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Did that really just happen?
Kai shut off the engine and hopped out of the cart. “Are you going to sit there all night?” he asked, stalking into the brush at the side of the road. He sprang up the steep incline we’d been driving next to for the past few minutes.
I set aside all my questions and hurried to catch up with him. “This does not feel like an evening walk on the beach.” I huffed and puffed more than I should have as I climbed the small green hill.
Yep, I was definitely going to pass on the pastries on Monday morning!
“Just wait for it,” Kai said, from the peak of this mountainous molehill.
I took in a sharp breath when I reached his side—partly because I was sucking wind from the climb but mostly because of the view.
A pristine white beach stretched out as far as I could see to the left. And there wasn’t a soul in sight.
A little ways off to the right was a stone outcropping with a shimmering pool of water in the center. Beside the natural pool was a long, low table with oversized pillows for seats. It sat on a rock that had probably been hosting romantic evening dinners for hundreds of years. I slipped my shoes off and let the warmth from the smooth stone soak into me.
There was enough food on that table to feed a small army. “Who’s joining us for dinner?” I asked.
“I didn’t invite anybody else,” Kai said, walking up to the pool’s edge. “Did you?” He grinned, and his dimple made my knees wobble.
But that was nothing compared to what was coming!
The next thing I knew, he was pulling his shirt off and reintroducing me to his collection of sculpted abs. My temperature rose faster than my jaw dropped.
“Come on.” Kai nodded toward the pool, and I finally realized that his bright-red shorts were actually swimming trunks.
“What? Now?” His magnetism drew me to the water even as I pointed at the table. “What about the dinner your mom cooked? That pineapple centerpiece isn’t going to eat itself, you know.”
Kai belly laughed. “If we don’t swim now, you’ll make us wait forty-five minutes after eating to get in the water.”
Something about the look on his face told me he was teasing me. I didn’t hate it. But I folded my arms across my chest and pretended to scold him. “Well, that would be the sensible thing to do if we don’t want to cramp up and drown.”
He stepped into the water and held his hand out to me. “So, now’s the time.”
I slipped off my outer clothes and hat without giving a second thought to my dolphin covered swimsuit, then took his hand. The same familiar charge from earlier that day passed between us. They say electricity and water don’t mix—well actually, they say it’ll kill you. But I didn’t care. If this was the way I went out, I’d die happy.
I stepped into the crystal-clear water. “How deep is it?”
“Deep.”
“How deep is deep?” My heart rate picked up, but who knew if it was from the thought of stepping out into deep water or if it was the way Kai’s eyes never left me.
I had a sneaking suspicion it was a seventy-thirty split, with Kai causing the majority of my palpitations.
“It's deep enough for your first lesson,” he said, guiding me to the edge of the submerged stone ledge we stood on.
I hesitated and pulled back. “Lesson?”
“If you’re going to live in Hawaii, you’ve got to learn to swim.”
I looked into the water, wishing I had a pebble to toss in. It would have been nice to watch it fall to see how far it was to the bottom. Then again, maybe that wouldn’t have been the best way to calm the anxiety the thought of swimming lessons brought to mind.
“I don’t know. I’m not good at… at… water.” Apparently, I wasn’t good at talking either, but Kai didn’t seem to notice.
He intertwined his fingers with mine and gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “I’m not going to let you go.”
Did he mean right now… or ever? Because both options sounded pretty sweet to me.
All my fears melted away when he wrapped his arm around my waist and launched into the deep.
