The Caveman and the Devil (6 page)

“It’s not funny to see you all timid?
Oh please
!”

“Who is timid?
Noah
?” Trent cut in, his voice laced with incredulity.

Chancing another glance over my shoulder, I saw Noah crossing his arms above his chest while he shot daggers at us. I turned around, snatched Noah’s elbow to prevent him from stepping behind me again, and said, “You have to admit it’s funny to think of you as anything other than cocky.”

“Don’t forget irresponsible,” Trent said darkly.

Noah looked from me to Trent, embarrassment showing in the way he moved. He opened his mouth to reply to Trent, but Hailey waltzed between them, a reporter right behind her. She introduced the reporter and his team and, before I realized it, the camera was rolling and the reporter was summarizing yesterday’s incident.

There was something amiss with the camera, which gave us a short reprieve. Hailey talked to Bob, the reporter, explaining how heroically we had acted—especially Noah. Trent and I squinted first at Hailey, then at Noah, whose eyes had widened even more.

Bob took his microphone in one hand, snapped the fingers of his other hand at his cameraman indicating they should go on, and asked, “I heard we have a hero here?”

Noah stiffened before he stammered, “Uh, yes. W-We have. This… this is Trent Davis. He lured Kiara, um, the mother lion away from the cubs so we could separate them.”

Trent raised an eyebrow at Noah. Bob suddenly frowned and ranted something about bad lighting. He excused himself with a fake smile and yelled at one of his minions.

Trent and I rounded on Noah, who looked as if he wanted the earth to swallow him up. Noah directed a beseeching look at Trent. The effect was immediate. I had to bite back my laughter as I watched Trent falling for the puppy-eyed look. I knew how he felt.

“You… you did lure her away, and I… I only entered the cub’s compartment
after
the door was locked, okay?” Noah whispered urgently.

Trent struggled with his decision. It increased my respect for the man. Of course, I knew the right thing for all of us would be to tell the damn truth but… damn those eyes!

I said, “I’ll pull Noah off the big cats. He’ll never work with them anymore.”

“In that case…. Sure. We’ll go along with this slightly altered version of yesterday’s incident.” Grinning, Trent added, “I always wanted to be famous.”

Noah laughed in relief. I smiled, watching the tension ease from him. He tensed up when Bob came back, all fake smile and hot air. Trent and I managed to redirect the interview every time Bob asked more than one question to Noah. Trent beamed into the camera as he spun a little tale around yesterday.

Noah stood very close to me. He even grabbed my hand once. I squeezed his hand reassuringly before letting go again.

Eventually the interview ended, much to Noah’s relief. Hailey glowered at us but quickly wiped it off her face and replaced it with a smile when Bob addressed her. He wanted to film the cats outside and get footage of the cubs playing and being fed. Since the cubs were mewling, we decided to feed them first.

We prepared their bottles and Trent took the darker-furred lion cub out to feed her. Noah grabbed the lightly sandy-colored one, intent on handing it to me and vanishing somewhere. Shaking my head, I stepped away. “No.”

“But, Paul—”

“No, Noah. I’ll go and start feeding the cats.”

Noah’s gaze darted from me to the film team before he hissed, “I could do that and you could feed the cub.”

“You’re only working
here
today because I didn’t have the time to talk with the boss.”

“But I don’t want to be filmed.”

“Tough times, eh?” I countered.

“Asshole.”

Without conscious thought I did what I always did in such situations. I stooped to kiss his forehead. I heard a gasp from behind me and cringed.
Fuckety-fuck
.

“Oh, could you do that again? I didn’t get the angle right,” the cameraman asked.

Noah chortled, cradled the cub in his arms, and fed her the bottle. I rolled my eyes and tousled his hair before straightening up. To the cameraman’s disappointment I denied his request. “Nope, I can’t. I’ve got work to do.”

“Too bad,” he commented. He looked at Hailey, obviously seeking help from her. She ignored him. Whistling, I walked back to the kitchen to retrieve the cats’ food.

Chapter Ten

I
HAD
just fed the last cats when Turner showed up at my side.

“Did everything go okay in there?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“Do you still need to talk about yesterday with us?”

“Your answers in the interview pretty much covered all my questions, but I need to fill out some paperwork and have you sign it.”

Noah materialized next to us, the usual sparkle back in his eyes as he greeted me. He grew apprehensive when he recognized Turner standing next to me.

“Hey,” I said, “is the film team finished?”

“I think they’re going to stroll around for a while to get some more material. Hailey is showing them around.”

Turner’s mouth twitched. Curious, I asked, “What? What happened in there?”

Turner couldn’t suppress the grin any longer. Noah slid his arms around my waist, startling me. “Noah?”

“After I fed the cub, Hailey took me aside to lay into me for
inappropriate
behavior at work.”

“No way! Don’t tell me you made her cry,” I groaned.

“I didn’t have to. The cameraman did that for me—called her a bigot. Bob had to get between them and do his best to smooth things over. It was highly entertaining.” Noah chuckled, gave my waist a quick squeeze, and released me.

“You
are
a devil. The poor woman has a crush on you and all you do is mock her.”

The smile dropped from Noah’s face. “You didn’t hear what she had to say. I could file for sexual harassment. I won’t, so stop glaring at me.
She
’s supposed to act in a professional way, and everything would be fine between us if she’d just stop trying to get into my pants.”

“Acting professional, eh? Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” I inquired.

“Paul!”

“Yes?”

Noah’s exasperation with me was tangible when he drawled, “Can we talk about this later? Without an audience?”

Turner took this as his cue to leave us alone. Before he could go, I stopped him by blurting, “I’d like to transfer Noah to another habitat. If possible to the small mammal house.”

“Why?” Turner asked, surprised and also a bit suspicious.

Damn, why had I told
him
about my plans? Usually I’d talk to Martin Heller about transferring staff.

I was frantically trying to come up with a satisfying answer to his question when Noah interjected. In a soft voice, he asked Turner, “You know what happened to me a few years ago?”

“Yes, of course. We didn’t make it public to the other staff members, but the directors know about the jaguar attack. I was the one who ordered the psychological exam so we could be sure you’d be able to handle the job,” Turner replied.

“A psychological exam?” I echoed. Dryly, I added, “What interesting news.”

Noah had the audacity to stick out his tongue at me. Turner quickly clapped a hand over his mouth while I clipped Noah’s ear. He slapped at my hand and I snatched his in mine. I didn’t let go of it when he tried to pull away. He heaved a long-suffering sigh. “All right, even more to talk about later. I’m
so
looking forward to it.”

“Myers, let him talk,” Turner cut in, still smiling.

“I think it’s time for me to move on. I know the result of that exam was that I had coped with… what happened, but…,” Noah trailed off.

Yeah, right. You can’t even give it a name. Not to mention the nightmares, which you always claim not to remember.

Noah cleared his throat, uneasiness rolling off him in waves. “To be honest, the cats make me uncomfortable. Sometimes I have to force myself to do what I have to and when I’m close to them, I just don’t feel so good anymore. I’m afraid I might make a mistake and… and Nadine would love to work with them. We’d just switch places and everyone would be happy.”

I blinked at Noah. Turner looked as shaken up as I felt. He scrutinized Noah for a long moment, causing my ever-restless lover to shift his weight from one foot to the other.

Turner seemed to choose his words with care. “I’m a little surprised, I have to admit. I always thought you enjoyed working with the big cats, especially the snow leopards.”

“I did, but lately… I’m getting nervous around them. Not around the snow leopards, but around the other cats. And yesterday, I don’t know, maybe it triggered something. Will it be a problem to transfer me?” Noah asked.

“No, not at all. I’ll talk to Martin and let you know in about an hour.” Turner paused and reached out to lay a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “I’m glad you recognized you might not be up for the job anymore. That takes a lot of courage.”

And a certain boyfriend
, I added inwardly.

Turner bid us good-bye, to which Noah reacted with another deep sigh. He wiped a hand over his face, looked at me, and lifted our joined hands. “What do I have to do for you to let me go so I can get my work done?”

“Why didn’t I know about a psychological exam?”

Noah grimaced while trying to slip his hand free. I held on tighter and told him, “Ah, nope. Nice try, Devil.”

“We’ve got work to do. I’ll tell you about it later. For fuck’s sake, Paul! Let go of me!”

I raised an eyebrow at him. He stepped closer to me and leaned his forehead against my chest, then thumped his free hand weakly against my right upper arm, muttering, “I thought you’d think I was a weirdo.”

“I
do
think that.”

Noah pushed away from me, his face a study in confusion and hurt. Quickly I amended, “I really do. Why else would you stay with me?”

Noah snorted. “I thought you would’ve realized by now how much I like your caveman attitude.”

“I’m glad you didn’t say you like the caveman look. I might have taken offense to that.”

“Weeeell, I like that too,” Noah replied. He made a dash to the side but forgot that I still held his hand captive. Giggling, he backed off with me following him. “Oh nooo! Paul! We’re at work and there are people around. Lots of people! You can’t put me under a cold shower, nor can you tickle me or do anything else. Understood?”

“Oh boy, are you in for it when we’re back home.”

“I love when you talk dirty,” Noah teased.

I pulled sharply at Noah’s hand, making him stumble into my arms, laughing. I hugged him, then kissed him firmly on the lips. Brushing a strand of hair from his forehead, I cupped his face in my hands and asked, “Do you really feel uncomfortable around the cats?”

Noah nodded curtly.

“Why didn’t you say something?”

He shrugged and looked everywhere except at me. I bent forward to kiss the tip of his nose. It brought a tiny smile to Noah’s face, and he lifted his eyes to meet mine.

“I thought it would pass. Didn’t you notice that I haven’t been inside Daria’s compartment for months?”

“I did. I thought you’d finally outgrown this completely stupid and dangerous behavior.”

“I guess I did. I became nervous around her, and she reacted to it by growling and keeping me pinned longer than I wanted her to. There was a day about three months ago when I stood in front of her compartment and… I was
afraid
of her. I’ve never been afraid of her before.” Noah swallowed heavily.

I released his face and pulled him back into my arms. “Why the hell didn’t you say anything? You can’t work with those animals if you’re afraid of them. You have to be cautious and respectful, all right, but not scared.”

“I thought it would pass,” Noah mumbled into my shirt.

“Why didn’t you
talk
to me?”

“Because you’re an overbearing, overprotective caveman,” he grumbled. “You would have pulled me off.”

Puzzled, I said, “You’re pulled off now anyway.”

“Yeah, but now I’m okay with this decision. I wouldn’t have been okay with it three months ago. Not even one month ago. I needed to come to the conclusion to work with other animals on my own. Okay?”

“Next time something bothers you, I want to know about it.”

“Yes, dear Almighty.”

“Hah! That sounds more like it!”

Noah laughed, then stood on his tiptoes and pulled my face to him so he could kiss me.

“Geez, get a room, you two!” we heard Trent exclaiming as he passed us on his way to the exit. “No wonder you’re not getting any work done. I’m outta here. Now get to work, you two lovebirds, or I might tell Hailey I witnessed more
inappropriate
behavior.”

“Get lost!” I shot back good-naturedly.

Chapter Eleven

T
HE
rest of the day went by in a blur of activities. The okay for Noah’s transfer came within an hour. We had to do our normal work, in between feeding the cubs as well as playing with them, and also attend when the vet examined them again. Afterward, Noah probably needed the cuddle time with them more than they did.

“What?” he snapped when he saw me smirking at him as he stroked one cub’s small head.

“Nothing,” I said.

“She didn’t like getting poked and having needles stuck into her. She just needs some loving now,” Noah said to justify his extensive petting session.

“Of course she does.” A thought occurred to me. “Are you okay with us taking care of them? I mean
really
okay?”

“Yes, I am. They’re just babies.”

“They’ll grow.”

“I’ll tell you when I get uncomfortable around them. How about that?”

“That’ll work.”

Nadine came over late in the afternoon and we talked to her. She was excited to fulfill one of her biggest dreams. Noah smiled most of the time, but it grew more and more strained. We showed her around, explained how things worked, and I told her we’d set up a meeting with Turner and Heller tomorrow to speak about the details of the transfer. We’d have to adjust work schedules and so on.