THE LAST PERSON Selena expected to see wandering around downtown Lahaina was Blaine Stephens. Even if he hadn’t had a surfing lesson, touristy shopping areas didn’t seem like his style. She, at least, had an excuse. Mikelina and she were shopping for stuff to put in welcome baskets that one of Mikelina’s clients had requested. It wasn’t Selena’s job, but it gave her an excuse to talk to her about the crazy attraction she had to Blaine and just what the heck she was going to do about it.
“Can you believe this?” Mikelina said, holding up a pair of kitchen mitts covered in mushrooms and Anton Koslov’s Bolete logo. “He’s everywhere.”
“He’s always been a whore,” Selena said, shaking her head. “If they paid him enough, he’d put his logo on dog food.”
Mikelina wordlessly showed her a bag of Bolete gourmet dog food.
“I can’t.” Selena threw her hands in the air. Realizing too late, that she was attracting attention, she looked up and caught Blaine’s eyes. She couldn’t comprehend the flush of excitement that washed over her as he determinedly made his way over to them.
“Hello, hottie alert coming in fast,” Mikelina said.
“That’s Blaine.”
“The pirate Viking?” Mikelina squinted to get a better look. “What the hell are you waiting for?”
“Professionalism?”
“Overrated. Besides, he’s as hot for you as you are for him.”
“How on earth can you tell?”
“Honey, he’s plowing through the crowd like a drowning man and you’re a life preserver.” Mikelina put a pair of pineapple oven mitts in her basket. “I’ve got this. You’re going to have your hands full in a minute.”
“You think?”
“I’ll be disappointed in you, if you don’t.”
Selena and Mikelina exchanged grins.
“Hi,” Blaine said, slightly out of breath. He looked a little manic.
“Are you all right?” Selena asked.
“Mr. Stephens, I’m glad to meet you. I’m Mikelina Presley, your concierge.” She held out her hand and Blaine shook it. “Was there something wrong with your surfing lessons?”
“Yeah, no Wi-Fi. I don’t suppose you can get me something or somewhere, where I can connect to the internet?”
Mikelina shot her a look. “I’m sorry, sir.”
He held up his hand. “I get it. It’s against the rules.” Blaine turned those ice-blue eyes on Selena and she caught her breath. “Can we talk?”
“Sure,” she said.
“See you later,” Mikelina said, and then behind Blaine’s back gave her two thumbs up.
Blaine’s fingers were warm on her upper arm and Selena resisted the urge to move closer hoping he would accidentally brush the side of her breast. God, she was pathetic. “What are you doing here?” Had he followed her to convince her to spend the day with him doing more interesting things than cooking and yoga?
“There’s got to be an internet café around here somewhere.”
Selena deflated. Of course. “Not around here. They want you shopping, not taking up space for a paying customer.”
“I’m a paying customer. Please, you’ve got to point me in the right direction. I still don’t have cell service. I just want to check my email and see how work is coming along.”
“It’s been what? Forty-eight hours? I think they’re good.”
“Are you going to help me or not?” Blaine said.
She sighed. “Fine. I think I’m enabling your workaholic tendencies, but I’m also not a fan of the cold-turkey method of dealing with addiction.”
“I’m not an addict.”
Selena looked at him up and down. “You’re one shake away from coming apart.”
Blaine straightened. “I am not.”
“Come on.” She started walking back to her scooter. “I know an internet café a few blocks away.”
“Thanks,” he said, following her. “I owe you.”’
“I have to ask, did you even notice the banyan tree?” She gestured to the large tree above them. It was covered in white lights for the holiday. At night it was magical.
“It’s hard to miss. It takes up the whole block.”
“Don’t you want to know more about it? Can’t you appreciate the beauty?”
“I read the brochure in the car.”
She shook her head. “Did you even take the time to admire the beautiful view of the ocean? You know if you go out past that channel, you might see humpback whales?”
“Yeah, it’s nice.”
“I can’t believe you. Most people would kill to be here in Maui away from work and all their responsibilities for two weeks.”
“Most people don’t have a make-or-break product launch in February. Most people’s projects haven’t gone viral in the world’s most embarrassing video.”
“It wouldn’t have gotten so popular if you hadn’t decked your head engineer.”
He stopped in his tracks. “You saw the video?”
“It has like five million views. Everyone saw the video.”
“Would you buy the car?” he said.
The thread of dejection in his voice got through to her. “What car?”
“What do you mean, what car? The one that hit all the obstacles.”
Selena shrugged. “It was a video of a car. We didn’t see the prototype. If the prototype did that, I’d say you’ve got something to worry about. That was just good publicity.”
“You have a funny idea about good PR,” he said, but he resumed walking and he didn’t look as desperate anymore.
“Get on,” she said, throwing her leg over her Vespa.
“You want me to ride bitch on a scooter?” he said.
“I’m going to forgive you for that sexist remark because you’re obviously starting with the DT’s.” She gave him a challenging stare.
After looking around, he must have realized he didn’t have much of a choice. He got on the back and wrapped his arms around her.
Oh my.
“Go fast,” he said in her ear. “Speed turns me on.”
She choked on her laugh and carefully and slowly pulled out into the street. His arms made her think of more private things they could be doing, but the feel of his solid body against her felt right. Selena wanted him to turn her on and had a sinking suspicion that it wouldn’t take much.
“How did you get here?” she asked.
“I took a three-hour tour of downtown Lahaina and tipped the driver a hundred dollars to go away until it was time to pick me up.”
“You’re incredible.”
“Incredible is that general manager of your resort. He’s got a hard-on something fierce for rules and regulations.”
“Yeah, Titus is a special type of control freak. He runs the wellness center with an iron fist. Fortunately, I’m a contractor, so while he’s technically my supervisor, I only have to deal with him in small doses. I just have to put up with him for the next two weeks and then I don’t have to see him again until I’m assigned back here for the next rich internet junkie who needs a personal chef.”
She wondered if he was even interested in her or if he was just looking for a hookup and he’d be putting the moves on anyone, Mikelina, Kelli Ann. Was she just convenient?
He squeezed her tight. “You’re going to be the best thing about these two weeks.”
“You’re just saying that because I’m giving you internet.” She parked in front of the café. “You owe me a bubble tea.”
“Anything you want, it’s yours,” he said, helping her off the scooter.
She decided to take him up on that and ordered a macadamia-nut brownie with her bubble tea. Blaine just got a black coffee. As she waited for her tea, she watched him walk to the bank of computers and pick one out. He wore his T-shirt tight and fitted. Selena could admire the strong muscles of his back and shoulders. Damn, but she wanted him. To hell with the rules. She was already breaking one by bringing him here. What were a few more? She wanted to eat dinner with him and join him in the hot tub. She hadn’t felt this way about a guy in a long time. She wanted some fun. Blaine wasn’t the only workaholic here. How many times had she come here and worked in her journal daydreaming about her restaurant? She was sick and tired of waiting for her life to start. She wanted an adventure and Blaine seemed more than willing to indulge her.
“What would Titus think of that?” he said, pointing to the brownie when she sat next to him.
“He’d hate it. But not as much as he’d hate this.”
Taking a deep breath for courage, she leaned forward and planted a kiss on Blaine’s mouth. Shock held him still for a moment. Then his arm went around her, and he deepened the kiss. Her body thrummed in pleasure. She wanted to feel his body slide against hers. Yeah, she didn’t care if Titus found out about this. The worst he could do was remove her from the property and complain to Kirk Diamonte. It wouldn’t be a great thing to happen, but she was willing to take the risk.
She was melting from the sweet feel of his mouth when he broke it off.
“Want to surf the internet that badly?” she asked, disappointed. Her lips felt puffy and the rest of her was restless.
“No. I just don’t like the audience.”
Blushing, she looked around to see that everyone in the café was staring at them. Clearing her throat, she shifted away from him. “All right then.”
“But this is to be continued. You can bet your very sweet ass on that.”
She leaned in and whispered in his ear. “I told Mikelina to put condoms and lube in your room.”
Blaine choked on his coffee. He reached down and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”
Tugging free, Selena went back to her brownie. “You still have an hour or so until your babysitter comes back for you. Get it out of your system.”
“I’m having a hard time concentrating.”
She put her hand on his leg and squeezed. “Good.”
Blaine kissed her again, sending shivers through her body. Yeah, this was one of her better decisions. When he reluctantly turned to the computer, she bit into her brownie with relish. She even shared a bit with him while he took turns muttering and scowling into the screen. After pulling out her own notebook, she jotted down menu items for her restaurant. She was so engrossed she didn’t know that Blaine was watching her, until he pushed a strand of hair over her ear.
“I was able to access my email, but I can’t log on to Stephens-Miller from anywhere but my laptop.”
“Oh well, I guess you’ll have to go surfing and snorkeling for two weeks.” Selena patted his cheek. “You poor thing.”
“I had a few extra minutes, so I looked up Anton Koslov.”
She made a face. “You should have surfed porn instead. It would have been more pleasant.”
“You worked with him?”
“Unfortunately.”
“He never went to Cordon Bleu.”
Selena drank from her bubble tea, then chewed on the tapioca pearls. “Your point?”
“My point is, you don’t work for him anymore. You’ve got a dream job. You’re an excellent chef. Why are you letting this dickhead still get to you?”
Straightening her shoulders, she said, “I prefer to think of it as motivation.”
“So you want to graduate from Cordon Bleu to spite him? Honey, I got news for you. He wouldn’t care less. In fact, I’m betting he doesn’t even remember you.”
Selena hated talking about Anton. It made her feel inadequate.
“What you should be doing is saving up for that restaurant of yours.”
“Thanks for mansplaining my life to me.” Rolling her eyes, she stood up and put her trash in the garbage and walked out. Blaine must have had to rush to close out of what he was doing in order to catch her just as she started up the scooter.
“I didn’t mean to make you upset. I’m trying to help.”
“Help?” she scoffed. “Blaine, we met yesterday. Just because you read my journal doesn’t mean you know me.”
“I’d like to know you,” he said.
“Then, let’s just take this day by day.”
“And night by night?” he asked.
Selena hesitated. Did she really want to do this? Jump into a two-week stand? Looking him up and down, she knew that she did by the way her heart pounded and the way her nipples tightened when he looked at her.
“I’ll see you back in the penthouse for lunch,” she said.
“Just tell me one thing.” He jammed his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “Did I blow it big time?”
“You almost did, but not quite.”
The smile he gave her sent her hormones into overdrive.
Yeah, totally worth risking getting busted by Titus.