.jpg)
“You have to be who you are, Sevastyan. I have to be who I am. It’s that simple when you really come down to it.”
“What do you think I’m like?”
“You know what you’re like. I don’t have to tell you.” She pushed her hair back and then pressed the water bottle to her temple. “I’ve got a bit of a headache. I think I need caffeine. If you’ll excuse me.” She turned away from him and went back inside.
Cursing under his breath, Sevastyan followed her in. The moment the door swung closed, the strobes went off, indicating someone had driven onto the property. “We’ve got company, Flambé,” he called out and snagged a gun, going to the front door, eyes on the security screen. “Stay out of sight.”
She didn’t answer him, but he knew she wouldn’t disobey. Flambé might be upset with him, but she would never compromise either one of their safety out of spite. Savastyan recognized Cain Dufort as he strode confidently up the walkway and then up the stairs to ring the doorbell.
Sevastyan opened the door slowly, warily, the gun in his fist, ready to kill Cain if the man made one wrong move. “You didn’t call ahead, Cain. I wasn’t expecting visitors this morning.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to sound overly dramatic but I need to talk to you and I don’t know if someone is listening to either of our phones.”
Sevastyan shoved the gun into the waistband of his pants and stepped back, indicating for Cain to enter the house. As he closed the door, turning to keep Cain in sight, he caught sight of Flambé coming from the kitchen. She had a smile on her face, not for him, but for Cain. Even her eyes were lit up. He detested that Cain Dufort could make her smile so spontaneously like that while she was so guarded around him.
“Cain, how lovely to see you. There’s a fresh pot of coffee. Would you like a cup?” She went right up to him as if she might plant a kiss on his cheek.
Shturm roared with rage and leapt toward Cain, raking at Sevastyan to break free. Sevastyan circled Flambé’s upper arm with false gentleness and pulled her away from the other man, around his body and behind him. “I doubt he’ll be staying that long. What can I do for you, Cain?” Sevastyan focused completely on the club owner, letting him see how close his leopard was. How close the danger really was.
Cain shook his head. “I’m sorry, Sevastyan, I had to come. I know Flambé’s close to the emergence, but the cops came to the club asking questions about you. They claimed they questioned you and you said you were at the club that night. They asked for the proof. I refused to give them tapes, but they’re asking for photographic evidence. I won’t give it to them without your consent.”
Flambé stiffened. He felt her step away from him.
“Flambé, go upstairs and wait for me,” Sevastyan said. He spoke very quietly, but it was an order.
He found it difficult to maintain when his leopard was losing control, due to having a large, unclaimed leopard in his prime be so close to his mate when she was near the emergence. That would be bad enough, but Flambé wasn’t committed to Sevastyan. She seemed to look on Cain with more favor. That put Sevastyan on edge, coloring the edges of his world a dark red and stirring the terrible well of rage that was always present, no matter how hard he tried to suppress it.
Flambé barely glanced at him as she walked past him. He was surprised that she actually went without a protest. Her shoulders were straight, her head up. She was barely speaking after the fiasco with Mitya and now hearing from Cain that he’d been at the club, he could imagine what she thought. He should have just told her. Truthfully, he hadn’t thought about it. He didn’t want her knowing he’d been stalking Matherson to kill him.
“Give them the photos, Cain,” Sevastyan said once Flambé had disappeared from their sight and he heard the soft closing of the master bedroom door. “I don’t have anything to hide. They did question me. Apparently, there was some party at a place Matherson was renting and the cops found dead bodies. How they think I could possibly be involved I have no idea. Matherson apparently disappeared. I had my people check and his private plane is gone. It was my bad luck to drop by the club to see you that night to ask to take a look at the garden Flambé planted for you. I only saw it the one time and I wasn’t paying attention to it.”
“Yes, you mentioned that you came to get her and took advantage of being alone in my little paradise. I wish I’d been there.”
“It was just as well you weren’t. I would hate to have to do in one of my good friends.” Sevastyan put an edgy humor into his voice. “I’d like her to make us a garden. Something a little different, but I thought your idea was a good one.”
Cain grinned at him. “I do like your woman. I wasn’t certain she was leopard, although I was beginning to suspect. It was my bad luck that you recognized what she was and claimed her before I ever got a chance. I need to find a mate for mine before it’s too late or he’s going to rip me or someone else apart.” The smile faded. He turned and walked toward the door. “You need something, let me know. There aren’t too many of us to count on.”
“I was shocked that my leopard was so fiercely certain hers was his mate. He wanted her and he immediately was protective of her. There was zero hesitation on his part. Don’t stay in your office all the time, or your club. You might want to talk to Flambé once her leopard’s emerged and she’s through the heat cycle. It’s possible she could introduce you to a few shifter women. But, Cain”—his voice went from friendly to cautionary—“don’t claim one unless you’re certain you’re going to treat her right, with respect. It isn’t fair to take one and then toss her aside and continue your lifestyle. Incorporating her into it is one thing, but leaving her behind is another altogether.”
Cain nodded. “I’ll talk to Flambé when you give me the go-ahead.”
Sevastyan saw him out, closed the door and watched him until the car had pulled down the driveway and he was certain the club owner had driven off the property. He stood for a time at the bottom of the stairs, feeling like he was starting all over again with Flambé. She had trust issues, big ones, and he hadn’t even scratched the surface with what the problems between them were. Now this happened.
Sighing, he went up to her. It felt like a hell of a long way up those stairs. Their bedroom was empty. He looked around. It was perfectly neat, not so much as a wrinkle in the perfectly made bed. Flambé didn’t throw tantrums. She didn’t yell. She didn’t fight. She retreated. She withdrew. She took herself far, far away. He could tell himself he had her, but he knew he didn’t.
He padded silently across the room, stalking her like the predator he was. He was leopard. A shifter. A very dominant alpha. She was a shifter and they lived by shifter law. No one broke those laws. She knew that. He crossed to the slider and stood for a moment regarding his elusive strawberry leopard.
Flambé sat outside on the balcony watching birds hopping from one branch to another in the trees, busy calling to one another as they flitted about. She didn’t look up or acknowledge him. She wasn’t drinking the fresh coffee he’d brewed. She had the same cold bottle of water. She preferred water to most drinks.
“I owe you an explanation.” Sevastyan pulled his chair around to sit facing her rather than beside her. He wanted to see her expression. Her eyes. Right now, she refused to look at him, even when he was right in front of her, larger than life. The night before, she had cried. He’d seen the evidence of her tears on her face, but she hadn’t talked to him. Hadn’t let him in. Now, she was more closed off than ever.
“I told you, I don’t need an explanation.”
There was no expression whatsoever in her voice.
He tried not to glance at his watch. He had to get to Mitya’s house soon. Time was getting away from them. He knew if he even mentioned his cousin’s home or his work, he wouldn’t have a chance to make things right with Flambé. “You’re going to get one. There was a reason I went to the club.”
She sighed. “Of course there was a reason you went to the club, Sevastyan. The fi
rst time I ever saw you it was at the club. I know what you do there. I knew you went there. I’m leopard, or did you forget that? I smelled it on you. All those men and women. The sex. It isn’t that difficult. I waited for you to give me an explanation and you didn’t. If you were going to, you would have at the time. Not now. Not when you humiliated me in front of your cousin and men by pointing out to me that I’m exactly what he said I was, a sex object to you and nothing more. Your toy, I believe I was called. I didn’t expect you to be going to the club already, but I knew, sooner or later, you’d go back to it.”
She shrugged and continued to stare straight ahead as if she was talking to the landscape. “Fortunately, I have a very strong sex drive and I’m familiar with the club and what goes on there. Had you just been honest in the first place and told me that was the kind of open relationship we were going to have, I would have understood the rules.”
In spite of his determination to work things out, that one little line and the casual way she said it sent crimson fire rushing through his veins. Shturm roared a challenge and leapt at him, clawing and raking wildly.
“What exactly does that mean, Flambé?” He kept his voice low, strictly velvet, back to the dominant in him.
She shrugged again and took a drink of water. “Don’t you have to go to work? Naturally, I prefer to work from home. We both know this house is extremely safe. You went out of your way to make certain no one could break into it and there’s a tunnel between the two properties no one knows about. I don’t want to set foot in your cousin’s home. It would be utterly humiliating to me.”
He was fucked any way he responded to that. If he forced her, he was the worst partner on the face of the earth, but if he didn’t, he would be seriously worried and divided constantly over her protection. And then there was the question of what the hell her statement about the club meant. They had a lot to clear up.
“Flambé, what exactly did you mean about you and the club? I absolutely require an answer.”
“I meant, as far as I’m concerned, since I’m considered a sex object anyway and you feel you can go to the club and do whatever you want, there’s no reason I shouldn’t go. It certainly shouldn’t bother you.”
Shturm rose so fast that for a moment Sevastyan actually had to struggle with him for supremacy. What do you think you’re doing? If you hurt her, you hurt Flamme. Back off. Sevastyan stayed very still, breathing down the ever-present rage, reminding himself that Flambé was very hurt. Mitya had dismissed her in a cutting way and Sevastyan had let it stand in front of everyone, leading her to believe that the original things said about her were what they all thought of her—were what he thought of her.
She had smelled the club on him when he’d come home to her and she hadn’t said a word, waiting for him to give her an explanation. When he hadn’t, she’d pulled back. It was no wonder she had suppressed Flamme. The two had to be confused. Hurt and confused. He couldn’t compound errors by scaring them both with his temper and Shturm’s.
“There is a complete misunderstanding, Flambé, but I can see how that would happen. I’m going to start with the club. I did go there and I didn’t want you to know.”
She started to stir, moving as if she might stop him from speaking. He could feel her hurt, although she tried hard to keep it from him, but he was very tuned to her. He was a rigger and he’d had her in the ropes far too many times not to read the slightest nuance. He wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her, but he knew she wouldn’t allow it. Mitya—and he—had stripped her of her pride.
That damned first conversation Miron and Rodion had overheard and repeated where she could hear it, making her feel as if she were nothing but an object for him to have readily available for him to have sex with, that had started it. That was on him, not Mitya. His cousin couldn’t be blamed for that. Mitya treating her as if she wasn’t important, not his fiancée, not his woman or Shturm’s mate. Even that was on him because he never took the time to fully explain to his cousin what was going on between Flambé and him. He should have. He didn’t want anyone to know he couldn’t handle his relationship—or his fear that he might somehow lose her.
“I would like you to hear me out. Please let Flamme close to the surface so there is no mistaking whether or not I speak the truth. I needed an alibi that night. I planned on killing Matherson and I didn’t want you to know. The cops can track cars through traffic cameras and it just so happened that the place he was renting was a short distance from the club. We parked in the lot and made our way on foot to the residence he had leased.”
Flambé continued to look out over the property. The one thing he didn’t like about the open acreage was the fact that there were several knolls where a good sniper could conceal himself in the branches of a tree or up on a boulder. If Flambé was out on the balcony she could be killed. Inside the room, the bulletproof glass would save her, but if she was outside, that would be a problem. He needed a way to combat that. He forced his mind to stay with his explanation.
“Matherson and his crew were gone, but there were three dead bodies left behind, all human. I knew I could be in trouble if the cops came asking questions—and they might, given the fact that Matherson had been pounding on my door a few weeks earlier. The cops like to harass our family. So, I went into the club, changed and walked around, making certain to be on Cain’s security tapes, and then spent some time talking with him in his office about the gardens. At no time did I tie another woman or use one for sex. I didn’t provide a demo for anyone. I did what was necessary for an alibi and that was it.”
His head was pounding, never a good sign. His body ached, every muscle, an even worse sign. When he got like that, he knew he was getting close to a time when, before he had Flambé, he was going to have to go to the club for a long session. He would have to choose a partner who was no novice with Shibari, who could be in the ropes for long periods of time and could take a little discomfort and fairly savage sex.
Her leopard was throwing off hormones. Flambé was throwing off hormones. His male’s testosterone was off the charts; so was his. Flambé declaring she would go to the club and hook up with other dominants was a challenge. Cain coming to the house and Flambé responding to him the way she did set his teeth on edge. Her very silence could be construed as a challenge. The coming war with Rolan put him on edge. It was all brewing together into one perfect storm.
“As for what happened yesterday when the cops came to question me and Mitya acted like an ass . . .”
“I would prefer not to talk about it,” she interrupted.
“We have to talk about. I hurt you. I knew it was going to hurt you. I didn’t want you in that room with them and neither did Mitya. He sounded like the ass he can be when he stopped you from coming with us.”
She shook her head but refused to look at him. It might have been a mistake to make an excuse for Mitya. He should just keep his cousin out of it.
“The cops tried to shut down Evangeline’s business when they couldn’t get to Fyodor or Timur. They made a show of going into her bakery when customers would be there, during her busiest hours. Your business means the world to you. I know that. I didn’t have the time to explain to you that I didn’t want them to know we were together. Not yet. Not until I could put a plan together to better protect your landscaping business. We aren’t married yet. We aren’t partners. I have no real way to help you. The only thing I had was to keep you out of sight. And I knew they were going to question me about the club. I had to figure out a way to tell you I was planning on killing Matherson.”
She brought the bottle of water to her lips and drank. He glanced at his watch and inwardly cursed. This wasn’t going well. Words didn’t mean a whole hell of a lot. Had she humiliated him in front of everyone, he wouldn’t have been so easily persuaded by a simple explanation, especially if he’d overheard the things said about him in the beginning of their relationship.
“I know this is bad timing, Flambé,” he began. He ha
d to go to Mitya’s. Rolan could already be sending a crew to attack. He had to be there.
She shook her head. “I’m not ever going to that house again. Not ever. If you insist, you will have to tie me up and drag me there and I’ll fight you every step of the way. There will never be forgiveness. Not ever. The moment I can, I’ll run.”
He heard truth in every word. This was the worst possible situation. “Flambé, Flamme is close to rising. Rolan is in the wind. He could send an army against us.”
She turned her head and looked him straight in the eye. “I will never go to that house again. Never. For any reason. If Flamme rises, you’re close and there’s the tunnel. You can get to us. I will never be humiliated like that again or be around those he has purposely made me into nothing more than your toy in front of.”
“He hasn’t done that.”
“You are very quick to defend him and yet he said that to you and you have no idea if he’s said it to his men. He certainly has no respect for me. I don’t really care, Sevastyan, one way or another what he thinks of me. I will not go to that house. You have pointed out repeatedly that we’re safe as long as we’re inside, and I’ll give you my word I’ll stay inside.”
There it was. Her word. He heard the ring of truth in everything she said. Shturm heard it as well. He had a choice. He could be an utter bastard and serve himself, keeping her close to him so he could have peace of mind, or he could give her at least one thing, and come home hoping she would feel more at peace in their home and more ready to talk to him. He detested leaving her there.
“I would want to leave Kirill and Matvei with you. They can stay downstairs if you’re uncomfortable. You have a mini-kitchen up here. Or I can ask them to stay outside. If we’re attacked, they would have to come inside.”
“They can stay downstairs. It’s soundproof up here. I can intercom them if I need to. They can intercom me. I’ll be fine.” For the first time there was expression in her voice. Not much, but at least something indicating she wasn’t completely remote from him.