They dove down again and again, watching bright colored crabs scuttle for cover and sea anemones wave their fluorescent tentacles in the ocean currents. Schools of fish flashed by in electric blue, then marmalade orange, then zebra-striped elegance, wheeling and turning like precision marching teams.
“Next time we’ll bring snorkeling equipment,” Mitch promised. “You can see so much more that way.”
He dove down again, leaving Heather to catch her breath. This time when he returned, he had something in his hand. “What’s that?” she cried, repelled by the large purple-brown banana-shaped animal.
“It’s a sea slug. Hold it for a moment and watch what it does.”
That was the last thing in the world she wanted to do, but she was determined to try whatever he suggested. Swallowing hard, she held out her hand.
He placed it carefully in her palm, and she found it remarkably firm, not soft and squishy as she’d feared. “Don’t touch this end,” he warned, and suddenly a plume of white, feather-like tendrils blossomed from the place he’d warned her to leave alone. “Don’t touch them, they secrete a painful poison.”
Great. She was holding a poisonous sea slug in her hand, and she had to pretend she liked it. With tremendous effort, she forced a smile. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she said, blinking rapidly. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Mitch grinned at her, and the look in his eyes was reward enough. “Here, I’ll put him back,” he said helpfully, taking the animal from her with carefree deftness and diving down to replace it in its natural realm.
Heather lay back in the water, floating with her head above, the rest of her body just below the surface. She narrowed her eyes against the brilliant blue sky, enjoying the velvet waters as they lapped about her. She felt very free half naked as she was, very free and very sensual.
She felt Mitch coming up from underneath to rest beside her. Widening her eyes, she turned her head slightly to look up to where he towered over her, his dark face blotting out the sun. His hand was coming through the water toward where her soft breast rested just below the silver water. His fingers grazed the tender tip and she slipped away, letting her feet sink to the bottom.
“That was infraction number one,” she told him. “Three strikes and I win.”
“Win?” His frown showed his displeasure. “What do you win?”
She shrugged, sculling about with her knees bent, careful to keep her breasts below the water line. “The argument, the discussion, the experiment—whatever you want to call it.”
He raised his eyebrows. “And what’s the prize?” he asked hopefully, moving toward her, forcing her to move back.
She grinned saucily. “Satisfaction,” she answered before diving to swim quickly away. He followed and they played together in the sparkling water, though Heather was careful to make sure he didn’t touch her again.
“You’re being awfully good,” she praised him as they walked slowly back up the beach. Her earlier embarrassment had evaporated, and she was beginning to feel pleasantly wicked walking along with her breasts swaying in the sunlight, dripping water onto the sand. “I guess you think you’re going to win this bet, don’t you?”
His dark glance glistened. “I’m going to win, Heather,” he promised silkily, “and I’m going to demand a lot of satisfaction for my efforts.”
They dropped into the wet beach near the water’s edge and began building sand castles. The black volcanic grains clung together nicely, letting Mitch build exotic structures with all sorts of rooms and hallways that led to more of the same. Her own buildings were square and house-like.
Absorbed in her work, she bent over to fix a chimney on her gabled roof, leaning close to where Mitch was working. He turned toward her, gazing intently.
“Heather...” His voice was husky and he reached out, pulling her by the shoulders toward his wide chest. “I can’t stand this.” His mouth caressed hers with eager hunger, and his hands came up to just below her breasts, where they could cup their full swell.
His kiss was tempting, but she was committed to a course of action. Forcefully, she put her hands to his chest and pushed.
“That’s two, Mitch,” she said breathlessly. “One more and I’m the winner.”
He moved away grudgingly, leaning back and glowering at her. She smiled and tried to think of something to take their minds of the tension growing between them.
“You love it here, don’t you?” she asked him, suddenly realizing just how true it was.
He nodded, looking out to sea. “I do. I grew up in the tropics and this feels like home.”
She sighed sadly, knowing how hard it would be for her to accept living in a place like this. “Tell me about your parents,” she said suddenly, realizing she’d met them once. They’d flown into Flagstaff for the wedding, then left again, and she didn’t really know a thing about them.
Mitch hesitated a moment, then shrugged as though he’d decided to give it a try. “Okay. My parents…well, they’re good people. My father isn’t the most successful businessman on the planet, but he tries hard. Sometimes his great new ideas bear fruit, sometimes they don’t. But he’s always moving, always having a new idea that’s going to make him rich.”
She smiled. The man she remembered had been handsome and good-natured, rather like his son. She’d only seen them on the day of the wedding and her attention had been diverted by so many things. She regretted that now. She should have made more of an effort. “And your mother?”
His smile was slow affection. “My mother is an angel,” was all he could say, his voice trembling enough to let her know his feelings were too close to the surface to hide.
“You have three brothers and one sister. Right?” she asked. Funny she should remember that. She’d never met any of them.
He nodded. “Mahi and Kam and Johnny and Lani.”
“Wow. I can’t imagine having such a huge family.”
His mouth twisted in a half-grin. “That wasn’t all. In those days, we had a passel of cousins living with us half the time. Their mother died young. Malia and Kane and Max and Kai. They were like an extended family. We all grew up together.”
She was about to bring up how close she’d always been to her cousin Trevor, but she stopped herself in time. Mitch had made it very clear that Trevor was not a subject he wanted to talk about. So she sat quietly and thought about what it must have been like for him to grow up in Hawaii. Meanwhile, he went back to work on his castle, a scowl on his face.
“I like that crazy thing,” she said, studying his structure, realizing that, for all its eccentricity, she did indeed like it. “Too bad it isn’t made out of cement so it could stay here forever.”
“Nothing lasts forever,” he said shortly. “This will be gone by morning. Rain and wind and seawater will batter it until it disintegrates and the tiny pieces drift back into the sea.”
She sat back on her heels and stared at his castle, saddened by his prophecy. How like her own dreams, her own love for him. They, too, seemed like sand castles—just as beautiful, just as subject to the buffetings of nature. Soon the pieces of this paradise would also float away. Suddenly she felt the sting of tears in her eyes.
She rose to hide her emotions from Mitch. “I’ve got sand in my suit,” she announced. “I’m going to wash it out.”
She walked slowly back to the water and sank down to soak the blue strip of cloth at her hips. She took her time, wanting to get her feelings under control before returning. But when she looked up, she couldn’t believe her eyes.
Mitch had rolled the blanket under his arm and was walking toward the cliff. Her bright blue bikini top dangled from one hand.
“Mitch!” she called to him, splashing upright in the water. “Where are you going?”
He didn’t answer, didn’t even turn to acknowledge her call. He just kept walking.
“Mitch!” she called again, standing up in the shallow water, hands crossed over her breasts. What was he doing?
Surely this was some sort of joke. “Mitch, come back here!”
He was almost to the jungle at the base of the cliff. He was going to leave her there without her clothes! He’d make her hitchhike home with no top on!
Panicked, she began to run after him. She didn’t waste any more breath shouting; she knew he wouldn’t answer. Instead, she ran as hard as she could, silently cursing her slow going in the warm sand. She had to catch him before he arrived at the Jeep.
The dark jungle swallowed him long before she reached the edge. Her only hope was to catch him on the climb up. Would she be able to scramble up fast enough?
Intent upon her goal, she was thoroughly startled when a dark shape emerged suddenly from the shadows and wrapped quickly about her, pulling her up off her feet and drawing her back into the dense undergrowth. But after her first startled gasp of fear, she relaxed, and by the time Mitch had dumped her rather unceremoniously to the mossy ground, she’d begun to laugh.
“Did I scare you?” he asked hopefully, standing above her as she lay back on the greenery.
“Not a bit,” she lied transparently. “I’m learning to take such things with a yawn these days.”
His dark eyes narrowed with pretended menace. “Then I’m going to have to work harder thinking up ways to terrorize you,” he whispered hoarsely. “Just remember, I have you in my power.”
His hands went to his hips, and he began to remove his swimsuit. Heather shrank back in alarm against the soft ground. “Don’t forget the experiment,” she warned. “You wanted to prove that nakedness has no relation to sexuality.”
“No, I didn’t,” he told her calmly. “I posed the challenge as a theory. We made our tests.” His wide mouth curved in a grin. “And our findings shot the theory down.”
She took a shuddering breath, her wide gaze riveted to his magnificent body, a landscape of hard planes and ridges, dappled by the light shining through the trees above them. “Then you admit you were wrong?” she asked shakily.
He bent down beside her, his hands reaching to caress her soft roundness. “I’ll admit anything you want,” he told her huskily. “Just let me love you, Heather. Let me love you one more time.”
Why only once more? The question flickered in her mind, then vanished as his hands began to draw the magic out in her again. He touched the pulse that beat behind her ear, the hollow in the base of her throat, inside the tender line of her ankle; and at each spot he quickened the drumbeat of her soul, the rhythm of her passion.
She reached out trembling fingers to catch the light that skimmed his tanned skin, following the reflections of the sun as they danced across his solid flesh and hid among the stiff, curling hairs of his chest and navel.
His open mouth searched for the intangible source of her love, hunting along her neck down to her collarbone, moving through the valley between her swelling breasts, curling across the hipbones that jutted out to make a cradle for his burgeoning desire, slipping even lower until she cried out her need for him. Her fingers dug into his thick hair, forcing him to meet her challenge.
His thrust met her arch, and they clung together, joining in sweet harmony, lost in a frantic dream that held them tightly together. They were one, they were all, they were beyond heaven and earth, in a dimension no one had ever explored before, no one would ever visit again— no one but the two of them.
Chapter Ten
“Satisfaction,” he whispered in her ear. “That’s only part of what you give me.”
She grunted unintelligibly, not wanting to talk yet, still cherishing what they had together. But for some reason Mitch seemed unusually voluble.
“It’s funny,” he was musing, “how being with you does that to me. I’ve never noticed it with anyone else. The longer I’m near you, the more this thing—this hunger—seems to build in me. And the only way I can satisfy it is with a large dose of your love.” She heard the grin in his voice. “Like an itch that needs to be scratched,” he concluded.
“Thanks a lot,” she answered, a bit annoyed. “Just a physical reaction, like poison ivy.”
“Not really.” Suddenly his voice was very serious. “No, part of it’s the sex. But that’s not all of it.”
Eyes closed, she waited for him to explain what he meant, but he didn’t say another word. Say it, she thought to herself. Tell me you love me, tell me you want me to stay. Just tell me one more time, and I’ll agree.
She smiled to herself. Yes, she’d finally reached that point. If he asked her to stay again, she would say yes. She knew now how much she needed him. Even if he didn’t want a full commitment this time, even if he didn’t want marriage, he wanted her in a way she would never find with any other man. And she wanted him, loved him, needed him as she couldn’t conceive of ever feeling toward another. She was his, whether she wanted to be or not.
Say it, Mitch. Ask me to stay.
But he didn’t. As she lay there, she could feel him begin to withdraw from her. She opened her eyes and found him staring at her with something almost like anger in his eyes. What on earth could he be angry about? She stared back, perplexed.
“We’d better get going,” he said abruptly. “I’ve got more work to do this afternoon.”
She followed his lead, dressing beside him, wondering what had caused his change of mood. Silently they climbed back up the cliff and packed their things in the Jeep.
“What’s the matter?” she asked at last as they began driving back along the island road.
“Nothing,” he replied, smiling at her. But she could feel it wasn’t true. Something had spoiled their day. What could it be?
He kissed her when he dropped her at Mele’s, and she almost forgot how that strange reserve had crept between them. He hadn’t asked her to stay, so she hadn’t told him she would. But there would be other chances for that, she was sure. Soon she forgot everything but the new joy that was growing in her. She loved him as much as ever, maybe more, and she was ready to commit herself in a way she never had before, not even when they’d been married.
Their afternoon of beachcombing had put him behind schedule and he didn’t make it back for dinner. But that was just as well. The Coconut Club was abuzz with preparations for Jake’s party the following night, and Heather was caught up in the bustle. Mele had her in the kitchen cutting up chicken—“For Chicken Long Rice; it’s a traditional Hawaiian dish you’re going to love”— and shelling shrimp. As each dish was prepared, Heather was encouraged to sample it. To her surprise she found that she liked almost everything she tried. It was as though the floodgates of her prejudice had opened and the waters of bias were swept away, leaving her more open to life and ready to experiment.
Danny entered the kitchen to practice on his guitar, because that was the room best insulated from the noise of the jukebox in the bar. While she listened to his playing, Heather’s thoughts returned to Lizzie and her problem. When Kevin came in to kidnap her, taking her out into the dining room for a cup of coffee and a chat, she tried her idea out on him.
“I want to take her back to Flagstaff,” she explained. “I’m sure I could raise enough money for her operations through the service organizations I have contact with. What do you think?”
Kevin frowned. “I don’t know, Heather. Why should you get so deeply involved in the life of some strange little island girl you don’t even know? Why not just forget about her?” He watched her closely, waiting for her answer.
She considered his questions for several minutes. “I have to,” she said at last, knowing how little that simple statement really explained. “I’m an artist, and I love my work. It’s very rewarding to me. But for the first time I see a way to do more than make pretty pictures. I see a way to make someone’s life better. If I don’t take hold and push it through, I’ll... I don’t know, I guess I’ll just never really respect myself again. Can you understand that?”
He nodded slowly, smiling. “You sound a bit like Mitch. Do you realize that?”
That confused her. S
he wasn’t ready to analyze this change in her so closely. Not yet. “What do you think about the idea itself?” she asked anxiously.
He took a deep breath. “I think it’s wonderful. In fact, I think it’s so wonderful, I’d like to get in on it myself. How would you like a medical advisor to go along to help coordinate things at the hospital end?”
She stared at him. “But your work here...”
He laughed. “Let’s face it, Heather, I have no work here. I’m not doing anyone any good. I’m no doctor.” He shook his head. “But I find your idea very interesting. Maybe following through on it will suggest other possibilities for a new career for me.”
They talked about it, getting more and more excited, until Mele’s scowls sent Heather scurrying back to work. Late that night Heather fell into bed and went straight to sleep, exhausted, but happier than she’d been in a long time. She had her man again, though not quite in the way she might have wished. And she had a purpose in life, not to mention a whole new set of friends and experiences to treasure. Life was rich.
She worked hard most of the next day, hanging Chinese lanterns in the hotel yard and streamers in the dining room. At one point, pins in her mouth and paper decorations in her hand, she found herself humming along with “Jackson County.” She had to stop to laugh a bit ruefully. She really was beginning to fit in.
She didn’t see Mitch all day, so she assumed he was out making calls. When she finally did see his Jeep in his carport, she raced across the road, eager to share news of the last twenty-four hours with him.
She knocked on the door of his house, smiling brightly and ready to step into his arms when he opened the screen. But the look on his face stopped her cold. “What’s the matter?” she said, hand at her throat. “What’s happened?”
He shook his head coolly. “Nothing unexpected. Dede’s back, that’s all.”
“Dede’s back?” she echoed, not remembering at first what that meant to them.”
He nodded. “She had the papers with her. I’ve signed them for you.” He reached onto the shelf beside the doorway and handed them out. “Here they are. Hope you get a good price on the house.”
Charmed By You ((Destiny Bay Romances-The Islanders 5)) Page 15
