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I turn to him, and I can’t help the hand that goes to my waist. He watches me with such an intensity that I almost have to fan myself. I’ve never had a man look at me the way he is looking at me now.
“Excuse me, I was giving her an update for the day. I’ll be with you in a moment.” I hold up my index finger. “If you are in such a rush, I’m fairly sure the vets would be able to help you.”
His sexy meter drops a notch. I’ve had it with bossy and demanding men in my life. Colton was more than enough. Been there done that, have the T-shirt and patch as proof.
“I was told you are a bear expert, and I’ve decided I like pissing you off.” He chuckles, and the sound does things to me. His eyes travel over my body again, causing me to shiver. My cheeks heat, and his lips tip up slightly behind his dark scruff. He knows what he’s doing to me. Ugh, I don’t need a man like that.
Wait. Wait. Wait. I don’t need a man at all. I haven’t completely rid myself of the current one. The last thing I need is another one. I especially don’t need a man who knows he’s hot and what he does to me.
Sydney laughs as she exits the break room, leaving me to deal with the sexy Sergeant Whitlock.
I stomp toward him. My work boots don’t give me enough height to seem intimidating.
“Come on, little one.” He sweeps his hand out toward the hall, and I walk in front of him. I try not to sway my hips more when I hear him make a sound behind me.
* * *
Maverick
Holy fuck.
When I heard the two feminine voices and entered the room, I didn’t expect one of them to almost knock me on my ass. The redhead is beautiful and sexy, but this little curvy bombshell is a twenty compared to her friend’s ten. I want to know her first name. I want to slam her against the closest surface and kiss the fuck out of her sassy mouth. To get to know her curvy body. I want to hear her say my name in that breathless southern drawl she has.
“How did you come across a brown bear?” She follows me to my work truck parked behind the zoo hospital.
I move toward the back where the little guy is crated. She stands next to me, and I have the urge to lift her up into the bed. I just want to have my hands on her. I’m distracted by her hands when she curls them over the tailgate. She’s not wearing a ring, but I see the tan line where there once was one. Her tattooed hands and fingers entrance me. I heard enough of her conversation to know her husband not only cheated on her but was a dick to her too. A man who cheated on her is not only a fool but stupid as fuck.
“Did you hear me?” she asks, and I look down at her.
She’s a complete contradiction. I’ve only lived in the South for a few years, but she’s got the accent of a Southern belle and the tattoos of a rocker chick. Her long dark mahogany hair is pulled back in a ponytail. When she looks up at me with those hazel eyes, I get lost in the golden hue of them. I slipped my hat back on when we stepped out of the building, and I watch as she squints in the bright January sunlight.
“I’m working with a unit of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency that is investigating an influx of illegal, exotic animals being traded in the area. He was in the house we raided last night.” I can’t tell her more because we have a group we are closely following. The information is still being guarded so they don’t know we are on to them.
I watch as she looks into the crate. She can barely reach it. She’s got to be no more than five feet in height. When she hikes a leg up to climb in, I decide I better stop her before she hurts herself. I’ve never felt like this with a woman I just met.
“Here, let me open that for you,” I offer, and she tips her head back to smile at me. My heart stops in my chest. When it starts up again, it’s never thumped as it is now. The need to touch her is so great.
“I’m going to need you to bring him into the clinic, if you don’t mind. I want one of the vets to check him over. You’re right, he’s definitely a brown bear. We’d have to run some tests to identify if he’s a grizzly, Kodiak, or just brown. But I’d put money on him being a Kodiak. They aren’t endangered. The biggest problem is he should still be in a den with his sow. A trafficker would want something as rare as him. He’s maybe a month old. If he lived and was let loose here, he could cause issues for the local black bear populations.” The words spill from her lips without pause. I can tell she’s excited about the topic of bears. I could listen to her all day long.
“Wow, you really are as good as they said.” I reach over the tailgate and lift the kennel out of the bed. I place my hand at her back to move her toward the clinic. A current of electricity shoots through my hand as soon as I touch her, and I watch as she shakes as if she felt something too. I need to get away from her. Whatever this draw is I feel toward her is too much. I try to get her moving, but she just stands there.
“Why do you say that?” she asks as she steps away from my touch.
“Because I have documentation that he’s a Kodiak.” As we pass the cab of my truck, I open the door and pull out the files I have on the cub.
“Well, you could’ve led with that. Come on.”
She moves to a different entrance than the one we exited. I watch as she presses the badge hanging at her waist against the access reader. She has a trim waist that flares out to full hips. Hips meant to be held on to.
“Hal, are you in here? I have something new for you to play with,” she calls out and almost drops me to my knees with her smile. She has a single fucking dimple in her left cheek. Fuck, I’m screwed. “Bring a bag of IV fluid.” When I was told to seek her out because she’s a specialist, I assumed she was a veterinarian.
An older man with a mess of hair steps out of a side office. “Lydia, you’ve interrupted my afternoon nap. Do you think all that fancy schooling you did makes you a real doctor or vet?” He laughs as he rubs his hand through his hair. He slips a pair of glasses on and takes me in holding the crate. He reminds me of the crazy professor from theBack to the Futuremovies.
“Set him down there. We need to take him out and get a good look at him,” she orders me.
“You’re not a vet?” I look at her dumbstruck as I continue to hold on to the cub.
“No. I have my doctorate in zoology, and I’ve been on several expeditions and studies of bears. I interned in Alaska for several months.”
