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

He couldn’t finish, instead he was kissing her again, hard, urgent and her hands were in his hair, holding on to him like she could never let him go.

She knew he was right, that somewhere in all he said was the truth. She wanted to be alone with him, she wanted to go to bed with him, she wanted them to have tonight regardless of what tomorrow would bring. She kissed him back with the all the love she felt inside, kissed him until the urgency was burning out of control, his hardness pressed between them as he turned her into the wall.

He tore his mouth away, his eyes blazing down into hers. ‘Malie… we need to stop… if you don’t want this, we need to stop now, or God help me…’

She shook her head, her eyes intent in his. ‘I don’t want to stop.’

‘I don’t think you know what you are saying.’

‘I do.’

Still, he hesitated. ‘And tomorrow?’

She wrapped her fingers around his neck and pulled him down to her. ‘Let us have tonight, tomorrow can wait…’

‘You said that before.’

‘But this is different.’

She tried to kiss him again, but he pulled back. ‘Come dance with me.’

She frowned at him. ‘Dance?’

‘I’m giving you time to change your mind.’

‘I don’t need time.’

He took hold of her hand and looked to the doors. ‘You’re upset, and I can’t take advantage of that.’

She closed the distance between them and palmed his cheek, turning him to look at her. ‘I may be upset, but I know I want this.’

He gave her a small smile but there was a sadness to it, an edge that took hold of her heart and squeezed so tight she couldn’t breathe. ‘Then you will still want it when the evening is over, and the guests have gone.’

‘But—’

He pulled her to him. ‘If I am to make love to you, Malie,’ he pressed a kiss to her lips, ‘it won’t be a hurried affair up against the wall here.’ He probed her lips with his tongue, a sweet invasion that had her thighs tightening against the thrilling ache. ‘It’ll be in my bed after everyone has gone.’ His mouth brushed against hers as he spoke. ‘So I can take my time exploring every last inch of you, imprinting each one in my mind.’

He trailed hot, barely-there kisses along her jawline, coming to rest at her earlobe which he caught in his teeth, his hot breath teasing at her ear canal. ‘If I’m only ever to make love to you once, I want it to be something you remember for a lifetime.’

She whimpered, her heightened senses colliding with the meaning behind his words and she clung to his shoulders, scared her knees would fail her.

‘OK,’ she managed softly. ‘OK.’

‘So, you’ll dance with me?’

She looked up into his eyes as she nodded, knowing that it was so much more than a dance she was agreeing to.

Nerves fluttered up in her belly as she laced her fingers through his and let him lead her back inside, onto the dance floor. Around them people ate, laughed, danced, but they were hardly aware of a soul. Every look, every touch, every move they made was loaded with the promise of what was to come, and she forgot the pain, the sadness, the revelations. They were tomorrow’s concern.

Tonight, was about them, and them alone.

Chapter Twenty

TODD CLOSED THE FRONT door on the very last guest and stared at the wood, his palm pressed hard against it, his eyes closed. He half expected Malie to race up behind him, to tell him she’d changed her mind, that she had to leave too. But the hallway was silent save for his pulse racing in his ears.

Are you sure you want to do this?

He didn’t know. To make love to Malie, to know her, and to still have to leave…

Was he really strong enough for that?

His father hadn’t been strong enough to move on. When his mother had died, it had crushed him, destroyed the person he was. Not that he’d known his father before, but he’d heard stories, seen pictures, witnessed their happiness through the immortal images.

But after…

‘Todd?’

He opened his eyes to her soft-spoken call and turned. She stood at the bottom of the stairs, one hand resting on the balustrade, the other reaching out for him.

He raised his eyes to hers, to the unspoken question swimming in her depths. He may not be strong enough to move on tomorrow, but he knew he wasn’t strong enough to end this now. That he would take whatever Malie was willing to give and then…

That was tomorrow’s problem.

He closed the distance between them, entwining his fingers with hers and pressing a kiss to her lips. ‘Are you sure?’

She nodded. ‘More sure than I’ve been about anything in a long time.’

It was all the reassurance he needed to lead her upstairs, their footfall on the surface a delicate clip that sounded with the beat of his heart. He pushed open the double doors to the master room, the bed positioned to take centre stage and make the most of the floor-to-ceiling windows displaying the vista. He turned the lights on low to keep the rolling sea as the atmospheric backdrop to what was about to happen and turned to her.

‘It’s beautiful,’ she murmured as she looked past him to the view.

‘Not as beautiful as you.’ He half expected her to laugh off the smoothness of his compliment, instead colour crept into her cheeks, her green eyes sparkling in the low light as she considered him with a slow smile.

Silently she stepped up to him, her fingers light on his bow tie as she worked it undone.

‘Are you really sure?’ he asked again.

She pressed a finger to his lips. ‘It may surprise you to know that you’re the first man I’ve ever wanted like this and resisted for so long.’

His brows pulled together as her finger fell away and she continued to undress him. ‘That