Kiri Kanawa had been gifted with finding and possessing love, unfortunately it came in a non-traditional way. The intensity of her feelings, along with her parents’ disapproval was too much to handle, and scared her away from true happiness. Now Timu Tuhaere and Luke McClure have her back, on their islands, and will do what it takes to keep her there.
Excerpt (G-rated)
Chapter One
“Kiri, I do not want to hear anymore about it! The LuTi Shipping account is your responsibility, anything the company insures is for you to personally inspect, add to their existing account and promptly write up a new policy. There is no way we are going to loose them as a client merely because you are being missish about something so juvenile as you used to date the owners at some point in the past. Neither man has ever mentioned having a problem with you as their account manager so move on, pack up and get your tush over to this island paradise of theirs, do your job or resign.”
“Sometimes you are a real asshole Tane you know that?”
“Yes, so I am told on a daily basis. Now are you heading out to the Dubai or not?”
“I am going, but I think you should know that I am angry at you right now.”
“That is obvious, you cursed and that never happens. What I hope is that you will get over it sooner rather than later. We have been friends before workmates so remember that.”
“Ggrrrrr!”
“Be careful little girl and call me.”
“Yeah yeah yeah.”
The big ex-rugby player waited until the adorable blonde steamed out of his office before picking up the phone. Sitting in his chair he turned away from the door and looked out over the boats sailing across Waitemata Harbour here in Auckland. But he saw none of the beauty before him.
“Hello?” A relaxed voice echoed over the line.
“Timu Tuhaere, you are a shithead! That little girl is angry as hell and I do not like being the one to upset her.”
“That is because you are a softy man.”
“This is not funny Timu, I swear if Kiri gets hurt in this little plan of yours and Luke’s then I am going to beat both your asses around the world from that little island of yours and back again.”
“If by the end of this month that beautiful woman is not happy then I will not put up a fight, and neither will Luke.” “Tell me again why you need her to go down there?”
“Look, you know that we both have been in love with Kiri since she was a teen and we were home from university for the summer but her mother did not approve of me – too much of an older bad boy I guess. Kiri started bringing Luke to cover the fact we were still dating and then it becomes complicated and too personal. Just know that for the past five years we have both tried to leave her alone but in buying this place we did a lot of talking and have decided this is what would be best for all three of us. Neither one of us wants her upset, at the same time we are both now too set on this path to have it any other way.”
“Okay but I meant what I said, do not hurt her in any way. Clear?”
“Clear. Shit Tane, you still doing the haka each morning?”
“Bet your ass I do.”
The other man laughed loud, Tane could not help but soften a little. These three people were all his friends, Kiri from childhood and they guys from university, he just hoped everything worked out for them, but that did not mean he would not still worry about their survival.
“Kiri cursed.” He let that drop quietly and that was when he realized Luke MacAlister was on another line listening to the call.
“Oh man, she is angry.” Luke was slightly less gruff than the other two men, but not by much.
“Hey Luke.”
“Hello Tane.”
“Yup, I think you two have an uphill battle coming your way in the form of a little blonde angel, she will not make anything easy for you.”
“That is fine, anything worth having is worth a fight, isn’t that right Timu?”
“Right you are Luke. Our fight is about to begin Tane, wish us luck.”
“Luck.” He hung up because there was nothing left to say, but there was plenty rushing through his mind about the triangle that has existed for what seemed like forever.
Now available from Whiskey Creek Press Torrid
No comments:
Post a Comment