Aloha, page 44
“Whoa, there. Careful, darlin.” That voice. I looked up and my stomach plummeted to my feet. Mack towered over me at six foot two.
All I could do was squeak out a measly, “What’s up?”
“Thought maybe you’d want to dance.” The smooth baritone of his voice sent shivers down my spine. I nodded, and waved apologetically to the book club. When an insane upbeat song came through the speakers, Mack spun me around and we danced together. It felt like a dream. I was dancing with the boy I had been crushing on for four years.
Only he wasn’t a boy anymore, and I wasn’t a girl.
He was a man, and I was very much a woman. Who wanted to do what I have heard for years.
Mack wrapped his strong arms around my waist and pulled me until I was flush against his body. My soft to his hard. It was a perfect mixture of pleasure and suspense. I felt his rough callused fingers press firmly into my lower back and the distinct hardness of his dick pressed against my thigh.
Holy shit. Was Mack turned on by me? No, it couldn’t be. I gasped and Mack seemed to have picked up on the cue because he stepped back. The look on his face changed from fun and flirty to sorrow in an instant.
“Shit, I’m sorry, Lora. I didn’t know…I can’t control it sometimes.”
I reached for him, eager for him to put his hands on me again. “No, no. It’s okay. I, um…” Maybe we should take this somewhere more private. “Follow me.” I grabbed his hand and led him out of the gym and into the night air. The chill in the air did nothing to cool down the heat that was radiating throughout my entire body.
Mack regarded me curiously, then rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “What’s going on, Lora? Look, I think you’re really pretty and I think that you’re awesome, we have a lot in common and I guess I got caught up in the moment…”
Before he could say anything else or possibly risk ruining this amazing moment, I just blurted out what had been on my mind for a while now. “I want you to take my virginity.”
Mack’s whole body froze. He dropped his hand and took a step toward me. I stood there and waited. Agonizingly waited for him to say something, to confess something. Of what, I had no idea. I just felt like there was something there that was not one-sided.
“Loralie,” he whispered, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh. Oh, no. Whenever he used my full name, knowing I hated it, was never a good sign.
“I…I can’t, Lora.”
My emotions came flooding out as I let out a sob. “Why? I thought you liked me?”
We had been more flirty than usual, and I thought it meant we were starting something. I knew Logan wouldn’t care as long as we were both happy. But maybe I was wrong about this whole thing.
He took two strides and cupped my face, wiping my tears away with his thumbs. “Lora, baby. Sweetheart, it’s not that I don’t want to. You are so beautiful, and any man would be damn lucky to be your first.” He dropped his hands, and it felt like the last piece of my broken heart fell along with it.
“But that man is not me.”
“But, why? I just want to know why.”
Mack sighed, and raked a hand through his hair, pulling on the strands. “Because I’m not a relationship type of guy.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” It made no sense.
“I don’t want a relationship, Lora. I don’t want to be tied down to one woman. And I would hate to be your first then turn you away.”
My lips parted as my eyes stung with unshed tears. “You’d do that to me?” Surely he was just messing with me and he wouldn’t actually hurt me like that. Logan would kick his ass.
“Yes.” He didn’t even hesitate. The first tear fell down my cheek and hit the top of my dress, just above my heart. The one that has now shattered into a million pieces. Reaching down, I picked up my clutch that had fallen to the ground and pulled out my cell phone.
“Lora, what are you doing?”
“Texting Logan. I want to go home.”
He snatched the phone from my hand and shoved it into his pocket. “No, I am not going to let you ruin your prom night because of me. You are going to go back in there and find somebody who is fucking worthy of you because it sure as fuck ain’t me. You got that?”
Trying one final time to get my phone back, he stepped out of my way. I held the clutch to my chest as more tears started falling.
“Fuck you, Mack Danvers. I hope you never find a woman who is worthy of you because she doesn’t exist.”
I ran back into the school, bypassing the gym completely and ran straight into the girls’ bathroom and cried my eyes out for the rest of the night.
Chapter 3
Mack
Every straight man in a fifty-mile radius would be tripping over themselves if they had the kind of view I had right now. I tossed the football back to Logan while periodically making sure he didn’t toss it back to me while my attention was focused elsewhere. Long tan legs meeting up with an already too small yellow bikini. I swallowed and turned my head at the right time that the football came hurtling toward me.
“Dude, pay attention!” Logan yelled then chuckled when it almost smacked me upside the head.
Lora didn’t even give us a second glance. She had her head buried in whatever book she was reading. Periodically, she would kick her legs up and down. It was such a carefree motion, that you wouldn’t think she was as stressed out as she was. From what Logan has told me, school was kicking her ass and I hated seeing her so stressed out.
“Boys and Lora, we’re going in to make some lunch. Be inside in fifteen minutes,” Logan and Lora’s mom, Mindi, said. Her and her husband, Harry, gathered their beach towels and put them into their bags.
“Sounds good,” Logan said.
“Yeah, be in shortly,” Lora said, turning back to her book.
When their parents had gone into the house, Logan jogged over, grabbed the football, then without warning, tossed it toward Lora. The football bounced off one of her butt cheeks and landed beside her a few feet away. I laughed as she whipped around, but the image of her butt cheek jiggling like that will forever be burned into my brain.
“Stop being so immature, Logan!” She yelled and picked the ball up and tossed it back to him angrily. I chuckled and shook my head. “Whoa, what an arm. You could have made quarterback at some point with a throw like that.”
“Why don’t you put that book down and join us? Do something other than read for a change.” I couldn’t help but goad her. It was, after all, our thing.
She scoffed, then put the bookmark in her book and slammed it shut. Lora turned and glared in our direction before standing up and wrapping her towel around her tiny waist. “For your information, I like to relax and enjoy myself while I’m on the beach. Too bad you can’t do that for five minutes.”
“We actually like to have fun. Not waste our time by reading, Loralie.” At my remark, she flipped me off then did the same to Logan. Something about her anger really got under my skin and made my blood boil, but it was sexy as hell.
“Both of y’all can just get a life. Jesus!”
With that, she stormed off toward the house and left Logan and me alone. He laughed and tossed the ball to me. “You really have to stop giving her such a hard time. You know she had that crush on you.”
“Yeah. But it’s kinda fun.”
“You’re such a dick sometimes.”
It was just like that whenever she was around. She got under my skin and made me say things I wouldn’t normally say. Hell, maybe I was being too harsh on her. I held up a hand at Logan then jogged toward Lora and caught up with her before she could make it to the house. I got to her just in time by wrapping my hand around her elbow.
“Hey, wait.” She turned around and leveled me with a scrutinizing glare. “I’m sorry for being such a dick.”
She scoffed, and hiked her bag further up onto her shoulder. “Yeah, sure you are. Which is why you keep doing it.”
I ran my hand down my face. “What can I do to make it up to you?” Reaching down, I clasped her hand in mine. “Come on, darling. Don’t be mad.”
Lora’s cheeks reddened and she looked away. She sighed, then turned her head back to me and glared at me with those chocolate brown eyes. They were the same shade of brown as my best friend’s, but on her, they were so much more beautiful.
“You can start by leaving me alone. I think you’ve done enough damage for a lifetime.”
Before I could ponder what she meant, she stormed away and Logan’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect when he yelled, “Why don’t you two just fuck already and put everyone out of their misery?”
Lora stopped dead in her tracks and whipped her head around and glared at her brother. She flipped him off again then screamed out in frustration and stormed into the house. I stood there and watched the sway of her hips as she ran up the stairs.
The whole conversation was playing over in my head. What did she mean by damage? I wanted to ask her but Logan jogged up beside me and tossed the football into the chair beside the pool. I followed him inside the house and the cold air conditioning hit me and instantly cooled my sun-kissed skin.
“Kids, well, not kids. Anyway, just letting you know that Harry and I have reservations for a romantic dinner tonight on the beach so you’ll be on your own for dinner. I’m sure you won’t burn the house down.” Mindi laughed at her joke and handed each of us a sandwich she had made. I took mine and sat at the bar in the kitchen. Lora sat at the opposite end and Logan sat between us.
“I’m sure we could find something to do,” Logan said, not looking up from his sandwich.
“Well, I have to study, so I’ll be busy,” Lora replied, popping a grape into her mouth.
“Studying on vacation? Even that’s a bit much.”
“Not like you would know anything about that, now would you?”
I could tell the second the words came out of her mouth she instantly regretted it, but I did my best to not let it show it bothered me. She muttered a whispered ‘sorry’ before going back to eating her sandwich.
After high school, I never went to college. Didn’t need to since I was working the farm. And I never regretted it once. Until now.
“Loralie Jane! You apologize to Mack, right this instant!”
I held up a hand, smiling gently. “No, it’s quite alright, ma’am. I know I didn’t go to college and I’ll have to live with that. Not all of us have the kinds of smarts required for college.”
Lora’s eyes locked on me and we had a whole silent conversation with those looks alone.
Sorry.
No, I’m sorry.
Let’s apologize to each other by fucking our brains out.
Okay, maybe that last thought was mine. But I hoped she had the same one. Lora finished her sandwich and tossed the plate into the trash. She walked over and gave her parents each a kiss on the cheek. “Have fun at dinner tonight. I’m going to turn in early and get a jump-start on that studying.”
Leaning up off the chair, I wanted to say something to ease the tension. I hated having this tension between us, but this was how it was between Lora and me. We fought constantly and it never ended well.
“Dude, just let it go. She’ll cool down and be fine tomorrow.”
What if she wasn’t though? We fought but we never, not once, made it personal. That was off-limits. So, something changed. I just wish I knew what.
Chapter 4
Lora
No matter how hard I tried, I could not fall asleep. I thought reading would relax me, and get me to stop thinking about Mack’s lame excuse for an apology, but it did nothing. I sighed heavily, then threw the covers back and sat up. The clock read nearly two in the morning. Great, that’s just fantastic. Leaning my back against the headboard, I picked up my phone and scrolled through my notifications. Various social media icons stared back at me and zero desire to open a single one was making itself known.
Damn it. Double damn it.
I knew the reason. I knew exactly why I couldn’t sleep. Two words. Two lazy smiled, panty melting, drop dead gorgeous words.
Mack Danvers.
Triple damn it.
He was so hot and cold, I couldn’t figure him out. One minute he was giving me shit then the next he was apologizing. Or at least attempted a half-assed apology. I shook my head and scooted up and out of bed. Maybe some time on the beach will give me some clarity. I grabbed my blanket and my phone, and walked outside and found a spot on the sand. It was warm still, but cool enough so I didn’t sweat without doing anything.
“What am I doing?” I muttered, pulling my knees up to my chest and just watched the waves. The sound of the ocean was always calming and relaxing. Something about the waves breaking and leaving, then turning around and repeating the same thing over and over again. Maybe waves were like snowflakes. No two were the same. It sounded a lot like my life. No matter how hard I tried, I kept repeating the same patterns over and over again.
“No, seriously, what the hell was I doing?” I muttered again, hoping someone out in the universe would hear me and give me an answer.
A low chuckle caught my attention and a warm body settled in beside me. “Well, talking to yourself for starters. Second, you might not want to do that in the middle of the night where people might think you’re crazy.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, crazy. What are you even doing down here, Mack?”
“I was up and saw the light from your phone light up your face so I thought I’d join you.”
“Couldn’t sleep either?”
“Nope.”
My lips twitched with the barest hint of a smile, but I pulled it back. “Do you have any idea why we hate each other?” I asked, deciding to just say fuck it and throw caution to the wind.
He whipped around to look at me, shock and confusion written on his face. Or what I can make out of it in the darkness. “I don’t hate you, Lora.”
“Could have fooled me,” I replied.
“What makes you think I hate you?”
A million different reasons flashed through my head at that single question. What could I say to make him not hate me? We bickered constantly and I hated it. Sometimes I wished we could get along just once, but I knew that was never going to happen.
“You seemed to always try and pick a fight.”
He smirked. “I think you got that backwards, sweetheart.”
I gasped. “I do not! I think you’re mistaken.”
“Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. You just proved my point.”
My mouth opened and closed like a fish. I shook my head and looked away, angry at myself for even entertaining this ridiculous conversation. “You’re insane.”
“Nah, I’m pretty normal.”
“You’re also extremely annoying.”
“Not a word women would usually use to describe me, but okay.”
“Ugh. You’re insufferable!”
“And you have anger issues.”
“I have anger issues? Pray tell.”
He waved a hand in the air in a circular motion. “Just like that. You say shit like ‘pray tell.’ Who says stuff like that?”
“I do! It’s supposed to be said by someone who has a college education.”
Oh, shit. I felt the shift in the air no sooner did the words come out of my mouth. His whole face hardened and he pulled back a few inches, putting way more distance between us than I would have liked.
“Mack, I…” I started to say, but before I could get the word out, he stood up and picked up his blanket. Shaking it angrily, he slung it over his shoulder. Before he walked away, he looked down at me with the coldest stare I had ever seen from him.
“You know something, Lora? I don’t know why you feel the need to keep throwing the fact that I don’t have a college degree in my face. But you keep sitting on your fucking high horse all you want if it makes you feel better. I never regretted choosing not to go to college, not once. I like my life on the farm, but clearly that’s not good enough for you. I don’t expect you to like it or hell, even accept it. But I’ve made peace with it and love my farm life. So, have fun out here on the beach with your thoughts and I’ll see you later.”
“Mack, I’m sorry, okay!” Standing up, I ran until I caught up with him and grabbed his hand. “Please, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I keep saying it. I just…I don’t know. I’m sorry.” I was crying now and tears were streaming down my face in waves from the guilt. Hurting Mack was a low blow that I constantly took. It made no sense, but it seemed to be the one that I always went for.
“Lora.” Mack growled, then he dropped his blanket and lowered his head then shook it. “Fuck it.”
He turned around suddenly and brought his hands up and cradled my face between them and brought his lips down onto mine, capturing them in a brutal kiss. I gasped in surprise, parting my lips slightly which only made him kiss me deeper. He swallowed my gasps and kissed me passionately and without mercy, he left me with no other choice but to grip his waist and pull him closer. This was what I’ve wanted since I was thirteen years old.
Mack. Kissing me.
Mack. Making me his in every way.
Giving into the feelings I suspected he shared with me since we were teenagers.
He broke the kiss and trailed his lips down my jaw until I was a panting mess of goo right there on the beach. Mack nipped my earlobe and the slight pain shot all the way down to my core.
“Mack,” I whimpered his name so softly, I didn’t think he heard it.
“You drive me so fucking crazy, Lora. First you piss me off, then you turn me the fuck on with your sass.”
I smiled despite the erotic emotions he was pulling from me. “It’s a gift.”
Mack chuckled then pulled away and rested his forehead against mine. He sighed then closed his eyes against the onslaught of emotions that were shared between us. I felt them. I’d hoped he felt them too. There were a million reasons why we shouldn’t work, but another million why we should.
