Page 34 of Enticing Her Love

“I thought we were on the same page about honest reporting.” He chuckled as he went to get the camera. Turning the camera on her, he pointed to the net.

Like the professional she was, Sutton turned her scowl into a smile and did what she did best. “We’ve just pulled the net out of the river. The water was warm and too muddy to see under the surface, which made every step a bit nerve-racking, and the riverbed was rocky and weedy. I’m glad I had my sandals on.” She paused, as if that comment was meant for him. “But I’m even happier that there were no giant snakes or hungry caiman waiting for us. Let’s see if we caught any fish.” She pulled out a few reeds and held them up for the camera. Peering into the net, she fished around with her hand, removing leaves and twigs. Her eyes widened, and she gasped. “We got one! Look!” Pride shimmered in her eyes as she lifted the net, showing the audience a fish tangled in it. “It’s only about four inches long, but that’s more than we had five minutes ago!”

Sutton’s pinched brow told Flynn she was trying not to make faces as she freed the fish from the net. It wiggled out of her fingers and fell to the ground. “Whoops! He’s a feisty little guy.” She picked it up by the tail and showed the audience again before setting it aside and working through more of the netting. She pulled out a small branch and made a surprised sound. “We got another one! This one’s bigger. After only a day and a half in the rainforest, I’m practically salivating over these fish.” She fought with the netting and the squirming fish, held up the fish for the camera, and then set it with the other one.

She pushed to her feet, her tone turning serious. “When we entered this beautiful, terrifying rainforest, I had tunnel vision and saw myself as prey. All I could think about was how many predators there are and the varying shapes and sizes of them, from spiders and poisonous frogs to venomous snakes and wild cats. We won’t even talk about what happens if you eat the wrong plants. I’ll always be prey to many things that live here, but today I feel powerful and resourceful. Today I became a predator, too.”

Flynn remembered the first few times that life-changing feeling had hit him and was hit with a rush of happiness for Sutton.

AFTER CATCHING AND cooking several more fish, they were sitting on the rocks with full bellies and smiles on their faces. Well, Flynn was sitting on the rocks. Sutton was sitting on her day pack. Why seeing that made him happy, he had no idea. It was just one more thing about the woman who was as tough as she was feminine that intrigued him.

“I would kill for an iced hazelnut coffee right now.” Sutton turned her face up to the sun and closed her eyes. “What do you miss most?”

“Not much.” The truth was, he didn’t miss a damn thing, because nothing back home compared to spending time with Sutton. Even if last night was all the intimacy they’d share, and the rest of their time together was spent just getting to know each other better, he knew two more nights would never be enough.

She shaded her eyes, studying him. “Really?”

“We’ve got food, great company, and sunshine. What else could I want?”

“Running water, a comfortable bed, a reading light.”

If he had the first two things, he wouldn’t have her, but the third suggestion piqued his interest. “Are you a big reader?”

“Yes. Always have been. What about you?”

“I bring a book with me everywhere I go.”

“You do?” She looked astonished.

“Yup. I’ve got one back at the tent.”

She sat up and leaned forward, eyes dancing with excitement. “So do I. What book did you bring?”

“Gulliver’s Travels. What did you bring?”

“I have hundreds of ebooks on my ereader. I’d rather hold a book in my hands, but I’m a mood reader, and with my luck, I’d have chosen the wrong one. Why did you choose Gulliver’s Travels?”

“I take it on every trip.”

“Like a good-luck charm?”

“Exactly like that. I had a leather book cover that zips up made to protect it. My grandfather gave it to me when I was a teenager. He gave me all of my favorites: My Side of the Mountain, Hatchet, Lord of the Flies, Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Around the World in Eighty Days. If it’s an adventure book, I probably own it and have read it a million times.”

“I love those stories.”

He couldn’t believe his ears. “You’ve read them?”

“All except Gulliver’s Travels, and I never finished Around the World in Eighty Days, but now I’m putting them both on my reading list. I told you I was a weird little girl. I used to make up news reports about the books I read, and those were more interesting than others.”

“I don’t think that’s weird. I think it makes you even more intriguing.” The smile that earned lit him up inside. “What else do you read? Do you have a favorite book?”

“My favorites change depending on my mood, and I read just about everything.” She leaned back on her palms. “I love women’s fiction and steamy romance. Especially the ones that really tear my heart out.”

He cocked a brow. “That doesn’t sound like an enjoyable escape.”

“I hate drama in my real life, but in books I want all the feels. I want to laugh and cry and swoon. And when I read suspense and adventure, I want to be on pins and needles and have to use my brain to figure out whatever the main characters are trying to overcome or unravel. But I don’t like reading horror, unless Jock wrote it.”

“Your brother is a writer?”