“That’s impossible. I haven’t had a bath for two days.”
He held her hand against his chest and met her gaze once more. “Well, to me, you smell like a fresh ocean breeze, blowing over blooming gardenias in the warm, Hawaiian sun.”
She stared at him, speechless, and he was reminded of the first time they met. He hadn’t known her that long, but he felt incredibly connected to her already. Maybe it was because they had faced so many challenges in the past forty-eight hours, but then again, maybe she had beguiled him with her voice.
“Well, aren’t you a smooth talker?”
He didn’t feel like he wasn’t in control of his own actions, but right now, he wanted nothing more than to know if her lips felt as soft as they looked.
There were more important things to be concerned with right now. He was close to some answers. He knew it. But all he could do right now was feel the energy of the moment, like lightning striking from one person to the other. All thought of stopping was lost as her top teeth bit into her bottom lip. He ran the knuckle of his free hand along her cheek, pushing a bit of hair that had slipped away back where it belonged.
He leaned his head forward and felt the softest whisper of contact with her mouth. Pleasure fired through Kai’s body, and he deepened the kiss. She pressed into him, and her lips moved in rhythm with his. He dropped her hand on his chest and wrapped both his arms around her, pulling her tight against him. As the kiss continued to build, he felt her hands gripping his shirt at his lower back.
He wanted this. He wanted her. She was smart and funny and the adventure he was on with her was the best time of his life—flirting with death and all. It was happening quickly, but it didn’t feel wrong. It felt so, so right.
His head was beginning to buzz. In the back of his brain, a sound began to build, and he was certain it was the intensity of the kiss and the lust it was stoking. Yet, it seemed to be getting louder.
Suddenly, he pulled back and stared into her half-lidded eyes. He wanted to go back in for another kiss, but as he stared at the sky in the distance, he could only see a thick fog. He heard the plane, and he knew who it had to be. As much as he liked the dreamy, well-kissed look on her face, the sound of the aircraft was his biggest concern.
“Do you hear that?”
“Now? You hear something now?” But she paused to listen, and her eyes widened as she picked up the sound of an airplane engine heading in their direction. “What do we do?”
“Come on!” Kai grabbed the waters and the fish and quickly stuffed them into the pack the captain had also given them. He grabbed the pack and Hollyn’s hand and took off for a rocky overhang about a hundred yards away.
Just as they slipped into a recess in the terrain, the plane emerged from the fog and flew over the island.
“Do you think they saw us?” Hollyn asked.
“I really hope not.” Kai looked around the faux cave structure and said, “We might have to hole up here until dark. That plane isn’t going to stop searching the island while there’s sunlight available.”
Hollyn grew silent, and Kai worried he’d overstepped boundaries with the kiss. He didn’t regret it, but he hadn’t been completely honest with her. And he never wanted her to think a kiss was just one more manipulation. She’d had enough of that from her father from what she’d shared with him.
But she surprised him as she said, “I’m sorry I got you into this mess. Now, you’ve lost your plane, you’ve almost died—twice, and now, you’re stuck on an island with my father’s men hunting us. I would totally understand if you wanted to just walk away. You could go to the place the captain suggested. What was it? Georgetown? No, it was Jamestown. Yeah, that’s right. You could go there.”
Kai took her hands in his, met her anxiety-riddled gaze, and explained, “I’m not going to abandon you. I’ve seen what kind of men your father sends to capture you. I would never forgive myself if you fell back into his hands. So, really, I’m staying for me and my conscience.”
He knew this would have been a good time to bring up his connection to the emblem in her book. He could come completely clean and tell her that he really did have a motive that wasn’t so noble, but as he pulled in a heavy breath to explain, Bertie landed in front of their hiding place.
“Psst! Hollyn! The plane flew on, but a helicopter landed just over that ridge. I don’t like the looks of it. I’m pretty sure your father was on board.”
