Sean laughed as he pulled her to a stop in the wide shade of the nearest tree. “Yeah. Quite a guy. Did you know he’s the hereditary prince of Tesoro?”
Melinda chuckled and shook her head. “To hear him tell it, he’s also the prince of Tobago and the rightful king of Hawaii.”
“All of that and a carpenter, too,” Sean said with a grin.
Melinda’s eyes shone with laughter. “A man of many talents and too many stories.”
“Yeah,” he said as he pulled her closer to the tree trunk. “About that. Any interesting stories from your childhood you want to tell me?”
Melinda’s eyes went wide and horrified. “He did not tell you about the banyan tree incident.”
“Oh yeah, he did,” Sean said, laughing at the appalled expression in her eyes. “I’m thinking I should see that tree for myself. Maybe put up a plaque.”
“A plaque?”
“Something small and tasteful,” he teased, “and it can read, Here on this spot, Melinda Stanford went skinny-dipping and got her leg stuck in a root and couldn’t get out until her friend Kathy went for help.”
Melinda smirked at him. “Something small, huh?”
He shrugged and winked. “Smallish.”
“I was fourteen,” she told him.
“Ahh, but in my mind, you were a lot older.”
“Sean…” She tried to tug her hand free of his, but he just held on tighter.
Melinda was fighting her own desires for him and damned if he was going to make it easier on her.
“Can’t blame a man for what he thinks,” he said lightly.
She stared up into his eyes as a long moment passed, then she said, “I suppose not.”
“There, see? We’re getting along great. No pressure, Melinda. No expectations.”
Okay, that was a lie, he admitted silently. But she’d lied first. She hadn’t mentioned the guy she was still pining for before she got Sean to marry her, temporarily or not. So if he let her think he was letting go of his desire for her, then that was fair, right?
As if trying to distance herself from both him and the sudden tension between them, she said, “I wasn’t really skinny-dipping anyway. I was wearing underwear, thank God. While Kathy and I were climbing the tree, our clothes got swept out by the tide. As it was, I was mortified when she had to go get Tomin to rescue me.”
Well, now the image in his mind was of Melinda, as she was now, wearing only a lacy bra and a thong—pink, in his imagination—sitting in a tree, smiling down at him. His blood pumped a little thicker, hotter.
“Banyan tree, huh?” He patted the heavy trunk beside them.
“What’re you thinking now?” she asked, giving him a wary look.
He smiled. “You don’t want to know.”
“Probably not,” she agreed, then changed the subject. “So, what else did Tomin, the big gossip, have to say?”
“Lots of things,” Sean told her with a grin. “But don’t worry, most of his chatter was about the island construction team. How good they are, how professional and how we’d be stupid not to use them.”
“Well, he’s right about that,” Melinda said. “Though I bet he didn’t mention that he and his five sons make up most of the crew.”
“No, he didn’t.” Sean’s smile got wider. “Doesn’t matter though. Now I like him even more. He’s standing with his family. Working for them. As a King, I can understand that better than most. We’re all about family.”
She leaned back against the banyan tree. “I always wanted a big family. Growing up an only child was lonely sometimes.”
He planted one hand on the trunk over her head and leaned in. “Yeah, I get that. I grew up an only child, too.”
She looked up at him. “Excuse me?”
He frowned to himself. Couldn’t believe the stuff he was blurting out to her. Things he never talked about with anyone. But it was too late to pull the words back and she was staring at him, waiting for an explanation. So he kept it as brief and as light as possible.
“My brothers and I, we’ve all got different mothers.”
Her eyebrows went up. Yeah, he could see how it sounded. Hell, he’d grown up with the reality, and sometimes even he had a hard time believing it.
“My father Ben, he believed in spreading himself around,” he said wryly. “He didn’t marry any of the women he was involved with, but he managed to leave a son behind everywhere he went.”
“No daughters?”
“Nope.” Sean shrugged, bent down and picked up a rock. Turning toward the ocean, he swung his right arm back and threw it as far as he could. Then he watched for the splash. “At least, not as far as we know. Kings tend to run toward boys. Though a couple of my cousins have had girls recently.”
“You have a lot of cousins?”
He snorted. “Can’t throw a rock in California without hitting a King.”
“Must be nice.” She sounded almost wistful.
He thought about it for a second. “Yeah, it really is. Nice to have people who will watch your back no matter what.” He paused, gave her a half smile and added, “Don’t tell them I’ve been saying nice things about them though. They’ll never let me forget it.”
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Good to know.” He looked from her to the banyan tree she was leaning against.
“What’re you doing?” Melinda asked, coming up beside him.
“I’m trying to picture you stuck in a tree.”
She snorted a laugh. “It didn’t happen here. I was on the other side of the island.”
“Uh-huh.” Sean looked from her to the great old tree and back again.
“Sean…”
“Yep, gotta see this for myself.” He picked her up, cradling her close to his chest.
“Sean, put me down.”
He grinned at her. Damned if he didn’t enjoy the feel of her body pressed in close to his. Looking down into her eyes, he saw the laughter there and that zip of something different shot through him again. He pushed that thought aside though. “I need a visual aid.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Just curious.” He grinned again, reached up and plunked her down on a thick branch. Instantly, she slapped her hands to the wind-worn wood to keep her balance while spearing him with a hard look.
“You are crazy.”