“Maybe. We actually were talking about acquiring a new female. But she had very strong genetics, and we knew that any cub of hers would do well. So, we finally artificially inseminated her. Four times. Never took.”
Charlie frowned. “That’s too bad. Must’ve been really frustrating.”
“It was. Of course. It was the entire reason I’d gone to D.C. from Omaha. Well, other than getting fired in Omaha.”
Charlie’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, you got fired from the zoo in Omaha too?”
He nodded. “I get… riled up about animals.”
She snorted. “No kidding.”
He shrugged. “That’s not how I would characterize it, but the zoo director put it that way. I’ll admit I get protective. And short-tempered. And…”
“Easily irritated with other human beings?”
He blew out a breath and actually gave her a faint smile. “Yeah, something like that.”
“Okay, so now we have to start in Omaha,” she told him. “What happened there?”
“Well, it had to do with some animals.” Now he gave her a half smile.
Which was at least a quarter smile more than she’d gotten from him in a couple of days.
It made her smile even bigger, and the warmth in her stomach notched up a few degrees. “I’m shocked, Dr. Foster.”
“I know. But yeah, they wanted to bring in some new penguins but weren’t willing to add onto the enclosure. I got into a huge yelling match with the zoo director and our primary donor.”
“They fired you for giving them advice that you were essentially hired to give them?”
“It wasn’t the advice I was giving so much as it was calling our donor a pompous ass and the zoo director a selfish bastard. Loudly. In front of most of the staff. And some of the public.”
Charlie felt her eyes widen. But her smile spread too.
“Oh, and to fuck off,” Griffin said, almost thoughtfully. “That definitely didn’t help.”
Charlie laughed out loud. “Just so you know, I love everything about this story.”
And now she got a full-on grin.
And she wanted to climb right into his lap and kiss the hell out of him because of it.
Well, also because he’d told off the guys in Omaha. She had no doubt that they’d deserved it.
“That’s because you’re a troublemaker,” Griffin told her. “Most people know that I shouldn’t have reacted like that.”
“Sometimes, when you’re dealing with selfish bastards, the only thing to do is call them out.”
He looked at her for several beats before asking, “You think I was right?”
“Of course.”
“You don’t know how the whole conversation went or any of the details of the situation.”
“No, but I’ve been around you for five days now.”
“Exactly. You’ve only been around me for five days.”
She leaned in, rested her elbows on her thighs, mimicking his posture. She met his eyes directly. “Griffin, it only takes a few hours with you around animals to see what kind of guy you are and what matters to you.”
Again, several ticks passed with him simply watching her before he said, “And there you go, being irresistible again.”
She laughed lightly. “I’m not sure you’re using the word irresistible correctly. You seem to be doing a fine job of resisting me.”
“I don’t think that’s going to last.”
Her stomach swooped, and heat shot through her belly straight between her legs. “You probably shouldn’t have admitted that.”
He nodded. “Probably not.”
“Tell me what happened in D.C.” She swallowed hard as tingles raced through her bloodstream. “Quickly, though.”
“There’s a timeline?”
She nodded. “There is. I’m about three minutes away from kissing you. And once I start, I’m really not going to want to stop. Even to talk about tigers.” She leaned in a little closer, her voice dropping a bit as she said, “And I don’t think you’ll want to either.”
His eyes were hot on hers as he said, “We finally got the tiger pregnant. She had a cub that was perfectly healthy. We decided to have an event to celebrate and invited all of our mega-donors to the propagation program to come see the cub before we introduced him to the public. A donor’s wife climbed into the nursery pen and picked him up for a photo.”
For a moment, Charlie was distracted from her delight over how quickly he was talking, clearly to get the story over with so the kissing could commence. “She got into a tiger pen?”
“The mother wasn’t in there. It was only the cub. But yes, even after being told that no one could touch the cub. Her husband was our biggest donor, and she obviously thought the rules didn’t apply to her. And I lost my shit.”
“Was she okay?”
“Yes. But honestly, that was not my first concern. If baby tigers are handled too much by humans, it’s possible that their mother will reject them. We had just successfully had a tiger cub born after multiple tries, and to think that the mother might not take care of him made me see red.”
“My God, I can totally understand that.” Charlie felt herself frowning and her heart pounding, but now her heart rate had nothing to do with Griffin. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Her heart rate was always a little elevated when Griffin was around, and when he was growly and protective of animals, it especially made her hormones rush. But now, she was sharing his frustration and anger. At a woman she had never met.
“What did you do?” Charlie asked. For some reason, she knew this went beyond raising his voice and calling people names.
Griffin blew out a breath. “I grabbed the cub away from her, put it down, then took her arm and started to escort her out of the building. When she resisted and started yelling, I wrapped an arm around her waist, picked her up, and carried her out.”
Charlie felt her mouth drop open. Okay, that was a relationship-with-a-donor nightmare as well as a horrible publicity situation. She still wanted to kiss him. “And you were fired right on the spot,” she guessed.
Griffin nodded. “You got it. But, I would’ve quit the next day if the director had tried to side with the donor.”
Charlie nodded. That was totally in character. “And then you came here?”
“A mutual friend called Tori, and she called me.”
Charlie stood from the bucket and took a step forward. Griffin didn’t change his posture at all except to tip his head slightly to look up at her.
“Is Autre going to be enough for you?”
“My goal now is simplicity. I want things uncomplicated and straightforward. I don’t have to deal with politics here, or mega-donors thinking they have rights that they don’t, and—” He sighed. “I don’t have exotic, endangered animals here. That should keep me from losing my shit.”
She took another step, and now he spread his knees and straightened slightly. She stepped between his knees and put a hand on his face.
“I don’t think anything can actually take away a passion like yours.” She took a breath. “At least I hope not.”
With a resigned groan, Griffin’s hands went to her hips, and he pulled her forward and into his lap.