by Cathryn Cade
“We’ll be leaving pretty soon,” Daniel said. “Private yacht cruise around the islands, do some diving.”
“But only for two days,” Claire added, frowning.
“That’s too bad.” Jack was surprised.
Daniel shook his head. “Can’t be gone too long, with the developers trying to move in. We need to be in contact with the lawyers.”
“You’ll be in cell phone range the entire time,” Malu reminded him. “We can reel you in like a big ono when we need you.”
Melia looked past her husband and smiled. “Lalei, have a nice swim?”
“Great, thanks.” Lalei’s voice rubbed over Jack’s skin like a velvet caress, leaving the tiny hairs on his skin standing up.
He drained his beer and turned away to grab another from the cooler, hoping she’d be disposed on one of the loungers by the time he was done and that she wouldn’t figure out that she and he were the object of intense interest.
“Here, take this lounger, Lalei,” said Bella politely. “I’ve got to go and change.”
“Mahalo.” Lalei made no move to sit down. Instead she followed Jack, peering past his bare arm into the cooler at the drinks. He could smell her seductive scent and feel her warmth, which was ridiculous because she’d just come from a swim and shower, and she wasn’t even touching him.
“See anything you want?”
“Mm-hm.” She bent and fished a Coco Brown Ale from the ice.
He grabbed it from her, twisted it open and handed it back, more to avoid that enigmatic dark gaze than to be polite.
“Mahalo.” He ignored her, concentrating on opening his own beer to fight the urge to smile at her, to bask in her honeyed warmth. A mirage like the oases that shimmered out on the deserts east of California, no doubt. With a noncommittal grunt, Jack stalked away, around the group of loungers to the other end, clutching his cold beer like a talisman.
“Where are Gabe and Sara?” he asked Malu, realizing the other couple was not out on the reef or anywhere else in sight.
“They had to get back to Maui,” Malu told him, squinting against the sun shining over Jack’s shoulder. “Said to say good-bye.”
Jack nodded. Damn, he’d missed saying good-bye to his old friend. He’d have to give Gabe a call later.
As he sank onto the lounger next to Melia’s, she smiled at him, tossing her damp blonde curls back over her shoulder. “Not going for a swim?”
Jack paused, his beer partway to his lips. He turned his head to eye the clear turquoise waters of the bay, remembering that he’d meant to dive in first, then start drinking his breakfast. “Yeah,” he remembered. “I am.”
Melia chuckled, stretching her bare toes out on the lounger. “Last time you were here you spent so much time in the water, you had a terrible sunburn, remember?”
“That’s me,” Jack agreed amiably. “Never do anything by halves.”
He looked past her. Lalei stood beside David’s lounger, holding her drink. She was surveying the group, serene as an Asian statue, but Jack recognized tension in the whitened fingers clutching her beer bottle. Despite Melia’s and Bella’s greetings, she wasn’t sure of her welcome. Suddenly he was pissed off on her behalf. What right did any of these women have to judge her? They didn’t have a social-climbing dragon for a mother, and as far as he could recall, Claire and Daniel hadn’t been real discreet about their initial affair either.
Sitting back on his lounger, Jack cocked his head to catch her eye. Lalei raised an arching brow at him as if to ask what he was looking at. He jerked his chin upward, beckoning her. He swung his legs to one side of his lounger, leaving the foot bare.
She hesitated and then sauntered across the lanai to fold herself elegantly onto the space he’d left, one leg curled beneath her.
Jack watched Melia and Claire track her movement and then glance at each other. Bella was frankly staring, a little line between her dark brows. He moved his foot, nudging the small of Lalei’s back. Her skin was warm and silky, and he wanted to keep stroking her there. With his little toe, he caught the rivulet of water rolling down the elegant crease of her spine. He’d rather use his tongue. Hell, he wanted to pull her back between his legs and pick up where they’d left off. There were a few places he was dying to put his tongue.
Whoa, no. Not going there again, or at least not now.
“You gonna drink that or just hold it?” He indicated her beer.
She looked down at the bottle as if surprised to see it, then shrugged. “I don’t really like beer that much.”
He shook his head and leaned forward to take the full bottle from her. “Then go get something you do like, hūpō.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Did you just call me stupid, haole boy?”
He froze with a mouthful of beer. Claire clapped a hand over her mouth, her blue eyes full of mirth, and Jack nearly strangled trying to swallow.
“Ah,” he coughed, stalling. “I thought it meant, just sort of…silly.”
“Means that too,” David said, his eyes twinkling. “Better stick with nani wahine, pretty woman. Den you’ll be fine, moke.”
Jack saluted Lalei with his beer. “What he said.”
She smiled demurely, though her gaze promised vengeance. “Mahalo, ‘īhepa.” She rose and sauntered around the loungers toward the cooler.
Jack raised his eyebrows enquiringly at David, who winced. “Imbecile,” he translated.
“Damn. A guy can’t win.” Jack drained his beer and then joined in as Claire and Melia gave in to laughter and their husbands chuckled as well, deep rumbles of sound.
Wondering why Lalei was taking so long just to get another drink, he glanced around. She stood watching the other couple from the shadows by the cooler. Some indefinable emotion tightened her stance. Envy?
He shrugged inwardly and raised his bottle to take another drink, then remembered it was empty. He set it down on the table, glanced at the cooler again and then forced himself to lie back in his lounger. Not yet—he’d better pace himself. It was cool; he could do it.
Meanwhile, he was here in paradise with his good friends, and for some reason a gorgeous wahine wanted in his swim trunks. Things could be a helluva lot worse.
Chapter Six
Lalei listened to Jack’s deep laughter mingling with the Ho’omalu brothers and their wives. He seemed to be enjoying the joke at his expense as much as they were. He was as easygoing as she’d remembered from his earlier visit for David’s wedding—she’d chosen well. He wouldn’t try to hang on her or go all possessive on her.
She peered into the drinks nestled in the melting ice in the cooler and chose a soda. She didn’t mind a glass of wine at a cocktail party or dinner, but she didn’t like the taste of beer, and she hated the way alcohol made her feel, dizzy and off-balance. Jack certainly seemed to like it. He’d been tipsy last night, and if she’d counted correctly, he’d already finished three bottles of beer in the short time since he’d arrived at the beach today. Oh well, he was a big boy.
Straightening, she watched the group chatting easily in the shade. They were so relaxed, so easy together. David and Daniel were gentle and protective of their wives, and they truly listened to them, seeming to count their words as important as another man’s. Unlike so many of the men she knew, including Benton Choy. Her mother saw nothing wrong in that, but it made Lalei want to scream. Of course, so did her mother. Okay, not thinking about Suzy right now. She forced her attention back to the group around her.
Claire began a slightly naughty story about how Daniel had called her something sexy in Hawaiian, and she’d misunderstood him, thinking he was insulting her. The others laughed uproariously, while Daniel merely grinned at his bride.
Lalei hated to admit it, but she envied Claire. She might be a bit raucous and overflow her bikini, but she seemed to revel in life, and particularly in her relationship with Daniel. The heated glances that she and Lalei’s cousin cast each other nearly made the air smoke between them.
And s
he, Melia and Bella were as close as sisters. Lalei had never had a friendship that close. She’d liked some of the girls she went to school with, but her mother had firmly discouraged any friendship with girls she considered not their social equal, and on a small group of islands, that didn’t leave a large pool of candidates.
And she could really use a girlfriend right now. She hesitated, holding her unopened soda. Maybe she should just go back up to the house and open her computer, work on that sales report for the gallery. The idea held little appeal, but neither did feeling like the odd woman out with her cousins’ wives.
No, as soon as her mother caught her alone, she’d let Lalei have it even worse than last night. Still smarting inside from that slap, Lalei was not ready for what was going to be the Suzy Kai hissy fit of the century. She’d avoided Suzy and everyone else this morning by grabbing a bottle of juice and a granola bar from the pantry and climbing up the mountain. She’d eaten her breakfast on the trail that wound up through the forest, then climbed higher still, working her body to avoid her thoughts and the repercussions of her reckless actions the night before.
“Lalei.” Lalei looked over her shoulder. As if conjured by her guilty thoughts, her mother stood there, her hand in the crook of Benton Choy’s arm.
“Here you are,” Suzy said, her lips curving up in a sweet smile that belied the anger in her gaze. “You have been hiding.”
Oh yes, she’d heard Lalei and Jack in his room, all right. So had Benton, if his cold sneer was any indication. He wore sunglasses. Lalei shivered—she was glad she couldn’t see his eyes.
Mission accomplished. So why did she feel like a little girl caught playing naughty games with a boy? Lalei’s stomach knotted, her fingers clenching on her soda can. She felt her face burn with her second childish blush of the day. But she returned her mother’s sweet smile as if there were no hurt, no tension crackling between them.
“Sorry, Mother. I went jogging and then came down for a swim. You two should go get your swimsuits and join us.”
Like that was going to happen. Her mother wouldn’t dream of spoiling her hair or makeup in public. She swam only at the spa. And Benton would probably only swim if he thought it would net him a new business deal.
Turning her back in a way she knew was rude, Lalei stalked back to Jack’s lounger. She sat down again, this time farther up the seat so that her hip was pressed against his leg. He was big and solid, and his skin was warm, the light furring of hair tickling her skin.
She smiled at him, turning up the wattage, and rested her hand on his thigh.
He started violently, letting out a yelp of surprise, and grabbed her hand, lifting her cold soda can away from his leg. “Damn. Is that payback for the hūpō remark?”
“Sorry—I’m sorry.” Lalei winced, pursing her lips to fight a nervous giggle as he rubbed his leg with his palm. Her cheeks burned yet again as the others gaped at them. She’d successfully seduced Jack, and her plan was working. So why was she all thumbs around him? She’d forgotten she was even holding the can of soda.
He leaned forward to take the can. “Here, let me open that for you,” he said wryly. “Then you can drink it and keep it the h—keep it away from me.” He pulled the tab with a snap and handed the open drink back to her.
“Mahalo.” Toasting him with the can, she took a drink. It was cold, sweet and frothy—delicious. She shifted it to her other hand so she wouldn’t accidently use Jack for a coaster again, and pretended she wasn’t cowering against him.
“Suzy, Benton, please join us,” David said politely. Lalei tensed, her stomach knotting with familiar pain as her mother and Benton walked onto the lanai. Lalei clutched her soda and leaned back against Jack’s bent leg, trying to appear as relaxed as Claire and Melia with their husbands. His warm, hair-roughened skin against hers grounded her, steadied her. Simple human contact or something more? Whatever, nothing on which she could depend. She needed to remember that.
Suzy inclined her head as if conferring a royal favor and allowed Benton to hand her into one of the upright chairs in the shade. She was as out of place among the swimsuited younger group as a bird of paradise plunked in among native hibiscus, Lalei thought with a mixture of love and resentment. And Benton was the stake to hold her upright so she could queen it over this informal arrangement.
Suzy turned her glass-sharp gaze on Jack. “Lalei, you have not properly introduced your…friend.”
Lalei smiled past her clenched teeth. “Mother, Jack Nord. Jack, my mother, Suzy. And Benton Choy.”
“How do you do?” Jack said pleasantly.
Suzy nodded, her smile sweetening in a way that made Lalei tense with suspicion. “And what is that you do, Jack?”
“Jack is a successful businessman in California, Mother,” Lalei answered quickly.
The leg supporting her nudged her back. She glanced at Jack, but he was looking at her mother. Lalei wasn’t sure if the nudge had been a “thank you” or a “shut up”.
“My partner and I have a realty office in Santa Barbara,” he told Suzy.
“We’ve been trying to get him to relocate to Kona,” David added. To Lalei’s surprise, he sounded serious.
“You interested?” Daniel asked.
Jack shrugged, his leg tensing. Lalei took a drink of her soda, wondering why his friends’ interest made him uncomfortable.
“Of course the realty market is quite saturated here,” Benton put in with a sneer. “By those who know the area.”
Jack smiled, showing his teeth. With his sunglasses hiding his blue eyes, he reminded Lalei of a big, lazy wolf. “You’d be surprised. The upper end of the market is where I work.”
“Upper end? How is it that we’ve never heard of your realty?” Suzy put in, her dark eyes wide.
“Oh, you have,” David corrected her gently. “Jack and his partner Tyler have a branch of WorldWide.”
Suzy and Benton were both silenced by the mention of one of the biggest realty firms in the world. Lalei watched her mother reassess the man with whom her daughter had been flagrantly indiscreet. Suzy had a social calculator in her head, which used a direct ratio of wealth, ancestry and social connection to decide the worth of each person she met.
Lalei was impressed herself. But now that she thought about it, she’d bet Jack was a big hit with wealthy clients. Handsome and urbane, he had an easy, joking manner. He would no doubt be willing to match them drink for drink in their environment. At the higher levels of commerce, she knew many business deals were struck on the golf course or aboard someone’s yacht.
Jack was holding his own with Benton and her mother, certainly.
“How about you, Choy?” he asked. “Businessman yourself?”
“Benton has many interests, here and in Asia.” Suzy bestowed a proud smile on all of them while Benton nodded, accepting her fealty.
Lalei caught David’s quizzical glance and had to bite her lip and look away. Her mother was defending Benton the way she herself had defended Jack.
“Ever heard of a guy named Frank Decker?” Daniel asked Benton. “He’s been investing in land here.”
“Ah, yes. TropicSun.” Benton nodded wisely. “Top-end resorts, very high-quality experience. They have several in Southeast Asia, South America and the Caribbean. Good news—they’re expanding here to Hawaii.”
No one said anything. Daniel and David stared at Benton as if he’d said something foul. Lalei peered questioningly at Melia, who mouthed something that looked like tell you later.
“I don’t know,” Jack drawled. “I hear there’s a grass roots movement to keep them out. Their business practices aren’t well thought of.”
Benton shook his head, oblivious to the undercurrents swirling around him. “Anti-progress groups, locals who would rather live in a grass shack and go barefoot than get ahead. They need to get their minds in the twenty-first century.”
“Hawaiians should have a say in the development on our islands,” Lalei retorted, too incensed to keep her
mouth closed. “Whether we live in a ‘grass shack’ or a big house on Oahu.”
“Why, Lalei,” said her mother with a brittle smile. “Your friend Diana and her new husband chose a TropicSun resort for their honeymoon just last winter. Don’t you remember, she recommended it to you when you are married?”
“Too bad I’m not going to be married anytime soon, then,” Lalei retorted sweetly.
Suzy’s face tightened. But David, Claire and Melia were all grinning at her. Daniel winked solemnly.
Flustered, Lalei leaned against Jack’s leg. It quivered, and under the guise of taking another sip of her soda, she glanced sideways. He was laughing at her too. She made a face at him behind her soda can.
“TropicSun is a good investment,” Benton insisted, his tone patronizing. “I myself have invested in their newest venture.”
Jack stiffened. Daniel leaned forward, his rough face like thunder. Even David was frowning.
“You mean the one they want to build on this side of the island?” Daniel grated.
Benton nodded. “Yes. It will be very nice—bring in all kinds of quality people to the area. Perhaps you’d like to get in on a piece of the action. I can arrange it if you like.”
Lalei stopped breathing. Danger crackled in the air around them, as if lightning were imminent. Couldn’t the fool feel it? Daniel was scowling as if he’d like to strangle Benton with his bare hands, and Claire was glaring as if she’d like to help.
“Not going to be a good investment,” Jack drawled. “Might want to get your money out while you can, Choy.”
Benton sneered. “I hardly think you’re in a position to know.”
“We are.” Daniel rose. Though he was clad in nothing but gray swim trunks, he had the air of an angry king of old, displeased with a visitor. He glared at Benton. “Jack is right. TropicSun’s development is not going to happen. Not near Nawea.”
Benton stared at him, clearly taken aback by her cousins’ attitude. Suzy fluttered, patting her scarf nervously.
“Here come Mom and Dad,” Claire announced, sounding relieved. A shiny rental car nosed into the curving drive.
