The afternoon is beautiful, with the ocean glittering and large, puffy clouds in the sky occasionally breaking up the glaring sun. I can’t help but have a feeling that this land is doing more than just tanning my skin, like I’m being soaked in more than sweat and UV rays.

Wesley smiles at me as if reading my mind. Saying nothing, he turns left as we reach a section of beach that’s tidal pools and volcanic rock, leading us toward an area where the waves are huge and gigantic spumes of mist splash into the air as they crash.

As we cut inland and around the rocks, I can feel Hannah’s eyes boring into my back. Her struggles of finding her way keep running through my head. I dealt with the same thing for years, and it felt good catching a glimpse of the real her, not just an act to win. It drew me to her for more than just her luscious curves and sexy smile.

Thinking of the dance . . . the way she moved and brushed her body against me. Fuck. I want her. More than that, dancing together brought out something in me that I didn’t know I had.

I shake my head, trying to clear it. I made a promise and I need to re-focus. Besides, she might want to fuck me, but she hates my guts.

But what if she doesn’t? a voice at the back of my mind asks. What if it’s an act?

Questions swirl in my mind as we make our way along. When we reach the far side of the rocks, there’s a man waiting for us with a rack of gear.

“Bowfishing,” Wesley says, taking out an unstrung bow. “Have any of you ever tried it?”

“Does bobbing for apples count?” Cassie asks. “What about bobbing for—”

“Shh!” Hannah growls, smacking Cassie in the shoulder.

I hide a grin. During their down time from dancing, Cassie’s gone all in on the competition. Wearing her bandana around her head, she’s even painted her face, and somewhere, she got a feather that she’s wearing in her hair like some sort of Sioux Indian. I don’t know if it’s offensive to the Hawaiians or not, but I like her spirit.

Wesley chuckles and ignores her. He seems to be more interested in Hannah and me. “The plan is simple. Jay, here, is going to give you a quick lesson on how to use the bow, and you’ll have a little practice time. Then you’re going to work in teams, catching shore crabs for bait. You bait the water, aim, fire, and voila, dinner is served.”

When he’s done explaining, I feel a little anxious. I’ve fished before, but it was nothing like this. I usually just cast a line, sit there drinking a beer, and if a trout hops on my line, it’s great. If not, I grab dinner from the store. Apparently, it’s more complicated to fish for parrotfish in the ocean than brown trout from the lake.

Jay takes over, handing us all a sturdy looking bow. “This is a recurve bow,” he says, showing us each of the parts. After showing us how to string it, he checks each one. “They’re simple, and they’re effective, but the ones you have are not that strong.” We all listen to him explain. “Come over here,” he says when he’s done. “I have some targets set up.”

Shooting the bow is actually fun, and I find myself enjoying hitting the small balloon targets more often than not. I get frustrated, though, as Jay spends most of his time helping Cassie and Hannah.

“No, no, you’re holding your riser too tightly. Relax your grip,” he says softly to Hannah. He steps behind her and lifts his arms to mimic her stance and covers her hands with his own. “That’s it.”

I can’t help but feel a slight twinge of jealousy. Sure, let him put his hands on you . . .

“It’s a bow, not a cock,” I tease. “Just a light touch is all it needs.” Hannah’s next shot goes wild, making her growl. I laugh, earning a fierce scowl.

Jay gives us further instruction, and after we get practice in, we’re sent down to the tidal pools in the lava rocks with buckets to find bait.

Cassie, for all her fierce appearance, squeals and drops a crab back into the pools. “That crab—it tried to pinch me!” she wails. “Why can’t we just use worms or something as bait?”

“I got a big juicy worm you can catch, baby,” Caleb taunts her with a laugh.

“I hope you get a nice double set of claws to the balls!” Cassie shoots back. “Too bad it won’t give us much bait!”

Caleb winks at me, enjoying the chaos he’s causing. I know he’s not an asshole like that. He’s trying to sow discord. But I give him a little nudge. “Like football, man. A little trash is fine, but don’t get a damn penalty thrown on us, okay?”

Wesley’s giving us a little space to learn, but he can still probably hear enough. Caleb nods, and right then, Wesley blows a small whistle. “It’s time!”

Jay and Wesley lead us to a cove among the rocks where the waves aren’t too bad and we’ve got decent footing. “Remember, the waves come in sets. You want to try and shoot during the calm between the sets.”

Jay starts chumming the water, and soon, there are ripples between the waves. Fish. I nock an arrow, pull back just like Jay showed us, sight, and fire . . . hitting not a damn thing.

“Whooo, nice one there, Robin Hood!” Hannah teases, raising her own bow and firing, but she gets the same result.

“You were saying?” I ask, and Hannah grumbles in reply. For the next twenty minutes, we all hit jack shit, Cassie struggling the worst. I can see what it is, honestly. She doesn’t have the patience that the rest of us do, and instead of slowly relaxing her fingers and pulling through like Jay taught us, she’s ‘yanking and shanking’, as he called it.

Finally, just as I wonder if we’re going to end up eating nothing but bananas, Caleb gets the first fish, a near-perfect shot on a parrotfish that he pulls out of the water and brandishes over his head.

Just when I’m about to gloat, Hannah releases an arrow that strikes home. She struggles and needs Jay’s help to pull it out, but when she does, my mouth goes dry. The fish is fucking huge, easily two feet long and almost as wide. “What the hell is that?

“Roi!” Wesley says enthusiastically. “It’s a kind of grouper. Good catch, but it’s inedible. Too much poisoning of the waters.”

I keep shooting, aiming just for the bigger fish but hitting nothing. Hannah hits another small fish, and now the girls have two to our one.

“Five minutes,” Wesley says, but I let it all fall aside as I see something that makes my heart speed up.

I nock my arrow and pull back, knowing I won’t have another chance, and I hope the damn line holds. I let fly and feel the jerk in my hands as I hit. The line starts to fly off my reel, and I struggle as Caleb rushes over, helping support me. It’s not like rod fishing. There’s no bend of the rod to work with. Jay sees what’s going on, rushing down to the water with a spear, and with a mighty thrust, he hits home.

“What the hell is it?” Cassie asks, and I’m glad for Jay and Caleb’s help as they pull the giant fish up onto the sand.

“A reef shark,” Wesley says wonderingly. “A Galapagos reef shark.”

Hannah and Cassie try desperately to get another shot in, but Wesley soon calls time. Jay runs off to get some helpers, who carry the six-foot-long shark toward the main house along with the rest of the catch.

“Please wash up. I’ll announce the winner at dinner,” Wesley says. The four of us head back up to the main house, the girls quiet while Caleb is ecstatic. I say little, happy about my certain win, but I keep stealing looks over at Hannah.

Watching her shoot the bow, it was sexy as hell. She had a total Wonder Woman vibe going, except for the wrong color hair. Face it, you got lucky. If that reef shark hadn’t been there, I’d have lost.

Dinner is delicious, if anticlimactic. And it feels nice to wear something besides that hip wrap again as we gather on the beach for something akin to a luau. Wesley stands up as the roasted fish is brought in, shark fin soup being the centerpiece. “Today, I hope you learned a vital lesson. In the circle of life, we must respect and take only what we need. The ocean is a bountiful provider, but it’s not a Golden Corral.”

“Today, we were lucky,” Wesley continues. “One doesn’t simply harvest a reef shark with a bow, so that makes the winner pretty obvious. The current tally is Anthony and Caleb two, Hannah and Cassie one.”

Two to one so far. I should feel good, but looking at the dejection on Hannah’s face, a big part of me is uncomfortable, winning at her expense. But my family needs this. Hannah said she’s working for Aurora, but it doesn’t ring a bell. I’m sure it’s some big multinational or something. Knowing them, they’d slash and burn the land around here and put up some sort of damn theme park.

“Oh, by the way,” Wesley says, getting up on his feet and pulling my attention away from Hannah’s beautiful yet dejected face, “I’ve decided that you’ll be my guests for the rest of the week as well. Like today, it will make it easier without your having to transit back and forth.”

We all kind of look at each other, knowing there’s no point in trying to argue against it. That is, except for Cassie. “But what about our stuff?” she asks.

“We’ll have it taken care of,” Wesley says. “If you give Alani your keys, your bags will be delivered by tomorrow morning. And don’t look so down,” Wesley adds as he notices we aren’t too thrilled about this but just aren’t saying anything. “I think you all know as much as I do that this visit will change your life, regardless of the winner.”

“Big booty ho!” Mo Mo says again out of nowhere. I’m sure Hannah is ready to take a broom to that damn bird.

“If you wake up with a dead bird in the morning,” Hannah growls, “don’t be mad at me.”

Wesley chuckles. “It’s getting late. Let’s get back.”

On the walk back, I think about it and realize that despite the stakes, we’re probably all secretly enjoying this. This place is a hell of a lot more fun than any hotel. It’s growing on me.

As we walk toward the main house, I feel Hannah fall into step with me. The way through the trees is somewhat narrow, and more than once, I feel her arm rub against me. The trees are lovely, dark, and mysterious with just hints of pale moonlight filtering through them, and in the half light, I glance over at her. She’s more than just sexy. She’s angelic, vulnerable, and more. I clear my throat, looking ahead, and Caleb and Cassie have already stalked back to the main house, and we’re almost alone.

“You looked good out there today,” I say quietly. “I got lucky.”

Her lips part in surprise as if she wasn’t expecting a compliment. “T-thank you. But you won both games.”

“The dancing was just Wes’s opinion,” I say, stopping. She stops, and everyone moves further ahead. “Please don’t slap me again, but . . .” I add quickly, “The way you moved your hips . . . that was fucking hot.”

She laughs, this time not taken aback. “It might’ve been Wes’s opinion, but I can’t help but agree with him. You felt like my big fierce warrior, just home from battle.” After a moment, she sighs, stepping off the path. I follow her, wondering where she’s going. Finally, when the lights from the main house are just glimmers between the trees, she turns to me again. “You know, I wanted to tell you this for a long time after Roxy’s wedding . . . I’m sorry, I overreacted. We were getting pretty hot and heavy and you were just going with it.”

I step closer, close enough that I can feel the warmth of her body even in the tropical night. Fuck, I want her. “The only thing you should be sorry for is leaving me with a raging hard-on last night.”

“Oh?” Hannah says, taking a half-step back. She bumps into a huge rock taller than I am, and somehow, the light from the moon is just right. I can see her face. She’s grinning, but at the same time, I think she’s turned on, too. “And sending me that picture was okay? You know, that’s a crime in some states.”

“Is it? Isn’t that only if the picture isn’t wanted?”

I step closer, so close that I can feel her trembling breath on my cheek, and she can’t help but bite her lip. “I–I—” she stutters, at a loss for words.

I press my hard body up against her, feeling the soft resistance of her breasts, and she doesn’t fight it but instead moans lightly. I shift my hips, and I know she can feel the hardness of my cock press into the space below her belly button. “Tell me, Hannah. Did you want it? What did you feel when I sent you the pic?”

“Oh, fuck . . .” I hear her moan under her breath.

“You left me hanging,” I growl, leaning down and whispering in her ear. I can feel her body almost vibrate, and unconsciously, she puts a hand on my hip. She wants me as much as I want her. “All fucking night. I had to jack off thinking about how wet your pussy got when you saw it, wondering if you were touching yourself. It got me through the night, but your dancing, and watching you be all sexy and powerful with the bow . . .”

“It’s hard for me again,” Hannah whispers, and I feel the heat growing between her legs. “I can feel it.”

“Good,” I say, stroking her hair and leaning in. “I want you to feel something else too.” I close the last inch, my lips crushing hers in a searing, passionate kiss. Hannah doesn’t resist, her hand on my hip wrapping around to grab my ass and pull me into her. I knew she wanted this as much as me. Our tongues twist and taste each other, and I bring my hand up, squeezing her breast through her top and pinching her nipple lightly. “Trust me, you don’t need any secret tricks to make me hard. You do that just by being yourself.”

“And you make me—” Hannah says, but I cut off her words with another searing kiss, knowing exactly what I’m doing to her. She lifts her leg, wrapping it around mine, and I can feel the heat from her pussy press against my hip. I slide down, pressing the bulge of my cock directly against her, and she moans thickly in my ear. “You feel so fucking good.”

“And it’s all yours,” I growl before I grab her ass, squeezing and kneading it as she bites my lip she’s so turned on. I slide my hand up her skirt and inside the back of her panties, feeling the firm, silky soft skin of her ass. It’s the best ass I’ve ever felt, and I massage it, Hannah moaning in my ear as I use my free hand to push my shorts down. My cock springs free, and Hannah gasps as she feels it rub against her inner thigh. I run my hand around to pull her panties to the side, feeling the sopping wet heat from her pussy as I do. “You’re going to be all mine, too.”

She moans, but at the same time, she pushes me away, a choked sob in her throat. “Wait! We can’t do this. I’m sorry . . .” My jaw drops open in shock, and before I can reply, she runs off into the night, back toward the path.

My balls are aching, and my cock throbs as it bobs straight out in front of me. But my grin is tight and spreading on my face. Run . . . for now, Hannah. The competition is just getting heated, and the stakes are a lot higher than just this property.