Page 33 of Two Tickets to Paradise

He brought her hands closer, and she turned them until she could press her palms gently against his chest. Looking up into his eyes she found herself less nervous than she'd been before.

She felt the keen pressure of need lean her in toward him until they were almost nose to nose.

"We can."

Cora leaned in and met his kiss as clouds sailed over their heads.

NINE

Cora was basicallysailing on a breeze. Cameron's curious looks didn't have all that much of an effect on her. She just hoped that the same was true for Vince. They'd barely had time to unpack when the doorbell rang, and a veritable onslaught of guests showed up.

Even though she was Cameron’s family, technically, she was a guest, the people that streamed through the door were people associated with Cameron's life in the Marines.

For the men, she didn't even try to remember their real names, they didn't really call each other by them. The men called each other by their nicknames associated with their service in the corps.

Hoo-raw!

Or whatever it was.

She certainly wasn't going to ask Vince. She'd already stepped in a big pile by saying that he was in the Navy. Apparently, she should have watched a few movies before heading to Hawaii. Bone up on the military slang. Heave Ho!

No, wait.

That was pirates, right?

Yeah, pirate talk would only remind Cam that Vince was Navy.

Ugh.

Instead, she gravitated toward the women that had come to the visit. All two of them.

Grinning, she watched as one woman directed where to put all of the food that was coming inside the condo, and no one seemed to care or mind that she wasn't with one of the four Marines that lived in the condo.

They all happily did her bidding.

The other woman, Maile... Yes, Maile! Was a cousin to the woman taking over the kitchen.

"Can, I help?"

Maile looked up from her current task of dumping ice into an open cooler and gave her a curious look. "You're Axl's sister, right?"

Axl.

Yes, the name that everyone seemed to call her brother.

A name that she didn't know at all.

"Yeah. That's me. I call him Cam or Cameron, though. I had no idea that everyone here called him Axl."

Maile shrugged and pushed another empty ice bag into the large trashcan under the counter. "If it was left to me, I'd just call him Jerk."

Cora drew back a little. Startled at the other woman's words.

Maile didn't even see her reaction since she was reaching for the last bag of ice.

"Here, I'll help."

Cora grabbed the bag and tried to lift it up.

---