‘Like you do?’
She could read the scepticism in his tone. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I saw the schedule at the surf school, by my reckoning you work almost seven days a week.’
‘That’s different.’
‘Is it?’
‘Yes, I love my job, I get to spend it in the sea, doing what I adore and passing that love on to others.’
‘I love what I do too.’
‘In an office, four walls, indoors?’ She shook her head and slid the phone back into his pocket, his arm eased around her again and this time she was convinced it had nothing to do with being run over and everything to do with bringing them close again.
She took the ice cream back off him and scooped some up. ‘I just can’t imagine it.’
‘It’s not all bad, believe me. Take now, for example, I’m in Hawaii with my charity work and—’
‘And your phone hasn’t stopped?’ She stared up at him, offering him the spoonful. ‘No, you won’t convince me.’
‘Right this second…’ He bowed to slip his mouth around the scoop, cleaning it off with a satisfied swallow that had her entire being thrumming afresh, the desire to kiss him almost painful. ‘This is definitely not work.’
His voice was thick, laced with the same need. Nerves flared inside her as her brain raced with all the reasons she’d said they couldn’t go down this road but struggling to hang on to a single one.
She looked down at the pot in her hand, the creamy yellow sweetness and breathed in his heady scent. ‘So I’ve taken you captive for a few hours?’
He swallowed again, only this time there was no ice cream, only the tension building exponentially between them. ‘I suppose you have.’
She dared a quick look up and his arm flexed around her. ‘Malie?’
It was breathless, it was asking, demanding… and she wanted to say yes, to hell with all sensibility… but then what?
‘Come on, let’s go get lost.’ She moved away from him before she could reconsider. ‘We have a maze to conquer and judging by your workload, not long to do it.’
‘I have a counter condition.’
She turned to look at him. ‘You do?’
He nodded, his eyes probing hers in such a way that her breath hitched.
‘You forget work too, for the next few hours, the day even, the school doesn’t exist and we’re just two people having fun together.’
‘Two people?’
He nodded again and reached out, pulling her traitorous body back towards him. ‘There’s no working relationship between us, nothing to jeopardize with whatever happens today; we’re just going to go with the flow, just like you said.’
‘I did, didn’t I?’ And the flow was determined to pull them closer together, her words coming out like a whisper as she met his eye and the people milling around them fell away, the pot in her hand forgotten as she let her chest brush against him.
His eyes fell to her lips. ‘Do we have a deal?’
‘Yes,’ she breathed, her lashes fluttering closed, ready, waiting, anticipating… and nothing, just a rush of air as he suddenly released her. What?
‘Lead the way.’
She opened her eyes and he was smiling at her, his eyes ablaze with the heat she’d read in every word he’d spoken, every flex of his arm around her. He must have read the question in her eyes, her prolonged silence, and he dipped his head to say, ‘We have an audience.’
He dropped his gaze low and to the left and she followed his direction to see two kids, probably no older than five, staring up at them, wide-eyed, their tongues frozen mid-lick to their ice creams. Her cheeks flushed and she tried to smile. It took a good second for them to realize they’d been caught gawping and they looked at one another, burst out laughing, and legged it after a woman paying at the ice cream stand.
‘Oh, God, do you think we could be fined for indecent behaviour in a public place?’
‘I don’t know, that depends, just how far are you willing to go?’
She punched him gently in the chest. ‘Don’t push it, dude, deal or no deal?’
He laughed hard. ‘I still find it hilarious that you call me dude, I’ve never been called that in my life.’
‘Well, that’s another first for you to log. Let’s see how many others we can squeeze into our day.’
‘Oh, so it’s a day now?’
‘You suggested it first.’
‘So I did…’
She shook her head laughing and again her hand found its way back into his, just like it had in the car park. She reminded herself that they had an agreement; today they were going with the flow, there was nothing serious to worry about, nothing to jeopardize.
So why the persistent niggle at the back of her mind? The weird sense of… fear… guilt.
Because she was starting to have real fun, she was starting to care.
She closed her eyes briefly, the acknowledgement there even as she tried to bury it. It was all wrapped up in the same pain, the same worry. She couldn’t compete in big wave competitions, because she couldn’t bring herself to follow in her brother’s footsteps. She couldn’t find true happiness, the kind that comes from having another to share your life with, to love and be loved, without feeling the guilt of it weighing down on her. Of experiencing what Koa never got to. She couldn’t allow herself to get caught up in another person only to have life take it all away.
But for a day, to only let go for a day, you could?
No promises, no future, just a day… a mere twelve hours… no risk, no guilt…
She looked back at Todd and forced away the inner monologue.
Yes, for a day, she would just be…
Chapter Ten
‘GOTCHA,’ MALIE DECLARED AS one of the secret stations within the maze came into view, her step picking up as she raced towards it and then she turned to him, her green eyes bright as she bobbed excitedly on her heels. ‘Your turn!’
He laughed. ‘You’re a big kid.’
‘And?’ She pouted up at him, offering out the pencil and the hunt sheet. Did she know how much he wanted to draw that bottom lip into his mouth? Seeing it all glossy and so close, he could almost taste it.
‘Down, boy. Stencil!’
Yes, she knew, and she was teasing him every inch of the way. From the second they’d made their deal, it felt like a weight had lifted, a feeling of freedom, a freedom to feel and to act on it. Because it was temporary. A short reprieve from the rules they lived by, the rules that safeguarded their emotions and kept them from being torn apart. He just needed to keep in mind it was temporary and do as he promised, go with the flow.
He shook his head and took the items from her, bending to slot the sheet under the stencil and dutifully coloured it in.
He offered them out to her. ‘Happy?’
‘Much!’ She took them from him and off she went again, giving him a teasing view of her rear as her hips sashayed through the greenery.
‘You coming?’ she called back without looking.
He shook his head, trying to dispel the hold she had over him but it was no use, every second they were together it ramped up another notch.
She turned and eyed him over her shoulder. ‘Come on, slowcoach, else we really will be stuck in here for ever.’
For ever sounded perfect right about now and the realization snapped some sense into him. He started after her. ‘I blame the pineapple whip, the taste sensation has gone to my head.’
She paused to rake her eyes over him. ‘You know, it really has,’ her gaze reached the tip of his head, ‘your hair has gone all floppy.’
‘My…’ He frowned and raised a hand to his hair, felt the usual groomed affair soften beneath his fingers.
She reached out and brushed his hand away. ‘For the record, I like it this way – it’s more laidback, softer…’
‘Softer? I’m not sure I like the sound of that.’
‘You should…’ She wet her lips and raised herself up on
tiptoes, her arms hooking around his neck as her eyes searched his. ‘It’s quite irresistible.’
Irresistible. He couldn’t respond, couldn’t move, he was too scared of breaking the connection and hooked on what she might do next. They were so close, almost nose to nose, her coconut scent wafting up to him and he wanted to close his eyes, breathe her in, and didn’t dare do either.
‘It’s sexy,’ her lips brushed tantalizingly against his, ‘I like it… a lot.’
And then she kissed him, actually kissed him, gentle, coaxing and breaking his restraint in two. He tucked his thumbs into the belt loops on her shorts and pulled her up against him, hard. The need, so painfully acute, driving him to taste her, to feel her top to toe, her pliable warmth as she leaned into him, her lips as they moved with his. It was about all he could do not to press her back into the hedge, to hell with any unsuspecting audience, underage or not.
She dropped back, her teeth pulling at his bottom lip, her arms still around his neck as she looked up at him.
‘Definitely sexy,’ she said softly.
‘I’ll take it.’ His voice was tight, his body too. ‘Especially if it earns me a kiss like that.’
She smiled, slow and sultry. ‘We should get this maze over with, I’m hungry.’
He wanted to ask what kind of hungry, was it the same kind that had fire burning through his veins now? But he was scared of spooking her, hell, he was scared of spooking himself too.
‘How many stations to go?’
She raised one arm to eye the sheet over his shoulder. ‘Two.’
The sound of a family approaching, the giggle of a child and the crunch of a pushchair over the soil reached them and he released her.
‘Best make it quick, then.’
She smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek before spinning around and marching on. This time he was hot on her tail, very, very attentive and helpful. Less delay meant less risk of them rethinking the unspoken promise to pick that kiss up again.
He could already foresee his phone staying off for the rest of the day and he couldn’t deny how liberating it was not to feel weighed down by it; ruled by it, even. Although perhaps a quick message to his PA to field everything wouldn’t go amiss.
‘Wait up a sec, Malie.’
She paused, her frown so utterly kissable. ‘Thought we were in a rush?’
‘We are, I’m just making my day off official.’
‘You are?’ Her eyes were alive with surprise as she walked back to him and he pulled out his phone, turning it on.
‘I am.’
She made an awkward sound in her throat. ‘Now probably isn’t the time to tell you I have two hours of lessons later this afternoon.’
His fingers stilled on the screen, his eyes lifting to hers. ‘You do? But it’s Sunday.’
‘You ought to tell yourself that sometimes.’
‘Well, I’m telling us both now.’
She gave him an awkward smile. ‘And as you so rightly pointed out, I don’t really have days off.’
‘But you didn’t say anything?’
‘Well, I didn’t think you were serious about a whole day… I figured you were getting carried away in the moment.’
‘I don’t do getting carried away.’
‘No?’ She grinned up at him.
‘No.’
‘Not even with me?’
The flirtatious comment struck through the very heart of him and he knew the answer as sure as he could identify the disappointment sinking heavily in his gut at the imminent end to their day.
‘You’re trouble, Malie Pukui.’
‘Now you sound like my friends back home.’
‘They sound very wise, you should listen to them.’
‘Oi.’
She pushed him gently in the chest, and the fleeting contact made him want to pull her back against him; he opted to pull a rogue branch from her hair instead. It had adorned her curls for the last hour and provided a focal point when he’d needed the diversion from her invigorating gaze, her wide smile, her incredible body and the sneak peek he kept getting of her bikini top or her bum cheeks as she leaned forward to shade in a stencil.
‘How about I make it up to you?’ she purred, the flirtatious lilt to her voice spurring his impulsive response to ask exactly what she had in mind and provide a few satisfying suggestions himself. Dangerous territory.
He opted for the safer, ‘I’m listening.’
‘We finish the maze, grab a quick lunch – they do the most amazing barbecued corn here…’
‘And?’
‘And after work, this eve…’ she cocked her head to the side as she considered him, her fingers curling into the top button of his shirt and making his body throb in its heightened state, ‘we could have dinner together.’
Before he could answer her, her eyes flared and she blurted, ‘But not out-out.’
‘Not out-out?’ he repeated, confused by her startled clarification.
‘Well, in case you haven’t worked it out already,’ she said, ‘everyone knows everyone in Nani Kumu and I don’t want people seeing us together and getting the wrong idea.’
‘Because this is a twelve-hour thing?’
‘Yes, precisely.’
‘It didn’t bother you when we danced together.’
‘Like you said, people would see it as you taking an active role in the evening, us dining out together won’t be so easily explained away.’
‘Fair point. So, my place or yours?’
She seemed to consider the question and then did a double-take. ‘Yours, definitely yours!’
He laughed. ‘Quite adamant about that?’
‘You haven’t tasted my cooking…’
‘Well, in that case my place it is.’
‘I assume your… people, at the house…’
‘You mean the staff?’
‘Yes, although that just sounds weird… I assume they’re quite discreet.’
‘Of course, although if anyone asks, we can just say you’re there to discuss plans for the kids.’
She nodded slowly. ‘For the work we’re pretending to know nothing about for today only.’
‘Yes.’
She suppressed what looked like an excited grin. ‘This is getting quite elaborate, don’t you think?’
‘Our secret, no-work, twelve-hour bubble?’
She hummed her agreement.
‘All the best things in life require intricate planning.’
‘The best things?’ she practically cooed. ‘Now for that, Todd Masters, you’ve earned another kiss.’
His lips were on hers before she could even finish, and it was everything and not enough at once. He wished away the people around them, their work, their lives, their reality.
All he wanted in that moment was her. And he’d never wanted anything as much as he wanted this. It should have scared him, but he was too wrapped up in the taste of her, the feel of her, of what they shared to care…
Twelve hours, a few weeks, in that moment he would take whatever she was willing to give to feel like this for longer.
Watching someone cook was quite fascinating, especially when they were as skilled as Todd. Malie was most definitely her mother when it came to culinary skill. Useless. So it made it particularly captivating to watch him work, she just had to keep reminding herself not to drool…
‘Aside from struggling to find stuff, you’re quite the talented chef,’ she remarked as she sat on a bar stool at the marble-topped centre island, her chin resting in her hand.
He looked up briefly from the chopping board, all the vegetables neatly arranged to one side of it, the bowls with the sliced stuff arranged in front. ‘I haven’t cooked anything yet.’
She smiled and gestured to the bowls. ‘You’ve sliced those veggies so thinly, I’d have lost a nail at the very least.’
He laughed as he continued. ‘There are definitely no surprise nails in this.’
She lifted her wine glass and sipped at t
he cooling white liquid, her eyes hooked on him. Who’d have thought watching someone cook could be sexy? Well, not just anyone, of course, she’d watched Lils cook plenty of times and never been as captivated as this. Sorry, Lils.
He wore a plain black T-shirt and beige trousers tonight, the fabric doing the most amazing things to his behind as he navigated around the kitchen, bending into cupboards, lifting to bring things down. His hair was soft, no sign of his usual slicked-back look and he’d obviously showered – she had smelled his fresh cologne as she’d passed him at the front door, could still catch hints of it now. Her belly fluttered up with a mixture of nerves, want, and hunger, definitely hunger. And not for food… just as it hadn’t been when they’d eaten their corn at the plantation. Especially when he’d licked his fingers and lips clean every few minutes. Heaven.
She took another swig of wine. ‘So, where did you learn to cook?’
He looked to her briefly, a small smile playing about his lips. ‘Would you believe I did quite well in Home Economics at school? That and Maths. Figured they were decent life skills – the rest…’ he shrugged, ‘I didn’t have time for it.’
‘Too busy working?’
‘Pretty much. You gotta eat, right? And any shrewd businessman, teen or otherwise, needs to get their figures right.’
‘You cooked a lot for yourself as a kid then?’
He didn’t look up, but she could see the frown lines that bracketed his mouth, saw his Adam’s apple bob.
‘When I was back with Dad, I did… he was either too drunk or too despondent to care. I cooked the basics, then tried to jazz it up – Chinese, Indian, Italian, you name it, I tried it.’
He brushed off his hands and turned his attention to the hob. Pulling out a wok, he drizzled in some oil and lit the gas beneath it.
‘He just didn’t want to know.’ He still didn’t look back at her and she wondered what she would see if he did. Was he trying to hide it from her? Or was he reliving it?
‘Then a friend of his from the local pub was diagnosed with cancer. I was twenty-five by then, my business was thriving and taking up most of my time. But Dad was there for his friend until the end – I think it was the sharp shock he needed to wake up to the waste he was making of his own life. His friend had a family – a wife, two kids – and then he was gone.’
Meet Me in Hawaii Page 13
