Damaged Billionaire Daddy Bear - Leela Ash Page 0,9
she thought with a weary sigh as she climbed out of bed. This was indeed a bizarre animal sanctuary all right. Really? A suit? She didn’t have a lot of suits because well, in her line of work, she didn’t need them. She had only brought one because a co-worker had told her the sanctuary was pretty fancy as far as animal rescues went. That had turned out to be the understatement of the century. She had always been jeans and a t-shirt kind of girl with the occasional sundress thrown in. Suits felt stuffy and formal, and besides, they made her feel incredibly old.
Well, she hadn’t been too far off the mark when she had made that comment to the stranger yesterday. Whoever ran Exotic Rescue seemed more interested in wearing fancy suits, no matter how impractical, than in getting any work done. I mean, weren’t they here for the animals?
This Theodore Cooper person was obviously the sort who liked to impress, which would explain why he had built an animal sanctuary that would rival a lot of the resorts she had seen. To her eye, at least, it looked more like a vacation spot than a place designed to house and foster the healing of animals.
It was certainly not what she had expected, but the truth was that despite a few strange rumors about the place, Exotic Rescue had a solid reputation where it counted, at least in her circles. They had stepped in and saved many animals that would have been destroyed otherwise. From the website, she knew they had the usual big cats and gators, but also even more exotic animals – even zebra and elephants brought in when some drug kingpin’s private zoo had been abandon when he had finally been taken down by his enemies.
She was curious to meet the founder and owner. He must be quite a man, she thought. She had tried to find his picture on the rescue’s website but he must be something of a recluse because the site had yielded nary a single picture.
She combed out Arizona’s hair and helped Kal put on his shoes, despite his protests that he could handle it himself.
She rushed them out the door and toward the main building. The entire place screamed wealth, class and neatness She was still trying to wrap her head around how different this was from any sanctuary she had ever heard of.
“Mom, this place rocks,” Kal announced when he spied a cascading fountain in the very middle of the building’s courtyard.
“Stay close,” she ordered as she herded them toward the chirpy, pink-haired receptionist who was watching them carefully while chewing on a bubblegum.
“Hello. Jessica Harris. I’m here on the exchange program,” Jessica said.
The Receptionist smirked at her, letting her bright eyes scan Jessica all the way down to her heels. “You don’t look like it, honey. But go on in, conference room is that way. Daycare is three rooms down the hall,” she added with a kinder smile aimed at Kal and Arizona.
Daycare, she thought? She had half expected her kids to be hovering around her while she worked. This place was getting fancier and fancier.
Jessica nodded as she herded her kids first toward the daycare, pleased when they emitted twin sounds of delight before bursting from her side and sprinting into the room to join the rest of the kids playing on a massive indoor jungle gym.
The daycare attendant took her details quickly and waved her goodbye as she strode toward the conference room.
Jessica could feel the first stirrings of doubt as she walked down the hall. So far, the receptionist had been clad in a turtle neck sweater over jeans and the daycare attendant had been in a bright floral dress. Was she over-dressed? This place was confusing. Thank God she had brought something besides her boots and jeans.
Remembering the email, she shrugged it off. Maybe the business dress code is strictly for this meeting.
The moment she opened the conference room door, she realized she had been had. The meeting was just about to begin, with everyone shuffling toward their seats. Every single person was dressed informally, while she stood out like a sore thumb in her crisp suit and heels. Different eyes turned her way as she click-clacked her way across the room, and her cheeks burned with embarrassment.
The door swung open just then and a familiar figure swept into the room— it was the stranger she had encountered last night, she realized, her heart