Page 12 of Enticing Her Love

“Yes, I know,” she said defensively. “Jungle is a descriptor, not a scientific term. It doesn’t refer to a specific ecosystem the way rainforest does. In here, there’s not much sunlight because of the thick canopy of trees, and even though it seems like there’s a lot of growth on the rainforest floor, there’s not compared to a jungle, which has more sunlight, more vegetation, and more growth on the ground. Here, most of the action happens up there.” She pointed up. “In the jungle, it happens down there.” She pointed to the ground.

He was amused and impressed. Then again, she had yet to disappoint him on an assignment. “Someone did her homework.”

“Of course I did, and by the way, in my research, the rainforest was often called a jungle.”

“If you read information written fifty years ago, that was the term that was used. Anything since then must have been written by misinformed people.”

“Which is exactly why you said something.” She nodded, as if she was realizing he wasn’t just being a pushy ass. “Got it.”

“A’right then, Steele. Let’s do this.” He lifted the camera, waiting for her to flash that killer smile, which meant she was ready to report. He silently counted down and pointed at her.

“One of the scariest things about being in the rainforest is that you can starve to death or die of dehydration. A person can go three days without water and three weeks without food. After only a few hours of sweating profusely while trekking through the rainforest, I’m famished and so thirsty, I can’t imagine making it through the night without a drink. We’ve gathered some edible plants and flowers, and we’ve just come across small pools of rainwater that have gathered in the crevices and valleys of large rocks.”

Flynn panned to the pools of water, the largest of which was only about six inches long and four inches wide, and then panned back to her.

“We don’t know what types of bacteria this water might have come in contact with, so we’re going to collect it in our canteens, and we’ll purify it once we set up camp. Flynn is going to guide me through this process, and you get to come along for the ride. Okay, Flynn, where do we start?”

Sutton never hemmed or hawed on camera, but she usually had time to prepare. As pissed as he was about being in the rainforest, if they hadn’t been there, he might never have gotten to see that she was a natural at impromptu reporting. There weren’t many people who could pull that off without seeming uncomfortable or ill prepared. That opened doors to the types of stories they could cover.

“Why don’t we start with the largest pool of water. You’ll need two big leaves that you can use as a funnel.”

“That should be easy. Look at all these leafy plants.” She motioned around them. “But the rainforest is tricky. We can’t just pluck a leaf from a plant without first visually inspecting it to be sure there are no nasty creatures lurking about. Let’s see what we can find.” She looked over the leafy plants to her right and crouched to inspect beneath the leaves, quickly stumbling backward, eyes wide. “I think we’ll skip that one.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“There’s a huge spider on the bottom of that leaf.”

“Let’s get a look at that spider.” He got a shot from under the leaf. “That’s a scary-looking dude, but it’s not a spider. It’s a tailless whip scorpion. They’re nonvenomous but quick moving—” The scorpion jumped off the underside of the leaf, and Flynn stepped back. Sutton screamed, grabbing the back of his shirt as the scorpion took off into the brush. “It’s all fun and games until a scorpion shows up.”

“Ohmygod. Are you still filming?” she asked in a panic.

“Of course.” He turned the camera on her. “Now you can get that leaf.”

“Right.” She forced a smile, but her eyes said he’d pay for that later. She scanned the ground again before reinspecting that leaf and another and tearing them from the stems. She held them up with a real smile this time. “Two scorpion-free leaves.”

“Excellent. Now comes the tricky part.”

“And you thought avoiding the scorpion was tricky,” she said to the camera.

Damn, he liked this side of her. “Being careful not to tear the leaf, you’re going to roll one of them into a funnel and put the thinner side in the canteen. Make the other side as wide as possible. That’s the side you’ll use to collect the water.” He waited for her to make the funnel.

“How’s this?”

“Perfect. You’ll want to position the wide end of the funnel at one end of the crevice, in the water, and then use the other leaf like a scoop, slowly pushing the water into the funnel.”

“That might be easier if you helped me.”

“It would be easier, but you can do it.”

She scowled, quickly catching herself, and turned it into a camera-ready grin as she got into position and said, “And that’s just one reason I might have to feed Flynn to the wild animals.”

She probably thought he’d edit that out, but her frustration, and the look of determination on her face while she collected the water, was what made this footage stand out. When she’d collected all she could, he said, “See? You barely lost a drop. How do you think you can get the last little bit that’s left?”

“Why bother? There are two other pools of water.”

“Because while it’s not much water, you’ll be thankful for every drop tomorrow.”

She studied the small amount of water in the crevice, brow furrowed. “I can’t get it with the leaf, and I can’t use the leaf like a straw because we can’t put the water in our mouths.” She looked at him curiously.