I shuddered at the thought. Not only for the danger Zach faced at such a tender age, but also at the enormous responsibility he had already taken upon his shoulders. It was important to him at the age of twelve to help feed his people.

“We all had our bows and arrows, but we knew that wouldn’t work. We’d have to cut the head off, but the problem was we couldn’t see it. We plotted for a while, sitting about twenty feet from the snake, when finally Kaurlo came up with the brilliant idea to bait it by throwing rocks.”

“So you threw rocks at a huge snake to get it to show its head. Are you nuts?”

Zach snickered. “I think probably just stupid. But it worked. It took several throws, and the rocks all bounced off harmlessly, but finally she lifted that massive head up and looked at us. But she didn’t looked pissed… just sleepy. She uncoiled and started to slither toward the water.”

“I would have let her go,” I said with another slight shudder.

“That was our dinner. No way were we letting it get away. We all ran after her, machetes drawn. I was the fastest and reached her first. Just before she hit the water’s edge, I lifted up my weapon to strike at her and she spun on me so fast, I didn’t have time to react. She just struck out at me and grabbed me by the thigh. I went crashing to the ground, and my machete flew out of my hand.”

“Good God. What did you do?”

“I f**king screamed my head off. Anaconda’s have two rows of teeth on each side of their mouth, and the teeth curve backward so once they sink into you, there’s almost no way to get them out. They’re not venomous, but they don’t need to be. They just need to hold tight until they can get their coils around you to suffocate you.”

“Did one of the other boys save you?”

Zach gave a low laugh of amusement. “No. They all went screaming into the jungle, calling for help. Luckily, Paraila was nearby and came running. When he saw me on the ground with that damned snake latched on, he started cursing me in Portuguese, ‘Stupid boy, stupid boy’. By the time he reached me, she had already started to coil around my stomach, and he had a hard time finding a place to cut through her with his machete without cutting me too.”

“Oh my, God. But clearly, he managed it.”

“Clearly. That snake was pissed, because Paraila basically had to saw through her while she was fighting to strangle me. He finally killed it, but it took them forever to get the jaws unhinged off me. Several of the teeth broke off and had to be pulled out individually.”

“Geez… you could have died.”

“I nearly did… twice. That snake almost killed me, but then the wounds got infected and I got really sick. But I pulled through.”

Sadness welled up inside of me for the violent life this man has lived. He wasn’t meant for that. Not the sweet boy from Georgia who didn’t want to go to the Amazon in the first place.

“You’ve had such a rough life,” I said softly.

“Not really,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I managed.”

“You survived.”

“Flourished some would even say,” he added on.

Yes… Zach did flourish, I think to myself as I look in the bathroom mirror as I replay that conversation over in my head.

After his story, we were quiet, and I eventually fell asleep in his arms. I was awoken this morning from a sound sleep not twenty minutes ago with Zach’s hand between my legs, working me to an awakening orgasm. He is absolutely insatiable, but I’m not complaining.

By the time my spasms started to quiet, his c**k was lodged deep within me, and he was pounding away to a blistering orgasm of his own. Just as he came, he pressed his face in the pillow beside my head and cried out my name, but it was thankfully muffled by the softness of the goose down.

I then made my way on shaky legs to the bathroom, where I peed, and now I stand looking at myself in the mirror.

Zach is such an enigma. He was born a sweet innocent, yet transformed into a man of lethal danger and steely reserve. Raw edges, scarred flesh, and a rapacious appetite for life. He took the hand he was dealt and yes, he flourished.

Yet, here he is now, and the only affinity he seems to hold for this new world lies within my body. I’m absolutely positive that had we not developed the relationship that now exists between us, Zach would have returned to Caraica already. I say that with no amount of ego and, in fact, it sort of saddens me to think it’s probably just some phenomenally good sex keeping him here. But really… how long can that last?

My eyes stare back at me with no answers, so I dry my hands and creep back into the bedroom. Zach watches me from the bed, his hands tucked behind his head and his beautiful, na**d body sprawled along the mattress.

I hesitate because I’m not sure if I should crawl back in bed with him… which would be my preference, yet the intimacy of sex seems to have dissipated, and I’m feeling oddly vulnerable right now.

“Get back in bed,” Zach says softly. “We have no plans today, and I have more dirty things I want to do to you.”

My pulse hammers and my eyes flick to his penis, which has softened but is still impressive as it lays between his legs. When I look back at his face, I find him smirking at me. “I need just a few more minutes, but come up here and lie beside me.”

I don’t need to be asked twice, and I scramble back up on the bed. Rather than lying beside him, I decide for a bit of a bolder move, and I climb right on top of his body, straddling his pelvis.