It took all her willpower to ignore the people in the hallway gaping open-mouthed at her exit.
Chapter 9
Male laughter was just plain annoying sometimes and tonight was definitely one of those. She had better things to do than deal with it.
“Joe, you have to leave right now. He’ll be here any minute.”
“Don’t you own a better apron than that? Never Trust A Skinny Chef is not sending the right message when your weight makes you so self-conscious,” Joe said, grinning at her glare. “And I can’t leave yet. I owe you for saving my excellent—most excellent Todd. What kind of friend would I be to abandon you in your time of need?”
“Go away, Joe. I’m too busy to verbally play with you,” Sabine ordered, tasting the sauce simmering around her chicken before adding a little more wine.
“Well okay, but I thought you might want me here to diffuse things when Martin shows up to collect his weights from the garage.” Joe shrugged and grinned at the wide-eyed stare he got in response to his statement. “Oh—I see you finally heard me that time. I’ve been trying to tell you for the last thirty minutes that Martin was coming by to check out your story.”
“Joooooe—damn it. Nooooo,” Sabine said, stomping both her bare feet as she danced back and forth in irritation. “Martin can’t come tonight. I told him that earlier. Why would he come anyway?”
“Yeah . . . well . . . you shouldn’t have confessed that a date was the reason he couldn’t come by this evening. Good thing I happened to be at Martin’s house when he called you. The shocked look on his face when he heard what you were doing was kind of alarming actually. My brother will be bringing his possessive ass by here tonight. Trust me,” Joe said.
“Damn. Damn. Double Damn,” Sabine chanted.
“Yeah, baby. I hear you. You are having some run of bad luck lately,” Joe agreed, rubbing her back lightly.
Sabine rolled her eyes just as the doorbell rang. “Oh shit.”
“Maybe you need to think of something more eloquent to say outside of swearing this evening. Your Todd didn’t seem like the swearing type to me. He seemed like he used language very sparingly and with great import to the meaning of things.”
“Thank you, Mr. Not-Helpful,” Sabine hissed, untying her apron from her waist and whipping it over her head.
She brushed back her newly fluffed hair with her fingers and smoothed the front of her dress as she left the kitchen. She was at the door when she realized she still had no shoes on. Too late to go dashing to her bedroom for heels. She had kept him waiting too long already. Her bare feet couldn’t be helped.
Sabine opened the door with a smiling flourish, which faded as she stared up into the most beautiful, freshly shaven masculine face she had ever laid eyes on.
“Hi,” she said breathlessly, feeling like a dizzy teenager when Koka smiled down at her.
At first sight of her flushing face and welcoming eyes, Koka held out the flowers he brought.
“Aloha,” he said, the greeting emerging roughly.
“Aloha,” Sabine said back, accepting the massive bouquet that filled her arms. “Thank you. I’m not sure I have a vase big enough for all these.”
Koka smiled and waited.
“Oh . . . sorry. Come in. Please,” Sabine said.
He walked across the threshold and sniffed. “Chicken Marsala?”
“Hopefully,” she replied, not surprised Koka had so accurately identified dinner. “It’s been a while since I fixed it for anyone, but I think it will be okay.”
Koka smiled. “Can I see your kitchen?”
“Of course,” Sabine said graciously, swallowing hard. “It’s not anywhere near as nice as yours, but I fed a family out of it for years.”
He stopped mid-stride. “Sabine—why are you so nervous? I’m not going to judge your kitchen. I’m happy to see where you live.”
Sabine snickered. “Maybe the state of my kitchen is the least of what concerns me this evening.”
He lifted her chin with a finger and leaned down to brush her lips gently. “You look stunning in that dress, but relax for now. I promise to warn you before I attack next time. I am in control—for the moment.”
Sabine swallowed again and nodded. “Well good, that makes one of us at least,” she teased, spinning Edwina’s warning to fit her current situation.
Koka laughed softly and then heard a noise. “You have other guests?”
Sabine sighed and nodded again, resigned to playing nice even if it killed her. “Yes, but not on purpose,” she said firmly. “Come on. I’ll officially introduce you to Joe.”
They walked into her kitchen and found her friend staring wistfully into her bubbling skillet. Sabine walked to the stove and smacked Joe on the arm. “Quit staring. You’re not staying for dinner. I’m having a real date tonight whether anyone likes it or not.”
Joe laughed and turned to the man standing quietly in Sabine’s kitchen. His eyes widened at the freshly shaved, incredibly well-dressed man staring longingly at Sabine’s ass as she leaned over the stove. His affection for the superb male was instantaneous. He walked over and extended his hand.
“Hi. I’m Joe. Nice to meet you, Mr. Lake.”
Koka pulled his gaze from Sabine to offer his hand to the male who looked very much at home in her kitchen. “You’re the friend who went to bid on the right Todd. How is that working out for you?”
“So far—so good,” Joe reported. “As to whether or not he’s the right Todd, I think that depends on who we’re talking about. I’m starting to think there might just be two right ones.”
“Call me Koka. That’s my island name. I prefer friends to use it,” Koka said, returning Joe’s firm handshake. Then his gaze went back to Sabine’s frown over the sizzling pan. “Do you have an apron I could borrow? Maybe I could help with dinner. Please—I would really like to cook with you.”
Sabine turned and looked at his imploring gaze. Should she let him have control here too? She chewed her lip and then the doorbell rang again. Shit—Martin.
“Joe, go out the utility room into the garage and let Martin in to get his weights,” Sabine ordered, her tone defying any argument.
As Joe grinned and left, Sabine went to her pantry shelf and sifted through a pile of aprons. She wasn’t about to give him one of Martin’s stupid barbecue ones. Those were going to a charity first chance she got. Sighing, she pulled down the least feminine one she owned and took it to him. It had been a gag gift from her children. Not bothering to even look at it, Koka threw it over his head and deftly fastened the ties behind his back.
“Turn around and let me see,” Sabine ordered. Smiling at her demand, Koka obeyed and did as she asked, holding his hands in the air as he turned. “Unbelievable. Seriously, how do you do that? They’re perfectly even.”
Glancing up at his laughing eyes, she could tell he was not going to dignify her fascination with a response.
She walked back to her own apron and picked it up just as Martin burst through the utility room doorway into the kitchen. Glaring, the apron ended up in a fisted hand on her hip.
“The weights are in the garage, not in the kitchen,” Sabine said sternly, glaring at her former husband who was staring at Koka in complete shock. Behind him, Joe was laughing uncontrollably. “This is no time for laughing, Joe.”
Joe pointed at Koka’s chest. “Why did you pick that apron for him, sweetie?”
Confused about Joe’s comment, Koka looked down, read his apron, and laughed hard. “Food Porn Star—I like it. I need to get one of these for the show. I get tired of wearing Kiss The Sexy Chef.”
Sabine felt almost faint when a laughing Koka turned a radiantly white smile in her direction. It was a killer combination paired with the wicked intentions blazing from his eyes.
“You look like a completely different man when you smile like that. You should do it more often. And for your information, I thought that apron was more appropriate than the one that said Cookie Goddess. But as m
uch you love drama, maybe Kitchen Diva would have been a better choice for you.”
“Promise to stay in my life forever and I will laugh and smile until my last breath,” Koka promised, ignoring the other two men for a moment. He held Sabine’s startled gaze, pleased that he’d silenced her teasing again with his honesty. Finally though, he had to look at them. It was only polite.
He walked to where Joe and his near twin were standing and put out a hand.
“Hello. I’m Todd Lake,” Koka said, unwilling to give the man he suspected was Sabine’s ex his real name.
“You’re Sabine’s date?” the man asked, his tone one of shock.
Koka raised an eyebrow. “Yes. Why?”
Sabine watched Martin shake his head in disbelief—the bastard. He couldn’t even take it in that someone like Koka found her attractive when he no longer did. Well, screw him. She was having enough trouble believing Koka herself. She didn’t need Martin’s doubts too.
“That’s enough of being nosy, Martin. I don’t go to your house and harass your new wife. Now get your weights and leave. Joe will help you,” Sabine said. “And I’m pretty sure that’s the last of your belongings. So don’t come back anymore.”
When Martin blinked in surprise at her firm order, Sabine saw Joe grab his stunned brother’s arm and steer him back to the garage. She turned to Koka and sighed again.
“Sorry about that. My ex is just being nosy. He didn’t really come by to get his weights. He just wanted to see if you were real. I told him I had a date tonight and I guess he didn’t believe me.”
Koka nodded and untied his apron. “I can see you are distressed about his presence. I think I will help with the weights so that his departure will happen more quickly.”
“You really don’t have to do that. In fact, I’d rather you not get involved at all. Joe will see Martin behaves,” Sabine said softly.
He tipped her chin up again with one finger. “I’m already involved. And I want your ex to know it. Do you have a problem with that?”
Sabine sighed and bit her lip. Finally, she shook her head faintly.
Koka tapped underneath her chin to keep her aware of him. “Can I go help if I promise not to beat my chest like an ape and scream at him?”
“That was a joke, right?” Sabine asked.
Koka chuckled and leaned down to drop a kiss on her mouth. Too tempted to be a complete gentleman, he ended up nipping the lip she had bitten, wishing he could do more.
“Mostly I was joking,” he said quietly. “But I want to carry his weights and see his understanding of the metaphor I mean it to be. I am sure it will cause him surprise again that he has truly lost the most beautiful woman he will ever know. This is his day for seeing the truth.”
The breath she had been holding escaped slowly. When she was empty of it, she nodded. “Fine. Go beat your chest, but make it fast. I hate to eat dry chicken.”
When Koka grinned and headed out the door, Sabine shook her head. “I truly have lost my mind.”
Less than three minutes later, Joe and Koka strolled back into the kitchen laughing and talking. She looked at Koka’s hands in horror and pointed to another door. “Bathroom is down the hall and on the right. There’s degreaser under the sink. You should have let Martin lift the ones from the garage floor, you big dummy. Get that grease off before it stains. I don’t need Edwina tracking me down for ruining your hands.”
Koka laughed as he headed in the direction of her pointing hand.
Sabine turned when he left to see Joe staring after him. “Stop drooling. He’s completely straight. Trust me.”
Joe turned his gaze to Sabine. “No, that’s not it. Martin and I picked up two forty-five pound weights each. Koka picked up the rest of the pile all at once and carried them to the trunk of Martin’s car. He was very polite and gracious about it the whole time. Martin was poleaxed with shock, but I think I was too. Did you have any idea the man was that strong?”
Sabine bit her lip and stared back at her entrée that was nearing the end of its edibility.
“Yes. I’m somewhat acquainted with Koka’s muscles,” she admitted, unwilling to admit to Joe that her hands had memorized his biceps.
Joe reached over and kissed her cheek. “Okay then. Since my heroic deed is now done, I’m leaving. Have a good date. I like him, Sabine.”
“Yes,” she said softly. “I like him too. That’s my problem.”
Chapter 10
In the process of making dessert, Sabine was spooning store-bought whipped topping onto glazed pears when Koka’s arms slipped around her from behind. Her hand froze mid-dollop as both his hands slid from her waist up to her breasts and back.
“I love this dress on you,” he whispered.
“Dessert is ready,” Sabine whispered back, the words sticking in her throat.
“I hope so,” Koka said. He turned her around and lifted her to her toes as he bent to her mouth for a mind-numbing kiss. Her groan had him gripping her tighter than he had intended.
“Sorry,” he said hoarsely. “I promised you a warning. I forgot.”
Beyond his unapologetic gaze, Sabine saw the spoon of whipped topping was still in the hand she had rested on his shoulder. Holding his stare, she brought the spoon to her mouth and licked it clean while he watched with hungry eyes.
“Bad Koka. Very bad for not keeping your promise,” she said. “I’m not sure you deserve dessert.”
Laughter almost choked him on its way out, but his hands were busy finding their way under the full skirt. “Nou No Ka `I`ini.”
“Ha—I know what that means and I don’t even speak Hawaiian,” Sabine declared, standing on her toes so he wouldn’t have to bend down so far.
With her skirt finally out of the way, Koka pressed himself against the heat of the woman he found under it. Her soft body was the most erotic thing he could remember lusting for in his entire life. “I desire you, Sabine Blakeman. That’s what I said.”
Sabine heard the words, but Koka’s voice seemed very far away. What he was doing with his hands as he molded her lower half to his was seriously distracting. He was just so sure in his actions, so insistent in expressing what he felt in any moment.
“I desire you too,” Sabine parroted back, but realized she would have said most anything to prolong her drowning in the sensual ocean Koka was creating around her.
“Do you want to have dessert first? Or after?” It killed him to ask and offer any choice at all, but Sabine had gone to so much trouble to cook for him.
“I want it right now,” Sabine said, reaching up to link an arm around his neck. It was quite a stretch, but well worth it when Koka let her pull his head down. Her mouth sought his and found it hot and waiting for her. When she finally let him go, she swept a hand down his neck and over one massive shoulder. “I have high standards for dessert though.”
“Sabine—consider yourself warned,” Koka declared, his voice low.
To her shock, he scooped her substantial form up in his arms and started down the hall with her. She had never been carried before and the experience was startling.
“Which room?” he demanded.
“The big one,” she squeaked, hanging onto him as best she could.
Yet being carried was nothing compared to landing on her mattress with a rock solid male heavily on top of her. His mouth devoured hers while his hands divested her of everything under her dress and went exploring. Finding the answer he was looking for, he groaned and cupped her possessively.
Unwilling to passively accept her fate, Sabine unbuckled and unzipped until she could work her hands down inside his clothes to a backside that felt like molded bronze under her fingers. There was nowhere soft on the man. “I can’t get pregnant and there hasn’t been anyone since I divorced. I just wanted you to know.”
Koka’s answer to her—if you could call it that—was to hold her thighs in his hands while he wiggled his pants off his legs. For a big man, he had some amazing moves. Right after she heard his p
ants hit the carpet, his hands ran up the inside of her thighs as he separated them.
“In case you have any doubts left about anything at all, I want this and the answer is yes,” Sabine said.
“'O Ku'u Aloha No 'Oe,” Koka whispered, beginning the journey inside her.
Sabine let her body sink into the mattress and give under the pressure of him sliding into her.
“Your language is so beautiful,” she whispered.
“I have wanted to do this with you since you stood up at the auction. Will you let me love you now?” Koka asked, the words strangled as he completed their joining. Her head nod against the pillow was accompanied by rapid panting. He went a little crazy. “Na'u `oe.”
Whatever Koka whispered to her in his native language acted like a trigger. Sabine groaned and arched her body, amazed to feel such a sense of rightness with a man she had known for such a short amount of time.
“I have no words nearly as poetic as yours, but I want you too. This is even better than your rum fried bananas. Can we do this a little faster?”
“Not yet. It is too much and yet not enough,” Koka declared, rolling them over until she sat astride him.
While a groaning Sabine unbuttoned his shirt, he reached behind her and unzipped the beautiful red dress until the zipper stopped at her waist. There was no way to free her from it completely. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to yet.
Lying back down, he used his hands to ease the dress off her shoulders and away from the front of her, delighted at the sheer red lace bra Sabine wore under it.
“Beautiful,” he said. Bound in lace cups, even his large hands covered only part of her breasts. Loose—they would spill around his fingers, lush and soft. He shivered beneath her rocking weight, suddenly fearing that Sabine’s pleasure would be lost in his prolonged sensual exploration.
“Koka,” Sabine said hoarsely, feeling the first orgasm in two years hitting her hard. A muffled scream erupted when she found herself buried again under a plunging male body that seemed bent on maximizing her pleasure as he plunged slowly with each shiver.
McDonald_TWT_GENVers_Feb2014 Page 8
