by Toby Neal
“If you don’t get some action tonight, I’ll eat my hat.” Kelly gestured to the discarded sombrero, hanging off the corner of the chair. “And it’s big.”
Clearly Kelly was determined to resume her life as if that stretch of rough road that ended in murder and fire had never happened.
Harry glanced at the door, a line between her dark brows. “I hope the baby is okay with that hotel sitter.”
“Be careful. You’re getting awfully attached to it,” Lei cautioned, worried for her new friend.
Harry frowned. “She’s not an ‘it,’ she’s a beautiful little girl.” Both women turned to stare at Harry, who looked drop-dead gorgeous in a sleek silvery dress of Kelly’s. Harry glared right back at them. “She’s special.”
“Um. Okay. But that special child’s an orphaned Mexican citizen with no name,” Kelly said. “You can’t just keep her, Harry. She’s not a puppy.”
Harry looked away, glowering. “Let’s just go, already.”
The three of them linked arms and went down to the dance floor: Lei all in black, Kelly in red, and Harry shining in silver. Pulsing retro eighties music was easy to get moving to after a few drinks. Determined to shake off their brush with death, Lei began to relax and have fun as the three of them got moving on the dance floor. Within minutes, guys moved in to dance with them.
Lei smiled at the blond, blue-eyed surfer dude who did a hilarious chicken dance in front of her. Clearly, he wasn’t someone who took himself too seriously, and he was easy on the eyes, with a mop of salty-looking curls and a lot of nice tan muscle.
“You’ve got interesting moves,” she laughed. Lei glanced over at Harry. Her new friend was doing some dirty dancing with a tall, dark, and handsome man, while Kelly was handling two guys with no trouble at all.
This was the vacation they’d come for. Surfer Dude wasn’t her type, but maybe with enough tequila . . .
“I need another drink!” Lei hollered to her dance partner across the techno-pop blaring from the loudspeakers.
“Let me buy it for you!” Surfer Dude hollered back. He took her hand and towed her through packed, gyrating bodies toward the bar. He elbowed a space for them and ordered her a Sex on the Beach.
Lei pushed him in the chest. “Hoping to get lucky, I see.”
“Funny you should say that. That’s what people call me.” His blue eyes crinkled with good humor. “All the best surfers have nicknames.”
“Lucky? Really?” Lei quirked a brow.
“Yeah. I’m Lucky. But you can call me anything you want, babe.”
Their drinks arrived. Lei picked hers up. It was frothy, peachy, and refreshing. “Mmm, nice choice. I think I like getting Lucky.” She smiled, pleased with the play on words.
“And what do I call you?”
“Lei.”
He frowned. “Lay? You mean you’re easy? Am I going to be charged by the hour?” His good humor disappeared as his glance raked her outfit.
“Oh no.” Lei choked on her drink and set it down. “No. No. My name is Lei. L-E-I. It’s Hawaiian.”
Now he laughed, smacking his forehead in exaggerated relief. “Holy crap. Lei gets Lucky. You can’t make this stuff up.”
They finished their drinks, making easy conversation. Lei’s head spun a little, but in a good way, as he towed her back on the dance floor.
A few more drinks and songs later, Lucky leaned in to speak in her ear. “Let’s get out of here to somewhere quieter.” He took Lei’s hand, towing her toward glass sliders that opened onto the pool deck.
Lei glanced back; she’d really rather dance some more, but her friends were fully occupied with their partners on the floor. And this was what she’d come for—a good time, and after all, his name was Lucky.
They emerged from the dance area into much cooler air on the deck surrounding the pool. Tiny lights crisscrossed the area, strung on lines from the corners of the buildings. A memory of the burning mine building and all it contained flashed across Lei’s mind, and horror made her trip in her high heels. Lucky looped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
“Careful. Don’t want to have you swimming in the pool in those awesome shoes.” He seemed to have a destination in mind. Quelling her anxiety, Lei let him pull her along. Down and away from the pool, they reached an isolated cabana with a canvas roof and sides, the curtains looped back from a soft mattress piled high with pillows.
“Wow. You knew just where this was.” Lei glanced around nervously. “We’re all alone out here.”
“Relax. We’re just going to have some fun. Spooky little thing, aren’t you?” Lucky sat on the edge of the cabana bed, his white teeth a flash in the dim light. “Come here.” He pulled her between his legs, his hands at her waist.
Lei lost her balance in the heels she wasn’t used to, and fell forward across him, sprawling gracelessly over his body and knocking him backward.
“Oh wow! I’m so sorry!” she gasped.
He tightened his arms around her. “Got you just where I want you.”
He kissed her, bold and invasive. Lei tried to stay with the kiss, in her body, experiencing this, but immediately she went to that other place, somewhere high above the cabana. She could see herself below, passive in the blond man’s grasp, her arms around him, her mouth kissing him back—but it was happening to someone else.
His hand slid up her leg, under the impossibly short skirt, and gripped the round of her buttock. He squeezed and caressed her.
“I love your ass,” he said against her mouth. “You’re so tight. I can’t wait to be in you.”
He was moving way too fast, but it was more than that.
“No,” Lei said.
This was wrong.
He wasn’t the right man, and this wasn’t the right place or time.
“What are you talking about? You’re my Lucky Lay,” he murmured, nibbling her neck, grinding her pelvis against his.
“No.” Lei pushed at Lucky more forcefully. “I don’t want to do this.”
“Cock tease!” His hands were like an octopus, crawling over her body, invading, burning her skin with their intimacy. “You dress like this and think you can say no? How much will it be? I’ll pay if that’s what you want.”
“No! Let go!” Lei thrashed. She couldn’t believe this was happening. He’d seemed so nice. She bucked and resisted, but he’d pinned her down by the arms. “No!”
“I believe the lady said no,” a low masculine voice said from behind them. Lucky, panting, turned his head. From beneath him, Lei could see a shadowy figure—and there was coiled menace in his stance.
Lucky let go of Lei and rolled to the side. “Sorry about the misunderstanding. We had a crossed wire.” He stood up. “See you back on the dance floor.” He walked rapidly away.
Clearly, something about the man looking down at them had spooked him.
Lei sat up, straightening her skimpy top and pulling down her skirt as far as it would go—that dilemma again. She leaned forward, unbuckling the ridiculous shoes, letting her rumpled curls fall forward to hide her face.
She’d almost been assaulted again, in a fairly public place, and some stranger had to rescue her. What a disaster. Some cop she was going to be, if the police academy would even have her . . .
The backlit man advanced to stand in front of Lei, his legs slightly apart, arms loose at his sides. “Did he hurt you?” His voice was silk over steel and raised the hairs on Lei’s arms.
She stood up with the shoes dangling from one hand. “Just my pride.”
Now she could see what he looked like, as light fell on the man’s face. His eyes were liquid chocolate, with lashes any woman would envy. His hair lay in tight coils against his head like a lamb’s; his skin was golden brown. He was dressed for action in a black tank top, cargo pants, and combat boots.
“You’re Cruz,” Lei said. “Harry’s trainer.”
“I am.” They took each other’s measure for a long moment. He smiled. “I see why Harry likes
you.”
“Harry likes me?”
“Yes. She asked me to come meet you. Asked me to work with you a little.”
“Really?” Lei’s tongue was too thick for her mouth as she stared at Cruz, spellbound by his beauty, by the leashed power of him, by the serenity he emanated. How could she be so thoroughly smitten when she’d almost just been raped? Lei took a step back, away from him, and the feel of the cool gritty cement beneath her bare feet anchored her.
This must be some bizarre reaction. Her therapist back in San Rafael probably had a name for such a thing. “Harry must have seen that I wasn’t handling the stress from last night very well.”
“Yes. There are some techniques I can show you.” Cruz bent down, a supple movement, and picked up a small granite pebble from a nearby potted palm. “Put out your hand.”
Nervously, Lei extended her hand, palm up. He dropped the stone, still warm from the sunny day, into her hand and curled her fingers over it. His touch was light and confident, and over too quickly. “Carry that with you. Rub it when you’re worried. Put your fear and negative feelings into the stone. It will carry them for you.”
Lei looked down at the pebble in her hand. “It’s not magic. It’s just a rock from a planter.”
“It’s what you think it is. And for you, it needs to be a container. Come with me.”
Lei, carrying her shoes, followed him into the darkness without question.
Chapter Ten
Cruz led Lei away from the lighted area of the resort, heading down a graveled path past bungalows set in a row to the beach. The moon was high and full, as it had been the previous nights. The long, curving stretch of beach, marked at one end with cliffs and the famous stone arch the area was known for, was bathed in silvery light.
The sand and moonlight reminded Lei of their raid, and her heart sped up. She rubbed the pebble in her hand, testing what Cruz had told her to do—picturing her fears flowing down her nerves and filling the stone, which expanded to hold whatever she sent it.
Here she was, following yet another strange man into the dark—but this time, her feelings were vastly different. Cruz was here to teach her something, to heal something in her that had been wounded, and even without the things Harry had said about him, she instinctively trusted him.
They fell in step as they walked along the beach. Lights and music from the resorts leaked down to meld with the soft surge of the surf, speckled with the glow of bioluminescence, a magical sight. As they walked, Lei felt her heart rate lowering.
She was safe in Cruz’s company. Harry had called him for her, and he was going to help her let go of the aftereffects of the raid. Perhaps even the humiliation of Lucky’s crude assault. Maybe he could even help with the scars Kwon had left on her—though that seemed like a ridiculous hope.
They reached the far end of the beach, bordered in cliffs, a long way from any other human presence.
“Put your shoes down.”
Lei did.
Cruz led them to the damp, hard-packed sand near the water’s edge. “We’re going to do a moving meditation. I want you to concentrate on being in your body and the sensations of it moving through space. Harry tells me you do taekwondo. This is different. It’s called tai chi.”
“Okay.”
Lei stood behind Cruz as he faced the calm, moonlit sea. She breathed deeply and slowly as she imitated the trainer’s strong, slow, sweeping movements, deliberate and centered, even down to swirling kicks and turns. More and more as time slipped past, Lei’s mind went still, her soul settling into the center of her body.
They moved silently in the darkness in an elegant dance for a timeless hour, and finally Cruz came to a stop. He turned to her, placing his hands palms together at chest height. She did so as well.
They bowed to each other.
Lei felt warm and loose, her extremities prickling. She was gloriously alive, her bruises forgotten. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“You can do this any time you need to come back into your body.” He reached out and took her hand, and she had a sense he seldom did such a thing. “There is another healing I have for you. If you are willing to take a chance.”
The blood rushed to her face; her lips tingled as if he’d kissed her. Who was this mysterious moonlit man? Had God sent him, or something darker? It didn’t matter. However he had appeared, she desperately needed whatever he had for her.
“Please,” she breathed.
Cruz led her up from the water’s edge into the deep purple shadow of the cliffs. “We begin by getting in touch with each other’s body rhythms and breathing. Just follow what I do, as you did before.”
He stepped forward to stand very close. His breath, smelling slightly of cloves, warmed her face. His body, only a foot or two away, was slightly musky, and she felt the heat of him. Slowly, deliberately, he circled an arm around her and set a hand, fingers spread, on her back at the base of her spine.
The other hand he set on her chest, between her breasts.
Lei’s pulse quickened with familiar fear. She gazed into the dark of his extraordinary eyes and breathed slowly, calming herself.
She stretched out a hand and set it in the deep curve of his back, where the swell of his firm, round buttocks began. The other hand she set in the middle of the hard wall of his chest, a mirror of how he held her.
They gazed into each other’s eyes. Their breathing fell into sync.
A tiny wind stirred their hair to brush over each other like fragile antennae. The moon made silvery gleams over Cruz’s profile, gilding along his forehead and nose.
Lei’s mind leaped into overdrive—she was touching a stranger, rather intimately, in an isolated place.
She focused on what was happening in the moment, trying to stay present. In her partner’s steady gaze, she saw nothing but compassion, and yes, attraction and appreciation, but not the kind of lust that took all and gave nothing.
Cruz’s eyes, his body, held something different.
He was very warm beneath her hands, springy almost. Her fingertips moved slightly to explore the sensation of his skin through the thin shroud of his clothing, and she felt his fingers move slightly as well, imitating her.
As the moments unspooled, Lei was still in her body, and she was enjoying the feeling of his closeness, of the way their breath was shared, the matching of their pulses.
She was with a man, touching him, he touching her, and she hadn’t gone to that other place. This was the first time she’d stayed present for this long.
Lei felt a smile move over her face, and he echoed it, his teeth shining like pearls in the moonlight, strung perfectly along the frame of his jaw.
She seldom thought poetic things like that.
Lei took a tiny step closer toward him, and Cruz to her.
Now their hands on each other’s chests were pressed tight between their bodies.
Cruz spread the fingers of the hand on her back and massaged and explored her waist. Lei shut her eyes, and she could feel how she was to him through his hand: firm yet soft, her back a pleasing curve as he pulled her closer.
She did the same, spreading her fingers to draw him as close as she could. His pelvis was slightly higher than hers since he was a few inches taller, and the curve of her belly fit against his abdomen like two parts of a puzzle. His back was hard beneath her hand, the muscles corded ridges, different from her lithe curves.
His heartbeat picked up beneath her hand, his breath flowing slightly faster.
She was grateful to be looking into his kind, dark eyes as she felt her own arousal, an unfamiliar throb, almost a pain, between her legs. She could feel him too, a thickening at their joined hips. She could almost see their blood heating in the darkness.
Arousal was an unfamiliar, slightly scary sensation. She’d lost that feeling to Kwon, when she was just a child, and it had never visited her so strongly before.
Cruz lowered himself slowly, and she followed. He sat cross-legged in the sand, and
using his hands, he showed her that she was to sit on his lap, facing him, her legs over his, their bellies touching. “This is called the yam yub,” he whispered, his voice husky. “A sacred position.”
Her former stiffness and clumsiness gone, Lei sank into his lap. The tight confines of the tubelike spandex dress felt binding and ridiculous, so she peeled it up.
Cruz helped, lifting the garment off her head. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and her breasts sprang free and peaked in the cool night air as she breathed deep in relief, dropping the garment. Moonlight shone on the pale rounds of her chest. Cruz’s eyes traveled over her, lingering there a moment, before they returned to hers.
In his gaze she saw anticipation, and delight in her beauty. Nothing more. Nothing that felt intrusive or demanding. Nothing that required anything of her or would take anything from her that she didn’t want to give. You’re beautiful, his gaze said. I want you, of course. But that is all it is.
Lei reached for the edge of his shirt and eased it off, up over his head, baring his upper body as well, and she looked her fill at him.
He was sparely and beautifully made, perfectly proportioned in the way of an athlete who builds muscle from the practice of his art. His narrow waist flared up into a smooth, wide chest, his nipples were small dark coins, and his collarbones a visually pleasing rack from which the swell of his shoulder muscles rose. His neck was a column bisected by the fluttering of the pulse in his throat, and the tiniest wind off the water blew a black curl against the shell of his ear.
“Ah,” she said. “You’re beautiful.”
“As are you,” he breathed, and brought his arms down around her waist, drawing her close and tight, so that their pelvises touched. She embraced his shoulders. Their hips aligned, and their skin touched from waist to shoulder.
Lei expected the sex to begin, but it didn’t.
Instead, he wriggled her intimately close, just holding her for several breaths, and gently, he rested his head on her shoulder. It felt heavy, a weight of trust.
