Chapter 10 #2
“We’re going to be feeding Luca,” Alice said. “He’s a male white Siberian tiger. Eight years old. The meat will be on a stick. If you hold it high against the caging, he’ll come up on his back legs to get it.”
“Do you ever go in the enclosure with him?” Newt asked.
“Not unless he’s tranquilised. One blow from a paw could kill. If he sat on you, you’d die of suffocation.”
“That might be better than being eaten alive,” Newt said.
“True.” Alice nodded. “Tigers are naturally solitary animals unless they’re mating, or mothers who have cubs.
All our wild cats have large enclosures with water to swim in.
Luca knows when he’ll be fed by hand so he’ll come close.
We hide most of their food, make it a challenge to find.
The cats here are as wild as we can make them.
Luca is friendly, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t eat us if he got the chance. ”
They washed their hands, were given gloves to wear, then led into an area where there was tall metal caging between them and what looked like an empty grassy enclosure.
Jacob brought out a bucket of bloody meat. “Even if he lunges, he can’t get through the wire, but his claws can, so be careful… Here he comes.”
Oh my God. The tiger strolled up and seemed to look at each of them in turn. River was staggered to be so close.
“Hi, Luca,” Newt said. “Just so you know, Sol tastes better than me.”
River chuckled.
Alice skewered a piece of meat on the end of a stick. “Watch what I do and you can feed him after me. Stand square on. Keep your eyes on him. Stay alert. Hold the meat high or just straight out in front of you. Try not to let him take the stick as well.”
He’s bloody huge!
Alice held the meat high and River started as Luca jumped up. The tiger tore the meat from the stick and dropped down to eat it.
“Who wants to go first?” Alice asked.
“Sol,” Newt said.
River’s heart pounded with excitement as the tiger came up on his hind legs and loomed over him. One tug and the meat had gone. River pulled the stick back.
“If you shave tigers, you can still see their stripes,” Alice said. “The pattern is unique to each cat. Like human fingerprints.”
River watched Newt feed Luca and when Newt turned to him, his eyes were brimming. “Oh my God, that was amazing.”
When all the meat had gone, Luca paced in front of them for a while, then lay down alongside the fencing.
“If you’re careful, you can stroke him now,” Jacob said. “He likes being scratched on his neck. Take your glove off. We’d rather him eat fingers than plastic. If he turns his head, pull back. He’s fast. Faster than you. So not too close to his jaws.”
River could barely believe this was happening. I’m touching a fucking tiger! The fur was thick and silky smooth. Deeper down it felt soft and fluffy. The tiger was making a strange puffing sound with his mouth closed.
“He’s chuffing,” Alice said. “That breathy snort means he’s happy.”
River didn’t want to be doing this if Luca wasn’t happy. To touch an apex predator was…an honour. River felt awed and humbled. Even if he’d been able to risk speaking, he wasn’t sure he could have.
“Each tiger has a unique chuff,” Jacob said. “It’s a friendly greeting. They use it to communicate with each other, especially a mother with her cubs. This sort of non-threatening vocalisation helps tigers identify and greet each other.”
“Can we chuff to them?” Newt asked.
“Absolutely. Mouth closed, force the air out through your nose.”
Newt did it, the tiger chuffed back and Newt turned wide-eyed to River.
River tried too and to hear the tiger respond was just fantastic.
He and Newt took turns to stroke Luca. Newt didn’t stop talking the whole time, murmuring endearments and chuffing, quietly telling Luca how tasty Sol was. River could only manage the chuffing.
The experience was over too soon and they were taken inside to wash their hands.
“Thank you so much,” Newt said. “That was the best thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. Ah, no. Almost the best. Don’t ask me to tell you what was the best. But this was definitely a fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime experience. We loved it.”
“Thanks,” River croaked. “So…good.”
“You’re welcome.” Alice smiled at them. “You two are the first guests not to take dozens of photographs.”
“We don’t need to,” Newt said. “How could we forget a second of this?”
Once they were back in the main body of the park, Newt said, “Do you want to look around or leave?”
“Awd… a…round.”
“If you get tired, tell me.”
River did get tired, and he began to drag his leg a little, but there was no way he was leaving until he’d seen everything.
Bears, wolves, lions, leopards, bison… He wanted to adopt an animal, make a contribution to the work they did here, but it would have to wait until he was better and in charge of his finances. It was a good thing he trusted Max.
They took a break in the middle of the afternoon for sandwiches and coffee. Newt carried the food over to a table in a spot where River was able to take off his mask without being seen.
“My heart,” Newt said. “I swear it’s still pounding. When Luca went up on his hind legs! He was huge.”
“Best…e…ver?”
Newt chuckled. “I did correct myself to almost the best thing I’d ever done. I’m hoping to do the actual best thing a lot more. It might get even better.”
River laughed. He’d laughed more with Newt than he had for a long time.
“Thank you…” River spread his arms.
“Max gave me the money so I guess you paid. Thank you.”
“Wuur…worth it.”
He looked across at Newt’s face, felt Newt’s leg press against his under the table and for a moment, River forgot about his fall, forgot he was still struggling to get the right words out, forgot he had a long way to go and not a lot of time to get there. He felt content.
River was still on a high as they drove back.
They’d sung alternate lines to the same songs they’d listened to on the journey there—which he found harder than he’d thought it would be.
Newt got him talking too. His speech was definitely improving.
He might not be getting every word right but he was self-correcting.
“What…to…morr?”
“What are we going to do tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Ask me again.”
“What are…we…ging…going…” He took a deep breath. “To…mu…more…” He huffed.
“Tomorrow. Try again.”
It took a while but finally River got the word out. “Tomorrow.”
“Say all of it.”
River sagged. “Bed.”
Newt rolled his eyes and that made River smile.
“What are we…going…to…do…to…morrow?”
“Bed,” Newt quipped back.
River had been joking and he knew Newt had too, but bed sounded more than okay.
“One stop before we go back,” Newt said. “I don’t know this area so I’m relying on the internet but it said this was a great place to watch the sun go down.”
Fifteen minutes later, they pulled into an empty car park and unfastened their seat belts. The view was stunning. The land fell away down to the sea and on the far right the sun was sliding towards the horizon.
“It should be good,” Newt said. “Not too much cloud.” He sighed. “I missed this.”
River wondered what he meant. The sun set every day. Fair enough, it wasn’t always something you could see, and when you could, it wasn’t guaranteed to be spectacular, but he didn’t get what— River gasped as Newt’s hand landed on his crotch and gently caressed him. He groaned.
“Want me to stop?”
River glanced around in case a busload of people had pulled in behind them. Though, would he have still managed to say yes? “No.”
Newt unfastened the button on River’s jeans, then slowly pulled down the zip. River glanced around again.
“Not even a squirrel,” Newt said. “Lift your arse.”
The moment he did, his jeans and boxers were tugged down his thighs. Before River could take another breath, Newt had leaned over and wrapped his lips around the tip of his cock. Fu…uuck! One suck and River’s eyes fluttered closed.
“Multi-task.” Newt lifted his head to speak. “Don’t you dare miss the sunset.”
River chuckled and forced his eyes open, but it was Newt he stared at, watching as he licked, teased and worked magic with his mouth.
River pushed his fingers into Newt’s hair as his head bobbed over him.
Holy fuck. River had watched this online—in the days that he could—but to experience it was a whole new world.
Newt’s mouth was soft and warm, then firm around him, and all River could do was sit there and think how lucky he was.
Maybe it was a good thing he hadn’t known how good this felt or he might have been tempted to break Max’s rules before now. Newt was taking more and more of him into his mouth with each dip of his head. When he gagged and pulled back for a moment, River worried he was going to stop. He didn’t.
River no longer cared whether or not they had an audience. Unless it was the police. Maybe not then. This was the best thing ever. He gasped as he thought that. He cried out as he came, fists clenching, hips jerking as he pumped into Newt’s mouth.
It was only when Newt’s fingers wrapped around his where he was gripping Newt’s hair, that he loosened his hold to see black strands caught in his fingers. Fuck!
“So…sorry.”
Newt licked him clean, tucked his cock away and put his clothing back in place before he sat upright.
The sun was lining the clouds with streaks of gold. Newt reached for his hand as they sat and watched it sink below the horizon. Finally, the last ribbons of light faded from the sky. Newt was rubbing his thumb in the centre of River’s palm.
“They were right about the view.” Newt turned to River and smiled.
You’re more beautiful. River leaned over and kissed him, tasting himself on Newt’s lips. Newt wrapped his arms around him and kissed him back. He wanted to kiss Newt forever. He never wanted this feeling to go away.
It was Newt who pulled back, breathing heavily. “You make me forget where we are. It’s getting cold. I’ll drive us home. Unless you want to drive?”
“Can?”