“If I wasn’t familiar with lovemaking, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Kalena responded mildly. “Can I take from the fact that you haven’t said anything to him, that he hasn’t told you that he loves you?”
“No, but he told me that he’s never felt the same way with any other woman. And I can feel it.” She splayed her hand over her heart. “Deep in here. If he doesn’t quite know he loves me yet, I’m willing to be patient. Because he will. Because we belong together. Just like you and Daddy.”
Concern filled Kalena’s eyes, but she smiled as she wrapped her arms around her only daughter, her baby, who’d changed during her time away but had re-learned to laugh, and yes, even risk her heart again since she’d returned home.
“I’ve always loved your enthusiasm for life, darling,” she said, as she fastened the pearl button at the back of the silk halter top that was admittedly a bit more revealing than the usual traditional costume. “And it’s obvious that you’ve had quite the positive effect on Donovan. But sometimes people aren’t exactly on the same page.”
“If he isn’t, he’ll get there,” Lani insisted. “I’m willing to wait until he does.” And then, because it was Christmas, and she wasn’t going to allow negative thoughts to intrude, she tied the matching silk sarong skirt low on her hip, then drew in a long, deep breath, then let it out, finding her center, as Ona Chang was always reminding her to do in meditation class.
“You’ll see, Mama. It’ll all turn out wonderfully, and one of these days, before you know it, you’re going to be a grandmother.”
Just the thought of making babies with Donovan had Lani smiling as she ran out of the house and onto the stage to the introduction of the drums.
22
She’d changed from one of her flowered sundresses into a silky top that bared her shoulders and arms and a sarong thing that fell to mid-calf. Having already been informed that traditional hulas had been for religious purposes, and therefore the wahines dressed more conservatively than women did in the tourist luau dances, Donovan immediately decided that 1) Lani didn’t need a grass skirt to be sexy and 2) he had never realized it was possible for hips to move in the way she was moving hers.
As the story played out, a young, hot man, his oiled body, clad only in some sort of wrapped loincloth, jumped in front of her, representing, Thomas informed him, the arrival of the mutineers.
Her hips moving erotically in a way that had him thinking of Sam Goldwyn’s quote about her grandmother’s filling theaters, Lani danced up to the guy. Then, taking off the red poinsettia Christmas lei she was wearing, she placed it around his thickly muscled dark neck. As the music increased its pace, her hips matched the rhythm, as did the male dancer, who was a great deal more physical, leaping around, stamping his bare feet in what was obviously a mating dance. Which, while making Donovan hot, also had him experiencing something that felt uncomfortably like jealousy.
When she danced off the stage, the male following, Donovan didn’t need a program to know that what came next in the real-life version, would be the sexual union that had created the island’s population.
Then she was back, standing in front of him, holding out her hands and giving him the most dazzling, bone-melting smile he’d ever seen.
“Dance with me, Donovan?”
Glancing around, he realized that while he’d been engrossed in watching her, others, around him, including her parents, had risen to their feet and were doing their own interpretations of the hula. None of which could hold a candle to hers.
“How could I refuse anything you’d ask?” He stood up. “And for the record, you were definitely off the mark when you said you didn’t have any talents. I can’t remember when I’ve seen anything as sexy as you doing that hula.”
“I’m glad you liked it,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning against him, swaying to the music in a way that had the quickening beat of the drums pounding in Donovan’s veins.
“What would you say to continuing this party at home?” he asked hopefully.
She went up on her bare toes to kiss his mouth. “Detective, I thought you’d never ask.”
* * *
The call came shortly after two a.m. Lani dragged her hands through her sex-and-sleep-tangled hair as she listened to Donovan’s end of the conversation from the other room. His short, cryptic statements told her nothing.
“Who was that?” she asked after he’d hung up.
“Nobody important.” He pulled on some jeans. “Go back to sleep.”
“If it wasn’t anyone important, why are you getting dressed? And what are you doing with that?” Her eyes widened as he pulled a pistol out of the dresser drawer and stuck it in the back of his belt.
“I’ve got to go out for a while.”
“Where?”
“Just out. I’ll be back before you know it.”
The gun was the deciding factor for Lani. “I’m coming with you,” she said, throwing back the sheet.