Fire Beach: Lei Crime Book 8 (Lei Crime Series) (24 page)

“So then she found out from someone what flight we were on and took the initiative to have us land on Ni`ihau, where she had connections. Those men owed the Changs gambling debts, according to their statements.”

“If you hadn’t knocked her out with that oxygen tank, I’m pretty sure she’d have rendezvoused with her honchos and disappeared from us permanently. Probably would have taken the plane alone somewhere and disappeared from there.”

“Exactly what I thought. Good thing we had so many witnesses on how it all went down.” Stevens rubbed the tiny heart tattoo of
lei
on his inner arm. “The defense is going to try to paint us as the aggressors.”

Lei slanted a glance at him, a sparkle in her eyes he hadn’t seen in a month. “I think you were pretty aggressive with that canister. Makes me a little weak in the knees thinking about it.”

“Oh yeah?” The blood seemed to rush from his head down to a neglected part of him that missed his wife very much. He’d left her alone after the miscarriage, just holding her at night through one or the other of their nightmares. Dr. Wilson had come and done trauma debriefing with them, but there was no quick fix for their losses and grief.

He’d resolved to be patient and wait until she was ready to be with him again.
However long it takes.
She’d never know how hard it was to keep his hands off her night after night.

“Yeah. You were my hero that day.” She smiled, slow and sweet.

“You know what, Lei? I’ve thought long and hard about what you did on the Big Island and how you did it. And while I’ll always wish you’d told me and we’d tackled it together, you were right to take initiative. The Changs were just going to keep coming after us until we were dead. Thinking of Anchara, how vulnerable she was pregnant—I couldn’t have handled it if it had been you and our child.” Stevens cleared his throat. It had been hard to find the right time to say these words, but he’d needed to for a while.

She twined her fingers with his. “I’ve been hoping you’d forgive me for the Chang thing. But I can’t forgive myself for losing Baby.”

“It wasn’t anyone’s fault. Like the doctor said, sometimes these things just happen. Now, we have a house to build. And I for one am glad we’re going with cement block this time around.”

The next day Lei put the finishing touches on the tent she’d set up a good long way across their yard from the cottage, tucking it behind one of the mango trees out of view. She’d bought the tent on the sly, blown up an air mattress, and purchased beautiful new linens she’d washed ahead of time. She’d put a silky carpet down and hung tiny, golden, battery-operated Christmas lights inside, creating a cozy, romantic getaway—which was what she felt like they needed to be intimate again, with the close quarters they kept with Wayne and Kiet.

A dozen times in the last week she’d almost reached for Stevens, feeling a growing hunger for him—but she’d held back, feeling constraint. Kiet woke easily, and Wayne being right on the other side of their thin wall didn’t help an increasing worry that they’d lost their connection, their passion. That inhibition kept her on her side of the bed.

Stevens, other than tenderly holding her when she cried, or letting her hug him during a nightmare, kept his back turned and gave no sign he wanted anything more.

She looked out the entrance of the tent toward the new foundation and the beehive of workmen putting up the cement-block construction in record time. Half the men out there were off-duty friends, refusing to accept payment for their work. They couldn’t have rebuilt the house otherwise, as the insurance money had barely covered contractor and material costs.

Lei savored the feeling of gratitude she’d been able to feel again, as the intense grief of losing Baby receded and her body recovered. They had much to be grateful for, even if uncertainties like the IA investigation remained.

Wayne and Kiet had gone to spend the evening at a friend’s, so she took a shower and dressed in a silky black robe with nothing on underneath. She was preparing a simple dinner when Stevens drove up. He walked up the steps, running a hand through his hair, and those blue eyes widened at the sight of her. He gazed at her short, silky robe, and her cheeks heated.

“Where’s Wayne?”

“Out for the evening. It’s just us. Why don’t you shower? Dinner will be ready by the time you’re out.” Lei sipped from a glass of Chardonnay and eyed him flirtatiously over the rim.

“Don’t mind if I do.” He moved with alacrity into the bathroom, and she smiled, setting the table. She’d made her favorite old standby, teriyaki chicken and rice, and she was seated when he came out, wearing a soft old pair of jeans, nothing else, and toweling his hair.

Lei admired the contours of his chest. Work on the house had hardened and chiseled him further, and it showed in the spread of his shoulders, the narrow V of his abs disappearing into the jeans.

She felt a tingle, looking at him. She’d decided it was time, but she hadn’t felt a tingle like that since
before.

Things were divided into ‘before’ Baby and ‘after.’ She wondered if they always would be. She poured him wine, and he sat down and raised his glass.

“I was thinking about our conversation the other day. You said I was your hero. Well, Lei, you’re
my
hero.” Stevens extended his glass to clink with hers. “To heroes.”

They drank.

Lei felt time slowing down. Each moment intensified, all her senses sharpening as she let herself become attuned to him again. The wine was both cool and heating in her mouth, and she felt the movement of her throat to swallow. Light shone on the sprinkling of hair on his chest, gilded the length of his fingers. She smelled the scent of him, soap and man and uniquely hers. Those blue eyes she loved intensified as he gazed at her, unblinking, from under dark brows.

Her hand trembled as she tried to cut her chicken. “I’m scared,” she whispered.

“My Lei? Scared?” He took her utensils out of her hands and set them down. Held her cold hands in his warm ones. “Of me?”

“No. Of…loving again. I feel like I’ve forgotten how.”

He took her hand, drew her up against him as he stood. “I’ve heard it’s kind of like riding a bike.”

They abandoned the dinner, and she kept hold of his hand and led him out the front door, down the steps through velvety-warm darkness, across the lawn, and around the scarred area where their new house rose, and to the mango tree.

The lights were aglow inside the tent.

“This is…perfect,” he said. The tent, lit from within like it was garlanded with fireflies, was a jewel-like setting for the inviting bed. Stevens unzipped the door and held the screen aside for her.

Lei passed close as she entered. She saw the hairs on his arm rise as she brushed him. She felt her nipples tighten in response. The electricity between them seemed to crackle in the air. Still, Lei felt shy, uncertain, fumbling with her hands, pushing them into her pockets, and clumsy in her body.

She sat down on the air mattress and turned toward him, her arms around her knees. He knelt in front of her. “Relax. There’s no hurry. There’s no one here but us. We can take all the time we want. We don’t have to do anything but kiss if you don’t want to.”

“I know. I’ve gotten so used to having Kiet close, it feels strange being without him,” Lei whispered. “I just feel shy.” She reached out and traced his face, her hand sliding down his cheek over the slight stubble there, along the hard line of his jaw. Her fingers brushed his lips, and they felt warm and supple.

He caught her hand in his and kissed her fingertips, drawing the pads of her fingers into his mouth. His tongue darted out to touch them, igniting tiny shocks of sensation that rippled through her body.

Lei felt her breath speed up, and she wanted to be closer to him. She opened her knees and slid forward so that her thighs clasped the rough fabric of his jeans as her silk-clad body pressed against his shirtless chest.

Their mouths touched, fused. Passion rose as they kissed. Their hands wandered and stroked. Touched. Traced and explored.

Smoothed and discovered.

Reknowing.

Rediscovering.

Rekindling.

He groaned. “I know I told you there’s no hurry…but it’s been so long. I might embarrass myself.”

“That’s okay,” she whispered. “I want you. I need you.”

Her arms circled him and drew him down and in, and it was breathless pleasure and the deepest love, the kind only those who’ve been burned can know.

Acknowledgments

Dear Readers:

I can’t thank you enough for being the encouraging cheer squad you are! Those of you who follow me on Facebook were particularly helpful as I neared the end of this latest roller-coaster ride and felt…well, kind of like how Lei and Stevens must feel—exhausted, flat, worn-out from all the battles.

I know I can’t leave Lei and Stevens there, or hang out there for long myself, so it’s on to the next one. You guys were so great helping me generate new ideas for titles! So next up is
Rip Tides
, Lei Crime #9, coming out in January 2015. This will be dealing with a subculture of Hawaii I’m particularly fond of: the surf scene.

I want to thank my awesome expert consultants: Captain David Spicer (Ret), who keeps Lei’s police work semi-accurate. Deputy fire chief and fire marshal, San Jose Fire Department (Ret), David Schoonover, was a huge help, sitting me down for a fascinating tutorial on arson investigation and the psychology of arson. He sent tons of articles, too, and read the manuscript for errors! Any flubs that remain are my fault entirely.

I also thank Paul Haake, captain, Fire Prevention Bureau, Department of Fire and Public Safety for Maui County, for promptly and courteously responding to my inquiries about police and arson investigation procedure in Hawaii. Arson and fire science were a completely new area for me, and while I’ve been following the arson cane fires that happen periodically here on Maui and wondering about them, his information about how investigation is done was invaluable.

As always, thanks to my beta readers Bonny Ponting and Noelle Pierce for your discerning eyes and enthusiastic thumbs-up this go-around!

Check out the excerpt for
Rip Tides
, Lei Crime #9, at the end of this book, and sign up for new title announcements at
tobyneal.net
. If you liked the story,
please leave a review
. It’s the best thanks you can give any author.

Until next time, much aloha!

Toby Neal

About the Author

Toby Neal was raised on Kauai in Hawaii and makes the Islands home after living elsewhere for “stretches of exile” to pursue education. Toby enjoys outdoor activities including bodyboarding, scuba diving, photography and hiking as well as writing. A mental health therapist, she credits that career with adding depth to the characters in the Lei Crime Series.

Find Toby online at:
http://www.tobyneal.net/

Watch for These Titles

Lei Crime Series:

Blood Orchids
(book 1)

Torch Ginger
(book 2)

Black Jasmine
(book 3)

Broken Ferns
(book 4)

Twisted Vine
(book 5)

Shattered Palms
(book 6)

Dark Lava
(book 7)

Fire Beach
(book 8)

Rip Tides
(book 9)

Companion Series:

Stolen in Paradise
:

a Lei Crime Companion Novel (Marcella Scott)

Wired in Paradise:

a Lei Crime Companion Novel (Sophie Ang)

Unsound:

a novel (Dr. Caprice Wilson)

Wired In:

(coming 2015, Sophie Ang)

Middle Grade/Young Adult:

Island Fire

Wallflower Diaries: Case of the Missing Girl

(currently on submission with agent)

Contemporary Fiction/Romance:

Somewhere on Maui

an Accidental Matchmaker Novel

Somewhere on Kaua`i

an Accidental Matchmaker Novel

Nonfiction:

Under an Open Sky: Essays on Nature

(coming 2016)

Children of Paradise:

a Memoir of Growing Up in Hawaii

(coming 2016)

Sign up for Book Lovers Club or news of upcoming books at
http://www.tobyneal.net/

For more information, visit:

TobyNeal.net

Sample

Rip Tides, January 2015

O
cean the color of gemstones—turquoise and lapis, with a few emeralds thrown in—seemed to mock Detective Lei Texeira with its beauty as she pushed through the ring of spectators on the beach at Ho`okipa, Maui. A couple of uniformed officers she was familiar with were holding back the crowd, and Lei gave them a nod. “Push them back further. Put up some scene tape.”

Before she looked at the body she’d come for, Lei’s eyes swept the crowd. The onlookers were subdued—all but one, a brunette young woman in a towel. She was sobbing into the arms of a friend. Lei made a mental note to come back to her. She turned to her partner, Pono Kaihale.

“Can you start getting names and contact info before these witnesses start drifting off?”

God bless Pono.
Her long-time friend never had a problem with her taking the lead. He nodded, whipped a notepad out of his pocket and waded back into the crowd as Lei turned to face the famous victim.