Page 18 of Pure Temptation

Kendall hadn’t given him an answer about the outing. Should he plan it anyway? Better than the opposite—she agreed to go and he wasn’t ready.

“Yes, please reserve the car for a few days,” said Daxon. “And I’ll send you the other items I’d like to have picked up.”

“Very good, sir.”

Daxon hung up and set down his phone. His dick had mellowed out a bit, and a little more of his reason flooded in. As far as distractions went, Kendall was a very effective one. Daxon frowned. He sounded like an asshole when he called her a distraction, even in his own head. She was funny and sexy, and being with her was so much more than just passing the time.

There was this niggling thought in the back of his mind that it might not be very easy to just shut off these days with Kendall when he left the island. But he had to, and he would. Climbing demanded every ounce of his concentration, which meant shutting everything else—and everyone else—off. He had never had a problem blocking out everything once he got on the mountain. Whatever happened this week wouldn’t change that.

“You’re not getting dressed for this?” Kendall’s gaze raked down Daxon’s bare torso, then snapped back up to his face.

Daxon bit back a grin and flashed an innocent smile. “What? This?” He gestured to his chest and his abs.

Kendall rolled her eyes. “Put a shirt on, Dax.”

“Whatever you want, sweets.”

He hadn’t really planned to take his private Kalani tour shirtless, but he was loving this habit of answering the door in various stages of undress. Did it count as a come-on? Naaah.

Daxon grabbed the shirt he’d left on the table by the door and pulled it over his head. Then he tugged on a baseball cap and picked up his sunglasses. “Better?”

“Come on, champ. Let’s do the tour.”

The path to Daxon’s cabin opened onto a private road, lined with tall palm trees and flowering bushes. From his glance at the map of the resort when he first arrived, he knew the resort spread out for miles along the northeast shore of the island. Much of the property was untouched coast. The buildings were clustered on a narrow peninsula, lined with white sand beaches, and the guest cabins of various sizes were tucked away just inside the trees, dotting both shores. On the stretch of land between these strings of cabins were the bar, the tennis courts and other resort offerings for guests who were feeling social. The head of the peninsula was mostly undeveloped, with a few trails, an ocean-side restaurant and an unmarked building that looked like a private residence.

“I assume you got a glimpse of some of the facilities when you came in,” said Kendall as they walked past the trail to the large pool. “As you’ve seen, guest cabins have pools that overlook the ocean, and the main pool is for guests looking for something larger.”

The stone-lined path led to an area built up an incline, with different levels of pools, connected by waterfalls, one leading to the next. At the base was the largest. One side was rectangular and well-suited for lap swimming, while the other seemed to be shallower, curved with seating along the edges. More splashes of waterfalls fell along the rocky incline, and the pool was surrounded by leafy plants and palms. Nicely done for people who liked to sit around. Daxon didn’t.

They wandered on, past the tennis courts and the spa, as Kendall continued to list the luxury services the Kalani offered and how to access them. Daxon wasn’t paying close attention to what she said. In fact, he was almost sure he wasn’t going to use any of this during his stay. He was more at home out in the wilderness, and what the resort had to offer him—discretion while his calf healed—had nothing to do with the facilities. He supposed it would’ve been the nicest thing to decline Kendall’s tour, but the truth was that he wanted to spend a little more time with her. Climbing was a social activity, despite the list of very individual skills it required, and he was used to being around other people, doing what he loved. Now he was alone and practically on house arrest, granted it was pretty much the best location for it. But he wanted to talk to someone. No, not justsomeone. He wanted to talk to Kendall.

“Inside that building is the gym, in case you want to do...whatever it is you do that doesn’t involve your calf.”

He cracked a little smile. “Is that a hint that I should work out a little more?”

Kendall smirked. “Are you fishing for a compliment?”

“From you? Always.”

“You look just fine the way you are,” she said evenly. The wordfinecame out the same way it had when she had called his performancefinein his cabin yesterday. But this time she said it with a little grin.

He laughed. “Thanks for that lukewarm praise. But I won’t be using the gym this week. I brought everything I need to keep up my strength.”

The truth was that he didn’t need much in the way of equipment. Climbing favored lean muscle strength, not bulk, which made pull-ups on his fingerboard his top activity, not lifting weights.

They passed the last of the cabins, but the road continued a ways, up a slope and into a lush tangle of green, and then forked. Kendall chose the road to the left.

“What’s up that way?” he asked, nodding to the right.

“There’s a waterfront restaurant up there, the fine dining option, if you’re interested in that.”

Daxon shook his head. Growing up without money, he and his mother never once ate anything fancier than In-N-Out Burger. Though he had more than enough money now, he still avoided any place that might require a button-down shirt. Did he even own a tie? Not likely. If he did, it was long forgotten at the back of his closet at home.

“The rest is hiking trails and lookouts except for that area.” Kendall pointed up to the hillside, where a gate peeked out over the foliage. Probably leading to the unmarked building from the map. “That’s where Byron Keahi lives.”

“The owner?” Daxon knew just the basics about him: ultra-successful businessman with Hawaiian roots. “I read theNew York Chroniclearticle about him. Interesting guy.”

“Probably.” She shrugged. “I almost never see him around the resort, though he surfs early every morning when he’s here. Actually, I think he bought this land because of its waves.”