawn. A faint blush warmed his cheeks as he looked down at their joined hands.
"I’m not vain," he said.
Giselle smiled. She did not tease him again.
"No," she agreed. "You’re right. You are not vain."
Then her blue eyes softened.
"Our Elias is the prettiest."
The nickname caught him off guard.
So did the uncomplicated affection in it.
Elias stared at her. His mouth opened slightly, then pressed together again. He bit his lip, and something shy moved through his gaze before it became too soft to name. The look sat strangely on him, equal parts sweet and dangerous. He seemed as though he might say something calculated in response, then thought better of it.
Giselle saw the flicker and felt her own attention snag.
Before she could decide what it meant, Elias turned away.
"Giselle," he called. "Come look at this."
She exhaled slowly and followed him.
The main window filled one entire wall of the suite. It was not merely large. It was a sheet of glass that made the room seem to open directly onto the island. Tall palms swayed below the terrace. Beyond them lay a strip of bright sand, then water stretching outward until sea and sky met in a clean blue line.
Elias stood close to the glass.
The ocean reflected in his eyes.
"This room has the best view of the water," Giselle said. "Do you like it?"
"Yes."
The answer came with a firm nod.
His face was open now, the earlier embarrassment forgotten. He looked as if the view had already given him everything he needed. The ocean lay close enough to touch, close enough that his whole body seemed to lean toward it.
"When can we go down?" he asked. "I want to see it up close."
His excitement was impossible to miss.
Giselle smiled. "Tomorrow."
Elias looked back at her.
"It gets dark quickly here," she explained. "And we spent most of the day traveling. Tonight, we rest. Tomorrow, we can go anywhere you want."
He considered it, then nodded.
The sea would still be there in the morning. It was outside the window now, and tomorrow he would wake up with it waiting for him. There was no reason to rush.
"If you really can’t wait," Giselle said, then paused.
She gave him a small, secretive look and beckoned.
"Come here."
Elias followed.
Giselle led him through a sliding glass door onto the private terrace. He stopped almost immediately.
A pool waited outside.
The water was so clear that the pale stone tiles beneath it were visible through every ripple. Lounge chairs sat beneath folded umbrellas. The pool reflected the edge of the suite, the palms beyond the terrace, the two of them standing side by side, and a wide stretch of sky.
It was not the ocean.
It was still water, still blue, still bright beneath the afternoon sun.
Elias’s excitement rose all over again.
He looked at Giselle.
"You can use it," she said. "It’s clean."
Only then did he relax completely.
He crouched beside the pool and dipped one hand into the water. He let it gather in his palm, raised it, and studied the clear little pool there as if he had been handed proof that something beautiful could exist without strings attached.
Before he could turn around and thank her, Giselle spoke first.
"You don’t have to thank me. I would have booked this suite whether you came or not. One more person does not change anything."
The words sounded cool on the surface.
Elias heard what she meant.
Do not feel guilty about the cost.
He looked up at her.
His eyes reddened, almost immediately.
Giselle sighed in quiet defeat.
He cried easily. That was one of the things about Elias that she still did not know what to do with. He could be sharp enough to make people afraid of him, shameless enough to turn any situation into an advantage, and then a small kindness would make him look as though he had been given something he did not know how to hold.
"Do you want to get in?" she asked, changing the subject.
Elias stood and looked down at his clothes.
"Of course I prepared something," Giselle said.
She went back inside and returned with a folded set of swimwear.
Elias took it from her.
He had seen men’s swimwear in this world before. In the social order he had been dropped into, men were expected to dress more modestly than women, and even the amount of skin normally shown at a beach felt more exposed than it should. The outfit looked almost like athletic clothes from one of his older worlds: a fitted short-sleeved top, close-cut swim shorts, and far more bare arms and legs than he was used to letting strangers see.
It made no practical difference.
It still felt embarrassing.
Elias glanced toward Giselle.
She understood immediately.
"I’ll give you privacy," she said.
Of course she would.
Elias watched her return to the suite and pull the door mostly shut behind her. He clicked his tongue under his breath. Giselle was so painstakingly polite that it made provoking her feel inevitable.
The more carefully she stayed on the safe side of every boundary, the more tempting it became to make her take one small step past it.
Elias’s mouth curved.
Then he took off his clothes and changed.
The entire process took less than a minute.
Afterward, he did not go swimming.
He stretched out on one of the lounge chairs instead, closed his eyes, and let the sunlight warm his face.
"Wake me in five minutes," he told System Theta.
[System Theta: Host, what are you doing?]
"Sunbathing."
[System Theta: You are changing clothes outside. What if Giselle looks over?]
Elias gave a small, dismissive hum.
"If she had that kind of nerve, I would not have put her at the end of the line. I would let her have me now."
He folded one arm behind his head.
"Relax, baby. Giselle is a lady."
System Theta did not relax.
It kept watch on the suite door with far more urgency than necessary, waiting for Giselle to appear on the other side of the glass without warning. Yet five minutes passed. No silver hair. No movement. No shadow approaching the terrace.
[System Theta: Five minutes are over.]
Elias opened his eyes at his leisure and stretched.
"Sunlight is wonderful."
[System Theta: ...]
Only Elias would turn a five-minute plan to tease someone into an actual break.
He stood and looked toward the room.
"Giselle?"
Her voice came from the bathroom. "Are you dressed?"
Elias nearly laughed aloud.
She had gone into the bathroom and waited there until he called for her. Of course she had.
"Yes," he answered.
Only then did Giselle emerge.
She raised her eyes toward the terrace.
And froze.
Giselle had known Elias would be wearing the swimwear she selected. She had known the clothes would show more of him than his usual layers. She had even made herself wait in the bathroom so he could change without being watched.
None of that prepared her.
Sunlight laid a soft gold over his skin. His arms were bare almost to the shoulder, slim and smooth in the open air. His legs showed from mid-thigh down, long and softly built, his skin bright against the pale stone. The swim shorts fitted close enough to look indecent by the standards he had grown accustomed to, stopping high on his thighs and leaving him abruptly aware of every inch that was not covered.
His feet rested on the tiles, pink at the toes from the warmth. His toes curled in against the stone.
That alone revealed how uncomfortable he was.
The rest was obvious.
Elias stood by the pool with one hand drawn across his chest and the other protecting the front of his shorts. His face was flushed to a deep, helpless red. He did not know whether the sun had warmed his skin or whether embarrassment had done it, but either way he looked as though he might bolt back into the room at any second.
For a moment, Giselle could not decide where to look.
She forced her attention toward his face. That did not help. The blush spread across his cheeks, reached his ears, and made his eyes look even brighter. He seemed genuinely nervous. He had walked out here alone, changed into the outfit she prepared, and waited because he trusted that she would not make him feel foolish.
That trust landed heavily.
Giselle had not intended the suit to embarrass him. She had chosen it because the hotel’s shop had assured her it was appropriate, comfortable, and designed for swimming in the heat. On someone else, it would have been ordinary resort clothing. On Elias, it became something she had not known how to prepare herself to see.
She remembered the way he had hidden behind layers on campus. The way he often kept his glasses on, kept his sleeves long, and acted as though a person had no reason to look twice. Now the open sunlight left him with nowhere to hide except his own hands.
Giselle did not step closer.
She did not look away, either.
Her thoughts had briefly gone blank, and the stillness between them stretched just long enough for Elias’s embarrassment to deepen. His fingers tightened at the fabric he was trying to hold in place.
Giselle’s pulse beat once, hard.
He looked beautiful.
The realization arrived before she could stop it.