and after he paid for our tickets—which he insisted on doing despite my protests—he dragged me into it first. Picking out two pink T-shirts with brightly colored parrots and a collage of other animals on them, he carried them to the cashier and paid for those too.
Five minutes later, we both emerged from the bathrooms wearing our newly acquired tourist gear. The color accentuated how tanned his skin was and managed to bring out the brightness in his eyes at the same time.
Despite it being a decidedly girly color, he pulled it off really well. Opening his arms when he saw me walking toward him, he turned in a slow circle. “Well? What do you think?”
“Gorgeous.” A smile played at the corners of my lips. “I think we should get you a whole collection before we leave.”
“Done,” he said cheerfully before bowing and offering me his arm with a goofy grin on his face. “Shall we, wifey dear? So many ziplines to take, so little time before this place is swarmed with fellow sightseers.”
I linked my elbow with his, again feeling tingles running through me at having his skin against mine. Putting the obvious chemistry between us aside for the moment, I turned my attention to our surroundings.
The humidity was higher in the forest, but the dense greenery and the earthy smell more than made up for it. Even though we were barely through the gates, I could already see multicolored parrots sitting on thick branches in the nearest enclosure and a house of reptiles on our left.
Jaxon eyed the signpost for interactions with a Boa Constrictor and turned to me. “We’re doing that. Come on.”
He dragged me off before I could answer, but while I wasn’t the largest fan of snakes, I also wasn’t afraid of them. After greeting the woman in charge of the encounter, he lifted the heavy constrictor and carefully draped it over my shoulders.
“You okay?” he asked, watching my expression before stepping away, still balancing some of the weight on his palms.
“Perfect.” I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and held it up to him. “The passcode is 67890. Take a picture for me, will you?”
“Trusting me with your passcode already, huh? That was fast.” He waggled his eyebrows as he tapped in the code. “Smile, darling. The family is going to be so proud of you for not running away from that thing screaming.”
I smiled. “It’s okay, honey. They’ll all understand why you made me go first. It’s such a large, scary animal. No one will blame you if you’d prefer to run away screaming.”
Humor lit his eyes as he held up my phone to snap the photograph. “I won’t. You’re here to protect me. I can do anything with you by my side, even wrestle a magnificent, powerful snake into submission. Trust me. I’ve been doing it since the minute I first laid eyes on you.”
He winked and my jaw nearly dropped. Again.
Blood rushed to my cheeks as I widened my eyes at him. “Jaxon!”
Shrugging at the snake-trainer lady, he fought a grin when he looked into my eyes. “What? It’s true.”
Even the snake lady turned a shade darker than she had been when we’d gotten to her. Shaking my head at my roommate, I motioned to the constrictor and turned my gaze to her.
“What’s his name?” I asked.
“Fred.”
Jaxon laughed and came to stand in front of me again. “Hand Fred over, baby. Remember to take a picture of me not running away screaming because I’m used to handling things his size.”
“Really? You’re going to keep that going?” Sliding my hands beneath Fred’s scaly belly, I began the process of gently lifting him off me and transferring him over. “Also, what’s with all the nicknames?”
“It’s our honeymoon. Aren’t we supposed to use goofy nicknames and stare lovingly at each other all the time?”
“I think you’ve been misinformed about what honeymoons are all about.” Once he had the snake safely in his hands, I took a few steps away to put some distance between us. Being so close to him was definitely not good for my oxygen supply or my heart rate.
He smirked when he caught my eye. “I’m not the one who keeps blushing when any reference is made to what honeymoons are all about. Plus, what happens outside the bedroom is important too. Don’t you think?”
He aimed his question at the snake lady, who’d turned her back and who—I was pretty sure she was pretending—was talking on her phone.
False hurt