Proud Hearts (Wild Hearts Romance Book 2) by Phoenix Sullivan Read Free Book Online Page A

who I am today?” His brow furrowed as he gave his head a slight shake. “I’m not sure I can tell you that. I’m not sure I know.”
    “You’re an actor,” I said quietly. “Anything you say—no matter how sincere you might truly be—will always be suspect.”
    He looked at me then, long and deep with eyes that swore truth. Gorgeous soulful eyes that made me want to believe. “I’ll share another secret with you,” he said, just as quietly. “I’m not that good an actor.”
    If I believed that, I would have to believe everything else he’d shared.
    Why did it matter to him what I believed?
    Why did it matter to me?
     

CHAPTER 10

Chris
    Why I’d opened up to Dee, I didn’t know. It seemed right at the time, but as we trudged up to the rock escarpment where the pride made their home, I became more convinced that making myself comfortable like that in front of any woman was demeaning. And in front of women as strong-minded as Dee, it was especially degrading. What Reena thought, of course, didn’t count. She’d heard it all from me by now. What she believed from all that I couldn’t begin to guess.
    Gary was the one hurt most in all this. I felt for the guy; I truly did. But he set himself up for that pain by holding on to a hope for a relationship I’d made clear could never be. The same as Reena had done for me. If I was hurt by Reena’s rejection, it was only because I’d set up an unrealistic expectation between her and me, and assigned myself unrealistic powers of seduction to believe I could have any woman I turned my sultry gaze on.
    Truth was, what I wanted to do would likely wind up bearing no relation to what I would actually do. At least for the next few years. Or at least till I found that one mythical woman who could make a man stop talking about settling down and do it.
    By the time we stopped to set up the cameras I had resolved to limit any further soul-baring to the memoir I’d begun writing in my tent at night. Abstinence had one benefit—extra time to be more productive. At the moment, I couldn’t think of any others.
    The lions were still drowsing from yesterday’s gorging, and it didn’t look like they intended on moving today.
    “We’ll get some perspective shots of you with them,” Reena decided.
    Those were the kind we’d done yesterday while the lions were eating. Getting me in only close enough for safety, then faking the distance between me and them with camera angle and a bit of chicanery. In the finished video, it would appear almost as though I was a part of the pride, close enough to touch.
    As long as my fans got the illusion of courage that was all the studio needed. Not that being out here didn’t hold some risk—these were real lions, after all—but where we could better fake the risk, we did, through tricky camera work and skillful editing.
    The bull elephant that had charged me in the “Living With…Elephants” episode? Never happened. Oh, the old bull had flapped his ears and challenged me, but he never got closer than 50 feet. When he did run up a few yards in a mock charge, a skillful zoom made it appear he was coming in right on top of me. Hell, even I got a nervous rush seeing that footage for the first time.
    So today I would walk among lions without the walking and without actually being “among” them. Meanwhile, I contented myself by peering through the binoculars at Dee who half-climbed into the back of the Range Rover to retrieve her tripod. Through the zoom lenses I admired the long, smooth length of her legs while wishing her khaki shorts were a little shorter and a little snugger.
    My imagination was enjoying itself as I adjusted the binoculars to better—
    Reena screamed.
    I whipped around, expecting to see a charging lion. Two of the lionesses were anxiously gaining their feet and the cubs were staring our way. But nothing threatened from that direction. If it wasn’t the lions…
    Dee was jogging toward Reena, her .38