Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Eventually, it came.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Violet
I woke up warm.
But not the sun-on-my-skin kind of warm like the morning before.
This was a cozier, dreamier kind of heat. A very human kind of heat.
Even as that thought formed, my eyes shot open.
Everything came to me at once.
The steady rise and fall of a chest below me, the thump of a heart beneath my ear, the arm draped heavily across my hips, the fingers that had drifted just up under the hem of my shirt to rest on my bare skin.
In my sleep, I’d sought his warmth like, well, like my little lizard friend Hank, I guess.
That thought almost had a snort escaping me until I realized I maybe had a slight chance to get carefully away from him before he even realized I’d climbed up on him in my sleep.
Okay.
Slow and steady was the way to go here.
I took a deep breath and slowly shifted my arm to brace on the ground on the other side of Wick. That way I could inch my body off of his little by little before fully moving away. And scooting ten or twenty—or a hundred—feet away.
Despite my little mission, my damn body betrayed me. My blood warmed, my breath went quick and shallow, my heart hammered in my chest, and a deep pressure started in my core.
I shifted my weight, making my leg slide.
And becoming intimately acquainted with his hard length against my thigh.
There was no stopping the little whimper of need that escaped me as my sex clenched and I just barely resisted the urge to straddle him, let his length press against my cleft, and rock against him until I got relief from the clawing need deep within me.
Unfortunately, the pre-dawn island was awkwardly quiet.
And Wick came awake with a jolt, his green eyes snapping open and pinning me on the spot.
For a painfully long moment, my breath felt frozen in my chest, making it impossible to form words.
Wick’s fingers moved, gliding across my lower back, sparking a little fire that worked its way up my spine, then sank in deep, burning from deep inside.
“I, uh, um, pulled a Hank,” I managed to say finally.
Wick’s gaze slid from my eyes to my mouth and back.
“I guess I was cold in my sleep,” I added, suddenly throwing myself off to his side. “It’s, um, almost sunrise,” I said, pulling my knees to my chest and trying to ignore the ache between my thighs.
Wick folded up too, likely trying to hide his own—much more obvious—desire.
“What the hell am I supposed to do all day?”
I hadn’t meant to say it out loud.
“I heard once that humans were meant to walk around naked in the jungle, eating fruit, and fucking,” he said.
The casual way he’d said that last part had another jolt of desire moving through me.
And I thought for one thrilling moment that maybe he was suggesting we spend the day doing just that.
But then he got up and walked off into the woods without another word.
So, I guess he was doing the whole… gathering fruit thing again.
I sat there for a few minutes more, watching the sun rise.
Then I got up and took off to the woods. When I came back out to eat some of the remaining fruit alone on the beach.
It wasn’t until I was on my third orange, watching Hank—or one of his friends, it was impossible to tell—scamper around eating bugs, that I noticed what was missing.
My HELP sign was gone.
The tide must have come in further than I realized, washing it all away.
A grumble rose up, though it was kind of half-hearted. At least I would have something to do with my day again.
What can I say? I wasn’t someone accustomed to just sitting around doing nothing. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was someone who—when not on a job—liked to rot in bed. But, you know, with movies and shows and music. Maybe, on occasion—if my librarian cousin Luna insisted on it—a book.
Not just… lying around in silence, watching the waves.
I would go stir crazy with nothing to do but think about how much I missed coffee and tacos and, well, anything but fruit and protein bars.
“Alright, Hank. You hold down the fort; I’m going to get some sticks, so I can get off of this lovely little island paradise and back to light pollution, exhaust fumes, and processed food.”
By the time I made it back out of the woods with my arms full of sticks, Wick had been back and gone again, leaving a pile of more oranges, bananas, and an impressive selection of protein bars.
“How the hell did he fit all these in his pack?” I asked Hank as he sunned a few feet away. “What do you think: birthday cake or cookies ’n cream?” Hank’s little forked tongue slipped out, smelling for prey the way snakes would. “You’re right. Why not both?”