Rising up on her bare toes, she brushed her lips lightly, tantalizingly against his. “You wouldn’t want to miss anything, would you?”
Bending down, she scooped up the sandals she’d dropped and went running up the beach toward her cottage. As the Pacific trade winds carried her laughter to his ears, Donovan picked up his wet shoes and resumed walking toward Nate’s beach house, fighting the urge to follow Lani and continue where they’d left off.
But that would be giving in to impulse, and it had been a very long time since anyone had accused Donovan Quinn of being an impulsive man.
5
The phone, which he’d left on the bedside table, jolted Donovan from a blazing-hot dream of making love to Lani on the edge of a volcano. He fumbled for the receiver without opening his eyes.
“What?”
“So much for Orchid Island filling you with the old aloha spirit,” the deep male voice said with a laugh.
“Aloha spirit be damned,” Donovan muttered as he sat up in bed. “What the hell did you have in mind, anyway?”
“Concerning what?”
Donovan’s scowling gaze circled the room. “Your redecorating, for one thing.”
“How did it turn out?” Nate inquired interestedly.
“Like something out of an old movie: me Tarzan, you Jane. For God’s sake, Nate, haven’t you ever heard of overkill?”
“Sounds like Lani followed my instructions to a T.”
Donovan could hear the smile in his best friend’s voice. “Speaking of your sister,” he began, not bothering to hide his belief that Lani had been right about one thing: Nate had definitely set them up.
Nate’s next words confirmed his suspicions. “Isn’t she something? Face like a Botticelli angel, figure as sleek as a Thoroughbred, and a spirit to match.”
“She told your parents that you sent me down here to seduce her.”
“Actually, I sent you down to the island to reboot your personal life, which has pretty much been in the toilet lately. And okay, maybe I hoped Lani might be able to help you lighten up and relax, because that’s pretty much what she’s always done. Even when she was working on that reality show, she was more about taking emotional care of the contestants than creating on-screen drama.
“As for throwing you guys together, I did have the good sense to run the idea by Tess first, and she agreed it couldn’t hurt. So, what are you going to do? Arrest me for wanting to help out a pal?”
“And if I seduce your sister?”
“Believe me, I’ve seen many guys try and fail. If she does decide to give you a shot, it’ll be because she wants to. Not because of any rain shower I had her install… Hold on a second.”
Although he partly covered the phone, Donovan could hear Tess’s voice in the background.
“Tess says that if you two decide on vacation fling sex, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. But she’d rather go shopping for a wedding gift. Which also works for me and would probably make Mom and Dad really happy. Dad especially because it’d give him a chance to throw a big bash. He loves getting everyone together. When Lani and I were kids, he held a blue moon theme party. He even got Sha Na Na to come to the island and perform the song.”
“You’re making that up.”
“I kid you not. The backup guys showed up in gold lamé, which wasn’t exactly beach attire, and Bowzer had even shaved his armpits, which was kind of weird. But the show was retro-cool and everyone loved it.”
“I’ve already gotten invited to the Christmas luau.”
“Best party of the year,” Nate said. “It even tops Dad’s New Year’s fireworks extravaganza. Once you see Lani dance, you’ll probably propose on the spot.”
“I’m not in the market for a wife,” Donovan reminded him. “I’m down here recharging for the Academy.”
“So you’ve actually decided to become a Feeb?”
Donovan thought he detected a hint of disapproval in Nate’s voice. “Probably. Either that or making chief has been my goal from the beginning.”
“Not exactly the beginning,” Nate was quick to point out. “I seem to remember spending hours in a patrol car with an idealistic, wet-behind-the-ears rookie who kept spouting off about helping the people, making the world a better place to live in, yada, yada, yada. I often wondered if you didn’t get all caught up in climbing that ladder of success to show Kendall she’d made a mistake when she walked out on your marriage.”
“Kendall had nothing to do with it,” Donovan countered irritably. One thing he didn’t need was a lecture about his former wife.
“Didn’t she?”
“Not at all,” Donovan said. He’d become concerned they’d be a bad fit before the wedding, but both Kendall—whose family had known his forever—and his parents had assured him that pre-wedding doubts were normal. “Besides, what makes you think I won’t be in a better position to help people as a special agent?”