“But-“
“Brianna, what you and your brother need to realize is that the Amazon is not a place filled with fairy tales and pixies. It is a flesh and blood place, with real people who call it home. There are no stores, no television, no phones, nothing except what you can make and catch with your bare hands. Most people can’t survive it on their own. Which is why you hired me,” Roanna turned on Brianna, her eyes full of fire and fury.
Brianna shrank back as if struck.
Jack turned in his seat to face Roanna.
“You were a little hard on her,” he said once Brianna put on her headphones.
Roanna looked him in the eyes.
“It’s better that I yell at her for being stupid than let her die because of it,” she said coldly and looked back out the window.
Jack looked to Erin, almost appealingly, but she offered him no reprieve from Roanna’s fury; because she agreed.
They met with Brianna’s bodyguard, Claude, at the airport. He wasn’t blatantly protective of her, but even Roanna noticed how aware he was of everything.
They sat in the waiting room to pass by the twenty minutes left until they could board the plane.
Roanna put in her headphones as soon as she sat down with the hope to discourage conversation, but before long Jack approached her and took the seat next to her.
“What?” Roanna demanded irritably as she tugged off her headphones.
He picked up her hand before he spoke.
“Why do you keep going back to the Amazon?” he asked curiously as he traced patterns over the skin of her hand.
Irritated and more affected by it than she’d like to admit, she yanked her hand away, then looked out the window, trying to figure out how to put it in words.
“Well?” he asked quietly.
Finally, she looked back at him, square in the face.
“Because it’s wild and vicious and beautiful. Because the rules are clear there; live or die. And because I will always have a bond with it. Always,” Roanna said passionately, the fire lighting her eyes again.
Jack felt a disturbing mix of emotions at Roanna’s reaction to him, and her description of the Amazon.
Her face captured him, the same way it had the night they’d met.
He could remember it clearly; the cool, detached aura she purposefully put out, hoping to put anyone off of speaking to her.
He’d seen women like her before, and he’d seduced nearly all of them just on principle. He never considered himself a debaucher, just a man who enjoyed the company of women; he justified it by saying that women enjoyed their company with him just as much.
Her cool tone intrigued him, and as he prepared himself for a long siege, and was pleasantly surprised when she took control, and brought him to bed herself.
He carefully shifted away to other thoughts, knowing what effect thoughts of that night would bring, and how embarrassing that would be when the flight attendants came ‘round.
He’d woken up the morning after, unbelievably disappointed that he didn’t roll over to find her willing body instead of a note with his sunglasses.
So, he’d slept in and wallowed, and prepared himself to wallow at Brianna’s house.
And was surprised again when he saw Roanna, sitting in his sister’s library.
Getting a Move On
Start from the beginning
