Page 73 of Try Me

Lean on Me

Pearl

Declan wipedaway Pearl’s tears, cupping her face between his hands. “Maybe you don’t have to be so strong,” he suggested. “Would it be so bad to lean on someone?”

Pearl took a painful breath. She didn’t think she remembered how to lean on anyone other than herself. It had been too long.

“What happened after your mother died?” Declan asked. “Is that when your dad came around?”

Even after all these years, it was painful to talk about leaving Maui for the first time, even after all these years. “He took me to live on the mainland with him,” she said finally.

“It must have been hard to leave.”

She nodded. “It was terrible. I didn’t want to go. I’d never been anywhere but Hawaii.”

Declan tightened his arms around her. “What about your grandparents?” he asked. “They didn’t keep you with them?”

“They didn’t want me to go,” Pearl said, shrugging. “But it was better that way.”

“Why?”

“I was too smart for the local school. I was fluent in Chinese, English, and Spanish. As a kid, I absorbed information like a sponge. I knew more than my teachers, and by the time I was ten I’d already read every book in our local library.” She shrugged again, embarrassed. “They said I would be better off with my father. That he could give me the education I deserved.”

“So he took you away?”

“Yes.”

“He took you on a plane?” he asked.

Pearl stiffened, understanding where he was going. “You think that’s why I’m afraid to fly?”

He nodded.

Pearl’s heart started to beat faster in her chest, and her breath became shallow. For a moment it felt exactly like going up in a plane. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision. “Maybe you’re right,” she said.

“You never considered it before?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out the feeling of taking off from the ground. She always felt so helpless when she flew. So vulnerable. She hated the feeling, and considered it her greatest weakness.

“I don’t like to think about flying. It makes me break out in a sweat.”

Declan smiled and took her hand, which was shaking, and brought it to his mouth for a kiss. “Next time we fly, I will be there. I won’t let anything happen to you. Will you lean on me, Pearl?”

She realized she was shaking. Could she let him take care of her? Could she trust him? She didn’t know.

“Thank you,” she said.

Desperate to end the conversation, she linked her arms around Declan’s neck and kissed him passionately, sweeping her tongue between his lips. Her fingers tangled in his hair, and she arched against him, unable to get close enough.

They lay down and Declan stretched out beside her. It was the only way they could both fit on the narrow bed.

He took her mouth again, and the kiss heated in seconds. Declan tugged her shirt up and bent his head to kiss her breasts. His erection pressed into her thigh. Her fingernails raked over his back. They couldn’t seem to get enough of each other.

They kissed slow and deep and then hot and demanding, pausing only for Declan to get up and light the lantern. He stripped off his shorts and came back to the bed naked. Pearl propped up on the bed and watched him walk back to her. The soft light of the lantern cast shadows over his gorgeous body. She wanted to trace her tongue over every dip and ridge of muscle and taste where the flame flickered against his skin.

“Come here,” she said, shifting to make room for him on the bed.

“So bossy,” he said, smiling.

---