Page 37 of The Last Casterglass
But it would be with Seph. And he wanted to wake her up, take her out of her comfort zone, to help her to do just what she’d said she wanted to do—live a little. He pulled off his jumper. “Are you in or not?”
She glanced askance at the grey-blue waves; the wind coming off the sea was pretty arctic, so he didn’t even want to imagine how cold the water actually was. Hopefully neither of them would catch pneumonia or go into shock or something horrible like that. He pictured giving her CPR right there on the beach and suppressed a shudder of fear. It would be fine, just a quick dip. A really quick dip.
“All right, fine.” She tossed the words at him with a defiance that made him smile. “But let’s do it quickly.”
“Absolutely.”
He undressed right down to his boxers, embarrassed suddenly by showing so much skin, although he knew it was more or less the same as wearing a swimsuit. Still, it was more of his flesh than Seph had ever seen before, wintry white and coming out in goose pimples. Not the most attractive look, but…
“All right, I’m ready.” He turned and saw that Seph had undressed down to her vest top and underpants, her arms wrapped around her body as she shivered. Her legs were endless and golden, her body slender and perfect. Oliver wondered if this whole endeavour had just been a way his subconscious had thought of to see more of her. She was so beautiful, everything in him ached.Everything.
“All right, let’s go.” He reached for her hand and with a shy smile she took it. “On the count of three?”
She nodded, and they both turned to the water. It looked really rather cold. Like, seriously cold.
“One…” Seph squeezed his hand. “Two…” Even tighter. “Three!”
She ran first, pulling him along, her long legs galloping over the damp sand as she headed straight for the water, so Oliver had no choice but to sprint to keep up with her. She didn’t hesitate for a second as she splashed through the shallows, but good Lord, it was truly freezing. Within seconds he couldn’t feel his toes. His ankles wereburning, which was an odd sensation considering how cold the water was, but that was how it felt. Like his body was on icy fire.
Then his calves were burning, and then his knees, his thighs, his—He was going to die. This really was going to kill him. Seph would have to drag him out of the water. Wim Hof was a sadist, and he must have been mad to suggest such an absurd, ridiculous, insane, dangerous thing to do—and yet Seph pulled him deeper into the icy water.
“Come on.” She laughed, and then he watched as she dove under water and came up again, sluicing the water from her face as if she were a mermaid frolicking in the sea. “You’re right, it is invigorating!” she called out to him. Oliver’s teeth were chattering too much to reply.
“Aren’t you going to go under?” she teased, and somehow he forced himself to do it, even though everything in him resisted the icy torture. So. Cold. That was all he could think of, his body burning, his head pounding, until he rose from the water and turned to see Seph standing waist-deep in the sea, happily oblivious to the fact that her vest top was plastered to her body and completely see-through. Oliver prided himself on being something of a gentleman, and so he averted his gaze, but not before he’d got a delicious eyeful.
Goodness but she was beautiful—and brave. He felt as if he’d seen a glimpse of the woman she could truly be, if given the opportunity, the courage. She was brave and beautiful, bold and strong, ready to scoop up all life had to offer with both hands. He really was falling in love with her, he thought with a ripple of incredulous wonder. Could it happen that fast? Could he trust his feelings?
“Iamfreezing,” Seph told him as she started to wade out of the water.
Oliver followed her, doing his best not to shiver uncontrollably as they yanked on their clothes over their frigid, goose-pimpled skin.
“I think this calls for hot chocolate by the fire when we get back,” Seph said, to which Oliver offered his heartfelt agreement. Cosying up by a roaring fire was, he realised, much more his style than swimming in ice water, as invigorating as it had been. Every nerve was tingling, certainly.
As they headed down the path towards the wood, Seph gave him a small, hesitant smile. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “That was brilliant.”
“You got into the spirit of it admirably,” Oliver replied. “Better than I did, certainly.”
She laughed. “Your lips are still blue.”
“I’m not surprised.”
She shook her head, still smiling, and they walked in easy silence all the way back to the castle.
*
Seph couldn’t rememberthe last time she’d felt so…happy. And not just happy, but full of joy and wonder. She would have never imagined that a simple swim could create such a sense of euphoria, but she knew it wasn’t just because of the water, no matter how Wim Whoever extolled the benefits of cold therapy. She was happy because she was with Oliver, because he seemed to see something in her that no one else ever had, because being with him made her laugh and tease and dream, and it was all so wonderfully liberating, she felt like a new person.
She wished she could tell him something of how she felt, but she didn’t have the words and she worried it would sound like too much.Thank you for helping me come alive.It wasn’t the kind of thing anyone said, outside of some sappy romcom. And yet she wanted to say it; she wanted him to know.
“Whoa, what happened to you?” Will stood in the kitchen by the kettle, his eyes wide as he took in their wet hair and damp clothes. Oliver’s lips still held a bluish tinge. “Who fell in, and who came to the rescue?”
“We went wild swimming,” Seph told him with a blithe recklessness. “It was amazing. You should try it, Will.”
“You went swimming in the sea in December?” Will’s eyes rounded. “And you haven’t caught pneumonia?”
“Not yet,” Oliver replied. “But I’ll let you know in a few days. I still can’t feel my toes.”
“Go change,” Seph told him with a laugh. “I’ll make the hot chocolate.”