Meet Me in Hawaii by Georgia Toffolo (novels for beginners txt) 📕

had her entire being thrumming afresh, the desire to kiss him almost painful. ‘This is definitely not work.’

His voice was thick, laced with the same need. Nerves flared inside her as her brain raced with all the reasons she’d said they couldn’t go down this road but struggling to hang on to a single one.

She looked down at the pot in her hand, the creamy yellow sweetness and breathed in his heady scent. ‘So I’ve taken you captive for a few hours?’

He swallowed again, only this time there was no ice cream, only the tension building exponentially between them. ‘I suppose you have.’

She dared a quick look up and his arm flexed around her. ‘Malie?’

It was breathless, it was asking, demanding… and she wanted to say yes, to hell with all sensibility… but then what?

‘Come on, let’s go get lost.’ She moved away from him before she could reconsider. ‘We have a maze to conquer and judging by your workload, not long to do it.’

‘I have a counter condition.’

She turned to look at him. ‘You do?’

He nodded, his eyes probing hers in such a way that her breath hitched.

‘You forget work too, for the next few hours, the day even, the school doesn’t exist and we’re just two people having fun together.’

‘Two people?’

He nodded again and reached out, pulling her traitorous body back towards him. ‘There’s no working relationship between us, nothing to jeopardize with whatever happens today; we’re just going to go with the flow, just like you said.’

‘I did, didn’t I?’ And the flow was determined to pull them closer together, her words coming out like a whisper as she met his eye and the people milling around them fell away, the pot in her hand forgotten as she let her chest brush against him.

His eyes fell to her lips. ‘Do we have a deal?’

‘Yes,’ she breathed, her lashes fluttering closed, ready, waiting, anticipating… and nothing, just a rush of air as he suddenly released her. What?

‘Lead the way.’

She opened her eyes and he was smiling at her, his eyes ablaze with the heat she’d read in every word he’d spoken, every flex of his arm around her. He must have read the question in her eyes, her prolonged silence, and he dipped his head to say, ‘We have an audience.’

He dropped his gaze low and to the left and she followed his direction to see two kids, probably no older than five, staring up at them, wide-eyed, their tongues frozen mid-lick to their ice creams. Her cheeks flushed and she tried to smile. It took a good second for them to realize they’d been caught gawping and they looked at one another, burst out laughing, and legged it after a woman paying at the ice cream stand.

‘Oh, God, do you think we could be fined for indecent behaviour in a public place?’

‘I don’t know, that depends, just how far are you willing to go?’

She punched him gently in the chest. ‘Don’t push it, dude, deal or no deal?’

He laughed hard. ‘I still find it hilarious that you call me dude, I’ve never been called that in my life.’

‘Well, that’s another first for you to log. Let’s see how many others we can squeeze into our day.’

‘Oh, so it’s a day now?’

‘You suggested it first.’

‘So I did…’

She shook her head laughing and again her hand found its way back into his, just like it had in the car park. She reminded herself that they had an agreement; today they were going with the flow, there was nothing serious to worry about, nothing to jeopardize.

So why the persistent niggle at the back of her mind? The weird sense of… fear… guilt.

Because she was starting to have real fun, she was starting to care.

She closed her eyes briefly, the acknowledgement there even as she tried to bury it. It was all wrapped up in the same pain, the same worry. She couldn’t compete in big wave competitions, because she couldn’t bring herself to follow in her brother’s footsteps. She couldn’t find true happiness, the kind that comes from having another to share your life with, to love and be loved, without feeling the guilt of it weighing down on her. Of experiencing what Koa never got to. She couldn’t allow herself to get caught up in another person only to have life take it all away.

But for a day, to only let go for a day, you could?

No promises, no future, just a day… a mere twelve hours… no risk, no guilt…

She looked back at Todd and forced away the inner monologue.

Yes, for a day, she would just be…

Chapter Ten

‘GOTCHA,’ MALIE DECLARED AS one of the secret stations within the maze came into view, her step picking up as she raced towards it and then she turned to him, her green eyes bright as she bobbed excitedly on her heels. ‘Your turn!’

He laughed. ‘You’re a big kid.’

‘And?’ She pouted up at him, offering out the pencil and the hunt sheet. Did she know how much he wanted to draw that bottom lip into his mouth? Seeing it all glossy and so close, he could almost taste it.

‘Down, boy. Stencil!’

Yes, she knew, and she was teasing him every inch of the way. From the second they’d made their deal, it felt like a weight had lifted, a feeling of freedom, a freedom to feel and to act on it. Because it was temporary. A short reprieve from the rules they lived by, the rules that safeguarded their emotions and kept them from being torn apart. He just needed to keep in mind it was temporary and do as he promised, go with the flow.

He shook his head and took the items from her, bending to slot the sheet under the stencil and dutifully coloured it in.

He offered them out to her. ‘Happy?’

‘Much!’ She took them from him and off she went again, giving him a teasing view of her rear as her hips sashayed through the greenery.

‘You coming?’