With a sigh, she turned the corner and decided to find Eli. Before she could turn down the next aisle an attractive man stepped into her path. He was Hawaiian, a few inches taller than she was and dressed like a paniolo.
“Aloha, Crysta.”
She was taken back a bit. Sure, she was used to people knowing who she was when she was with one of the ranch hands or Eli, but she was by herself in the store. Still, Eli had told her that while the Big Island was the biggest island, it was still like a little ranch town, especially in the areas surrounding the ranch community.
She didn’t recognize him though. She had met a lot of people in the last few weeks, and she was usually good with faces. And there wasn’t a doubt in her mind she would have remembered such an attractive man.
“I don’t think you remember me.”
“We haven’t met.”
Confusion came and went so fast in his eyes she barely saw it. “Sorry, that usually works.”
“How sad for the women you run across.”
He threw his head back and laughed. It took a moment or so before he got himself under control.
“Is there something you wanted?”
“Yes. We’re family in a way. I’m Sean Kaheaku.”
It took all of her control not to take a step back.
He apparently didn’t need her to explain. “Ah, I see you met my stepfather, Sam.”
“Stepfather?” Now that she thought about it, he did look a little different from Sam and Sam Jr. He was taller and there was something different about him. She couldn’t put her finger on it.
He nodded. “My mother married him years ago.”
“I’m so sorry.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I was too. I just wanted to welcome you to the island.”
“Now that you have, maybe you should get your ass out of here,” Eli said from behind her. He hadn’t raised his voice, but the threat was there. He stepped up beside her but didn’t even glance in her direction.
“St. John. I heard my stepfather was out there a few weeks ago.”
Eli said nothing for a moment. “And?”
“Anything he does or says has nothing to do with me.” Sean looked at her. “I just want that clear. And I wanted to meet my cousin up close.”
“You didn’t come to Joe’s funeral.” Eli made the statement drawing Sean’s attention away from her.
Sam’s smile faded. “I was in Tokyo at the time. I didn’t hear about it until it was too late to get back. I was really sorry to hear about it.”
Eli nodded. “We have to get back.”
Sam ignored him and looked at Crysta. “If you ever need anything, here’s my number.”
He handed her a card. She took it even though she could sense it pissed Eli off. Man had to learn that he didn’t tell her what to do with her life and there was nothing wrong with taking a card.
“Remember, the family isn’t all a bunch of racist idiots.”
Sean turned and walked away. Women watched him as he walked by, and there was more than one woman she was certain sighed as he walked past. In fact, there was something about him that reminded her of Eli. Maybe it was the way he drew the attention of women, or maybe it was the way he walked. All power and control. If she didn’t know better, she would say he was a Dom.
“You need to steer clear of that man.”
She glanced at Eli and found him watching Sean too. “He’s harmless.”
He shook his head. “Hardly. I don’t know where he gets his money, but he always has a lot of it. There are rumors that the man has connections to the Triads.”
“Wow,” she said as she watched him tease a little white haired woman. “Yeah, he looks like a gang lord. They always take the time to flirt with the little old ladies.”
“Understand this, you will stay away from him and the rest of that family. They’re dangerous. Very dangerous. And they will never accept that I own the ranch.”
“We.”
“What?”
“We own the ranch. Not you. Not me. We.”
“Yeah. We.” He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he just shook his head and said, “Let’s go.”
* * * *
Eli was still pissed hours later. He sat through the boring meeting. Usually he had no problem paying attention. He took comfort in the routine of things. One of the many things Joe had taught him was how to deal with the nightmares after the missions he’d served.
But now, he was irritated. The fact that Sean was back on the island wasn’t a good sign. It was a really bad sign actually. If he wanted to make a play for the ranch, he didn’t have a chance. He wasn’t even blood related. But he wouldn’t put it past Sam to call him back to ask him to help. He didn’t have money, but he could offer Sam something more. Land. Land was hard to come by in Hawaii, even here on The Big Island. And much of the ranch was well hidden. A man who dealt drugs could get away with a lot there.
Everyone was getting up and walking out of the room when he realized the meeting was over.
“St. John, you daydreaming there about your partner?” Syd Makelo asked. The guy was okay, hard worker, and he ran a tight ship on his Hawaiian style dude ranch.
He stood and tried not to let him see how he irritated him. “Naw, just fell asleep while you were talking. Kind of boring.”
Makelo chuckled as did some of the men around him. “So, you don’t find that wahine sexy?”
“I’d have to be dumb, deaf and blind not to, but she’s my partner. And, on top of that, she is Joe’s niece. I’m sure he wouldn’t have appreciated anyone disparaging her character.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean that. She’s well, a few of us saw her riding the other day. She’s an excellent horsewoman.”
Why was it a compliment pissed him off? He hadn’t said it as if he was referring to something else, but dammit, it sounded like it. To Eli. “Sure. Gotta get back.”
“Wait,” Louella Donnely said. “There’s been talk of having a scholarship in Joe’s honor. We would really like your input.”
Joe’s family might have shunned him, but the rest of the island didn’t. Hawaiians cared for each other as if they were all related because if they had a little Hawaiian blood in them, it was a pretty good chance they were.
“Joe would have really liked that, Lou.”
“You call if you need anything.”
At that point he had a chance to escape and took it. Without looking at anyone, he slipped away and ignored the worry in his gut that this had more to do with the woman and not the ranch.
Danny was in the kitchen again that night. Eli was out at some rancher meeting for the area. She had no idea what it was about, but she was exhausted beyond belief and truth was, she didn’t really feel right horning in on things like that. At the end of the six months, she was back to the mainland.
So, instead, she was sitting in the kitchen with Danny laughing over stories about his grandfather.
“So, he’s become a Houdini. I tell Dad to just let it go, but he worries.”
“You have to be careful with people that age.”
Danny rolled his eyes. He really was a pretty man. Pretty being the operative word. He was lean but muscled and seemed so approachable. Part of it was his age. And he flirted without being serious about it. Since he’d been to the airport to greet her, she’d gotten to know him. If she’d had a younger brother, she had a feeling he would have been a lot like Danny. Or she would have hoped.
“Naw. Grandpa is just getting him some.”
She giggled. “Come on.”
“No. Senior citizens are now becoming the fastest growing age group getting STDs.”
She took a drink of tea. “Really?”
“Yep. They’re living longer and well, they’re retired, don’t have to worry about pregnancy. What else would you do if you were them? And face it. It makes you feel better, right? Gets the juices flowing, so to speak.”
She laughed. “Well, that’s definitely interesting.”
<
br /> “I have a feeling you would still be hot at that age.”
“Do you think that’s any of your business, Aiona?”
She jumped at the sound of the lethal voice behind her. She turned to find a very angry Eli staring at both of them.
Chapter Ten
This was starting to get old, Eli thought. Finding her with a man twice in one day—no matter how innocent it was—irritated Eli. No, irritate was too simple a word for what he was feeling. He knew it was stupid. Truthfully, if anyone he knew reacted this way to a woman Eli would tell him to fuck her or walk away. At the moment, he knew exactly which option he would take.
For his part, Aiona was completely oblivious to Eli’s anger. Or if he wasn’t, he sure played it cool. He offered Eli a welcoming smile.
“Hey, boss. I was telling Crysta about my grandfather. He’s been pretty active lately, if you know what I mean.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“It’s getting late.”
Aiona shrugged. “Guess so, but then, I’m young.” He rose. “I guess I probably won’t see you until you get back, Crysta. Good night.”
He left still unaware that he’d upset Eli. He leaned against the kitchen counter and watched her. She didn’t fidget at all. He knew he looked mean, but the woman just didn’t give an inch. And again, in his head, he knew it was stupid. He was feeling territorial about a woman who wasn’t his. From that day they had the kiss, it had been getting worse.
“How was your meeting?” she asked.
He was still pissed. From the first, he and Jerry had made it clear that the men show Crysta respect. Eli thought about the altercation in the barn and knew he didn’t have any room to talk. And, for the most part, none of the men had given her a problem. Aiona was a problem though. He needed the job, but only for the summer. And, he didn’t seem to be scared of Eli.
Worse, he knew why he was mad. He wanted her. He wanted to have the right to get angry if a man was flirting with her.
“Eli?”
He shook his head trying to move away from those thoughts. “Boring.”
“Oh?”
It had been. He’d sat in the back and listened to some of the discussions and then his mind had drifted. Daydreaming about Crysta had been a mistake. Now, he was beyond horny.
“Yeah. But, there was talk of a scholarship or something like that in Joe’s name.”
She smiled and his heart kicked up a notch. “Joe would have liked that.”
He nodded. Then as casually as he could, he asked, “What was that about you being gone for a few days?”
“I told you I was going to Oahu. I talked to Micah today and decided to go on over. I’ve never been to Honolulu.”
He blinked. He knew what she was going to do. She was going to Rough ‘n Ready where some other Dom would touch her, taste her, hear her moan when she came.
Dammit.
“You can’t do that.”
She shook her head as if she were trying to understand. “What?”
“I mean, do you think you should go so fast?”
“I figured it was better before I got too busy here.”
“What was this with Danny?”
Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Tapping the help, Crysta? I didn’t think that was your kind of thing.”
The moment he said it, Eli wished he’d kept his mouth shut. Shit, he kept making mistakes with her like he was some kind of green kid.
For a second or two, he thought he might have gotten away with it. Then her eyes narrowed.
“You think I was hitting on Danny?” Before he could answer, she plowed ahead. “What does that matter? If I want to go up to my room and have hot, animalistic sex with him, I can. I am a grown woman, he’s old enough and I do whatever the hell I want.”
She turned around and marched off but he stopped her by grabbing her arm.
“How are you getting to Oahu?”
She drew in a deep breath as if trying to calm herself. “Micah’s brother-in-law is having his plane flown over.”
She wrenched her arm free and left him alone. Although, he did hear her stomp up the stairs then across the floor upstairs.
He sat down and leaned his head back. Closing his eyes he tried to pull a breath and control his temper. He’d lost his cool. It wasn’t like him. If a woman wasn’t interested, he had no problem letting her be. There were plenty of other women and an unwilling one was unappealing to him.
So, why couldn’t he just walk away from Crysta? True, they were living together. That made it hard. And owning the ranch made it even more difficult. Still, he normally wouldn’t sit and fantasize about a woman. With Crysta, he did things he hadn’t done since he was a teenager. He felt out of control and that was something he couldn’t handle.
Well, there is one thing he knew. Crysta wasn’t going over to Oahu with Micah’s brother-in-law alone. And she’d just have to deal with it.
* * * *
Eli rented a car when they got to the island. Micah had offered his truck, but he didn’t want to deal with that. It was bad enough they were now driving out to the Rosses’ for dinner.
“If you’re going to be so grumpy, I don’t know why you agreed to go eat with your friends.”
He glanced over at Crysta and ground his teeth together. He was having a hard enough time keeping his hands off her. They had gotten a convertible and had the top down. She’d worn her hair up, but left a few strands to dance in the air. She looked like she’d just risen out of bed in that sexy, mussed up way.
“I didn’t really have a choice,” Eli said, passing a slow moving sedan. “Micah told me to bring you to dinner.”
She laughed. The sound of it danced over the air to him. Damn. His cock twitched, his body heated.
“Yeah, like big, bad Eli St. John wouldn’t say no to Micah.”
At one time, yes, but now, he wasn’t so sure. The truth of the matter was that since Joe had taken a turn for the worse, the crew at Rough ‘n Ready had sort of adopted him. Joe’s chemo treatments had been horrible and while Eli couldn’t leave the ranch that long, he’d pop over at least once a week to check on him. No one else in his family would have done it.
Because of that, the ladies had started to look out for him. They would show up at Joe’s hospital room throughout the week and email Eli with how he was doing. That had been a little too much to take at times, but it had given him solace to know that Joe wasn’t spending every day in the hospital with no one to talk to.
Worse, they made sure Eli had home cooked meals while he was there. Now, he felt obligated to go and that was something he didn’t like. The only person on earth he’d felt he owed had been Joe. But little by little, this group of friends had dragged him into their circle.
He took the exit to Micah and Dee’s house.
“So, tell me about these people. I met Micah, and you said Evan was going to be here tonight?”
“Yes. They’re old friends. I gather they grew up poor, but they moved to the islands together. Now, they own Rough ‘n Ready in Honolulu.”
“Damon taught there for awhile.”
She said it casually enough so he felt okay with asking about it. “So you and Damon broke up. Why?”
“It was a long time ago.”
“But you still talk, apparently.”
She shrugged. “We loved each other, but not...well, we weren’t in love. We were comfortable. And some of it was that he had been my first Dom. So, I was attached to him. Truth is, we sort of grew apart. Plus he’s never going to settle down, and I wanted that. At least at the time.”
“But not anymore?”
“I’m not sure I’m built for a long term relationship or even the life anymore.”
For some reason, Eli didn’t like hearing that. It was insane to argue with a woman who said she didn’t want to get serious. Usually, when they did, Eli headed for the door. So, the idea that this woman, a woman he shouldn’t have any kind of interest in, says she doesn’t want to s
ettle down shouldn’t bug him. But it did.
“And I take it Ashton has something to do with that?”
She didn’t say anything for a moment. “Maybe. It was a feeling I had for a while though. I knew there was something wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then when I caught him cheating, I knew I hadn’t been crazy."
“You caught him?”
“Indeed,” she said chuckling. “And I guess I got completely over it if I can laugh about it.”
“So you’re over him?”
He felt her glance. “Maybe. Sadly, I think it was a blow to my pride more than anything else. I was engaged to him and I was mostly embarrassed, which is kind of sad when you think about it.”
He nodded as he pulled up to the curb. Feeling better because she didn’t harbor any feelings for her ex was normal for any guy, right? Okay, not any guy. In the past, all he cared about was that a woman wasn’t married at the moment. Now he was worrying if Crysta was attached to her ex-fiancé.
“Are we ever going to talk about the kiss?” she asked.
Of course she brought that up right before she was going to meet everyone. Women always did that kind of shit. This is why he never got into long term relationships.
He shrugged, refusing to look at her. “What’s there to talk about?”
There was a beat of silence. “Not much, in my opinion.”
Before he could respond, she slipped out of the car.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, getting out of the car himself and trying to keep up with her.
“It wasn’t all that great of a kiss,” she said, tossing the barb over her shoulder. “I mean, in a barn, St. John? Like I hadn’t had someone put the moves on me like that before in a barn. Not very smooth.”
He knew she was joking but it dinged his pride a little bit. He joined her on the front step of the house and gave her a frown.
“Is that so?”
She nodded smiling at him. He didn’t know what did it. It could have been her challenging him with her words or that damned sparkle in her eyes, but he couldn’t keep himself from backing her up against the wall right by the front door.
“I think we need to test that theory.”
A Little Harmless Ride Page 7
