Cursing, he kept a grip on the feral, snarling cat. His leopard was desperate, and he’d never felt the animal like that before. It was a new, puzzling experience and he took the time to breathe deeply and stay in control. He pressed his forehead to the wall and soothed his cat.
I get it. I understand. But we do things right. You don’t want to blow this.
He didn’t want to blow it. Ashe Bronte was theirs. She belonged to them. She definitely was leopard, and her emergence was very close, going by the powerful pheromones heavy in the air in the bedroom. Forcing the cat back, he once more went to the door, filling the frame. She writhed on the bed, her body restless and hot. She’d flung the covers off and was twisting first one way and then the other, a low moan escaping.
He resisted the need to moan as well. She was sexy without trying to be, and his body reacted. She wore a lacy racerback tank and some little lacy shorts, leaving her legs bare. Her hair was tamed by a thick braid, although with all her twisting and turning, hair was escaping. That was sexy as well.
She flipped onto her stomach with another soft moan. Timur was on her before he could think. Need consumed him. His leopard’s fierce hunger for her. There was no other word for it. His cat had been starved, deprived, driven only by the need for blood, violence and killing. Now, something else took the place of that conditioned fury. Someone else. Ashe Bronte. And God help them both if she had come there to kill his brother.
He felt her stiffen the moment he stretched out on the bed, his body over top of hers, pinning her down. He reached under her pillow and withdrew the gun she had there. Her hand went to the left, and he caught her wrist as she found the knife she’d hidden.
“Don’t. You know who I am and why I’m here. I’m not going to hurt you. Just breathe. This has to be done and then we can talk.”
She turned her head to the side to look at him, her body relaxing when she recognized him fully. He kept his hand moving soothingly on her back, long caresses, careful not to touch her anywhere that might make her think he was going to harm her in any way.
“What has to be done?”
“Do you feel her?” He asked the question softly, his lips against her ear—the little shell of an ear he’d found fascinating and sexy. Who knew an ear could be either?
He had her top pushed off her back, up around her neck and he took advantage, kissing his way up her spine to her right shoulder.
Silence met his question, but he hadn’t expected her to admit she felt a living being inside of her. He wouldn’t have in her place, but he knew she did. She’d become aware of her leopard.
“Does she talk to you? Does she feel him close?”
His teeth scraped back and forth over her shoulder. His leopard was rising. Moving through him triumphantly. He let it happen, let the leopard have his form. Fur burst through his skin and slid seductively over her. Soft. Caressing. The leopard licked her shoulder and then bit down and held her still, waiting. Just waiting.
Timur’s heart beat as fast and as savagely as his leopard’s. The cat held Ashe in place, keeping her still while they all waited. His leopard was patient, and that surprised him. Ashe had gone very still, her fists clenched tightly on the mattress, her eyes squeezed shut and her breath hitching. Her heart had gone crazy and it echoed through his mind. He should have warned her, assured her all was going to be fine, that his cat would never harm her. She was probably the only person in the world safe from his leopard.
Then he felt her. Sleek. Sexy. Purring. She rose in Ashe, moving up to meet his big male. The two leopards touched and then she was gone. Just like that, she’d accepted his cat’s claim on her. The male slowly withdrew his teeth, licked at the spot several times and then subsided, allowing Timur to take his place.
He hadn’t wholly shifted, only his head and shoulders, so the cat disappeared fast. She still refused to open her eyes, and he found himself smiling as he kissed the bite marks before rolling off and striding into the master bath. He knew where the first aid kit was. Evangeline was very predictable and had first aid kits in every bathroom.
Ashe sat up in the middle of the bed, legs pulled in, tailor fashion. Her gaze jumped to his face the moment he returned to the bedroom.
“What was that?” she demanded. “What did you do to me?”