He flinched, and I knew in that moment that I was right. “Look, something,” he cringed, “something happened. It was consensual, I swear. I just…” He shook his head. “I need to go before somethinghappens again.”
My eyebrows flew up. “She’s a seventeen-year-old trafficking victim, you sick fuck!” I didn’t care that sixteen was the age of consent, he had no right!
“You think I don’t know that?” he roared back at me. “You think I haven’t called myself worse over the past few months! And now…?” He shook his head, his face tormented with guilt. “I can’t get her out of my head, Aloiki! That’s why I need to go. I need to leave. She’s a temptation I’m not strong enough to resist.”
I went to stand up, but Lu stopped me. She narrowed her eyes on Tangaloa. “Look at me,” she snapped. Tangaloa paused and did as ordered. “Do you have feelings for her? Real feelings? You answer that, and I believe you, and I’ll let you leave. If not, if you’re just fucking around with her and her feelings, I’ll string you up myself on Tommy’s boat.”
Tangaloa stared at Lu for a long time, but there was something on his face even I couldn’t describe. It was like longing mixed with self-loathing. “I wouldn’t be in this much agony if I was just fucking around with her.”
Lu nodded slowly. She looked over her shoulder at me, her eyes sad. “I believe him.”
I did too, the rat bastard. “Go,” I ordered. He started towards the door like I’d lit a fire under his ass. “And, Tangaloa?” He paused, looking back at me. “Don’t come back here.” Lu gasped, but didn’t voice an argument. “Not until you get your shit together,” I amended for her sake. “I swore to protect those girls, and I’ll do that, even from you.”
Tangaloa wasn’t pissed, which made me wonder how long he’d been struggling with feelings for Caroline. “Mahalo,” he said softly, and then raced out the door.
Lu tried to twist herself around to face me, but her body didn’t bend so well these days. “Help me,” she pleaded. I chuckled and shifted her so she was sitting sideways on my lap, instead of lounging back between my legs. “You can’t keep him from property. He lives here?—”
“Not if he’s having feelings for an underage girl that’s under my protection,” I argued. When she opened her mouth to say something else, I kissed her instead. “Enough. It’s not today’s problem. Today is forus. We have this entire house to ourselves.” I dragged my hand up her bare leg, raising goosebumps as I did. “Just you and me, wife.” I bit her lip.
Though she still looked worried, heat rose in her eyes. “I’m not your wife yet.”
“Two more weeks. It’s good enough. How about we practice consummating our marriage now, so we get it right on our wedding night?”
“You’ll have to catch me first!” She tried to hop off my lap and out of my grip, but she ended up just sliding back on the couch and landing with her legs over mine.
I lifted an eyebrow. “I’ve never caught something with so little effort before.”
Lu scowled. “Help me up, asshole. It’s your fault I’m in this state.”
My smile was cocky as I helped her to her feet. “Fuck yeah, it is.”
“In that case, give me a ten-second head start!” Then she hurried from the room.
Well, waddled would be the more accurate term. Didn’t stop me in the least, though, from staring at her naked ass as she made it to the stairs.
She got about halfway up and then paused, short of breath. I watched her from the couch, despite that it had been longer than ten seconds. Turning, she sat down on the stairs and glared at me. “Stop smirking and help me!”
Chuckling, I got up. “Yes, dear.” I climbed the stairs two at a time, which only made her eyes narrow into smaller slits. I scooped her up into my arms and carried her the rest of the way to our bedroom. “Bed or sex swing?” The sex swing that had been in Bacon and Holly’s living room had been relocated to our room after Samantha tried to swing in it.
Lu glanced between the two. “Swing, please.”
In movies of the Mainland, people shut their curtains or blinds at night. I couldn’t imagine such a travesty. I wanted to see the moonlit sea, smell the salt and sand of my home. What did I care if someone could look in my window at me? I didn’t give a fuck if they wanted to watch me sleep. It would be the last thing they did if I caught them. My old home had been a single story, whereas the monstrosity we now resided in was several floors. The curtains surrounding the open window were nothing more than decor.
Night kissed Lu’s skin as she slept. I bought her a pregnancy pillow to help keep her comfortable. It formed to her growing body and helped support her bump. I tried it with my balls, and I had to admit the inventor definitely knew what he was doing.
Our conversation with Tangaloa bothered me, and was the current cause of my insomnia. Fucking selfish bastard. I’d known Tangaloa since grade school. The three of us, Kayl, Tangaloa, and I, had gotten ourselves into a shit ton of trouble as kids and teens. Although Kayl chose what many would call an honorable profession while Tangaloa and I certainly did not, we never distrusted one another. I didn’t have a lot of friends. Not that Iwantedfriends. That seemed an exhausting task, and I truly didn’t give a fuck about other people’s petty problems. I never apologized for being an asshole, and I never would. The fact that I was losing sleep over Tangaloa’s transgressions was actually an argument for me growing as a person.
Slightly.
After taking Lu upstairs to fuck her in the sex swing, I did look for Caroline. Neither she nor Samantha were prisoners in the obnoxiously large house, though they were strictly forbidden from the barn. I also hadn’t been paying much attention to them recently because Tangaloa had been. But the role I thought he played was that of a father figure. Certainly never got Daddy vibes off him before, not even during the three weeks when we all believed him to be the father of my niece.
When it came down to it, Tangaloa could fuck who he wanted. He was a big boy who could face the consequences of his own actions. Problem was, those consequences were nowminebecause I vowed to protect Caroline and Samantha.
I rubbed a finger through the sheen of sweat coating Lu’s back. When we’d met, both of us were adults. But what would I have done if she was underage when we’d met? Would I haveallowed something as pesky as alawto decide if it was right for me to be with her?
I never would have pushed myself on her, but I had to wonder if I would have kept my hands to myself if she was seventeen and willing. Then again, when Lu was seventeen, I was twenty, so it wasn’t that big of an age jump. Tangaloa was thirty-five, or would be in two and a half months.
Tangaloa had removed himself from the situation. He wasn’t allowed on property until he’d figured his shit out. I didn’t know where he went, and I didn’t care. In the morning, I would find Caroline and check on her.
