Page 47 of Chasing Paradise

I didn’t say that Marco’s pace was more my pace.

Violet was pretty fit, but she kept getting distracted by bugs and animals and, on occasion, even a really cool vine.

I hated rushing her.

There was something really beautiful about someone experiencing something new for the first time.

Even if she was threatening to fumigate the bugs.

“Oh, what in the unholiest of nightmares,” she gasped, eyes going round as saucers as she looked at something on a tree to my side. “She’s got knees. That’s way, way too many knees.”

Turning, I saw it too.

A massive tarantula.

“That’s a Goliath Bird-Eating Spider.”

“Iteats birds?” she asked, face a mask of horror.

“Hummingbirds, I believe. They also eat their mates after copulating.”

“Well, girl power and all that shit. And no offense, but mantises do that without the butt ropes and unnecessary number of eyes. Let’s go before she jumps on me. That thing is as big as your freaking head,” she added as we passed. A little shiver coursed through her and she kept her eye on the spider until we were out of sight.

“Why would someone want to sleep in an eco-resort with the risk of one of those coming in to suffocate you in your sleep?”

“That’s a wild imagination you have there, duchess.”

“You can’t tell me you didn’t see the murder in her eyes.”

God, she was a fucking trip.

I hadn’t smiled so much in months. Hell, a year.

“She has a body count of at least twenty kills.”

“Probably more. Just much, much smaller than you or me.”

“Don’t underestimate her. She was giving us the ‘you have ten seconds to live’ stare.”

“Luckily, if she gets too murderous, we have shoes.”

“She would grab your foot and flip you onto your back, then scuttle up your body and smile while you scream.”

“So, taking you on a trip to, say, Australia is probably out of the question, huh?”

“Have youseenthose Huntsman spider videos? People trying to catch them in takeaway containers. They sense it and attack.What the hell was that?” she asked, whipping around, her wild gaze scanning the trees and ground.

“Probably the spider coming to punch your ticket for talking so much shit.”

“Not funny,” she said, slitting her eyes at me as she slapped my arm.

“Kind of funny.”

“Just wait until I learn your phobia and can use it against you.”

“Don’t get me wrong. There’s shit in this place that even gives me the chills.”

“Such as?”

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