"Okay, hold it right there. I can easily manage to apply the sunscreen on my own now," Carla stopped Terence just as he was about to smear sunscreen onto her chest. Taking the sunscreen away from his hands, she began applying it on her own while also shooting Terence quick glares.
Terence was amused by her reaction, for it was so obvious that she was just being shy once again. But he was actually already feeling quite contented after being able to apply the sunscreen onto her back. Her skin felt so soft and supple as he massaged the lotion onto her.
Without them noticing, Sean had already grabbed a lifesaver and gotten into the sea, while Terence was still so busy helping Carla put on the sunscreen. Rainer had been the one taking care of him all the while.
After a few minutes, Terence and Carla were finally done applying the lotion, so they walked slowly and headed toward the sea. "Terence!" shouted Megan, standing from a just couple of meters away. She then walked over to Terence and suddenly informed him, "Terence, I've called a couple of my friends and invited them to come here to join us. The more the merrier. Right? Let's all have a good time here at the beach! You wouldn't mind, would you?"
"What's the point in telling me after the fact?" Terence sarcastically replied, visibly getting a bit annoyed upon her actions.
"Please don't get upset. Next time, I'll be sure to get your permission first. And besides, I've already made the phone calls. I'd hate to be the one to bear the bad news that you don't want them to come over. Please, Terence, can't you just let this one slide?" Appealing to his pity, Megan leaned close to him and swung his arm as they were talking.
It wasn't the first that she had invited people to come over. In fact, she had already held two beach parties there before. Back then, Terence never really did mind at all, so she was under the assumption that he wouldn't get mad at her this time either.
With his brows deeply furrowed, Terence just stayed still, keeping his mouth shut. He would have preferred for him and Carla not to get disturbed by anyone during this vacation, but due to his disposition of not ever wanting to be rude to anyone, he just chose to keep quiet. Holding Carla's hand, he guided her toward the sea. They walked hand in hand by the shoreline, trying to savor the moment before everybody else arrived.
After about half an hour, the friends Megan had invited to come over had all arrived.
It literally became a beach party. The spacious lounge area they had all to themselves earlier had now become a little too crowded. Some of them wanted to immediately plunge headfirst into the water. A small group was getting ready to have a beach volleyball match, and as for the others, they were just eager to grab something to drink.
Lounging the beach chair, Carla watched as a crowd consisting of women surrounded Terence. They were following him wherever he went. All of them had such colorful swimsuits on, and some of them, obviously and shamelessly were trying to throw themselves onto him.
In fact, Carla didn't really expect Megan to call her friends to come over. She knew full well how much Megan deeply loved Terence. Thinking rationally, Megan would've never offered other women any chance to get close to him on a normal day.
"Mr. Terence, do you still remember me? I've attended your party before. I came here two years ago along with my other friends," asked a woman who was standing right next to him. To be fair, she was wearing such a cute sheer dress. As she prattled on, she wore the sweetest smile on her face while clinging tightly onto his arm.
"Yes, of course, I still remember who you are. Sorry if I've been too busy lately that I haven't been able to ask any of you to come over. Go have fun, ladies," he responded, smiling politely back at them. After he was done welcoming them, he quickly turned around and headed toward the sea to go swim.
"That's actually what I've been thinking. Mr. Terence, we haven't been to your house for quite a while. Would you mind showing us around later?" the woman with the sheer dress followed Terence to the seaside and shouted at him with a cunning smile on her face.
Who didn't want to marry a rich man? Well, almost every woman did. This girl wanted to make the most of this opportunity to get Terence to know more about her. She was eager to know more about him as well, on a higher level of intimacy.
She was one of Megan's close friends, so she knew damn well how much Megan loved Terence.
But she didn't really care about those trivial things. Terence was such an eligible bachelor, and quite possibly, the most eligible one in the whole city, and there were very few opportunities for ladies to even go near him. So, by all means possible, she had to do what she could just to stay close to him.
Before Terence could give her a proper response, Megan took the liberty of replying on his behalf, "Sure! No problem. Terence's villa is quite big anyway. I can take you all to pay a visit later today. Make sure not to get lost,"
Megan playfully said, trying to hide a flash of coldness in her eyes.
The truth was that she would rather see Terence show interest in several other women than accept the fact that he only loved one woman, which was Carla. Doing this, she would be able to feel much better about herself, knowing he was being nice to everyone. It would also come to show that Carla wasn't really someone special to him.
She thought that even if she herself were lucky enough to get married to Terence one day, she wouldn't really care even if he ended up having an affair with other women. It was just that she couldn't bear the thought of knowing he had fallen in love with only one woman, and it wasn't her.
Even if he were captivated by a handful of girls other than Carla, she would still prefer it over the current situation she was in. At very least, that would mean that there was still a chance for her to get a hold of his heart if she gave it her best shot.
At the beach.
Relaxing beneath a beach umbrella close by, Carla was able to overhear Megan's response, so she couldn't restrain herself from giggling. It was laughable how obvious what Megan was planning to do.
Sluggishly springing up from the beach chair she had been lying on, she called out to her brother, "Sean, why don't we head back to the Villa and watch some cartoons? What do you think?"
It was clear as day what Megan was exactly plotting when she invited other attractive girls over to the beach.
Megan wanted to shove it to her face that there was nothing special about her, and that there was still a possibility for Terence to fall in love with someone else. It was plain to see how much Megan hated seeing him taking care of her.
Knowing Terence, who was always such a gentleman, Carla was aware that he couldn't ever be rude to Megan's friends. Even if he hated the fact that Megan had decided a lot of these things on her own without consulting him first, he would still be acting decently toward the guests.
That was the main reason why Carla wasn't affected in any way even as she watched other pitiful girls throw themselves onto Terence. She realized it was such a trifling matter to be upset about. If Megan wanted to play dirty tricks on her, then Megan could go ahead and do what she wanted. She definitely wouldn't mind whatsoever.
Taking the towel from Rainer's hand, Sean walked over to where Carla was as soon as he heard her calling his name.
"Carla, did you see that? Lots of girls were flocking Terence from all sides. Were you able to see the looks on their faces? They were drooling over him! I don't think it would be a good idea to leave him on his own around those girls," Sean told Carla in a distressed voice, shooting a quick glance at Terence who had just gone out of the water.
Sean was feeling so anxious that Terence could be taken away by those other women from his sister. So, he wanted to do something about it.
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