Page 30 of Love in the Wild

Holt’s face finally expressed an emotion. Mild disgust. “He took a hostage, didn’t he? Let me guess—a woman? That bloody fool thinks of his cock and nothing else. The man is supposed to be a professional.”

“Oui, a woman. But there was a sound from the jungle. Some of the men began speaking of a beast. A pale ghost.” Jean cringed at the memory of the tree shaking with the echoing roar. “We started to run. Monsieur Cash stayed behind to kill the woman, but thebeastkilled him and the others. Only I escaped.”

Holt’s eyes somehow managed to frost even more. “Cash is dead?”

“Oui. The beast snapped his neck. It killed like no other creature I’ve seen. For a moment I thought ...”

“You thoughtwhat?” Holt asked, his voice dangerously low. The gilded furnishings in the office suddenly took on an ominous feel. A stuffed gorilla looked on menacingly from the corner in the muted lamplight.

“I thought the beast looked human, Monsieur Holt. But that cannot be. No one lives that deep in the forest.”

Holt slowly sat back down at his desk, storm clouds gathering on his brow. His gaze turned distant for a long moment. When he refocused on Jean, the Frenchman’s stomach roiled with nerves.

“Go and clean yourself up at the hotel across the street and rest the night there. Charge it to my account. Tomorrow we will speak again about this ghost.”

“Oui, monsieur. Thank you.”

Jean fled the office and rushed into the growing dark, only to hear a bellow of rage and the smashing of something behind him. Whatever lurked in the branches of the jungle wasn’t the only monster in Uganda. Another lived right here in the city, wearing an expensive suit.

7

Eden stretched and yawned as sunlight began to warm her face. For a moment she didn’t remember where she was. Then she felt soft grass rustle beneath her, and her eyes snapped wide open.

She dimly remembered falling asleep near the gorillas, but she wasn’t lying in a nest on the ground. She was lying in a bed of soft grass that covered a mass of palm fronds from banana trees, which formed a gentle cushion the size of a king bed. She was in a tree house, much like the first one Thorne had brought her to. But that one had been small and closed off except for the trapdoor and a small window. In this one, the walls were carved with strange symbols in beautiful patterns, some of them matching the tattoos on Thorne’s shoulders.

This tree house was bigger than her small one-room efficiency apartment back in Little Rock. This place washuge. The beautiful bed of long soft grass and fronds was in one corner. There were five large windows with thatched reed coverings that could drop in place, held up by vines used like rope to hold them during the day. In one corner of the room, a pile of glittering stones and gold objects rested in beautifully arranged displays. Eden’s eyes widened.

Eden wanted to know where Thorne had found those. They had to be from a lost civilization. If there were more, archeologists would consider it the find of the century.

Her camera bag lay close to the bed. Thorne had removed her boots and socks and draped a blanket of fur over her body. It felt like deerskin. She gently pushed it off her body. A small, roughly carved wooden cup held fresh water, and a palm frond that sat within reach was piled with more peeled mangoes, nuts, and wild celery.

Eden wanted to explore this new home, but she needed to satisfy the rumblings of her belly first. She drank the cool water and ate, then got to her feet and padded on the smooth wooden planks to the nearest window. How had he made this place? The craftsmanship was still rough in places, but not everywhere. It was clear that Thorne had gained his knowledge of woodworking from someone. The question waswhoandhow? She peered out and gasped when she saw how high up they were. In the distance, a waterfall spilled into a pool. Was that the waterfall he had taken her to yesterday?

The jungle shook with a distant roar, one she knew belonged to Thorne, but it was not a warning call. It was something else, a sound of happiness and a challenge to the jungle at the same time.

Then she saw him. He swung down below on the vines and came up toward her with the lithe grace of a jungle cat, landing on all fours in a perfect crouch. Then he straightened, walking confidently along the branch, only a foot wide, toward the ladder that led up to the tree house. His lean, muscled legs were a sight to behold. Eden kept convincing herself that she had imagined the sheer perfection of his body, and yet it wasn’t her imagination. He was gorgeous.

She took a moment to watch him unobserved. A flutter in her belly was followed by a slow-burning desire. She’d been trying to slow things down, but damn if he didn’t call to something primal inside her. He spoke of mates with such a sweet earnestness that it nearly broke her resolve. He would become a masterful lover, she was certain. Eden had always had a healthy love of sex, but sex with Thorne would be beyond anything she’d ever experienced before, and that was a little bit intimidating. What if she fell in love with him? What if there were simply too many what-ifs when it came to this beautiful wild man?

Thorne suddenly appeared in the window, beaming at her. “Eden is awake.”

“Yes,Iam.” She chuckled, pointing to herself as she emphasized the pronoun. “And it is ‘Youare awake.’ Not ‘Eden is awake.’”

Thorne pointed to himself. “Me.” Then pointed to her. “You?”

“Yes, exactly.”

His brow furrowed as he considered her words before he vanished and then opened one of the large wooden doors to the tree house.

“Youare awake,” he said more confidently.

“Yes.”

“You eat?”

“I have eaten, yes.” She corrected him again. Last night she’d noticed him doing his best to correct his speech, and she’d decided to help him.

“Ihaveeaten.” He looked to her, and she nodded in approval. He brightened. “You take more pictures?” He pointed to her camera bag.

---