Total pages in book: 172
Estimated words: 155984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
“I trust Miron and Rodion Galerkin, but you beat the shit out of them and put them out of commission,” Mitya groused. “Was that really necessary?”
Mitya was fishing. He had no idea why Sevastyan had come to the house in the middle of the night a couple of weeks earlier, yanked Miron out of his bed and beat him to a bloody pulp. He’d calmly walked past three guards to find Rodion and done the same to him, almost without breaking a sweat. He’d left both men on the ground and just walked off into the night without a word.
Sevastyan stared at him with cool eyes, never blinking, not bothering to answer. He wouldn’t have done it had he not considered it necessary. Mitya could order the men to tell him why, if he wanted to know that bad, but neither man would be able to talk for a while. Sevastyan had made certain of that. The doctor had wired their jaws shut, which meant they couldn’t shift for a short period of time. Shifters were fast healers, but their leopards would be furious, and they wouldn’t be so happy drinking their food. He figured it might give them some time to think before they gossiped—especially about him.
Mitya sighed. “You’re a mean son of a bitch, Sevastyan.”
“That’s what makes me good at what I do.” He planted both hands on the desk and leaned over to look at his cousin. “Mitya, I’m not willing to lose you or Ania. I’ll be talking to her, but you do it first. You curb that streak in her so I don’t have to. She won’t like me much if I have to lock her up.”
“She thinks you’re going to let her drive.”
“Neither of you are going anywhere. The safest place for both of you is right here. I want her out of that garage once I tell you he’s actually out of Houston. At the moment, you’re safe enough, so if you want to take her to dinner, or do something special, get it done now. You’ve probably got another week at the most.”
Mitya nodded. “Thanks, Sevastyan. I’ll let you know my plans well in advance.” He cleared his throat. “I know you don’t like to talk about this, but I think it’s necessary to point out that sometimes leopards can make mistakes on their first life cycles.”
“Don’t start, Mitya.” Sevastyan glared at him. “We’ve had this conversation three times.”
“She doesn’t look at you the way a woman should look at her man. You said yourself her leopard hasn’t made her presence known for a long time. There could be a mistake.”
“You don’t know the first thing about her.”
“Do you?” Mitya challenged.
Pushing down the inevitable rage, Sevastyan left the room, glanced at his watch again and headed for the small office at the very end of the hall. Just thinking about his woman sent little flames licking over his skin and down his spine. Deliberately he slowed his steps so he could savor the way his body responded to the thought of her. It didn’t matter that he’d just been thinking some of the very things Mitya had been saying. He knew Flambé was the right woman for him. He just had to figure out why she wasn’t so certain.
His blood turned into a raging inferno while a fireball rolled and twisted in his gut. He’d needed sex all the time before he found Flambé, but he could force himself to go without. Now, she was his addiction. His obsession. He craved the sight of her. The touch of her skin. Her hair. The scent of her. The taste of her.
He dreamt of her. Woke up in the middle of the night reaching for her. Opened his eyes in the morning, his body hard and painful, erotic images pouring into his mind, all of her. Now, the whips of lightning flashing through his body to strike at his cock and balls aroused him with every step he took.
The room given to Flambé to work in was the last of the offices down the long hallway. He yanked open the door and closed it, locking it as he did so. Sometimes, when he came into the room, all he could think of was eating her alive. He would strip her, plant her on the desk and put his mouth between her legs. Now, his cock was a monster, driving him into a frenzy of urgent, almost desperate hunger.
Flambé stood bent over the desk. The light was on under the drawing she was examining and she had a pencil in her mouth, her teeth biting down on it. Her hair spilled down, unusual for her. As a rule she wore it up, but clearly she’d pulled out the tie keeping it drawn away from her face, so the silky mass cascaded down her back. She half turned to look at him over her shoulder.