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

He shook his head, trying to dispel the hold she had over him but it was no use, every second they were together it ramped up another notch.

She turned and eyed him over her shoulder. ‘Come on, slowcoach, else we really will be stuck in here for ever.’

For ever sounded perfect right about now and the realization snapped some sense into him. He started after her. ‘I blame the pineapple whip, the taste sensation has gone to my head.’

She paused to rake her eyes over him. ‘You know, it really has,’ her gaze reached the tip of his head, ‘your hair has gone all floppy.’

‘My…’ He frowned and raised a hand to his hair, felt the usual groomed affair soften beneath his fingers.

She reached out and brushed his hand away. ‘For the record, I like it this way – it’s more laidback, softer…’

‘Softer? I’m not sure I like the sound of that.’

‘You should…’ She wet her lips and raised herself up on tiptoes, her arms hooking around his neck as her eyes searched his. ‘It’s quite irresistible.’

Irresistible. He couldn’t respond, couldn’t move, he was too scared of breaking the connection and hooked on what she might do next. They were so close, almost nose to nose, her coconut scent wafting up to him and he wanted to close his eyes, breathe her in, and didn’t dare do either.

‘It’s sexy,’ her lips brushed tantalizingly against his, ‘I like it… a lot.’

And then she kissed him, actually kissed him, gentle, coaxing and breaking his restraint in two. He tucked his thumbs into the belt loops on her shorts and pulled her up against him, hard. The need, so painfully acute, driving him to taste her, to feel her top to toe, her pliable warmth as she leaned into him, her lips as they moved with his. It was about all he could do not to press her back into the hedge, to hell with any unsuspecting audience, underage or not.

She dropped back, her teeth pulling at his bottom lip, her arms still around his neck as she looked up at him.

‘Definitely sexy,’ she said softly.

‘I’ll take it.’ His voice was tight, his body too. ‘Especially if it earns me a kiss like that.’

She smiled, slow and sultry. ‘We should get this maze over with, I’m hungry.’

He wanted to ask what kind of hungry, was it the same kind that had fire burning through his veins now? But he was scared of spooking her, hell, he was scared of spooking himself too.

‘How many stations to go?’

She raised one arm to eye the sheet over his shoulder. ‘Two.’

The sound of a family approaching, the giggle of a child and the crunch of a pushchair over the soil reached them and he released her.

‘Best make it quick, then.’

She smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek before spinning around and marching on. This time he was hot on her tail, very, very attentive and helpful. Less delay meant less risk of them rethinking the unspoken promise to pick that kiss up again.

He could already foresee his phone staying off for the rest of the day and he couldn’t deny how liberating it was not to feel weighed down by it; ruled by it, even. Although perhaps a quick message to his PA to field everything wouldn’t go amiss.

‘Wait up a sec, Malie.’

She paused, her frown so utterly kissable. ‘Thought we were in a rush?’

‘We are, I’m just making my day off official.’

‘You are?’ Her eyes were alive with surprise as she walked back to him and he pulled out his phone, turning it on.

‘I am.’

She made an awkward sound in her throat. ‘Now probably isn’t the time to tell you I have two hours of lessons later this afternoon.’

His fingers stilled on the screen, his eyes lifting to hers. ‘You do? But it’s Sunday.’

‘You ought to tell yourself that sometimes.’

‘Well, I’m telling us both now.’

She gave him an awkward smile. ‘And as you so rightly pointed out, I don’t really have days off.’

‘But you didn’t say anything?’

‘Well, I didn’t think you were serious about a whole day… I figured you were getting carried away in the moment.’

‘I don’t do getting carried away.’

‘No?’ She grinned up at him.

‘No.’

‘Not even with me?’

The flirtatious comment struck through the very heart of him and he knew the answer as sure as he could identify the disappointment sinking heavily in his gut at the imminent end to their day.

‘You’re trouble, Malie Pukui.’

‘Now you sound like my friends back home.’

‘They sound very wise, you should listen to them.’

‘Oi.’

She pushed him gently in the chest, and the fleeting contact made him want to pull her back against him; he opted to pull a rogue branch from her hair instead. It had adorned her curls for the last hour and provided a focal point when he’d needed the diversion from her invigorating gaze, her wide smile, her incredible body and the sneak peek he kept getting of her bikini top or her bum cheeks as she leaned forward to shade in a stencil.

‘How about I make it up to you?’ she purred, the flirtatious lilt to her voice spurring his impulsive response to ask exactly what she had in mind and provide a few satisfying suggestions himself. Dangerous territory.

He opted for the safer, ‘I’m listening.’

‘We finish the maze, grab a quick lunch – they do the most amazing barbecued corn here…’

‘And?’

‘And after work, this eve…’ she cocked her head to the side as she considered him, her fingers curling into the top button of his shirt and making his body throb in its heightened state, ‘we could have dinner together.’

Before he could answer her, her eyes flared and she blurted, ‘But not out-out.’

‘Not out-out?’ he repeated, confused by her startled clarification.

‘Well, in case you haven’t worked it out already,’ she said, ‘everyone knows everyone in Nani Kumu and I don’t want people seeing us together and getting the wrong idea.’

‘Because this is a twelve-hour thing?’

‘Yes, precisely.’

‘It didn’t bother you