by Cathryn Cade
But she took every one of his frantic thrusts, accepted his hands clutching her soft ass, even as she grasped his face in her hands, bending down to kiss him, her mouth soft and sweet, tasting of her, her, her… His orgasm rolled up out of his loins like a tidal wave and he stiffened, holding her impaled on his cock as he emptied himself into her.
Then he sank back with a groan, dizzy with the force of his release. “Oh, baby… You are so fucking perfect, y’know that?”
He relaxed, only to realize that she was still riding him, reaching for her own release. He dragged his eyes open and struggled to catch his breath, watching her. Ah, that was… Echoes of pleasure stroked him with every one of her movements.
“Not yet,” she hissed. “Don’t stop yet. Please, Jack. Please.”
He laughed breathlessly. He loved that pleading note in her voice, loved the frantic little suction of her pussy on his cock, still nearly at full mast. He pulled her top up, revealing her small, beautiful breasts, and leaned forward to pull one distended nipple into his mouth, suckling her hard, using his teeth and tongue. Then he bent to the other, using his fingers to pinch the wet nipple he’d left behind and twist it in his fingers. “C’mon, baby, come for me. Sweet Lalei…Lalei with the nani pussy.”
And when he felt the first ripples in her pussy clasping him eagerly, he slid his free hand down over the full curve of her ass and drove one finger into the crevice, rimming the taut ring of muscle at the center, his finger slick with their juices.
She cried out, a high, wild sound, and began to come, riding him like a cowgirl. He smiled fiercely to himself around his sweet mouthful of breast. Satisfaction rushed through him, as sweet as if he’d come again himself. His, she was his—at least for now.
Lalei collapsed on his shoulder, her face against his neck, her breath damp and hot on his already wet skin. He was sweating like a horse, his shirt sticking to the leather seat in back and to her in the front. Leaning forward, he peered over her shoulder and fumbled with the air-conditioner, turning it up high.
She stirred at his movement, but he pulled her back, reluctant to let the moment go. “Shh-sh,” he soothed, stroking up the sweet, damp line of her back, reveling in how good they felt locked together. “Stay, baby…just a little while.”
“We can’t,” she protested, wriggling. “Some local is going to come along and knock on the windows, want to know what we’re doing in his pasture turnoff.”
“They wouldn’t be able to see a thing,” he grumbled, but he let her go and watched her as she struggled to dress herself again while he fastened his shorts and ran a hand over his hair.
“Oh,” she growled, rooting in the glove box. “There must be some tissues or something in here.”
She found a package of tissues, and after she tidied herself, she straightened and smoothed until she was as cool as if she’d been to a garden party, unless you counted the flush on her face, the heaviness of her eyes.
Jack was glad there was at least that evidence of their hot tryst. He wished he’d left a mark on her, maybe a hickey on her neck, right where it curved into her shoulder. And how high school was that? He imagined the pissy scowl she’d give him if he tried such a thing, and grinned to himself.
Starting up the truck, he backed it carefully around in a tight semicircle so they were pointing out toward the highway. Before he could pull out, they had to sit and wait for a group of teenagers, chatting and laughing as they ambled home from school. Three of them split off from the group and walked alongside the truck, headed up the lane. They stared curiously into the shaded windows as they passed. Lalei gave a strange gasp, her mouth open like a pretty fish.
Jack started to laugh as they pulled out onto the highway. “I can’t believe you let me talk you into that.”
“Oh my God,” she muttered. “Just don’t talk to me. They almost caught us. Oh my God.”
He laughed harder, and she smacked him on the arm, hard.
“Hey, now.” He grabbed her hand with his free one, and held it on the seat between them. “I do believe that will be one of my fondest memories when I grow old,” he told her. “Having almost public sex with you in a truck.”
“If you live that long.”
“Yeah,” he murmured, his smile slipping away. “Got a point there.”
She turned her hand over under his, her fingers curving up around his hand. They rode in silence. Until his damn conscience started poking him like a loose buckle under football shoulder pads.
“You know, I may not be able to do a damn thing to help your family,” he said. “I’m just one real estate agent in the crowd, and I’m not a local, so I don’t know any arcane laws to invoke to stop these people.” He didn’t know what he expected, maybe that she would raise that eyebrow at him and tell him she didn’t do failures. But as usual, she blindsided him.
“Oh, Jack,” she said, squeezing his hand. “You’re trying, even though it’s not your game. That’s what counts. This is a team play—you don’t have to be the quarterback.”
Warmth spread through his chest, but he merely grinned crookedly. “Thank you. And I appreciate the football terminology to bring that down to my male level.”
“It gets lonely up here on my pedestal,” she explained sweetly. “Occasionally I like to mingle with you mortals.”
“Baby, I love the way you mingle.”
Chapter Eleven
Jack turned off the highway at the road down to Nawea, but when he saw no other vehicles in the rearview mirror, he put his foot on the brake.
“You want to see it?” he asked Lalei, half hoping she’d say no. But it was like a wreck, he couldn’t resist gawking.
She looked southeast, where the hill fell away to the sea, and nodded. Jack pulled back out onto the highway and drove up and over a small rise. Then he slowed and turned out onto a scenic pullout. There was now a wide cut of fresh dirt in the outer edge where the cat tracks had gouged a trail.
He shut off the truck engine, and the two of them got out. Lalei walked with him to the edge, above the parked tractor and the stacked equipment. Her face tightened in that warrior-queen scowl. She was really something, he thought with a surge of admiration and affection. She might be slender enough to blow away in a good breeze, but she was fierce.
A sudden wind blew up, whipping the loose strands of her hair around her face and flapping Jack’s shirt flat against his torso. Jack turned, squinting into the rising wind. The puffy clouds that had been drifting along the flanks of the mountain above them were lowering, nearly writhing as they darkened and grew.
He reached for Lalei, but she had moved away, scowling down at the Caterpillar. She was stiff, her fists clenched like she was ready to attack someone. Her hair had tumbled from its moorings and was rippling about her shoulders with the wind.
“Come on, babe,” he said. “I don’t like this weather.” He put his hand on her arm and grunted at the strange feeling that arced from her skin to his palm.
A deafening barrage of thunder shook the earth around them. Jack wanted to clap his hands over his ears, but he refused to let go of Lalei.
“Come on,” he yelled, his voice barely audible. When she didn’t move, he took charge, grabbing her up in his arms and carrying her to the truck, crouched over low as if he were charging through an offensive line. “I think we’re about to have a—”
A shattering crack of sound and light cleaved the air around them. Deaf and half blinded, Jack fell to his knees, Lalei grabbing at him. Thunder boomed again and wind howled past the truck.
Feeling as if he were battling through thick, invisible ooze, Jack grabbed for the truck door handle above him. He helped Lalei up and into the truck, scrambling in after her. He couldn’t hear, could barely see. Slamming the door behind him, he fell back against the seat, panting, his limbs shaking with the burst of adrenaline.
“Whoa,” he managed. “You all right?”
Lalei launched herself into his arms, clutching at him. “Jack,” she crie
d, her eyes wild, her mouth trembling. “Jack, are you okay? Did I—I thought I killed you.” She clapped her hand over her mouth like a guilty child.
He pulled her close, shaking with terror and relief. He’d almost lost her. “You crazy wahine,” he said into her hair, smoothing his hand over her quivering back. “I think that was a lightning strike. You’re good, baby, but not that good.”
Rain fell in a sheet, sluicing across the windshield of the truck.
“We’re safe in here,” he said, as much to himself as her. “Rubber tires mean we’re not grounded, so if it strikes again, it’ll pass us by.”
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Do you know how lucky we are? That could’ve killed us. Should’ve.”
This had been the second close call he’d had in as many months. Jesus. He sent a prayer of fervent thanks heavenward and stroked his hand down Lalei’s back again. She held on to him just as tightly, her arms around his neck, her face against his.
The rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and the windows of the truck glistened with bright sunlight. Jack leaned over and fumbled for the wipers, his hand still shaking. Damn, he needed a shot of something hard to calm his nerves.
The wipers swished calmly back and forth, clearing the big windshield with every swipe, revealing a wet, sunny mountainside. And an odd black trail of smoke, curling up from the edge of the pullout.
“Whoa,” he said. “Lightning hit something, all right.”
She turned her head, peering almost fearfully through her tumbled hair. Then she sat up on his lap and craned her neck. “Oh Pele,” she muttered.
She leaned over, yanking on the door handle. “Come on, come on. I have to see.”
Jack followed her out of the truck, but she was fast, slipping out of the big vehicle and dashing over to the edge to stare down. He caught up with her there and stopped dead.
“Holy hell,” he breathed. “Would you look at that?”
The lightning had hit the Caterpillar tractor. A great black slash was gouged through where the cab had been, and the center of the blade was molten metal, still smoking from the heat and force of the strike. The pile of stakes was nothing more than smoldering cinders.
Jack slipped his arm around Lalei, pulling her close. “That could’ve been us.”
With a quiet sigh of sound, Lalei fainted against him.
Lalei was dreaming. She was swimming—no, flying through the clouds, diving and pirouetting like a spinner dolphin in the waves. A koa‘e kea bird flew alongside her, long white tail streaming out like a banner, cry echoing through the skies. Laughing with exhilaration, Lalei reached out and wafted warm showers of rain down over her beloved island, a patchwork of green, gold and black below.
With the gleeful abandon of a child, she clenched her fist around a lightning bolt and flung it toward an outcropping of rock. As it flashed, she grasped another and another, searching for more targets.
The last one struck a moving target, one that became all too familiar as it wavered to a halt, the doors tumbling open. It was Malu’s big black truck on the road above Nawea. And the figure staggering out to fall on the ground was Jack. He lay still, his blond hair a bright banner against the blackened ground underneath him.
With a cry of terror, she swooped down, close enough to see his blue eyes already clouding over with death.
“No,” she screamed, falling on him, holding on to his big shoulders. “No, I didn’t mean to hurt you. Jack!”
His gaze sharpened, pulling her into a vault of blue accusation. “You shouldn’t play with things you can’t control, city girl.”
“Lalei, wake up. It’s okay, baby. Wake up.”
Lalei woke with a gasp to find herself in her bed at Nawea. Jack sat on the bed with her, leaning over, his hands on her arms. Behind him hovered Bella, David and Melia.
But Jack—he was alive. In the light of the bedside lamp, he looked like hell, his tanned face pale with strain, a big smear of mud across one cheek and all over his turquoise polo shirt—but he was alive.
Aside from the sweet breeze of relief blowing over her, Lalei ached as if she’d been yanked through a plumeria hedge backward, and then rolled in the mud. Her right shoulder throbbed with pain, and she was so exhausted she could barely lift her head from the pillow.
Jack closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them. His gaze was haunted. “Jesus,” he said roughly. “Thank God. I thought—” He broke off, shaking his head.
“You fainted. Jack thought you were hurt,” David said, his intent gaze sending her some message. “He wanted us to get you to the emergency room. But I explained how you always used to be so scared of storms when we were keikis. Remember?”
What on earth was her cousin talking about? She watched blearily as he jerked his head toward Jack. Oh, he wanted Jack to think her little fainting was because she’d been frightened by the storm, not because… Her mind shied away from what had really happened.
She nodded, corroborating his words. Malu’s taut stance relaxed.
“And I told Jack you faint a lot,” Bella added meaningfully. “I mean, sometimes. When you’re really upset.”
Lalei scowled at her. Okay, she got that they were trying to keep the truth from Jack, but that was just taking this whole “poor Lalei” thing too far.
“Ah, you must be okay if you’re making that pissy face.” Jack smoothed his hands down her arms. “You remember what happened?”
“I remember.” She lifted one hand and touched her face gingerly, grimacing as she felt dried mud. “If that was your idea of a first date, we’re through.”
He grinned crookedly. “Yeah, you’re okay.”
David clapped one hand on Jack’s shoulder, winking at Lalei. “Okay, brah. Why don’t we get out of here and let the girls take over. You can see her in the morning.”
“Could use a drink,” Jack said.
Lalei nearly grabbed Jack and held on to him. She didn’t want the girls taking over; she wanted him. But she curled her hands into fists and merely watched as he rose, towering over the bed and giving her a last look before he turned to follow Malu out of the room. Her protective warrior, his wounds hidden deep inside.
“Do you feel well enough to get up?” Bella asked.
Lalei was surprised by this unusual display of concern. Melia looked equally worried, but Bella’s gaze seemed to hold a kind of complicity, as if she knew the fear and shame that raged inside Lalei. But how could she?
Summoning all her strength, she pushed herself upright and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She grimaced as she looked down at herself. Ugh, she had mud all over her. Courtesy of being tackled by an ex-lineman and carried to safety, she supposed.
“I’m fine, thank you,” she said politely. “I just need a shower.”
“Good idea,” Melia said. “You’ll feel better.” She sank down on the easy chair by the window, her head tipped back against the cushions. “We’ll wait out here.”
Lalei nodded, wishing she could tell both women to just go away until she was dried and dressed. She’d feel better once she’d donned the feminine armor of clothes and makeup.
She pushed herself off the bed but staggered, her balance deserting her.
“Yeah, you’re fine—not,” Bella muttered. “Come on, cuz. I’ll help you.”
She put her arm under Lalei’s and walked her into the bathroom. Hanging on to the edge of the counter, Lalei let her cousin help her strip off her clothes, dropping them in a heap in the corner.
“I’ll be right out here,” Bella said, reaching in to turn on the shower. “Just call me if you feel dizzy again.”
“Okay.” In the shower, Lalei leaned on the wall as she washed her hair and then her body, wincing as she smoothed soap over her right shoulder. When she had rinsed herself, she peered down to see that the skin on her shoulder was fine, except for an odd mark just inside the joint, above her armpit. Thinking it was mud, she scrubbed at it with the washcloth, but instead of disappe
aring, it sharpened as the water washed away the creamy soap suds.
Lalei staggered, banging against the wall of the shower with a hollow thud, her head reeling again as it had before she fainted on the mountain. The water streamed on, unnoticed as she stared blankly through the steam.
“Lalei?” The shower doors slammed open to reveal Bella, her face worried. “Lalei, what is it? Did you fall?”
The water shut off, and Bella grabbed the big, fluffy bath towel from the rack. Lalei shivered in the warm air. She couldn’t seem to move. “I have…a tattoo.”
Bella peered through the steam at her, the towel forgotten in her hands. Then she carefully reached out and touched the mark on Lalei’s shoulder. “‘Aue,” she breathed. “You do.”
“It’s beautiful,” Melia added, appearing at Bella’s side. “Like a sort of Hawaiian lightning bolt, with those curving marks around it.”
“Whoa,” Bella said, grabbing Lalei’s shoulders with the towel. “Come on, let’s get you sitting down. You’re as white as a plumeria petal.”
For the next several moments, Lalei succumbed to the novel experience of being fussed over by someone other than paid salon attendants.
“Why do I have a tattoo?” she asked plaintively. Suzy was going to have a screaming fit. Although that was pretty small papayas, with everything else that was going on.
Bella drew the wide-toothed comb through Lalei’s hair a last time and patted her shoulder. “Because you’re ho’omalu, a guardian,” she said. “And you used your powers. You must have caused that lightning. And I’m guessing you’re the reason the weather was so weird yesterday afternoon before the wedding too. Malu said he felt something, but we were all so busy.”
“That was an accident,” Lalei admitted miserably. “And so was this thing today. I was so…angry. And I—I almost killed Jack.” Guilt howled through her as the storm winds had on the mountain.
Bella’s hand tightened. “Angry at Jack?”
