“Lions?”
“Why …” He looked at Carlotta, who seemed fine letting him handle it. “Why lions?”
“They bite,” Luca returned, deadly serious.
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about, as far as lions go,” he said.
“I did in my dream,” Luca said, his expression completely serious.
“Dreams aren’t real, Luca,” Carlotta said, her tone full of warmth.
Rodriguez liked that she talked to Luca. That she never got angry with him for saying what was on his mind. But it made him remember. Dinners that lasted for hours where he was expected to sit and be the heir. Being the heir meant being an object, a collector’s item of interest his father might show dignitaries. Somewhere between his collection of pistols and his prize Andalusians.
He remembered being maybe Luca’s age, sitting here, too afraid to move or speak. Sitting in a dining chair at this same table, wearing a tie that felt like it was choking him. Knowing that if he moved or spoke he would be punished severely. Which meant his options were to sit and try to listen. Never fall asleep. He’d done that once and the resulting punishment had been enough to make sure he’d never done it again.
The idea of someone treating Luca that way, of someone making him stand without moving for hours, smacking his shins if he dared try anything … it made his blood burn.
“You don’t have to be afraid, Luca,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Of lions,” he finished, not sure why he’d spoken the words out loud. “There are no lions in Santa Christobel. None anywhere near here, except at the zoo. We can … go to the zoo if you like. And you can see some lions. They’ll be behind fences though.”
Luca eyed him skeptically, his expression so like Carlotta’s it was uncanny. “They won’t be able to get out?”
“No,” he said, slowly realizing that, whatever he’d had planned today, he was going to the zoo instead.
“Then that sounds good. Are you coming, Mama?”
Carlotta’s lips curved into a half-smile and she flicked him a glance. “Of course.”
A trip to the zoo with Rodriguez wasn’t an average trip to the zoo. It involved having overnight bags packed, and a quick ride on his private jet from Santa Christobel to Barcelona.
Luca was captivated by the zoo from the moment they walked in, and he didn’t seem to notice the covert security detail that created a people-free bubble around them while they traversed the paths that wound through the park.
Every section of the park had been landscaped with plants native to the environment of the animals, the enclosures made as minimal as possible, everything man-made blending into the background, as much as possible.
“This is lovely, Rodriguez. Did you come here as a boy?” she asked, watching Luca’s eyes go round with delight as they came to an exhibit with two tawny owls.
“Like Sherbie and Sherbet!” he said, running up to the front of their Plexiglas enclosure.
“Yes, darling,” she said, laughing at his enthusiasm.
“I’ve never been to the zoo before,” Rodriguez said, his eyes trained on the owls.
“Never? How is that …?”
He shrugged. “We didn’t do things like this when I was a boy. And when I was older … I was more interested in women than owls.”
“I see.” She watched the back of Luca’s head, seeing the sun shine on his glossy, dark hair. She suddenly wanted to pull him to her. To hold him close.
She looked at the man standing next to her. She wanted to hold him too. He should have been taken to the zoo.
“Well, we’re here now,” she said, moving closer to him, but not touching him.
“There’s a woman here too. A beautiful one. So clearly I didn’t know what I was talking about,” he said, offering her one of his lady-slaying grins. It was the first concession he’d made to any kind of attraction all day. It also rang a bit false.
Not because she doubted his attraction, not possible after last night, but because the easy flirty thing wasn’t as easy and flirty today as it was sometimes. Or maybe it really never was that easy and she just knew him better now.
“I like those owls!” Luca said, turning and treating them both to a big smile.
Rodriguez let out a short laugh at that and it made a warm spot start in Carlotta’s heart and spread outward. That wasn’t a sexual feeling either. It was decidedly fuzzy, and directed at Rodriguez. That wasn’t good.
She cleared her throat. “Ready to go see something else, Luca?”
Luca frowned. “The lions, I guess.”
“You guess?” she asked.
He took a deep breath, his small shoulders rising dramatically. “I’m ready.” He looked up at Rodriguez and stuck out his hand.
Rodriguez looked down at the small, outstretched hand and he felt something akin to panic well up in him. He swallowed hard, and looked into earnest green eyes, then up into Carlotta’s matching green eyes. And he couldn’t hurt either of them by denying Luca’s nonverbal request.
He reached out and wrapped his hand around Luca’s tiny fingers. He felt small. Fragile. And it reminded him, so vividly, what it was like to be that size. So powerless. And yet, for the first time, it also made him understand what it was to truly want to protect someone.
“Do you have the map, Carlotta?” he asked, his throat tight.
“Yes. For lions, we keep going straight.”
“All right then.” He tightened his grip on Luca’s hand and walked down the cobblestone trail, Luca’s legs having to take two steps to his one. He slowed down to try and match the boy’s pace and Carlotta moved next to Luca, taking his other hand in hers.
It was a scene of domesticity he’d never quite imagined being a part of. Not as a child, not as … whatever he was to Luca. A stepfather, or at least future stepfather. Strange to think of himself that way. Strange to have Luca cling to him as though Rodriguez was going to offer him protection.
He looked over Luca’s head at Carlotta. She could have made Luca the sort of child who didn’t trust people. She had ample reason to. But it was clear that Luca simply accepted that anyone his mother deemed all right was trustworthy.
Already, Luca accepted that he was safe with him and that was … It was humbling in a way he had not anticipated. And still created that bit of panic in him.
“There they are,” he said, pointing to the enclosure. There were four lions lounging by the tall fence, and he felt Luca shrink by his side, his little body tense. “We can go if you like,” he said. “We don’t have to stay.” Because more than anything, he didn’t want to lose Luca’s trust.
When he thought of what his own father would have done in this situation, it made his entire body want to recoil. “I’ll look at them,” Luca said, his grip tightening on Rodriguez’s hand. He stood stiff next to Rodriguez, his eyes fixed on the lions.
“They aren’t bad, Luca. See?” he said.
The large golden creatures were lethargic in the midday heat, stretched out by the fence, ears twitching. They didn’t seem to notice, or care, that they were being watched.
Gradually, Luca relaxed, but he never released his hold on Rodriguez. “We can go now,” Luca said.
Rodriguez laughed and looked at Carlotta. “I’m sure that’s fine.”
The smile Carlotta gave him was something new too. There was trust there. A different kind than the kind she’d shown him last night. Something that