Page 76 of Explorer's Revenge
“Fine,” she answers absentmindedly. She stops for a moment, her eyes on the bushes around us, before she continues walking. I know she’s concerned—hell, I am too—but the croc isn’t here right now, and she is, so I’m going to focus on her.
She came back for us.
I want to wring her fucking neck for putting herself at risk again, and then I want to kiss the shit out of her.
“Carter,” I warn, and she flashes her eyes to mine and sees I’m serious. She never could lie to me. Even when all we did was fight, it was nothing but truthful, even in malice, and like my brothers so helpfully pointed out, it was mostly flirting rather than fighting now that I look back at it.
At least on my end.
I took out my need for Carter on her without even realizing what I was doing.
I don’t know when my mindset began to change, but I can’t deny that Carter is the one I want. If I were ever to take something for myself, it would be her. I might die today, tomorrow, or a year from now, but when I do, I’ll regret the time I wasted not being hers.
She’s crude, loud, excitable, and silly, but she’s also highly intelligent, caring, loyal, and brave. She drives me crazy, but maybe I need that. Maybe I’ve even come to crave it.
I don’t know what will happen when we make it from the island alive, but I do know that I’m tired of pretending I don’t want Maeve Carter.
“It’s fine,” she grumbles, finally realizing I’m not backing down. “They gave me some good drugs. I should be resting, but I will when I get back, so until then, I just need to focus on moving and distracting myself from the ache.”
So it’s hurting her. We need to get off the island, but until we do, I can help a little, or maybe it’s just my pervy thoughts that only seem to crop up around her.
“Fine, then let me distract you. Let’s talk about our kiss.”
Her head swings around, her eyes wide, and I chuckle.
“Really? You want to talk about that now?” she hisses, cutting the others a look.
“We don’t have anything better to do. Are you embarrassed, Carter?” I tease.
Her eyes narrow in irritation, just like I expected, and damn if it doesn’t make me hard when she rises to my bait. No one fights me like Carter. No one else dares to. “You call that a kiss? I barely remember it.”
She’s saying it out of embarrassment and trying to get me to argue with her. It’s how we are, and she’s trying to get us back to our norm, but I won’t let her. I’m not going back now.
Not after I’ve had a taste of her.
I step into her path, and she bumps into my chest, her head coming up and eyes widening as I grip the nape of her neck and pull her closer. “Then let me remind you,” I growl before I cover her lips with mine. Her gasp opens her mouth, and I slide my tongue inside, tangling it with hers as I deepen the kiss. She smacks my chest to push me away, but as we continue, she stops struggling and grips me tighter, hauling me closer. I smirk in victory as I pull away. Her eyes are closed, her lips are swollen and parted, and her cheeks are pink.
She’s so fucking beautiful, I ache to kiss her again.
She would look so fucking good below me, all that fire and attitude. I’d fuck it right out of her. If there wasn’t a croc on our tail, I would do just that right here and now, everyone else be damned.
Sweeping my thumb across her lips, I settle for just that kiss—for now. “You’ll remember that one,” I tease her.
She stares at me incredulously, and she’s so fucking cute I can’t help myself. Leaning down, I steal another peck, and she stumbles back, her hand covering her mouth as if to protect herself from me.
“I give it an eight out of ten.” I glance back to see Rick grinning. “You needed more tongue, brother, but if you two are done dry humping and flirting, then we need to keep moving.”
“We do not flirt!” Carter yells before glaring at me and giving me a wide berth, her eyes wide as she leads the way. Laughing,I lunge for her, and she yelps, moving until Logan is between us and glaring at me.
I can’t help but smile, even as I hurry after them.
Maeve Carter is so fucking adorable, and when we are out of this jungle, I’m going to show her just what she does to me.
“It’s too quiet,” Logan murmurs, his eyes wide as he looks around. We are all worried about resting, but it’s been hours. We need to sit down, drink, and eat, and there hasn’t been any sign of it. Of course, that means nothing. Carter has her gun, and I’m on watch on the other side, not taking any risks with our team.
“It’s probably resting or searching for us,” Way says, but he doesn’t seem sure. After all, this thing doesn’t ever seem to give up. It finds us wherever we go. No wonder the island is deserted. I have no idea what happened here, and I don’t think we ever will, but it’s obvious it has something to do with that creature.
As if following my train of thought, Maeve looks around us. “I wonder if that monster is what happened here.”
