Page 84 of Bulletproof
Aaron leaned his cheek on his fist and looked at me. “What’s that?”
“Can we see the lava?”
“Wrong island.”
“Oh. How ’bout the black-sand beaches?”
“Nope.”
“Crap.”
“You want me to fly you over to the Big Island?”
“Is that where it all is?”
He nodded.
I thought about it. “No, I guess not.”
“I will if you want.”
But there was too much to do on the island I was already on.
I pointed at his plate. “Are you gonna eat that?”
“You have a brain like a gnat.”
“Why? Because I’m still hungry?”
He passed me the rest of his shrimp.
The drive was gorgeous, the mountains and all the green, and the air smelled incredible, so clean but always scented with some kind of flowers. In the back of the open Mustang convertible, I closed my eyes and let the wind hit my face and the sun bake me.
I must have dozed because Aaron had to shake me awake when we got to the bed-and-breakfast. There was a main house, like a plantation-style home, and then a series of seaside cabins, cabanas, bungalows—whatever you wanted to call them. Aaron explained that I was an addition, and the owner was happy to welcome me.
My cottage opened on the beach, and I could walk from my tiny living room to the porch to the sand to the tide pools. There was a giant hammock that I could sit in and put my feet up on the railing. The breeze came off the ocean, and as I lay sprawled out, I could not remember ever being in a more picturesque and soul-soothing location. The only way it could have been better was if Sam was sitting beside me.
“Jory.”
I looked up from my contemplation of the ocean to find Jaden on my porch. “Hey.”
He cleared his throat. “May I sit with you?”
“Course.”
When he sat down beside me, I was greeted with pale green eyes.
“Oh,” I said, grinning at him. “You wear contacts.”
“Yes.”
“You shouldn’t,” I told him. “The green is beautiful.”
His brows furrowed.
“Sorry, they suck. Better?”
He got up and paced a few feet away. “Are you really this fuckin’ clueless, or are you just a sadistic-ass bastard?”
