The Pregnancy Proposition

Chuck disappeared, leaving Mano to return to his work. He started to give a voice command, but he stopped. He wasn’t really interested in reading any more emails tonight. Mano was far more intrigued by the idea of going down to Lani and finding out more about this mysterious Paige. He wanted to sit and listen to her speak a while longer. He wanted to draw in more of her scent and find out exactly what bizarre combination she was wearing. He wanted to know why her hands were so rough and why she was staying all alone in such a huge suite in such a romantic location.

He considered it for a moment, then dismissed the idea as foolish. It was her first night in Hawaii. Certainly she had better things to do with her evening than to tell her life story to the blind, lonely owner of the hotel. Yes, she’d intrigued him, and yes, her mere touch had lit all the nerve endings in his body, but she didn’t necessarily have the same reaction to him. He was handsome enough, or at least he was the last time he’d seen his own reflection. But there was no overlooking his disability.

Pushing the thought and sensation of her touch aside, he barked out another command to his computer and continued to work.

But perhaps he’d get his answers tomorrow night.

Two (#ulink_7cac8a63-7614-54eb-bf26-f60e3ada728b)

Holy jet lag, Batman.

Paige found herself wide awake the next morning before the sunrise. It was only a three-hour time difference from San Diego, but she hadn’t been able to sleep that night. A long stint on nights before her vacation had her clock all turned around. But with a return to sleep eluding her, she decided to stop fighting it. She got dressed and headed downstairs with her camera in the hopes that she could catch some nice pictures of the sunrise.

The hotel was quiet and mostly dark. The occasional employee walked by as they readied the hotel for morning, but she was the only guest in sight. Even the coffee shop was still closed. It was just as well, she supposed. Coffee was on the no-no list her doctor had given her. She was limited in how much caffeine she could have, and she’d rather get it from chocolate. At least when she wasn’t awake at 5:00 a.m. Later today, she might feel differently.

Recently, Paige wished she could drink something a little stronger than coffee. Her grandfather’s death was just the latest news to upend her world. Before that, she’d gotten wrapped up in an unexpectedly passionate relationship with a man named Wyatt. He was a landscaper working for her grandfather, and they’d met while she’d been there taking care of Papa. She’d never expected such a handsome man to pay any attention to a woman like her. He had shaggy blond hair, a deep tan and strong hands. His dark blue eyes focusing on her was a welcome change after years of being looked over in favor of her pretty and popular older sister, Piper.

Paige knew she wasn’t what most men wanted. It wasn’t so much a matter of self-esteem as it was fact. She was thin without any hips or breasts to speak of. Her face was oddly angular, and her skin was ghostly pale despite living in sunny San Diego. After spending all of her hours working at the VA hospital and taking no time for herself, Wyatt’s attentions were like a breath of fresh air. At least until the dream turned into a nightmare. Two months into their relationship, Wyatt dumped Paige for Piper. And a month after that, Paige found out she was pregnant with his child.

She was a nurse. She knew better than to skip protection in the rush of desire. And yet it had happened, anyway. Paige felt like such a fool. Wyatt had seemed so sincere in his attraction to her. All her guards went down and the next thing she knew, she was heartbroken with a bad case of morning sickness. She hadn’t spoken to her sister since Wyatt left her.

Before she could figure out what to do about the mess she was in, her grandfather had died and shifted her focus. She had about six months to deal with the impending arrival of the baby. Her grandfather’s death and final wishes were a more immediate issue.

Paige couldn’t ignore it forever, though. Like it or not, she needed to start telling people about her pregnancy, including Wyatt and her sister. She needed to get a bigger apartment so she could decorate a nursery. She needed to tell her boss about her upcoming maternity leave. So far, she’d kept it all a secret to herself. Only her doctor knew.

It was a lot to think about, but it was easy to forget all that as she kicked off her sandals and stepped onto the sand. Paige hadn’t told her grandfather about what happened with Wyatt, and yet he seemed to know she was unhappy. His final gift to her couldn’t have had better timing.

With her shoes in one hand and her camera in the other, she ventured out to the shoreline. The sky was starting to lighten, making everything a dull gray before the brilliance of sunrise. A few dedicated joggers ran past her on the footpath that followed the Waikiki shore. A couple surfers were tugging on their wetsuits and preparing to paddle out. Day was arriving.

Approaching the ocean, she stopped as the cool water washed up over her bare feet. It was then that the magic happened. The rising sun started illuminating the sky in beautiful pastel shades of blue, pink and purple. The palm trees and boats in the harbor were black silhouettes against the horizon.

Paige took a few photos, then watched as the shape of Diamond Head crater grew more pronounced and the sun rose above it. Daylight had finally arrived in earnest. The whole island seemed to wake up then.

As Paige turned back to the hotel, she noticed employees setting up chairs and putting out towels around the pool. A larger crowd was walking up and down the jogging path now, and some were sitting on benches along the beach with their cups of coffee.

She suddenly had a burning need for a skinny mocha latte. She’d have to soothe the urge with a vanilla steamer to get that calcium in.

Back on the sidewalk, Paige rinsed the sand off her feet at the provided foot wash and slipped back into her sandals. She followed the winding path through the dense, dark foliage that would lead back to her room. At some point, she took the wrong fork in the sidewalk and ended up in an unfamiliar area of the resort. There was a large stretch of green lawn, and beyond it was the sandy lagoon where guests could paddleboard or practice snorkeling.

She also found the owner of the hotel and his dog out there. Paige almost didn’t recognize Mano in his jeans and a fitted T-shirt. He seemed like the kind of man who wore a suit to sleep in. Then again...why would he go to all that trouble just to take his dog downstairs for an early morning potty break?

She certainly didn’t mind seeing him again. She’d relived their encounter all evening. Just the sight of him again made her cheeks burn with embarrassment and her body tingle with the memory of his innocent touch. She’d reacted to him instantly in a way that was extremely inappropriate for someone she’d just met. Paige didn’t know if it was the pregnancy hormones getting the best of her or the superromantic environment, but she’d lain in bed all night, aching and unfulfilled with thoughts of the hotel owner on her mind.

His muscles were even more defined than in the suit he’d worn yesterday. He might be blind, but he clearly knew how to find his way to the hotel gym. His brown, nearly black hair was mussed but swept back from his face as though he’d combed through it quickly with his fingers. From a distance, she could make out some kind of tribal tattoo on his left forearm. Just the thought of tracing her fingers over the design made her stomach clench with a renewed need.

Paige immediately tried to suppress the feeling as she had the night before. The last time she’d let herself fall prey to her desires she ended up pregnant and alone. She couldn’t get pregnant this time, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do something else stupid.

Before she could turn and try to find her way back to her room, she noticed that Hōkū saw her standing there. His cheesy Labrador grin was wide and his tail wagged so frantically his whole bottom wiggled from the force of it. Paige realized that Mano recognized the change in the dog and knew she needed to make her presence known.

“Good morning, Paige,” he said before she could greet him.

She walked the last few feet across the lawn to where Mano and Hōkū were standing. “Good morning,” she said, patting the dog on the head. “How did you know I was out here?”

“You’re wearing the same sandals you had on yesterday. They make a very distinctive clip-clop sound when you walk. I could also smell you coming.”

Paige frowned and tried to sniff discreetly at her armpits. She hadn’t taken a shower yet that morning, but it couldn’t be that bad. Could it? Here she was fantasizing about the sexy hotelier while he was noting how bad she smelled. She was marching straight upstairs and scrubbing every inch of her body with the provided coconut soaps.

“Relax,” Mano added when she didn’t respond. “It’s not a bad scent, just a distinctive one.”

She wasn’t sure how he knew she was silently panicking, but she was glad she wasn’t recognizable by her trademark funk. “Thank goodness,” she said with a sigh.

Mano smiled, revealing his blinding white teeth against his rich, tanned skin. He truly was an amazingly handsome man. Last night, she’d wondered if perhaps she’d embellished him in her mind. No man could really be that attractive. But now that she looked up at him again, she realized it was true. Paige had thought Wyatt was good looking, but he couldn’t hold a candle to Mano. Not even the T-shirt and slightly askew morning hair could dampen his masculine appeal.

He was a strange juxtaposition of traits that seemed incompatible in her mind. He had heavy, sharp eyebrows over his sunglasses, one with a scar that sliced through it. It made him look more like he should be an ancient warrior or in some badass motorcycle gang instead of the suit-clad owner of an exclusive hotel. Upon closer inspection, she could see that his forearm tattoo was of some kind of black triangle design. That sealed his bad-boy appeal in her mind. It also made her wonder what else his professional suit and polite demeanor were hiding.

Paige had always had a thing for the bad boys. It wasn’t practical, or really even smart, but most of the time they didn’t give her a second glance, so she couldn’t get herself in too much trouble. Wyatt had been the first bad boy to look back at her. Giving in to that attraction had landed her on the path to single parenthood. Even knowing that didn’t make her take the step back from Mano that she knew she should.

He never looked at her directly, but she could feel his attention completely fixated in her direction as though he knew she was admiring him. “Do you have plans this evening, Paige?”

Paige frowned. She really didn’t have plans for the week. The only thing on the books was the memorial service on Friday. “I don’t have plans at all. I figured I would talk to the concierge about booking a few things this week, but right now, I’m winging the whole vacation.”

“Are you the kind that normally wings a vacation?”

“God, no,” she admitted. “I’m a super planner, but this was a bit of a last minute adventure for me. I read some of a travel guide on the flight over, but that’s about it.”

“A last minute trip to Hawaii to stay in the penthouse suite, eh? There are worse things, I suppose.”

Well, she supposed that some people lived a life with random tropical vacations, but Paige wasn’t one of them. “I’m not complaining, that’s for sure. I do feel a little like I’m flapping in the trade winds, however. I’ll feel better once I have a plan.”

“Well, start your plans with having dinner with me tonight,” he said.

Paige narrowed her gaze at him, wondering if perhaps she’d heard him wrong. It was one thing for her to fantasize about him, but why would a Polynesian god like him want to have dinner with her? Was he just being polite because he knew she was here alone? “You want to have dinner with me?”

Mano chuckled and shoved his free hand into the pocket of his jeans. “Why is that such a ridiculous proposition? You eat, don’t you?”

“Well, yes, of course I eat. It’s just—”

“And you don’t have plans, do you?” he interrupted.

“No plans,” she confirmed reluctantly. She wasn’t sure why the idea of having dinner with him unnerved her so much. She should be relieved. This was one meal she could have with a man where she wouldn’t have to worry about him watching her critically across the table the whole time.

She could just imagine her family’s response if she told them she was having dinner with a blind man— “He’d be perfect for you!”

Perhaps that was the key to his interest. He didn’t know what she looked like. Her sister, Piper, had once suggested she try dating one of her blind patients. The helpful idea in Piper’s mind had only sounded cruel in her own head. Maybe her sister was on to something, though.

“Excellent. I’d love for you to join me tonight at the owner’s table of The Pearl. It’s our seafood restaurant and was rated as one of the best on the island the last five years running. You’ll love it.”

The owner’s table? That made more sense to Paige than the idea of a date or something, although she had to admit she felt a pang of disappointment that went straight to her core. This was some kind of “schmooze with the rich hotel guests” kind of thing. With her luck, he’d probably try to talk her into buying a time-share or something. Mano would certainly be disappointed to find out she wasn’t the usual wealthy penthouse guest. Of course, a nice dinner with him was certainly better than anything else she had planned, which was a big nothing all by herself.