Her Hawaiian Homecoming (Mills & Boon Superromance) (25 page)

Dallas took a deep breath and released it. Kai had been rendered speechless, which was exactly Dallas’s intent. Let him say something
now
. Let him lord imaginary conquests over him or tell him he was not serious enough to date his friend; let him even
try
to pull any of that crap. Dallas was ready.

Kai cleared his throat and glanced at the door. That was when Dallas realized someone was standing behind him in the doorway of the hospital room.

He turned in time to see Allie, holding a bouquet of flowers from the gift shop downstairs, standing stock-still. It was clear by the startled look on her face that she’d heard every word.

“Do
I
get a say in this? Or do you two men get to decide who I sleep with next?”

* * *

A
LLIE
H
AD
TO ADMIT
, watching Dallas turn bright red made her day. He’d been ranting when she’d walked up to the door, and she’d paused to listen, wondering what had made him so mad. When she realized it was
her
, she’d been shocked. Frankly, she’d never heard a man ever sing her praises like that, all while cursing her so much at the same time. She wasn’t sure if she should be deeply flattered or deeply offended, and found she fell somewhere in the middle. She decided to focus on the fact that it was none of
either
man’s business who she slept with and go from there.

“Allie, I...” Kai began.

“Don’t ‘Allie’ me! Kai, did you tell Dallas he couldn’t date me?”

Kai suddenly appeared sheepish. “I was just looking out for you,” he said. “You’re new to the island and...”

“And I’m a big girl who can take care of myself.” Allie tossed the flowers down on the visitor’s chair nobody was sitting in. “If I want to sleep with the island’s
biggest
revolving door, that’s my business.”

“Hey,” Dallas protested.

“Oh, no. I’ve not even begun with
you.
” She pointed at Dallas’s chest, her anger building as she went. She didn’t know who she was angrier with, or why, and at this point, she didn’t really care. “I don’t know where you grew up, but where I come from saying a woman is a wonderful pain in the butt is
not
an endearment, thank you very much.”

“But I...” Dallas started, then stopped, knowing better than to interrupt when she flashed him a hot look.

“You don’t
really
think telling me that you’ve tried your hardest
not
to like me is a compliment, Dallas McCormick. You don’t get to say I’m a stubborn, walking natural disaster and think I’m just going to be okay with that.”

Dallas blanched. “Darlin’, you’ve got it all wrong,” he drawled.

Allie held up her hands. “Oh, no. I think I’ve got it all right.” She pointed to herself. “
This
natural disaster is leaving the building.”

She turned and left, but Dallas wasn’t going to let it go.

“Allie...wait.”

He grabbed her arm and spun her around, and they nearly came nose to nose. Allie thought for the briefest of seconds he might pull her into his arms and kiss the life out of her, and even as the thought riled her, part of her, she had to admit, wanted him to do it.

She stood in front of Dallas, frozen for a full second as he gripped her arm, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.

“Why? You think I’m a train wreck.”

“I don’t think you’re a train wreck.” He pulled her close and kissed her hard on the mouth. When he pulled away, she felt a little dizzy. He glared. “Okay, fine. I think you’re a train wreck. A freakin’ amazing and sexy
train wreck.
”

“I...” All anger seemed to drain away as Allie stared at Dallas, his chiseled chin inches from her own.

“Will you have dinner with me tonight?”

“But...the cleanup, and...”

“You can’t clean up debris when it’s dark,” Dallas said. “This is not a casual invite, Allie. This is an official date. Will you have dinner with me?” His blue eyes waited expectantly for her answer.

“Yes,” Allie breathed, feeling a jumble of excited nerves dance in her stomach. “Yes, I will.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

A
LLIE
H
AD
THE
rest of the afternoon to worry about just what she’d gotten herself into. The dinner wasn’t what she worried about. It was
after
dinner that was cause for true concern. Would she sleep with him?

It wasn’t as if she could exactly kick him out and tell him to go home after dinner was over. He’d be sleeping under her roof. And that was where the trouble came in.

Well, he’s already seen you nearly naked, so that’s hardly a problem
, that sarcastic little voice in her head said. It was true they’d done a fair amount of fooling around, but still. Technically, they hadn’t rounded home base yet. For Allie, that meant something serious: a line yet crossed.

And because he
had
gotten her top off once, would he expect to again? And, more important, would she be disappointed if he didn’t?

Her mind was a whirl of contradictory problems, which she understood if she voiced them out loud would make no sense.
An amazingly sexy man asks you on a date—be happy about it!
And yet, Allie couldn’t quite relax. After all, she’d been too conditioned her whole life waiting for that shoe to drop.

And then there was another problem: she still had no condoms. After finishing up at Teri’s near sunset, Allie pulled her rental car into the parking lot of what was once the drugstore and found the store intact, but closed, a handwritten sign on the door stating their doors would be shuttered until the power came back up.
Probably for the best
, she thought.
No condoms, no sex.
That would be her new rule.

When she arrived home, she discovered she’d beaten Dallas there and felt a little bit of relief. She’d have time to shower and get ready. She ought to be exhausted from lack of sleep, but she didn’t feel tired at all. She took a change of clothes out to the shower. The hot water washed off the grime of the day. She was amazed at how many places she’d managed to get dirty. Even the crook of her elbow carried some mystery grease. Her muscles ached from the unaccustomed work, but it had been worth it. They’d done nearly half the debris clearing working together. By the end of the week, they’d have it all done. It felt good to help Teri, and it felt good to be part of a team. No, more like a family.

She’d be sore tomorrow, but right now she just felt a good, weighty tiredness in her bones, the kind of worn-out that only came from a day of useful work. The gloves had mostly saved her hands, although she could already feel a blister forming near the base of her thumb.

As she shut the shower off, a bright green gecko ran down the shower curtain. She wasn’t even startled.

“You go eat that centipede—wherever he is,” she told the little lizard. It paused and cocked its head to one side, as if actually listening, and then darted down and to the ground.

She put on her best clean sundress—a lavender sleeveless mini—and paired it with her favorite silver dangly earrings. She whipped up her damp hair into a messy bun on her head, a few dark strands falling down by her ears. She looked down at the newly bandaged cut on her leg, thinking again how lucky she was Dallas had saved her. Kaimana’s good-luck tiki sat near the bathroom sink. On a whim, she tucked it into her dress pocket.

Allie heard Dallas’s truck barrel up the drive, but she took her time applying her makeup in the small outside bathroom with the tiny mirror. By the time she finished, she was starting to feel nervous, and her body hummed with an excited energy. She blotted her lips and stared at her reflection in the mirror.

Country music wafted to the open-air bathroom, catching her attention. Dallas must’ve salvaged some speakers from his house, as well as some charcoal by the smell of the heating grill. Allie found Dallas near the back porch, closing the lid of the big grill. He wore linen shorts and a solid blue polo shirt, which somehow made his eyes look like the deep, cool blue of the Pacific Ocean.

He glanced up at her, giving her an appreciative once-over. “You look...gorgeous,” he said, pulling her close for a hug, where his hand lingered on her lower back. “Good enough to eat,” he murmured in her ear. Her thoughts went instantly to the pond, and she felt a hot flash run through her. Her mind whirled with possibilities. When he pulled away, Allie could tell Dallas was thinking along the same lines. A playful smile tugged at the corner of his lip.

No condoms, no sex
, she reminded herself, and then began to worry her resolve would melt away by the end of the evening. Already, she was forgetting why jumping into bed with Dallas McCormick was a bad idea.

“After you,” Allie said, motioning toward the patio door. Dallas smiled slowly.

“Oh, no. It’s
always
ladies first in my book. My mama raised a gentleman.” He tipped an imaginary cowboy hat in her direction, and she laughed. She liked flirting with Dallas. Maybe a little bit too much. Once inside, Dallas uncorked a bottle of red wine and filled two glasses.

“Where did you get this?” Allie asked, taking a sip and loving the smooth, expensive taste of a prime pinot noir.

“It’s what I could salvage from my place. As well as two steaks thawing in my freezer and some fresh green beans.” Allie saw two rib eyes marinating in a sweet and spicy steak sauce in a container on the counter. “I thought I’d treat you to a Texas barbecue,” Dallas drawled.

She couldn’t help but wonder how many times he’d done the same for a tourist passing through. Maybe he kept wine and steaks at the ready at his place. Just in case. She felt a twinge of jealousy and then tamped it down. He’d said his reputation was greatly exaggerated. He’d even argued with Kai about it, and yet...she’d seen a tourist at his place early in the morning with her own eyes, about to make the walk of shame home to her hotel. For some reason, she couldn’t shake the image of him handing her a cup of coffee.

“So the tsunami will cut down on the tourists,” she said.

“Yep. It’ll be hard on some of the local businesses, but I think we’ll survive. And we’ll rebuild all the faster.” Dallas took a sip of wine, and then grabbed the container of steaks. “Grill should be about hot enough. Let’s go see.”

Allie followed him outside and watched him open the dome-shaped lid of the barbecue pit, the white-hot coals blazing from within. He grabbed a barbecue fork and set the two rib eyes on the metal grill. Marinade hit the coals and sizzled, sending up a puff of steam. The steaks cooked for a while as the two sipped their wine.

“And I heard Lu’s might be closed indefinitely. It was knocked out. So that will cut into some weekend fun.” She tried to make her voice light, but somehow it came out pensive.

Dallas glanced up at her. “I won’t miss it,” he said.

“You won’t?” Allie couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice.

“I’m done babysitting tourists for a while.”

Allie let out a snort of disbelief. “
Babysitting?
Is that what you call it?” She couldn’t help but laugh. Now she had him. “Like the one I saw at your place.”

“So she got under your skin, did she? So you
do
like me. Like me enough to spy on me and stalk me!”

“I wasn’t stalking!”

“Uh-huh.” Dallas looked as if he enjoyed teasing her and watching her squirm.

“You were having a one-night stand,” Allie said, hoping to change the subject.

“They’re not illegal, you know,” he pointed out. “But, no, I didn’t have a one-night stand. I was making sure she had a safe place to stay. She got too drunk the night before, so drunk she couldn’t remember the name of her hotel. It was either drop her off at the district jail for her to sober up or have me take her and then bring her back to her hotel in the morning. And the jail is a terribly uncomfortable place to sleep.”

Allie was dumbstruck. “You didn’t sleep with her?” she asked, amazed.

“Absolutely not! She was far too gone for that. It wouldn’t be right.”

“Would you have, if she’d been more sober?” Allie knew she ought to stop asking questions, but she couldn’t. She just had to get to the bottom of it. She felt she’d never asked enough questions with Jason. If she had, maybe she would’ve dug up his proclivities earlier. She’d not make that mistake with another man again.

Dallas just laughed. “No. I would’ve just taken her home. I’m a glorified taxi service, that’s about it.” He flipped the steaks on the grill. The juices dripped downward into the flames and sizzled, as the mouthwatering smell of seared barbecue filled the air.

“But the police officer...” Allie was trying to piece the puzzle together.

“Who? Lyle? He just wants to live vicariously. He wishes he could talk to women, but he can’t. Anyway, I’ve tried to tell him that I just make sure the girls get home safely, but he thinks that’s code for having crazy sex.” Dallas shrugged. “I’m tired of trying to convince him otherwise.”

“Oh.” Allie processed this. If Dallas
didn’t
really sleep with all those women, then Teri and everyone else on the island was wrong about him. Everyone except Jesse, who’d told her she didn’t believe the rumors. Was it possible this was the truth? The idea that he didn’t just roll into bed with anybody made her feel strangely better. Did that mean what they had was special?

“You sure do seem concerned about my sex life,” Dallas said, sneaking a sly look at her. “If you’re really worried about me getting enough, I know one way to make sure I get some. I might have to take you back to that pond, though...”

“I...” Allie trailed off as white-hot and decidedly naughty thoughts ran through her mind. In the moonlight, she felt her cheeks grow warm.

“But that can wait,” Dallas promised. “First, dinner.”

Dallas served up the steaks and green beans, and they sat together on the patio beneath the stars. Allie dug into her delicious food, her body eager for the energy she’d depleted with her hard day’s work.