When he hangs up the phone we spend a further minute or so simply standing in one another's arms, his breath heavy against my skin. Suddenly he leans in to kiss me again but I pull away needing to know what this means.
"Where does this leave us?" I ask in a breathless whisper and he smiles a little tucking another stray strand of hair behind my ear.
"I think it leaves me at your mercy T," he whispers back and I can feel myself frowning slightly in confusion.
"I… I don't understand," I say quietly and he chuckles pulling me closer and dropping another quick kiss on my lips that would have had my knees buckling completely had he not been holding me so tightly.
"I'm trying to tell you that I'm yours if you'll have me," he says almost hesitantly and I can't help laughing a little at the fact that he thought I would ever refuse him.
"I've been in love with you since you became the first person I ever talked to or trusted since the accident," I whisper freezing as I realise what I had just said. Shit! Jesus Taylor way to ruin everything the bloke just kissed you that's it and now you're trying to scare him off, my face is burning and my mind racing as I try to work out how to recover from this, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… I just never thought that you would…" he cuts me off by kissing me again and I can feel his smile against my skin as he peppers my jaw with more kisses.
"Tonight I'm taking you out properly and we'll have a real first date T, I promise," he murmurs and I smile as my fingers play with the hair at the nape of his neck dragging a groan from deep in his throat.
"You don't have to do anything Owen, I'm just happy if I get to spend time with you," I smile and he grins at me a little.
"I want to T but right now we have to go deal with a problem," he replies pulling away reluctantly and grabbing two shot guns handing one of them to me.
"What kind of problem?" I ask as I eye the guns and the hunting knife that he is now strapping to my side after he has secured his own.
"That was Claire on the phone, there's an issue with the new 'asset' as she calls it," he explains and I tense immediately as I hear her name, insecurity and hurt flooding me before I can stop it as I remember the things she said about me less than three hours ago.
"That was Claire on the phone?" I manage after a moment and before I can say anything else he is in front of me again his hands on my face his fingers tracing my cheekbones softly.
"What she said about you was unforgivable T and when I get the chance I'll call her out on it properly, I should have done it when she was here, but right now we have to work and I don't want you out of my sight after that little display in the pit so you're coming with me," he smiles gently and I move my hands to grip his wrists.
"You don't need to say anything to her Owen besides surely it will be far worse for her to see you with me, someone who is 'barely a woman anyway' that will hurt her more than anything you could say," I respond and he simply growls a little before pulling me forward into another searing kiss before moving away grabbing my hand and dragging me downstairs and to my bike.
When we reach the paddock, I gasp at how huge it is and have a sinking feeling that I'm not entirely sure that I want to know what they have in there.
"Owen… and Taylor, what are you doing here?" Claire asks as she approaches us her smile faltering and a frown forming on her perfect face.
"Taylor is my boss Claire, so I figured that she should be here to see this too," Owen says a slight bite in his tone as he does so and I notice him step slightly closer to me.
"Right, well, fine, come on then," she stutters out and turns on her heel expecting us to follow her up the steps.
"You good?" Owen whispers, turning to me and reaching for my hand and I nod giving his fingers a squeeze before moving ahead of him and up the steps.
"We've been pre-booking tickets for months. The park needs a new attraction every few years in order to reinvigorate the public's interest. Kind of like the space program," Claire is saying as she walks over to the flight of steps leading up to the observation tower, Owen follows and I do too after a moment's hesitation. "Corporate felt genetic modification would up the "wow" factor," she continues and I can't help the tiny snort of annoyed disbelief.
"They're dinosaurs. "Wow" enough," Owen says and I can tell without looking at him how unimpressed he is.
"Not according to our focus groups. The Indominus rex makes us relevant again," she smirks and Owen makes a sound of disbelief as I turn to watch him grin ruefully.
"The Indominus rex!" I repeat sarcastically before I can stop myself and she frowns at me.
"We needed something scary and easy to pronounce. You should hear a four-year-old try to say "Archaeornithomimus," she replies tightly,
"You should hear you try to say it..." he says back stepping closer to me as if trying to shield me from Claire's hard stare.
As we enter the observation room I move away again, heading to the glass to stare out into the enclosure. Nick, one of the park supervisors, is sitting at his desk on his lunch break, munching a sandwich nosily and I grin at him and give him a little wave which he returns.
Besides us he's the only one present. Owen and Claire walk over to join me by one of the windows. We don't see the I. rex, just the dense jungle of the paddock interior beyond the glass, even so, a chill runs down my spine and I feel as though something is watching me, I don't like this place, instinctively I feared it even if I couldn't figure out why.
"What's this thing made of...?" Owen asks after a moment of silence,
"The base genome is a T. rex, the rest is... classified," Claire replies and I stare up at her sharply.
"You made a new dinosaur but you don't even know what it is?" I ask dubiously and Claire tenses, I can tell she's already annoyed by my presence and the way Owen is acting towards me, it is obvious that he is being protective of me and his fingers seeming to be constantly reaching for my own and I've just irritated her more with my questions. This woman was not my fan and I subtly move away from Owen as she glances once again at where his hand seems to be reaching for mine, I feel like she will end up firing me for some sort of breach of conduct to get back at me because Owen chose me. It is irrational I know but it is so long since I was happy, truly happy and I honestly feel like Owen makes me better. I don't want to ruin that before it's even really started that was a thought that terrified me.
"The lab delivers us new assets and we show them to public," she says icily before turning to Nick, "can we drop a steer, please?" Nick glances up annoyed by her rudeness and moves to press a button, rolling his eyes at me as he does so and I am forced to stifle a giggle. I like Nick, we'd met a few times over the last few months at training sessions and at the local bar and he was a good laugh, a bit lazy and even more out of shape than I was but a nice person.
"How long has the animal been in here?" Owen asks as we watch,
"All its life," Claire replies immediately.
"Never seen anything outside of these walls?" he asks and I don't like the uneasiness in his voice or the way it is creeping further and further into my blood with every passing minute.
"We can't exactly walk it," Claire snips back and I grin despite myself until a sudden rumbling noise outside takes my attention back to the enclosure and I watch as a huge crane lowers a hunk of beef down from above.
"And you feed it with that?" Owen's voice rumbles from beside me and I almost want to laugh at her clear bemusement and annoyance, she clearly doesn't get it at all though and that scared me a bit.
"Is there a problem?" she asks,
"Animals raised in isolation aren't always the most functional," I say quietly from beside them.
"Your raptors are born in captivity..." she starts,
"With siblings. They learn social skills. And I imprint on them when they're born. There's trust. The only positive relationship this animal has is with that crane. At least she knows that means food," Owen interrupts her and his increasing concern, that I can hear in his voice, is scaring me a bit now, my own anxiety growing but Claire doesn't seem worried at all.
"So she needs a friend? We should schedule play dates? That sort of thing?" she says sarcastically and I can hear the growl in the back of Owen's throat as she says this.
"Probably not a good idea," I reply for him still watching the empty paddock in front of us, Claire also noticing the dinosaur hasn't emerged from the jungle to eat the meat, leans over and taps on the glass.
"Where is it...?" she asks in frustrated bemusement.
"What, is it in the basement? Is there a downstairs? Maybe it's in the rec room," Owen comments sarcastically and I move away from them both as something catches my eye.
"It was just here. We were just here," Claire is muttering as she moves over to the consoles and I watch her activate them out of the corner of my eye, my head whipping round briefly as a buzzing sounds and a readout flashes across the screen saying: "NO THERMAL SIGNATURES DETECTED." The other computer screens arranged around the room begin beeping in alarm and they all show the same words. They're not detecting any body heat inside the paddock. The Indominus rex isn't showing up. Not good at all and what I am staring at right now isn't helping that sinking feeling in my stomach.
"That doesn't make any sense. These doors haven't been opened in weeks," Nick is saying and I finally raise a slightly shaking hand and point out of the window.
"Were those claw marks always there?" I ask, thankful that my voice has remained steady as both Claire and Owen turn to me and come to stand beside me.
"You think it...?" Realization seems to suddenly hit her and she begins trembling. "Oh, God!" she murmurs before turning and running out pulling her phone out as she does so and dialing frantically, I just about hear her say something about an implant before her voice is out of earshot.