9
HAN
The surf lesson had the opposite of its intended result. Han hadn't seduced Jasmine and forgotten her as he'd planned. In fact, his reaction to finding her trapped by Kuang Jr. scared him. To the point that he all but ran away after that kiss.
He'd wanted to kill that tsat tou. Had threatened him and almost beat him even though he knew the trouble that would have caused for his triad back at home. And the urge to claim her after her interaction with Kuang Jr. had come on like a train
That kiss…how had she done it?
Her saltwater and sunshine taste had instantly enflamed him. And the way she'd responded... becoming soft in his arms and pressing her body into his raging cock as if she'd been waiting her whole life for him to claim her like this.
He'd plastered her to her car and had only been a few steps away from taking her right there in public before he managed to grab onto his senses and tear himself away.
However, warning her about who he really was and walking off from their second kiss hadn't helped his situation at all. If anything, his thoughts about the not-so-little surfer became even more constant after that.
Thirty-four. That was the answer to her question about his age. And he was thirty-four years old the first time he ever google stalked a woman.
It took minimal effort to look her up. A simple search of "Jazz," her preferred nickname, plus "surfer" produced several articles about Jazz Matapang along with rundowns of her many accomplishments before the age of twenty-five.
She'd never managed to win any of the more significant competitions she'd competed in but had often made impressive enough showings to receive praise and write-ups from local media. After going pro, she'd become a hometown darling that Oahu could root for here and abroad. Plus, she'd been in a relationship with Brad Kaminski, a pro male surfer who'd won many competitions and was the same age as her. Apparently, they'd known each other their entire lives because their fathers were best friends who'd served together in the Army. But they hadn't gotten together until she went.
Jasmine had shown up at Aloha Ballers to pay off her father's debt dressed in jean shorts and a baggy T-shirt. But online, Han found photos of her in an array of bikinis, courtesy of RipSwell, one of her first sponsors.
However, she'd lost all of those sponsors and the famous boyfriend when she decided to return to Hawaii two years ago. Strangely, there was no mention of why in the very few articles that preceded her unexpected retirement from the sport. She must have decided against sharing that information. Perhaps to protect the dying father?
It didn't matter. Han pushed down the grudging respect for the woman he shouldn't be obsessing over and made himself give up his google stalking at that point.
Back to the mission at hand—which was staging the sudden deaths of two more of the men Kuang had paid off. He went about his grim work of permanently crossing possible witnesses off the Hawaii prosecution's list, and he only made a few more appearances at Aloha Ballers.
However, the last week of August, Kuang Jr. burst into Han's designated office without knocking.
"What did you say to that Lam Yibo before he left Hawaii?" he demanded, his face red with outrage.
"Why do you ask?" Han replied without bothering to let Kuang Jr. know that he not only hadn't talked to Lam Yibo since that unexpected run-in but had also avoided Aloha Ballers until his men assured him the Golden Triangle snakehead was gone.
But he found out in the next moment that his avoidance measures hadn't worked.
"My father's saying, he wants you to handle this deal now," Kuang Jr. informed him with an angry glare. "Lam Yibo's saying he only wants to work with you, and it's worth a couple million a year, so my father wasn't left with any choice but to say yes."
Sure, he had no choice.
Han wondered how long it would take for Kuang's entitled son to figure out that his father wasn't making these "choices" out of desperation but because of his son's sheer incompetence.
"That deal was mine!" Kuang Jr. practically whined. "Your brother sent him to me. Not you!"
Cold fury erupted inside of Han at the mention of his father's other son. Perhaps that was why he didn't call Kuang in private and remind the 24K Dragon that he couldn't possibly take on this deal—that he had deals and a life of his own to get back to on the East Coast.
Instead, he leveled Kuang Jr. with a cool look and said, "Please thank your father for entrusting me with this business opportunity. I'm sure I'll make it quite lucrative for both of us."
He smirked when Kuang Jr. flipped over one of the guest chairs and stormed out of his office.
