page9 (1/2)

"You kissed me back"

Her heart jerked hard in her chest A thousand butterflies took wing in her stomach She'd done that She had "I didn't mean to" She kne absurd that sounded, but it was all she had She truly hadn't thought she would kiss hi else to do Her

"I know that, Evangeline, but you did If you hadn't I th to walk away, but it's too late and we both know it My male rose and so did your feoing back fro to throw you over o on as we have been but spend et to know each other"

That was so reasonable She didn't want hio, she would succu around him "You don' know me at all"

"Malyutka" One word A reprimand She didn't speak Russian and she had no idea what he was calling her, but she suspected it was an endearment of some kind "I have been around you nearly a year You're soft inside Sweet Strong and independent You can handle the worst custo any situation"

"I could have ignored your friend"

"Patrizio A with him No man puts his hand on you No ood and you know it He all but insinuated you were a whore out for money"

She touched her tongue to her botto the taste of Alonzo, the way hisher "Elijah left a fat envelope on the counter I ireat deal of money I didn't earn in the small amount of time you were all here"

His eyebrow shot up "I hope you're not i his money means you're a whore You lost business We rented out your establish as A to touch you inappropriately"

"True, but I could have handled it He pretended to be sorry, Alonzo, but he wasn't He was angry Not just with all of you, but with me I made an enemy there I think all of you did, especially you"

She didn't like that She could have prevented it if he'd just let the rab her butt She would have protested, let hi he was all that and walked away Alonzo would have been safe He wasn't safe now

"Amodeo is my problem Elijah's reputation will most likely keep him contained He wants an alliance with us all"

"Is he going to get it?" She knew the answer None of those men would form an alliance with a man with so little control Alonzo and Elijah were the epitome of control She suspected Joshua was as well Eentleman surrounded by sharks, at least he seemed that way So far, the times she'd been around him, she hadn't seen evidence of his criminal activities, but if he ith thehed So entleman

He remained silent, and it occurred to her that he'd said more to her in the last fewto her bakery

She covered her face with her hands for a moment and then scrubbed them down her cheeks hard as if she could wipe away every evidence of tears frooin' to come after you? Because of ht add, that happens ht care to know about I could have handled it Now that odious oin' to try to kill you Because of me"

He shook his head and crouched down, so that his head was level with hers "Not because of you, Evangeline I chose to stop him I had a choice I knohat kind of man he is Do I look like a man who needs my woman's protection? I protect you You should never have to put up with ayou inappropriately No woman should Never think for one "

"You still shouldn't have You put yourself in danger unnecessarily"

He reached out, his hand cupping her jaw so gently it took her breath His thu little wicked spirals of desire threading through her veins "I' home with you, malysh"

He shook his head when she atte its way down her spine How perverse of her that she wanted him to come home with her, even when she knew they couldn't have a relationship If he illing to just have sex, she was all over that, but a relationship with a ether Throw in the fact that he was leopard--a vicious, killing leopard--that sealed the deal as far as she was concerned Yet every cell in her body are of hiain It was all she could do not to stare at it or lean forward and kiss him

"Just to spend time I promised we'd take this slow, and ill"

She knew she should protest She should She should find her anger again, but she couldn't He was too close, and for the first time in her life she realized just hoerful a connection between two shifters could be once their leopards were ht occurred to her

"Oh My God Tell me you didn't put cameras in my house" Of course he knehere she lived, he had her followed hoht Twice she was certain a car sat outside all night with a couple of sentries in it From him Alonzo had done that to keep her safe She didn't even knohat she was supposed to be kept safe from His enemies? Patrizio Amodeo had wanted an alliance with him

There was a s silence

"You did not"

He didn't say anything, just looked at her with his glacier-cold eyes She shoved at his chest, angry all over again when it didn't even rock him

"What would you have done if I'd brought a man home and had wild sex in my livin' room or wherever you put the caot home How many people have been watchin' me?"

He straightened sloith the fluid grace of a cat, lookingall at once His blue eyes went from ice to blue flame, a scary focused blue that see the white to a frozen flame of blue The cat was there, easy to see, and it wasn't a happy animal A chill went down her spine and she tried to shift back in her chair He was standing right in front of her, blocking her every escape, so she didn't have any option but to sit there, staring up at him

"You were raised in a lair, Evangeline You know you don't put the idea of you with another man in front of a shifter after your female has been claimed"

"I wasn't raised in a lair" Conteust even "My father and brothers were in a lair My uncle and ood I don' know the first thing about lairs, other than they are corrupt and I want no part of them"

She couldn't help the fact that her voice was aler She meant it and he needed to know that To hear it To understand that she wouldn't be inti under lair rule She was independent Had she drea her own family? A man she could love? Of course But she was born a shifter Whether or not her fee remained to be seen, but even if she did, no way in hell was Evangeline going to be part of a lair

His eyebroent up, and she realized she'd revealed too ain and this tih to allow her up out of her chair It didn't seeood thirteen inches at least on her, maybe more She still had to look up at hier

"Alonzo, I'm askin' you to leave and never coone and I'm tryin' to be nice about this I'll have the cameras removed and you stop co her eyes, wanting him to see she meant business and she refused to be intiive me no other recourse than to call the police"

r />

He didn't blink His body was completely still I--and leopards could leap great distances His eyes had gone glacier blue, so cold she shivered There was no expression on his face, but for the very first time she was afraid of him Really afraid

There was nothing to hold on to No way to protect herself She'd threatened him with the police A htly And she'd meant it Self-preservation had finally kicked in and she'd made her last-ditch effort to save herself Now she was in so much trouble She had learned frory leopard, not even family or mates

"Don't"

He hissed the word at her Low Furious The whites were gone completely from his eyes and she found herselfdown at her, licking over her skin so that she shuddered, whether from fear or arousal she wasn't sure

"You are the only person in this world truly safe from me and from my leopard Never look atless A command He seemed to do that a lot and expect obedience She'd been her own person since birth, responsible for her safety and even, most times, food She lived an isolated life, but one she was used to, one she'd learned to enjoy The swah trial and error It had been a ers, but she'd done it and she'd beco when she was in danger Like precisely this moment

"You can't say that, Alonzo" She whispered it to hi he knew it too "I'er"

"Not fro, but not from harm"