.jpg)
“The problem with being tied to a man like me, baby, is you get it from both parts of me. The man raised in a lair with father who was a vor. That interrogator, trained to read everything around him. I had to pay attention to every detail so that nothing ever escaped me in Rolan’s territory as well as the territories in the surrounding lairs. You also have the dominant, who enjoys rope art. I have to be able to read every subtle nuance of my partner’s body. Every little tell of her body, her expression, her temperature, anything at all that changes. And then there’s Shturm. He’s Flamme’s mate. Animals, unlike humans, don’t lie to or deceive their mates. Put that all together and that makes it very difficult for you to hide anything from me for any length of time.”
She began to look alarmed. She was getting it. He went to her again and tipped up her face and took her mouth. His kiss was very gentle. Trying to keep it gentle was difficult when she was like kissing a flashfire, but he managed, because his woman deserved gentle. He trailed the pad of his thumb over her lower lip just once.
“Tell me what you’re doing, Flambé. I’m in a position to help you. I have resources all over the world. I won’t take over, I’ll just give you whatever you need. At some point, you’re going to have to trust someone. I want that someone to be me.”
He saw the very real struggle on her face. She wanted to believe him, but she had so much to lose if he wasn’t the man he had tried to show her he was.
She took a deep breath. “Get me out of the ropes, please, Sevastyan. If I’m going to take this chance, I’m going to have the courage myself without a crutch.”
He pulled her body against his, more so she couldn’t see his face than for any other reason. He wasn’t certain he could keep a mask when he’d been doing it his entire life. She had more courage than anyone he knew. The knot on her hands was a simple one. He had to be able to protect her by getting her hands loose if her circulation was cut off at any point or they had unexpected visitors. Once her hands were free, she put her arms around his neck as he worked through the knots.
Sevastyan lifted her into his arms and carried her to the wide armchair he found the most comfortable, settling there with her on his lap. She was trembling, not uncommon after she spent time in the ropes. He held her, rocking her gently, soothing her, letting her come back slowly, not pushing her to talk to him until she was ready.
Flambé snuggled into him and he pulled a blanket around her. Some models were hot when they came out of the ropes but Flambé always seemed cold, even after they had wild, crazy sex, with the exception of her leopard’s heat. He was never in a hurry when he had her in his arms. The fact that her body temperature was cool meant her female was resting as well.
Sevastyan couldn’t detect her nerve endings flaring up with the terrible burning that plagued Flambé, so he took advantage while he could, massaging her shoulders and arms and down her back, reveling in his ability to touch her freely without worrying that he might hurt her.
Eventually she began to rally, reaching for the water herself and sitting up on her own. She gave him a little half smile before she slipped off his lap and wrapped herself in the blanket, covering her body and taking the chair opposite his.
“This is hard for me to talk about, Sevastyan.”
“I know it is. I know it’s difficult to give anyone that level of trust, but I swear on my leopard, I won’t break faith with you, Flambé. Everything I’ve promised you, I meant.”
She was silent for so long he wasn’t positive she would be able to overcome her fears. “I started an underground system for shifter women to get away from abusive mates.” Flambé blurted it out all at once, no hedging.
Sevastyan had expected something like that, at least that she was attempting to set something up, but he still found her news shocking. He leaned toward her. “You have it up and running? You actually have a woman you’ve managed to hide from an abusive shifter?” He couldn’t keep the admiration from his voice.
Really? Who could do that? A woman could go to Drake Donovan and ask for his protection, but the leopard had the right to challenge Donovan to fight for her and the fight was to the death. Donovan had family and a lair. She could go to the head of her lair, but chances were good she would be told she had to go back to her mate. No one had ever been able to hide from one’s mate. A leopard could track their mate too easily.
“More than one. Several.”
His heart thudded. Now things were adding up much faster to him. “Franco Matherson. Tell me about him. Who is he really? Did he have a mate who ran from him?”
“Not him. He has a friend named Basil Andino. I brought Andino’s mate, Karisa, out about eighteen months ago, maybe a little longer. She was in bad shape. Basil isn’t a really nice man. He’d gone off with his friends thinking she was cowed and would stay put while he partied with other women. Karisa was pregnant, but she lost the babies because he beat her so badly. When he finally came home, he would have come home to lots of blood and clots and a big mess. It would have looked as if she might have died.”
“Did he know she was bleeding before he left? Possibly losing his children?” Sevastyan asked. He knew he sounded grim. He felt grim. He had friends he could reach out to. Basil Andino wasn’t going to be around much longer.
“He had to have.”
“It wasn’t an easy rescue by any means and I had to do it without my usual team. I could only use a few trusted women. She’s safe enough now, but Basil won’t stop looking for her. Franco apparently decided he could figure out how she got away. He started putting it together that I had helped shifters come to the United States and work here, although he had no idea if I was really involved in getting women away from abusive shifters. There just weren’t any other leads. I didn’t know he had anything to do with Basil.”
“You met at the bar.”
She nodded. “I was having a difficult time and needed sex. He thought he was so great at sex that if I was involved in Karisa’s disappearance, he could easily get me to talk. I don’t think he has an idea one way or the other if I’m involved, but he won’t let it go. This was months after I’d helped Karisa. He hadn’t been near Basil either or I would have smelled him.”
“Come on, baby, you need to eat something before the leopards decide to make another appearance. We can talk while I’m warming us dinner.”
“It has to be something light, Sevastyan. I don’t think I can eat much yet.” She stood up, one hand on the arm of the chair.
Sevastyan inspected her carefully in one swift, encompassing glance. She looked tired. He had been careful with the ropes, but the marks were on her body, her thighs and ankles, the marks of the breast harness. His mouth and teeth. Faint bruises from the leopards tussling. But there were no tears in her skin, no signs of bleeding under her skin. She wasn’t squirming uncomfortably or looking terrified or as if she might jump off the nearest bridge.
“What sounds good?” He held out his hand to her and was gratified when she didn’t hesitate to take it. “I can do a breakfast for you or soup, or just sandwiches.”
“Soup sounds good, although that’s not going to do much for you.” There was a hint of worry in her voice.
That was one of the things he loved about her. She was nurturing by nature. She was always going to look out for him whether she was in love with him or not. She did little things no one else had ever done for him. He didn’t take anything for granted.
“I’ll have a sandwich with the soup, Flambé,” he assured, feeling her hand in his. She had a firm grip despite her hand being small. That was another thing about her he loved. She might look delicate, but she was leopard, her core was strong, her muscles, her backbone both flexible and steel.
“The moment I realized something was off about Franco, I got away from him, covered my tracks and made my way back home. I don’t think it was that hard for him to find me. We do bring shifters here legitimately all the time. They work here. Go to school. Become citizens. Set up their own businesses.
He was trying to track Karisa. That’s what took so much time. I made certain there were multiple places for Basil and his leopard to hunt for her. Franco had to have gone to each of those places first.”
She perched on one of the high stools, her blanket slipping open to reveal her breasts with the faint marks of his mouth and teeth over the generous curves and the reddish marks of the rope knots in the valley between her breasts. His cock stirred in sheer male satisfaction. He opened the refrigerator and took out the cannister of homemade soup the chef had already prepared.
“You always prepare for every contingency. I noticed when you do your drawings for clients you make several, no matter how good the first one is. And when you were doing the ones for this property and you were creating escapes for the leopards, you made certain there were dozens of possibilities to choose from.”
He’d been proud of her for that way of thinking. She was like him in that regard, a general planning out a battle yet in a completely different way, he’d thought at the time. Now, he realized, she wasn’t all that different.
She gave him a small smile. “It’s difficult enough for human women to get away from their abusers or stalkers, but shifters? They have leopards who can track them. That can make it nearly impossible. Depending on the country, it can be impossible.”
“There is a difference between a mating pair, real mates, and mates who come together like your parents did for the wrong reasons. You know that, don’t you?” he said carefully. He didn’t look at her, keeping his attention on the soup instead.
There was a small silence. “I’m not certain what you mean.”
“Real mates, those belonging together, will find each other over and over. They won’t tolerate any other mate during their life cycle. It would be impossible to be abusive. Surely you can see that Shturm wouldn’t harm Flamme and would protect her with his life. That means he would do the same for you.” He glanced at her in order to read her expression.
She had her chin propped up on the heel of her hand, her gaze on his face as he worked.
“I feel the same way about you. I told you that. I would never hurt you, nor would I allow anyone else to harm you. There was no mistake when Shturm and Flamme found each other. I was drawn to you and I think you were drawn to me, whether you want to insist it was all sex or not. Maybe for you it is, and that’s enough.” He shrugged his shoulders, trying not to feel the piercing ache in the region of his chest.
Flambé sat up straighter, the blanket slipping off one shoulder just a little more. “It’s not just about sex. I think you know that. You scare me. The things you make me feel scare me.” She sounded a little reluctant, cautious, almost shy, a characteristic he didn’t usually equate with her, but she didn’t find it easy to admit her emotions to him.
He poured the soup into two tall, thick mugs and made himself a quick sandwich while he thought over her soft confession. She clearly didn’t want to talk about how she felt. He was willing to let that go until he was in bed with her, or at least until they weren’t eating.
“Let’s take the food outside and you can tell me the rest about your underground railway for shifter women. It had to be very difficult to set up.” He poured genuine admiration into his voice.
She looked so relieved as she slid off the stool that he couldn’t help smiling. She left the blanket behind as they went out onto the back patio where the large awning shaded their bodies from the sun’s rays.
“I was fortunate in that there were several women already in place across the United States who had their own businesses,” Flambé said. She sipped at the mug of soup and shaded her eyes as she looked out toward the woods with long branches. “See how the branches reach toward one another and nearly touch? I kept looking at all the various trees that had been planted over the years for the shifters and how they were shaped. My father showed me how to work with them when we were molding and growing them on our property before transferring them to a client’s. That stuck in my mind. I flew to a city near each of the women and then rented a car and drove to their business and just talked with them. Visited.”
He could imagine his cautious Flambé doing just that. She was personable. Talking about her landscaping business, steering the conversation around to her mother. Listening to them about their past with her. She’d chosen women who hadn’t mated and preferred not to. She didn’t broach the subject of helping abused shifter women disappear immediately, but she did talk about how more and more she was seeing their women with nowhere to go.
“I could judge the level of sympathy,” she said. “And also, whether they were willing to do something about it. Or at least if I thought they could. I went back a second time to the ones I thought might be willing to help.”
“You would need a scent blocker so a leopard would never be able to catch your scent or be able to track their female’s.”
She nodded. “I’d heard rumors about a woman in New Orleans who was amazing with perfumes. Really amazing. I went to see her. I thought it possible she could come up with a product that could drown out our scents. I was very nervous talking to her at first. I told her I needed everything to be strictly confidential and she agreed. She was very sympathetic when I told her what I needed. She said she’d accidently come up with a scent blocker that worked on leopards, although it wasn’t perfect. She asked when I needed the product. I told her as soon as possible and she sent me a sample three weeks later. Within a month, I had something that has worked to perfection. So far, as long as I’ve had the time to use it properly, I’ve gotten my client and me both away without incident.”
“What kind of product?” He was certain he knew the woman she spoke of. If that particular scent blocker was better than the original she’d accidently made as a by-product, it would be nearly impossible to trace the women.
“Both an oral and a spray used together.” Flambé sounded distracted. She put down the mug, rubbing at her skin, a sudden flush coming over body.
Immediately, Sevastyan put down his food as well, recognizing the signs. “Come here, baby. Let’s get your hair up fast.”
She stood between his legs while he scooped up her hair tighter. She ignored what he was doing, her hungry gaze dropping to his cock, and then she went to her knees, her mouth finding him as if that was her entire world. For a moment he forgot what he was doing as he watched her lips stretching around his thick girth. She looked sexy kneeling between his thighs, lust darkening her eyes.
Her mouth felt hot and tight as she sucked hard, her tongue lapping at him, getting him slick and wet. All the while she moaned, the sound vibrating through his cock while her hand stroked and jiggled his balls. Her hips rocked and bucked while she squirmed with need, feeding off the leaking droplets from the broad crown.
Sevastyan managed to get her hair up and then his hands went to her breasts, kneading, massaging in time to the rhythmic pull of her mouth. She was moaning around his cock, the sound as desperate as he felt. He flicked and tugged her nipples and she cried out and took him deeper into her mouth as if she might swallow him all the way down.
He wanted her to finish him off but he needed to be in her. Her body needed his. The desperate sounds she was making, the way her body was moving, the heat was taking her too fast and he didn’t want her nerve endings to take her over before the little leopard had a chance to emerge. He caught her hair and tugged, forcing her head up, to bring her mouth away from his cock.
Flambé cried out and chased after his cock, but he shook his head. “Turn around, baby. Hands and knees.” He all but knocked the chair over as he went down to his knees behind her. He wanted her ready for her leopard so the transition would be fast.
Flambé obeyed him, turning, breathing raggedly. Panting. “Hurry. I can’t stand it. I’m burning up already.”
She was slick and hot. He didn’t wait. He caught her hips and slammed into her, throwing his head back as her tight tunnel surrounded him with all that scorching heat, threatening to burn him alive. Parad
ise or hell. He was back and he wanted to live there.
18
WE’VE got company, Flambé,” Sevastyan warned. He glanced at the screen a second time, cursing under his breath.
Flambé sat up, looking around her, long lashes fluttering like they did when she was barely awake. “What time is it?” She pushed at the stray strands of hair falling around her face and looked up at him with her green eyes.
His stomach tightened. His cock instantly hardened. “Midafternoon, baby. You haven’t been asleep that long.” She looked almost fragile, dark circles under her eyes.
The doc had been waiting for them when they’d come back that afternoon, sitting in his truck, ignoring Shturm’s warning snarls. He’d barely glanced at the two leopards as they padded up onto the porch. Shturm nudged Flamme into the house with his heavier shoulder as she all but stumbled, clearly exhausted. The large male sent the doctor several warning glares over his shoulder but the man had continued to stare at his tablet from inside the safety of his truck.
The doctor had waited patiently while Sevastyan had seen to Flambé, showering, bathing and putting the lotion on her with meticulous care before putting her to bed. The doctor had given Flambé the blood clotting shots and then spent some time with Sevastyan teaching him how to give the shots while they talked gene therapy. The doctor wanted him to have Flambé talk the two other strawberry shifter females into coming to him for help as well.
“Who’s here, Sevastyan? You don’t look happy to see them.” She threw back the sheet and put her feet on the floor, stretching, making an effort to wake up.
“Mitya and Ania. I can send them away. You don’t have to see them.” Their relationship was fragile. He didn’t want to take a chance on anything interfering between them.
He narrowed his eyes, looking more closely at her body as she stood. There were faint bruises on her hips and inner thighs. He’d been rough with her. He’d tried to be careful. He stepped closer to her and bent his mouth to brush a kiss over her lips. Was there a shadow along the corner of her mouth? He swept his thumb over it gently.