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)
“Careful. I’m gonna tell Hank you like another animal more.”
“Hank can comfort himself with the fact that he perched on my boob for like an hour.”
“If we’re lucky, maybe we will see some other monkeys,” I told her, hating to try to push her along, but I’d already lost sight of Marco.
He was a very talented but impatient guide. He wouldn’t wait for us, no matter how far we fell behind. Not even for a damn pee break.
I knew.
I’d used him as a guide before.
Back when I first fell in love with the Amazon, before the idea of increasing tourism while limiting the impact on the environment sent me back to the States to start investing in the venture.
“God, can you tell him to slow down?” Violet asked some time later, her hands on her hips as she tried to take deep breaths. The front of her tank was wet with sweat, and her face had gone pink enough that, if it were fully up to me, I would stop.
“I could. But he won’t listen,” I told her, reaching for a bottle of water and passing it to her.
“What’s the rush?” she asked after a long sip.
“He likes to keep his own pace.”
“Shouldn’t he be keeping your pace, since you’re paying him?”
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.”
“It eats 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 you seen those 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?”
“Jaguars. Black Caiman. Electric Eels. Poison Dart Frogs. Fucking bullet ants…”
“Ants? Those human-sized spiders are cool, but you’re scared of ants?”
“Not normal ants. But bullet ants have a bite that is ranked as the most painful sting or bite of any insect. It’s been described as walking over burning coals with a long, rusted spike embedded in your foot. And the pain can last twenty-four hours.”
Violet watched my profile for a long moment before declaring, “You know, I think we’re done with school time today. Don’t tell me anything else.”
Yeah, I couldn’t blame her for that one.
We fell into a companionable silence again. Occasionally, I would reach out to grab her hip, steering her away from a creepy crawler before she could have a jump scare about it.
Each time, she had a full-body shiver. And, here and there, I caught her patting herself down. Like she felt like the bugs were crawling all over her or something.
I hoped we got out before the damn mosquitoes came out. They were a whole different beast in this area than she was used to. And could be carrying malaria or Zika.
I had bug spray to try to keep them away, but even that might not cut it.