Burning up the Rain (Hawaiian Heroes) (17 page)

“What was that with the coffee?” he asked, reaching out to trail a finger down her bare arm. “‘Here, honey,’” he mimicked her syrupy voice.

She pursed her lips. “Just making sure that wahine knew you were with me.”

He stared at her, then shook his head. “Jesus, how you think a guy’s gonna look at another woman with you around, I don’t know.”

Her gaze searched his eyes, as if for the truth. Then she smiled. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he assured her. Could she possibly be that unaware of how sexy she was? “I haven’t been thinking about other women. Not since you jumped me in my bedroom.”

“Huh. Haven’t noticed you trying too hard to get away, big guy.”

“Nope,” he agreed. “I’m easy, no doubt about it. At least where you’re concerned.”

She swallowed. “Yeah.”

Iz sang in melting tones about facing the future. Jack couldn’t think further than the lust surging in his loins. If he didn’t get his cock buried in her in the next two minutes, he was going to die—that was all there was to it.

“C’mere,” he muttered, already reaching for her seat belt.

“Here?” she asked breathlessly, pushing at his hands and peering out through the shaded windows. “Jack, no. What if someone comes?”

“Oh, someone’s gonna come, all right.” He shoved the armrest upright into the seat back, scooting from behind the steering wheel. “Take your panties off, if you don’t want me to rip ’em off.”

“Gee, maybe next time. Of course I don’t want you to rip them, you big kanaka.”

She reached up under her little skirt and wriggled out of the panties. He watched the stretchy lace slide down her golden legs and swallowed hard, his mouth watering.

“Pull up your skirt,” he commanded.

She did so, her breasts quivering with her quick breaths. She was turned on, yeah. With her in this obedient mood, he’d love to have her take
all
her clothes off, but if anyone came along, he didn’t want them seeing her.

The soft, green light turned her skin to shadow, the ebony triangle of curls on her mound beckoning mysteriously. He cupped her there, groaning at the soft heat of her, the way she flexed her hips to push herself up against his grasp. He drove two fingers into the slick petals of flesh between her thighs, watching her face as he invaded her, deep inside her welcoming heat.

“Ah, fuck, baby,” he groaned. “That’s so pretty. You feel so…ah, your pussy’s already grabbing my fingers.”

She gasped, her head going back against the seat, showing him the long line of her throat. He thrust into her again, mimicking what he was going to do with his cock, driving himself crazy with the silky wetness clinging to his fingers. Her eyes fell shut, and then opened again. She reached for him, pulling his head down for a kiss, her soft mouth fastening on his. She whimpered into his mouth as he thumbed the swollen knot of her clitoris, her nails digging into the back of his neck.

He pulled his hand free, and she cried out in protest. “Jack! Don’t stop. I’m almost—”

“I’m almost there too,” he ground out. “And when I come, it’s gonna be inside you, not my shorts. Oh, goddamn, let me…”

He lifted himself off the seat enough to yank down his zipper and free himself with a few swift moves, reaching for her in the next. “Come here and ride me, baby.”

She gave another hunted look through the windows, but then she rolled onto his lap, straddling him. With her little skirt rucked up about her hips, he could watch as he guided himself between her thighs and thrust, sliding his cock up into her. He groaned at the sweet sensation of being inside her again.

“Oh baby,” he groaned. “Ah, Christ, that’s so fucking pretty. Your pussy swallowing me up and letting me go, all wet with you.” She was so tight, so hot, and he was so desperate that he couldn’t believe that she could take him with such obvious delight, that those high little whimpers of hers were pleasure and not pain.

But she took every one of his frantic thrusts, accepted his hands clutching her soft ass, even as she grasped his face in her hands, bending down to kiss him, her mouth soft and sweet, tasting of her, her, her… His orgasm rolled up out of his loins like a tidal wave and he stiffened, holding her impaled on his cock as he emptied himself into her.

Then he sank back with a groan, dizzy with the force of his release. “Oh, baby… You are so fucking perfect, y’know that?”

He relaxed, only to realize that she was still riding him, reaching for her own release. He dragged his eyes open and struggled to catch his breath, watching her. Ah, that was… Echoes of pleasure stroked him with every one of her movements.

“Not yet,” she hissed. “Don’t stop yet. Please, Jack. Please.”

He laughed breathlessly. He loved that pleading note in her voice, loved the frantic little suction of her pussy on his cock, still nearly at full mast. He pulled her top up, revealing her small, beautiful breasts, and leaned forward to pull one distended nipple into his mouth, suckling her hard, using his teeth and tongue. Then he bent to the other, using his fingers to pinch the wet nipple he’d left behind and twist it in his fingers. “C’mon, baby, come for me. Sweet Lalei…Lalei with the nani pussy.”

And when he felt the first ripples in her pussy clasping him eagerly, he slid his free hand down over the full curve of her ass and drove one finger into the crevice, rimming the taut ring of muscle at the center, his finger slick with their juices.

She cried out, a high, wild sound, and began to come, riding him like a cowgirl. He smiled fiercely to himself around his sweet mouthful of breast. Satisfaction rushed through him, as sweet as if he’d come again himself. His, she was his—at least for now.

Lalei collapsed on his shoulder, her face against his neck, her breath damp and hot on his already wet skin. He was sweating like a horse, his shirt sticking to the leather seat in back and to her in the front. Leaning forward, he peered over her shoulder and fumbled with the air-conditioner, turning it up high.

She stirred at his movement, but he pulled her back, reluctant to let the moment go. “Shh-sh,” he soothed, stroking up the sweet, damp line of her back, reveling in how good they felt locked together. “Stay, baby…just a little while.”

“We can’t,” she protested, wriggling. “Some local is going to come along and knock on the windows, want to know what we’re doing in his pasture turnoff.”

“They wouldn’t be able to see a thing,” he grumbled, but he let her go and watched her as she struggled to dress herself again while he fastened his shorts and ran a hand over his hair.

“Oh,” she growled, rooting in the glove box. “There must be some tissues or something in here.”

She found a package of tissues, and after she tidied herself, she straightened and smoothed until she was as cool as if she’d been to a garden party, unless you counted the flush on her face, the heaviness of her eyes.

Jack was glad there was at least that evidence of their hot tryst. He wished he’d left a mark on her, maybe a hickey on her neck, right where it curved into her shoulder. And how high school was that? He imagined the pissy scowl she’d give him if he tried such a thing, and grinned to himself.

Starting up the truck, he backed it carefully around in a tight semicircle so they were pointing out toward the highway
.
Before he could pull out, they had to sit and wait for a group of teenagers, chatting and laughing as they ambled home from school. Three of them split off from the group and walked alongside the truck, headed up the lane. They stared curiously into the shaded windows as they passed. Lalei gave a strange gasp, her mouth open like a pretty fish.

Jack started to laugh as they pulled out onto the highway. “I can’t believe you let me talk you into that.”

“Oh my God,” she muttered. “Just don’t talk to me. They almost caught us. Oh my God.”

He laughed harder, and she smacked him on the arm, hard.

“Hey, now.” He grabbed her hand with his free one, and held it on the seat between them. “I do believe that will be one of my fondest memories when I grow old,” he told her. “Having almost public sex with you in a truck.”

“If you live that long.”

“Yeah,” he murmured, his smile slipping away. “Got a point there.”

She turned her hand over under his, her fingers curving up around his hand. They rode in silence. Until his damn conscience started poking him like a loose buckle under football shoulder pads.

“You know, I may not be able to do a damn thing to help your family,” he said. “I’m just one real estate agent in the crowd, and I’m not a local, so I don’t know any arcane laws to invoke to stop these people.” He didn’t know what he expected, maybe that she would raise that eyebrow at him and tell him she didn’t do failures. But as usual, she blindsided him.

“Oh, Jack,” she said, squeezing his hand. “You’re trying, even though it’s not your game. That’s what counts. This is a team play—you don’t have to be the quarterback.”

Warmth spread through his chest, but he merely grinned crookedly. “Thank you. And I appreciate the football terminology to bring that down to my male level.”

“It gets lonely up here on my pedestal,” she explained sweetly. “Occasionally I like to mingle with you mortals.”

“Baby, I love the way you mingle.”

Chapter Eleven

Jack turned off the highway at the road down to Nawea, but when he saw no other vehicles in the rearview mirror, he put his foot on the brake.

“You want to see it?” he asked Lalei, half hoping she’d say no. But it was like a wreck, he couldn’t resist gawking.

She looked southeast, where the hill fell away to the sea, and nodded. Jack pulled back out onto the highway and drove up and over a small rise. Then he slowed and turned out onto a scenic pullout. There was now a wide cut of fresh dirt in the outer edge where the cat tracks had gouged a trail.

He shut off the truck engine, and the two of them got out. Lalei walked with him to the edge, above the parked tractor and the stacked equipment. Her face tightened in that warrior-queen scowl. She was really something, he thought with a surge of admiration and affection. She might be slender enough to blow away in a good breeze, but she was fierce.

A sudden wind blew up, whipping the loose strands of her hair around her face and flapping Jack’s shirt flat against his torso. Jack turned, squinting into the rising wind. The puffy clouds that had been drifting along the flanks of the mountain above them were lowering, nearly writhing as they darkened and grew.

He reached for Lalei, but she had moved away, scowling down at the Caterpillar. She was stiff, her fists clenched like she was ready to attack someone. Her hair had tumbled from its moorings and was rippling about her shoulders with the wind.

“Come on, babe,” he said. “I don’t like this weather.” He put his hand on her arm and grunted at the strange feeling that arced from her skin to his palm.

A deafening barrage of thunder shook the earth around them. Jack wanted to clap his hands over his ears, but he refused to let go of Lalei.

“Come on,” he yelled, his voice barely audible. When she didn’t move, he took charge, grabbing her up in his arms and carrying her to the truck, crouched over low as if he were charging through an offensive line. “I think we’re about to have a—”

A shattering
crack
of sound and light cleaved the air around them. Deaf and half blinded, Jack fell to his knees, Lalei grabbing at him. Thunder boomed again and wind howled past the truck.

Feeling as if he were battling through thick, invisible ooze, Jack grabbed for the truck door handle above him. He helped Lalei up and into the truck, scrambling in after her. He couldn’t hear, could barely see. Slamming the door behind him, he fell back against the seat, panting, his limbs shaking with the burst of adrenaline.

“Whoa,” he managed. “You all right?”

Lalei launched herself into his arms, clutching at him. “Jack,” she cried, her eyes wild, her mouth trembling. “Jack, are you okay? Did I—I thought I killed you.” She clapped her hand over her mouth like a guilty child.

He pulled her close, shaking with terror and relief. He’d almost lost her. “You crazy wahine,” he said into her hair, smoothing his hand over her quivering back. “I think that was a lightning strike. You’re good, baby, but not that good.”

Rain fell in a sheet, sluicing across the windshield of the truck.

“We’re safe in here,” he said, as much to himself as her. “Rubber tires mean we’re not grounded, so if it strikes again, it’ll pass us by.”

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Do you know how lucky we are? That could’ve killed us. Should’ve.”

This had been the second close call he’d had in as many months. Jesus. He sent a prayer of fervent thanks heavenward and stroked his hand down Lalei’s back again. She held on to him just as tightly, her arms around his neck, her face against his.

The rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and the windows of the truck glistened with bright sunlight. Jack leaned over and fumbled for the wipers, his hand still shaking. Damn, he needed a shot of something hard to calm his nerves.

The wipers swished calmly back and forth, clearing the big windshield with every swipe, revealing a wet, sunny mountainside. And an odd black trail of smoke, curling up from the edge of the pullout.