“Karli? Umm…Karli? Earth to Karli.”
Pulling her eyes off them to look at Angelica, she had to shake her head to clear her thoughts, pinching herself again hard, and she swore she heard male chuckles in her head. Her mind must be playing tricks on her, since there was no way for her to hear these men. They could have yelled from their spot and she would have barely been able to hear them over the din of the crowd. Turning back once again, she saw their sly smiles, shivering as their eyes roamed her body from top to bottom.
“Geez, Karli, I know they are fine as heck, but I think I lost you there for a minute.”
“Sorry, I spaced out there for a minute.” Karli rubbed a hand across her heated face.
“Oh, no worries, they are checking you out, too.”
“Stop it. They are not.” Running a hand over her hair, she pressed a stray strand behind her ear. “I’m standing here sweating in cargo shorts, polo, and a ponytail. I don’t have a speck of makeup on, and I look like hell. Plus they are guests of the park, so there is a line I can’t cross, so why bother getting all excited.” She wondered if the last line was for Angelica or a reminder to herself.
“I’d have to cross that line if it came my way.”
Yeah, I’d cross it. And re-cross it. And re-cross it. “Let’s be professional.”
“Yeah, you looked real professional with drool coming out of your mouth a couple of seconds ago, Karli.”
Heat blossomed all over Karli’s face as she turned to walk away from Angelica without responding to the jab. Waving goodbye, she did her best to exit and get to the next area before the men could embarrass her any more than they already had. She covertly reached up to her chin to make sure that Angelica had been kidding about the drooling bit. Only feeling her own sweat, she shook her head and kept walking.
Definitely working too much. Once Scream Town is over for the season, it is definitely time for a vacation. A long one.
Worming her way through an employee pass through, she quickly entered the next segment of the park. She assisted a few guests with directions and swatted playfully at one of the entertainment staff members who tried to jump out and scare her, and she did her best to forget all about the sexiest men she had ever laid eyes on, or the fact that her body was still thrumming with desire from a simple look.
Shooing a few underage kids from a beer stand, Karli snagged a piece of melting ice and rubbed it along her face and around her collar to cool off a bit more. Surveying the crowd, she felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Karli turned and caught another glimpse of the silver-eyed pair. Her body responded to their closeness. Heat swelled within her and she felt feverish. She felt the unequaled need to go to them, to wrap her body in their embrace.
Am I insane?
She stood there, feeling like prey to their hunter, as if they were closing in on her and she felt suffocated, fear and need rippling up her spine simultaneously. A few feet from her, they were walking her way. Karli stood stock still, rooted to the spot, afraid to move from the pathway. As they approached her, she realized just how incredibly tall they were. She was no slouch at five foot ten, but they were both easily over six and a half feet and as wide as linebackers.
Passing her so closely that they grazed her heated skin, they both inhaled deeply as they passed. Need swam through her, and she felt herself actually growl lowly, deep in her throat, and raised a hand to her chest in embarrassment. Through the din of the crowd she clearly heard one of them return the sound, and her knees swayed as she felt desire spike as they continued on, walking away from her in the waning light.
Looking over her shoulder, both paused and turned, giving her a sultry smile before moving on through the crowd and out of sight. Karli suddenly felt as though she could move again as soon as they were gone, and quickly moved into the shadows of an employee pathway to gain her composure, and to fight the compulsion to run after them and throw herself at them. Leaning against the wooden gate, she took several deep breaths and calmed her frazzled nerves, knowing she was not the type of woman to react like this to a man, or rather men. And those two looked like they had played this game before: calm, cool, and collected. They were predators of the worst kind.
If Karli gave in to their kind of play, she was afraid she would walk away broken.
But no matter what she told her head, her body could not reject the heated combination of the two. Both virile, desirable men who seemed to stalk her equally, and innately she knew if she succumbed to one, she would also the other. What was crazier than the fact she knew it, was the fact her oversexed mind was running images of being sandwiched between both of their naked bodies. Of having them both possess her at once.
Karli was an independent, driven woman, who worked so much she rarely had time to date, let alone swoon over some random men she crossed in the park. She hadn’t had a date in, well, forever. Her career was her main concern. Once she got that in place, everything else could happen for her, marriage, babies, the little white house, with its matching little white picket fence. She was as boring and white bread as they came. And she wasn’t the type to go around fantasizing about screwing two men at the same time.
Hell, this was past fantasizing. It seemed it could become her reality if she wanted it and was willing to succumb to them and the images running through her head.
Regardless, the two fired something inside her, something she had never felt before. Her heart beat a staccato within her body, and she felt pulsing in places she wished she didn’t. Especially when she needed to focus on work and the safety of those inside the park. All around her the sounds of Scream Town began filtering back into her ears and she slowed her breathing down. She needed to get a hold of herself.
Straightening and taking one last long deep breath, she exited the dark passageway, and stood on the fringes of the sea of bodies milling around. This week was always the busiest, as Halloween was a few days away. Karli scanned the crowd, trying to ensure the men were not there. Relieved that she could again focus on her job, she walked the area, but kept looking over her shoulder.
Entering the Zoo compound, Karli passed the wolf enclosure and a glow of silver. Not able to ignore it, she moved towards the fence and realized the glow came from Giza, the female gray wolf that was one of their most popular animal attractions. Moving up to the fence, Karli watched the beautiful animal working with her trainers on the last animal show of the day.
A course of heat ran through her again. I need to see a doctor; I am much too young for hot flashes. Perhaps a psychiatrist too, to figure out my compulsion to fuck random strangers.
“Shame those beautiful beasts are caged here. They should roam free.”
Looking to her left, all she saw was an enormous bicep. Her eyes drifted up, and her gaze was met with a silver one. A shiver of yearning ran down her spine.
Karli moved her mouth a second or two before her voice caught up with her. “All…all of the animals here…are rescues. They were either hurt, or taken from people keeping them as pets. We give them…all the care…they need to heal...and then a safe home….if returning them to the wild…is impossible.”
Nice job, Stuttering Sue. I’m sure he thinks you are a moron now.
“Where they are put on parade throughout the day for stupid, fat humans to ogle instead of roaming the forests hunting like their natures demand.”
Stupid, fat…humans?“If we had not intervened, they would have…died.”
“And living in a cage is better than death? I wouldn’t want to live that way, would you? Just look at her eyes.”