~ KAILA ~
Tears burn my eyes as I settle into the seat of the car. I touch my hand to my heart, feeling it still race behind my ribcage. Through the windshield, I see the stark profile of JLS Heartland in front of me, so impressive against the clear blue sky.
It almost seems surreal to me, that I was just in there on the executive floor, talking to people with degrees from places like Harvard and Princeton.
And now, finally in the sanctum of the car with no one else in sight, I let the tears fall.
Tears of joy.
They want me.
Me. The girl from keiki care. The girl who’s still struggling to get her diploma while juggling two jobs. Struggling and juggling, that’s me.
I rest my forehead against my steering wheel, breathless.
I’m dreaming. That’s what it has to be. Things like this just don’t happen to me. I don’t get job offers with things like tuition reimbursement and a 401(k). And I certainly don’t get job titles like the one they want to give me.
Community liaison.
A tremble races over my skin and my head bolts upward, suddenly needing to share this with Fen because maybe then I might believe this is all happening.
Driving a car that’s not mine, I’ve found myself paying particular attention to things like speed limits. But this time, I find myself exceeding it, even though I tell myself that I’m just keeping up with the flow of traffic.
Fact is, though, there’s not a ton of traffic in Newton’s Creek at this time of day.
Community liaison.
My brain lingers on that title for a while until I pull into the driveway, not even bothering to park in the garage.
Community liaison sounds too professional for someone who’s mopped up messes of various human origins from the floor of the Queen K Keiki Care.
I ring Fen’s doorbell and he opens it within seconds, as though he’s been waiting for me to arrive.
But when he sees me, his face falls. “Oh no. Didn’t it go well?”
My brow furrows until I remember the tears on my cheeks and picture streaks of mascara and eyeliner. “It was the best, Fen. Literally. Best day of my life.”
“It was?” He backs up, letting me in just as I squeal, lunging myself into his arms.
“I got a job, Fen! They offered me a job. I’ll be making twice what I make now and the benefits are unbelievable. Tuition reimbursement. No more saving up so that I can take another class.”
For a split second, oddly enough, I see his face fall, but then the sides of his mouth curve upward again. “W-wait… a job? Here in Newton’s Creek?”
“That’s the best part. I’ll be based here, but I’ll be traveling… everywhere, Fen.”
“What—what will you be doing?” He takes my hand and leads me into the living room where I descend to the sofa.
“Well, you know how they’ve got all these developments—and others they’ve just started planning like that new one on O‘ahu, right? I’ll be visiting them and talking with local leaders and people who live nearby to get a feel for how JLS can make their developments help the surrounding communities. You know, to avoid what happened on O‘ahu years ago.” Only now do I see the perplexed look on Fen’s face. I frown. “But you don’t—aren’t you happy for me?”
Immediately, his expression changes. “Of course I am!” He pulls me into another hug. “I’m sorry. I’m just—stunned. That’s all. I didn’t think they were having you in there to be interviewed for a job.”
“I wasn’t. We were just having a meeting—there were about seven other people there—all about that new development. And I just told them what I thought was needed, you know? To start painting a different picture of JLS for the kanaka maoli and other locals there. It went on for about an hour or so. Then when it was over, Ryan asked me to stay behind.”
“And he offered you a job?”
“Yeah. Can you believe it? Pretty much doing the same type of thing I did today. But I’ll be on salary and I’ll get to travel and…” Those pesky tears start up again. I flap my hands near my cheeks. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m just so happy.”
He leans in and touches a kiss to my forehead. “I’m so happy for you. So when will you start?”
“Right away. They want me to stay here for another week so I can meet a few people here and fill out some paperwork. Then they’ll fly me home so I can pack my things.” A slight frown touches my mouth for the first time. “I—I guess you’ll be flying home alone. Is that okay?”
He chuckles a little. “I think I can handle it. Did you tell Annie yet?”
“No, not yet.” I touch my hand to my mouth. “Oh, God. I’m leaving her when she’s pregnant. What kind of a friend am I?”
“Someone who just got the perfect job offer. She’ll be happy for you,” he assures me.
I nod, knowing that it’s true. Still in my heart, I want to be there for her. “I’ll still be able to see her. They have two trips to O‘ahu planned already for me, and I’ll stop by the Big Island before I go. It’s only a forty-minute flight.” I say it more to myself than to him.
“Exactly. And I have no doubt that Ryan will give you some time off to check on the baby when she’s born. Especially when he hears she’s named after you.”
Kaila. Little Kaila. I press my lips together, this odd ache in my heart at leaving behind all the people I love. My cousins and their parents. Annie and Cam.
And Fen. Because even though I know that things would return to normal when we touched down on the island, I still believe he’d be there for me if I ever needed it.
I know that as well as I know my name.
“Am I really ready for this?” My eyes meet his.
There’s an expression he wears that I can’t quite read. It almost looks like he’s about to tell me to wait a while, hold back, maybe get my degree first.
But then he takes both my hands in his.
“I think,” he begins, then pressing a kiss to each of my hands, “that you were born ready for this, Kaila.”
Right then, I know that I have to take the job. Not just because of the pay or the tuition reimbursement or the travel…
… but because I love him too much. And as I look down at his hands holding mine, I know that being on that island without being able to touch him like this would be more than I could bear.
But right now? Right now, he’s mine.
I remind myself this, leaning into him and taking his lips with my own. My body eases forward until I’m on his lap. I can’t resist. I should probably change out of my suit—but this need to be close consumes me and every minute apart from him seems like a waste.
Sliding along the material of my suit jacket, his hands are so gentle on me, moving slowly up to my neck until his fingers weave into my hair. His other hand traces down the front of me, his thumb barely caressing the outline of my breast through my blouse where my jacket gapes open, and then he pulls me even closer.
From where I’m sitting, I can tell our minds are one; we both want this. Yet even so, I hear him ask, “So, am I to assume that more sightseeing isn’t on your agenda this afternoon?”
As my smile widens, my hands find the bottom of his shirt and I tug on it until the pads of my fingers nearly sizzle at the feel of his hard abs.
“Plenty,” I whisper. “In fact, one of the first sights I’d like to see—” I pull his shirt over his head, “—are these.” I press my lips against one pec and then the other. They’re hot beneath my lips.
“And these…” I add, easing my mouth lower to his abs, leaving a trail of moisture from my wet kisses. When I reach the very top of his shorts, dipping my tongue into his navel, I feel the vibration of his moan against my mouth.
“Any other sights of interest to you?” His voice is thick and gravelly.
“Well, so long as I’m here…” I unzip his shorts and, when he lifts himself slightly from the sofa, I ease them and his boxers off him. The sight of him makes me ache inside with need. He sucks in a breath as I take one long stroke along his length with my tongue. Then back again, until I reach the tip of him.
“Oh, God.”
His murmur is like throwing fuel on the fire that burns inside me. I love to feel like I have some semblance of power over him because he has complete control over me. So I take him in my mouth and glance upward just as his head rolls backward on his shoulders.
Hard becomes harder in my mouth and I know he won’t last like this. And I don’t mind that I’ll have to wait until I feel him inside me again because I know that right now—in these final hours of my trip—he is still mine for the taking.
Still, his hands touch either side of my face and he moves me off him. “Baby, I won’t last if you do that much longer. And I want this to last.” His hand falls to the side of him where his shorts are and he pulls out a condom.
I should take off my suit. I should—but I can’t stop my hands from hiking my tight pencil skirt up to my waist. I need him that desperately. With him still sitting on the sofa, I plant my knees on either side of him. His fingers ease the thin material of my panties off to the side, exposing me. And then he pulls me downward, letting me sink onto him.
Ohhh…
He’s so deep in me at this angle I nearly cry out, yet I find my voice has completely left me. I’m lost to the sensation of him, wondering how I’ll ever bear to exist without having him in my life. His mouth consumes mine, possessing me, just like the rest of him. I slide upward, then slam down on him, letting the tip of him nudge against the deepest part of me.
“Easy, baby,” he whispers when our lips part. “We’ve got time.”
He’s right—there’s no need to rush this. Yet the mention of time makes me feel it pressing down on me, unable to stop thinking about him leaving Newton’s Creek tomorrow without me.
His hands plant themselves at my waist and ease me upward again, then down… slowly this time, letting me savor the sensation as each inch of him disappears inside me.
Yes, this…
This is what my body was designed for, it seems. For him and no other.
Wanton abandon whips through my veins. I can barely believe that I’m doing this, still fully dressed, and I almost laugh with ecstasy—sex in a business suit isn’t exactly something I even dared to imagine putting on my list of things to do on the mainland.
We move together so slowly, and eventually, his hands move to my front. Then he pulls off my jacket with him still so hard inside me. My blouse is next—his fingers so controlled as they move each button through its corresponding hole. I should be grateful as he gently, carefully rests it to the side of us because I love this suit.
But I’ll confess, I’d be okay with it if he just tore it off me.
I’d confess… if I could even manage to find my voice at the moment.
He frees me of my bra next, and his hands feel so much better against me than the tight, scratchy lace. As he takes a nipple into his mouth, I feel his cock throb.
That mirror that held so much appeal to me earlier is at my back. And I can’t help thinking we must look like quite a sight in it—me half naked with my skirt hiked up, straddling him—our image betraying just how desperately I want him, too much to even bother properly undressing.
Yet as much as I’d normally be tempted to turn my head and take a peek, I don’t.
Because what I want to fill my senses with right now is here in front of me—Fen—his chiseled body and eyes that reveal a soul that could love someone completely if he ever dared to allow himself that.
Momentarily, my heart aches at the thought that if that day ever comes for him, I might be thousands of miles away from him.
But when his lips meet mine again, I just savor—revel in what I can enjoy right now as we move in perfect harmony.
Our rhythm is slow, unhurried until my body starts demanding more. A climax comes closer to my grasp and I push toward it, unable to fight the need.
He follows the quickening pace I’ve set for us, his hands on my hips helping to move me faster along the length of him.
Each sensation ratchets up the urgency I feel to completely let go, to give into the passion welled up in me. Desire climbs higher, and then higher still when I slide onto him again. Breath coming in quick pants, I feel my core seizing up around the length of him. And when I let go, gasping out his name, I thrill in the feel of him taking his own satisfaction at the same time.
My body sinks onto him, exhausted, with no desire to move for the next several hours if given the choice.
He doesn’t seem to mind. His arms are wrapped around me, holding me so close that I dare to feel as if we are one.
We stay that way in perfect silence for a while, until I feel a tiny rumble of laughter echo through him.
“You know, if you go and tell me that those caverns yesterday were better than this, my ego will never recover,” he quips.
“I won’t.” Then I giggle, my mischievous side taking over. “I’ll just keep it to myself.”
“Hey…” His deep laughter is infectious as he moves me until my back is on the sofa and his body traps me in a hold. “I’m going to make you pay for that,” he says as he lowers his mouth to my belly and starts tugging my skirt downward.
Oh, I hope he does make me pay tonight.
Again. And again…