Proud Hearts (Wild Hearts Romance Book 2) (5 page)

It was amazing how a routine of only two days could already feel so expected and comfortable. I woke the next day to another eyeful of Chris working out as I busied myself with breakfast. Somehow I’d fallen into the role of designated cook, even if I wasn’t the only one here capable of building a fire or operating a camp stove. I suspected it would have actually bothered me less if it had felt more like a traditional male-female role thing and not about class. A division of labor, each of us working with the skills we were best at, I would have no problem with. But if I had to guess, they probably brought in outside help to cook and clean back home. Which, more power to both parties in a clear employer-employee relationship. Which we clearly didn’t have here.

“So, we’re down to fresh ingredients to supplement a couple of meals at most before we break out the ready meals full-time,” I said as everyone was diving into bacon strips and guinea egg omelets. “Who’s up for cooking dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast?”

Reena’s blank stare was wholly expected. She was a hard woman to figure out, seemingly unfazed by anything that didn’t have to do with cameras and video. For all the emotion she showed filming the lions’ hunt yesterday, she might have been filming sleeping lions at a zoo. Photojournalism and documentaries demanded solid, stable personalities behind the camera, of course. But showing a hint of interest in the subject once the cameras were off not only wouldn’t violate any ethical code of standards, it would help prove the person behind the camera was a warm and thinking human being.

I suspected Reena had those qualities buried under that perfect, cool and unflustered exterior. I just didn’t know how to encourage them out. Or even if I should try. Maybe she
needed
that aloofness to deal with things in her past.

In any case, she wasn’t going to be the one breaking any eggs in the morning.

Gary’s wide eyes had almost the same hint of horror I’d seen in them yesterday. He was the perfect foil to Reena’s aloofness, every emotion shared to the world on his dark, expressive face. There was never any guesswork about exactly
what
he was feeling and
how
he felt about it—whether it was me, the situation or life in general.

That refreshing honesty, though, refreshed only to a point before it slid over into drama queen country when someone was as emotive as Gary. Two weeks would probably be my tolerance for him, even if he weren’t continually watching me and shooting jealous glares my way. How Chris put up with him for longer…

“I’ll do it.” Chris shrugged and, caught off guard, I had to consciously shut the gape my jaw dropped into.

“You will?” There was no hiding the surprise in my voice.

Chris flashed that toe-curling grin of his. “What? You think being a pretty boy is my only skill?”

That thought had more than simply crossed my mind, but I wasn’t going to admit it. Not aloud anyway. I was pretty sure my expression was doing all the silent conveyance Chris needed.

“The kitchen’ll be all yours, then,” I agreed. “Got any other surprises up your sleeve I should know about?”

“My
sleeve
, no, but I’m betting you’d find a big surprise or two up some other clothing parts.” A single waggle of his eyebrows left no doubt what he was alluding to.

I willed myself not to blush although I felt the rising heat. “Yeah, let’s just keep those surprises wrapped up for now, shall we?”

“As you wish. But any time you want a peek, just give the bow a tug.”

Jesus, even the innuendo made my butt clench as a jolt of pure want shot up from between my legs. I covered the rush of desire with the best smirk I could muster, not trusting my voice to any further repartee.

Gary’s sharp glare could cut glass as he carved it first my way then toward Chris. With thinned lips, he rose, turned with an angry flaunt and disappeared behind the vehicles.

“Why do you tease him like that?” I chided.

“It wasn’t him I was teasing.”

That time I did blush.

“Look, Gary’s a nice guy. I can’t help how he feels about me. I wish I could feel the same way about him. Hell, I’ve even tried to give him what he wanted. Why not? But it just didn’t work for me. And I’m not going to give up what does work—magnificently well, thank you very much”—he threw a pointed look at Reena—“just to spare his feelings. Not when he insists on personally assisting me 24/7. That’s just not possible. So what, you’d rather I lie to him—or me—by not being who I am?”

He had a point there I could concede, but I was also intrigued. “And who are you, Chris Corsair?”

Those perfect lips of his started to twitch back up into his trademark grin but didn’t quite make it before they fell. “I thought I knew. Rich playboy always sounded like a great job description, you know. But you look around, how many old, rich playboys do you see? Not enough to make me think you can be all three. So old and rich is my new goal—assuming I can give up number three.”

“Seems like the solution to that is fairly simple.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you. But there’s a whole mentality there. It’s not just all about how many women you can bed, but the whole game around it. The whole lifestyle. I don’t know it’s something I
can
give up, no matter how much I might want to. And a piece of me will probably never want to.”

Both Reena’s gaze and mine automatically—inevitably—dropped down.

He snorted. “No, I don’t mean
that
piece. Although it’ll likely take some serious convincing. It likes being a playboy—a lot. Not denying that at all.

“You asked me who I am? A man in transition. I can tell you who I was and maybe where I want to be—eventually. Months or years down the road. But who I am today?” His brow furrowed as he gave his head a slight shake. “I’m not sure I can tell you that. I’m not sure I know.”

“You’re an actor,” I said quietly. “Anything you say—no matter how sincere you might truly be—will always be suspect.”

He looked at me then, long and deep with eyes that swore truth. Gorgeous soulful eyes that made me
want
to believe. “I’ll share another secret with you,” he said, just as quietly. “I’m not
that
good an actor.”

If I believed that, I would have to believe everything else he’d shared.

Why did it matter to him what I believed?

Why did it matter to me?

Why I’d opened up to Dee, I didn’t know. It seemed right at the time, but as we trudged up to the rock escarpment where the pride made their home, I became more convinced that making myself comfortable like that in front of any woman was demeaning. And in front of women as strong-minded as Dee, it was especially degrading. What Reena thought, of course, didn’t count. She’d heard it all from me by now. What she believed from all that I couldn’t begin to guess.

Gary was the one hurt most in all this. I felt for the guy; I truly did. But he set himself up for that pain by holding on to a hope for a relationship I’d made clear could never be. The same as Reena had done for me. If I was hurt by Reena’s rejection, it was only because I’d set up an unrealistic expectation between her and me, and assigned myself unrealistic powers of seduction to believe I could have
any
woman I turned my sultry gaze on.

Truth was, what I wanted to do would likely wind up bearing no relation to what I would actually do. At least for the next few years. Or at least till I found that one mythical woman who could make a man stop talking about settling down and do it.

By the time we stopped to set up the cameras I had resolved to limit any further soul-baring to the memoir I’d begun writing in my tent at night. Abstinence had one benefit—extra time to be more productive. At the moment, I couldn’t think of any others.

The lions were still drowsing from yesterday’s gorging, and it didn’t look like they intended on moving today.

“We’ll get some perspective shots of you with them,” Reena decided.

Those were the kind we’d done yesterday while the lions were eating. Getting me in only close enough for safety, then faking the distance between me and them with camera angle and a bit of chicanery. In the finished video, it would appear almost as though I was a part of the pride, close enough to touch.

As long as my fans got the illusion of courage that was all the studio needed. Not that being out here didn’t hold some risk—these
were
real lions, after all—but where we could better fake the risk, we did, through tricky camera work and skillful editing.

The bull elephant that had charged me in the “Living With…Elephants” episode? Never happened. Oh, the old bull had flapped his ears and challenged me, but he never got closer than 50 feet. When he did run up a few yards in a mock charge, a skillful zoom made it appear he was coming in right on top of me. Hell, even I got a nervous rush seeing that footage for the first time.

So today I would walk among lions without the walking and without actually being “among” them. Meanwhile, I contented myself by peering through the binoculars at Dee who half-climbed into the back of the Range Rover to retrieve her tripod. Through the zoom lenses I admired the long, smooth length of her legs while wishing her khaki shorts were a little shorter and a little snugger.

My imagination was enjoying itself as I adjusted the binoculars to better—

Reena screamed.

I whipped around, expecting to see a charging lion. Two of the lionesses were anxiously gaining their feet and the cubs were staring our way. But nothing threatened from that direction. If it wasn’t the lions…

Dee was jogging toward Reena, her .38 drawn.

Reena—

Reena was on the ground, her tripod tipped beside her.

“It bit me!” she cried.

“What?”

“Snake!”

“Damn.” Dee’s eyes snapped down as I made a cautious run toward them. “Find it!” That last was directed at me and an absent Gary.

“Gary, get your scrawny butt over here!” I yelled to where he was sitting in the Range Rover ready to slam the doors shut and roll up the windows.

He didn’t move, may not have even heard me over the distance, but I couldn’t worry about that right then. Something tan slithered through the grass. “Here!” I shouted.

Hunting on the other side of Reena, Dee ran over, gun still in hand.

For being so short and fat, the snake was remarkably quick. I kept up with it as it angled for a thicket of brush. If it disappeared before Dee got to it…

It didn’t.

“Oh, damn,” was all Dee said when she caught enough sight of it to identify. Her gun arm dropped.

“Aren’t you going to shoot it?”

“Don’t have to.” She was already on the run back to Reena. “I know what it is. And we don’t want to scare the lions more than we already have.”

She dropped next to Reena while I hovered over them. The bite on Reena’s lower calf was already bruising and swelling. This hadn’t been some innocent grass snake that had gotten her.

“Give me your shirt.”

I stripped out of it and put it in Dee’s waiting hand. She wrapped it high around Reena’s thigh.

“Keep your leg straight and don’t try to move it,” Dee instructed Reena.

“I can’t anyway.” There was fear in Reena’s dark, expressive eyes.

“What is it?” I wondered if I looked as frightened as Reena.

“Puff adder.” Dee struggled to keep her voice calm for Reena’s sake, but I could hear the underlying panic.

“Wha—what does that mean?” Reena was panting now, as much from fear as pain, I guessed.

“It means we’re taking you to the hospital right now.” Dee threw the keys to the SUV at me.

Since Gary was finally stalking over, watching the ground carefully as he came, I threw the keys to him. “Bring the Rover as close as you can without grounding it on the rocks. Move!”

He scrambled back to the vehicle. I knew he couldn’t get it much closer, but trying would keep him focused and give us room to work without his added drama.

“Am I going to die?”

I was certain those words needed a more panicked inflection in them. How was Reena’s voice remaining as calm as it was?

Dee looked Reena straight in the eye. “It’s gonna hurt like hell, but you won’t die. It’ll mess up your leg for a while, but the doctors can treat that.” She turned to me. “Can you carry her?”

I nodded. Those morning workouts weren’t all for show.

Reena gasped with the pain as Dee helped lift her into my arms.

To Gary’s credit, he’d cleared out the Rover’s cargo bay so Reena had room to lie while I sat cross-legged beside her, holding her hand.

With Dee driving, we sped off for the nearest town. Back to Zambezi, probably.

At Reena’s insistence, Gary, in the backseat, picked up one of the handhelds to film us.

The attending in the same white lab coat worn by doctors worldwide joined us in the waiting room of Zambezi’s only clinic—well, they called it a hospital—after about half an hour. “You are the husband?” he asked me in surprisingly decent English with just a hint of British inflection—surprising, until I remembered English was actually the official language of Zambia.

When I shook my head, he turned to Gary, who shook his head even more emphatically.

“Not a chance, honey.”

“We work together,” Dee explained.

“Alone? In the bush?”

“Filming lions, yes.”

“But there is a husband?”

“Not for any of us, no,” I said. “But we’re as close as family as Reena’s got out here.”

The doctor looked at Gary and me. “One of you is her boss?”

I didn’t think hysterical laughter would be the appropriate response, and it wasn’t looking good for us getting information about her otherwise, so I caved. “Sure, that’s me.”

Dee frowned, but held her tongue. Reena mattered more than what any outsider might think of our relationships with one another. We could all battle chauvinism another day.

“What’s going on with her?” I asked.

Gary had turned the camera over to Dee, who was now dutifully capturing the attending doctor’s self-conscious struggle to ignore the camera as he made his report. I put down his next words to nervousness rather than a clumsy bedside manner.

Reena apparently knew her snakes. “Puff adder,” the doctor concurred. “It is Africa’s most deadly of snakes. More deadly even than the mamba, or the cobra that you may know.”

I checked the chill that froze my gut and stabbed an accusing glare at Dee. “You told her she wasn’t going to die.”

Beside me, Gary’s face went to ash as the blood drained out of it.

“No, no, she is not to die!” the doctor hurriedly corrected us. “The adder is deadliest because it kills more, not because it is most venomous.”

That wasn’t helping to clarify things.

He tried once more. “It is percentages. More Africans die because more are bitten by these adders. But more live too. Percentages. If ten villagers get bitten by ten mambas, then 100 villagers will be bitten by adders. Eight may die from the mamba bite—80%. Twenty may die from the adder bite—only 20%. But 20 dying is more than eight. The mamba is more deadly, but the adder kills more. See? Percentages.”

“And Reena’s in the 80% who don’t die?”

The doctor nodded enthusiastically, happy my poor Western brain had caught on at last. “I think so. She is responding well to the antivenin. But she will be in pain and weak for many days. And as many until walking will be possible again.”

“It’s not possible now?”

The doctor pursed his lips and shook his head. “Oh no. Not possible at all.”

“How many days in all?”

“Twenty. Maybe thirty.”

I whistled low. “Can she fly before then?”

“Could she fly before?” The doctor grinned at the camera, obviously pleased with the joke. “If you mean by airplane to the States, we can send her in three to four days with enough codeine for the flight, but she must keep the leg elevated for the duration. Is that possible?”

“With enough money, probably. Gary, find out what the airlines can do. If she’s not going to be well enough in time to rejoin us before we leave, then let’s get her home as soon as possible. Capiche?”

Gary nodded.

“And I want you with her until she leaves.”

It took a moment for my meaning to register, but when it did, Gary’s eyes went comically wide. “Stay here? In town?”

“Come back to camp, pick up her things, then, yeah, find a room here in town. Keep her company, find her a flight. The cameras, though, stay with us. The ones that belong to the studio at least.”

“You’re not flying back too?”

“Not until we have enough footage for a finished episode.”

“And how,” Dee asked from her chair by the wall, “do you intend to get that?”

“C’mon, you’re filming anyway. Might as well get paid a little more for it. Just amend your contract to include principal photography. Reena can tell you what a fair rate is per finished minute or second or however it’s figured so the studio doesn’t screw with you.” I flashed my trademark grin that seemed to win my way with everyone but her. “Bonus is more lens time with
moi
.”

Dee’s lips quirked into a too-sugary smile. “There’d need to be a lot of bonus to put up with
that
.”

I waggled my brows. “I’m all about the bonus, baby.”

“I’m talking cash—or are you having to pay for it these days…
baby
?”

“Zing!”

I scowled at Gary’s retort, but Dee’s half-suppressed smile was even more dangerous. Especially coupled with the conspiratorial look she and Gary exchanged. If those two allied forces against me…

Still, Dee didn’t say no outright.

We crowded into one of the three semi-private rooms in the small hospital, happy to see the second bed was unoccupied for now. How was it narrow hospital beds could always make occupants seem so much smaller than even a king-size bed could make them seem? That frail appearance, however, didn’t come from Reena’s surroundings. Fever, pain and the war between venom and antivenin all waging inside her did that. For the moment, at least, the narcotics and antivenin seemed to be winning. Her still-beautiful dark brown eyes were open, and she knew we were there.

“Bears, sharks and lions.” I shook my head. “And it’s a little snake that takes you down.”

“I didn’t even see it.”

“Maybe that’s the excuse Eve should have led with.”