Page 36 of Love in the Wild

“You will stay ... if I do this?”

“Stay with you?” Her tone was full of uncertainty.

“Yes. Stay with me. Here.”

Her eyes betrayed her as they softened with sorrow. “Thorne, I can’t stay here, not forever. I have a life, a family, a job. These last few days have been incredible, but this world, it isn’tmine.”

Thorne raised her chin up so their gazes locked. “I want you to stay, be mine.Always.” How could he tell her the truth? That there was no Thorne without Eden. They were two halves of a whole. Why couldn’t she see that? But he didn’t have the words.

“You have no idea how much that tempts me. It’s beautiful here. But this, it’s a fantasy, a dream. I couldn’t survive here, even with you protecting me.” She leaned into him, pressing her cheek to his chest. “You don’t have to stay here—you can come tomyworld. It belongs to you too.”

He wished he could believe her, but he’d spent too many years in the jungle. Too many nights sleeping beneath the stars and hunting in the wild. Bwanbale’s world was strange enough to him, and that was just a small village, seen from a distance. The stories Bwanbale had shared of the larger world had terrified him.

He would not know how to fit into her world, but if he never left the forest, he would never let her down. The time they had together would remain a beautiful memory, a dream that for a time was real. It would have to be enough for him.

A memory crept into his mind, one of a vast world of flowers shadowed by twilight.

His small hands were cupped together, holding something trapped within his palms. Something that glowed. Something he wanted. His mother was there, kneeling in front of him.

“You should set the lightning bug free, Thorne,” she said.

“Don’t want to!” he argued. “Mine!”

His mother smiled sadly at him, and his tiny heart quivered. He didn’t like it when he made her sad.

“When we love something with all our heart, sometimes we have to let it go. Creatures big and small deserve to be free.” She gently cupped his palms. Her hands were warm. He felt safe and loved whenever she touched him.

“Set it free?” he asked. He could feel the lightning bug crawling on the insides of his hands. “I don’t want it to go.”

“But it will be happy if you do. It’s not happy there. See? It’s stopped flashing.” His mother was right—the glowing that peeked out from his fingers had stopped. Thorne spread his palms wide, and the lightning bug on his palm glowed. It buzzed and took flight, vanishing into the night to join the distant winking flashes of the other bugs.

“See? It’s making happy flashes.”

Thorne’s heart was burdened with the loss, but he was glad that the lightning bug was happy again.

Thorne closed his eyes. The memory had been so vivid in his mind. He held on to the image, breathing deeply before he faced Eden again. If he took her to the other humans she would be happy again, and that was all that mattered to him.

“I will take you to Bwanbale tomorrow. He will help you.”

Eden bit her bottom lip. “Will you come with me?”

He placed one of his palms on the soft mossy trunk of the nearest tree and shook his head. “My family is here. I must protect them.”

Eden was silent a long moment, then nodded. “I understand.”

Thorne took Eden to the mango grove, where he climbed high into the trees so he could pluck the ripe fruit, and then he dropped them down to her. When he leapt back to the ground, they carried their mangoes to his tree house, where they ate in a quiet but pleasant silence.

Eden lay back in his arms. Her weight against his chest was a comfort he would miss now that he’d tasted the joy a mate could bring. As the light began to fade outside, Eden turned in his arms, her mouth seeking his.

He could deny her nothing, this spinner of beloved dreams, this creator of wondrous memories. She removed her skins slowly, letting him take in the sight of her before she lay back on the palm frond and grass nest. He kissed her lips, her chin, the hollow of her throat, and further down. Each time he touched her, he was stunned by the beauty of her feminine form. He caressed her breasts before sucking one nipple into his mouth. She arched her back, pressing herself closer to his exploring mouth. Thorne savored her every sigh and moan as he explored her body. She giggled as he kissed the inside of her thighs and her smooth belly.

As their bodies joined, he struggled to hold back, to go slow. He wanted to remember everything about her. He took his time, mating with her with exquisite slowness. If this was to be his final time with her, he didn’t want to rush it. As Eden writhed with pleasure in his arms, he followed her, and then they lay quiet a long while after, their bodies still connected.

Just outside the tree house, the sounds of the wild came to them. Birds, monkeys, insects, even the deep trumpets of elephants and the mating calls of the jaguars.

He waited for Eden to fall asleep, but she stayed awake, holding on to him. Perhaps she dreaded the goodbye that tomorrow’s sunrise would bring as much as he did.

“Eden, tell me of your home again.” He wanted to see in his mind’s eye the world that she would be returning to so he might picture her there when he lay awake in the dark jungle, all alone and missing her.

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