Page 2 of Forbidden Hawaiian Nights
The guy oozed sex appeal and Mia was so taken aback that she could only stare for a few addled, frozen seconds.
She recovered fast from the temporary lapse.
‘Forget it.’ She turned around and quickly began walking away, head held high, backbone straight, her body language informing whoever the guy was that she wasn’t on the market for any kind of casual pick-up.
‘Come again?’
His voice was dark, smooth and velvety. Mia didn’t stop to look around, but she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
‘You heard me,’ she snapped, spinning round again and then taking a step back, because he was just so damned tall, his presence just so damned overpowering. ‘I’m not interested. I don’t want to have a drink with you. I don’t want to go to a club with you. I don’t want to have dinner with you.’
‘I don’t believe I asked you to do any of those things.’
Mia heard the coolness in his voice and was taken aback. There was a stillness about him and a feeling of complete self-control that she found a little disconcerting.
Who the heck was he?
The mere fact that the question had the temerity to pop into her head annoyed her.
Mia knew, without a trace of vanity, that she drew looks. She was five-six and slender, with a heart-shaped face and full lips that turned heads. She was olive-skinned by birth, but a lifetime of living and working in the sun had deepened her natural colouring, and she was now a rich bronze with long, dark hair and caramel eyes.
So what if men looked? None of them got to her. After Kai, she had retreated from the dismal, soul-destroying business of looking for love. Her short marriage had been a slow and illuminating process of disillusionment. You go through that, she figured, and you were a fool not to learn from the experience.
She’d learnt.
‘I’m not having this conversation,’ she said, her coolness a match for his.
‘Mia Kaiwi? That is your name, isn’t it?’
Mia froze on the spot. This time, a thread of apprehension raced through her. She turned slowly to find that he was standing quite still, his head tilted to one side, his expression shuttered.
‘Who the hell are you?’
‘I’ll tell you who I’m not,’ Max said silkily. ‘And that’s someone looking for a pick-up.’
‘How do you know my name?’
‘Is there somewhere we can go to talk?’
‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’
How did the guy know her name? Was he a dad to one of the kids in her surfing group?
No, of course he wasn’t. You didn’t forget a face like that, and Mia had never seen him in her life before.
Even on a beach where most of the guys were in shorts, and many of them young, good-looking and at the very peak of their fitness, this guy attracted attention. She was aware of people walking past, looking once and then looking again. He didn’t seem to notice or, if he did, he didn’t care.
‘Oh, but you are.’ Max paused. ‘Now…’ He looked around. ‘Is there somewhere quiet around here? I would suggest my hotel, but as you seem to be under the mistaken impression that I’m about to make a pass at you I don’t suppose that would be appropriate.’
‘I could call someone to have you arrested,’ Mia said, but she was beginning to get the feeling that she was on shaky ground, because there was a self-assurance in the man that was unsettling.
‘I wouldn’t do that.’ Max indicated a café further along the beach. It was a little busy, but they would be able to sit without people jostling them. ‘There will do.’
Mia’s mouth dropped open as he coolly began walking away, expecting her to follow.
Heart pounding and head beginning to throb with nervous tension, she found herself snapping out of her daze, tripping behind him to the café. At least she knew the owner at this place, so there was no way he could do anything to her.
Although, would he?
