Page 22 of Let It Burn (The Barrington Billionaires 4)
He pulled her back into his arms, and she could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest. “You have nothing to feel guilty for.”
“It doesn’t feel that way,” she said. There was something she had to ask him, something she’d thought about only since she’d been home. “I’ve been thinking. I don’t think my parents know anything, but we can ask them. My uncle might have said something to them.”
He frowned. “No. It’s not worth the risk.”
She caressed his strong jaw. “You deserve to know what happened to your brother.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. He’s dead. My family has moved on. Even if we found out the truth, it wouldn’t change anything. What I want has nothing to do with the past.”
She searched his face. “What do you want?”
He looked away for a moment, then back. “To feel something. I want to care about something again. I lost that.” His hands gripped her arms tightly. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be the man I was, but when I’m with you I want to be.”
She hugged him tightly, forcing herself not to cry for him. He didn’t want her pity. Like every other creature on the rescue, he was looking for hope. “Then you’ve come to the right place.” She stepped back and took him by the hand. “I want you to see something.”
He fell into step beside her.
As he followed her, he wasn’t sure what to expect. So far the tour of the facility had been eye-opening. When he’d first heard that her parents had an exotic animal rescue, he imagined people who collected dangerous animals for the thrill of it. What he was discovering was that very few of the animals on the rescue stayed. The Finally Free Rescue and Sanctuary was more of a transitional place for animals on their way to a better place. Art had explained that most of their work, outside of caring for the animals while they were there, was in building relationships with agencies from all over the world who had the resources to get these animals out of Florida and as close to where they belonged as possible. Sometimes it was an animal preserve in their native country or a permanent home somewhere safe, but everyone celebrated when animals were able to go one step further and reintegrate back into the wild. Art said that around the globe more people were beginning to see reintegration as achievable where they once hadn’t. A handful of failures shouldn’t close off the opportunity for thousands of potential successes. He was committed to helping prove that.
She stopped in front of a large enclosure. “Although we do get all sorts of exotic animals, mostly we receive native animals who have been struck by vehicles. Everything from owls to alligators, bobcats to turtles. We’ve raised awareness in the surrounding communities so that people feel comfortable calling us when they see something. Many local veterinarians don’t charge us for their services because they know the fate of the animals if no one steps in. This is the less flashy side of what we do, but it brings me joy on a regular basis. These animals haven’t been handled by people. Returning them to the wild takes less time and has a higher rate of success. If you really do want to help out here, I’d start with these. Everyone wants to help a tiger when one comes through, but these guys are harder to rally the public’s support for. Less flash means less money, but every life here is equally valued. The panther in this enclosure is two years old.”
“I don’t see him.”
She nodded and waved at the expanse of fencing. “That’s because this is a pre-release area. He’s tagged with a locator so we know he’s in there, but we don’t want him to get used to people because he’ll need to avoid them to survive. There was a time when the near extinction of panthers in Florida was considered a good thing. It’s now Florida’s state animal, and still one of the most endangered mammals on earth. We work with schools and local agencies to educate the population on the importance of keeping them in the eco-system. They keep the wild hog population down. Without them, deer, raccoons, rabbits, and other small mammals overpopulate and begin to stress the food supply. Nature has amazing, built-in checks and balances. We’re fighting to help preserve that balance.”
On the other side of the enclosure a tawny brown cat leapt from one large rock to another. He bared his teeth. The idea of her working with such an animal made Andrew uncomfortable. “You go in there?”
“Not unless he’s tranquilized,” she said with a small laugh. “My parents stressed to me early on that these animals are not pets and we shouldn’t treat them as if they are. We’ve found an area south of here where females have been sighted and that’s where he’s headed. After that, my involvement will be with farmers there.”
“In what way?”
“I’ll help them write grants to fund purchasing motion-detection cameras and predator-deterring fencing to use when they have young calves needing protection. Ideally, the fencing won’t be used year round. To survive, a panther requires an average territory of two hundred square miles. We really can co-exist with these animals if we have a plan. Rotating predator fencing protects livestock while allowing the panthers to hunt as they were born to.”
There was a thoughtfulness to the entire process that was beautiful beyond what Andrew could find the words to express. The rescue explained so much of what he admired in her. She was strong because she needed to be. The work they did was not for the faint of heart. The loyalty she’d shown for her uncle had been learned here with her parents and their shared commitment to this cause.
She turned and those big eyes of hers pulled at his heart. “There you go. I can see the wheels turning in your head but you’re not sharing it. Well, if you’re hunting for a nice way to tell me that this all sounds preachy and not for you, I understand. People have passions for different causes. I wanted you to see the panther because we’ll be releasing him soon and you said you want to feel something. This is where I find my joy. I don’t know if it could be where you find yours, but if you think it could be, I’d like to share it with you.”
It was hard to breathe. Despite the fact that they’d had sex, she wasn’t pushing him to commit to her. A certain amount of insecurity would have been justifiable considering she’d been a virgin, but she wasn’t making this about her. She was reaching out to him in the same spirit that she helped the animals at the rescue. He had a feeling that if he told her he couldn’t stay, she wouldn’t fight him, not because she didn’t care, but because she cared unselfishly. “How long until the panther is released?”
“My mother said a little more than a week.”
“You’re okay with me staying here that long?” She took a moment to answer and Andrew’s stomach tied up in knots. She chided him for keeping his thoughts to himself, but she was just as hard to read when it came to communicating what she wanted. He was beginning to see that she was extremely empathetic both with animals and with people and tended to put the needs of others before her own. He didn’t want that to be the case with him.
Finally, she nodded. “I think it would be good for you.”
He lost his patience then and backed her up against one of the trees. “And what about you?” He cupped her face with one hand while placing his other possessively on her hip. “What do you want?”
Her pupils dilated and her breathing became audible. “I told you, I’m okay with you being here.”
“That wasn’t what I asked you,” he growled and kissed his way up her cheek to her ear. “Forget about what you think you should say.” He nipped at her earlobe. “I know what I want.” He trailed kisses down her neck to her exposed collarbone then raised his head and looked down into her eyes, loving how flushed and excited she looked. “You. Again and again until we both forget about everything else. Is that what you want?”
Her chest was heaving against his and her breath was a hot caress across his lips as his mouth hovered over hers. “Yes.”
Her softly uttered agreement was enough for him to give in to his hunger for her. Their kiss was hot and intense. She squirmed against him, exciting him more. He forced himself to take it slowly, savoring every flick of her to
ngue against his, every sound she made, as his hands moved over her. Although he wanted to rip her shirt off her, he didn’t. A small corner of his brain had the sense to remember the cameras her parents had mentioned. Now that he was sure they wanted the same thing, it didn’t have to happen there. He raised his head, caught his breath and rested his forehead against hers. “How far away is that hotel your parents mentioned?”
Confusion entered her eyes. “You don’t want to stay here anymore?”
He ran a thumb over her parted lips. “We can sleep here, but what I want to do to you shouldn’t happen where your parents can hear you crying out for more. There’s no reason we can’t say we have errands to run, is there?”
Her tongue darted out to circle the end of his thumb. “I’d like that.”
“Lenny? Andrew? Dinner is ready,” Art’s voice called through the woods.
Andrew exchanged a look with Helene and they both burst out laughing. She said, “I hope this isn’t one of the places they set up cameras.”
He gave her a quick kiss. “Do your parents usually call you in for dinner?”
Her cheeks went bright pink. “No.” She called back to her father, “We’ll be right there.”
They both laughed again and separated. He took her hand and laced his fingers between hers. “Then I’m sure they won’t even ask where we’re going when we say we need to go into town.”
