Proud Hearts (Wild Hearts Romance Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

unrest there is, and how much corruption’s in the civil sectors. Overall, though, it’s too easy and too lucrative to not continue attracting way too many folk looking for a quick buck. Luring an elephant or rhino out of a protected habitat into the sights of some rich hunter’s rifle isn’t some rare, one-off event. It’s a way of life for a whole lot of people who just haven’t been caught yet.”
    Reena had slipped a mic between us, so I asked, “Why are you out here with the lions? Surely they’ve been studied and filmed and cataloged to death over the past 50 years. At least since the Adamses and Elsa and Born Free . You’re getting grant money, so someone somewhere thinks there’s some educational value still to discover. What are you after?”
    “It’s important to get as many snapshots as possible over time to get, first, a true picture of a species or a culture and, second, to understand what new trends there might be in, say, migratory behavior or hunting that might point to environmental concerns for the rest of us. You couldn’t stay in a college house in Haight-Ashbury in the 60s and declare that’s what all Californians were like then or continue to be like today. We’ll never be done studying other species any more than we’ll ever be done studying ourselves.”
    All I knew when we left the pride that evening and returned to camp, was that I wasn’t close to done studying these lions—or Dee.

CHAPTER 7

Dee
    As early as I was up the next morning, Chris was up right alongside me.
    “I want to leave out by 5:30 tomorrow,” I had told them the night before as we finished up our ready meal entrees and I was passing around fresh mangoes for dessert.
    As jet-lagged as they still were, any hour I named would be less than desirable, but Gary was determined to be contentious regardless.
    “If you want us out that early just to watch those lions sleep even more…”
    “Right, because my grant money is to prove my thesis let sleeping lions lie .”
    “Care to share your itinerary, then?” Chris sounded only slightly less contentious than Gary.
    “Anyone think to ask why those lions were so content to lie around?” I preferred to think it was the teacher in me that enjoyed their baffled expressions and not that I felt the need to prove my worth—no, my superiority, if I was honest—to them. But who was I fooling? “Anyone care to guess?”
    Chris’ Hollywood-blue eyes narrowed as he stared out over the remnants of our dinner. It was fascinating to watch the changes in them as he thought through the riddle. Watching, I knew the exact moment he lit on the answer.
    “They had fed recently.”
    I nodded. “High insulin levels. They were still digesting their last meal. Like the nap after Thanksgiving Dinner. Or an afternoon siesta after a big lunch. They weren’t hungry today. But they will be soon. I know their behaviors well enough to know they’ll be on the hunt tomorrow, and that they’ll be on the move in the morning down to the dambo —it’s like a seasonal pond or swampland—where the herds hang out. Assuming we can time everything right, you might get a handful of opportunities to film them hunting while you’re here. But if you’d rather sleep instead…” I shrugged pointedly at Gary.
    Even at 4 o’clock in the morning, Chris managed to look photo-perfect—nearly naked save for those nylon shorts, his dark blond hair sporting just the right amount of tousling, every move one of confidence and grace. Next to that social perfection, I felt self-conscious and ungainly. Which irritated the heck out of me because I usually had a healthy attitude about all things me. Sure, alone with the lions I was comfortable about my body, mainly because I rarely thought about how I looked or sounded or moved for the days, sometimes weeks, at a time when there was no other human around to see me—to judge me. Before now, though, I hadn’t been this awkward and insecure in social situations.