“No worries, man,” he assured his friend. “I’ve got everything under control.”
Reid’s curse wasn’t very encouraging. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”
“No idea. Gotta go.” Jax hit the end button as he pushed off the counter. “My fiancée’s here.”
…
Closing the trunk after extracting her bags, the driver accepted her money and hurriedly returned to his cab without so much as an “Aloha” before peeling away. She coughed from the exhaust and picked up her things to move onto the curb. Weren’t the island people supposed to be friendly and accommodating? Although, she supposed after making him wait for her at the airport and then stop at a little café so she could get a quick bite to eat, the guy had a right to be a little agitated. Still, it’s not like he hadn’t been duly compensated for his time.
What a day. Stranded at the airport, informed she needed to change identities, and stuck with the only surly cabbie in all of Oahu. Not exactly how she imagined her first few hours in one of the most beautiful, carefree places on Earth.
But, she amended, those had been things she couldn’t control. What she could control was how she dealt with her current situation and—
“Hello, sweetheart.”
—him.
Taking a deep breath, Vanessa turned and regarded the thorn in her side. He’d changed out of his surfer duds into something more appropriate for a man who’d supposedly just flown over from the continental forty-eight. His khaki cargo shorts paired with a lightweight white button-up and sandals said casual-and-understated.
So why the hell was she hearing sexy-and-overdressed?
Vanessa’s pulse jumped and goose bumps broke out over her skin despite the balmy weather. Standing as close as he was, he towered over her. The man was simply massive. How in the world did someone so big share the same DNA as her tiny friend?
Getting off to a rocky start with the man didn’t make her blind. He was easily one of the most gorgeous men she’d ever seen. Too bad he so obviously broke several of her rules. Hell, if she were being honest, she’d bet he broke almost all of them.
Jackson bent down to pick up her duffel bag, and on the way back up, leaned in to press a warm kiss to her cheek. At the unexpected intimacy, she sucked in a breath and almost pulled away, but his soft words of warning held her in place. “Remember who we are here. If you accuse me of sexual harassment, there’s a good chance it’ll blow our cover.”
His low chuckle both liquefied her insides and made her blood boil. His infectious smile tempted the corners of her mouth to lift up the slightest bit, though she ordered them to hold firm. To save face, she went with it, widening her grin and telling him in the sweetest voice she could muster, “Don’t worry about me, darling, I have stellar acting skills in the courtroom. But if I were you, I’d worry about how thick you lay it on, because if you take advantage of this situation, you’ll have to worry about what I’ll do to your manhood once we’re behind closed doors instead.”
He raised his left eyebrow, which had a jagged white scar running diagonally through it, giving his good looks a rakish edge. Though she knew her appearance was nothing short of atrocious at this point, his eyes skimmed over her body like she’d been dipped in his favorite candy. Maybe the aloof Prince of Tides wasn’t as unaffected by her as he’d like her to think.
“Looking forward to it, princess,” he said, smirking in amusement and giving her a wink before walking into the lobby.
What was wrong with this guy? He should be backing down, talking her down, or at the very least, toning it down. One of those downs. That’s what any normal male would do when his junk was threatened. Maybe he was into masochism. That thought perked her up. A closet masochist would effectively douse any sparks of desire that may or may not be going off somewhere deep inside her every time he turned those light eyes on her.
Feeling better already, Vanessa grabbed the handle of her suitcase and wheeled it behind her along the tiled entrance of the lobby. Jackson stood at the front desk speaking with an exotically pretty woman who handed him an envelope of paperwork and two key cards with a smile that probably won her customer service awards.
“There’s my lovely bride,” Jackson announced as he put an arm around her waist and pulled her into his side.
“Bride-to-be, dear,” she said with a fake look of happiness frozen on her face. “I’m not officially your bride yet.” Then, before she could stop herself, she added, “And anything can happen between now and then.”
As the lunatic holding her laughed, the woman behind the counter assessed her in the way women size up their competition. Not that it was obvious, but Vanessa noticed the split-second crack in her Employee of the Month persona before picking up where she’d left off.
“Welcome to the Mau Loa, Miss Miller. It’s a pleasure to have you and Mr. Andrews at our resort. If there’s anything we can do to make your stay more enjoyable, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you…” She glanced at the nametag that claimed her as the reservations manager. “Jillian. I’m sure everything will be fine. In regards to meeting with the wedding coordinator, can you please tell me when my—”
Jackson cleared his throat and gave her waist a squeeze. She barely stopped an eye roll.
“—our first appointment is?”
“Of course. Let me check that for you.” After a few moments clacking her nails over the keyboard, she said, “You’re scheduled to meet with him at four o’clock this afternoon in the Honu Café.”
“Great,” Jackson said with a light slap on the counter, as though it signaled the end of their discussion. “Now, Jilli, if you don’t mind, it’s been a long trip so I’d like to get Lucie to our bungalow so she can freshen up. She normally doesn’t look quite so haggard.”
The air from Vanessa’s lungs slammed out like he’d just punched her between the shoulder blades. Was he serious? Her pulse spiked and her need to fire back clouded her better judgment—and opened her big, fat mouth. “Well, at least I can fix my problem with a shower, darling. You need a tiny blue pill to fix yours.”
Jackson barked out a strange combination of choking and laughter, which he tried to bring under control behind his fist. Before she could stop, think, and regret the words she’d just put in her best friend’s mouth, she snatched the envelope and keys off the counter. “Why don’t you go make friends while I freshen up for you? I’ll probably be a while, so I’d take my time if I were you.”
Catching the eye of the woman who stood with equal parts shock and delight on her face, Vanessa gave her the best apologetic look she could muster. “I’m so sorry. I’m under a lot of stress right now with the wedding and all, so I’m not quite myself. Thank you so much for your help.”
Without a backward glance, Vanessa spun on her wedge sandals and strode in the opposite direction of the entrance, hoping it would lead her toward her bungalow. Stepping into the sunshine, she found a gigantic pool and several hot tubs surrounded by lush palm trees and occupied lounge chairs. A waterfall cascaded down a large rock face on one side, bringing a bit of the island inside the resort parameters.
As she followed one of the paths that led her around the more touristy areas, she peered at the guests through the cover of her sunglasses. Though she couldn’t be sure, she swore she saw Reese Witherspoon with her husband in the pool and someone who looked a lot like Alec Baldwin standing by the bar. Lucky for them she was too exhausted to be even remotely starstruck and kept on walking, eager to find her destination.
The Mau Loa wasn’t like the other commercial resorts on the island. It didn’t have hundreds of rooms in a gigantic hotel-style building. Instead, it housed several dozen private bungalows spread throughout the property. Essentially small homes in the lap of luxury surrounded by paradise. Not too shabby.
It only took her a few minutes to find her bungalow on the outermost boundary, making it one of the more private houses. Relieved, she quickly used her key and entered
the white stucco home. The inside looked like something out of a travel magazine. Large, open, and breezy, everything in white or muted blues to match the ocean only a stone’s throw away from her front lanai.
The main room consisted of a cozy living area with inviting couches like clouds plucked out of the sky. The wall on the left was made entirely of sliding glass doors that opened onto a small yard, complete with kidney-shaped pool, hot tub, small bar, outdoor shower, and hammock, surrounded by an eight-foot-tall privacy fence. The small but fully stocked kitchen sat off to the right of the living area, separated by a breakfast bar and stools.
Vanessa crossed the room and opened the door on the far wall to find the most romantic bedroom she’d ever seen. A wispy canopy draped the sides of a gigantic four-poster bed and rippled in the sea breeze sweeping in from the open French doors that also led to the private yard.
Just then a porter arrived with her bags. She wasted no time grabbing fresh clothes and hopping in the shower. She couldn’t remember the last time hot water felt so good and the orange honeysuckle scent of all her bathing products relaxed and invigorated her at the same time. After toweling off and slipping into a pair of cotton shorts and a T-shirt, she headed straight for the bed.
“Caviar dreams and champagne wishes,” she whispered with a smile before falling back on the cloud they called a mattress…and dozed off.
A knock on the door startled her awake. Checking the time on her watch, she relaxed. About thirty minutes had passed, which was a pretty good power nap. She definitely felt more refreshed.
The knock sounded again. If there was a God it’d be a waiter holding one of those yummy blue drinks she’d seen everywhere.
“Coming,” she called, hopping from the bed. Yanking the door open, her excitement fizzled. “Oh. It’s you.”
“Tiny blue pill? So classic.” Jackson put a hand against his heart as he stepped over the threshold. “It hurt, but it was classic.”
She closed the door behind him a little harder than necessary. “Yeah, well, you won’t think it’s so classic when the news about our Lucie and her rich and famous fiancé being on the rocks ends up in the tabloids. Which will be all your fault, by the way.”
He leaned a shoulder against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “How will it be my fault?”
“Because!” She poked him in the chest. “You got me all fired up with your insults. Reid would never have said something like that about Lucie. He worships the ground she walks on. But it’s obvious you wouldn’t have the first clue as to how to treat a woman, so how we’re going to pull this off for an entire week is beyond me. Then again, when the girl from the front blabs about our little production back there, we’ll probably be thrown out on our asses, and then we won’t have to worry about it.”
She started to turn, but he held her arm captive, preventing her from storming off. “First of all, Jilli isn’t going to tell anyone anything.”
“Oh really. And why is that?”
“Because she’s the contact I told you about. She’s in on the whole thing.”
That little tidbit zipped through her brain, hitting all the necessary compartments needed to read between the lines. Her eyes widened. “So we didn’t have to…”
“Make such a big production?” he said with a wide smile. She noticed for the first time he had shallow dimples hidden beneath the short beard growth, adding to his panty-melting charm. Why were all the assholes so damn gorgeous? “Yeah, I know, but I figured we should get in the practice. Besides, now we’ve gotten our first fight out of the way.”
“Oh, you have no idea—”
“Secondly,” he said, interrupting her would-be rant as he dropped his amusement as easily as removing a mask, “contrary to your belief, I know exactly how to treat a woman. In every aspect.”
The charming, good-natured man she’d met had been obliterated by the serious one now standing before her. Vanessa had a feeling that this man—a man who could no doubt grant a lover’s every desire or conjure an enemy’s every nightmare—was his true self.
Something had stolen the air from the room. Topaz eyes burned into her, heating her body from the inside out and creating warmth between her legs from the suggestion his words lent. Words. Where were her words? She was never speechless. She argued for a living, for shit’s sake.
This man is Dangerous. Capital D intended.
Considering she wasn’t planning on going toe-to-toe with him in a cage any time soon, the threat of danger wasn’t to her physical person—unless earth-shattering orgasms had the potential to land her in a hospital—but to her emotional sanity.
Then, like the wind changing directions after a storm, he released her arm and the intensity and brought back the happy. Just. Like. That. “Now that we have that out of the way, I’d like to take you to an apology lunch.”
She had to tell her brain to stop analyzing his peculiar personality switches and fast-forward to his newest attempt at taking control of their situation. Clearing her throat, she smoothed her hands down her shirt and crossed her arms. “I’ve already eaten.”
“Okay, lunch is out. We’ll go get a drink on the beach.”
Damn, that sounded good. Not to mention there was a tiny part of her that wanted to know what he’d be like in a public setting, now that she knew the whole thing with Jilli was just his twisted way of amusing himself. Bastard.
“Sorry, but I have things to do. But don’t let me stop you. You should go enjoy yourself.”
He bit the inside of his cheek as his eyes narrowed in contemplation. “Reid said you’d be a tough opponent.”
“Reid’s a very smart man.”
“Come on, give a guy a chance to atone for his sins. You had to deal with a lot of my shit today. Let me make it up to you. We’ll have some drinks and start fresh.”
She’d definitely earned a drink. Hell, she’d earned several, in her opinion. Maybe if she let him buy the drink, he’d back off the rest of the week and she wouldn’t have to constantly avoid the distraction he was so capable of being. “Fine. We’ll go for one drink and call it square. Deal?”
He let loose that spectacular smile, accentuating the strong lines of his stubble-covered jaw. “Deal.” He clapped his hands together and made for the door. She followed him and then stopped as soon as he walked onto the porch.
“I’ll change and meet you at the bar in ten.” And with that, she closed the door on his too-handsome-for-his-own-good face.
Brushing her hands off from a job well done, she started to turn away when she heard him yell, “Why don’t you go ahead and get changed? I’ll meet you at the bar.” She could just barely make out the muffled sound of laughter as he walked away.
…
The Moana Bar sat in the center of the Mau Loa’s pristine beach, less than fifty yards from the ocean. An open square bar in the middle of the sand with stools on all four sides. Like most things in Hawaii, it sported a polished wood structure under a thatched roof with strings of lanterns to act as beacons in the night to thirsty guests. Surrounding that, small tables with umbrellas were scattered in the sand for patrons to sit and eat at or people-watch while they sipped their drinks.
The atmosphere was a fusion of native and tourism: the crescendo of the ocean waves rushing toward the shore, the conversations and laughter of the resort’s patrons, and the raucous antics of the bartenders entertaining with spinning bottles of liquor like scenes from Cocktail.
Jackson stood at the bar, enjoying the Heineken in his hand and the memory of Vanessa’s reaction to the unnecessary act they’d put on for Jilli. A reaction he’d cut short with his declaration of knowing how to treat a woman, and by the look on her face, it had set things spinning in her head she did not want there. Which made it all the more fun.
Of course, that fun was about to come to a screeching halt. Once he plied her with a drink or two, he needed to tell her the truth. They’d talk to the planner, explain the situation, and Vanessa would be free to make the
wedding arrangements and be herself for the rest of her stay.
While despising him and avoiding him like the plague.
Jax took a swig of his beer and wanted to kick his own ass. He wouldn’t be in this situation if he’d have just shown up on time like he was supposed to. Then again, if he hadn’t been late he probably wouldn’t have seen the spitfire side of her that intrigued him in the first place, compelling him to spew lies so she couldn’t dismiss and avoid him for the entire week. Of course, this was the most asinine thing he’d done since thinking he could still spar when he forgot his cup. Now he’d be damned if he told her the truth and damned if he didn’t. Fuck.
With all the noise, there was no way he’d be able to hear Vanessa coming, which made it all the more odd when he felt compelled to look over his shoulder the moment she approached the table area.
Winding her way through the erratic seating arrangement, she swung her hips to avoid chairs in her path. Either that, or to make every man in a fifty-yard radius forget his point mid-sentence.
Emerald scraps of cloth clung to her breasts with nothing but a gold ring nestled in her cleavage to hold the sides together. The purpose of the white netted skirt tied low around her hips was a mystery. Although it hid the general design and cut of her bottoms, it slashed diagonally to the mid-thigh of her left leg, leaving the creamy expanse of her right leg prominently on display.
As she approached the bar, Jackson assessed her over the top of his mirrored shades and let out a soft whistle. “You vacationing or entering the swimsuit competition in the Miss America pageant?”
Sliding onto the stool next to where he stood, she began, “You see, Jackson—”
“My friends call me Jax.”
Vanessa pushed her tortoise shell sunglasses up on her head and regarded him with a twinkle in her green eyes. “Ah, like those annoying pointy little things for kids that always seem to be underfoot.” She nodded as though all the world’s mysteries suddenly made sense. “I so get that.”