“Dance with me.” Keilen’s voice was low, but Lily still heard it over the din of noise and voices in the middle of the room. “We haven’t danced for a long time.”

“The music is too fast.” Lily was a little drunk, but still knew that you needed a slow song to do the kind of dancing Keilen wanted.

“Then let’s go somewhere else.” He pulled her close, resting a hand on her lower back as Mekka started gyrating and dancing like a drunken fool when someone changed the MP3 player to old school Run DMC. “No one will miss us.”

“No one?” she asked nodding at Zinnia as she sat on Ano’s lap listening to Leanni speak with her hands gesturing wildly. “She might need back up.”

“No, she’s good.” He led her from the kitchen, passed Mekko and some girl Lily had seen lining up shots along the bar just an hour before. “I heard Ano fussing at his tutu when Zee went to the back bathroom. I think he may have told her to back off.”

“But she’s still bossing orders.”

“Nah,” he said, opening the back door for her. “That’s her just chatting. Leanni gets this heavy line down her forehead when she’s fussing.”

“You have experience with that?”

Keilen stopped, eyes wide in mock concern as he adapted an eye-batting innocent expression. “Not me, no. I was the perfect child growing up.”

Lily stopped, tugging out of his reach when Keilen tilted his head, motioning her toward his property. “Now I know you’re lying. I do recall you screwing up epically senior year.”

“It was the best senior prank ever pulled off at Kaimuki High. It took Mr. Williams a month to get that old Chevy off the roof of the school, and it made me a legend.” He lifted his chin, looking too pleased with himself as he pulled Lily away from Ano’s property. 

“It made you unable to walk with your class at graduation, if I recall.”

“That’s right,” he said, pretending to be truly amazed as he stopped midway between his back stairs and the edge of his property toward the beach. “I forgot how obsessed with me you were.”

Lily shook her head when Keilen motioned toward his patio. She didn’t know what he planned, but could guess. There was a guarantee she’d regret whatever that plan was in the morning. “We can’t go to your house,” she said, stepping away from the curved walkway that led to Keilen’s place.

“Why not?”

“Because then we’ll be alone.”

He took three steps toward her, resting his hands on her hips. “Is that a bad thing?”

“It could lead to very bad things, Dr. K.”

“I’m waiting to hear why that’s bad.”

She glanced over the horizon and smiled, taking Keilen’s hand as she jogged toward the beach. “When was the last time you swam at night?”

“Not much time for that when you’re on call.”

Lily ambled across the beach, walking backward, tugging Keilen along until she came to wet sand and the slick rush of slow moving waves.

“You’re not on call now, are you?”

“No. Not just now,” he said, head tilted as he watched her. There was a look on his face that moved somewhere between curiosity and fear. By the way his mouth twitched, Lily guessed curiosity was winning out.

“Good. I’m glad to hear that.” Lily smiled, feeling buzzed and a lot eager to see Keilen’s eyes light up when she chucked her clothes.

“What are you doing?”

She dropped his hand, stepping further back into the current. The water was cooler than it should have been for the autumn. “Giving you a show.” He kept his eyes on the slow slip of her fingers through her buttonholes. When she deliberately teased him with a flash of skin and the curve of her breasts, she was rewarded with a hard swallow and the flick of his tongue against his upper lip.

“Makamae, you only need to smile to do that.”

She stopped unbuttoning her shirt, a little overcome by the endearment and how sweet it sounded coming from him.

“That means ‘darling,’ doesn’t it?”

Keilen nodded, stepping out of his shoes.

“You think I’m your darling?”

“I think,” he said, loosening his belt as Lily pulled her shirt over her head. “I think you definitely could be.” He walked forward, reaching for her hand when she began to slip the elastic waistband of her dress over her hips. “Let me,” he said in that rich, deep voice he seemed to only affect when he wanted to make Lily go a little stupid.

Keilen moved his palms over her hips, bunching up the fabric between his fingers as he slid it over the curve of her ass and the backs of her thighs, licking fire and heat over the surface of her skin. Lily hummed, smiling when Keilen blinked, a long, slow movement that made him seem content.

With his hands on her, that sweet smell of his skin wafting in her senses, Lily forgot her earlier protests of those bad-thing plans. She forgot happy endings weren’t in her future. She forgot everything and decided to just feel. He felt so good against her, his skin warm and smooth. “If I’m makamae, then what should I call you? There must be some pet name I can use.”  

His smile, his laugh, the way he seemed unable to keep from touching her reminded Lily of that night at Tommy’s and the long kisses, the slow dance that had gone on for hours. Propriety was no match for nostalgia, no matter who was affected by it. Lily slid her arms over his shoulders, to fold her fingers together as they continued to walk backward into the water.

“I only know the big ones, like ‘my love’… ko 'u aloha…”

“No,” she said, pulling his belt from the loop at his waistband.

“Or just ‘beloved,’ ke aloha…”

“Or lolo,” she tried, laughing when he shook his head.

“That’s another one meant for you.”

“What was it Luka used to call you?” She tapped a finger to her chin, in mock thought and smiled, liking how he laughed at her. “Oh. That’s right. Buggah.”

“Ha. I forgot about that, but no, you can’t call me that.”

Keilen stopped to shed his slacks, joining her in the water clad in only his boxer briefs. They went into the water waist deep and Lily let Keilen move them, picking her up so that her forgotten skirt floated on the surface of the water. She leaned against him in that skirt and her black lace bra, loving how he shuddered, how his grip tightened on her thighs when she brushed against him.

There were a few beads of sweat on his face, collecting on his upper lip, and Lily cupped the cool water in her palm, dripping it over his fine features before she kissed him, taking advantage of his closed eyes.

Surprise moved across his face—eyebrows lifted, mouth opened, and when Lily went in for another kiss, Keilen groaned, responded with his tongue against her bottom lip and his hand lowering to press her against him.

“You taste like the ocean now,” she said, smiling against his lips when that low groan lifted, became a little desperate and eager.

“Nani, I’ll taste however you want if you keep kissing me like that.”

He took over then, rubbing her down his body, holding her face between his large palms as the current stirred and shifted them together, bodies moving with the tide as the waves got rough.

Lily didn’t care. She was half naked and a little drunk, kissing the boy she’d dreamt of for years. Let the storms come. Let them swallow her whole.

“Nani again,” she said, breaking the kiss when she realized what he’d called her. “That’s ‘pretty,’ right? I’ve heard Ano call Zee that.”

He looked down at her, smile sweet as he watched her. “Beautiful. It means beautiful.”

Lily’s chest constricted, tightened with the intensity of his stare and the swell of emotion that warmed her heart. She couldn’t take it for long, that look. It felt too honest, too raw. So, she did what was customary for her. Lily deflected.

“See, there you go calling me pet names and I still don’t have one for you. Unless you change your mind about buggah…”

“No,” he said, sliding his fingers into her damp hair. “I rather you say to me, na'u `oe so I can say it back.”

“What does that mean?”

He hesitated, only for a moment, the smile lighting up his face lowered, as though unsure if he should tell Lily the truth. She held her breath when he moved his thumb across her lower lip and then Keilen nodded, decision apparently made. “It means ‘you’re mine.’”

“That…” Her breath shuddered then, and she shook against him. “That’s what you want me to say?”

“That’s what I want you to mean.”

The kiss, when it came, reminded Lily of the first one he’d given her, all those years ago on Tommy’s dance floor. There was no Kiki there to force her to say stupid, inappropriate things. There was no Kona smiling like he knew what Keilen wanted to do to Lily once they left the bar. There was only the press of Keilen’s naked chest against her and the warm, smooth glide of his fingers on her back, pulling her close, sinking into the sandy ocean as he lowered his head and moved his mouth to hers.

She had meant it, that ‘your mine’ promise a thousand times in her dreams. She’d spoken it proudly to him anytime he moved through the hallways and half glanced at, half ignored her. She’d wanted to say it a million times before that night on the beach, but had never had him close enough; had never believed he’d want to hear anything similar from her.

But there she stood, under the rich moonlight, letting Keilen Rivers steal her breath, ravage her mouth like a predator she warmly welcomed. She’d say it a thousand times just to keep him close. She’d say it a million more because it was true.

“Keilen?” she said, holding his head still when he didn’t seem able to break away from her kiss. He grunted low, the only response he gave her. “I mean it.”

He didn’t answer. Instead, Keilen stared down at her a little breathless, stretching his neck so that Lily saw the steady quickening of his pulse as he watched her. A look, it seemed and a small confession, could shift this man’s world and leave him dumbfounded. It was a power Lily would have never believed she could wield. But there she was, holding him, that perfect fantasy, between her trembling fingers, living in a daydream on that dark autumn night, meaning the things she’d spoken with a bravery she never really had.

And he believed her. Maybe she believed it too.