by Jeny Heckman
“No, no. You’re going to go meet all your friends over at the Bowman’s cabin, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, they’d love to see you though. What if I help you get this stuff put away, and we drive out together?” He glanced up and noticed Raven getting into her car.
“No, it’s fine. I’m on the water guy now.”
“The water guy?”
“The badass.” He’d been watching Raven drive away, but at this, he dropped his eyes back down to his grandmother.
“Badass? Who the hell are you talkin’ about old woman?”
“The water god.”
“Water… Oh, Poseidon, you mean?”
“Poseidon, yes. You called him a badass, and I’m finally on him now. So, go have fun, and I’ll see you later.” He kissed her cheek.
“Okay, I’ll come in and see you if your lights on, otherwise I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Closing the door, he tapped the top of the car, indicating she could go, then walked over to his bike. He watched the direction Raven left in and hooked on his helmet. It was time to take some action, and he wasn’t afraid to be the one to do it.
Chapter 11
Raven had just brought in the last load of groceries and returned to the car to retrieve her purse when Finn pulled alongside it.
“Hey.” When she only blinked at him, he grinned more broadly. “Come on. I wanna take you somewhere.”
“Where?” she asked, irritated that her first response wasn’t an automatic no.
“It’s a surprise.”
“I’m not going on that,” she said nodding at the bike.
“Yes, you are,” he replied coolly, taking off his sunglasses and treating her to the play of colors in his beautiful eyes. “Can’t get there otherwise. Besides, you said you liked it.”
“I… No, I didn’t.”
“Well, you looked like you did. What exactly are you afraid of? Me?”
“No.”
“Prove it.”
Moving forward, he turned and removed his helmet from its clip. Pulling her closer, he brushed back her hair and secured it firmly on her head. Finn didn’t take his gaze off her flustered face, but once he clasped the hook closed, he allowed his fingers to linger at her throat. She looked at the blond hair straying wildly around his handsome face.
“Come on,” he said with a devastatingly sexy smile. “Live a little.”
The implied challenge prompted her to go. She climbed on, and he scooted back between her legs, causing her to wrap her arms around his waist.
The dregs of afternoon melted into the evening as they traveled over roads made of concrete, then gravel, and finally dirt. Finn pulled up onto a large grassy mound filled with cars next to a veteran’s cemetery. He helped Raven off the bike and held her hand as they walked toward Nate’s weekend home. A multitude of people began to move from the dilapidated cabin toward a small bluff to watch the sunset. A warm wind swirled her hair and dress.
“Where are we?” she asked, but before he answered, a tall, lanky man with a somewhat homely, but kind face greeted them. With him was a beautiful, petite Polynesian woman in a sundress, not unlike Raven’s.
“Hey, bud.” The two men clasped hands, and the woman kissed Finn’s cheek before they both turned to Raven.
“Hi, I’m Annie. This is my husband, Nate. And this”—she gestured behind them—“is our very well-loved cabin.”
Raven took in the tiny Hawaiian woman. Her long, straight, ebony hair, glittered in the sun, as her cherubic face broke into a welcoming smile.
“Hi, I’m Raven. And it’s so beautiful; what a fantastic view.”
“Thanks, we like it. The cabin’s been in my family for generations. Nate and I have a house over by Po’ipū Beach, if you’ve ever been there.” Raven’s gaze bounced off Finn’s, then returned to Annie’s.
“Yes, I’ve been there. It’s terrific.”
“Raven, you look so familiar. Have we met already?” Nate asked.
“No, I don’t think so. I’ve only been on the island for a little over a month.”
“Where’d you come from?”
“Seattle.”
“Rain to sunshine. I guess I don’t have to ask what prompted the move,” Annie joked, smiling over at the men.
“It rains even more on the north side, Ann,” Nate interjected.
“Actually, no, I didn’t move. I’m just taking a break from working,” Raven said.
“Well, that must be nice. What do you do?”
“I’m a musician.”
“Oh, that’s…that’s,” Annie broke off, widening her eyes. “Oh my God! Raven!” She stared at her, a little breathless. “Wow, oh my God, this is so cool. You look so different.” She took a step forward, to Raven’s chagrin, and ran fingers through her blonde mane. “Your hair. It’s so beautiful.” The men looked at each other baffled, trying to understand what was going on.
“Oh,” Raven said, running a hand down the length of it, never quite understanding a fan’s insatiable need to touch her. “Thanks. I decided to go back to my roots.”
“Nate, you’re not recognizing her,” Annie said, noticing the men’s confused faces. “Her hair was black before. Raven Hunter, the singer.”
Finn’s face froze in recognition. His eyes scanned her face, her hair, her body, and then back to her face. She glanced nervously at him. She supposed she was a complete one-eighty from the seductress in the glossy magazines, television, and stage, he probably envisioned. His inability to articulate suddenly caused her an unexpected jolt of pleasure.
“Wow, what an honor,” Nate said, shaking her hand. “We love your music. Some of which we’ll be playing tonight, in fact.” He pointed upward as if the music playing was hovering there. “I understand you can play any instrument. Is that right? It must have taken forever to learn how to do that.” Nate looked over at his friend in wonder.
“Actually, fortunately, it came pretty easy,” she said, quietly eyeing Finn too. “I mean, I guess I’m just lucky because it came naturally to me.”
“Oh hey,” Annie said, excited, “the sun’s going down. Would you sing something on the bluff?” Nate jabbed her in the ribs, and she looked sheepish. “Oh, I’m sorry, you just said you were taking a break, didn’t you? I’m sure that’s the very last thing you want to do. Please just forget I said anything.”
“No, I’d love to,” she quickly replied, suddenly desperate to escape Finn’s incredulous stare. “It’s so beautiful here but maybe,” she added looking around, “we could just not say who I am?”
“Sure, I totally get it. Nate, run and get the guitar.” Annie frantically pushed her husband away before the singer could change her mind, then turned back to the couple, saying encouragingly, “Come on, follow me and I’ll take you over.”
As Annie walked ahead, Finn grabbed Raven’s elbow.
“You’re Raven Hunter?” Disbelief flooded over his features.
“Yeah, remember, we met a few days ago?” she teased.
“Why didn’t you tell me you’re that Raven Hunter?”
“I didn’t know it was a thing.”
“You didn’t know it was a thing? You’re famous.”
“Well”—she snickered again at the reversal of awkwardness—“one part of me is, I guess.”
They walked up to a small clearing. Many guests were already there, looking out toward the setting sun.
At first, people paid little attention to the woman with the guitar, allowing the music to flow over them. Raven wanted to keep it simple, so she played one of her original songs with a haunting melody. It slowly captivated her audience, then blended her vocals to a slow, seductive song. She sang about being stuck in silence and afraid to use her voice in the world. As the sun set and the melody built, her eyes closed and absorbed the music. Finn leaned against a tree, arms crossed over his chest, mesmerized. The shy, insecure girl was gone, replaced by a radiant woman, confident in her talent and ability. Her voice was much more beautiful in perso
n than recorded and he felt the connection.
For the next half hour, she just played music and watched the people interact with one another.
“Wow.” Nate walked over to Finn and handed him a beer. “Of course you’re dating Raven Hunter.”
“I didn’t know I was,” Finn said, drinking from his bottle. “And I’m not…really.”
“Oh no? Pretty captivated over here.”
“She’s singing, Nate.”
“Right.”
“I met her a couple of weeks ago, and this is literally the third or fourth time I’ve even talked to her. I didn’t know who she was until you guys figured it out.”
“Well, now you know, and you looked pretty spellbound.” Nate watched as someone walked up to her and requested a song. “I’m going to go rescue her.”
Finn watched him help Raven up, make excuses to the person requesting a new song, and bring her over to a table with the keg underneath it. He stood close enough to hear what they were saying but decided to hang back.
“That was really cool of you to do,” he said to her. “Believe me, we appreciated it. Made the night a little more perfect.”
“My pleasure. Do you do this every night or just on weekends? I heard watching the sunset was almost mandatory in Hawai’i.”
“For sure.” He chuckled. “We usually have an informal thing every week or two. Playing”—he gestured to the guitar—“or just listening to music, have a few games, a few laughs.”
“Sounds fantastic.”
Finn watched her interact with Nate, not a nervous gesture in sight. So, it was him, and that made him smile with tenderness.
“We’d like to think so,” Nate said in response. “So, you’re on vacation then?”
“Well,” she replied, “a working vacation, at any rate. I have a concert in a couple of months and am going through a re-branding of sorts.”
“A what?”
“Precisely.” She smiled.
Finn tried to focus on what they said next, but a gorgeous, dark-haired, woman suddenly approached, who’d been trying to get his attention for weeks. Anita, was it? Or maybe April?
“Finn, am I really so unapproachable, that you can’t even say hello?”
She still wore her floral sarong and white bikini top from the day. Her nipples poked through the fabric thanks to the chill in the air. He glanced down at them and back up into her extremely naughty eyes, remembering an adventurous night the year before.
“I wouldn’t say that,” he countered. “More like you can scare the hell out of a man.”
Her laugh tinkled through the night, and she rested her hand on his forearm, in an entirely female gesture. He looked up from her, already bored with the game and looked at Raven, who stared back looking uncomfortable.
“Hey, sorry Anita. I’ve just got to go see Nate for a sec.”
“It’s April,” she said, face falling.
“Yeah.”
He left her sputtering and walked over to his friends.
“What do you do?” she asked the older man.
“I work with Finn at SeaHunt.” He gestured to Finn as he walked up. “Primarily researching.”
“The Hawaiian monk seal?”
“Yep.” Nate grinned. “It doesn’t surprise me that’s one of the first things you know about Finn,” he stated, glancing at his friend. “The seals are his babies. I should have shown you when it was light out, but if you look straight across the bay here, you’d see our facility.”
“So, you guys have been friends for a while?”
“Well, you could say that. We met, jeez, has it been ten years ago already?” He confirmed with Finn, who nodded. “Been a brother to me ever since.”
“I can appreciate that. I have a twin brother myself.”
“Really? I’ve heard that twins share a brain or sense each other’s thoughts or something. Is that total bullshit or does it really happen?”
“No, it can happen with strong emotion. With Wyatt, if he’s having a lot of pain or really happy, I can feel it sometimes. Not like I know what’s happening or can read his mind or anything, just an impression. A kind of positive or negative impression. That’s the best I can describe it.”
Annie approached the trio and handed out beers before taking Nate to say goodbye to some guests.
“So, that was pretty amazing—different,” Finn stated. “I guess I thought you did—more—I don’t know.” He gestured with his hands, searching for inspiration.
“Just more,” she confirmed. “You can leave it at that. I’m trying to get out of my old way of doing things. I never really liked that style.”
“Why’d you do it then?”
“Um, Donovan. That’s my ex-husband,” she clarified. “He was also my manager and always said elaborate productions were the best way to grab a broader audience. I always wanted to do my own songs.” She saw Finn’s blank face and clarified, “The songs and music I do, did, for Donovan were all written by other people.”
He sipped his beer, deciding not to like Donovan.
“And you hated that, right?”
“Loathed it. I wrote a lot of songs, but he never wanted to use them; too simplistic for mainstream or something. And the industry is changing. He wanted me performing to my base, all the time.”
“Why didn’t you tell him to fuck off?”
She burst out laughing.
“I couldn’t say that.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s the manager, he knew what he was doing.”
“You’re the talent.”
“Yeah, but a lot of people have talent. He created the magic.”
“Magic?” he said derisively. “He tell you that?”
“It’s true.”
“It’s bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit. How many records have you sold?”
“None, but I know a manipulator when I hear one.” A leaf fell onto her shoulder, and he brushed it aside, looking into her eyes. “And talent is the magic, that’s why they call it talent.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You work with those seals. Nate said they’re like your babies. Why seals?”
“I’ve been interested in sea life since I was little. Dee always took me to the tide pools. Later it was snorkeling and diving. Absolutely nothing was hands off with her.” His heart tripped, and his eyes lit up. “When you start spending time with them, you realize how intelligent they are. Not just the seals, but whales, dolphins, all of them.”
“So why focus just on seals then?”
“I was maybe thirteen when I saw a seal and her pup get tangled up in a net, that was just lying there, left on the beach. They couldn’t get free and had no control. I always think about how terrified they were, and I couldn’t help them. They were too far gone when help finally arrived. I watched them when they closed their eyes and died.”
“So you decided to help the other ones live?” Raven asked, touched.
“Something like that.” He pressed his lips together and exhaled. “But it’s a lot harder than it looks. There’s a lot stacked against them, especially right now.”
“Why right now?”
“We're fighting against a group that…” Suddenly he scanned her face and realized he could get a second date out of it, so backpedaled. “Actually, you should come out there. I can just show you what we do.”
“Really?” Her face lit up. “I’ve never done anything like that before. That would be so cool.”
“Well”—he smiled, amused to see her reaction—“unfortunately, I’m a little swamped for the next few days. I’ve had to deal with some fallout at work. So, maybe we could go Saturday. I don’t suppose you have a diving certificate, do you?” Her face fell as she shook her head.
“Does that mean I can’t do it?”
“No, it just means I’m going to give you a number. Then before Saturday, I want you to get a couple of classes in so you’ll have som
e basics. We won’t be down long or too deep, but long enough that we can’t snorkel.” Considering her, he challenged, “So, you up for some homework?”
“Sure, it’ll be fun. So, where… Should I meet you somewhere?”
“Give me your phone.” Perplexed, she handed it to him. He punched in his cell number, let it ring so he’d have hers, then gave it back.
“I’ll pick you up around, like, ten. That work?”
“Sure.”
They stayed another hour before saying goodbye to the dwindling group. Walking back to the bike, Raven gave an involuntary shudder. The day had been warm but with the sun down, and only a sundress on, the night had developed a chill. She clasped her hands together in front of her and brought her arms to her sides in search of heat. Finn caught the movement and ran back to the house to retrieve a jacket.
Raven closed her eyes and sighed in ecstasy, as the jacket engulfed her, a visual that caused Finn’s groin to tighten. After he secured her helmet, she crawled on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. The evening was dark, sweet, and silent.
By the time they returned to her bungalow, there was a level of quiet intimacy between them. Finn switched off the engine and walked her to the door.
“That was fun,” she said quietly, taking out her keys and removing the jacket to hand to him.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” he teased, leaning in closer and bending an ear. He took the jacket from her and threw it one of the Adirondack chairs.
“Yes, it was fun.” She breathed out a laugh, watching the progress of the jacket, and lowered her head. “Ah, thanks for taking me; you have really good friends.”
“I have phenomenal friends,” he countered and took a couple of steps closer.
“Yes.” She laughed again nervously, biting her lip. “You do.” She looked up and saw how close he was. “You’re very lucky to have them.”
“Yeah,” he said, his gaze slowly pivoting between her eyes and lips. “I am.”
As he moved a little closer, she moved a little back. He grinned and placed a hand on the door. When she looked at it and tried to move the other way, he placed his other hand on the door, boxing her in. Her eyes lifted again, darting between his gaze.
“I-I don’t think this is a good idea.”