Chapter 8 James' Good Mood.

Laura sat down at the long table and had dinner with her girlfriends. She hadn't realised that she had not eaten all day until it was pointed out by her friend Jen, who had found the group of them well on their way to getting drunk.

Now that she was eating something, she was feeling much better. But a few minutes ago, James had walked onto the terrace with Brian and Laura kept following him with her eyes the whole time.

The two had made eye contact a few times already, but Laura was not shy enough to look away, so even when their lines of sight clashed, the two of them would look at each other briefly before James would knowingly smile at her and continue doing his own thing.

She continued to watch him even then. The dark hair that fell to his shoulders, the open shirt that revealed his toned body. The defined pecs and abs and the dark tattoo on his side would peek out once in a while.

The way he would laugh easily when someone would make a joke and the way his Adam's apple would roll whenever he swallowed his drink. Laura was thoroughly and completely fascinated that she forgot about the people who were with her at the table.

She absentmindedly chewed on her food as her eyes continued to follow James around, and only stopped when Rachel nudged her.

"What?" Laura asked when she saw that no one had actually been trying to attract her attention at the table.

"Stop staring so hard, it's rude," Rachel reminded and Laura laughed. Rude? Her friend didn't know how rude she wanted to be with James. It was unfortunate that she was inexperienced!

"How am I rude? I was just looking at a very attractive man, okay?" Laura said and took a large gulp of the drink next to her before frowning. She had confused her water glass and the one with vodka, so the unpleasant taste bombarded her all at once.

"No matter how angry you are, you shouldn't take it out on yourself," Rachel said, and handed her hopeless friend a glass of juice. Laura quickly drank it to get rid of the aftertaste in her mouth. It looked like she was done here. She just needed to look for an excuse to leave.

"When did he come here?" Laura asked Rachel as she glanced at Lucas, who was now sitting next to Jen.

"About two minutes ago?" Rachel answered after some thought.

"Why don't we ditch the couple then? I saw your man over there as well," Laura said and laughed when Rachel's cheeks flushed from hearing her say that Brian is her man.

"Let's go, we shouldn't wait until we are forced to leave," Laura said as she watched her friend feed something to her boyfriend, who showed her a dimpled smile that got her dazed.

She wasn't comfortable watching this play at all! Wait until she captures James. The whole world was going to suffer from her PDA! She vowed inwardly and looked at James with renewed determination.

James only had a cold feeling at the back of his neck, which he rubbed before looking around, only to meet Laura's gaze again. This time, when they made eye contact, Laura stood up from where she was sitting and came to them.

Rachel watched her friend's departing back and also stood up to leave. Just like that, the girls started leaving one by one, not wanting to be light bulbs for their friend's romance.

James watched Laura, who was wearing a bikini top and a pair of shorts, leaving her torso completely bare except for the two glittering piercings on her belly button that flattered her flat, lightly muscled stomach. Her breasts looked like they would fit perfectly in his hands and her long legs would make any man's thoughts wander.

If he was unaware of her inexperience, James would have already taken her back to his room because she was offering herself to him on a silver platter. But with her being friends with his little brother's girlfriend made him much more cautious. Now that he thought about it, it has been a while since he last slept with anyone.

"Hi guys," Laura's slightly husky voice was heard among them and she boldly went to sit on James's lounge chair. James moved to make room for her when he saw her walk towards him and watched her sit next to his legs. A small smile appeared on his lips when he saw this, but he quickly hid it away.

Laura was soon joined by the other girls and the area became rowdier as the minutes passed. As they all got familiar with each other, Laura felt James move next to her and soon he leaned closer to her.

"Would you like something to drink?" James asked her as he was going to fetch himself something stronger to drink.

"Sure?" Laura answered, resisting the urge to turn and look at him.

"What would you like to have?" James asked.

"Surprise me," Laura said, and James chuckled before he got off the lounge chair. He put on his sandals and headed towards the bar.

"He is in such a good mood today. Do you think I'll get away with...." Jason started when he saw his brother walk by the pool.

"He'll drown you," Brian said.

"Don't worry, we have a doctor here," Jason said as he too stood up and patted Ethan's shoulder before going after his brother.

"What's going on?" Laura asked and curiously watched Jason, who pretty much ran after James. After saying something to James, he turned around to look at Laura as if to confirm something, but only saw a lost and curious expression on her face.

Before he could call Jason out on his lie, Jason had already lifted him. James, not to be outdone, also grabbed onto Jason, so when Jason tossed him in the pool, he was also pulled along.

"How did he lift him up?" Nancy asked, her eyes wide with surprise. Everything happened so fast that it was easy to miss if they looked away for a moment.

James stood up in the pool and pushed back his hair. He had already lost his shirt and his upper body was now bare.

He was initially upset, but seeing the way Jason was scrambling to run away from him, he couldn't help but feel it was funny, so he ended up laughing.

"He must really be in a good mood," Brian commented and pointedly looked at Laura, who was taking in the image of seeing James wet.

"Why don't we play pool volleyball?" Laura suggested, finally looking at the surrounding people.

"Let's do it," Ethan said, agreeing with her. They had to make the most of James's good mood to do the things he would normally not involve himself in.