him wish he was nice and wet and cool,” Frank said. “He looks kinda pale to me. We’re gonna set him out in the sunshine for a couple hours, while we wait for da Ho’omalus. Time dey get here, he’ll be shark bait, nice and burnt.”
“That’s pretty harsh,” Joel said over the Asian’s head as he and Frank each took an arm and carried Li out into the sun. “This tropical sun is brutal. He’s probably pretty thirsty already.”
“All he has to do to get some shade and a drink is start talking.” They sat Li down just outside the cave, where the noon sun beat down on the flat rocks.
Then Frank dragged one of the camp chairs to the shady cave entrance and opened the cooler for a bottle of cold water. “You go swimming with Bella,” he assured Joel. “I’m just gonna sit here in the shade and enjoy the breeze.”
He sat in the camp chair, the gun across his lap. Then he lifted the big knife he had taken from Li and examined the blade. “’Course, if I get bored, I might decide to speed things up a bit. You never know.”
Joel could see no way the Asian, bound hand and foot, could cause a problem for Frank. And Camille had clearly been disgusted with her lover.
“What about Eddy and Kobe?” he asked quietly. “Think they’re around, waiting for a chance to meet up with him?”
“Y’know, I kinda hope dey are,” Frank said. “Wouldn’t mind da chance to beef dere asses, yeah?”
Joel raised his eyebrows respectfully. The older man seemed up for whatever came.
“I’ll be back shortly,” he promised. “Just want to cool off and check on Bella.”
But when he came out of the cave, Cassie, Tanah and Matt were swimming around the small bay. Bella was gone.
Chapter Twelve
To Do: The professional tour director makes certain that her personal activities, especially while on tour, do not reflect badly on her company’s good name.
Bella knew it was crazy to head into the forest instead of remaining with the others in the cove. Or so it would surely seem to Joel and Frank.
But the truth was that the moment she stepped out of the cave, she knew there was no danger—at least from the forest. Because the voices were calling her, beckoning her. And if she wasn’t crazy, if she was a true Ho’omalu, then she could trust them. And the final truth was, she was sick and tired of following the rules.
Clutching her wash kit and towel, she looked back at the cove, where the trio was splashing in the water. Then she looked up into the green, inviting shadows of the trail.
“Come, little sister. Come and drink. We will watch over you.”
The first step was the hardest. For one stomach-dropping instant, it felt as if she were walking away from the safe, ordered, logical world she knew. And into the mystery of the real Hawaii. Her Hawaii.
But as the voices filled her ears, she forgot her fears, forgot Joel and the others. As she walked slowly up the path, her pace turned to a saunter as that feeling of wild, verdant aliveness swirled through her. A heady rush of arousal twined through her body, her mind, tingling on her skin, clenching in her pussy, tightening her nipples so they could no longer bear even the soft slide of her swimsuit.
She stepped into the grotto and dropped her towel and bag. Next her red and white flowered bikini top came off, and then, with a swift wriggle, the bottoms dropped to her feet.
She stepped out of them and stretched her arms up high, tipping her head back to revel in the soft kiss of the hot, damp air on her bare body. The rush of arousal was so strong it nearly brought her to her knees. Wavering on her weak legs, she grasped the trunk of a young tree arched out over the water.
With a moan, she leaned back against the tree, nearly reclining on the trunk as it leaned out over the pool of clear, shimmering water. She let her head fall back, her hair drifting down behind her. Her eyes slipped shut, her lips parted and her legs splayed open, while she felt with one bare foot for a place to prop it on the lower trunk of the tree.
Her hands moved of their own volition. She cupped one of her breasts, her fingers twirling the aching, needy nipple, while the other cupped over her mons.