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CHAPTER TWELVE

Wick

“A hammock is better than an insect net?” Violet asked a few hours later after we steadily made progress toward—I hoped—the road.

But the sun was going down.

We had to set up for the night.

I was suddenly really thankful I’d opted for the plain green travel hammock rather than the much more appealing-looking multicolored one. If I set us up in a thick enough little alcove, we would be all but invisible all night.

Neither of us had heard trackers since whenever we’d lost them on that first initial run. But I didn’t exactly want to take chances either. Especially if we would both be sleeping.

“How about here?” I asked, ignoring her question because she would see soon enough.

“By that giant old tree? Full of wood? And, likely, a whole army of giant beetles? No.”

She’d been walking clutching my bottle of bug spray to her chest since I’d sprayed her in anticipation of the mosquitoes coming out.

“We should go… hey, do you hear that?” she asked, stiffening.

“The men?” I asked.

But she crept forward, toward the sound, leaving me to gather up the hammock and follow.

“Water!” she said, shoulders sagging in relief. “Running water is safe, right?” she asked, gesturing toward the small stream trickling gently by.

“Safe for what?” I asked.

“Washing off?”

“Not necessarily, no. I mean… if you’re just rinsing and avoiding anywhere that might have any open wounds, then maybe. There could be bacteria or parasites in the water. But I have this,” I said, handing her the hammock—so it didn’t touch the ground where the bugs lived and freak her out—I dug deep into my backpack for something I hadn’t imagined I would have a lot of use for. I’d really only packed it because it was so compact.

“What is that?” Violet asked when I produced the little plastic canister with a hand pump and an itty-bitty shower attachment.

“A rainforest shower. It’s the best we can do without a nice, heavy rainfall, I think.”

Violet looked dubious but watched me as I filled it from the stream, then pumped it to filter, and, finally, hit the spray button.

“It’s a bit like hosing off a dog in the backyard, but… okay,” she said, trading me the hammock for the hose.

“I’m gonna set up back around that bend,” I told her, pointing. “To give you some privacy,” I added when she started to object, likely imagining some sort of giant bug that might be plotting her demise.

“Oh. Okay.”

“Oh, here,” I said, digging in my backpack pocket for one of the tiny little bars of eco-friendly soap. “You can use this here. It’s safe.”

“Thank God. I’m so sticky.”

With that, I made my way back around the bend, trying to force myself to think of anything but her stripping down next to that stream and rinsing her body off, rubbing soap all over her soft skin…

Christ.

It was going to be a long night.

Sharing a damn hammock.

Trying to keep my desire from being discovered.

I focused on getting the hammock hung, making sure it was extra secure, since we would be sharing it, hanging my backpack on one end of it after grabbing a few supplies, then finally making my way back to the stream.

I thought I’d given her plenty of time.

But as I walked up, I was met with her in nothing but a pair of black panties.

My foot caught a twig, making her jump and gasp as I squeezed my eyes shut.

But not before I saw a lot of side boob.

Fuck.

Even just standing there, my cock twitched to life.

“Sorry. I thought you’d be done,” I said.

“I, uh, had to change. My clothes were still wet with sweat.”

Right down to her bra too, it seemed. A fact I really, really didn’t need to know.

“Just one… second,” she said, and I could hear her stumbling as she, I imagined, got the rest of her clothes on. “Okay.”

I opened my eyes to find her in a pair of skintight black gym shorts that were hiding a whole lot of nothing, and another of her ever-present tank tops. Only now, there was way too much on display for her to be wearing a bra under it.

“I used all your soap. I should probably feel bad about that. But I don’t.”

“I’ve got like a dozen of them,” I assured her. “We might be in survival mode, but we can stay somewhat clean.”

“Are you going to shower?” she asked, reaching for her toothbrush and paste.

“Yeah.” I damn sure wasn’t going to expect her to share a hammock with me all dirty while she smelled and looked all fresh. “Use the bottled water to rinse,” I told her. “I have other filters to use if we run low on bottled water. But I didn’t check how strong of filtration that shower thing has.”

Once she was done, she gathered her things.

“I’m going to stand right over there,” she said, pointing. “I don’t want to go too far. It’s getting dark fast.”

“I’ll be quick,” I assured her.

I didn’t bother to wait for her to walk away before stripping out of my shirt and down to my boxer briefs.

The sun was setting fast, the animal and insect sounds seeming to grow louder by the moment as I made quick work of wetting my body, soaping up, then rinsing off.

“Do you have a flashlight?” Violet asked as I started to brush my teeth.

“We can’t use light,” I told her, still standing there in nothing but my now soaking wet underwear.

“Why not?”

“Because there’s no light pollution here. If we put on a torch and there was someone anywhere in a several-mile range, there’s a chance they could see us.”

“But how do we know if something is circling us, ready to pounce?” she asked as I hooked my fingers into my underwear and pulled the material down.

“We’re gonna be up off the ground in a minute,” I assured her.

“That’s not really—shit!” she yelped.

The next thing I knew, she was plowing into me before I could even get one leg into my new boxer briefs.

“What is it?” I asked as she rushed around me, pressing close to my back. So close, in fact, that I felt her breasts pressing against me.

It was a terrible time for a hard-on, but there was no reasoning with it either.

“I heard a crunch.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere overhead.”

Her damn hands pressed against my sides, holding on as I tried to deep-breathe past my damn erection.

“It was probably a monkey or a parrot.”

“Or, you know, a massive centipede who wants to kill us and wear our skin.”

“Sure, could be that too,” I teased.

“Don’t make fun of me,” she grumbled.

We both attempted to move at the same time, but somehow managed to turn toward one another.

Her breasts rubbed across my chest.

My cock pressed against her stomach.

We both sucked in a collective breath. And neither moved away.

On her next exaggeratedly deep breath, Violet pressed her chest more firmly against me.

Sensing an invitation, I let my hands go to her hips, then lower back. Feeling her swaying into me, my hands went down, sinking into her ass, and dragging a low moan out of her.

Her own hands drifted, moving over my abs and chest, then down my arms.

Her breathing went fast and shallow, her hips rocking a bit as she pressed her thighs together to ease the need growing between them.

My hands slid from her ass back to her hips, sinking in, and turning her so her back was against me.

As soon as she melted against me, my hands slid up her belly and over the swells of her breasts.

At her throaty little whimper, my hands went up, grabbing the front of her tank top and yanking it down to expose her.

My hands immediately moved to close over her warm skin. Against my palms, her nipples hardened, and I couldn’t stop myself from taking them between my thumbs and forefingers and rolling them.

A soft moan escaped her as her ass wiggled back against my cock, impatient in her need.

And, well, it wouldn’t be right for me to leave her desire unfulfilled after nearly getting her killed, would it?

One hand stayed at her chest, teasing, touching, rolling, pinching.

The other slipped down her belly to press between her thighs.

I knew what we both wanted. No barriers. My fingers thrusting inside of her again.

But I didn’t trust myself not to let things go too far.

So I just worked her through her shorts. Still, I was pleased at just how reactive she was with the barriers.

It didn’t take long before she was writhing and moaning softly as I drove her up.

She was so damn sensitive, so quick. Before I could even really start to enjoy her responses, she was tensing and crying out as she came.

I kept an arm around her afterward as she tried to slow her breathing.

It was then that there was a distinct crunch somewhere nearby.

“What the hell was that?” Violet yelped, jumping away, then pushing herself behind me. “Take him,” she told the mystery intruder.

“Ever self-sacrificing,” I drawled. “Come on. Let’s get back to the hammock,” I said.

I reached down, feeling around for my things, then leading Violet—while still bare-ass naked—back to our little sleeping nook.

Using touch, I shoved everything haphazardly back in my backpack before slipping my underwear on. It was too dark and warm to put anything else on.

“Oh, it has a net. Thank God,” Violet said, feeling around the hammock. “So, how are we doing this? Face-to-face? Back-to-back?”

“Given how warm it is, I think it’s best we each lay in opposite directions.”

“With your feet in my face all night?” she asked.

“You can lay on them if you’d prefer.” I unzipped the hammock. “I’ll go in first. I’m heavier.”

With that, I hoisted myself in, got situated, then braced myself for the movement as Violet moved in as well.

We zipped ourselves in.

Then we both moved flat.

“It’s hot,” she grumbled.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “We’ll cool off if we sit still for a while.”

Violet was silent for a moment. “Wick?”

“Yeah?”

“What do you think that was?”

“There are several nocturnal animals it could have been.”

“Such as?”

“There are tapir, bush dogs, nine-banded armadillo, capybaras, kinkajous…”

“You’re leaving something off, I can feel it.”

Her gut feelings were uncanny.

“Jaguars.”

“Seriously?” she asked, trying to shoot up, then whacking her head into the bug net.

“It’s fine.”

“It’s fine? They’re apex predators.”

“Yeah, but they almost never attack humans.”

“Almost never is not never.”

“You’d have to provoke them.”

“Aren’t we provoking it by just being in its home?”

“No. You’d have to shoot at it or try to move in while it’s eating or something like that to provoke them. We’re safe in here.”

“When we wake up, are there going to be hideous little bugs all over the net?”

“Maybe. But don’t worry. I will go out and sacrifice myself to them first.”

“That’s all I’m asking.”

There was a smile in her voice.

I couldn’t stop my own lips from curving up.

“Goodnight, duchess.”

“Goodnight, Wick.”

As she drifted off to sleep, her body tangling with mine, I suddenly wasn’t in such a rush to get out of the jungle.

Of course, that wasn’t actually up to us. As we’d learn the next day.