Her voice was a whisper, her gaze downcast, her cheeks flushed but still wet with tears. She suddenly shifted, her foot slipping as she tried to balance herself, pressing her knee against his crotch, directly into arousal he'd been fighting to hide.
"It's... hard... rock," she murmured to herself, her cheeks flushing as realization dawned on her.
Bruno froze, knowing she'd found him out, feeling the blush of embarrassment creep up his neck.
How could he get an erection at a time like this? What a creep he is!
Awkwardly, he stepped back, gently letting her go, his hands falling to his sides.
Beauty stood there at the shore, her body soaked, watching him leave.
Just then, Jessie and the others appeared, rushing toward them.
Mrs. Lola Cruz covered her mouth emotionally, seeing they were both safe.
"Lo siento, this is all my fault. I shouldn't have asked you to look for Bobby."
"Please don't apologize. It's not your fault," Bruno replied calmly.
One of the staff threw him a towel.
Jessie ran to Beauty, her face filled with worry as she checked on her friend, expressing her relief that they were safe.
"Oh, my God, Beauty! Are you okay?"
She asked, her voice trembling with concern.
Beauty nodded and forced a smile.
Jessie hugged herself tightly.
"Thank goodness! You scared me with that scream, Did you fall inside the water? Your body is wet."
Beauty nodded again.
Mrs Lola Cruz approached and hugged her, singing apologies.
"Oh my god, Sir Bruno!" one of the models gasped, rushing toward Bruno.
"Are you okay?"
It was an opportunity to touch him.
Bruno simply nodded.
Another model stepped forward, her hand over her mouth.
"We thought something terrible happened! Jessie said she heard Beauty scream. We all got so worried. Thank goodness you're fine," she said, making cute faces at him.
Ferdinand frowned as the models surrounded Bruno, then his eyes widened when he looked at the flowing river.
A voice cut into his thoughts.
"My God, that's a deep one. They must've fallen into the river," the photographer muttered, marveling at the river's rushing current.
Ferdinand rolled his eyes. He would have been pleased if the river did a good job drowning those two annoying lovebirds.
He turned to his team, gesturing with a hand, pretending to care.
"They're safe, everyone! No need to panic! Let's make sure nothing like this happens again. We need to be more careful. Understand?"
The team members nodded, some muttering to each other in hushed tones about the incident.
The few models brave enough to follow them gave Bruno admiring smiles, whispering words of praise for his heroic rescue and how romantic it must be for Beauty, wishing it was them.
They were all over Bruno, completely ignoring Beauty.
Bruno, however, was not interested in their caregiving;he rubbed his wet hair with a new towel Mrs. Cruz's team member had given him.
Beauty was talking with her friend Jessie, a new towel over her shoulder, which had been given by a member of Mrs. Cruz's team who always carried a bag of essentials.
"How did this even happen?" Jessie asked curiously.
"It's a long story, Jess," Beauty replied, shivering-not so much from the cold but from the aftershock of what had just happened.
"You're still shaking," Jessie commented.
"I'm okay, Jess," Beauty murmured, her voice thick with emotion. "Thanks to Bruno... I don't know what would have happened if he hadn't been there."
"I'm glad. He followed you without a second thought."
Beauty pressed her lips together
"The way he shouted my name, his voice... it was the reason I kept pushing to survive, even when I was sinking into the water. I've never been so scared in my life," she sobbed.
Jessie hugged her again.
"It's okay, honey. It's okay," she whispered.
Just then, Ferdinand's voice interrupted them.
"You two want to go back swimming? It's time to leave the woods!"
"This is probably a sign to leave the woods you know," someone on the team whispered.
Jessie pulled back and used her palms to dry her friend's tears.
"Come on, let's get you out of here," she said, looping an arm through hers and guiding her away.
As they all walked back to the shooting site, Bruno could still feel the weight of Beauty in his arms, the way she had clung to him, her voice trembling as she thanked him, cheat pressed against him, so soft that he had an embarassing erection.
His heart was still racing.
He didn't want to keep this feeling of wanting ber; he had to move on.
When they reached the site, the models and the rest of the team who stayed behind looked relieved to see them. They rushed to welcome them back, asking questions impatiently with curious expression on their faces.
Kathy however sat back on her foldable chair, wearing sun shades, giving no fuck.
She cleared her throat.
"Well, while you all were busy making dramatic rescues and giving us all heart attacks, guess what happened?"
Jessie rolled her eyes.
"What?"
"The Booby chicken came back. Just waltzed right up like nothing happened. I said it was a bad idea to look for a chicken named Boob."
"It's Bobby".
Jessie snapped back.
"Bobby's back?" Mrs. Cruz said with a smile.
Her assistant walked forward with the chicken in his arms.
"Oh, my baby!" she cried as he handed the chicken to her.
Beauty couldn't help but laugh softly, happy to see Mrs Cruz smiling again.
Jessie shook her head, trying to process everything.
"After all that, the chicken just... came back? Bad chicken, Bobby."
The chicken crowed at her, and everyone laughed.
Beauty's gaze shifted to Bruno. He was smiling, surrounded by models who kept asking him questions, his wet shirt off. One of the models was drying his ripped, wet upper body, making some intense eye contact with him.
"He's never that comfortable with other girls... Never mind, it's over, isn't it? He's moving on."
Beauty's smile slowly disappeared, and she turned her face away.
Then, breaking her thoughts, Jessie called out, "Beauty! We need to get you into dry clothes before you catch a cold."