We all have regrets in life. We do stupid shit thinking it will be a good laugh. And it is at first, but then suddenly it's not. 

My regret was writing, Sophie's Bitch, bang smack across Nathan's forehead. If I hadn't written that I might not be running like a crazy woman down a beach in a helpless attempt to escape my impending murder by a very angry Nathan Woods.

"Wait till I get my hands on you," I heard Nathan call out from behind me. 

He sounded closer than before, and upon hearing his threatening message, it inspired me to run even faster. I'm not sure what he wanted to do when he got his hands on me, but I certainly wasn't going to find out.

When I heard the heavy pounds of his footsteps grow louder, I stupidly looked back over my shoulder. I swore as I saw he was about an arm's length away - his stupid long legs likely giving him an advantage.

And then I did something so colossally stupid that I swear to god, it happened in slow motion. And, that ladies and gentleman, was skidding on the sand and falling on my fat arse.

You know the stupid girl in horror movies that you always cuss out for being so irritatingly pathetic at running away from the monsters. Well, apparently, I was that girl.

Upon impacting the ground, I quickly scrambled to my arms and legs to try and get up. But I was too late, and I felt Nathan's large arms snag around my waist. 

"Oh, no, you don't," he whispered as I thrashed wildly to escape his grasp.

 I held back on hitting him because for some reason my goody-two-shoes brain didn't want to seriously hurt him.

"Nathan, come on," I said breathlessly as I tried to claw at one of his arms. The only effect this had was to make him tighten his grip.

"So, you think you can draw on my face when I'm asleep, huh?" he whispered against my ear.

 His words momentarily silenced me, and feeling nervous, I swallowed. "It was supposed to be a joke," I squeaked out, my words punctuated with a nervous laugh.

"Hmm, was it? Because I'm not laughing," he said flatly. 

The sound caused a ripple of both fear and excitement against my skin. Yes, you heard me right, excitement. Despite the fact he was literally threatening me, my stupid body was burning from the sensation of his strong warm hands wrapped around my naked waist. I mean, it was hard not to be a little excited when we were both fairly naked with my back pushed against his front.

Before my overactive brain could get too much into the clouds, I felt one of his hands slide to rest behind the back of my knees, and then, suddenly, I was up in the air. I let out an embarrassingly shaky breath from the shock of it.

Then silently, without a word, Nathan looked down at me with an evil glint in his eyes before starting to walk.

 "Woah, Woah, Woah. What are you doing?" I choked in panic as I unsuccessfully tried to unpeel away his arms from my waist.

Nathan completely ignored all my attempts to get down and continued to carry me silently, with fast, even stride towards the ocean. It was only when I heard the rippling sound of water moving against his feet that I fully registered what he was about to do.

"Nathan, wait, don't-"

"Have fun," he chuckled. Then with a swing for momentum, I screamed as he flung me like a sack of potatoes into the open air.

I hit the surface of the water with a large crash, and I instinctively sucked in a breath before sinking down into the bubbly waves. The chilly water was a shock against my skin, further adding to my racing heartbeat.

 Opening my eyes, I saw Nathan's stupid legs in the distance. Stupid, selfish bastard. Not only had he fucked up my hair, but he had scared me half to death too. I rolled my eyes childishly and made a move to break through the ocean surface But, then an idea struck me.

Nathan didn't know I could swim...

And like that, I thought of the perfect way to get Nathan back. Was pretending that you drowned an incredibly insensitive joke to play on someone? Yes! 

But was I bitchy enough to do it anyway? Why, yes, yes, I was.

 With my plan firmly set in my mind, I didn't re-surface the water. Instead, I closed my eyes and let all the muscles in my body go limp.

After about ten seconds of aimlessly sinking deeper, a crashing sound emitted through the water. I felt bubbles of water beat vigorously around my skin, and then, suddenly, a warm hand grabbed my wrist. I was tugged upward with a surprising amount of strength, and soon enough, my head popped up above the water. Nathan wrapped one of his arms around my waist to keep me afloat while I kept my eyes closed and my body unmoving.

"Shit, Sophie. Wake up," he swore, his voice cracking slightly as he started to shake me.

 I couldn't see him, but the level of desperation in his tone was almost haunting. "No, no, no. Come on, wake up, you're not dead, he said with a slight stammer as he gave me a light double slap on the cheek. "Fuck," he hissed as he likely ran a hand through his hair.

Then I felt his shaky hands drift from my cheek to my lips. Then I fell in confusion as he pinched my lips a little, so they were pursed. Then there was silence before I felt warm air brush against my lips.

What the fuck was he-

Oh shit, he was about to give me mouth to mouth!

Realizing I had clearly taken the joke way too far, I snapped open my eyes. My heart rate intensified as I found his soft eyes looking right back into my own. They were bloodshot and were swimming with an overwhelming amount of fear. 

The expression took me aback, and guilt twisted away at me painfully. Had I really scared him that badly? God, I was a bitch.

 One of his hands was still on my cheek while the other grazed gently against my lips. The fear in his eyes faded to one of relief as his eyes flickered back and forth between mine. Then taking me completely by surprise, he pulled me to his chest and enveloped me in a tight hug.

Not knowing what to do, I gingerly wrapped my arms around his back and gave him a double pat like the awkward person I was. 

"I'm so sorry. God, that was all my fucking fault," he said softly near my ear. "I should have asked first and-" 

He cut himself off and pulled himself back abruptly before narrowing his eyes. "Wait, a minute, how did you wake up so abruptly?" he said slowly, suspicion lacing his tone.

I withdrew my hands from around his neck and scratched the back of my neck awkwardly. "Yeah, about that," I drawled. "I might have..er..maybe faked drowning, to maybe kinda scare you," I squeaked with a nervous laugh as I vigilantly avoided eye contact.

 There was a long period of silence. And then more silence and then even more.

Suddenly, Nathan made a large swiping motion with his hand and splashed me right in the face. I gasped in surprise and raised a hand over my face to protect myself as more and more waves came firing towards my face.

 "Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I spluttered as I started to back away from him. 

"Good, you should be; you scared the shit out of me," he snapped moodily as he sent another sharp splash my way.

"You know, I think your mean performance is worthy of another dousing," he said with a threatening spark to his eyes. I widened my eyes and quickly tried to swim away, but Nathan snatched me by the waist before I could.

He lifted me straight up out of the water and flung me backward. I squealed as I flew and plunged back into the water. Encased by a whirlwind of bubbles, I quickly swam back up to the surface to be met with a very satisfied, and smug-looking Nathan.

 I scraped my hair away from my face and ringed it. "Thanks for that," I said drily. 

"Anytime," he winked.

 My eyes drew up to his forehead, and I noticed to my disappointment that all the thrashing about in the water had washed away my lovely message from Nathan's forehead. 

Stupid cheap marker.

"Hey, what happened to the straps of your swimsuit," Nathan asked abruptly as he gestured down to my shoulders.

 I glanced down and furrowed my brows as I saw my naked shoulder bobbing up above the water. Figuring the straps must have slipped down, I felt around my chests for them, but I felt nothing. Nothing at all. 

There was no bikini top. All, I felt were my bare-naked boobs.

My eyes sprang open wide, "Shit, my top's fallen off! I cried. 

Instinctively, I crouched down lower in the water and slapped my hands over my chest to cover as much of my chest as possible. The water was fairly dark, so I don't think he could see anything, but still, I wasn't about to take any fucking chances. 

Nathan's face went from confused to shocked to highly amused in a matter of seconds. He bit his lip to contain his laughter. "Are you serious?" he snorted as his eyes unsubtly dropped below my neckline. 

"Don't look! And yes, I'm fucking serious," I hissed as panic overtook me. "It must have come loose when you chucked me in. What the fuck am I going to do?" I cried.

"Hey, I'm not complaining," Nathan winked.

 I took one of my hands briefly away from my chest to splash him. "Shut up, this isn't funny," I whined.

"Come on, it is a little funny," he chuckled with his stupid little smile.

"Stop fucking smiling and help me find it," I cried in frustration. "Alright, alright, I'll help you, I'll help you," he laughed. "Let me go find it, be back in a second," he said before his head suddenly disappeared underneath the water.

 I crossed my arms even tighter over my chest, scared that he was using his little underwater excursion to get a cheeky look at my boobs. I closed my eyes as the seconds ticked by, wishing the sea would engulf me to save me from this humiliation.

About a minute later, Nathan popped up from the water, and I almost sobbed in relief when his arm raised up out of the water to hold up my bikini top. 

"Oh my god, thanks, Nathan. You're a lifesaver," I gushed as I reached out to take it. 

Before I could, Nathan pulled it back sharply. "Nuh-uh uh, not yet," he taunted, a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"Nathan, what the fuck? Give it back," I yelled, my heart picking up pace. From the cunning spark in his eyes, something told me my humiliation was far from over.

"How badly do you want it back?" he teased, with a taunting smirk.

 I narrowed my eyes. "Are you blackmailing me?"

"Yup," he chirped, not even bothering to deny it.

"Fine, Nathan. Name your price. What do you want?" I spat bitterly.

 "I want access to your room tonight," he said bluntly.

 My eyes grew ten times in size. "What?" I cried in shock.

He rolled his eyes. "Not in a sexual way. I just want you to open your door for me when I knock. I'll explain the rest to you later," he explained with a cunning smile. 

Narrowing my eyes, I flickered my eyes between his, checking for any signs of deception. Finally, I swallowed. "Okay, fine then, deal...," I said slowly, figuring whatever Nathan had in store couldn't be too bad.

"Good doing business with you," he chuckled as he held my bikini top out for me to take. I quickly snatched it up with a scowl before turning away from him so I could put it on properly.

I got the front in position rather quickly, but tying up my back strings proved more difficult. I let out a huff in annoyance as I lost the end of the bikini string for what must have been the fourth time in a minute. I normally didn't struggle, but my hands were still rather shaky from the anxiety of being topless in front of Nathan.

As I reached behind my back to try and find the string again, warm hands brush against my naked back, causing me to jump.

 "Relax, it's me. You want me to help?" Nathan murmured over my shoulder as he tugged at one of the strings. The knowledge that it was him, made me do the opposite of relax, and my adrenaline felt like it was going through the roof. 

But, wanting to keep a façade of nonchalance, I nodded my head. "Erm..yeah, sure," I mumbled.

The warmth of Nathan's body shrouded me as he stepped even closer to me. His fingers moved to tie the knot, and every, so often they brushed against my skin, causing delicious ripples to shoot up my spine. And shamefully, it drove my mind to bad places. Places that involved Nathan pulling the bikini string loose rather than tying them up.

"All done," he whispered, his voice sounding lower and more stressed than I remembered.

 Even though he was done, Nathan's hands lingered on my back. Slowly, he skimmed his hands to my waist, and I followed his lead as he coaxed me to turn around.

Still holding me in place, those striking eyes of his peered into mine. The playfulness in them was long gone and in its place an expression of need. As though in a trance his hand trailed to the small of my waist, and his fingers dug in a little. He then moved the tiniest bit closer, and so did I, all the while keeping our gazes interlocked.

It was only when his eyes dropped down to my lips that I finally came to my senses. Clearing my throat, I backed away.

"I...erm...I'm kinda cold. I'm going to go back to the beach," I muttered. Then turning around, I marched my way out of the water and didn't dare look back. 

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Author's note:

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Why do you think Nathan wants access to Sophie's room?

Next Update: Wednesday (6-8 PM -UK time)