with his senses already attuned to the entire land, which he knew like the back of his hand, he tried to sense intruders in the area. If Jessica was truly in this area, he would be able to feel it, he thought, listening closely.
Silence met his ears.
He trudged on until he saw the unmistakable imprint of female sandals on a path that veered off in the location of Tailan and headed toward …
No! His heart thudding in his chest, Theodore began to run using supernatural speed. This was a highly restricted area of Exotic Rescue, which meant people never came here unless they were authorized to do so. The workers only came to top off the occasional supply of Tailan.
As he hurried into the clearing, his heart sank when he realized he was too late; she had found the surgical unit for shifter animals. It wasn’t labeled as such, but that was what it was. He bounded inside the building and found her already caressing the head of a great big lion as she assured it repeatedly and dipped a syringe into its side.
She looked up at him, her eyes shining, “Theodore. Why didn’t you tell me about this part of the rescue? You keep more wild animals here but they are more wounded. That lion has a mangled paw.”
Theodore’s gaze met that of the lion shifter and he shook his head slightly, warning him not to change into his human form, although, as a rule in Exotic Rescue, shifters stayed in animal form until they were healed to help the Tailan Mineral work better. But sometimes, when a shifter was injured enough, he might be unable to control his powers and could keep shifting between his animal and human form.
He shifted his gaze back to Jessica. Her eyes were shining with such bright light as though she had totally forgotten their quarrel. The change in her was amazing, he thought. She must really love her work. She had already turned back around to face the lion and was busying herself with attending to him and trying to read his chart.
She frowned when she saw his prescribed dosage of an antibiotic. “Who ordered this? In a man, this gram of antibiotics is fine but for a lion this size, they would barely make a difference.”
Theodore frowned as he came forward to stand beside her. The particular shifter was an Archstone shifter and he had been caught and injured just last night, by Roy and his men, and they had used very deadly poison to stun him. Then, when he was down, they had run him over with their truck as many times as they could. When he had arrived at Exotic Rescue, he had been in no shape to handle the level of strength required to remain in animal form, so he had kept shifting between his human and shifter forms, which was why the antibiotics had been gauged at that level.
But he couldn’t very well tell Jessica that.
“They are more critical and injured, and that’s why we have separated them and restricted access to only very essential personnel.”
She nodded. His explanation made sense. She collected the sample carefully and rose. “I’ll run these samples. I might find something useful that has been overlooked.”
He looked at her. How on Earth could he snatch that needle from her without raising a million questions? It was almost impossible.
He quietly stood aside to let her pass. As she brushed past him, he felt a rush of desire. He sighed and followed her. “Can we talk about last night?”
She froze for a minute and bowed her head for a nanosecond before lifting it and looking at him. “Last night is in the past, Mr. Cooper. It doesn’t exist anymore.”
He sighed, “I shouldn’t have said what I said. I regret it. Please forgive me. I was a jerk for no reason,” he said, apologizing for the first time in years.
Jessica wasn’t impressed, though. Her eyes were stormy and turbulent as she said, “Just answer me this, though, why did you pass out? Was the sex that bad?”
Theodore shook his head, “Believe me, I enjoyed every bit of last night. I just…”
“What?” she asked almost breathlessly.
His gaze dropped to her parted lips and all the feelings he had been trying to suppress came rushing back to the surface. He wanted her all over again, he thought, as he felt his dick stir and twitch in interest.
He scrubbed a weary hand down his face and gave her