3 Nights of Seduction (Tropical Nights Book 2) Read online

  3 Nights of Seduction

  A Tropical Nights Story

  J. Haymore

  3 Nights of Seduction

  Copyright 2016 J. Haymore

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  The First Night

  Lacey

  I dreamed about him.

  I knew it was a dream, because the ridiculous shyness, insecurity, and low self-esteem that plagued me every day was gone. Well, not gone, completely, but a distant glimmer. I knew it was still there, but it seemed unimportant—something I could push aside and deal with at another time.

  I dreamed I was lying in my bed, awake, when Kainoa Turner’s wide shoulders suddenly filled my bedroom doorway. The Kai I knew wouldn’t just show up in my house. He was too much of a gentleman for that. He’d always knock. That fact confirmed that this wasn’t real, though it felt pretty real, as dreams go.

  Kai was my boss and one of the owners of Turner and Hannover Construction. He was a general contractor for custom homes on the Kona side of the Big Island. I’d moved to Hawaii on a whim after a nasty breakup a year ago. Knowing I needed a serious change of scenery from the life I’d always known in Louisiana, I’d packed my bags and flown to Kona. Fortune had shone down on me, because Kai’s partner, Steve, had taken one look at my resume—I’d been raised in the construction business and had worked in it in some capacity since before I graduated from high school—and hired me right away. I’d met Kai when he’d returned from working on a site on the other side of the island a week later, and had crushed on him hard for the past year. He was thirty-two—older than me by a decade. He was mature, successful, smart, and sexy…and for the past month, he’d been mine.

  Of course, “mine” was a relative term. We’d kissed a few times, but no more than that. I wished it had gone further, but I froze up, every time. I pulled away, or started some inane nervous chatter.

  Kai had been patient with me…so far. But this couldn’t go on much longer. I found him incredibly hot. I was incredibly attracted to him. So why couldn’t I just let go?

  I drove myself crazy with questions like that. The fact was, a really big part of me knew I wasn’t good enough for a man like Kai. He was out of my league. And I was terrified of disappointing him, of letting him down. Of him learning the horrible truth—I was bad in bed.

  Now my dream Kai stepped into the room, in shadows so thick I could hardly make out his features. But I knew it was him, by his confident walk, by the square set of his broad shoulders.

  “Tomorrow,” he said softly.

  “Yes.” We were going to dinner and a movie tomorrow night. He was driving. Afterward…he’d take me home.

  “Invite me in, Lacey.”

  I definitely wanted to invite him in after our date tomorrow. But an invitation into my house was also an invitation for a level of intimacy that seriously freaked me out. Was I ready?

  “You are. We both are.”

  He was at my bedside now, his big body looming over mine. He reached out and pushed a lock of hair away from my face, stroking my jaw as he did so.

  “I want you so bad,” he murmured.

  I wanted him too. But…I closed my eyes, entranced by the feel of his fingers, strong and solid, cupping my jaw. “I want you too.”

  “You can have me. All of me—tomorrow.”

  The soft rumble of his voice was so hot, I clenched my thighs together. Maybe I’d be able to do it. Throw away that thick, ugly wall of inhibitions and finally be free with him. Be myself.

  “Yes,” he commanded. “Do it, beautiful.”

  He bent down and kissed me, so soft and erotic, the sensation of it tingled through my entire body. “Oh,” I whispered, melting with pleasure. My wall of inhibitions trembled and then crumbled into a pile of rubble on the floor. Everything was going to be all right. I could do this. I reached for him, but he melted away into thin air, the pressure on my lips fading with a puff of cool air.

  “Tomorrow.” The word shimmered in the air, a final promise before Kai’s form melted away.

  The Second Night

  Kai

  Invite me in.

  If I could bend a person’s will, I would have done it at that very second. I stood facing the woman who rocked my world. But she didn’t believe it, and I didn’t know how to show her what I felt. Especially when she would hardly let me touch her.

  Her face aglow beneath her lanai light, she smiled at me, and the earth moved beneath my feet. Goddamn.

  Lacey Marceaux. The woman I’d had my eye on for a year, since the day she stepped into the Kailua-Kona offices of Turner and Hannover Construction Co. as our project manager. My partner Steve had hired her—without a doubt the best thing Steve had ever done for the company.

  “Thanks for tonight.” Her voice ricocheted through me, and I sucked in a breath.

  Did she even get what she did to me? No, I thought wryly, glancing at her downcast eyes. She has no goddamn idea.

  In the weeks we’d been together, kissing was as far as she allowed it to go. As soon as I tried to take it a step further, she’d push me away. She took me from amazing, intense arousal to frigid rejection, again and again. Physically, it was like being doused with ice-cold water in the most painful place possible. Even worse was what she was doing to my head. Each time she did it, it was like she twisted a red-hot poker deeper into my gut. Rejection was a totally new experience for me. But the way I felt about Lacey—damn, what could I do? I didn’t want to walk away.

  “I had a good time.” I took a step toward the door and paused meaningfully.

  Either she didn’t get the hint or…something. I couldn’t figure her out. I knew I was the first man she’d dated since she’d moved here, but if she kept up this hard-to-get routine much longer, I was going to go crazy.

  Screw it. I slipped my arm around her waist and gently pulled her close. Bending down, I let my lips hover over hers, drinking in her sweet scent, belatedly realizing she would be able to feel my rock-hard erection pressing against her belly.

  That’s for you, Lacey. Can you feel how much I want you?

  She gasped, stiffened, but before she could pull away, I captured her mouth with mine.

  Not good enough. She froze in my arms, her lips tightened, and she flattened her palms against my chest, pushing me back. I wrenched away, clenching my teeth to subdue the groan of frustration rising in my throat.

  I couldn’t do this
anymore. This wasn’t going to work.

  “Lacey, I—” I began, but she grabbed my hand and cut me off. “Come over for supper tomorrow.”

  Her soft Southern accent washed over me. Opening my fist, I tangled my fingers with hers and dragged my gaze up her body. I scanned her curving, flared hips, her abundant cleavage, the clavicle where her pulse beat at a frantic cadence. My gaze wandered upward, to her light-brown hair fanned out over her shoulders, her heart-shaped face, the pink lips I’d just kissed, and the big blue eyes that had instantly captured my attention a year ago.

  She’d just—literally—pushed me away and now she was asking me to dinner. My pride demanded I sneer at her and stalk off. But I couldn’t. I wanted to make this work, as impossible as it seemed at this moment.

  Tomorrow we’d be alone, in her house. I’d talk to her—get to the bottom of what was going on with her, with us.

  Maybe I’d have to end it. My gut clenched. Damn, I didn’t want that, didn’t want it at all.

  But I wasn’t made to be celibate. I couldn’t live like this.

  Tomorrow I’d make love to her…or break this whole thing off.

  Lacey

  I switched off my bedside lamp and burrowed under my quilt. Though more than an hour had passed since I’d thrust Kai away at my door, I was still sick about it, annoyed as hell at myself for doing that to him. What had happened to all my grand plans of inviting him in? I didn’t know…but I just couldn’t see past the terror and embarrassment. I couldn’t do it.

  Kai was the man of my dreams. He and Steve had owned Turner and Hannover for almost ten years, and thanks to their diligence and hard work, the company was growing like so many weeds. They’d won the local newspaper’s award for Best Contractor on Hawaii Island for four years running, and in the past few months they’d hired eight more guys, nearly doubling their number of employees.

  With his shiny black hair, bronze skin, dark eyes, and toned, muscular body, Kai defined the image of tall, dark, and handsome with just a touch of the exotic passed to him, no doubt, by his mixed heritage—they called Hawaii a melting pot, but he always joked that he was the melting pot. When anyone asked what race he was, he said he was equal parts English, Portuguese, Filipino, Chinese, and Hawaiian. As far as I was concerned, it was like God had plucked the most appealing physical characteristics possible and formed the perfect man out of them: Kainoa Turner.

  He’d wanted me tonight, if the rigid length of him against my belly earlier had been any indication.

  Who was I fooling? We’d been dating for a month, and he’d wanted me since the first time we’d gone out. I’d wanted him too, with every cell in my body. But the suddenness of his kiss tonight had thrown me completely off guard. It had scared the crap out of me, and my immediate instinct was to push him away.

  I groaned and pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes. I damn well knew there was no reason to be afraid of Kai. In fact, no one had ever made me feel so safe. Then why?

  Logic was one thing. And it was something that my non-existent self-esteem paid no attention to. I knew he wanted me. I knew he found me attractive. Kai was my boss but treated me more like an equal partner. First a partner, then a friend. And now he wanted more. So did I.

  But when it came down to it, my walls of inhibition locked into place and no amount of logic would make a dent.

  What the hell was wrong with me?

  I was blowing this. Spoiling the potential for an amazing relationship.

  The worst of it was, I knew the exact moment my confidence had been shattered. After high school graduation, I’d moved in with my boyfriend, Josh. We lived together two years. And then, in the space of one ugly day, he’d ripped me apart. I had no idea how to put the shredded pieces of my self-esteem back together. He’d ruined me for any other man.

  Thinking of our last argument, I squeezed my eyes shut, blinking back tears.

  “How could anyone be with you and not want to be with someone else?” he’d sneered after I’d found kinky love letters addressed to him from a mysterious woman named “V.” “You’re a cold fish in bed, Lace. Sex with you is like having sex with a dead person. How can you blame me for sleeping with her? At least she takes part in the experience.”

  I turned to my side, hugging my knees to my chest under the weight of the quilt, staring at the shape of the dresser in the dim light.

  I should let Kai off the hook. Having known him for a year and seen some of the women he dated, I knew he wasn’t the kind of man who stayed celibate for long. By the look in his eyes I could tell that I was torturing him, that he was already dissatisfied by my frigidity. And where would this lead? It could only get worse. I would eventually force myself to give in to him, but I’d be terrified of not pleasing him, of disappointing him. I’d end up lying there paralyzed by fear, doing nothing, barely a participant. It would be like he was having sex with a dead person.

  Josh was right.

  The last time I’d slept with someone was over a year ago, before I moved here, before things had gotten really bad between Josh and me. I remembered every moment of that encounter in sordid detail. It wasn’t good for me. Apparently it hadn’t been good for Josh either.

  I didn’t want to disappoint Kai. I cared for him too much. But how could I avoid it?

  Over and over, I rehashed that argument with Josh, then tonight’s awkward episode with Kai. What could I do? How could I fix this, make everything right?

  Kai had always been understanding in the past. Maybe I could tell him how difficult all this was, somehow try to make him understand.

  No. No way. What would I say? “Sorry I won’t let you touch me, Kai, but you know, I really suck in bed, and not in a good way. At least that’s what I’ve been told. I don’t want to you to be disappointed with my crappy sexual skills, so it’s best we keep to kissing. For the rest of our lives. Will that work for you?”

  I shook my head. He’d run.

  The only answer was to break up with him. I was being selfish, leading him on. But if I were honest with myself, this could never work. I was damaged goods.

  I’d call it off tomorrow. Over dinner.

  Heartbroken, I cried myself to sleep.

  * * * * *

  “Kai,” I sighed.

  He stood beside the bed, his fingers stroking down my body over the top of the quilt. I looked up at him, and there was no mistaking it. His dark eyes sparked with desire…only for me. He slipped in beside me and wrapped his arms around me.

  I began to stiffen.

  “Relax, baby. It’s just a dream.”

  Another dream? His words poured through my body like thick syrup, loosening all my knots of tension and leaving my muscles warm and languid.

  “Mmm.” It was so easy to just let go. And I could let go, because it was only a dream.

  Pleasantly aroused, I melted against him as he spooned me, my back to his chest. His erection pressed against my behind. It felt so good having him lying there pressed up against me—better than I’d imagined. And I’d imagined it countless times over the past several months.

  If this was a dream, I didn’t want to wake up.

  “Mmm,” I murmured again, wiggling against his silky hardness. He was rigid and thick, just as he’d been earlier when he kissed me on the lanai.

  “That’s for you, Lacey. Can you feel how much I want you?”

  I nodded, awestruck, because I did feel it. I believed it. It felt so good that tears sprang to my eyes. It had been so long since I’d felt confident that I could be sexually appealing.

  Strong, masculine fingers curled over my thigh, setting off little fluttery explosions between my legs.

  “You need this, don’t you? You need someone to touch you.” Fingertips glided up and down the outside of my leg, and I nearly groaned. My skin was starved for the sensation of being touched—for Kai’s touch in particular.

  If this was a dream, it was the most vivid I’d ever had. It was more vivid than last night’s dream. Bu
t it was still a dream. It had to be…there was no other explanation for what was happening to me, for how all this was making me feel. In sleep, those walls of my inhibitions were so much weaker. “Yes,” I whispered, and the word came out jagged and raw, thick with emotion.

  “Don’t hold back, Lacey.”

  “I don’t want to.” I didn’t. Oh God, how I wanted to let it all go, to stop worrying about failing and just…just make love. Make love to someone—Kai—with complete joy and abandon.

  I never had…perhaps never would.

  “Let go.”

  “I…can’t.”

  The fingers continued up the side of my body, so gentle. Soothing and soft.

  “Yes. Yes, you can.”

  “Noo…” I didn’t sound very convincing. He was wreaking havoc on my mind, just by touching me. But I wasn’t freezing up. I could feel every contour of him against my back. My body ached for more of his touch as his fingers trailed past my ribcage.

  One palm curled over my breast. “Beautiful, Lacey. You’re beautiful. I want you…I want to see all of you, make love to you. Don’t hide yourself from me.”

  I had nothing to lose in the here and now, in my dream. This dream Kai would never be disappointed in me, would never reject me. As a woman who’d gone too long without, who buried herself under fear of failure, I needed this.

  Kicking the quilt away, I rolled to my back. I’d gone to bed in pajamas, but now I was naked. I reached for the blanket to cover myself up again, but before I could pull it up, his big body covered mine, straddling me.

  Exhaling harshly, he cupped my breasts in both hands and pressed my nipples with his thumbs. “You have a body made for loving.”

  He pinned me down, one big hand on each arm, and his breath whispered in my ear. “You like that, don’t you?”

  “Um…no?” It was what I should say…wasn’t it? Yet the pressure between my legs made me squirm.

  A laugh rumbled through my mind. “Don’t lie to me, Lacey.”