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“The Caruso family runs the docks in Houston,” she whispered. “Alessandro came into the bakery just as Jewel was rising. He saw us leave.”
He brushed a kiss along her temple. Gentle, because she needed gentle, even though at the mention of Alessandro, both Mitya and Dymka wanted to rip something—or someone—apart. “Is that why you’re upset? You think that means Alessandro or his family betrayed your father and you?” He tried not to sound anything but calm.
She shook her head. “It’s the blood. I showered and scrubbed my foot. I even took two baths, but I can’t get his blood off me. I can feel it, Mitya. Hitting me. I fell asleep on the bed but it woke me up. When I kicked him, it splattered all over my foot and leg.”
Mitya tightened his arms around her. “You know it isn’t on your skin, baby. It feels like that when you take someone’s life. It isn’t meant to be easy.” It was easy for him. Too easy, but he knew that wasn’t right.
“That man, as bad as he was, was someone’s child. Someone’s sibling.” There was a sob in her voice.
He didn’t tell her that Albert had earned his place in Lazar’s upper echelon by helping his father kill his own mother. She didn’t need to hear that shit. “I don’t know what makes a man turn bad, but he did. He hurt a lot of women. You stopped that. He’ll never be able to hurt a child or woman again.” She needed to hear that at least. He pressed her face into his shoulder and then stroked her hair gently, rocking her.
“I know I had to do it to save us, but I didn’t know he would take a piece of me with him when he died.”
He took a breath to keep from reacting. “Albert was the worst of my father’s lieutenants. He was a very sick individual. He didn’t care what age they were, old or very, very young, he liked hurting females. He liked humiliating them. That man doesn’t get a piece of you dead or alive. His blood isn’t on you, Ania.”
He bunched her hair in his fist and pulled her head back, so he could look into her eyes. “He doesn’t get one little part of you. I could tell you things he did, but those things are so vile you would never get them out of your head. All three of those men were cruel and they liked hurting others weaker than they were. My father is the worst of all of them.”
Her eyes searched his and then she nodded, her lashes sweeping down. Mitya took her mouth. Those trembling lips. The knowledge of what he was saying was in her eyes, slowly sinking in, but he didn’t want her thinking about Albert, or Taras or Kronya. He wanted her to forget they ever existed. He could take on the burden of those vile men, but he didn’t want any part of them touching Ania.
The moment he kissed her, his lips moving over hers, he felt the familiar fire erupt deep inside him. She seemed to pour some accelerant down his throat so that it spread through his veins and arteries, moving into his belly to build into a conflagration so hot and wild that by the time it hit his groin, he was already going up in flames.
She always gave herself up to him completely. Ania never held back with him. She surrendered herself to him, gave herself into his keeping, and he loved that about her. His hands moved beneath the blanket and found her naked under a shirt far too big for her. Shaping her rib cage, he pulled back far enough to look down at her.
“You’re wearing my shirt.”
She pressed kisses to his throat and then gave him a look that told him she wasn’t happy he’d interrupted their kisses with something so mundane.
“It isn’t like I have any clothes here, Mitya. I thought about sneaking out and going to the house to get some, but I knew you wouldn’t like it. And Sevastyan said if I did it again, he’d insist you punish me.” She tossed her head, sending her hair flying, her eyes flashing fire, body posture stating “just try it.”
Mitya couldn’t help but laugh. Sevastyan might think he could intimidate Ania, but he didn’t think anyone could—with the exception of him, and that wasn’t going to last long.
“You’re so right, I wouldn’t have liked you sneaking off. Your skills are extraordinary, but the guards are all leopard.”
“So were my grandparents and parents as well as Annalise,” she said, smugness evident. “I had to learn to be even better at sneaking out than other children. It became sort of a game. They knew I was going to try, and they did what they could to prevent me going out on my own, mostly, by the way, to race cars. I love street racing. I could be anonymous. No one knew who I was. I loved it.”
He tugged her hair. “I won’t like it if you sneak out and try street racing. You’re done with that.”
She shrugged. “I did promise you, and I keep my word. But I am going to keep up my skills. That’s important to me.”
He began to undo the buttons on the shirt, unwrapping her like a gift. “Later, we’ll get your clothes. I have plans for this morning.” He looked at the sky, already becoming light with the dawn. “Dymka has them as well.”
14
DYMKA was giving him hell. Every step Mitya took hurt like a son of a bitch. He couldn’t stop thinking about sex. He couldn’t stop the hot blood coursing through his veins. Ania was being driven just as hard, so that even though she was trying to get her things together, she rubbed her body along the bed seductively. Unknowingly. But Mitya saw every single detail and inhaled the pheromones she was throwing off with every breath he took.
Mitya stayed close to Ania as she moved around her bedroom, pulling clothes from her drawers and closet. She folded them meticulously, placing each item in the suitcase. She wandered around the room several times and then would go back to choosing various pieces of clothing to take. He knew the trip would be emotional and would take a toll on her. It didn’t help that the leopard’s heat was riding her so hard.
With every other article of clothing she chose, she would lift her arms and smooth back her hair, shake the long, thick mass out and then go back to folding her clothes. Each time she did it, his body felt like she was taking a flaming whip and lashing him, sending streaks of fire straight to his cock.
She wore only his shirt and nothing else. He liked it on her. She’d chosen one of his dress shirts, a light blue with long sleeves. She had them rolled up and the hem fell almost to her knees. The shirt was longer in the back and front, showing her thighs and sometimes, when she walked or picked something up, the creamy curve of her hips. He knew he shouldn’t be thinking inappropriate thoughts when she was emotional. It was difficult to watch her as she chose each item, and he couldn’t help but let his mind wander to other things, especially when her body language was blatantly seductive.
“Ania, we’ve got movers coming to pack everything. You only need a few clothes, just enough to get through the next couple of days.” His voice was gruffer than he intended.
She looked up, frowning at him. “It’s difficult to know what I’m going to need.”
He didn’t want to point out to her that she was wearing his shirt and as far as he was concerned, that was all she would ever need. He knew the moment he said something she would change immediately, so he kept his mouth shut.
When they’d woken, he’d made love to her slowly. Gently. He wanted her to feel what he was feeling when he looked at her or touched her. The leopards had taken over almost the moment they were finished, leaping out of the house, exploring the acreage and stopping every fifteen or twenty minutes to mate. Jewel’s heat was driving them, and because they’d had so many interruptions, the heat seemed more intense. Mitya felt driven every time he saw or scented Ania. He could barely keep his hands to himself, and he knew she was suffering as well.
The constant burning had to be difficult to cope with, but Ania tried. He suggested they get some clothes for her and search her family home for anything that might point them in the direction of where her grandfather had stashed the package he’d kept. She complied without a protest, even though she only had his shirt to wear and the material rubbed on her nipples, making the burn even hotter.
Dymka was always rough when he took Jewel, but when he wasn’t on her, he nuzzled and licked her, showing affection in the way he cared for her. He wasn’t the type of cat to play, so running with her through creeks and leaping over logs, rolling together in leaves, was a huge expression of how the leopard felt about his partner. Still, that roughness transferred to Mitya.
He liked rough sex. He wasn’t a man to play either, unless he was playing sexually with his partner. But he tried. For Ania, he tried. Dymka was a dangerous animal and always on edge. That meant Mitya was as well. Now that Dymka had a mate, he wanted her every moment, and Mitya was no different.
The leopards slept on and off in between mating sessions. Eventually, Mitya had directed Dymka to take Jewel back to the house. Once there, he had carried an extremely tired Ania upstairs, bathed her and then put her in bed, pulling the blackout, privacy screens to allow them to sleep, which they did, for most of the day.
The emergence, he realized, was extremely hard on the female. Ania had circles under her eyes and bruises on her body. She had teeth marks on her. With her pale skin, those dark smudges really showed. She looked tired but determined. With everything else going on as well, and the losses she’d suffered, Mitya couldn’t blame her if she wanted to lock herself away from everyone, but Ania wasn’t like that. She had good old-fashioned grit. She just kept picking herself up when life knocked her down.
“Would you mind if we went into your grandfather’s apartment?”
She turned slowly from smoothing out a pair of jeans and sank onto the edge of the bed. He couldn’t help but notice how the shirt rode up on her hips and she rubbed her thighs together to relieve the burning that just wouldn’t quit for either of them.
“I don’t mind, Mitya, but the apartment’s been cleaned. After they died, Annalise went in and packed everything. She gave clothes and things like that to the thrift stores. There was nothing in the apartment that indicated a package taken from his job. He never said a word that there was a problem to any of us, including my father.”
“Do you remember how he acted?”
She nodded. “He was different. All of us noticed it. Very withdrawn. When my grandmother tried to talk to him, he snapped at her, which, believe me, he never did. Looking back, I think he didn’t know what to do, but he didn’t want to involve anyone else in what he thought was a problem with one or more of the families.”
She tapped her thigh, the only sign of nerves, and then closed the suitcase. “We can go down there now. You have to remember, at the time, none of us knew he had kept something he shouldn’t have. Even after my father was shot, we didn’t put it together right away. We knew they’d been run off the road, and that their deaths weren’t really an accident, but we didn’t know why. For all we knew, some crazy person had gone after them and they were randomly chosen.”
“Where is Annalise?” He tried not to be suspicious of the woman. She was leopard, yet she had acted as if she hadn’t known what had been happening when Antosha had struggled with his leopard to keep it from emerging. She had cleaned the apartment and would have found the book had Ania’s grandfather hidden it there.
“Annalise has the apartment I found for her, you know that. I told her she could stay here, but she didn’t want to stay alone. I can’t blame her.” She looked around the room and then sighed. “It doesn’t feel like home anymore. Annalise feels like family to me, and I want to make certain she’s always taken care of.”
He had no problem with that. If Annalise was really what she seemed, then he hoped to offer her a position in his household. Once Ania started having his children, they would need a nanny. Annalise could be quite helpful.
“Baby, leave that,” Mitya said when Ania began to go through her drawers again. “I’ve got movers coming to pack up your things.”
“I don’t like the idea of strangers touching my clothes.” Ania ran her hands down her body, clearly unaware she was doing so. Twice she cupped her breasts and brushed her fingers over her nipples through the material of the shirt she wore. Both times she gasped and flushed.
His cock was so hard he thought he might not live if he took a step. It was difficult to think, but one of them had to remain sane. They just had to get this done and then he could figure out how to make love to his woman without bruising her. She needed care, not more rough sex, although watching her, he wasn’t certain if that was true either. Trying to do the right thing wasn’t easy.
Ania led the way back down the stairs, looking very comfortable in his shirt, as if she were wearing an elegant dress. He wondered if she wore panties under it. As they moved down the stairs, he let his hand slide down the curve of her back to the tail of the shirt, bunching it in his fist. His knuckles brushed bare skin. Heat spiraled down his spine.
“I love your ass, Ania.” He wanted her to be distracted. He needed her to be. The house had become a memorial, a shrine to the dead. He wanted Ania to stay among the living. Her family were all gone and only ghosts remained behind.
He opened his hand to palm her left cheek as she walked, feeling the muscles bunch and give. His thumb slid over her soft, firm skin.
She glanced at him over her shoulder, and her eyes held a dark lust. “You like everything about my body.”
“That’s true. I wouldn’t mind sitting you on the landing and taking time out to eat you. I’m feeling a little like the Big Bad Wolf.”
Her laughter rewarded him, spilling over so the notes felt like gold to him. A little shiver went down her spine and she pushed back into his hand. “You’re always feeling like the Big Bad Wolf. Don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes and act innocent.”
“That’s bad,” he said. “Really bad.”
She went down the long hall, past her father’s room, to a door that she unlocked with the keys she’d taken from her room. Once open, she stepped back to allow him through first. The room was immaculate, as if it had just been deep-cleaned. If Annalise had done this, she’d done it as a labor of love. No one kept empty rooms so pristine.
He looked around. There was very little furniture and nothing personal whatsoever. “Did Annalise find anything at all that he specifically left for your father or you?”
She started to shake her head and then frowned. “He had a journal and there were entries for my father. The journal should be in my father’s desk in the den.”
“Did you read it?”
“My father showed me a few entries, just because they were loving and sweet. Mostly about my grandmother and me. The rest, he kept to himself. But, Mitya, if there was anything about a package my grandfather had failed to deliver to the Anwar family, my father would have told me when I asked.”
“Maybe, Ania. And maybe, like your grandfather, he wanted to keep you safe.”
“I don’t think I’m very safe, Mitya. If that was his purpose in not telling me, he didn’t do a very good job of it.”
She didn’t sound bitter, although her words could have been taken that way. She sounded sad. He slung his arm around her neck and walked her out of her grandparents’ apartment. It was cold and felt empty. Ania needed to feel warm and carefree. He had to give that to her. More than anything, Mitya wanted to make her happy.
As she led the way to the den, her body slid subtly along his. He felt every curve. Deep inside, his leopard raked him, every bit as aware of the pheromones she was throwing off as he was. Ania seemed to slide against every wall down the long hallway, so that her alluring fragrance filled the entire area, from floor to ceiling, so he breathed her in with every step he took.
Mitya felt a little as if he was going out of his mind. In his ears there was a roaring thunder. He felt edgy. Tense. There was a part of him that was there, taking care of business. Most of him was all about desire. Lust. Hunger. That kind of hunger cut through his soul, leaving him jagged and feeling like a jackhammer was ripping through his head.
It t
ook tremendous discipline to stay on task. To keep his mind on the reason he was there in that house. She moved out from under his shoulder, which should have given him some relief, but then he was looking at her body as she moved so seductively through the den to the other side of the room.
Her father’s desk was an old-fashioned rolltop, which surprised him. He would have thought Antosha would have had a much more modern glass one. Ania ran her hand over the wood and then pulled out another key. She unlocked the top drawer, reached in and hit something he couldn’t see. Immediately a little hidden drawer sprang open from one of the two curved wooden pieces that formed the legs.
Mitya was more interested in the way she bent down to open the drawer, giving him flashes of her bottom. He really wanted to take a bite out of her. Instead, he waited while she crouched down, her legs slightly apart, just enough that he could see the honey glistening on the tight curls covering her mound.
He curved his palm over the hard length of his cock. She looked up and smiled at him. She knew exactly what she was doing to him. He wanted to catch all that wild hair in his hand and shove his cock down her throat. Sevastyan and the others were too close. He nearly groaned aloud as she shifted her legs, supposedly to get closer to the small secret drawer. He could barely breathe, but somehow her scent found its way into his lungs.
He wanted to roar. He wanted to lift her up and slam her down on that desktop. Take her right there. He could taste her in his mouth. Hot desire. Pure lust. It rushed over him like a tidal wave of madness.
Ania pulled out the journal and held it up. He took it with a cursory glance and then shoved it in his pocket.