Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
She stared up at his furious face. “He’ll fight for me. He will come after me and he’ll never stop until he finds me. He’ll fight for me. That’s the kind of man he is.”
“You don’t know that. You can’t possibly know him that well. I saw you in the swamp, a little female running from that pack of males. Imagine my surprise when that beautiful cat turned out to be you. I saw his leopard knock yours off her feet. I saw you shift and kick the crap out of the male. You were fearless. Beautiful. I was so proud of you.”
She liked his praise. She’d loved Sasha since she was a little girl. She remembered going to his beautiful, amazing home, thrilled that they’d gone every day. She’d been four when she’d met him. He’d been a lot older, but he liked having a little sister to protect and look after. The connection between them was strengthened through his love for her mother.
“I love him.”
“He manhandled you.”
“He would never hurt me. Never.”
“I see bruises on your skin. Smudge marks where his fingers dug in deep.”
She blushed. The marks were more than smudges and both knew it. He was being discreet. “It’s not like that. We both get a little crazy. He doesn’t hit me. He wouldn’t.”
“How would you know, Sonia?”
“I know you wouldn’t hit me. No matter how angry you get at me, I know you would never hit me. I know the same about him. Whatever he’s doing in his life, whatever led him there, that’s his, not mine. He has to decide what’s important in his life. You believe you were born to take over your father’s business and you intend to do that. You just admitted to me you killed the men conspiring to harm me.”
He nodded slowly. “I know I’m not a good man. I know what I am. I know I’ll never have it all, the woman I can love completely and who can love me and look at me as if I’m everything to her. That’s not going to happen for me because I know I’m not a good man.”
“He’ll come for me, Sasha. I love him, and I love you. I would never be able to forgive you if you hurt him.”
“Do you think that matters to me? I chose you. You’re all I have left. You are my family. You, Sonia. Do you think for one minute I’m going to turn you over to a man who is a fucking criminal? Once you’re his, in our world, I can’t interfere.”
“That’s just it, Sasha. I am his,” she said quietly. “I’m his mate. Our leopards chose each other. She’s had her heat and she chose him. I chose Joshua. I would every time.”
He turned away from her, swearing in Russian. She closed her eyes and pressed the water bottle harder against her temple. She knew Joshua would find her. He would puzzle out the tangle of a trail and he’d show up – in force. Sasha was waiting for him, ready to ambush him. His men were hidden all around the outside of the house as well as the inside. She didn’t want either man killed, but Sasha refused to listen.
“Let me call him. Talk to him. I can convince him to stay away. You can meet with him at a neutral location,” she ventured.
He turned back to her, studying her face. “You can tell him the two of you are done and I’m sending you somewhere safe.”
“I’ll just find my way back to him.” She said it quietly, not defiantly, just matter-of-factly, stating the truth. “I love him. I could be carrying his child. Did you think of that?”
He groaned, turned and flung the bottle of water at the fireplace. It hit, spraying water everywhere, bounced off and hit the floor, the rest of the water leaking out. They both stared at it as if that widening pool could give them the answers.
“Please, Sasha, at least get to know him. Give me this chance with someone I love. My leopard can hear lies. She knows he’s telling the truth when he says he loves me. I feel it every time I’m in the room with him. Please just give us this chance. All of us. You, me and Joshua.”
“I think that would be a very good idea,” a male voice said.
Both spun around, Sonia’s breath catching in her throat as she recognized Joshua’s voice.
16
Joshua wanted to kill the bastard. Absolutely fucking kill him. Sasha. The man who had married his woman. He’d had her in his bed. In his home. He’d tried to kill her. A bomb in her car. Sonia was so young, and she should have had protection, but instead, the Bogomolovs, father and son, had tried to kill her.