Schroeder, Melissa - Getting Lei'd [Hawaiian Holidays 3] (Siren Publishing PolyAmour) (3 page)

Mal chuckled. “Yeah, okay, but I’ll keep my eye on them.”

She rolled her eyes and faced the guys. God, what the hell were they doing there? And why did they have to show up on the beach? She hated the way she looked in any swimsuit. Next to many of the small Asian women in the island, she felt like a whale.

She pushed those worries to the back of her head. It wasn’t as if either Damon or Alex had those kinds of feelings for her. Granted, she had many wild fantasies, especially after she heard the rumor that they shared women. With both her friends hooking up with two men, it had gotten pretty bad of late. In fact, she’d found herself fantasizing about the two men more than once.

It wasn’t that hard to understand why. Damon was an EMT and had the build of one. Unlike his older brother who was tall and lean, Damon was strong, his muscles sculpted. His dark-blond hair was ruthlessly short. Not because he liked it that way, but because it worked better for him on the job. His nose was broken, more than once, but it kept him from looking too pretty. Blue-green eyes were hidden behind dark lenses. She knew without a doubt they took everything in around them.

Alex was dark to Damon’s light. There was a bit of Italian blood in the firefighter, which gave him a wealth of thick, dark hair. His dark-brown eyes rimmed in gold had always fascinated her.

“What are you all doing here in Hawaii?”

Damon took her hand and ignored Mal’s grunt of disapproval. “Why don’t we take a walk and talk about it?”

* * * *

Damon could not believe how good Mari looked. He knew from Alex’s frank appraisal of Mari he was barely holding onto his control. From the moment they had spotted her on the beach next to one of Sophia’s lovers, they both had been geared up to strip her naked. He didn’t have to ask Alex, he knew. As they walked along the sand, he rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.

She had no idea how good she looked. Damn, she made a tempting morsel, especially because she was completely oblivious of how sexy she really was. Mari was a big woman. Not fat, just overly curvy, one who reminded him of bombshells like Marilyn Monroe. The bathing suit she was wearing made it worse. It was like one he’d seen in older movies, cut over her thighs, halter top, and in fire-engine red. It was her best color.

“What are you doing here?”

“I said we wanted to be sure if you were okay.”

“A phone call would have accomplished that.”

“We did call. No answer,” Alex said. Damon didn’t miss the thread of arousal in his friend’s voice. Just being there, touching her, seeing her, well it was enough to make both of them lose all control.

She frowned and looked ahead. “I have been avoiding it a bit. There were a few calls from gossip rags.”

“I understand that. But you know our phone numbers.”

Damon couldn’t keep the admonition out of his voice. Both of them had been worried about her, and with no contact, there had been no question about it. They’d had to fly to Hawaii.

She shrugged dismissively. “Eddie took the phone over a few days ago.”

He shared a look over her head with Alex. He would bet a million bucks that Eddie had done it on purpose to get the two of them there. He’d be mad, but since he took that as approval of Alex and his plan, he’d let it go.

“So what are you planning to do?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Right now, I’m trying to just live in the moment.”

Which wasn’t at all like her. Maribelle was a planner. In fact, he had often joked that she planned too much.

“How about we get together tonight?” Alex asked.

She stopped walking. She glanced between the two of them. “Please don’t tell me you two came here to rescue me.”

“No,” he said as Alex shook his head. “Why would you need rescuing?”

She shrugged and started walking. “It seems that everyone thinks I’m a mess.”

“Who the hell said that?” Alex asked.

“Everyone is always saying it.”

Damon snorted. “Yeah, right. Let me guess, your mother called?”

She nodded. “The first day. Then Eddie refused to let me talk to her.”

He knew what was going through that beautiful head of hers. Her mother was well-meaning, but she had never understood Mari. The youngest of six, Mari had always been left on her own, forgotten in a lot of ways. Not ever in a mean way, but Mari had always been accommodating, allowing one of her other siblings to take the limelight. Her mother, a former Georgia beauty queen, had never understood her need to be the person in the background. Or her love of cooking.

She just didn’t understand her. Period.

“Well, it has nothing to do with that.”

“What do you mean?”

“We didn’t come here to save you. We were already going on a trip after your wedding.”

She sent him a narrowed look. “You never told me.”

She sounded so irritated he wanted to laugh. They had shared just about every confidence growing up, and up until her relationship with his brother. They’d told each other about their first crushes, their first kisses, and their first times. Of course, the day she told him about her first time with Dustin Abbot, Damon had gone out and gotten rip-roaring drunk for the first time.

“Tell you what, why don’t we do dinner.”

She nodded. “That sounds good. It was really sweet that Sophia and Eddie wanted me here, but sometimes I feel like the odd girl out with all those men around.”

“We can pick you up,” Alex offered.

“Naw. I’ll come into Waikiki. Where are you staying?” They gave her the hotel and their suite number. Her eyebrows rose at that.

“Must have been a pretty penny to get that room at late notice.”

Alex’s father was in the travel business and had contracts, so it hadn’t really been that bad, but there was no need to go into that right now. Seriously, he was just happy they had her agreement to meet them. Their friendship had been strained since she’d gotten involved with Aaron. He had worried they would never be able to repair it, but now he had hope.

They walked her back to Mal, and it took every bit of control to leave here there with the moody Hawaiian.

As they walked away, Alex said, “I think we should have been up front with her.”

“No. Mari has no idea how either of us feel.”

“She knows about our sharing.”

“But you can tell she has no idea about how we feel about her.”

Alex said nothing more as they took the elevator up to the Presidential Suite of the hotel. “I think we might lose her forever if she isn’t into it.”

It was something that worried Damon, but he knew they couldn’t keep going on the way they were. “Do you want to wait until she finds someone else? I have the distinct feeling that if Eddie and Sophie could, they would convince her to move here. If that happens, what would we do?”

Alex frowned. “I thought her parents would throw a fit if she did that.”

Damon shrugged as the door opened to their suite. “I am not sure if that matters now. Before the wedding, yes. But doing what she did, not being the good little girl, that was a big change for her.”

“Do you really think her mother wanted her to go through with the marriage?”

He thought of Millicent Sawyer. She was gorgeous. Even now she turned heads. But she had been raised by strict parents who told her to never make waves. She had instilled that in Mari, but she wouldn’t have wanted her daughter to be in pain.

“No. But she would have rather a small annulment or divorce after the wedding. You know how she dislikes scenes.”

“And now what? We wait for Mari and ask her to sleep with us?”

He knew Alex was worried. Hell, he was worried. Still, there was no way he would—could—go back to the way things were. He wanted her, needed to know if she wanted them the way they needed her. He would die if they didn’t take this one last step.

“No. But we will ask her tonight.”

And with that, he headed to the bathroom to take a cold shower.

* * * *

Mari smiled at Jack, who was frowning for once.

“Where are they taking you?”

She wanted to giggle at his fatherly tone. Of all the things she had expected, this was not one of them. Jack was laid-back. But each of the guys had taken to treating her like she was their little sister. And while she was the youngest in her family, she’d never had so much attention from her brothers.

“Not sure.”

“I don’t like it,” Mal said.

Sophia chuckled. “I don’t believe Maribelle asked.”

“Well, look at the way she’s dressed.” This came from Drew, one of Eddie’s men.

Maribelle glanced at him. “What’s wrong with my dress?”

In fact, for the first time in forever, she felt...sexy. It was a dress that Eddie had convinced her to buy a few days prior. It reminded her of 1950s actresses, with its halter top and full skirt. It was cut low in the front, showing enough of her cleavage to entice but not embarrass. And it was stop-light red.
“Stop it. Y’all are making her nervous, and she looks gorgeous, if you ask me,” Eddie said.

“That’s the problem. I mean, you didn’t see the way those two guys were looking at her on the beach.”

“Yeah?” Eddie asked. “How did they look at her?”

“Like they wanted to take her to dinner and then have her for dessert.”

Maribelle laughed. “I think you’re mistaken, Mal. Damon and I have always been friends.”

“Always? How long?” asked Mal.

“Since we were kids. We’re like brother and sister.”

Okay, saying that felt wrong. She didn’t think of him that way. Not when she had so many naughty dreams about him and Alex. But she knew both men felt the same way.

“I think—”

“You should be going,” Sophia said, shaking her head in Mal’s direction. She gave Maribelle a reassuring smile. “You look fantastic. For once, Eddie was right about clothing.”

“Bite me, Cinderella,” Eddie said without any heat.

They kept looking at her like they expected something else. Like she was going off to war. “O–okay. Well, I shouldn’t be late.”

“Yeah, right,” murmured Mal, but she ignored him as she headed out to her rental car. She would ignore all these crazy ideas from the guys and enjoy the evening.

* * * *

Alex paced the living area of the suite and tried not to lose patience. Mari was never late, and she wasn’t now, but he was anxious.

“You’re acting like a groom on his wedding night.”

He glanced at Damon. “I feel like it.”

Damon chuckled as he went to the bar and poured two shots of whiskey. “I know what you feel like. But you have to chill. She picks up on anything. You know what she’s like. She might freak. We have to take it slowly.”

Alex nodded and accepted the drink. “I know, but I just want everything to go right.”

“Of course it won’t. This is Mari we’re talking about. Does anything go the way it should around her?”

Alex laughed. “Yeah, that’s true. I’m still trying to figure out why she waited until she was at the altar to tell your jackass brother that she wasn’t going to marry him.”