Authors: Kris Keldaran
Tags: #Contemporary, #Erotic, #New Age, #Romance, #Military
Jaxson
| Jaxson | |
| Number I of Island Warriors | |
| Kris Keldaran | |
| JK Publishing, Inc. (2014) | |
| Tags: | Contemporary, Erotic, New Age, Romance, Military |
| Contemporaryttt Eroticttt New Agettt Romancettt Militaryttt |
Warning: For Mature Adult Audiences. Contains language and actions some may deem
offensive. Sexually explicit
content. MF
In book one of the Island Warriors: Kehau Makoa
thought her life was on track.
Fun-loving and taking everything in stride, until a combat veteran steps
into her sight. The gorgeous dance
teacher never imagined that on her agenda.
Till now.
Jaxson "Johnny Rocket" Kuznia never saw
a brawl he didn't wade into with both fists flying. Broad, burly, and an expert with his hands,
the Marine soon realizes Uncle Sam didn't prepare him for everything that would
be thrown into his path. It doesn't take
Jax long to figure out he will need every bit of skill and luck he's got if he
wants to win the heart of a woman he seems unable to live without.
From North Shore to Waikiki, and Ko 'Olina to
Kailua, the Jaëger Guardsmen put their hearts and lives on the line to learn if
they've found a love that will last a lifetime.
Jaxson
Island Warriors
Book One
by Kris Keldaran
© Copyright November 2014 JK Publishing, Inc.
ISBN#
All cover art and logo © Copyright November 2014 by JK Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Artwork by Jess Buffett
Published by JK Publishing, Inc.
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This novel is respectfully dedicated to the Marines and Sailors of 12th Marine
Regiment.
We stood together in the sands of hell
and I will
always be
proud to call you my
brothers.
Semper Fidelis
All references to historical events and places are real and as correct as the author can verify them to be
.
All persons named are entirely coincidental
.
Can we, in fact, pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned, like which fury Hell hath no?
Captain Jack Sparrow
I can hear
the sounds of
his keys jangling against the lock
through
the silence of the house
.
His house
.
But after tonight, it's going to be my house
.
After tonight, a lot of things will change
.
I suppose I should explain, even if only to keep calm as my heart slams through my chest like a tsunami
.
You see,
not long
ago, I thought I had the perfect relationship
, but boy had I been wrong.
My boyfriend is a private security specialist, making more money than God knows how to spend
.
He paid cash for his mountainside house in Ko
' O
lina on the southwest side of Oahu
.
I can look out the window
and
see mango trees and
p
lumeria flowers in bloom
.
Come sunset, postcard companies would kill to see this view.
Jax likes to spoil me, even though he's never slept with me
.
He said it's because I'm a good girl and he doesn't want to ruin that
.
Between you and me, I think he's lying
.
I think he's a virgin and doesn't want to disappoint me
.
He doesn't know about my wild side, or the things I've done
.
Kehaulani
is
the party my friends liked to chant
.
Then I met him and everything changed
.
It's been almost a year since I've had sex though, and I enjoy sex
.
I enjoy being with somebody I love and feeling that incredible, wonderful
ly
intense connection where you don't need words to explain how you feel
.
It's all starting to drive me a little crazy, because Jax is so damned hot
.
Jax is what we call a hapa-haole here in Hawaii
.
A half-breed
where one parent is Polynesian, and the other is anything but. Jax's
father
is
white, his mother is Tongan, and he was ra
ised on the mainland in Arizona and New Mexico.
Normally, this is something people hold against you, but Jax doesn't care
.
He's a blue-collar man at heart, able to laugh and joke with brothers from Wai'anae and Hawaii Kai as easily as shifting gears on
the
black Brimstone he drives
.
My whole family loves him and my mother is quite insistent he's the perfect man for me
. “Kehau, you two would make such cute grandbabies for me,” she says in front of my aunts and cousins.
Oh
,
momma, if only you knew
, I wanted to tell her.
I can't help but smile for a moment, mad as I am at him for that
.
My Jax has always been very good to me
. One time, after we went shopping,
I asked him why he spoils me so much
.
He told me
,
"I know I'm an asshole to put up with, and I don't say things very well
.
But I can show you how much I care about you."
Truth is, he never had to say anything
.
From our first date, I was falling for him
…
You don't fight fair
But that's OK, see if I care
Knock me down, it's all in vain
I'll get right back on my feet again
Pat Benatar's
“
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
”
"Look who finally showed up!" Carli called from where she stood stretching beside the squat racks
.
"You get stuck at Leonard's again?"
Everybody in the group laughed at this, even Kehau
.
A few months ago, she’d locked her keys inside her car while getting malasadas at Leonard's for their surf trip
.
Roadside service took two hours to get there, and everyone had been starving when she finally showed up
.
"No
,
cuz, I had to tell that stupid ex of mine we really are done
,
" Kehau replied as she put her hair up in a simple ponytail
.
Pua, warming up on a yoga ball beside her, frowned at this
.
"What's his problem?"
"Sione doesn't like being told no."
"That's what you get for dating a boy from Punahou
,
" Pua replied unhappily.
Hawaiian high schools might have rivalries, but if there's one thing they can all agree on, it's that everybody hates Punahou
.
Only the very rich go there
.
And they think they're better than everybody else because of it
.
Spoiled rich pricks
.
Sione was the worst
.
Tall, fast, and great with his hands, Sione played wide receiver for
the
University of Hawaii on a full ride
.
He was the object of a dozen different scouts from the NFL, and with only one semester left, the speculation about his future was intense
.
That was when another friend, Nikole, found Kehau covered with bruises
.
She, Carli
,
and Pua staged an intervention on the spot
.
It had been enough to do the job
.
Sione hadn't been amused when he came home from the club at four in the morning and found his woman gone, with a note in the kitchen explaining why
.
Going to the police wasn’t an option for Kehau though
.
Not with somebody so popular on
the
island right now.
In the weeks since then, he'd been insufferable
.
She thanked God morning and night she had such loyal friends
.
Pua let her move in with her while Kehau dug deeper into her job as a dance teacher
.
It had been a long struggle to get this far, but with every day
that went by,
she felt herself getting more and more confident
.
What her friends called the "Happy Kehau".
"Who's that?" Carli asked
.
All three women looked over toward where she indicated, surprised to see somebody else at the gym this early in the morning.
Over at the punching bag, a man was strapping on gloves
.
Even with the baggy olive-drab hooded sweater he wore, they could make out his build
.
Very large, with a goatee hanging out of the hood, across his chest
.
He moved lightly on his feet too
.
Smooth
.
Confident.
Stopping only to press play on his iP
od
/speaker setup, he stepped up to the bag as he rolled his shoulders and smiled
.
The opening
drum beat
s of a rock song filled the air
.
Mötley Crüe's
“
Kick Start My Heart
”.
N
ice choice
,
Kehau mused
.
"Wonder why the music?" Carli asked curiously.
An electric guitar
kicked in and his fist began to jab in short, fast punches
.
He set into a rhythm, a human metronome, fists keeping time with the beat of the song
.
"He keeps it up, they'll need to replace the bag."
"Well alright
y
then
,
" Kehau stated
,
"let's get leg day done."
By the time they were done with front and back squats, the song had changed to
“
Cherry Pie
”
by Warrant
.
With the slower beat he set to work on power, throwing slower uppercuts and heavy hits at the bag
.
Kehau winced with the sound of the strikes
.
If I tried to do that, I'd break every bone in my arm
,
she realized
.
The hood of his sweater had fallen back to reveal long black hair with an equally dense mustache and goatee
.
From this side, he seemed cute in a rough way.
"Kehau
,
you're up
,
" Carli announced.
"Yeah, quit enjoying the scenery
,
" Pua egged on.
Heat rose to her cheeks and she could feel a blush starting
.
"I am not!" Kehau retorted.
"Sure you aren't."
Carli and Pua rolled their eyes.
"He's like a dark-haired version of Thor
,
" Pua declared
.
"Bet he's got a hot accent too."
"Kehau wants to
see how he handles his hammer,” Carli added.
"Oh shut the hell up!" Kehau replied without rancor.
"Kehau
!
We need to talk!"
Oh damn
it
.
Sione.
"No
.
We don't
,
Sione."
"You can't just walk out on me like that."
"Leave me alone."
"No."
He grabbed her wrist.
"Nobody walks away from me."
"Go to hell you bitch
,
" she snarled, trying to yank her arm away.
Kehau never saw the hand that struck her, just stars as her head whipped around
.
Ears ringing
,
she blinked trying to clear the stars from her view
.
"Let her go."
The music had stopped and she could see clear enough to make out Thor standing there in his olive green sweater
.
His face was calm enough
.
But Kehau knew a thing or two about body language
.
He was mad.
Jaxson Kuznia liked quiet
.
It was why he came to this gym
.
The owner kept it spotless, they didn't play crappy pop music over the intercom, and he never had to wait for a spot on the machines
.
Today was Saturday, which meant
thirty
minutes of light cardio and a soak in the pool
.
Nothing hard or crazy.
The last two months he’d been busy at work
.
Running an international business meant one dealt with constant meetings and negotiations, even for an outfit as small as his was
.
A weekend to relax was exactly what he needed before he headed back out the door Monday morning
.
And few people had the right to bother Jax on his down time
. None of those people currently lived on the island of Oahu.
Nearly six foot tall in his bare feet, he
was two hundred seventy-one
pounds of hard, dense muscle
.
Jax didn't consider himself a handsome man, but a capable one
.
And you never counted him out of a fight, as more than a few had learned
.
At
thirty-three
years old, he’d seen and lived through plenty of trouble
.
The scar that started over Jax’s left eye and slashed down across his cheek to just below his ear was a permanent testament to this
.
He’d walked away
.
They hadn't
.
Paid to be a winner, sucked to be a loser.
Setting up for his routine, he’d seen the girls around the squat rack
.
A tiny redhead, a bleach blonde
,
and a dark
-
haired local girl
.
He'd looked them over once, out of habit
.
Skin tight yoga pants, baggy tank tops, and doesn't the local girl just fill everything out so nicely
?
Girl was not appropriate
.
That one was all woman
, more than noticeable in her sports bra.
He stole a few more glances, flipped on his stereo system iPod set to “shuffle”, waiting for a random song to start
.
The opening riffs of
“
Kickstart My Heart
”
,
filled the air
.
Yeah
,
boy
.
Gimme the beat
,
Tommy
.
His fists began to fly in rapid jabs as he surrendered himself to the slamming tempo
. Thirty
minutes of this and he’d be feeling perfect.
The first sign of trouble came when he saw the angry young man storm through the doors
.
Jax was a product of a hard school, and he hadn't graduated from it by a failure to pay attention
. The
boy was mad, and looking for trouble
.
Two bucks says this clown heads straight for the girls.
Which he did.
I hate when I’m right like this.
Jax was content to leave them be, right up until he watched the boy haul back a hand to slap the local girl.
Don’t do it
,
boy
.
Don't make me come over there
.
He continued to watch as the hand met the girl's face, jarring her head.
Yep
.
Wayne Brady’s about to get up out this car.
He turned toward the fighting couple even as his mind dimly noted that Alice Cooper’s “Under My Wheels
”
had started to play. His stride lengthened as he walked over to them, his hands hanging loose and easy at his sides. The boy, “Sione,” Jax thought he’d heard somebody say, had five inches on him, with a wiry build common to receivers and track stars. In a fight, he had the reach. But Jax knew plenty about getting close and putting a hurt on somebody. It was how he’d spent his whole life.
“Leave her alone,” Jax ordered in a conversational tone.
"The fuck you say to me?" Sione demanded
.
"Let her go
.
And walk away
,
"
h
e told Sione once more.
"How about you go fuck yourself?" Sione suggested
.
"Name’s Jax
,
” he said calmly
.
“And I don't think I will.”
Kehau watched him, begging with her eyes for him to get away. Sione was good at hurting people, and she didn't want this Jax character to get mixed up in something that was her fault.
“I don't care what your name is. Go fuck yourself,” Sione said cockily. “Besides, what are you going to do about it?”
“You really want to find out?” Jax spoke in a voice colder than ice, totally at odds with the manic smile spreading across his face.
Sione slapped Kehau again, a stinging backhand
.
This time Kehau blacked out for a moment
.
When she came to, Sione wasn't holding onto her anymore
.
Where did he go
?
she wondered.
That was when she heard the sound of fists striking skin
.
Going to school at Kahuku
made
it
a
readily identified
sound.
Sione was getting knocked around the workout space by Jax
.
Blood poured out of Sione's nose and from the way he was getting hit, she could imagine it hurt
.
Hope it stings you bastard.
Sione backed up, and Kehau got a good look at his face
.
Jax had used his fists with precision, cutting Sione's handsome face wide open
.
There were welts
,
bruises
,
and blood everywhere
.
Sione roared angrily at the sight that greeted him in the mirror
,
then pulled a wicked-looking switchblade knife from his pocket
.
“I’m gonna kill you
, motherfucker,
” he snarled, slashing viciously
.