Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Last night, I’d screamed or moaned various words, mostly praising, begging, or cursing.
We’d made love—I shouldn’t call it that, it was more like I had joined a Cirque du Soleil show—several times as if we couldn’t satisfy our hunger for each other, confined only by our lust. I was afraid to ask where Hunter learned so much about sex and how in the world a man could be so limber.
I made a mental note to do some stretching.
I had nestled beside Hunter in the bed, his arm wrapped around me.
It seemed natural to press my body against his.
I was content and relaxed, but my mind started navigating the ocean of uncertainty.
Would I find closure if I followed Father’s sailing pipedream, spreading his ashes?
Should I invite Hunter to do it with me?
Would he agree? Or should I return to my old life of never-ending battles against AI or a fourteen-year-old Russian hacker and forget altogether about this idea?
I thought of the words on my father’s urn, “Follow me at your own risk.” I knew it was a farewell joke from him, but what if it was also a sign that he knew I would find his journals and he wanted me to follow his dream to experience and appreciate the world around me?
He often said that I was spending an unhealthy amount of time indoors, staring at a monitor.
His notes showed he hadn’t forgotten about his sailing plans because he had updated the boat types and routes within the last ten years.
I couldn’t fathom why he never spoke of it.
Was he afraid I would think he was out of his mind, or did my mother not want me to know?
They hadn’t spent a day apart. Did he give up something so plainly vital to him just to be with her?
What did she sacrifice to be with him? What would I sacrifice for love?
The early morning promised the day to be hot, with a little breeze and calmer waters.
I rummaged through drawers of clean clothes, looking for a shirt.
I pulled on my Mind the Gap T-shirt and buttoned up my jean shorts.
Hunter, in all his naked glory, walked into the hut with breakfast, his hair wet from his morning swim.
His bottom lip sported a minor bruise where I sank my teeth too hard yesterday.
He slid a Plumeria flower behind my left ear, his fingers gently tracing the side of my face.
“You do not know how often I thought of doing this.”
“I love it.” I smiled, touching the petals.
He offered me a mug, and I peered inside it. “No coffee?”
“Unfortunately, we are out. From now on, only orange juice or coconut water. And I know how much you love … let me think, what did you call it earlier … a turd-colored fruit?”
“Actually, I don’t mind coconut now.” Either my taste buds gave up being prejudiced against the flavor, or being with Hunter had cured their associations with my ex.
“I think you are overdressed.” He kissed me, his hand slipping up my thigh, and the tips of his fingers curling inside my shorts. “Your body is stunning. You should always be naked.”
“What if someone comes here?”
“Then we’ll get dressed.” He traced his tongue over my bottom lip, then nipped on it.
“And would you be able to focus on anything but sex if we were naked all the time?” I asked.
Hunter’s fingers made their way around the fabric and found my aching-for-attention center. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t focus when you are fully covered either.”
That morning, we didn’t do much island exploration.
By lunchtime, Hunter once again was very familiar with every inch of my body.
In the afternoon, we finally made it to John’s trap for broad investigation, but not ten minutes later, my butt was propped against a mossy rock, legs hooked around Hunter’s waist, his hot mouth on my neck while he slid in and out of me.
We took the rest of the week off, and spent it like we were on our honeymoon, barely talking about work (aka treasure) and learning more about each other, having sex in every position I could and couldn’t imagine.
In the mornings, Hunter dragged his bare ass out of bed and went for his swim, leaving me in sheets soaked with sweat and sex, my need satisfied.
When sunlight crept deeper into the hut and the smell of wood burning filled the space, I finally rolled out of the bed.
Dressed only in my bikini bottoms, I washed my face in ice-cold water, brushed my teeth and landed a kiss on Hunter’s shirtless back, tasting ocean salt on his skin.
During breakfast, we didn’t bother with using separate plates—just one extra dish to wash—and shared our meal out of the same skillet and bowl.
Hunter would burrow his face into my neck, palm my naked breast, and murmur dirty ideas he’d planned for us later in the day.
This was our new routine. And I was in a tropical paradise.
Five days later we returned to the location entirely intending to finish what we had started. No sex. Not even touching. Till we were done with work for the day, of course.
“Where do we begin?” Hunter stood on the opposite side of the hole from me. The farther he was from me, the less I felt the gravitational force that pulled our bodies together.
“We need to keep our minds and eyes open for anything that is strong, hollow, alive, dead, Greek god related, and or could kill us,” I said, staring at the skull’s hollow expression.
Poor guy died here alone. I hoped his death had been quick.
A giant brown spider crawled out of John’s open jaw, and I stepped away from the trap, my shoulders shaking off the feeling of the spider’s eight legs on my skin.
Cats and an army of lizards in the hut kept the spider population in check, but it was a different story here in the deep jungle.
“Are there any poisonous spiders on this island that could kill us?” I walked to a tree with a complicated web between two branches. Perhaps if there were (much to our regret), we had to search for a dark place like a cave where these spiders lived.
“I don’t think so,” Hunter said, “but it doesn’t mean there aren’t.
” He tapped the machete we’d brought to cut a thick network of vines, ready to clear a new way for us to walk.
The plan was to explore the overgrown and hard-to-travel places at the foot of the mountain, starting from John’s hole and going up north.
With any luck, we would uncover another unexplored cave or a suspicious burial site with a tombstone or rock formation in the shape of something related to the riddles.
It was a man and a woman against a tropical wildness for the next nth hours.
Well, it was more of a man against it and a woman trailing behind, appreciating the man.
Hunter worked hard chopping branches and vines, and I carried a backpack with provisions we needed when it was time for a break.
After several minutes, Hunter’s sweat-soaked T-shirt clung to his back, exposing the strength of his muscles and taking too much of my attention away from the treasure search.
At some point, while admiring Hunter, I sighed so loud that he stopped and turned to look at me with a confused face.
“Are you okay back there?” Hunter pushed the bangs off his forehead, slicking his hair back.
I loved it when he wore his hair like that, especially right now, when his face had a few days of stubble.
He reminded me of Chris Hemsworth, and heat pooled at the base of my spine.
A week ago, I couldn’t act on my desire, and now I could, but not right at this moment because we’d agreed to focus on our work first.
“Just thinking of how proud Edward would be of you. You kept your promise and made sure Holden’s family name will be forever in history as the discoverers of the Treasure of Lima,” I said, too embarrassed to admit the meaning behind my horny sigh.
Hunter eyed me briefly before turning back and breaking off a long aerial root that grew down from the branches of a tree that could be easily mistaken for a dense forest of lean trees.
“Edward didn’t make me promise,” Hunter said.
“Oh?” I stopped. “I was under the impression you were doing it because he asked you.”
“No. I’m doing this because I don’t want the man who raised me like his own to be a laughing stock for those who thought he was a lunatic, just like his father and two brothers.”
“Shit!” A kamikaze bug flew into my ear, and I slapped the side of my head, trying to get it out.
“You alright?”
“Yes. Bugs. When did Edward tell you about the treasure?”
“When I arrived here, he didn’t tell me for the entire fishing season, but when the bookings slowed and Jolie broke up with me, he saw an opportunity to bring me on board.
I was a grown man who could decide for himself if I wanted to be part of the Holden family curse.
” He chuckled, shaking his head. “There are no curses, just decisions we make that turn out to be bad ones.” His expression dimmed, and he looked past me. “So many bad ones.”
I wondered if Hunter was talking about his uncles and grandfather or himself. What bad decision had he made? Somehow, my mind kept returning to Jolie, and Hunter’s regret at leaving her and coming here.
“Now you have proof that the treasure is real, and Edward wasn’t crazy. I bet your aunt will feel guilty for not supporting him.”
Remorse slithered down my throat that I’d also thought Hunter was mad when he told me what he was doing on this island the morning I found him waist-deep in the hole. In my defense, at that time, I had known Hunter only for a few days.
Hunter grunted, trying to break a thick vine. It snapped, and he pulled it out of our way. At the speed we trudged, it would take us several hours to follow a curve of the hill that should have led us to the hidden cut-through with the giant tree and bat cave.
“If not for your help,” Hunter said, “I’d die a lonely old man who told pirate tales to random strangers at the Avarua marina.”
“And now you’ll die a rich man surrounded by his children and grandchildren who love to listen to the tales of your adventures.”
Hunter side-glanced at me, a dimple forming on his cheek. His blue eyes were so beautiful I could get lost in them. “Thank you,” he said.
“For helping with treasure or illustrating a different life for you?” I smiled back at him.
“Both.”
The afternoon weather turned sticky, hot, and muggy.
In four hours of our search, we found several dark openings in the mountain that didn’t go deep and were, unfortunately, empty.
Hunter and I reached the spot in the narrow gorge with the bat cave and the cool pond.
Hunter stripped off his clothes and stepped into the water.
I followed his lead, goosebumps running up my body.
I nestled between Hunter’s legs and pressed my back against his chest, relishing his body heat.
He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me even closer.
“Remember when you showed me this place for the first time, and a bunch of bats flew out?” I nodded at the dark cave opening near the tree. “You protected me with your body. And I enjoyed it so much I fantasized about many other situations where you would do it again.”
“Since we’re being honest with each other right now, I’ll admit that I’ve visualized you against me at least a hundred times every day since that evening.
” He outlined my breast with his finger and pressed a fervent kiss to the side of my neck.
“When you wore my T-shirts over your bare body, I had to walk the entire time with my dick half-mast.”
“I saw your naked butt when you went swimming on your own last week.”
“I know you did.” His hand traced down my stomach and disappeared between my thighs. The hardness of his erection prodded into my back.
“How?” I huffed the question.
“You were acting strange when I returned and couldn’t look at me during dinner,” he whispered, teasing my earlobe with his teeth.
I wouldn’t be able to meet his eyes now because he worked two fingers into me, and my eyes rolled back into my head.
I clenched around them and moaned. “You’re so soft and hot inside.
” He added another finger, stretching me and making me gasp.
I widened my legs for easier access, propping my feet on the slippery rocks, pushing my body into Hunter’s.
“You are so beautiful when you come undone,” he said in a husky voice, amplifying my throbbing lust. His fingers were deep inside of me.
He teased and stroked me, applying just the right pressure, at a torturously slow pace, as if he were spelling a secret message, a spell.
My breath hitched, and pleasure clenched deep within me.
My muscles coiled around his fingers as my orgasm mounted higher.
Just a few more strokes. I readied to get lost in oblivion, imagining myself facing Hunter as I’d slide down his cock as soon as I reached my—
“Fuck,” he said, and not in a sexy way. The movement of his fingers stopped. “I know the answer to the riddle.”
He pulled his fingers out, and I crashed landed from my lust ride. “Which one?” I said, winded.
“When you face to face with death, you are in the right place. It’s the bat cave.”
Fingering me made him think of the bat cave. Lovely.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because look at it.” Hunter’s hands grasped my shoulders, and he gently guided my body to my right.
Behind the tree, the bat cave appeared as it had before: a sheer mass of rock with a dark, large entrance at the bottom and two large, round-ish cavities above.
“I’m not sure what I’m looking for,” I said, narrowing my eyes in the hope of seeing what Hunter saw. I closed one eye, then opened it and closed the other. Nothing.
Hunter leaned in, his mouth close to my ear, and whispered, “It’s the front of a skull.”
As soon as his words left his mouth, the three dark holes morphed into a nasal cavity and two eye sockets. No jaw. The nasal passage was the bat cave.
“Holy shit!” I turned to look at him. “But you said it was empty.”
“Yes, but I also didn’t go too deep inside of it.”
“Oh, my god. Now you tell me that?” I climbed out of the water.
“What are you doing?” Hunter asked as I grabbed my shirt and pulled it over my head.
“What does it look like? I want to look in the cave.”
“I hoped we would—” He wiggled his eyebrows, hinting with a nod toward the water. Lovemaking with Hunter was a slice of heaven, but this was too exciting.
“Not now.” I picked up his clothes. “Come on, let’s go look.”