Page 86 (1/2)
That got her attention He’d been gentle these past weeks, seeing the fragile state of her otten what he’d told her froet past the trau Life went on, so they all had to as well She was his servant, and he was her Master
Her gaze flickered toward hin of frustration and nervousness Good Both were new As he drove up to the habitat area, Chu out of a wire enclosure they’d put up teot out of the Jeep, Chu, the little ht te lions hunt The zebra herd’s looking likely tonight"
"Good luck Be careful"
The Indian woave him a nod, and Elisa a quick stroke down her ar about her business Mal gestured to Elisa to precede hie "We received a litter of ocelot kittens found by a ranger A poacher had their er station didn’t have the resources to nurse them, they asked for our help Unfortunately, their eyes were already open, and we don’t have a nursinglater, e get to the rehab stage For noe need to get theood bit of time, so you’ll take over for the hands You can drive back and forth fros"
She’d stopped at the wire fence, and saw the kittens in a box lined with grass and leaves Though their eyes were open, they did in fact appear weak, uninterested in their surroundings and notnoises they made were muffled
Mal took her to the makeshift sink and directed her to wash her hands in the strong antibacterial soap Then he removed two bottles from the warmer "Exotic cats are very sensitive to fatal intestinal proble kind of bacteria They can also aspirate if you don’t feed thes and they drown We’ll go slow this first tiotten dark, the blue like deep ocean "Mal, I don’t want to do this"
"I don’t recall ht You’re one of o home I just said I would"
"Fine, then But you’ll do this until I arrange a plane" Guiding her in, he put pressure on her so she was sitting on the ground, and then he sat down behind her, sliding her into the space between his thighs, bracing his back against the fencing Her body stiffened Since those couple of atteh physical demands, he’d restrained himself to incidental contact only That had been a mistake He realized noas easier to shut herself down to full-blown lust than casual intimacy like this With both virtual feet firmly planted in her mind, he sa one part of her mind rejected his closeness, while another part desperately wanted it Being a vampire who’d abstained for well over aher to face her desire, rather than letting her hide fro the milk scent He picked up one and deposited it in Elisa’s lap, putting the bottle in her other hand "Here we go Now, the hardest part is getting it in hishis eyes, and put your thumb under the jaw It basically shuts down all other stiOnce in--there you go--you want the milk to drip into the mouth--"
For the next few le to hold the bottle, how the kitten should be positioned, and at what rate to ad as she handled the baby, but he acted as if all ell, keeping his voice low, fir enthusiastically
They repeated the process with each of the three kittens, but it wasn’t until she was done, holding a lap full of sleepy babies, that she touched the ani function Her now-free hand touched the back of one Noriven the circuo As he watched her stroke the kit hesitantly, he saw the slight adjustment in her mind, the crack of the door, as she let herself be aware of the dependent body in her lap, the beat of his tiny heart, the way he’d taken nourishthened, her body eased so a hand on her brow, he guided her head to lie on his shoulder as they watched the kit doze off, exhausted froood chance of ether as if she hadn’t h mortality out in the wild If they don’t have any coht way, they should Maybe like Chumani, you’ll be the one to teach theh, and they’ll leave And they could die"
"Yes, they could Or they could live the lives they werebabies of their own"
"It’s too painful," she whispered "It’s just too difficult"
One of the kits hadoff the edge of her skirt She steadied his, , even as he felt the pain of her words