"Stop looking at me like that," Lelani scowls, darting a playful glare my way.

The waves rock us up and down, swelling beneath the surfboards we are both perched on top of. The evening, Hawaiian sun smiles down on us from above, heating our skins and making me thankful for the coolness the ocean provides as its water surrounds all sides of us and rushes against our thighs. It's been a month since we broke the deal once sealed between the two of us when we first started our surfing lessons, and the adrenaline-filled weeks of adventure that have followed us since haven't made me regret it one bit. After all, some deals are made to be broken.

Skimming my eyes once more across her pinkened, bronze cheeks and the wet curls strung against her face, I feel a wicked grin start to tug against my lips. "I don't know what you're talking about," I fib, stifling my perky expression as I bite my bottom lip.

She giggles, shaking her head in disapproval as she lays down against her board and starts to paddle away from me. "You're distracting me," she calls back.

I simply can't help it.

Lelani makes everything mesmerizing to watch, especially when it comes to watching her surf. The way her face lights up when she catches sight of the perfect wave is admirable, and sometimes it feels nearly impossible for me to pull my stare away from seeing her passion in action.

"Well, you're distracting me!" I argue back, paddling out to reach her again. "How do you do it anyway? How do you know when it's the right wave?"

She peers her gaze my way, perking up from her deck as a look of excitement takes over her expression and I can tell she's enthusiastic to answer my question. "Okay, so you see the horizon out there?"

I follow my eyes in the direction she's pointing, nodding as I observe the deep-blue line separating the ocean and the sky.

"Well, that's where you're always going to look first to judge how big the wave is going to be and what direction it's going to break in. When you start to see a wave coming, you want to look where it meets up against the skyline and find its highest point. Like right there, you see?" Our stares are pinned on bulging water out ahead of us, both of our eyes locking on the highest point of the wave. "Whichever side has the steepest angle going down is going to be the direction you're going to be catching the wave in. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," my head bobs, taking it all in, "but how do you decide which waves to ride and which ones to let pass?"

"Well, in competition, the bigger the better, because judging is all about quality, not quantity. If you can manage to catch a bigger wave and maneuver it well, you'll automatically score higher. The thing that you have to watch out for is making sure that the wave doesn't closeout on you because if that happens, no matter how impressive it is in size, you're just signing yourself up for a wipeout. So basically, keep your eye out for the biggest waves with the evenest peaks."

"Oh, that's all there is to it?" I tease, feeling like she just spoke to me in a foreign language. "That's easy. You think it's too late for me to sign up for the competition?"

"I'm sure they're accepting late submissions," she quips back, chuckling, "But judging from that wipe-out of yours a few weeks back, maybe you should just stick to the mechanics, Jarhead."

"Oh, you think so?" I laugh back sarcastically, splashing water onto her curvy body. She draws away, clenching her eyes and mouth shut as the salty ocean meets her face.

"You ass!" She giggles, shoving my shoulders and making me wobble on top of my surfboard.

"You like my ass? Lani, please," I mock, finally gaining my balance back. "You're making me blush."

"Brodie Dawson," she warns, gritting through her teeth and kicking the tail of my surfboard with her foot. "You're distracting me!"

"Don't act like you don't love it," I smirk, licking the saltwater lining my lips. "You know, you're pretty cute when you're mad."

"That's it," she spits out one final time, quickly clutching onto my ankle and starting to yank me off of my daisy-printed board. We're both in hysterics as we continue our game of tug of war, and Lelani clenches her legs tight around her deck, fighting to stay on top as she works hard to pull me off of mine. My fingers grip against the glossy edges underneath me, struggling to hold on as they begin to slip away. With one firm jerk, the lower half of my body is submerged in the water, but I refuse to give in to the fight, wrapping my arms around Lelani's waist and pulling her down with me.

She gasps as her surfboard starts to tip, and her warm skin collides against mine as our bodies fall beneath the surface of the waves, flooding every inch of us as we slip underwater. With our limbs still tangled and wrapped with one another, we swim back up, breathless from laughter as we latch onto my deck for leverage.

Lelani's body presses against mine, her smooth skin making me feel warm as she wraps an arm around my shoulders and pushes her hips closer to mine. Finally calming her giggles, her dark, coffee brown eyes lock with mine as she hushes out, "Stop distracting me, Maverick."

My hand falls to her neck, my thumb gently trailing against her collarbone as I whisper back, "I don't know if I can do that."

"And why not?" She smirks devilishly, and now she's so close that her breath is making my wet skin cold.

"Because I'm a selfish bastard and I want all your attention on me," I smile.

Her fingers brush my brown hair back, and she playfully asks, "How many girls have you tried reeling in with that one, huh?"

"Only you," I answer, truthfully. "Is it working?"

"And why would I give you the satisfaction of knowing that it was?"

I chuckle at her witty comeback, "You're feisty."

"And you're trouble," she fires back. "You know what the trouble with trouble is?"

"What?"

"It starts out as fun."

With those words, she brings her mouth to my neck, placing a sweet, leisurely kiss against my skin and making my breath hitch. Feeling pleasure course through my veins, I tilt her head up, needing to have her lips on mine because despite how many times I've tasted them before, each time we kiss feels like the first. They feel like pure velvet as they collide with mine, and my fingers intertewine into her soaked hair making her moan as my tongue grazes hers.

"I wish we could have this whole beach to ourselves," she gets out between labored breaths.

I draw away from her mouth, caressing her jaw with my palms as I ask, "And what would Lelani Kahale and Brodie Dawson do with a whole beach to themselves?"

"The unimaginable," she chuckles sweetly. "They would swim, surf and they'd touch each other as much as they wanted to, and they wouldn't have to worry about what another damn person has to say about it."

"That sounds like my kind of beach," I grin back. Wanting to keep giving into the imagination, I challenge, "But where would they sleep? The crabs might try swarming them at night. Damn crabs."

"Oh, you don't know?" She giggles, "They'd make a hammock between the palm trees. They'd be hanging royalty, and become the gossip of all the Crustaceans."

"But would this be good gossip or bad gossip? They have a reputation to keep, you know? "

"Maverick," she scoffs, looking at me seriously, "All publicity is good publicity."

"If you say so, Miss Kahale," I laugh, feeling the water around us begin to carry us farther out.

Lelani notices too and she shoves off my body, clambering back onto her surfboard and giving me a good splash with her feet while she's at it. I shake my soaked hair off of my forehead, already missing the feeling of her body in my clutch, but soaking in the craving that she leaves in her absence.

She nods for me to climb back onto mine as she insists, "Now, let's catch one last wave and call it a day, alright?" Sending a wink my way, she assures me, "Then you can distract me as much as you want."

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"You hungry?" I ask Lelani as soon as we're done loading our surfboards onto the roof of her car, my stomach already growling and begging me to feed it.

"I could definitely eat," she smiles, her sun-tanned face looking so bright after our day out in the ocean. "What did you have in mind?"

Feeling excited at her acceptance of my subtle invitation, I hurry over to the passenger side of my Range Rover, yanking the door open eagerly and motioning her inside. "Hop on in and you'll find out."

We cruise down the island roads, Red Hot Chili Peppers blasting from the speakers as we make our way to the restaurant I had planned for us today before we even got to the beach. Lelani knows the words to every other song that plays on the album, and when the CD turns to Californication we take turns on the verses, belting out the choruses together as loud as we can possibly manage. Lelani's inky curls blow in the wind, whipping against her face and neck and the sight has me biting back the grin threatening to spread against my lips.

A smirk crosses Lelani's face, the dimple on her right cheek appearing and from one look, I can tell she has something to say. "What?" I ask as I turn down the stereo, needing to know what's on her mind.

"This is fun," she smiles big. "You're just so fun to be around." Kicking her feet up onto her seat, she crosses her legs and leans across the center console, asking, "How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Be so unapologetically yourself? You're always so easy-going and playful, always ready to take whatever life is throwing at you."

Hearing her say that, I have to laugh, "I used to be. The military has a way of taking the spontaneity away from you."

"I don't think so," she disagrees, matter-of-factly. "You still are. Since the first day I met you, I could tell you were the type of person who just takes whatever life throws at them and runs with it. You're simply just Brodie Dawson. You ride the waves that come at you and you don't even have to think about it, you just do it. I wish I could be more like that."

"Lani, are you kidding me?" I exclaim, pinching her cheek playfully. "You're the boldest person I've ever met. You're full of so much life and you don't even see it. You keep people on their toes, and they have to beg just to experience more. I told you before, and I'll say it again; You're fire, remember? You ignite everything you touch."

She blushes, "Maybe on the outside that's how it seems, but deep down I'm terrified of what other people think of me. I feel like I'm always having to work so hard to prove myself to people. Underneath it all, I care so much about others' opinions and I'm constantly afraid that I'm not good enough for them."

Taking in everything she's saying is surprising, and I have to bite back to keep myself from asking who in the hell would have ever made her feel that way. I take a moment to reflect on her thoughts, releasing a breath before answering, "I know it's easier said than done, Lani, but you just have to learn to let that go. Other people's perceptions of you are ultimately just a reflection of their own realities. Trust me, I know what it's like for people to leave and to have hurtful things said to you- God, do I know- but you know what?"

"What?" She hushes back, lifting her long lashes and eyes up to me attentively.

"Their actions have nothing to do with you, and everything to do with themselves. You are literally fucking incredible, Lani. Too incredible to care about other people's irrelevant opinions. You hear me, wild thing?"

"I hear you, Maverick," she giggles back, her beautiful smile coming back to her face again. Reaching her hand over to me, she places a palm against my thigh, brushing her thumb against the nylon material of my swim trunks. "I like you. I like you a lot."

"Good," I smirk over to her, my hands still planted on the steering wheel, "Because I like you a lot, too."

"Now," she states, smacking the top of my leg, "You gonna tell me what's on the menu this evening, Maverick?"

"I'll give you one hint," I propose, tilting my head over to her. "On Tuesdays, we eat tacos."

"I knew it! Wait," she stops, drawing her hand away and sitting up straighter in her seat. "Tuesday? Oh my god! Is it Tuesday?"

"Yeah?" I mumble back, confused and curious at her sudden alarm.

"Brodie, my brother," she blurts out in a panic. "Aiden! I'm supposed to be picking up Aiden from camp today! Shit, my parents are going to kill me!"

"Deep breaths," I carefully instruct, trying to keep calm. "Where is his camp? I can drive you back to your car and you can go get him."

"I don't have time, Brodie!" She cries out, and I can hear the anxiety rising in her voice. "By the time I get back to my car, it'll be too late! Oh my god, I'm a shit sister. I'm a dead woman. My parents are going to give me dirty lickens when they find out. I might as well go ahead and kiss surfing goodbye; kiss my whole life goodbye."

Slamming on the brakes, I stop the car, yanking the steering wheel over and pulling us off to the side of the road. "Lani, breathe. We can figure this out, alright? Do you know how to get to his camp from here?"

"Yes," she quickly replies, her face painted red with worry, "but what are we going to tell him when he sees you, Brodie? He's six, a nosey six-year-old who asks a lot of questions. He'll find out who you really are and he'll tell my parents about us and I'll be doomed to a lifetime in my bedroom. My dad will never let me see you again, Brodie."

"Lelani, either way, we have to go and get your brother. So let's think positively about the matter, huh?" We both sit in silence for a moment, contemplating and thinking about our options. I don't have to ponder on the circumstances for long, to know what our best alternative is, so kicking the gear shift back into drive, I ask, "How good is that little brother of yours at keeping secrets?"

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