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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Violet

Wick was still MIA. Getting food and coffee, I imagined. I’d let him shower first since I knew I was going to stand under that water for upward of forty-five minutes to scrub every inch of me clean, shave, exfoliate, all the things the jungle didn’t allow me to do.

When I came out, even with the exhaust fan blowing, the whole bathroom was steamed up.

I slathered on the lotion the room came with, brushed my tangled hair, brushed and flossed my teeth, then climbed into the cozy robe hanging on the back of the door since all my clothes were filthy.

The room was just as luxurious as I’d demanded. It was on a high floor with a sprawling bed covered in white linens; a huge TV hung over a dresser across from said bed, and there was a balcony with sliding doors.

I’d had enough of the outside for a while, so I went to the bed instead, letting out a pornographic moan as it hugged around me.

I reached for my phone that had been sitting on the charger, wincing at the hundreds of texts I’d missed, the frantic calls and messages.

I didn’t overwhelm myself with them; I just dialed my mom’s number, knowing she could spread the ‘Vi isn’t dead’ news to everyone else for me.

“Thank God you aren’t dead, but I might just kill you myself,” she greeted me, making my lips curve up.

“Hey, Mom,” I said, heart warming.

“What the hell happened?”

“The rainforest,” I told her. “Well, first a remote island. Then the rainforest. And assassins. Killer lightning. Stinging bugs. A mudslide. Oh, and a frog with butt cheeks!”

“You’re gonna need to start from the beginning,” my father’s voice filled my ears as my mother set the phone on speaker.

I felt tears prick my eyes— again —at the sound of their voices. Just a day ago, I’d been sure I would never see them again, that I would die in a cave behind a waterfall, and no one would ever know what happened to me.

So, alone, safe, clean, alive in a luxury hotel in Ecuador, I gave my parents the whole story.

Minus some spicy scenes.

“Baby girl, I’m glad you’re okay,” my father said. “I gotta go tell the club. Get your arse back home.”

“Love you, Dad,” I said.

“Love you too, kid.”

I could hear the background noise fall away as my mother took me off of speaker.

“Okay. So, now that your father is gone,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. “Should I be anticipating a grand baby after all that rainforest sex?”

“Mom!”

“Oh, come on. Any idiot could hear the affection in your voice when you talked about Wick. And it sounds like he saved your life a time or two. From, you know, the tree. And the… large beetles?” she asked, barely holding back a laugh.

“They were enormous. Anyway… no grand babies. I got the implant last year, remember?”

“So you have been sleeping with him.”

What use was there in lying? My mother would just see right through it.

“Yes.”

“You like him, don’t you?”

“Yes,” I admitted, hearing the rustling of bags outside the door.

“Love him?”

“I think so,” I said as the keycard beeped in the lock.

“Are you going to break my heart and move all the way to Ecuador to be with him?”

“I got—oh,” Wick broke off, seeing the phone in my hand.

“It’s my mom,” I told him.

“Hey, Lou,” he called, making my lips curve up. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Don’t worry, I will deliver your daughter back to the States, safe and sound.”

“I’ll be the one delivering you, remember?”

“You’re still going to turn him in?” my mother asked, horrified.

“She’s a heartless one, your daughter,” Wick teased, shooting a wink in my direction.

“He has… proof of his innocence. Well, some.”

“Well, while you two recover, why don’t you give me what you’ve got, and your father and I can see what else we can uncover? And the club, obviously.”

Yeah, that went without saying. My father’s biker club wasn’t just full of bikers with various skills, but their wives and children who were hackers and securities experts, and who had all sorts of shady backgrounds with shady connections in the criminal underbelly.

If anyone could link Wick’s uncle to a cartel money-laundering scheme, it was them.

And while they did that, I could stuff my face and sleep without worrying I might be shot. Or stung. Mauled. Crawled on by giant bugs.

“I will send everything over after we eat,” I said, smelling food wafting over to me, making my stomach growl. “I’ve had nothing but fruit for like a week. And no coffee.”

“And Wick is still alive?” my mom teased.

“Maybe not for much longer since I don’t see a coffee in his hands…”

“Okay. Go be with your man. But send me that info as soon as possible. I love you, kid.”

“Love you too, Mom,” I said, hanging up.

“I am not a monster,” Wick said, producing a large coffee. “Extra sweet. Lightly creamy.”

“Wait… how do you know that?”

“Because you told me. You spent one whole afternoon rambling off all your favorite foods and drinks that you would never take for granted again if you got out of the rainforest.”

And he remembered.

My heart felt like it squeezed.

“Thank you,” I said, reaching for it with two hands, pausing for just a quick sniff, then chugging half of it, mouth skin be damned. “Oh, God,” I moaned.

Wick’s look was a mix of amused and heated. “Never get sick of hearing you moan, duchess. But I’m a little jealous it’s over a cup of coffee…”

“I’ve had you the past week. The coffee, on the other hand…”

“Fair point,” he agreed, starting to put containers of food on the nightstand beside me. “Now, listen, we’re in Ecuador…”

“It’s not all fish, right? There are other dishes…”

“There are. But the closest I could get you to something you are used to is a variety of empanadas: chicken, beef, pork, and cheese ones. I opted out of the veggies,” he said, giving me a knowing smile. “They’re fried. So they can scratch that itch for fries and chicken fingers you have. I did also get some traditional dishes: Arroz con camarones—which is rice with shrimp, seco de pollo—a chicken stew, and sanduche de pernil—a pork sandwich.”

“Honestly, it all sounds amazing,” I told him, meaning it. After a week on a fruit diet, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at any solid food again without at least tasting it. I looked at the pile of to-go containers. “But what are you going to eat?” I teased.

“Not gonna lie, I ate a bunch of empanadas while I was getting everything else. But make sure you leave room for this,” he said, tossing an electrolyte drink at me. “We stayed hydrated, but likely screwed up our electrolyte balance,” he explained.

I tore into the food, shoveling it all in so fast that it was a miracle I tasted anything.

While I ate, Wick showed me some of the other things he’d picked up: clothes—for both of us—, personal care items, shoes, after-sun cream, multivitamins, antibiotic cream for all remaining scrapes, and beef jerky.

At the last one, my brows pinched.

“We need protein. Fun food is great, but we need protein after all that. We feel alright now. But that’s mostly relief. The effects of… all that are going to settle in eventually.”

He wasn’t wrong about that.

After the food, vitamins, rehydration, lotion, and a little first aid, then rolling around in the sheets and falling asleep in each other’s arms, I woke up feeling downright… awful.

It was amazing how the human body could just… distract you from all your aches and pains to keep you going in a survival situation. But once my nervous system knew I was safe, it all settled in, amplified.

Just turning over seemed to sap all of my strength. I hurt in places I didn’t know could hurt. I felt all-over cold. My head screamed.

It was like the flu.

Dialed up to a hundred.

And, well, I had a history of being an epically bad sick person.

Poor Wick, likely suffering himself, had to deal with a whiny, grumbling, achy, miserable me for three days in that hotel room.

“Feeling a little better?” Wick asked when I came out of the bathroom after a shower.

“Thank God, yeah.”

“I was starting to worry I needed to take you to the doctor. Was having all sorts of concerns about that waterfall bath and the claims on the filter system.”

“I think my body was just… readjusting to not being in survival mode. Thanks for not cutting and running. I know I’m a terrible sick person.”

“You did throw a bottle of electrolytes at my head,” he said, touching his mark-free temple.

“You were practically waterboarding me with those things,” I said, walking up to where he was sitting off the edge of the bed.

I reached out, touching the side of his head, finding the goose egg had gone all the way down.

“They’re probably what helped you finally shake all that,” he told me, his hands going to my hips, pulling me between his legs. “I’ve been talking to your father.”

“Wait… what?”

“Your phone kept ringing. But you were practically catatonic. I didn’t want them to worry any more than necessary, so I answered.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks.”

“Adler is a fucking cool guy,” Wick said, shaking his head in wonder. And, yeah, my father did have that effect on a lot of people. If it wasn’t his strange, hard-to-pin-down accent, it was his years traveling the world, followed by decades working as a gun-running outlaw biker.

“Yeah, he is.”

“He’s also crazy connected. He… got me everything I could possibly need to prove my innocence. And also got some attorney named Rosie to work on my case, since my lawyer had been all but useless.”

“What did Rosie say?” I asked, my heart feeling constricted in my chest.

“He said…,” Wick started, reaching up to pull the knot in my robe free. “That he has more than enough evidence to not only prove my innocence, but send my uncle, his CFO, and his cartel-buddy partner to jail for life in my stead. So, you are free to turn me in at any time. Collect your money. Then he will get me off.”

“Any time, huh?” I asked as his warm hands moved up my belly to close over my breasts.

“Well, maybe tomorrow,” he said, rolling my nipples. A long moan escaped me.

My hands went up, pulling off my robe, leaving me standing there completely bare to him, my skin still pink from the shower.

A groan escaped Wick as he pulled me forward until I was straddling him.

His face buried between my breasts, breathing me in, his beard scratching my sensitive skin in a way that made my belly go liquid.

It had only been a few days. But the way my body heated, reacted, ached, made it seem so much longer.

Wick twisted, dropping me onto my back, then came over me, his lips claiming mine for a long moment before moving downward.

He teased over my breasts, down my belly, then settled between my thighs, licking, sucking, and fingering me until I was writhing, begging, then crying out as the orgasm claimed me.

He kept working me after, driving one orgasm toward another, but stopping before it could rack my system.

My objection was cut off, though, when his weight pressed into mine, and his cock slid lazily inside me.

We both moaned at the sensation, our desire unhurried as we moved slowly together, fingers touching, kissing long and deep.

But even with the slow pace, the desire sparked, spread, grew, driving us both toward that edge, leaving us breathless and tense before the orgasm crashed through me, making the world shatter. My cries filled the room as Wick’s forehead pressed to mine, thrusting through my orgasm, then coming at the end of it, buried deep inside me.

We stayed wrapped up for a long time after, bodies coming down from the pleasure. But not, it seemed, from the emotions it stirred up.

“Hey, duchess?” Wick’s voice was a soft caress that had my lashes fluttering open.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve had the time of my life with you.” He pressed a kiss to the tip of my nose. “Even if you continually tried to sacrifice me to large, bloodthirsty insects.”

My lips curved up at that.

“Despite all my grumbling, I kind of had a good time too. In a ‘I never want to do this again’ way, though.”

“Noted,” he agreed, rolling onto his back, making me straddle him. “What do you say that once you heartlessly turn me over to the authorities, and my case gets thrown out, I take you out somewhere? With food. And indoor plumbing.”

“I think I can fit that into my schedule.”

“And then maybe another date after that, and after that, and after that, until you realize you can’t live without me any more than I can live without you?”

My heart felt like it was dangerously close to bursting.

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” I said, leaning down to press my lips to his. “I already can’t imagine life without you.”

“You won’t have to,” he assured me, arms wrapping me up tight. “We will be together after all of this.”

“But first, I have to introduce you to my handcuffs…”