Thank goodness Paige was here. That’s all Mano had to say about it. She would be a welcome distraction from the upcoming chaos. Hell, he’d completely forgotten about his grandmother’s birthday celebration until Kal mentioned it. He’d be happy to lose his memory once again in Paige’s arms.
“Did we get her a gift?” Mano asked. He couldn’t remember.
Kal just sighed into the phone. “Yes. We went in together to get her the golden South Sea pearl necklace with the diamond clasp. You don’t remember sending me a check for that? People usually remember paying that much for something.”
Mano just shrugged. “We both have more money than we’ll ever spend. I really don’t pay attention to things like that.”
“Well, at least pay attention to your phone. I’m going to text you when my plane leaves Maui. I need you to send the car to pick me up.”
“Okay.” Mano made a note of his brother’s arrival and his grandmother’s party in his calendar so he wouldn’t forget again. “I’ll see you Sunday. Don’t take it personally if I don’t answer the phone between now and then.”
Kal barked an evil laugh into the phone. “I won’t. I know you’re getting busy. I mean, you’re busy.”
“Goodbye, dork.”
Mano heard his brother laugh again into the phone as he ended the call. He loved Kal, but he certainly didn’t mind that they lived on separate islands now. He was happy to have his space, from his brother and from the rest of the family. At the Mau Loa, he was in charge and confident of his every move. Although they knew he ran the family business without a hitch, his family was still prone to treating him as though he were newly blind and incapable of doing anything for himself.
They certainly wouldn’t believe what he’d done over the last few days. His little adventures with Paige had been out of the norm for him. While it made him uneasy, it also was a shot of excitement into a life he’d crafted to be very predictable and dull.
Paige was anything but, and he liked that about her. It made him wish, for the first time, that she wasn’t a tourist. Going into these short-term flings, Mano could always guarantee that he knew when the relationship would end. There was no reason to worry about an ugly breakup or a woman walking out on him, like Jenna had. Paige was the first woman who made him want more. He didn’t know what more he wanted, but he wasn’t looking forward to the end of the week.
It would come, though, so he needed to mentally prepare for that. She’d turned down his offer to stay on Oahu, flat. The offer had been part charity, part selfishness. He could help her, and he wanted to, especially if she might be in his life for a while longer. Her negative reaction stopped him cold. That meant that no matter how charming, sexy or wonderful Paige was, he couldn’t let himself get wrapped up in this. It was just a fling. That’s all he wanted. He just needed to keep reminding himself of that when he was around her.
Mano’s phone chirped again, but this time it was a text. He pressed the button to have the phone read it aloud.
It was Paige. “You snuck out on me! I thought we were spending today together.”
He laughed as the phone’s voice read Paige’s text aloud. He hit the button to dictate a response. “It’s still early, pulelehua. We have plenty of time to be together yet, today.” The phone repeated his words back to confirm the text before it sent his response.
It chimed again. “Okay, but if we’re going all the way to the North Shore and back today, we shouldn’t get too late a start.”
Mano’s brow raised curiously at her response. The North Shore? They hadn’t even discussed that possibility. “Is that what we’re doing today?”
“Yes. We’re getting garlic scampi shrimp and sticky rice from a food truck and eating it on the beach.”
Ah. She’d been reading some of the brochures he’d given her for sights around the island. “I hope you’re driving,” he replied and got a smiley face in return. “I’ll reserve a car from the hotel fleet.”
Mano got up to talk to the head of hotel transportation with a smile on his face. He knew exactly which car they needed to take out—the cherry red convertible roadster. The little BMW was one of the special touches he’d added to the hotel for exclusive guests to use to see the island. His teenage heart wished he could be the one to drive it—it was the car he’d dreamt of when he had turned sixteen—but he’d settle for riding shotgun. Being beside Paige was enough to make his heart race and his adrenaline rush through his veins.
They’d take this trip so she could experience more of his home, but he was far more interested in coming back to the hotel so he could have her again. Unless, of course, they could find a secluded enough spot on the North Shore...
* * *
This was potentially the messiest and best thing she’d ever eaten. An old white food truck in a patch of dirt off the highway had just served her a plate of shrimp so divinely garlicky and buttery, she had streams of butter and olive oil dripping down her forearms as she tried to eat. Mano had opted for the spicy shrimp, and she could already see beads of sweat forming on his forehead from the hot chilies. They’d taken their order to go and found a piece of rocky secluded shoreline a few miles away, where Paige spread a blanket out on a dry stretch of sand for them to have a picnic.
The sea was wilder here on the North Shore, less manicured and tourist friendly than Waikiki. The sand was decorated with chunks of black volcanic rock and large pieces of driftwood from trees that had fallen. The deeper water was a stormy blue, but the shallow tide pools just beyond them were perfectly clear. She was certain she would put her feet in them before they left. They called to her.
“This is a beautiful spot,” she said, immediately feeling guilty that he couldn’t see it. “It’s such a nice day.”
“I always liked it up here,” Mano said as he sipped his drink. “When I was a teenager, some of the guys and I would come down here to pretend like we could really surf. I’m surprised none of us got killed. The waves out here are for professionals, but we wanted to show off for the girls.”
“I can’t believe you’d risk that just to impress a girl.” That seemed crazy, but she’d seen boys do plenty of daredevil stunts to get a girl’s attention.
“One girl in particular,” Mano admitted. “We dated for two years. Jenna.” He winced as he said her name, as though it pained him. “I was a fool for her. I would’ve done any stupid thing she asked to see her smile and beam at me with pride.”
“What happened with Jenna?” She felt like she shouldn’t pry, but at the same time, she wanted to know since he had brought it up.
“Like most things in my life, the accident happened.”
Paige was afraid of that. “Will you tell me about it now, since you wouldn’t last night?”
Mano sighed and set down his carton of food. “Do you really want to ruin a beautiful day on the beach in Hawaii with my sob story?”
“Yes.”
He shrugged and leaned forward to pick at his food with a fork. “My brother, Kal, was playing football at the University of Hawaii. My parents and I were driving to the stadium to see the game. On the way there, we came upon one of the little pop-up rainstorms we have around here. It wasn’t a big deal, they disappear in minutes, but an oncoming SUV was going too fast through a curve. I was in the backseat, so I’m not entirely sure what happened, but the police seemed to think the SUV hit a pool of water and hydroplaned into us at full speed.”
Paige held her breath as he told the story. She knew it wasn’t going to end well, and yet she kept hoping she was wrong.
“They had to use heavy machinery to extract us from the car, but I don’t remember anything about it. I woke up in the hospital a couple days later and started screaming because I couldn’t see. They had to drug me and restrain my arms because I just went completely berserk. I didn’t even care that my arm was broken. I accidentally hit a nurse with my cast and blackened her eye. I didn’t know she was there, but in the moment, I just didn’t care about anything but my s
ight and when it was coming back. It wasn’t, of course.”
Mano shook his head and frowned. “I was such a mess that they didn’t tell me my parents were dead for almost a week. I missed their funeral while I was in the hospital. Kal and my grandparents had to face all of that on their own.”
“I’m sorry about your parents. I didn’t know about that.” Paige never dreamed the story would be worse than she imagined. He hadn’t mentioned his parents very often, though, so she should’ve anticipated it.
“Yeah. The hardest part for me, I think, was that I never really got to mourn them. I just snapped my fingers and they were gone. Once I got out of the hospital, I was in and out of rehabilitation and training for my new disability. I had to learn braille and adapt every aspect of my life to being blind. Technology is better now, but even just a decade ago, there was a steep learning curve. There wasn’t really time to think about losing them and what it meant for my life.”
“What about the rest of your family?”
“My grandparents took over hotel operations again. They’d retired when they handed it over to my parents, but they knew Kal and I weren’t ready for the responsibility. Kal dropped out of school for the rest of the semester and came home to take care of me. I think he felt guilty. He wouldn’t leave my side for a minute.”
“Why? Survivor’s guilt?”
“Not quite. I think he decided none of it would’ve happened if he hadn’t wanted us to come to his game that night. It’s ridiculous, really, but even though he won’t say it, I think he believes it. His life has turned into a penance. He completely changed course and seemed to pick up my life where I left it off, so my dreams could still be fulfilled in some twisted way. The Maui hotel was my plan. He opened it for me, which isn’t the same, but I appreciate it. When I was old enough, I took over the Oahu hotel since I was familiar and more comfortable with it. I converted one of the penthouses into my apartment so I didn’t have to commute or worry about the world outside the Mau Loa. And here we are.”
“And what about Jenna?”
For the first time since he started telling his story, Mano turned to face the sea. His jaw hardened. Hōkū seemed to sense the change in his mood and rested his head on Mano’s thigh in support. Mano placed his hand on the dog and stroked absentmindedly. “We had big dreams, too. We were going to go to college together, get married and run the new resort as a team like my parents and grandparents had. At first, she was right there by my side, but I think she had a naïveté about the accident. Like if she hung on long enough, I’d get my vision back and we could continue on with our plans. When that didn’t happen, she left.”
“Really?” Paige’s heart ached at the thought.
“Yes. She said that she was too young to throw away her whole life taking care of me. And she was right. I don’t blame her for going. I was enough of a burden on my family. I’ve no interest in being a rock that drags her—or any other woman—down.”
Paige sat back on her heels and considered this confession. She’d seen the same thing with her soldiers. While they would die for their brothers, they refused to hold each other—or anyone else—back. She worried that some of them would’ve rather died on the battlefield than come home and be a strain on their family and friends. A lot of them pushed people away, not letting anyone close.
“So, is that why a handsome, rich hotel magnate is single and sitting on a beach with me instead of charming his beautiful wife and playing with their children?”
He shrugged. Mano didn’t seem to want to get too introspective about the whole thing. “There’s no sense wasting my time in real relationships. Spending this week with you, or another week with another woman every now and then, is all I need. I get the excitement, the passion, and it all ends before things can turn sour.”
Mano had been right. As much as she wanted to know about his past, the story had certainly taken their afternoon on a darker turn. The oily shrimp started to churn in her stomach. She knew their time together would be short and without strings, but somehow knowing that he deliberately kept women, including her, at arm’s length made her sad. She wasn’t entertaining any romantic delusions about the two of them, but she still found herself caring more for Mano than she intended to. He did care about her and the baby, too, in his own way. He wouldn’t have offered to help her if he didn’t. He wouldn’t be trying so hard to make her feel better about herself if he didn’t worry at least a little about her. But it was different. She wanted him to be happy and she just didn’t see that in him, despite his protestations.
Instead of dwelling on it, she tried to make light of his confession. “So you just want me because I’ll be gone in a few days,” she teased, thankful that he couldn’t see the glimmer of hurt in her eyes. “Tell the truth.”
He instantly brightened, happy to put all that aside. “You bet. I want you more the shorter our time together gets.” Mano leaned toward her and beckoned her to kiss him. She complied, pressing her lips against his. She let herself give in to the kiss. That was what this week was about anyway. Enjoyment. Pleasure. Not dwelling in the past or worrying about the future. She just found it hard to turn those parts of her brain off.
When Mano’s hand found her breast and cupped it through her tank top, she finally succeeded in focusing on the here and now. She moaned softly against his lips as his thumb stroked her nipples though the thin cotton. She hadn’t worn a bra today—one of the perks of being a thin, nearly flat-chested woman. That meant there was very little separating the two of them.
She lay back on the blanket and let Mano roll onto his side next to her. He tugged gently at the neckline of her top, exposing her breast so he could capture it with his mouth. Paige buried her fingers in the long, dark waves of his hair and pulled him closer to her.
Paige loved getting lost in the feel of being with Mano. His mouth and hands and body on her were like nothing else in her life before now. There was no hesitation in his touch. Mano seemed convinced that she was beautiful and, for now, she’d let him believe that. Maybe they’d make it through the week before he learned the truth.
Eventually, someone would tell him. Staff at the hotel, maybe? Perhaps he’d overhear someone ask aloud why a man like him was with a woman like her. That would have to make him wonder. But until then, she would try to enjoy it.
There was a freedom in being with a man who couldn’t see her. It took a while for her to adjust to the idea of not feeling self-conscious all the time, but once she got used to it, she really loved it. Some might find it a cruel irony that an unattractive woman would end up with a blind man, but to her, it was such a relief. At least until he realized that he was the one getting the short end of the stick.
She tried not to let those thoughts ruin the moment and focused instead on his touch. Mano’s hand slipped beneath her shorts and sought out her center. He started stroking her, gently at first, then harder. Her breath caught in her throat as the sensations starting exploding inside of her. Within a minute she was close to coming undone. She couldn’t believe how quickly he could manipulate her body into doing whatever he wanted it to do.
Paige looked around in a panic as she got closer... Anyone could see them together like this. Mano didn’t seem to care, of course, but he wouldn’t know if someone was watching.
“Someone is going to see us,” she panted.
Mano raised his head from her breast. “I doubt it.”
“What if they hear us?”
Mano chuckled and nuzzled her neck, never slowing his sensual exploration of her body. “Are you planning to be loud?”
“I may not have a choice in the matter.”
“Good.”
Mano rubbed harder, dipping his finger inside of her and stroking her from the inside, as well. The combination was explosive, sending her over the edge without a care if someone were watching them or not. He kissed her just as she reached the pinnacle, smothering her cries with his mouth until she finally stilled beside him.
Just as she returned to reality, a sound caught Paige’s attention. She pulled Mano’s hand away and quickly adjusted her shirt as she sat up on the blanket. Behind them, another car had pulled up beside theirs. A whole family climbed out, talking and laughing all at once. She watched the father haul out chairs and a cooler and knew that their private oasis was gone. They’d just barely made it.
“I think we’ll have to finish what we started back at the hotel,” she said.
“It’s probably for the best,” Mano agreed as he sat up and dusted the sand off his legs. “A little make-out session is one thing, but any more serious action and sand gets everywhere. It’s very unpleasant.”
Paige smiled and leaned in to give him a kiss. “So you’re promising me some serious action when we get back to the hotel?”
Mano pulled her close and deepened the kiss. “You better believe it.”
Eight
Paige pried one eye open in the early morning light. She could see Mano slipping into his suit coat and frowned. “Where are you going?” she asked with a pout.
“Work. Just for a little while,” he said sitting down on the edge of the bed. He leaned in and she met him halfway for a goodbye kiss. “A couple of hours. I’ll meet you for lunch. What are you going to do this morning while I’m gone?”
Paige considered her options. It was already Thursday and there was so much of the resort she hadn’t seen. She really should take the opportunity to explore something other than Mano’s bed. “I thought I might walk through the shops and browse at some point. I also thought about going to the pool. I haven’t done that yet.”
“That would be nice. Go swimming first. Most of the shops don’t open until ten. By the time you finish and shower, they’ll be open.”
Paige twisted her lips in thought. “That’s a good idea. I doubt I’ll buy anything, though. The shops I’ve seen are all very high end. I’m not coming back upstairs with a Louis Vuitton bag.”
Mano reached out and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. Paige leaned in to his touch, wishing more and more than he didn’t insist on going to work so soon. “If you want one, you should get one. Have them charge it to me. Anything you want, just tell them.”
The Pregnancy Proposition Page 9
