Page 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Wick

I felt like the whole fucking world tipped off its axis as that bridge broke away and swung through the air.

I couldn’t imagine the panic surging through Violet as she flew through the air, holding on for dear life, knowing that if she didn’t, there would be no surviving the fall.

I had every fucking intention of rushing to the edge as soon as she hit the cliffside, grabbing the bridge, and slowly pulling her up.

Then the bullets started to fly.

And I had no choice but to duck for cover. Then, as even that didn’t stop the bullets from flying, run.

I thought I was in the clear.

Then a searing pain sliced across my side, distracting me enough to let my foot miss a downed tree limb, sending me falling hard and fast, my head cracking off of something hard just before I lost consciousness.

I woke up confused, in pain, and facedown in a pile of dirt and leaves.

Not more than three feet from my face was a giant fucking spider.

Up close, hurt, confused, I had to admit that maybe Violet was onto something with her bug phobia.

Violet .

Her name might as well have been a jolt of electricity through my system.

I pushed up onto all fours, then forced myself up to my feet. And damn near fell face-first into a nearby tree with how hard my head spun.

“Fuck.” I threw out a hand, pressing into that same tree as I waited for some equilibrium to come back to me.

I’d hit my head harder than I’d realized.

Lifting a hand, I pressed it to my temple, feeling the sticky heat of my blood and the edges of an open wound.

It needed to be cleaned. And possibly glued, since stitches weren’t an option.

The burning in my side had me looking down to see more blood soaking through the material. Lifting it up, I saw a nasty cut across my side.

A bullet graze.

I was no doctor, but I figured it would be okay if I kept it clean.

Not that I needed to worry about my baby scrapes and scratches when Violet was fucking dangling from a cliff.

With that in mind, I turned, trying to get my bearings, figure out where the hell I was, how to get back from where I came from.

My brain was fuzzy but, eventually, I heard the rush of the water, then moved through the thick jungle to see the cliff, then follow it back.

“Violet!” I called, not caring about the shooters, about their guns. I just needed to find her. To pull her up. To make sure she was okay.

I’d just called her one last time when there was a loud crunch.

Then there she was.

She came to me at a dead run, colliding hard with me, her arms wrapping me up tight as a loud sob escaped her.

Her whole body was violently shaking as I wrapped her up, holding her tight as she sniffled and I felt the wet of her tears through my shirt.

“It’s okay. You’re okay,” I assured her as my hands slid over her, trying to see if I was lying to her or not.

She jolted as my hands touched her back. But it was impossible to tell if the wetness there was sweat from pulling herself up. Or blood from hitting the rock wall.

“Alright, duchess, you need to breathe for me,” I said as her fear, relief, exertion, and tears made it impossible for her to catch her breath. “Breathe with me,” I said, sucking in an exaggerated breath, coaxing her to do the same. “Okay, another one,” I said, even though she hadn’t exactly managed a full first one.

She worked with me slowly over the next few minutes, slowing her breathing. Only to have it break off on a sob.

“Hey, okay, you’re okay. I got you, Vi.”

Her fingers curled into my shirt as her tears soaked through it.

I couldn’t say how long we stood there while we waited to come back down from all the fear and adrenaline.

When she pulled back slightly to wipe at her eyes, I reached out to frame her face, angling her up to look at me. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” she said, sniffling. “I mean, I hit my back. But no. Wait… you’re—are you shot ?”

“Grazed. Here,” I said, touching my side. “This was me not watching where I was going, tripping, and hitting my head. That’s what took me so long. I was coming back for you. I was going to pull you back up.”

“I thought you were dead,” she admitted.

“Upset you wouldn’t have someone to use as a human shield against creepy crawlers?”

“Yeah,” she said. “That must be it.”

There was a softness in her voice that matched her eyes, a hint of something that looked dangerously like longing.

“I’m really happy you’re alive, duchess.”

My thumbs slid up across her cheeks, watching the way her breath went quick and shallow, how her eyes slid from my eyes to my lips and back again.

My thumb moved to tease the outline of her lower lip as I watched her face, promising myself that I would drop my hands if I saw even a hint of uncertainty.

But her pupils blew wide, and her lids went heavy.

When her lips parted slightly, there was no going back.

My hand slipped under her jaw, and I lowered my head, waiting a beat to see if she pulled away, then sealing my lips over hers.

A low moan escaped Violet as she swayed into me, her hands grabbing my arms, holding on as my lips pressed deeper.

Her lips came alive under mine, taking, giving, demanding more.

My hand slid to the back of her neck, holding on as my tongue moved inside to claim hers.

Her moan vibrated against my mouth, making my fingers tighten on her neck.

My other hand moved down her side, then around her hips to sink into her ass, dragging her more tightly against me.

A shiver racked Violet’s system as she felt my hard length against her stomach.

Violet’s hand slid down my arm, over my hip, then between us, stroking over my cock through my pants.

My own hand moved then, teasing the waistband of her panties.

“You can’t,” she said against my lips.

“Why not?”

“I’m so sweaty.”

“I don’t give a fuck,” I said as my hand slid under the waistband of her shorts, finding her already wet and ready for me.

She moaned against my lips as her hand stroked me again.

Then, as my fingers slipped inside her, hers moved to pull down the waistband of my shorts, closing around me again without the barrier.

I swear I almost came right then and there.

There were a million other circumstances that would have been more romantic. But, somehow, sweaty and bloody and shaky from adrenaline, felt right for us as we drove each other up.

“Wick,” Violet cried, fisting my cock hard as her walls tightened around my fingers.

“Come for me,” I demanded, my voice a harsh command.

Then she was, her pussy tightening around my fingers, her moans filling the air.

And, thinking about those walls clenching around my cock, I came with her.

We just stood there afterward, bodies close, breath ragged, coming back down. From the orgasms, from the chase, from both nearly dying.

It wasn’t until a squawk above us had us breaking apart.

“Just a macaw,” I said, looking up to see a slash of red amongst all of the green.

“Do you think they could find another way to this side?” she asked, turning to look in the direction of the river.

“Eventually, yes. We should keep… oh, duchess,” I said, getting an eyeful of her back.

“It’s just a couple scratches.”

There were those, sure. And I wanted to clean and treat them. But I was talking more about the giant bruise forming across her skin. She’d hit that wall hard. Dangling there, hanging on for dear life, thinking she was all alone in the jungle.

“You must have been fucking terrified.”

“That about sums it up.”

“The guy who was on the bridge with you when it went down… he fell?”

“After I kicked his hand,” Violet said, her tone guarded. “He was trying to pull me down. I didn’t… have any choice.”

“This is a survival scenario,” I reminded her as I reached into my backpack to find the first aid kit. “You don’t have to feel weird or guilty about doing what you have to do to survive. And they are actively trying to kill us.”

“Do you have any idea where they all went to? After the one guy fell, I was so focused on getting up on land again that I really wasn’t paying attention to any of them.”

“I went kind of thick into the jungle. It was impossible to see them. I imagine they are looking for a way across right now.”

“We should keep moving.”

“We will. Just let me treat your back. We can’t be risking any kind of infection when we are this deep into the rainforest. Better to take the two minutes to clean these cuts and put a protective barrier on them now.”

“What about you?” she asked, reaching for the hem of my shirt and lifting up to see the graze on my side. “Oh, it’s not too bad. Your head looks worse.”

“Feels worse too.”

Now that all the adrenaline had drained, the headache was pounding in my temple.

“Are you dizzy at all? Seeing double? Nauseated?”

“I don’t think I have a concussion.” I turned her so I could clean up her back, then swabbed on some antibiotic cream. Suddenly, I wished I’d packed a second first aid kit. But how the hell could I have imagined we would need so much mending? We were supposed to be out of here just a few hours after we came in.

“Alright. All done,” I said, sticking all the used products into a plastic bag I kept in my pack. Then I reached to start cleaning myself up.

“Wait. Let me,” she said, taking the saline rinse and gauze out of my hand. She cleaned my side first, then set her sights on my head. “This isn’t as bad as it looked at first either. Head wounds just bleed so bad. I think you could use a few stitches, though…”

“I have some glue in the kit.”

“You want me to glue it? Like actually glue your head?”

“It’s better than leaving it open. I’ve done it a time or two. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Just pinch the skin together as best you can, then squeeze some glue on. It should dry in a couple of seconds, then you can let go.”

I took the old gauze from her and handed her the glue instead.

“Alright. Well, if this requires some major cosmetic surgery in the future, you can’t blame me.”

“I heard somewhere that girls think scars are hot.”

“Depends on how you got them. Tripping and falling on your face…” she trailed off, smile teasing. “The graze might be considered kind of sexy, though. Okay. I think that’s all set.”

I packed my kit away, then reached for a bottle of water. We each drank half, wanting to conserve as much as possible. At least until we got to a water source where we could use my squeezable hollow membrane filters and get our fill.

“You ready?” I asked, waving out toward the jungle.

“God, no. Everything hurts.”

Reaching down, I took her hand.

I gave it a squeeze.

“Just think of all the coffee and tacos you will get after all this is done.”

“You’re paying.”