Chapter Five
Jenna woke, stretched, and yawned a mile wide. She’d slept like a baby—
She giggled. Maybe baby wasn’t a good word for a woman who’d fantasized about sex all night. She turned over in the big bed, wishing her fantasies could fill the extra space with the real thing.
Namely, Connor.
Somehow, her mind had turned every one of his chaste gestures and careful words into an entire raging lineup of a girl’s hottest dreams. They’d started with kisses in their airplane seats, and the deeper those became, the more her libido stirred. Soon, she’d needed more — desperately — and she dreamed of sneaking to the airplane restroom with Connor and doing it perched on the sink. Then her mind had turned the back half of the plane into a private jet with a huge, heart-shaped bed and silk sheets where Connor had laid her out like a feast.
Special Forces. Gorgeous eyes. A hint of mystery. What girl wouldn’t dream of a night with him?
She rolled onto her stomach and propped her head in her hands, looking out the door to the beach. Yes, the beach, not ten steps away. Her sister had set her up in the estate’s guesthouse, an adorable hobbit hole of a cottage built right at the edge of the beach.
So — wow. Her sister hadn’t been kidding about living the good life.
Jenna watched the surf break on an offshore reef. Given a view like that, she figured her mind would be filled with images of riding those waves or exploring the depths with a couple of long free dives. But all she could think of was the man from the plane. Preferably naked and dripping with water.
She glanced around. What she wouldn’t give for him to stroll by now. Or better yet, to knock at the door and come in with a tray of her favorite pancakes. Hell, she’d be content to have his number to be able to call.
Hi, Connor. It’s me — Jenna, from the flight. I was thinking we might be able to meet.
She kicked the sheets, wishing she’d asked for his number. She’d probably never see him again.
She thumped the mattress and stood, determined to stay positive. The plane ride — and Connor — had helped her relax, and Maui was doing its part too. California and the notion of vampires seemed far, far away from this well-protected private estate. She stepped outside, breathing deeply while finger-combing her hair. Maybe there really was magic here on Maui. She could feel it in the sweet scent of roses arranged along the porch of the tiny cottage and in the never-ending pulse of the sea.
She’d agreed to find Jody by breakfast time, so she ducked back inside to pull on her favorite cutoff jean shorts and a blue tank top, and—
“Ugh.”
She stared at the knife she’d left on the bedside table — a reminder of everything that had driven her here.
“Fine,” she muttered, strapping it to her calf before heading out to explore. It looked a lot like a diving knife, so she wouldn’t appear too loony to anyone who noticed it. Anyway, she’d promised herself not to think about bad things in her first day in paradise. She had exactly one free day before starting work, and she was going to squeeze in all the carefree living she’d missed over the past weeks.
So she dug her toes into the sand with gusto and gazed out over the endless blue sea. She listened to palms dancing in the breeze and inhaled blissfully clean air. Then she splashed through the shallows, pausing here or there to pick up a shell or interesting rock. According to her dad, she’d been a beachcomber from the time she could walk.
Just like me, he often said with a proud grin.
She smiled and pocketed a shell. Later on, she’d send a picture of it to him. In the meantime, she really had to get to breakfast. So she walked to the end of the beach where a couple was spreading out a blanket in the shade. Jody had introduced Jenna to her new friends when she’d arrived, and that was Nina and Boone, if she remembered correctly.
It had to be, because each of them held a baby as they arranged the blanket and settled down. Nina waved with a hearty, “Aloha!”
“Hi,” Jenna called.
“Say Aloha, sweetie,” Boone murmured to the baby he held. He propped one tiny arm up and made the baby wave, and then rewarded the child with a huge smooch. “That’s my girl.”
“You’ll have to excuse Boone,” Nina said. “He’s still living on proud daddy cloud nine.”
“Not my fault I have the two best kids in the world.” He shrugged and started tickling the other child’s foot. It gurgled and kicked with glee.
Jenna grinned. “I know the type. My dad is like that with my niece.”
Her stomach rumbled, and Nina laughed. “Let me guess. Time for breakfast.” She motioned toward a path that led between the palm trees. “Just keep to the main trail, and you’ll find the meeting house.”
“How about you?” Jenna asked.
Boone laughed. “We’re on the babies’ schedule now. I’m pretty sure we had breakfast at about five, but it’s all a blur. I’m practically ready for lunch.” Then he cuddled the baby right up to his face and switched to baby talk. “How about you, Luna? All nice and full?”
Nina rolled her eyes as if the sight of a big, muscled man holding a tiny baby wasn’t the cutest thing ever, and Jenna excused herself with a smile. She turned up the path with a light step. If those two could hang out on the beach with their babies, she could feel safe too.
The path meandered this way and that. While Nina had made it sound easy, Jenna couldn’t always tell which branch of the trail to follow. But surely, the estate wasn’t so big that she could lose her way.
“Wow,” she murmured five minutes later. Maybe it was big enough. She’d wandered under enough palm trees to line most of the boardwalk back home and startled more skittering crabs that she could count — and she still hadn’t found the estate’s meeting house. Her stomach was rumbling, and she was starting to wish she’d slipped on her flip-flops, after all.
“First world problems,” she muttered to herself, picking up her pace as she turned around the next bend.
It was a really tight bend, and the foliage was extra thick, so she had no forewarning of the solid slab of rock she ran into a second later.
“Sorry,” the rock said as she stumbled back. Two thick arms steadied her, and a deep voice sounded in her ears.
“Jenna?”
She blinked. “Connor?” Because, wow. That hadn’t been solid rock. It was him.
A smile flashed over his face — a from-the-heart smile that told her he was as happy to see her as she was to see him. He still had that fresh, outdoorsy scent, but he looked tired from too little sleep.
She blushed. Was it possible that he’d been kept up by the same hot fantasies she’d had, or was she flattering herself? After all, she’d slept through the flight, and he hadn’t.
His eyes sparkled, and a vein pulsed at his neck. Maybe it was the former, after all.
“Hi,” she managed.
He grinned. “Hi.”
She fished for something to do or say that wouldn’t make her come off like a love-struck teen, but nothing came out. After another few seconds of staring at each other, they both spoke at the same time.
“What are you doing here?”
She laughed, and he did too.
“I’m trying to find my way to breakfast,” she said.
His hazel eyes looked more green than brown in the morning light, and they swept up and down her body — not ogling her the way some men did, just warming her up. Warming himself up too, judging by the pink flush that spread over his cheeks.
Jenna bit her lip. Her skin tingled all over, and she leaned closer. It was crazy, the pull she felt toward him. Like a fever had struck both of them at the same time. Of course, there were people she had hit it off with right away. But this was different. This was the thrill of a chance meeting combined with the warm goodness of a reunion with an old friend.
She blinked, trying to snap out of it. Maybe there really was something magical about Maui. Or maybe it was just the romance of a tropical island combined with that burst of freedom she’d started the day with.
“No, I mean, what are you really doing here?” Connor asked.
“Visiting my sister, like I said.”
His eyes went wide — really wide, like a guy who’d just discovered a girl’s father owned a very big shotgun. “Your sister lives here? At Koa Point?”
She turned away from Connor long enough to wave at the path she’d come down, about to explain. By the time she turned back, he’d inched closer to peer over her shoulder, and they bumped again. He caught her arms and held her a little closer. A little tighter, like a treasured possession he didn’t dare release.
Her breath caught as she gazed up into his eyes. Back on the plane, they’d been almost eye-to-eye. Now, his height showed, and she had to look up. And not just look up but look deep because his eyes were doing that trick of theirs again. Swirling. Glowing, almost. Or was she seeing things?
She dropped her gaze to his lips, watching them form soundless syllables. Maybe she wasn’t the only one drunk on a mysterious elixir of love.
A bird zoomed by overhead, breaking the spell just long enough for her to pull away an inch. “Wait. What are you doing here?”
He didn’t answer right away, still looking stunned. When he did speak, it was a single, quiet word. “Destiny.”
She wondered if she’d heard right. “What was that?”
He gave himself a little shake and cleared his throat. “I mean…er, duty. I work here. Well, I do now.”
“I thought you said you worked in security.”
“I do.” He waved around. “For Koa Point estate. I’m staying at the plantation house.”
Her jaw hung open in one of those holy crap moments. “So you’re…you’re…”
“Your new neighbor,” Connor rumbled in that low, growly tone she already loved. And damn if the man didn’t lick his lips.
Her cheeks flushed. Connor McStud was her neighbor, and he was on foot, which meant they were only separated by a short walk. So technically, she could sneak over to his place whenever she wanted, or he could sneak over to hers. Which meant…
She gulped. Her interlude on Maui had just gotten a lot more interesting.
“Neighbor, huh?”
He grinned. “Maybe I’ll get to see more of you, after all.”
Maybe we can do more than see each other, her girl parts giggled.
“That would be nice,” she said, trying to keep a straight face as her imagination ran away with visions of barefoot walks on a moonlit beach.
His smile was mesmerizing, his eyes twin pools of hope, and she found herself leaning closer. The sea breeze whispered between the trees, playing with her hair, and the warmth of the rising sun kissed her skin. The air began to crackle with energy that swirled around her fingers, tempting her to reach out toward Connor.
Connor’s mouth cracked open, and he stood there, staring.
“Do you feel that too?” she whispered.
If he said, Feel what? she would have struggled to explain. It was as if the world was falling away until everything funneled down to just him and her. It was one thing to have that happen in a plane when the lights dimmed and rows of seats formed a barrier to the outside world. But out here amid the grandeur of Maui? Surf crashed. Craggy mountain peaks reared up to the sky. Flowers exploded from every bush, and umbrella-sized leaves opened beneath them, ready to catch sparkling dewdrops. But all she could really focus on was Connor.
His lips moved, and he whispered so low, she barely caught what he said.
“Destiny…”
She took a deep breath. Could it really be?
Of course there’s love at first sight, her dad used to say. For the luckiest guys on earth, at least.
Without thinking, she slid her hands up Connor’s arms, all the way to his shoulders and back down. She waited for the mirage to shimmer and vanish, but Connor was still there, brushing his thumbs over her skin.
“Yeah.” His whisper was hoarse. “I feel that.”
Her lips trembled, and she tilted her head to match the angle of his. He dipped his chin, coming closer, and she rose to meet him, steered by that same mischievous force.
Kiss him, a voice whispered in the back of her mind.
How could she kiss him? She barely knew him.
Not a stranger. A friend, the voice assured her.
She wondered what the voice was and where it came from. But she got distracted by calculating the distance to his lips, which seemed much more important just then. They weren’t far, but even that was too far. She rose to her toes, suddenly desperate for a taste of his lips because she already knew how perfect it would be.
But something rustled on the path behind her. Something determined to rip that kiss away from them before it was too late.
Too late for what? her muddled mind asked.
Quick as lightning, Connor pushed her behind him. He stepped forward, sticking his chest out, doing that human barrier thing he’d done on the plane. Then he froze, alert as a dog sniffing the breeze.
Jenna stared. Wait a second. He actually was sniffing the breeze.
“Jenna?” a familiar voice called.
She stepped forward and touched Connor’s arm. “That’s my sister.” In a louder voice, she called out to Jody, “Coming.”
Her voice was light, but her heart sank. She didn’t want to go anywhere, and she didn’t want anyone butting in.
That didn’t stop Jody from walking up, followed by her boyfriend, Cruz, who glared the second he spotted Connor. Around Jody, Cruz was a sweetheart — well, a gruff sweetheart — but sweet, indeed. Around other men, though…
Jenna backed up to give them space and bumped into Connor, who was glaring right back at Cruz. His face stiffened, and she swore his stubble thickened as his laser gaze warned Cruz away. Cruz’s eyes were screaming all kinds of deadly warnings too, and neither man showed the slightest sign of backing down.
Help Connor. Touch him, the little voice said. Calm him.
She fought away the urge to place a hand on his chest, but she did hum under her breath, telling him it was okay.
“Hey, Jenna. Did you sleep well?” her sister asked as if she was used to men growling at each other like a couple of angry Rottweilers.
The second Jenna placed a hand over Connor’s forearm, heat rushed through her veins. His hand brushed her lower back, out of sight of the others. Was that just an innocent bump, or did he relish the contact too?
“Great. Super. I slept really well,” she stammered, trying not to blush.
“Hi,” Jody chirped at Connor, offering her hand. “You must be one of the new guys. I’m Jody, and this is Cruz.”
Cruz bristled as Jody and Connor shook hands, but he didn’t say a word.
Connor forced a polite smile. “Connor Hoving. Nice to meet you.”
Hoving. Connor Hoving. Jenna parked that little tidbit of information away in her mind.
“Great that you’re here,” Jody said, then waved Jenna in the direction she’d come from. “Breakfast is that way, little sis. After that, we really need to talk. Remember?”
Of course, Jenna remembered. Jody had hinted at some big secret the night before, and she wondered what it was. Was Jody pregnant? Planning to marry Cruz? It sounded like something big, that was for sure.
“Would you like to join us for breakfast, Connor?” Jody asked.
Cruz’s glare said, Who said we have to invite him?
Connor shook his head. “I have to meet Kai, but thanks.” His eyes dropped to Jenna’s and hung on. “See you later?”
Was it just her, or were his words loaded with subtext?
Before she could so much as smile an enthusiastic reply, Cruz’s mouth opened a tiny bit, and Jenna swore she heard a muffled growl.
“See you later, Connor,” Jody said, quickly leading Jenna away.
“See you later,” Jenna called, looking back.
But Cruz had already positioned himself between her and Connor, making a wall with his body the way Connor had done on the plane.
Jenna shook her head and whispered to her sister as they walked away. “Man, oh man. What is it with these überterritorial guys?”
Jody glanced at her, looking uncharacteristically serious. When she whispered back, it was in a strangely scratchy voice. “I’m about to explain.”