Page 47 of Try Me

The Real Hawaii

Declan

For a moment,Declan had forgotten that Pearl was being paid to pretend to like him. He’d happily lost himself in the fantasy of her. Spotting the photographer hired by McKenna had flung him back to reality.

The photographer was a hippie from Oahu in search of the “Real Hawaii” that couldn’t be found on the most populated island. His name was Jack Richardson. He was from Australia, and he’d been living in Kauai for nearly a year. Jack knew all the best spots and how to get to them. He’d been eking out a living as a handyman, a day laborer, and whatever else work he could find, but his passion was photography.

They put their bags in the back of the open Jeep next to the surfboards he’d brought for them and took off down the rocky road. Declan didn’t say much as they drove along the narrow curving lanes barely wide enough for one vehicle. Jack did most of the talking with Pearl breaking in every so often to ask excited questions.

Declan’s mind wandered to the time he’d been to Kauai with Eddie and Keoni when they were teenagers. As the Jeep bumped over the dramatic road, winding through the steep cliffs, Declan experienced a sudden longing for his best friends that cinched his heart.

On a quest to surf every break in Hawaii, the three of them had traveled all over Oahu, then branched out to the other islands. One day they borrowed Declan’s father’s boat and sailed to Kauai. The trip to the Garden Isle had been worth the beating Declan’s father delivered when they got home.

Eddie was the leader of their trio. He had a magnetic charm that caused everyone he met to fall under his spell. He smiled constantly, always had a joke ready, and never met a stranger.

Keoni, the youngest of the group, was nearly as tall as Eddie. Even though he was just a kid, his shoulders were broad and his body was ripped with lean muscle. Keoni had been cut from a different cloth than everyone else. He was so good at surfing that there were rumors that he was descended from the gods. Keoni’s connection with the surf was almost magical. The only other person Declan had ever seen with such a strong bond was Pearl.

Keoni and Eddie had already been best friends when Declan had come along and busted down the doors of their brotherhood. Declan knew he was like a dark cloud on a sunny day, but somehow, they’d let him in.

Keoni and Eddie were easy to be around. Easy to love. True Hawaiians who had been raised with the spirit of aloha, they were expected to spread kindness with humility and patience. Eddie and Keoni had embraced Declan in a way his real family had never done.

Eddie was the leader. Keoni the legend. And Declan the daredevil.

While Eddie and Keoni were patient, willing to sit all day in the lineup waiting for the perfect wave, Declan sought trouble.

Declan was reckless, careless, unconcerned with his own mortality. He should have been the one to die on the waves.

Not Eddie.

They screeched to a halt. The surfboards knocked together, jarring Declan away from his trip down memory lane.

“Tunnels Beach,” Jack announced as he slammed the Jeep into park.

Declan pushed aside the surfboards and hopped down to the sand. He hadn’t been to Tunnels before, but he’d heard about it. At first glance it didn’t look like much. The beach was only a thin strip of pale sand near the mouth of a river. Fierce wind kicked along the shoreline, blowing a fine mist of sand into the air.

A shiver of anticipation raced down Declan’s spine as he watched the waves form into the long tunnels for which they had named the point break. Pearl came up beside him. The wind played with her hair, tossing it over her shoulder to brush Declan’s arm. He could feel her energy, sense her eagerness to be on the waves. Her eyes shined like the sparkling crest of Diamond Head Crater at sunrise.

The catch of her breath was audible over the rumble of the waves, and her chest rose and fell with each excited inhalation. When she moistened her top lip with the tip of her tongue, Declan couldn’t stop his body’s reaction. He went instantly hard.

Was there any greater turn-on than watching a beautiful woman get turned on by a wave? Declan didn’t think so. Especially when the woman was Pearl.

“What do you think?” he asked, licking his dry lips.

Pearl tore her attention away from the waves to look at him. A slow smile spread over her mouth. “It’s good,” she said. Her voice, low and sensual, dripped over him like warm honey.

Declan felt every nerve in his body vibrate under his skin. Suddenly, he didn’t care about the waves anymore. He wanted Pearl back in his arms. A moment before he reached for her, she turned away and jogged down to the shore with the board under her arm.

“Can she surf as good as she looks?” Jack asked, staring as Pearl dove under the shore break and popped up on the other side.

“Shut your mouth, or I’ll shut it for you,” Declan growled, glaring at Jack.

“Sorry, mate,” Jack said. “I didn’t —”

“Just shut up,” Declan cut him off. Tucking his surfboard under his arm, he marched toward the water’s edge.

Jack’s presence was a nuisance, reminding Declan that he was nothing more than a job to Pearl. He was a rung in her ladder to success.

Pearl took off on a wave, standing on top of her board with the effortless grace of a ballerina.

Declan felt the burn of his heated blood as he watched Pearl surf. She was pure magic. Pearl dropped in on the wave, flying down the blue wall of water. She made the impossible look easy. Leaning forward, she executed the bottom turn flawlessly.

Behind him, Jack clicked his camera a half dozen times, capturing her beauty. Pearl had been born for the camera. Her hair billowed behind her in a silken stream of black ribbons. Her bronze skin glowed, and her smile rivaled the brightest rays of the sun.

Declan had never believed in the Hawaiian gods and goddesses, but he swore he was watching one as Pearl flew down the line, bewitching every man who looked at her.

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