Her Hawaiian Homecoming

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_c2c00fe9-87a7-5907-9006-71b0d19de1ab)

BY THE NEXT MORNING, Allie was beginning to regret her show of temper. Not that she wasn’t still furious with Dallas and didn’t love seeing that smug smile wiped clean off his rugged face, but Allie usually didn’t get so mad, so irrational. She’d known the minute the door slammed behind her she’d been in the wrong. It was childish, and she knew it. She usually was the calm, sensible one in the salon where she’d worked in Chicago, the one who never got ruffled about anything. But ever since Jason, she felt as if she was sitting on a powder keg, and any little thing could set her off.

Boom.

She didn’t like this new Allie who flew off the handle at any small provocation. Sure, this was her grandmother’s land, and she’d had plans for the sale, but did that really merit stomping on coffee cherries like a three-year-old? She should’ve handled it better. Maybe she ought to apologize, she thought as she gathered up a change of clothes and headed out to the outdoor bathhouse on her grandmother’s property. She’d take a shower, get dressed and maybe go over and offer to talk things through. They had to come to some agreement, and Allie suspected that Dallas could probably convince Kaimana to sign those papers. She’d mentioned him by name after all. They had to work together...or neither one would get what they wanted. She felt better, more in control, calmer.

Allie had considered the whole problem as she’d tossed and turned the night before. Misu’s house had no working air-conditioning, and the night had been particularly sticky. Allie had been waiting for the sun to come up, waiting for her chance to sit in a cool shower, wash off the salty layer of sweat.

Allie thought she was being quite grown-up about it as she walked into the outdoor shower. She double-checked for prehistoric-size bugs and, finding none, plopped her clothes down and went to turn on the hot water.

Nothing came out.

This can’t be. She’d been looking forward to a shower for the past three hours of tossing around in the damp sheets of her bed, and now...no water?

She stared at the dry showerhead. “Don’t do this to me,” she whined.

She turned the knobs again, opening them all the way, and found...nothing. Not a single drop of water. “No!” This was seriously not happening. All she wanted was a cool shower. Her white tank top stuck to the small of her back; tendrils of hair stuck to her sweaty temple. Even her short plaid pajama bottoms felt too hot.

Allie wasn’t going to take this lying down. She was going to get a shower, one way or another. She marched outside and saw the big rain-fed water tank sitting a few yards away. She decided to investigate, and as she walked, noticed a deeper line in the black lava dirt. Her toe print had been widened and deepened, probably by Dallas.

She made it to the huge water tower, and that was when she noticed the line ran straight to the middle of the base of the tank. She walked around the tank on her side of the dividing line and looked up. Half the water was on her side. As far as she could tell, it should be equally split. She crossed over the line to Dallas’s side of the property, and that was when she noticed the kicker: the on-off spigots for the tank were on his side of the dividing line.

Well, crap.

God, she hated instant karma.

“I think you’re on my property, ma’am,” Dallas drawled, strolling up with one thumb hooked casually into the belt loop of his worn jeans. He wore a tight-fitting T-shirt across his muscled chest, and somehow it seemed even more sensual than if he’d been naked. Allie had to force herself to meet the man’s eyes and not just gape at the ridges of his muscled pecs, plainly visible through the thin cotton fabric.

“Why did you turn my water off?” Allie demanded, hand on her hip, as she stubbornly stood her ground.

“It’s our water, but the spigots are on my side, so...I can do with them what I want. Isn’t that what you said?”

She really hated having that thrown back in her face. She really, really hated it.

“I...” The apology Allie had so carefully thought out that morning evaporated off her tongue. She had no desire to apologize to this man. “Turn my water back on.”

A sly smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he walked straight up to her, his tight T-shirt filling up most of her view. He only stopped when they were nearly toe-to-toe. She had to arch her neck to meet his steely blue eyes. She saw amusement there, but something else: strong-headed determination.

“Make me,” he murmured, grinning again. She took in his broad shoulders, his football player–like frame. There was no way all five foot two of her was going to make that wall of a man do anything.

She wanted to stomp on the toe of his worn cowboy boot, or call him names, or thump on his chest with her fists, but she knew it wouldn’t do any good. She felt that out-of-control temper flare again. The match was near the powder keg.

“Half of the tank is on my side. Half the water is mine,” Allie argued, trying to keep her voice level and calm. I will not lose it. I won’t!

“The spigots are on my side.” Dallas grinned more widely, showing off the dimple in his cheek and his even, white smile. The fact that he looked as if he ought to be on some tourist ad for a remote stable in Colorado made her just want to punch him straight in the nose.

“Turn my water back on or I’ll...”

“You’ll what? Destroy some coffee?” Dallas rocked back on his heels. “If you do that, it’s just money you’ll lose. I don’t plan on selling, and you need cash. I heard you quit your job to come here. You’re living off savings.”

“Who...”

“Through the grapevine.”

“The lawyer,” Allie exclaimed. “Misu’s lawyer is the only one I told. He...”

“He’s a good buddy of mine.”

Fan-freakin’-tastic. “Is this some more of that locals-protect-locals BS?”

“You should know,” Dallas said. “You used to be one.”

Allie let out an exasperated sigh.

“You still can’t make me turn that water back on.”

Dallas took a step closer. His eyes flicked down, lingering on the scooped neckline of her tank. Her anger burned hot, so hot she wasn’t sure if she could keep a lid on it anymore.

“You’ll turn that water back on,” Allie promised. She stood her ground. His eyes met hers.

“Only if you say...please.”

His blue eyes blazed with mischief, and something more. With a start, she realized he was flirting with her. God, the man’s ego knew no bounds. He’d just cut off her shower, and he was trying to get into her pants? Seriously?

“Say it,” Dallas said, his voice a rumble she almost thought she could feel in her own chest. Stubbornly, she stood her ground. “I’m waiting.”

“You’ll be waiting a long time,” she ground out, spitting mad.

He dropped his head back and laughed. “Then you’ll be waiting even longer for your shower.”

He had her there and she knew it.

“Fine.” Allie let out a frustrated breath. “Please,” she muttered, annoyance in her voice.

“That’s not a nice please.” He took a step forward, and Allie wanted to punch him in the nose.

“You didn’t say it had to be nice.”

“Didn’t I?”

He was so very close to her. She looked into his blue eyes and felt as if she’d fallen into the ocean. For that second, she froze, and she couldn’t tell if the adrenaline zinging through her veins was fueled by anger or something else. She could smell Dallas’s aftershave, and it made her head spin.

Dallas studied her mouth, and suddenly Allie’s throat went dry. “Please,” she whispered.

“What was that, darlin’?” He cupped a strong hand to his ear. “I can’t hear you.”

“Please,” she managed, a bit louder.