4. Meeting Ace
1603 Words
Chapter 4.
“Did you hit your head?” said Ace while examining her thoroughly.
Leanne fluttered her eyes, she sat down--still stunned at the presence of the man who saved her. He kneeled beside her with his wet hair, wet lips, and Leanne can see his abs through his light-blue linen shirt.
Leanne shook her head to answer Ace’s question. She’s feeling embarrassed for being too clumsy, moreover to see one of her shoes stand stuck on the trench drain of the pool. “My shoe..” she whispered when she noticed the other pair is in the bottom of the pool.
“Your what?” Ace followed her empty-glance to the pool.
“N-nothing.” She said while looked away from her shoe to his eyes immediately, and she just can’t help herself from being attracted to his eyes. She forced herself to looked away even though she’s still can’t decide the colour of his eyes. Blue-grey-with a hint of green? Stop staring, Leanne!
Ace ruffled his wet hair for a second, to ease the weird sensation inside him every time he looked at her. Is she still in shock from drowning or because of losing her shoe?
Ace then licked his lips when he noticed her lace bra under her white-wet-shirt, he quickly looked down not daring to tempt himself by staring longer. He got that annoying feeling too, for the fact that every man who’s standing there can see the same ‘view’ as he is.
He grabbed a towel on the pool bench nearest them and wrapped Leanne’s upper body at once. “Don’t worry about your shoe, I can get it later..” said Ace.
Leanne's cheek was blushing for getting doubled-embarrassed, especially because Ace knew what she’s thinking, and another one is for after Ace wrapped her with the towel, she realised too that her wet blouse exposed her lace bra underneath. Leanne opened her mouth, intended to say her gratitude toward him but a raised voice suddenly heard.
“Leanne! What are you doing??” Sharon is standing and staring down at Leanne with her sarcastic look. “The party is about to START! I’m not paying your salary every month-- so that you can enjoying my pool and MY party!”
“She was drowning!” Ace cutting in.
“I don’t care..” She stopped for a second when she realised who’s talking.
“Oh, Hi ACE!” Her greeting is in a high pitch tone when she noticed Ace and his wet look. “Wow, you look good, Ace!”
Ace forced himself from scoffing in sarcasm, he gave her a simple 'hi' instead. Sharon then looked at Leanne again, furious at the fact that she’s still there.
“Uh—I -- I’ll get back to work—” Leanne knows that reasoning with Sharon will bring her no good. She immediately stood up on her feet before running barefoot, back to change her clothes first in her room. Sharon shouted at her back, “OH! Don’t forget to prepare the room for the guests!! ESPECIALLY FOR ACE! DO YOU HEAR THAT?!”
Even without living there, Ace can imagine what Leanne has gone through in the mansion. And why does he suddenly care? Ace left the pool site and went back to the prior dinner room, with his hair-to-toe all wet.
When Ace opened the sliding door, Calvin is still there and Cheryl is sitting down beside One, she still looked anxious. “Is Leanne okay, Unc Ace..?” she asked.
“Yeah she’s safe.. she just changed her wet clothes—uh, now..” Odd. Just saying those words swiftly make his mind imagining her—Ace cleared his throat, “I’m going to change my clothes too okay..”
“Thank you, uncle Ace! I was gonna hug you but your clothes are wet” Cheryl giggled.
“I don’t mind getting a hug now!” he teased her. Cheryl is laughing while running away from her uncle’s arm.
***
In her room, Leanne doesn’t have much time to cleaned up since Sharon made it pretty clear for her to prepare everything, immediately. Leanne just changed her clothes with the dry ones, she took the very top shirt and skirt inside her closet. She changed every wet fabric on her, dried her hair with a towel right away.
She wore a lavender short-sleeved shirt with a black high-waist pencil skirt, and put on another nude colour high-heels – which is one of Sharon rules for her—She sighed for a while before ran outside her room.
Leanne made sure everything has been prepared for Sharon’s ‘playdate’ party. The pool area is getting even more crowded than before, and as far as she observed the circumstance was under control. Sharon and her guests are enjoying the party—may be too much enjoying that party.
Leanne then decided to check on Cheryl and Calvin, before she remembered about Ace—his saviour whose name she heard from Sharon. Shoot! Is his room ready yet?-- She thought inside.
Leanne asked one of her co-worker she met in that mansion, “Linda, has somebody take care of Mr Ace’s room?”
“I’m not sure Leanne, we’re pretty occupied here..” she replied and rolled her eyes at the same time. Nobody likes their boss-Sharon in that house.
“Fine... I’m going to check it out then...” She said not too convincingly. Shoot. Hopefully, he’s not in his room.
Leanne is heading toward Ace’s room, she hesitated to knock on the door for a second, before deciding to knock anyway. No answer.
“Um, Mr Ace?” She knocked again, “I’m going to prepare your room..”
When there’s still no answer heard, Leanne decided to slightly open the door and look inside the room. There’s nobody there, only an opened suitcase on the floor and the balcony door was open.
Great. The room isn’t ready yet, no bedsheet, pillows, and a few pieces of furniture are still covered in plastic cover. Okay, I’m going to prepare the room before he’s back. Where is he anyway? Maybe he’s still in the pool or still with Calvin? Never mind.
Leanne quickly uncovered each of the furniture’s covers, then she opened the closet and bend down to take the bed sheet which appears to lied at the back of the closet.
Suddenly she heard a loud growl that made her super-startled until her head hit one of the wood-shelve above her.
“Shoot!” She swore, when she looked at both a german shepherd dog-- showing its teeth at her, and Ace who’s wearing only a white towel circled on his waist. Leanne stunned for a while, with her round eyes.
I guess this is what real macho looks like, those muscular—wait I must not stare! But she noticed a few things already—like a few numbers tattoo on the top of his shoulder and some kind of an eagle tattoo on his arm.
“Could you try... to be more careful and NOT to get hurt?” said Ace, noticing that she bumped her head. Leanne’s back is already pinned to the wardrobe for being super-surprised, and all the bedding set cover fell on the floor.
“- I – I d-didn’t mean to p-pry... I-I did knock..” she replied nervously.
Is she always this frightened and ‘jumpy’ all the time? Or is it because of One? –Ace assuming inside.
“At ease, One..” Ace ordered One to stop his growling at Leanne, and Leanne looks slightly relieved right after that.
“I-I was..going to prepare your room.. it won’t be long..” said Leanne while collecting the sheet and pillow covers on the floor. She then slowed down for a while before saying, “A-and thank you for saving me- -from drowning.”
Their eyes are locked into each other, but Leanne looked away nervously.
Damn. Should I go back and take a shower again? Her wide eyes—the way she looked at me.—Ace ruffled his wet hair. A new habit of him when he tried to shake his thought out of her.
“Don’t mention it.” Ace took his clothes from the suitcase. “Just- - be more careful, would you? Because I’m off duty.” He said while put his attention on her, watching her thoroughly.
Leanne is still putting the bed sheet, but her eyes widened in reflex when she heard the off-duty words. Based on what she observed from Ace’s appearance; his tattoo, his dog, he must be working as a soldier, an agent, a cop or something.
“O-off duty? You mean like, saving people off-duty?” she asked but still working on the bedsheet, covering her intention seeking his information.
“U-huh, I’m an officer.” He emphasized since he can always know something about someone’s reaction when they found out that he’s a SWAT officer.
- Writer
