Page 169 of My Ruthless Opponent

Twinning in dark jeans, a black leather jacket, and helmets, we set out on our journey. I held on to him tightly as I ran away with him, escaping the dreadful reality.

I didn’t ask where we were going. I let him take control and gave it up by taking his back as my warm pillow and the breathtaking backdrop of Maui as my blanket.

With my hands wrapped around him, I switched off my mind and filled my lungs with the clean fresh air.

On multiple occasions, I got to see whales in the sparkling ocean. We didn’t stop the bike to click pictures, as their appearances were fleeting.

The ride became somewhat bumpy after twenty minutes. Instead of feeling frightened at the hairpin turns, my body was buzzing with excitement.

Okay, I may have screamed my lungs out on two or three occasions but other than that, the ride was fun.

We grabbed an early lunch at the open-air gazebo restaurant before he whisked me farther away from Euphoria.

After lunch, we resumed our journey. This time I asked about our destination.

We were going to Nakalele Blowhole.

It started raining and I was worried that we’d have to cut this road trip short but Raleigh said that it was a lot better to visit during rain.

He smugly told me that he had this trip planned by taking everything, every little detail into consideration.

My stupid heart fluttered. He wanted to do this with me. And at that moment, when raindrops were grazing my bare thighs, and he took one hand off the handle of the bike and covered my bandaged hands, I fell a little more in love with Raleigh Jackson.

When we reached there, he treated me like a baby. As in he didn’t even let me take the helmet off myself.

My hair was limp and sticking to my forehead. He finger-combed my hair. Applied lots of sunscreen on my face, thighs, legs, and hands even though the atmosphere was cool.

I didn’t stop him. I was basking in it. I loved every second of him taking care of me.

He parked the bike and we set out for a fifteen minute-walk down the mountain. Which turned into a half an hour-long walk because Raleigh took hundreds and hundreds of my pictures.

He stopped me at every spot and clicked pictures on his phone.

Then came the selfies. I laughed and snorted when he made faces and practically ordered me to copy him. We now have cross-eyed, tongue-out, silly pictures I wouldn’t have taken if it weren’t for him.

My personal favorite was when he asked someone to take a picture of us kissing in front of a spout that created a magical rainbow.

Every time I watched the water shooting off a blowhole, I gasped then broke into a wide grin when the rainbow appeared.

After the light rain, the sky was clearer and we were lucky to witness the astonishing visions of rainbows.

I’ll forever remember how Raleigh pulled me to his side every time I was nearing a blowhole.

I may have purposely done that just to see his tender, sweet side. He gave me an earful for that and I smiled internally.

In all seriousness, it was risky to go closer to the blowholes so I admired them from afar after getting a five-minute-long lecture about safety from Raleigh.

We trekked down to see the famous heart-shaped rock of Maui which was now broken. The rock was destroyed by nature a couple of years back.

The rest of the day went by exploring Lahaina.

We had Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice.

On our way back, we decided to make another stop at Whalers Village.

Set between the world-famous Kaanapali Beach and Kaanapali golf courses is Whalers village—an open-air shopping center.

It was minutes away from our resort—Euphoria.

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