Page 50 of Chasing Paradise

“The bike. Preferably recumbent. So, what makes these so eco-friendly? Aside from the solar?”

“The solar that isn’t even hooked up, you mean?” he asked, reaching toward the side of the building where a thick wire was just dangling down, not connected to anything. “They are all supposed to have composting toilets and gray water that go from the sinks and showers back into the environment. So everyone has to use very specific products. You know, if anyone actually ever stayed here.”

With that, Wick reached for the door.

“Why lock something they don’t give a shit about?” he grumbled.

“This is where I come in handy,” I said, pushing him out of my way as I went into his pack, digging around until I got to his first aid kit, using a few of the various little tools inside to pick the lock.

“Are you allowed to do that in your line of work?”

“Not really, no. But who would ever know? After you,” I said, pushing the door in and waving an arm out.

I followed, looking around at the tiny space that featured a bed, the smallest kitchen known to mankind, and a little postage-stamp-sized bathroom. The kind with the drain in the center of the floor and no delineation between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. I was no expert or anything, but that seemed like hell to clean.

Honestly, for how tiny it was, it was pretty nice. Dark floors, floor-to-ceiling windows that gave amazing views of the rainforest, even nice linens on the bed.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” Wick warned as I went and let myself lower back.

I mean, if the place wasn’t being used, it didn’t matter if I got my sweat and dirt from the hike on the bedding.

“You just take your little pictures. I’ll take a nice nap.”

Of course, though, there weren’t exactly a lot of things to take pictures of. So before I could even get comfortable, Wick was declaring we should get going.

“But look, a bed,” I said, running my hand over the linens.

“Yeah, duchess. That’s part of the problem.”

He was quick to turn away. But not before I got to see the heat in his eyes—warm enough to burn through several layers of clothes.

I was suddenly resentful of Marco’s presence. And, you know, my whole ‘I can’t have sex with a skip’ mindset. Because rolling around on this particular bed with that view a few feet away—even if it was teeming with creepy crawlers—sounded amazing.

Before the desire could spark into a full-blown wildfire through my system, I climbed off the bed, exhaled hard, then followed Wick outside.

“Hear something?” Wick asked when I stopped, head tipped to the side.

“It’s probably nothing,” I said, shrugging it off. “Or maybe just the insects getting together to form an army to take us out.”

“Gird your intestines,” Wick teased, making a little laugh escape me. “Okay, this time, I go down first.”

“So if I slip, I can use your body to cushion my fall?”

To that, his lips twitched.

“That is the idea.”

“If the insect army comes, I’m tossing you at them and running for my life.”

“Naturally,” Wick agreed, carefully making his way down.

There was another crunching sound that had my heartbeat racing. I mean, I wasn’t an idiot; I didn’t genuinely think theinsects were going to do anything to us. I mean, I wasn’t writing it off, but it seemed unlikely. And these parts were full of various critters. Including lots of different primates.

That said, something was making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

I tried to brush it off, to focus on my footing, to imagine the tacos and coffee I was going to binge-eat when all this was over.

But the further down we went, the more the occasional crunch set my nerves on edge.

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