Calling Kupid (Kupid's Cove Book 1) (27 page)

I smiled and caressed her cheek, catching a tear that had already fallen from her eye. “I did. I’m changing the name to Kupid Arrow Resort. This beach will forever be known as Kupid’s Cove. The spot we are standing is where I’ll build us a private chateau.”

She held the paper to her chest and leaned into me. “I love this so much,” she whisper-cried.

I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her forehead. “You were the one to suffer the most atrocities in this place, yet all you saw were the good memories we made here. I decided I should take a page from your playbook and do the same. The sale won’t be final for a few months, but we can stay at my private suite in Honolulu until it is. If you don’t want to live here, that’s okay, too. We can live at Orchid Reef and come here when we want to get away.”

“I’m happiest wherever you are, but I really like it here,” she whispered, looking up at me. “I’m so touched that you did this to honor my family’s name. It means more to me than you’ll ever know.”

I leaned down and kissed her lips, her tears salty, but this time I knew they were happy tears.

“Speaking of honoring our families, I wanted to take a private moment to do that now, if you don’t mind. I felt a breeze blowing on our faces as we said our vows earlier, and I knew it was our mothers wishing they could be here with us for that moment.”

She nodded and stuck the piece of paper back in my shirt pocket, wiping her tears. “I know my mom would have written a whole romance novel from that short five-minute ceremony.”

I laughed aloud, wholeheartedly, and with great joy. “You make me so happy, Katie. Your wit and charm always take me by surprise; never change that about yourself.”

I took her hand and walked her towards the surf. We waded in a few feet and faced the moonbeam still shining brightly on the water.

“Tomorrow our leis will have to be returned to the earth, as they will begin to perish from lack of water. Instead, I would like to let them float out into the ocean where our family can see them. By doing that, they will return to the earth as an offering to its beauty. Are you willing?”

She removed the lei from her neck and nodded, holding it in one hand. “I think that’s a perfect idea.” She took her headpiece off as well, holding it in the other hand.

I removed mine and laid it on the water. She took hers and overlapped it on mine, then laid the round haku lei on the overlapped circle. We stood in silence, holding hands and watching as each wave carried the flowers farther and farther out into the open water. They stayed together in solidarity as they floated to their final destination, which we would never see.

When we could no longer see them, I kissed her hot and hard, wrapping my hands in her hair and pulling her head back carefully, so I could kiss her neck, being careful of her shoulder.

“Have you ever had sex on the beach?” I whispered, as I kissed my way back to her lips.

“No, but I’ve heard it’s downright orgasmic,” she moaned. When I bit her earlobe with my teeth, she pressed herself even closer to me, my need for her evident through the thin cotton pants I wore.

“I don’t want you to get sand in all the wrong places, so I brought a blanket,” I teased, sucking lightly at her collarbone.

She turned and walked backwards out of the water, my arms still wrapped around her. I picked her up and carried her to the grove of trees where I proposed, and where a blanket and champagne waited in the privacy of our little corner. I laid her down on the blanket and rid her of the wet dress that made her shiver. I shed my clothes and pulled a warm blanket over the both of us.

“I’m going to make you mine right here in the very place I thought I was going to lose you forever.”

She held my face in her hands, her lips kissing mine in short, sweet, teasing kisses.

“I’m staying with you, forever. You know what that means right?” she asked. I shook my head, as my lips captured a tender nipple. “You’ve been captured by Cupid’s arrow.”

I raised my head and grinned at her. “Mmmm, that’s where you’re wrong, babe. I captured Kupid and I’m never letting her go.”

About the Author

Katie Mettner writes inspirational romance from a little house in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. She's the author of the four-part epic family saga - The Sugar Series, The Northern Lights Series and the Snowberry Holiday Series. All three series are set in Minnesota and are a mix of new adult and romantic suspense. 

Katie lives with her soul mate, whom she met online at Thanksgiving and married the following April. Together they share their lives with their three children and two leopard geckos. After suffering an especially bad spill on the bunny hill in 1989, Katie became an amputee in 2011. It was while she was recovering that she found time to pen her first novel, Sugar's Dance. With the release of Sugar's story, Katie discovered the unfilled need for disabled heroes and heroines. Her stories are about empowering people with special circumstances to find the one person who will love them because of their abilities, not their inabilities.

Katie has a slight addiction to Twitter and blogging, with a lessening aversion to Pinterest now that she quit trying to make the things she pinned.

Me and Mr. I T

Book 2 in the Kupid’s Cove Series coming Spring, 2016

Prologue

“Step on a crack, you’ll break your…” I stumbled to the left when my heel caught in a piece of the sidewalk.  I righted myself using the wall and went back to my rhyme. “You’ll break your no good, lying, cheating, mean boyfriend’s back!” I stomped down hard on the crack with my leather pump for emphasis and fell forward, landing on the only patch of grass on the street.

I pushed myself up again and brushed my hands off. “You’re drunk, Ellie, go home.” I laughed like a lunatic and took my shoes off, holding them in one hand while I tried to walk in a straight line down the sidewalk again.

“Hey, Eliana? Is that you?”

I heard the voice and tried to stop walking, but had to back up two steps to keep from tripping over my feet and falling down again.

“Whosssse askin’,” I asked, my words slurred even to my ears.

“I saw you fall. I thought I better check to make sure you didn’t hurt yourself,” he answered as he came up to me.

I tried to jump away, but lost my balance, again, and fell, again. I looked up at him from the sidewalk and worked to focus my eyes on the very cute man in front of me.

“You’re adorable,” I said, clapping my hands a couple times. “Like irresistibly cute. I bet your grandma makes you one of those ugly Christmas sweaters every year, but you wear it because you’re a good grandson. I bet you even look good in it.”

I noticed one side of his mouth pull up into a smile and he crouched next to me, one hand on the concrete.

“Have you been drinking, Eliana?”

“So what if I have? I’m a twenty-five year old woman with no responsibilities!” My hand went into the air for emphasis and I heard him snicker this time.

“Nothing wrong with having some fun and blowing off a little steam once in a while, but you need to get home safely so how about if I help you?”

I took his outstretched hand and he pulled me upwards into a semi-standing position. “I know you. I know I know you. How do I know you?”

He put his arm around my waist and started walking with me up the sidewalk towards my house. “We work together, remember?”

I started to giggle, “I know. I was just asking because I wanted to make sure you remembered that I remembered who you were. You’re Mr. I T.”

He shook his head and kept a firm grip on my waist, of which I wasn’t all that sad about. He was built like one of those models who struts down the runway dressed in the GQ suit and those totally hot dress shoes.

“Mally, remember? My name isn’t Mr. I T. The

I T Guy, or Mally the I T Guy. It’s Maltrand Kekoa.”

“Maltrand Kekoa, the I T Guy,” I sang, like a commercial. “That’s a great name. I bet you can’t say it three times fast. Maltrand Kekoa, Maltrand Kekoa, Mar…” I giggled. “Oops, I think I’ll keep calling you Mr. I T.”

“Because?”

“It’s easier and it makes you sound really fancy, silly.” I giggled again, swatting at the tie that hung from his neck. It had wavy lines on it in white against a navy blue backdrop. “I like your tie. I’ve never seen wavy lines on a tie before.”

He laughed aloud and grinned, one tooth sticking out predominately from his smile. “They aren’t wavy lines. It’s striped. You’re just drunk.”

“Nah huh,” I insisted as he helped me up the stairs of to my house. I stopped on the top stair and looked back down them. “Did you know my house looks like that one on Gilligan’s Island? How cool is that?”

“It’s definitely cool, Ellie,” he said, taking the key from my hand.”

“Don’t call me Ellie!” I exclaimed, my face crumbling into tears.

He held onto me a little tighter and tried to comfort me. “I’m sorry, that’s what we always call you at work.”

“Not anymore! No one can call me Ellie now that he’s gone,” I cried, burying my face in his suit. I pulled back and looked up at him. “You smell nice. What is that cologne called anyway?”

“It’s Colt .45,” he answered, pulling the door open and helping me through it.

“That’s a gun, not a cologne.”

He took my coat off and hung it on the coat tree, putting my purse and keys next to it, then ushering me into my living room.

“It’s also a cologne, you can look it up tomorrow when you’re sober,” he answered patiently and I stuck my tongue out at him when he turned his back.

“I’m not drunk, why do you keep saying that?” I asked as he went to my kitchen and started my coffee machine. “Wait a minute, how did you know where I live? And why are you in my kitchen?”

“I’ve been here before, remember. That time you were having problems with the computer and you needed to finish your big project before Monday.”

I tried to remember, but the most I could remember was the last shot of whiskey I had downed at Blue Reef Bar and Grill.

“Because you’re Mr. I T,” I said, my mouth sticky like cotton.

He shook his head from the kitchen and set a cup under the machine. In seconds the machine sputtered and groaned as it spit out a cup of coffee from the small plastic pod.

“My job is to fix computers, but my name is Mally,” he said again, handing me the cup. “You’re going to have a really bad headache in the morning if you don’t drink that.”

“Who are you trying to kid? I’m going to have a headache in the morning even if I drink this. I’ve been drinking wine for hours.” I gulped the hot liquid, not even caring that it was taking the skin off my tongue in layers.

“Why were you drinking wine for hours?” he asked, taking the cup from me as I lay over on the couch, resting my head on the pillow.

“I thought I would surprise my boyfriend tonight and I got this pretty dress. Do you like my dress?” I asked, smoothing the wrinkles out of the shiny material.

He nodded, his eyes taking in my figure appreciatively. “It’s a very beautiful dress.”

“I’m glad someone likes it, since numbskull wasn’t even home.”

“If he wasn’t home then how do you know he doesn’t like it?”

I held my hand out, “Duh, because I called him. I called him to find out where he was and do you know what happened?” I waited and he shook his head slowly, or at least I think it was slowly. It kind of spun around the opposite way the room was spinning. “Someone else said, ‘Who is it, sweetie?’Can you believe that? He was with some other woman!”

He grimaced and held up his hand. “Wait, maybe it was innocent.”

“An innocent woman calling him sweetie?” I asked, one brow going down until it practically touched my nose.

“Maybe it was his mom or his sister?”

I shook my head, but thought better of it when the room started to spin like a child’s top. “He’s an only child and his mom is dead. Nice try, though.”

He rubbed my back a little out of kindness or pity, one of the two. “I’m sorry, Eliana. Maybe you should get some rest and tomorrow things will be better.”

I eyed him up and down. His thick black hair begged for me to run my fingers through it.

“Maybe tonight can be salvaged,” I purred. “We could retire to my bedroom and you could help me forget all about him.”

He stood and took my shoes off, lifting my legs onto the sofa and covering me with the blanket that lay across the back.

“Sorry, but I don’t have sex with drunk women. Especially drunk women I work with.”

I jutted my lip out in a pout. “You think I’m ugly and fat, don’t you.”

“I think you’re drunk and the alcohol is making you braver than you really are. Sleep it off, Eliana, and tomorrow you’ll be happy I kept my pants zipped tonight.”

I looked away from his handsome, boy next door, face. “The woman not drunk on wine knows that’s true. The woman drunk on wine wants to be comforted.”

He knelt next to the sofa and smoothed my hair away from my face. “There are dozens of lines I could give you right now, but none of them would comfort you. The fact is, you deserve better than what he’s giving you. You liked the idea of being in love, but you weren’t actually in love.”

“How do you know that?” I asked angrily, lifting myself up on one elbow.

“Because if you were in love with him you wouldn’t have gone to the bar and spent hours drinking wine. You would have moved heaven and hell to find him and then fought tooth and nail to get him back. Drinking is easy, love is not.”

I flopped back down on the pillow and closed my eyes for a second. “Maybe I wasn’t in love with him, but I was in like. We haven’t been going out for very long, but we agreed to be exclusive. I don’t know what I was thinking anyway. Why would a guy like that be with a girl like me?”

“What does that mean, Eliana?”

“Don’t call me that. Only my mother calls me that.”

He opened his mouth, but closed it again after thinking about it for a moment.

“And it means that I knew he was out of my league. He’s not the kind to settle down and stay with one woman the rest of his life. I was destined for heartache.”

“I refuse to believe that you were out of his league. If he even had a league that tells me the kind of man he is.”

“And I’m better off without him, right? There will be someone else to come along and sweep me of my feet. Better to know now than after I marry him, right?”

He shook his head and pulled the blanket up around my shoulder. “Like I said, there are dozens of things I could say, but none of them would comfort you. Get some sleep, honey bunches, tomorrow is a new day.”

“Honey bunches?” I asked sleepily.

“So far you’ve told me I can’t call you Ellie or Eliana, so I had nothing left but honey bunches.” He winked and then like that, he was gone.