Noble Hearts (Wild Hearts Romance Book 3) by Phoenix Sullivan Page B
Authors: Phoenix Sullivan
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with Gus. Mark’s attention on Gus seemed a little too intense for my comfort.
With a final pat for the rhino and okapi, I left them to their further explorations and hurried back to Mark and Gus. “How is he?”
“He’s got a couple of deep puncture wounds. Not too bloody, so no big vessels are involved. A lot of pain and bruising, though, I imagine.”
“And?” Mark’s deep look of concern didn’t match his prognosis.
“I’ve heard”—he dropped his gaze away from mine and lowered his voice—“I’ve heard rabies is fairly prevalent in this region.”
Extending my hand, I lifted his chin with gentle fingers till he couldn’t help but meet my eyes again. “Be direct with bad news,” I told him. “Authority first, compassion second. At least that’s what I want from a doctor.” I smiled at his look of bewildered surprise. “You think I don’t know about our rabies epidemic? Gus gets vaccinated yearly, as do our cows and the other dogs and the wild golden cat and the aardvark the children keep—kept—on the plantation. Does that surprise you?”
“Honestly? Yes. Being so remote, I don’t know what medicines and vaccines and supplies Ushindi has access to. And no, because I’m learning that nothing you do should surprise me. No matter how surprising it may be.”
“Do you mean like this?” Leaning over the top of Gus’s head, I planted my mouth firmly on Mark’s. His lips were firm and cold at first, not expecting the assault, but they warmed quickly, sliding against mine with building friction and more than a hint of desire.
When I broke the kiss off and pulled away, his lips followed mine, reluctant to let go.
“Yeah. Just like that,” he breathed.
His voice, low and husky, sent tremors down my spine.
My body wanted him, craved to know him, that much was sure. What I was feeling for him emotionally—that wasn’t as clear. I had to be careful. Gratitude, I knew, could manifest itself in the most unexpected ways, could make me feel like my body’s signals—the shortness of breath, the jolts of electricity, the tingle in my stomach and parts lower—were indications of things that weren’t really real.
I didn’t want to make a move I wasn’t genuinely ready for emotionally or that I would regret immediately. Just because he was available and receptive, and I was grateful for his quick actions, didn’t mean I was obligated to him in any way.
No matter how much my body might disagree with that assessment.
But even if I was prepared to relent, Gus had to be taken care of first.
Taking Mark by the hand—a gesture that seemed to come more and more naturally each time I reached out—I led him and Gus back to the kitchen, to safety, to the place where I felt most comfortable about making a decision that could affect me for a day, a week, or even a lifetime.
CHAPTER 15
MARK
It was curious how quickly I’d come to think of Kayla’s kitchen as Ushindi’s heart. I had to do nothing more than sit at the modest block of table in that large and welcoming room to feel as though I were sitting by every hearth, every fire that had provided a feeling of comfort and family stretching back through the millennia. A déjà vu of the species.
An immediate feeling of belonging.
What else belonged right now were my skills as a doctor. Which, it turned out, were little different today than the ones Kayla had displayed a couple of days before. While Kayla held the Rottweiler still, I cleaned his wounds and dribbled in some of Kayla’s stockpiled penicillin.
Then her warm and wonderfully competent hands were on me doing the same to my cleanly healing bullet wound before cutting a Percocet in half and sharing it between Gus and me.
Released from his bedroom, Jengo wrapped a worried arm around the big dog in fair imitation of the arm Kayla wrapped briefly—maybe even suggestively?—around me. She looked at me with secret eyes.
What signals was she sending me? Was she sending any at all? I
With a final pat for the rhino and okapi, I left them to their further explorations and hurried back to Mark and Gus. “How is he?”
“He’s got a couple of deep puncture wounds. Not too bloody, so no big vessels are involved. A lot of pain and bruising, though, I imagine.”
“And?” Mark’s deep look of concern didn’t match his prognosis.
“I’ve heard”—he dropped his gaze away from mine and lowered his voice—“I’ve heard rabies is fairly prevalent in this region.”
Extending my hand, I lifted his chin with gentle fingers till he couldn’t help but meet my eyes again. “Be direct with bad news,” I told him. “Authority first, compassion second. At least that’s what I want from a doctor.” I smiled at his look of bewildered surprise. “You think I don’t know about our rabies epidemic? Gus gets vaccinated yearly, as do our cows and the other dogs and the wild golden cat and the aardvark the children keep—kept—on the plantation. Does that surprise you?”
“Honestly? Yes. Being so remote, I don’t know what medicines and vaccines and supplies Ushindi has access to. And no, because I’m learning that nothing you do should surprise me. No matter how surprising it may be.”
“Do you mean like this?” Leaning over the top of Gus’s head, I planted my mouth firmly on Mark’s. His lips were firm and cold at first, not expecting the assault, but they warmed quickly, sliding against mine with building friction and more than a hint of desire.
When I broke the kiss off and pulled away, his lips followed mine, reluctant to let go.
“Yeah. Just like that,” he breathed.
His voice, low and husky, sent tremors down my spine.
My body wanted him, craved to know him, that much was sure. What I was feeling for him emotionally—that wasn’t as clear. I had to be careful. Gratitude, I knew, could manifest itself in the most unexpected ways, could make me feel like my body’s signals—the shortness of breath, the jolts of electricity, the tingle in my stomach and parts lower—were indications of things that weren’t really real.
I didn’t want to make a move I wasn’t genuinely ready for emotionally or that I would regret immediately. Just because he was available and receptive, and I was grateful for his quick actions, didn’t mean I was obligated to him in any way.
No matter how much my body might disagree with that assessment.
But even if I was prepared to relent, Gus had to be taken care of first.
Taking Mark by the hand—a gesture that seemed to come more and more naturally each time I reached out—I led him and Gus back to the kitchen, to safety, to the place where I felt most comfortable about making a decision that could affect me for a day, a week, or even a lifetime.
CHAPTER 15
MARK
It was curious how quickly I’d come to think of Kayla’s kitchen as Ushindi’s heart. I had to do nothing more than sit at the modest block of table in that large and welcoming room to feel as though I were sitting by every hearth, every fire that had provided a feeling of comfort and family stretching back through the millennia. A déjà vu of the species.
An immediate feeling of belonging.
What else belonged right now were my skills as a doctor. Which, it turned out, were little different today than the ones Kayla had displayed a couple of days before. While Kayla held the Rottweiler still, I cleaned his wounds and dribbled in some of Kayla’s stockpiled penicillin.
Then her warm and wonderfully competent hands were on me doing the same to my cleanly healing bullet wound before cutting a Percocet in half and sharing it between Gus and me.
Released from his bedroom, Jengo wrapped a worried arm around the big dog in fair imitation of the arm Kayla wrapped briefly—maybe even suggestively?—around me. She looked at me with secret eyes.
What signals was she sending me? Was she sending any at all? I
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