ry way he had, not threatening exactly, not at all. It was just that his eyes held this piercing, fierce gaze. She knew a leopard’s focused stare was disconcerting and Sevastyan had that same stare even in human form. Some shifters had much more animalistic qualities than others, and Sevastyan definitely had the predatory instincts of his fierce counterpart.
“Can you do splits?”
She frowned. No one had ever asked her that before. “I stretch every day and I get close.”
“I want you to work at it until you are able to. You also need stamina. We’ll go running and work out together. This isn’t a practice for the weak. If you enjoy it, Flambé, you have to be in shape and I mean that. It isn’t about size or what women perceive as looking good. I’ve tied all sorts of body sizes and found them beautiful. If you aren’t fit, you can be injured or worse.”
“I understand.” She did. That made sense to her.
“You need to stretch every day. You have to be limber. Do you get motion sickness? Are you afraid of heights?”
She shook her head. “Why would that matter?”
“I find suspension bondage sexy. With you, several very erotic images come to mind. I wouldn’t be able to use those scenarios if you had a problem with either, no matter how sensual I found the ideas.”
Another wave of heat rushed over her. She hugged herself tighter. It took a great deal of discipline to keep from looking at the tree he had constructed out of knots with the very small hammock hanging from a branch high up.
“Have there been a lot of women here in your bedroom?” She didn’t know why she asked, she didn’t really want to know the answer. She had watched Sevastyan. He didn’t get caught up with the women. It was about the art, the scene, and then the power of the sex. The woman belonged to someone else, who got off on watching her get off on doing something she enjoyed that her partner couldn’t provide.
“You are the only woman to come in here. You are the only woman to ever be welcome in this room.”
Her heart stuttered. There was an underlying ferocious note to his tone, although he hadn’t raised his voice at all.
“Do you share women?” That mattered. She couldn’t live with that. She just couldn’t.
He studied her face for so long she found herself beginning to tremble. He hadn’t changed expression. He still wore that same impossible-to-read mask, but now something flickered in the depths of his eyes, something terrifying. Something that wasn’t cat, yet was just as bad as cat. That predatory trait ran deep in him.
Sevastyan suddenly moved then, with the shocking speed of a leopard, covering the distance between them in seconds so that he was towering over her. He caught her chin and tipped her face up, forcing her to look into the flickering flames that were his eyes. “Flambé, if you hear nothing else tonight, you hear this. You are going to be my wife. I will not share you—not ever. No man will put his hands on you and live. That is as plain as I can make it. What we do together is between us and stays that way. Do you understand me? You need to acknowledge to me that you do, because make no mistake, plamya, I would kill a man over you just as fast as Shturm would kill a rival over Flamme.”
There was no looking away from the fierce fire blazing in his eyes. He meant exactly what he said. There was relief in knowing he didn’t intend to suddenly start bringing her to Cain’s club and deciding to share her with other men. That would be a deal breaker.
As if he could read her mind, the pad of his thumb swept gently over her lower lip and then he released her chin and stepped away. “The club was an outlet for me when I needed release. I’m a dominant, pure and simple. You recognized that in me the first time you saw me and you reacted to that.”
She had. A part of her knew it was more than that. Cain was a dominant, but she hadn’t been drawn to him. There had been that one brief second and now she knew it was because her female had been on the verge of the rising. She’d stretched. Sent out a brief preview of what was to come, and then like all females in the beginnings of their coming emergence, settled and vanished as if she didn’t exist.
Flambé nodded. “Yes. I did.”
“We get married and we stay exclusive. When we have a problem, we talk it out. I know your landscaping business is important to you so it’s important to me. You need to keep me in the loop at all times. You’ll have to get used to having one of my men with you. Sometimes it might be necessary to curtail your activities and stay closer to home, but only in an emergency. I also know you’re passionate about saving other shifters. I have resources that can help you with that. My cousins and friends do as well.”
She rubbed her chin on top of her knees and searched for the right words that she hoped didn’t sound judgmental when she really was grateful that he understood she wouldn’t give up her business or her work helping other shifters. “I try to keep everything legal. I want them to start their lives here in the States right, as citizens with an education and an opportunity to own their own businesses and employ others who need assistance. I want anyone we bring in to be productive citizens.”
“I’m very aware you keep everything legal, Flambé. I do my research when anything gets anywhere near my cousin.”
His tone sent another shiver traveling down her spine, reminding her she was stark naked and the room was chilly. Once again, she became wholly aware of him as a man. Shifters had the roped muscles of their animal counterparts and Sevastyan’s chest had muscles merging with his impressive abdominal muscles that just seemed to continue until they disappeared into his low-slung pants.
“Shall we continue with our previous conversation on rope bondage? I think it’s important that you understand what I expect of you and what will keep you safe.”
He paced away from her, and she took a deep breath, feeling like she’d been breathing shallowly and needed the air. “Yes.” She wanted to learn as much from him as she could, but watching him move was so mesmerizing she feared she might miss what he was saying.
He indicated several very thick rounded poles that looked as if they were made of bamboo. If they were, she’d never seen bamboo that thick. “I want to work with those, stretching your leg or both legs on them and suspending you in the air, so the splits are important. You have to be comfortable in that stretch for long periods of time. It’s important to hydrate. I can’t express that enough. You have to take care of your body, Flambé. And you have to talk to me. I know what I’m doing but if one day you’re feeling fatigued or you’ve injured yourself while working, you have to let me know. I can’t put you in a position that might make that injury worse. In other words, you don’t stay silent just to please me. That won’t please me, plamya, it will piss me off.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
“I put a bottle of water on the nightstand for you. Use the bathroom and then drink water. You need to always be hydrated. That’s your job when I call you to me. Prepare yourself. Once you’re trained, I might want to suspend you from the ceiling. I might choose to put you in any number of poses using any type of rope or a combination of ropes. You will be expected to remain in the position until I choose to allow you out of it.”
Her sex clenched wildly in response to his demands. She nodded to show him she was listening because she was afraid she might not be able to speak.
“You saw me at the club. That was entirely different. There I needed to get in and get out. Here, with you, I intend to indulge myself. My cravings. My desires. Fulfill every one of my fantasies as well as work out the various positions I’ve always wanted to try when I had my own woman. Look at me, Flambé.”