Page 12 of His Hawaiian Heart (Stateside Doms #26)

Chapter Eight

Samuel

I’d exchanged my suit for jeans and a blue button-down shirt and the limo for my horse.

He stood at seventeen hands and yet could move with the grace of a filly half his size.

I didn’t need to speak to give him directions.

We’d been a pair for so long, he could tell from a simple shift of my body or stroke of my hand what I wanted him to do.

Right now, I was stroking my fingers through his mane as he stood still as a statue.

Even if the boughs of the trees didn’t totally conceal us, I wasn’t sure we needed the shadows they provided.

From where I sat I could see Samantha. If I hadn’t seen her occasionally push aside fronds of ferns almost as tall as she was , I might have wondered if she was a figment of my imagination.

Her curls were secured in a high ponytail, the ends of her hair sweeping past her shoulders.

My horse gave a slight shift. “Sorry, buddy,” I said as I pulled my fingers free.

He snorted softly as if he understood it hadn’t been his ebony black mane I’d unconsciously fisted and given a tug but strands the sun had highlighted into the color of flames that belonged to the woman in the valley below.

Still, it was enough to remind me that I had a mission and being a peeping Tom wasn’t the way to go about it.

A click of my teeth had us moving forward.

I didn’t take a direct path down into the valley where Sam was.

Instead, we took the longer route in order to find a spot where he could graze.

Dismounting, I patted his neck. “Wish me luck,” I said.

His snort sounded far too much like a laugh for my comfort, but I’d never been one to shirk his duty.

I made my way through the trees and smiled when I saw her again.

It seemed that while moving as slow as a sloth, Samantha wasn’t as concerned with being silent.

I could hear her softly singing. I couldn’t make out the lyrics but thought it might be some sort of love song.

Or perhaps that was wishful thinking. I couldn’t exactly claim I was up to date on current music.

But when I moved closer and realized she wasn’t singing, but was humming, I went completely still.

Well, not completely as my dick rose to half-mast as I pictured those lips vibrating while wrapped around it.

It took effort to yank my mind from that vision and replace it with an axe hovering in the air right above an air hose connecting the diver beneath the ocean to life-giving oxygen on the surface.

“Yeah, yeah, I remember.” The words might have been spoken quietly but evidently not softly enough as the humming stopped.

Samantha turned and my heart threatened to stop.

Despite the fact she was wearing glasses as thick as the bottom of coke bottles and some sort of vest that had a dozen bulging pockets with who knew what sticking out of them, she was absolutely stunning.

I’d have given everything I owned if the sight of me didn’t strip the smile off her face.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

Well, so much for impressing her with titillating conversation. A full minute passed before the silence was broken and when it was, it was by the both of us speaking the same words at the same exact time.

“Look, I wanted to?—”

Seemed we cut ourselves off at the same time as well. It should have felt a little creepy, but instead it just felt… right.

I waited a few beats but when she said nothing, I took a chance. “Ladies first.”

“No, you go.”

“How am I supposed to show you I’m a gentleman if I act like a…

” So much for feeling like I had any clue what I was doing.

All I knew was I felt like I’d already fucked this up before a dozen words had been uttered.

The axe lowered another inch and I shook my head.

I wasn’t even saved by Sam asking me to continue and realized she was a woman who evidently was as comfortable in the silence as I was.

She wasn’t jumping in to offer any of a dozen choice nouns to complete my sentence.

Instead, she simply moved the glasses from her nose to the top of her head and waited.

“You’re right,” I said though she’d not spoken. “I can’t claim to be a gentleman. Especially not when I’m around you.”

At that her eyes widened and her lips parted.

I’d never wanted anything more than I wanted to take those last few steps and press my mouth against hers.

Instead, I ran my hand through my hair. “Fuck, I’m messing this up.

” At this the corner of her mouth twitched as if she were fighting a smile, and I decided that the only way I was going to keep that ax from falling was to be honest. Dropping my hand, I said, “Please, I’m begging you here.

I’ll owe you if you’ll please just go first.”

“Thank you.”

When that appeared to be all she had to say, I was confused. If she’d recited every element on the periodic table, I probably would have understood that more than those two words. She was thanking me? Why?

Only one way to find out. Ask.

Okay, that was a word I did understand. “What for?”

“That’s what I was trying to say. I wanted to thank you. I appreciated you leaving my backpack and suitcase outside my tent.”

For fucks sake, son, get it together.

That was a new voice, a far gruffer and far less patient one. It sounded exactly like Cookie had last night. Cut me some slack. I’m trying here.

Try harder. The goal here is to chip away that ice, not stand there like a dumbass and asking stupid questions.

Okay, it was time to stop talking to phantoms and hold an actual conversation with the only person who mattered. “Samantha, you have absolutely nothing to thank me for.”

“I do but what was it you were going to say?”

“I wanted to explain how I know Katrina. She and I?—”

“You don’t need to explain anything. I’m not some teenager with a fragile heart. I was tired and you were forced by your boss to deliver me safely. That’s all it was so let’s just blame it on jet lag and?—”

“It’s not all it was,” I said, cutting her off at the same time I took those steps until I stood right in front of her.

“I might be a jackass, but I’m not an idiot and neither are you.

If you want to deny you felt something, that’s fine.

My ego isn’t that fragile either, but I know that what I felt had nothing to do with jet lag and I wasn’t forced to drive you anywhere.

I wanted to.” She looked as she didn’t believe a word I’d said.

“Hell, you’re a scientist. You’d think you’d be able to recognize chemistry. ”

“Oh, I recognize it just fine, thank you. I know that when you try to mix elements that oppose one another, you can cause a reaction that you’ll regret.”

If she wanted a reaction, I’d damn well show her one.

I reached across the few inches that separated us and wrapped one arm around her.

All it took was a single yank to have her pressed against me.

Sliding my free hand up her back, I drove my fingers into the fire of her curls and yanked her head back until her widened eyes had no choice but to meet mine.

If she’d so much as flinched, made any sound of protest, or attempted to push me away, I would have instantly released her.

But she hadn’t, and I didn’t need a degree to understand chemistry when it came to this.

The dilation of her pupils, the flare of her nostrils, and the racing pulse beating beneath her skin told me all I needed to know.

I dropped my mouth to hers and what felt akin to a nuclear blast went off.

I didn’t just kiss her, I breathed her in.

Her lips parted the moment my tongue pressed to demand she open.

I deepened the kiss, cutting off any air for the both of us, burning with a need I’d never before known.

Her mewls were the fuel that fed the flames as she kissed me back with the same passion.

It was only when I was actually conscious of a thin veil of black threatening to block my vision of her beautiful violet eyes that I let her go.

We both gasped in an effort to draw in oxygen as we stared at the other.

I’d just leap-frogged over at least a half dozen steps of what I’d spent half the night planning, and yet with the taste of her on my lips, the scent of her imprinted on my soul, and the memory of her body pressed against mine, I was finding it hard to give a damn.

But it was the flicker in her eyes that halted me as surely as a jolt of lightning.

It was that same look I’d seen when she’d shoved the plate at me.

“I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not. Not about kissing you that is.

I am sorry for causing you pain, Samantha.

I never meant to hurt you. If you want to kick me in the ass, I’ll bend over.

” It turned out I didn’t need divine intervention to stop me.

All that was required was the snort of laughter she gave as she shook her head.

“Frass. There is no way you’d bend over for anyone. Besides, I don’t want to kick your ass, I want you to answer one question.”

I knew that my entire future was riding on my answer, but just nodded. “Okay, but may I ask one first?”

She exhaled loudly as if having to call upon a source of patience that I feared was fastly running out.

“Just a quick one?”

“Fine.”

“What in the hell does frass mean?”

She shook her head. “It’s the term for insect excrement”

“Excuse me I don’t—” And yet I suddenly did. “Ahh, so a way of saying bullshit?—”

“Without actually saying it,” she confirmed.

I remembered Cookie telling me she wouldn’t curse and this simply confirmed he knew Sam far better than I did. “Thank you. Now, please, ask your question.”

“That promise you wanted, what did you mean?”

I didn’t even hesitate. “I wanted you to promise to let me show you my island.”

Her brow quirked and I realized how asinine that sounded even before she said, “ Your island? And here I thought Kauai belonged to all the people of Hawaii and not just one.”

In for a penny, in for a pound. “Being as we are people, how about we start right here?”

She glanced around. “I suppose this so-called tour involves getting naked and playing Eve to your Adam?”

I chuckled though I admit the suggestion was one I was very willing to explore.

Swearing I could hear Cookie snarling, I shook my head.

“As inviting as that sounds, I’d prefer a scenario where serpents don’t have a starring part.

Besides, I thought we’d take it slower and maybe start with the Eupithecia.

” From the startled rounding of her eyes and bow of her lips, I thought I’d messed up the pronunciation I’d practiced at least a dozen times while listening to it on YouTube. “It’s a caterpillar?—”

“I know that,” she said, slapping her hand against my chest. “But how do you know?”

Pleased beyond measure, I shrugged. “Not only do I know what it is, I have a pretty good idea of where you might find one.”

“No way!”

“Way,” I said and didn’t even care that we sounded like kids.

Hell, I felt like one. This woman might be far smarter than I, but she had a joyfulness that had me eager to do more than just get her naked.

That alone shocked the hell out of me. Add in the fact I wanted to impress her accounted for why I didn’t ask her to dinner as I’d planned.

Instead, I slid my hand from the back of her neck to the top of her head.

“Promise me you’ll wear these sexy glasses and I’ll show you.”

Shit. I’d thought she couldn’t get more beautiful, but when she smiled, it was like she was lit from within. And when she laughed and said, “You’re certifiable, you know that?” I grinned and stuck my hand out.

“Do we have a deal?”

She slid her hand into mine and pumped it. “We’ve got a deal.”