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)
“Hey, duchess?” Wick’s voice was a soft caress that had my lashes fluttering open.
“Yeah?”
“I’ve had the time of my life with you.” He pressed a kiss to the tip of my nose. “Even if you continually tried to sacrifice me to large, bloodthirsty insects.”
My lips curved up at that.
“Despite all my grumbling, I kind of had a good time too. In a ‘I never want to do this again’ way, though.”
“Noted,” he agreed, rolling onto his back, making me straddle him. “What do you say that once you heartlessly turn me over to the authorities, and my case gets thrown out, I take you out somewhere? With food. And indoor plumbing.”
“I think I can fit that into my schedule.”
“And then maybe another date after that, and after that, and after that, until you realize you can’t live without me any more than I can live without you?”
My heart felt like it was dangerously close to bursting.
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” I said, leaning down to press my lips to his. “I already can’t imagine life without you.”
“You won’t have to,” he assured me, arms wrapping me up tight. “We will be together after all of this.”
“But first, I have to introduce you to my handcuffs…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Violet
“Um, so are you going to bring him home to, what, your parents’ couch?” my cousin, Hope asked.
Hope was the most like me of all my cousins—a woman in a male-dominated field, lover of practical clothing styles, disliker of most outdoor activities.
It was a week after I recovered from my little fatigue illness.
After Wick and I had maxed out our stay at the hotel.
After packing up our things and trekking back to Miami.
Then New Jersey.
Where I slapped on cuffs with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm, climbed in the backseat of my parents’ car—them all smiles as I introduced them to Wick—and drove him to a police station to hand him over for my bounty.
As much as I’d been playing with him while I manhandled him and passed him off to the cops, my heart was crumbling at the idea of us being wrong, at the possibility that we didn’t have enough evidence, that the government wouldn’t care and would lock Wick away forever just out of spite.
Because for a few days, I heard nothing. No updates. No nothing.
But then I’d finally seen it on the news.
Wick’s uncle, his coworkers, and his “business partner” getting hauled in by the feds.
And, finally, the call while having a pizza party with my cousins from Wick’s new attorney, Rosie, telling me that all charges were being dropped against Wick, and that I could come and get him.
“No, I’m not taking him to my parents’ place.” Even if that had been where I was staying after I got back to Navesink Bank. Partly because I had no place of my own. But also because every single one of my aunts, uncles, and cousins had wanted to see me and hear my story about being “stranded” on a deserted island and being chased by assassins through an insect-riddled rainforest.
And, of course, hear all about cute capybaras, bearded monkeys, cool lizards, and a frog with butt cheeks.
“Where are you going then?” Layna, another of my cousins, asked, her long legs draped over the arm of the chair I was sitting on.
“A hotel. Temporarily. Wick had a luxury apartment overlooking the Navesink, but when he got locked up, the lease expired, so he lost it. Until we can figure out where we’re going next—”
“That’s a lot of we,” yet another of my cousins—the unendingly sweet, blonde-haired optimist, the heart of our little group, Gracie—piped in.
“There’s been a lot of we ever since we met,” I said, shrugging.
“You’re not moving to his island, are you?” Hope asked.
“God, no,” I said, cringing. “I mean, it’s beautiful and everything. But there’s no internet. No cable. No tacos…”
“God forbid,” Gracie said with a smile. “But you’re totally going to have the wedding there, right? I mean, you have to.”
It might have seemed wild to be thinking about things like rings and forever-afters. Still, I was doing a little of that kind of thinking.
Yes, me, the complete opposite of a hopeless romantic, was imagining Save the Dates and vows.
That was how you knew I was head-over for the guy.
“I don’t think Isla Perdita is big enough to have half of Navesink Bank descend on it.”
“Rainforest wedding?” Gracie amended the idea. “With a remote island honeymoon. Because… that sounds perfect.”
“Lots of naked outdoors sex where no one can hear or see?” Layna piped back in. “Way better than some cruise or something.”
“Guys, we just started dating. We’re not talking about weddings and honeymoons yet,” I reminded them.
“Sure. Sure. But I remember Hope saying something like that just a few months before she was getting all engaged,” Gracie said.