Page 36 of A World Apart (Between Worlds #1)

H e moved towards me, fluid grace in every movement of his body, mesmerizing on a stage, devastating in real life.

When he was mere inches from me, he stopped, looking down at me with a smile that restarted my stalled heart.

“Kaiya,” he murmured, reaching forward and taking my wrist in his warm hand.

I felt myself being tugged forward. Powerless to resist, I allowed myself to be pulled into him.

I curled my arms around his waist and buried my face into his chest, the warm smell of him, that clean laundry and soap smell making my head spin.

I inhaled, shuddering slightly, pushing against the sense of being completely overwhelmed.

I could hear his heartbeat, the warmth of his skin heating my suddenly cold fingertips as I grasped at him, a drowning person clinging onto a life raft.

“Jihoon,” I rasped, too overcome to say anything else.

“It’s me,” his voice rumbled through his chest as I remained pressed so close, and I took a shuddering breath, trying very hard to pull myself together.

“You got her?” I faintly heard Becka say from somewhere behind me.

“I have her,” he rumbled against me .

I hadn’t realised until this moment how much I felt for Jihoon. It was a staggering realisation and one I hadn’t known I’d needed to process.

I took several deep, calming breaths and tried to re-centre myself, and all the while Jihoon was rubbing soothing circles on my back.

It could have been minutes or hours by the time I had worked up the mental fortitude to straighten my back and take a half-step away, just enough that I could tip my chin up to look at Jihoon.

He smiled down at me, his eyes shining, the natural mahogany colour of his irises deep enough to fall into, if I wasn’t careful.

“Hello.” My voice came out barely louder than a whisper.

He smiled broadly. “Hello.”

“How are you here?”

“Well, I got on a plane, and then took a taxi from the airport?”

I lightly slapped at his broad chest.

“So feisty,” he grinned. “We had a last-minute cancellation after our vacation, so we had the weekend free.”

“The whole weekend?” I gaped at him. “Where’s Youngsoo?” I looked around, as if the manager might just pop out from under the foyer table.

“In Korea.”

“You’re here alone? Do they know?”

Jihoon huffed a little laugh. “Yes, they know, I didn’t run away. I just told them I was coming to have some alone time.”

“Alone time,” I said sceptically.

“We are allowed to travel solo,” he said, and then amended with a tilt of his head, “sometimes.”

“And this is where you’re staying?” I asked, stepping back and looking around for the first time since my eyes had found him. Looking at the foyer now, I could see it was missing the personal touches of a lived-in home. It looked welcoming, but ambiguous, somehow.

“Yes, my stylist, Junsu, he booked this Airbnb under his name, for privacy." Jihoon shrugged as if this was a totally normal thing. I supposed in his world, it was.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” I turned back to him. He held out his arms.

“Surprise.” He winked at me and I laughed .

“So, you’re staying here for the whole weekend, no babysitters, no bodyguards, no one?”

“Well...” he ran his hand along the back of his neck, looking up at me from underneath his eyelashes.

“I hoped you might want to stay with me.”

I froze, staring at him, seeing the flush on his cheeks as he held my stare.

“You want me to stay here… with you?” Disbelief made my words come out a whole octave higher than my normal tone.

Jihoon’s mouth lifted in a shy smile.

“If you want to. There’s a pool…” he trailed off as pink splotches coloured his cheekbones.

“Oh, well, if there’s a pool count me in!”

He laughed and held out his hand to me, which I took with no hesitation. His warm handed wrapped around mine firmly, making my heart flutter at the possessiveness in that one, small action.

Jihoon led me through the house on an impromptu mini tour.

The foyer opened up into an airy living room, where a sectional sofa dominated the space.

There was a massive TV on the wall, bigger than any TV I’d ever seen.

The kitchen was to the left, through an archway and straight ahead, through an open set of French windows was a perfect, secluded oasis of a garden.

The doors opened out underneath a pagoda, draped with flowering vines that swayed gently in a soft breeze.

The terracotta tiles transitioned to lush, green grass with stepping stones leading the way across the lawn to a pool area.

Around the pool was a tiled area with sun loungers underneath a sun sail and the pool itself, though not large, was a perfect proportion.

There was a a separate area at the far end that I guessed was a?

“Hot tub?” I asked, looking up at Jihoon. He nodded and grinned.

“For the cold, LA nights.”

I laughed, the mercury hadn’t gone a degree below 25 C in weeks.

I looked around the garden, so oddly quiet and peaceful, it was hard to believe we were still in central LA.

“I could get used to living in a place like this,” I said wistfully. Jihoon squeezed my hand, gently .

“Do you want to swim?”

“I don’t have anything to wear, I’ll have to go home to get some things.”

“Ah,” he said, chuckling quietly, “I think Becka packed you a bag.”

I turned to look at him sharply, then, as realisation dawned, my mouth popped open.

“My dino bag! That lying snake!”

Jihoon, bless him, frowned in what I assumed was both confusion and concern. I waved a hand and said, “Yeah, I think you’re right. Did she leave it in the foyer?” I turned back around to head back into the house, towing Jihoon behind me, neither of us keen to break the connection of our hands.

Unsurprisingly, my dino backpack was placed on the table in the foyer in plain sight. Unzipping it, I briefly rifled through, seeing a toiletries bag, socks, hair brush, just random things tossed in.

“I think I need to go through this to actually find anything,” I laughed.

“Let me show you where you can change,” Jihoon said, and together we ascended the staircase to the second floor.

The landing was a hallway that seemed to run the length of the house, a large window at the end looking out over the garden.

Doors led off the hallway on either side.

We passed two open doors. One looked to be a bathroom with a massive walk-in shower.

The other open doorway led to a mid-sized bedroom, decorated in all neutral colours.

Jihoon led me to a doorway at the end of the hallway on the right. He pushed open the door to reveal a large, well-appointed bedroom. The bed was huge, covered in plush-looking covers and piles of pillows that kind of made me want to jump in and see if I’d get swallowed right up.

To the left was a pair of sliding glass doors leading out onto a balcony that overlooked the garden, and to the right was a partially open door leading to an ensuite bathroom.

“The master bedroom?” I turned to Jihoon who nodded.

“Where’s your stuff?”

He ducked his head and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I put them in the small bedroom. I thought you could stay in here, if you wanted to.”

“That’s not fair. This is your rental, not mine. If anything, I should be in the smallest,” I said, choosing to breeze over the ‘stay’ part ? for now .

“We don’t have to decide now,” he said quietly. “I’ll leave you to change and meet you at the pool, ok?”

“Sure, ok.” I said easily, not knowing what to do with the suddenly-weird air between us.

Jihoon left the room, quietly closing the door behind him as I wondered what I had said wrong.

Sighing, I tossed my backpack onto the bed and began to pick through it, but after a few moments of fruitless searching, I opted to just up-end it onto the sheets.

What spilled out was a cacophony of random items of clothing and accessories, or so it seemed, but then I began to notice things I was sure weren’t mine.

“Is this Becka’s?” I muttered to myself, holding up a scrap of lace I knew I didn’t own. Holding it by the straps to look at it more closely, I almost dropped it.

“Snacks, my ass, Rebecca Hanson!” I hissed at the offending item, the sales tag clearly visible.

It was a black, lace ‘babydoll’?according to the tag.

Eying it critically, I had to admit it wasn’t as bad as I’d first thought.

Nothing peeped, nothing opened indecently.

The top part was a plunging lace front, but the lace was pretty and not sheer.

The bottom, skirt bit was sheer by comparison, but nothing a pair of underwear wouldn’t solve.

A far cry from the ratty shorts and t-shirt I normally slept in. I spotted a second one that was similar in style, but in a pretty blush pink colour. It had a large, satin bow under the bust and, on further inspection, it seemed to be holding the whole thing together.

Refusing to look at the offending items any longer than necessary, I tossed them to the side and continued hunting for a swim suit.

I found undies, a sundress, shorts, bralette, and…

ah-ha! A two piece that also had the tags on.

It was a black, halter neck bikini and tie-string bottoms, but they seemed to blessedly be made with enough fabric that nothing would fall out.

At least Becka had had the good judgment to know what wouldn’t push my boundaries too far.

I laughed when I saw the tube of suncream nestled in amongst the clothes. Being a fair skinned Brit, suncream was really a non-negotiable for me, especially in this weather .

Trying not to think too hard about anything, I changed into the swimsuit and applied the suncream liberally.

Ten minutes later I opened the bedroom door, wrapped in a towel from the generously sized ensuite and padded down the hallway and down the stairs.

Jihoon was nowhere to be seen, so I continued on through the house until I reached the French windows leading out to the garden.