01 - PALLAS & KAWEHI
Domenico Pallas is stationed at Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Base on the island of Oahu. On a usual night alone, he ventures into a bowling alley with a late night cafe and bar. There he meets a beautiful woman, born and raised in the fiftieth state. It doesn't take long for him to realize that she's not just a beautiful woman, he finds himself drawn to her in a way he's never been drawn to a woman before.
Kawehi Phillips isn't on the lookout for handsome guy. She's been trying to put her life back on track. When she meets Domenico she's surprise how easy it is to spend time with him and how quickly he's bringing down her walls. A horrible relationship had turned her off being around any man as more than a friend, but the patience that Dom shows her and his earnest emotions makes her want to open her heart to him.
His team leader joked that the men were destined to be Bachelors in Paradise, but with the way Pallas is falling for Kawehi, the rest of the men are taking bets about how long it'll be until he puts a ring on her finger.
But she's trying to rid herself of the last man she was involved with. Thanks to help from friends at the base, everything looks like it's finally going her way... until he comes back with avengeance. And it's going to take help from Pallas' team to save the day.
AXL & MAILE
'Io is the name for the Hawaiian hawk. This sacred bird is a sign of spiritual growth, enlightenment, and a message from the divine. It is also a symbol of strength, power, and agility.
Team 'Io: AXL
Cameron "Axl" Cox went into the military because there wasn't much else for a man of his size and skills to do. Athlete? Sure. If he wanted to. But cheering crowds drove him to the edge. Body builder? Already done. He wanted more action and application. Field work. Why the Marines? Well, Maile says it's because he likes to eat Crayons.
If he didn't think his friend's wife, Kawehi would mind, he might throw Maile off of the Pali Lookout. But Kawehi loved her cousin, so that was off the table.
Maile wasn't all that annoying when she wasn't trying to drive him insane. And there was something to be said with how she got him riled up. Whenever she was around, his heart pounded like a caged animal shaking the bars demanding freedom. If she could stop tap dancing on his last nerve they might actually get along.
Like that was going to happen. So he'd just have to keep himself from throttling the woman and spend a lot of nights suffering in cold showers.
Maile Phillips has a different outlook on life than her cousin, Kawehi. She watched her cousin suffer after falling in love with her first husband, so Maile has decided that the last thing she's going to do is fall in love. She is, however, going to climb Cameron Cox over and over. Or kill him. She hasn't decided which would be more fun.
Okay, maybe she'll have him and then kill him. It's the best of both worlds. Right?
Still, there was something about a man who would go out of his way to help veritable strangers. He might not smile when he did it, but his heart and his actions were all in the right place. There were times when she wished that the two of them could stop bickering like cats and, well... cats. She just didn't think she had a shave ice's chance of staying frosty on a hot Hawaiian summer day. Not when he keeps glaring at her like she kicked his puppy.
She liked puppies. She just didn't like Cameron!
That all changed the day that Cameron laid out a guy for touching her and dragged her drunk @$$ home. He might have proved he wasn't all that bad and she might just be a little nicer to him. *giggle* As if.
She'll have to rethink things when Cameron ends up being the one who stands between her and the darkness of the world. They might just make the right kind of wrong when these opposites come crashing together for a lifetime.
ONE
MAILE
Maile tooka step into the gate area at HNL - Daniel Inouye International Airport and took in her first deep breath of airconditioned Hawaiian air.
It was good to be back.
Slinging her backpack around onto one shoulder she hoofed it over to the baggage claim.
She could have hung back and waited for the rest of her group, but she couldn't wait to get to the baggage claim and see Kawehi again. Her cousin was going to pick her up. The band had invited Kawehi to go too, but now that Kawehi was pregnant and had her share of morning sickness, no one thought it was a good idea for her to go up in a plane and spend two weeks away from home.
Of course, Maile grinned to herself, it was also that Pallas would go a little nuts if she was away from home for that long.
He was mister cool under pressure. His team said he was rock steady on missions.
But the instant he saw the two lines on the pregnancy test, he'd gone a little off the rails.
He'd already baby proofed the whole house, and she'd barely just started showing.
Maile got to the top of the escalator headed down to baggage claim when she heard someone call her name.
"Eh, Maile! Wait up!"
