Page 79 of Tiger Queen

I ran my hands over his arm and chest, touching the ink and imagining it had its own texture. “What are you waiting for?”

He pushed me against the wall of the shower and drove his cock into me like he was trying to smash through the tile. I draped my arms around his neck and held on for dear life while he pounded my pussy. It was intense, and erotic, and fierce, and exactly what I needed after three hours working on a sick animal. The mutual fear and relief shared by Jake and I, expressed through lovemaking. The sight of him, tattooed and chiseled and slick with water, was as erotic as his cock buried deep inside of me, and soon I was clutching his hair and clenching my pussy lips around him as I climaxed, and when his own eyes widened and his jaw opened in ecstasy I kissed him and imagined that I was breathing in his pleasure.

I could barely stand once he lowered me to the ground, and I might have slipped and fallen if not for his hand on my ass, holding me up.

“There’s no shampoo in here,” I said, looking around. “I probably should have checked that first.”

He slid his hands over me methodically. “I’ll get you clean.”

“You ought to, after getting me dirty.”

We smiled together as we showered.

Fortunately, there were towels in the office, but they were across the room in a cabinet. Watching Jake tip-toe across the room while naked and wet was the perfect show after what we had done. I hated putting my dirty clothes back on, but I didn’t have much of a choice.

We went back into the examination room after that. Caesar was breathing steadily on the table. I mentally kicked myself for leaving him alone, even if it was just for ten minutes. Even though he should remain asleep for several more hours, big cats could react unpredictably and it was best not to get complacent.

Jake put his palm on Caesar’s body and closed his eyes. Then he leaned over and hugged the animal, burying his face in the animal’s neck. I gave him a few seconds of privacy before coming forward.

“In a few hours he’ll be awake. We’ll need to keep him sedated in a smaller cage for a day or two, to make sure he doesn’t do anything too strenuous to break open his stitches.”

To my surprise, there were tears in his eyes. “Thank you.”

“It’s my job.”

“I don’t know what I would’ve done if Caesar died.”

Seeing the normally-abrasive man so vulnerable was jarring. I rubbed his back and said, “I didn’t realize you and Caesar were so close.”

He continued resting his head against the tiger’s chest, rising and falling with the beast’s breathing. “He was born on my thirteenth birthday. He was sort of an unofficial birthday present. Dad was always very protective of the newborn cubs, because he used them in photos with visitors a bunch, but he made an exception for Caesar. I got to help raise him, and train him. It… It was one of the few things dad and I did together.”

“So that’s why you spent the first few days working on the fencing so he could have a larger enclosure,” I said.

“Dad didn’t care about him the way I do,” Jake said bitterly. “I hated seeing him in a smaller cage, so I made that my first priority when I came back. In a way, Caesar is my last connection to dad. If he died… I don’t know. I wasn’t ready to deal with that loss yet. Tomorrow, I’m going to make new signs to put up in front of the cages. And I’m going to watch much closer for visitors that throw shit inside. No warnings—just kicking them out as soon as I see it.”

I hesitated. “Jake? I need to tell you something. And you have to stay calm.”

He tensed underneath my hand. “What is it?”

I retrieved the two neodymium magnets from the table. “These magnets are very powerful.” I pulled them apart, and then they violently snapped back together. “If they were connected when Caesar ate them, they would not have hurt him. They would have just passed through his body like any other object.”

Jake stood up and crossed his arms. “Uh huh.”

“But they weren’t together. One of them was deeper in his GI tract than the other. That’s what caused the problem: they were pinching together two sections of his intestines.”

“What does that mean?” he asked in a dangerous tone.

“It means he ate one magnet, waited several hours, and then ate another.”

It took him a moment to realize what I was implying.

“This wasn’t just some random junk that found its way into his enclosure by accident,” I said. “Someone intentionally fed Caesar these two magnets several hours apart in order to hurt him.”

Pain spread across his handsome face, then was replaced by a cold rage. His arms flexed as he clenched his hands into fists.

“I’ll kill her,” he said.

“Jake…”

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