Page 31 of His Hawaiian Heart
I grinned like a loon because I understood precisely what he meant. “I am sorry you can’t join us for dinner, but I understand.”
“I would love to joinyoufor dinner. How about tomorrow after we go swimming?”
As much as my inner goddess was screamingyes, I had to shake my head. “I’m afraid we’ll have to postpone swimming. I need to go back and get samples before Mr. Eupithecia decides to take up residence somewhere new.” I hated disappointing him, but I loved seeing that he was.
“I promised Cookie I’d make sure you ate, so I’ll give you time to collect your samples, but I’ll be back to get you for dinner. Even if I have to swing in on one of those vines like Tarzan, I’m not about to get on Cookie’s bad side.”
I laughed and went onto my tiptoes to kiss his lips. “Okay, I’ll play Jane and we can share supper.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not talking about sharing. I want you all to myself. And I’ not talking about the mess tent or a picnic as much as I enjoyed today. I promised to show you my island, and I meant it. I have a feeling it’s been a while since you’ve done more than grab a sandwich or a piece of cheese. And despite what you might believe, you can’t survive on cookies alone. If I can’t take you swimming, at least I can take you to a nice restaurant.”
My pulse raced a bit at the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice. “Okay, I think I can do that.”
“Good, then until tomorrow night…”
He set the journal on a rock beside us and pulled me to him until I was pressed up against his body. His hand slid up my back and I shivered, knowing exactly where I’d feel it next. He didn’t disappoint, his fingers encircling the nape of my neck as he lowered his head. Not to kiss me, but to press his forehead to mine.
“Where is it?”
The question took me totally by surprise and it took me a moment to go from waiting to be kissed to asking, “Where is what?”
“The drawing?”
“The drawing?”
“The one I saw you remove from that book before you started passing it around.”
How in hell had he seen that? He’d been standing all the way on the other side of the clearing. “Uhhh?—”
His hand lifted to cup my chin and he shook his head. “Remember when I told you I don’t lie?”
“Yes.”
“Then afford me the same courtesy and don’t lie to me. If you don’t want to show it to me, just say so, and I’ll respect that. Just don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
I would have nodded, but it was hard to do with his hand holding my chin and his forehead still against mine. I swallowed and said, “My pocket.”
He smiled and dropped his hand. “Thank you.”
There was no way I couldn’t show it to him. Not now, not when I knew he knew that it had to mean something for me to conceal it in the first place. “Want to see it?”
“If you’d like to show it to me.”
Okay, now that we’d established consent, I couldn’t help but grin. “My back pocket.”
His lips curled and my body shuddered as his hand moved to first splay against my ass and then run across it from left to right. I shivered when his fingers dipped into the pocket. I didn’t bother informing him he had the wrong one, nor did he appear to care. Instead, he simply slipped his fingers out and began to run them across my ass again. The fact that he took a slight detour to run them along the seam of my jeans wherethe split God gave me lay hidden, only served to make me need the support of his other arm as my knees threatened to buckle. Though when his finger dipped a bit lower and I feared he’d discover my jeans had a wet spot, I was pretty sure even his arm wouldn’t be able to keep me erect if he touched methere.
The mewl of distress I gave when his finger moved away was met by his deep chuckle. I felt his fingers dip into my left pocket and then slide out again. He held up the folded paper and I glanced down as if I didn’t know what he would see.
He took his time and I took several breaths as he studied the drawing. When he looked up, I felt my heart skip a beat.
“Message received.”
I could only stare. Even my inner goddess couldn’t come up with a single snarky thing to say which was saying alot.
“Slow was my word for today. You chose tomorrow’s when you drew this. If you change your mind?—”
“I won’t,” I said, cutting him off.
