Page 28 of His Hawaiian Heart (Stateside Doms #26)

Chapter Nineteen

Samantha

The true Garden of Eden might exist halfway across the world, but there was a reason Kauai was called The Garden Isle and I was blessed to be smack dab in the middle of it.

After watering the horses, Sam had unsaddled Sugar, and led both horses to an area they could graze and rest. The man had the ability to make me shiver and my core tighten with the look in his eyes, the tone of his voice, and the touch of his hand.

But he was also one of the gentlest, more caring human beings I knew.

When he turned and caught me watching him, his smile added its light to the day.

“As the male approaches, he begins his display in an attempt to capture the female’s favor.”

I could hear the voice that never failed to warm me, but it took me a moment to decipher his words. Of course, the moment he reached over his head to grab his t-shirt and pull it off, made the meaning crystal clear.

“The male often uses his legs and feet to perform a dance.” He did a hop step in order to remove his boots one at a time and toss them over his shoulder and then altered his approach to do a bit of zigzagging until I was fighting to hold back my laughter, but the moment I watched him unbuckle his belt, laughter was the last thing on my mind.

“His instinct tells him he is but one of many seeking the female’s attention, often making subtle changes to his very physique to rise above his competitors.” The sound of his zipper lowering accompanied the narration and had my pulse begin to race.

Granted, this wasn’t the first time I’d seen him shirtless or even totally naked, but it was the first time I’d seen him shedding all his camouflage out in the sunlight.

“Catching her eyes, gives the male encouragement, urging him to hold nothing back.”

The eyes he’d caught, dropped south the moment he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his Wranglers.

“For he knows that this was what he was born to do. His sole reason for existing is to win the female over.”

When the head of his cock peeked out, I swallowed hard.

Unlike a woman wearing a dress, he couldn’t just simply release his hold and let the jeans fall…

but I’d never been happier as his having to push the denim down extended the documentary.

When his glorious cock emerged to jut straight out from his groin, I knew that strangled moan hadn’t come from a male throat, but from a female who couldn’t have looked away if a meteor streaked across the sky above her.

“Shedding the last of his defenses, the male has but one thing left to do,” he continued as he stepped first one leg and then the other from the jeans and dropped them to the ground.

“He stands before the female and waits for her decision. Had he won the honor of mating her or will she turn him away?”

I didn’t bother to speak. I simply shed my own camouflage until I was as au naturel as he.

“She is honored to have been chosen, honored to witness the male’s dance.

And when he finally stands before her, she has but one thing left to do.

” As I uttered the last word, I pounced and my mate proved worthy as he caught me and twirled me in that dance until we both fell into the pool.

We came up sputtering, laughing and coughing a bit. “You are so wonderfully wonderful,” I said as I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.

“Who knew that insects have all sorts of strange rituals? I’d say it boggles the mind, but having you here, in my arms, I understand the reasoning.”

I smiled and placed a kiss on his sternum and then one on his left pec followed by his right, loving the sight of his nipples as tight as mine.

I could feel his arms supporting me and his erection brushing against the crack of my ass.

“I wonder if those males would do all that magnificent strutting if they knew that the price of success could lead to their death. There are many species where the female shows her appreciation of his courtship by eating the male.”

“Babygirl,” he said as one hand moved from under my ass to slide along my spine. It burrowed beneath the weight of my wet hair and ended its journey at the nape of my neck.

The feel of his fingers wrapping around my throat had my essence sliding to join the water where we stood. He pressed his forehead to mine and my blood heated as pure lust shone from eyes the color of the forest encircling our piece of paradise.

“That’s exactly what I’m counting on.”

I learned that it was not only possible to kiss someone underwater, one could wrap her lips around a cock.

Granted, it was awkward and couldn’t be very satisfying, but it let my male know his female was willing to give it her best try.

When I came up for air for the fourth time, Sam brushed my hair off my face and grinned.

“We’ll let that be the preliminary act. Ready to learn what hides behind a waterfall?”

“Yes!”

It turned out that while swimming across the pond was easy to start, the closer we got to where the surface was splashing high with the water’s plummet from the cliff, I began to lag further behind.

Then I realized that for every yard I moved forward, I lost half that distance with the force of the water pushing me back.

“Sam!” I shouted, not sure he could even hear me with the thunder of the falls.

However, he either heard or sensed me as he turned immediately and began to swim toward me.

When he reached me, I realized his face looked strained.

Not by any physical effort he’d made but because he was worried about me.

“I’m fine,” I assured him as I tread water. “It’s just too strong. I’m good staying here. You go ahead.”

“Put your arms around my neck and hang on.”

“I don’t want to drown you.”

He reached for me and stroked a finger across my cheek. “No way would I allow that to happen. If I drowned then I’d never know if you’re a man-eater or simply a beautiful butterfly. I promise, I’ve got you.”

I truly wasn’t worried about myself, but that wasn’t the issue. He was asking me to trust him to know what he was capable of. To trust him to protect me… not hypothetically, but literally. “Okay, but promise if you tire, remember you don’t need to impress the girl. You won her a long time ago.”

“Noted,” he said as he reached for my hand and turned away, drawing it up his body.

I hooked my fingers around his shoulder and then did the same with my other hand until I was lying flat along his back.

“When we hit the falls, hold your breath and play mermaid until we come up on the other side. Okay?”

“Yes, Sir,” I said, adrenaline pouring through me.

I’d seen him swim but feeling his muscles shift with each stroke was amazing.

The pressure of the water as he neared the falls didn’t even slow him down.

Though my head was well above the surface, I could feel the splash of the water on my face.

The only sound I could hear was the water’s power as it pounded along the length of our bodies.

If I’d not been told what I needed to do, I probably would have swallowed a lot of that water.

Instead, when I saw Sam’s head lift, I knew it was time.

I inhaled deeply and held it as he dove beneath the surface.

I didn’t have time to panic before I felt the dive reversing and then we broke the surface. I gasped—not just to draw in oxygen but in awe.

“Oh my god.”

“Right?” Sam said and continued swimming, his long, even strokes cutting through water that grew calmer as we swam further away from the falls.

I looked around, mesmerized at the different world now surrounding us.

Gone was the blue of the sky and the white of the clouds.

The green of the forest had been replaced by a sheen of sapphire, which then darkened to cobalt as we swam deeper into a cavern that was completely concealed from the other side.

“I can swim now,” I said once I realized there was no longer a current tugging at my body.

“If you want,” he returned.

We no longer had to shout to be heard over the din of the falls. I released my hold and slipped off his back. He waited until I swam up beside him. “Thank you. This is… otherworldly.”

“That’s exactly it,” he said with a smile.

We swam side by side, and I saw something solid appear beneath the surface. “Is that a rock?”

“It’s a ledge,” Sam confirmed and when we reached it, I discovered it was an extension of the cave wall. At least a good two feet wide, its surface was worn smooth by the passage of water over it for untold millennia.

Planting his palms on the ledge, Sam pushed himself up, turning and sitting on it as if dropping onto a couch in his living room. Reaching down, he offered me a hand and when mine was wrapped securely in his, he pulled me out of the water and onto his lap.

“How did you know this place even existed?” I asked

“My island, remember? I think I’ve gone swimming in every pool deep enough to submerge into. As Kekoa reminded me this morning, we were swimming before we could walk.”

“Kekoa?”

“My brother,” he said and then smiled. “Not by blood, perhaps, but my brother all the same. He’s a great guy and I honestly couldn’t and wouldn’t even want to attempt to try to run the ranch and the rest of the family’s interests without him.”

“I’m glad you found each other then.” I bent to press a kiss to his lips. “Some of the best family aren’t those born into it but are the ones who become members by choice. I’m sure he feels the same way about you.”

“He does and you’re right.” Sam chuckled. “In fact, he threatened to rat me out to Tutu Harriett—Tutu is Hawaiian for grandmother—if I didn’t bring you around to meet him.”

“That is actually quite adorable.”

“He also threatened that if I didn’t, he was going to come and find my doctor himself.”

I laughed. “Yep, you two are definitely brothers. And, for the record, I’d love to meet him.”