Burning up the Rain (Hawaiian Heroes) (29 page)

When the shampoo was gone, her hair sleeked back, Jack tipped her face up with his big hands and kissed her, his mouth soft and warm and wet. She opened her eyes to find him gazing into her eyes, still somber but with a deep well of emotion behind them, one she was nearly afraid to examine.

“Yesterday,” he said. “When you said you were staying here instead of going to the hospital, I thought you just didn’t care about Melia and the baby. But instead, you were already planning to go up there all alone, and…do whatever the hell you did, weren’t you?”

She nodded, wary.

He smoothed his thumbs over her cheeks, shaking his head once, the way he did so often with her. More tears fell, trickling around his thumbs. “I’m sorry I doubted you. I don’t understand any of this,” he said, his wet face so handsome she trembled, but his azure gaze full of turmoil. “I always knew the Ho’omalus were a little different, but this is…outside my haole experience.”

“So, now you know I’m a freak,” she said, sniffling defiantly. “Different than your California women, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, the ghost of a smile on his beautiful mouth. He reached around her again, a washcloth in his hands this time, daubed with shower gel.

“Different.” He pressed the cloth to her shoulder and began to wash her with slow, careful circles.

“Crazier.” More washing, down the length of her arm and over the back of her hand, holding it before him as if it were precious, delicate.

“More aggravating.” Up her side and over her breasts, his eyes following his task.

“Smarter.” Her other arm now, and she felt something bob against her belly—his cock, wet and warm.

“Sexier.” The washcloth slipped down over her belly and between her thighs. He gazed into her eyes as he washed her carefully, seeming to pay no attention to the fact that she was crying again.

“More beautiful.” The washcloth slid slowly down her back and across her ass cheeks, then between them, tickling, inciting, caressing. “And may your Pele help me, the only wahine I want.”

With a sob of sheer relief and joy, she threw her arms up around him, holding on as he lifted her up against him.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he began.

She shut him up by kissing him, hard. “
Yes.
Jack, I need you.”

He groaned, one hand under her ass to support her as he positioned his cock with the other and then flexed his hips, driving himself up inside her.

She cried out into his mouth with the joy of being filled with him, of being held in his arms and kissed as if she were the most delicious, most desirable wahine he’d ever tasted, while he moved his hips, rocking into her, fucking her hard and fast.

“Oh, baby,” he groaned. “Lock your feet behind my ass, oh yeah, just like that. Ah, fuck, yeah. Hang on to me…”

Lalei kissed him and then hung on, pressing her wet face to his as he took her as only he could, pouring sweet, dirty words in her ear. She came with a scream of pleasure because she knew it drove him wild, and because she couldn’t help herself.

Afterward, they dried each other off, with careful attention to detail, and then he held her for a moment, his forehead against hers. “I thought I’d lost you. I don’t see how I could live with that.”

She gazed into his blue, blue eyes. “I know the feeling.”

“Yeah?”

“
Aloha au Ia’oe,
Jack Nord.”

His gaze heated, his hand cupping the side of her face. “I like the sound of that, wahine. You can give me a complete translation later, and I’ll answer. But, as much as I’d love to continue our language lesson, you’ve got people waiting on you.”

“I do?” She didn’t really care. When she’d just admitted to herself and him that she was hopelessly in love with him, she wanted to hear it back. In Hawaiian or English or his California Native American—she didn’t care which. She put her hands on his chest, smoothing them down over his hard abs, just to feel him tremble and lean into her touch.

He groaned. “Your family is waiting for you.”

“Oh my God,” she gasped, remembering. “What time is it? We’re supposed to be in court.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s okay. This afternoon. We’ll fly over in the chopper.”

She blew out a breath of relief. They had time, then.

“How about you?” She combed his wet hair with her fingers, smoothing down the rebellious lock in front. “Are you…here for me?”

“I am,” he said. He winced. “Lalei, I’m so sorry, baby. For what I said to you yesterday. I—you hit me in my damn ego, that’s why. It’s not an excuse, because there is no damn excuse. I was an asshole. Forgive me?” He looked into her eyes at last, his full of raw pleading.

“I forgive you, Jack. Anyway, you could’ve been right, you know? I might have gone down that road if it wasn’t for you.”

He smoothed her hair back from her ears, tucking it carefully behind them. “Yeah, speaking of roads—paths, whatever. Baby, something happened.”

“What?” she prodded. He had the oddest look in his eyes, as if he was remembering something incredible.

He shook his head, smiling crookedly at her. “I, ah…I saw her. Pele.”

She gasped, shocked. “You did? What happened?”

As he told her how the two of them had been transported from Lenny Liho’o’s shack to Pele’s chamber, she listened raptly.

“So we have her blessing,” she breathed, beaming at him.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “But, baby, there’s a lot going on in both our lives—”

Her eyes narrowed. “As long as we’re good—you and me. Or are you going to do another ‘I’m here in body but not in spirit’ thing on me?”

His eyes filled with turbulence, like the storm clouds she summoned. “You’re good—you’re perfect. Me? I’m not sure.”

She grasped his arm as he turned away. “Jack, it doesn’t matter to me. If that’s why you were so…distant yesterday.”

“It should matter,” he said, and she would have held on to him, but his whole stance was so stiff, so full of pain, she could only watch, stunned by the realization that this wonderful, caring man truly believed his one flaw made him unworthy of her.

“Come on, baby,” he said. “You need to eat, and there’s more news.”

All right, she’d let him evade her for now. But later, he was going to realize that she wasn’t letting him go—not after this.

Breakfast was laid out in the kitchen, as usual. Lalei found herself delighted by the ordinariness of pouring a glass of sweet, tart orange-guava juice, of filling a bowl with Leilani’s crunchy, homemade granola and adding plump chunks of banana, papaya and mango. Of nodding when Jack offered to pour her coffee. She had traveled close to the boundaries of this world and the next, and she was deeply grateful to be back.

The Ho’omalus were gathered en masse on the beach, with the morning sunlight pouring over the mountain. Lalei knew a momentary urge to hide behind Jack. But she straightened her shoulders proudly as she walked onto the lanai. She’d deliberately chosen a skimpy white tank to wear with her short skirt. She wasn’t going to hide her tattoos—any of them.

She glanced down at her newly inked hands bearing the bright bowl of cereal. These hands could do many things. The new skills, powers, she would learn to control. The others she would learn to value, because she was more than just a pretty face.

Homu and Tina were there, as well as Homu’s brother Hilo. Daniel and Claire, Bella and Joel, and Malu all sat waiting.

She looked them all in the eye, daring anyone to say anything—about Jack and her, that was. She knew very well they’d have plenty to say about what she’d done, calling her powers down without consulting any of them.

Her bowl shook in her hands, and she set it down on the table by the chair Jack held for her. He touched her back, his hand warm and strong. There to support her.

“Where’s Melia?” she asked David. “Is she okay?”

He smiled at her. “She’s fine, just resting. It was a bug of some kind. The baby’s fine.”

“Oh, good.” She pressed a hand to her mouth, amazed at the relief pouring through her.

“How are you?” Bella asked, frowning. “You must be—I don’t know, totally freaked out?”

“No, I’m fine,” Lalei answered, exchanging a secret glance with Jack. Her stomach growled. She was starving. Picking up her bowl, she took a big bite of granola and banana.

Bella seemed a little put out that Lalei wasn’t all emotional. Here was something to thank Suzy for—all those lessons in ladylike control. Lalei raised an eyebrow at her cousin, knowing it would annoy her. Bella’s fiancé grinned and leaned over to murmur something to David.

David glanced from her to Bella and nodded appreciatively. Then he caught Lalei’s eye and shrugged mischievously. “He says you two are a lot alike.”

“We are not,” Bella and Lalei protested in unison. The men laughed. Tina pressed two fingers to her lips, her eyes twinkling. Claire was smiling, but she raised her eyebrows innocently as Bella glared at her.

Homu looked at Lalei, and she tensed, waiting. Was now the time for her reprimand? But her uncle smiled at her. “Thanks to Lalei, there will be no further premature work done on the site.”

Her face burned as the family all turned to watch her. She might as well get it over with. Her lunch rolled in her stomach. “I…I broke the law. I caused a great deal of damage.”

Jack’s hand closed around hers, warm and strong. He didn’t wait for the Ho’omalus to answer her. “You didn’t harm anyone innocent, baby. Believe me, I know the players in TropicSun. The things that bunch have done make your little bonfire seem like a hibachi.”

David nodded, agreeing.

Daniel’s white teeth gleamed in a sharklike grin. “And it’ll be a while before they find more heavy equipment. Have to barge it over here. That’ll take a while.”

Lalei hung on to Jack’s hand as she looked around. They really weren’t angry with her?

“Of course you will learn restraint,” Homu added. “Control is the most important facet of ho’omalu powers.”

She nodded fervently. “I will. I promise.”

“I’ll help you,” Bella offered, smooth as syrup.

“Oh, that will be wonderful,” Lalei said in the same sugary tone. “As long as you don’t mind getting a little wet.”

“Hey, can I watch?” Joel asked, his eyes lighting up. “Wet girls tussling, oh yeah.”

His fiancée glared at him while Jack, Malu and Daniel laughed. Homu merely smiled at them all.

Lalei let her own laughter bubble up and break free as well. It felt wonderful. Finally, Bella gave in to laughter too.

When they were quiet, Homu slapped his hands on his knees. “Well, we are due back in court this afternoon. You are all welcome to fly over with us again. Be at the airport by eleven, yeah?”

Lalei rose with the others, but her anxious gaze was on Jack. “You’re coming?”

“Oh yeah. Wouldn’t miss it.”

The protestors were back outside the courthouse in Hilo, waving their signs and chanting, “No mo’ resorts” and “No drug money.” They cheered when the Ho’omalus approached and made an aisle to let them through to the courthouse steps.

“I feel like a Hollywood star,” Lalei said to Jack. “Or at least a member of the entourage.”

“You look like a starlet,” he assured her, heat in his gaze.

She wrinkled her nose. “I ruined the pretty dress you gave me.”

She wore her short cocoa skirt and matching halter top with her short white sweater over it, the best she could do with the clothing she had left. At least her brown pearls dressed the outfit up. A college graduation gift from Homu, Tina and the guys, she treasured them. And her sweater was a Mitzi Kali’iko.

“I’ll take you shopping again,” he said in her ear as they paused at the bottom of the stairs for the elder Ho’omalus to precede them. “That shop had a little lace thong that would be great on you.”

She blushed all over and elbowed him in the side to counteract the flush of desire that seized her. Damn him, he could make her wet just with his dirty talk.

He laughed low in his throat, and his hand settled in the small of her back, urging her up the stairs after the family. She loved that as they walked inside and wended their way into the courtroom, he left it there, a mark of possession.

But was it the forever kind?

The courtroom was once again filled to overflowing with people. A buzz of conversation filled the air, most of it tense with expectation. Even the usually laid-back locals were waiting to see what would happen with this case, Lalei realized. The TropicSun lawyers sauntered in along with their beefy client, relaxed as if they were arriving for drinks at the club.

The Ho’omalus lawyers were nearly late. They hurried in together. Lalei could read nothing from their faces. Someone slipped into the row behind her, his arm brushing her hair. The silver-haired conservationist, his face tired and drawn.

Judge Horace Makao took the stand with a ponderous air that immediately set Lalei’s nerves on edge. She slipped her hand into Jack’s. He squeezed it, his eyes on the judge.