Page 5 of Paradise Found
“Both,” he said with a sexy chuckle. “For once I let fate guide me to where I needed to be. Have you ever done that, Oleanna? Taken a chance?”
Oleanna did not trust herself to respond because his arms looked like fate itself. Inexplicably, she missed having them around her waist.
She steeled her determination. There was neither time nor room nor reason for flirting.
She was currently on Oahu because she personally handled the biannual paperwork at Kamea Koa. She spent most of the previous week taking care of business and was looking forward to a mini vacation before going back home in three days. A vacation that did not involve Axel Talstad.
It wasn’t until she was walking away from the cottage that she realized she had failed to introduce herself properly. But it was too late, wasn’t it? It’s not like she could run back, knock on the door, and blabber about her life.
Hi, Axel. We’ve met before because I fill in when my family’s cleaning service is short-staffed. When I’m not scrubbing your toilets, I do the accounting. In fact, you handed me a check once. So, yeah, have a good life.
Why bother? It’s not like he was staying for her.
He was staying for her. After a mental calculation of when his parents and fitness coach would nag him about summer in Sweden, he decided two weeks would work.
He had no plans beyond the fact that he wanted to see her again and again for as long as he could. All he had to do was convince Oleanna to spend time with him.
It was unusual for Axel to be this, well, eager.Attraction,he understood. This felt like something else. As if he was at the precipice of something significant. As if fate brought him to that edge and he couldn’t wait to jump.
Axel didn’t think he was imagining her interest. She stayed in his arms for a while, allowing him to notice her shallow, labored breaths and giving a front-row view of her nipples pushing through the flimsy fabric of that pretty dress.
He was so aroused, having her hair graze his nose nearly made him moan. The erratic pulse on her neck, the gentle leaning of her shoulder against his chest as if it were involuntary—that wasn’t his imagination.
And the way she looked at him, as if sheknewhim, was a thrill he didn’t expect.
No longer tired, Axel needed to work out his body’s stiffness—in his back and in other places. He resolved to get to the beach as soon as possible. He scarfed down protein bars and nuts from the pantry, grabbed a beach towel, and remembered to wear flip-flops.
Axel easily navigated the rocky terrain before approaching a sandy beach. He noticed the shore loosely dotted with local families, many with children jumping into the water and men cooking over portable barbecues. Women sat under canopies, their gossip and songs tinkling through the air.
It was nothing like the beaches of Miami or the Mediterranean. There was something uniquely Hawaiian about the scene—the ease, the laughter, the locals.
Except him. He looked down at his glowingly white body and snorted. Better jump into the water before his pallor blinded the kids. The shoreline was vast, the sand fine, and the ocean inviting.
Approaching the water, Axel watched in amazement as a father dipped his toddler into the water right when a small wave crested. The little round body rode a wave for three feet and landed on the shore. The child sputtered out some water, then squealed with joy as the father offered words of praise. It was like no other swimming lesson Axel had ever witnessed.
The ocean crept up his body like a balm, caressing his muscles from feet to legs and around his aching back. It was heaven. There was no other way to put it.
Immediately, he decided this would be a yearly trip.
What better way to end a season on the ice than to float on ocean waves?
And what luck to stumble into this secret paradise surrounded by red clay and thick tropical foliage, minutes from the sandy edge of the Pacific.
He relished a breeze carrying the now familiar smell of salty-sweet, an aroma he would always associate with Oleanna’s voice, her smile, her body.
Her body. He savored the image of her hips swaying. Long hair that ended on her lower back grazing the beginning of her lush backside. Axel palmed his hardness under the water and grunted in frustration.
What was this extreme and immediate infatuation?
Axel wasn’t as much of a player as some of his teammates, but he was no monk either. His phone was filled with numbers of beautiful women, eager to hear from him any time he could fit a casual night into his schedule.
Oleanna wasn’t someone he was trying to fit into his schedule. Axel was, for lack of a better word,struck. Struck with the desire to be with her.
He couldn’t shake the sense that he had seen her before, that her presence wasn’t a surprise but adiscovery. Like he knew her subconsciously, in his dreams. Maybe that was it. Maybe she was the woman of his dreams.
Instead of smacking himself on the head the way he deserved for that weird and semi-creepy thought, Axel dove into an incoming wave and swam hard. When he was out of breath, he turned toward the shore and swam hard again, riding the waves by kicking through the force of their forward movement.
He worked out every day for most of his athletic career, from the time he was ten till now at twenty-eight. It was rarely this much fun. He was enjoying physical exertion, childhood play, and a primal dance between human and nature, all rolled into one.
