I knew then that this was no damned nightmare, but rather a dream come true for both of us.
I only hoped I didn't wake up anytime soon.
Not till I had the time to milk the dream for all it was worth and then some.
We must have gone at it for at least an hour of no holds barred, primeval sex, and she didn't want to stop even then. But, unfortunately, my energy level had reached the point of no return. I was just three months shy of my fortieth birthday and no longer possessed the staying power that once carried us for hours on end. Whereas, at thirty-six, Victoria was apparently just beginning to reach her stride.
I hadn't figured out yet whether this was a onetime deal thing or if it was the beginning of something that I could certainly learn to live with.
We got up from our sex romp and Victoria fixed me a kick-ass breakfast fit for a king. I liked this royalty treatment. I had gotten used to things like stale donuts and Pop-Tarts for breakfast, which didn't really do much to fill me up for the day ahead.
I had to wonder if I'd done something right that I inexplicably forgot about. Like win the lottery. Not likely, considering there was no lottery in the state of Hawaii.
Maybe I was being rewarded for the time I helped an old lady across the street when I was a kid. Or maybe it was because I finally remembered to put the toilet seat down that had ignited all this.
Had Victoria finally sold her first novel to a publisher after years of trying? She was a firm believer that she could never be taken seriously if she self-published her material.
When I got tired of guessing and was unable to simply count my blessings without knowing just what the hell they were, I asked her directly: "So what's going on, Victoria?"
She fluttered her curly lashes and raised those big, bold blue eyes at me innocently, and said: "What do you mean?"
"Why the new you this morning?" I dipped a perfectly sliced piece of waffle into maple syrup. "Am I missing something here or have I just gone into the Twilight Zone and entered a mysterious and exciting new existence?"
She licked her generous ruby lips. "Are you complaining?"
"No, not at all," I had to admit. "I'd just like to know what's come over you. Was it something I said or did? Or is this just your way of telling me you're ready to be my woman again—in every way?"
It reminded me of that old song "Love Potion Number Nine." Had she suddenly fallen under the spell of a love, lust, and affection potion?
Though certainly piqued, another part of me wondered if sometimes it was best to leave well enough alone. Not push it too far, so that things backfired.
But the proverbial cat was out of the bag.
Victoria gave me an amused look from across the table. "Nothing's come over me," she said sweetly. Then she seemed to think again, as if even she knew that could not stand up to scrutiny.
I waited for an explanation.
"All right," she said. "So maybe I'm tired of treating you like crap." A sigh. "No, that's not it either." She chuckled, and then almost immediately put a more serious almost tearful look on her face. "I guess I'm just afraid of losing you, Jack—"
I didn't know I had given her reason to believe such. We had been together for ten years now, nine as man and wife and five living in Hawaii. While we'd had more than our fair share of fights and disagreements over the course of time, neither of us had ever threatened divorce. Or even a separation.
Why start now?
Did she know something I didn't?
Or was she genuinely concerned at this stage in our lives that we might be drifting apart to the point where a split was inevitable?
I sought to allay her concerns and extinguish my own strange feelings that things would somehow never be the same again.
With my gray eyes narrowed the way they get when I want to express my sincerity, I told her: "You are never going to lose me, except to death when are both too old to even realize one of us is gone. Don't you know that I worship the ground you stand on and have ever since we first met?"
She flashed that drop dead, thousand-watt smile that sold me back then, and still sent a chill up my spine. "I don't know what I was thinking," Victoria said. "I guess it's a woman's prerogative to get a little insecure at times, usually for no reason at all other than just for the sake of it."
Since I felt that I had the upper hand on this one, I wasn't about to let my leverage slip away.
"Now that you mention it, things have gotten a bit sour between us," I said. "I think maybe we should use this morning's little adventure to start over."
"Is that so?" she asked playfully.
I sipped my coffee and regarded her, wearing only one of my shirts and looking sexy as hell. I suddenly felt turned on again.
"Yeah," I hummed. "How about picking up where we left off back in the bedroom."
Victoria moistened her lips with syrup and said teasingly: "Now you're being greedy."
I blushed salaciously. "Guilty as charged."
She laughed. "Well we'll just have to see about that, won't we?"
I didn't respond, though I couldn't help but feel there was a double meaning to her words. For the moment, I was more than ready to push any skepticism from my mind and use the renewed vigor and enthusiasm for a second round of intimacy.
Victoria suddenly sprang to her feet like she had just spotted a snake within striking distance. "I've got a great idea," she said. "Why don't we go into Lihue today?"
I scratched my graying black hair. Lihue was the county seat as well as commercial center of Kauai County. It was also usually a place Victoria avoided at all costs, making me wonder what she was up to.
"I go there to work five days a week," I pointed out. "Why would I want to on my day off?"
We lived on the south shore of Kauai in the resort area of Poipu Beach. The two-story, custom-built oceanfront home with spectacular views of Kukui'ula Harbor and Spouting Horn—the amazing phenomenon renowned for crashing waves fifty feet into the air—had damned near everything we could ask for, and more. It was our own little slice of heaven and the one thing we both seemed to agree on ever since purchasing it three years ago.
Apart from giving us the opportunity to enjoy the good life in style, it was also supposed to provide Victoria the inspirational setting to get her creative juices flowing as a would-be writer. That hadn't often been the case, not counting this morning. Her writing still came and left with her mood, which had been lousy lately.
Again, this morning had seen a different and improved Victoria Burke emerge from the shadows. Knock on wood. Maybe the writing had hope yet, I considered optimistically.
Maybe we did as well.
In my reverie, I hadn't realized that Victoria had gotten up and was now on my lap, where she planted a coffee laced kiss on my mouth.
"Oh, pretty please," she said in a whiny my-way-or-no-way voice. "It'll be fun, you'll see. We'll go to some of those cute little shops in the Kukui Grove Shopping Center and drink lattes or red wine. And when we get back, the fun can really begin—"
"I thought the fun was about to begin again now," I groaned.
"It will," she promised. "Before you know it we'll be back, and I'm all yours for the taking and you're mine for the giving."
I had the distinct feeling this was a bribe. I was damned if I didn't and rewarded if I did.
Not much of a choice, all things considered. But after this morning she could have told me to jump off Wailua Falls and I probably would have.
"You win," I said.
Victoria put her warm cheek to mine and whispered in my ear: "No, silly, we both win."
I took her at her word on that one.
I hadn't considered at the time that winning was entirely subjective.
Chapter Two
I drove my Mercedes down Highway 50, wondering why we were headed to Lihue instead of making love. I was still trying to figure out if my wife was up to something. Or were my suspicions totally unwarranted?
"So why did you really wan
t to go out?" I had to ask.
"Does there have to be a reason?"
"Isn't there usually one?" I countered.
"Not in this case, if you're looking for some ulterior motives," she said. "I just felt like being impetuous."
"You mean like having sex this morning?" I asked, hoping I wasn't stepping over the line and jeopardizing a very good thing for future reference.
"Something like that," Victoria said as she put her hand on my knee. "We used to hang out together all the time. Now you're always too busy—or I am. Maybe this is just my way of trying to get past that."
I couldn't argue her point. Between my job in advertising and her doing whatever, there seemed to be little time these days to enjoy each other's company outside the house. Perhaps this was a good opportunity to turn back the clock and work on our marriage in the process.
I touched her hand that was still on my knee and smiled. "I'm glad we're doing this."
She smiled back. "Me too."
Nevertheless, I was eager to get back home and resume our sexual activity.
After finding a spot to park, we visited a few stores in the open air shopping center, picking up some items along the way. Victoria seemed to be in her element, while I was exercising patience in wanting to appease her.
I opted to wait outside while she went into a fragrance store. Since I liked her natural scent more than any perfume, I left it up to her to buy whatever suited her fancy.
It was a nice day in Kauai, as was usually the case, with the temperature in the upper seventies and only a few puffy clouds in the sky. It was a far cry from my upbringing in the Midwest, where it was often either too hot or too cold for my liking.
My trip down memory lane was interrupted when I heard the throaty voice say almost inaudibly: "Can you spare a little something...?"
I looked slightly to my right and saw a tall Hawaiian woman standing there in tattered clothing that looked at least a size or two too big for her body. At first glance, I guessed her to be well into her thirties, if not forties. But upon closer inspection, something told me that beneath the street person façade she was more likely in her mid to late twenties.
Her thick, long hair was jet black and unkempt, suggesting it had not been washed for some time. The same could be said for her face. Her cheeks were smudged as if she had been rolling around in soot. She had heavy bags under her exotic brown eyes, which seemed to reveal everything she had been through. None of it good. She had a dainty nose and a half moon cleft in her chin. I could almost imagine her full mouth being covered with rich red lipstick in another lifetime.
But that was then and this was now.
My guess was that she was homeless—or damn near it. There was a homeless shelter not far from there and I wondered if she had drifted from it to the shopping center.
On almost any other day, I would have rejected the slightest temptation to help out this woman who was invading my space. Never mind the fact that I had donated plenty of money in the past few years to help keep the shelter afloat.
But there was something different about this woman that got to me. Maybe it was the pain in her sad eyes that told me she had had a rough turn in life above and beyond all others.
Or maybe it was because I had nothing better to do at the moment than take pity on someone of lesser means than myself.
Or maybe it was because she reminded me of someone I'd tried hard to remember and forget—my sister Caroline. She had taken to the streets when I was still in grade school. It was her way of liberating herself from a bad, abusive marriage, overbearing parents, and an addiction to cocaine.
The price she paid was heavy. At one point, Caroline was found living in a dumpster, strung out on drugs, and half frozen to death. The lifestyle caught up to her soon enough. She never even made it to see her twenty-third birthday, much less mine.
I blamed her for what she did to herself, simply because it was easier than blaming everyone else.
I met the homeless woman's unflinching eyes and removed my billfold from my back pocket. After leafing through some fifty dollar bills and several twenties, I backtracked and pulled out a fifty dollar bill and placed it on her hand, which had opened wide like a flower.
She flashed me a hint of a smile and said in a stronger voice: "Mahalo."
Almost simultaneously, I heard the bell from the fragrance shop, indicating someone had come out. I turned to look at Victoria's face. She was not smiling.
I glanced toward the woman who was already in full stride, as if to escape having to deal with my less than sympathetic wife. She was probably in search of her next handout. She turned her head in my direction as though for the last time, before disappearing into a shop.
Don't ask me why, but I had a sinking feeling that my generosity would come back to haunt me.
At least it seemed that way as I met the chilling gaze Victoria leveled at me.
* * *
Read the entire SEDUCED TO KILL IN KAUAI, available in eBook, audio, and print. The book is also available in the MURDER IN HAWAII MYSTERIES 3-BOOK BUNDLE by R. Barri Flowers, in Kindle, Nook, iTunes, and Google.
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The following is a bonus excerpt from the sexy contemporary novelette
KAANAPALI BEACH PARADISE
By R. Barri Flowers
The Hawaiian island of Maui could be seen below, surrounded by some of the clearest, bluest water in the Pacific. As the private plane flew over the area known as Hana, the two people on board were treated to a breathtaking view of the island's magnificent northern coastline with its lush bamboo forests, tropical flowers, and slashing waterfalls.
Within moments, another spectacular landmark came into view—the Kaanapali Palms Hotel. The pilot was particularly interested in the hotel as was the co-pilot, though to a lesser degree. And why wouldn't they be? After all, one was the CEO and majority stockholder of the hotel and the other a minor stockholder who was just an inheritance away from claiming that same title.
"There she is," Ben Crawford said proudly to his daughter, Leigh, beside him as he peered out the window at Maui's newest and, he believed, best luxury hotel.
The Palms, as Ben referred to it, was twelve stories high, and sprawled across thirty acres of lush tropical gardens and waterfalls that tumbled into idyllic pools. It was located within the Kaanapali Beach Resort Area, known for its three-mile long stretch of beautiful white sand beach and clear blue water, and home to Maui's most elegant hotels. The area had become a playground for beautiful, perfect, tanned bodies; tourists from around the globe as well as natives; celebrities and non-celebrities; sexy, sex-seekers; and any combination thereof.
"Oh, Daddy," Leigh gushed, "I love it. Is it really ours?"
"You bet it is, honey." He glanced over at his nineteen-year-old daughter who was too damned pretty for her own good, and his.
She flashed him a devastating smile that left Ben weak in the knees—just as her mother had done before her—and he couldn't help but think what he rarely said out loud to her.
I love you, Leigh. And I love it when I can make you happy. You sure as hell have made me happy. Just like your mother did before she was taken away from us. But now it's just you and me, kid, and I don't want to lose you too. To others, I may be a businessman first, but for you, Leigh, I'm a father first. And what I can't give you, I'll buy you!
At least the hotel was hers to play in whenever she saw fit. It was also a place where he very much wanted his guests to relax and play, hoping it would soon be the "go to" resort on Maui.
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Read the entire KAANAPALI BEACH PARADISE, available in eBook and audio.
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About the Author
R. Barri Flowers is the bestselling author of literary, relationship, mystery, and thriller fiction, as well as young adult novels.
Mysteries and thrillers include the Murder in Hawaii Mysteries bundle of Murder in Honolulu, Murder in Maui, and Seduced to Kill in Kauai; Before He Kills Again, Dark Streets
of Whitechapel, Killer in The Woods, and Murdered in the Man Cave.
Other adult fiction includes the epistolary novel, Graduate Circles, sentimental contemporary romance bestseller, Forever Sweethearts, and time travel romance, Billy the Kid's Wife.
Teen fiction includes Count Dracula's Teenage Daughter, Out for Blood, Ghost Girl in Shadow Bay, Summer at Paradise Ranch, and Teen Ghost at Dead Lake.
The author's books can be found in audio, eBook, and print.
Follow R. Barri Flowers on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Goodreads, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Booktrack, LibraryThing, iAuthor, and www.rbarriflowers.com.
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