The sorrow in her voice tugged at his heart. She wanted to stay with him, but she was still planning on going. He knew he couldn’t let her go. His leopard was too cruel, too savage. Just having the small respites he’d been given when he was close to Ashe had been miracles.
“Ashe,” he began and then broke off.
He moved his body, using it to tell her he was capable of being gentle. Kind. That he would be the best man possible for her. He’d seen the changes in Fyodor. They were men who appreciated their women. They knew what life without them was like. It was hell for them and hell on their women.
“I don’t always have to be rough.” He liked rough, but he could live with this—with gentle. He took his time with her, making sure to build her need slowly this time.
“You’re not too rough.” She pressed a kiss to his throat. “I like the way you do rough.”
He kissed her throat. Pressed more up her chin. “What can I do to persuade you to stay voluntarily?”
Another shiver went through her body. He understood. He’d made that implication on purpose. He would have her, one way or the other. If she meant no, he didn’t know what he would do, but he was very well versed in reading people and body language. She wanted him just as desperately as he wanted her. She was just very, very scared.
He felt his cock swell, pushing at the sensitive tissue, those tight muscles that didn’t want to give way to him, to surrender to him, the way she didn’t want to surrender. Too bad, she didn’t know it was too late. She was his. His leopard had claimed hers. There was nowhere she could go that he wouldn’t find her. And he’d go after her no matter how many times she ran.
“Catch up, baby,” he whispered.
“I’m there.”
Her orgasm was surprisingly strong, when they were going slow and taking it easy, almost lazily. The aftermath, her body clamping down, wringing every last drop from him, was equally as strong. Little mini-earthquakes rocked them both.
She waited for him to roll off her and for their breathing to get back under control. He stretched out beside her, hands behind his head, legs sprawled wide, one over hers, pinning her down so she couldn’t escape. He stared up at the ceiling.
“I want a family someday, Timur. I need that. It was always my parents and then me separate from them. I grew up knowing they wished they didn’t have me. They loved me, but they still wanted to be alone. I think they honestly regretted having me.”
She turned her body toward him and he felt the impact of her eyes.
“Don’t get me wrong, they loved me. I felt their love every day. They were good to me. It was just that, I never fit into their partnership. It was too strong and too exclusive. I want my own family. A man who loves me the way my father loved my mother, but more, so that love includes the children I want. Not just a single one, I want my firstborn to have siblings. I need that, Timur.”
“I can give you children, Ashe.” He spoke quietly, directing his statement to the ceiling.
“I’m sure you can, but what would we be bringing them into? Sooner or later, the cops are going to catch you at something and you’ll be incarcerated, if not dead. They’ll never allow you or your family to live in peace.”
“You have a point,” he agreed, because she did. She spoke the truth. “It’s too late for me. Fyodor has no choice, and that means neither do I. I have no choice, and that means neither do you. We’re leopard, baby. You. Me. It isn’t just the two of us. We have to consider them. You have to consider them.”
He felt her entire body tense. He rolled to his side and splayed his fingers across her belly. “My seed’s in you. It’s not even dry yet. You screamed for me. It was my name you called. Your leopard rose to allow my leopard’s claim.”
“But—” she started her protest.
He shut it down. “Nothing else matters. The rest, we can work on, we can work things out. Those are irrevocable facts. You’re mine. I’m yours. Exclusively. We have different rules in our society than humans do. Your parents had to have taught you that.”
“In a lair . The rules apply to living in a lair.”
“You know better or you wouldn’t sound so desperate.” He cupped the side of her face, his thumb stroking a caress across her cheek. “No one will ever need you more than I do, Ashe. And no man will ever work harder to make certain you’re happy. I can promise those two things.”