Page 66 of Pallas & Kawehi

She set her hands lightly on his shoulders and lowered her chin toward her chest. Kawehi felt him place a kiss on the crown of her head.

“I keep having these… worries that you’re going to lose patience with me, but then I know you’re not like that. Maybe you’re right. Maybe these thoughts I have in my head are Nick and not me.”

His arms circled around her in a gentle embrace. “I’m here. With you. It’s not about patience, Kawehi. It’s about caring. You’re probably not ready to hear, in words, how I feel about you, but you need to know I’m not going to be scared off. I’m not going to lose patience.

“I know how amazing you are and that’s not going to change. I’m giving you time to get on the same page physically as I am. That’s not a hardship for me.”

She lifted her head, blushing even more. “If I was Maile, I’d make a joke about knowing how hard things can be,” she covered her mouth with one hand. “I wish I was better at flirting than I am.”

He placed a kiss on her knuckles where they covered her mouth. “You don’t need to be anything else than who you are. That’s more than enough for me.”

She lowered her hand slowly, smiling at him.

“I’m beginning to learn that.” She sighed, happier than she’d been before. “And I might just start believing it about myself.”

“Good.” He drew her closer for a slow, gentle kiss. “Now, let’s get you home.”

ELEVEN

PALLAS

Pallas pulled into her driveway behind her Civic and turned so he could look at her when she gave his arm a gentle squeeze.

“Thanks,” she gave him a hesitant smile, “for listening and understanding.”

He grinned back at her. “Pretty good for a grunt, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “Is that a military thing? Grunt?”

Pallas laughed. “You haven’t heard that?”

“No.” She stroked her fingers along his arm. He didn’t think she was aware of it. “But I don’t know a lot of the lingo.”

“Well, I’ll tell you about it sometime.”

“Great,” she agreed. “It’ll be nice to listen to you talk instead of me.”

“You need to talk it out to get it out of your system.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know. That’s why Maile’s been trying to get me to get back up on the horse and ride. And she’s not talking about horses.”

Knowing her cousin, he didn’t think so.

“There are other ways,” he assured her. “Maybe I'll take you to that place at Ala Moana where they let you throw axes, and you can get out your frustrations that way.”

“And maybe you can impress me with your skills."

He turned his hand, grasping her hand in his, and brought it to his lips to give her a kiss across her knuckles. "I can go alpha male for you. Maybe I'll beat my chest and do some push-ups."

She laughed and he was happy to hear it. "We'd have to bring Maile. She'd go nuts if you did that. Maybe you can ask Axl to come as well."

He groaned but kept smiling. "Those two are either going to kill each other-"

"Or fall head over heels in love." She agreed. "Don't worry, Maile doesn't have any of my hangups."

"As much as I'm happy that she's your cousin, I'm not worried about your 'hangups' as you call them. I'm worried about you being happy. If she does that for you, then that's all I need to know." He leaned across and gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek. "I'm going to get out the cooler and bring the food inside."

"Wait! Why don't you take that with you?"

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