by JoAnn Ross
“Love at first sight.”
“Or at least lust at first sight,” Lani agreed dryly. “Especially since, according to legend, she’d gone a century without a human mate.”
“Talk about your dry spells.”
“I suppose time’s not the same when you’re in spirit form,” Lani suggested. “At any rate, being a very passionate spirit—”
“Which would be expected for a goddess of fire.”
“Exactly. Kealehai decided that she had to have him, but there was a slight glitch.”
The lazy breeze coming off the water fanned her hair, allowing him to breathe in the fragrant gardenia scent of her shampoo. Hit with a sudden jolt of desire, Donovan slipped his hand into his front pocket to keep from touching her. “A glitch?”
When she stopped to look up at him, moonlight gleaming in her eyes, he wondered if she’d heard the raw need in his voice. “Donovan?”
He knew that if he responded to the soft invitation in her voice, he’d be toast. He’d built his life on a solid foundation of self-control and wasn’t about to allow this woman, as enticing as she was, to undermine it in a single day.
“You were telling me about Kealehai,” he reminded her, rigidly reining in the impulse to drag her down onto the warm sand and reenact From Here to Eternity ’s iconic beach lovemaking scene.
“Right.” Lani blew out a deep breath, suggesting he wasn’t alone in his feelings. “Since she derived her spirit power from the volcano, if they made love on his village’s beach, so far away from her own fire pit, her youthful human facade could crumble away and the handsome young man would realize how old she actually was.”
“Mature women have their appeal, but it sounds as if she might have been pushing that envelope.”
“She was several centuries older than your average cougar,” Lani agreed. “So, she put a trance on him long enough to get away. Then, once she got back to the volcano, she sent her younger sister, Marua, to bring him back.”
“Did Marua share her sister’s heated charms?”
“Actually, she was like the soft moon to Kealehai’s blazing sun. Having always lived in her older sister’s much brighter shadow, she’d never had an opportunity to know love. Until they were returning from Taranga’s village, when suddenly, on impulse, the young prince grabbed her and planted a deep, hot kiss on her. From the way it’s described in the various versions of the legend, he would have kissed the socks right off her. If she’d been wearing any at the time.”
Donovan so didn’t need to be talking about impulsive kissing right now. Especially since Lani was also barefoot. Although he was totally a leg guy, he’d never been into women’s feet. Until this moment. “And thus the eternal love triangle,” he said.
“It didn’t happen right away,” Lani said. “And it wasn’t as if she invited the kiss. Marua was not only sweet, and a virgin, she was truly loyal to her sister.”
“And undoubtedly afraid of her sister’s temper,” Donovan suggested, having seen more than a few romantic triangles turn deadly.
“Probably so,” Lani conceded. “At any rate, Marua insisted that they both remember that he’d already pledged himself to Kealehai. And that should have been that.”
“Yet there wouldn’t be a legend if the plot hadn’t thickened.” Donovan didn’t need his detective skills to tell that this story was going to end badly.
“You’re getting ahead of me,” Lani complained. “Having been tempted by her first kiss, Marua hesitantly allowed another. And, as the story goes, being cast under the spell of the prince’s magical charm, she even initiated a few kisses herself as they traveled from the beach through the valley.
“Unfortunately, Kealehai had been watching out for the couple from her peak on Mt. Waipanukai high over the island. She became more and more enraged with each kiss she witnessed and literally blew her top just as poor, bewitched Marua arrived back with Taranga.
“When he saw the fiery display of passion, the man-whore of a prince forgot all about poor sweet Marua, swept Kealehai into his arms, and made mad, passionate love to her on the edge of the erupting volcano. Unfortunately, instead of enjoying a lovely afterglow of postcoital bliss, Taranga was incinerated by the flames… And that’s the painting you’re going to have gracing your wall.”
“That’s fine with me.”
Lani stopped again to stare up at him. “You’ve got to be kidding. It’s one of the ugliest things Daddy’s ever done.”
Unable to resist touching, he ran his knuckles down her cheek. “Ah, but whenever I look at it, I’ll think of you.”
In turn, Lani dropped her sandals on the beach and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Are you accusing me of having a temper?”
“No,” he murmured, tracing the exquisite planes and hollows of her face with his fingertips, “I’m accusing you of making things very, very warm around here.”
“Is that a complaint?” she asked in a soft, breathless voice.
“I don’t know.”
They stared at each other, both searching for answers as the soft rain continued to fall. Finally, Donovan lifted a few heavy strands of wet hair off her face, bent his head, and brushed her cheek with his lips.
“You taste like rain.”
“Liquid sunshine,” she said, closing her eyes as his mouth skimmed over her face. “It never rains in paradise, Donovan. Didn’t Nate tell you that when he was sending you down here to seduce me?”
“I didn’t come here to seduce you.”
“Newsflash, Detective.” Eyes wide open now, she trailed a fingernail down the front of his T-shirt. “You really wouldn’t have to.”
“Now who’s seducing whom?”
“Does it matter?”
“I think it does.” He was drowning here. Drowning in her huge mermaid eyes and warm silky lips he knew he’d be tasting in his sleep. The breeze from the sea was pressing the flowered silk against her body in a way that left very little to his imagination. An imagination that kicked into overdrive as he fantasized about those mile-long legs wrapped around his hips.
“Anyone ever tell you that perhaps, just maybe, you think too much?” she asked. “Not everything has to be so complicated.”
She wasn’t the first person to tell him that. Most recently her brother and Tess. “It’s late,” he said quietly as he dropped his hand and took a step back. Literally and figuratively. “And you’re getting wet.”
“So are you.”
He glanced down, surprised to find his own clothing soaked. “It looks better on you.”
Her laugh was as silvery as the moonlight streaming over them. Then she flashed him an unaffected smile that jolted him to the core. “We have a saying around here, Donovan: The faster you go, the more you miss along the way.”
Rising up on her bare toes, she brushed her lips lightly, tantalizingly against his. “You wouldn’t want to miss anything, would you?”
Bending down, she scooped up the sandals she’d dropped and went running up the beach toward her cottage. As the Pacific trade winds carried her laughter to his ears, Donovan picked up his wet shoes and resumed walking toward Nate’s beach house, fighting the urge to follow Lani and continue where they’d left off.
But that would be giving in to impulse, and it had been a very long time since anyone had accused Donovan Quinn of being an impulsive man.
5
The phone, which he’d left on the bedside table, jolted Donovan from a blazing-hot dream of making love to Lani on the edge of a volcano. He fumbled for the receiver without opening his eyes.
“What?”
“So much for Orchid Island filling you with the old aloha spirit,” the deep male voice said with a laugh.
“Aloha spirit be damned,” Donovan muttered as he sat up in bed. “What the hell did you have in mind, anyway?”
“Concerning what?”
Donovan’s scowling g
aze circled the room. “Your redecorating, for one thing.”
“How did it turn out?” Nate inquired interestedly.
“Like something out of an old movie: me Tarzan, you Jane. For God’s sake, Nate, haven’t you ever heard of overkill?”
“Sounds like Lani followed my instructions to a T.”
Donovan could hear the smile in his best friend’s voice. “Speaking of your sister,” he began, not bothering to hide his belief that Lani had been right about one thing: Nate had definitely set them up.
Nate’s next words confirmed his suspicions. “Isn’t she something? Face like a Botticelli angel, figure as sleek as a Thoroughbred, and a spirit to match.”
“She told your parents that you sent me down here to seduce her.”
“Actually, I sent you down to the island to reboot your personal life, which has pretty much been in the toilet lately. And okay, maybe I hoped Lani might be able to help you lighten up and relax, because that’s pretty much what she’s always done. Even when she was working on that reality show, she was more about taking emotional care of the contestants than creating on-screen drama.
“As for throwing you guys together, I did have the good sense to run the idea by Tess first, and she agreed it couldn’t hurt. So, what are you going to do? Arrest me for wanting to help out a pal?”
“And if I seduce your sister?”
“Believe me, I’ve seen many guys try and fail. If she does decide to give you a shot, it’ll be because she wants to. Not because of any rain shower I had her install… Hold on a second.”
Although he partly covered the phone, Donovan could hear Tess’s voice in the background.
“Tess says that if you two decide on vacation fling sex, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. But she’d rather go shopping for a wedding gift. Which also works for me and would probably make Mom and Dad really happy. Dad especially because it’d give him a chance to throw a big bash. He loves getting everyone together. When Lani and I were kids, he held a blue moon theme party. He even got Sha Na Na to come to the island and perform the song.”
“You’re making that up.”
“I kid you not. The backup guys showed up in gold lamé, which wasn’t exactly beach attire, and Bowzer had even shaved his armpits, which was kind of weird. But the show was retro-cool and everyone loved it.”
“I’ve already gotten invited to the Christmas luau.”
“Best party of the year,” Nate said. “It even tops Dad’s New Year’s fireworks extravaganza. Once you see Lani dance, you’ll probably propose on the spot.”
“I’m not in the market for a wife,” Donovan reminded him. “I’m down here recharging for the Academy.”
“So you’ve actually decided to become a Feeb?”
Donovan thought he detected a hint of disapproval in Nate’s voice. “Probably. Either that or making chief has been my goal from the beginning.”
“Not exactly the beginning,” Nate was quick to point out. “I seem to remember spending hours in a patrol car with an idealistic, wet-behind-the-ears rookie who kept spouting off about helping the people, making the world a better place to live in, yada, yada, yada. I often wondered if you didn’t get all caught up in climbing that ladder of success to show Kendall she’d made a mistake when she walked out on your marriage.”
“Kendall had nothing to do with it,” Donovan countered irritably. One thing he didn’t need was a lecture about his former wife.
“Didn’t she?”
“Not at all,” Donovan said. He’d become concerned they’d be a bad fit before the wedding, but both Kendall—whose family had known his forever—and his parents had assured him that pre-wedding doubts were normal. “Besides, what makes you think I won’t be in a better position to help people as a special agent?”
“In the first place, those guys seem to live in their own worlds and don’t spend all that much personal time mixing with ordinary citizens. You’d be even more socially isolated than you are now.”
“I’m not socially isolated.” Hadn’t he gone out to dinner tonight?
“So you say. There’s also the point that Lani would hate the gypsy lifestyle of following you around from field office to field office as you climbed that federal bureaucratic ladder.”
“Which is a moot point since she assured me that she’s no more interested in getting married than I am.”
“Then she’s lying either to herself or you… And you must really be getting along like gangbusters to have discussed marriage your first day on the island.”
“Only in regards to your passion pit.”
“Now see, you’ve got to be exaggerating, because my sister has excellent taste. She flew up and helped me decorate this house when I moved in. She definitely doesn’t do tacky.”
“Okay. So, maybe the bedroom is sensual, not tacky. But the fact remains that Lani and I are both single adults, capable of making our own decisions. So, why don’t you do us both a big favor and butt out?”
The silence extended so long, Donovan thought his phone had dropped the call. Finally, Nate responded. “From where I’m at, marriage seems like a pretty good institution.”
“Says the guy who’s never been there,” Donovan said. “Look, I’m sincerely happy for you and Tess. You’re both great people who deserve each other. But—”
“Did you ever wonder why you’ve never remarried?” Nate cut in abruptly.
“Maybe because I’ve been there, done that, and ended up giving away the T-shirt when I got hammered in the property settlement?”
“Well, there is that. But my job is to delve beneath the surface of things.”
“You write horror novels.”
“I write stories about horrifying things happening to ordinary people,” he corrected. “Which means I spend a lot of my life walking in my characters’ shoes. And while I hate to dis a pal, you’re pretty stereotypical.”
“Thanks for the ego boost.”
“Just telling it like I see it. Also, having watched you all these years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason you’ve never really fallen in love is because with the exception of Tess, whom you thankfully let get away before things turned romantic, which gave me the golden chance to snatch her up, you’ve dated a series of identical, proper, predictable women. Admittedly, they’re beautiful and intelligent, but they’re all cut from the same boring cookie cutter.”
“Thanks for the lecture on my love life,” Donovan responded, annoyed when the accusation hit too close to home for comfort. “Now, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go back to sleep, and for the sake of our friendship, I’ll forget this conversation ever occurred.”
“You do that,” Nate agreed in an obliging manner. “But, Donovan—”
“What now?”
“You don’t have to marry Lani. But don’t hurt her.” The edge to Nate’s voice reminded Donovan that the writer wasn’t as easy going as he usually appeared.
“I’ve no intention of hurting anyone. Least of all your sister.”
“Just make damn sure you don’t,” Nate said seriously. Then he cut off the call before Donovan could respond.
Frustrated, Donovan turned his phone off just as he heard a light tapping at his door. “Now what?”
Tugging on a pair of jeans, he marched into the front room and threw open the screen door.
Damn. His annoyance dissolved like a sandcastle under high tide as he viewed Lani, scantily clad in a bright pink bikini, looking as if she should be served up in a sugar cone. She was wearing a flowered shirt over the bikini but hadn’t bothered to button it. At the enticing sight of all that golden flesh, the erotic dream Nate’s phone call had interrupted came crashing back.
Lani didn’t falter under Donovan’s glare. After lying awake all night considering the matter, she’d decided that he was in dire need of a strong dose of fun. And she was going to see that he learned to enjoy himself,
whether he wanted to or not.
“Good morning,” she said, brushing past him into the beach house. “You seem to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed.” The familiar tropical floral scent tantalized as she breezed by him.
“Sorry. Your brother just woke me up.”
“I hope you told him that we didn’t appreciate his devious plan for you to seduce me. As if we were merely two of his characters he was moving around on that Technicolor screen in his warped writer’s mind.”
“Not in so many words, but I did tell him that we’re capable of handling our own affairs.”
“Interesting choice of words,” she murmured as she opened a cupboard. “Is that what we’re going to have? An affair?”
As she reached up for the mugs on the second shelf, her shirt rose, displaying a weakening amount of tanned hip, causing Donovan’s mouth to go dry. “At this point, I’d say that’s up to you.”
“It’s an intriguing idea,” she mused aloud as she put the mugs on the counter and took a bag of coffee beans from the freezer. “The only hitch is that I gave up sex for Lent.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve been inside a church. But I do remember that Lent ends at Easter.”
“Got me there,” she admitted cheerfully. “But, as I said last night, time moves at a different pace here on the island. We have another saying that the smiles you collect along the way are more important than the miles covered…
“Meanwhile, I’m going to make you a cup of the best coffee you’ve ever had. Then after breakfast, I have plans for you.”
“Now I’m intrigued.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. At the moment, my plans don’t involve tangling any sheets. But we are going to get wet.”
After the erotic dream Nate had interrupted, the thought of the two of them breaking her sexual fast together was almost more than he could take before coffee.
“You don’t have to make me breakfast,” he said over the sound of dark beans being ground.
