doing it. “The idea of women crawling all over you?”
He cleared his throat of the sudden huskiness in his throat. “Not me, Princess,” he said, his lips brushing the tender shell of her ear. He had to clench his jaw against the urge to put out his tongue and trace the shell of her ear, taste her. “I’m more of a one-wahine kind of guy.”
In truth, he’d tried a threesome once. He’d felt a hell of a man at first, but once they got to it, he had a hell of a time concentrating, and the two girls turned out to be more interested in each other than him.
But he wasn’t about to try to explain that to Bella. He didn’t want to use Bella as a shield from the rapacious Tanah. He wanted this wahine just for herself. Her incredibly buttoned-up, molten-hot-centered self. The next time she had that look of sleepy satisfaction on her face, he wanted to be the one who put it there.
Bella spent nearly an hour of prickly, delicious torment in Joel’s embrace. Being held by him was every bit as good as she’d imagined. His body was so much bigger than hers that leaning against him meant being surrounded by strength and heat. His heavy arm rested around her waist, his hand a warm weight on her hip, while he used his other hand to torment her.
It was all publicly acceptable. He merely enveloped her hand with his, much bigger and stronger. His were lightly calloused, the tendons and muscles firmly delineated, the mark of a man who used his hands constantly. But as they listened to Frank play, he somehow found every sensitive spot on hers. She had never realized that having another person rub her fingertips or the center of her palm could send pleasure arcing through her, tightening her nipples and making her clench her thighs together, or that when he tickled the inside her wrist with the pad of his thumb, she would want to press back against him, rubbing herself on him like a cat.
Only the sharp hiss of his breath in her ear made her realize finally that she was doing just that.
He bent his head forward over her shoulder, his low, deep voice following his warm breath into her ear. “You wanna take this into the other cave, Princess? ‘Cause I’d like nothing better.”
Bella’s face burned, and she was relieved that the fire had burned down to glowing embers so that everyone’s faces were visible only as shifting patterns of red and gold.
To cover her embarrassment at being caught, she cast him a slumberous look. “Payback’s a bitch, yeah?”
But instead of being angry, he chuckled. “Damn, you’ve got a mean streak. I like that about you.”
He rested his chin on the top of her head. “So, you’re a Ho’omalu, huh?” he asked. “And Frank’s a friend of these folks too?”
She nodded, feeling the roughness of his five-o’clock shadow catch in her hair. “My—my father is one of the family.”
“Oh, so you’ve spent a lot of time over here with him, huh?”
“No,” Bella found herself admitting. “I just met him, um, last month. When I came over for my best friend Melia’s wedding to David Ho’omalu.”
”Whoa.” He gave her a little squeeze. “You just met him? Did he, ah, not know about you?”
“He knew, but I didn’t.” Her heart pinched with the remembered hurt of learning that her mother had kept them apart Bella’s whole life. “He and my mom had a vacation fling here, and I was the result. But then he admitted that he’s, um, gay. So she…” She stared into the fire, her hand tightening on his fingers. “She cut him out of our lives.”
“Damn,” Joel breathed. “That was tough on you.”
She nodded, blinking back tears.
“So, now you have beaucoup Hawaiian relatives, huh?” he asked. “You like them?”
She nodded. “They’re the best. In fact, my other best friend, Claire, is marrying Daniel Ho’omalu soon.”
He whistled softly. “That’s a wedding epidemic. You’re not gonna marry one of ’em, are you?”
The pugnacious edge to his question surprised a giggle out of her. “No. They’re my cousins.”
Frank ended his song on a flourish. Joel let Bella go, arcing into a stretch behind her.
“That was great, Frank,” Joel said. “Well, I’m gonna lay out my bedroll.” He patted Bella on the hip. “I’ll get yours for you, Nani.”
Bella slipped off the log, turning to look down at him.
He looked at her from under his brows, his face edged in