Axl & Maile
by Reina Torres

'Io is the name for the Hawaiian hawk. This sacred bird is a sign of spiritual growth, enlightenment, and a message from the divine. It is also a symbol of strength, power, and agility.

Team 'Io: AXL

Cameron "Axl" Cox went into the military because there wasn't much else for a man of his size and skills to do. Athlete? Sure. If he wanted to. But cheering crowds drove him to the edge. Body builder? Already done. He wanted more action and application. Field work. Why the Marines? Well, Maile says it's because he likes to eat Crayons.

If he didn't think his friend's wife, Kawehi would mind, he might throw Maile off of the Pali Lookout. But Kawehi loved her cousin, so that was off the table.

Maile wasn't all that annoying when she wasn't trying to drive him insane. And there was something to be said with how she got him riled up. Whenever she was around, his heart pounded like a caged animal shaking the bars demanding freedom. If she could stop tap dancing on his last nerve they might actually get along.

Like that was going to happen. So he'd just have to keep himself from throttling the woman and spend a lot of nights suffering in cold showers.

Maile Phillips has a different outlook on life than her cousin, Kawehi. She watched her cousin suffer after falling in love with her first husband, so Maile has decided that the last thing she's going to do is fall in love. She is, however, going to climb Cameron Cox over and over. Or kill him. She hasn't decided which would be more fun.

Okay, maybe she'll have him and then kill him. It's the best of both worlds. Right?

Still, there was something about a man who would go out of his way to help veritable strangers. He might not smile when he did it, but his heart and his actions were all in the right place. There were times when she wished that the two of them could stop bickering like cats and, well... cats. She just didn't think she had a shave ice's chance of staying frosty on a hot Hawaiian summer day. Not when he keeps glaring at her like she kicked his puppy.

She liked puppies. She just didn't like Cameron!

That all changed the day that Cameron laid out a guy for touching her and dragging her drunk @$$ home. He might have proved he wasn't all that bad and she might just be a little nicer to him. *giggle* As if.

She'll have to rethink things when Cameron ends up being the one who stands between her and the darkness of the world. They might just make the right kind of wrong when these opposites come crashing together for a lifetime.

Reina Torres' Bio

Love -- Romance -- Books Aren't they all the same thing? Oh, I sure hope so! I've been reading romance books for what seems like forever. When I was a teen, the days that I wasn't in dance class after school I'd go to the mall to wait for my mom to finish work for the day and my haunt of choice... Waldenbooks. (I think I just showed my age there.) Whether it was Scottish Lairds, Medieval Knights, Regency Gents, Rough and Tumble Cowboys, or handsome modern Heroes, I loved them all! There was always another hero and heroine to follow through page after page of breathless love! I really hope that my readers will enjoy some of the same thrills as discover characters to love between the pages of my books.