The Caveman and the Devil (2 page)

The light bulb slowly went on for Noah. Of course, he immediately lunged into defense mode. “I just wanted to get the cubs out of there!”

“You went into Kiara’s compartment without waiting for the inner door to be locked! She had just killed two of her cubs and was in the process of killing the other two!”

“She had walked into the other compartment!” Noah protested.

“But the separating door wasn’t closed yet!” I shouted, eventually losing the fight with my emotions.

“Trent locked the door right after I was inside.”

“Yes, and she came back and jumped against it, roaring. What if Trent hadn’t managed to lure her away?”

“But he did. Don’t be such a nitpicker all the time.”

I could hardly breathe. The memory of Noah crouching in Kiara’s compartment, cooing at the two surviving cubs in the middle of a bloodbath, raised the hairs on my arms again. Nausea rolled through me, sweeping me up. It could have been over today.

“Paul? Come on, everything’s fine. Don’t get your panties in a bunch for nothing.”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I turned toward the shower stall, turned the taps on cold, and whirled back around. Noah’s eyes widened. He spun around, knowing very well what was to come.

“Oh no you don’t,” I growled.

I caught him just as he laid his hand on the doorknob. I lifted him off his feet and carried him the few steps to the shower stall where I unceremoniously shoved him under the cold spray of water.

Noah sputtered and struggled. After a short while, he was so slippery I could barely keep him inside the stall. I squeezed myself behind him, locked my arms around his torso, and allowed the icy cold water to pour down on us.

“Pauuuuul! Let go! I want you to let go of me!”

When I did no such thing, Noah stamped his foot, hard. Since that also didn’t bring him the desired result, he kicked at the shower stall with his other foot, all the while shivering in my arms. He cursed up a blue streak when I didn’t respond to his pleas.

A freaking contradiction, that was what he was. Despite his struggling, yelling, and kicking, he leaned back into my embrace, the back of his head tightly pressed into my shoulder. I almost smiled.

“Paul!”

“Stop it. We don’t want to wake up the cubs.”

“What? Damn, Paul, then turn off the fucking water.
Please
! My lips must be blue by now. Do you want me to have permanent frostbite damage?”

Ignoring his complaint, I said, “Tell me again everything’s fine. Tell me again I’m a nitpicker.”

Noah stayed silent. He stopped struggling and clutched at my crossed arms above his chest instead.

I finally allowed my emotions to flood me. Not so much the anger, because hell, even I couldn’t stay mad for long when my teeth were chattering. I remembered the fear I had experienced upon seeing him in the compartment we had prepared for Kiara and her offspring. Blood had been everywhere: on the floor, the walls, and on Noah. Kiara had just strolled over to the adjoining compartment, the one she shared with the other lions when they were inside. Then there were the terrifying seconds when Kiara saw Noah kneeling next to her two surviving cubs and ran over to him.

I remembered yelling his name in panic. I remembered Trent shouting as he pushed the separating door shut with the end of a broom. Kiara lashed out at the broom and headed over to the bars, trying to get a hold of Trent. He had to jump backward to remain out of reach of Kiara’s huge paws. During all this Noah had staggered into action, snatched both cubs, and dashed to the door at the other end of the compartment. Without conscious thought I had moved toward the door too and smacked it shut as soon as Noah stumbled out.

God, that look on Noah’s face when he’d realized what had just happened, how close he’d come to his death and also to reliving one of his worst memories—the jaguar attack years ago.

My whole body shook as I flashed back to those few seconds that had determined life or death. I reminded myself to thank Noah’s guardian angel later. Profusely.

Choked up with emotions, I whispered in his ear, “Damn, Noah! What were you thinking? You could have just waited another minute, and it would have been perfectly safe for you to enter the compartment. We would have locked the separating door and no one would have endangered his life! Kiara could have killed you! She was in a blood lust! If the worst had happened, you, Trent, I, and every visitor of the zoo would have been in danger. Don’t you
ever
learn?”

“I… I thought… it looked as if the door was locked already.”

“Trent yelled at you to stay away because it was
not
locked.”

“I didn’t really listen. I only registered what he and you were yelling when I was already inside. There was so much blood, Paul, and the cubs…. Didn’t you hear them crying?”

Noah trembled, as did I, though I doubt for the same reasons. I reached for the tap and shut it off.

With the exhaustion of the day sapping my strength, I told him, “As much as I like your impulsiveness in certain areas of our lives, I hate it when you act on it at work. I can’t take this shit anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” Noah whispered.

“That won’t cut it this time. I’ll move you to another habitat, one without potentially dangerous animals, since I can’t trust you enough.” I silenced Noah’s cry of protest by laying a finger on his lips. “That is, if I can convince the zoo management not to fire you.”

Loosening my embrace, I turned Noah around. He stared up at me from large, frightened gray-green eyes. Water trickled down his pale face in small rivulets as the impact of my words hit home.

“They won’t do that, right? Fire me, I mean? I rescued those two cubs!” His voice rose.

“Noah, any of us could have saved these two cubs
after
the compartment door was closed,” I said.

I was doing my best to be gentle and understanding, but at some point, he would have to accept the truth. His behavior hadn’t only been unprofessional but also irresponsible and extremely dangerous. I wondered if the management would give Noah another chance. If I was honest with myself, I wouldn’t.

Noah’s eyes filled with tears. He hastily averted his eyes and looked down at his feet, shivering uncontrollably. Suppressing a sigh, I ushered him out of the shower stall and helped him undress. After toweling off, we walked into our bedroom where we both slipped into sweatpants and long-sleeved shirts.

Noah sank down on the edge of our bed with his elbows on his knees and his face hidden behind his palms. Droplets of water trickled from his hair down his neck. I went back into the bathroom, fetched a small towel, and walked back to him. While I briskly rubbed his hair dry, Noah’s arms came up around my waist, holding on tightly.

I threw the towel on the floor, clasped one hand around Noah’s neck, and with the other one stroked his still damp hair. His voice was muffled as he talked into my shirt. “I don’t want to lose my job. I want to work with
you
. I only came to Philadelphia because of you.”

I smiled. His confession about the crush he’d had on me even as a teenager always did that to me. Who would have thought we’d end up as a couple? Feeling rather mellow all of a sudden, I said, “We’ll talk to them tomorrow. Maybe we can convince them you didn’t hear Trent calling you back.”

“Thanks, Paul.”

“And I’ll see to it you transfer as quickly as possible.”

I felt Noah swallowing. “Where to?”

“Maybe you can take care of some of the smaller mammals, the ones that can’t kill you if your brain suffers from another short-circuit,” I replied. Noah didn’t protest, which set all my alarm bells off. I added suspiciously, “You’re surprisingly docile.”

“I’m still freezing, thanks to you, and I’m also scared of losing my job. Takes all the fight out of me.”

“Hey, but look at it like this—the good thing about the cold shower is that it leaves you with your neck intact.”

Noah pushed away from me. “So that shower was for your benefit and not mine?”

I crouched down in front of Noah, both my hands resting on his thighs, and answered, “No, it’s also for you to cool down your temper. Works like a charm every time.”

Noah snorted. “I haven’t taken so many cold showers or stood in the rain—with all my clothes on—in my entire life as I have since I met you.”

I grinned, then slowly rubbed my hands up and down his thighs.

“You’re not mad at me anymore?”

I stopped and looked up at him. Noah had sounded insecure only seconds ago. “Insecure” wasn’t a word I normally associated with my cheeky lover. Not at all.

“Don’t bring up the topic again, and don’t
ever
tell me I’m a nitpicker again when it’s about your safety. Got it?”

Noah’s lips curved into a tentative smile. “Caveman.”

“I’ll take that as an agreement.”

“Only if you warm me up now.”

I lifted an eyebrow. Color rose in Noah’s cheeks and he scooted closer to me. He wrapped his arms around my neck before he nipped at my earlobe. Right away he soothed the sting with a lick of his tongue, eliciting a pleasant tingle everywhere inside me.

“Please?”

When had I ever been able to deny Noah anything?

Chapter Four

“G
ET
out of those clothes,” I demanded as I stood up, already stripping out of my shirt.

“But I just put them on,” Noah protested with a mischievous smile on his face.

My shirt fluttered to the ground. Quirking an eyebrow, I put my hands on my hips, scrutinizing him. I shrugged, bent down to retrieve my shirt, and said, “Well, in that case… I’ll make you some tea.”

Before my hand touched my shirt, Noah jumped me. Literally. He jumped on my back, slinging his arms around my neck and his legs around my waist. If I hadn’t been so used to this by now I would have toppled over. As it was, I stood my ground and laughed.

“Bloody spoilsport,” Noah muttered against my neck.

“Me? You were the one complaining.”

“You never care about that,” Noah shot back.

Straightening up, I laid one hand on Noah’s interlaced hands around my throat and the other one on his crossed legs. “Does that bother you?”

“No! God, no! I love your whole Stone Age behavior; you should know that by now.”

“Stone Age behavior, eh?”

I felt Noah smiling against my neck. When I heard him stifling a laugh, I reached back and in one fluid movement pulled him around so we were face-to-face.

“Something funny?”

“You were worried. About your attitude.
You
. I have to mark today on the calendar.”

Instead of rising to the bait, I tightened my embrace, fencing him in. Noah gasped before he rested his head on my shoulder, shuddering. He’d never admit it aloud, but he craved to be touched, to be held, to feel protected. I didn’t mind giving it to him. Not one single bit.

I walked us the two steps to our bed, where I dropped Noah. He bounced on the mattress, his eyes glittering in anticipation.

I lowered my voice and commanded, “Strip.”

This time he didn’t stall or tease; he merely did as he was told. When he slipped his sweatpants over his hips, his cock jutted out and a pearl of precome shimmered on its tip, inviting me to lap it off.

I gave in to my desire, chucked my pants, and knelt between Noah’s thighs. He was propped up on his elbows, his eyes hooded as he stared down on me, waiting for me to do something, anything.

I hovered with my mouth next to his straining cock, rubbing my stubbled cheek against the sensitive flesh of his inner thigh. Noah gasped and opened his legs wide.

“What do you want, sweetheart?” I asked.

During sex was the only time I could safely use such an endearment. Coincidentally, it was the only time I ever felt like using this particular pet name. It just felt right in these moments.

“Paul, I don’t want to play this game,” Noah whined and pushed his hips closer to my mouth, his cock brushing along my cheek. We both shivered.

“Too bad for you. I like this game.”

Noah flopped down on his back with an agonized moan. “Paul!”

“Noah!”

I chuckled when he thumped his fists on the mattress in frustration. To soothe him, I licked from the base of his cock up to the tip, tasting the drop of precome.

“Better?” I asked.

“A little bit.”

Swirling my tongue around Noah’s cock several times, I relished the way Noah’s belly muscles contracted and flexed. He had a finely defined six-pack that shone through his white skin. Before him, I had always preferred burly men with oversized six-packs. Since I had Noah for the first time, I couldn’t think of anything more erotic than the subtle movements of his muscles rippling just beneath his skin.

“Fuck me?” Noah asked, pulling me out of my admiring thoughts.

“You took another twenty years off my lifespan today, and now you think I’m up to fucking you?” I countered as I trailed my fingers from his collarbone downward, following the outlines of his ribs. It elicited another shiver from him.

Noah glanced down at me, his cheeks flushed and an assessing look on his face. When he was done with his assessment, he said smugly, “Yes, you are. From the look of it, you’re going to make sure I can still feel you tomorrow.”

My cock responded to his statement with almost embarrassing eagerness. I cleared my throat before I replied, “Damn right, I will.”

“Then get on with it, for fuck’s sake!”

Ignoring Noah’s last words, I stretched out on top of him, blanketing his body with mine. I loved the difference in our heights as much as the one in our physiques—probably due to my caveman heritage. What could I say? I simply liked that he was smaller, more slender than me. He hit all my buttons even though I didn’t even understand my strong urge to protect him. Possessiveness I could have understood, but oh well, it was what it was, right?

I cupped my hands around his face, keeping him immobile while I demanded entrance into his mouth. He granted it, his tongue sneaking out and slipping into my own mouth. For a long time we just kissed, allowing our tongues to explore and familiarize anew with already well-known territories.