Burning up the Rain (Hawaiian Heroes) (19 page)

Lalei hastily whisked the cloud away, but not before it sprinkled her, as well. She tossed her head, not a bit put out by her own wetting as Bella turned on her, swiping water from her face. She glared at Lalei. “Oh, I am so going to get you,
cousin
.”

Then, as David let loose a deep laugh and Lalei snickered, Bella laughed with them. Melia shook her head at them. “You Ho’omalus are all crazy.”

Lalei looked at Bella. “I’m sorry you had to go through what you did,” she said. “I—I dreamed that I’d killed Jack by accident. But you had to do it purposely, to save yourself and your friends, and without any control over your powers.”

Bella nodded. “I still have nightmares about being under the influence of that drug. But I guess it must be pretty scary to have lightning in your hands too.”

“‘Ae. I blacked out the first time I used it. So, what do I do? How do I learn to control it?” She turned to David.

“We’ll teach you. But until you learn more control, betta be careful. And by the way, nice job on the tractor,” he added wryly. “It wasn’t supposed to be up there anyway, but now they have to drag it away and bring in a replacement.”

Lalei shuddered at the memory of blackened, twisted metal and smoking wood. She’d done that with her anger. Could she trust herself to show
any
emotion? What if she really lost her temper? And would she have to deal with this for the rest of her life?

“What happens next?” she asked, desperate to distract herself. “With the court case, I mean?”

Malu grimaced. “We go to court day after tomorrow.”

“Already? Oh Pele. Do you think we’re ready?”

“I hope so,” David said. “Pop thinks we are. Our lawyers have been working hard on this.”

“And those TropicSun people can’t do anything else until the judge makes a decision, right?”

“That’s right. We got an injunction, stopping any more work. So if the case goes in our favor, no more equipment.”

She stared at him “But…if it doesn’t?”

His face hardened. “Then may Pele guide me and show me what to do. I don’t want to break the laws of Hawaii, but…” He shook his head. “I will bring the power of the volcano to life if I must. What they plan is not right.”

Melia sat up, reaching for him, and he took her hand.

Lalei took another drink of hot coffee as a chill chased through her. Pele guide him, indeed. She knew David was a good man. All the Ho’omalus were. None of them would hurt innocent people, but some volcanic activity would surely discourage the development. Just a few rumbles and some fresh lava. Nothing Hawaiians weren’t used to.

Of course, Nawea and other homes lay in the path of any flows too. What a choice to have to make. But at least David knew he could do something other than flinging random lightning bolts when he got too angry.

A tall, familiar figure emerged from the shade of the house lanai, blond hair glinting in the morning sun, and her heart lifted. “Jack’s coming.” She hurriedly swallowed the last of her coffee and rose to go to him, ignoring their smiles.

“She’s giving us that ‘hands off my business’ look,” Bella commented as Lalei passed her.

“Just you,” Lalei shot back. As she passed under the palms, they rustled, and a small coconut smacked to the sand beside her. She whirled.

Bella gave her a wide-eyed look of innocence over the back of her chair. “Darn, I missed.”

Lalei rolled her eyes.

“Well, I have to go,” Bella said, rising and fluffing out her damp hair with her hands. “See you two later. Melia, you should just go back to bed, sweetie.”

Melia answered, her voice too low to hear.

“Lalei, come back when you’ve eaten,” Malu called after her. “We’ll talk more about the court case.”

“Jack too?” she asked.

“Jack too,” he said. “He’s a good man.”

Yes, he was. Lalei was smiling as she walked up to meet him.

He looked her over closely, reaching to put his hands on her waist. “How are you?” he asked.

She gave him the same examination, her hands on his chest, warm and hard and solid. His heart beat under her palm, a beautiful rhythm that pulsed through her, lifting her spirits. “I’m okay. You?”

He shook his head, his heavy brows shooting together. “Hey, I’m not the one who fainted yesterday. I don’t care if you used to do it when you were a keiki—it’s not a good sign.”

She shook her head. Oh Pele, she didn’t like lying to him. She smiled uneasily. “I…forget to eat sometimes, that’s all. I’m fine really. How are you?”

His gaze fell to her mouth. “I’m good. Nothing a kiss won’t cure.”

“We have an audience.” Even so, she was already rising on her tiptoes to meet him. The kiss was warm but too fleeting, so she gave him another one, longer. Amazing how her body responded to his touch. She was turning into a wild woman in more ways than one. Was this part of her powers blossoming? Was she going to turn into a slut who wanted sex all the time?

“Mm,” he murmured. “I love how you work an audience. I could stand here and do this all day, but Leilani wants us to come and eat breakfast.”

“I’m hungry,” she realized. In fact she was starving.

“Good, then you can eat more than three bites of your food,” he said dryly. “No wonder you fainted—you’ve been picking like a bird.”

He spanned her waist with his hands and leaned back to frown at her, his brows drawing together. “You sure you’re not on one of those crazy diets?”

“No.” She scowled defensively. “Do I look like I need to diet?”

He opened his mouth and then shut it, shaking his head. “Not going there. A guy can’t win that one. I just know women get sucked into thinking they need to diet, when men think they’re perfect just the way they are—like you.”

She smiled, mollified by the clear admiration in his blue eyes. “Mahalo. Just tension, you know? Benton and Suzy took away my appetite.”

“Poor baby.” He laced his fingers through hers and pulled her with him up the lawn toward the house. “They’re gone, so I’m gonna feed you up.”

They sat together at the big kitchen island. Lalei had always enjoyed eating in this kitchen, charmed by the novelty of not being expected to sit at a dining or luncheon table with all the accoutrements. She munched on a bowl of granola, fruit and yogurt, while Jack ate his way through a big plate of eggs, potatoes and ham with pineapple.

Leilani bustled about, already working on the evening’s dinner, and humming along with the Hawaiian radio playing from a shelf.

Jack ate steadily, but he watched to see that Lalei ate too, frowning when she slowed down with granola still in her bowl. “You’re gonna finish that, young lady, or there’ll be consequences.”

She glanced over at Leilani and leaned close to whisper, “Ooh, are you gonna spank me, Daddy?” Her heart thumped at her daring, but it excited her too.

He made a low, growling noise in his chest and set his laden fork down. “Jesus, don’t talk like that
now
,” he muttered under his breath. “You’re—I’m hard as a rock again.”

Her own body responded to that news, her nipples tightening, her pussy clenching. She slid her hand over onto his lap. Sure enough, a long, stiff shape pressed against the placket of his cotton shorts. Lalei curled her fingers around it, already imagining it thrusting into her empty, quaking depths.

He covered her hand with his own, pressing her grip tighter. Then he cleared his throat roughly. “Great breakfast, Leilani. Mahalo.”

Grabbing Lalei by the arm, he pulled her off her stool and steered her around the island and across the kitchen. She was giggling breathlessly as she ran after him down the hallway and into his room.

Chapter Twelve

As Jack’s bedroom door slammed, Lalei found herself backed against it, a large, rampant male pressing her into the wood.

He flexed his knees, driving the hard ridge of his cock up into the crevice between her legs. “You—are—a menace,” he growled, punctuating his words with rough flexions of his lean hips, but he was nuzzling his face into her throat, inhaling her scent.

She tipped her head back, her eyes slipping half closed with the sheer joy of what he was doing, of knowing she was close to having him again. “Big talk, kanaka. Gonna follow up?”

“Oh yeah. Wait.” He froze, searching her face. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” she assured him. “At least I will be if you get busy.” She moved against him, leaving no doubt what she meant.

“Oh, I’ll get busy. But first, I want dessert.” He slid one long arm around her hips and lifted her up to carry her across the room to the big bed. Depositing her on the end, he leaned over her long enough to give her a wet, hot kiss. His hands were busy, pushing up her dress and pressing her bare thighs apart.

“Dessert?” she asked breathlessly. “You just ate breakfast.”

Then he reared back, dropping to his knees between her legs. “Oh yeah,” he repeated, a wolfish grin on his face. “Dessert.”

Lalei struggled up onto her elbows, wanting to see what he saw. Her dress, rucked up about her waist, baring her hips and the concave plain of her belly, covered scantily by her white panties, her ebony curls peeping through the panel of lace in the center. What was he doing? Was he going to…do
that
?

She was by no means a prude, and she’d been with a couple of guys, but she was fastidious by nature, ladylike by training. She’d never wanted a guy putting his mouth on her most private parts, even in the dark. Somehow the thought of Jack doing it was incredibly exciting. She’d read romances and
Cosmo
articles, seen movies—she knew many women found it the most pleasurable of all sexual contact. But in the morning sunshine?

Jack bent his head, his face brushing the lace of her panties, and inhaled. She flinched, the hitch of her breath audible in the quiet room. He looked up at her under his heavy blond brows, blue eyes alert. Astonished pleasure dawned in his searching gaze.

“Lalei, haven’t you ever…?” He let his voice trail off, and she scowled at him, hating the blush that scoured her face and throat.

He smiled slowly and waggled his eyebrows in a leer that was full of sensual threat. “Oh, babe. I’m gonna make you so happy. In fact, I think…” He traced the edge of her panties with one large fingertip, down into the tender crevice of her thigh. “Yeah, I think I’ll make you scream my name.”

She gave a huff of disbelief. “Like I’m gonna scream your name or anyone else’s.” But her pussy clenched at the mere thought of what he might do to make her that excited, that happy, and when he traced his finger back up, just inside the narrow strip of fabric, she bit her lower lip, drawing it into her teeth.

And he watched her, damn him, a little smile playing about his own beautiful mouth. “You will,” he promised. “You’re so responsive, baby. You’re like a beautiful, tropical cloud, ready to storm when I touch you. And I still want payback for that first time, when you faked it.”

Uh-oh, she’d impugned his sexual prowess, dangerous ground for a virile male. She watched him uneasily, worried that not only could he follow through on his threat to make her scream but that he might want more.

He wouldn’t humiliate her, would he? How well did she really know him? Not well at all. Somehow this realization made what she was allowing him to do all the more exciting.

He stroked his finger deeper, into the plump, wet folds of her labia and up, up, just grazing the knot of nerves waiting tucked in her curls. As pleasure streaked from his touch, her hips flexed up off of the bed. Oh Pele, he’d had her only the day before and she wanted him as much as if it had been days.

He growled deep in his chest and grasped the sides of her panties, tugging them down. “Lift up, baby, that’s it. Let’s get these off of you so I can see all your pretty secrets. Jesus, you’re so wet. So nani.”

Her panties drawn carefully from her still-sandaled feet, he slid his warm hands back up over her thighs, obviously enjoying the view as he did so. Lalei squirmed inwardly, waiting breathlessly for him to touch her where she was throbbing, pulsing, aching for his touch.

“Open wider,” he ordered, and she did, spreading her thighs for him, her knees drawn back, her lower legs dangling off the bed. Her heart was pounding like a drum, her whole being focused on him as he slowly bent over her, his blue gaze tracing every detail of her wet folds. “That’s right, baby. Yeah, you want this, don’t you, sweetheart? You’re so ready for me.”

Lalei bit back the urge to scream at him, grab his hair and make him do whatever he was going to, and
stop talking
. His voice, low and growly and intimate, made her as hot as his touch—she
hated
that he could do that to her. Damn salesman. He was the only one she wanted on her real estate.

She felt his breath first, cool and moist. He was blowing on her, teasing her with little puffs of air as he slid his thumbs up her labia and then spread the plump lips, baring her clitoris. And the swollen knot of nerves responded as if it belonged to him, knotting even tighter.

He cast a roguish look up from under his brows. “Watch me, now, baby. I want you to watch every…single…lick.” Since he punctuated his last word with delicate dabs of the very tip of his tongue on the area around her clitoris, she stared, mesmerized, even as her body jerked with the surges of sensation.