The sky was the clearest blue I had ever seen, cloudless and perfect as I gaze up into it. The sun beating down hotly upon me in a way that made my skin tingle and the sweat was trickling slowly down my back but I didn't care, I couldn't find it within me to feel anything other than excitement and a tiny amount of fear. I was really here! The thought sends little thrills rushing through my entire body and I have to supress the gasp that wants to escape me as I peer across the horizon and get my first glimpse of the legendary island.
I had grown up listening to stories about Jurassic park and it had both terrified and fascinated me even as a small child. My parents weren't best pleased that my fascination only grew and I began studying palaeontology earning my degree and taking a job at the Natural History Museum in London. For the first year, I loved it but soon began to get itchy feet, wanting to travel and see the world with my work, all that changed though four years ago when my parents died. A car accident, they veered off the road on their way home from a weekend away and that was that. I was alone. I had spent the last four years buried in my work, pushing my wanderlust to the back of my mind and trying to forget all the pain and hurt. It didn't help that at the same time as I lost my parents I found out that my boyfriend was cheating on me. How's that for tragic, finding out your parents are dead, rushing over to your boyfriend's house for support and finding him in bed with some other woman. Since then I had locked myself away from people, no good could come from forging relationships, only pain and grief.
My whole life changed, for a second time, three weeks ago when I had a visit from a Mr Masrani offering me the job of a lifetime. Of course, I knew they had opened Jurassic world, the whole world knew it and a lot of them had visited it. In the last two years, the place had gone from strength to strength and I had heard rumours within the industry of new species being created too. I had sighed when I first heard of its opening thinking about how much I longed to work there, how at one time I would have pushed and pushed for a job there until they gave in, that was a long time ago though and I was a broken shell now, a shadow of the confident out going woman I used to be. So, when I was offered the job I hesitated. I hesitated where once I would have jumped for joy and it had taken him a further three days to convince me.
Standing here now though I wonder how I could ever have hesitated, how I could have been so worried when packing up my life and shipping it over here. As soon as I stepped foot on this boat I felt freer than I had in years and I breathed what felt like the first real breath I had in years. An excitement I had begun to think I would never feel again was bubbling inside me as I stepped off the boat and onto the shoreline along with hundreds of happy tourists all longing to get their first glimpse of a dinosaur. A real life, moving, breathing dinosaur.
"Miss Ducane," the female voice startles me out of my wonder and I glance up to see a very beautiful woman wearing the most impeccable outfit I had ever seen moving towards me.
"Yes," I answer, feeling suddenly self-conscious about my denim shorts, vest top and walking boots. My long blonde hair was tied haphazardly in a messy bun and I was as usual wearing very minimal make up.
"I'm so glad you accepted our offer, we look forward to your input," she smiles and I smile back albeit nervously.
"I'm not sure how much help I will be," I say quietly, "my life has been spent working with bones rather than the real things," I add by way of explanation.
"Don't worry about that, you'll learn quickly and I have some of the best to help you," she says confidently and I attempt to smile confidently back at her.
"Right, well… what's the first step then?" I ask in an attempt to keep things business like and professional.
"I'll take you to meet your team and then they'll show you to your accommodation, your stuff has already arrived and has been placed in your new home," she says and I smile again before following her to the SUV and jumping into the passenger's seat. For a while we are silent as we drive further and further away from the resort and into what looks like the wilderness.
"So…" I start after a while, "my team?" I ask,
"I know you have spent time looking at all carnivores but we thought your time would be best spent studying the raptors, there are a team working with them and they need someone to… take charge," she explains and I gulp a little. Two things terrified me about what she had said, firstly running a team meant getting to know people, forging relationships with them, not something I was good at anymore or wanted to do for that matter. Secondly, working with real life killing machines like raptors was, well, obviously, it was terrifying, if not a little thrilling too.
"There are problems in the team then?" I ask hesitantly,
"Not exactly, but the head trainer, Owen Grady, he, well, he needs keeping in check," she says and I get the impression there is a lot more that she wants to say about him but wasn't, out of professionalism I guess.
Before I can ask anything else we drive out into a huge clearing and are suddenly parking in front of an enormous paddock with people milling around everywhere.
"Claire, what are you doing here?" a gruff voice asks before I have even stepped out of the car and I turn to see the most handsome man to have ever existed striding towards us. Jesus, it should be illegal to look that gorgeous.
"Mr Grady," Claire replies coldly and I watch as he comes to a stop in front of us barely sparing me a glance as they stare each other out. So, there was a history between the two of them then, I'm not surprised they're both stunning, my stomach drops a little at the thought although I'm not sure why, I wasn't looking for anything, I couldn't, I couldn't trust anyone, not anymore.
"How can I help you?" he asks eventually and she gestures to me with a flick of her hand and I feel my shoulders slump further at the attention now focussed on me, his eyes so impossibly blue and intense that I cannot hold his gaze, my own quickly dropping to the floor.
"This is Taylor Ducane, she is now in charge of the assets here and for making sure everything gets done properly," Claire says and the answering growl from him is all the prove I need to know that this man, and I'm guessing the others do not want me here.
"You've got to be kidding," he explodes after a moment and I shift uncomfortably from one foot to the other.
"Taylor is more than competent and will be a good influence on the whole team," she insists and he snorts with laughter.
"How do you expect her to keep us in check, let alone work with raptors she looks like she's scared of her own shadow?" he asks and I feel myself bristle with indignation.
"I'm right here you know," I bite out quietly and he stills slightly staring at me again, "appearances can be deceptive Mr Grady," I add with a tight smile, I think maybe this island would be good for me, I was already becoming more of myself again. Sure, before the accident, before everything, I would have probably punched him in the face for that comment but a biting comment is more than I had managed in a long time.
"I'm sorry miss, I just don't think you'll fit here," he says having the good grace to at least look a little guilty whilst still offending me at the same time.
"Well maybe you should at least give me a week to give it a go before you make your final judgement," I say and he stares at me for a moment longer, finally nodding before storming off with Claire hot on his heels.
"Don't worry about Owen, he'll come around," a voice says startling me and I spin to see a tall, handsome man standing in front of me. Seriously, what is it with this island and gorgeous men?
"I don't know, he seems pretty set on not giving me the chance to dissuade him in anyway from his premade opinions of me," I sigh before jumping a little at the squeal behind me.
"You wanna come meet the girls?" he asks instead of really replying to my statement and I nod apprehensively as I follow him slowly towards the paddock and stop gaping in awe at the beasts that were standing in the centre apparently awaiting their food.
"Wow," I whisper after a while and I can see him grinning at me out of the corner of my eye.
"My name's Barry by the way and I for one am looking forward to working with you," he smiles and I smile too although I am unable and unwilling to take my eyes off the creatures in front of me.
"Taylor," I reply holding my hand out to him, still keeping my eyes fixed on the raptors, which he takes firmly in his own.
"Come on then, apparently, I'm a chauffeur now too and I need to show you to your living quarters," I recognise the voice immediately, its sarcasm laced in honey and I hated that it already made me weak at the knees. I sigh and nod and tear my gaze away from the raptors in front of me following him silently to the truck and getting into the passenger seat.
For a while we sit in silence, the oppressive heat feeling like nothing compared to the oppression of the silence.
"I'm sorry," I say after a while and he quirks an eyebrow at me before staring back at the dirt road in front of him.
"For what?" he asks after another short silence and I almost smile at the fact that he is clearly trying really hard to be polite despite the fact that I could feel the animosity rolling off of him.
"For inconveniencing you, for annoying you," I break off and sigh, "for clearly doing something that makes you hate me on sight," I say and it is his turn to sigh,
"Look erm…"
"Taylor,"
"Taylor, it's nothing personal but…" he starts and I hold a hand up to stop him speaking,
"I understand it's okay, you don't need anyone coming in and telling you what to do," I say and he snorts a little as if that is the biggest understatement ever.
"I imprinted on those raptors when they were born, I'm their alpha and I don't need some pencil pusher to come in now," he breaks off to make a turn and check the documents he had with him before sighing again and resuming his driving. This man had an impossible ego and was beginning to irritate me a little.
"Did you ever stop to think that maybe I was good at what I do too? Or that I wasn't coming here with the intention of bossing you all around just to fit in and offer help?" I ask forcing a sweetness that I didn't feel into my voice and he glances at me again before pulling to a stop outside a mobile home unit.
"This is it," he says jumping out of the truck and at least having the good grace to grab my bag out of the back and haul it up the stairs where he dumps it by the door before turning to face me. "Here are your keys, your ID card and login details, I'm just over there," he stops pointing at the only other residence I can see, another mobile home about one hundred yards down the road.
"Right," I nod, not really knowing what else to say.
"You got a vehicle?" he asks and I nod again,
"My triumph is being shipped, they said it would be here by the time I was," I say and for a second he looks impressed but he tries to cover it.
"You ride?" he says before he can stop himself and I smile a tiny amount,
"I told you, appearances can be deceptive," I say and he frowns again almost immediately, okay then apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.
"I'll check when I get back to the office and make sure it's here by morning, here is a map of the island with the bits you need to know marked out, there are basic food supplies in your kitchen already to keep you going for a few days and I expect you at work at 6am sharp tomorrow," he says and then turns on his heel and is gone leaving me reeling and wondering what I had let myself in for.