Hawaiian Holiday: Destination Desire, Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

her. “I’m guessing you don’t just like the holidays, you’re the first one on your street with lights and a tree up every year. Am I right?”
    She made a face at him. “Maybe.”
    “So, something had to have happened. There’s a story there.” He crooked a finger at her. “Tell me.”
    Why he was so insistent, he wasn’t sure. He liked to solve puzzles, liked everything to make sense, but he didn’t normally push for people to spill their problems all over him. Out of character, but he couldn’t deny he wanted to know more about her, what made her tick.
    “Yeah, okay, so I like holidays. I get that from my great-aunt, Eloise, I guess. She was huge on Christmas.” She dropped a shoulder in a shrug, sadness filling her gaze. “She passed away in February. It was…difficult to lose her. She played a big part in my life.”
    Her mother and then her aunt? That was hard. His chest cinched tight. The unfamiliar need to comfort swamped him. He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her it would all be okay, but that wasn’t true. “I’m sorry for your many losses.”
    “Thank you.” She tried for a smile, but didn’t quite make it. “What about you? No family for the holidays?”
    “My mother still lives in Berlin, but she’s gotten too old to fly overseas any more, and the timing of my conference made it difficult to make it home.” His mother had many, many friends she spent her holidays with. A brigade of retired women. Likely he’d have a difficult time even getting to speak to her on the phone to wish her a Merry Christmas. She had a more active social life than he did. “There are a few distant cousins in Frankfurt, but I haven’t seen them since I was a small child.”
    “You said you were single, so that means no wife or girlfriend, but…no kids to spend Christmas with either?” Julie’s eyebrows lifted.
    He shrugged, the motion rougher than he would have liked. “I had a wife, but we divorced…five years ago, now. I like children, but I’m glad we didn’t have any together.”
    “Ugly breakup?”
    “Very.” He didn’t say more. He’d never told anyone exactly how bad the breakup had been, how gutted he’d been in the end. He only knew he couldn’t live through something like that again.
    Her dark gaze warmed. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
    He glanced away, dragging in a breath. “Me too.”
    She scooted her chair around the table so she sat next to him, her arm pressed to his. She said nothing else, but he could feel the empathy radiating from her. It was comforting. She was better at that than he was.
    Leaning closer, she let her head rest on his shoulder. The softness of her pressed against him made his ugly memories dissipate, and his attention focused on here and now. Her nearness and the female scent of her made his body react in predictable ways.
    Why he responded so strongly to her, he didn’t know. He looked down at her, studying her when she seemed unaware of it. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, but she got to him. It wasn’t logical or rational. It wasn’t like him. That realization gave him pause. Perhaps this was more dangerous than he wanted to consider. He watched her relax and enjoy the music, only barely noticing when the waitress returned with their drinks. Julie sipped hers, but Lukas just observed her as if that might make his scientist brain work out the puzzle. He’d already wondered if he might see her after they went back to California, but he had to dismiss that. It smacked of more commitment than he could offer any woman. His ex-wife had ensured that. He’d walked away from relationships and never looked back.
    But Julie…he’d met her only a few hours before and she’d already taken hold of something inside him. The logical, rational thing to do would be to run if he wanted to be certain that nothing shook his conviction to keep away from commitment. The possibility that she could tempt him was real,