CinderAllen. Chapter 5.

Yeah, so I know it's been a while since I posted..well any story but my computer has been broken and it still is sort of, ( I'm doing this in safe mode) so it may be a while before I can get up another chapter.

Anywho, I hope you enjoy this. It is still from Leah's point of view which, I have to say, is a complete bugger to write.

Chapter 5.

Leah felt a surge of satisfaction as the stranger showed surprise for the first time. His head jerked up and she could feel his eyes studying her.

“Seriously?”

Leah smirked at the reluctance in his voice before composing herself. “Well you did offer, but if you don’t think you can do it…” She trailed off and turned little away from young man, waiting for him to start stumbling over himself making excuses. When he didn’t, she snuck a peek over her shoulder, half expecting him to have made a run for it. What she saw made her jaw drop.

“What are you doing?” Leah gasped, gaping at him openly as he tugged off a boot and tossed it next to the one he’d already removed. The jacket followed.

“Getting your shoe.” The stranger said, pulling off his cap. Throwing it loosely on top of the jacket and boots, he was tugging off his t shirt before she could get a clear look at his face. Leah barely had time to take in his broad shoulders and flat stomach and he was cutting into the water with a smooth dive. Soft rings of water ripple over the pond as Leah waited for him to come up. The silence stretched.

Suddenly he appeared in front of Leah with a splash and she let out a squeak of surprise.

“Sorry.” He apologized, his tone sheepish.

“Okay, that time you did scare me.” She said, when her pulse had slowed and she could breath again.

“I didn‘t mean to, ” He told her. There was a long pause, then; “Well, maybe a little.”

Leah snorted. “I knew it.”

The moon behind the stranger cast his face into shadows and Leah felt a prick of disappoint that it was as obscure as ever. The quiet lapsed, the only sound being the soft tending of water. It was broke after a moment.

“Um, so is this about where your shoe fell in?”

“What?” It took Leah second to figure out what he was talking about. “Oh the shoe. Yes, I think so.” Almost before she finished speaking, he was under the water.

After he came up for the seventh time, Leah spoke.

“You might as well give up, you’re never going to find it.”

The stranger turned to look at her and Leah saw a flash of white as he grinned.

“I’ll bet you a kiss, I do.”

Leah couldn’t believe her ears.

“Excuse me?”

Even in the water she could see him shrug his shoulders.

“A bet. I find your shoe, you owe me a kiss.”

Leah closed her eyes briefly.

"I know what a bet is.” She spoke through gritted teeth and then continued, hardly believing the words coming out of her mouth. “What I want to know is, what I get if you don’t find it.”

His grin flashed again.

“A kiss?”

Leah laughed. “Nice try.” She thought for a moment. “I don’t know, I don’t think you have anything that I want.”

“Hmmm, that is a problem.” He mused. “Tell you what, I find your high heel, you give me a kiss, if I don’t find it, then you get the satisfaction of being right. Deal?

Leah smiled. “Deal.”

“Alright, I guess I better find that shoe then.” He said and disappeared beneath the water once more.

After what seemed like a age, he surfaced with a spray of water and Leah heard him inhale deeply, his breath coming in with long pants. She opened her mouth to ask him if he was ready to give up, but the words dissolved on her tongue before they could even form, as the stranger lifted his arm clear of the surface.

Water drops ran trails of silver down his forearm and the only sound was the tiny ‘plunk’ of them as they slipped from his elbow back into the pond. In shocked silence Leah stared at what was clutched triumphantly in his hand.

Her shoe.