Chapter 22
Catalina
The first thing Catalina did when the bright sun pierced over the horizon early in the morning was roll from the tangle of limbs of her husband and make sure he was breathing.
She gave him a jostle, and he mumbled something in his sleep before pulling her close.
Immediate relief filled her. She smoothed her hand across his cheek and jawline, the prickles of his facial hair scratching her palms. It was a face that was infinitely more dear to her today than it had been a few days prior.
Her heart couldn’t help but expand in her chest at the sight and feel of him.
She loved him. She did.
It was, no doubt, disappointing to wake up and discover the whole thing hadn’t been a horrible nightmare.
Everything she had experienced—being dropped while inside an empanada and chased by crabs—had happened.
It hadn’t all been a fever dream for her to eventually forget.
Although, there was a part of her relieved to discover it had been real.
While their situation was awful and dangerous, and they were probably going to spend the rest of their lives the size of bugs, there were parts of it that she wouldn’t give up.
The biggest one being that the bridge between her and Trey was being rebuilt.
She no longer had to worry about being on an island by herself and was happy that the strife between them had been mended and she could keep everything, including him.
She loved him.
While keeping her hand on his cheek, she leaned toward him to press a kiss onto one of his eyelids, and a smile passed over his lips, the satisfied look of contentment.
Ah well, whatever happened to them later, at least she had this moment.
With a happy sigh, she watched the shadow and light change across his face because—
She jerked to a sitting position.
“Trey! We’re moving! This isn’t a rock, it’s a—”
“Shhh,” he replied, keeping his eyes closed and wrapping his arm around her thighs, encouraging her to cuddle against him again. “I know. It’s not a rock. It’s an iguana.”
“An iguana?” Glancing down, the surface they rested upon was covered in flat circular scales of pear green, brown, and black variations.
There was a slight roll under the surface brought on by the creature’s muscles moving under the skin.
The movement, at least, was slow, almost soothing, like the calm, lazy rocking of the ocean.
A short distance away, sail-like ridges jutted out along the back of the iguana, occasionally providing shade to where she and Trey rested.
This explained the changing of the light and shadow.
She couldn’t see the iguana’s head but saw another iguana moving slowly not too far away, heading in the same direction.
Out of all the animal encounters they had so far, this one was the least frightening…for now. Who knew what could happen and, for this reason, Catalina wasn’t sure she wanted to be on an iguana. “Okay, but…shouldn’t we get off? Is this safe? Maybe he hates us being on him.”
Trey remained the picture of sleepy calm, still curled on his side.
“I think he would have complained by now if that’s the case.
We’re probably no more annoying than a hitchhiking fly.
Relax. Besides, he seems to be moving in the direction of the resort, so I think we caught another lucky break here. ”
Her husband was right, and the iguanas moved toward the resort. While this mode of transportation was slow, it had to be faster than traveling by foot.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Yes. Last night we had to manage sharing one seashell together, and now you must learn how to share a single iguana. Unless you prefer to run over and ride that other one. We can race and see who gets to the resort first. Or you can just come back to iguana bed. That’s my vote, as I’d like to snuggle with my wife. ”
She laughed, stopped resisting, and lay down beside him again. Trey didn’t waste any time pulling her into his arms, making her the little spoon to his big one. He nuzzled into her neck as though about to drift off to sleep again.
“How did you know?” she asked, closing her eyes and enjoying the slow, soothing motion of the iguana, as strange as it was.
“Know what? That you were the only person I’d want to snuggle up with on the back of an iguana? The moment I met you, babe.”
Catalina bumped him playfully with her shoulder.
“No, I mean…well, I guess my question is kind of related. How did you know we were on an iguana?” If he had woken up before her, she hadn’t noticed, but this wasn’t surprising.
She was dead tired and sore from the previous day’s adventures—including sexy seashell activities that continued sending shockwaves of giddiness through her because, God damn.
“Oh,” he said through a yawn. “I got up to take a piss early this morning and was so shocked to find us moving, I almost fell off and peed all down the left side of the iguana’s leg. So if you have to go, the left side has already been designated as the pee side.”
“Oh. I’m thirsty. Do you have the water bottle?”
“Don’t be mad, but I think it rolled off at some point during the night.”
“Sooooo… We have nothing now?”
“Yeah, pretty much. We’re probably going to die today.” The situation wasn’t funny, but the dry, casual way he said this struck her as hilarious, and she burst out laughing.
“Welp, I guess that’s that,” she replied.
“Maybe if we’re lucky it’ll rain into our mouths. I still have my phone at least.”
“It hasn’t died yet?”
He pulled it from his pocket. “It’s getting close, but it still has some juice. Let’s take one more selfie while we can.”
While Cat wasn’t a fan of early morning, sans shower and general grossness selfies, she’d reached the fuck it stage.
What was the point of surviving chaos if you didn’t look like you just went through hell?
Besides, she had the man she loved, and they were on a tropical, definitely-not-all-inclusive shrunkation in Cancun.
Maybe this was the perfect time for a selfie. “Yup, let’s do it,” she agreed.
With the camera app activated, Trey raised his phone above them. She finally got a good look at herself. As expected, she was dirty and grungy and… She also looked tough, like she could handle anything. There was something sparking inside her telling her it might be true.
“I love you,” Trey murmured beside her.
She turned her head to him, taking him all in, those beautiful blue eyes of her husband, a man who never abandoned her even when she did her best to push him as far away as she could. “I love you, Trey Schuster.”
Closing her eyes, she pressed a sweet kiss to his lips, hearing the slight click from the camera app.
The image was reminiscent of their selfies from past years, when they frequently took pictures of them kissing.
She was happy to be back at this point in their relationship and a little stronger than before.
It was both comfortably familiar and also new and exciting. The best of both worlds.
After the phone was stowed away in Trey’s pocket, his arms went back around her in a spooning position, and she watched the sandy shore of the beach creep by with the occasional seabird swooping into view. It was weird how she was getting used to the proportions of things being out of scale.
She didn’t get to ponder this for long before Trey was spreading kisses across her shoulder and a sneaky hand slipped into her bikini bottoms, his fingers sliding between her legs. Cat couldn’t help but admonish him with “Trey!” even while her defenses were quickly falling as her head tilted back.
He wasn’t at all discouraged as he kept rubbing slow circles. She couldn’t see the cocky grin, but it was there in his voice when he asked, “What?”
“You can’t do this right now.”
“I can’t pleasure you while being on the back of an iguana? Watch me.”
“You know what I mean. We’re in public.” As she said it, Catalina realized how ridiculous her reasoning was.
He nipped the shell of her ear with his teeth. “Who’s going to know? No one can see us. After last night, I’m building a new sexy bucket list of every weird place I want to do it with you.”
“You’re totally regretting not doing it in the empanada, aren’t you?”
“Biggest regret of my life,” he replied.
“I don’t know how doing it on an iguana even ends up on a person’s—”
“Stop talking. It doesn’t matter. It’s on the list now.
” Trey was quite determined to convince her that lovemaking on an iguana did indeed belong on a person’s list, and Catalina ran out of any additional arguments.
She was easily converted into thinking her husband was full of the best ideas and there was nothing better on Earth than having public, adventurous sex in the early morning sunrise.
She’d even go so far as to invent a new cocktail called Sex on an Iguana, which she imagined would be some kind of kiwi mojito thing.
Coming up with creative signature cocktails wasn’t a good idea when a person didn’t have access to drinking water.
Luckily, Trey was there to distract her.
He did it handily as she panted and moaned and begged him to just give it to her.
She no longer cared who saw them, including the iguanas, as she was excited and turned on by the whole thing.
Trey was happy enough to do just that. Turned out this was quite a pleasant way to travel.
While slow, the giant reptile traveled at a constant pace as though he had a regular standing engagement to get to, and soon they had arrived at the edge of the resort.