Moonlight Magic

Chapter Two

“Oomph!”

Ellie hit the sand, with her assailant landing on top of her. But she hadn’t spent two nights a week and a small fortune on self-defense classes for nothing.

As she landed she rolled, and before he could get a grip on her, she lifted her knee and made a dent in the man’s chances for future children.

Her aim was off, but good enough to make him fall away from her with a groan.

Leaping to her feet, she took off again.

“Not that way, you idiot!” she heard the man gasp behind her. “Toward the street! Run to the houses!”

And Ellie finally understood what her attacker was trying to tell her.

He was right. Like the idiot he’d called her, she was running up the beach when escape lay toward the neighborhood just beyond it. Heck, Chad’s apartment was only a block away.

Something didn’t make sense here.

Still running, but slowing a bit, she risked a look over her shoulder.

Her assailant remained where he’d fallen, only now he was sitting up and hugging his knees tightly, his head drooping.

Ellie jogged in place, considering the situation, then turned fully around to stare at the hunched figure from a safe distance.

Other than waving an arm toward the town behind them, he ignored her.

“Are you all right?” she asked, taking a few steps toward him but ready to speed away again at the least hint she hadn’t completely clobbered him.

“Peachy. But at least I know all of me works.” He groaned. “Did work.”

She took a few more steps in his direction, the better to give him the full effect of her glare. “Take it as a warning the next time you attack a woman,” she replied coldly. “Just be glad I didn’t connect as well as I should have.”

“Oh, I’m glad. Trust me.” His bitter laugh checked abruptly. “And I didn’t attack you.”

“No? Guess we don’t read the same dictionary. What do you call chasing a woman so you can knock her down?”

“Ah, you can read.” The man’s forehead still rested on his knees, but his tone matched hers for sarcasm. “So why didn’t you? And I call it trying to save your stupid neck.”

“Why didn’t I what?”

“Read the sign,” he growled.

“I did. Since I wasn’t swimming, I don’t see what the problem is.”

At last the man lifted his head so he could gaze at her, his handsome face a study of disgust.

Handsome? The man was drop-dead gorgeous!

“It doesn’t just say No Swimming,” he bit out. “It says, and this is a direct quote, ‘Danger no swimming stay out of the water.’ No commas, no periods, no question marks.”

“I barely had a foot in it,” Ellie replied coldly, then paused. “Are you saying the water is polluted?”

“Of course not. But the water here is dangerous. The sign says so, and I know so. Yet there you were, ignoring the warning like the mainlander you are.”

Ellie sighed. Talk about overreaction! But the night was far too beautiful to argue. So what the heck.

With opportunities in short supply for rescuing damsels these days, let the guy have his water dragon.

“All right. I should have paid attention,” she conceded, by now standing beside him. “Thanks for your, um, efforts on my behalf. I’m sorry I hurt you.”

His smile did weird things to her knees.

“And I’m sorry I frightened you,” he said, putting out a hand. “Even?”

Her knees might be weak, but Ellie’s brain wasn’t. She eyed the out-thrust hand for a long, cautious moment. Still, judging by the lingering pain in the man’s eyes, he probably wasn’t up to much.

Bending toward him, she, too, extended her hand.

“Even,” she said.

As the warm fingers wrapped around hers, the moon came out from behind a cloud and she saw his face clearly.

And liked what she saw.

Movie-star looks honed by an aristocratic bone structure and fine features. A good strong nose set off by an equally strong jaw and wide mobile mouth. Pale hair washed even paler in the moonlight. Eyes…

His eyes looked familiar.

“Have we met?” she asked, finally remembering to withdraw her hand.

Appearing a little unsettled himself, he released it. “Uh, no. I, er, saw you at the party.”

“The Kamehanas’? I don’t remember seeing you there.” She would have remembered.

“There was quite a crowd. You were dancing with a short charmer with a missing front tooth.”

Ellie chuckled. Here was another charmer, she’d bet. And after that unexpected moment of traitorous loneliness at the party, she was in the mood to be charmed…to prove to herself that she could be, perhaps, but also because the night simply begged for light flirtation.

Who better than this extremely handsome man to practice on?

She sat down on the sand. “That was Georgie,” she told him.

“I know. Another cousin, I hear.”

“Really?”

He grinned. “In this case, really, but not always. To Hawaiians, every guest becomes an honorary cousin and is treated like family.”

“It’s a lovely custom.”

They sat silently a moment, listening to the low murmur of the waves brushing the sand a few feet away and to the distant music coming from the neighborhood behind them, probably from the luau they’d both just left.

“Feeling better?” Ellie asked at last.

“Working on it.”

Actually, Daniel felt pretty damn good but was afraid the woman might leave if he admitted it. Even though he had a lot to do himself with the business of getting home again, he didn’t want to break this up just yet.

After years of silence, just sitting on a beach and talking of nothing much with a pretty girl was a small miracle.

“I know I frightened you,” he said tentatively, “but will you tell me your name?”

“Ellie. Yours?”

“Daniel.”

“Not Dan or Danny?”

“Only when my mother isn’t around.”

“My mom tried to make everyone call me Eliza Ann, but she was outnumbered,” Ellie replied with a light laugh. “I guess your mom carries more clout.”

His answering chuckle delighted his ears. People ought to realize how truly special laughter is to the human race.

“My mother is never outnumbered,” he responded, reveling in this wonderful, meaningless conversation.

Yet for a moment he thought about his mother.

Even the disappearance of her only son probably didn’t throw Catherine Morgan for long. His mother…she’d certainly never been a “mom”…most likely set up search headquarters in the living room, had her senator call in the FBI, gave everyone drinks and hors d’oeuvres, then took it as a personal affront when her son ruined the party by not being found immediately.

“She sounds formidable.”

But Daniel didn’t want to talk about his mother. Or himself. After all, what could he say?

“Are you in Hawaii on vacation?” he asked.

Ellie’s smile glowed out at him.

With her long silvery hair, and with her face turned up to the night sky, the woman could be mistaken for a moon goddess.

Maybe she was. Daniel stilled. He didn’t trust this cove.

But her answer couldn’t have been more normal.

“Yes and no. I came for a pediatrics convention in Honolulu, but I have a brother here with the marines. He’ll be leaving for Japan soon, so I’m taking the opportunity to spend time with him.”

“Pediatrics? You’re an M.D.?”

“Pediatric nurse. How about you?”

“Small world. I’m a doctor. Just finished my residency.”

All true, but how many years ago? Four? He wasn’t sure anymore.

“Oh, were you here for the conference, too?”

“Um, no. So how do you like Hawaii?”

“It’s beautiful, what I’ve seen of it. I haven’t had a chance to be a tourist yet, except for a visit to the cultural center.”

She wiggled her toes in the sand, and Daniel thought he’d never seen anything so lovely as the shine of pale nail polish on the sweetest feet in the islands.

He smothered an inward grin at this new appreciation of feet. If nothing else, the past years had been a lesson in what to appreciate. Things once taken for granted he now considered in a whole new light. He could hardly wait to go home.

But there was something else he’d learned in the Kamehanas’ back garden.

Enjoy the moment.

And at this moment, he was on a beautiful beach—as long as one stayed out of the water—enjoying a beautiful night, talking nothings with a breathtaking woman.

Talking? On a night like this? What was he thinking!

After years of isolation, he wasn’t greedy. But a modest little kiss with a moon goddess wouldn’t be asking too much, would it? Would Ellie be willing?

Sifting sand through her fingers, Ellie idly watched it catch the breeze, very much aware of being observed.

On a deserted beach with a total stranger, she should be afraid. But fear was the farthest thing from her mind. It was all she could do not to stare back.

Something about Daniel attracted her as she hadn’t been attracted in years, though he wasn’t her type at all.

Too handsome, for one thing. She’d never been susceptible to handsome men. Fashion-model looks and muscled physiques might be the stuff of most women’s fantasies but not hers.

The touch of vulnerability she sensed that had her wanting to reach out to him was another thing. Normally she found vulnerability a turnoff in men because she equated the word with “needy.” Her ex-husband sprang to mind.

If you love me, you’ll stay home with me. Let someone else take the extra shift.

Ellie shook the memory away. It wasn’t that kind of vulnerability she sensed in Daniel. Behind the easygoing charm that said he’d been practicing it for years, she sensed strength in him. And sadness.

She shook that thought away, too.

So what was the attraction? The man was just too perfect for her taste.

Handsome, charming and a doctor? Yeah, right. Surely he’d made that last up. What were the odds? Most likely he was the male equivalent to a beach bunny.

Aha! Ellie swallowed the urge to laugh outright. That was the attraction.

On a lovely beach on a moonlit night in Hawaii, she’d met the perfect kind of man for her—a studly beach bum. Here now, gone with the tide.

And she’d bet the ranch this particular stud-muffin wanted to kiss her.

She would let him, too, Ellie thought. What fool ignored perfection? And after a kiss or two, she would put on her sandals and return to Chad’s apartment.

Alone.

If Daniel found her tomorrow or in the days ahead and wanted to continue where they left off, maybe she would.

Maybe she wouldn’t.

It depended on Chad’s duty schedule and how much free time he had. Ellie planned to spend as much time as possible with her brother, but when Chad was busy, Daniel might be fun to hang out with. He apparently knew the island well.

Perfect. A vacation flirtation.

Something to laugh about over coffee with her colleagues when she got home.

“Ellie.”

Even knowing this scene for exactly what it was, and knowing that Daniel was getting ready to exercise his best come-on, when he said her name like that, low and a little bit rough, Ellie shivered.

Make that sizzled.

“Umm?”

“I…” He cleared his throat. “Uh, where are you from?”

Was that shyness she heard? Couldn’t be. Didn’t fit the image.

“Texas,” she said, and slowly turned her head from her study of the sea so that she could look at him.

What she saw made her breath catch. “S-San Antonio,” she added in a husky whisper.

“Ah.” His gaze never left her mouth. “Would you mind if I kissed you?”

He had to ask? “Please,” Ellie managed to breathe. Her eyes fluttered shut.

But it wasn’t Daniel’s lips she felt next.

The stroke of gentle fingers brushing the side of her face took her completely by surprise before their trail down the contours of her jaw lured her into a sensual wonderland.

Warm, firm, but infinitely light, his thumbs traced the slope of her nose and traveled on to outline the fullness of her lower lip.

Her lips parted in a silent plea for more.

“God, you’re beautiful,” Daniel whispered.

Perhaps he whispered.

By now his light caress had Ellie’s senses so adrift she didn’t know if he actually spoke. Only her sense of the tactile still operated, working overtime as her body gave birth to nerve endings born singing beneath this man’s hands.

His fingers whispered that her skull was perfect, her skin flawless, her facial muscles works of art. Ellie knew she was lovely because those fingers said it.

They twined through her hair, combed slowly through it to its ends, and she understood her hair was a silken glory, a perfection of color and texture.

When Daniel’s thumbs traced the curve of her ears, brailing their contours, the geography of their hills and valleys and hiding places, she became aware that he’d found paradise.

Lifting her face to give those magical hands greater access…she felt one of her earrings hit her shoulder.

Shocked, Ellie opened her eyes. Dear God in Heaven! What was she doing?

This was no tropical interlude. The man had her emotions zinging in another way completely.

Daniel, too, looked dazed.

“Are you out of your mind?” she snapped at him, rearing back. “I said you could kiss me. Not—not t-touch me. Look what you’ve done. You made me l-lose my earring.”

Frantically, fighting tears she couldn’t explain and angry at herself for being such a sensual pushover, Ellie searched for the silver flower, using her fingers to lightly brush the sand between them, trying not to disturb it overmuch—and trying not to remember another set of fingers that had also lightly brushed, but disturbed very much indeed.

The hibiscus blossom she’d placed in her hair earlier in the evening dropped to the sand, but she swatted it away.

Why was she crying, dammit?

She couldn’t find the earring.

Had she only imagined it falling? A subconscious warning, perhaps? Reaching up, she touched the lobes of her ears just to make sure it was truly gone. It was. The other was still there, however.

Taking it out of her ear, Ellie dropped it in the pocket of her skirt so she wouldn’t lose it, too, then slowly, carefully stood, trying not to shift any more sand than she must.

As she rose, the lost earring tumbled to the sand.

Snatching it up, she turned to face the man who’d sent her emotions careening out of control.

How dare he presume to…to do what he did! She’d only given him permission for a little nothing kiss between two strangers, a meaningless acknowledgment brought about by a lovely tropical night, not…not something else altogether.

Something that made her want to turn her face into Daniel’s broad chest and weep.

How dare he!

But before Ellie could utter a single heated word, her tirade died from lack of direction.

Daniel wasn’t there.

Like the irresponsible bum he was, when the going got rough, he simply left.

“Handsome is as handsome does,” she muttered darkly, borrowing Gram’s favorite saying.

Gathering her sandals, Ellie stomped through the sand to the street and headed for Chad’s apartment.

Why didn’t I leave when I could? Daniel thought, and groaned silently.

By now the party was dead; only a few “cousins” remained, picking up paper plates and cups, talking and laughing quietly.

Watching them from his usual place among the hibiscus, he would have kicked himself if he could. For whatever reason, freedom was within his grasp and he’d traded it for the company of a pretty girl.

Heck, she wasn’t even that pretty.

Beautiful, though, when she smiled. And tonight she’d smiled just for him.

How long had it been since a beautiful woman smiled for his benefit?

But a thousand pretty women could have smiled at him for years to come if he’d just had the presence of mind to leave the damned cove.

He’d known the place for what it was, but just like the first time, he’d let it seduce him again.

Trap him again.

Daniel sucked in a breath he didn’t actually have.

Ellie!

She’d run through the shallow water when he was chasing her. But she’d done it in all innocence. Surely the waters of the cove wouldn’t punish her for that.

Scanning the garden as far as he could see, Daniel searched for her, wishing he could somehow literally beat the surrounding bushes.

But though he examined every corner of the yard and beneath every shrub and tree within his field of vision, he saw no trace of a woman with hair the color of moonlight and a smile to rival its glow.

He wouldn’t even consider that she might be trapped elsewhere. If the force in the cove was just, it kept its curse only for him.

Yet somehow tonight he’d been released for a while, Daniel thought, a fact offering a glimmer of hope that he would be again.

And if he was…when he was…he was outta here.

In the meantime he had something new to think about. What color, he wondered, were Ellie’s eyes when the moon didn’t wash them to silver?

Chapter Three

On the excuse of checking the coals in the barbecue grill, Ellie let herself out the sliding screen door of her brother’s apartment. A gathering of marines and their significant others could be overwhelming.

But here on the patio it was another of the perfect tropical nights Hawaiians considered a norm. An almost full moon rode low in the sky and, upwind, the light breeze carried the scent of flowers she didn’t know the name of.

The night was perfect, all right, but it reminded her of Daniel.

Deliberately Ellie stepped downwind to the grill to get a good whiff of burning charcoal, her peaceful mood vanishing at the thought of the man on the beach whose touch turned her to flame.

The cad. Okay, it was an old-fashioned word, but a perfect description of the…bounder.

Perfect. That word again. She was sick of it.

Forty-eight hours ago, on a perfect tropical night on a perfect tropical beach, a man with a perfect face and perfect body had made a perfect fool of her. He’d taken her perfect flirtation and turned it into a…a perfect fiasco.

After three years of careful control, Daniel had blind-sided her, making her heart remember things she didn’t want it to remember, making her body feel things she didn’t want it to feel.

And the heck of it was, he hadn’t even kissed her.

When she’d come back to Chad’s apartment after the debacle on the beach, she’d been fiercely glad of that. But it hadn’t stopped her traitorous mind from wondering what the man’s kiss was like.

Still, if she wanted kisses, there were a couple of single marines in the group behind her who would be glad to oblige, she was sure.

Somehow, though, she doubted it would be the same.

Lifting her face to the moon riding a drifting cloud, Ellie knew she’d been out here long enough. After all, her brother had thrown this shindig so she could meet some of his buddies. It was also a sort of last “oo-rah.” Many of them, like her brother, would deploy to Okinawa shortly.

As she turned to reenter the apartment, however, Ellie glimpsed a shadowy figure sitting at a picnic table just beyond the range of light shining through the patio doors behind her.

A tenant from one of the other units, perhaps? But most of them, also marines, were at her brother’s party.

Yet there was something about the vague shape…

Ellie walked toward the picnic table. With at least ten good men in the room behind her, she had no reason to be afraid.

Once close enough to get a look at the seated figure, though, her heart lurched. She halted abruptly.

Daniel!

She narrowed her eyes. “What are you doing here?”

From where he sat, the man had certainly been able to see her when she came outside. But he hadn’t said a word.

Holy grief, was he stalking her?

“There’s a whole platoon of marines in there,” she informed him tightly, nodding toward the low-level noise behind her when he didn’t answer right away. “I suggest you leave while you’re still in one piece.”

“Love to,” he replied, not moving.

“Well, go on.” She made a shooing motion with her hand. “If you don’t leave, I’ll…I’ll—”

“You’ll call in the artillery,” Daniel said, sounding tired. “Go ahead. Maybe that will work.” He stood.

In the moonlight Ellie saw his faint, bitter smile. It was the saddest thing she’d ever seen.

But remembering the man’s effect on her at the beach, she froze her melting heart right back up again.

Still, when Daniel stretched and rolled his shoulders as if he’d been sitting too long, her gaze couldn’t help but follow his rippling muscles.

He wore the same bathing suit he’d had on two nights before, she noticed. Or was it boxers?

A thought that revved her imagination into overdrive.

It was definitely time for this man to hit the road.

“Look,” she began with a growl….

“Hey, El. Who you got there?”

Chad had come up behind her and now put out his hand like the friendly Texan he was. “Chad Simms, Ellie’s brother,” he said.

“Daniel Morgan,” Daniel replied.

The two shook hands congenially.

Men, Ellie thought. Did they never stop the good-ol’boy routine long enough to ask questions?

“Daniel was just leaving,” she said.

But she should have known. Her brother had Texas hospitality bred to the bone.

“Why don’t you join us?” he invited. “We’ve got plenty of chow and cold beer, and you’d be welcome.”

For a split second Ellie saw a look of such raw longing on Daniel’s face that her heart stopped. But the look disappeared when he smiled easily.

“Sorry, but thanks, anyway. I’m, uh, missing my party threads. My clothes were…stolen and…” He shrugged.

“That’s been happening on the beaches a lot lately,” Chad said. “But hell, buddy, we’re about the same size. I’ll loan you somethin’. C’mon in.”

And that was all it took for Daniel to join their party.

Chad found him a change of clothes, even a pair of shoes. Using the bathroom, Daniel showered, then joined the rest of them, wearing a pair of her brother’s khakis and a blue golf shirt, a color that intensified the aquamarine of his eyes.

Several of the other women noticed how well the shirt suited him, too, Ellie saw.

But the man was clearly a survivor. In a room full of burly marines, he wasn’t about to show interest in one of their wives or girlfriends.

Oh, no. He kept his interest for an intent perusal of Chad’s CD collection. And no woman there claimed the same attention as the sports page of a week-old edition of the Honolulu Times lying on an end table. He even studied the snack platter as if it were a painting by Michelangelo and he an admiring critic.

Daniel’s fascination with the mundane was, well, fascinating. And Ellie was fascinated.

Unobtrusively she watched him pick up a potato chip and examine its wavy shape as if the chip were an architectural wonder. Slowly he brought it to his mouth.

His lips opened…the chip entered. And when it touched his tongue, his eyes fluttered shut. He began to chew—carefully, as if each crunch might detonate an explosion.

Ellie watched, mesmerized by the slow, rhythmic movement of Daniel’s jaw, the infinitesimal stretch and compression of skin over his cheeks, the tiny arcing purse of his mouth. When at last he swallowed, so did she.

Or tried to. Her throat was dry.

Then her brother handed him a can of beer. “Here you go, Dan. Sorry about your gear getting ripped off. Bummer.”

Daniel looked uncomfortable, but lifted the can and nodded toward Chad in a small salute. “Thanks.”