“You aren’t going to kill anyone,” he assured her. “I earned your trust. You know I did. Whisper’s rising caught us all off guard. I should have known that was what was happening to us. I’ll admit that. If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in you, I would have figured it out sooner. You know I’ve got a brain. When it comes to you, maybe I’m not so smart. I never had my emotions involved before. But I know now. I’m prepared for what’s going to happen and I can take care of us.”
“What is it you expect of me?”
She looked vulnerable. Fragile. Even scared. Meiling never appeared afraid, and she was afraid of him. He’d done that, frightened her. Made her feel as if he might turn on her at any moment, betray her just to have casual sex with another woman.
“I expect you to be my full partner just as you’ve been this last year. Take on cases with me. I expect that you will meet my needs in the bedroom just as I’ll meet yours. And I expect that you will communicate openly with me so we don’t have misunderstandings, especially during Whisper’s rising.”
“I’m not moving into your bedroom.” Meiling tilted her chin stubbornly. “I like my own space. If I’m going back with you and we resume our partnership, I’m not giving up my suite.”
He studied her mutinous expression. “Lotus, I got rid of the bed and all the sheets, blankets, pillows and comforters. The room was completely fumigated. You won’t be able to smell anything in there.”
“I’ll see her.”
“Only if you persist in wanting to see her. You have to forgive mistakes, Meiling. You taught me that.”
She had. She was clinging to anything she could so she could push him away, even though she knew he wasn’t to blame for her being afraid of their future together. She’d convinced herself they wouldn’t work.
Her long lashes fluttered, then lifted again. “I can’t take you breaking my heart again, Gedeon. I can’t. I was good being alone. I made myself strong and created a life for myself. You came along and changed all that. For all I know, Whisper would have stayed hidden if Slayer hadn’t been constantly close by her. I knew how to handle everything by myself, but now there’s you.”
He framed her face with hands. “As vulnerable as you think you are, Meiling, imagine how I feel. I don’t know how to function properly without you. I’ve been on my own and doing very well, if all the reports are true.” He rubbed the pad of his thumb along her full lower lip. “Imagine my shock when along comes this beautiful woman who I cannot do without. Take the chance, Lotus. We’ll set our own rules and live by them.”
To his surprise, she laughed. It was very low, but it was her musical laughter. “You mean you’ll set the rules and expect me to live with them. I won’t, but you’ll be ever the hopeful.”
“Are you going to do this with me, Lotus? Or do we have to keep talking?”
“You make so much sense, Leopard Boy. You act like I have a choice, but in reality, I don’t.”
“You have choices. We can stay here in this little room while I talk your ear off. I’ll be at my best with my persuasive charm while we wait for Whisper to rise. Or we can head back to New Orleans and try to follow up on the lead I got about Laverne’s disappearance.”
Meiling looked around the small, dark room and then sighed. “Fine. Let’s go back to New Orleans, but if one single shifter tries to mate with Whisper, I’m pushing you into the swamp.”
14
WHISPER had been very quiet—too quiet. Meiling didn’t trust her, not when it came to work. She didn’t want to chance being in the middle of a business meeting and having her young leopard suddenly decide now was the time to leap to the surface. Whisper smoldered with heat. Was fiery hot. Sultry. Flirtatious. She rose fast, wreaked havoc on anyone close and then retreated just as fast, leaving Meiling in a terrible state of arousal.
The swamp was alive with dark swirls of purple and light lavender creeping through cypress trees. The moon was out, illuminating the veils of moss hanging from branches to dip into the water’s edge, turning the moss a pale, silvery blue. The crimson sunset mixed with blue to make up the rare purple. Splashes of deep red and blue slashed through the trees to pour into the duckweed-carpeted water below.
Gedeon guided their boat through the swamp with the assurance of a man who knew his way, even in the waning light. Movement was all around them, in the water, above them in the air and through the trees. It wasn’t quiet; the swamp had its own music at night. At times the bellow of an alligator signaled the resident male proclaiming his territory.