“Spill it, woman,” Malena demanded as she approached Charlee. She smiled, knowing that her best friend had been dying to get the details. But Charlee didn’t know if she wanted to share what had occurred between her and West. They had made love into the wee hours of the morning, until she had to leave his tent. They both reluctantly got dressed and he escorted her back to the tent that she shared with Malena before anyone knew otherwise.

She didn’t even have words for how she felt afterwards. She had laid down on her sleeping bag, still on cloud nine, with sleep nowhere to be found. Every inch of her body had tingled as she got lost in the memories, staring at the ceiling until the battery powered alarm went off.

“What are you talking about?” Charlee feigned innocence, as if she didn’t know what her friend was talking about. She disconnected her camera cord from her laptop, then transferred the photographs she had taken to her computer to back them up. She didn’t want to chance anything happening to her photos.

“Don’t act dumb, woman.” Malena stomped her foot. “I happen to know that you have a very high IQ, and there’s not one dumb brain cell in your body.”

“I think that was a compliment, so I’m just going to go ahead and say thank you,” Charlee murmured, acting as if she was busy on her computer. While they had the generator and satellite connection, she needed to touch base with Alton and Jim.

“Don’t you sit there and ignore me, Charlee Black. Inquiring minds want to know. I woke to you sneaking into our tent early this morning,” Malena murmured, keeping her voice low as Alf and Tang, Dr. Zhang’s assistant, walked past, deep in conversation.

Charlee looked up from her laptop and gazed around the temporary campground. Luka and Dr. Skobo were having a discussion, bent over one of the tablets. Zhang and West were leaning over one of the hoods of the truck with a map.

As if sensing her eyes on him, West looked up at that exact moment. She could sense the heat of his gaze across the distance. Her breath caught in her throat, and she was unable to look away from him. The memory of their night together was burned into her mind. She might as well have been blindfolded last night. It had been so dark in the tent, she was unable to see anything.

Only feel.

His hands and mouth had left her trembling. With only one look across the way, he had her core pulsating with need.

Cool down, girl, she thought to herself as she tore her eyes away from him.

“Mmm…yes, you need to spill all of the dirty, kinky details,” Malena demanded as she stared at Charlee with one eyebrow raised. “Because that look you two just shared should be illegal. Spill it!”

“Okay,” Charlee relented, turning to her friend. Malena scooted her foldable chair closer to Charlee, not wanting to miss any details. “If I tell you something, will you get back to work? We need to transmit information back to Jim and Alton.”

“I sure will,” Malena promised, drawing a cross on her chest. Charlee laughed at the excitement on her friend’s face as she waited for Charlee to spill the beans. She leaned in so that they could speak without being overheard by one of the guys.

“Let’s just say, the dry spell is over,” Charlee admitted.

Malena released a squeal before slapping her hand over her mouth. Charlee laughed as Malena did a little dance in her chair. She could feel her cheeks redden with the memories. She wouldn’t delve deeper, but she would at least put her friend out of her misery.

“I’m so happy for you. How was it? Earth shattering? As long as it’s been for you, I sure as hell didn’t hear any screams.” Malena’s words flew from her mouth quickly. Charlee held up her hand as she looked back across the campground, and found West’s eyes on her again.

“Some things a girl has to keep to herself.”

“You’re such a tease,” Malena groaned, falling back in her chair. “But seriously, girlie, I’m happy for you. Even if it’s just a quick fling.”

“I don’t know about quick,” Charlee admitted, turning to her friend. She didn’t know if she would be able to leave and go back to the States without him.

“Do you have feelings for him?” Malena asked quietly, sitting back up. Charlee nodded, knowing that what had happened between her and West was a whirlwind, but deep in her heart, she knew she was falling for him.

Was she just a quick fling for him? They didn’t talk relationship. They did talk about their families and learned about each other as they lied tangled together in each other’s arms. But the word ‘relationship’ didn’t come into the conversation.

Did she read last night wrong? Was she just a scratch to his itch?

West glanced again over at Charlee, unable to keep his eyes off her. The scientists continued to work over their computers and tablets as information was coming in from the ecologists and researchers’ stations, leaving Charlee and her team to work frantically since they booted up the satellite’s internet.

“So you and the good doctor?” Luka chuckled. West knew he couldn’t lie to his friend. He was sure the scent of Charlee was still all over him. He didn’t want to hide it either. He tore his eyes away from her and turned to his friend.

“Yes,” he admitted with a straight face. Even though he wanted to strip and shift to allow his tiger to roar, he beat down those feelings and his animal. His animal wanted to lay claim to her, but it wasn’t time for that yet. If he went about biting or scratching her with his claws, that would certainly scare her off. So he would have to hold him at bay until he could determine a better time to speak to her about a claiming.

“Good for you. She seems like a good match.” Luka slapped him on the back. “Happy for you, man.”

“Thanks,” he said, a small smile gracing his lips.

Match.

She would be a great match. She was smart, intelligent, had a great job. And by the sounds of it, an amazing family.

West grabbed his satellite phone from his backpack and dialed Drago’s number. It was time that he touched base with his security specialist. Tonight, he may not be able to shift and go off into the night to explore. If Charlee came to his tent, he would have to be there. There wouldn’t be any way he could explain his disappearance into the woods in the middle of the night.

“Yeah,” Drago growled into the phone.

“It’s me. We’ve made it to the new location,” West announced. “Anything we should know about?”

“We’re not too far from you. Keep your eyes open at all times,” Drago warned.

“What have you found?”

“There’s evidence of poachers in the area. No new kills noted, but there is certainly evidence of them. We’ve found areas used for camps and tracks from vehicles that shouldn’t be in here,” Drago informed him.

“According to Dr. Zhang, there’s proof that some of the tigers have began migrating to China.” West relayed the information the Chinese scientist had shared with him.

“Interesting. But I have something even better to tell you,” Drago growled. West went on alert instantly, sensing that something was off.

“What else have you found?” West glanced at Luka and saw the concern in his eyes as he waited for West to get off the phone.

“We found the remains of a human about twenty miles from your camp.”

West released a curse and murmured to Luka what Drago had just shared with him.

“Go on,” West commanded, wanting to know what else Drago had discovered.

“The man hadn’t been dead long. I would say about a week or so. The thing is, he doesn’t look like the poachers we ran into at the tigress’ den. Those men were of Asian descent. This man wasn’t.”

“What are you thinking?” West asked, looking around the campground. Charlee and the scientists were still working. He turned his back to the group so he could pay close attention to what Drago had to say.

“My gut is telling me that this man had something to do with the shoot-out on the train. But I don’t have proof. There are bullet casings everywhere. Something went down over here, and this man lost his life because of it.”

West didn’t like the sound of this at all.

“Stay close to us,” West murmured.

His tiger paced beneath his skin at the thought of harm coming to Charlee. He couldn’t take that chance. In the short amount of time since they had met, she had dug a hole in his heart. Fuck, she had her own personal chamber in it.

“Of course, sir.”

West disconnected the call and turned back to Luka.

“How bad is it?” Luka asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

West shared with his longtime friend what Drago had informed him of, and Drago’s gut feeling that the dead human was tied in with the train shooting.

“Fuck.” Luka cursed as he took a few steps away.

“Yeah,” West agreed.

The animal in him snarled as he glanced at the smiling Charlee. He wouldn’t let anyone touch her. They’d have to go through him to get to her. He would protect her with his last dying breath.

“We’re going to tighten security around this research team and protect them. Something big is going on here in this sanctuary that someone wants kept quiet.”

“I’ll go out tonight and see what I can find,” Luka volunteered.

“No, I’ll go. I want you to get some rest tonight,” West said. As much as he would love to spend another night in-between the soft thighs of Charlee, he had more pressing matters to attend to.

“Well, I won’t turn down the opportunity to grab a few hours of sleep. Holler if you need me.” Luka clapped him on the back.

“I’ll be just fine.”