Try Easy: A Slow-Burn Vacation Fling Love Story (Aloha Series Book 1)

by Jill Brashear

  The image of Keoni standing in the outdoor shower under the moonlight, completely naked and so damn majestic flashed through her mind. Her heart beat so fast that she felt like she was going to pass out.

  Keoni had laid himself bare for her. He’d been honest with her when there had been no reason for him to say anything.

  She felt the need to do the same.

  “I love you,” she said.

  Keoni smiled. His lip was healed, and he could smile fully now. Lou’s insides turned to butter watching his mouth move.

  “I love you, too,” he said. “Come here.”

  His hands slid up her thighs, and he grabbed her hips, lifting her so that she straddled him. Lou hitched up her skirt and moved closer, so their lower bodies formed a tight junction.

  Keoni groaned, and Lou felt him stiffen against her. He gripped her hips and pulled her closer.

  When their mouths met, they were full of fire. Keoni plunged his tongue into Lou’s mouth, and she gasped tasting the raw need that consumed him.

  His hands tightened and moved around to cup her ass, yanking her closer. Lou ground herself against his erection, loving how hard he got so quickly for her.

  This man could be with any woman he wanted. And he wanted her.

  The thought drove Lou insane. She tore at his jacket, raking it over his shoulders. Keoni shrugged it off and threw it to the ground. Lou’s fingers flew to the buttons of his shirt. She was desperate to feel his warm flesh under her hands. She wanted to see his toned body and run her tongue over every ridge of his muscular chest.

  Keoni let go of Lou’s ass long enough to help her with his buttons, and then he tore his shirt off and tossed it beside his jacket.

  His fingers went to the buttons of Lou’s shirt. They were shaped like oblong pearls, and delicate. Keoni had a hard time with them, and he sighed with frustration trying to get them open. Lou leaned forward and kissed his mouth, sucking his bottom lip and biting him as she pushed his hands away and undid the buttons herself.

  As soon as her blouse was off, Keoni’s hands found her breasts. He shoved the lacy cups of her bra down and filled his hands with her breasts. Lou reached around and undid her bra, then leaned into his touch.

  His calloused fingers teased her nipples into stiff peaks. Lou reached down and undid Keoni’s belt buckle. He kissed her neck as she unbuttoned and unzipped his pants. Her hands moved urgently as she shoved his fly open and freed him from his pants.

  As her fist closed over him, Keoni sucked in a breath and let his head fall back to the cushions.

  “Fuck,” he groaned.

  Then he reached for her skirt and shoved it up to her waist. His rough fingers tore a hole in her pantyhose and shoved aside her panties. He ran his finger over her cleft all the way up to her clitoris and teased it with a flick of his thumb.

  Lou gasped and ground her hips against him.

  “I need you now,” she said, moving his hand away and fumbling to fist his hard cock.

  “Condoms,” Keoni said against her neck as she raised up on her knees with him poised at her entrance.

  “I’m on the pill,” she said and slid down onto him.

  “Fuck,” Keoni swore as she sank down over the crown of his shaft.

  He felt like steel wrapped in silk. He was hard but smooth at the same time. Lou sank down onto him so that he filled her completely. Her skin broke out in chills all over as her body stretched to accommodate him.

  They were both still for a moment as their bodies became joined with no barrier in between them. Keoni moved his hands up to her face and took Lou’s mouth in a kiss so fierce that tears filled her eyes.

  Then he began to move beneath her, and she thought she was going to lose her mind with the intense pleasure of it. He gripped her hips and lifted her, raising her off him and then pulling her back down the hard length of him. He started out slowly, and then as Lou ground into him, he sped up.

  Before Lou knew what was happening, she felt like she was being consumed by something bigger than herself, driving her to move faster and grind harder, giving herself over to an abandon of pleasure so intense it bordered on pain.

  The room was silent except for the cries of desperation that escaped their mouths when they weren’t kissing each other.

  Keoni pulled Lou hard onto him, lifting his hips off the cushions to bury himself inside her. Lou cried out, and Keoni stifled her scream with his mouth, kissing her with his tongue and teeth.

  Lou held on to Keoni’s shoulders, feeling his muscles bunch under her fingers. His skin was warm and smooth. His mouth hot and demanding.

  Lou broke the kiss and looked down at their bodies where they were joined. Her gaze traced Keoni’s taut abdomen, the blue veins that stood out every time he thrust into her, the line of dark hair that grew into a thicker patch where their bodies met.

  Lou’s heart beat frantically as her eyes passed over her own body. She’d never looked at herself like this before. There was a light sheen of sweat over her skin. Her stomach muscles strained and flexed as she bucked, and her breasts bounced every time Keoni slammed her onto his cock.

  Keoni’s fingers gripped her hard enough to leave bruises, and Lou was glad. She wanted him to leave his mark. She wanted to see the prints of his big hands spanning her waist tomorrow.

  She braced her hands on Keoni’s shoulders and ground into him harder and faster, taking control. She felt crazy with the need to drive Keoni to orgasm, to make him lose himself in her. She needed to feel the hot spurt of his seed filling her. She needed to make him hers.

  “You’re mine,” Lou said, suddenly filled with rage at the thought of him touching another woman.

  She kissed him savagely. Their tongues tangled as Lou claimed him. Her hips pinned Keoni to the sofa as she rode him harder and faster. She felt the moment when he lost control. His whole body seized on the verge of orgasm.

  Tears filled her eyes, and she choked back a sob. Keoni’s eyes flew open and met hers. He slowed his brutal pace as he saw she was near to tears.

  “No,” Lou said. “Don’t stop. Don’t you dare stop.”

  Keoni’s eyes were dark and wild as something broke inside him. His hands went from her waist to her hair, and he yanked her head back hard as he pumped into her. His mouth closed over her nipple, and Lou cried out with the intensity of the pleasure.

  She writhed on top of him, and Keoni stiffened and dropped his head back to the cushions. Lou watched Keoni’s face, his incredible face, now healed of all the bruises and as handsome as she’d ever seen him, flush with pleasure. Seeing him so vulnerable, and knowing that she’d been the one to make it happen was enough to drive her to orgasm.

  She shuddered, and Keoni gathered her tighter and pumped into her one final time, erupting inside her.

  She collapsed against him, and he held her close, their hearts beating against each other’s.

  Lou buried her face in Keoni’s neck and kissed his damp skin. A smile broke out over her face, and she started to laugh.

  Keoni picked her up and flipped her over onto her back, settling himself on top of her.

  Their bodies were still joined, and she could feel how big he was even though he was no longer hard.

  “I’ll give you something to laugh about,” Keoni said, nuzzling her neck and tickling her.

  She laughed and wiggled against him. To her surprise, he stiffened inside her.

  “Oh, no,” she said, cocking an eyebrow at him.

  “Oh, yes,” he said, grinning.

  “At least let me get out of these clothes first,” she said.

  Her skirt was uncomfortably rucked around her hips, and her underwear was still on but shoved to one side.

  “Awrite.” Keoni slowly eased out of her and sat back on the sofa. “Where’s your bathroom?” he asked.

  Lou stood up and nodded down the hall. Keoni pulled up his pants and left the room. Lou watched him until he was gone, looking at his retreating back and thinking she was the luckiest
woman in the world.

  She stood up and unrolled her torn pantyhose, tossing them into the pile of clothes on the floor.

  She was unzipping her skirt when Keoni called her name.

  “Lou?”

  “Yeah?”

  She stiffened. Something in his voice told her everything was not okay.

  “Can you come in here?”

  Lou grabbed Keoni’s shirt from the floor and pulled it on. She walked down the hall, feeling her heart sink with each step. Had Keoni changed his mind? What had gone wrong in the last ten seconds?

  She peeked her head around the open bathroom door and saw Keoni standing with his back to the mirror looking at the wall. He leaned against the sink with his arms crossed over his chest. His pants sat low on his hips, zipped but unbuttoned.

  “Did you take this?” he asked.

  He was staring at a framed black-and-white photograph of an indigenous Chinook woman dressed in traditional garb. The woman was facing the camera, but her eyes were focused on something in the distance. Her shoulders were straight, her chin was raised, and her gaze was proud. She wore an intricately beaded shawl, a headdress made of shells, and a bone through her nose.

  Lou had taken the photograph at a festival celebrating the Pacific Coastal Northwest Indian tribes a few years ago, but the look on the woman’s face and her traditional outfit made it seem timeless. It could have been taken at the turn of the century.

  Lou looked from the photograph back to Keoni. His eyes were on her, hot and curious.

  She nodded.

  Keoni unfolded his arms and reached out for her. Lou exhaled the breath she’d been holding and went to him. He hooked his arm around her shoulders and tucked her against his side. He slid over, and she leaned against the counter beside him. They studied the photograph in silence, not moving. The only sound in the room was their quiet breathing.

  After a long moment, Keoni rubbed his hand up and down Lou’s arm. “You are amazing,” he said. “You shoulda told me you were so good.”

  Lou wrapped her arm around Keoni’s waist and leaned her head against his shoulder. He was still warm and smelled faintly of sweat and coconuts.

  “Heh,” he said, pulling her into his arms to face him. “I brought you a gift. I was hoping to make you fall in love with me, eh?”

  Lou reached up and kissed the hollow of his throat where the shark’s tooth necklace rested against his skin. “You already gave it to me,” she said, her voice husky.

  Keoni took Lou by the shoulders and looked down at her, his eyes soft. “That was my body,” he said. “This is my soul.”

  He kissed her on the lips and then slid by her out of the bathroom. A shiver of longing ran down Lou’s spine as she watched Keoni walk down the hall to the living room. His back was just as beautiful as his front, and the way he moved was so confident and full of grace, it made Lou’s heart tremble just to watch him walk.

  He came back down the hall a moment later with his guitar strapped over his bare chest, and the trembling in Lou’s heart became a minor explosion.

  Promises

  Keoni

  * * *

  Adjusting the strings of his guitar, Keoni strummed a few chords and glanced up at Lou. She was standing in the frame of the bathroom door wearing his shirt. It hung down to mid-thigh, leaving most of the creamy expanse of her long legs bare. His mouth watered thinking that she was naked under his shirt.

  God, she was beautiful with her hair all messy from his hands running through it.

  His fingers stilled on the guitar, and he thought about putting it down and picking Lou up instead.

  “Is this my gift?” she asked, looking at the guitar.

  Keoni nodded. “I wrote you a song. You want to hear it?”

  “Yes.” She took his hand and led him down the hall. “This is my room,” she said. “The view isn’t as nice as yours, but…” She shrugged.

  Keoni smiled, watching her. Ending her sentence with “but” and shrugging was a very Hawaiian gesture. He wondered if she had managed to pick it up in her short time on the island.

  He looked around at Lou’s bedroom. The colors were vibrant—bright blue bedspread, purple paint and dozens of photographs adorned the walls, but she was right, the view was awful. All he could see out the single window was the brick facade of the building next door.

  He realized he hadn’t officially asked her to come back to Hawaii with him, but he was getting there. The song was part of his plan.

  Keoni started strumming the guitar, coaxing a sound out of the instrument that was melancholy and romantic. He glanced up at Lou and saw that her eyes were tearing up.

  “Sit down,” he said. “Try listen.”

  She sat down, and she listened while he sang the words to a song he’d written for her. The lyrics had been inspired by the story of the Diamond Head. It was about a man who had been searching for his perfect bride only to find her in the most unlikely place. As he sang the last few lines, he hoped she would understand what he wanted.

  “Once I found you, I knew you were the one. Take a risk on me. All that you are is all I’ll ever need. Come away with me. I will give you everything. Come away with me, you’re all I’ll ever need.”

  Keoni finished the song and looked up at Lou. She was silent, studying his face with tears shining in her eyes.

  “Are you asking me to come back to Hawaii?” she asked.

  Keoni reached for Lou’s hand. He wanted to ask her to marry him, but he knew it was too soon. He would settle for her coming back with him to Hawaii.

  Keoni was about to answer Lou when there was a loud knock on the door. Lou’s eyebrows drew together, and she glanced at the clock on her dresser.

  “I better go see who that is,” she said.

  Lou stood up and went to the living room. Keoni sat on the bed, looking at the photographs decorating her walls. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said she was a fantastic photographer. Every picture was amazing. Lou was going to be famous one day, Keoni would bet on it.

  Lou came back into the room looking upset. She was dressed in her skirt and blouse, and she handed Keoni his shirt.

  “What’s the matter?” Keoni asked, taking his shirt.

  “Paul’s here,” she said.

  “I thought you ended things with him.”

  “I did,” she said. “I just haven’t told him that yet. I just decided it when I saw you in the lobby of the bank.”

  Keoni blew out a frustrated breath. “What are you going to do?” he asked.

  She pinned her hair up on top of her head. “I’m going to break up with him.”

  Keoni couldn’t stop the grin from spreading over his face. “Do you want me to stay in here?” he asked.

  Lou studied him for a moment, her eyes trailing over his naked chest. “It might be better,” she said. “I’ll take care of it, okay?”

  Keoni stood up and took her face in his hands, planting a kiss on her mouth.

  “K’den.”

  Lou smiled at him. “Don’t worry,” she said.

  Keoni watched her walk away with clenched fists. He tried sitting on the bed waiting patiently, but he couldn’t handle it. It was tearing him apart to know Lou was in the other room with the man she had almost married. After a few minutes, he got up and put on his shirt. He was buttoning it when he heard raised voices and decided he didn’t want to wait passively anymore.

  “You’re not making any sense,” said a man’s voice. “We’ve been planning this for two years.”

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t,” Lou said.

  Keoni went into the living room and saw Paul for the first time. He was wearing a dark suit and a hat. He looked like someone who spent his days in an office bossing people around.

  He looks like an asshole.

  “We’re getting married,” Paul insisted, putting his hands on Lou.

  Keoni quickly moved into the room, inserting himself between Paul and Lou.

  “Lou isn’t marrying you,�
�� he said.

  Paul turned to glance at Keoni, then looked back at Lou with narrowed eyes. “Is this him?” he asked. “The guy you told me about?”

  Keoni pinned Lou with his gaze. She’d told Paul about him? That pleased him more than it should have.

  “Let her go,” he told Paul.

  The tension in the room increased another notch as Paul dropped his hands and turned to face Keoni.

  “Lou told me about how she’d fallen under the spell of Hawaii and made a mistake,” Paul said. “I guess you’re that mistake.”

  “It wasn’t a mistake,” Lou said.

  “Your little vacation fling,” Paul clarified.

  “Vacation fling?” Keoni asked, raising his eyebrows at Lou.

  “Lou told me everything,” Paul said.

  “She did, eh?”

  “That’s right,” Paul said. His mouth moved in a stiff smile. “I should be thanking you, really.”

  Paul extended his hand toward Keoni.

  Keoni glanced down at Paul’s hand, but didn’t take it. “Thanking me for what?”

  “First of all, because you saved Lou’s life. Second, because ever since Lou’s been back from her vacation, our future has been even clearer,” Paul said. “Lou deserves security and a solid future. Can you give her that?”

  “I can give her what she wants,” Keoni said, raising his chin.

  Paul laughed. “Lou doesn’t want a surfer.”

  “I can speak for myself,” Lou said.

  “K’den,” said Keoni, anxious to hear what she had to say.

  “Tell him, Lou,” Paul said, straightening his suit jacket. “Tell him you don’t want a high school drop-out as your husband and the father of your children.”

  Keoni looked from Lou to Paul, and the color drained from his face. His eyes hardened. “You told him that?” he asked.

  “She told me everything, pal.”

  “Lou?” Keoni asked.

  “You should go,” Paul told Keoni, looking him over with a dismissive glance. “You don’t belong here.”

  Keoni’s eyes flashed to Lou. “Is that what you want?” he asked.

  “She wants a good life. A comfortable and secure life. She doesn’t want to worry about her husband getting himself killed in the ocean,” Paul said. “Can you give her that?”