Page 10

CHAPTER TEN

Wick

Marco was well ahead of us as we entered the jungle. I took up the rear because Violet was clearly not adept at any sort of hiking or exploring, and I wanted to be able to grab her if she lost her footing or got in some critter’s path.

Of course, it also meant that I got a great view of her round ass the whole way too. Which wasn’t helping the whole ‘I want to pull her behind a tree and fuck her senseless’ thing I was dealing with. Or the fact that I’d been half-hard for her since I’d seen her walking out of the water off Isla Perdita, the water cascading down her body.

She was a gorgeous mix of fit and soft. She had a killer rack, a great ass, and round hips, but she also had strong, shapely leg muscles, toned arms, and the tiniest hint of abdominal muscles. Which, given how much the woman could sock away, was extra impressive.

“What the actual fuck?” Violet shrieked, rushing backward and plowing right into me.

My hands went to her hips to steady her, making my mind flash back to one of those same hands in her panties, teasing up her wet cleft, sinking into her tight pussy…

Fuck.

No.

I needed to focus.

She was scrambling my brain.

“What is it?”

“You don’t see that?” she asked, throwing out an arm to point at an old fallen tree.

It took me a second. Because, honestly, I didn’t think she’d be freaking out about a bug.

“The beetle?”

“If beetles took anabolic steroids or were the result of some sort of failed government experiment, sure, ‘the beetle.’”

“It’s a Titan beetle.”

“No way that thing hatched from an egg. He just emerged in the forest one day, fully formed, briefcase in hand. He’s got a social security number, a mortgage, and a 401k. He probably has an ex-wife and kids he bitches don’t call him enough. Oh, shit, he’s looking at me. Take him,” she demanded, scrambling behind me and pushing me forward.

“They’re harmless.” I was barely managing to keep a laugh in as she ducked down to peek out from behind me.

“He wants to eat me. I can tell.”

“Can you blame him?”

“Be serious.” Violet grumbled, then let out a shriek as the beetle took a few steps in our general direction.

To be fair, Titan beetles were fucking enormous. If I picked it up, it would cover my whole hand. But it was a beetle.

“We should have brought one of those bug zapper things in with us. I think if we tried to step on him, it would hurt us more than him.”

“We’re not gonna kill him. He’s just living his life. Eating the dead wood.”

“Sure, that’s what he wants you to think. Until you lay down to sleep and wake up to him eating your intestines.”

“In this scenario of yours, I slept hard enough for him to chew through my whole outer stomach?”

“Maybe you ate some… hallucinogenic mushroom or something.”

“Did you eat a hallucinogenic mushroom?” I asked, turning around to face her, lips stretched wide because, well, she was being ridiculous. “You alright? Got a fever?” I asked, pressing my inner wrist to her flushed and sweaty forehead, but finding her just the normal kind of heated from exertion.

“It is not crazy to be freaked out by a beetle that you could put a saddle on and ride.”

There was no stopping the laugh that bubbled up and burst out, making me throw my head back and let it roll through me. I hadn’t realized just how tense I’d been until she helped me release some of it.

It’d started on the last leg of the car ride as the weight pressed down on me. If I was wrong, my life as I knew it was over. I’d have to live my life hiding from the law, looking over my shoulder, praying no one ever found me. I’d have to be a different person, like my new fake passport claimed. I’d need to lie to everyone I tried to make connections with moving forward.

If I was right, well, I still had a hell of a mess to try to clean up ahead of me.

And it all hinged on finding this damn eco-resort location.

“It’s not funny.”

“Oh, duchess,” I said, throwing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to my side. “It’s hilarious. Are you afraid of household spiders too?”

“Depends,” she said as I led her past the beetle.

“On?”

“Is it one of those little white wall spiders? Then no. Is it one of those big, black ones with venom dripping from their fangs when they look at me? Then yes.”

“Venom, huh? Where do you live that has all these fanged spiders?”

“Navesink Bank.”

“ New Jersey ?” I asked, letting out a huff of a laugh. “The scariest thing in New Jersey is the drivers on the turnpike.”

“Says someone who has never had a showdown with a cave cricket.”

“Who won?” I asked, realizing she was letting me keep my arm around her as we continued to walk. I shouldn’t have liked that as much as I did.

“Well, we came to an agreement.”

“What’s that?”

“He got to have the basement. I would do my laundry at the laundromat.”

“For a badass recovery agent, your insect phobia is kind of cute.”

“I am not cute,” she objected, narrowing her eyes up at me.

She sure as hell was.

But I was getting to know her well enough to know not to push it.

At least we weren’t being acrimonious anymore.

“Oh, hey!” she said, voice going singsong a while later. “Oh, my God. Look at you and your fancy little beard.”

My gaze followed hers up to the trees, seeing an Emperor Tamarin—a small black monkey with an impressively long white beard.

“You look like you are guarding the portal to another world,” Violet went on as the monkey stared down at us. “You need a solid staff and a monocle, yes, you do.”

“Careful. I’m gonna tell Hank you like another animal more.”

“Hank can comfort himself with the fact that he perched on my boob for like an hour.”

“If we’re lucky, maybe we will see some other monkeys,” I told her, hating to try to push her along, but I’d already lost sight of Marco.

He was a very talented but impatient guide. He wouldn’t wait for us, no matter how far we fell behind. Not even for a damn pee break.

I knew.

I’d used him as a guide before.

Back when I first fell in love with the Amazon, before the idea of increasing tourism while limiting the impact on the environment sent me back to the States to start investing in the venture.

“God, can you tell him to slow down?” Violet asked some time later, her hands on her hips as she tried to take deep breaths. The front of her tank was wet with sweat, and her face had gone pink enough that, if it were fully up to me, I would stop.

“I could. But he won’t listen,” I told her, reaching for a bottle of water and passing it to her.

“What’s the rush?” she asked after a long sip.

“He likes to keep his own pace.”

“Shouldn’t he be keeping your pace, since you’re paying him?”

I didn’t say that Marco’s pace was more my pace.

Violet was pretty fit, but she kept getting distracted by bugs and animals and, on occasion, even a really cool vine.

I hated rushing her.

There was something really beautiful about someone experiencing something new for the first time.

Even if she was threatening to fumigate the bugs.

“Oh, what in the unholiest of nightmares,” she gasped, eyes going round as saucers as she looked at something on a tree to my side. “She’s got knees. That’s way, way too many knees.”

Turning, I saw it too.

A massive tarantula.

“That’s a Goliath Bird-Eating Spider.”

“It eats birds ?” she asked, face a mask of horror.

“Hummingbirds, I believe. They also eat their mates after copulating.”

“Well, girl power and all that shit. And no offense, but mantises do that without the butt ropes and unnecessary number of eyes. Let’s go before she jumps on me. That thing is as big as your freaking head,” she added as we passed. A little shiver coursed through her and she kept her eye on the spider until we were out of sight.

“Why would someone want to sleep in an eco-resort with the risk of one of those coming in to suffocate you in your sleep?”

“That’s a wild imagination you have there, duchess.”

“You can’t tell me you didn’t see the murder in her eyes.”

God, she was a fucking trip.

I hadn’t smiled so much in months. Hell, a year.

“She has a body count of at least twenty kills.”

“Probably more. Just much, much smaller than you or me.”

“Don’t underestimate her. She was giving us the ‘you have ten seconds to live’ stare.”

“Luckily, if she gets too murderous, we have shoes.”

“She would grab your foot and flip you onto your back, then scuttle up your body and smile while you scream.”

“So, taking you on a trip to, say, Australia is probably out of the question, huh?”

“Have you seen those Huntsman spider videos? People trying to catch them in takeaway containers. They sense it and attack. What the hell was that?” she asked, whipping around, her wild gaze scanning the trees and ground.

“Probably the spider coming to punch your ticket for talking so much shit.”

“Not funny,” she said, slitting her eyes at me as she slapped my arm.

“Kind of funny.”

“Just wait until I learn your phobia and can use it against you.”

“Don’t get me wrong. There’s shit in this place that even gives me the chills.”

“Such as?”

“Jaguars. Black Caiman. Electric Eels. Poison Dart Frogs. Fucking bullet ants…”

“Ants? Those human-sized spiders are cool, but you’re scared of ants?”

“Not normal ants. But bullet ants have a bite that is ranked as the most painful sting or bite of any insect. It’s been described as walking over burning coals with a long, rusted spike embedded in your foot. And the pain can last twenty-four hours.”

Violet watched my profile for a long moment before declaring, “You know, I think we’re done with school time today. Don’t tell me anything else.”

Yeah, I couldn’t blame her for that one.

We fell into a companionable silence again. Occasionally, I would reach out to grab her hip, steering her away from a creepy crawler before she could have a jump scare about it.

Each time, she had a full-body shiver. And, here and there, I caught her patting herself down. Like she felt like the bugs were crawling all over her or something.

I hoped we got out before the damn mosquitoes came out. They were a whole different beast in this area than she was used to. And could be carrying malaria or Zika.

I had bug spray to try to keep them away, but even that might not cut it.

We were heading into the wet season for the rainforest. And that always made the mosquito populations pop off.

“Wick,” she called, making me realize she’d fallen a few yards behind.

“What’s up?”

“I can’t. I need a break. I can’t do it.”

It killed her to admit that.

But one look at her—red-faced, sweat-covered, and panting—said she’d probably reached her max a solid hour ago, but had suffered in silence in the hopes of us reaching our destination before she had to tap out.

“Okay,” I said, tamping down my own impatience so my tone was calm. I let out a whistle for Marco, hoping he would just hold still for a bit, then reached in my bag for an emergency instant ice pack.

Cracking it, I reached to place it behind her neck.

A shiver moved through her, and I tried like hell not to notice the way her nipples hardened against the wet material of her shirt.

“You should have left me in the car.”

“You’re doing fine,” I assured her. “I probably should have warned you that Marco kept a punishing pace.”

“How would you know? He doesn’t speak.”

“I’ve worked with him before. And I’m pretty sure he does speak, but just doesn’t want to bullshit with tourists. Or, I imagine, have to be a walking encyclopedia for the rainforest.”

“I guess that’s fair. I just don’t get how he can set such a quick pace when we both have longer legs and are struggling.”

“Just has a body that is more accustomed to this exact exercise. I bet you’d wipe the floor with him in a hand-to-hand situation.”

“Flattery won’t make me forget you have now made me afraid of ants.”

“Noted,” I agreed. “You want to put something in your stomach, or go empty? I tend to get nauseated if I eat when I’m too hot.”

“I can’t believe I’m actually turning down food, but no. I think I’m better sticking to water right now. How far are we?”

“Close. I think. It’s gotta be close. We’ve covered a lot of ground.”

Sure enough, within the next half an hour, Marco was slowing, then waving up at the canopy of trees.

At first, I saw nothing.

Then my gaze landed on it.

“Wait, is that it? It’s real?” Violet asked, following my line of vision to the little pod in the trees.

“No,” I said, feeling months of stress suddenly melting off my shoulders.

“What do you mean no? It’s literally right there.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, taking steps closer. “But there should be more of them. Dozens of them. And one much larger build for the staff to stay in. This… this is just a prototype. They use that to take pictures for the brochures to convince investors,” I said, reaching for my camera to document the evidence I’d been praying to find. “It’s all one big fucking scam.”

Thank God.