(MSRP: 1.5000)
Austin Li, Kenpo Karate instructor and first-degree black belt, is everybody's favorite. Gregarious and talented, he’s as popular with adult students as with the kids he teaches. After a hot day at the karate school’s annual picnic, shy nurse April Martin is anxious to get him alone. If she risks rejection and wrestles Austin to the mat, will she be defeated by disappointment or stand victorious in love?
Rosette
33 Pages Sweet
Excerpt:
"Get him!"
"Shoot him!"
April Martin pelted across the sun-baked park meadow, dandelion stems slapping her legs, squeezing the trigger of her cheap plastic pistol. Her attempt proved fruitless, a pathetic dribble of water spitting from the end of her weapon. Children swept past, aiming at the man they pursued. One teen had a larger gun she envied.
Lithe and brown, Austin Li spun. He landed neutral to April and the mob of children, in a left fighting stance.
Sandal-clad and bare feet skidded to a halt on wet grass before a massive squirt of Austin's water-filled tube hit his attackers. Shrieks and giggles erupted from tiny bodies.
Another jet of icy water spattered April's chest and belly. She whipped her arms to cover her face and ducked away, screaming.
Crowing victory, Austin allowed his karate students to hang off his arms. The whole amoeba of activity trundled back to the spigot by the picnic shelter for more water.
Try as she might, she could convince none of them to trade guns with her, the only other adult in the water gun fight. Soaked and transparent, her t-shirt became the second restriction she shed in the game. She peeled it away as she had her adult decorum.
The kids were already chasing their beloved Mr. Li through delicious-smelling barbecue smoke across the hot packed crabgrass. He'd removed his shirt before playing.
Her lack of the same foresight to keep her clothing dry added irritation to her dim view of her weapon's inability to squirt anyone. She spread her wet shirt on the corner of a picnic bench and re-tied her ponytail. Then she re-filled her pathetic pistol. Now she was wet and helpless. Thank goodness she'd thought to apply sunscreen before donning her bikini, or she'd be at the sun's mercy as well.
Not entirely a bad thing, being shirtless. Austin wore it well. She hoped her halter bikini, red with white stars above, blue denim boy-shorts below, complimented Austin's tight, smooth, muscled chest and navy trunks. A charge tickled along her arms as she jogged toward him. They could make a good match, both appearing patriotic and summery.
