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“You don’t have to send them away, Sevastyan. I’ll go take a shower and be right down. It just takes me a minute to wake up, that’s all,” she protested, frowning at him. “You’ve still got that look on your face.” She reached up and rubbed at his mouth. “What’s wrong?”
“Was I too rough with you? It’s impossible to be gentle, Flambé.” He tried to stay in control, but the leopards were rising, she was so out of control, the sex was so good, everything came together in such a perfect storm. Yet he worried about the rare condition she had and if they could get her leopard out before her nerves began to flare too badly. She had to have rough or touching caused tremendous pain.
Flambé wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest, shocking him. She rarely gave him any kind of sign of affection. “You’re never too rough with me, Sevastyan. You give me exactly what I need and want. You take unbelievably great care of me.” She tipped her face up to his. “I’ll be very fast at getting ready, I promise.”
To cover the way his heart accelerated, he brought his palm up to cup the back of her scalp but shook his head. “I want you to follow the routine Doc laid out.” When she made a face at him, he gave her a stern look. “To the letter. It’s working so far. We’ve got a few more days of your female’s heat and we don’t want to take the chance of anything going wrong. It isn’t going to hurt them to wait and they’ll understand. I’ll make coffee for them, water and food for us and we’ll wait on the front porch for you.” He made it an order even though he tried not to. “As it is, you’ll have to wear clothes and your skin will be sensitive. So, make sure you do everything exactly as the doc laid it out.”
“I knew you were going to be bossy.” She let go of him, gave him a snippy look and headed for the master bath.
Sevastyan made his way downstairs, put on the coffee and met with Mitya and Ania on the front verandah. The property had been in Ania’s family prior to him buying it from her. He’d made quite a few extensive renovations to it and he was a little anxious, afraid she’d be upset. It had been her childhood home and he knew she loved it. Not only had he renovated the house and garages, but a good part of the two hundred acres had been planted in grapes. The Dovers didn’t make wine, but they sold the grapes to a winery. He had reduced the vineyard by half, wanting to replace it with trees.
Ania immediately hugged him, her face lighting up the moment she saw him. If she was upset or uncomfortable with the changes he’d made, she certainly was adept at covering up, and he knew her better than that so he assumed she was fine with them.
“Where’s Flambé?” Ania asked, sounding disappointed. “Isn’t she going to join us?” She reached out a hand to her husband.
Mitya took it and looked at Sevastyan, but there was no condemnation on his face.
“The leopards didn’t come back until late morning. She was still asleep so she’s showering. She said to tell you she’d be right down.” He debated for a moment before telling them. “Remember I told you she has a rare condition that makes it difficult for her to be touched without feeling acute pain? We had no idea that the heat was going to increase the problem to the point she almost didn’t make it. In fact, apparently most shifters with this kind of disease commit suicide.”
“Sevastyan.” Ania gasped and put a defensive hand to her throat, backing up until she was against Mitya. He sank into a chair and pulled her close to him, circling her waist with one arm.
“I’m so sorry, Sevastyan. That makes me feel even worse than I already do. I came to apologize to her for my behavior. I should have trusted you to handle your own business and just backed you as you did me.” Mitya pressed his fingers to his temples. “That poor girl.”
“The doc has been very helpful. She’s also a genetic hemophiliac. So, more than one problem. She didn’t want me dealing with any of that. It’s been a hard sell to convince her that she should let me decide if I want to be with her or not.” That was true, and yet not exactly. He tried to gloss over that so neither would catch the partial lie. “Fresh coffee, water, tea, what are you looking for to drink?”
“Coffee,” Mitya said.
“Do you have that pineapple juice mix that was so refreshing?” Ania asked. “The last time I was here, you gave me a bottle of it.”
He flashed her a smile. “Just for you.”
When he returned with their drinks, they were both seated comfortably at the table, waiting expectantly for more of an explanation. “She isn’t trusting,” Ania said. “At all.”
“No, with good reason,” Sevastyan agreed, but he wasn’t going any further. If Flambé wanted to share—and he hoped she would eventually—then she could do that herself. “It was very difficult to get her leopard to come out without harming her. I wasn’t certain it could be done and neither was the doc. I’m very thankful for that man. It will take her a little longer than normal because she has to follow a strict protocol before she can come down.”
“Is there still danger to her?” Mitya asked.
Sevastyan sighed and pressed the cool bottle of water to his head. “Unfortunately, I think there’s always going to be a little bit of danger. The more we follow the doc’s advice, hopefully, the better she’ll get. There’s a new gene therapy for hemophiliacs. Doc thinks she’s a good candidate for that. As for the nerve problem, there is no cure. He’s worked on various nerve blockers and lotions to aid in calming the sensations, but they can’t completely stop them and certainly not for more than a short while.”
“Long enough to allow her leopard out,” Mitya said.
Sevastyan nodded. “Yes. She’s willing to go through the routine to allow Flamme her freedom. Certainly, during a heat she’ll have to use the routine.”
“I checked with the elders of Franco Matherson’s lair,” Mitya said. “He’s been cast out completely and he’s being hunted. They’ve sent out their best trackers, two brothers by the names of Luan and Arno. They have quite the reputation, according to Drake Donovan. Once sent out, they never stop. Luan means lion and Arno eagle. They nearly caught up with Matherson a year ago but he has far more resources than they do. Money counts when you’re moving fast. I reached out to them, offered them anything they might need in the way of transportation or information. I told them that he was stalking a young woman here in Texas.”
“Do we have any kind of an idea where he is?” Sevastyan asked.
Mitya sighed and shook his head. “I wish I could tell you, but I’ve called in favors from many of our allies and everyone is looking. He’s not going to be able to hide forever. Eventually, he’ll make a move. Two of his brothers are back in Africa at their family estate. Another has gone to Switzerland. The family owns a ski resort and the brother spends a lot of time there. I think he goes to the slopes whenever Franco has gotten out of hand and he doesn’t want to be associated with him.”
“What does one do when you have a crazy, out-of-control brother like that?” Sevastyan asked.
“I don’t know,” Mitya answered, his expression droll. “What?”
Ania smacked him. “You think you’re so funny.”
“I am funny. Most people don’t get that I am because they can’t tell when I’m smiling. Look, kotyonok, take a look at my face.”
She framed Mitya’s face with both hands and studied his expression and then shook her head. “I’m sorry, love, you look as if you’re about to shoot someone.”
Sevastyan couldn’t help laughing. “He looks like a lovesick donkey.” Sobering, he glanced toward the house. “Did Drake find out anything on this woman, Shanty? Or the three employees? Anything about Flambé’s father? I know there hasn’t been a lot of time, but I asked for all resources to be put on it.”
Mitya sobered as well. He brought Ania’s hand up to his mouth and nibbled on the ends of her fingers. “Drake said he knew that Leland Carver and, later, Flambé were bringing in shifters legitimately and helping them with education and, eventually, work and even their own businesses. He sa
id when they investigated him, Carver seemed a good man, and he was doing a good service. He only brought in a few shifters at a time. Later, unfortunately, there were rumors about Carver, that he began to bring mostly women and those women lived with him in the biblical sense.”
Mitya glanced at the door. “I really hate this, Sevastyan.”
“Yeah, so do I. I feel like I’m going behind her back, but I have to know how bad things were and if anyone’s betraying her now. Those three employees seemed to think something wasn’t right about this woman coming in, and Flambé defended her. She’s going to put herself in the line of fire. I have to know how to keep her safe.” He reached back to rub at the knots of tension forming in his neck.
“Drake conducted a quiet investigation of Carver and discovered he was sleeping with the women he brought into the country. You have to remember, Drake was very young and his company was fairly new here in the States as well. Carver’s sex with the shifter women he brought to the States appeared to be consensual, but still, it was unethical. By that time, his wife was already gone, and he was a widower with a little girl.”
“Did he hear about Carver’s marriage?”
Mitya nodded. “Drake heard all the rumors, that Carver hadn’t stopped having sex with other women, even with his wife pregnant and in the same house. That she was miserable. Drake said there was little he could do since the women Carver was with refused to make any complaints against him.”
Sevastyan sighed. That was what Flambé had told him. Carver had kicked his own daughter out of the house in order to have one more room for another woman. She’d been alone. She’d learned to be alone. From the time she was a child she’d learned that shifters were unfaithful. Her father might not have been physically abusive to her, but he was emotionally abusive.
“Damn it, Mitya. I don’t know the first thing about how to be right for her. I can protect her. I can give her great sex. But the things she needs to know about, I don’t know. I never had those things either.” Sevastyan was beginning to sweat. He couldn’t sit still. He leapt up and began to pace restlessly.
Ania stood and leaned into her husband. “Sevastyan. Honey. Listen to me. Loving someone isn’t terrible like you think it is. It isn’t something to be afraid of.”
He let his gaze drift over her, dark and savage, banded with red heat. “It is, Ania. I’m not good with emotions, you know that. Look at how I handle you. And what I feel for Flambé . . .” He stumbled, trying to find words, the pressure in his chest so severe that for a moment he was afraid he might have to go to his knees. “It’s getting worse. The more I’m with her, it’s getting worse. I don’t want to be without her.”
“Women don’t really need grand gestures all the time, Sevastyan,” Ania insisted. “You’re making things too hard. Tell her you don’t want to be without her. Say what you feel.” She burst out laughing. “You should see the expression on your face. I haven’t told you to lie down in front of a steamroller. Just say what’s in your heart once in a while. By that I mean a few times a day. Give her something to hold on to. Then when you’re an ass, which you will be, she’ll be more inclined to overlook it.”
“Is that what you do?” Sevastyan demanded, his focused, leopard’s eyes boring into Mitya.
Mitya nodded. “Keeps me out of trouble.”
“Not entirely,” Ania corrected. “But it goes a long way. Sit down, Sevastyan. You’re going to do all right. Admitting to her how you feel isn’t the worst thing in the world.”
He’d done that. He had told her, and somehow, she had given him so much back. He forced air through his lungs and waited for Ania to sit before taking the chair across from his brother.
“This woman, this Shanty, Drake shares the same concerns as Flambé’s three employees. Not because he found anything on her, but because something just didn’t add up to him,” Mitya said. “She’s strawberry. She was caught on camera and her picture was put in just about every newspaper from here to hell and back. Flambé’s team did a cursory investigation and filled out the necessary paperwork to bring her and the children to the States. The team has a holding area they take every shifter to before bringing them into the States while the necessary paperwork is being done. They get shots, all the work is done there and they’re protected. Shanty’s paperwork had to be pushed through quickly and favors had to be called in. She was told ahead of time and yet she still pitched a fit, insisting that Flambé come to meet her personally in South Africa.”
Sevastyan’s gut tightened the way it did when something felt wrong to him. The woman should have just wanted to get out as fast as possible.
“Could she have been so frightened she just wanted to see Flambé’s face? Flambé would have been the most recognizable, right?” Ania asked.
“How?” Sevastyan demanded. “She provided an extraction team. They would have sent their photos, not Flambé’s. She wouldn’t have been involved at that point. She wouldn’t be involved until the woman and her children were turned over here in the United States. Flambé had stopped going on runs for a while, especially with her leopard so close to emerging. She has a price on her head. She knew better than to go. So how did this woman know to ask for Flambé personally?”
“Did you ask Flambé?” Mitya said. Surprisingly, his tone was mild. The angrier Sevastyan became, the calmer Mitya became.
“No.” Sevastyan shoved both hands through his hair. “I don’t want her to think I’m taking over her business. Our relationship is very fragile.”
“Her life could be in danger, Sevastyan,” Mitya pointed out. “If it was Ania, you’d throw her over your shoulder like a caveman, scowl at me and toss her into the panic room.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Sevastyan snapped, but his tone was conciliatory. Mitya was right. He would do that. He would expect Mitya to protect Ania and he would be furious if he didn’t. He was just so damned afraid of losing ground with Flambé.
“You have to ask her,” Mitya pushed. “You don’t have a choice.”
Sevastyan knew he didn’t have a choice in the matter. In a way, Shanty had saved him. He doubted if Flambé would have stuck around if she hadn’t been waiting for the woman. But if so many others had a bad feeling about her, then something had to be off.
There was no sound but he turned to look toward the kitchen. Now that Flamme had finally made her appearance and fully integrated with Flambé, she moved even more like a leopard, but there was no covering her scent, not from Sevastyan. Everything around him faded in comparison to her. The colors of the leaves and plants, the clouds drifting across the sky. The way the property rolled and seemed to go on forever.
He inhaled, tasting her on his tongue. Cinnamon and spices, setting up the craving for her the way it always did. Flambé opened the kitchen door and stood framed there, her gaze on his face before she took a breath and looked at their company.
Mitya stood, Ania tucking in quickly beneath his shoulder, giving him her full support. “Flambé,” Mitya greeted her first, not waiting. “I had to come to tell you how very sorry I am for the way I’ve treated you. Please let me explain, although there really is no excuse. I can only throw myself on your mercy and hope you’re as compassionate as Sevastyan says you are.”
She released her death grip on the edge of the door and stepped onto the porch, a hint of a smile lighting her eyes, turning the green a jeweled emerald. “He says I’m compassionate?”
Mitya nodded. “He does.”
Flambé took the chair beside Sevastyan’s. “He wishes I was compassionate with all the crap he pulls.”
Mitya burst out laughing. “She has your number.”
Ania nudged him. “Probably in the same way I have yours. Get on with it.”
“Yes, well.” Mitya sank back into his seat and pulled Ania down onto his lap. “I’ve been looking out for Sevastyan since he was a boy. It hasn’t been easy either. He’s always in some kind of trouble.”
“That’s easy enough to believe,” Flambé said. Sev
astyan scowled. “Flambé, I’m the head of security.” “That means nothing.” Mitya waved that airily away and then bit lightly on his wife’s neck. “Already, you’ve lived with him. You know how he is. Hot-tempered. But still, a good man. My baby brother, although few know this.”
Sevastyan groaned. “Not baby.”
“Yes. Baby. You were the baby. I had to change your diapers. What a mess that was.” Mitya gave a long-suffering sigh.
“You know how to change diapers?” Ania asked, swinging her head around to look at her husband. “You never once mentioned this talent to me. I don’t have a clue how to change a baby’s little butt. Guess who will be doing that particular chore if we ever get lucky enough to have one of those creatures?”
Mitya wrapped his arm around Ania’s shoulders and dragged her even closer. “We’ll have a baby someday, kotyonok. One way or another we’ll have one, although I’m not certain I will remember how to change diapers. You may have to learn.”
“Ha!” Sevastyan pounced on that. “He never changed my diapers in the first place. Don’t believe a thing he says, Flambé.”
“In any case, I was being overprotective of him. I feared he entered into the relationship too fast. He was lonely. I knew this. You are beautiful. Anyone can see that. You both have the same interests but you never looked at him the way I thought a woman who would love him would look at him. I had no right to judge you or the relationship the two of you choose to have together. I wanted so much for him and I put my desires and what I believed was the only right way to love on the two of you. I’m very sorry for that.”
“I can’t really blame you for thinking I had one foot out the door,” Flambé said. “Since I did. I’m not good at relationships, or trusting anyone, especially a male shifter.”