by Starla Kaye
Resigned to the loss of her mystery lover and fulfillment—at least in a dream—she rolled off the bed and tromped to the other room. The sounds of the rolling waves crashing against the shore through the balcony door she’d left partially open nearly drowned out the persistent ringing of the phone.
“Hello,” she said cautiously into the receiver. She held her breath, hoping her partners hadn’t tracked her down here to the Papakea Resort already. But they would have called on her cell phone anyway.
“Is your condo okay?” Shelby asked anxiously. “We can get you another one if it’s not. Dale’s family reserved six of the condo buildings here in the resort for the next two weeks.”
Sinking onto one of the white rattan barstools at the counter between the kitchen and the living room, Valentine smiled. Shelby and Dale had been terrific ever since she’d called and warned them she was on her way to Maui. They’d met her at Kahului Airport and driven her here to this place of absolute beauty. Shelby had talked nonstop the entire drive about all the exciting plans they had for their wedding guests the week before their Valentine’s Day wedding. And Shelby had insisted that she take part in each and every event planned. So much for time alone to think about her life. Still, it all sounded like such fun that she figured she could use her second week here to deal with all of that stuff.
“Val?” Shelby asked again, sounding concerned about the lack of response.
“Sorry, spaced out for a minute,” she apologized. Her gaze shifted out the sliding doors of her third floor condo to the exquisitely landscaped grounds. Vast areas of finely bladed green grass, bushes of dark pink bougainvillea lining one side of the sidewalk leading to the kidney-shaped pool and cabana surrounded by towering coconut palms. Miles of brilliant blue water lie directly behind that, defined by the line of white waves rolling to the light caramel-colored sandy beach. “I so love this place,” she said on a sigh. “No wonder you and Dale want to live here.”
Shelby snorted. “We won’t if Big Bro gets his way.”
Valentine felt her protective instincts bursting to life. Big Bro already had a lot to answer for, in her totally biased opinion! “Now what has he done?”
“He wants Dale and I to take over the ranch back in Kansas, which is crazy. Dale’s from Maui. He wouldn’t have a clue how to run a ranch, even if he wanted to, which he doesn’t.”
Shelby heaved a sigh much too heavy for someone so young. “I’m being torn between wanting to please my brother, and wanting to make my fiancé happy. Dale is furious with Sam for even asking this of us.” She hesitated. “I hope the two of them can be civil to each other this week.”
“This week? Are you telling me your sainted brother has relented and decided to come here after all?” She was stunned, and pleased at the same time. She couldn’t discuss anything Shelby had told her in confidence, but she would find some way to make her displeasure with him known.
“I did everything but cry over the phone to get him to come. He caved when he finally understood this is something I really, really wanted of him.” Her tone turned gentler. “I love him, and he loves me. Life hasn’t dealt him a fair hand, but he’s always tried to do the best he could.”
“Whoever is in charge of dealing out ‘life’ cards deals lots of unfair hands.” She didn’t have much sympathy for the man.
Shelby was quiet a second before saying thoughtfully, “Sam’s wanting us to take over the ranch really surprised me. It’s been his world for so long. Now I’m beginning to think there are things about him I never knew.”
Then she lightened up and said, “I called to remind you about the mai tai party and hula lessons tonight down by the pool. You’re coming, aren’t you?”
Valentine had considered passing on it since she was functioning on so little sleep. But she couldn’t resist the excitement in Shelby’s voice. Besides, she loved mai tais. And learning to wiggle her hips in a semblance of a hula—which is exactly all she’d be doing she was sure—sounded kind of fun. “Count me in.”
“Great! I think it starts in an hour. Wait until you see the Hawaiian stud muffin they’ve got lined up to man the bar in the cabana tonight! Hotter than hot, I tell you.” She giggled. “Don’t tell Dale I said that. He thinks he’s a stud muffin, too. And he gets kind of jealous.”
She hung up after agreeing to keep Shelby’s secret. She slumped against the counter. Why couldn’t she find a stud muffin of her own? Then she remembered what she’d concluded back in her office: that maybe she wasn’t meant to have a relationship with a man. That maybe she’d been dating the wrong gender.
An image of a hunka-hunka burning love flashed into her mind and she slumped even more. The image definitely wasn’t of a woman. No, it’d been that same image of the bare-chested cowboy sitting on an enormous horse she’d had before.
She forced the image away. Clearly she wasn’t trying hard enough to get in the right frame of mind. She’d spent too many years believing she was attracted only to men. It was a habit that was all. A person could break habits. She would. Men had given her nothing but disappointments for as long as she could remember. She was moving on!
* * *
Sam stood on his third floor balcony nursing one of the beers his sister had thoughtfully provided him in the condo’s refrigerator. She had tried to get him to come down to the mai tai party at poolside, but he’d begged off. It was all he could do to stand here for a few minutes and take in the view. Back home he never seemed to have time to notice the sunsets or the sunrises. They just happened. He worked from before sunrise to after sunset. He felt guilty for being here and leaving the ranch duties to his foreman. But Jake was more than just the foreman; he was Sam’s friend. A friend who seemed to love the ranch more than Sam did.
He took another swig of the cold brew and listened to the sounds of waves rolling into the shoreline. It was loud, much louder than the quiet of the Kansas flint hills he was used to. Yet he found it soothing. He figured he would get some good sleep tonight and he needed it.
Then his hearing picked up on the music being played by a trio with a guitar, an odd drum, and a keyboard. Definitely not country music, but it didn’t grate on his nerves. Along with the music a woman was announcing something about it being time for hula lessons. That had him noting a dozen women of various ages, including his sister, heading for poolside where the lessons would evidently take place.
He smiled in amusement, and then yawned. Maybe he ought to pass on watching this and go catch some serious zzzzs.
Before he could move away, his sister waved to a woman at the cabana bar and called her over to the lessons. Curious, he watched until the woman stepped out of the shadows and he muttered, “Well, hot damn!” Blond, beautiful, and built. The three Bs he was so fond of.
The woman nearly tripped coming down the steps from the cabana, but caught herself on the railing and laughed. Even with all the noise of the ocean rolling in and the sounds from the party, he managed to hear the very feminine laugh. It warmed him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed, or the last time he and his previous girlfriend had laughed together. There’d been a time when laughter came easily to him. Before his parents had been killed in the auto accident. Before he’d taken on more responsibilities than a young man should have to. He cradled the sweet, carefree sound to him, and decided he wanted to hear more of it from closer.
By the time he strolled through the gate at poolside the hula demonstration was in full lesson. Each of the young women had donned fake grass skirts that hung to mid-calf. Most of them sported either skin-tight T-shirts that stopped inches above the navel or bikini tops. He frowned for a second as he noted Shelby wore one of the bikini tops. He didn’t like seeing so much of her exposed to one and all. His gut reaction had him wanting to toast her butt, but then he had no say in the matter any more. She was grown up now. A fact that had him feeling sad and empty. Must be the empty nest syndrome he’d heard that mothers sometimes went through. ‘Course he wasn’t her mother,
but he had raised her from age six on.
That soft, sensual laugh he’d heard before curled around him as the blond who’d caught his attention accidentally bumped hips with Shelby. Shelby bumped her back, giggling. The shapely blond sported a hot pink bikini top and full breasts that had his mouth watering. Those enticing breasts bounced rhythmically as she attempted to get back into the hula motion. He’d be dreaming about this for days, maybe longer.
He joined a group of men standing around the fence admiring the gyrating hips of the nearby beauties. Dale couldn’t take his eyes off Shelby, but he managed to say, “We didn’t think you were coming down for this.”
Sam’s attention was fully focused on the curvaceous blond in the pink top and grass skirt that swayed to give hints of long, slender legs. “Found I couldn’t resist the temptation.”
The men stopped speaking; their entire concentration on the females innocently torturing them. He certainly felt tortured and big time aroused. His vivid imagination stripped away the pink bikini top and freed those soft, plump breasts. He stripped away the fake skirt as well. His erection swelled to amazing proportions and he ached.
All too soon the music stopped and the women hugged each other in happiness. Then his luscious blond beauty suddenly stiffened in the embrace of the hula instructor. She paled and looked in panic around the area. An instant later she’d raced across the cement and launched herself into his arms.
Instinct had him wrapping his arms around her and trying to keep them from falling over since he’d nearly lost his balance. She looked up at him with blue eyes revealing how tipsy she was. She gave him a goofy smile, which he found oddly cute.
He held her even tighter to keep her upright. Holding the shapely bundle of sweet-smelling woman was definitely not a hardship.
“I see you’ve met Valentine,” Shelby said in amusement as she walked over with Dale.
Valentine? Valentine? He vaguely remembered the name, an odd name at that. Fitting, though, he decided.
He shook his head as the woman in question clung to his shirt to remain on her feet. “Not exactly met, Shelby. She sort of flew into my arms.” He glanced down at his pretty blond and smiled gently as she struggled to focus on him.
“I’ve pretty…pretty much decided,” Valentine started. She blinked but still couldn’t seem to focus. “I’ve decided I’m not…not a les…lesbi…lesbian.” She grinned at him. “You’re mighty handsome, Handsome.” She batted her eyelashes and giggled.
Shelby studied her friend curiously. “I don’t know what she’s talking about. But I think she’s had one too many mai tais.” She continued to watch him holding Valentine, her expression turning speculative. “I’ve never seen her like this; it’s a whole other side of her.”
“Mai tai?” Valentine swiveled in Sam’s arms, brushing her bottom against the part of him that had grown rock hard as he’d held her. “Sure! I’ll…I’ll take another one.”
“No, I don’t think so, darlin’,” Sam countered as she began crumpling in his hold.
He scooped her into his arms rather than let her land on the cement. He didn’t understand her mumblings about lesbians, but he sensed she was most certainly not one. Mainly because she’d looked at him as if she wanted to strip his clothes off right here and have her way with him. Damn if the idea hadn’t appealed to him. But his sister was here. Well, and everyone else. And he didn’t do that sort of thing. At least he never had before.
“Dr. Hart, are you okay?” Dale asked, while she looked dazedly his direction.
“Can’t feel my legs.” She giggled. “I’m floating.”
Sam had stiffened when Dale called her Dr. Hart. Now he knew who she was. Dr. Valentine Hart, the counselor his sister had gone to with Dale. A romance therapist. An occupation he didn’t understand at all. Why anyone, especially his sister, would want or need to go to someone for advice on romance was beyond him. And ever since those sessions, Shelby had been different. More independent. Yeah, she’d seemed happier, but he figured that had more to do with the upcoming wedding than some therapy sessions.
“Val,” Shelby said, gently touching Valentine’s cheek and pushing the fine strands of blond hair from her face. “I think you need to go to bed. You’re exhausted, and you’re… well, you’re definitely wasted.”
Valentine reached up to touch his jaw and the beard stubble there. “Can I take stud muffin with me?”
Shelby met his gaze and laughed. “The ‘stud muffin’ is my brother. He’ll take you to your condo, which, as it happens, is right next to his.”
Valentine had a second of awareness, enough to recognize the words ‘brother’ and tie it to Shelby. She tried to roll herself out of his hold and nearly made them fall, but he was strong enough to prevent it. Still, she managed to huff, “I’m annoyed with you!”
He juggled her into a better position and scowled down at her. “I’m pretty pissed at you, too.” That said he strode through the gate that Dale held open and down the sidewalk toward their building. Halfway there he asked, “I assume you have your key.”
She was almost totally gone, but gazed at him long enough to shake her head. “Lost it. I don’t know…don’t know where.” With that her head thumped against his chest and he knew she’d passed out.
Shelby raced up behind them, obviously having heard Valentine’s comment. “I can go to the front desk and get another key for her.”
Sam was strong, but carrying the dead-weight of a passed out woman down the sidewalk for the length of two buildings and up three flights of stairs, and then holding her while he waited for his sister to return was more than he could do. “Just get my key out of my back pocket. She can sleep it off tonight in my bed. We’ll deal with the lost key issue tomorrow.”
“You can’t sleep with her!” Shelby gasped.
He scowled at his sister and walked faster. His arms were starting to cramp. “Did I say I would be in bed with her? I’ll take the sofabed.”
“Oh. Well, okay.”
A few minutes later Sam carefully spread his drunken sleeping beauty across his bed. Shelby quickly tugged off the grass skirt, saw him staring in pure admiration at Valentine’s long naked legs beneath the skimpy bikini she wore, and pulled a blanket from the closet to cover her friend.
She spun to face him, narrowing her eyes. “Touch her tonight and you’re a dead man.”
He returned her scowl, for the second time tonight thinking she needed her butt warmed. Instead he said, “You’ve sure gotten sassy ever since you started seeing this here therapist.” He wasn’t about to admit that he knew he’d be fighting the urge to crawl into bed with the beauty who called to everything male in him. “Scoot on back to the party. Dale will be missing you.”
She walked to the outer door and glanced back at Valentine. “You be nice to her. She’s more than my former therapist, she’s my friend.”
“I’m always nice,” he grouched.
With a roll of her eyes, Shelby left. Standing there alone, he slowly looked back into the bedroom. The blanket might as well be invisible. He’d seen every delicious inch of Dr. Hart and it was etched on his brain. Annoying as that was, his cock was so rigid that he knew this would be a long night. No doubt about it, he wanted the little romance therapist…for a little romancing.
He chuckled, amused at his bit of wit. Yeah, he wouldn’t mind at all kissing those perfect pink lips and proving to her once and for all that she wasn’t even close to being lesbian. He chuckled again, wondering how in the world she’d gotten that crazy notion. He’d seen her eyeing the bartender, the waiter, and a couple other men as she’d danced. Her looks had been pretty damn heated, definitely admiring. Yep, that lesbian business was a dang crazy notion.
She rolled onto her side and a bare leg slipped out from under the edge of the blanket. His breath caught. Hell of a nice leg.
As he tried to force his feet to turn away, he stood there for several long minutes. He needed to stop staring at the sleeping blond in his bed. In or
der to finally walk the other direction he had to come up with reasons why she irritated him. She’d caused some kind of change in his sweet, innocent sister. Now she wasn’t easily intimidated by him, which he actually was glad about. Now she hugged and kissed both Dale and him in public more often, something he was a tad uncomfortable with.
He started undoing the sofabed and pictured Valentine Hart as he’d first seen her: tipsy and tripping down the cabana steps. He didn’t approve of anyone, especially a woman, getting so drunk they didn’t know what they were doing. There were a lot of crazies in the world who could and would take advantage of them in the wrong situations. She deserved to have her pert little backside heated up just for that. And then there was the whole throwing herself into a stranger’s arms, not that he—the stranger—minded. Still, that was something else she should be spanked for.
Unfolding the bed, he blew out a deep breath. If he kept on thinking about reasons to spank the hot female in his bedroom, he’d never get a lick of sleep tonight. Worst part of it all was that he wanted to touch her so bad that he was willing to come up with unreasonable reasons to take her over his knee. If he couldn’t slide between her legs and into her warmth, at least he could lay a hand to the soft flesh of her bottom.
He jerked off his clothes and flung himself bare-assed naked down on the sofabed. Then he flipped onto his side. He was too damn hard to sleep on his stomach. Hell.
Chapter Two
Valentine crawled from the bed and stumbled her way into the living room, holding one hand to her throbbing head. Her eyes were barely open and not focusing well. “Oh gawd, oh gawd. Turn down the ocean,” she moaned as she headed for the sliding glass door she’d left open.
Even the tiny slit of sunlight she was able to see was excruciating. She squeezed her eyes closed while she continued toward her destination. A few steps later her knee hit a metal bar and she stubbed her toe, making her yelp in pain. Her eyes flew open even as she fell face forward across the open sofabed. Face forward over a large, warm, obviously male body.
