by Cathryn Cade
She writhed under him, wrapping one leg around his ass and digging her heel into it, pulling him hard into the soft furrow between her thighs.
With a groan of near pain, Jack obliged her, flexing his hips hard to drive his cock along her labia, again and again. Ah, he could feel her heat through their swimsuits, and more than his next breath, he needed to get inside her.
Without letting go of her breast with his mouth, he reached down and yanked his trunks down, freeing his cock. Christ, he was ready to come just holding himself, with his mouth full of her breast. He couldn’t wait long enough to let her go and get her damn bikini off, not this time.
He pulled the narrow band of her bikini bottom aside, praised the Lord in a haze of lust for stretchy fabric, and then took himself in hand, found her wet, swollen heat and stroked the head of his cock into position.
He thrust once, driving halfway into her wet, tight heat and tipping his head back with sheer agonized bliss at the feel of her.
Then a cold shard of reality speared him, and he froze, opening his eyes. He stared down at her, nearly whimpering himself at holding still when she was gazing up at him with those slumberous black eyes, lips parted, just asking for his tongue inside her mouth while his cock drove inside her tight little pussy. Her face was taut, her cheeks and bare chest flushed with passion, her hands tugging at him.
She writhed, her pussy caressing the tip of his cock, a sensuous movement begging, demanding that he move again.
“No—condom,” he gritted, holding still with an intense effort.
“I’m on the pill. And if you give me any STIs, I’ll kill you—slowly. Now shut up and move!”
“Oh, thank you Jesus,” he groaned prayerfully. “I’m clean, and I’m yours, wahine. Every…single…inch…of me.”
Since he was already thrusting, seating his cock deep inside her, she didn’t tell him to shut up again.
He worked his arms underneath her, holding her shoulders and her ass up from the rock, and then he gave her a swift kiss.
“This time,” he promised, rocking both of them with each long, hard thrust. “I’m not stopping until you come—once, twice, maybe three times.”
“Make me,” she dared him breathlessly, her eyes full of fire.
He grinned at her. She was so gorgeous and just felt so damn good, so tight, so sleek. He wanted to go on doing this all day long, maybe never stop. And then he felt it begin, the sweet little milking of her pussy around him. She was coming already.
“Yeah?” He felt his grin widen like a fool, but he couldn’t help it. He wanted to whoop and holler and beat his chest.
“Uh-huh…” she managed, her voice rising, and then her eyes glazed over, the sweetest whimper rising from her throat as she shivered and squeezed his cock in a hot vise.
“Okay,” he said, kissing her again. “That’s once.” Then he put his head down and fucked her for all he was worth.
Turned out he was worth another orgasm for her. She cried out his name in an escalating scale of pleasure. He wondered who was going to hear them this time, then decided he damn well didn’t care as her pussy caressed him right over the edge of a mind-blowing, clear-from-his-toes, knee-rattling orgasm.
So that was one for him too, and he’d take it. No problem.
When he finally summoned the energy to pull out of her, there was nothing to tidy her up, but she shook her head, slipping off the rock to straighten her bottoms. “I’ll wash off in the sea.”
He looked down at the moisture gleaming on the inside of her thighs. He liked seeing his mark on her, blending with the rain that still dripped from her hair, spangled her skin.
“It’s just sex,” she said, frowning up at him as she straightened her bikini top. “That’s all.”
He ran a hand over his hair. “Yeah, no problem. Just…great sex.”
They turned and walked back along the trail toward the bay. But as Jack glanced down at her, he caught her peeking up at him and he wondered—did he have that same uneasy look on his face?
Because he’d made love in the distant past, and he’d had plenty of just hot, raunchy sex. And this was hotter than molten lava, but it was also more than just… Nah, couldn’t be. He shook his head and faced ahead, just as she did.
He glanced back at her and then laughed, surprising himself. She dipped her head, but he thought he saw a smile on her kiss-swollen lips as well.
“Hey, stop,” he said, wanting to delay their return to the real world for just another minute. “Your hair is…y’know.” As she turned to him, he combed her hair back gently with his fingers, behind her shoulders. Then, on impulse, he bent and kissed her one last time, on her cheek, warm and satiny, flushed with the pleasure he’d given her.
“What is it with you and Choy?” he finally remembered to ask. “Does he have some kind of hold over you?”
She pulled away, her face closing up into that snooty look she did so well. But now he realized with surprise she hid behind it—like an athlete pulling a visor over her face so she wouldn’t get hurt. “Not me,” she said. “My mother.”
Jack waited, but she said nothing more. “So what, gambling debts or blackmail …?”
She shook her head, the ghost of a smile pulling up one corner of her lush mouth. “Just living the life, you know? The one she’s always had and doesn’t want to give up. This recession hasn’t been kind to the last of my father’s investments.”
“So she expects you to—” Jack bit off the uncomplimentary term that sprang to his lips. “Ah, marry him?”
“Whore myself, you mean?” Her eyes blazed with pent-up hurt and anger. “Yes, she did, but you solved all that for me. Mahalo.”
Jack stopped in his tracks. “So you did fuck me to get rid of him.” He’d been right. He wasn’t sure whether to laugh or curse.
She looked at him over her shoulder. “Told you I was using you, haole boy.”
He let his gaze drift down over her ass—the ass he’d just had his hands all over—and then winked at her, grinning in a way guaranteed to piss her off. “Well I appreciate your thinking of me, Ms. Lah-lei. Anytime you need a quick fuck, I’m your man. Maybe next time we can set up in the middle of the beach there, make sure everybody sees and hears us.”
She flinched and too late he realized some of his anger had shown through. He hadn’t meant to let her see she’d hurt his—just his ego, that was all. His feelings weren’t in this, no way.
“C’mon, race you to the beach,” he said and took off, sprinting out into the hot sunshine.
He heard an indignant huff behind him and then her footsteps pattering behind him. He made sure he was smiling as they dashed across the flat, black rocks at the east end of the bay. The Ho’omalus and their guests, lined up on the dock with snorkel equipment in hand, looked up as Jack hit the water with a splash, Lalei right behind him.
He’d like to push her pretty head under and hold her there until she apologized—for what, he wasn’t sure. Just that he wanted one damn person to want him for himself and not what they needed him to do for them.
Instead he dove under the cool, salty water to cool off, and then swam across the bay to join the snorkelers, not waiting to see if Lalei followed or not.
Lalei dove in as well, opening her eyes under the sunlit water. Surfacing, she used her hands to wash herself surreptitiously, making sure the seawater swished under her bikini bottoms, wet with Jack’s come. Her cheeks burned as she checked to see if anyone noticed what she was doing, but they were all busy donning masks and flippers, talking and laughing.
She might as well join them.
She spent the next hour cruising over the reef, admiring the tropical fish that schooled there, the different colored coral and the honu, sea turtles, that paddled in to greet them, watching them with sleepy eyes before moving off to munch seaweed from the bottom.
Lalei kept her distance from Jack. They were through; that was clear. She should never have admitted her real reason for having sex with him. S
he’d obviously pricked his male ego, and he’d pricked hers right back. Have sex on the beach—how sleazy was that? Although her idiotic imagination conjured up the two of them alone in the warm, moonlit night, with nothing but the surf washing around them while he—no, not going there.
She looked around for him and found him watching her, his eyes enigmatic behind the lens of his snorkel mask. He kicked idly, his long strong body pale in the sea water. She watched him as well, unable to turn away.
But he could, and did, heading off the other way, over another section of reef. Shaken, Lalei swam on, following the group. What did he want from her? He’d told her not to fall for him, hadn’t he? She blinked tears, no, just seawater from her eyes.
Daniel pointed out the two big moray eels that emerged from their hidey holes like deadly speckled ribbons. Lalei gave him a thumbs-up, knowing he’d called them.
The honeymoon cruise boat appeared from the west as they were all paddling in from the reef. Lalei followed the others onto the dock to say good-bye to Daniel and Claire, who already had their bags waiting on the dock. Amid a flurry of farewells, a small raft motored in to pick up the honeymooners. Everyone watched them board the gleaming white yacht, and then the group dispersed, Frank to drive Claire’s parents to the airport, Zane back to his summer job at a resort, and Jack to who knows where. He said nothing to Lalei, merely jogged away up the lawn.
Feeling let down and depressed, Lalei wandered back to her room, where she showered and dressed. As she combed out her wet hair, she gazed at her reflection in the mirror, remembering every second of her fiery encounter with Jack. Her hand stilled, and she gazed at nothing but her memories. Catching sight of the look on her face, she froze. Oh no, she wasn’t going to start mooning over him, recounting every gesture, every nuance of their time together. Especially the way it had ended. She needed to get busy with something else, and fast.
She opened up her laptop and checked on the progress of the art gallery’s new website. She was scowling when she finished. The second graphic artist was no better than the first she’d hired. She closed her laptop with a snap, glaring at it. She knew exactly what she wanted, but she couldn’t seem to get it across to others.
Then she opened the laptop again, clicked it back on and typed in Claire’s design moniker, SeaHunter Graphic Design. The website open, gilded scrolls that shimmered like native tattoos unfurling across the screen, highlighting the business name and then areas of interest. Lalei caught her breath—yes, this was what she wanted. This kind of bold, artistic display was perfect for an art gallery, especially one featuring Hawaiian artists.
She made a face as she closed the computer again. This meant she was going to have to make nice with Daniel’s outspoken bride. But she would do it, because she wanted only the best for the gallery. And, okay, she wanted to get along with Claire because Daniel was her favorite cousin. She understood his fierce exterior for what it was—a defense against those who would probe too deeply into his private nature.
Well, she was a tough island girl herself, and she’d figure out how to get along with the female additions to the Ho’omalu ohana or die trying. Claire was gone for three days, and Lalei thought Melia liked her well enough, but that still left Bella. Who was also her cousin, with ho’omalu powers of her own. Lalei was dying to pump Bella for information–about how it had felt to come into her powers, when she first realized she had them, and about her wild experience at Na’alele.
But first she had to get past Bella’s evident dislike.
Melia and Bella joined Leilani, the Nawea cook and housekeeper, in the kitchen. When Lalei gathered enough courage to walk into the kitchen, the three women were laughing together. She looked uneasily at the island full of fresh produce and foods in process. She could create decorative plates of fruit, crudités and little canapés, but the mysteries of hot dishes and breads eluded her. There were delis and caterers for that.
“Can I help?” she asked Melia, pausing by the island.
Bella, an apron over her red shorts and tank, cast her an assessing look that encompassed her short white skirt, gauzy peasant top with elaborate embroidery and strappy little brown sandals. “Oh, you don’t want to ruin that outfit cooking.”
Lalei ignored her, focusing on Melia, who was setting slices of pineapple and avocado on a red fish-shaped platter. The blonde smiled at her, although Lalei noticed it seemed forced, her freckled face wan, as if she didn’t feel well. “Sure, thanks, Lalei. If you’d finish this plate, I’ll check on the fish.”
Lalei washed her hands at the sink and returned to take Melia’s place.
“Beautiful avocados,” she said, inserting a flat spatula under a succulent slice of ripe avocado. She deposited it successfully on the platter, carefully overlapping a slice of pineapple. “Are they from the farm, Bella?”
Bella looked up from the green salad she was chopping, her expression guarded. “Yes. I can’t take any credit, though. I’ve barely taken over the farm from Homu. He’s up there nearly every day, helping and giving advice.”
“What changes do you plan to make?” Lalei asked. She frowned as the next slice flipped off her spatula onto the counter. Hastily, she covered it with a crumpled paper towel to clean up later.
When Bella didn’t answer, Lalei discovered her cousin watching her, a smile twitching her lips. Throwing caution away, Lalei put her fingers to her own lips in a warning to keep quiet. Bella hesitated and then grinned at her.
“Well, I’d like to try some specialty coffees,” Bella said. “So much of the Kona coffee that gets on the market has actually been cut with cheaper beans from elsewhere. Then tourists complain that Kona coffee isn’t all that great. I’ll market mine as 100% pure Kona coffee.”
Getting the hang of using a fork to guide the delicate slices of avocado on and off the spatula, Lalei worked more swiftly. “Great idea, go after the high-end market. With classy packaging, we could feature it on the counter at the gallery. Customers are in an expansive mood after they’ve made a high-dollar purchase and more likely to make smaller impulse buys.”
She looked up in time to see Melia and Bella exchange a smile. Then the two turned to smile at her. “Mahalo,” Bella said.
Lalei shrugged. “Hey, what are cousins for?”
Bella nodded. “I keep learning more uses for cousins all the time.”
She cleared her throat and smiled wickedly at Lalei. “So, Jack, huh?”
Lalei froze. This was a little more cousinly rapport than she’d bargained for.
Bella and Melia both laughed.
“You have that wild animal in the headlights look,” Melia said. Bella widened her eyes in parody, and Melia swatted her on the arm. “Don’t worry, Lalei. You have a right to a little privacy around here.”
Bella raised one eyebrow in a way that Lalei recognized as uniquely Ho’omalu. “Although in the future, you may want to close the windows to get it.”
“And stay out of the trees,” Melia added. She covered her mouth with her hand as if she couldn’t believe she’d let slip, but her eyes were full of laughter.
“Now, you girls leave your poor cousin alone,” Leilani scolded, shaking her head as she crossed the kitchen with a tray of napkins and silverware on a folded tablecloth. She winked at Lalei. “Time to set the table, yeah?”
Her face burning, Lalei accepted the tray and made her escape.
After supper, the men made a campfire. Joel sat on a flat rock, Bella leaning back between his legs. Malu brought Melia’s chair over and laid a wrap around her shoulders before sitting beside her. Lalei sat in a chair across the fire from Jack. He smirked at her as he went to grab another beer from the cooler. When he sat down again, she was watching him, frowning at the bottle in his hand.
He winked at her and tipped back his head to gaze up at the stars visible above. “Pretty night. So quiet out here, away from town and everything. Nice.” The only sound was the surf washing softly on the beach and the fire crackling.
“Hope it stays this way,” Bella said gloomily.
Joel kissed the top of her head. “It will, princess.”
Lalei spoke up. “Why were you all so tense earlier when Benton mentioned this Tropical Sunshine, or whatever it was?” she asked David. “Are they building a resort somewhere on the island?”
“TropicSun. They’re trying,” David told her. “And not somewhere—right above us—beside us.”
She gasped, her eyes wide. “No. Is there any way you can stop them?”
“We’re gonna do our best.”
“That reminds me.” Jack pointed his beer at David. “Permits. Who pushed them through so quickly? I thought things normally took a long time over here—even longer than in California, and we’ve got the EPA up our asses all the time—pardon the expression, ladies.”
“Usually does take a long time,” Malu answered. “But we’re in a recession. Times are hard here, just like everywhere else. A big project like this would mean a lot of jobs, not only the construction, but later, people to work the resort. They’d buy a lot of goods and food too.”
Joel shook his head, his usually cheerful face grim. “Except that from what Homu told me, TropicSun has a history of bringing in their own laborers, from Southeast Asia. And they import materials the same way instead of paying fair wages and prices locally.”
“Use that,” Jack said. “Get this in the papers. Get the locals fired up.” He gestured with his beer bottle, outlining an imaginary storyboard. “‘Mega Development planned next to pristine national forest lands, wild beach habitat in danger.’ Y’know, that kind of thing.”
Joel and David looked at each other and then back at him. “What?” he asked.
“Glad you’re here,” David said, one side of his mouth quirking up.
Joel nodded. “Good to have you on our side. I like the way you think.”
Jack toasted them with his bottle and then drained it. Pleased as he was by their faith in him, this was huge, and he was not in California, so he wasn’t sure of the ins and outs. What the hell did he know about Hawaiian land-use laws? An abyss yawned before him as dark as the Hawaiian night, and at the bottom lay a familiar fear—that he wouldn’t be able to do enough, wouldn’t measure up. He needed another beer.