Meet Me in Hawaii by Georgia Toffolo (best affordable ebook reader TXT) 📗

‘I see the sunrise often, it’s just that it’s normally through the gaps in the skyscrapers beyond the glass.’

‘You should get outside more. Don’t you go out into the countryside, the seaside even?’

‘I’ve never had the desire to.’ His eyes were very much fixed on hers, her upturned mouth so close that if he dipped, he could kiss her.

He could feel the tension mounting in the air, a very different kind of tension to that of seconds before and as her eyes flicked to his lips, he said, ‘I didn’t know what I was missing out on before.’

Only he knew in that second it wasn’t the sunrise he’d been missing, but her… Malie… the thought burned through him, fighting with his survival instincts to back away.

‘And now?’ she whispered. ‘Do you see it now?’

He lifted a hand to cup her jaw, his thumb soft as it caressed her cheek. He did see it. He wanted her, and he wanted her to see it too, the possibility of what they could have if they took the risk.

‘Yes,’ he said, looking down into her beautiful green eyes fired with amber and wishing her to see the truth in him, in herself. ‘Yes, I see it.’

He lowered his head and saw the precise second the shutter fell, the spell broken in the widening of her gaze.

She dragged air into her lungs and stepped back, almost stumbling over a resting Nalu at her feet. ‘We’d best make a start.’

She turned in the direction of the surf school and without looking back called out, ‘I just need to freshen up and change.’

He watched her go, his body running from hot to cold and back again.

What are you doing, Todd?

He didn’t know. He just knew that he couldn’t let her go – that in two weeks he may be leaving but life wouldn’t be the same. In fact, now that he’d met her, he was struggling to imagine life without her in it.

And that meant one thing, that in spite of his long-held belief that he would never go down the same road as his dad – that he would never let himself love another like his father had loved his mother – he was falling for her… falling fast and he was helpless to stop it.

‘Did you want a coffee while you wait?’ she asked without looking.

She knew he’d eventually follow after her, attuned as she was to every movement he made. She’d swear her heart was pounding loud enough for him to hear, her body thrumming a persistent beat in his presence that only ever became more incessant the more she denied it. Denied him.

‘That’d be great, thanks.’

She pulled the shop key from the zipped pouched just above her bum and tried to push it into the lock, but it wasn’t just her heart that was unsteady, her fingers were too, and she fumbled over it.

‘Here, allow me…’ He was right behind her, the deep resonance of his voice running down her spine, the heat of his fingers as they closed around hers taking her breath away.

She said nothing. She couldn’t. She was so tightly wound nothing would come out; instead she stepped aside and let him unlock the door, her eyes raking hungrily over him and again remembering her own sweaty state.

She cocked a shoulder, did a discreet sniff, realizing she must smell. She’d really gone for it this morning, trying to burn out his power over her, and one glimpse of the fire in his intense blue eyes, his fringe flopped forward, his grin cocky and sure and yet so full of meaning – gah, she’d turned into a hot, sweaty mess for an entirely different reason. All the more so as the sun’s rays had lifted on the horizon, dazzling them both in its warm, romantic glow. It had been a perfect moment, it would have been the perfect kiss, with any other couple, just not them.

He looked to her as he pushed the door open and stepped back to allow her entry first. ‘After you, madam.’

A giggle worked its way up from nowhere and she knew it had come from nerves. Nerves that were totally shot where Todd was concerned.

‘Thanks.’

She took a wide berth around him, but still his fresh masculine scent assailed her senses, his presence making her body hum with awareness. It was ridiculous. She wasn’t a nun and he wasn’t some forbidden fruit that she couldn’t taste. Only she knew a taste wouldn’t be enough. No, she’d want the whole damn lot and would go in for seconds, thirds and then some.

She strode to the kitchen and flicked on the light switch, opening the cupboards with more gusto than was required, sending one door bouncing back on itself. She tried again, slower this time, feeling Todd’s curious gaze on her.

‘Caffeinated?’ she blurted.

He folded his arms and leaned into the doorframe. So relaxed, so at ease, why couldn’t she be that smooth? She was known for being blasé, unfazed, cool… she was none of that with him.

‘What would be the point otherwise?’

‘True.’ It came out a high-pitched squeak and she grimaced into the coffee machine as she loaded it up. At least all she could smell was ground coffee now and not his heady scent. She breathed it in and tried to reset her heart rate. She was such an idiot. Do you see it now, Todd? Really, what kind of question was that?

She took the jug from the machine and loaded it up with water, all the while trying and failing cataclysmically to keep her eyes off him, and each time he caught her peeking his smile grew.

‘Tell me, Todd, do most women fall at your feet?’

Where the hell had that come from?

From her frustrations. Her inability to think straight. The need to put a wall up between them and keep it there.

He laughed, but she could