“I don’t believe this.” She didn’t even have to say that. Her wide open mouth said it for her.
He was a complete idiot. An idiot with the worst timing in the world. He hadn’t even had the sense to wait for their bodies to cool before ruining the moment.
He lifted his body up on his elbows. Being flat on his back with her hovering over him seemed like a damn bad idea at the moment. “Look, it’s not that it wasn’t great—”
“Wait.” Cassie held up a hand.
The words kept coming. “Cassie, it’s just that—”
“I said, stop talking.” She tugged her shirt down until her bare breasts were covered again.
Cal felt the loss like a blow to the stomach. He wasn’t the obedient type by any stretch, but the murderous look in Cassie’s eyes suggested he should exercise his right to remain silent. Her jaw clenched so tight he wondered if the bones would snap.
Seconds ticked by in silence. Even the storm had the sense to die down.
Cassie scowled but did not move an inch. He figured she wanted to be close enough to land a solid punch on his midsection if the mood overtook her. God knew he deserved a good hit.
Without a word or a warning, she scrambled to her knees and searched around the ground for something. Dirt kicked up as she ran her hands along the ground. Stray strands of blond hair slipped the rest of the way out of her ponytail holder and down to her shoulders.
He knew enough about women to know he would lose a limb if he reached out to her now. Despite that piece of wisdom, he felt compelled to do something. When he spied her panties, he tried to hand them to her. She ripped them from his fingers.
Before he could apologize, explain—something—she stood up and slipped her underwear up those lean legs.
Cassie loomed above him with hands on hips. Since she appeared to be about ten seconds from stomping on his balls, he sat the whole way up and reached for his pants.
“Let me get this straight.” Her voice carried an icy sternness that would have made a prim schoolmistress proud. “Within seconds of getting lucky, you felt the need to set the record straight and let me know this was a meaningless one-night stand.”
He refused to speak. Any word he chose now would only get him killed. He was a dumb-ass. He did not have any desire to be a dead dumb-ass.
“I didn’t realize you were that guy.”
Cal hated to ask but did anyway. “Which?”
“The kind who runs the second the sex is over.” She pushed stray hair out of her eyes. “I’m not looking for a proposal here, but would it kill you to just enjoy the moment?”
“You’re not built for short-term fun.”
“You don’t know a thing about me.”
That’s where she was wrong. After a short time, he knew plenty, including the fact she was a long-term gal.
All he had wanted was a little distance between them while he tried to figure out how to fix the mistakes he’d made in the past—this one and others. He somehow managed to put a whole damn continent in their path.
He was wrestling with enough problems without adding her to the mix. He had a long-overdue debt to pay. He also had to face the very real possibility the police got the cause of death right.
They might end up on very different sides of the final finding. Her anger now would be welcome compared to her anger then. “Cassie, I didn’t mean—”
“Save it.” Again with the hand. She raised it as if it had some magical force to make him stop talking.
“We’re not done here.”
“Yeah, we are.” She slipped on her sneakers and stepped closer to the cave opening. “The storm is breaking up.”
“It’s still raining.”
“Don’t care. I’m going.”
“We need to settle this first.” Cal had no idea how to accomplish that deed, but he knew leaving like this was the wrong move.
She stepped outside and called back over her slim shoulder. “It’s settled.”
The damn woman walked right out into the rain with him stranded on the floor behind her with his pants at his ankles. “Cassie!”
When she didn’t poke her head back inside, he jumped to his feet. Upset and trekking across a slick and dangerous landscape in the setting sun made her vulnerable. She could slip and fall.
He shimmied into his damp pants, jumping from foot to foot to find his balance in a rush. He scooped up what few supplies they had carried with them and Dan’s backpack, and headed outside.
Maybe the slight chill moving through the air would cool her off before he reached her. He hoped but doubted he would be that lucky.
Chapter Seventeen
Cassie cursed when her foot slipped on the rock embankment for the fifth time. Her previously damp clothes were now drenched. Her chilled skin worked like a sponge. Being unable to see as her hair flipped back and forth in front of her eyes did not make the near perpendicular climb any easier.
The environment took sides against her as well. In the battle of sneakers versus earth, the dirt and rocks won without challenge. The battering rain had stopped, but the aftermath caused the dirt to pour down the sides of the canyon, cutting deep grooves into the land. Water sprang from everywhere. Thanks to gravity, it ran down when she was trying to go up.
All of that paled in comparison to the fury kicking around inside her. The sole responsibility for that fell to Cal.
She cursed, trying to fit every profane word she had ever heard into one long, venom-filled sentence. Cassie could not think of enough nasty names to call Cal or to ease the tightness forming around her heart.
She had taken a risk, let her seductive side take over, and he shut her down. Alone in a cave, miles from anyone, and he gives her a lecture about just how worthless to him was their time together. She wasn’t looking for even a for-months relationship, but come on, they barely separated before he started in on his macho bullshit.
He made her furious. No one else sparked this sort of raw animal rage in her. Just Cal.
She debated racing back down the hill and heaving him into the base of the canyon. The violence of the solution appealed to her. Flyboys. They all sucked. Han started the lesson; Cal finished it.
Well if he wanted distance, he would have distance. Miles and miles of it.
“Cassie!” Cal’s shout carried over the last rumbles of the storm across the canyon.
For a second Cassie thought she heard a hint of desperation in his deep voice. Then he bellowed a second time. Yeah, that would get her attention. The idiot.
Leaves crunched behind her. The wind whipped her hair around until the ponytail holder hanging on to the ends flew away. Nature worked against her on every level, but her pace never slowed. Despite the wet ground and the mist filling the air, she marched on, sliding with every step.
Somehow he made progress because he was almost on top of her. “Cassie, stop.”
“More orders. What a surprise.”
“You’re acting crazy.” Cal’s rough voice vibrated in her ear as if he stood only inches behind.
“Go to hell,” she mumbled, refusing to have a conversation just yet.
“It’s not safe out here.”
“Like the cave was safer.” She snorted at the thought.
They slipped, fell back, and pushed forward against the elements for another fifteen minutes. He kept trying to talk. She kept shutting him down. Apparently ignoring the guy drove him apeshit. Good to know.
Time stretched between them. She took a few false steps that sent her sliding. When he reached out to help, she shrugged him off. The pattern continued until he broke the silence with another brilliant observation. “This is insanity.”
This time she spoke up. “You need to work on your apologizing skills.”
“I was trying to explain.”
“That you’re an idiot?” She stumbled and grabbed on to a boulder to steady her footing. “No need. I get that.”
“I was trying not to be a jerk.”
“Well,
you failed.”
Those wide eyes. The flat mouth. He had the grace to look hunted.
Good.
“It’s just that you’re not being very mature about this,” he said after three seconds of silence.
Still the man kept fighting. Cassie marveled at his cluelessness.
“Well, you know women.” She pretended to think about it. “Oh wait. That’s right. You don’t know a damn thing about women.”
“That’s becoming obvious.”
She tried to walk away but only succeeded in turning sideways and jeopardizing her tenuous balance on the rocks. That was when the murmur of voices caught her attention.
“Cal.” Her whisper was little more than an exhale.
“Look, I know I handled this situation badly.”
She glanced around, trying to figure out the sound’s direction. The rise blocked her view, but she knew where she was. This had to be bad news.
“Cal.” Her plea was louder the second time, but he ignored it.
So, she pinched him. Not playful post-sex fun this time. Nope. A full-fledged pinch meant to get his attention.
He rubbed his forearm. “What the hell is wrong with you now?”
She shook her head, both to get back on the subject and to keep him from yelling. “There’s someone at the crash site.”
This time he understood. His head whipped around as he stood on his tiptoes. “Can’t see anyone.”
“Listen.” She pointed at an outcropping of rocks over to the side. They might be able to catch a view from up higher and behind shelter.
She didn’t wait for him to agree with her silent plan of action. She grabbed his hand. They walked as fast as the elements would allow.
Her head pounded in time with the fall of her feet. After being shot at, she should have been terrified. For some reason, being connected to Cal’s body warmth, surrounded by his earthy smell, made her feel safe.
They reached the crash area and she tried to peek over the rocks, but Cal’s shoulders blocked her view. Thanks to his size and position, he could see, so she was more than happy to let him take the lead.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“There are two of them, man and a woman. They’re poking around looking for something.” His voice held a sharp edge.
“Here?”
“Do they look familiar?”
He ducked down so she could lean up and over him to take a look. She got one second of staring time before he pushed her head back down. His touch wasn’t gentle.
She wasn’t a fan of the shoving. “Don’t ever do that again.”
“Would you prefer to be seen?”
“Than being manhandled? Yeah, maybe.”
He let out a long exhale in what she assumed was an effort to maintain control. “Is this really the best time to fight?”
Seemed good to her. “We can pick it up later.”
“I’ll look forward to that.” He took another quick look at the twosome. “Well?”
“Never seen them before.”
“Even at the funeral?”
“Not that I remember.” Her memories of that day blurred together. She hadn’t watched the crowd. She spent most of those hours beating back the urge to crawl into a ball and weep. Getting through the debilitating pain had been all she could muster.
Cassie risked another glance. The strangers scurried around, picking through the burned debris and overturned rocks. They searched with a purpose, as if they knew exactly which articles to cast aside and which to study. Whoever they were, they were there for a specific purpose. They were not lost hikers.
“We may as well introduce ourselves,” Cal said.
She grabbed his arm to stop him. “Have you lost your mind?”
“What now?”
It was the way he said everything that ticked her off. “What, you propose we walk right up there and say ‘hello’?”
“Works for me.”
“Because you’re insane.”
“You continue to show a lack of faith in me.”
“I wonder why.” When he shot her an innocent smile, she tried appealing to his logic rather than the testosterone surging around him. “Cal, these two obviously aren’t up to any good.”
“True. That’s why we need to meet them head on.”
The fresh air was rotting his brain. “No, flyboy. That’s why we wait and watch.”
“Now, what’s interesting about that?” He winked at her before pushing up to his feet. He started up to the crash site, body tall and walk steady.
Cassie hoped this was not an example of his covert abilities. If so, the military needed to rework its training programs.
Since following seemed like the only intelligent option, she did. She caught up to him right as he walked out into the open and talked in a voice low enough so only he could hear. “You’re an idiot.”
“I know you mean that as a compliment.” He took her hand and squeezed her fingers.
When his thumb rubbed gentle circles over her knuckles, her pulse jumped. She supposed he was trying to comfort her. Since she was fresh out of good ideas, she went with instinct and held on instead of shrugging him off. They may as well play the role of lovers since they sort of were.
Cassie plastered a bright smile on her face and tried to concentrate on her role rather than the feel of Cal’s rough hands. “Hello.”
At the sound of their approach, the skulking dark-haired woman almost jumped into a tree.
“Smooth,” Cal whispered under his breath.
“What are you doing here?” The woman sounded less than thrilled about having company.
And how was she dry? Cassie noticed that little fact with some annoyance. The drizzle would not have soaked her, but the storm that had just passed through the canyon should have.
Cal stepped up and flashed one of those killer smiles that cut through a woman’s common sense like a laser beam. “Hiking and got stuck in the storm.”
“I see that.” Light danced in the other woman’s dark eyes as her hungry gaze roamed over his body. She almost hummed with approval.
Cassie noticed how the woman graduated from searching to flirting in less than two seconds. Cassie hated her on sight.
“I’m Louisa.” Her attention focused on Cal.
Cassie felt as desirable as a piece of wet shag carpet. She figured she looked like one, too. Cassie wrapped her free hand around Cal’s forearm and pulled her body closer to his, not out of any sense of misplaced jealousy. More as a way to keep from shaking Louisa.
Cal took it all in and smiled. “I’m Cal. This is Cassie.”
“Cal.” Louisa’s voice dripped with lust.
“Let the folks get on their way.” A man walked into the conversation.
Louisa. A man and a woman. Both of them searching Dan’s wreckage. It did not take long for Cassie to put the pieces together. This was the infamous Bobby Polk. Her brother’s supposed partner.
No freaking way.
Cassie looked the man up and down, taking in his faded jeans and the faded advertisement on his shabby T-shirt. Slicked-back hair and cheesy smirk rounded out the picture. She wasn’t sure what rat hole this Bobby character had crawled out of, but she wished he’d climb back in there…and take Louisa with him.
From the tension radiating off Cal, Cassie guessed he had put it all together as well. She sensed they came up with the same conclusion about Bobby. He was a loser.
“They’re lost,” Louisa said.
“We are not.” No way was Cassie letting this woman think she had the intellectual high ground.
Cal hid his disgust a bit better. “Just hiking.”
Bobby glanced down the canyon. “That’s a tough walk.”
“It was worth it.” Cal squeezed her hand as he said it.
Bobby hitched his chin in their general direction. “You two exercise buffs or something?”
“Not really.”
Bobby shrugged. “I give. Why here?”
“This is
a special place for Cassie. Her brother died here. We came up to check it out. Just hadn’t anticipated the thunderstorm blowing in and stranding us.”
Cassie considered stepping on Cal’s foot to make him shut up. The last thing she wanted was for Bobby to know anything about her life.
Too late. Bobby’s eyes darted back and forth, making him look like the weasel he was. “You’re Dan’s baby sister?”
The fake shock in his voice was a nice touch. Cassie found it as believable as Louisa’s feral smile.
Cassie choked down the urge to scream. “You know Dan?”
“Everyone around Kauai knew Dan. Besides, we had what you might call a business relationship.”
“Business?” Cal slid his smooth question in with ease.
“Yeah, I’m Bobby Polk.” The guy gave his name as if everyone knew who the hell he was.
“And?” Cassie asked, making the syllable sound as bland as possible.
“Dan and I entered into a business deal a while back.”
Cassie tried to slip her hand out of Cal’s grasp, but he wouldn’t let go. Probably afraid she’d strangle this loser.
She went for ego bruising instead. “Funny, but Dan never mentioned you.”
“I guess he wouldn’t, would he?” Bobby coughed out a hollow laugh. “Dan wasn’t the type to get his baby sister’s permission before signing a contract.”
Was every man on the island an idiot? “Excuse me?”
“He was a man’s man.”
Cal gave her hand a quick squeeze before she could fire off another question or call this Polk character a liar.
“What kind of business was that again?” Cal asked.
Bobby’s empty smile slipped. For a second he looked more animal than human. “Import-export.”
Cassie figured that was code for drug trafficking, which meant this guy had nothing to do with Dan.
“He’s being modest. Bobby’s a genius.” Louisa eased around Bobby and planted her curvy body in front of Cal.
Bobby reciprocated by looping his arm around Louisa’s shoulders. The gesture looked more intimidating than loving.
“You were explaining…” Cal said.
It’s Hotter in Hawaii Page 11