Page 22 of Mated in Flames

Warwick

Part of me knows that I need to go home, but I find that I’m not quite ready to as Luciana and I clear away our breakfast, having ended up making some plain toast when our stomachs rumbled. I’m surprised and pleased by the easy camaraderie that surrounds us, but there’s a part of me that’s worried, too.

Have I somehow affected Luciana? She has fallen just as quickly and easily into this odd, peaceful relationship as I have, and I wonder if maybe the fact that I’ve claimed her as my mate has affected her emotions. If so, I’m not entirely sure what to do about it.

For now, I decide, I’ll just watch and keep an eye on the situation.

Instead, I turn my mind to her offer. It had floored me when she had brought up possibly making an antidote to the poison, though I’m not sure why I should be so surprised. I had seen how interested she was last night when I brought it up.

And having an antidote to that dreadful poison would mean there’s one less threat against Dane and me in the world. Now I just have to convince Dane to trust Luciana enough to allow it to happen.

It’s probably another reason why I should be heading home. But, instead, I find myself following Luciana as she heads out the back, flipping through an old, leather journal.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“My father’s journal,” Luciana says, glancing up and squinting in the morning sun. “He left it for me before he died. It’s all the instructions on how to care for the animals.”

“That’s amazing,” I say, eyeing the ratty thing.

“Yes and no,” Luciana says with a sigh, snapping it closed. “It would have been really helpful if he had actually catalogued what was on the farm, but apparently he’s hopeless with those sorts of records. I’ve been trying to find out where some of the rare creatures came from, but his study is a mess and I can’t make heads or tails of some of his files. So I’ve decided to start my own catalogue.”

She holds up another, larger notebook, this one crisp and new.

“You’re really taking all this seriously, aren’t you?” I ask.

“Of course,” Luciana says with a nod. “Someone needs to care for these animals. My father is gone and he’s left me to do it. They have no one else.”

I look at her. She’s staring out into the fields, the sun gleaming on her dark hair. I can’t read the expression on her face.

“Do you miss him?” I ask before I can stop myself.

But she doesn’t seem offended. She gives me a small, sad smile.

“The longer I’m here, the more I realise just how much I don’t know about him,” she says. “My mother and I moved to Brazil when I was young, and I didn’t connect with my father until I was older, after she died. But our relationship wasn’t really great. I was really surprised that he had left this place to me and taken the time to write this journal for me. I would have thought there was someone closer to him that he would trust more.”

She shrugs, as though the notion doesn’t affect her.

“But here we are,” she says. “I thought I would hate it here, to be honest.”

“Is it different from where you live?” I ask curiously, wanting to steer away from the subject of her family.

“I lived in Manaus, a city in Brazil,” she says. “But I also travelled all around the world. Just before I came here, I was in Burkina Faso.”

“I have no idea where that is,” I admit, and she laughs, patting me on the shoulder.

“It’s fine,” she says.

“Do you like it here now?” I ask, suddenly needing to know the answer.

“I think so,” she says, and the smile she gives me is beautiful. “So, country boy, want to take another shot at proving you actually can milk a cow?”

“You are not going to let that go, are you?” I ask wryly.

“Never,” she says, shooting a grin at me.

I spend the morning following Luciana around the farm, watching as she interacted with the animals. I finally got to prove that, yes, I could milk a cow, but Luciana just teased me about getting Dane to teach me, much to my exasperation. It didn’t help when I stood up and almost knocked over the bucket of milk again.

Still, I enjoy myself. I can see how at peace Luciana is here, and the animals seem to have taken to her, understanding that she’s no threat to them at all.

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