Room Hunting + exploring (07-10-2011) [Dominique & Axel]

Dominique may have felt bad, but Axel wasn't doing much better. Like she blamed herself, he put the blame with himself. And of course he also felt really embaressed about nearly drowning himself and almost sexually harrassing Dominique just because he was so awkward around women.

"I'm really sorry," he repeated with a weak smile as he drifted in front of her, "I just...."
'Shut up idiot!' a voice inside his head said, 'what are you going to say? I, a 20 year old man become so uncomfertable by being close to a pretty girl I forgot how to swim?'
Axel wasn't a big fan of lying to make himself look better but he figured this might be an excusable time.
"My leg cramped up," he therefor said, hoping Dominique would either buy it or be graceful enough to pretend she did to leave him some dignety.

Dominique smiled faintly at Axel's excuse why he half drowned himself, she could tell that it was a lie but that didn't matter all that much to her, she would play along.
"It can happen," she replied her faint smile turning into a warm one, but when she noticed his shoulders her smile faded again with a small, "oh."
Axel's shoulders had turned reddish from the time they had spend in the sun without any sunblock and neither of them had brought any down from their rooms.
"Uhm Axel," she started a little hessitant, "I think your getting a sunburn on your shoulders."

When Axel saw Dominique's smile fade he immediatly assumed he'd done another something to make a fool out of himself so hearing it was just a sunburn came as a relief.
"O," he said sheepishly, "I'll guess I'll go put my shirt back on then," and he swam to the stairs and climbed out of the pool.
Not untill he was out of the cool water did he actually feel that his shoulders were burning. So he quickly made his way to his towel to dry himself of and put on his shirt for protection.
"Damn," Axel muttered, "I hope I'd be little bit more used to sun by now~!"
'Great,' rhe voice in his mind snapped at him, 'as if you didn't look stupid enough already, you thought you'd top it off with a lobster-like tan?'

All though Dominique could still be in the sun without sunblock without risking to get a sunburn she didn't feel much like swimming alone. So she followed Axel out of the pool and also started drying herself off, she smiled a little when she heard his muttering over being used to the sun. Pretending to not have heard anything though she also put her clothes back on over her still wet bikini.
"Do you have any aftersun with you?" she asked knowing from her visits to Egypt how much a sunburn, especially around the shoulders, could sting once covered up, "Cause if you don't I can lend you mine, if you like."

"I'm not sure if I brought any," Axel anwsered, "I remember thinking about taking some with me but... I might've unpacked it at the last moment, caus I remember thinking I'd just buy some here if I'd needed it."
Then he remembered neither one of them had unpacked yet.
"How about we unpack our stuff first?" he suggested, "otherwise you're going to have to dig through all your stuff for it."

Dominique couldn't help but chuckle a little when she heard Axel say that he had packed and then unpacked aftersun thinking he wouldn't need it so soon. It reminded of herself though she had pack aftersun and everything that she thought she might be usefull and that still fitted in her suitcases.
"Don't worry about it," she answered folding her towel over her arms, "I put the aftersun with the rest of my bathroom supplies and those are pretty much on top of my stuff. I know myself, it'll take some time before I'm really fully unpacked. So I put things that I'll be needing right away on top of the rest of my stuff. So you want to borrow my aftersun or not?"

Axel smiled and nodded; "I'd like that, thanks." He put on his jeans again and picked up his towel. "And euhm, I think that - if we're heading upstairs anyway I'm going to unpack a little and give my mother a ring; she's a worrier," he explained with a small chuckle.

Dominique and Axel then both went back into the mansion and up both the floors, first going to Dominique's room. Putting her towel over a chair to dry, she opened the suitcase with her bathroom supplies and took out her bottle of aftersun.
"Do you need help? The middle of your back was kinda reddish as well," she asked, holding the bottle out for him in case he didn't need her help.

With his hand already extended to take the aftersun from Dominique Axel stopped in his tracks. In an automatic reflex the mentioning of his back color lead him to look over his shoulder, though quickly coming to remember he couldn't actually see his back by doing so.
"O is it?" he asked, turning his gaze back at her, "well then... if you don't mind...?" with a grateful smile.
And of course, yes, there came the blush - the thought of having a goodlooking young woman rubbing lotion on ones back does seem like an acceptable trigger for that.

"I wouldn't have offered if I would mind helping," she answered, "so take of your shirt and have a seat if you wan't."
Dominique waited patiently for Axel to take off his shirt and when he sat down on the edge of her bed she positioned herself behind him. Now being capable of seeing exactly where he was sunburned she squeezed some of the coconut smelling lotion onto her palm before laying the bottle down besides her. Pouring a little over into her other palm she started with applying/massaging the lotion on the top of his shoulders and made her way to the back and middle of them and then back up his neck again.
Once she was certain she had covered all the sunburned parts of his back with the cooling lotions she smiled and leaned forward a bit, so that she could look him from the side.
"There I'm done," she told him, "though I would wait with putting my shirt back on until all the lotion is absorbed if I where you."

As Axel sat there, Dominique gently letting her hands slide over the sensitive slightly burned skin of his back, his blush slowly disapeared. She may have also noticed the tension in his shoulders gradually disappearing.
And so, when Dominique stopped to tell him she was done, he couldn't help but sound disappointed when he thanked her.
"I- uhr, I'm sorry that didn't come out right," he corrected himself as he got up, "it was just really nice. You'd be a good masseuse."
And of course he felt a little awkward again about saying that so he smiled at her and raised his hand for a single wave as he backed away out of her room; "anyway, thanks a lot. It was really nice meeting you. Uhr, see you at dinner?" he added with an eager twinkle in his eyes.
Then he left from sight and went back to his own room to unpack.

Dominique wasn't sure what to think when Axel sounded a bit disappointed when he thanked her, but that passed when he corrected and explained himself. She chuckled a little when he made his way towards the door, seeming a bit awkward.
She smiled a little cheeky though, when she caught the eager twinkle in his eyes.
"It was nice meeting you too," she answered truthfully, her cheeky smile still present, "and yeah you'll see me at dinner."
She gave him a small wave back just before he disappeared from sight, she stood up and closed the door behind him so that she could change into some dry clothes and started with unpacking a little.

~The End~

for now