Page 86 of Chasing Paradise

I had to be gone at least half an hour before I finally found a rock that was just tall enough to work. I didn’t need a lot of space for Vi to be able to slide her legs out. A couple of inches should do it.

I rolled the rock back, letting out a little whistle as I saw Violet frantically searching the tree line for me.

The relief on her face made a warm sensation move through my chest.

I wasn’t an idiot.

My feelings for Violet had been growing by the day. And once we finally gave fully into it, yeah, shit had just accelerated.

When you were spending every minute of the day together, talking to pass the time, you ended up knowing more about each other in a few days than you would likely learn in months or even years if you were dating in a normal situation.

She’d told me what it was like to grow up in an outlaw biker club, about her mom’s bounty hunting and her dad’s horrific childhood. She talked fondly of her older brother who’d gone offon an adventure years back, but had come home and fallen back in love with his high school sweetheart.

I knew the names of all of her aunts and uncles—all of them from said biker club, not blood—and cousins who were all her best friends. Especially the girls. Who she thought might be moments away from hopping a plane and coming to find her themselves if she didn’t show up soon.

Not having a lot of family left to talk about, I told her mostly about my travels, about how doing so had expanded my mindset, made me really give a shit about the environment that I’d never really considered before. But when you watched deforestation driving out precious animal species, when you’d lived through some of the worsening storms, and seen the aftermath of horrific wildfires, you started to care.

That was why I started to invest in my uncle’s company. I wanted to encourage people to see the wonders of the rainforest… without negatively impacting the rainforest itself.

Some part of me wished I had never decided to invest.

But that said, if I hadn’t, I never would have been arrested. I wouldn’t have skipped out on bail. Violet wouldn’t have come across my file and followed me. We wouldn’t have gone deep into the jungle together, gotten to know each other, and had feelings start to grow.

“Hey, duchess. Think I got the solution here,” I said, rolling the rock over to the side of her body and setting up the rock fulcrum. “How’re the legs doing? Can you still move your feet for me?”

In answer, she wiggled her toes.

“Okay, good,” I said, turning to go drag my limb over. “Now, I’m gonna need you to move as fast as possible as soon as I get this thing lifted. Don’t try to stand or anything, just pull your legs out of the way.”

“Can do,” she agreed, moving to sit and reaching down to wrap her hands under her upper thighs, ready to pull them if she needed to.

I positioned the limb to act as a lever, then looked at Violet.

“Ready?”

She gave me a tight nod before her gaze slid to her legs, watching closely for the slightest bit of room.

A loud curse escaped me as I pushed down with everything I had onto the beam.

Sweat pricked my brow as my arms, back, and shoulders screamed.

“Got it,” Vi said, pulling her legs back with so much force that she rolled back into a ball, hugging them to her chest.

Careful not to drop the limb too hard and risk hitting her, I lowered it back to the ground before rushing to her side.

“You okay?” I asked as she stretched out and stared up at me, her breathing fast.

“It’s like pins and needles dialed up to eleven,” she said, rubbing the heels of her hands against her thighs.

“Just the blood returning,” I assured her. Honestly, I had no idea for sure. That was just my hope.

Violet shook her legs, hit them with her hands, clenched them together—anything to try to ease the nerves firing off.

She had some scratches from the bark, and I imagined the bruises would set in as the day went on, but it could have been so much worse.

“Okay,” she said after a long moment. “Alright. Let’s try standing.”

I got up first, still feeling a little spinning, but it eased more quickly.

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