Paradise Found

Chapter 12 Oleanna

Abruptly, she stopped because… oh, no, why was he here?

To call out her lies. To fire her family. And to throw all those pictures at her face because she was a liar and a disgrace.

“Axel, what are you doing here?” she asked, struggling with the gravel lodged in her throat.

“Oleanna,” he uttered reverently. Axel reached over to run his hands on her upper arms as if checking if she was real.

“I’m sorry, Axel,” she said miserably. “I’m sorry I walked out on you, but now you see. You see why, right?”

He looked confused before pain clouded his features, as if she slapped him. His mouth opened though nothing came out.

“How did you find me?” she had to ask, ashamed that it came to this. An embarrassing confession in the middle of a half-empty parking lot.

“I heard your voice on the phone. And what you said. You said it was a photo. I never mentioned that. I looked up the office address and drove over immediately.” He spoke in a rush, as if he was brimming with emotions too frantic for words.

The familiarity of his cobalt blue eyes and the newness of a lush beard distracted Oleanna. The contrast was devastatingly handsome. Her fingers tingled with the need to touch his thick hair. She imagined running her palm through Axel’s stray blond strands.

“What do you mean I see?” he asked gruffly, brows furrowed. “I don’t see. Why did you leave? I thought we had something special.”

His choking sounds propelled her forward. She couldn’t bear to hear his misery. She didn’t know how to witness his pain and not comfort him.

“You need to understand, Axel. We’re from different worlds. You’re, well, you, and I’m me.”

“What? What does that even—” As if realization hit him, Axel squared his shoulders and looked at her seriously.

“That’s bullshit, and you know it,” he hissed. “Your family is proud, and you should be, too. What in the world would make you think I cared about what you did? Or that I would think differently of you? The very first moment I saw you—”

“It wasn’t,” she interrupted, her apology morphing into indignation. “Kamea Koa wasn’t the first time you saw me. I’ve been in your house at least a dozen times this last year, Axel. So no, don’t you dare say that was the first moment you saw me. You saw me when I was a maid, and you looked right through me!”

He stared at her in shock. She stared back, eyes just as large, though not from shock.

She was hurt and hopeless. Oleanna spun around to walk away, just as Axel reached to grasp her hand.

Goosebumps chased up her arm, and she shivered. It was too much. She had to get away because he was too damn much. To have him this close physically and yet so impossibly unreachable in ways that truly mattered.

Her small shivers turned to forceful shaking, as if she was left in Antarctica without a coat. Oleanna’s teeth chattered uncontrollably, her bones felt brittle, and her body trembled because it was breaking. Like her heart.

Swiftly and with confidence, Axel saved her from splintering. He wrapped her in his arms so tight, he absorbed her violent shakes and held her together. His embrace stopped Oleanna from shattering into a thousand pieces.

“Shh, baby, shh…” Axel mumbled into her ear while caressing her back, smoothing her hair. “I’m here, Oleanna, I’m not going anywhere. C’mere. Let me hold you. God, I’ve been dying to hold you.”

She clung tight and breathed him in greedily.

“Axel, I left because…” She stalled, struggling to choose the right words. “When you looked at me that way, like I was someone new and beautiful you discovered, it felt amazing. I couldn’t bear to think of how you would see me differently if I told you the truth.”

Axel pulled back just enough to read her expression, their bodies locked and their faces barely an inch apart.

“I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you, Oleanna. I can’t believe I had the woman of my dreams right in front of me, but I was too distracted to see. Please believe me when I tell you it wasn’t because of your job. Or not the way you think. The truth is, if I see a pretty girl in my house, if she’s there to work I would never think of taking advantage of that.”

“Taking advantage?” She tested the words through a cloud of bafflement.

He considered her carefully before continuing. “It’s terrible that you felt unseen, but I was honestly trying not to look too hard. Because if I saw how amazing you were, I’d be stressed about coming on too strong, or worried about your mom judging me.”

“My mom judging you?”

“She terrifies me,” he blurted.

A surprised chuckle escaped her lips at the thought of the professional hockey player worried about her mom.

“Don’t tell her this, OK?” he explained. “I wasn’t actually looking for a cleaning service. But when the old owners didn’t tell her about the sale of the house, I didn’t have the heart to cancel the contract. In the end, I’ve come to depend on it because your family has a great company.”

Her surprised amusement softened his features. “Still, she kind of scares me.”

Although she managed to suppress her burst of laughter at the thought of this big man tiptoeing around her mom, Oleanna couldn’t keep the warm affection from her expression. “She’s a tough businesswoman, but she’s always liked you.”

“Oleanna,” he whispered, leaning over to brush his lips against her ear. “I think we were supposed to meet the way we did.”

She considered his statement. They encountered each other at a sliver of time when everyday expectations were suspended. During a vacation, under the sunset sky, and in the middle of paradise, they simply saw each other as people.

In Kamea Koa, he wasn’t a celebrity hockey player beyond her reach. Axel was a cute guy with the sweetest smile and the worst sunburn.

In Kamea Koa, Oleanna wasn’t someone wallowing in insecurity. She was a woman who took what she wanted and shared what she had.

“Fate? Like you said on the first day. Fate brought you to Hawaii.”

“Yes,” he confirmed ecstatically. “It was meant to be, Oleanna. You and I. We’re meant to be.” His words bolstered her courage.

Axel’s breathing increased, matching her speeding heartbeat. A split second later, their lips crashed with an explosive passion.

They kissed as they did in Hawaii, the undercurrents of the Pacific no match for the swelling tide of their love. Oleanna let herself drown in his taste, his heat, his passion.

When they pulled away to catch their breath, she sought his expression before pouring her heart into an apology.

“I wasn’t honest and I’m so sorry, Axel. You deserve the truth. But my pride wouldn’t let me see it at the time. Can you forgive me?”

“Seeing you is forgiving you, Oleanna. I wish you had trusted me, but I think I understand,” he responded urgently. Despite the hurt in his voice, his hands rubbed her back, and his lips grazed her chin. “But can you… Can you promise me something?”

The ache in his pause alarmed her. Oleanna reached up to rub his shoulders and run her fingers through his beard. Axel sighed into her caress.

“Tell me what you need, Axel. I’m done holding back. Tell me what you need, and I’ll spend every day giving it to you.”

“A chance, baby. I need you to give us a chance. No pretenses. No secrets. You and me. Promise me you’ll give this a chance, Oleanna. Not only during an island vacation in paradise, but here and now, just you and me.”

“Just you and me in a Minneapolis parking lot?” Her teasing tone belied a surging impulse to sob with relief.

He kissed her hard, using his hand’s cradle at the back of her neck to tilt her head sideways and delve deeper into her mouth. Her body melted against his. The hard ridge against her stomach made her ache with need. She wiggled her softness against his bulge as his grip tightened around her.

When he spoke, it was with reverence and sincerity. “Even this parking lot is paradise if you’re in it. I missed you so much.”

“You’re right, Axel, paradise isn’t a place,” she agreed, overpowered by the rush of love she finally allowed herself to recognize. “Paradise is you.”