Chapter Nine
Mariel walked alone to the main house—insisting so, even when Jack agreed to escort her as she made her first appearance in the sarong alone. A similarly clad, female house servant greeted her as she moved into Carlos’ jungle room—an open atrium, filled with gigantic broadleaved trees, ferns and colorful flowers. Exotic birds flew from end to end and then out through the open ceiling into the forest beyond the house. Returning, they flapped their wings and squawked. Mariel was amused, and so enthralled with her surroundings that she almost forgot that her chest was bare.
“How lovely to see that you’ve come to your senses,” Carlos surprised her, speaking though a thin veil of fern fronds. He then moved directly in front of her as she stopped walking. She gulped nervously and
