Cara Lockwood - The Big Break

Sometimes you just have to dive in...

Since the tsunami nearly ended his career a year ago, extreme surfer Kai Brady has kept a dark secret: he’s terrified to get back on his board. With everything he’s worked for on the line, Kai needs a miracle...and a kick-ass trainer. That “miracle” is single mom Jun Lee.

Jun Lee can see that the heartbreakingly gorgeous surfer who’d selflessly rescued her son when disaster struck now needs to be saved himself. But the attraction between them proves to be a force stronger than the ocean, and just as dangerous.

“There is no way...”

Suddenly, Jun felt the hopelessness of the debt she owed Kai. Her son’s life might have cost him his surfing career.

“I’m sorry, Kai.” It wouldn’t make things right, but it was the only thing she could think of to say. “It’s...my fault. Ours. It’s...”

“No, it’s not. Don’t ever say that.” Anger still simmered in his voice.

Kai took three steps toward her, and suddenly his mouth was on hers. He wrapped her up in his arms and pressed her into his body. She opened her mouth to receive him and felt the rage and the passion all at once in his lips.

He tasted like the ocean, salty and wild.

She was kissing him back, powerless to do anything more.

Dear Reader,

I became obsessed with big wave surfing after reading Susan Casey’s The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean, which details how a group of fearless surfers decided to do the impossible: surf waves taller than ten- or even twenty-story buildings. One of the most dangerous breaks in the world exists in Hawaii. Called Jaws, the surfers regularly drown here as they search for the next, most extreme wave.

The Big Break focuses on Kai Brady, one of these extreme surfers, who’s trying to overcome a serious leg injury in order to make it back into his favorite sport. He’s haunted by the tsunami that injured him and struggles to get back into shape. It’s only when a strong-willed trainer named Jun and her adorable little boy, Po, come into his life that he starts to see that maybe surfing isn’t all there is to life. Maybe having a family, or ohana, as they say in Hawaiian, means even more than riding the perfect wave.

I love this story because Jun helps Kai see that healing can’t be forced, and the growing bond between them proves that the only thing more powerful than the ocean is the power of love.

I hope you enjoy this little trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, my absolute favorite place on earth.

Mahalo!

Cara

The Big Break

USA TODAY Bestselling Author

Cara Lockwood

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CARA LOCKWOOD is a USA TODAY bestselling author of eleven novels, including I Do (But I Don’t), which was made into a Lifetime Original Movie, and Dixieland Sushi, which was loosely based on her experience growing up half-Japanese in a multiracial family in Texas. She’s also the author of the Bard Academy series for young adults. Her work has been translated into several languages. She’s currently divorced and lives with her two daughters near Chicago, where she is hard at work on her next novel.

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

JUN LEE TRIED to steady her nerves as she walked up to the front door of Kai Brady’s luxury beachside villa on the west coast of the Big Island. Bright Hawaiian sunshine warmed her bare shoulders as she breathed in the scent of hibiscus, which grew in bunches along his pristinely manicured yard. Every local on the island knew Kai Brady—millionaire, entrepreneur, world extreme-surfing champ. Even his massive koa door was intimidating, not to mention the mansion itself: an impressive two-story glass-and-concrete structure that loomed above her, looking expensive and enormous.

Jun tried not to feel a pang of envy. She couldn’t afford to rent a single room in a house like this, much less own one. Not so for Kai Brady, gorgeous and wealthy, who ranked three years running as Hawaii’s most eligible bachelor in the local magazine, beating out even legendary rock stars who had taken up residence on Kauai. It was no wonder she was nervous. But she wasn’t a groupie, she reminded herself. She was here on a mission.

She rang the bell and waited. Her sweaty hands squeezed the handle of the bag holding the thank-you gifts she’d brought: two of her homemade aromatherapy candles, which she hand-dipped, and some crayon drawings her four-year-old son, Po, had made for him. Then there was the gift certificate for a free session of Tai Chi, not that she thought he’d use it, but she didn’t have much money, and lessons she taught fell into the category of the meager things she could offer.

She considered, for a minute, leaving the package on his doorstep, but she thought the candles would melt in the afternoon sun. Besides, she had it in her mind that she wanted to thank him personally. He deserved at least that. That was why she hadn’t just sent the gifts in the mail.

She glanced at her reflection in the glass door. Jun kept her pale skin flawless by applying excessive sunscreen and avoiding the sun like the plague. Her mother, born in Beijing, had been insistent on that long before anyone really knew about the benefits of SPF. She’d come before her shift as a personal trainer at the big local gym, so she wore her fitness-instructor outfit of yoga capris, flip-flops and an athletic tank top, her dark hair up in a high ponytail. In the shadow of Kai’s villa, she felt suddenly underdressed. Then again, what was the proper attire to wear when thanking the man who had saved your son’s life?

This week marked the year anniversary of the tsunami that had nearly drowned Po. If it hadn’t been for Kai Brady, her precious boy would’ve died.

She’d never forget that morning. Jun had dropped Po off at day care as usual, but then, when she was already at work, on the tenth-floor gym of a high-rise, the earthquake hit, the tsunami came ashore, wrecking much of the western shoreline, and she got the worst news a parent could receive: her boy had never made it to the evacuation center. He was missing.

Then, after a horrible day of waiting, she got a message on her Facebook account: friends of Kai Brady were trying to reach her. Kai had broken his leg saving her son, and they were both in the hospital. Po, thankfully, had only scratches. Thanks to Kai.

Jun’s heart constricted anytime she thought of that miserable day: the horror and bone-chilling fear when the day-care center told her Po was missing. Jun lived for her boy. He was her whole world. She’d had him at age nineteen, barely older than a child herself. It didn’t matter to her that he had been an accident, the result of a brief relationship with a football player on the island for the Pro Bowl, a father who wanted nothing to do with Po.