Page 19 of His Hawaiian Heart
Only one way to find out. Ask.
Okay, that was a word I did understand. “What for?”
“That’s what I was trying to say. I wanted to thank you. I appreciated you leaving my backpack and suitcase outside my tent.”
For fucks sake, son, get it together.
That was a new voice, a far gruffer and far less patient one. It sounded exactly like Cookie had last night.Cut me some slack. I’m trying here.
Try harder. The goal here is to chip away that ice, not stand there like a dumbass and asking stupid questions.
Okay, it was time to stop talking to phantoms and hold an actual conversation with the only person who mattered. “Samantha, you have absolutely nothing to thank me for.”
“I do but what was it you were going to say?”
“I wanted to explain how I know Katrina. She and I?—”
“You don’t need to explain anything. I’m not some teenager with a fragile heart. I was tired and you were forced by your boss to deliver me safely. That’s all it was so let’s just blame it on jet lag and?—”
“It’s not all it was,” I said, cutting her off at the same time I took those steps until I stood right in front of her. “I might be a jackass, but I’m not an idiot and neither are you. If you want to deny you felt something, that’s fine. My ego isn’t that fragile either, but I know that what I felt had nothing to do with jet lag and I wasn’t forced to drive you anywhere. I wanted to.” She looked as she didn’t believe a word I’d said. “Hell, you’re a scientist. You’d think you’d be able to recognize chemistry.”
“Oh, I recognize it just fine, thank you. I know that when you try to mix elements that oppose one another, you can cause a reaction that you’ll regret.”
If she wanted a reaction, I’d damn well show her one. I reached across the few inches that separated us and wrappedone arm around her. All it took was a single yank to have her pressed against me. Sliding my free hand up her back, I drove my fingers into the fire of her curls and yanked her head back until her widened eyes had no choice but to meet mine. If she’d so much as flinched, made any sound of protest, or attempted to push me away, I would have instantly released her. But she hadn’t, and I didn’t need a degree to understand chemistry when it came to this. The dilation of her pupils, the flare of her nostrils, and the racing pulse beating beneath her skin told me all I needed to know.
I dropped my mouth to hers and what felt akin to a nuclear blast went off. I didn’t just kiss her, I breathed her in. Her lips parted the moment my tongue pressed to demand she open. I deepened the kiss, cutting off any air for the both of us, burning with a need I’d never before known. Her mewls were the fuel that fed the flames as she kissed me back with the same passion. It was only when I was actually conscious of a thin veil of black threatening to block my vision of her beautiful violet eyes that I let her go. We both gasped in an effort to draw in oxygen as we stared at the other.
I’d just leap-frogged over at least a half dozen steps of what I’d spent half the night planning, and yet with the taste of her on my lips, the scent of her imprinted on my soul, and the memory of her body pressed against mine, I was finding it hard to give a damn. But it was the flicker in her eyes that halted me as surely as a jolt of lightning. It was that same look I’d seen when she’d shoved the plate at me.
“I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not. Not about kissing you that is. I am sorry for causing you pain, Samantha. I never meant to hurt you. If you want to kick me in the ass, I’ll bend over.” It turned out I didn’t need divine intervention to stop me. All that was required was the snort of laughter she gave as she shook her head.
“Frass. There is no way you’d bend over for anyone. Besides, I don’t want to kick your ass, I want you to answer one question.”
I knew that my entire future was riding on my answer, but just nodded. “Okay, but may I ask one first?”
She exhaled loudly as if having to call upon a source of patience that I feared was fastly running out.
“Just a quick one?”
“Fine.”
“What in the hell doesfrassmean?”
She shook her head. “It’s the term for insect excrement”
“Excuse me I don’t—” And yet I suddenly did. “Ahh, so a way of saying bullshit?—”
“Without actually saying it,” she confirmed.
I remembered Cookie telling me she wouldn’t curse and this simply confirmed he knew Sam far better than I did. “Thank you. Now, please, ask your question.”
“That promise you wanted, what did you mean?”
I didn’t even hesitate. “I wanted you to promise to let me show you my island.”
Her brow quirked and I realized how asinine that sounded even before she said, “Yourisland? And here I thought Kauai belonged to all the people of Hawaii and not just one.”
In for a penny, in for a pound. “Being as we are people, how about we start right here?”
