Page 101 of Chasing Paradise

Then she dragged me into the hotel.

I had a grin on my face the whole damn way.

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,alivein 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.”

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