Page 27 of Deadly Aloha
I scowledwhen Lu opened her own door. Kanoa was standing by the kitchen counter eating a bowl of cereal. Theonlything that saved his life in that moment was the fact that he had his gun on the counter and a clear line of sight to me at the door.
Still… “Why the fuck is she answering her own door?” I demanded, stepping inside the small apartment. Why was Lu living in an apartment in Ewa Beach anyway? Her family was on the other side of the island.Iwas on the other side of the island.
“She is standing right the fuck here,” Lu snapped, but I ignored her.
“In case you haven’t realized,” Kanoa said around the cereal in his mouth, “your girl’s really stubborn.”
My jaw ticked. Ihadnoticed. My gravestone was going to sayHere Lies Aloiki Ka’ana’ana and this is Lu’s fault.
“Get out,” I ordered Kanoa. The man put his bowl down, still chewing. I stepped aside so he could step behind me rather than between Lu and me. As he went to shut the door behind him, I said, “Head to my house. Tangaloa’s waiting to fill you in.”
He nodded once before waving goodbye to Lu.
She waved back. As soon as the door was closed, she rounded on me with a glare, hands on her hips. “That was rude!”
I didn’t see a need to argue that fact. My slippahs were outside her door and I wasn’t wearing a shirt. I pushed my thumbs into the waistband of my cargo shorts before pushing them down my long legs. My boxer briefs followed.
Lu’s eyes landed on my half-hard dick. “What are you doing?”
“You wanted to talk,” I reminded her, stepping right up to her. “And I warned you how we were going to do it.”
While she didn’t back away from me, she also didn’t start to get undressed. “I’m not having sex with you.”
“You’ve already had sex with me.” I reached up to touch her flushed face. “You’re about to have sex with me again.” Her eyes dilated when my fingers made contact with her skin. “You want me,” I told her with confidence. “It’s written all over your face.”
A sad expression replaced her desire. “Just because I want you, doesn’t mean I should have you. If that was the case, my entire freezer would be packed with Rocky Road ice cream.”
“Life’s too short to fight having what you want,” I argued. “And why the fuck isn’t your freezer packed with Rocky Road ice cream?”
“Because then I’ll eat it,” she snapped, like that was the most obvious answer and I was a fucking idiot for asking.
“Good,” I tell her. “You’re too skinny. Why haven’t you been eating right?”
Her cheeks heated under my fingers. “I am not too skinny. I really should lose some weight?—”
“Why the fuck would you do something as fucking ridiculous as that?” My annoyance at her notion made my question sound angry. “You’re fucking perfect just as you are.”
She turned her face away from me, shrugging.
I leaned down, pressing a kiss to her temple. “How long have you been back?” I asked, my lips against her skin.
I felt her shift uncomfortably. “About a year.”
Fuck, that hurt. When I was fifteen, I stepped on a sea urchin, and I’d rather suffer through that a hundred times over again than live with the knowledge that Lu had been back home fornearly a year and hadn’t come to see me, hadn’t even let me know.
As if sensing my pain, she placed a hand to my belly. Her light touch making my abs quiver as she traced the hard lines of my six-pack. “I’m sorry…”
I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, needing her close. The irony was that she was the balm that soothed my soul, and also the cause of its greatest wounds. “Why didn’t you come find me?”
Her arms wound around my waist and she turned her cheek into my chest. “Why do you think?” Her voice was practically a whisper. “I knew we’d end up just like this.”
I couldn’t help chuckling, even though the pain in my chest did not lessen. “You say that like it’s a bad thing?”
“Isn’t it?” she countered. Her fingers seemed to trace almost absentmindedly against the dip at the small of my back. “You obviously haven’t changed, and neither have I. Doesn’t that mean we’re just going to end up right back where we were?”
The pain and worry in her voice slayed me. I could take it. Pain was nothing new to me, but I fuckinghatedknowing she was suffering too.
I reached my hands down to the hem of her shirt. Lu did not fight me when I lifted it up and over her head. I removed her bra next, letting it fall to the floor. My hands cupped her tits, my thumbs rubbing over the tight peaks of her nipples that my tongue longed to worship.
