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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Violet

“Um, so are you going to bring him home to, what, your parents’ couch?” my cousin, Hope asked.

Hope was the most like me of all my cousins—a woman in a male-dominated field, lover of practical clothing styles, disliker of most outdoor activities.

It was a week after I recovered from my little fatigue illness.

After Wick and I had maxed out our stay at the hotel.

After packing up our things and trekking back to Miami.

Then New Jersey.

Where I slapped on cuffs with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm, climbed in the backseat of my parents’ car—them all smiles as I introduced them to Wick—and drove him to a police station to hand him over for my bounty.

As much as I’d been playing with him while I manhandled him and passed him off to the cops, my heart was crumbling at the idea of us being wrong, at the possibility that we didn’t have enough evidence, that the government wouldn’t care and would lock Wick away forever just out of spite.

Because for a few days, I heard nothing. No updates. No nothing.

But then I’d finally seen it on the news.

Wick’s uncle, his coworkers, and his “business partner” getting hauled in by the feds.

And, finally, the call while having a pizza party with my cousins from Wick’s new attorney, Rosie, telling me that all charges were being dropped against Wick, and that I could come and get him.

“No, I’m not taking him to my parents’ place.” Even if that had been where I was staying after I got back to Navesink Bank. Partly because I had no place of my own. But also because every single one of my aunts, uncles, and cousins had wanted to see me and hear my story about being “stranded” on a deserted island and being chased by assassins through an insect-riddled rainforest.

And, of course, hear all about cute capybaras, bearded monkeys, cool lizards, and a frog with butt cheeks.

“Where are you going then?” Layna, another of my cousins, asked, her long legs draped over the arm of the chair I was sitting on.

“A hotel. Temporarily. Wick had a luxury apartment overlooking the Navesink, but when he got locked up, the lease expired, so he lost it. Until we can figure out where we’re going next—”

“That’s a lot of we ,” yet another of my cousins—the unendingly sweet, blonde-haired optimist, the heart of our little group, Gracie—piped in.

“There’s been a lot of we ever since we met,” I said, shrugging.

“You’re not moving to his island, are you?” Hope asked.

“God, no,” I said, cringing. “I mean, it’s beautiful and everything. But there’s no internet. No cable. No tacos…”

“God forbid,” Gracie said with a smile. “But you’re totally going to have the wedding there, right? I mean, you have to.”

It might have seemed wild to be thinking about things like rings and forever-afters. Still, I was doing a little of that kind of thinking.

Yes, me, the complete opposite of a hopeless romantic, was imagining Save the Dates and vows.

That was how you knew I was head-over for the guy.

“I don’t think Isla Perdita is big enough to have half of Navesink Bank descend on it.”

“Rainforest wedding?” Gracie amended the idea. “With a remote island honeymoon. Because… that sounds perfect.”

“Lots of naked outdoors sex where no one can hear or see?” Layna piped back in. “Way better than some cruise or something.”

“Guys, we just started dating. We’re not talking about weddings and honeymoons yet,” I reminded them.

“Sure. Sure. But I remember Hope saying something like that just a few months before she was getting all engaged,” Gracie said.

“She’s not wrong,” Hope said. “And this guy has already seen you caked in mud, freaked out about bugs, hungry, uncaffeinated, scared, dirty, and sick. And he still wants in.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Just saying, if he saw all that, and he still wants in, you’re gonna be married in under a year.”

“Okay. Well. On that note,” I said, checking the time on my phone. “I’m going to go pick up Wick.”

“We’ll let you have a long weekend of peace,” Layna said. “But we all want to meet him.”

“Maybe we can all go do the aerial obstacle course together,” I suggested.

My cousins shared equal looks of shock.

“Wait,” Gracie said. “ You are suggesting a workout hangout? You?”

That was fair. I was always the one dragging my feet and grumbling when it came to exercise.

“What can I say? Almost losing your life dangling on a rope bridge, then realizing the only reason you were able to pull yourself up is because of some stupid obstacle course your friends made you do really kind of makes you rethink your hatred of it.”

With that, I headed out of the biker clubhouse that had been a second home to me growing up, climbed in my car, and drove like hell to the jail, not wanting Wick to think I’d forgotten him or changed my mind or something like that. When nothing could be further from the truth.

Luckily, I got there before he even finished getting processed out, leaving me sitting in the car, belly twisting, heart pounding, praying he hadn’t changed his mind either.

As soon as I saw him walking out—wearing the same outfit I’d turned him over in, minus the cuffs—I flew out of the car and ran toward him.

Wick froze, waiting for me, smile wide, arms outstretched.

He caught me as I leapt into his arms, wrapped me up tight, then sealed my lips to his.

His hands gripped my ass as he kissed me back—hard, hungry, eager to get back to a room and finish what we were starting.

“How’s life been treating you, duchess?” he asked, still holding me as he walked toward my car.

“Well, I’m sad to report that my caffeine tolerance has lowered. I was feeling racy after two cups yesterday.”

“Oh, you’ll fix that up real quick.”

“I ate a whole pizza by myself with my cousins earlier.”

“You needed to put some weight back on.”

“Oh, and they are demanding you meet them. On an aerial obstacle course.”

“I’m looking forward to it.” He genuinely sounded excited, too.

It hadn’t occurred to me before right then just how alone he was in the world. No family, no close friends. Just him and his travels.

Well, that was something I could give him.

Not just me, but my people. My parents, my aunts, uncles, and cousins. The family he hadn’t known since his grandfather passed away. Birthday parties and tons of presents under the tree at Christmas, people he could rely on, turn to, and build relationships with.

Getting to my car, but still not ready to let go, he turned and sat on the hood, me still clinging to him.

“I really missed you,” I told him, surprised how true it was.

I was never a clinging girl. If anything, I was the one who was detached and disinterested, ignoring calls and forgetting to return texts.

Out of sight, out of mind was my dating philosophy in the past.

Until Wick.

Who’d literally been on my mind twenty-four seven since I’d first dropped him off. And not just because my days were full of recounting our adventures.

Even when I was alone, all I could think about was when I could see him again, touch him again, hear that way he laughed when I was being ridiculous once more.

And, well, you can imagine the kind of dreams I’d been plagued with in his absence.

“Missed you too, duchess. Spent my nights thinking about sharing a hammock with you.”

“Well, I don’t have a hammock,” I said, teasing my fingers over his neck. “But I do have a keycard to a very nice hotel room for us.”

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, hands flexing on my ass.

“Mmhmm. Room overlooking the beach. With very close access to coffee.”

“And tacos?” he asked. “I suddenly have a craving too.”

“And tacos. The best taco place around, actually.”

Wick made that rumbling noise in his chest I’d grown so fond of. “So, when I get my fill of you, we get our fill of tacos.”

“Mmhmm,” I agreed, pressing my forehead to his. “And then what?” I asked.

“Whatever the hell we want.”

I had a feeling, now that I was back in his arms, that what I would want—eventually—was a rainforest wedding and a tropical island honeymoon.

But first… sex and tacos.