Page 226 of Lau Ahi
She mused briefly on her reasons before shaking off the thought. “He could’ve told me.”
“Alec was only doing what I wanted him to do.”
She crossed her arms, which was unfortunate since they covered up the breasts I longed to taste again. Now wasn’t the time but it had been a long self-inflicted drought and my attraction to her would never waver. “That is such bullshit. Why didn’t you trust me?”
My hand went to her cheek knowing she needed an explanation because I’d broken the trust that took me almost an entire year to earn.
“I did and I do. Trusting you was never the issue. I told you day one that would never change. But you have to understand that I was in an impossible position. The ability to keep you safe meant keeping you in the dark. If I failed to do that because I wanted to stay close to you then I would never have forgiven myself if something bad had happened. The idea of failing the one thing I promised I would always do wasn’t something that I could let happen.”
“You don’t think I could’ve helped protect us both?”
I knew she was hurt. Surviving what she had and always being strong meant she felt slighted that I hadn’t called on her to aid me. But I had my reasons.
“It’s not for you to do,Ka’iulani. It is for me to protect you. Not on something that is chauvinistic but this even being in your life was because of me. I brought this to your doorstep and it’s because of that I made the decisions that I did. I love you too much to ever put you in harm’s way.”
“And was I not out here unprotected all this time? You were an entire country away, Ori. Thousands of miles. Anything could’ve happened.” The sadness had gone chased away by the insult I’d paid to her by keeping her blissfully ignorant.
“I’ve had people guarding you since you were announced as my fiancée. Pappy definitely wasn’t going to let anything happen to you. And Hakeem and his people were also looking out for you. Even though you poisoned his ass.”
Her mouth dropped open but I could see the smile despite it. “How did you—”
“He told me. And besides that, the camera feed still works so I watched it after he mentioned it. I battled for a few hours once I finally got away, wondering whether I should watch but I couldn’t help it. It broke my heart to see that you were suffering the way you were because of me. I hated it. But I felt like it was only right that I saw the amount of damage I was doing to you by not being here.”
Her eyes rolled and she shifted again, propping her head up on her hand. The sun rose high enough in the distance to shine into our room, creating a soft glow around her form.
Angelic.
“You’re doing that extra heroic thing.”
“No. I’m doing the only thing I could that would allow me to still be close to you without being close to you. So I watched likea creep until I couldn’t take it anymore. It made me weak to see you so sad. Broke me.”
She went silent again and I let her so that my words could resonate with her fully.
“I need you.” Her words were matter of fact I wondered if I’d shocked her with my honesty. She’d gotten used to it before I’d left and it was wrong of me to assume she’d accept this so easily. Truthfully, I was shocked to have been allowed to stay in the state.
“You’ve got me.”
“Don’t toy with me, Ori you know what I mean.” When her hands trailed down my chest and to my stomach I was hoping I wasn’t the one who was dreaming now.
“Oh, you want the ladder?” I arched a brow playfully giving her time to tell me what she wanted to make sure I hadn’t slipped into psychosis.
“Never mind—”
She moved to climb out of the bed, and I pulled her back toward me. Her back collided against my chest as I held her tightly so she could feel how much I wanted to take care of her.
“You make me damn near desperate with desire for you, wife. But if you think I’m going to flip you over and fuck you without finesse, like my soul hasn’t been on the verge of death every second I couldn’t be with you, then you are gravely mistaken.”
She ground her hips against me as I spoke my heart traveling down to her chest, teasing the first nipple my fingers reached. “You plan to tease me then? Me, who was forced to be without you and you who made a choice?”
I put her on her back her body bouncing as she hit the mattress. We’d slept in our bed last night since Asha no longer had a reason to avoid it. She truly was a vision with her hair splayed out over the pillow we’d laid on, the long dark curly hairfalling over her sumptuous brown skin and her eyes heavy with lust that I knew was only for me.
“Choice? To be away from you? Everything I did was to protect you, us, and the future that we could have together.” I lifted her leg stroking the instep of her foot before I kissed her ankle reverently. Chills broke out against her skin at each spot my lips touched. I missed her, missed this and had no issue with telling her so. “What man would want to leave being able to come home to this?”
“A willing woman?” She was teasing as she spread her legs wider giving me a glimpse of how she was already glistening for me. It was a joke but I would never let her joke about how important she was to me.
“A woman like you. Smart, witty, beautiful, strong. A combination of beauty and brains that could melt the most hardened man.”
“I melted you?”
