Page 107 of Chasing Paradise

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.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Epilogue

__

1 Year Later

Violet

“What thehellwas that?” Hope yelped, plowing into Layna’s back.

“A bird-eater spider,” I told her, the resident field guide of our little group.

“It eats birds?” Gracie asked, eyes round.

“Hummingbirds,” I confirmed.

“Okay. That snake was kind of creepy, all dangling from the tree,” Layna said. “But I think you were right about trying to sacrifice Wick to those things. Why is it looking at me all… attacky?”

This little bridal party excursion wasn’t my first trip back to the rainforest since we’d just barely made it out with our lives a year before.

Actually, I’d grown pretty familiar with the place, thanks to several visits with Wick. Because, well, he wanted to build more beans.

Once the whole truth came out—with no small amount of publicity that Wick had to face—there was a lot more awareness brought to the idea of eco resorts.

Ever since, Wick had been raising money from investors—as well as sinking a fair amount of his own cash—into the idea.

He wanted to build them in a bunch of lovely places on Earth he believed more people should see—with as little a footprint as possible—but since the first bean was actually already built in the rainforest, he thought it might be a good place to start.

To date, there were four beans built and ready for occupation.

Hence the little girls’ trip before the actual wedding.

---