cash, but there was a kindle that began to spark, a nugget of worry that she thought best to hold onto.
“McAddams won’t be swayed,” she said, coming to sit next to him. She kept several inches between them, hoping he realized it wasn’t only the owner he had to contend with. “Neither will I.”
She could feel his stare as he watched her but refused to return it. She had a point and would make it without giving Kai an easy opening. “I think you forgot, months back, that I’m still your boss.”
“How could I ever forget that?” he asked, turning to stare at her outright.
Gia kept her attention on the river outside the large expanse of glass that seemed to stretch on forever. When Kai didn’t elaborate, she waved her hand, not sure what he’d say. “You seem to have come to the idea that it’s okay to speak to me like I never asked you to forget what happened.” Kai shook his head, and Gia finally turned, wanting to see the look on his face. “Is that it? You think I didn’t mean it?”
He glanced at her, shaking his head once, but she wasn’t convinced of his refusal. “I never said…”
“You didn’t have to.”
“I…respect you…as a person.”
“Then, Mr. Pukui, stop flirting with me,” she told him, standing, her back straightening when he touched her wrist.
He only dropped it when she looked down at the curve of his fingers and how they fit around her wrist. “If it had been bad…or even only decent, then I would have never given it a second thought.”
“That…doesn’t matter,” she told him, pulling her hand free from him. When he stood to face her, Gia didn’t step away from him. “Mr.…”
“It shouldn’t,” he admitted, standing inches from her, not touching, not doing anything more than just watching her. “But somehow it does to me.”
Gia turned her head, wondering why she’d never noticed how dark his eyes were before now. There were small flecks of brown and green in the iris when the sunlight moved through the window and shone against his eyes. “Nothing is ever going to happen between us. It was one night. It was a stupid mistake.”
He nodded, moving his teeth across his bottom lip again. “Maybe,” he said, leaning his head until there was hardly any space between their mouths at all. “But, God help me, that’s a mistake I keep wanting to make over and over again.”
“Why…are you always trying to distract me?” Gia asked him, unable to keep from touching his arm when he came closer.
“Look at you. Sweaty. Sexy. This,” he said, tugging on the end of her sleeveless, gray workout shirt. He brushed his fingertips against the fabric and Gia held her breath when Kai’s thumb slipped underneath the edge near her rib. When he spoke, his tone was low, his eyes darker than she’d ever seen them before. “This is enough to have me trying to make distracting you an Olympic event.”
Kai must know how beautiful he was. Gia thought, there was no way he could live in that body and not know what impact he had on the world around him. She moved her gaze, attention working down his face, focusing on his bare neck and a thought struck her as she remembered their first meeting and how he’d worn the black obsidian pendant on a thin leather strap around his neck. It had been so similar to the one Luka was never without. He’d swum out with his twin, Kona and found the stone and sworn it gave him courage.
There were the same fractures in the stone, the same wave of cooling lava that turned into volcanic glass running over the surface. But Cat had checked as Gia asked. They’d asked around, hired a P.I. Kai Pukui wasn’t related to Luka and Kona. There was no history as far as they could tell. That pendant wasn’t Luka’s.
“What are you looking at?” Kai asked when Gia must have gone on staring at him for too long.
“Nothing,” she said, stepping away from the warmth of his body. “I’m not…it’s nothing.”
“Gia…”
“That is enough,” she finally said, raising her voice. The tone stopped him, brought away the pleasant expression of his soft features as he watched her. It quieted Kenny and Nick as they mumbled between each other in the hallway. “This has gone on for too long and it has to stop.” When Kai opened his mouth, when he took a step forward, Gia shook her head,